Oh hey! Here's what's goin' on.

Every Monday, we have what's called "mandatory fun night" (reminds me of forced fun from camp!) - the girls and guys break off and just... bond. Our leaders say that we are required to have fun. What a drag. Hang out with all the girls and have fun - ugh it's so difficult! Last week we went to the exchange district to have coffee at the Fyxx and this week we watched Pride & Prejudice and did henna tattoos! I'm falling in love with these girls more each and every Monday. They are fun, caring, geniune, hilarious. The guys "bro out" (none of us really know what that means), but the girls have something really amazing going on as well.

Our speaker last week was our very own Jamie Arpin-Ricci (one of our directors). We talked about Missional Community. Our world is so individualistic - we are expected to support ourselves, be able to do things ourselves, and go through struggles ourselves. But God designed life for community. Real, true community.

I was challenged and stretched last week. I've never been so painfully honest in my life!! It is definitely a hard thing to do - my natural tendency is to excuse away the way I feel and things that bother me. I'm learning. I'm learning.


We also did a "soul audit" last week. It basically embodies the question "If you were the most fulfilled you could possibly be, what would your life look like?" I sat in a room by myself for almost two hours and thought about this question - a lot of things came up like wanting to live in community and to be known and understood by people, a slower life that gives more time to know God and know myself, full self-satisfaction in whatever I end up doing while rejecting the things the world tells me are important. Then I realized that I have big dreams that I don't really allow myself to actually dream. Weird, right? I've been fooling myself with lies that they're too far-fetched or that I'm not cut out for it. These dreams have been floating around in my head like some sort of fantasy, and I've finally begun to actually think in terms of reality. I want to work with large cats. Not in zoos. In Africa. That's where I believe they should be. Vet school? Poaching injustices? Who knows. But this is a big step for me. Big.

And I'm even still learning to accept this as part of God's heart. I feel an obligation to have a heart for something that more evidently betters humanity. Invisible children. Rape victims. People impacted by war. Anything! But my heart is with those cats. Lies that tell me that that's insignificant or invaluable are being broken down.

I'm trying so hard to understand how I'm connected to creation and how my passion for lions and tigers (not so much bears, oh my!) is impactful.

Every week, part of our outreach is leading the kid's program. Every Tuesday and Thursday we entertain some kids that also live in the West End for an hour and a half. Three of us lead it on Tuesday and three of us lead it on Thursday. I'm not particularly passionate about playing around with kids, but I am VERY passionate about building relationships with kids. This week was the first time I felt like we were actually getting to know the kids that come and build their trust. Many of them are Native Canadian and because of that, are not expected to go far in life. It's a nasty cycle - much of the Native community is in the lower class. So education is hard to complete. But I am LOVING hanging out with them. We laugh. We play. It is awesome.

Our topic for this week was Evangelism and our speaker Chris Whitler from YWAM Madesto, California. Chris is SO hilarious. He was actually the director of Jamie's (our director's) DTS. We definitely had a week full of laughter - whether it was Chris doing his T rex impression (SO funny), him laughing for 20 minutes at something little, or us simply enjoying each other.

Before this week, the word evangelism made the think of crazy Christians on the street handing out tracts and trying to win souls. BLEH. Works for some people and God can use that - but somehow, it just doesn't make sense to me. Chris definitely broke that down this week. He's a story teller and told us so many about building relationships with people in Madesto - people who are homeless, alcoholics, etc. No pressure. No force. No manipulation. Just friendship. Now that sounds more like Jesus Christ as I know Him.

We also do book studies and right now we're working on The Irresistable Revolution by Shane Claiborne. I end each chapter by taking a deep breath and saying "Holy crap..." Shane is part of a community that has made decisions to live simple lives - they hang out with homeless people (I'm actually not sure they have very permanent homes themselves), make their own clothing, grow some of their own food, have communal funds... it's AWESOME. Extreme. Radical. But so awesome.

In the first part of the book, Shane is telling the story of how he came to choose this lifestyle. He started to hang out with the homeless community in his city as he was making his way through college. Aaaaand then he decided he wanted more - so he... called Mother Teresa. Ha. It sounds crazy, but that's what happened. He spent a summer in Calcutta working in the Home for the Destitute and Dying and living in a leper colony. I simply cannot tell you how amazing this story is - read the book for yourself. Chapter three. Wow.

But my point is that this book is SHAKING everything. I want it to ruin me. Mess up my comfort and wreck the way I live. Oof how beautiful. Don't you sometimes wonder when we ask God why there are poor and hungry and oppressed in the world, He asks us the same question? We pray for the war-torn and the lonely - but then... we do nothing. "Don't pray a prayer you're not willing to be the answer to." I'm growing so sick of the isolated church - to the point of being discontent when I sing in worship. Why are we in here? My words are empty if I don't do something, if I remain complacent. I think Isaiah 58 is starting to get pounded into my chest, into my being. I just want things to change so badly!

Things you guys can pray for:

Again, finances! We still have to pay for outreach fees. They're not due until the week before we go on outreach (so - the end of December) and we have seen how amazing it is when God provides. But it needs to come from somewhere and it needs to come eventually.

Community! Pray that we continue to grow in community and closer to each other - even when it's painful! Pray that we're bold in pursuing each other and getting to know each other.

The whole large cat thing. Part of me is so confused, part of me is so excited, and the rest really doesn't know what to do. Pray for God's guidance and my confidence.

Fun fact: Winnipeg is the slurpee capitol of the world! Woah!