Life slowing down

There is not a whole lot to report these days - life has slowed RIGHT down and I love it!! We have now officially started our internships which is interesting! So far things have been pretty easy and straight forward - we had a guest group come in today (Adult Fall Adventure) so we have been cleaning like mad trying to get ready! Jon and I are using the program office as our office - right now its cold and pretty boring so we are going to think of ways to spice it up!! We are enjoying the quieter life, and just being able to spend time together. We threw an LIT wind-up party on Saturday at Tim and Lois' house with all the LIT's (more to come on that later!) which was lots of fun. We also had our first leaders meeting at Parksville Baptist last wednesday and we are SOO excited to start being youth leaders out there. Kick-Off is this coming wednesday!! We also went to our first church service out at Parksville and we really really enjoyed it. Its still hard to not be a part of the Gathering - we miss Kevin Fawcett as our Pastor! - but this seems like it will be a really good fit for us. I also have started my 12 Week Transformation Program and I feel REALLY good about it. Jon is doing the eating part of it with me, and we are having lots of fun experimenting with new, HEALTHY foods! He is still the head cook in this family, and he does such a good job at it :) The work-out side of it is hard, but that is how it should be right? Overall, we are enjoying a quieter life, and getting much needed rest. Even Jake seems to have calmed down a bit and is not so crazy anymore! haha We will see how long that lasts! 5 more days until we leave for MEXICO! YAY!

More Sept. Long!

I just received some more pictures from Sept. Long Weekend that Luke and Care took and I wanted to put them up because they were really great!!!

Makenna and Uncle Jon - they actually kind of look alike!

Me and Care ready for the boat ride!
Kenna helping me make a salad - what a good helper she is!!

I think this is one of the most precious pictures ever - Luke is such an incredible Dad!!

Love you guys!!!

Sept. Long Weekend

This past weekend was September Long Weekend - our first one out here in BC! On friday night the camp cleared out, and we woke up to a very empty place on saturday! Then saturday afternoon Luke, Carolyn and Makenna came out to visit for a few days! It was a WONDERFUL weekend full of laughs, good chats, playing, and just quality bonding time together :) Being with the three of them was so good for Jon and I! They make us feel loved, and remind us why being out on the coast is so awesome!

Makenna and Auntie Mel - honestly, being an auntie is the best thing in the entire world. I LOVE LOVE LOVE being able to play with her, and just laughing and being silly. She is such a great little girl!

We went out BMXing (well I played on the side with Makenna while the rest of them rode the BMX track). Here they are about to start their race!
Even Makenna got a chance to try on a helmet and sit on the bike! Youngest rider ever haha!

We went paddleing on the water - Jon and I in a canoe...

....while Jake swam beside us! This funny dog swam the WHOLE way around the lake for the 35 minutes we were in the water - I was so stressed out, thinking he was going to drown! Apparently he's a great swimmer!

Luke and Care took Kenna out in a rowboat! What a beautiful family they are!

The next day we went out boating - Makenna LOVED the boat. We sat at the front of the boat and she watched the waves until a huge one came crashing into the boat and I had to save us from getting soaked (she stayed dry, I definately did not)

We spent a lot of time playing games - that is what we usually do when we are with them, because Care and I are such gamers and our loving husbands like to make us happy! This is them playing "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader"

It was a very refreshing weekend, full of rest and just hanging out. I hope the weekend in our little cabin in the woods was a restful getaway for them, and I cant wait until the next time! We love you guys, SO MUCH!

Staff Wind-Up Party

Our staff all had a fun night on friday night to celebrate the end of a great summer. It was lots of fun, full of delicious food (a BBQ down by the lake!), boating, and we even got quad rides!

Me and Theresa - a girl from Germany who volunteered all summer and is super awesome!

Typical Mel and Sharon - hanging out together, huddled under a blanket! :)
I love this man!

Marika and Jacob having fun on the boat - Jacob was upset because I wouldn't go tubing with him and neither would Jon- TOO COLD! But we made it up to him by letting him sleep over in our spare room that night.

Me and beautiful Marika. I am going to miss this girl A LOT! She kept me sane :)

We ended the night with Marika getting a ride with Vicki on her quad...

....while Natasha and I rode double on the back of Sharon's!

It was a fun night! Now summer is over, and summer staff is gone - it is very quiet around here!

Missing Caronport

Last night I was on facebook before I went to bed, and my homepage was FULL of status updates and new photos of the new school year about to begin in Caronport. It made my heart squeeze and I closed the computer quickly and went to bed and layed down and cried. It is SO hard to see how happy everyone is to be back, when I am so far away and just want to be there. I miss my apartment that we had decorated so cute (our first home together!) and I miss having my best friend in the entire world 30 feet away, and all I had to do was run out my front door and cross the street and I would be in her room. I miss going to a church where I knew everyone and the pastor was a good friend and mentor of mine. I miss going to dinner every tuesday with a family that loves us, and babysitting for the girls that we adore! I miss going to classes and having my mind opened, and going to chapel and being challenged. I miss Youth Quake, and being involved with such a great event, and all the work days, and my team. I just miss the quirkiness of a crazy small town where pedestrians always have the right away, even if they are walking down the middle of the road. I even miss Jon having all the "boys" over to wach canucks games while I baked them cookies in the kitchen. I miss playing games with our other "married" couple friends! I even miss the three hour drive to Medicine Hat, because three hours (which always seemed like such a long, boring drive) is close enough to go home to my mom when I needed her, or when she needed me. Basically, I miss the place that was our home for so many years. I miss being so close to people who love me and know what I'm talking about when I say the name "Leismeister" (how weird that there are people who look at me blankly when I say it!). I just miss having a home that feels homey and comfortable - even my mom just moved houses, and its weird to think that even if I went "home" to medicine hat, I would have NO idea where home is, because its somewhere I have never been. I just feel a bit out of sorts, and like maybe I don't really have anywhere to belong.

BC is slowly starting to feel like home - the other day we went on a MASSIVE shopping trip and filled our fridge and cupboards with food for the first time! (camp until now has been paying for our food, because we were on summer staff). Having our own food makes our house feel like a home. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE being so close Lampard's (luke, care and makenna are here for the long weekend, and it is so wonderful to be close enough to have them!), but we are still an hour and half away from them. We live in the middle of nowhere, and now that camp is over, its so deserted! I know its just a learning curve, and an adjustment, but for this moment right now, I wish I was in a place that is comforting and feels like home, than in a new place where we are starting over!!

But I know that with time, my achiness to be there will fade, and I will come to love this home just as much. I also know that wherever Jon is is where my home is and as long as we are together, I can live anywhere! Time heals all things, right?

Changes

"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The JOY OF LIFE comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun"
- Chris McCandless

I read this and LOVED LOVED LOVED it. I live a secure life, and I always think I know what is going to happen tomorrow, because I have already planned it out. I know I can't put too much weight into Chris McCandless's words, because he went out on an adventure and ended up starving himself to death - but I still think that he had lots of widsom when he wrote these words. He was not afraid to go to Alaska and experience something new - he did not let life hold him back. That is how I want Jon and I to live - as though we are experiencing each day as a new one, and that are living to the fullest, and not being held back. We always talk about one day living in a Muslim country, and doing missions - but deep down, despite the fact that I know JOn really wants to go, I know that it would be a hard sell for me, because who wants to leave the life they know for one they don't? However, I want to be OPPPPENNN to new opportunities, and just new adventures!! Something small, but still a step is that Jon and I both applied to be Youth Leaders at Parksville Baptist Church with the senior high group. I agonized over this decision - is it crazy to serve at a church an hour and a half away? Are we too committed to other things to really do a good job? But when we realized that both of us really wanted to do it, we just committed to it, and now it starts next week and I am so excited! I just hope that we can really learn what is means to live a life that is freefalling and not afraid. We are both too crazy and full of life to be held back by the silly little things we let get in the way!

Lucas' Baptism Day!

Today something really exciting happened - Lucas Allen, one of our LIT's this summer, got baptized!!! Lucas was with us for training week, and than LITed the first 6 weeks of summer, then cabin led the next two weeks, and is now out here as a camper for the last week! The willingness this guy has to serve is amazing!! We had such a sweet chance this summer to really watch Lucas grow, and we were so proud of him today!!!! He is one incredible person, and a really great leader - we really love him! Him and 6 other people got baptized in the lake here at camp!! I LOVE LOVE LOVE baptisms, they make me so emotional and happy! Being able to watch Lucas make this proclamation was really sweet. Here are some pics from the day!:

Jon with some of our amazing LIT girls before the service started! Natasha and Marika are LIT's still this week, but Bo came just for the day, and Heather and Ava are campers this week!

AWWWWW!!!!! These three are AMAZING!!!!!

The whole camp gathered around the beach just before the baptisms started

Lucas proclaming his Faith
All wet afterwards, but very happy!!

Everyone crowding around afterwards to pray for the 7 who got baptized

A group of us with Lucas! What a family we all are! Love you guys!!!

Lampard Family Reunion

Tim and Lois had a Lampard get together last week with Tim's siblings (all but one was there) and all the cousins - they have decided that every year on Tim's mom birthday we are all going to come together and celebrate and have a mini reunion. We were really happy that we were able to get time off from camp and go! Here are some pics of our immediate family that I took that night.

Jon and Aimee giving each other some love - Aimee is allowing it to happen because Jon for once isn't smacking her butt!!! haha

These two are just the best of friends - Jon loves that we now live so close so that him and Luke can see each other more regularily!!! Calea looking as beautiful as always!!

I LOVE this picture of Luke and Care- such a sweet moment that I managed to get a picture of!

Jon, Makenna and Jake playing outside on the grass - it made our day that day when we walked into the backyard and she right away started laughing and clapping and came running over to us!

Our DELICIOUS desserts that we spent a LOT of time picking - there were many options! I think this pic is the essence of care and I - craaaaazy! We always seem to laugh lots together and have such a good time! I love this girl :)

Cutest little girl I have ever seen!

Us girls chillin on the steps in the backyard!! Being a part of this family just makes me so happy - what a lucky girl I am!!!

Ministry Quote

This hangs on our fridge and is an incredible reminder of what ministry is! I think it is something that everyone involved in ministry should read and remember! SOO GOOD and FULL of truth!!!! I love it. Best quote ever!:

"Ministry is GIVING when you feel like keeping, PRAYING FOR OTHERS when you need to be prayed for, FEEDING OTHERS when your own soul is hungry, LIVING TRUTH BEFORE PEOPLE even when your own hurt can't be spoken, KEEPING YOUR WORD word even when it is not convenient, it is BEING FAITHFUL when your flesh wants to run away"