Snow Joke

So we had had our first snowfall the other day… Snow joke!

Those of you who are in the loop know that Albertan winters are, well, cold and miserable. (And often quite snowy)

And I don’t have a car.

Although the campus here is quite small, I’m an aviation student. That means, when January rolls around, I have to start heading to the airport every morning…

I could car pool, but that would be lazy. So I’m going to bike every day. I hope.

So I biked that first day of snow to church. Well, you could say it was fun, but that would be an understatement. I spent most of my time trying to get my chain to work (the sprockets were full of ice and snow so the chain wouldn’t grab), and the other half sliding sideways. I could have gone slowly, but that would have been boring. And anyways, who wants to go slow? Now I’m trying to figure out the logistics of how to keep my bike running through a cold, snowy winter. (if you know some tricks, let me know…)

My snow day adventures don’t end there though… Of course, we decided that sledding would be a good idea.

It was.

Once we had compacted the snow down a bit, we were ripping down the hill like crazy! And all we had was some cardboard and garbage bags for sleds (who says we need to go and buy sleds?).

One of my friends brought his snowboard. So I tried it.

Having never snowboarded before, I took some hard falls.

BUT, I eventually made it down without falling! (Well, I fell once I came to a stop at the bottom, but that’s besides the point.)

SO, long story short, I’m loving this snow, and I can’t wait for winter to really start up. (I live on a small campus. The cold and snow isn’t as big of a nuisance…)

He Never Leaves

So my thoughts today stem from my post a few weeks ago… (you can read it here)

His love never fails, but He is also by your side. He never leaves.

God loves you unconditionally, so because of that, He never abandons you to the lions.

Psalm 3:3-6, “But you, O Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the Lord, and He answered me from His holy hill. I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around.”

I love that image. God standing as a shield to protect me from attacks. He listens to my call. Me, insignificant human that I am, He still hears and answers. He makes sure that I rise again.

Interesting connection, When it says “I lay down and slept; I woke again, for the Lord sustained me”, I am reminded of my two week trip to Guatemala. I was there on a missions trip with Impact Ministries. Naturally, we stayed in a guest house provided by Impact Ministries. In my room slept two guys as well as myself. What I still find amazing, is that every single morning, I woke up at the right time no matter if we had to wake up early or later. I never set an alarm, but I was always awake. My only explanation is that God woke me at the right time.

Anyways, I digress.

God is your shield, but He is also your sword. The next part of Psalm 3 goes as follows: “Arise O Lord! Save me, O my God!For You strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.” (Psalm 3:7).

God will not only stand between you and your enemy, He will destroy your enemy.

For “salvation belongs to the Lord; your blessing be on your people!” (Psalm 3:8)

The View From The Sky

Well, since I don’t have class this week, I get kinda bored. Fortunately, I have friends in high places.

And when I say friends in high places, I mean friends learning to fly at the airport.

It doesn’t get better. (Well, actually it does, but anyways)

Right after lunch I jumped on my bike and rode the fifteen minutes to the airport. I had no idea if I was going to go up, I wanted to, but I didn’t know who was flying when. Anyways, I arrived at the airport at around one o’clock and asked who was going up and if I could go with them.

There was one going up, and I could go with him.

At five.

Now I could have rode back to campus and hung out there for four hours, but that would have been sensible.

So I sat in the hangar for four hours doing nothing.

Well, not really.

My friends and I goofed off, and I helped clean a plane. (I have a job on campus cleaning toilets. I’ve now gone from toilets to planes. I’m moving up in the world!)

Finally, Five o’clock arrived. One of my friends lent me his headset, so my friend/pilot, his instructor and I loaded into the little 172 and taxied to the runway.

I was sitting in on a short landing/takeoff lesson. There was a pretty stiff crosswind, and I’ve never been in a plane that small. (Yes, I start my flying lessons in January, yes I will be in one of those.)

As you can imagine I was excited. We took off, did a few circuits, then the wind got too strong, so we stopped after half an hour.

It was short, but it was the coolest, funnest thing I’ve ever done.

I learnt some things,

Like the engine is really loud, so the headset is a must.

If you’re going flying, don’t forget your camera.

Flying in small planes is the coolest thing ever.

It’s true what they say. You have not seen a tree until you’ve seen its shadow from the sky.

Now I just have to wait until January… Man this is gonna kill me!

What Has He Done?

My first term here at Prairie Bible Institute is over. It’s time for a recap.

I learnt a lot. Not just in class, but nearly everywhere in life.

I learnt how to write a seven page paper on something I know absolutely nothing about. I learnt how to politely tell someone they’re complete idiots. And how to prove it. I learnt about the Old Testament sacrificial system, and the importance of the first born throughout the Bible.

But that’s not what really matters.

I learnt that drinking gatorade from a 3 foot tall cup is hard, and gross (thankfully, not from personal experience). I learnt that if you’re going to fill the girls toilet with goldfish, it’s better to not get caught (unfortunately, that was from experience). I learnt that even if you have all the safety gear, you can still get a concussion while boxing, and I learnt that staying in shape is hard, and usually painful.

But that’s not all.

I learnt how to think critically and how to make connections between the various books, articles, etc. that I read. I learnt that selling your daughter into slavery is a better option than going bankrupt. I learnt that I’m not an academic, I’m a helper.

But most important:

I learnt to a greater extent that God will accompany me through everything. I do not need to be afraid.

So here’s to a good term past, and many more to come!

(If you have a drink, take a swig.)

When Walking is Faster

So I went back to my parents house for thanksgiving, which lead to some adventures. Here’s a fun one…

On the monday, my last day in Kamloops, we decided to go for a bike ride. Now I didn’t have my bike, it was still in Three Hills with my helmet.

No worries, my mom lent me hers.

Right… The brakes didn’t work, and my head is a fair bit larger than hers (Which may have something to do with my IQ…), but we go anyways.

It was me and my dad together, neither of us had done this trail before,though my dad had been by the end and the beginning of our intended route, and noticed that the roads were similar, so he figured they must be connected.

They weren’t.

But before I get to that part, let me start with the beginning.

I was concerned that my brakes didn’t work and that I didn’t have a helmet, but my dad assured me that we were going to be on the road the entire time, and there wouldn’t be that many hills.

He was wrong.

Close to the beginning of the ride we make a detour in the name of geocaching on a path that looked fairly clear and easy.

It wasn’t.

After about fifty meters, we went around a corner and discovered that the path was covered in half frozen mud with dips that resembled craters.

We pressed onwards.

Once we got past the mud we heard some motorcyclists coming, so we waited for them to pass. They were going at a pretty good clip.

I don’t how they were alive.

The half frozen muddy craters were gone, but were immediately replaced by thick roots that gave the path its name: “The Root’s of All Evil” (Yes, there was an apostrophe). How those motorbikers stayed on I do not know. The roots kept catching my wheel, almost throwing me over my handlebars.

With no helmet.

Finally we gave up, cached our bikes and walked for the rest of the way to the geocaches. Once we found the caches we turned around to get back on the main road. Of course, I’m young and believe I’m invincible, so I tried to ride despite the roots.

My dad walked and still managed to keep up with me.

Things got worse.

Once we got back to the main road, we continued on. Suddenly, the road ran out. Naturally, being men, we decided to press on. My dad thought he had found a path, so we continued onwards.

That path was worse than “The Root’s of All Evil”.

My dad barely ever rode, he mostly walked, but I was young and foolish, so I decided to ride and show that I was faster than him. A few near misses with the ground later, my dad, still on foot, was nearly out of sight.

Fortunately, he stopped to let me catch up.

Onwards we pressed, me still riding and my dad mostly walking (he paused every now and again to let me catch up) until we finally met up again with the road we were to finish on (and the one we expected to have been on the whole time).

The end was in sight. We continued riding, and then we hit a hill. My dad said that my mom was at the bottom of the hill to pick us up.

She was. Unfortunately.

The only braking power I had was in my front wheel, and it wasn’t very effective.

But down I went, gaining more and more speed, screaming down the hill, I flew past my mom, dove into the ditch, and let my mom’s bike get destroyed by the oncoming logging truck.

Well, not really.

Actually, I held onto the small amount of braking power I had, controlled my descent, and stopped neatly by the car and then drove home.

But that’s a boring end to a pretty fun adventure.

Priorities

God calls us all to different areas of His service, and that can lead to some conflict when people who have different calls come together.

My call is not special in the sense that no one else has it, but it is special because it is of God. But what can I do when His call leads me to places that aren't really interesting or a part of my specialties?

I am a mission aviation student here at Prairie; God has called me to serve as a pilot for many years now, and I'm finally able to respond to this call. That's all fine and dandy, but to get the training necessary, I have to do some stuff that I really don't want to do. To start flying, I have to do some Bible college classes first. This makes sense since if I want to be a missionary, I need the exposure to God's word. However, I sometimes wonder how my current classes are any use.

One of my classes is about the Pentateuch (The first five books of the Bible). It could be useful, except that it spends a lot of time on in-depth study which I don't find useful for mission work when the people I'm ministering to don't even know who God is. I won't be explaining his stuff to them, I'll be explaining the basics of the gospel!

Now, I do understand the need for this class personally, a better understanding of scripture is very valuable, but some of it seems like it just makes the Scriptures more confusing. Discussing the symbolism of the Old Testament sacrifices and how they pertain to Christ's sacrifice, and the sins of other Biblical characters is very useful, but spending an hour and forty-five minutes on trying to date the exact year the exodus happened seems a waste of time since we don't know exactly who the Pharaoh was, nor do we know exactly which years the Pharaohs who might have been the pharaoh of the narrative reigned. Honestly, it seems like a waste of time.

Now I know I got carried away there, but it bugs me. Here's what I really want to talk about:

I struggle to memorise the things that my teachers say, all the dates and names go right over my head. But does that really matter? God gave me certain gifts, a love of flight, service, helping. Not the gift of good memory for trivial things. Of course, He did give some people this gift, and I respect these people immensely, but does the fact that I don't have this gift matter?

No.

I know I can get the minimum GPA required to get to fly in January, God will teach me what I need to know, and the rest is in His hands. All I have to do is hold out until I get the practical tools that I came here for. In the mean time, I get to gain spiritual and intellectual tools that I might need in the mission field.

Though I still don't know why anyone cares about the exact year of the exodus...

Work Out

I'm sore today. Here's why:

It is important to stay in shape, but it tends to be difficult in college. Throughout my life I was a speed skater. I did pretty good, got into some pretty hard-core competitions, but now that I'm in Three Hills, there's no speed skating club. For a while I sat around, went inlining, and biking every now and then, but generaly got boredand out of shape.

That all changed.

Every Monday to Friday morning there's a beach body workout team in the gym here. It's free for all Prairie students. I started doing that. At first it was really hard since I was so out of shape, but as time went on, I got better and better. I still stuggle with a lot of the things we do, but it's getting easier. Really, the hardest part is getting to bed on time for a 5:45 wake up call.

You'd think that that would be enough excercise, but it's not.

I do even more. Every Friday and Sunday Evenings the arena here has an hour or so of Free skating. That's how awesome this place is. Then on Friday nights there's also a one hour toonie swim at the pool.

For those of you keeping track, that means that of Fridays, I get one hour of Plyo-Cardio circuits, then one hour of skating, then one hour of swimming. Do you want pain? I got it.

To say the least, I think I'm almost back in shape...

His Love Never Fails

I've been through some tough times. More than once I've wondered, "God, why?" and lately He's not just answered that question, He's yelled it in my face. Of course, I'm a musician, so He has a tendency to communicate with me through music.

Two songs:

Your Love Never Fails: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_2qG22SPwU
I love the chorus. When the oceans rage, I don't have to be afraid because I know that you love me. I've never lived close enough to the ocean to see the raging ocean, but I've seen videos, and that's enough for me. But God created that ocean, that storm, that fear. Why fear Him?

Because He sent the storm against you?

Well, unless you happen to be Jonah (Dude, where did you get wifi in the Old Testament?), chances are He didn't. God's love NEVER fails. Ever. Not tomorrow, not next week, not in five bazillion years, NEVER.  It's hard for us to understand that. He loves eternally, never endingly. Humans are just unable to love like that. we always have conditions, we always have those days.

I realise that I sound like a Sunday school teacher talking to a bunch of four year olds, but Jesus once said that the truth is revealed to little children, so maybe we should listen to the Sunday school teachers more often...

My second song:
Blessed be the Name of the Lord: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL3NFhmxQxs
Yes, His love is eternal, but doesn't mean that I can just slack off knowing this. I need to praise Him. In the good times, in the bad times. I know, again, that what I'm about to say is over used, but it's true. we need to remember to love Him in the middle times too. It's hard to praise in the normal, but it has to be done. He sent the raging storm, the calm seas, and the fair sailing. No matter whether or not we like our situation, God is in it and we have to praise Him.

Will you? Will I?

Wifi, Libraries and Video Games

So I decided that I had way to much stuff on my mind to just post on Sundays, so I'm going to do Wednesdays and Sundays... Let's see how long this lasts.

I don't know how many readers have attended Prairie Bible Institute in the last few years, but those who have know that the wifi ain't that great... Apparently they just upgraded it too, so now it's the fastest it has ever been. That's saying something considering I can't even load a basic webpage. And the router is just outside my room. If anyone should have good wifi, it's me. Yet I still don't get much most of the time. What seems to realy slow it down is actually all the guys around my room who like to play video games online. They use up all the bandwidth, so I can't do anything. To be honest, it doesn't bother me a whole lot, I can just go to the library and work there.

That strategy works fine. Until I want to Skype my friends and family since people don't like it when you're talking loudly in the library.

Or do they?

Here I was, studying in the library one afternoon working on a paper, when a bunch of guys from my floor come in with their computers. I was surprised to see them, I don't usually see them in the library since they prefer to study in their rooms. But hey, if they need some books or something, I'm fine. Anyways, they go to the back of the room, sit down at some study carrels and set up their computers. I don't pay much attention, until they start yelling at each other. They were playing some video game, and they had their headphones turned up so loud that they had to yell at each other to communicate what was happening. In the library.

Now I realise I may sound bitter, but I'm really not. (At least not too much) But I am surprised that they would have thought the library an appropriate place for that. But hey, what do I know.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to video call my friends in Germany (gotta love high definition cameras!) while I download a full length movie and play this new game I found online with awesome graphics!