Pressing Deep Into Scripture - OT Studies with Don Taylor

The Blessings of Biblical Study

Over the past weeks the students have been hard at work with their 3rd course of the year, Old Testament Literature with Professor Don Taylor. This class is an excellent foundational class for the year as it helps cover an entire view of the Old Testament. In the span of one week Don Taylor was able to walk the class through the themes, imagery, prophecy and literature. This is one of the areas that is very beneficial about studying in a modular format. Covering that amount of material in such an intense time period, really helps for some of those 'big picture' connections to be made. 

A Word From Isaiah Moffatt

Again, who better to share about the experience than someone who took it themselves. This week we have one of our students sharing about his experience.

"O.T. Lit. was an awesome class! There was a ton of information to take in (and I definitely don’t remember everything) but it was great to help me understand the big picture of the Old Testament. Most of the time when reading the OT, I used to get lost on the meaning and confused by all the jumping around in stories. Now I feel like I got a pretty good understanding of the small details and culture of that time. The stories I already knew have begun to take on so much more meaning as I see them in the big picture."




"It was pretty cool to see how God hasn’t changed from the Old Testament, and remains the same loving God even now. In most of the lectures we were going through all the stories in O.T. one by one and getting a better understanding of each. My favourite part was reading all the stories with the class and hearing all the questions we had and hearing how even small details changed the meaning.

A lot of questions seemed to point towards the culture of the time and a lot of understanding the Old Testament was actually reached by figuring out the culture.  Don Taylor was an awesome Professor and if I go to Briercrest next year,  I will definitely take one of his classes!"

Huge thanks to Isaiah for sharing his thoughts on the course. We are big on being able to practice what we are learning, but we are also big on making sure we are doing everything we can to learn and study with excellence. It has been so great to watch the students this year rise to the academic challenge and commit themselves to learning all they can.

The program certainly requires students to develop and continue to grow in their skills of personal energy and time management. There is a lot packed into their life and finding the space to do everything to the best of their abilities takes hard work. They just took their exam for this course a couple days ago, and are now focusing on wrapping up their research papers on the course. It has honestly been so cool to see all the students hard at work studying their books. 

Above is a video showing one of the days were the students had an opportunity to go learn in the forest. Not every day of class is like this, but it certainly is a benefit to doing school on the west coast. 

 Excellent Leadership on Display

An awesome project the students worked on for this course was the yearly Old Testament video. Every year for this class the students get together and put their best acting skills to use for doing a dramatic re-telling of the OT events. I personally love seeing this project come together in it's various forms. Each year the students bring their own flair and it's so exciting seeing what they come up with.  

There were three student directors in charge and they had just over a week to start and complete the project. The directors did an amazing job of leading their peers and spreading out the tasks. I have now seen 3 of these videos come together and I can say with confidence this was definitely one of the best team efforts I have seen put into the project. All the editors, script writers, actors, directors, and everyone else was putting in so much work to help pull this thing off. 

We invited the entire Camp Qwanoes staff team to watch the film for the first time on their last day of class. It was definitely very exciting.

Thanks so much for checking in!

I look forward to sharing more with you soon,

Levi Allen,

Searching for Surf - Catching Waves in Tofino

This weeks blog post brings you along with us for our adventures on the west coast of Vancouver Island. It's been a while since I've written to you and the only excuse I dare to offer is… we've been busy making awesome memories together! 

But honestly we have, and this week I am excited to share this post with some photography from our students mixed in, as well as Sarah Groat sharing about what it was like surfing for the first time.

Vancouver Island doesn't offer it all, but it does offer a ton. 

There could not be a more unique place to go to school in Canada, I mean that sincerely. I might have a 'BC born biased' to that statement, but I think most of our students from across the country will agree that they are loving their new island home. Where else in the country can you summit epic mountains one week, only to go surfing a few weeks later. 

On this trip we set out to surf in the most accessible area in Canada, Tofino! This little surf town has a legendary reputation  and the drive from Camp Qwanoes to Tofino certainly only builds the anticipation. 

Above is a quick video showing a portion of our epic drive.

We made a few pit stops along the way. One of the places we visited was called Cathedral Grove and features some of the largest old growth trees on the island. 

Takes quite a few arm lengths to reach around these huge trees. 

We stayed in a community called Uculet which is just 25 or so minutes south of where we went surfing. In Uculet there is a wonderful little Church which graciously let us stay and make our meals at. It was huge blessing that we didn't have to camp in the rain.

The first night on the west coast provided us with an epic sunset that a few of the students got to see. (This picture was taken by Caleb.)

Our first day of surfing started properly with an awesome devo from Andrew at an epic beach just minutes from where we were staying. 

Denver journaling some thoughts during our reflection time.

Definitely no shortage of surfboards

We had some awesome guides from Tofino Surf Adventures, keeping us safe, and showing us the ropes!

Heading to the waves!

The first day of surfing it rained buckets upon buckets. Everyone still had a blast experiencing the surf though.

We surfed two days while filling our evenings with great community time at the Church. Everyone had their go at standing up, and there was definitely a majority that started to develop some strong abilities at catching waves.

Our guides were alongside us the whole time in the water. Giving us tips, encouraging us, and catching waves with us. 

We asked one of the students Sarah Groat to share about her experience surfing and also how the program was going so far.

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I had the incredible opportunity to go surfing for the first time, and overall I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The first day of surfing we had some smaller, more manageable waves that I faced with a fierce determination, never allowing the salt-water in the face to phase me. First thing the following day, I went out deeper where the waves were bigger and next thing I knew, I was being tossed about by waves that were much larger than I expected. The experience taught me about knowing my limits and showed me a tiny glimpse of the raw power of God who spoke the oceans into existence.

I have found the Kaléo program to be a huge learning experience, on more than an academic level.  Through living in community, I have been challenged to learn how to live with integrity; a challenge that I will no doubt be learning and refining for the rest of my life.  It is incredibly encouraging to know that everyone here loves and supports each other and that we will be growing as a community throughout the year.

Sarah Groat,

The entire crew on our last day surfing

I hope you enjoyed catching up on our great times in the ocean. More stories from the Kaleo program coming soon! 

Until next time,

Levi Allen

Kaléo Program Intern

Sailing the Gulf Islands - Life on the Sea

Woah! It's been a while since I've shared what we have been up to and a ton has definitely happened in the past weeks. Before I get ahead of myself into sharing our latest adventure together, here is some pictures from their first class.

The classroom setup and atmosphere lends its self to a conversational style of learning. Dustin Resch especially encouraged this type of environment and it was so excited to see everyone get so excited about learning together. 

The monday directly following their last day of class, we headed out on a highly anticipated adventure on the sea.

This picture was taken by myself during our sailing trip. The boat we were on (pictured above) is called the Pacific Grace, and it is a very similar boat to the famous Canadian fishing Schooner the Bluenose.

Getting our first briefing before boarding our new ocean home.

Learning how to put on the survival suits turned to be more funny than we anticipated. 

Lots of community time aboard the boat together, we definitely grew closer as a group. 

The program we were sailing with is called the Sail and Life Training Society, or SALTS for short. The organization shares similar values as a Christian Non-forprofit and it was so fantastic to share our time together. We spent a lot of time aboard the boat, but we also would take occasional trips to different islands to explore!

Everything is more beautiful from a sail boat. 

Lots of time for reading aboard the boat as the students prepare for their next class. 

We got to see two beautiful Humpback whales

During our time aboard we learned a lot about how to operate the sailboat, but we learned even more from the crew about Christian leadership. They shared with us from their own lives and how we can grow as leaders ourselves.

Thanks for stopping by and seeing some pictures of our time together. I look forward to writing you all again soon. Feel free to comment any questions you may have bellow.

Until next time,

Levi 

Kaléo Program Intern