I am not to great at this blog stuff!

i want to let all you know that i am still doing AWESOME! I am very sorry though that i have failed to update my blog very often! so lets go back to week 2 of our tour... we were at NewLife BIC in Collingwood and it went amazing!!! we did a leadership seminar with the student leadership team along with doing our personal seminars at the youth night! the next week we went to Sauble Christian fellowship, and let me tell you that we had such a full week!!! we had a great time hanging out with the youth every single night of the week!!! i even got to go swimming with a couple of the students at the beach! :D

week 1 finshed!!

our first week we spend at covenant BIC, and it turned out so amazing!! things were extremely busy and seemed a bit overwhelming especially for our first week but as a team we did a great job and pulled off some really awesome youth events and seminar nights!!! :)

as for this next week, the BIC team is heading off to New Life in Collingwood, then the next week we are at sable Beach and finally stayner BIC before we have an off road training week.

you can definitely pray for the safety and wellness of our team!

and i want to also throw out a HUGE THANK YOU!!!! to all my supporters! i have pretty much reached what i have to raise for my full year on youthbuilders!!! without all of you i would be no where, so thank you so much for your support both financially and through prayers!!!!

so again i need to apologize to everyone that it has been sooooo long since i have last updated my blog. The past couple weeks here at the CSL we have had no internet what so ever! so right now i am sitting outside of the public library that is actually closed just so i can finally inform you what has been happening. so at the beginning of August we went to stayner camp and lead the youth program for a weekend. i had been put in charge of leading worship for one of the sessions and my team really came out on top and led a great time of worship!

The next week everyone at the CSL including leaders attended the Leadership summit in Richmond Hill that is put on by Willow Creek church down in the states! it was an unbelievable experience, being able to listen to so many great leaders of this day like Wess strattford the CEO of Compassion International, Bono from U2, Tony Blair, Bill Hybels and many others.

the following week was full of presentations of our individual forums (seminars) that we have been working on all summer! everyone did a great job and all our hard work definitely paid off! that weekend we went to an EMC church in owen sound and then continued on to sable beach to enjoy our sabbath! it was a beautiful day and what made it even better was the fact that almost everybody had friends come to the beach!

as for this week we are in the preparation stages of A LOT of different presentations, but we are just wrapping up the final things for mishewah camp for next week!

to end this post off i just wanna say that a newsletter has been sent out that our team wrote, all of my supporters will receive one personally and then i have send one to Wainfleet for everyone in teh church! i really hope it gives you another glimpse at what we haev done and what else is to come!!

i miss you all but God is doing great things in my life! more than i could have expected!!

Nathan

the past couple of weeks

i really want to say im sorry for not updating my blog in a couple weeks. so let me take you back 2 weeks to when i began my Algonquin adventure. as a group of 12 the youthbuilders set out for a 6 day canoe trip. lets just say that by the end we decided to rename it a portage trip because it seemed as though we carried our canoes more that we were actually on the water. this was my very first canoe trip and let me tell you it is going to remain one of my highlights of this year. it was a awesome time to just take in all of Gods creation and just ENJOY the simple life! as for our canoeing the BIC and EMC teams took different routes and each student got the opportunity to lead the team in a day of canoeing. it was a great first way to see how each individual on our team functioned in a leadership position, and then each night we discussed the day and critiqued the persons leadership abilities. it was a great stretching opportunity, in both the way i lead and the way i look at life. the picture i attached below it one of our last days on our trip, we found these great rapids which gave us a very well deserved break!!


The following week of our canoe trip we were involved in a jr.high day camp at New Life BIC. every day we got there for about 1230 and left at 830. we just played with the kids, led upfront games during sessions and led discussions. one of the nights it was great; i got to help lead all the kids in worship! i had such a blast doing that. The thursday night to friday was a Camp out at a local farm. we played water games and had a slip and slide which the kids loved! it was sooo cool to see all the kids just interacting with eachother and to be apart of their many questions.

as for this week, we are getting into a more of a preparation schedule. tomorrow as a group we are travelling to fergus to develop our personal testemonies. and throughout the week we are doing more preparation for upsoming events and also our tour starting in september.

before i conclude this entry i want to thank everyone for their support!!!!! if it wasnt for all of you i wouldnt be able to be here serving God in such a unique way!! all the prayers are very much appreciated!!

please continue to keep myself and the bonding of my team to continue!! i miss everyone at home but i am so thankful for everybodies never ending love and support!!!!!


Nathan :D

Training week#1

the end of my very first YouthBuilder training week has pretty much come to a close. We were just jammed pack with relationship seminars, emotion activities and a handful of other very useful relational tools. Each day we start at 9 with morning prayers as a group, which is a great way to start a morning. we then have various seminars and discussions throughout the day. At night before we close down, the 2 teams split up and have team check-in's. i have just found these times to be so opening for our group and it has been designed to be a time when we make decisions, and work out conflicts. I would have to say that my favourite part of this entire week would be yesterday when we were given the entire morning to write our personal stories, and then as a group we shared and critiqued each others to better how they were presented.
tomorrow morning at 5 we leave for our canoe trip, so i ask that you continue to pray for safety as approx. 12 of us experience this!

Learning to Trust!

so its 2 am and it has just really hit me that i am leaving for my year long experience tomorrow! i am feeling unprepared and nervous, but i know i just have to continue to trust God in what he has planned for me this year. he is going to take care of all my worries if i truly trust that he will do everything that is according to his ultimate plan! i have been feeling as though i am going to be missing out on so much here where i am comfortable, but that's just it, i'm comfortable here at home where i am so familiar with everything. you can't grow when your comfortable and tomorrow it begins, winter becomes spring, and i will begin to grow more in Christ in whom i trust!

Starting my Blog

i wont consider this my first blog post because i'm just testing it out!