The Far, Far West

Our trip to Esperanza started with an early wake up call. We woke up at 3 a.m., all still half asleep and rushed into the vans to catch the ferry by 6 a.m. It was quite an interesting adventure driving through the scenic roads of British Columbia before we arrived at the docks. Luckily, the cool morning breeze on the ferry was just what we needed to stay awake to witness a beautiful departure and see the morning fog around the mountains. Soon after we went back into the ferry lobby we all collapsed on the ground and fell asleep. Us Outtatowner's seem to crash everywhere we go. 

As we arrived at Esperanza we received a warm welcome from the locals and were quick to make some new friends such as an awesome fellow named Isaac. In the mornings we had classes about the Aboriginal people and we were introduced to talking circles. The guys and girls split up for the talking circles, but everyone agreed that they were an intense way to express what was on our hearts with our peers. In the afternoons, there was work to be done. I thoroughly enjoyed trail blazing as my primary task for the week.  Slashing at ferns and tree branches for hours upon hours soon became a highlight of the week for me since I love the outdoors. One of the trails we helped create led to a beautiful waterfall with a rainbow running through it, such a magical moment. There was some hilarious falls during the trail blazing experience, but nothing like being covered in mud to know that you had an awesome day. 

In our spare time, Isaac took some of us out fishing in the ocean for prawns. For most of us it was our first time in the Pacific Ocean, so most of us decided to jump off the dock. Another common ritual for our free time was carving swords and other weapons in the wood working shop. 

Overall Esperanza was definitely an incredible experience, for me personally it's the farthest West I've ever been. God seemed to really express his never-ending beauty to us this week at Esperanza.

-Joseph Timbury

Esperizzzzanza!

    This past week at Esperanza was certainly unique. Even just getting there was an adventure. It started by leaving camp at 4:00 am in order to catch our ferry. From there we drove across Vancouver Island for hours to get to the other side and then catch another boat to get out to Esperanza. 

We were expecting to roll up our sleeves and do lots of work - which is exactly what we did. The mornings were filled with classes that taught us about the Aboriginal culture, and how its different from our own. Then we spent about four hours each day doing whatever they needed us to. Some of the more prominent jobs were things like log splitting and trail blazing, which was excellent for everyone to get out and chop wood for hours on end (the guys' favourite), as well as cleaning, child care, sorting, and other odds and ends that needed to be done.  I really enjoyed getting outside and being able to serve the people at Esperanza. We quickly adjusted to the frequent rainfall while we worked, and found ways to make it even more enjoyable. Our guys spent most of their free time in the wood shop where they made many different types of swords, knives, and creatures out of wood. It became a social hang out while at work. 

During one of our classes, we participated in something called a "Talking Circle". This is something practiced by the Aboriginal people that we found we really liked. Traditionally, everyone sits in a circle, and the one person holds something from nature; a rock, stick, large leaf, etc. Whoever holds it gets to talk about whatever is on their heart. Everyone in the circle is silent and fully listens to them. Then, when they are completely finished, everyone waves their hands towards themselves in front of their face to say "your story is my story". Sharing with one another helped us express ourselves and grow closer as a group. Not only that, but it forced us to simply listen to each other, without throwing in our own comments right away. For me, this proved to be harder than I thought, but I came to realize that sometimes its far more important to listen than to speak.  

Possibly the most meaningful part of my week however, was being present at a baptism. Our very own Laura Sawatzky made the decision to be baptized during this week. It was beautiful to listen to her life story and watch how God had been working in her life since day one, and eventually laid it on her heart to publicly proclaim her love for Him. The baptism took place in the beach at Esperanza, where we all gathered and watched as Sandy and Laura waded into the icy water, and she soon got baptized. The beach was full of tears and hugs, as Laura came back onto land a changed person. Following her baptism a group of us jumped off the 10 ft pier and into the ocean. As someone who lives in Manitoba, the very idea of going swimming outside in November is mind boggling. I kept thinking about how back home there had already been snow, and we were diving into the ocean.  

I look back on my week at Esperanza and smile. Whether it was doing work for the camp, playing endless hours of Dutch Blitz, eating fresh caught prawns with our new friend Isaac, or learning about First Nations culture, we seemed to really bond as a group and in our ability to work together, regardless of the task or the weather. We were able to give the glory back to God as he gave us the abilities to do each task, and has been with us every single step of the way in our journey so far on Outtatown, and in every aspect of our lives.

-Laura Bernier

Sandy baptizing Laura

double rainbow 

just some of us who took the plunge

Peter, Darren and Reuben being a boy band during our Esperanza Coffee House

Aly and Nadine 

Caving!

Hey everyone!  I just thought you might like to see a few of the pictures we took from our caving adventure in Hope, BC.  We spent the morning crawling around in the dark - an activity that some people just loved and other people really struggled with.  It pushed all of our comfort zones, whether that was discovering just how small of a hole we could crawl through or keeping a fear of small spaces at bay.  

First activity of the day: gearing up - in the coolest coveralls ever!

Second activity: crawling into the caves

Jill & Joseph T

 Third activity: getting lost (without actually getting lost of course)

Stacey, Jim & Blayne

Christine, caver extraordinaire

 Fourth activity: enjoying the scenery (and for some of us, the sunlight)

Nadine & Allison

 Since the caves weren't quite big enough for some 40-odd people to crawl through at the same time, we split into different groups

Christine, Aly, Allison, Sandy, Dan, Laura B

Matt, Blayne, Alyssa, Stacey, Jim, Megan

Darren, Mimi, Nadine, Michael, Britnay, Pete

Raf, Reuben, Steve, Joshua D, Caity, Melissa

 And while the coveralls were great for keeping the dirt off our clothes, they weren't really waterproof... so we ended up with a few wet bottoms...

Kate, Laura B, Megan, Dan, Joshua D, Christine, Aly, Allison

But it was a blast, and definitely worth it.

Sandy

Trust.

Hey Friends and Family of Outtatown

My name is Holly Nolson, I'm a student on Site 2 this year. I have been struggling a lot in the past year with digestive issues. Doctors have no clue what illness I have. It’s very frustrating to be sick and have every test come back negative. I wasn’t even sure if I'd be able to go on Outtatown at all. I learned about the program when I was in grade 9 and I fell in love with it! It was exactly what I was looking for; I knew this was how I wanted to spend the year before I went off to college. 

I was in the process of applying when I started having issues with my health! This was very discouraging but I knew I was meant to do Outtatown, so I kept pressing on with applications etc. I had a rough summer with making final decisions on whether I should do Outtatown even though my health was not stable. I decided, because so many doors had been opened, I must try it! I was very worried about it (shouldn’t have been) but I knew God would bring me through! I stepped out in faith.

I set off for Winnipeg! I had an amazing time meeting new friends and learning a lot through classes as well as the Urban Plunge. I even successfully completed the 4 day canoe trip (which I was extremely nervous about). Around Thanksgiving my health started to decline, I was unable to keep any food down and therefore I became very weak and lost a lot of weight. I kept pressing on, even with 3 hospital visits to get IVs. I wanted to be a part of everything and it was hard because physically I was unable to keep up. After 3 weeks of being sick, it came to a time when we decided I had to step out of the program to get some more medical attention. 

My mom ended up flying out to BC and I spent a week in hospital. We decided as a family that I was not healthy enough to continue in the program for now. I flew home to Ontario on Oct 27th. I have a lot of mixed feelings about this whole situation. I am happy to be home with my family and in a comfortable, stable environment, but I'm very sad about leaving my Outtatown family. I made it half way through the semester and I wouldn’t trade it for the world! I know that God made the way for me to go on Outtatown for a reason and I know that God has brought me home for a reason too (I just don’t know why yet). I am trusting that Gods plan is way bigger then mine and though I can’t see it now I know He has everything under control and good will/has come out of this. I definitely would say I am stronger now that I am going through these health issues and I know God is continuing to strengthen me.
My prayer is God would heal me all up so I would be able to accompany the others to South Africa! 

God bless you all,

Holly Nolson




We all miss Holly tons here on Site and are hoping and praying that things will settle down enough that she can join us for South Africa.  I hope you will all remember Holly in your prayers - we serve a powerful God, who can and does work miracles.  
     - Sandy

Megan, Laura, Holly and Allison rocking the IV scene

Loving Vancouver

So we spent a week in the city of Vancouver.  We got there on the 22nd for a free weekend, when we were able to go around the city to become familiar with it.  We were in Vancouver to do the Urban Plunge - this is our second one on the trip.  I remember on the Saturday of the free weekend, we were in the mall having lunch, and this guy came up to Matt and asked him what he was reading.  Matt replied, "the Bible".  This guy knew some of the bible too.  When he was walking away, I noticed that his pants were dirty and had holes everywhere.  I said: "God, if he needs help, let me know".  Five minutes later I saw him going through the garbage trying to find food.  My first reaction was to get up and ask him if he wanted lunch.  His name is Joel and he loves working on a farm and milking cows.  He plays guitar and keyboard, and his favourite genre is rock.  Over that weekend, God called a lot of us to help some of the homeless.  I thought it was so cool that God used us even before the Urban Plunge started.

There are so many stories that I want to tell, but I don't have the time to share them all.  I would like to end with a man named Steven King.  Kate, Nadine, Darren and I were walking down the East Side of Vancouver and handing out lunches, notes and hugs to people when we met this man who was drunk, high and had lost $300.  We asked if he wanted a hug.  He replied that he was never loved before.  The first hug he got almost made me cry.  I could see in his eyes how much it meant to him.  We decided to have lunch with Steven.  He was starving, so I was glad that we had his favourite sandwich for him.  He read his note and started to cry because no one had ever done that for him.  At the bottom of the note he asked us to read the verse we put on it for him.  He asked us if God loved him at all.  We told him that God loved him so much that he died for him, and then we gave him another hug.  He is a man who desperately needs God's love - if you could pray for him, that'd be great.

Joshua Droogh

Vancouver Urban Plunge - Impact Vancouver

Just over a week ago was our Vancouver Urban Plunge, which was somewhat of a trying week for a lot of us.  It was full of rain, walking and interesting food - which was definitely a new experience for myself.  Although these things stick out in my mind as I write from the dining hall in Esperanza, the day I will remember most from our week in Vancouver is our last one.  I'll be writing about that day and hopefully I can give you a small taste of our experience during the Urban Plunge.

Our last day was a time where we were split into groups of 5 with the instructions: "Do something today that will impact Vancouver", or something to that effect.  My group and I began to come up with some ideas that you may expect to hear with instructions like that, such as garbage clean up and things of that sort.  As we began to walk towards downtown, we discussed the fact that anything we do today probably won't have that big of an impact on the city of Vancouver.  This thought gave way to discussion of what sorts of things may actually impact the city, which, in turn, got us thinking once again about what we should do.  We eventually came up with the idea that we could find our what the people of Vancouver themselves think that their city needs in order for change to come about.  We preferred to make it a general question to start, rather than lead them to things that we think need to change based on what we have seen so far.

We started it off by asking people we saw in the mall downtown, people who looked well off (since we had mostly been around and dealt with people who were less fortunate).  The responses of these people were very surprising to us, mostly because each one was so different than the last.  Their concerns ranged from better Sky Train routes to worries about too many tall building to the obvious problem of poverty in the East Hastings area.

After each of us interviewed a few people, we wanted to take our target class to the extreme.  We ventured next into the high class clothing store Holt Renfrew, in which we attempted to speak to the person highest up in the company, that we wouldn't need to book an appointment to see.  As we were on our way to the store's concierge, we were stopped by a woman and her assistant, who were quite curious as to what we were doing in the store (now keep in mind that a lot of us hadn't showered all week and had been walking in the rain all day).  At this point we all got an overwhelming feeling that we were being looked down upon, something I've never felt before.

It turns out that she was some sort of manager and fairly high up in the company.  Thinking it was the perfect opportunity, we asked if she could sit down and answer a few questions about Vancouver.  She made a phone call and very quickly told us there was nothing she could do for us, then sent us on our way.  After this experience we were all amazed at how similar it was to the cliche representations of upper class or elite people - because I don't think any of us had experienced something like that before.

Our next stop that day was to go get some food.  We went to Tim Hortons and sat to think about where we would go next to interview people.  We decided to keep on going with asking richer-looking people, because we all found it so fascinating.  Upon stepping outside Tim Hortons, we saw a homeless man drawing a few small pictures and we began to talk with him.  We had no intention of interviewing him as we did with the others, nor did we, but rather simply talked to him and learned about him.  We found out that his name was Don and he had worked for Air Canada for 30 years, but fell victim to addictions, which landed him on the streets, where he has been for some time now.  We were all blown away by Don's willingness to open up to us and how genuinely friendly he was, despite the fact that he had no idea who we were.

After that we interviewed a few more people then then headed back to the hostel, where our day ended.  Originally, in my mind, I hadn't expected a whole lot from that day, but it turned out to be the most meaningful for me.  The day made apparent to me the stark contrast of the outlook on life of the rich versus the poor, and how each treats people who are strangers to them.  It also showed me that in many cases, people who are very fortunate - like us - could learn a lot about how to treat others from those who we too often think need to learn from us.

I hope I've been able to give you a small taste of something we have learned from the week in Vancouver, and thanks for reading.

Joseph Sones