Week Seven

Hello all! I hear southern Ontario is an arctic tundra! In case you were worried about our weather here it has been so warm! This week we have been riding in hoodies and even tee shirts! We had a great shirtless snowball fight outside in the sun yesterday too! It's been quite springish the past week, so we haven't gotten any fresh snow in the last two weeks. This means tons of park riding and goofing around which is way too much fun for us. As students we have each taken our turns being sick over the past week so I missed riding on Tuesday to rest and get better. Yesterday when the whole group was outside I had one of those "am I really in the alps?" moments. Tanner and I looked at each other and said "Wow we are playing worship music, waxing our boards, and chilling in the sun in the middle of the mountains." Sometimes  for a moment I forget where I am and how blessed I am to be here!

Our speaker this week was a hilarious guy named Jeff Waalks. He is an American currently living in Kyrgyzstan with his family building relationships with the people there and telling them about his relationship with Jesus. He and the local believers make frequent trips into Afghanistan to reach a group of Kyrgyz people that have very little contact with any people other than their own community. They are nomads who live in the mountains. 

He had some amazing stories and really challenged our thinking. He was talking about radicle obedience. He really challenged me with this thought: Does my relationship with Jesus match the radicle life I live playing sports or snowboarding? He showed us a video of a skater going off a massive jump and completely overshooting the landing. There's lots of people watching and most likely are loving watching this guy crash. I would guess they enjoyed watching him crash because I also loved to watch him crash! So we see this guy on his skateboard just go for it. He sends this massive jump and lands completely flat on the pavement. He didn't hold back or have any second guessing. Buddy on the skateboard thought this was going to be amazing, but he crashed. Even though he crashed people still noticed! Jeff asked us, what do you think the people watching are going to say about this guy? If I was there I would totally go tell all my friends about this unreal skater who crashed so bad and got hurt, but he tried this really crazy jump! 

Jeff challenged us, do we do this with our relationship with God? Do we step out and try crazy things knowing God has our back? What will the people watching think when they see me do something out of the ordinary? Even if I land or crash, and trust me, you will always crash at least once, we are humans and no one is perfect. 

I wrote in my notes: Am I living in a way that will get people psyched to live life different from the norm and live it to the fullest? I have been asking myself this a lot this week and I think I am more willing to do that with my snowboarding than with my every day life. 

I would challenge you to join me in thinking about this. Are you living out your relationship with God in a way that the things you do will catch people's attention? 

This was only one of the things we talked about and one of the things that changed my thinking! 

We are continuing to get excited for outreach and are still nailing down details for where we will be staying. We could continue to use your prayers for favour and for money for some from each team that still need it! God is doing some major strengthening of our faith as we prepare and begin to get excited! 

Miss you guys! 

Nick