I have had an amazing time in the Kaleo program these past 8 months. Sadly my journey through the program is coming to a close. However my ministry is not. I have learned so much through this program and I will continue to use what I have learned here in my everyday life. Something that has been a huge help in my spiritual growth would be the ministry aspect of the program. In this program we not only got to take classes and learn a lot academically, but we also got to experience it and put everything we have learned in class into practice. I really enjoyed being able to be stretched in the ministry aspect by trying new things like teaching sunday school, leading in youth group and counselling at retreats. Through out this year I have grown to love helping out in various ministry areas, in fact I loved it so much that I am working here this summer as a senior counsellor. Councelling will give me an opportunity right away to use what I have learned this year and grow even more through that.I am very sad to have to leave this amazing program. However, I know that through this program God has been equipping me for what is yet to come in my life. I do not know what lies ahead for me, but what I do know is that I can trust in the Lord to guide me where I am supposed to go.
I have grown a lot through this program and most of my growth has blossomed out of being stretched and challenged. Some of the challenges that have stretched me and made an impact on my growth would be experiencing life away from home and my family. Being away from home has really challenged me to be independent and take ownership of my faith instead of copying my family. This program has really challenged me to learn more about my faith and find out what I truly believe. Another way that this program has challenged and stretched me is academically. At the beginning of the year I was really stressed with all the homework and long papers that we had to write, and I began to worry if I was ever going to make it through. God really began to work in me through the academics. Because I was stressed God taught me to trust him and give all my worries and stress to him and that he would take care of it. God has a plan for me, of course I still have to work for it but because I trusted in God I no longer had to stress or worry. Papers that I had to write seemed really scary at the beginning of the year but through Derek helping me to understand the proper way to write a paper and trusting in God I found a way to get better and better at my paper writing. I also began to find enjoyment in the papers because they were of topics that I enjoyed and wanted to know more about. It was such a blessing to have this year to dedicate completely to learning about God and I look forward to sharing all that I have learned with others and continuing to learn more as there is always more to learn.
I am going to miss this program a lot but I know that I have to move forward. I am going to Briercrest in the fall. However, I am really going to miss living in a small community like this. Living in a small community allows you to grow closer to people and to have that close bond. The bond that I have between all of the students this year is so strong that I know that no matter how far away we are from each other we will always keep in touch and be there for each other no matter what. Another thing that I am really going to miss is the intentionality of this program to make sure that you grow in your faith and to help you do that. This program was very intentional with helping in your spiritual growth, on every out trip Andrew found some way to make it about God and found something that we can learn on every trip. We also had many group discussions to see where everyone was at in their journey, along with Bible study giving us a chance to dig deeper into scripture in a smaller group. I know that from now on I am going to have to be the one being intentional in my spiritual growth, but I know that this year I have grown strong enough that I can do it. Just because I am not in the program anymore does not mean that I can't use some of the students as accountability partners. Even though some may be far away I know that this will be beneficial for us all. I am very thankful to God for giving me this amazing opportunity and I am looking forward to what he has for me next.
Thank you all for your prayers this year they were much appreciated. Your prayer is powerful!
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