Well, That Was SUPES TOTES AUXANO!

I suppose you’d like to know how things are going post-Auxano, so in keeping with my normal honesty, I will tell you.

So far it has been hard to say, because I got sick on grad day, and it was a nasty one so I felt like utter crud all week. I’m still getting over it. Being ill messes with your head sometimes because. it can give you a false sense of hopelessness, when really your system is hacked (and I do mean that literally and figuratively) with grossness. You’re already cloudy with all that phlegm packed into every nook and cranny, and adding to that with your own racing thoughts about life just doesn’t help. Racing thoughts about life you say? Oh, that happens to me all day every day, don’t worry. It’s annoying when you have nothing better to do than act like a vegetable on the couch. My life thoughts consist of processing the last eight months and contemplating near future. Auxano was fun, hilarious, challenging, transforming, chiselling, different than I had anticipated, and much needed. Looking back, I see how I have changed and how everyone else has changed. We are not the same group from September, that’s for sure.

I got to go back up to Imadene for the Women’s Outdoor Adventure camp again this year. It was pretty great – I went caving, made some copper rings, and shot some guns (of course). Caving was awesome – once we got there I thought I wouldn’t like being stuck way down in between rocks, but I really enjoyed it! Probably because I’m small and can get through all the nooks and crannies. I had a very hard time on the Sunday, as I didn’t want to leave camp again – especially not knowing when I’ll be back. I also had a heck of a lot of things on my mind. You see, I don’t have a job, and I don’t know what I’m going to do, and I don’t know where I’m going to go, and I don’t know ANYTHING. I can barely pinpoint the things that I enjoy or like or make me happy to see if I can use them in job prospects. I sure know all of the many things that I don’t want to do…

I was talking with my friend Will the other day, and he was explaining his personality type, and how it sums him up quite accurately. We were trying to find mine, and it was a challenge to say the least. I don’t like to be labelled or put into a box, and I consider myself to be ambiguous, or in most cases, the Queen of Conflicting Desires. Haha, I have QCD…okay, not funny. Later I came across results from an old personality test from a Camosun class five years ago. Apparently I’m (or was then) an ENFP. Extrovert, Intuition, Feeling, Perceiving…something like that. I maintain that the E is open to discussion, because I can be quite the Introvert at times. Let’s call it ANFP instead. So, on the results from that test, it had a list of possible career choices – a good bunch of them are terrible for me, but I’m going to take a good look at some possibilities from there. Again, I have no idea what I’d like to do. Oh, I should mention that allegedly ENFP’s are gushy people. I most definitely AM NOT. Also ENFP’s are can be manipulative (I disagree in my case) and have the gift of gab…I’m assuming they mean that they are good with the many words that they have…so nope for me, I have lots of trouble getting words or even sentences out. Although I have been known to talk a lot (mostly if I haven’t talked all day I just get it all out in one go). I guess personality types can do a lot to reveal what works for people and what does not. So far I know of no job that jives with what I like…oh well for now?

Tomorrow I’m flying to Manitoba to visit a bunch of Friesens for two weeks. Should be hilarious! This will be a good time to get away for a little while and clear my head (goodness knows there is a lot of room over yonder prairie lands) before I start the job research. Notice I said research, not hunt.

What have I learned from my time at Auxano? Lots. And I’m sure most of that learning will come later in life. There already have been moments where I recall things throughout the year, so things should be looking up soon…I hope so.

Swallowed In The Sea

Here is my second-to-last installment of my Auxano blog stint.

As you may or may not have noticed in my last blog post, my tone was a little melancholy. So, in keeping with that tone, let me continue. Needless to say, this semester has been difficult. I personally feel like nothing is really happening with me, but apparently that’s not the case. There have been little changes here and there, and also talk of changes that will be noticeable long after Auxano has ceased.

Now, let’s go way back to the end of February, when we lead Parkdale Evangelical Free Church’s Sunday service…I decided to take that on and organize it, because that is where I attend, and I have been serving on the worship team for a long time. I think I may have a tendency to get a little too worked up about stuff when I’m in charge. I felt like I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I’m totally fine with going with the flow, but that was a little different. Anyway, it went well, and it didn’t really matter even if it didn’t, because Parkdale is awesome, and they love everything.

Now, the next two slash three weeks were up in shambles for me, because my head was not in the game. We had a good course in Acts with James Prette, however because of all the distractions and mulling life topics my brain was processing, all I can remember is: “What the what?!” After that we had a good course on Church Ministry and whatnot (hope I didn’t just botch that up) with Chris Yue and some of the SBF clan. I believe after that we had our long weekend to make up for the lack of a weekend the next week. That was the first weekend that I didn’t want to go back to Auxano, but I sure didn’t want to stay in Victoria. Brain checking out early I guess. Unfortunately it has been one of the spices to my mood for a while – mentally checking out. ‘Tis a good thing and a bad thing – good because then it’s not so big of a deal to leave, but bad because I could be making the most of my time left with some awesome friends. I don’t feel like I’ve done that so much.

The next two weeks were killer for us, since it was Spring Break for school age folk. We were in for Spring Break Camp and Youth Work Week. The Spring Break Camp kids seemed like they had a lot of fun, so I guess we did a good job, and we got a lot of work done outside for Youth Work Week. Oh yeah, I forgot that after the Youth Work Week, we went to Victoria for a bit to help out at Woodwynn Farms – tilling soil and whatnot, and then the next day going on a tour of Level Ground Coffee – that was fun. So for the girls, the weekend following all that was very much needed. The boys, however (except Jeremiah) went over to the mainland for a hockey tournament, which they WON! Very proud of them indeed.

Our next chunk of time consisted of Jim leading a book study of A Tale Of Three Kings, and Easter. Jim’s class was good, we had some interactive activities, so that helped me stay slightly more focused. Easter was, well, for the most part, crummy. I felt terrible. Depressed terrible. For instance, I was stuck in this rut with thoughts like “I don’t know what I’m going to do, where I’m going to go, who I’m supposed to be…” yadda yadda fill in the blanks if you know more about my thought patterns. I still don’t know those answers. I felt (and still do) useless as a person and friend. The day we came home after the weekend I was miserable, later in the night I broke down – I don’t cry unless I’m distraught.

These last two weeks seemed to get my mind off of my mind, and on to more important things. We had a Social Justice class with Randy Hein and Tara Teng. Now that was a real eye opener. You know how in North American culture, John 3:16 is the staple verse? Well (okay, we learned this in our Worldviews class with Randy, but it still applies) in other parts of the world, James 1:27 is the staple verse. Grab your bible and look it up. Tara came to talk to us about what is close to her heart, and how she’s helping. Sex Trafficking. Heard of it? It’s disturbingly disgusting. Think about selling your young women and children to brothels. Think about that happening all over the world, including North America. I can’t even put into words all of the information I’ve collected in my brain, and the feelings about it. Go to your nearest Google machine, and blitz it. I’m sure you’ll get the picture. One thing that has stuck out though, was something that Tara said very often, she talked about Christians as “Bible Believing, Jesus Following, and Justice Seeking” people (she made up the phrase). How often do we latch on to the first two? How often do we live out the third? Something to “chew on” (she always said that too).

Which brings me to this past week. We went surfing in Tofino! That was such a fun trip. We live in a beautiful place. It rained the entire ride up, but it was beautiful and sunny while we were surfing! We stayed at a church in Ucluelet and traveled to Tofino the next two days for the hours of surfing and beach fun. I’d been surfing once before in grade eleven…so even though I knew what to do, it still felt like the first time, because it’s freaky. I love the ocean, but I’m afraid of it. I also don’t do well with swimming type stuff. I drown most of the time. I did have fun playing in the waves and on the beach. Wetsuits make everything better. I can float in the ocean!! Yeah, duh, but I can’t float anyway, so experiencing buoyant water was outrageous! I’m a fan. I didn’t go surfing the next day, because I really didn’t want to wrestle getting into a wet wetsuit… So Jeremiah and I went and hung out in town for a while. It was a good last getaway with the gang.

So, let me just come back to the feeling like mud part for a sec…I’m trying to mull over Katie Friesen, and sometimes I don’t like what I see. For instance, I tend to be mean or snarky to the people I care about, and I don’t like that at all. It’s like I’m afraid to show emotion, like the caring part of emotion. I’ve got the angry and sad, depressed, crazy, and happy emotions down pat, but the love and caring ones? Not so much. I’m sorry to those who I have hurt, I should tell you in person, shouldn’t I? Or apologize more often when I do make comments and whatnot. I guess the term “tough love” could describe me sometimes.

Well, I’m running out of material to write about, and I should go to bed, since my sleeping patterns have been a little off kilter lately. On Friday night I made a pot of coffee and drank it all. I didn’t go to sleep for a loooong time, and I was a little loopy. Well, not much loopier than normal, just not tired at all.

Sorry for the subpar writing and content. I just kind of wanted to pound this one out and get it over with.

That Time We Did That Thing

[Insert clever introduction]

Sorry for the lack of a clever introduction, I thought that I could come up with one at the end of my post, but alas this is all that I could come up with.

Remember when I read a lot over Christmas break? Well, two of those books were in preparation for book study classes. One was Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Life Together” with Andy Renton, and the other was Francis Chan’s “Forgotten God” with Joyce Hilchie. Our Bonhoeffer class was really good, we read through almost the entire book and discussed it. In great detail. Many discussions. Lots of opinions. It was probably the most vocal we’ve ever been in a class! Our Forgotten God class was really good as well.  At the end, Joyce gave us a Spiritual Gifts questionnaire to complete. After we found our results, we shared and talked a little bit about them with each other. My highest scoring dominant gift is Service, and then I had a four-way tie for my next highest scoring gifts of Exhortation, Leading Worship (yep, they just added that one as a gift), Hospitality, and Discerning of Spirits. My subordinate gifts were pretty close together and they were Helps, Wisdom, Leadership, Administration, and Knowledge. Pretty interesting, huh? As I was answering the questions, I knew that Service was going to be a dominant one. I’m really glad about that, because I don’t think I’m the type of person who is capable of really crazy gifts (like Tongues or Interpretation). Well, maybe I am, but not right now. Maybe when I’m sixty. Unless Discerning of Spirits is considered a crazy gift, I can always tag team with someone who can cast a demon out… Then again, maybe not!

So, at the end of January we pretty much lived out of suitcases for the next two weeks. We started off the adventure by traveling to Vancouver for Missions Fest and A Rocha, and then after a quick turnaround we traveled to Mt. Washington. I love Vancouver! I love the ferry! I love the alpine experience! The only thing that I wish I could have done, was drive there myself. Oh well, I plugged in my tunes and stared out the window to make up for it. We stayed at the Johnstons’ for four nights while we went to Missions Fest (they were excellent hosts). To be honest, I was half excited and half pretending to be excited about Missions Fest because the last time I went, was about ten years ago, and I was bored out of my tree when I wasn’t goofing off with the rest of my youth group. I knew that it would be different this time, because I’m an adult who can appreciate everything about it. Guess what? I had a good time! I went to seminars and sessions, checked out booths, helped at our Imadene booth, and learned some things. Next on the agenda we stayed for three nights at A Rocha, where we took classes in the morning on environmental stewardship, and then worked on the farm in the afternoon! That was my favourite part – I really enjoyed working outside turning compost, raking leaves, and re-potting trees. After a weekend to re-group, we set out to Mt. Washington for a little group vacation. Now I enjoyed that very much – I love being up in the mountains with all that snow. There was so much! It snowed non-stop practically the entire time we were there! We hung out in the chalet, went snowshoeing, built snow caves, ate some beaver tails, and attempted to walk in waist deep snow. One thing that we did in the evenings, was rename each other. Like when God renamed certain people in the bible. We all discussed and admonished each other, and eventually picked names that both  represent us, and something we can grow into. For instance, my name is Lucy, as in Lucy Pevensie from the Chronicles of Narnia. You see, Lucy is bold and seeks Aslan, and that’s what I need to do. I need to get out London and into Narnia. I need to be Lucy (The Valiant).

The past two weeks we have gotten back into our regular schedule with classes and whatnot. We had a First Nations Reconciliation class with our pastors from New Life Church in Duncan. That was really enlightening and interesting and I’m not going to get into it, because I think I’d say something wrong. We just had a class this week on The Nature and Fear of God with Dave Jones. All I can say about that class was, that I enjoyed it, because I have the worst retention ever. What it is, is that I hear things and process them in that moment, and when I try to recap what happened later, it doesn’t connect at all. Did you read what I wrote there? I used one of Dave’s lines. If you know him, try and figure it out.

Remember when I said that I’d write what I’ve noticed change in me? Well, I don’t really know what that means anymore, but I have noticed a character shift. I’m becoming more and more like my dad, which is a very good thing. I’ve always wanted to become more like him, because he has a ridiculously good work ethic, and is always willing to serve. Now I’ve just got to work on the wisdom part, and the discipline part. I’m already noticing the need to work with my hands, like at A Rocha, because working with my brain doesn’t always pan out. There are some connectors that are faulty. Let’s call it Faulty Friesen. Let’s not.

Okay, so here are the reasons that I have been putting off writing this blog post a) distracted with everything else going on in the house b) I didn’t really want to rehash these past two months, or talk about my feelings c) I really didn’t want to talk about my feelings. Yes, I said that I didn’t want to talk about my feelings twice.

I think I’ll end this now.

Forgotten Blog

Alright, time to recap one month since my last blog post. This is may or may not be a biggie, depending on how much I want to write.

Where did I leave off? Oh right, “Street Life With Katie”. So the following week after our Auxano Acts week, we had a class with Pam Welle (love her) on Spiritual Formation. My two favorite parts of that week were our technology fast (I may or may not go on a rant about that) and the two hours of solitude we had to take in the middle of our class each day.

About the technology fast… I loved the idea! The only thing I had to do beforehand was email a couple of people to let them know what was going on, and then everything was as normal. I say normal, because I don’t keep my phone super glued to my hand and eyeballs or turn on my computer everyday in Lake Cowichan (psst – I go on the internet everyday when I’m in Victoria, mostly because I don’t have eleven other fantastic people to distract me). I still have the habit of checking my phone for notifications of sorts, but there never are any to see. It was really nice not to use anything, because I never really did in the first place. The part that I was most excited about, was that everyone else had to give up technology as well!! That gave me the high expectation that people would be available to hang out or talk with. That didn’t exactly happen, everyone decided to knit or catch up on their bible reading. Don’t get me wrong, those are perfectly wonderful things to do, but to me that made me feel like they’d rather pay attention to what was directly in front of their face, and not to other friends in the room. Maybe I have too high of expectations sometimes, but whatever happened to the days when just sitting around having a conversation would suffice, without having to be doing something else at the same time? Or, maybe I’m just old fashioned. Let’s stick with that, it sounds better. Now, about the two hours of solitude… I loved that too!! Okay, maybe it was “only child syndrome” coming through, but I really do enjoy being by myself sometimes! I’m an ambivert, so I recharge by being both alone and with others. I just like part of my day to be alone, and the other part to be with people. It doesn’t matter which one comes first, as long as it happens. When I was at my job with the GVSD, I talked to people all day, so on my lunch breaks and when I got home, I didn’t want to talk to anyone (of course if I had time scheduled with a friend in the evening that would be great). Now that I’m at Auxano, I don’t mind having lunch breaks and cleaning jobs where I’m alone, because I know that I’m coming home to a full house of excellent people to be with! Now with all of that being said, I thoroughly enjoyed my solitude that week.  Every day I shoved one of the little couches up by one of the windows in Willow Lodge, turned the heat up a little (sorry boys), and sat looking out the window with my feet on the baseboard heater. I had a good view of the lake through the trees, and the top of the mountain to my left. I could look at scenery and nature for hours. God made such intricately amazing things to look at. Now, I think we were supposed to be emptying our mind and focusing on God and whatnot, but I couldn’t do that the entire time, my mind had to wander. So I let it. It was way better than doing it late at night right before bed, that’s always bad news for me. Of course, after an hour and a half or so, being in solitude can calm you down a bit, so you slowly get a little comfier and lie down to rest your eyes…paouf! Gone. Asleep. Off to Neverland. I woke up when people started coming back to the room, and on the first day I felt like the life was drained out of me. My first mistake was not eating something soon afterwards, because it was three o’clock (my crash time) when we were done. I don’t recall having to think so much in any other class I’ve had so far.

Skip to the next two weeks before the break and here we see a squirrelier version of Katie. Oh my word I can’t remember a time when I was more distracted, crazy, and ADHD than I was in those two weeks before Christmas break! I couldn’t pay attention in class to save my life, I was way more fidgety than normal, and my wiggliness got worse! I think it was a combination of living with so many people where qualities get amplified simply by cohabitation, and squirreliness right before a break. I don’t know where I acquired the term “squirrely”, maybe from the GVSD. It makes sense though because in schools, kids and staff get moody/antsy/distracted/crazy/irritable right before Christmas break, spring break, and summer break. I think some of us may have been a tad squirrely before we left. Me *ahem*…

Since being home in Victoria, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and reading. I’ve been thinking about how I come across to people, and how I’ve changed in the last couple of years. I’m not going to quite get into that now…I think that will be in a different blog post. Although, since reading Forgotten God (yes, Auxano peeps, I read the entire book) and my parents making me watch a sermon on TV by Joel Osteen, I’ve been noticing things about myself and others, and doing and seeing things that I wouldn’t normally do or notice. Take the “noticing things about others” for instance, I attended a concert that my friends were performing in (orchestral concert, of course) and I was planning on purchasing a ticket at the door (ten to twenty dollars, depending on how easily they’d accept me as a student without an institutionalized card of some sort), and just as I was about to be called next in line, someone gave me their extra ticket. Who has an extra ticket?! Who just gives it to someone they don’t know?! Why did they pick me?! The short answer: Jesus. The long answer: Jesus. I never experience those moments that just seem to offer themselves on a silver platter, but that was a little moment that left me gob-smacked. I noticed the next instance while I was on a run around my neighborhood. The garbage truck was making it’s loop, and as it stopped in front of a house, the owner ran outside and gave the driver a little envelope and shook his hand. I gathered that the driver must have received some sort of Christmas bonus. That made me feel really happy, to know that people still do nice things for others that they may or may not know. Maybe it was the Christmas spirit, but I’d like to think not, in this case. In the same way, I’ve noticed little changes in myself. On that same run, as I was making my way down my street, I noticed that one of the neighbor’s garbage bins had fallen over in the middle of the street, and the lid was on the other side of the street. I normally would notice, and keep going on my way (if it was only sort of in the way of traffic), but the bin was directly in the middle of the lane, so I picked it up and moved it back on the lawn, and then went and picked up the lid as well. Another instance, I was on my way to a store with a friend, and we noticed that a shopping cart was left in a parking spot, so we put it back with the other carts. That was another time that I would have just noticed it and kept going on my way. Yet another instance (this is my last example – I do have a point, you know), I was getting out of my car in a parkade, and there was a squished coffee cup right outside my door, so I picked it up (I had some other trash as well) and dropped it in the nearest trash bin. All of these little things that I’ve been doing have stemmed from that Joel Osteen TV program (darn parents). He was talking about having a Spirit of Excellence. We should strive for excellence, no matter what we’re doing, because it’s all for the glory of God anyway, right? You wouldn’t want to run into him at the grocery store with your unkempt hair and sweatpants, would you? You’d feel inappropriately dressed. You wouldn’t want him to surprise you at work and see you doing half-assed jobs, would you? You’d feel inadequate. Even though I can’t stand the way Joel Osteen speaks with his silly Texan accent, and his southern televangelist facial expressions and demeanor, what he had to say in that message was of value to me (yes Ma and Pa, you did it again…). I’ll probably not forget the story he told the congregation about a time when he was in a parking lot on a windy day, and as he opened his car door to get in, all the sections of a newspaper that was inside flew away in every direction all over the lot. He was in a hurry, and had a second thought to just pick up what was close by and drive away, leaving the rest. He thought better, and went all over the parking lot picking up every piece of newspaper, and then some. As he was getting into his car, the couple who was sitting in the car next to him rolled down their window and said hi. They told him that they have seen his sermons on TV and that they were watching to see what he would do in the parking lot just then with  the newspaper. Now I know he’s sort of famous down south, but what if it were you in that situation, and it was someone you knew who was watching to see what you would do? Or even Jesus?

Well, that’s enough for this time. Merry Christmas! God bless Us, Every One! (I read A Christmas Carol, too! I’m on a roll!)

Psst. I changed my theme as well. It didn’t take nearly as long as the first time (please refer to my first post: The Fickle Blog “Designer” Introduction)!

Street Life With Katie

Welcome to Street Life With Katie, where Katie talks about her time on the streets of Victoria.

Katie: Why hello there Katie, how are you feeling?
Katie: I’m feeling alright – kinda tired, mostly from coughing and hacking non-stop.
Katie: How was your time on the streets of Victoria? Can you explain what you were doing on the streets for five days?
Katie: Sure, you see…

HOLD UP! You surely don’t want to read a transcript of me interviewing myself do you? I didn’t think so. It kinda sounds like I’m talking to myself, and that is weird (wait, I already do that). Although, you’d be surprised how many homeless people talk to themselves. Either because they  a) already had a mental disorder, and for some reason were put on the street b) have done so many drugs that they are already mentally toast, or  c) because they’re lonely, and need someone to talk to. I’m sure if I was legitimately homeless my conversations with myself would be significantly worse.

Anyways, for those of you who didn’t know – from November 12 – 16 the Auxano crew has been staying at The Mustard Seed, and volunteering at different organizations that help homeless people of all ages. We also took 26 hours at the end of our week to experience homelessness. This was a real eye opener for all of us. It’s not that we didn’t know about the homeless situation in Victoria, but we just didn’t know the extent of it, and what options (or lack thereof) are available. For instance, I actually didn’t know too much about The Mustard Seed, Our Place, or Sanctuary Youth – those are the places we frequented to volunteer and whatnot.

The Mustard Seed
So we stayed at the Mustard Seed the entire week – sleeping on the floor in different rooms. We got up early, ate breakfast, and packed up before most of the volunteers arrived. We sandwiched the week volunteering in different areas. Most of us worked in the warehouse – I was a “shopper”. You may or may not have seen me on the news (Chek TV) on the Tuesday night – I say that because I didn’t see the news, and I only assume because they were recording me packing a hamper oodles of times. At the end of the week I did some filing (heehee I used to do that as a job). It is bustling in that place! So many people need assistance – it’s really heartbreaking. I’m just glad that we have places to help people in need.

Sanctuary Youth
On Tuesday night and Wednesday night we hung out with the teenagers who frequent Sanctuary Youth. This happens in the basement at The Church of Our Lord downtown. It is this really cool place where kids can hang out and feel safe from 3-5pm and 7-9 pm. On Tuesday we brought pizza (made for a good turnout) and participated in their jam night. I’m glad we have that place too!

Our Place
On Wednesday and Thursday we volunteered at Our Place. This is where housing, showers, prepared meals, and a clothing/toiletry station is available to people who need it. That sentence seems weird, but I really don’t want to spend any more time on it – you get the picture. We were scattered everywhere volunteering. That was my favourite place to volunteer – there were so many people to talk to. Now, I don’t normally go up to people and talk to them, they actually made conversations with me first. On Thursday Jeremiah and I were downstairs working in the clothing department  – we met a lot of interesting people! It broke my heart to see how many people needed basic things that we take for granted. Some of the people were hilarious and really fun to talk to – yeah, maybe some substances or alcohol may have factored in to their mood, but I had the best day and I had never laughed so hard! By laugh I mean hack-cough (I’ve only just recently gotten my laugh back).

Thursday we started our 26 hours of homelessness. It was more like 6 (waking hours) though – we volunteered at the Mustard Seed the next day, and I doubt homeless people volunteer their time when they have nothing to do. We started from about 2:00pm and roamed the streets in our little groups with a handful of change each. It was interesting, because we didn’t have access to the things we normally would have. We couldn’t go into a shop to use their bathroom so easily because of the way we looked (we looked pretty gross by the end of the week), and we didn’t have our wallets and whatnot, so we had to plan where and what we were going to eat. Some of us pooled money and shared food from a grocery store or pizza shop, and some of us ate off the $1.39 menu at McDonalds for dinner. After dinner my group handed out socks and offered prayer to the people on the streets. Jeremiah has a friend who does that, so we met up and joined that group. It was darn cold out! So many people don’t have places inside to sleep at night. We met this one lady who didn’t have somewhere to stay. We gave her a pair of socks and prayed for her – then we offered to buy her some hot chocolate. On our way, we realized that we only had our remaining handfuls of change! We had enough for it, but it was so natural to use our money that we forgot that we were essentially at her level for those couple of hours. Now that was a poke in the face. That night we slept on the floor of the sanctuary at The Mustard Seed. We were going to sleep on the roof to experience having no place inside to sleep (a bit safer than the streets for us newbs) but apparently that’s kind of illegal. It still got pretty cold there, so we eventually went back upstairs. I don’t know how the homeless sleep at night… Friday morning we walked down to Our Place for breakfast. I felt really weird going, mainly because we were just there volunteering the day before. I felt like a poser. We made it back to The Mustard Seed for our volunteering shifts for the day. In the evening we helped with something called Drive-By Cafe – a table on the street with free food. We made wraps and handed out chips and juice. We also had sidewalk chalk and wrote encouraging things on the streets (and advertised the free wraps).

It was nice slash a little weird coming home to normal life after our time downtown. Our lives have definitely changed, and we for sure will not look at downtown Victoria (or anywhere else for that matter) and the people on the streets the same way again. I’m really glad that I wasn’t too sick to participate in that experience. I was still pretty sick though, and I’m not even completely back to normal yet!

This has been Street Life With Katie. Tune in next time… Just kidding.

Come Thou Long Expected Blog Post

I thought this title would be appropriate, seeing how it is nearing Christmas and this post is overdue.

So here is the problem with blog gaps – you can’t remember what happened two weeks ago! Yes, I do in fact know what happened, but I didn’t think there was anything interesting to report. Remember when I said that I had to write a psalm? Well, I did. I’m not entirely happy with it, mostly because it doesn’t sound like my own words, and I think it is cheesy, so I also rewrote it in my own words. Here are both of them.

Cheesy Psalm Version:

 

Lord, you know my heart

You made me the way you’ve planned

Show me then, what are my spiritual gifts?

What is my earthly purpose?

 

Why does my mind wander?

Does it not stay calm for even a moment?

Why do I worry so much?

What have I done to bring this burden upon myself?

 

Yet in my worrying and in my wanderings

you are there beside me

You alone can be my counselor and confidant

Teach me to pray, that I may find peace in you

 

Fill me with your wisdom

Shine your light on my path to you

Show me how you might use me

Reveal yourself to me

 

Remind me all the days of my life

that you alone can guide my heart in the path of righteousness

Reflect your beauty on me

Comfort me with your love

 

Help me uncover you in the mysteries of my mind

May your attributes resonate with me

Calm my heart, Lord

Amen

 

 

Get To The Point Version:

 

God, you know me, and made me the way you wanted

What the heck are my spiritual gifts?!

What am I doing here?!

 

Why can’t I concentrate on anything?!

My mind goes a mile a minute!

Why?! Is this supposed to be a bad thing, or a good thing?

 

Even though I worry too much, and I think too much,

You’re always with me

I can come to you with anything

Teach me how to pray, give me peace

Can I have some wisdom please?

Can you show me where to find you, and what you’re gonna do with me?

C’mere!

 

Keep poking me in the face

I’m gonna need it,

and also a God blanket

 

Help me be like you

Give me a chill pill

Amen

 

One habit (okay, so I don’t actually do this, but I’d like to) that I think is such a good idea to practice, is to mumble a psalm or two a day. If you don’t know what I mean by “mumble”, please refer to my previous post.

So I don’t know what else happened in the week, because of what I just said earlier…but I do remember that Shayla, Jen, Jeremiah, and I went to Naniamo for a little while after church on Sunday (October 28). No reason, just to go somewhere. The week following, we had our class with Randy Hein. I really enjoyed it  – couldn’t really tell you what happened, because most things go in one ear and out the other for me, unless I can have something to see or write down (yes, you’d think taking notes would be ideal for me but nope, because when I’m writing things down, I’m concentrating on what I just heard and not on what is being said directly afterwards). I do know that it was more relaxed and it didn’t seem like a lecture session to me. I’m just reading over my notes and one thing that stands out to me (and of course I don’t remember who said this, if this is a quotation or not, or where this came from but I like it) “The Kingdom of God explodes in growth when it is translated and expressed in the living culture where it is planted.” Chew on that for a little while. I was typing what I thought about that and trying to explain it, but I didn’t know where I was going with it, so I stopped and I think contemplating it will bring some more insight. This past week, we had a class on Leadership with Chris Yew, and as I’m reading through my notes I found another quotation that I like (this time I know who said it) “You can impress from afar, but only influence from up close.” -Rick Warren. That’s pretty much all I can muster from that class right now.

Like I said, one of the reasons why I can’t say much, is because so much time has passed since my last blog post that I can’t really remember much. Another reason is, that I don’t think there was enough interesting things to post about that aren’t just silly things I remember. A big reason for right now, is that I’m sick. My brain is somewhere in my skull, I’m not sure where. My sinuses have taken over. I’m definitely battling the flu…I haven’t really felt the full effects of it, but I have definitely been beaten down by my sinuses, coughing fits, major fatigue, and a fair share of achiness. Technically I started feeling sick around Halloween. It has come on slow, but I’m sure overworking my body on Thursday really did me in. I’m mostly concerned that I will either be still too sick to do our Auxano Acts thingy this week, or double-back and get more sick, or worse sick! Auxano Acts is our “living on the streets of Victoria week”. We’ll be staying at the Mustard Seed and volunteering and whatnot and hanging out with the homeless. On Thursday evening starts our 26 hours of being homeless. We will have to find food and a whatnot, and we’ll be sleeping on the roof of the Mustard Seed (that is the safest we can be whilst experiencing homelessness). I’m most worried about that. At first I was just worried about being cold, and now I’m worried because I’m sick! Well, better pray for some healing and guidance. This is going to be an interesting week regardless of how I feel.

Of Birthdays And Mumblings

So, this house has three birthdays within seven days. Needless to say, my birthday has never lasted so long! Matt’s birthday was on Tuesday (October 16) – we all went out to Jake’s On The Lake for dinner, and his parents paid! That was so nice of them! Oh, I had THE BEST PHILLY CHEESE STEAK SANDWICH OF MY LIFE! That is going to be my go-to sandwich when I go back there again! It was just beautiful – juicy steak slices, crunchy sautéed peppers and onions, gooey cheese, and chipotle mayo for the sauce all on a ciabatta  bun. Oh my word. I couldn’t stop eating it. I literally thought I was going to explode from food. If you have ever seen Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life” then you’d know what I mean when I say that I couldn’t eat anything more…not even a wafer thin mint. Am I still thinking about that glorious sandwich? Why yes, yes I am.

So this past week (I think it was Tuesday…) we wrote letters during our morning prayer time. How nice, you say? Well, the catch was that we had to write letters to ourselves from God. Talk about interesting. You may think that was a difficult thing to do but let me tell you, I could barely stop writing. I read my letter to the group, and I think I’ll share it with you now.

Katie,

I want you to know that I love you, and that I DO have the best plans for you. You hafta wait it out, and oh yeah – maybe you want to talk to me more often? You came to Auxano because a) you wanted to surround yourself with people who also want a better relationship with me b) you were afraid of being bored at work and at home and afraid of being lonely and sad, and c) I told you so! So maybe you want to get your head out of the clouds and focus on me. I’m gonna keep throwing your favourite verses in your face until you practice them! Philippians 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving (you always forget that part every time you quote this) present your requests to me. And my peace, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and mind in my son Christ Jesus.” And Matthew 6:25-33 and Luke 12:22-31 (they are the same, because of that gospel class you took, eh?). Those talk about worrying, and how you are NOT SUPPOSED TO DO IT KATIE! Things will fall into place, healing will happen on my time. Just fricken relax! Talk to me! I’m right here! Hello! When you say you’ll pray for someone or something, DO IT…right away! Stop making excuses for why you don’t have time for things. This frustrates me, and I’m sure it frustrates you. I’m pretty sure I made you to be like your parents – they don’t do what you do. Now, I’m not trying to make you feel bad, I’m just telling you to wake up. Ha, remember what John said in chapel at the Fall Teen Retreat? Yeah. This is the alarm clock of God.

I love you,

God.

Thursday was my birthday! I had a spectastic day! I got ambushed in my bed in the morning, everyone prayed for me at morning prayer (that was both weird and wonderful), and they sang to me many times (well, Jim did)…and I just had a really good day! I was in such a great mood for the rest of the day! I was singing whilst cleaning, we had a bit of down time before dinner, and that was really nice to just hang out with everyone. After dinner Shayla and I got root beer floats – and if you’ve never tried it, pour chocolate syrup in your next float, it’s so good! My family (the Warren side) got me hooked on it. Later we watched drop-in hockey! It is always fun to watch our boys play, and it’s especially fun to cheer for them and embarrass them a little.

This weekend was nice too – we had my birthday party on Friday night. We planned on going to drop-in skating, but there was a hockey game at the arena! Gah! Should have called to make sure. That was okay, because we just had cheesecake at the house, and then we had a dance party downstairs! Complete with my “dance-y” playlist and iPhone strobe lights! For the rest of the weekend I had the sorest calves EVER! You can tell who doesn’t exercise much, eh? I could barely walk. After the dance party we watched Get Smart. What an excellent way to end a party! Birthdays should always last about four days. I got my birthday attached on to Matt’s celebration with friends on Saturday night, and then again on Sunday I brought home some birthday German Chocolate cake from Victoria (surprised my Grandma who was visiting) and our house pretty much cleaned that up fast.

I’m just going to attach yesterday and today along with this post – mostly because I should probably mention something to do with the title I chose. So we’re taking this Psalms class with James Prette, and today we mumbled through a psalm. What I mean by mumbled is, when reading a psalm they can also be read as prayers, so if there is something that you can relate to, or pray about, then do! It is kind of like a running commentary, but a prayer commentary. I don’t know how else to describe it. It was weird to do at first, but it got easier. Now I’ve got to write a psalm (what?!) and catch up on my reading.

I suggest writing a blog post while either Eric or Brad are playing the guitar. It’s very calming. I thought that I’d get distracted by the beautiful music (of course I did…) and it would make me write much slower, but it actually helped set a musical cadence to my thought process.

 

 

Rain Much?

This week and weekend has been everywhere – what I mean to say is, emotions and situations have been on a roller coaster. I’m uncomfortable with praying out loud. For instance, I’m not very good at it. Well, I’m not very cookie-cutter good at it. What I mean by cookie-cutter is, I find that most Christians pray the same way and with the same vocabulary, so I try to be as much of myself as possible. I have a very distinct way of praying out loud, but I’m very self conscious about it because I think people won’t like it, and because I never know what to say or think. For example, on Tuesday morning we prayed for a country, and it’s difficult to pray for people that we don’t know (part of the point), but everyone seemed to be doing it well. Intimidation much? It made me feel even more great (sarcasm if you didn’t catch that) when we prayed about the people who didn’t pray out loud. What was that all about? That didn’t make me feel any better…

Wednesday was an excellent day! The morning class was really good, and it was easier for me personally – there was a fill in the blank sheet of notes! Then after lunch we prepared things for the Fall Teen Retreat…aka played with the plasma cars! My tailbone hurt so much! But I’m so good at driving them! We also tested the cardboard maze – pretty good if I do say so myself. For the rest of our time at camp, Steph and I worked on our station for the night game on Friday. It was so cool! That night we had Family Dinner at our house, and for dinner we had SALMON! Oh my word was that ever delicious! There were three different flavoured ones – I could have eaten a whole fish! Once everyone left I just sat on the couch and watched people use their various technological gadgets – I like just watching people. Thursday was interesting… Everyone was cranky at different points in the day. I think the only time everyone was normal was when we were trying to move the inflatables to the grass, that was hilarious.

Then we had the Fall Teen Retreat. More like the Fall Rain Retreat. It was pretty fun though – it wasn’t as cold as it was last year, but it was the wettest I’ve ever seen camp. Saturday was a pretty good day – I had never laughed so hard in one day before! Breakfast was hysterical, and lunch was hilarious! Later that afternoon, a few of us had to go back to the house for something, and on the way back something was ridiculously funny (I’m not going to say, because it won’t be funny now) and I almost had to pull over I was laughing so hard! The carnival was pretty excellent as well. Sunday was difficult – it rained so freaking much! And everyone was tired, and cranky. Well, I got grumpy late afternoon and it didn’t go away until today. We got to sleep in today! Then we went to camp to help out with the guest group. I found out that my rain jacket only works for about an hour… I was soaked. How nice.

I’ve never seen so much rain in one weekend before. Well maybe I have, but it sounds better this way.

What A Week

Keep in mind that I’m a little behind from the Thanksgiving weekend, so here is my account for last week – commencing now. What a week this has been – chalk full of information! I don’t even know what happened, there was so much to take in! We have been in classes all week, which is unusual so far, because our program is mostly service related, with some classes here and there. Mondays we have PT, and Monday was pretty cool. I read Matt Owen’s blog a couple of days ago, and he mentioned that he can’t remember much of PT’s class because of our gospel class the rest of the week. I completely agree. We had a class with Francois Blouin all day every day, and my brain is mush. I really enjoy his class, but I’m a visual person, and fast-paced lectures don’t connect with my brainwaves. I know that when the time comes, I’ll be able to recall what I have heard (and I have recently) so that makes me feel a little bit better. To be honest, I can’t remember all that happened other than the classes – I’m sure there were some fun times had by all in the evenings last week…maybe go read some other students’ blog posts! Just kidding, I’m sure mine is entertaining nonetheless. Oh yes, we did have “family dinner” on Wednesday at the Burdge’s – Thanksgiving style! Oh my word, the food was delicious!

So, I don’t know if you’ve been around Facebook lately, but there is a video of the boys (plus Derek, minus Jeremiah) singing to the girls (plus Lisa and Devon). That was fantastic! It was kind of disappointing to go home for the holiday, because it feels like home in Lake Cowichan, but at the same time it was nice to laugh and hang out with my parents and friends. When I was home though, it didn’t feel like I had been at Auxano for three weeks. Out of sight, out of mind I guess. That can be both a good thing and a bad thing – on one hand, as much as I am uneasy about change, I can adapt quickly. I’m not one to miss things very much (well, in certain cases of course), so going back and forth isn’t difficult for me. It’s just the idea that gets me. On the other hand (remember that I was talking about hands?) I don’t get that attached to things, which can bring me to another “handed” situation, but I’m not going to get into that. This is a random blog post anyway. The next post should be way more interesting, hang in there.

Unnamed As Of Yet

So maybe my blog post will be once a week, with a truck load of information. Hope everyone can handle it! It has just been so busy lately, and I feel like it’s going to be busy all the time.

On Monday we had our first sit-down class with PT (Tom Hilchie). “PT” is short for “Pastor Tom”, as he serves the church I attend in Victoria. He is taking us through the pentateuch (the first four books of the bible), so naturally we’re starting at Genesis. We only got through chapters 1 and 2 – there were some interesting things that PT brought up when we were picking apart the chapters. For instance, God made light and darkness long before he created the sun, moon, and stars! What does that even mean?! Also, he said “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water (Genesis 1:6).” That means, he made the ocean and the sky from water that was already there. Where is the other water, if the sky is the vault? There are so many things that my mind cannot comprehend about God right now, and Genesis has just been added to the list.

On Tuesday, we  helped out with the guest group in the morning. We had people from  the Vital Society in Duncan and some of them wanted to do the climbing wall. I’ve been training on the climbing wall, so I just watched and helped when I could. I felt a little uncomfortable with the group on Monday, because I’m not very familiar with special needs people. However, I felt a little better about them when they visited the climbing wall. Most of them actually went up the wall! It was crazy, this old blind man went up – with some help of course. In a way, they are role models to me – they love talking to people, and they have the time of their lives in whatever they do! Most of them aren’t afraid of regular things that most people are afraid of – like getting up in front of everyone and performing a song, or just going up to people they don’t know and saying “hi”.

We also made cookies that day, and walked them over to our neighbours in Mesachie Lake as our appreciation for putting up with the fun-filled noise during the summer at camp. Matt and I went to our first house and talked with a man for about fifteen minutes and played with his two dogs (yes, Katie Friesen played with dogs!).

Wednesday and Thursday were a little different, as Jim and Sarah were out of town. Jim normally leads our morning prayer, so on Wednesday Jen lead the morning prayer and we did pits and peaks from our week so far, and then we wrote down some prayer requests for each person. That was a really good idea. Wednesday at camp there was a group of kids from the local middle and elementary schools for a couple of days. The group of kids that I facilitated activities for were the cutest bunch of kids! They made me miss working at Gordon Head Middle School… Hopefully we’ll get more school groups. Thursday’s prayer time was good too – Brad led us in some worship songs, and then we prayed for each other’s prayer requests from the day before. Jeremiah read us a story that PT gave us on Monday, and in it, the characters played this game where they looked at something in nature, and discussed which characteristic of God was displayed. When we got to camp we hiked the mountain with the kids, and when we got there, we played that game. It was so interesting to hear what others said. It helps me get to know everyone better!

On second thought (from the beginning of this post) I don’t think I’m going to write about the whole week, maybe I’ll just pick certain things to write about, because this is kind of exhausting and time consuming to write about the past week. Let’s see what happens next week!