Twenty20 - The Weekend

So Last weekend out post-high school/college age group (~18-30) went a few hours up north to go camping for the weekend.  It was called The Weekend.   The Weekend consisted of lots of food, fellowship, worship, sessions and relaxation.   As you'll see in the pictures below, the cottage property that we were at had just about everything.  The family who owns it, is now using it to glorify God and His people.  Many camps and groups from our church are on this property.  Theres everything from hiking trails, a lookout over Lake Huron, volleyball, hammocks, rope ladder, swings, zip lining, trampoline, tight roping, indoor and outdoor games, a bush maze, and a lake for their canoes, paddle boat, kayaks, inner-tubes, peddle boat and more.   This place has everything.  There were about 80 of us there and we all slept in one of 4 cottages, 3 bunkies, 4 campers and a barn.  Guys slept on ones side of the property, girls on the other side and many adults, leaders and such stayed in the middle.   I was in a small bunkie with 6 other guys.    Overall, it was a ton of fun.  There were 3 sessions, all were lead by our new worship leader, JP Smits, and we had some awesome and powerful worship times, sessions and prayer times (I will go more in depth on this in a future post).   Some of us, on Sunday, went Hiking on some trails about 15 minutes away.  It was a ton of fun, we hiked on a 2-hour long trail, and had some fun "rock climbing" experiences.  For example, climbing under a number of tight rocks and dips.   The trail use to be called "Fat Man's Misery" and we soon found many areas to show that accurate.

Also Andrew Baxter drove 20+ hours from Texas just to come the the Twenty20 weekend.

(Thanks to all who took the pictures!)

Canoeing

Hiking

Archery 

Cill'n 

Trampoline 

Hiking view

Pre-Session Improv game

The barn. The top was a nice large living room-like place that housed 11 guys, the bottom was the place where we did our sessions, worship and such.

Campfire (post-sessions) and "Epic Story Time"

More archery

Trampoline

Volleyball

The Dock on the lake 

The upstairs of the barn

Fellowshiping outside of the barn (pre-session)

Worship Band practice

Campfire

Tightroping 

Swings and Rope Ladder

Post-Lunch instructions speech

Having fun

Campfire "Epic Story Time"

Hiking on the "Fat Man's Misery" trail

Playing with the kids

Zip-lining

Game time: Human Capture the Flag (Amanda was one team's "flag")

Volleyball

Side trail of "Fat Man's Misery" trail.  It was a lot of fun crawling through this.

Hiking

Some SLI's Chill'n

Canoeing 

 More hiking

Hammocks

The Kuepfer's preparing the meals

More Hiking

Rope Ladder again...

Relaxing

Bryan giving us instructions post-meals

More Volleyball...

More Canoeing...

More tightroping...

Finding fun while hiking...

Ontario's Flower

Preparing to go Canoeing

The lake (almost the entire lake was only 3-10 feet deep)

Leah Baxter Zip lining 

While we were hiking we accidentally made a wrong turn and ended up in someones back yard...

Kayaking 

Hiking

The view over the lake at night

Volleyball

Hiking

Mico, the family dog

Lunch 

Sunday Morning worship/prayer time down by the dock

Sideways zip lining

More pre-sessions inprov...

Another view of the lake and dock at night

Trying to set up a camper.  Some of the girls had decided to try to lift the top off, not knowing that you had to use the crank to lift the top up.  This cause a bit of trouble getting the camper back into a useable space.  

Zip lining

JP and his wife starting one of the sessions

The Hiking Crew

The lake and the dock during the day

Hiking "tour guide" - a ton of fun!

Hiking over water

Down by the lake...

Lunch

Hiking crew again...

The Trail we were on

Bryce Snorkeling in the lake.

The lake...

Worship session

JP Speaking

Zip lining upside down

People just chill'n, having fun and enjoying the time

Sunday Life

Sunday:  The day stared off very rushed.  I must of snoozed through one too many alarms or something because I woke up at 6:40am.  I had to leave at 7:00am (I normally give myself 60-90 minutes at least to get ready in the morning).  I am on Cameras this month.  I needed to bring a few things with me too, that I still had to prepare before leaving: including a change of clothes and two meals since I was staying at the church through till Twenty20 that evening.  

As I said, I was on cameras at church, so for both services I run Camera #1 (the seemingly less used camera, just because it is to the side).  It was kind of fun, but also a bit boring.    You have to be focused enough on the camera, yet you don't do much.  Because of this I find it very difficult to focus on the message.  I do like, though, that I get to partake in worship, since worship isn't filmed.

Right after both services I was suppose to meet a guy from Kijiji in the parking lot to sell one of my broken drives.  The guy I was communicating with, via email, seemed to be in the wrong parking lot.  Long story short, he was in the parking lot, but I had been communicating with another guy.  I had forgotten that I was planning to meet two people in the parking lot (one for a broken hard drive and one for the drone).  I didn't realize my mistake until after it was too late.  So I never ended up selling either one.

So our whole class had prearranged to stay through from church till Twenty20.  For the first hour or so after lunch we played with our Guatemalan instruments and practiced singing a song we made down in Central America.  By the end we had a pretty good video (relatively) of the song with instruments. We do plan to re-film the video with a better camera since it was filmed with a phone.

At Twenty20, I was a greeter (which was fun) and then during the Word time I spoke for about 3 minutes.  Saturday night, Bryan had messaged me and asked me to share for about 3 minutes about an experience I had shared with him that I had at the OBFF Conference a few weeks ago. When I had told Bryan about the experience it took me 30-60 minutes to tell, so it wasn't the easiest to share it in 3 minutes.

Flood of Emotions

Saturday evening:  As I was washing the dishes, the whole time I just felt very emotional.  I had no idea what it was, but I knew that I needed to find out.  While I was washing, I put my headphones on and played the playlist 25 Most Played Songs and I put it on shuffle.  Even though it was on shuffle the only music that played was music from Oto and Liz and there old band (our Missions Pastor and his wife). The music is good Spanish and English mix songs.   The songs really set the mood for how I was feeling (emotional) in a way I've never felt with that music.   I figured that after dishes I needed to get alone, really alone with God and figure out what I'm so emotional about.  So I did just that.   After dishes, I got my bible, journal, pens, and water and went for a drive.  I felt the whole way like I could cry, I just felt like I could burst out in tears (but I didn't know why).

As I was driving up a hill, I noticed the beautiful sunset.  I couldn't see the sun, but one side of the sky was full of beautiful darker clouds, and the other sided had a few lighter clouds.  In-between these two opposites in the sky was nothing, but it was very bright.   I thought that it looked like the darker clouds (darkness) was overcoming the lighter clouds (light).  But then, as I came to the top of the hill, I saw the sun, the source of the light.  It was shining through the darker clouds, showing life.  I way green rolling hills and realized that this scene was life.   Through the ups and downs (hills) in life & when  the darkness comes quick and large, God will shine through it all.  That scene of life Will be beautiful, for God makes all things good.

When I got to a quiet place out on a gravel road in the middle of the country, I stopped.   I let the emotions flow, asking God to show me what the emotions are for or from.  Then I, feeling sad, hurt and broken hearted, just started crying, like I haven't done in a long time.  While I was crying I was trying to think of why I am crying.   That's when God popped the verse into my head, Romans 12:15 "Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn."   For part of the time, I felt like I was crying with someone.  

After a bit I felt some of the untouched emotions of my grandpa's death coming.  I cried more, just letting some of these emotions out.  I still don't feel like I've let them all out, but I'm glad I was able to get some out.   I still don't know the ENTIRE purpose of all my crying and emotions that night, but I am thanking God!

New Shoes | New Journal

Saturday: I slept in until around 10:00am, about 10.5 hours of sleep - it was nice.   When I got up I went upstairs for a bit and thus stated (if at all) my day.  Most of the whole day I suffered from NDTDAS or No Desire To Do Anything Syndrome.  I kind of just laid around, replied to a number of emails regarding some things I'm selling on Kijiji, and such.   While replying to these emails, it occurred to me that since my drone crashed, it lost nearly $1,000 (CAD) in value.  It's still worth something, but not near as much as I paid for it.  I'm just hoping that I can sell it for a decent amount.
I went into town to get some new shoes, since all the shoes I have really hurt my feet (because they are not meant for wide feet) or my knees and hips (because they are causing me feet to walk crooked).  I went to the mall and to Payless and found  a larger than normal selection of size 15 shoes.  However the overall selection of size 15W (Wide) shoes are very limited.   I ended up finding a good pair for a good price, but the only problem with them is, they are white and therefore will dirty easier.  But my options were limited, very limited.  However it is so nice to have a pair of shoes that don't hurt my feet!

I also, on the way home, stopped at Staples and started window shopping (which I've found more and more fun over the past months) and I ended up buying a Journal.  I didn't necessarily have a ton of money for it, so I'll have to put it in my budget somehow.   But I think that it was needed.  I don't keep a journal, and I think I should.  I think that it would be good for me to write down each day what happened, how I feel and all sorts of such things.  So I would say it was a worthwhile investment.

Princess Event

Friday night was quite an interesting night.  The Woodstock campus of Koinonia had their 2nd annual Princess Event.  It's a night aimed for girls who love princess's, for them to come out to the church for a huge "princess party".   This year they involved the SLI class in the event, and they sold out so quickly with a long waiting list, they did a second show before the first one.   7 out of the 8 girls in out class volunteered to be princess's (some of the costumes are from Disney designers), and Janette, Daniel and I were helping out where needed.

Post each show for 30-60 minutes, I was helping run the Candy Bar.  There kids got to tell us a all the candy's from the bar that they wanted and we filled a little box of candy for them (it looked much like a candy shop).  Janette was helping run the station where you can get sparkling tattoos, and Daniel was helping out somewhere else.   Then as the event went on the three of us joined a larger group of volunteers to help server the girls cupcakes and juice.  At the end of each event, Daniel, myself and a few other men were by the doors guiding people out.  The girls loved it, there was 50-100 girls at least (per show - I think), plus their moms and/or dads.  It was a ton of fun!

Here are the Princess's 

KCA Track & Field

Thursday, May 12, 2016 - Thursday was KCA's (Koinonia Christian Academy) Track & Field day.  So us SLI's were scheduled to help out as volunteers for this event (at the church).  So we did and it was a ton of fun.  The day was super warm, sunny and clear skies (the next day was cool, cloudy and rainy - Praise God for a clear day).   From 9-noon, I was a timer for the 50, 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1500 meter runs.   Then I was moved over to Triple Jump (like long jump, except there are 3 steps/jumps that happen before you make the final jump).   I helped out with Triple Jump until the end, about 2:00.   Then the volunteers had a Long Jump completion.  I jumped a 4.06m (about 13.3 feet), and placed third.  Then Janette and I had to leave early (about 2:15)  to go to Kidzone, which also was a ton of fun.  It was a full day of fun, excitement and joy!  

Here are a handful of photos that other people took at the event:

Volunteer Long Jump

Kids Long Jumping

Three teachers

The results 

More Volunteers Long Jumping

More Kids Long Jumping

A few of us SLI's are timing the 100m races while someone is videoing the finish so we know the exact order if the timings fail.

My 3rd place ribbon for the Volunteers Long Jump

SLI Class Sample/Oral Book Report

Here is a short 6 minute clip of some of the teaching we've received in class.  This is Joseph Olubobokun talking to us right after we finished our Oral reports (which Bryce filmed - which is why this was filmed).

Here is also a 5:29 minute video of my Oral Book Report on The Holy Spirit.   

$1,000 Test

Upon realizing the damage of my drone and that I have absolutely no money to fix it, I figured that I should try to sell it.  As I was in my room, the Holy Spirit just hit me with a sight I haven't seen before.  I looked around my room and saw a number of valuable (ish) items that I don't use anymore.  I saw them all just lying around my room, unused.  The thought came to me, what a waste of money I've spent on all of this, only not to use it.  That money could have a much better use, it could be used to impact others, to bless others, to glorify God.  I thought on this for a bit and thought, "I should just sell it all."

Since I didn't want to make any rash, impulse decisions (since I was talking about $1,000-3,000 worth of stuff), I decided to pray about it.  That is when I decided to take my walk (a previous post). On that walk I spent a lot of time asking God for wisdom on if I should sell these things or not.  I had pulled them all out and set them aside.  Close to the end of the walk, I felt like God was saying that I should sell them, assuming that I keep to my commitment to God (that I really felt Him calling me to do): to give every dollar that I get for them.

You know, it weird like that.  I feel like God is testing me.  He is testing my trust of Him.  I've seen through a few other circumstances that He is currently testing my patience, and now it seems He is testing my trust.  I am very financially limited, in a different country and without a work visa (currently).  I know I've been called to Canada and God has given me some specifics on my calling.  I have no idea what I'm going to do financially next year though.  I will need a car, insurance, a phone, money to keep me alive, gas money, etc... and my savings will be dry by then.   And now I have an opportunity to potentially make a few thousand dollars and He wants me to give it all away!!???

God has interesting ways of testing me I must say.  He has clearly told me that He will provide.  That I have nothing to fear, nothing to worry about.  So I believe that He is seeing if I will trust on my own attempts at income or if I will trust what He has told me: that He WILL Provide!  

Higher & Higher &... Straight Down Faster & Faster

Yesterday the long awaited construction started on our road.  The whole road is closed to thru traffic, and they started bringing large equipment in.  Since I haven't used my drone in a while, I figured that it would be cool to take it up above our house quiet a ways and get a picture of the whole site.  I thought, "if I did this once a day, by the end of the 90(ish) day construction, it'll make a pretty good time lapse."  So I took it out for the first time in a long time.  She flew great, just as before.  I took her up and took a few pictures and a short video.  Within a handful of seconds after I stopped the video something happened.  I had been going higher and higher, but randomly the drone lost all power.  At 50-100 meters (160-320 feet) up, with no power it started it's quick decent.  Faster and faster it fell.  About 2/3 of the way down it randomly got power again, and I heard (and saw) the motors screaming to try stop itself before an impact with the ground. But all it's attempts failed (the controller was no use at this point).  Faster and Faster it screamed toward, from my view, right overtop of the barn. It went down below what I could see and I heard a loud BANG followed quickly by a THUD.

As I ran to the side of the barn I found that the drone had made it's high-speed impact on top of the old horse trailer before bouncing to the ground below.  The trailer was unharmed. The drone however is not likely to ever be flown by me again.  For such a fall, I am surprised by the relatively minimal damage.  Two propellers broke (I have no replacements for these), part of the landing support snapped, the camera bent a bit, a number of parts of the camera gimbal broke, bent and don't look too healthy.  Part of the plastic also broke (where it was previously was only cracked), the compass wires broke out of place, a few wires are not fully attached, and when I move the drone I hear lost of small loose pieces rattling around on the inside.  Thus ends my enjoyable journey with the drone.  Thank you lord for blessing me with the enjoyment of this toy.  - it's now for sale as is.

A Worried Walk

Yesterday around 5:00-5:15pm, I decided to go for a little walk.  I told Laura that I was heading out for a walk, and before heading out I went to grab my phone.  Except I couldn't find my phone.  Thinking that it was no big deal, I left.  I took the usual route back into the bush and looped around, which took about a half an hour.  But as I came back up to the spot on the road where I turn back on to our road, I wanted to keep going, I wasn't ready to be done yet, so I kept walking.  I use my walking time to sing, praise, worship and talk to God.  Its really great, and what makes it even better is that while I'm spending more time with Him, I am walking in His creation in it's purest form.   Anyways I kept walking down the road I was on for a few a while.  I made a goal on how where I was planning to walk, though I wasn't certain how long it would take.  Needless to say, I didn't really care how long it took, it just meant more time with God.  So I kept walking.

Back at the Baxter household, supper had started and the Baxter's figured that I was just taking a long walk (they didn't know that I had gone anywhere but the bush).  Well supper came and went I still wasn't back.  I think their parenting instincts kicked in and after a bit, they got a little worried.  They tried calling me, that is until they heard my phone ringing downstairs.  After a couple hours they decided to go and search for me.  Jim and Laura took the motorized scooter and Daniel took his bike and the went searching.  Leah and Julia were out of the house with friends and neither of them had seen me (this whole time I had no idea any of this was going on).

About three hours and fifteen minutes after I left for a walk and just over 11 miles (18km) later, I casually, innocently and unaware of anything, walked up to the Baxter house.  As I was walking up, Julia was coming from the other direction.  We both got to the house about the same time and that is where she informed me of the situation.  She called Laura and told her that I was back.  Once inside, I found a large note (large font that is) on the kitchen counter telling me that if I saw this note to text Jim, Laura, and/or Daniel.  So I sent them a text informing them I was home.

Note to self, don't go on a long walk without a phone in the future....

...

Anyways while I was on my walk, I was looking up a the beautiful, solid-blue sky half way blanked with clouds, and I saw I perceived as an angel form.  It sat up above one of the clouds just almost floating there.  As I walked along, it slowly moved with the clouds.  I looked down for a bit and when I looked back up it was gone, not a trace left.  I'm not 100% sure, but if I had to guess, I'd say that it was an angel and not just a cloud.  It was a pretty cool experience, yet I am still not sure what the purpose of the experience was.

GOD; My Future; My Calling; GOD!

Wednesday Night, prior to the start of the twelfth Session there was a time of worship.  During this time of Worship God really spoke to me, His presence overtook my body to the point that I didn't really hear anything else that was said that night.  I've never felt God's presence so powerfull, so present before.  What happened was very similar to what happened to me back in October 2015 when The Holy Spirit flooded me when I was baptized in the Holy Spirit (http://slicanada.blogspot.ca/2015/10/sunday-evening-twenty20-ohh-my.html).

As I was worshiping, my body started tingling here and there.  It started in the finger tips and it spread from there.  The back of my lower leg started to tingle, then my palms.  The tingling in my legs, hands and arms continue to grow stronger and spread.  Then my innards: my stomach, chest and internal organs began to shake, convulsing and shaking uncontrollably.  By this point I could no longer stand. I was forced down on my chair and by body continued to sake more and more, stronger and stronger, inside and out. I had my hands open out in front of me. the tingling was more than ever before.  I felt my arms starting to shake, more and more, faster and faster.  There was a point where I felt as though I was in a different body.  I acknowledged that my body was shaking, tingling and moving beyond my control, yet I felt that I was sitting there in an un-shaking body, in the same spot, same position, yet in a controlled almost spiritual body - it definitely wasn't a physical body.  It was a very weird experience.  It was as though I could feel the "physical"-ness of both my physical body and my spiritual body.

I then felt my fingers being pulled, guided. I let the Holy Spirit guide my hands, and they moved all over.  Then they were strongly pulled upwards. Up to the heavens. Then they slowly came down to either side of my body, pulling outward (arms still outstretched).  My fingers/hands on my body were pulling me in both directions.  Suddenly they were pulled backwards, toward the seats next to me.  I was pressed up against the back of my chair with my arms being pulled far out on all sides and against the chairs.  I felt as though (and heard in my head the thought that) I was on a cross, I was fully surrendered to God.  God spoke to me there and told me that this was a representation that I was going to be persecuted for Him in my future.

My hands were then pulled back in front of me.  Again, my arms were out in front of me, my fingers I felt in away moved in odd positions, as with my hands. Each finger was being pulled somewhere else.  My legs this whole time had been shaking uncontrollably.  After some time, I felt the presence of God not so strong within me.  When I "came to" and opened my eyes, my legs and hands were still shaking and jumpy for quite a while afterwards.  Life took a while to seem real again.  The presence of God within  me was so ... so... real like, that it was realer than life on earth.   And coming out of this realer than life experience took a lot of time readjusting to earthly life again.  I kept moving my fingers and hands around, trying to get use to using them again under my own strength. That took a while too, just actually realizing that my hands and fingers had been moving around so much without my will.  During the experience I tried moving my hands together with my own strength, and there was so much resistance.  At one pint my fingers touched and it was so unreal.  I acknowledged the touch, and yet I didn't since I wasn't really in that body at the time - it was weird.   Afterwards my hands and legs were shaking for nearly an hour before I regained full control over them.  My muscles hurt, it was very difficult to focus and there was still a tingling feeling in my finger tips.  My body was weak too, I could not move my legs or feet for more than an hour.  Life took so long to really seem real, it was at least an hour before a bit of real life focus came to me and at least another 2-3 hours before life really seemed more real, as it was before.  The experience also left me with a headache that was strong and sharp but came an went for about an hour.

During this experience God told me not to fear about the future; about next year.  Again, God told me that I am to be here in Canada.  But He also told me so much more.  He told me that I am to be in Koinonia, I am to be in Ministry, I am to be in/with kids: Koinonia Kids and KCA.  God told me not to fear about next year, for He is bigger and better and has a plan.  He told me that resources will be provided, a visa will be provided if I wait and trust Him.  He will be with me.  I shall not fear. I will go with His lead.

"To be absent from the body, is to be present with me."

These are the things I felt God saying to me: 

God is with me! God will be with me. You've got a plan for my life!

"You are my child" - God

My future is in your hands.  I will NOT Fear!

I will not fear! You are God!

I will wait on you

You are going to provide

You will bring the resources

You will bring the visa

You are calling me

I am here in Canada

You've called me to Canada

You've called me to Koinonia

You've called me to Kids

KCA, Koinonia Kids

You've called me to Ministry

I will suffer persecution

I will grow as you lead me deeper

You've called me to share your word 

To share your love!  For you are God!

You are with me! I WILL NOT FEAR!

You've put me here where you want me

You will lead me

You are with me

You will be with me

You are here, you are Moving, You are God

You are present. You are MY LORD!

You will lead me through the next step

in my life, you will guide me,

You will give me words when I speak

You will guide my feet when I walk

You are perfect in ALL of your ways

You are leading my family and I through/to

a new life.  I will not fear. I will not worry.

I will not tremble, for you,

You are, PERFECT in ALL of your ways!

Your way is Perfect, your plan is best

You are bigger, you are better. You are Good!

You are a good, good Father! That is just

who you are. Your are Good!

You ARE Good! You were good! And

You WILL Always be good,

For you ARE Good!

Windsor Ontario - OBFF Conference

The past three days I, along with the rest of our class, have been down in Windsor ON (just across the US/Canada border from Detroit. We went to the OBFF Conference there at Windsor Christian Fellowship (WCF).  There were about 300-400 people there (I think) from churches all across Canada, though most of them were from Ontario.   We drove down there (about three hours) Monday Morning and back Thursday morning.  It was a ton of fun, full of excitement, joy and power!   I got to meet a number of pastors from around Canada, and I got to sit in twelve powerful messages (I really only heard eleven, but I won't go into detail about that here - it'll be in the next post).   Each day the first session started at 9:00 am and the last one ended ended about 9:00 pm (with an hour or so fellowship and dinner time at the end - so closer to 10:00-10:30pm) with a 3-4 hour break in the afternoon.

On one of the breaks Bryce, Heidi (& Everly - their baby), Nathan and Bryan (Koinonia staff), Daniel, Sierra, Janette (classmates) and I went down to the river front for a walk.  When we pulled into a parking spot there was a large group of what appeared to be Syrian refugees doing a rally at a park there.  We took off on our walk in the opposite direction. Nathan and Bryan were speed walking, so they went off ahead, and after a bit Daniel went on a jog too.  It was a beautiful day, pretty warm and altogether it was a lot of fun.  We spent a lot of time talking (which was a lot of fun and very interesting) and commenting on things that we passed by.  On the way back to the van it occurred to us that we forgot to pay for parking. And as we got closer to the van, Nathan and Bryan passed us for they turned around because it occurred to them too.   Thankfully, we didn't get a ticket or anything.  Praise God!

Looking Across the River.  

We are standing on the Windsor Ontario, Canada side, 

and the city in the picture is Detroit, USA.  

Conference Worship Time.

(Thanks to Bryce Fleming for the pictures)

During one of the sessions, they (WCF) randomly gave out knife sets.  We all got one.  It's a 25-piece set that includes the following (food knifes not hunting knifes):

Showtime Knife, Carving Knife, Large Fillet Knife, bread Knife,chef Knife, Saw Knife, Boning Knife, Sportsman Knife, Chop and Serve, Cheese Knife, Cleaver, Carving fork, Utility Knife, 8 Steak Knives, Paring Knife, Garnish Knife, Kitchen & Poultry Shears (scissors), Knife Sharpener & a Giant Solid Flavor Injector.

Valued at $40 and all with a Lifetime Guarantee!