Adios, Farewell, Good-bye

Well, even as I type this post my father is driving to Peace River. I am expecting in about an hour from now. Now that the end is here I am very ready to get out of here soon.

Depending on things are looking after he gets here we may leave this afternoon and stop at a hotel along the way for the night. Otherwise we will be leaving first thing tomorrow morning.

I'm looking forward to being back at my home church on Sunday and going for my job interview on Monday. My next post will come from Calgary, Alberta.

No more puddles

Well, last week the temperatures rose and allowed puddles to form in Peace River...the puddles are gone...or where they do remain they are frozen ice. We received another good batch of snow over the weekend. I've got pictures below that I took on Monday.

I'm making a bit of an announcement: I'm moving back to Calgary at the end of this month. After about 10 months in Peace River I am leaving. I've decided to give up my job here and return home to make it possible for me to save up the money I need to go to college in September of 2008. I'm a little disappointed that things didn't work out up here, but there have been many, many positive things over the months I've been here and I am glad that I've had this experience.

PUDDLES!!

Yes, it is true and I'm very, very excited!! There are puddles in Peace River. For the first time in months we have liquid H2O on the ground!! How excited am I? I took a picture!!



I know...it isn't the most beautiful picture...but I don't care...I'm just glad to see flowing water!!

Umm...good news came this week. I received word that I have been pre-accepted to go to The Salvation Army's College for Officer Training in Winnipeg for September 2008. In order to achieve my financial goals for going back to school there will be an employment and residential change coming soon. In all likelihood I'll be headed back to Calgary. I'll let you all know when that might be happening.

Have a good weekend!!

Time for a break...

Well, I finally have a bit of real quality down time. I have worked without a day off since the 14th. With 2 jobs I am working 7 days a week now and I'm still adjusting to the pace of work at Boston Pizza. I must say that I really do enjoy both of my jobs, but I do need a bit of a breather from time to time. So I have this afternoon and tomorrow off (with pay). The Army owed me a bit of time from Christmas, so I'm collecting on some of that today and tomorrow. Hopefully this'll give me that chance to catch up on some school work, cleaning, laundry and (hopefully) some rest.

Earlier this afternoon I was at the dentist getting a couple of fillings...the freezing still hasn't worn off...it is the weirdest sensation. I've never had freezing in my mouth before. The whole experience was decidedly unpleasant, not to mention expensive.

I've been enjoying reading several blogs lately, and one that I have found particularly interesting is that of Graeme Smith, a Salvationist who lives in Latvia (but is from the UK). I'm adding a link to his blog to the sidebar. Check it out, it is definately worth it!

Anyways, I should probably go and do something productive with the time I have.

Take care all!

THe river is FROZEN!!

This first picture was taken yesterday. You can see the steam from the warmer water escaping from between the flowing ice in the middle of the river and the ice that is at the side of the river.

The second was taken about 4:30 this afternoon. The entire rive is now frozen over and none of the ice is flowing rapidly anymore. Any motion that is taking place is imperceivable.

Today the team from The Salvation Army was serving at the Peace River Soup Kitchen. This was just the second day of operation for the Soup Kitchen. Wednesday lunch was cancelled because the pilot light in the furnace went out, and with temperatures below -40 with the windchill, we couldn't operate.

The river is freezing!

It is cold here in Peace River today. After a blizzard last night we reached a high of about -35 celsius with the windchill. The overnight low is forecasted to be -33 without the wind tonight.

SunnyD and lots of it!!

Over the past week I have picked up HUGE quantities of food and toys from various grocery stores and other locations around town. In addition to picking up the food that we ordered for our Christmas Hampers we also received a large quantity of food as a donation from the local IGA - big thanks there!! Lots of toys have been coming in to support the Toys for Tots program as well. It's increadible to see the tangible evidence of people's generosity and caring for those in the community who are less fortunate than themselves!! Way to go Peace River!!

This upcoming week will be the last that we are taking applications for Christmas Hampers, then we just have to finish up putting the boxes together for distribution the following week. I will not be around Peace River on Thursay and Friday as I'm headed for Edmonton.

I have my interview with the Divisional Candidate's Board Friday afternoon. This is one of the final stages of my application for entry into training for Officership in The Salvation Army. I am rather glad that the application process is coming to finality. It's been at least a year since I began filling out my preliminary application. The Territorial Candidate's Board is set to meet early in the New Year, so I'm hoping that I'll have an answer one way or the other soon after that meeting.

Today the Fire Department is manning the Christmas Kettles around town. They're a good bunch of guys and are well known in the community so we're hoping that will have a positive impact on Kettle contributions today.

I am continuing to sit on the local Poverty Action Committee, although that group won't meet again until the new year, but I am now a part of the Community Soup Kitchen Committee as well, representing The Salvation Army. We have been meeting once a week for a couple of weeks now and the committee will meet again on Thursday, although I will be in Edmonton and miss that meeting. We have found a location for the soup kitchen and have set a start date of January 8th or somewhere thereabouts.

Life is very busy right now, but I am thoroughly enjoying myself. I am looking forward to a couple of slower days later in the week when I'm down south in Edmonton, even if I do have the stress of the interview to consider. And I am looking forward to flying out of the Peace River Airport at 11:20am on December 22nd aboard Peace Air flight 708 for 10 days of Christmas holidays.

Those 10 days feature seeing my Grandma Waters for the first time in nearly 2 years, a visit from my friend Myrtle (who was a classmate of mine in Australia), and getting to visit with my good friends in Calgary - possibly for the last time until August (we'll see how things go).

Hopefully I'll get some pictures up in the next day or two...we'll see how things go.

The weekend is here...

Yes, I know it's only Friday morning, but the weekend has arrived (at least for me). I have accumulated my hours for the pay period, and am released until Monday.

This weekend I intend to write an essay, watch a couple of movies, play some Xbox, do a bit of cooking...a very relaxed few days I must say. And then of course Monday is a half-day at work, and I have Tuesday off. Don't worry, I'm not completely slacking off - come Wednesday things pick up again as we start our Christmas Kettles.

Winter continues up here. One thing we don't get is Chinooks - and after 6 years in Calgary I was getting used to those mild spells during the winter. So, while temperatures rise to above zero in Calgary, Peace River is currently sitting at -16 and 50cms or so of snow on the ground. So, we just take a bit longer to get dressed and then go about our business as usual - and don't forget the ice cream or slushie...can't forget those to round out a good ol' fashion Canadian winter.

Last night I went to a community meeting to discuss a establishing a soup kitchen in town. The previous soup kitchen shut down due to personnel/financial/organisational reasons and has not been operating for 6 or 7 months now. The Poverty Action Committee (a local group committed to advocacy and awareness of poverty issues - of which I am a part as a representative of the Salvation Army) has been looking at the issue and called this meeting to try to bring community members together to try to look at solutions to this problem - while hoping to bring great awareness to the need for a living wage and increased affordable housing. About 35 people attended, including the Mayor, several well-to-do local business people, church representatives, the press, and concerned members of the community. The response was very encouraging! The Poverty Action Committee will be meeting again on Tuesday (a day off for me - but I'll be there) and we'll discuss the feedback each of us received and look at pulling together those who indicated they were willing to be involved in this to get the ball rolling - and fast!!

Well, it's time that I should get to work and write an essay. Take care all!!

A few pics.

Here are a few picutres from the Salvation Army Community & Family Services Centre in Peace River. I spent 6 hours on Friday decorating for Christmas. Today we started taking applications for Christmas Hampers.

This morning I saw the first 7 of the close to 200 clients we expect to see during the Christmas season. We will take Hamper applications up until December 14. Christmas Dinner Hampers will be picked up by clients during the week before Christmas.

One year as a SFYL Graduate

It was about one year ago that I stood on the platform of Eastlakes Corps in New South Wales, Australia with my 7 classmates and received my Certificate IV in Salvation Army Youth Ministry from the Salvation Army's School for Youth Leadership. Already, the SFYL class of 2006 has stood before attendees in Sydney, NSW, Australia to receive their certificates, ending their nine months at the school.

So, what has been accomplished in the 365 days that have passed? Have any of those days been wasted? Have I learned anything, matured at all or made any sort of a mark on those I've come into contact with?

At SFYL the staff undertook to show us how to live our lives as "agents of positive change." People who lead the way to making a difference in our world by living Kingdom lives. My father also recently wrote a post titled "Living Without Regret" - Have I?

So, I'm going back a year in my memories - what has happened? After returning from Australia I spent two weeks resting and re-acquanting myself with Calgary, my family and my friends. I quickly became bored without much to do so I took a job at Staples Business Depot as a Night Stock Associate. This was one of my longer lasting jobs during my pre-Peace River months, I think I kept it for almost two months. I did do my best at the job, and did quickly earn a reputation as good, hard, dilligent worker - but it just wasn't a good fit for me.

After leaving that job I took a job with Bridgebrand, a food food-services distributor, again on the night shift as a "picker." I really enjoyed working for Bridgebrand and the job wasn't bad either. The pay was good, the company took two full weeks to train me, one week during the day learning how to operate the equipment, read labels, etc. And another week at night completing more training, including proper living habits for night shift workers and then picking orders with my own private trainer who I observed and then who followed me to make sure I was doing okay. I didn't last long after that though. I was put on 4 - 10 hour shifts, which wasn't so bad, but because of a labour shortage (as felt throughout the province of Alberta) we didn't have enough pickers, and 10 hour shifts quickly turned into 12 hour shifts. There was also very little personal interaction as chatting among pickers while working was discouraged (for the sake of speed and accuracy). I couldn't handle it all and I quit after about a month working there. I wasn't know so much as a good worker there as I had high picking errors and a slow picking speed, but I had developed a reputation as punctual, friendly and easy to get along with.

I then took a job working for Leon's Furniture. I was finally working during the day, and no longer doing labour work. No heavy lifting in this job - I was a Front Office Clerk/Data Entry worker. In other words I was a cashier who did some basic filing and data entry when there weren't many customers around. I had great co-workers and generally enjoyed my job. This was the cleanest job I've ever had in my life, and most of the time the pace was pretty relaxed. It didn't pay as well as some of my other jobs, but I did enjoy it quite a bit. I probably would have stayed there for quite a bit longer if I hadn't taken the job i have now. At that job I was known as punctual, hard working, friendly, and a good customer service worker. I was also recognised as having strong beliefs and as someone who has a strong faith. I often impressed my supervisors, and when I did make errors I was quick to try to learn from them and rarely repeated the mistake. A co-worker and I were both very hard workers and were quickly setting new levels of expectation for serving our customers and getting paper work done quickly and effeciently. My plan in that job had been to work there until September when I had intend to attend SAIT where I had been offered a seat in a two year program there. I had intend to work part-time for Leon's while studying. I left that job and turned down my seat at SAIT to take another job - the one I currently am in.


In May I moved 8 hours north of Calgary to Peace River to take a position working for the Salvation Army. As the Community Ministries Worker I took over responsibility for the Community & Family Services Centre, including a food bank and other social assistance services; the Salvation Army's local Emergency Disaster Services; and the Christmas Campaign, including Hampers, Kettles, Coats for Kids and Toys for Tots. I arrived to a situation that was generally disorganised, with only very broad guidance on most day-to-day operations. Since arriving the process of creating written policies and procedures to guide all of our CFS operations has begun, the centre has been organised and a large amount of the stored waste has been disgarded. A cleaner, more friendly client space has been created by opening up the space some more and giving greater attention to maintaining cleanliness. In conjunction with the corps, a mid-week Kids' Church has begun on Wednesdays. An effort to better understand the needs of our community, as well as how the community sees us has also been undertaken so that we can look at ways to increase and improve our services.

I have made many mistakes in this new experience - some of them rather serious. I have lost my temper on several occassions, usually with my superiors. I have also disregarded policies (which I wrote) leading to some problems. I have made quick decisions that were not necessarily for the best. But I recognise those things, and am trying to learn from them. At times I have been ready to give up and go back to Calgary, but I am still here and am learning how to deal with those things that are real struggles for me in more effective and productive ways.

So, those are the things that I have undertaken for employment (and generally these make up most of my life, especially here in Peace River). In my personal life, the largest journey that I've made in the past year is in my calling to Officership. When I returned from Australia I began the application process for entry to the College for Officer Training. I had intended at that time to enter training in September 2006, which has now passed (and you might have noticed that I'm not living in Winnipeg at the College). After completing the preliminary step I decided to delay proceeding with that application for the time being. I recognised that I could not meet my goal financially. I also realised that I wanted to gain some hands on experience in ministry.


My initial hope was to move to Thunder Bay and participate in a "Pastoral Apprenticeship" at Redwood Park Church. They take on young people who intend to enter full-time vocational ministry, giving them experience, training and mentoring in pastoral work, as well as part-time studies through Briercrest Distance Learning. I had been corresponding with the sr. pastor there for a while and saw this a good possibility to pursue. I soon learned that the church had decided not to take on apprentices in the fall of 2006 because they intended to use those funds to hire another pastoral staff member. So, I asked for written information on the program and using that formulated a proposal for a modified concept within the Salvation Army. I then sent that to Divisional Headquarters in Edmonton.

They didn't quite adopt what I had suggested, but they did suggest that I consider a position here in Peace River, which I eventually took. I moved here with the intent of gaining the experience of hands on work in a small town, learning more about Salvation Army operations (particularly in this type of setting) and also benefitting from the experience of the Officers here.

I have resumed the application process for entering the College for Officer Training, and intend to remain here until that is complete and, if accepted, I am ready to move to Winnipeg, Manitoba.

So back, to my initial questions. I think that I have been somewhat successful in my mission as an agent of positive change. I know that I have made mistakes - but who hasn't? I am trying to learn from those things. I am making an effort to be intentional in what I chose to say and do. And I'm trying to do the best I can to be used to impact the people I come in contact with. Living with regrets? Not now, not ever!