Girl Week

I definitely feel like us girls got the better end of the deal in regards to Girl/Guy Week. A beautiful hotel on Banff Avenue, late night hot springs reserved specifically for us, and an incredible view of the Rocky Mountains. We also were reunited with the girls from Sites 2 and 3, it was a great opportunity to share stories and make some new friends. 

Our speaker for the week was Sharon Peters and her main theme was how to live lifeful (yes, “lifeful” is indeed a word, meaning “full of or giving vitality”). We discussed a variety of topics relating to how we can be completely comfortable in our own skin, this in order to live life to the fullest and how God intended us to. One of the ways we experienced this while we were there was a night of Zumba, a workout involving different styles of Latin dance. This was a major highlight for a lot of the girls I think, we were free to just have some fun and not worry about how we looked. Another interesting part of the week was getting the chance to do a question and answer with the guys. Each group came up with a list of questions for the other gender, the lists were exchanged, and then we answered each others questions. After that was done, some of the site leaders switched groups for the morning to report the answers. It was definitely a learning experience and we were left with a lot of useful truth to apply to our current/future relationships.

Our week in Banff was so much fun and it was great to be immersed in so much of God’s beautiful creation. The people, experiences, and food were awesome and we ended the week with more friends than we started with. However, even though some of us may not want to admit it, we were very glad to see the guys again, we need them to balance out all of those hormones and high pitched voices ;).

-Danielle Schmidt 

Guy Week

Manly things, manly talk, manly food and manly activities. In complete honesty that’s a basic summary of guy week. Or at least that is what we would like to tell everyone, this way we seem manly. Guy week was the week where we split off from the ladies (it was a struggle for some men) and stayed in beautiful Canmore, Alberta.

Being men we had the option of climb the nearby mountain, with an elevation change of 700 metres, or to play Frisbee golf. But this was not the end of our impressive manly skills. On one night we went out in small groups to eat food, and by eat food we mean devour large portions of food. One of our groups had the most delicious poutine from La Belle Patate (go there if you ever are in Canmore, you can get a poutine with BACON!) while the other group grilled up steak back at the hotel.

We also had two wise gentlemen come and speak to us about some of those deep manly topics of life. For example, sex, relationships and what it means to be a man of God. We got the opportunity as well to fire questions off the girls, questions that were smoldering in the hearts of men. Luckily the ladies were able to give us some answers that help explain their complexity, and beauty.

Possibly the biggest highlight from the week was Saturday. If you were to have been walking around downtown Canmore, you might have seen women and girls receiving roses with the note attached “Enjoy the joy of passing it on” You might have also seen three men on a street corner with a cardboard sign reading “Want Prayer?” If you were lucky you might have even seen a talented young lad juggling! Deciding to do something different, we were sent out into Canmore in groups of 3 or 4 and had been randomly given an amount of cash with which we could use to bless Canmore. Some of the men bought roses, and when the cashiers heard of their motives they were given more roses with which to do their good deeds. The beautiful part about it was that their roses were passed on from hand to hand. People were legitimately enjoying the joy of “paying it forward.” The group standing on the street corner with their cardboard sign encountered people in unique ways too. Some skirted around them while others approached asking for prayer, or asking where they were from, still others wanted to pray and bless them. 

Guy week ended and we met up with the girls again, feeling again a tad at home in our community. 

Thanksgiving

Packing our bags, cramming our stuff, we are heading home - or at least some of us are, and the rest of us are staying at friends places for this weekend. Thanksgiving is the reason we're leaving our site crew and community for a couple of days. After an intense week on the urban plunge and talking with Nathan Rieger, it will be nice to relax for a while.
When we get back together as a site on Tuesday, we're traveling west for 16 very exciting hours. There the guys and girls will be separating for guy/girl week.
We're splitting off now, and even just on these few short days apart our community is fearing missing each other. We have certainly grown together into a well-knit community; living and loving together 24/7.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

- Raymond

2-way Traffic

A lot of our group went into the Winnipeg Urban Plunge thinking about what we could teach to all the people of Winnipeg's inner city, not realizing how much they would teach us. I remember seeing a sign on our way into Winnipeg that read: “Remember: 2-way traffic.” How fitting for the next 3 days.

It started with the scavenger hunt around the North End of Winnipeg. Split into groups of three, we were given our clues with destinations of ministries to stop at, where someone would be waiting to talk to us about another aspect of inner city life. We were dropped off at our different ministry starting points, and we started walking.

It's not enough to just hear about things that are going on in the North End, you have to actually see it. And boy, did we ever! Experiencing everything from people asking us for change, to the business people who won't look anyone in the eye; from prostitutes who don't really look the part, to gangs boldly showing of their names on buildings.

But after that heavy first day of seeing people with addictions and supposedly simple-solution problems, we realized our own issues in the form of prejudice against them and misunderstanding. People get trapped in the circle of poverty, and often they don't end up on the street because they choose to. We judge them and assume it's their fault and they've done something to get themselves there, yet circumstances make it almost impossible for them to avoid ending up there.

The next two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, consisted of going to different small ministries or organizations, some of which we had visited on Monday. Both days were different for everyone. We were separated into five groups of six people, and some served at places like Siloam Mission, while others did behind-the-scenes work such as painting tables or murals at the Vineyard Church, and so on. And just to experience the cultures there a little more, we went into four groups to different ethnic restaurants. That turned out to be quite an experience for those of us who had never had Ethiopian, Mexican, Vietnamese or Indian Cuisine.

We had a full three days and learned a lot about the realities of poverty, homelessness, and the North End of Winnipeg. To quote Jesus' words: “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.” (Matthew 5:3)

By Kaycie Kehler

Oh Deer!

If you've never heard of Pinawa, Manitoba, I wouldn't be surprised. The town is pretty silent and few people are even on the beach or at school, but the streets and parks and front lawns of Pinawa are certainly not dead. They run rampant with wild, though very approachable, deer. They are literally everywhere, alone or in small groups, staring at you as you tip-toe past them. Never in my life have I seen so many deer!

But staying a week at the Wilderness Edge Retreat Centre in Pinawa wasn't all about the deer (though they did provide a lot fodder for jokes and photos). We were well-fed (roast pig and cheesecake – jealous?!) by the kitchen staff, well-soaked in the hot tub, well steamed in the sauna, well-sunned by the phenomenal weather and great places to be outside, and well-connected to God through a transformational morning of silence. Body surfing and tubing at the rapids at a nearby dam were a definite highlight, as were numerous games of near-professional or entirely disgraceful volleyball.

During the week, we had two guest speakers lead us in a number of sessions on topics that forced us to know God, know ourselves, and know the world. On Tuesday, Gavin Hall, youth pastor from Assiniboine Community Church in Winnipeg introduced us to the topic of theology in his 6 two hour-sessions on “Thinking Theologically, Living Faithfully.” Through structured debates, cool videos, and interesting lectures, we were exposed to both sides of sticky issues. We addressed these questions from the perspective of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral: by considering Scripture, Reason, Experience and Tradition. Gavin also described the three central Christian images of kingdom, community and creation and related these images to other Scripture passages, to our everyday lives, and to issues of concern in Guatemala. He was not only extremely informative and very engaging but he gave us a lot more questions to chew on throughout the week.

On Thursday and Friday we also had the privilege of Gail and Alex Zahradnitzky give us a thorough understanding of Guatemalan geography, history, and culture while exploring the opportunities and privileges presented by each. In their 15 trips to Guatemala with the Rotary Club of Winnipeg, they have not only learned many of the tips and tricks of travelling through Guatemala, but have also developed a love for the people and landscape which they were eager and ready to share with us.

Both speakers gave us valuable information to absorb and ponder over the course of this semester and next. Turns out there was more to our stay in Pinawa than a ridiculous number of deer!

By: Ally Siebert