This past weekend I had the opportunity to spend my time outside in Sundre at Pioneer Ranch Camp instead of inside cooped up in Edmonton doing school work. It was great, I looked forward to it for a solid 3 weeks after getting back into Canada and while there I soaked up every ounce of the weekend. Jenna sometimes says this phrase that I think is super dumb, she’ll say someone’s “in his glory”. I guess I’m a bit quicker to refer to such a situation as someone “feeling like they’re king sh!t”. But I guess maybe the english language is supposed to operate with a wider range of words. It’s really Jenna’s phrase that described the weekend, not mine. We had amazing people leading us in times of reflection, got to study a passage of scripture with 50 people, got to learn the ins and outs of soaring from Micheal, got to skate on a pond in the light of a 20 foot bonfire, got to go for a star lit walk with some of my best friends in the whole world, and even managed to beat Cayley’s team during a wide-game (This is a rarer occurrence than you might think).

I guess figuring out why “camp” situations are so likely result in “in your glory” situations than everyday life is something I should have figured out by now, having spent so much of my time in those situations. It wasn’t until this past Thursday that I got a better idea of it though. I wouldn’t say I know the answer all of a sudden, but I have a better idea. Neil’s quote from Thursday was great:

• “Will Woods, Ryan Lemphers and all those guys. I think they’re so great that I would jump down a well, break my legs, and just hang out with them”
  –Jan 31, 2008

I would add to that list a few people or subtract a few, depending on where you are: Aaron Jansen, Colin (Elwood Blues) or Luke (Fred) just to name a few. Soaking up what life’s got to offer happens when you’re doing it with some people who have got an idea of what it means to live life.

The IVCF leadership team (minus Lilia) took off to Rocky Mtn House this past weekend to spend some time on the North Saskatchewan River getting to catch up with one another, do some planning for the next school year, and also to beef up on canoe skills.

Our trip was around 80 river kilometers, 6 hours the first day fron Saunders to the Devil’s Elbow where we camped overnight and then 4 hours the next day from Devils Elbow down into town in Rocky. An odd number of canoeists meant that there was a boat to Solo down the river all weekend. We took Ryan Lempers’ play boat along which proved to be a challenge but certainly an entertaining one. Steve and I spent the most time in there which was kinda odd because it’s not built for anyone close to 6 foot 5 inches tall. Some fun was had on Fishers where I ran the big ledge and climbed out of a curler that was about as tall as I was when kneeling in the boat.

Coming only 1 weekend before the big race it probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do but I brought my bike along and went for a 60km 6 km brick at 6 in the morning on Friday. I felt quite good on the bike so early in the morning which is a good sign, I haven’t had a ton of early morning workouts this season.

Making shirts for Intervarsity week of welcome at the university. Partly for fun and partly so people know who to talk with when they’re cruising around the butterdome.

I had to learn Illustrator to make these… It’s certainly a useful skill in my mind.

After a bit of an overwhelming last semester that proved extremely un-conducive to a rigorous training schedule I’m finally getting a chance to easy myself back into it. Short runs right now; partly because it’s minus 25*C outside, partly because it’s stinking slippery out there but mostly because I’m not in any great shape to be throwing down a ten miler every other day!

Getting back into the swimming groove has been tough, I feel like I’m putting in all my mental effort to get an even kick and can’t even keep it symmetric. I just love hitting the pool though, I really missed it.

Last semester taught me something, the opportunity to find time for a 10 workout/week training schedule last summer was an amazing blessing! It was good to be called into a higher level of commitment than I had anticipated with InterVarsity. It was good to have my schedule dictated for me essentially hour by hour. It was good for me to see my run times decay over the course of the Wednesday night XC series. It may have even been alright for me to loose 16 cm of circumference from my thighs.

I really learned that the chance to dictate what I do with my time is a blessing. I feel like this semester has given me a bit more control over those sorts of things. I’m not jumping back into a 10 workout/week schedule until May, but even when I do I’ll have a greater perspective on how lucky I am to be able to hammer down Saskachewan drive at 40 kph.

So it’s nearing three full days of being stuck in my head… here goes

Multiply Your Love Andy Park

Multiply Your love through us
To the lost and the least
Let us be Your healing hands
Your instruments of peace

May our single purpose be
To imitate Your life
Through our simple words and deeds
Let love be multiplied

Multiply Your love through me
To someone in need
Help me Lord to freely give
This grace that I’ve received

Let my single purpose be
To imitate Your life
Through my simple words and deeds
Let love be multiplied

Let us see Your kingdom come
To the poor and broken ones
Let us see a mighty flood
Of justice and mercy, O Jesus
Let love be multiplied
Let love be multiplied

Multiply Your church through us
To the ends of the Earth
Where there’s only barrenness
Let us see new birth

Use us as Your laborers
Working side by side
Let us see your harvest come
Let love be multiplied

After spending Engineering week doing a grand total of zero hours of homework it was only natural to up the ante and take another entire weekend away from Physics and Math to spend time with great people out in God’s creation.

Intervarsity Christian Fellowship held its annual winter camp this year at Pioneer Lodge just 15 km from Sundre. Some highligh photos of the weekend made it into this gallery. We were treated to amazing weather and blue skies and starry nights, perfect for having ridiculously large bonfires and sleeping under the stars.

The topic of discussion for the weekend revolved around love. Now if you were to pick a topic for discussion to be as cliche as possible, you might choose to talk about love. If you were going to pick a topic to be as powerful as possible you might also choose to talk about love, it’s not a completely hokey idea. Jesus sums up “The Law” (Torah) and the Prophets (The rest of the old testament) in two sentences. It’s no coincidence that both of those sentences have the instruction to love.

So the teaching was sweet but just being together in a super low stress atmosphere was way better. I’ll go for a 4 km run for 40 minutes anytime, I can’t get enough of being with these people.