Song Saturday - 1234

At the moment, I'm loving me a bit o' Feist. She is absolutely amazing.
So, have a listen to her wonderful, wonderful song, 1234. Enjoy :)

1234 by Feist

Jiggity-jig

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig!

Yes, I am home from my school retreat. It was epicly epic.
I had an absolute blast and I am very sorry that it was my last school camp, although I am not sorry it is my last year at school. We played wild games, had fantastic chapels, had mad DPS (Dance Party Seshes), ate delish food, and swam in a ridiculously freezing lake, among other things.

I've discovered that I don't appreciate my school-mates half as much at school as I do at the retreat. You see, at the retreat, alot of the walls break down, alot of the masks come off. It becomes "us" as opposed to "me and them". For some reason, screaming your heads off, nearly freezing to death, eating waaaaaaaay too much sugar, and galavanting about in the dark seem to be part of the recipe to bringing students together. I love watching people coming together, making friends, working as a team. It is sheerly fantastical.

At retreat, we were placed in teams. There were 6 teams - each a different colour, Orange being the best (and, no, Orange being my team does not make me biased! P.S. We were called "The Creamsicles" ...yeeeeeeeah! :) - and these teams were used as the basis for competition over everything between who can yell the loudest to who can blow the biggest bubblegum bubble. I found the point system quite hilarious though. Arm wrestling competition? 20, 000 points. I dunno, I just thought it was pretty funny. Not 20, but 20 thousand! Anyway...

Well, I'm about to fall asleep (though it couldn't possibly be because us Gr. 12s stayed up 'til 3am playing Wii, eating junk and watching Napoleon Dynamite, could it?) so I'm gonna stop because I'm pretty sure you get the point that I loved it and it was awesome, but I just want to say (or shout) one more thing:

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE IS THE BEST GAME EVERRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!! (Yes, the triple exclamation strikes again!!!) The M.I. we played at the retreat was completely different than Malagash M.I. (which sounds like a certain Hawaiian-shirt-wearing investigator) and in my opinion way more awesomer. The aim was to take a golfball from one end of the field to the other and drop it into your team's bucket without being caught by a spotlight. There were various obstacles (picnic tables, canoes, bins) throughout the field to hide behind. It was ah-mazing. Never have I hit the ground so many times! Run, run - DROP! Run! DROP! Run, run, run - DIIIIIVE! Hide. Run, run - DROP! BOOOOOK IT! Intense, huh? My knees are bruised and my wrist is aching - but it was SO worth it. I got 5 golfballs in! Oh baby, F-I-V-E! I was very proud of myself, aha. Oh man, at one point, I got inside one of the overturned (empty) garbage cans and started walking up the hill with it over my head! The spotlighters said it was very funny, but I was still out. Sad, but true. I've decided my next birthday party is gonna be a game of Mission Impossible because it is the bomb-diggity-bomb.

Anyway... you can probably tell I'm tired because I'm rambling and using phrases like "oh baby/man" and "the bomb-diggity-bomb" so I will let you and myself go now.

Go watch Napoleon Dynamite, GOSH!
Jx

See ya Saturday!

No Tuesday Think today sorry - in fact, not much of a post at all!
Just wanted to quickly let you know I've got my school retreat (gr. 7-12 camp) from Wednesday-Friday and it's gonna be a blaaaaaaaaast! Will tell you all about it on Saturday, I guess. Woot :)
Also, just wanted to say good luck, bon voyage and I'm praying for you to any of my NCC friends who are reading this and who are going to Fiji in a day or two. Love you, have fun!
Smileo! Jx

Sunday Supper

Last night I went to a local event called the Sunday Supper. This is a dinner held every Sunday night at a church in my city for the homeless and disadvantaged. It's not a "soup kitchen", it's a proper sit-down meal where the visitors are waited on by the volunteers. The Sunday Supper started as a Christmas party - 27 years ago, I think, and has been going on every Sunday since then: "the longest Christmas party in the world", as it was described to me by my lovely friend Alli (I mentioned her in my post on Saturday about the song Times) who I went with, and who has been working there for many years. I had been to the Sunday Supper once quite a while ago (with my youth group) and had really enjoyed it and had wanted to go back, so I was excited to go back yesterday. There were a good number of volunteers there - I'd say 30 plus, many of whom I knew from camp this summer and was thrilled to see again - and that was great because there were probably a couple hundred guests at the supper! My main role throughout the evening was serving juice, as well as cutting up pies and fruit for the dessert at the beginning. We all worked together to serve the meal - which was beef stew and pizza last night - and clean up at the end. It was wonderful to get to chat with the guests - and even just to share a smile and a "Hi! How are you?" with them. These are lovely people who have tough lots in life - due to a miriad of different circumstances - and it is up to us to make life as easy for them as we can. The Sunday Supper is just one practical way that the "lucky" people in my community are blessing those who aren't so fortunate. I was very encouraged by the time I spent there last night and I am looking forward to attending more regularly - hopefully I'll be back next week!
Blessings to you all x
P.S. I am watching House right now and it is wonderful. I'm hooked!

Lessons and Missions

Well, I said yesterday in my ridiculously long post about camp, that I would share some of the lessons I learnt working at camp and tell you about my upcoming Uganda trip, and since I don't have much else to do right now (oh, how I love weekends!), I thought I'd do just that.

Firstly, lessons from camp. Some of these sound tres cliche, I know, but they are true. And the truth is not overrated (Big Fat Liar reference, ahaha!) so here they are:

(P.S. There's a fair few, so bear with me...)

Lessons from Scotian Glen:

• God will always be there to help - it's just up to us to ask for His help.
• Nothing is ever too hard with God's help.
• We need challenges and difficulties in order to grow and learn.
• If it was always easy, we would never get to learn how to handle hard times and gain useful life experience.
• Life would be really boring if it were always easy!
• The logical solution to a problem is not always the best one.
  
• Influence is a powerful, and potentially very dangerous, thing.
• I have a much greater influence than I realise.
• It's the little things that really count.
• Know when to stop - there is a time to just give up.
• Pick your battles, only do what matters.
• Watch your words - what you mean and what you say can be completely different. Be careful! (see The Tuesday Think - Words)
• Never make assumptions or cast judgements.
• First impressions are (almost) always wrong.
• Make every effort to go "the extra mile" - it's the extra care you take that makes the difference.
• When you think you're at the end of your rope and can't do anything more, you're wrong. You can press on and do some of your best work when you decide to persevere.
• Don't take anything too seriously. It's better to laugh it off than to let it get you down.
• Just have fun! If you can't enjoy what you're doing at all, then it's probably not worth doing.
• Look on the bright side!
• Always put other first. (When you live for others it all makes sense.)
  
• Patience! Patience is the key. Even though it's brutally hard at times, it's always worth it.
• Love. Love. Love. Love. Love. Love. Love. Love. Love. Love. Love is all that ultimately matters.
  

So, there you go. Those are just some of the things that being at camp for 6 weeks (plus Malagash) taught me. Yes, they're all simple things that I already knew, but you can never be reminded of basic truths and principles like these too often.

Now, UGANDA! I depart in a mere 18 days! Ahhhhhhhhhh! :)
I am going to Uganda on a missions trip with a group of 10 people from my church. We're going to the Watoto Children's Village, which is a home for children who have been orphaned, mainly due to AIDS, as well as to civil war, etc. Watoto is just outside of Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. We'll be there until 12 October and the main goal for our trip is to help build a classroom for the Watoto school, which we're building thanks to the $23,000 we raised. (Yes, we raised a whackload of money. It costs $17,000 to build the classroom, so who knows what the rest will do... God is amazing!)
We'll also be interacting with the children of Watoto and their "housemothers". You see, Watoto is an orphanage, but not in the traditional sense. At Watoto, kids are placed in homes, in "families" with 7 other brothers and sisters, all orphans, like themselves, and under the care of a "mother". The kids are provided with all that they need, including an education at the school of Watoto. Watoto has given hope, joy, love and life to thousands of kids since it began in 1994. It's going strong as ever: there are several villages, a new "Baby Watoto" and more villages are being created in Northern Uganda, where they will be rescuing child soldiers.
You may have heard of, or even seen, the Watoto Children's Choir. This is a group of Watoto kids who tour the world singing about Jesus, and telling the good news of how He saved them. I have seen them perform twice now, and they are amazing. I am so priviledged to get to go to their homeland and help expand the Village.
Hey, if you want to know any more about Watoto, or see some pictures or anything, here is the website: http://www.watoto.com/

So, now you know what I'll be doing for the first two weeks of October (and also what I'm doing with the money I earned working at camp all summer!) It's gonna be epic. I'd just ask that you keep this mission trip in your prayers. That'd be awesome, ta!

Well, good night everyone!
Jord :)

Lisa

As I've said before, I love writing poems.
Here's a lighthearted, children's poem I wrote recently that I hope you will enjoy.

Lisa

Lisa is my bestest friend
She comes over every day
We laugh, we cry, we scream and shout
We play and play and play

Lisa is my bestest friend
She always shares she toys
She's kind, polite, and oh-so-good
Except when teasing boys

Lisa is my bestest friend
She can't wait 'til next week
'Cuz it's my birthday party then
But into the room she'll sneak

Lisa is my bestest friend
But no-one else has met her
You see she is invisible
But that makes her even better!

Song Saturday - Times

I only ever did one "Song Saturday", but if you remember that, you'll know it's just where I share a song that I'm loving at the moment - and where you can share a song you're currently enjoying! Musical magic :)

So, today's song is a beautiful, beautiful song called Times. It is by a modern Christian band called Tenth Avenue North. I'm really loving these guys lately - they do great contemporary worship, so if you like Times, I'm sure you'd enjoy listening to their other stuff too.

Times is a song which starts off with the prayer of a person to God: "...I long to feel you, I feel this need for you..." It's simply the cry of their heart, it's raw and sweet.
The next section of the song is God's response to them, His child: "...My love is over, it's underneath, it's inside, it's in between..." It's a reassurance that He's there for us through everything, every "time" in our lives - when we're happy, hurting, whatever. He's always there, and He always love us passionately and deeply, and He will never change.

It's gorgeous, I love it. I first heard it at Malagash this summer, actually. It was performed by two of the most amazing, beautiful people I know - Allison and Matt. Alli sang the prayer, and Matt represented God and sang the answer. It was amazing, I had goosebumps.

So, here it is: Times by Tenth Avenue North

I hope you enjoy Times as much as I have been.
Now, go ahead, return the favour - share a song you love with me!