Far Side of the World

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Hello everyone!

Bulgaria has been fantastic! I have completely fallen in love with the people here! Especially the Gypsies and their culture! On Monday we left Burges and took a two hour bus in land to Sliven. Sliven is an old city built on a mountain side overlooking the plains. Yesterday we went to a gypsy village on the outskirts of town. The church served us a wonderful lunch (sausage and salad) and then we went into the village to pray for the gypsies and play with the kids!!! That was my favorite part! I miss kids so much! It was a real blessing to be able to play with them and teach them games and give them the attention that they have been craving and show them God's love! I was completely swarmed by children!! I always had at least one child holding each of my hands and then 20 children trying to hold on too. They loved having their photos taken and would all yell, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" When I showed them the photo. Afterwards we had a street service with gypsy worship (absolutely incredible!), two skits, testimonies and a preach. We closed with praying for people who wanted prayer! God is soooo good!

I love the gypsies so much! They are a very emotional, passionate people!

Hello everyone!
Just an extreamly quick update for you all. I am in Bulgaria right now doing a month long land based mission. So far its been about a week and a half. Weve been to three places so far: a Gypsy village for three days, then we split into two groups and went to two villages in the country for four days and we are now staying in the city of Burges and helping out a church with a youth confrance that they are having. God has been moving in huge ways here and the harvest is ready! Praise God! Tomorrow we are going to Sleven and then we travel up to Varna.

I just got the news today that I am going home for a month! Yay! Its going to be a long, hard trip though. At least one night spend sleeping on the airport floor. But by now I am so used to sleeping on cement floors....it will seem luxurious!

Stay blessed all of you! And hopefully soon I will be able to share with you some of my stories and photos face to face!

Corinth Canal and Thesseloniki:

This may be one of my most epic doings yet. While we went through the Corinth Canal I climbed the mainm’st crow’s nest and stood up so that I could grab some good shots with my camera. At some points there were mere meters on either side of our ship and then sheer cliffs on either side. And thus we sailed into the Agean Sea.

It was a decent sail to Thesseloniki. Not too rough and beautifuly picturesque. Randi, Erik and I were on the same watch together. We are the crew that are going to stay with the DTS out reach team going to Bulgaria. It was neat because we were able to pray together for the coming out reach while we sailed. Good times.

We arrived in Thesseloniki in good time. We went here to pick up the out reach team. I didn’t see much of what the city is like because it is very massive. I was able to meet up with my 2nd cousins that live in Thesseloniki, which was really neat! I didn’t even know that I had relatives that lived in Greece.

The Dardenels and Istanbul, Turkey:

Out reach team on board, we set sail for Turkey. I was on the same watch, 5-8 (am and pm) which was fantastic because we had the best sunrise Easter service of my life!!! We read the Easter story and some of the prophesies about Jesus’ death and resurrection and then sang some worship songs. We watched the sky turn from black to blue to a glorious light blue while the big, red sun rose over the horizon. Jesus is alive!!

Turkey was incredible! The skyline is peppered with minnert towers high above the city. On our day off I went on an adventure with a couple guys from the boat and the out reach leaders and headed off to the European side of Turkey (we were birthed at the Asian side). We wondered the city and went into the Blue Moque. It was quite the experience. I saw ladies walking around in black, tent-like clothing, and men selling carpets on the street. The mosque was neat, Turkey has a beautiful culture and arts! And there is something cool about bringing the light of Jesus into the Mosque with us.

Sailing to Bulgaria:

The amount of things that went wrong on this sail could be a book! It was extreamly difficult to leave Turkey, and when we finally were aloud out and got fuel we were hit by some particularly rough weather. Only a force 7-8, but with huge swells! In the morning we raised the Jib and the Mainsail, which helped to even out the ship from rocking so bad. It also gave us a constant list (or lean) of 30 degrees! I went back to sleep at this point and work up standing in my bed even though I was lying down! In the evening we had to take in the sails. But by this point the waves were as high as the roof of the wheel house, which makes taking in sails very difficult. I helped Erik and Lehman take in and furl the Jib while the others did the Main. The bow was a nightmare, surf sweeping over it this way and that, people yelling at each other to be heard, hands were red and raw from the cold and the lines, also the ratlines on the bowsprit had detached themselves from the bow and were sawing in the ocean! It was fantastic! A few times I was scared that someone could be swept overboard, and started to wonder why on earth did I want to live this life? But then I remembered that no matter what, God is in control and gonna get us through—that I can depend on. And then I was able to enjoy the adventure of sailing once again! I felt like I was living in Master and Commander or White Squall or Perfect Storm. It was Epic!

We are now in Bulgaria. Yay! Thank you Jesus! We got in yesterday, and were supposed to leave (the out reach team that is) in the afternoon. We packed all up, said good by to the crew, were prayed off and then walked over to custums, where we were told that we couldn’t pass. So we are back on the boat and sorting through passports as I write this.

Its neat to think about though, because usually it isn’t so hard to leave or enter ports. But I believe that this is a physical act of what is going on spiritual and someone doesn’t want us to be in Bulgaria. And I know that God wants us here.....so that only leaves.....

So we are leaving today for Bulgaria. We are going to go live with the Roma Gypsies and work with the churches here. I am really excited about going on out reach again, but scared too at the same time. Scared because it means change. But God is telling me now that “growth means stepping from the known to the unknown, and that means change, so change is good.” So I will hold on to that.

I am leaving the ship for one month to live on land. The ship will be in the Ukriane during this time and then in a month they will come back to Bulgaria for another two or so months to do medical work and working with some orphanages and such.

I am so excited for what God is going to be doing, and is already doing!!!

Please pray for this out reach and for me as well! Pray for protection and safety and for is us to listen to God’s voice always, even when it is hard.

Thank you so much for supporting me with your prayers! God bless you!!

Hey all of you! Something came up today and I would love it if you would be involved with us in prayer. Financially the Next Wave has been operating under YWAM's financial aid, but they are no longer able to give to us. I found this out today.

While this could be quite a scary thought. So far from home and with a future so unknown. BUT At the same time, hasn't life always been like this? Don't we always need to rely on God for giving us food to eat and a place to stay? Now I am going to be able to SEE God do this. Physically.

Please join me in prayer that God would continue to watch over us, his children. That he would provide food, ports to stay at, fuel, and everything that it takes to keep this ship afloat. It's so easy to pray that God would bring in money, but God is a creative God and there is so many ways that he looks after us that don't need money.

Please pray that God will provide.

Amen.

Kalamara!  Good morning from Greece!

Our time here in Greece is wrapping up fast.  Sunday we are sailing to Thessolonika.  I am really looking forward to sailing again!  It is nice to travel around again, and yet at the same time I am going to miss Kiato.  i have really grown to like this city.  It is a lovely city and I wish that I could show it too you.  I would introduce you to the Vegetable lady and the butcher.  Take you to church where you would be suddenly enveloped in hugs and love.  Then go for a walk and we would run into the gypsy kids and hang out with them for a little while.  We would smell the freshly baking bread in the air and buy a couple baklavas and spanikapias or kebabs.  Then sit on the wharf and watch the fishermen sell fish off the side of their boats.  

I want to share with you something that happened to me the other day.  I have been thinking and praying a lot into what it means to love God and be loved by God as a lover.  Maybe that sounds strange....but it was his idea in the first place, I read it.  So  I walking home from doing some grocery shopping one afternoon by myself.  I was having quite the conversation with God in my head about this when I noticed a cardboard box on the side of the road.  As I walked by, my curiosity was perked as I saw fur inside.  So I stopped and walked over to the box, bent down and took a look.  And there were four darling puppies inside!  They couldn't have been very old I'm guessing about 6 weeks.  So I swung off my back pack and plunked myself on the cement.  The puppies woke up immediately and came waddling out to play!  They were adorable!  I spend a while playing with them and then they, one by one, crawled onto my lap and fell asleep in a pile.  After a while a lady walked by and said that she was really happy that I had found them and was giving them love--she saw them before and gave them the box.  She then took them home with her to try to find homes for them (oh how I wish we were aloud to keep a dog!!).  So then i continued my walk back to the ship when i realized this: God does love me as a lover.  He loves and cares about me so intemently.  He knows EVERYTHING about me.  Included in that he knows what makes my heart just melt and get all gooey.  Because of this he didn't leave 5 euros on the ground to pick up to show me he loves me....he sent me something so close and special to my heart: puppies!!!  And not just one, but four of them!  I learned something about God that day: He thinks that i am worth sending puppies too!  

One more story before I bring this to a close.  This is another God story.  Another thing that he taught me about who he is and what a relationship with him is supposed to look like.

Yesterday I was walking through some old ruins in the country side and a friend of mine pointed something out to me on the ground.  Two butterflies were standing on the ground.  But the neat thing is is HOW they were standing.  They were standing back to back with their wings folded up.  But the one butterfly had its wings on either side of the other butterfly's wings, sandwiching them.   I then had a thought that this is how a relationship with God should be.  When you are so close to him and unified with him that you are actually INSIDE of Him.  And yet, he is not so big and far above you that you can't relate to him as a friend would to a friend.  You can confide in Him because he is a butterfly too.  

Please remember to keep me in your prayers.  For safety while we sail, and for our two-month mission to Bulgaria.  There are three of us crew staying for that while the ship sails to Ukraine: Myself (of course), Randi, a girl from Vancouver Island! And Erik from (all over) the States.  We are very excited to be going because YWAM doesn't have any bases or contacts in Bulgaria.  We, as a ship ministry, are hoping in the future to leave behind crew in ports to continue God's work.  And this is our first one!  God is moving!  Yay!!  

Blessings and love!

Well, not too much has been going on here of late. A lot of the crew took a sailing course/qualification and I played mom and cooked for them and did their dishes. ...I did learn a lot about cooking mind you. But ya, nothing too exciting. I have been making friends with the gypsy kids here. Giving them food and showing them the ship and playing some games with them. Today I went to the church in Corinth. It was our last Sunday there and so there were a lot of hugs and kisses going around. They really are a sweet group of people--very welcoming. This afternoon I went to watch a girl from church play basket ball. Her team won. Yay!

Next Sunday, a week from now, we sail for Thessaloniki. I have posted a schedule on the bottom right hand bar. Just scroll down a bit.

Please remember me in your prayers. And thank you for already doing so--it is a huge encouragement to me.

God bless!

Another week gone by.  Last weekend Myself and five other of my shipmates went to Athens to help out at a Mercy Center for Drug Rehabilitation and street ministry.  i have never done this type of ministry before and it was quite the eye-opener for me.  The center is downtown Athens in a not "nice" area of town.  We spent three days/four nights at the center.  The first night that we got there we went out with the people who volunteer at the center to a square in the city where a lot of homeless people hang out.  We served hot tea, cresants and gave out tracks and bibles to the people.  Most of them smelled strongly of liquor, drugs and filth.  It was such a hopeless place in the dark with all these people walking around like they were stuck in some bad dream...and to be able to into that and bring the LIGHT of God and hope and truth and freedom was incredible.  We also had a sound system set up so one of the guys could talk to the people about God in Greek and play worship music as well.  I wasn't able to do too much to help the guys out since I am lacking in the language, but I prayed and supported the volunteers.  It was a blessing to me to be able to watch this mission.  God is good!  Myself and Cheyrl (crewmate) roomed with a lady in the drug rehabilitation program at the center.  She spoke some Greek and really opened up to the two of us.  She was going through a hard time, as you can imagine, and we were able to listen, talk and pray for her.  The second day another lady came to the program and became our room mate.  On our last night she gave her life to Christ!  Praise God!  As well as four other people from the street!  This was during an evening service that we held.  Those four days were exhosting, but inspiring for me at the same time.  God is such a light.  This is so much clearer to me now in a more visual way.  

This week has been fairly slow since most of the crew are taking a certification course next week so they were studying.  I am not taking it, so its been a bit lonely for me.  I helped out with the cooks on board and have really enjoyed that.  As well as doing some odd jobs.  We went to the main park in Kiato and cleaned it up as well.  It was so full of rubbish!  We must have filled about 10+ bin liners with rubbish.  It's neat to bless this city in a practical way and to pray and bless the place that we clean.  So that it is not only physically cleaned, but spiritually as well.  

Yesterday was one of the crew's birthday, Erik.  He and I went to Ancient Corinth to celibrate it and get off the boat.  It was incredible!  The way that old corinth is layed out is that there is the city at the bottom of a hill (more like a mountian) and then a fort/stronghold ontop of the hill.  He and I desided to climb the hill instead of taking a taxi.  Wow, very long walk UP.  But very much worth it.  i am so proud of myself.  =)  I feel so blessed to be able to able to wander the ruins where Paul probably walked once.  The veiw is incredibly from the op as well.  Corinth is a very important city because it has a cannel that connects the med so that you don't have to sail ALL the way around Greece.  From the top you can see the ocean on both sides and snow covered mountians as well.  Very epic!  I brought up a bible so that I could read Corinthians while sitting on the ruins there--an experience I wont forget.  

I have desided to stay in Bulgaria for an out reach there.  I feel that it is God's leading, but I origianally didn't want to go because I think that it is going to be very difficult and i dont want to leave my home, my bed or my family on the boat.  But God is always pushing me farther, pushing me towards Him.  He knows what he is doing even when I dont.  Please pray that this mission trip works out (housing, funds, and church contacts).  

Also tomorrow I am going to Corinth to try to get my computer fixed.  I am praying hard that it is fixable so that I may use it as a tool for the mission work that I am doing here.  Prayer is appreciated.  

One more prayer request.  Finances for the Next Wave.  Please pray that God will raise the support nessisary to continue this mission--we are in a tight spot right now.  But we are trusting God to move, this is HIS ministry, HIS boat and I believe that he is going to keep us running.  He is faithful!  Thank you Lord!  

May God bless and Keep you.

Every month YWAM has a YWAM prayer and fast day. Where YWAM bases all over the world pray and fast together. They have chosen Next Wave as their topic of prayer for March 5th !! We are all so excited!! Tamara, one of the crew aboard and my very own room mate, made a video along with Eric for the YWAM bases showing our ship, ministry, and the crew aboard.

Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8otQ6EHSiY0

Hopefully you guys enjoy the photos and that it brings you a little closer to being here with me. Every photo has a story and every face are very dear shipmates of mine.

Please continue who pray me and the ministry

• That God will shine through us and use us to the greatest degree
• For safety aboard--both at land and at sea
• For God to speak clearly....or better yet that I would listen closer to him
• For the ministry that we do, for connections with people, for translatores, that we would not be afraid to speak out, or act on what God would like us to do

Today I shall remember for a long time to come. I have often listened to missionaries and thought to myself, "Wow, these guys have great stories. It would be so cool id I had some too...." Well, maybe next time I should think a bit before I wish for something. But before I tell my story I want to say thank you so much to you who pray for me. Especially you who prayed for me today. You who pray for safety.

Last week we lowered the Mizzen top mast (back) and the Main mast (forward). Well today we put them back up. Kind of. We first raised the Mizzen, and it wasn't too smoothly done, but we got her up. Second was the Main. Now before I go on I am going to try to explain a little bit about how this works. The top mast is the wooden part of the mast at the top, above a metal mast. At the bottom of the top mast there are two lines attached, one to port, one to starboard. these two lines run up to the crow's nest (almost at the top of the metal part of the mast). Here they are looped over a pulley, and run back down to the deck. On the deck we can then bring the lines in, thus making the mast move up vertically. Anyways.....this hasn't been done in a long time. And the metal d-ring used to attach the pulley to the mast was loose. It in turn broke when there was too much tension when the top mast was up and we were about to secure it. The d-ring broke, the pulleys shattered, and the top mast came crashing down, went through the radar and landed on the foredeck in a matter of seconds! This is what happened. But from my perspective on the deck it wasn't so clear. I was standing slightly to port between the base of the mast and the side of the ship. All of a sudden I heard a whirl of lines and rigging and the crashing and creaking of the mast falling, I turned and started running aft to the stern of the ship. It was the most bazaar feeling as I felt like the world was going in fastforward but I was stuck in slow motion! Like in a bad dream. One of the crew, Oli, was standing on the crow's nest while the mast fell. He has been holding onto the mast 15 seconds before it fell...and he felt like he should move them. Thank God he did, as he still has both his hands. All the crew ran from the mast and no one was hurt bad. The mast fell on the radar, knocking it out, but it was then inside of the metal radar ring so it stayed vertical! Causing far less damage. Everyone is still a bit shaky. Thank you God for your protection. And thank all of you for your prayer!

On another note..., I finished painting the Sconsen yesterday! =) I will post photos when I can get them on a working computer.

Phew. I am exhausted. Sleep well and stay blessed!

Hello from afar!

I have now made it past the three week stage of ship life! A lot has happened this past week. Last Sunday I went with some of the crew to the Corinth church. I already told you this, but I forgot to say that we had lunch with them as they hold a free lunch for refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Albania! It was really neat to share a meal with them and I wanted to tell you because I thought that we was a really neat ministry that the church does here.

This past week has been mostly boat maintenance. A LOT of scraping paint of the deck (that I did spill so I guess I shouldn't complain...but it was the wind Not my bad painting skills), greasing stays, and general up keep. The ship is looking prettier now than she has in a long time!....OH YA! Really exciting! So we are sailing up to Kiev, past the black sea, but the problem is is that we are too tall for some of the bridges that we need to pass under....so we lowered the top masts (for and aft)! This was a crazy guessing game since we haven't actually done this before. Which is why we are doing it now so that when we will need to we will know what to do. On the mizzen mast (aft) I got to climb to the crow's nest to hammer out the pin that holds the top mast in place! It was incredible! I could feel every single vibration as the mast lowered! So neat!

I have been asked to paint our prayer room in the ship, called the sconsin. So I was able to start that today with the help of Randi and Ben! It was so good to paint for God for work! We are painting the ceiling--which has left us with crooked necks. I shall post photos when I am able to. It is a picture of a sunrise and stars. I am so excited to be using my gifts and heading something up. Hopefully I will be able to do more in the future.

On the down side, my computer has stopped working for some reason. It just wont turn on. It tries--but just a black screen. This means that Writing blog entries is more difficult, computer work is more difficult and I can't up load photos. I am not stressed out about this, mind you. God has given me the tool of a lap top and if he wants, he can fix it so that I can use it again. I am praying for a healing for my lap top or someone who knows how to fix them.

Last night we had a youth group from Corinth over to the ship. We gave them a tour, talked to them about being young and living for God, and shared stories about how God has saved us in very real and physical ways (bad storms and even pirates). It was a great evening of opening up our lives to these young people and encouraging them in their walk with the Lord. Although it would be nice to be able to talk to them with out always needing translators.

This week has been fairly difficult for me. I am not one to enjoy being the "new person", not knowing where things go or where stuff is, breaking into the group, and getting into a routine. I have also had a lot of nightmares--which isn't pleasant. There is a very unstable feeling to living on a ship. Just as a boat bobs and rolls and rocks in the water, nothing in the community is stable either. New staff come in, old staff leave. We leave known waters for the unknown. Nothing is ever the same. This has been fairly hard for me (I have made two good friends who have left in the past two weeks--one being my roommate). But God is using this to show me that ya, life isn't stable--even if we pretend that it is. HE is the only thing constant here on earth. He will never leave. Never ignore me. Never hurt me. God is good! And he is using this situation to strengthen my trust in Him.
....Wow that's a lot of writing. So those are my deep thoughts recently.

I hope that you are doing well at home! I love you all very dearly and pray that you are watching for the ways that God is moving. Cause so often we miss out on the stuff he does because we simply wern't looking for it.

Live for Him!

On sunday (yesterday) some of the us crew went to a church in Corinth for the morning service! It was so good to be in church again, and in a Greek church in Corinth singing worship songs and listening to translated sermons! Yay! We were really blessed while we were there, and got to watch a young girl from the church be baptised! The sermon was really good too and spoke to me. It was about not being afrade because God is strong. He has been faithful before and will continue to do so. It reminded me about how important it is to remember the times when God has answered prayers and gotten me through hard times. The more that we remember these things, the harder it is to forget!

This is a photo of me and my two room mates, Randi (Vancouver Island) and Shannon (USA)!!! We make an awesome cabin and I love them very much! We are the tall, blonde cabin--yay!


This morning I woke up early to spend some quite time in peace with God and a cuppa (english for "A mug of tea") and this is what I saw in my back yard! What a great way to start the day!

Wow. So I don't know where to begin with my time here.

Right now I am so contented. I don't know how else to put it. I feel God's calling very clearly that I am where he wants to use me. Which is such an exciting thing to think about! I love life on the ship. Community may be one of the hardest ways to live--but one of the most incredible experiences I will ever go through.

This is just my second week aboard and I am still working hard to learn all the ropes about how the Next Wave works as a mission base. We sailed to Kiato, Greece (plans changes as very common here) last week. A four day sail. Beautiful sunsets and dolphins and Sunshine! =) We had a Discipleship Training School aboard from the Harpenden base in England. They have been doing part of their out reach aboard while working in the city of Catania, Italy. They are really an incredible group of young people on fire for God and missions! They left today and I am going to miss them very dearly. We are now working with some contacts in Greece and a church in Corinth! I am excited to see how we can serve them and support them and their ministry here. We arrived here two or three days ago and don't have any different plans at the moment, so I am excited to see how God decides to use us.

So far I have done a lot of painting on the ship. She needs it very much. Unfortunately the people at the port stopped us half way through so she is only partially beautiful. Oh! But something very exciting is that we have a mailing address for the two months that we are staying here! Yay!!! I shall post it when I know what it is.

I know that a lot of you have told me that you are praying for me! Thank you so very much! I really appreciate the prayer--and I know that God is listening to you because God is moving in crazy ways and my transition here has been very smooth. I have been chosen to help staff a Discipleship Training School in September on the boat, and would very much appreciate prayer into this as well. So a specific prayer request of mine is for wisdom for this school (for both me and the rest of the team) as well as we are praying about where to go on the out reach (mission trip for the second part of the school) and about who the leaders should be for that.

Thank you for being such a support to me--both prayerfully, financially and by being my friends! God bless you all! I shall try to post some photos later for you.

Hello Everyone!

The time is coming when I shall step aboard the Next Wave once again! I am very much looking forward to see how God is going to work in this next year!!

I am going to use this map of the Mediterranean Sea to show you where the Next Wave sails to. The red star on the map on the above shows the city of Catania, capital of the island of Sicily, Italy. This city is where I fly to on Thursday. Some of my old crew mates are going to meet me at the air port and take me back to the boat--I'm so glad that I will be met by good friends, smiles and hugs!

The plan is to sail to the island of Crete, Greece, on the 1st of February. (The red arrow shows the sail from Sicily to Crete) This is a 4 day sail--so I am hoping that I get my sea legs back quickly! These past few days have been pouring rain and cold (I am currently in Rome with my family)! So I also hope that the weather clears up soon.

Please keep me and this ministry in your prayers! I shall write again once I am on the ship (and have internet access).

Take care and stay blessed!

January 20th

3 days, 14 flight hours, 6 hours sleep, 2 blisters and a lot of chewing gum and I have arrived in the ancient city of Rome {with the family of course!}.

I should probably be sleeping this off right now, but its mid/day here {although 2 AM in BC} and I just cant sleep. All in all the trip has gone smoothly so far. well as smoothly as it can when traveling in a fivesome, each with luggage and no clue whats going on. I felt both like a turtle {due to the huge back back to which I was attatched} and a herd of buffalow in a ballet! I shall leave you to imagin for yourself the looks that we recived as the "Five Awkward and Slightly Confused Travelers".

I'm sitting in our appartment right now. Sore feet, sore back and sore brain. I can hear the hum of small cars and vespas rumble past our balcony. Our appartment is just above a cafe/bar and a fruit stand. It's pleasent here, about 15 degrees C and the sun has just come out out. When we left the New York airport, they had to de-ice the planes in the snow. Sooo...I am quite happy to have it a little warmer here.

Oh! I shall tell you about a few of the differences here {from Canada}. Well, the first thing that I noticed was in the airport washroom. The toilet seats were weighted so that they stayed flipped up {unless you are sitting on them of course}! I dont understand this at all. It was a Womens Washroom...so I dont get what they were exactly thinking,....but at anyrate I have never seen that before... The second thing that I noticed was when we were on the train coming to our apartment a peddler got on the train with his acordion!!! I love it! Ah! Italy! Where even a train ride can be romantic!

One more thing before I try to sleep {since everyone else seems to be}. When we were at the Victoria airport waiting to depart, Danielle came to say good bye to me! Actually we was there waiting for me when I got there. Good job on being early, Danielle..I'm impressed. haha Anyways, you totally made my day, thank you! And as it it couldn't get any better, Jinny and Harry came as a surprize! I love you guys loads!!! Thank you for making me feel special!

Well, my hide-a-bed is calling me.

I've been to a decent amount of countries in my 18 years life experience--But I have yet to see a more beautiful, more awe inspiring place than Pioneer Pacific Camp on Thetis Island.

This place has so many memories and feelings attached to it! I have been going to this camp since I was...13! I was a Girl's Camp camper two times, then I did Pioneer Youth Crew for two more years and finally Leader In Training! I missed being there last year and saddly I will miss this coming one aswell.

I just wanted to share with you my favorite place. I know that everyone of us has a place that just makes them feel alive and refreashed and inspired. This is mine.

The past few weeks have been going well. As I have mentioned I am working for Dad around the house. Its nice to see some progression in the work; every little splash of paint painted, every little screw screwed is a little closer to a finished house.

Matt, a fellow student from the S/Y Next Wave, just visited me for a couple days! It was so awesome to hang out with him. I am really missing all of my shipmates, so it was encouraging to spend time with him. We had.....quite the adventure on Gabriola Island....which I wont write about here because it would take a long time. But I will say that it involved me locking my keys in the car and the three of us (Helen as well) quickly becoming the biggest form of entertainment on the island. You should have seen the crowd.

I am hoping to be back in Europe in three months...Its coming faster than I'd thought it would.