The Pacific Grace

Hello Again!
Wow what a busy past few weeks I've had here. It seems like we've done so much and we've only been here since Sept. 10th. Well this past week was quite an adventurous one around here. Last Monday we left Kaleo to go to Victoria where our whole school hopped onto a 115' Gaff Schooner named the Pacific Grace for a 5 day sailing trip. It was such a amazing time for our school, on the schooner there was 2 rooms so we had all the girls in one room crammed into little bunk beds on the sides of the boat and then the boys were crammed into the other room. We were in quite close quarters which was nice in some ways as we were able to get to know those who aren't our roommates better. When we arrived on the boat we were divided into 3 teams of about 10 people. For the rest of the 5 days we were given different tasks to do in our group. One of the tasks was in the morning getting up to scrub the deck, polish the brass, and hose down everything. Another task was manning the ship in 4 hour shifts when we were sailing. When on "watch" which is what they called it, we rotated amongst our group between either watching the bow to see if there's any oncoming ships, watching the stern making sure no ships come up from behind or no one goes overboard, there was also a person to steer the boat, another to listen to the radio incase of any Maydays, Pan Pans, Security, Pacific Grace, or All Station announcements, then 2 others were on standby. Sometimes in the day we would be called down in the hold for some lessons about sailing and the different rules of the sea. After each meal we would also have dish duties divided up into the different groups and then during the night we were all put in pairs that would rotate during the night for anchor watch. It was really neat to be able to work with a different group of people than the one we had on our hiking trip and of course to learn how to sail. My favorite part of the sailing trip was definitely at night time. Before we would go to bed we had a night game, a "sing-a-long" as I call it as well as mug-up. Now S.A.L.T.S is the name of the company and it's a Christian organization so the crew were all christians so at the different meals we would sing grace and then they would either read a story that had meaning to them or we would be asked a question to answer or the crew member assigned to our group would tell us about their life experiences. Well at night we would have a worship session with everyone there, they had books with many worship songs and some popular non-worship songs like "If I've had a million dollars" etc. It was so much fun, for the worship they had 2 crew members on guitar, then the Skipper had a flute of some kind so there was a definite sailor feel to it as well as one of our students plays the violin. After we would sing our leader Jim Badke would usually ask us a question, or one night he got us to name the different Kaleo students. So we were to come up with names that the person could grow into not necessarily a name that suits them now but a name that God might want to stretch them into. We also shared different goals and dreams, it was a great time to hear other people's goals and dreams or to just encourage others. It was very interesting while we were there to see how much the crew incorporated God into everything. It was great to see how they used their love for sailing to share the Good News with people as they do these trips for different classes not just christian schools or programs. Well after our 5 days at sea we got back home on Friday and I spent the couple of days finishing up some homework for our Spiritual Formation class that just started today but before I talk about that I want to talk a bit about my church. Yesterday we went to our Lake Cowichan Baptist Church for the 3rd Sunday which was super. Last Sunday there was a teen who decided to come to church for her first time coming in about 5 years and she was so freaked out. She had went to Camp Qwanoes (the camp that is located and in partnership with Kaleo) and some of her friends convinced her to come so she did and she sat with us. Well I was honestly not expecting her to return, I had the mindset that ya the church community is really amazing, they are all so tight knit so it's easy to feel comfortable but then when the worship started and the organ was the only instrument backing up the singers singing songs with high E's in it I just assumed that she would be even more freaked out. Well yesterday to my surprise she came back and I was so thrilled to see her. She said she decided to come and try it again and at the end of the service we invited her to our youth kickoff this Friday (PLEASE PRAY FOR THAT AS WE MEET THESE TEENS!) It sounds like she just might give it a shot so I was super encouraged. God really challenged my thinking through it and my view on the worship through this whole situation. Here I thought that the music wasn't upbeat and it was hard to sing and some words I haven't seen in my lifetime but in this case he really spoke to her and she mentioned how applicable the sermon was to her and that with a combination of us being there from the camp she went to this past year got her interested enough to try again. So if I can ask you to pray for us as we go to youth this Friday for our kickoff and that this young girl will come again that would be greatly appreciated. As well as we started our first course called Spiritual Formation by our prof Marv Penner. It was a super day and he really focuses in on our walk with the Lord and not just answering questions or learning about it. He has got us to find a spot to make it our sanctuary and today he gave us a couple times to go to that place with some reflective questions to answer and pray about them. I can already tell that this will be a groundbreaking week for many of us so if you can also pray for our school as we undergo this that would be great! Thanks once again for your prayers!