A Week At Sea.

For the past five days I, along with the rest of the Kaleo group, have been sailing out on the Pacific Ocean. We went with an organization called S.A.L.T.S. based out of Victoria. The best way I can describe the boat is that it's much like a pirate ship. It's a wooden boat big enough for thirty-five plus people with numerous sails and a burly british captain. Part of the experience of being on the trip is being part of the crew. So all of us had to do our part in scrubbing the deck, hoisting sails, staying up on night watch and so forth. The experience of the ship was quite something in itself. However, another significant part of the trip, that I was not expecting, was that the crew members were all Christians. It was exciting to be able to worship and fellowship with them throughout the week. The worship was one of my favorite things about the trip. We would all gather and sing songs out of a book of oddly complialed tunes. We sang traditional hymns and contemporary choruses right along with The Beatles and John Denver. Not to mention the occosional sea barring tune with the skipper in the background on his Irish flute. As a worship leader, it changed and encouraged my perspective. I believe and have believed that worship is not the act of singing hymns and chorus. It's a state of mind and heart. It's how and why we live for God. And if a bunch of people in the middle of "worship" can find honest joy and fellowship in the bottom of a boat singing Let It Be. Then let it be.

The topic of worship has been on my mind a lot latley. The other day one of the Kaleo leaders asked myself and one other student if we would be interested in leading a monday night worship gathering. It's an open-ended opportunity for all of the students to figure out ways to worship God. I think something I'm going to encourage for that time is that we stay away from singing as much as possible. Simply to step away from the falsity that worship is about singing to God. The ideas are already begining to flood in. I'm excited to see where this goes.

Today is a day of recovery. It's a day to sleep. It's a day to finish neglected homeowork. It's a day to be with people. It's a day to shake off the left-over rocking sensation from a week at sea. It's a solid day.

Details, Details...

Greetings. It blows my mind to think that I've only been here on Vancouver Island for just over a week. The people seem like old friends, my room has gone from settled in to an unsettled mess and the adventures are already starting to pile and turn to memories. The experience is more than I expected.

For those of you who may not know where I am or what I'm doing, I'll fill you in. Earlier this month I began a program called Kaleo located on Vancouver Island. Kaleo is a program that is entirely college, entirely ministry and entirely adventure. I realize that sounds kind of cheesey but that's really the simplest way to put it. All twenty-seven of us that have been accepted into Kaleo live together, eat together, travel together, go to class together and so forth. Instead of trying to explain what all that means, I'll just let the blog explain it in time.

This past week we went on a three day hike to the top of Mount Albert-Edward which is the tallest mountain on the island. It was by no means an easy task. However, any struggle was easily over-shadowed by the incredible beauty of that place. I've honestly never seen anything more beautiful than the view from the peak of that mountain. Not only that, but everyone in the group was able to make it to the top. It was incredible to witness and be a part of the relationships that were built along the way.

Another element to Kaleo is our involvment in area churches. The church I'm involved in is North Cowichan Alliance. It's a small congregation of about sixty that meet in a small Christian school. My involvement at this point will be primarily with the worship team and the kid's sunday school. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what to expect but I'm excited just the same.

In addition to the trips and the ministry is, of course, school. And with any school there is homework to be done. Which is what I've been neglecting to do all evening. So this is where I'll leave you. I'm not sure when my next post will be. We're leaving for another trip on Monday so it could be as late as next weekend before I can post again. That's all for now.