"I love you, Becker!"

2007-04-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

2007-03-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

Q: My childbirth instructor says it's not pain I'll feel during labor, but pressure. Is she right?
A: Yes, in the same way that a tornado might be called an air current.

2007-03-01T16:50:00.000-08:00

EGYPT!!
Well I've gone and I've returned from the land of pyramids, desert and mummies. Fortunately, I only saw the firsts two and no mummies at all. I should think mummies wouldn't smell too pleasant. Anyway, I had a great time. It was awesome being able to spend twelve days with eight people that I get along with so well. Talk about a bonding experience. Even today, now that we're back, we're still close. We were all piled on one big arm chair today getting caught up even though we've only been back for three days! We spent most of our time with the sweetest, cutest little Sudanese kids, teaching them English, doing crafts and playing games. I wanted to bring them home with me!

We also spent a lot of time visiting Sudanese church plants and it was incredible to worship with these people. A few months before heading off to Egypt, I was at a Beggar's Feast--a worship night put on by my school-- and we were singing, "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom," and it had really struck me and stuck with me as I prepared for Egypt. In Egypt, it is illegal for Muslims to convert and I guess it had struck me that without Christ they don't have freedom, so the contrast between the Sudanese, who despite being aliens in a foreign country where they're discriminated against, and yet they're so full of joy and faith and freedom, and the Egyptians who work so hard to please Allah, although it's a futile road, was striking. So it was amazing to worship with these people, who could step out of their pain and suffering and rejoice with every part of their being was incredible, and I hope that even the smallest bit of their faith and passion rubbed off on me.

And so, since I have two midterms tomorrow, I've gotta split! Please feed Garfunkle on your way out! Thanks!

2007-02-06T20:07:00.000-08:00

An Unusually Fabulous Day!
For the past couple of mornings, I've been waking up at five o'clock, for reasons unknown to me. Generally, I roll over and go back to sleep for a few more hours before facing the morning, but today was different. As I was rolling back over to return to the bliss of sleep, I felt God whisper in my ear, "Come spend time with me." So after a few minutes of fighting the temptation to ignore Him and go back to sleep, I dug around in the dark for my bible and my glasses and stumbled over to our prayer room where I spent the next couple hours just enjoying how fabulous God is. Can't beat that kind of start to a day.
The rest of the day was full of unexpected surprises such as lunch with Leslie, my roomie from last year. We went out for Chinese and although we wanted the four dollar take out lunch special we wanted to stay in the little restaurant and chat so they put us in this random little room by the door. We felt a little like we were quarantined or not fit to sit with everyone else, but after laughing and making jokes, we had a great time chatting. My fortune cookie was even somewhat relevant even though I don't place any value on these fortunes. Just a fun little coincidence.
Then, excitingly enough my Child Development class was cancelled and I ended up getting to spend time with Lealla. We went out for chai lattes--but they were out of chai lattes which was about the only low point of my day, and it can hardly be considered low. We then ventured into the library, a place I usually avoid as much as possible. We found some great books for our Child Development class, and as we both squatted down to view the lower shelves of books, she knocked me off balance and I fell backwards, sprawling out across the aisle... is anyone surprised?
Well, eight days till Egypt...there's lots to be done, so I should probably get back to my homework!

2006-12-23T18:48:00.000-08:00

Christmas banquet, stressful exams and finally...Christmas break!

The Christmas banquet was great. All the girls got together to get all dolled up and then me and my hot date, Lealla, were humiliated because we came in second for who asked who most creatively, but fun not matter what. We had a great time taking pictures and eating chocolate. What more can you ask for? Okay, real dates maybe...but whatever.
So glad exams are over. I had five and the last one was unbelieveably painful. My brain hurt for a day afterward. My last day of work for the year was also quite great. Some guys in the office set up a minigolf course and I spent the last hour and a half munching on chooclate covered pretzels and playing minigolf...I lost, but had a great time nonetheless.
Break has been good so far. A couple friendly gatherings and sleeping in have been quite heavenly, and I look forward to many more over the next three weeks! Merry Christmas everyone!

2006-11-27T19:59:00.000-08:00

Why, oh why Oh Canada? My monologue on just how insanely cold it is in this country! Today, I just about died of cold, which maybe is a little too light of a way to use that phrase considering several homeless people have died from the cold in the past two days, so instead I shall say that the cold is unbearable. In order to survive today I wore:
-two pairs of pants
-knee high socks and regular socks
-a tank top
-a short sleeve (how doyou spell that??) shirt
-a long sleeved sweater
-scarf
-touque (beanie for you Americans)
-winter boots
-winter jacket which I hate with an incredible passion. I only wear it when absolutely necessary.
With all these layers I was still cold. I have a headache from the cold, in fact. Yesterday, a bunch of stood at a bus stop for 20-30 minutes to head off to our Egypt meeting before usurping our leader's orders and calling him and telling him that he should drive down to where we were and promptly relocated to a team member's apartment that had a glorious fire place. He made us hot chocolate--he was my hero that day-- and I sat as close to the fire as possible and it took, seriously, more than half an hour to feel fully warm.
I put forth that America needs to give up it's phrase, "The land of the brave" because true bravery is living year after year in this iceberg we call Canada!

2006-11-19T13:37:00.000-08:00

EGYPT BOUND!!!
As part of the Miss Exec at my school, we've planned a missions trip to Egypt to work with Sudanese Refugee children by teaching English, music, sports and anything else that we have to offer. We're also raising money to support their lunch program for a semester. And most exciting to me is that.... I'm going!! I'm totally pumped for this opportunity to travel to a land of history! And secondly, as I consider working overseas, maybe north Africa, I think this is just such an amazing opportunity to check it out. Although I grew up overseas, I've never been on a trip like this before and I'm so excited to get on with it! So yeah! There's seven or eight of us going on this trip and I know we'd all appreciate your prayer as we prepare for this trip and while we're over there ministering. The trip is from Feb 16-27. Keep checking my blog for updates! YEAH EGYPT!!

2006-11-01T22:40:00.000-08:00

Best Floor Meeting Ever!!!
I headed off to floor meeting tonight a little begrudgingly. Chris had come over for tea and we had to gulp it down because of floor meeting, however, we get to floor meeting and our RA announces that we'll be getting into our prayer groups, then we'll get assigned to a location where we will meet up with prayer groups from other floors. Ours was outside...I wasn't thrilled about that. So we bundled up and went out to the parking lot where we joined up with people from every other floor in Res and together we prayed through a whole list of prayer requests. It was so incredibly awesome.... and it gets better!
After praying through the list, we all went back inside to the underground parkade where all of Res got into a big circle, sang worship songs and served one another communion. Talk about bonding and unity and communing with one another. It was mind blowing!! I left with a completely different outlook and attitude. And so powerful to say to another person, "His is Christ's body, broken for you!"
One of the songs we sang, I've heard many times and have loved it. I own the CD. I've song along with it countless times but tonight the words really resonated with my heart, and the impact was huge, so I'll share them with you.

In Christ alone my hope is found

He is my light, my strength, my song

This Cornerstone, this solid ground

Firm through the fiercest drought and storm

What heights of love, what depths of peace

When fears are stilled, when strivings cease

My Comforter, my All in All

Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh

Fullness of God in helpless babe

This gift of love and righteousness

Scorned by the ones He came to save

'Till on that cross as Jesus died

The wrath of God was satisfied

For every sin on Him was laid

Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay

Light of the world by darkness slain

Then bursting forth in glorious Day

Up from the grave He rose again

And as He stands in victory

Sin's curse has lost it's grip on me

For I am His and He is mine

Brought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death

This is the power of Christ in me

From life's first cry to final breath

Jesus commands my destiny

No power of hell, no scheme of man

Can ever pluck me from His hand

'Till He returns or calls me home

Here in the power of Christ I'll stand

2006-10-26T18:21:00.000-07:00

She's getting so big! She can stand!

2006-10-19T18:18:00.000-07:00

Beat up in Biology huh? What was that? Yup, I was beat up in biology. You don't usually go to class expecting to be assulted but sadly that was my fate yesterday. It all happened when our teacher announced that we would be playing Cranium to review for our midterm tomorrow... yes, I am currently attending university, not grade seven...but the fact that this was well below our mental capabilities, it was not below our maturity level, so we played full on, contact Cranium. So the first beating happened during a 'go fetch' category and my team chose me to be the runner. So I stood at the classroom door with everyone else, ready to run and find something that contained carbohydrates...on your mark, get set, and go and we were off... yet somehow I managed to get body checked into the door of the computer room by two rather large guys. Yeah, little five foot two me crushed between two huge guys...ouch. So if that was bad enough, I then got chosen to do the pictionary category as well and, full of team spirit and pride, I ran to the front of the room to find out what I must draw, and as we all took off to run back to our team my nose collided with great force into someone's shoulder bone...and once again, ouch. By the end I was in great pain. I dragged my weary body back up to the seventh floor where my friends attended to my needs, giving me advil and buying me a slurpee. I have no bruises to show as proof of my beatings. In fact, I was relieved to wake up this morning and not have two black eyes from the nose collision, although there was a rather distinct shadow under one eye... Anyhow, moral of the story is, wear football gear to the next Biology review class because you never know what might attack you.

2006-10-16T13:30:00.000-07:00

It snowed!! Yes, the very first snow of the year and it's beautiful!
Okay, I know these words sound funny coming out of my mouth, and yes, this morning when I woke up and saw the whiteness of the outside world and shivered because our heat wasn't working, I was grouchy and mad at the white world. As I walked to work, the African inside of me whined, "This is so unnatural!" But as I worked today, I would look out the window, way way up in the sky (I do after all work on the sixteenth floor), I had to admit that it was rather beautiful and peaceful, the flakes just swirling on the breeze. So after my class, my soul needed rest, and so I took the long way back to my apartment, and walked along the river where I took a few pictures, and I was amazed. Although there wasn't that much snow, and most of it was quickly melting, it was breathtaking.
Plus, my poor winter boots have been sitting in my closet all summer, whispering, "Please wear me. You know you want to. I'm so comfy and warm." And I would have to reply, with mixed feelings, "Have patience, my friends. You are very warm and comfy and so its too warm to wear you today." And so, after much waiting, my boots and I were able to shuffle through the snow, and enjoy the outdoors. Now if only I could find my blue, sparkly earmuffs.....

2006-10-12T18:51:00.000-07:00

I'm hanging on every word you say, but if you don't want to speak tonight, that's alright. I just want to sit outside heaven's door and listen to you breathing...
Life has been hectic lately. Between classes, homework, miss exec, friends, small group and sleeping, I've been bouncing from one thing to the next. I feel exhausted. I feel conflicting feelings of happiness and contentment with all parts of my life and, pull the other way are some discontents, frustrations and the fear of inadequacy.
God has been teaching me about praying, submitting and just holding on tightly to his hand and letting me lead him. It's been quite the experience so far. Some mornings I wake up and spend incredible time with God before heading on my way filled with the most incredible peace and excitement about where He's taking me and other mornings, I want to close my eyes as tight as possible and hold back with all my weight, screaming to have my own way.
The Miss Exec does a missions trip every year and the the trip this year excites me, but I feel a hesitation in my heart and I've been praying like crazy asking God to direct me, but He remains silent or directs my attention back to the tasks at hand. I started to panic last night while reading the application form because I need a reference from my pastor and well, I don't have one. My church in highschool hasn't had a pastor up until just a few months ago, but I've been in Calgary and did some church shopping before landing on a church I liked, but then it was time for my summer job which required me to go to a different church, leaving me completely pastor-less. So, I'd greatly appreciate your prayers for clarity and peace...that would be awesome!

2006-10-05T20:08:00.000-07:00

This is a list of what mks are that my roomie and I compiled. Anyone have anything to add?

2006-10-03T17:49:00.000-07:00

A Day in the Life of an AUC-NUC Student Picture Book (maybe this'll get me free tuition!)
Gotta start the day with some java--okay who are we kidding? I don't drink coffee--I drink chai lattes--way more sophisticated sounding and better tasting! Whose with me on that?
When you arrive at school you'll be personally greeted, that is if you come to the 7th floor...the best floor by far.

Then maybe you'll play a bit of pool with the pros

And then of course, because you're a good student, you'll take some time out to attend classes and do some reading cause there's lots of it!

And finally, after a long stressfull day of school, don't forget to stop and smell the roses!

And since it's impossible for this to get any cheesier, I'm gonna say adios and actually do some of that reading. Please feed Garfunkle on your way out. Thanks!

2006-09-30T10:32:00.000-07:00

This world just keeps getting smaller and smaller!!

I've been in school for just over three weeks now...or has it only been three weeks?? Anyway in such a short time I have met:
-a kid that I went to Sunday school with when my dad was a pastor at Southview Alliance church when I was like five (also if you google Southview Alliance, I come up! So weird)
-a girl who went to camp with my friend Denae Stegeman that I met this summer. We worked together and had some pretty incredible times.

-Then I met someone who knew my friend Josh Golding, a good friend from Africa. They went to youth group together in Vernon, BC. Oh and another girl who knew my friend Joanna Greene--also from Africa.

-and then another girl worked at camp with my friend Melissa Weiss who I went to high school in Three Hills with, until she transferred to Prairie, but then we worked together this summer as well. And now she's in Calgary going to Rocky Mountain. I ran into her the other day up in Brentwood, randomly, on my way to the Labour Day Classic

-and then last night I went out to Boston Pizza with Woody and Matt and Heather and Emily and this girl named Leanne. So Leanne and I were walking together and she told me about how she'd spent some time in South Africa and Lesotho and places like this last year and I of course I was totally into this being from Africa and all. And we discovered we both have hearts for Rwanda. Anyway, in this conversation she mentioned that one of her really good friends grew up in Mali and Cote d'Ivoire and since we are of similar age I deduced (big word, I know) that there was no way that I didn't know this person so I asked and lo and behold her friend was one of my really good friends in middle school. We liked the same boy, he liked her. But despite that, we were very good friends. She's the one on the left, oh no, that's right... sorry sometimes i get confused. Our science teacher, Mrs. Pietersen always got us confused... i'm not really sure why.

Anyhow, now that I've shared that story with you, I'm going on blogging sebaticle because it is far too distracting and I have a paper to write. Have a lovely weekend!

2006-09-29T17:30:00.000-07:00

Clarification

So, today after a very amusing chapel I was standing on the train platform waiting for the good ol' LRT to come pick me up, when a girl I've met once or twice turns ot me and starts asking me about Onsite...it takes me a while before I realize that she thinks I was on Onsite last year...good to know I'm very high profile...I think I had several classes with her last year. So I feel this topic needs clarification--I've never been an Onsite student. This is only my second year of university and Onsite seems to be a third year deal. Sadly, I won't be going on Onsite. Lately I've really thought about how much I'd love to go, however... I've weighed the decision and have decided it makes way more sense to finish my degree and head out full time.
So if I'm not an Onsiter, what's this Africa business? No, my fabulous African jewelry and my African mannerisms, such as the descrete 'chin point' are not things I've just heard about and adopted for myself...I spent twelve fabulous years there. And why does everyone know who I am? Probably because I belong to some rather high profile missionaries...Yes, I am the little RB, descendent of the great RB, formly the Canadian Regional Developer for Africa, currently the GM vice president and soon to be the District Missions Consultant for Alberta. See there we are! See the family resemblance? Aren't we cute? Yeah, we're even going on a father/daughter date this weekend...we're cute! It's true. Okay, I'll admit, he's not so cute when he's trying to marry me off. Especially when he announces to the fathers of the chosen boys (while I was present!) that He has chosen their sons for me. The list was orginally six people long but I think it's grown to nine--of which I've met three of them. The worst part of this was that then these dads started discussing this as though I wasn't there--and since they're all good missionaries, this discussion sounded a lot like bartering. Sigh...it's not easy being the youngest girl of the family.
Anyhow, all that to say, I'm not an Onsiter, I never will be, and I have some mixed feelings about that.
When I set up this blog I didn't realize it would be so distracting. Once again it's keeping me from my homework. So I'd better sign off cause I have a lot of reading to do for a paper that's due on Monday...yep, I can see some panicking on the horizon. I was a way better student last year.
Well ciao for now!

2006-09-28T19:07:00.000-07:00

what a great way to avoid homework!
so I made this blog the other day when I was on some crazy high--I'm beginning to wonder if I'm not manic depressive or something--as a way to entertain myself, thinking I'd probably never look at it again, but wow, it is a great way to waste time when my brain doesn't want to focus on homework.
So as I was doing some research it occured to me that the title of this blog should probably be explained. So this summer, I worked with special needs adults and one of my clients and I really bonded. She loved me. She called me Becker and for hours on end she would say over and over again, "I love you Becker. Do you know why I love you? Because you're my bestfriend. Did you know that Becker? I love you." We had some good times together--watching TV in the hospital together, drawing goofy pictures of the staff, off roading with her wheelchair, and watching the cars go by while sitting on the porch while she drank endless amounts of coffee--blah, I don't understand coffee drinkers. So by the end of the summer, all the rest of the clients, the other staff and my whole family had taken to calling me Becker. So this past weekend I was up in Three Hills, and I ran into her. I wasn't sure if she'd remember me but it turns out I made a lasting impression. Before I was anywhere close to her I could hear her calling out, "Becker! It's my Becker. I love my Becker." Ah... i miss my summer job now...well, now that I've wasted ten minutes I guess I should hit the books again.
This is Becker signing off! Ciao!
Oops! I almost signed off too soon without telling about one of the best things I've heard in a while. So I was walking to school enjoying the glorious morning--it was warm enough to wear flipflops! For those of you who live in the south, this really is incredible for us canucks. So I ran into this guy from school and we started talking on our way to class and it came up that I'm an MK and he looks at me and says, "Aren't MKs troubled?" I just about died laughing. Talk about a generalization! It was pretty incredible. My Mk roomie and I had a good laugh over it later! I think I've met just as many troubled non-mks as I have troubled MKs. I love the crazy ridiculous things that people think about MKs. However, I'm discovering that I have some misconceptions about non-MKs. Ah, anyhow, this is the not so troubled MK signing off for real this time! Have a fabulous evening and hopefully you'll get more done than I am!

2006-09-25T16:23:00.000-07:00

Duhn duhn duhn...I've become a blogger...
Well I have no clue what on earth anyone would write in a blog... okay we'll that's not true because I've read plenty of other blogs and somehow they all have interesting things to say... I'm failing to come up with anything... partially due to my very short attention span...hmm....ooh, something shiny!...okay I'm back. (side note: this is my niece Ariel... isn't she the cutest thing in the world? I went from hating babies sixth months ago to absolutely loving them...okay actually just this one baby...and usually only if she's happy. I don't do the crying or dirty diaper baby thing well...) Anyway, so now that I've written a short paragraph to amuse myself I'm going to go seek out other entertainment because this is failing to satisfy my need for entertainment. Perhaps I'll go back to the duck fight... yes that's right. My roommates and I are just so mature that we were playing with stuffed animals...more specifically stuffed ducks... does anyone else find it unbelieveable that I'm turning 20 in a few short months?