Laurence's blog for part 1 of SE 2011

Laurence, our Assistant leader has his own blog at http://www.laurenceabroad.blogspot.com/ this year. This documents his journey as Fitness trainer and discipler in the Canada section of the course amidst dealing heroically with a broken collarbone!

Here is one of Laurence's posts

" Routine

So Week Two has been very fun too, though definately different. The guys have had to settle into their routines, which they have done so with great aplomb. This routine includes;

· Early up 730

· Meditation time

· Breakfast

· Morning session

· 2.5 Mile Run

· Gym

· Lunch

· Afternoon Session

· House tidy/Ranch Duties

· Dinner

· Youth Group/Kids Club/Chillout

So although great fun, hard work and long days. The guys have taken to the course really well and seem keen to learn. It's been a week of a lot of adaptation and they have done well!

So on tuesday we had our first cell group at the house, which is a youth scheme Soul Edge runs in Correlation with the local church. Tom and Josh led the worship and did very well. On Wednesday we had Kids Club at the church which was a very bizarre experience! Very hyper kids, must be all the snow! Thursday and Friday were normal teaching days.

We have eat very well as usual, this week we have had a mix of home made burgers, home made chilli, home made pizza, lentil and chicken stir fry and pasta amongst many others. We have also made our way through many classic films such as Rocky, Jurassic Park as well as the more modern films like The Prestige, Wall Street II and Iron Man 2, have also worked them very hard in the Gym and I think they are now starting to see the benefits of it, minus the blisters!

In terms of my health I hope I am doing slightly better, the collarbone is still very painful but I am moving it better, though I think thats to do with the new medicine (oramorph) as much as anything! Lets keep hoping and praying for a quick recovery! On Saturday the boys went snowboarding while I watched on from the cafe and worked on some talks of mine (I gave my first one on Monday and it went well I think) Then on Sunday we were fortunate enough to tag along Cayote hunting. Joel just missed so we were unfortunate to come back empty handed!

This week we have Gun Orientation to expect which will be fun, then a hunt at the weekend.

SE boys Africa April Update

The tires of our 4x4s pounded along the dirt track, dust billowed into the air and encircled the rugged desert mountains all around us. I stepped on the gas as we sped around corners, trying to soak it all in. We were headed out to spend 4 days in West Potok (a district of Kenya), where we were to build a school in a remote village which had been steeped in witchcraft for many years. All of us were filled with excitement and anticipation as we bounced along the road.

Our trip really started the day before as we loaded the vehicles with food, water, exta fuel, and camping gear. We would be roughing it; cooking and sleeping outside. Our departure day started with alarm clocks going off at 5 am and4x4s rumbling out of Kitale at heading out at 7:00am. For most of the morning, the trip was relatively uneventfully as we wound our way through the mountains on a little dirt road. However, nearing noon, as I was driving behind one of the pickups, I noticed something really didn't look right... all the trucks ground to a halt. Upon inspection, we found that the back axle of our Toyota had slipped on the leaf springs and moved in such a way so that it was totally out of alignment. Tools, jacks and spare parts were unloaded from all the vehicles and we set to work.

At first, it really didn't look promising but eventually we started to make headway. Dirt covered and dripping in sweat, we finally got the bolts loose so we could move the axle. We discovered that we were missing a leaf spring (a slightly crucial piece of the vehicle!), and that is why the axle had moved. Because of this missing piece, it was impossible to be able to tighten up the leaf spring unit in order to prevent the entire back axle from slipping. So, with true ingenuity, we found a panga (a large African knife) under the seat of one of the truck and decided that if used in combination with a wrench (or "spanner" in British vernacular), it would give us enough thread to tighten things up. ( I might add that the Canadian and the South African proved most useful when it came to this little job). With this truly creative fix, we were finally back on the road... though we were now aware that we were lacking a leaf spring and thus had to baby the repair job along.

We arrived as the sun was high in the sky and burning hot!! Brett (our South African friend who'd organized the trip,) had been invited by the chief to speak at the local church. We knew that it would be different and expected it to be primitive, but it still came with a bit of a shock. The church was meeting under a roof made up of a few branches tied together to create some shade and the pews were simply sticks held up by other sticks. Despite the fact that the setting was unlike any church we'd seen before, we could all feel the presence of God in that place. We started to worship with them and everyone was really excited. In that place, we prayed for our brothers and sisters to be filled with the Holy Spirit and it was cool to see the Spirit fall on them and fill them. We also got to see a mama and few others get healed. We couldn't help but grin when one of the mamas got healed and started dancing and smiling. It was wonderful to see. There was something about the entire time we spent at the church which felt very significant and it was amazing to see their raw and beautiful faith.

Two hours later, r we were almost at our destination just as the sun was setting. The last 12 km into the village was hard going. River beds cut through the desert "roads" were deep and had created big ruts which trucks with bigger tires did fine with, but our van got stuck in one of these river beds. Being a guy, I couldn't help but feel an odd sense of excitement as I watch the van sink in the sand. Somehow seeing it stuck made it more real to me that we were going into an unreached land... that we were living an adventure. I couldn't help but smile, knowing that this was going to be an exciting trip. The men piled out of the van and after some digging had it pushed out. We didn't get far and the truck with the missing leaf spring broke down again. Because it was getting late and the sun was going down, we decided to take the two other vehicles and go and set up camp and leave a team to repair the truck and follow after.

Camp went up quickly and soon there was a crowd of people gather to see all the mzungus setting up their tents. It was a big deal for us to be there... and we could feel the excitement in the air. After camp was set up, I drove back to check on the repair crew. By the time I got there, they had it almost back together. After measuring and guessing at where the axle should sit, we tightened things up and headed back to camp with the sun setting behind us and lighting up a breathtaking landscape.

We sat and ate dinner in the dark and talked about the climb the next day. The chief had invited us to climb up on a sacred mountain. The plan was to get up very early and climb the mountain in the morning, pray from the top, and break curses off the land. After a planning session, we watched the village elders kill a goat in honor of the team being there. A man saw us there and then ran and got a goat saying.."I never thought i would see white people here!" (Though Brett our South African friend had been there with teams before, the large group of mzungus seemed to create such a stir.)

Even after getting up very early, we still didn't manage to leave until later. When we finally hit the trail at 7am, the sun already felt very warm and continued to increase as we climbed through the morning. The ascent was tough but prayer at the top was really powerful, and it was also the fulfillment of a dream that the chief had had after a 40 day fast. We could feel the significance of what we were doing as we stood at the top of the mountain praying with the chief for his people, his land, and breaking off the power of the witchcraft and demonic sacrifice that had been done in that place.

When we got off the mountain, the team was wiped out as it had been a long hike, but we decided to start some of the construction. The guys dug deep and began working on chipping out the latrine until dusk. Most of them had blistered hands and were really tired, but spirits were high because the team kept on encouraging each other. That same day, we had a number of people come to us wanting medical aid. We did everything we could for them, but had limited supplies and medication. Some of them who we treated had severe ear infections. They reported to us the next day that they were better, which is almost impossible but after observing them, I found that the infections were totally gone! A number of men came forward for medication because they had injured their backs. I told them to get prayer first and 5 out of the 7 got healed. We knew that they were actually healed because they kept on smiling and jumping around. After that, the entire team was pretty excited. Totally exhausted, we went to bed.

Again, the next morning, we got up early at 5 am to start a day of construction. If I'm honest, it was a struggle to pull myself out of bed but after a strong cup of coffee, the day looked a little better. The sun was soon up and we began the all-day fight against the heat. First we started with digging the holes for the posts which were approximately 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep. Because the ground was so hard, rocky and dry, this task alone was slightly epic with some of the holes taking most of the day. We had a team of three guys working on it steadily all day with bars on these holes, and another team working on the latrine much of the day. By around 5 o'clock, our "poop hole" boys were down six feet through a lot of hard ground and rock and all the holes were finally dug. At this point, we shifted the entire team into putting the structure up. We stood the frames up before dinner and got ready to pour cement. We had to pump water by hand from a well at the bottom of the village and fill a tank with buckets for making the cement. After dinner, we were finally ready to pour the cement. It took until 10:30 at night to finish, but we managed to get all the cement poured so we could put the roof on in the morning.

The next day was another early start as we had to pack down camp and finish the structure. Pack down went well and we had the vehicle packed and ready for a 11:30 departure however finishing the roof proved to take longer. We had a team of guys work on the roof while another team did a small medical treatment station and prayer. It was hot and the people kept on coming. After an hour i couldn't tell how many people we had treated or how many were left to be treated cause the line stayed the same size. At the end we started to work rapidly to try and finish off. One of the first little girls we treated was a girl that had a seed stuck deep in her ear. Her parents had tried to get it out but had only pushed it deeper. Even with people holding her down and using the light of the sun we couldn't get it out which we discouraging but we pressed on and teated everyone we could those we couldn't treat we prayed for. Charlie was a hero and keep praying full of energy and passion despite the heat and being physically spent from the trip.

With some relief we rolled out of the village and headed home. We continued on with the theme of adventure as we were late leaving and were aware of a danger of being on the road at dark and also still had to nurse a damaged vehicle. Finally we made it to "civilization" in Makutaung and to be honest, never had cold Cokes and chapattis tasted to good. Sun burnt, blistered, smelly and tired we rolled into Kitale nearing dusk. Despite some physical aches and pains, we definitely fell into our beds that night with a strong sense of having been Jesus' hands and feet. And really, there cannot be anything better.

Thank you so much for all your support and prayers.

Soul Edge Boys Team 2010.

Blog No. 2 for 2010

Right, after a few weeks of procrastination I have finally summoned the courage to tackle the epic task that is the soul edge blog. A lot’s been happening during our time here and during week 4 and 5 where we headed up to Kananaskis country and attended the Canon conference in Lethbridge are no exception.

I’ll begin with week 4, K Country:

Josh and Joel woke us up early on tuesday morning having packed out the trailer the night before with thermarests, sleeping bags and enough carbs to last a week hiking and camping. We loaded into Misty the van and began the day of travelling to get to The Blue Bronna wilderness camp. The journey was pretty fun, though with 14 guys and Kiri it’s very cramped. Once again having both Rich and Tim bring their macs was a huge blessing as we let the hours pass by watching films and numerous episodes of The Office. The obligatory stop off at Starbucks also makes the experience more enjoyable. I owe a debt of gratitude to Richard Maddock for the introduction of Caramel Apple Spice (Venti obviously...)!

After a good 6 hours of driving we arrived in Calgary to get lunch at subway and buy knives... the two being mutually exclusive. This was a source of great enthusiasm for all the guys, through there were a few moments in the dar afterwards where brandishing knives probably wasn’t the best idea...Sam also got a cool one, more of a piratey looking knife with a wood and golden handle! Very cool...

We continued on into Calgary for a bit to go to MEC, which I now hold as my favourite shop of all time. It has EVERYTHING to do with anything outdoors! You can actually see the Erb’s eyes light up when they walk through the door...

We left MEC loaded up with snowshoes and for some of us, new clothes (It’s very easy to spend money there!). From MEC we set out on the final leg of our journey...one that should have taken us-according to josh and joel- 30 minutes. As a group we have since realised that the twins work on a different time scale to regular humans, but they are ginger I suppose. The half hour turned into 2 hours-ish, though we did see a moose so it kind of made up for it.

We finally arrived at the camp around 7ish and got some food (expertly cooked by Josh and Kiri) and had a short night hike up one of the nearby mountains, had an amazing prayer time then headed back down again, some of us via a more rocky route which made scrambling a bit more fun! After some hot chocolate we went to bed in our cabins pretty quick amidst some classic banter, the kind that can only result when 12 guys share a log cabin in the middle of nowhere. The first proper day in K Country began by waking after a not so good sleep, mainly due to scruff absolutely stinking the place out and deciding to lick me while I slept at 5 in the morning. The sunrise was incredible, so colourful and made better by the fact we were so isolated. Once we had all been fed we set out for a short drive to where we’d be hiking for the day. We started by climbing a mountain in our snow shoes. Snow shoes are fun for about the first 10 seconds then you realise, that useful as they may be, they’re heavy and cumbersome which isn’t great when trying to navigate through the thick alpine. From every angle the landscape looked incredible, it really was such a blessing to be able to enjoy God’s creation with our own two legs and hike up the mountains and snowshoe the valleys. We stopped for food after a few hours of hiking. Once again pasta, being the souledge staple diet, gave us enough energy to continue on after being scared witless by Seb chucking a banger in the fire. As we continued on up our final steep slope everyone was feeling the aches a bit but the effort was well worth it on reaching the peak. Our resident photography expert James took some sweet photos and we hung round for a bit before scrambling back down to hike back to the camp. This gave Jeffs, Steve and I the perfect opportunity to reenact some epic Lord of the Rings moments, if somewhat poorly. We also had a load of fun sliding down the mountains on the way back. Once again we had great food that night and managed to get to sleep pretty quickly. That is, until we were awoken by Jordan’s Gollum impression screaming ‘My Precious’ in a sleeping Harry’s face, quickly followed by Harry’s questionable punch reflex and Jordan moaning about being hit in the face...

The next day was the day we would set out to go snow camping. We drove out for an hour into the middle of nowhere and met Steve, one of the camp experts. He knew pretty much everything from which way to face the car in the wind so it starts in the morning to Pine Beetles and their effect on the alpine forest. It was really cool to listen to his knowledge. We hiked for ages along a pretty straight path drawing closer and closer the the mountains and further into nowhere. It was a nice easy hike and we arrived at the camp sight with enough energy to spend a few hours building our camp. We had a lot of fun building it though chopping enough wood to feed the fire through the night seemed to take forever. Once built we all wrapped up warm, had a fatty meal of pasta and sausage and got into our sleeping bags. It was about -14 so was very cold. It was such a surreal experience for all of us, we could hear cyotes up in the mountains howling which was awesome. Unfortunately sleep was made difficult by the cold but perhaps more by the two brainless dogs we had among us. Jasper and Scruffs between them managed to wake everyone through out the night. Jasper was relentless in playing fetch with Seb whilst he tried to sleep. Once you throw a stick to Jasper he WILL bring it back and didn’t stop poking Seb all night until he relented and threw, which further encouraged him. Scruffs on the other hand was just stupid and funny as it was to observe Jeff’s getting a faceful, didn’t seem to understand that people don’t like having his butt on their face whilst they slept. I would also like to make a formal apology for waking James Hunter on behalf of the group for quoting Zoolander and informing those who were unaware of the existance of Land Octopus at 3 in the morning, thus waking and annoying him in an admittedly funny way. Sorry James. We woke to a breakfast of muffins and poptarts and then cleared up the camp for a quick snowshoe hike. Again the views were incredible. We hiked back to the van which took a few hours, which in the surprisingly hot sun was an effort. It’s hard to get too tired though when the scenery is so cool. Joel pointed out some cougar tracks, sadly we didn’t see any actual cougars though. We got back to the camp later that day and after a much drawn out game of ‘who can blow the half full bottle (or half empty...whatever) over’ we went to bed and did our best to provoke Steve before going to bed through stealing his mattress and the like.

When we woke on Saturday morning we packed our bags, said goodbye and set off on the long journey home again via the usual stops to MEC, Subway and Starbucks, once again made bearable with liberal volumes of The Office.

Church was great on sunday morning, Rich Erb spoke on retaining our ‘saltiness’ as christians which was great. After lunch we prepared ourselves for an afternoon of rivalry and banter watching the Superbowl final at Shelly and Daryl’s. I rooted for the New Orleans Saints with a few others while Josh, Joel, Steve and Chuckles headed up the attack on the Indiana Colts front, with full body paint. Too bad they lost... 31:17... For every touch down the penalty was 50 press ups which added some competition.

Week 5 went along as usual for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. We had some good talks on leadership and spiritual warfare and hit the ranch. Standard.

Wednesday morning saw us loading the van again (this time with out the trailer) full of people and clothes to last til sunday. It was VERY cramped, and Misty’s heating system was the worst yet, frying anyone at the front and freezing anyone in the back two rows! After a 4 hour trip to Lethbridge where we were helping and attending at the Canon Of Truth conference, we entered the massive River of Life church, where most of us wouldn’t leave for a few days. We stayed in the youth room upstairs and spent a lot of time playing throwing an american football around after discovering a new found enjoyment in it since watching the Superbowl.

The conference started on Friday though we went to a ‘Rooted’ meeting on the wednesday night which is River of Life’s young adult meeting. There was some brilliant teaching on God’s actual call for us sometimes conflicting with what we think is God’s call on our lives. We used thursday just to help set up a few things for the conference and did bit of prayer in one of Lethbridge’s parks and had fun walking on the frozen lake. Ryan invited us to his house to prayer for the conference with some members of rooted and the worship team in the evening. We prayed for ages and God moved really powerfully, everyone managed to get some great prophesies and really encourage what was going on which was really sweet. Friday evening was the first Canon meeting and Ryan spoke very passionately about the word and having faith in God. The rest of the conference was brilliant, some great teaching mixed with some good laughs made it a lot of fun and I felt God really move and shift some false perceptions about Him that I hadn’t even realised were there. Some of the guys went back on the friday night to play in the band for the Crossroads Church Valentines Sweethearts night. It seemed very empty without them but was very funny to hear how Steve had managed to clear the church with an innocent use of a word in Wheatus’s ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ which apparently doesn’t go down well in Canada ha. Jordan also managed to change a hilariously inappropriate George Straight country song into something less dodge and sing that which went down well. They came back to the conference on saturday morning to catch the last couple of meetings so didn’t miss a huge amount. Saturday night was mostly taken up with helping clear up the church again for the sunday morning meeting though it wasn’t too tiring and we went out for 1.30am doughnuts from Tim Horton’s (also competing with MEC for best shop). After another night sleeping on the floor we went to the main morning meeting and then got back in the van for the 4 hour trip back home.

We were really blessed again by Rich and Polly when we returned as they had prepared an amazing dinner for us when we returned. After travelling for a few hours it was so nice to get some good food back in us before we went to bed and started the week’s routine again!

Basically this longwinded account only generalises a lot of what we’ve been doing and what God’s been doing in us. Overall though, God has worked so powerfully through all of us, building our strength and relationship with him as well as with each other through the last few weeks. And Josh and Joel have continued to be incredible for encouraging and building us up as leaders, and as always getting on with serving our demands without even batting an eyelid! Thanks guys.