Week Six... Get hit with Sticks.

The title is a bit of a lie, it wasn't really sicks that we got hit with... more of large, board shaped, planks. On monday we left for our Tofino surf trip. Oh boy, was I ever excited. I had never been surfing before and we were getting a free lesson from a pro instructor. His name is Joel, he works at the camp but he used to live in Australia and teach people how to surf. So fun. On the ride there we made a few stops along the way. First of all, of course we had to make a stop at Coombs on our way out. Coombs is just so fun, and dare I say... neat. So we wandered around there for about a half hour. Ellie and I just ran around taking fun pictures with the random statues and such there. Our second stop was at a place called Cathedral Grove. I would really love to visit there again, maybe bring Jilly next time. It is a truly beautiful place. You walk into the entrance and at first it just looks like some forrest. It is so much more then that. It is a forrest filled with ancient trees and bridges and what not. There is also a tree in the back of the forrest that is approximately two hundred fifty feet tall and twenty nine meters around. That is a big tree. After we left Cathedral Grove we stopped at a wonderful little lunch spot. It was right on the river so we could sit and eat our previously packed sandwiches and watch the rapids tumble and smash against the canyon of rocks. I love water and waterfalls, so this was quite the place to visit. Justin and I found a nicely sized tree stump up near the road a ways and decided that it would be fun to watch it float down the river. So that's exactly what we did. We got some people together and threw it off the cliff into the water. It was awesome. I don't remember making any stops after that. I'm pretty sure we just kept right on going all the way to Ucluelet . We were staying in a nice little church there, right across the road from the highschool. The girls were sleeping on the floor of the kids room and the guys were sleeping on the floor of the basement. Oh, and I forgot to mention that we had some tag-a-longs on this trip as well. Jordan Wilcox, Rob Bancroft, and Kevin McAlary from Kaleo five, and Brady Van Leenen from Kaleo three decided to come and hang out with us for their reading break,. What better timing then the week we go surfing. So along they came, and the four of them slept in the nursery. Our first day in Ucluelet we did what Jim calls "wave watching". It means exactly that. We went out and watched the waves. For the first day we had the option of either exploring the town a bit or going with Jim to a place called "the blow hole". I chose the blow hole. We drove to the side of the highway somewhere then hiked into the bush till we found the ocean. We got to hang out on the beach for a bit before hiking further into the bushes till we came out on the other side at a big rock. At first I was thinking that jim just brought us to a big rock and we were going to watch the waves hit the side of it. This wasn't the case at all. With in seconds of that thought entering my mind a giant wave came up through a hole in the rocks then shot straight up into the air. It soaked all the rocks around it. I was officially excited. We hung out there for quite some time, and I loved every second of it. Trent, Jade, and Ben went and stood right near the edge of the rocks where they could get splashed by the waves. They got soaked. Trent gave me his camera, since mine is in either Kelowna or Prince George somewhere, and I got to take hundreds of pictures of them playing in the waves. It was wonderful. When we got back it was dinner time. After dinner a group called Jezreel came and hung out with us while we did chapel and worship. They were really cool people with some great stories. The next day I chose to get up at seven so that I could play piano for a bit before a small group of us left to go watch the Cold Water Classic. The Cold Water Classic is a professional surf competition put on by O'neil surf company. It was really cold on the beach that morning, but it was cool to see what surfing could look like. After brunch we finally got to head out and catch some waves. I was loving my first day of surfing. I caught a couple waves, then I caught a couple kneeling. I almost caught a wave standing, but as I went to stand up I got hit with someone else's board. Luckily I was still on my board and could lay down and ride the wave in. I remember holding my head and great pain as I rode into shore. As I was riding in I passed by James. He must have saw the horrified expression on my face because he started to paddle in after me. When he got there he took my board and carried it in for me and I just kept holding my head and crying. I noticed that he kept saying "it's going to be ok", "you are going to be ok". I didn't know why he would say that, all that I had was a bruise or perhaps a goose egg. But then I took my hand off my head and looked at it. It was covered in blood. I didn't know what was wrong or what was going on. All I knew was that some part of my head was bleeding and this could be very serious. We somehow found Jim on the beach and when I saw him I started waving my other arm and screaming out to him that my head was bleeding. James kept telling me to keep the pressure on it and that it would be ok. Jim passed me off to Claire and Claire brought me up to the vans. Claire, Boyda and I all crowded into the bathroom up in the parking lot because somehow it had running water and a flush toilet. Clarie washed the blood off my face and ear and found out that I had just cut my ear really badly and my head was for the most part alright. That was the end of my surfing experience though. That night we hung out with Jezreel again and I went to bed early. I had the biggest head ache I could ever imagine. I really wanted to surf again the next day though. When I woke up the next morning I was in an unimaginable amount of pain. I knew this meant no surfing for me that day. So I went back to sleep for a few more hours. When I finally woke up I moved me and my sleeping bag out into the main room. It hurt to much to move or lift my head much so I just laid on the floor in my sleeping bag and propped myself against the wall so I could still see people. I noticed though that Justin was also there. He was in the nursery and not looking so good. Apparently when we were in Cathedral Grove he was doing a back flip off of a tree and his foot slipped so he ended up back flipping his head into the tree. So he was in a great amount of pain too. He puked a bit then went and tried to read in his bed. The two of us didn't do much. This was going to be a long day. I didn't move from that room, just changed laying positions a few times. Then we finally were heading home. I set up my sleeping bag and pillow in the front seat of Jim's van and rested most of the way home. The day after we got home, Justin, Jeremy and I headed for the clinic. Jeremy, being the hooligan boy he is, potentially broke his wrist skate boarding a few weeks ago but didn't want to get a cast till after surfing so he could still surf. So he was finally going to a doctor. The doctor said that Justin and I had severe concussions and that Jeremy was probably fine but they did an x-ray anyways. This meant rest and relaxation for Bria all weekend. I went to youth group and didn't really do much. I mainly just helped make sure kids were behaving and handled their questions. It was a big group night, so all the kids were doing the same thing. So I was doing exactly what they needed me to do, which was good. The next day was halloween. I got to go into Crofton and watch the Olympic Torch run through town and I got to go to our church halloween bash. It was a pretty good day, but my head was still really bugging me. The next morning when I woke up I quickly realized that the events of the night before where not such a good idea. My head HURT. I came to the decision that church was not going to be an option today. So I informed Haley and asked her to tell Justin that I couldn't come. Then i found out that several other people were not attending church either. I felt quite bad, but there was no way I would be able to pull it off. So I slept most of the day. I didn't leave my bed till five o'clock that night. It was a long day, but very good for me. I got to spend alot of time just hanging out with God. This week should be good. It's reading break till Thursday. So I can see some fun times around the corner. I'll let you know how it goes. Much Love.

Week Five... I feel so Alive

So this week we were in Hemeneutics with Merrill Dyck. That was an adventure and a half. The week started out ok. I was still wondering what "hermeneutics" meant and what the heck I was supposed to learn from this class. I had alot of homework due before the class started, and I got it in just in time. Monday we had our first session. After about an hour and a half of class Merrill gave us our first ten minute brake. Instead of actually taking a break I ran directly to Jim's office to tell him how much I hated this class and Merrill's teaching style and that I couldn't keep up with anything that was going on. I basically saw no point in me being in the class. The first night Merrill had us write a one page paper saying everything I new about Paul and the Philippians from the book of Philippians. Lets just say, I climbed into my bed at 4:30am. It was a long night. The next night our task was to write about what the book of John says about the world. I climbed into my bed at 2:30am, so a little better but still not so fun. Day three was the challenge of dissecting Numbers 25 1-15. We had to figure out what two groups were being compared and then answer a few questions on them. On thursday we went to the guest house for chapel and cinnimon buns. We got to hear Justin's testimony. I don't remember if I told you guys but we've been doing chapels once or twice a week and each time someone shares their testimony. Jim is hoping to have us all done by Christmas. It was nice to hang out in a different environment for an afternoon. Friday was our last day of class. We had all been reading a specific book of the bible. We were assigned either John, James, Philippians, or 1 Peter at the end of Spiritual formation and we all had to read our book once a day for seven days. So for our last day we had to teach the class the book that we had been reading. Our group decided to make a movie. We themed it kind of like the "Numa" videos by Rob Bell. There were nine people in my group, so we split off into smaller groups to each write a mini sermon on one topic of the book. It was a long night, but we got it all done and I was very happy with the final product. We got to see everyone's projects that morning and then we had the afternoon off to work on homework and hang out. It was wonderful to be done that dreadful class. The afternoon was spent mainly off on my own. I asked Boyda if I could borrow his bike for a bit and he kindly allowed me to. So I rode off into Crofton for an hour and a bit. I don't know if I told you that every sunday after church we go to someone from the congregation's house for lunch, but well... we do. Last sunday we went to a lovely couple in Crofton's house. Their son and his family also joined us. We had turkey sandwiches and pie and just hung out for a bit. It was pretty fun. So as I was riding back home from my adventures around Crofton I decided to stop and say hello. They were very excited that I knocked on their door. I got to hang out with the family and play chinese checkers with the kids for a while. Then I hopped back on my bike and finished the journey home just in time for my meeting about counselling. After the meeting I went on another adventure. I borrowed Ellie's camera (since mine is in kelowna) and started to take pictures of what camp looks like so that I could show everyone back home. This turned into an adventure of me trecking through the forrest randomly. I bush wacked for quite some time until I finally found a nice little stream. I followed that stream for a while till I found the ocean. After climbing down a cliff to the shoreline I turned around to see that what was a nice little stream had gotten much bigger and turned into a waterfall. I tried to get closer to the waterfall to take pictures and ended up soaking wet. After getting back up and wringing myself out I started to head back towards camp. This was much easier said then done though. I could see camp's dock, but there was no way for me to get there. I ended up climbing another cliff and bush wacking for quite some time till I found an almost non-existent path, which led to a medium sized path, and then to a much larger path that led to the girls cabin line. Finally I knew where I was. I got back just in time to move my stuff into my new temporary room that my cabin of girls would be in. I was counselling with my roomie Nicole for the weekend. This was looking like it was going to be good. We were introduced to our six nutty little girls. They were a hand full. We were late for absolutely everything and didn't get alot of stuff done at all. But we had a blast, so that's really all that matters in the end. They left this afternoon and it was bed time for Bria. Tomorrow we head off to Tofino to surf for a few days. I'm pretty excited, but quite worried that it will be really cold. I'm hoping that this trip will be better then the others, but we will see.

Week Four... We're so Hardcore.

We have been here for an official month. Just starting to settle in. But of course, something just has to flip our world. No week of Kaleo can ever be "Boring". If you haven't already heard, the Kaleo girls got hit with a terrible case of bed bugs. This, was a truly terrible experience. It started with just one of the girls rooms finding bites. Soon after it was discovered in that room, two other rooms were finding bite marks. The maintenance crew then decided that all the rooms must have them. So the process of elimination had begun. They informed us that every girl on our floor needed to dry, freeze, and/or inspect every item that they owned. Now, please just take a second to imagine how much stuff I have. This was not my idea of fun. So one afternoon was spent at the laundromat in Duncan. Only 7 of us went the first trip, but we washed and dried alot of clothes. By the end of all my packing and moving, I had eleven bags of stuff. Now, I'm not just talking like shopping bags from the grocery store. These were the biggest sized garbage bags you can buy. I had alot of work ahead of me. But lets go back a bit. After we had sorted through all the clothes we owned and washed a good number of them, we realized that some of us had clothes that could not be put in a dryer on high heat for an hour. This simply would not do. So we complained, and asked questions, and pouted. Then they told us that they were bringing in three deep freezes. We were to put all the non-dryer clothes into bags and put them into the freezer. Unlike the dryers, which only took one hour, the freezer bags have to stay in there for two and a half weeks. That a long time! So basically, I have no pants for the next two and a half weeks. I am wearing all shorts! Oh joy.

Now we are just going to back track a bit. I think the last place that I left you was after my terrible adventure home for Nick's wedding. Well, you will be happy to know that I made it back safely. The only complication on the way back was that after flying from Kelowna to Vancouver I had to switch planes because the one that I was on was having mechanical problems. That would be my luck with planes. But, I made it back safely. I at least seem to be alive, and all is well, so I guess I can't complain there. I got back on Thanksgiving day (Monday) and was pleasantly surprised to hear that we were having a big thanksgiving dinner here at camp. The girls decided to dress up fancy for this occasion. So we put on our prettiest dresses, created our prettiest hair-do, and found our prettiest shoes. Basically, we wanted to look our prettiest after weeks of limited showering. The boys apparently had the same idea. They came in their dress shirts, and nice pants. Alot of them even showered and combed their hair. It was lovely. But of course, we couldn't look pretty forever. The next morning we set out bright and early to go on an adventure of caving, shopping, and swimming. Our group started in the caves. They were really cool and even kind of fun. Until we got near the exit of the cave. That's when Boyda (Nate) pointed out a spider to me. Then he pointed out the hundreds more that were in the little room. I freaked out, of course. After they laughed at me and sang "spiders come, Bria want to go home" I finally got myself out of the dingy darkness. I felt much better when I was outside in the safety again. Then it was off to Coombs for some local shopping. For those of you who don't know of Coombs, it's a small market-like area. They are well known because the main building is kind of like a grocery store and has goats on the roof of it. I bought a whirly-pop the size of my head at the candy shop there, but that's all the treasure I could dig up. When we got back we were all cracking down on our homework. Most people became hermits for the next few days in order to get our huge work-load taken care of. I, myself spent my entire Saturday in my bed just motoring through assignments. I got a huge dent of it done that day. It was a good thing for me to do. Friday night was our first DTG (Ditch the Guys/Girls) Night. Aka. The girls went on an adventure just as girls, and the boys did the same. The girls started the night by heading off to the local retirement home. We just hung out and talked with the ladies there. Then sang songs with them while Kristie played the piano. It was so fun, and good to see that in their veggie states they were still so full of life. After that we headed to a cute little coffee shop in downtown Chermainus. We got to get any drink we wanted and just chill and chat as girls. We ended the night at Kristie's apartment with a delicious Chicken and Shrimp dinner and lots of funny games. We had to sleep in our own beds at camp though out of fear of bed bug spreadation. They woke us up really early and brought us out to the climbing tower. We didn't quite know why, but as we climbed to the top we saw the beautiful breakfast that Kristie and Marissa had set out for us. It was wonderful. I think for a whole night we forgot that we were being attacked by bed bugs and just enjoyed life. As all of this craziness was going on we were having visitors. Boyda's sister Olivia came to visit us for his birthday on Saturday. So we got to enjoy her presences for the weekend. It was wonderful. Also, a girl by the name of Tanya came to live with us for about a week. She was going to take the Hemeneutics course with us, but something came up so she had to go back to Columbia earlier. We were sad to see her go, but God has plans. We are now fully into our Hermeneutics course, and I'm trying to grasp all that I can. Oh how the days pass, here at Kaleo. Miss you all.

Week Three... Sailing on the Sea

So this week was spent trapped on a one hundred and some odd foot ship. Um, yep. Some call that a "fun time" others call it "a week from hell." I was leaving more towards the second option. As per usual something had to go wrong. The week started out not so bad, just a few personal issues getting me down. But as I got more comfortable on the ship it got better. Then, I was on a night watch with my darling, Kaity when it took a turn for the worst. I was sitting on the deck of the ship in my sleeping bag just feeling the waves hit the side of the boat. I started to feel quite sea sick to the point were I had to just lay down. I eventually started to dry-heave over the side of the boat. So I went down to my room and got some gravel and woke up the boys for their watch. I came back up, and apparently fell asleep in my sleeping bag on the deck. I was woken up a few hours later and told to go back to my bed. I don't remember any of this. But yeah, the majority of the remainder of the trip was spent in my bed. I was only awake when i was eating or on watch. It was not very much fun. We did, however, play alot of games and go on some mini adventures. Every night we would play some rediculous game that Sam came up with then sing songs in the hold before eating a snack. During the day we set sail. It was fun to see some of the things that we could do with the ship. Two of the days we got into three smaller, much sketchier boats and rowed our selves to one of the many small islands near where we were sailing. This was fun... once we were out of the water. On the islands we got to run around and explore. We played with the many starfish we found and took some fun pictures. The S.A.L.T.S. crew had a few small games for us to play on the islands as well before rowing ourselves back to the big boat. Two of the nights we played a game called "TNT" aka. Tuck and Tidy. This was their way of making us clean our rooms. The boys won in the end. So they go to come up with a punishment for us girls. We were honestly terrified for what they had in store for us. They told us to change into clothes that we didn't mind getting wet or dirty. So we did just that. The majority of the girls were in either their bathing suits or a full body rain suit. The boys brought up two big buckets of slop and brought out the fire hose. We were scared. But then they brought up five white buckets with soap and water. They one by one washed our feet. It was so amazing. All fear left our bodies. This was a great way to end our week on bored the Pacific Grace. After the ship hit the dock and we all climbed out Ben was standing there ready to greet us. It was wonderful. We went to Starbucks before heading to the airport. After saying goodbye to Ben I climbed aboard my first Air Canada Jazz plane of the trip. I was now traveling from Victoria to Vancouver. This was a surprisingly short flight. It took the plane eleven minutes from take off to touch down. I then traveled to the gate of my next flight. I sat in the waiting room for a while before the announcers came on the intercom informing all Air Canada Jazz fliers that their system had crashed and they didn't know if this would be a quick fix or not. It turned out to be a not. I eventually found one of the Ness Lakers sitting in the same waiting room trying to get to Prince George. I was so excited to know someone in this huge airport. So the night dragged on, and we ended up being trapped there for a combined total of thirteen hours. It was brutal. I was exhausted. I ran downstairs in the morning to try and get on the first flight out. They put me on the seven am flight to Kelowna. So twelve hours later then expected I flew home. I eventually made it to Osoyoos for Nick and Michelle's wedding. I never thought I would be sitting in a random church watching my big brother get married. It was a weird feeling. I still don't know quite what I think about it, but that is another story for another day. The reception for the wedding was a blast. We literally danced the night away. I danced to almost every song and tore up that dance floor. The reception ended at midnight. That's when the younger crowd all headed up to the groomsmen's room. We just kept right on partying till we finally crashed. I slept like a baby that night. Then the next morning we made the trip back to Kelowna for a huge thanksgiving family dinner. It was amazing. Oh how I missed my cousins. I just love them. This morning I made the brutal trip back to Victoria, but of course not before doing some shopping with mom. Oh yay. I am finally home now. This week should be alot of homework and random adventures. Miss you all. Keep in touch.

Week Two... Lots is New.

So we have now been here for just over two weeks. You will all be glad to know that the aches and pains from climbing Mount Albert Edward are finally gone. Let's never do that again.

This week we had a Spiritual Formations class with Marv Penner. It was really fun... but well, you all know how good I am at sitting and listening for any period of time. Marv told us on the first day that "the mind and soul can only absorb what the butt can endure." I was happy to hear that this was his strategy for teaching. He gave us lot of insight and many different strategies to forming your spiritual life. At the beginning of the class Marv had us go out into the wilderness and create a sort of "sanctuary" for ourselves. He would often send us off to our sanctuaries to pray or journal or read a passage of scripture. It was really cool to see how God worked in everyone's lives through these 20 or so minutes of alone time. Marv also had us split off into three groups of about 9 students each and create a chapel for the rest of the class. This was really fun, but also very challenging. Our group did the topic of "Joy". We ran it kind of like a camp fire at a kids camp. We sang silly songs and Kaitlyn read from the book of Acts while the boys acted out the scene. Two of the girls wrote a rap that we all sang and we ended with a group prayer. It was so sweet. For the last day of our class all we did was spend two and a half hours in solitude. We were free to do whatever we wanted during this time, but it was to be just some chill time with God. I found myself very worried about what the heck I was going to do by myself, alone, somewhere in camp for two and a half hours. Oh boy. But God had a plan. I sat down and just prayed for a minute basically telling God that I had no plan and it was all up to him. I turned on my worship play list on my computer and just sat and listed for a minute. Then started journaling. I just wrote and wrote and wrote for what seemed like forever. I finally looked up at the time after an hour and a half and seventeen pages of double-sided talking to God about everything that I have never found myself able to talk to anyone really about. When I finally ran out of stuff to write about I read my bible for a bit and ended my time with singing. I love singing... as most of you know. My heart just felt so light and free. It was crazy, and something that I have never really felt before. After we were done our time of solitude we all met down at the dock for sharing and communion. I shared about how I had journaled alot and how free I felt now. It was a really cool experience to hear how everyone's time went and what they did. Justin came up to me after and just told me how good it was to hear about my heart and to see how it was effecting me. It was really good to hear that from him. I was very encouraged by it.

This week we also went to our first regular youth group. I am a leader for the junior youth group. And every week we break off into smaller groups called "connect groups". My group is a bunch of high-energy, crazy, grade seven and eight girls. One of them is named Rylee, and she is literally a mini me. I was the "Rylee" of my youth group. I now know why my youth leaders got annoyed with me often on Friday nights. But I think it will be really good. I have alot of good feelings about this.

Tomorrow we leave on our five day sailing trip with S.A.L.T.S. Which stands for Sailing And Life Training Society. I am so very excited about this trip. I've wanted to do it ever since I first heard of the Cedars kids doing it. I am really hoping that I don't get sea sick... but my dad gave me some "words of wisdom" so I might be ok. The day that we get back from S.A.L.T.S. Ben is picking me up from the harbor and driving me to the Victoria airport so I can fly to Kelowna for my brother's wedding on Saturday. That, I am very excited about. I am going to be living large for one night in the city. Then back out here for quiet camp life on Monday afternoon. So between all the traveling and crazy adventures I will be having I also do have alot of homework to get done. Prayer for that would be wonderful. And just stress levels in general.

This past Saturday was also my birthday. It was a really great day. I got to hang out with both my Kaleo family and some friends from good old Prince George. So it was very eventful and crazy. But super fun, and very memorable. -Sorry Tim, love you.

Well, I am sure that I will have more to tell you after I get back from this crazy adventure.

Much Love,

Byman