to update. briefly. about december. so far.

I walked downtown with a group of peeps from the school. It was kind of chilly and all you hear from the Britts is how cold they are. I'm just ragging. We saw a choir and all the stands that used to sell vegetables, flowers and jewellry now sell christmas trees, maple syrup and mittens. I love the market!


We ended up at Zak's diner, where we all ordered milkshake and fries. They're supposedly the best milkshakes in town; I got coffee flavour and it was AWFUL. The fries were good though. Jess introduced herself to the waiter and we discovered we could pick the song that played in the diner for only a quarter you slipped into the little machine at the end of the table. It was magic. The waiter used a palm pilot and Sam asked him why he didn't use an Iphone. Sam also saw another guy in the diner wearing the same purple sweater. He was not pleased.




And the church went skating a couple days ago. It was great. Quite a few of the students didn't know how to skate so that was an adventure. I'm here with Jess, she was pro, even though this was her second time. There are way more pictures up on Facebook, in case you're curious.


Oh yeah. And I'm dating this guy. My mother's very happy.

allnighter number one.

Three functions of the Holy Spirit include revealing, filling and leading. The Spirit reveals to us things of the Lord, mysteries and knowledge. He fills us, to a point of overflowing and therefore is present here with us, not hidden behind a curtain in His temple. Lastly, he leads us. “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.” (Romans 8:14) The Holy Spirit is part of the trinity, God’s Spirit here on earth just loving away.

The Holy Spirit reveals to us the mysteries of our Lord God: things which were previously hidden. Without the Holy Spirit, we, as humans, would not be able to fathom that God sent his son to die for us; you and I. We could understand neither the gravity nor the necessity of this sacrifice, brought on by God’s deep love for us, His creations. This love itself requires a bit of revelation because of the intensity of such a complete love that we do not experience in any other relationship. “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him- these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.” (1 Corinthians 2:9b-10) By revealing these things to us, the Spirit has helped us connect to a God we cannot comprehend, with the acknowledgment that we are still limited by our nature to understand a God so vast. The mysteries of God comprise of things known to him, but not us, and prophecy is, in part, a revelation of these unknown things. “But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying, they are convicted of sin and are brought under judgment by all, as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. So they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!” (1 Corinthians 14:24-25) These revelations are surely a privilege, for “Even angels long to look into these things.” (1 Peter 1:12b) What the Spirit reveals is to help us understand the love of God, and is, ultimately, for his glory.

Unable to live the in-between life we are called to live as Christians on our own, we are filled with the Holy Spirit. We are a people in the end times, with a taste of the Spirit of the Lord, but not yet fully with the Lord. The Old Testament is full of men “the Spirit of the LORD came powerfully upon,” (Judges 14:19) but in the New Testament “the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 13:52) God has sent His Spirit, no longer just to come upon us, but to fill and enable us to preach and teach and love everyone. “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7) The Spirit of the Lord stirs hearts and gives us fruit such as kindness and joy. He fills us to overflowing! “Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:19) We are given gifts of tongues and prophecy, to better communicate with God and encourage our brothers and sisters. As Christians we are filled with the Spirit, a taste of what is to come.

The Spirit who fills us also leads us in the way of the Lord, according to His will for our lives. “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.” (Galatians 5:16-17a) God wants us to live our lives in a way pleasing to Him; to love others and serve them out of that love. 1 Corinthians 13 goes into great detail about how to love one another, and the Holy Spirit helps us in that as it would be impossible on our own. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:22-25) We have been born with a sinful nature, but born again in the Lord. This new life requires a new walk, and a guide different from that of this world’s. Ever eloquent, David pleas, “Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.” (Psalm 143:10) When we listen and are willing, the Spirit of God leads us according to the will of the Lord.

The Spirit of God has three main functions: to reveal, fill and lead. When the Spirit reveals, it is for our better, things that will encourage, enlighten or exclaim. When the Spirit fills us-- oh to be filled with the Spirit of the Lord--He fills us to overflowing with joy, wisdom and love. When the Spirit leads, He leads us in the will, walk and way of the Lord. The Holy Spirit is God’s presence here on earth, His way of being in communion with His people; His children.

sometimes i just don't sleep.

I am putting no special effort into making this any sort of creative blog. I am simply updating my blog for the purpose of updating my blog. I feel awful that I haven't been as of late, but such is life.

Have you ever put off doing something you weren't confident in, or were scared of for so long. It becomes a much bigger task then it should have been and you've had to put in way more effort and time, just because you psyched yourself out. I think I did that with my Holy Spirit essay. Just because I didn't have the knowledge or the terminology. I felt kind of like I had come to this school to learn about the Holy Spirit, and then they handed me a few books and told me to write an essay on the Spirit. I had to learn it on my own anyways, but that also meant that I had to LEARN it before I could write an essay on it. I freaked myself out with that, I mean, I could have just written the essay by Biblegateway-ing all the verses with 'Spirit' in them, but I wouldn't fully understand what I was talking about, and thus I was trying to read books, staying up late to read them and then getting to the point where I was literally just staring at the page. At that point I've decided it's way more productive to just go to bed, for whatever amount of time you've got.

It's 6:40 a.m. now and I haven't gone to bed. I need to get dressed for the day now, except that I never got undressed. Haha. Sometimes I just don't sleep. Although admittedly not since my last essay about two years ago in highschool. Or is that two and a half now?? I also haven't written an essay since then, and def never on the bible; I was so nervous about remembering how! And in fact, I'm not confident I did it right and having said that, you're not going to see that essay until I get it back and decently marked. If it wasn't a complete flop I'll share. : )

Having visited some of the girls in my class, at their shared home (they came from the UK), I've realized that my room is a rather odd set up. I'm not a trinket person but my walls are smothered. I think most people are the other way around. Not all though, I'm not claiming originality.

I made cake the other day just for something to do. This is a bad idea. Never bake just for something to do if there's no one to eat it but yourself. Always give baking away. It was created for that. To love on others. No one bakes for themselves. (I am telling myself this. Chantal. Do not eat your baking.) I was thinking. And I know I change what I want to do every other day, but I've been thinking on this for at least a week now so I'll mention it, I was thinking of going to school for baking. I think it's a two year course and honestly, to bake for a CAREER?! Wooo! (this is haphazard because I'm running on two cups of strong coffee, an apple and three pots of apple chai tea.)

We finally have permanent snow here in Ottawa. Maybe it's not even permanent. By that I just meant that it's stayed on the ground for three days now. That's right folks, on the first of December there was no snow. It was almost warm. Still sweater weather! That weirded me out so much, I was so grateful to be going home to cold, snow laiden Saskatchewan for Christmas! I've only ever spent one Christmas without snow, in California when I was nine, and I missed it immensely! It was so weird, it didn't feel like Christmas at all. Like April fools or something. Ha, you all thought it was Christmas. Wrong month. Couldn't you tell by the weather? It rained and we got scooters, rode them that day too. There were Christmas lights in the palm trees and we walked down the road in t-shirts, smelling popcorn in the warm air.

When I get home I want to go skating for my birthday. I've been skating here once already. In a rink though cause it hasn't been nearly cold enough to form any sort of ice outside. I realized though that I haven't skated on an actual rink in so long! I've always resorted to the Besborough because it's so lovely. I love outdoor skating rinks. With the trees and the snow and the music on the outdoor speakers. You actually freeze your butt off but it doesn't smell fake, like rinks do. There aren't fluorescent lights and the music doesn't echo and you can show off for the cars driving by. Best of all it's free! Ha. But the ice is choppy and my picks catch and then I stumble, so on smooth ice I realized that I'm actually a better skater than I thought, which was wonderful news! We've got so many non-Canadians in our school, it was fantastic watching them all cling to the boards. Is that awful of me? Come skate at the Besborough on the 18th of December. It'll be great fun!

I think I'll have an album of photo's on Facebook for every day I'm home; I intend to do so much! And I've missed everyone and Saskatoon and the weather! Nothing ever seems special until you leave it behind. Then you realize that you like the snow to come in November. October even. Although it was really great to be able to longboard to lifegroup (equivalent to caregroup?) in November.

6:55. Hm. Shout out to Nanny, who sent me a purple birthday card with butterflies. Thanks for remembering! And early too! I know you won't read this though, cause the internet's not your thing, so I promise to write you a letter later today. Maybe after I've taken a nap... I'm just putting this up on here so other's know you're the first to wish me a Happy Birthday. You've beat them all to it. Love you!

Also today I'm going to make peppernuts. I didn't realize this was a Mennonite thing until I was informed so by the lack of knowledge of it out here. No one knows what they are!! It must be one of those things you think are Canadian but really, no one outside your province, or even your city has heard of. They told the Britts and the Americans that they HAD to try "Canadian Beavertails". (It's a pastry) Not actually Canadian at all, I think it's just in Ottawa actually. But so many people never leave Ottawa that they think if it's in the capital city of Canada, it's Canadian. Bah. And all the Britts have never had eggnog! What a shame!! I tried explaining eggnog to Josh and I think I scared him off it... I don't know how else to explain eggs in a creamy form with spices. Anyone? Can anyone explain eggnog so's to make it sound appetizing? I'm going to bring peppernuts and eggnog in to class so everyone can feast during class break. They will all love it, they have to. These are Christmas food essentials. Speaking of peppernuts though, mom, could you gift me with the recipes I sort of don't have?

Well. Off to class. It's a given that I'll fall asleep in the class I pulled an allnighter to finish the homework for. Pathetic Chantal, really.