Ok.........too much to soak in!

So these past few days have been crazy learning time! Today, Philip Serez spoke to us! Some of you South Texas peeps know Philip from the good ole SOAR days, but for those of you who don't know who he is, he is currently the MBMSI regional mobilizer for eastern Canada. He was a big part of SOAR going down to South Texas for many years.
He spoke to us about our "Identity in Christ." He made us imagine that if we were in a path, and we had to choose 1 out of 2 paths, which one would it be? The 2 paths were "Pleasing God," or "Trusting God." On the pleasing God path, we try to do the religious thing and do things for God, to love Him, to maybe somehow make Him love us more, or be considered more. And the trusting God is about realizing that the reason we are who we are is because of Him, because of grace, because of His unconditional Love for us.....no matter what!
I will write some more later, but just thought I'd update before going to bed. :D
Blessings and Shalom!

A picture of the roommates.....

I really love these girls! They're awesome and we've made some awesome memories already.
My roommate Breanne likes to say this a lot and I think it sums up how we all feel about each other:
"I really like you guys......"

Japan TREK Team 08 and Peru TREK Team 08

I'm going to.......JAPAN!

So we found out this morning where we're going for our assignment, and I'm going to Japan! After much anticipation for a while now, we were relieved to finally find out where we're going for 3 and a half months. I was also appointed "team leader" and I hope to be a good one. All I know is that Jesus is my leader and I'm just following Him! You can see the different names in the picture. We also team pictures today, and I'll get those up as soon as I get them. And I'll be sending out prayer cards in about 2 weeks for those of you that I have a mailing address for. We have to do some research now for Japan. Blessings upon blessings.
"Look at the nations and watch-
and be utterly amazed.
For I [the Lord] am going to do something in your days
that you would not believe,
even if you were told."
-Habakkuk 1:5

Some more pics...

This is a picture of the front view of the MARK Centre. My room is on the other side, and you can see that in the video in the previous post.

Every week we do "work duties" which means that we do what some people would call "chores for the week." But we like to do this with the realization that Christ came to serve others and not to be served, and we try to convey that through everything we do and especially through
work duties. In the picture below, Breanne and Amber-Lee (my roommates) are wrestling on the ground after we were done with work duties, while Laura, Amber (we have 2 Ambers here) and I watch and are entertained.

This is a picture of the front lawn of the MARK Centre after it snowed overnight.

This is a picture of the sunset view from the MARK Centre. The MARK Centre was placed in the middle of Abbotsford and on a hill, so it's always nice to just look around the city.

This is the MARK Centre's Hot Tub. A lot of people have used this a lot, but I still haven't really had the "wanting" to jump in. Mainly because it's usually below freezing outside, and even though the water is nice and hot....it will be ridiculously cold when I get out!

My life @ training video...

This is a video of my roommates, the MARK Centre, and a bit into my life here at training.

IKEA run!!

So today we went to IKEA. IKEA is a huge home furnishings store. It even has it's own restaurant, snack bar, and a whole level of a showroom. The showroom is basically a whole level/story of different furnishings put together to make things look together (hope that made sense). And their snack bar has cheap food like .50 cent hot dogs and huge $1 cinnamon buns.
These past few days my knee has really been bothering me. I injured my knee this summer at Morning Star Ranch by running with someone on my back and then landing on a hyper-extended knee. I tore my PCL and bruised my tibia plateau. My PCL basically healed but there is still some lose cartilage and stuff in there, and I was supposed to get surgery this past October, but because of my grandpa's funeral, it was best for me to put surgery on hold.
So long story short, my knee has been hurting because of doing physical stuff and the cold weather. So, Greg, one of the TREK interns, (who is in the picture) got a wheelchair for me and pushed me around for the 2 hours we were in IKEA. I'm glad they got the wheelchair for me because my knee was seriously killing me. I didn't really feel like I wanted the wheelchair, but I'm really glad I didn't resist.
Please pray that my knee pain/swelling goes down. I need to be smarter as to when to stop and what not, but please pray that it doesn't stop me from doing stuff that I can do. Thanks and blessings!

Worship is...

Today, we were lead in worship by Matt Unruh, TREK alumni and current worship pastor at Grace Point Church in Surrey, BC about 30 minutes away. He co-wrote the worship song "Everlasting" with Bryan Doerkson. Bryan wrote songs like "Come, Now is the Time to Worship" and "You Shine." Matt challenged us with questions like, "What is worship? What was worship back in Bible times? Was worship important during Bible times?" I always love hearing the wisdom of experienced and wise worship leaders. I love being poured into so that I can pour out.
Matt guided us through some of scripture pointing out how important and vital it was to point everything back to the Father.
I even wrote a song! Matt gave us around 20 minutes to write down a story or poem or song that spoke about something that we've experienced. I wrote in song form and will continue to work on the words and then eventually put music to it. I will share the lyrics with you when I have worked on it a little more.
Well, I better start reading and then head to bed. Blessings.

We went "spelunking" today!

Today Blayne Greiner, who some of you know, came to speak to us and brought along about 11 interns. Blayne is kind of like a youth pastor/trainer/mentor/preparer, I don't really know what title he goes by, but he basically works with youth and prepares them and others for ministry. He spoke to us for about an hour or so, and I wrote about a page of notes. The one thing that really spoke to me would have to be when he was talking about passion in life. He encouraged us to think about our lives as adults and think if we want to be passionate adults or not. We all want to be passionate but realizing that our passion comes from God and that we have to continually search for it from Him, is key in our lives.

After Blayne spoke we went "caving" or "spelunking" at a mountain about an hour away from Abbotsford. At first we went through some tunnels that used to be tunnels for rail roads that went through the mountains, but now they are abandoned and people can just walk through them. It was awesome because when we were about to leave the tunnels, we sang How Great Thou Art and some other goofy song that Blayne led and it was a goose bump moment, well, at least How Great was, the other song was just funny. God is so majestic and it is so evident in His nature/creation, which is one of the reasons I love this area.

Breanne, Amber, and Simone, my roommates, wanted me to write something about them on here......so I am. They're cool.......that's it. Just kidding. I've really enjoyed rooming with them. Every night we have our debrief time, and we constantly tell each other that we like each other....well, that's what Breanne says a lot....
But we really all do enjoy being around each otdrtfher and not getting to know anyone else.
just kidding. breanne here... i just thought that a second opinion would be important to this blogamashindig. i just made that up. they all laughed. i dont know why but they think i'm funny and it makes me feel nice inside when they add quotes about me to their journals. but seriously, jesus is the center of the universe here, and we all really like him.
peace.
hugs and dropkicks, breanne. back to you, juanna
(Joanna now: I was going to take that off, the juanna part, but Breanne wants me to keep it up....so I'll leave it)

Anyways, I hope you didn't get confused with my special friend there. I'm going to make some videos to show you all the MARK Centre, my room, people here, and stuff like that. Blessings.

That was fun

So Whistler is a town/mountain apparently. Sometimes I get confused.......some of you know that side of me more than others! Anyway, this weekend was very relaxed and chilled. We left Abbotsford at around 10 a.m. and got to Whistler around 3ish.
We got to the "chalet" (basically a house) that we were staying at and it was packed with snow everywhere. It was fun TREKing through the snow to get into the chalet. And then our van got stuck.....we had to help push it out of the snow....fun times. Then we went into the village of Whistler and had a "team building" exercise. It was basically a scavenger hunt with a "great reward," and my small group won! We each got a $10 gift card to Starbucks.......happy Joanna?......YES!
Then we came back to the chalet, ate, and had some worship and sharing of our life stories. On Saturday we woke up "late" at 8:30 a.m., and had breakfast and some worship. We hung out for a while, then headed back to the village to go shopping. I got some Starbucks (of course) and an "Espresso bomb" from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Store. We headed back to the chalet for dinner and some more worship and more sharing of life stories.
We woke up on Sunday morning and finished cleaning the chalet, and then headed to Whistler Community Church. It was awesome to see how "tight" these people in the church were with each other. And the view coming out of church was amazing. You can see that in the pictures below.
I think my favorite part of this past weekend was the sharing of life stories. I love hearing where people come from and what they've gone through, because it helps me understand them and love them and God even more! We praised God for His amazing faithfulness in all our stories. I feel a lot closer to the people here on TREK. Pray for us as we head into our second week. It's only been one week, but have learned quite a bit, and still have 7 more weeks of training. Blessings.
PICTURE DESCRIPTIONS:
Picture 1: Whistler village sight. Picture 2: The chalet we stayed at. Picture 3: Amber (one of my roommates) on the way to Whistler....the sight is capturing this Mannitoba prairie girl. Picture 4: Some of the mountains around Whistler. Picture 5: An amazing view of the Canadian West Coast.

This weekend....

So this weekend we're headed up to "Whistler." From what I understood, it's kinda like a ski resort/mountain place. I'll find out this weekend and explain when we get back, but that's kinda the idea. So, this South Texican girl is off to a ski resort area.......we'll see how this goes! LOL Oh, that area will also be the home for the Winter Olympics 2010!! Yeah, way cool!
We leave tomorrow morning at 10 am and won't be back until Sunday afternoon. Update you then!

Pictures, maybe videos coming soon...

Once I take some pictures and videos, I'll post them up.

Ok....it's later.

I have some time now. So, training has been really eye-opening for me so far. We've had some really relaxed, learning times. And then we've had the cold, raining, working outside times as well. I've enjoyed getting to know the people here. We are 12 TREKers, only one of them being a guy (please pray for him! LOL). I really look forward to getting to know everyone. The 3 girls that I'm rooming with: Breanne, Amber-Lee and Simone are awesome. I've enjoyed having our "debrief" times every night and getting to know them "at a deeper level."
Arriving here on Sunday, I was filled with many emotions. Some of the emotions where being scared about the unknown and about my knee and back pain hindering the ministry, excited to see what God was going to do with the unknown, joyful that I was following His will, sad that I was leaving friends and family behind. I have to admit that I doubted several times on Sunday if I made the right choice with going on TREK. But on Monday, as Steve Klassen (the founder of TREK and the MARK Centre (where we live throughout training)) was speaking on how God spoke to him one day while he was running a marathon, and a man shouted out "You're looking good 2004, you're looking strong, keep going!" He felt like God was speaking through that stranger, and while Steve said that sentence, I got chills all over my body. I felt like God was saying that to me at that point: "You're looking good Joanna, you're looking strong, keep going!" And that was it. I knew I had made the right choice with coming on TREK. God has spoken to me in so many ways. But I think the most special moment was during worship at Vespers (Tuesday night worship at Columbia Bible College) as I intertwined my fingers I realized that when I've intertwined my fingers with someone else, whether it was family or friend, it was an intimate moment to a certain extent. Those moments were and are special. And I felt Jesus telling me that's all He wanted. To intertwine His fingers with mine. I quickly realized that I make my relationship with Jesus Christ so complicated and He just wants to intertwine His fingers with mine.

To start off...

So, I just got this blog spot and I'm looking forward to keeping everyone posted......later. Just thought I'd put something on here for starters........