Host Family

The host family that I have are great and the food that they make is very intresting.
In the afternoon on Sunday I was helping my "host mom" make the hors d'oeuvres for
Monday's poetry reading and the cucomber that I was cutting slipped from my
hand and i cut my pinkie. Luckly I felt it and stopped or it would have been
worse then it was. Then as i was waiting for my "host mom" to put a bandaid on I started to look balance and fainted just from looking at the cut and etc.. for too long. My finger is okay know but still sore.

Feb. 21

i am doing fine and I learnt that 100 Mile house is a comfortable and safe place to live in.
Last night I saw the moon being coverd by the sun also.
So tomorrow Feb 22 - March 2 is the billet week. I will be living with a family. Then we get back it Ezgi's 19th birthday and then on the 20th of March we have the Orientation camp back up in Gravin Lake before going to Marathon, ON.

Pictures

Feb. 19

Tonight we went a community cafe and that is were we got to learn a little bit more about 100 Mile house from the people who live here. We also eat food which was very good. Then after the first table we sat at we then moved around to other tables to hear what others said about their community.

Today we had a language ativitcy and it was were we had to find the words to the song that was playing and the song was in french. Once we found out the translations we were like what are you guys teaching us? It was not that nice of a song but over all it was a fun ativity.

Above All

I came across this story about one of my favourite songs and want to share it.
Above All - Story Behind The Song By Paul Baloche and Lenny LeBlanc

Crucified laid behind a stone You lived to die rejected and alone Like a
rose trampled on the ground You took the fall and thought of me Above all

Paul's Story
On a Tuesday morning a few years ago at my church, alone at the piano, I
began worshiping The Lord. As I sang, I started thinking of how Jesus is so
much greater than all the temporal things that our culture esteems as great
- power, fame, riches, wisdom, etc. The words just came out…."Lord, you are
above all kingdoms, above all thrones, above all wonders the world has ever
known..." Over the next year, I tried to write a chorus that fit the verses,
but I never felt like it was "the one."

Then one day, Lenny LeBlanc and I got together to write. I played him about
twenty ideas for songs and the only one that caught his ear was the verse
for " Above all" that had no chorus. He woke up the next morning and said,
"How about.... 'Crucified, laid behind a stone...like a rose trampled on the
ground....'" " Whoa!" I thought, "What a contrast, what a picture - that's
Jesus. The One who is and always will be above all, was willing to be
crucified and rejected, just to demonstrate His love for an unappreciative
world."

By the time we got to "You took the fall and thought of me....above all,"
Lenny and I were in tears. The revelation hit us and broke our hearts. It
made us realize how worthy He really is. That He truly deserves our worship.

This song means a lot to me because it came from an honest place. I wasn't "
trying" to write a song originally. I sincerely just wanted to worship Him
and praise Him for His greatness. Getting to finish the song with Lenny was
such a bonus since he has been such a mentor and friend to me for years.

I have had many people tell me through tears that they feel such love for
the Lord as they sing "Above All." The revelation that The God of the
universe was willing to humble himself to the point of crucifixion and
death, just to reveal His love for us inspires a broken and contrite heart -
like a fragrance of worship coming from a broken jar of perfume.

I remember one time in particular that I heard people singing "Above All" in
worship. I was sitting on the floor with my children, watching the inaugural
prayer service for President Bush on Fox News Live. Michael W. Smith walked
up to the piano and began to sing "Above all powers, above all kings....."
Tears began to pour out from my eyes. My 8 year-old daughter asked, "Are you
all right Daddy? What's wrong?" I replied, "Honey, these are happy tears."
I'm humbled and blown away that a simple prayer of worship, started at my
little piano, found its way to The President of the United States. The
possibility that this song could be an encouragement to Him is such an
honor. " I pray that he would draw strength and wisdom from The One who is
above him......and above all. It blesses me to know that Jesus will be
worshiped with this song for years to come.

Lenny's Story
When Paul Baloche and I finished writing "Above All," I somehow knew in my
heart that it would touch millions of people. It all started when Paul and I
got together to write some songs for my soon to be recorded project for
Integrity Music. Paul flew in and arrived late in the afternoon. We spent
the rest of the day talking and kicking around song ideas that we had
started. As the evening progressed, Paul played me the verse to "Above All"
except for a few lines that we later changed. Something about the verse
really touched me and I told him I thought it was a great idea. He shared
with me that he had written several different choruses for the song and had
even sung them in various forms during worship times at his home church. He
also said he wasn't happy with any of the versions he had written. We
chatted for while then headed off to our rooms.

Early the next morning before Paul woke up, I started playing around with a
chorus idea. Later on that morning, we started and finished the song "
Closer." After a short break, I played my idea for an "Above All" chorus.
Paul really liked it and we began fine tuning the song. Every time we got to
the line, "Like a rose trampled on the ground," we would both begin to weep.
Here we were - two grown men in a puddle of tears trying our best to finish
writing a song.

I think the reason "Above All" has impacted us so powerfully - and many
others including Michael W. Smith, is because it's such a beautiful picture
of how a God that is above everything, would become like a rose trampled on
the ground, take the fall and think of us….above all."

Ski Trip

Feb. 10

Williams lake came down to visit and at the same time they pranked us by taking the punching bag back and the prank that they played on us was they hid the internet modem somewhere in the house. They stole our shower curtains so the upstairs and the basement bathroom did not have shower curtains. So now Sara has to go and by new ones. Other than them pranking us we played hockey with them. Antonie is one of the guys that joined Williams Lake and he is very good at playing hockey. Then after hockey we went back to the house and we had oranges and this coffee cake that was made at the same time as the squash bread. Both the bread and the coffee cake was very good.
I had a relaxing 48 hours off. On saturday Sara, Michela, Ezgi and I went to a restaurant that is very good in price. We had a new york cheese cake with a mango sauce -it was so good - we kind of ate the cake like we had not had supper.
I had a 1/2 rack of baby back ribs with fries and before the meal I had a Ceasar Salad.

Our Katimavik House

Feb. 7

This morning I got up at 5:00am so that I could be at the school for 6:00am
but bBlake who had a CTI for bringing a plastic bag home from shopping and his punishment was having to go to bed at 7:00pm. was still in bed. I knocked on his door to wake him up so Blake got up at 5:15am which was the time I wanted to leave the house. We still made it on time we got to the school at 5:50am. so by 6:00am we had the bus loaded and we left a little bit after 6. and got to the ski resort at 9:38.
I ended up having a private lesson becuase the other person who was with me
did not show up. I had a lesson from 10:30am -11:30am. and I got to have a one on one lesson which was good for me. Some of the tips my snowbording teacher gave me were to go into the position that you are going to be sitting in a chair
and then reach out like you are getting popsicles out of the frige, you curve your board to stop. On the way back a baby deer decided to cross the road, Mike the bus driver saw the deer and had to slam on the brakes and honk the horn so that the deer would know that he was there if he had not done that he would have hit the deer and the deer would have been dead and the bus would have be damaged. After that happened Blake said "man deer can think soo stupidly because they just don't look both ways before crossing." then Mrs. Turner said " actually the deer was probably thinking "that dump bus almost killed me." Well Blake just started to laugh so hard his face turned red..
So I had a really fun time.

Feb. 7

I am snowboarding with the school. Had to be there at 6:00 am

Feb. 3

Today we are going back home and Quesnel is also going home. Once we had our stuff down ready to go Sara went and brought the van up closer to the house so that we could put our stuff in better (but really it was so that T-bo and Mathieu could put the punching bag into the van). When Sara came back upstairs Antoine saw T-bo and Mathieu take the punching bag. He came back upstairs telling everyone in French that we were taking the punching bag. Sara was trying to say good bye and we all ran down to the basement to get our boots and shoes on and then Williams Lake group ran outside to try to get the van doors open to get the punching bag. Sara jumped in the van and drove away. That is when we realized that we forgot to get the plates, so we just drove around Williams Lake to wait for the Williams Lake group to leave their house. We went back to get our stuff and then found out that Quesnel had joined in with the prank and placed toilet paper all around the house and Quesnel wrote a note saying Quesnel - One; 100 Mile House - One; Williams Lake -ZERO

So the prank war is ON and is so much fun. At first we did not know if pranking them would happen but it all happened at the last minute. :)

Feb. 2

Today we are going to Williams Lake to help the Katimavik house in Williams
Lake celebrate Jess’s surprise party. But we first went to the Museum in
Williams Lake and got to see the history of Williams Lake. The Quesnel group was there already. We spent some time talking about what we liked and what we did not like about Katimavik. We broke up into our different committee groups and talked to each other about what they did and what we did. Once that was all done we started decorating and warming up food and organizing the basement. When all was done we then went downstairs and hide while waiting for the Williams Lake groupto get home.

Jess was very surprised to see us. She was talking about inviting us down to Williams Lake to have dinner but was not expecting us to come for her birthday she did not even know about the surprise.

After supper the 3 program leaders went out to celebrate Jess's birthday and we stayed at the house. Sara told us she did not want us to leave and walk around Williams Lake because the night time is different then 100 Mile house. because it a lot busier then 100 Mile house because in 100 Mile House is very quite. So we played a game called were wolf and then we played Miniature tanks and danced. The girls had the whole floor upstairs and the guys had the whole floor in the basement.

Pictures from Gavin Lake Orientation

Feb. 2

Today we are going to Williams Lake ro celebrate Jess's (the project leader of that house) birthday. Williams Lake is one of the other houses in our cluster and they were at Orientation with us. Ya everyone is excited to see each other and we will be sleeping over.
One of the teachers at the 100 Mile House junior secondary school invited me to the church he goes to but because we are going to be leaving deom Williams Lake around the time the church he goes to starts I will not be able to go. He said I could come next Sunday.

Toronto Maple Leafs beat Ottawa Sens 4-2.
ya.