As another day begins me and Scotty embark on the journey of our lives thus far, and perhaps the coolest one we’ll ever have. I personally am so thankful for the way things turned out in my life to this day. As the date approached for my departure and all the goodbyes began I started to realize just how loved I am. I couldn’t believe how encouraging all of the goodbyes and the see you laters really were. Everyone from my lacrosse team to my friends and my family and my church family were amazing in the encouraging words and I have seen so much more love than I’ve shown in the past few weeks. I already knew I’d miss everyone and now I know you will all miss me, so thank you so much for all your love! I can’t wait to pay it forward and I can’t tell you how much it impacted me.
Today we are on a 15 hour greyhound ride from Calgary to Vancouver and for those of you who don’t know my story this is how I got to this point, sitting in this seat with this friend.
I guess if we want to go all the way back in the past briefly I first accepted Christ into my heart in kids church. It never really meant much at that point because I didn’t really know what it meant and I didn’t really feel any different. Then life went on until high school and the Mexico trip in grade 10 I really felt the presence of God and that’s when I accepted him in my life again, but this time really meant it. When I got home from the trip however life just continued on the same course it had been on, just living life as a high school kid no different than anyone else. There was spiritual highs on SABC (Southern Alberta Bible Camp) youth trips and Mexico trips where we went to build houses for people who desperately needed it. Amazing how by serving other people you get more fulfillment then you do serving yourself, something that I learned very quick in Mexico but never held it for very long. Near the end of high school I started leading a great bunch of kids in youth church that were in grade 6 at the time, I still lead them now and they are just finishing off grade 9, It’s amazing how much they have grown already. Through leading a bunch of rowdy youth kids my faith was challenged to grow through having to teach about God and about the way He loves and the way we need to reflect that love in everything we do. When I started leading youth that’s when my faith slowly moved from one or two days a week to being challenged to live everyday for God. It hasn’t been an easy journey and it sure isn’t done yet but since then my faith has grown much faster than before and right now it’s about as solid as it’s ever been and I couldn’t be happier.... well at least not that I know of, but I can’t wait to be pleasantly surprised.
I’ve run into some challenges along the way as well. Probably the longest lasting and most difficult challenge so far has been the challenge to try and bring my friends back to the light after they had lost their way. Naturally after high school a lot of my friends got involved a lot more in partying and drinking and drugs, I know it happens right? Well I didn’t want to see my friends go down that path of constant yearning for that living in the moment life. After a while my friends every sunday at church went down to 2 or 3 friends every sunday, before that on a good sunday I probably had 10 or 15. Anyways seeing the drastic change and the desire for the physical desires had started to wear on me and all I could do was keep loving on my friends every single day, and I always did love them and never fell far out of friendship with them and I’m so thankful all my friends still loved me as well. Anyways eventually most of them decided that they were done with all that and started thinking about mistakes they were making and questioning what they were living for and a huge revival happened and now one of them is with me on this trip and mostly everyone else is praying for me back at home. I thank God all the time for their hearts.
Well that is a brief version of where I have been now for when I decided to go to YWAM Oxford instead of another year at general studies school.
I will never forget one night in Palms Springs, California. I was sitting on a longboard with a dear friend and that was when the decision was made that I wasn’t gonna go back to school for that year and I was gonna save up to go somewhere... she asked if I was gonna go back to school next year and I said no I don’t think I will. I didn’t know where yet but I knew it was gonna be somewhere. I had no direction in life and I was really struggling with that, I wanted to go do something to learn about myself and I thought it would be nice to help other people as well. I loved school and I made a lot of really awesome friends there whom I still hang out with a year later, but I needed to find a purpose, mine wasn’t there. At least not yet it may be when I come back home who knows. It was about a month later I believe some time in August when I heard about the Snowboarders DTS (Discipleship Training School) in Oxford, New Zealand I was hooked. Initially the snowboarding drew me in but God knew my passions. It wasn’t long before my intentions switched solely from having a good time to serving God, that being said I’m still very excited to have fun. My fun won’t just be on the hills, it will be in the lectures, during worship and during anything we may be doing on base, and of course the outreach.
Soon after I decided to go to YWAM God moved something in Scott’s heart and then I had someone to go with, amazing how that worked out. He has his own stories to tell as well.
The next 10 months were devoted to working and saving up and this trip was always on the horizon of my thoughts and I finally had something to look forward to that I knew was what I was supposed to be working towards. It made all the days at work in the cold for winter seem a lot shorter because I knew what I was working towards. I got to know my friends better and met more lovely people and life kept keeping on. It was awesome. A few months ago a young adults home group started and I was getting support from a lot of people I have learned from and will continue to learn from. It kinda sucked getting to know so many people and then leaving right away, but I know they will be there with open arms when I return, they have meant so much to me.
I’m so excited for what God has for me and I can’t wait to see where he takes me in outreach and what he will have me do. Thanks for all your continued prayers and support and stay tuned for the next post on what I’ve done so far.
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