My Red Bike

So far at the bakery I have learned what the names for many Dutch pastries are as well as their prices. I have learned how to work a till (until this year I have managed to avoid them ;) So basically my main job is to run the front store by serving customers and putting out all the baking. But when there are no customers I get to help in the back! So far I have made danishes, cream horns, custard, and the butter cream icing. We also make 12 or more cakes for East Park (a water slide park) each week, I have got to help decorate them which is so much fun, and this last week I got to decorate a cake for an anniversary!!!!! I start working full time in September so that’s a huge blessing. I have to take the bus to work every morning and it takes about forty-five minutes...I feel like half my life is spent getting places nowadays. But I actually don’t mind it too much, and I love biking so I do that as much as I can. Funny story about my bike.....

I was borrowing Katelyn’s bike (one of the girls who’s going to be living with me). And on my way home from church last week I saw a bike on these people’s front lawn. I stopped and asked if it was for sale and they told me that I could take it for free!!! But seeing as I was on a bike at the time I told them I’d get it the next day. I took the bus to their house and was planning on doing the two hour walk home with the bike because its tires were flat and I thought I might have to buy new ones. But...when I got there they had left a note on the bike saying “Tires are pumped up, chain oiled, brakes are good! Enjoy! No speeding!” How awesome is my God!!!! I had been searching for a bike for a month and got a beautiful one for free, not to mention that I have always wanted an old fashion bike and now I have one!!!

So there is another story involving my bike....I was on my way to try a new church this morning and it started to rain...hard. But I wasn’t going to let the weather stop me so I kept on....and got somewhat lost. Ok so I wasn’t really lost I just couldn’t find the church. I thought that I might have missed the street so I decided to turn around. As I was turning this gravel came out of nowhere and attacked me! .....or you could just say that I slid out and got scraped up. But don’t worry the bike is fine, and so is my leg...I just might have a bit more character now if you know what I mean. I think the note should have also included “No scraping up your leg!” That would have saved me a lot of trouble.

None one of the girls have moved in yet but I have met three of them. They are all moving in, in the next two weeks so it should be crazy times! Right now the bakery is closed for a week for summer holidays and so they could paint it. So I am going to Drew’s again and we are going to hang out. One idea is we are going to try to find some good rocks and go bouldering!

Well that’s about it for now, hope you enjoyed my ramblings.

Kendra

London

Hey everyone,

Those of you from Saskatoon are probably wondering why I haven’t reappeared yet. The answer would be that I am living in London Ontario for the year. After Medeba I felt like I was supposed to stay in Ontario and every time I prayed about it London kept coming up, so that’s where I am. I am renting a house that is right by the university, with five other girls. None of them have moved in yet but I believe that they are coming at the end of August. So I have a huge house all to myself, and I’m enjoying it while I can! The house is really nice it is hardwood on the upper and main floor and has great wall colors. Since I was the last person to sign onto the house I get the smallest room, but since there are two small rooms I get them both. So if anyone needs a place to crash in London I have a room!

While I was looking for a job and a place to stay the Dafoe’s (Drew’s family the one I went to LDP with) let me stay at their house since it is only an hour away from London. This is also how I found out about the house because two of the girls are from his church.

So it took me a while to find a job but I finally have one, and start work tomorrow. I am going to be working at a place called Melrose Bakery where they specialize in wedding cakes. To start off with I will be working till and if I’m good enough I’m going to get to decorate the cakes!!! It is also only part time for now so I’ve been looking for another job and just had an interview at Sears today so hopefully that works out.

So my plan for this year is to work and next year I am planning on going to school to become a pastry chef. I still haven’t picked a school but that’s next on my list of things to do.

Well I hope your all having an awesome summer and if you want to call me I now have Skype and to find me my Skype name is kendra-rae.

Love you all, Kendra

The End

After North Carolina life got crazy, groups came in non-stop so we facilitated a lot. Since I am a slight procrastinator I left my year end powerpoint project until this time as well as I wasn’t sure what I was doing with my life.

For our last week together we went on a five day canoe trip around the area. Our plan was to do a loop so that we ended in the same spot. Where we canoed was very remote so we only saw a couple of cottages. On our first day we had five portages, the second day at one of our portages there was poison ivy everywhere so instead of walking around the rocky brook we decided to take the heavy packs out of our boat and lift/drag our canoe up the creek. It worked pretty well but the ground wasn’t very stable so knowing my balance the boat was dragging me more than I was dragging it.

At the end of our second day we were all going crazy because of the bugs. At some points the bugs were so bad that you could sweep your hand across your arm and kill twenty. If this isn’t enough of a picture Bruce and Michael our leaders who have done these trips for over twenty years said that they were the worst they have ever seen them. So needless to say some people wanted out, I was ok to keep going on or stop. Esther being the amazing leader that she is found out who did and didn’t want to stay and we realized that only one person really would like to continue on. So they got the maps out and figured out how we could get out and we made it home by supper the next day. So for our last scheduled day together we went to Michael’s parent’s cottage and had a relaxing day swimming, gunnel bobbing the canoe, and playing cards.

Then on Friday and Saturday we had time to clean up from the trip, pack up all our belongings, and clean the homestead. This may sound easy but packing all your belongings, spring cleaning a house in two days while we were all getting our grad powerpoint’s together, and wanting to hang out....talk about crazy.

So Sunday came and our grad was at three. It was nice and simple, Michael, Bruce, and Steve all said a little something. Each of us did a five minute powerpoint about a couple of things that we have learned this year and a funny moment. Then we all got two certificates and a plaque with a picture of us and a small certificate in it. After came the sad time to say goodbye to all my friends...and yes I bawled like a baby!

These past ten months have been some of the hardest, but also the most rewarding times. I have gained lifelong friends although getting there was never the easiest of things. To my LDP friends and Medeba friends, thank you for an amazing year. You have helped me grow, put up with my craziness and listened to me using countless non-existent words, so thank you.

Winter Wonderland

So the next part of our North Carolina trip was a four day hike of the Appalachian Trail. Like on our Florida trip we had to split into two groups because you are only allowed to book six spots at the camp sites. My group was the all girls group with Melinda, Laura, and Heidi. We started at Fontana Dam and ended at Clingmans Dome. Our first day was approximately a ten mile hike, unfortunately it rained until lunch and then was fogy for the rest of the day. The terrain was up and down throughout the four days and we barely saw a flat piece of land at all. The uphill hurt my muscles, but the downhill hurt my joints and feet more. As a group we preferred going uphill to downhill....it’s kind of funny to think that we were rejoicing when we would start to go uphill....who does that!?!

The coolest part of hiking the AT is that everyone gets trail names, you either come up with your own or one gets bestowed on you. On our first day we met a man named Warren (who we called Santa because he had a white beard) and he found out when we started hiking that morning and then proceeded to tell us that we weren’t too fast. After talking to him we decided to call ourselves the Canadian Kayaking Ninja Turtles. Canadian...is self explanatory (unless you’re Laura who is Australian), Kayaking because we were much better at kayaking than hiking, Ninja because well that’s just cool, and Turtles because that’s how fast we hiked. But people could never remember our name so they just called us the TMNT.

On our first morning we woke up to frost on the trees and snow on the ground. Wow, ya we weren’t prepared for that. So we tried to keep warm while walking through a winter wonderland. Throughout the day it was like we were walking through the different seasons. On one side of the ridge there would be snow and then on the other the sun was shining and there would be flowers.

By the end of the week we had a reputation that preceded us. On our last night we met a guy named Nick who was doing a week hike just for fun. We asked him if he had heard anything about us and his response was that meals with us were very interesting. This was very true! First of all we had brought a pot that held about 4-5 litres, and since when you are hiking you bring as little as possible we were made fun of every night. It was also due to the fact that people don’t really hike the trail in groups like us so they are used to pots the size of your fist. Also we had some issues with our food not rehydrating to an edible fashion as well as some very starchy spaghetti. But I think the thing that made cooking the most memorable is that we would always end up laughing at ourselves. Everyone at the campsite would hear our running commentary how terrible our food was going to be and then we would offer our leftovers to them....weirdly enough most people declined our generous offer.

But by far the best part of the hike was the fact that you meet people for a night or sometimes two and you feel like family the minute you meet.

North Carolina Kayaking

Hello everyone so in case you’re wondering I’m still alive and well. After our Easter break we had a week back at camp and then we started our two day drive off to North Carolina. Our plan for the first weekend was to stay at the pastors’ house (Jeff and Jodi) at whose church we were doing a youth night. After that we were going to head to a campsite for the week and then stay at a different church for the next weekend were we were also doing a youth night. But God had different plans for us. After spending the first weekend with Jeff and Jodi they invited us to stay for the rest of the week! Then with the next weekend in sight they offered to take us in yet again for that weekend as well. We were all quite happy since we had started making friends with everyone there but also the other church didn’t have any showers or comfortable beds!

Our youth night focused on trust, communication, and centering oneself on God. To teach the youth about each topic we had a bunch of games planned and then lead them through short discussions. It was really fun and I would have definitely wanted to hang out with a bunch of cool Canadians had I been a teenager in Bryson City.

In total I kayaked six times, rafted once and tubed once as well. The weather was pretty awesome we only got a little rain while there. One day of rain was the last day we kayaked; it was the hardest and coldest river that we ran. About half way through Esther and I tipped our kayaks in a big wave I tried to do my role three times but couldn’t make it up so I waited for a t-rescue. This is where I rub my hands along the sides of my boat and then another boat taps mine and I pull myself up. Unfortunately by that point I had little air so I ended up wet exiting when no one came. After our spill we got back in our boats and kept going but it started to rain more and thunder and lightning. So we pulled out and Esther and I were freezing (supposedly we had mild hypothermia) Bean one of our instructors made us run, do jumping jacks, and push-ups which needless to say made us warm up fast.

The best part of the trip for me was meeting the people around the area and hanging out with all of them. We would play soccer, ultimate frisbee, basketball, hide and seek or just hang out it was great fun! God definitely showed me that it’s ok to make friends with people even if it’s for just a short amount of time.

Disco Dance Party!?!!!

Hey guys, so in case you are wondering I'm coming home!!! I get into Saskatoon on the 26th and am staying until the 9th. Can't wait to see you all!

In all my excitement to get home I forgot to tell you all how my last trip went. It was a three day missions trip to a little town just outside of Ottawa. Our focus was on the youth in the area, we just wanted to hang out with them, let them know that they are worth something and bring them hope. The first night we got to the drop-in that we were going to be working at and met the lady who ran the show, Misty. We found out that she ran the drop-in by herself! After talking to some of the kids it was so evident Misty was really helping them out and being the "big sister" that they needed. So that night we opened the drop-in and just hung out with people and then had Drew give his testimony and we told them about our program. It was pretty cool but sadly there weren't many youth there, it was mainly people from the church that we promoted it to. The next day while the kids where in school we decorated the drop-in and got everything ready for the evening. At three we started our program which started off with Heidi doing a bunch of activities that we have learned throughout the year with the kids. Then David read one of his poem and had a short debrief of what it meant afterwards. Then we all got to do a short skit for the kids that Drew made up about facing our problems. It was all pretty sweet and I was surprised at how attentive the kids were. Then we had a potluck supper and everyone was allowed to invite their families. The evening was our "Disco Dance Party" were we had a bunch of fun group games that we played, snacks, and just hung out with the kids. So that went until about ten-thirty and then we cleaned up and went to bed! The next day we went to down town Ottawa, did some sightseeing and toured the parliament building. Then we headed back to Medeba.

The following morning was when we got to all share our assignment for this semester with the year round staff. It was our Philosophy of Christian leadership. For the assignment we had to read through the Gospels and look at how Jesus lead. It sounds like a really big assignment...which it kind of was...but I actually really liked doing it once I got my head wrapped around what we were supposed to be doing. It made me think about how I should be leading and using Jesus as my reference.

Well thats it for now, see you soon! Kendra

Ice Climbing

We just got back from our ice climbing trip last night, I was sad to leave such a beautiful place but am glad to be home. The week started off with me being sick – yuck. I was working last weekend and then had to get ready for the trip that I was leading, but I could barely stay upright let alone think. Anyways life went on and we started our drive for the Adirondacks in NY on Monday morning. We got to the cabin where we were staying and it was beautiful, it was a log cabin with a cold kitchen area, a heated living/eating area, and two large rooms for sleeping one was semi warm. On Tuesday to Friday the plan was to be ice climbing but since I was sick there was no way I was going to be able to stay outside all day let alone climb a pillar of ice. So I ended up staying in the cabin for the first two days but fortunately for me Drew and David were both sick so I at least had company. Then on Thursday the weather was very cold and so an option of going into town to shop was given. So I shopped and did some sightseeing in Lake Placid. For those of you that don’t know where I’m talking about Lake Placid reminds me of Banff it is a cute little mountain town and they held the Olympics twice. So I’ve decided that one of my “hobbies” if you can call it that, is going to be collecting pins and patches from places I go (this would have been great to decide this at the beginning of my program but oh well). Friday came and I was finally able to climb four people did multi-pitch climbs (this is where you climb up about three rope lengths and you get to do what is called seconding which is taking out screws that the lead climber placed in the ice) But seeing as I had been sick all week I only got to top rope climb, these are climbs that aren’t nearly as high and you walk up to the top set up the ropes and then climb, there is no seconding involved. So I was sad that for my whole trip I only got to climb three times, they were harder climbs and I was dying at the end but I was still mad. My trip wasn’t nearly as hard as Drew’s though, he got the brunt of the sickness during the trip and ended up going home with Lorn one of the leaders on Friday because he wasn’t getting any better. It was hard to lead a trip while being sick, but it was even harder see so many people not being able to participate. On Saturday we had an optional hike up a mountain, which was going to be about a five hour deal but it ended up being about a seven hour hike. Luckily I chose not to go seeing as I am still recovering from being sick and didn’t think I could last that long. The hike, so I hear, was up a pretty steep hill so that when they were coming down they sat on the backs of their snowshoes and slid down parts of it! So four of us went into town again and then got our gear packed up and ready to leave Sunday morning. Now that the trips over I don’t regret going or anything like that I had some great times and had fun hanging out with the guys in the cabin, and got to see another part of Gods beautiful creation.

The beautiful town of Lake Placid


Check out my wicked awesome glasses!!!

In the van with Henrietta! She comes on all our trips.

Esther decided that we should play scrabble but none of us actually new how to play...and we found half our words in the official scrabble dictionary. (Davids pointing to the word toga by the way)

We were all going insane playing the game but for some reason none of us wanted to quit so we played until we found out that we had about eight extra E's and it was supper time.

Not Just Luck

So last weekend Melinda was driving David home and Esther, Drew and I were going to go along to get away from camp and go out for supper. Drew and I were both sick with a head throat cold but still really wanted to go. We were debating all afternoon and couldn’t make up our minds, you would have thought it was a life altering decision that we were making with the way we went on. So in the end we decided to stay back and be responsible since we had to work the next day and wouldn’t have gotten home until later. Also I got into a fight with Esther right before they left and thus didn’t really feel like being stuck in a car the whole night (don’t worry were good now). Then at around nine that night we got a call from Melinda’s mom saying that there had been a car accident. They were driving and there was a truck in the ditch and a car in front of them, the car started to slow down so Melinda did as well. Then they hit black ice. Their car swung around and hit the car in front of them. Everyone was in some sense of the word fine, David got a small scratch on his eye, and Melinda and Esther both got pretty bad whiplash. The thing about the crash was that where no one had been sitting was the place with the most damage. Had we not been sick we would have gone. Had I not got into a fight with Esther I would have gone. David sat behind Esther even though there was less leg room because he knew that Melinda would do more of the talking. Think about all this for a second.....Now you can tell yourself that it was all a coincidence or just luck but I believe in a God who is bigger than all of that. And hey I’d much rather put my life in the hands of a guy who’s willing to die for me than in chance, fate or a coincidence.

Kendra the Human Bulldozer

Alrighty, so we got back from our winter trip safe and sound, no worries I didn’t freeze to death. We drove eight hours to a place called Bruce Mines where Heidi has a cabin on Skookim Lake. We stayed at her house the first night and then drove to the lake in the morning. Then we had to do a two km snowshoe hike with all our gear on our backs to get to the cabin across the lake, whose ice wasn’t fully icy but kind of slushy....don’t worry we were checking the depth of the ice and such as we went along. Then once we got there we started shoveling snow for our quinzhee but by the time the snow had set and we could shovel it out, it was after supper so we had to use our headlamps to see. Once I was done shoveling out my quinzhee I went to go see if the boys needed help with theirs. They wanted me to poke a stick into the side to see how thick the wall was but as I was doing that I put a slight amount of weight onto the wall and fell through. Yaaaaa so Drew and John were shoveling out the inside and when I came barreling in we had a moment of shock and then after a minute they guys started laughing (probably so they wouldn’t cry...) it took me a while longer to start laughing but it was all good we fixed the hole, they just had to wait longer to sleep in it because they had to let it set again. The next day we went on a hike up a hill side and looked out over the frozen lake, it was beautiful!
Since then we have just been having classes and facilitating for groups that are in. We have also had two day trips since our winter trip one was curling which I loved and we are hoping to head back there later on this year, and the other was ice climbing which was sweet! I tried climbing with only one axe and I was so much better at it than with two! I think it’s because I had less to focus on and actually made sure that my feet were placed well.
For those of you that don’t know I am planning an ice climbing trip and we are leaving in a week on the 25^th. So I have been super busy with all the planning and such but am looking forward to actually going. We will be in the Adirondacks in NY, where there are tons of climbing sights. We will be staying in a hut that is heated by a wood stove and there is no electricity. It’s going to be a blast!

Skiing!?!

So more time has passed and I’ve been crazy busy. This past week I was leader again which meant that I had to plan a devotional every morning and organize any classes or activities that we did. Tuesday we went and met an Eco tourism and Recreation Management class in town. They are planning a trip to the Florida everglades so we swapped stories with them and showed them some of our pictures from our trip. On Wednesday and Thursday we went to a ski hill and learned how to telmark ski. It is harder than snowboarding or normal skiing, and yes we looked very silly trying to learn it. The skis are similar to downhill skis but your heals are not stuck to the board. To turn you have to put one ski in front of the other, bend down so that one knee is lower than the other, put your skis on an angle, bend your body in a C shape, and keep your upper body facing down the hill. Ya it was a bit confusing! So I could do this clumsily starting half way up the bunny hill, and when I went to the top you ended up seeing me rolling down the hill in a cloud of white. So in the afternoon of the second day Melinda, Esther and I got annoyed and took the chair lift up to the top and just started bombing down the hill seeing how fast we could go. This was fun, and I eventually had to learn how to normal ski so that I could slow down without snowplowing or falling. By the end of the day we found a hill that you got air just by going fast enough, it was great fun! Next week we are going to a cabin in Bruce Mines about eight hours away and having a winter camping trip. Our plan is to build quinzhee (kind of like an igloo) and sleep in them. I’m not too sure what else we will be doing but no worries I will update you all once we get back.

Let the New Year Begin!

Well I made it home to Saskatoon safe and sound, but as most of you know my flight was delayed because of a storm. I was pumped though because I got a first class seat the next day since the plane was completely booked! They gave me a pillow and an amazing meal. Seeing everyone at home was awesome, but there definitely were not enough hours in the day. Erica was planning a New Years Gala which was a dessert night that had a bunch of skits, dramas, and dances. I ended up being in one of the skits and running the kitchen the night of, so that kept me quite busy. One of the things I did with my family was make a ginger bread village which was totally awesome if I do say so! I also visited with my relatives and got to go snowboarding twice.
Then my holiday was over and now I am at Medeba and have already gotten back into the swing of things. For our first day we got to learn how to backcountry snowshoe and ski. They are both quite fun and since we have at least two feet of snow it made it even more enjoyable. Then on Friday we learned how to ice climb! I thought that it would be similar to rock climbing, which it is in a way, but it is also completely different. You have two ice axes and crampons on your feet (spiky things). To climb you need to swing both axe into the ice so that your arms are strait, then once you have them firmly in (which is quite hard to do) you have to walk (aka. smash your crampons into the ice). So while you are doing all of this you have to remember to keep your elbows at 90 angles otherwise the axes come out and you fall. We only got to climb a little because there isn’t much ice on the wall yet, and it is melting today so who knows when we will be able to climb again but I definitely will have to practice. Well that’s it for now but happy New Year everyone!