Happy New Years!
We are on our way to the Fuel service shortly.
It has been so much fun to see everyone again. Although I am a little homesick - which is a rare occurrence for me - and I am not feeling too well, I am having a good time here in Maple Ridge.
It seems that short hair is the common theme. Amy has way short hair and it looks so cute. Me and Sarah both have shorter curls and Christa, I have heard, is sporting a shorter cut too! And for those of you who have not seen it yet, Jeff cut off all of his dreadlocks - I am tragitized!
We have shared some good laughs and plenty plenty remember when...Moments. Liz and I are right back into our familiar attitude moments and tonight we had ranch and pizza!! Good times...Notice how I put the ranch before the pizza. Thanks Steve - in Remembrance of you buddy. 3 Cheers for the cooks!
On a mournfully sad note, Spooner has informed us that he will not be attending, despite the wailing, sackcloth and ashes. Sniff Sniff...no Spoo Skoo for us!
Well, Liz is yelling that we have to go so blessings for the New Year. May God bless you and keep you. May he make your walls salvation and peace and may you know his peace.
Hugs and love,
Cha.

Merry Christmas 2003! This year has been a strange one for me. It has strangely felt not like Christmas at all, although I must admit that it was nice to not have to work for a couple days. I am exhausted, and at an emotional climax. I have been running full steam trying to get everything done in the last few weeks, and not allowing myself any time to just be and feel. I have not cried for weeks (and for any of my fellow Jesus Schoolers, you will know how major that is!).
Tonight I had a really good chat with my good friend Tanya, who also happens to be my cousin. And now I feel like bawling. I'm cracking at the seams, but I think I prefer it right now, at least over trying to keep it all together. God is still trying to teach me that lesson I began to learn in Jesus School - to let Him be my strength and covering.
Tomorrow I'm flying out to the West Coast for the JDS Reunion. Should be refreshing. I am looking forward to it, but kinda sad too, because I'll miss everyone here. Oh well, that's life I guess.
Happy holidays!
Cha.

Hello all. Yet another late night entry for me...I'm beginning to feel very different about the word "nocturnal" now that see it in the light of first hand experience. Mad...I got tickets to the opening night of Lord of the Rings: The Return Of The King, only to discover that I'm working that night and NO ONE will take my shift for me. It's cool, though, because I get to go see to with my youth group on Friday the 19th.
And...Check it out!! (Insert Excited squeal here). Jeff helped me get some links on my page - finally - and I am very pleased.
That's about it. Finished Worship team practice a few hours ago and it went really well. Christmas is always crazy with programs and parties and everything else, so it was refreshing to just have a good night of solid worship...We just jammed out and learned some new stuff. Very cool. And with that, I shall retire. Laundry needs doing, bathroom needs cleaning, Christmas cards need writing...And above all I desperately need to talk to Liz. ahhh - the famous last words of an over tired girl who is reveling in the fact she has the day off tomorrow.
One last thought:
Has anyone seem the Telus ads with the super cute little pig?? He's so great. I'm in love.

Ahhh...a pirate's life for me. Well, not really. But here I sit, eating my spaghetti sauce with a spoon and making elephant masks out of my orange peels. It's so cool how the small things bring so much joy.
On Sunday my youth worship team led for the first time. It was so awesome. I could not one stinkin thing to go right the whole morning, but the point was to worship and worship we did, and it poured forth like sweet honey. I felt so much peace and favor...ahhh. LOVE IT!
I have started reading Wild At Heart by John Eldridge. I am reading it cause I bought it as an early Christmas present, at my brother's ecstatic recommendations, for Chad - one of my adopted brothers and good friends. Then I got a copy for myself to read because why would I give someone (who is beginning to seek God out) something that I had never read myself? And I wanted to read it because him and Jays sit around my house all the time, having these huge talks about this book - about passion and the pursuit of God and fighting for beauty and all this stuff. So cool! I am really enjoying it, and it's reaffirming some of the things God showed me at Jesus School about my place and role as a woman and how that ties into my relationship with God, and also how God created men to be and what drives the male heart and how that wildness is huge reflection of the Lion heart of God. I feel very strongly that in a lot of ways we've reversed roles of the genders in our society and it's producing men who have been robbed of their strength and manhood by women who are driven to overcome. To conquer their fear of being lesser and prove themselves to be stronger in what they perceive as a "man's world". And it kills passion and leaves them tired and lamenting the fact that there are no real men left! It disrupts the order that God set in place for the entire world. One of the hardest things at Jesus School, stupid as it sounds, was to let the boys carry my guitar. It really does sound retarded, but I had been conditioned by the world to always be just as strong or stronger as the boys. The "independent woman" thing. And then one day God was like "Cara, it's not about you gaining respect by competing with men for their position, it's about letting them respect you in your role as a woman". BAM....And as handed them my guitar every time, I let go of a bit of that fear of being "lesser" and gained a bit of confidence as being "equal but with different strengths". And this book is so cool because it talks about the wild heart of God, how C.S. Lewis said (of Aslan, the Lion) in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, "Safe?...of course He's not safe. He's a Lion. But He's good". I LOVE THAT SO MUCH! Because it's teaching me to know God in a different way. As a passionate lover and a zealous warrior. And if the Jesus you see is the Christian you'll be, then I am learning about undeniable passion, true love, submission, zeal, warfare in worship and especially this: what it's like to run through open fields with the Lion of Judah...to see His mane blowing wildly in the wind...to reach out and touch His beating chest...to dare to look Him in the eyes.

Yipee! Christmas is almost here and I am SO Excited. Although the excitement does not extend to working in retail during the holidays, I am so ready for some GOOD TIMES. First, on Saturday I'm heading up to Edmonton with a few friends to go to West Ed. Even though it's no Disneyland and it's only a day...ROAD TRIP! And I am so stoked about the reunion. So very very stoked. Tonight at youth we had a really good Bible Study. We talked about the character of Jesus and how it's consistant, and never waivered weather it was the rich young ruler, the High priest or Zaccheus. It was really neat to see how challenged we were to have the same kind of strength and steadfastness of character that Jesus had. To be the same person around parents that I am around friends and my youth group and. Back to Integrity Class! But it was so what I needed to hear. Crazy how sometimes God just drops exactly what we need to hear into our laps and it's a smacked-in-the-face-with-a-truth-stick moment. It was great.