Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree...

Man oh man Christmas is here. Although we haven't done anything exotic like decorating our rooms, Dejong and I have been rocking to Amy Grant's Christmas album for the last week or so. Then the long awaited snow appeared in the night sky over Britania Beach. It was perfect. I absolutely love the way that snow mutes all the usual sounds around you so that you can hear the snowflakes landing on your jacket. I love the feeling of a sore neck after five minutes of running around catching snowflakes in my mouth. I love how snow covers a fairly ugly row of houses to make them seem quaint and homey with smoke curling out of their chimneys to tell you just how warm they are inside. I love how much better Chai tea (with extra cinnamon sprinkled on top) tastes when there is snow outside. Snow must sharpen the senses...

Snow makes me think of Jesus Christ's forgiveness covering up my ugliness.

Driving in snow is a little hairy sometimes but it's also cool... especially at night on the #99 (aka the highway of death). It's all very dark around you but for the brilliant headlights reflecting off the snowflakes in front of you. You feel very much in the palm of God's hand. When it's dark like that is the only time you can actually see the wind. You can see the currents and the gusts as the snow increases in speed and changes directions constantly. It makes you feel quiet.

Here are a couple of pictures I took of Howe Sound in the snow on the way home.

August 18th I think...

This was a blog that I wrote during the summer sometime. I'm sorry I didn't post it then but I did now... maybe that's better than never.

So we recently spent two days slaving away in various alpine classrooms around the Squamish area. Thursday was spent hiking up onto Paul Ridge in Garibaldi Provincial Park in order to do some orienteering and topographical map work while having an astounding view of the panorama displayed in various contour lines and colors on our two dimensional maps. We also had a “homework assignment” to prepare a meal and cook it for another group on that day. Our recipe (cleverly titled “The Soup de Jour” in honor of Lloyd Christmas) was a fabrication of a delicious soup elements, served with peanut butter on Stoned Wheat crackers as an appetizer and instant pudding with dehydrated milk… which ended up both tasting and looking like warm lumpy poo. The next day we hiked a trail around the Brohm Lake area which brought us to a fantastic viewpoint looking out over the Tantalus Mountain Range. At this point we were able identify all the peaks displayed in front of us and pinpoint our exact location on the map using triangulation (big word… simple concept). We were then treated to the meal from the two ladies that we had cooked for the previous day, and judging by the excitable mélange of flavours that entered my mouth that afternoon, they hadn’t held the poopy pudding against us. We finished off class on Friday with a long swim in Brohm lake.

Friday night Dan and I went camping with 20 of our new comrades to celebrate Jesse’s birthday. He was turning 23 so apparently that’s an excuse for lots of beer. So we all set up tents and got a fire pit made by the Squamish River (we originally planned to camp on the Cheakamus River but le disaster de les toxins caused a change in plan). That’s when Dan and I got the brilliant idea to go rafting down the Squamish River in a cheap plastic dingy!!! It was sweet. We pretty much rode the bottom of the river with our butts the whole way down the stretch that we piloted. But I’d say that foot deep water threw some beauty class IV’s :) So by then the consumption of alcohol was fully under way so I grabbed myself a Coke and sat back for a deep discussion with Patrick (a new friend of mine) and with Nick (another new friend) who are both very friendly with a beer in their hand and are not in the habit of drunkenness. Patrick’s beautiful camperized VW Westphalia Van had just randomly caught on fire while he was driving it and burned to a complete crisp before his eyes. We talked about everything and anything and I quite admire him but long to share with him the good news about Christ. Nick is the child of missionary parents who never really had faith in Jesus Christ but knows all about him. He said that his doubts overtook whatever it was that he did believe and he’d walked away from faith. This makes me sad but also hopeful because I totally believe that I’ll have a chance to share the root of my joy and contentment with both of these guys.

I said goodbye to a good friend on Saturday. I’ve known Daniel Brouwer for about 13 years now (maybe 14) and seen him practically every year during that time span, but from this point on he’s going to be in Edmonton freezing his buns off working on a Biology major. Dan’s the kind of quality guy that I think every girl and guy should look for. He’s patient and kind and full of love… although if you’re a guy, you might not want to experiment too too much with the love part cause you might end up with a sore shoulder. Dan and I used to have an unofficial competition during our club soccer for who could hammer guys the hardest during a fair tackle... I don’t think that I would ever want to go into a tackle against Dan, but maybe in the past our muscle masses were a little closer to even.

I guess that was it...

My Apologies

To all the students at Cap College in Squamish who had hoped to write in their blogs during their break, I apologize that you have been redirected here. It's not my fault honestly. Kate especially, I'm sorry for all the trauma that you've endured :) I hope they get the network updated or something and we can all go back to our own little blog lives.

Sincerely Stewart Reimer of the WLP

Using Freedom

If we Christians are content to remain in our sin (I'm not refering to times when we screw up, I'm talking about acknowledging that what we're doing is sin and then living that life regardless), we need to hear what God said to us through Paul:

"13You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature[a]; rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."[b] 15If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
Life by the Spirit
16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other."
Galatians 5:13-25

You see I know from experience that living content in sin is the most empty, unfulfilling, harmful, and (afterwards) grieving exprience. We are people who were called from the darkness into the light. Jesus Christ did not die so that we could acknowledge his act of ultimate love for us by carrying on in our sin. He died to give us access to His Kingdom and he left us His Spirit so that we could have every means to righteousness (or right living). There is a life waiting for us far more gratifying than getting drunk, filling our minds with pornography, throwing out the perfection of sex within marriage, aspiring to be rich or powerful, hating our enemies, slandering our friends and opposition, wanting what we don't have and looking to things other than God to fill our lives with contentment. There is a fullness of life in Jesus Christ that is unparalleled in the universe!!! If you're saying to yourself, "How on earth could you know that Stew?" read the words of God and you'll find out in a mighty big hurry. For example, in the book of Ecclesiastes you will find that the Solomon (possible author) did a far-out, little experiment where he indulged in everything the world had to offer and do you know what conclusion he arrived at?
" Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.
For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil." Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

God extends his grace and his mercy and his forgiveness without fail, but if we do not want his grace and his mercy and his forgiveness he will not force it on us.

Heed the wisdom of Solomon. Listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus said,"10The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that [YOU] may have life, and have it to the full!!!" John 10:10.

Thirsty? Come and drink the living water.

Unexpected Surprises... (As Opposed to the Expected Variety)

This past week I had the great pleasure of being off school. I went home with little to do besides make breakfast for my sisters, read, and catch up with friends and family. I was actually able to go to the worship service for the "college and career" group at my church and it was awesome. It was the first time I'd been able to attend a non-sunday church event in quite sometime. So I saw great people like Aaron Wall and Joel Vanhove and we formulated a plan (which included Adam Herman) to go for a hike. What a great plan it was, not in magnitude but in simplicity for that is indeed where the greatest plans reside. The next day we set out after classes were done to Chilliwack. We found Chilliwack Lake Road about the time that darkness fell... and lots of rain but we were not at all dismayed and spirits remained high. After about a good half hour of driving up and down the same logging road looking for a trail access that we knew existed somewhere, we saw a man walking his dog. He was a kind enough soul to direct us into the vacinity of the trailhead (alright I'm not gonna lie, the guy was about six kilometers off in his directions but he did help us in the end because he mentioned something about a bridge over Pierce Creek).
So we found pierce creek and blundered around it trying to find what might be the nearby road that led to the trailhead. Needless to say we picked the wrong road and started up it without a moment's hesitation, packs in tow. Reaching the top of this unbelievably steep road and a dead end/river crossing, we turned around and headed down the same road to take our second wrong turn of the evening. After aproximately an hour and a half of surprisingly dry, moonlit, misdirected, night-time travel we found ourselves right back where we started. We piched our tents beside the truck, cooked dinner, had a fire and an all around good time not alowing our recent follies to get us down, for surely tomorrow brought a new day and a fresh start... with daylight.
We awoke bright and chipper. Packed up, left what we didn't need in the truck and set out with not but our daypacks around our waists. We found a path that would surely direct us to the trailhead and followed it faithfully until we reached a clearing. It was then, not investigating the full perameter of the clearing that we made our biggest blunder in assuming the trail ran beside the creek. Running with this haunch, we walked along the creekside which seemed like moderately good travel at the time but slowly digressed into moderate bushwacking. Time passed and the trail was nowhere to be seen. Using my plethora of map and compass knowledge we deduced how we should be able to find the trail as it intersected the Creek further along. However, we began second-guessing ourselves, Aaron's torn miniscus started acting up (what a wimp), and according to Adam we were "lost". All of these things contributed to our decision to turn around and head home but it is now in retrospect that God may have also played a small role in this course of events.
You see arriving back at home my family was busy cleaning in preparation for my Aunt and Uncle's visit from Calgary. This was an occasion that I was supposed to arrive just in time for (but probably would have missed entirely) had our adventure gone according to plan. However now I was back several hours early. That is when my day to a turn for probably the very best it ever could have. You see expecting my families arrival a knock on my front door did not even stir me to my feet. However, my dad's words, "We certainly weren't expecting you here," ignited my curiosity. Innocently I arose to inspect the scene. Ashley Jansen was standing in my front doorway. The feeling of embracing a friend whom you have been starved from for three months is irreplaceable. It can't be explained with words because it is the best. I didn't stop smiling for about two days. What made it even better was that she had explicitly told me that she wouldn't be coming home over Rememberance Day because her Volleyball coach had certain issues with family oriented individuals.
The next day I got to see even more of my friends whom I've been long separated from. I think I got too overloaded with excitement. It was pretty overwhelming. I could have spent an entire day with each of those people getting to know what they've been up to and hearing their stories but there was no time. I left the party with a smile on my face none the less.
Surprises like that bring joy to my little life :)

Comments

Dear readers of my blog,
I hope you have all realized that you can leave comments on my blog by clicking the link marked comments below my posts. Well now the link to leave your comments will be found above the posting which you want to comment on. Thanks for all your comments so far I love to hear from you all.

Please also note the addition of pictures to "Guiding Leadership" post.

sincerely,
Stewart Reimer

My God, How Great Thou Art

O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works Thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.


Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee;
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee;
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!


When through the woods, the forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze...


Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee;
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee;
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!


And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin...


Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee;
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee;
How great Thou art! How great Thou art!


When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart!
Then I shall bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim, my God how great Thou art!




This last couple of weeks I've been floored by the beauty surrounding where I live. I have to tell Dan to pull over while we're driving to school so that I can take pictures. I have to tell Dan to pull over while we're driving home from school so that I can take pictures. These pictures are a terrible rendition of what it is that I saw with my eyes. I couldn't help thinking of this great song and how true it is. Imagine the beauty that our eyes will see when Christ breaks into our world on that final day and like lightning in the east is seen even in the west, announce His glorious presence to the Earth. Then we in all our pitifullness will fall on our faces humbled beyond imagination to proclaim, "MY GOD HOW GREAT THOU ART!!!"

Guiding Leadership

So over the last couple of months I've been taking a course called Guiding Leadership. Basically it is designed to give its participants the technique and knowledge required to take a group of people and build them into a team safely, efficiently, and effectively. A couple of days ago we embarked on an intensive retreat at the Coast Mountain Outdoor School facilities (beautiful, rustic, log cabins). During our stay there in Pemberton we were each required to lead the group through the team-building activity that you and your partner had devised. Forty-eight hours later we had played 8 team building games, had the most enormous and delicious potlach buffet (including all of: a complete turkey dinner, hot thai salad, lasagne, veggie platters, fruit platters, currie dishes, seven layered dips, and the list just goes on), huge group campfire, late night festivities and group pictures. It was the most fun that I've had in quite a while. For those of you who had the priveledge of attending grade eight outdoor school at FVCH... this trip was of the same variety of fun.

This is my group skipping... it's a lot harder than it looks :) We definitely learned how to communicate and work as a team but also how to facilitate other people's team building experience. Experiencial learning is VERY educational and highly effective... I'm living proof. I'll hopefully have more pictures to follow.
Here they are:

Ali is holding off the attacking forces so that we have time to cross the acid river of death using four acid-proof barrells, a 2x10 plank and an acid-proof metal pole! What a hero!

Here we're crossing the acid river of death under heavy fire with only a camouflaged Graham to protect us! Good thing we worked together as a team to get across! :)

Here we were practicing getting onto the world's smallest liferaft (which looked surprisingly similar to the modern milk crate) in case our Niagra Falls tour boat went down! Guess what! It actually happened and we had to save ourselves! Good thing we practiced beforehand eh? After we got onto the liferaft we had to yell out our mayday call... ours was: Mayday Mayday Mayday! This is Trevor's Mom, Trevor's Mom, Trevor's Mom! Mayday Trevor's Mom, we are taking on water and require assistance! Trevor's Mom over!... (Trever incessantly makes fun of other people's mom's so we got him back. ooooh we got him good did we ever :) )

This was a simulation of how sometimes in life you have to work with people you don't want to work with or that slow you down. We've just got to learn that with good communication and energy you can overcome those obstacles to work as a well oiled machine... like a clock or something. Our legs are tied together and I was probably one of the only people to actually fall... and I fell about 6 times often taking down multiple other people with me in fits of giggles and hysterical laughter.

This is Dan Dejong and I delivering our plea to the greatest of the world's criminal minds to help us steal the last of the earth's cookies which are now artifacts in a museum in the year 2400!

This is Rachel our elected leader helping us sort out our "traffic jam". She got to wear that super cool traffic control uniform for like half an hour! Sweet eh?

This game forced us to use alternate senses in order to pass a message through a chain... reminiscent of telephone minus the speaking.

Surprisingly girls and guys slept separately which made the evening much more entertaining. Some of the girls took this picture of their cabin-mates.

This is my class of 30 friends. There are some great people in this photo.