Bethany Gone Wild

Last Friday and Saturday was our long-awaited retreat for class. It was an amazingly good time. Besides the seven of us who are in the class, there were ten people who came. The weather was a tad bit on the chilly side as I'm sure you will notice by the abundance of clothes and the fires in the middle of the day. However, we still had a great time fishing, kayaking, canoing, four-wheeling, and just hangin out. The weekend wasn't all fun and games though. Kate did a great job bringing us God's Word. The theme being Bethany Gone Wild, Kate preached on Stephen being stoned. She used the passage to talk to us ask us what stones are being thrown at us. The message was preached outside by the lake under the Northern Lights. At the end, she had us write down what was holding us back from experiencing God on stones and then we threw them in the river. It was very powerful. There's just something about being outside, experiencing God's creation that makes that much more of an impact. Anywho, here are some pictures from the weekend. much love

The whole group

Andrew and Charity Thompson

Erica and me

Rachel and Kate stuffing themselves into a kayak

The girl's fire before

And with a little of this

The girls' fire became this

Everyone doin their thing

Kate trying to fish...she was mine and Rachel's entertainment

All bundled up...me, Erica, and Kate

Is This Better?

This picture was also taken that night. Geez Swarty, I'm not a horrible person.

Quiddy. Reuben, and Pumpkins

I've tried posting a few times, but our internet is ridiculous which has resulted in no posts for a while. Hopefully this one works. Our final day of our four day weekend was spent at Quiddy Falls. Jeff spent the time trying to find gold while I worked on some homework. Nothing like learning Hebrew while enjoying nature. These our a few pictures from our day.

On Friday we went to a John Reuben concert at Kings Valley Wesleyan Church. Chris Stephens worked real hard on pulling the concert together. It was a lot of fun. I have really missed going to concerts. Reuben is one crazy cat which made for a fun night. Atlantic (a ministry team from Bethany) opened the concert. I have to say that I was quite impressed. They will also be playing at "Encounter" aka Booster this weekend. Looking forward to that. As we were leaving the church, a YP who was there with some youth was ushering some crazy old man out of the church. The old man was going on about how this sort of thing should not be taking place in the same place where the Word of God is preached....while using expletives. Gotta love it.

Atlantic rockin out (to see better pictures check out the link to BBC pictures on the side)

Reuben...what is he dippity doin?

Reading from a book of Fables.

Some of us girls waitin for Reuben...me, Nicole, Nicole, Kate, and Erica

Monday night we carved some pumpkins. This is the first time we have done this together. It was a good time, and we are proud of the results. We also toasted the seeds for a yummy snack.

Scoopin out the innards is always the fun part

The red eye makes the picture perfect


Posing with our pretty pumpkins

Thanksgiving Part 3

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving everyone! We spent a few hours today hiking around here. Jeff's been on the gold kick, so we went out to some property Coach (he's the Athletic Director/Phys. Ed. Prof./coach of just about every sport here at Bethany) owns outside of town and dug around for gold. Sounds crazy, I know, but Jeff's been reading up on it and is pretty optimistic. We then went to the stream by the covered bridge for him to pan the stuff he dug up. It was a good day for both of us...Jeff got his gold fix and I got to take some more pictures of the beautiful New Brunswick fall. Have a great day everyone. much love

Thanksgiving Part 2

Although today is Thanksgiving here in Canada, we celebrated it yesterday. As usual, we spent the day the the Carruthers family. This year we went to their parents in Moncton. Chyan came with us this year which was great. It was good to have a fellow Oregonian along. Jenn, Chyan, Luke, Jeff, and I went to Moncton Wesleyan for church, and then went to the house to wait for the rest of the group. We played a thrilling game of the new Monopoly (the one with the debit cards) while we waited. The meal was incredible as usual. We didn't get to finish our game in Moncton, so we went to Jenn's when we got back to town. It was a great day with our Canadian family. More to come soon. much love

Erica and Luke with playing Legos with Uncle Tyson

Luke's mad photography skills...Joy and Leah...Troy and Erica

Our Monopoly game faces...Jenn "I Want This Game To Be Over With" Carruthers

Jeff "The Giddy Banker" Poe

Chyan "I Have No Money" Blythe

Becky "Petty Cash" Poe

Thanksgiving Part One

That's right. It's time for another Canadian Thanksgiving which means we have a four day weekend (Saturday-Tuesday). Friday after classes a group of us headed to the Hatt family cabin. Jeff and I are both in Camping and Retreat Ministries this semester and our final project is to plan and execute a weekend retreat. We are having the retreat out at this cabin, so we went to check some things out and do some planning. It is a beautiful place and has us all excited even more about the retreat. We came back Saturday afternoon so Jeff wouldn't miss the Oklahoma vs Texas football game. Enjoy the pictures. much love

First night around the campfire

Jonathan, DJ, and Kerri

Jonathan and Kerri Hatt

DJ and Jeff

Jeff, Griffin, and DJ

At McDougal Park

O so cute

I love New Brunswick in the fall

The Hatt family

DJ trying not to kill himself

View from the cabin