Humility & Authenticity

So, recently we switched around our duties, and I am no longer on the ywam blog. Feel free to continue to read it, but the new author is Jesse (the boy).

So to finish off sharing about our speaker Jack McNeill, I'll tell you about what I learned. He

talked a lot about going into a different country and into a different culture, and how to go about it. He explained that culture can be anything from manners, to how we greet people, to how we

eat a banana. As an example, Jack sat in front of the class with a banana. He began to eat it the opposite way that we would normally eat it. We talked about how we would see that as the 'wrong' way to eat it. But that is just how our culture eats bananas, and other cultures eat them differently. This is just one example of many. He talked about how the church is like a disfunctional family. When someone outside a family attacks someone in a family, the family grows closer. But if people inside the family attack

each other the family grows apart. This relates to our team and how we must be united here. But, it also includes the church communities in general.

At the end of the week, Jack said that everything he talked about boiled down to one main point. Are we willing to be neighbours to people? He ended off with Matthew 27:18-20. Jesus is saying I AM THE KING therefore going (could be praying for people, healing people, etc.) MAKE DISCIPLES baptizing and teaching.

The next week we had a speaker in named Chad Chomlack from Whistler, BC. He was great.

His topic was praise and worship, and what he said really challenged me on what I believe and why, and it pointed out things so plainly to me

that I thought were so complex. He talked about

Matthew 13:24-30 -- The weeds and the wheat.It's about how God does not want us to separate the weeds from the wheat, but to live amongst it and trust God to be in charge. We ask, "Didn't the weeds hurt the wheat?" We will never fully be wheat - we will always have that mixture until full redemption. Chad talked about the separation between christian and secular stuff (dualism) -- but we need to remember that God is in EVERY aspect of life. In the passage in Matthew, the workers ask "Shall we go separate and divide?" He says "No, it is not your job. Be in it, understand how it grows, and trust God to do the harvesting." Life is both/and, not either/or. We separate church and work. Our eyes are seeing through a lense of sacred and secular. Chad said, in a dualistic mind, you've prayed a prayer, accept Jesus and it's all about you and Jesus. Yes, your heart and life with God are important to Him, but your role in the community is a big part. It's both. We need to become more aware of who God is at all times. Chad talked about a lot more during the week, but that's one main point that has really challenged me.

The next week we spent the whole week volunteering at Winnipeg Harvest - a food distribution centre. To get more information on what goes on there, please check out this website:

http://www.winnipegharvest.org/

We spent the week doing lots of different jobs. We

sorted potatoes and onions - separating the edible ones from the not so edible ones. We bagged flour, sugar, rice and macaroni to send out to families. We filled large bags with packages with pasta, canned fruits, some sort of protein, and other things to create family packages. We did pre-sort -- which is taking what grocery stores, other organizations or individuals that sent in food and material things, and sorting

through what is good and what's bad. We also separated them into different areas. So you can imagine we found some pretty nasty things! Here's one thing we found!! Yes,

they are pig ears..... :O

We've also been meeting lots of neat people! We've met some people from Germany, Kenya and

all over Canada, all of whom we've had the privilege of spending time outside of the classroom with and are able to keep in contact with. The Kenyans and Canadians

that we have befriended, are in a program called Canada World Youth. Here's a link if you are interested in checking it out: http://www.canadaworldyouth.org/en/

They spend 3 months in Canada and 3 months in Kenya. It's really a neat program.

So finally I am onto this week!! We just spent the week with a speaker named Randy Pariseau from Vancouver, BC. He and our speaker next week, Tanya Lyons, head up the YWAM base in Vancouver, and we had the privilege of having both of them come and share their wisdom with us. This week Randy's topic was "Conversations on Leaderships". He lead, and we all engaged in many conversations about being a servant-leadership, women in leadership, humility, prayer and many other topics. We watched the movie We Were Soldiers based on the book We Were Soldiers Once... And Young. It was a great movie - I definitely recommend it. But, it highlighted different aspects of good leadership as well as bad. It was challenging and eye-opening. If you

ever get the chance to watch it, I'd say go for it! One note I'll share with you all, is something that has really stood out to me this week and recent weeks. The Abrahamic covenant > We are blessed so that we can bless. THAT is what leadership is all about.

One more thing! So as for my funds for the outreach phase go... I have $950 to go! I want to say a HUGE thank you to all my supporters. I wouldn't be here without you. If you are able to help finance the rest of my journey, please contact me. I thank you so so much. Please continue to pray for me, as God is really working in my life and through this ministry. :]

Thanks for reading! I know this one is a long one because I haven't been on here for so long! I hope I still have readers out there, even thought I'm not very consistent with this. After all this reading, I'll leave a few pictures to show you what else we have been up to! Feel free to leave a comment. Goodbye for now!