Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Pictures

Here are some pictures from our backpacking trip:

The view into a valley we had just hiked out of:



Same


My pack


Climbing down the chains-- my favorite part of the backpacking trip!



Catching Up

Well, after another extended break, I'm returning to my blog. After realizing that my latest post was July 6th, I hope to make amends by posting a few times in the next couple days. Considering that there are few who actually read this, well, I hope you enjoy it.

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I returned to college in the end of July. After joyfully reuniting with the rest of my staff team, we headed out on a backpacking trip in the Kananaskis area of Alberta. It's kind near Banff, if you know where that is. We hiked near streams, lakes, and mountains, with beautiful views and great company. Parts of it were challenging, but most of it was just good fun. Raining once a day, there were no problems, except for when our tarp leaked and my sleeping bag got soaked. Oh well, I like spooning with people for warmth anyway. =)

After a few days of hiking and a solo day with God, we returned to Calgary and spent a few days living downtown and getting to know the city. We went straight from backpacking to church (without having showered). Yes, that church definitely had a smoking section that day... camp fire smoke is far superior to tobacco smoke, thankfully. We wandered the city, observed, talked with people, made artisan bread and ate it with random strangers, watched a GreenPeace protest, studied up on different aspects of the city (art and oppression, badges of wealth and signs of poverty, and social estrangement and physical isolation), and served at the Jesus Loves You Society, a place that serves single mothers and their kids. Overall it was an excellent period of group bonding and learning how we work together.

After returning to Prairie we started in getting ready for the students to arrive. This included designing our teams for the year, writing up descriptions of our leadership areas (job areas), getting the details in place for our trip to the U.S., and mentally preparing for another year of serving the students who were to arrive soon.

Students arrived on the 20th. From that point on, things have been busy! More to follow....