I'm Thankful For...

It's American thanksgiving, which means it's the time of year to reflect on what we are thankful for. So here is a list of things that I'm thankful for this year (in no particular order, of course):

1. Exceptionally good music 

2. My squad of wonderful humans - Thank you for being great, thoughtful, hilarious, and fun people.

3. Psychology of Personality class at school - I have learned many things about myself through taking this class, as well as many things about people I know. This class has taught me to view myself, other people, and the world differently. Never thought that a university course could impact my life so much. 

4. Coffee - because obviously. 

5. Being privileged enough to live in a country that is free and safe and awesome - YAY CANADA

6. A new cell phone that has all working buttons 

7. A new-to-me car that gets me from home to university without any hassles 

8. Family that supports me, despite my constant status of being a "poor university student" 

9. The tools and resources I have access to and use to manage my school stress and anxiety issues 

10. Really good books for when I need a day off from the hum-drums of reality 

11. Really good movies for when I need a couple hours off from the hum-drums of reality (*coughs* I'm lookin' at you, Marvel) 

12. The many, many, many bursaries I was given this semester - A significant burden of financial stress has been lifted off me because of these 

13. A brain with the capability of understanding complex topics and memorizing way too many things 

14. A creative mind for when I need to pull out an overwhelming amount of thoughts from my head and onto a page in a way that is readable and, maybe even, enjoyable 

15. Smitty's chicken wings 

16. Very good professors, whether they are just very helpful or very eccentric or quite possibly crazy (and a TA that marks approx. 150 exams and posts the marks within two hours of the exam - God bless you Sparks) 

17. All the basics: food, clothing, shelter, health, money 

And last but certainly not least... 

18. Jesus - because let's face it, none of the above things would be a reality without You  

Pinterest-style encouragements...

For those, like myself, in need of encouragement and/or advice today, here is some. 

Courtesy of Pinterest. 

Now continue on with your evening.

A Reminder You Might Need...

I needed a reminder this week 

and I thought maybe there were some others that could use this reminder too.   

The Non-Existent Middle Path

Obvious lessons are often the most difficult to swallow.

I've been reading through the book of Genesis in my devotions lately. It's amazing how something you've read a hundred and one times in your life can become real for you again, or you can learn something new from stories you've heard your whole life.

About two weeks ago I was reading chapter 4 in Genesis. Every Christian knows this story. The story of the first murder. Cain and Abel are brothers. Cain brings an unacceptable offering to the Lord, whereas the offering that Abel brings is pleasing in the Lord's sight. Cain got angry and killed his little brother. The Lord sees Cain's unrepentant sin and banishes him to a different land, but not without branding on Cain a mark of protection (which really says something awesome about God's love for us and his grace). Needless to say, this isn't really a nice story. And, if I remember correctly, this is where the story stopped in Sunday school class when I was younger. Probably because there's a genealogy next, and who wants to read those, right?

But the genealogy contains a very vital part of the story. It tells us how Cain had a son, built a city, and thus started a line of descendants, which eventually came to a man named Lamech. Lamech was a polygamist, he had two wives. He also killed a man. Lamech was a sinful man. After the mention of Lamech, the story swings back over to the first family. Adam and Eve had another son and named him Seth. The story ends with verse 26, saying that "people began to call upon the name of the Lord".

Something I often forget is that the Bible is actually a story. From beginning to end, it's a story about the redemption of Jesus. This is something that was pointed out to me in bible school. The reason that I often forget it's a story is because I don't ever really read it in order. I pick sections or books from here and there and I read those, but I hardly ever read it from the beginning. What I realized this time through is that chapter 4 is not actually the story of the first murder. I mean, obviously, it is, but that's not the major premise of the story. The first murder shouldn't really be that relevant because we've already been introduced to sin. We saw that in the previous story, with Adam and Eve. This chapter outlines the next step: the growth of sin and the forging of two paths. The path of sin (and death) and the path of life.

Read further into the Bible and you realize that this is a very common theme throughout. Deuteronomy 31 explains that one must choose between the path of life and the path of death. Joshua 24 challenges us to choose whom we serve: the one true God or the gods of our land. Skip forward to Matthew 7 where Jesus tells us about a narrow gate, which leads to life, and a wide gate, which leads to destruction. Notice how there's only ever two options to pick from? There's no third option, there's no middle ground or middle path. The closest thing I can think of as a middle between life and death is dying. Which FYI... still leads to death. Jesus also doesn't tell us about a "moderately-sized" gate.

So why do we, myself included, think we can forge our own path down the middle?

This week I was sitting in one of my classes, waiting for it to start. I don't like eavesdropping on other people's conversations, but sometimes they talk so loudly that anyone around them can hear what they're saying. The three girls in front of me were talking about where they wanted to pierce themselves and their intimate, for lack of a better word, dating lives. While I was trying to switch my focus onto something else, I stumbled upon something very interesting. The girls in the row in front of me were talking about these inappropriate things, but the girls behind me were openly talking about what God had been doing in their lives this week. God directed my thoughts to this two paths thing I'd been reading about and kind of gently nudged me in the heart saying "this is what I'm talking about". I was caught in the middle of two vastly different conversations, coming from two vastly different worlds.

Why is this so significant to me? Because this is something I struggle with on a daily basis. I'm not even going to try to beat around the bush or lie to you... I'm a worldly person. I like this world. I love music and I listen to some music that I probably shouldn't. I enjoy movies and TV shows, but I know I watch some that, again, I probably shouldn't. The biggest dream I have in my life is to travel. I want to see the world and it sometimes actually physically pains me that I'm too broke to do so right now. All of these things aren't bad things, in and of themselves, but the problem is that I let them fill me up until there's no more room for Jesus.

I've been starting to make some changes in my life regarding this. I can't cold turkey music and movies, but I have learned how to slowly lessen it. I've started to read more books instead of watching movies and such. I've even challenged myself to read 50 books this year. I've also made a point to look for better and cleaner music. (FYI, you come across some very good hipster music this way.)

Why do I do this? Not because I want to go to heaven. Not because I want to be a "better" Christian. Not because I want to appear better to other people, because appearance means very little. I do this because God loved me, a sinner, enough to orchestrate an elaborate plan of redemption that includes sacrificing his own son. If he can do that, I can do this.

As I stated earlier, obvious lessons are often the most difficult to swallow.

Question:
Have you walked through the narrow gate leading to life, or are you still wandering around trying to find a "moderately sized" one?  

#19: If I Could Live Anywhere...

#19: If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why?

I have two answers for this question, actually. Surprising, I know. So many people probably thought they knew this one.

My first answer is… Amsterdam. I am IN LOVE with this place. It’s a beautiful city. There’s lots to do. It has such a rich culture. I am in love with it, and I’ve only spent a total of three days out of my entire life there… and half of one of those days was in the airport. But still. I fell in love with it the moment I walked its streets. Now, I know what you’re thinking (I say that a lot, don’t I?)… when people think Amsterdam, they think of two things: pot and prostitutes. But this city is so much more than that! Let’s just say that those are the only two things about Amsterdam that I don’t like.

Here’s some pictures:

 
I swear this city’s main form of transportation is bikes. They have special lanes for bikes and everything. (I mean, we do too I guess, but it’s very different!) This is a picture of a parkade for BIKES!

 

Canals everywhere! When we were there, we took a canal cruise and it was beautiful. It was such a sunny day and the canals go all over the city!

 

I love this picture. First, because my friend Joel was being annoying which makes it funny; second, because I’m sitting in a giant Dutch shoe! Dutch culture is so rich and I love it. I’m sitting in a frickin’ giant Dutch shoe. Man, I wanna go back.

 

There’s ducks everywhere! There’s also tulips EVERYWHERE but unfortunately I don’t have a good picture of all the tulips.

 

There’s a playground/park right in the middle of the city with a huge landmark that reads “I Am Amsterdam”. Unfortunately, I don’t have a good photo of the whole thing, so you’ll have to settle for the one with Cooper on the D.

 

I had to show this picture because it’s frickin’ hilarious. We went to a Ben & Jerry’s down one of the pedestrian streets (yes, they have those!) and had these amazing waffles with ice cream.

 

So that’s my first answer.

 

My second answer is far less interesting and there’s no photos to show because I’ve never actually been there. But it is… the East Coast. Pretty vague, but I’ll explain. You know those movies where someone’s running away from something and they end up in a cute little fishing town on East Coast. (Maybe I’m only thinking of Safe Haven, but I swear there’s other movies like that, right?) Anyway, I always thought it’d be cool to live in one of those cute little fishing towns. And there’s just something about the East Coast that appeals to me, especially the Canadian East Coast. It’s a part of our country that no one ever really talks about, nobody from this side of Quebec has really ever been to, and everyone kind of forgets about. I love it. I wanna live there someday… even if it’s just for a little bit.  

 

So there you have it. Notice how neither of these places are in Manitoba? Haha, how on earth did I get stuck here!? (I’m kidding… okay, only a little bit.)

Hair

 

 

Oh hey look! Someone chopped all my hair off!

Revelation

I apologize that I haven't posted anything really significant in a while. Life at Capernwray has really gotten busy. Since, my last post, I've experienced some really interesting things.


On April 28th, I went to my nation's capital, Ottawa! That was pretty exciting for me. Something I could strike off of my bucket list. The day was very enjoyable. The weather was wonderful and sunny. When we got to Ottawa, the girls and I eat our lunch on the grass in front of the Parliament buildings. We laughed and joked around. It was wonderful. Then we went around taking goofy pictures with the statues outside of the buildings. After that, we went for a tour inside the Parliament buildings. The girls and I spend the rest of the day in an outdoor market and checking out the cute little boutiques in the area. We ended off with a very short visit to the Hard Rock Cafe (it was grab and run).

From April 30th - May 4th, all the students went to help out at a Christian camp in Quebec named Camp des Iles. The week consisted of a lot of raking leaves and a lot of hauling out trees from the forest. By the end of the week, we cleared a good section of the forest out so the camp would have more space for the kids to go play. It's amazing how encouraging it is to a camp when you just go there and say, "Hey we're here to work. How can we help you?" The directors of the camp (which happen to be parents of a staff here) were very thankful at the end of the week.

On May 5th, I went on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. I'm not joking though... I did really enjoy the experience, but I don't think I'll ever do it again. I went white-water rafting with a couple of the students. It's impossible to stay in the boat and stay dry. Just sayin'. We signed up for two different excursions, but I only ended up doing one. I'm very glad I didn't do the second one too. Apparently, the boat I was in trashed really badly in the worst part of the second excursion, causing everyone to fall out and struggle for air. Even one of my peers said, "Janessa, I'm glad you didn't come. You probably would've cried." Ha. It's true though.

The chapter of my life called Capernwray Quebec is speedily coming to a close. I only have a week and a half left. There's only a week until my dad and little brother come to visit. I only have one more week of classes. Steve is ending the year off with teaching us on Revelation.

I'm really excited to hear what Steve has to say about the book. I still don't really know how I feel about everything pertaining to that book. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground. People either don't have an opinion about it at all or they have way too much of an opinion on it. I've encountered some people that think their opinion is the absolute truth. That bothers me. Some people get so caught up in all the pictures found in Revelation and some people get so caught up in the way things are gonna go down. People get so caught up in the what, where, when, why, and how that they forget what "the End Times" are actually all about: the Who. The first five words of the book of Revelation state what the whole book is all about: "the revelation of Jesus Christ". I don't know what's going to happen, where it's going to happen, when it's going to happen, why it's going to happen or how it's going to happen. But I do know this: Jesus Christ is coming back!

But until that day, whether or not it happens in my lifetime, I'll be waiting.

From India to Israel

We just finished a super big week at Capernwray Quebec. A big week, filled with all kinds of religious activity. On Wednesday afternoon, we visited a Buddhist temple in Ste. Julienne. On Thursday, we visited a Jewish synagogue (the largest and most prestigous in Montreal), St. Joseph's Oratory (Catholic), and a Muslim Mosque. And on Friday, we visited a Hindu temple and a Sikh temple. The point of visiting these different places of worship was to learn more about their religion.

The Buddhist temple was interesting. It didn't really help that the Buddhist monk there didn't speak English; he spoke the language of Laos and a little bit of French. So I didn't really learn too much from the visit, but I know quite a bit about Buddhism already, so it was okay. While everyone was trying to listen to the French and Laos that was going on, I just scanned the temple. There were so many statues and colourful trees. It was really cool looking, but it just baffled me.

The Jewish synagogue was my second favourite visit out of all of them. The synagogue was so extravagant. It really amazed me. The main hall where they hold their services is HUGE. The rabbi who showed us around was super funny. He was making jokes and stuff all the time. What was really cool was that he pulled out one of the Torah scrolls and sang some of it to us.




St. Joseph's Oratory gave me the heebie-jeebies. I've never really understood a lot of the Catholic religion. This oratory was very much focused on the man that founded it, Brother Andre. We even went into the crypt church beneath it to see his tomb. These two women were praying to this tomb. There were two men praying to this wall as well. Also, Brother Andre's heart was taken from his body and pickled. This I found rather disturbing. Let's just say I was glad to get out of there... I really loved the architecture though.

 The Muslim Mosque was certainly interesting! There was a man there that decided to try to prove to us that Jesus actually never died or rose again. He tried to quote the Bible, but he quoted the Bible wrong. It was kind of unprofessional. But, in turn, I thought that my fellow students weren't very respectful either, not in the Mosque, but after, on the drive home. Some of them felt the need to pick apart everything the guy said about Jesus and put the guy down. It's been two days and they are still talking about it. Just because he was disrespectful toward us doesn't give us the right to be disrespectful to them, including when they aren't present.

The Hindu temple was certainly interesting. Our tour guide was a world religions professor from McGill University (who I suspect, even though he didn't directly reveal it, was a follower of Hinduism). Something I learned about Hindus that I didn't know before: they actually only believe in one god, Sheva (or depending on the denomination, Vishnu). The reason they have so many idols and altars is because their "god" has many different ways of manifesting himself/herself/itself. See, I'm actually learning stuff on this tour!

The Sikh temple was my favourite place actually. The lady that toured us around was super nice and very respectful. I had never heard of this religion before, so I learned a ton. The Sikh religion actually does not care about people converting. Sikhs are actually encouraged to learn about other religions! Their belief is that all religions follow one god and that in the end, we will all be together. So, instead of pressuring people to convert to their religion, Sikhs actually encourage people to seek and follow their own religion. It was a nice change from other religions. Equality is very important to them also. Men and women are completely equal, so are Sikhs and non-Sikhs. Afterward, they also served us lunch. Indian bread, curry lentil soup, yogurt, and homemade chai tea. It was so delicious!

Now, what did I come away with? Honestly, I came away with more of an assurance of my faith. To me, Christianity is sounding more and more like the only thing that makes sense. Now, I don't want to sound conceited or to come across as someone who has "arrived", but I honestly don't feel like it's necessary to bash other religions. Yes, what they believe isn't true, but that doesn't give us merit to bash them. Let's help them. After learning about their religions, let's not make fun of them or put them down, because honestly, how is that representing Christ to them? Even if they don't know about our making fun or bashing, we still know and so does God. I was really bothered by what happened pretty much every day on the way home from these various temples; bashing. God finds them just as valuable as any one of us, even if they don't acknowledge it.

I'm going to end this entry on a lighter note... this is going to sound like deja vu, but guess what happened on Wednesday night while I was doing dishes! I sliced my pointer finger open. It was nothing a little gauze and polysporin couldn't solve, but just thought I'd share.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

I just took a picture of the map my mother and I had for getting to the school. Capernwray is about 6 kms south-east of Chertsey. The church I'm attending is in Rawdon.

I just had to add this picture! My mother and I were driving through a town called St. Espirit, and we were behind this truck that had tons of bags of carrots! It was awesome!

This is this front of the girls dorm! There's about seven available dorm rooms in there, but only four of them are being used right now. 13 girls live here, at the moment.

These lovely ladies are my roommates. On the left with her hands in the air, picture taken at High Point, is Stephanie. She's from Ottawa, Ontario. She's 22. In the second photo, is Yemima and Megan. Yemima is on the left, she's 17, from Terrebonne, Quebec (a suburb of Montreal). Megan is on the right, she's almost 19, from Okotoks, Alberta (I hope I spelt that right).

There are a TON of kids running around the school campus. Steve Thiessen, the director, has 4 kids; Joshua, Anna, Mary, and Timothy. And Matt McLean, the principal, has 4 kids also; Milly, Catherine, Theo, and Adalynne. This picture is of Catherine, she took a walk up to High Point with us.

This is a picture I took of the trees, the first week I arrived. My camera just doesn't do the beauty of Quebec justice. God certainly knew about He was doing, because it's beautiful. Red leaves on the maple trees are so pretty, even if I may be allergic to them.

This is Stephanie and Yemima's half of our room.

And this is my bed. Megan's is above mine, but the camera didn't get it. I know, I know, quite disorganized... I feel not-so-much like a #2 over here, ladies. My stuff is EVERYWHERE lol.

The second snow came last night. The first snow didn't last very long, maybe an hour. But this snow managed to stay overnight. The snow here is interesting... it's little pellets, not flakes.

This is essentially where I live. The building on the left is the main building, with the dining room, fireplace, kitchen, and home-y living room upstairs, and the laundry room, classroom, and student lounge downstairs. The brown building on the top right of the picture is the guy's dorm. There are only 3 guys here this year. Beside the white tree at the right, is the house of Andrew & Lisa, the head maintenance guy and the head cook. Behind Andrew & Lisa's is our girl's dorm.

This blog entry is specifically just for some pictures, because people have asked. I apologize if these pictures are really small. The Internet here can't really handle uploading tons of large pictures. Later on in the weekend, I will post another entry of what God been teaching me this week, and what I've been learning.

Love,
Janessa (: