Province: Manitoba
City: Pinawa
Location: Wilderness Edge Retreat and Conference Center
Dates: Sept. 8-15 / 04

Speaker: Nathan Reiger

Dates: Sept. 8-11 / 04

Topic: Idols

Nathan is a Pastor at Winnipeg Center Vineyard in Manitoba. Nathan covered many subjects in his time with us, and they all went back to the one point of idols. An idol is a perceived center of value, or power, or pleasure. Knowing this definition help us to determine what in our lives was an idol. Nathan showed us how God feels when we put other idols above him and even along side him. God wants to be number one in our lives.

Speaker: Gareth Goosen

Dates: Sept. 12-14 / 04

Topic: Worship

Gareth is the Executive Director at MakeUsHoly Ministries. Gareth talked about the many different ways to worship such as, fellowship, singing, praying, etc. Gareth showed us how much God desires to have a relationship with us. That God will meet us where we're at and where we most connect with Him.

Recreation: Canoeing, biking, hiking, ping-pong table, air hockey table, hot tubs, pool table, body surfing, etc.

All these activities were a great way for our site to get to know each other in a fun and relaxed environment. Body surfing was a way for the adventure seekers to have a taste of what the rest of the year holds.

Province: Manitoba
City: Winnipeg
Location: Trinity Baptist
Dates: Sept. 15-17 / 04

Description: Winnipeg Inner City Plunge with Youth With A Mission. During this time we did many different activities to try and help out in Winnipeg where we could. Among those activities were giving roses to prostitutes, helping out at Winnipeg Harvest, helping in a soup kitchen, and going out to the streets in the evening to meet as many street people as possible.

Province: Manitoba
Dates: Sept. 17-19 / 04

Description: This weekend was a homestay weekend for all the Manitoba kids. Whoever wasn't from Manitoba went home with some who were. This was a good weekend to hang out and get to know some people on a more one-on-one basis. For the people not from Manitoba it was an awesome time to see some of the province.

Province: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta
Location: Two 15 passenger vans and a mini van
Dates: Sept. 20 / 04

Description: We drove, and drove, and drove, and drove some more. Our traveling was a blast. The times that we weren't all asleep or reading we had a great time playing cards and visiting with each other. We had no choice but to get to know each other and it was a great way to do that. This is when we all came to the realization that we had just met each other 2 weeks ago and we were already so close.

Province: Alberta
City: Canmore
Location: Rundle Mountain Hotel
Date: Sept. 21 / 04

Description: This day was a day for us to see the sites of Canmore and stretch our legs. Some went shopping, some visited family and friends, and some went hiking. We all had a great time; we didn't even have to get into the vans once that day. It was awesome. We also had a hot tub there so that helped us to relax and loosen up, to prepare for the next little stretch of traveling.

Province: British Columbia
City: Sicamous
Location: Houseboat
Dates: Sept. 22-26 / 04

Speaker: Blayne Greiner

Dates: Sept. 22-26 / 04

Topic: Relationship with God

Blayne is the Pastor at Youth Unlimited in Seattle. Blayne talked about how we need to make God a bigger part of our life. He really encouraged us to make God our first love. He talked about keeping up a really strong prayer life because talking to God is the only way to stay close to him and his desire for you. Blayne also talked about how once you are in a relationship you still have to have God as your number one love.

Note: Are classes this week were really cool because we got to have class on the beach and out on the water. It opened our eyes to Gods amazing beauty.

Recreation: We had a lot of options on the houseboat of things to do. We had two houseboats, each of which had a hot tub, TV, VCR, DVD player, couch, water slide, kitchen, multiple bathrooms and bedrooms and an upstairs. (One boat was bigger then the other but they were both huge). We had a blast swimming from boat to boat and trying different stunts off the water slide. We also docked the houseboats for the afternoon and walked an amazing hike with a huge water fall. It was a gorgeous lake with tons to do. We all had a great experience.

Province: British Columbia
City: Chilliwack
Location: Camp Stillwood
Dates: Sept. 26-30 / 04

Description: We had a couple of days to just explore the camp and hang out before classes started for the week. There were lots of nice hiking trails and paths to explore. The weather was amazing, so a lot of us took advantage of that and laid out in the sun or played volleyball.



Speaker: Craig Ginn

Dates: Sept. 28-30 / 04

Topic: Evolution of Christian History

Craig is a Musician and Pastor for Soul Survivor. Craig covered a lot of material, and had lots of information to share with us. Evolution of Christian History was his main focus. He taught us about time lines and family trees in the Bible. He then showed us how all the information ties together. Craig also talked about how the early church was formed and compared other religions to Christianity. Craig showed us how trustworthy the Bible was and always will be. Craig also held extra classes for people that were interested. The two he held were, Interpretation of Religious Text; A Hermeneutical Template, and Mysticism. Both of which were extremely interesting, and brought a lot more understanding of Christianity to the group.

Recreation: Hiking, volleyball, board games, camp fire, floor hockey, basketball, climbing wall, sleeping in tree houses, archery, etc.

A few girls spent a couple of nights in one of the many tree houses through out the grounds of still wood. As a site we also had a floor hockey tournament, this was a lot of fun for everyone.

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October

Province: British Columbia
City: Hope
Location: Camp Kawkawa
Dates: Oct. 1 – Dec. 4 / 04

Description: Camp Kawkawa is our base camp until the end of the year. We travel out from here every now and then to do some sight seeing and missions work. Here at Kawkawa we have different speakers come in to talk to us about many different subjects. A day in the life of a student in Outtatown is:

8:30-9:00 Breakfast

9:00-11:00 Class

11:00-12:30 Quiet time (A time to connect with God. To get to know him

and his word better.)

12:30-1:30 Lunch Break

1:30-3:30 Class

3:30-5:30 Free Time / Mentoring / Peer Mentoring Groups

5:30-6:00 Supper

7:00-9:00ish Evening activity

Evening activities are different depending on the night, they are as follows:

Monday: Community Night - We as a team get together and discuss any announcements that might need to be covered, any news with in the group or in the world around us, any concerns in the group that need to be talked about, then we have a time of telling stories, either reflective or humours. We have a time of prayer at the beginning and again at the end. This is a great time for the whole team to reconnect after a weekend of everyone doing there own thing.

Tuesday: Free Night - We use this night to go into town, or just hanging out in the student lounge.

Wednesday: Small Groups - We have three small groups that meet once a week. In these groups we study the Bible, do testimonies, pray, etc. This is an awesome night because we get to know some of the team on a more personal level. We have a blast in our groups hanging out, and getting to know God more by talking about what he is doing in everybody’s life.

Thursday: Worship Night - This night is great! We have a lot of very talented singers and musicians in this group. So every Thursday a different group of three of four people lead us in a worship time. We have an awesome time praising God together and encouraging each other.

Friday: Free Night - We usually get weekends off to do our own thing, unless we are out for a mission’s weekend. If you live close you can go home or if you have relatives you can go visit. Weekends are a great time to kick back and relax.

Recreation: We have an endless supply of activities to do here. Canoeing, kayaking, swimming, beach volleyball, hiking, zip line, leap of faith, etc. The leap of faith was a great way to get us pumped up for bungee jumping in Africa. We had to stand at the top of a pole and jump off. As we jumped we had to try to reach out and grab a trapeze bar, if you missed you would just fall. Don’t worry we were harnessed in, no one got hurt.



Speaker: Erv Klassen

Dates: Oct. 4 & 8 / 04

Topic: Spiritual Formation

Erv is a professor at Columbia Bible Collage. He came and talked to us about how to open up to God. We discussed many different ways to get to know God more, such as meditation on scripture, silence and solitude, different pray ideas or different ways to pray, etc. We also learnt the six different streams of spirituality. It was interesting to kind out where we each belonged. Erv showed us the many ways to connect with God, this has helped the group when it comes to quite time because we have more ideas/ ways to talk to God. Erv showed us that we need to find how we connect with God best and grow in that.


Speaker: John Vooys

Date: Oct. 5 / 04

Topic: New Testament Study

John is a professor at Columbia Bible Collage. He came and gave us a crash course on the NT. John taught us a lot about who the people where that wrote the NT. This gave us a better understanding of the Bible because now we know its history. John took us through the whole NT and talked about each book, who it was written by and who it was written to. John inspired us to learn more about where the Bible generated from.


Speaker: Ken Esau

Date: Oct. 6 / 04

Topic: Old Testament Study

Ken Esau is a professor at Columbia Bible Collage. Ken took us through the OT and talk about all the stages. He explained the key themes of the stages and how they all tie together. Ken showed us that as we learn more Theology we learn more about the heart of God. He encouraged us all to dig deep into the theology of the Bible, not to just read because its the Bible and you feel obligated.



Province: British Columbia
Location: Esperanza
Dates: Oct. 9 – 14 / 04

Description: Esperanza is a little community on the East coast of Vancouver Island. It is a place where people or families can go to get help, mentally, physically, and spiritually. We went there for almost a week to help out in anyway we can. We did youth groups, kid clubs, a Church service, and we helped out cleaning up the grounds. We cut fire wood for days, most of the time in the rain, but we had such a great time.


Speaker: Ivan

Dates: Oct. 11 & 14 / 04

Topic: His Testimony and varies things God has taught him.

Ivan and his wife work at Esperanza. Ivan opened our eyes to many of the hurts aboriginal people have to work through and deal with, such as the Residential School System and trying to find their history. He talked about how it had personally affected him and his life. Ivan showed us how to go into different people groups expecting them to teach us. This has opened our minds and hearts to other people and their cultures.


Speaker: Dean

Date: Oct. 13 / 04

Topic: Being opened minded

Dean is the head administrator of Esperanza. He also talked to us about how we need to approach other people’s culture with an open mind. He talked about how we can’t go to Africa expecting to change people and their villages, because that would be like changing their history, or cultures. Dean shared with us that we need to go into communities with the mind set that they know more and can do more then us. This way we will learn from them, rather then us wanting them to learn from us.


Back to Kawkawa – Where we continued our classroom studies.


Speaker: Steve Schroeder

Dates: Oct. 18 – 22 / 04

Topic: Where do you want us Lord?

Steve is a Pastor at a Church in Hope, BC, called The Harvest Church. Our time with Steve was an amazingly powerful time. God revealed himself to us many times through out the week. Steve talked about how God needs to be the focus in all our lives, how we need to only walk through the doors that God opens to us, that God wants us to relax and enjoy his presence, etc. God used Steve to cover a lot of ground in the one week. On Wednesday we had a baptism service in the lake for anyone who felt God calling them to be baptised. Six people felt this calling, so our four leaders baptised them. (You can read some of their testimonies in the Stories section.) God revealed his heart for us and this ministry during this week.



Date: Oct. 25 – 26 / 04

Description: On Oct. 25 we had a quiet day, for it we headed out to a Monastery in Abbotsford. We had about 6 hours to wander around talking to God. We learnt that God talks a lot when you give him the chance.

On Oct. 26 we had a service day, where we helped out at the soup kitchen at Steve’s Church. We helped serving people, cleaning up dishes, organizing cloths for the free store, and any other random things that they could find for us to do. We had a lot of fun getting to know some of the people in the community of Hope.


Speaker: Charlotte Barkman

Date: 27 – 29 / 04

Topic: Spiritual gifts

Charlotte Barkmen is a former Outtatown Leader. Charlotte talked about discovering and using God-given gifts. She showed us some of the different gifts that were mentioned in the Bible, and how they are the same in today’s society. We learnt about the categories of gifts, such as motivational gifts, ministry gifts, and manifestation gifts. Charlotte also taught us the characteristics of each gift, this helped us to realize what gifts God had put in our own lives.

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November

Speakers: Blayne and Betty Greiner

Dates: Nov. 1 – 5 / 04

Topic: Relationships

Blayne and Betty are Pastors at Youth Unlimited. They came to talked to us about all the different types of relationships and how to keep them strong. We compared the needs of men and women in relationships. Blayne and Betty also shared their personal stories about their relationship and how they have been able to keep their relationship so strong over the years. We learnt about how you need to relinquish your rights, for example, when you are living in a community like this one you need to relinquish you right to privacy. This taught us how to have an attitude of humility and putting others before ourselves.


Speaker: Brad Jersak

Date: Nov. 8 – 11 / 04

Topic: Hearing Gods Voice

Brad is a Pastor / Teacher at Fresh Wind Ministries. Brad came to teach us how to hear God’s voice better. We had all just finished reading Brad’s book, “Can you hear me”, and so to have him come in and talk about the same topic as his book made all the ideas in his book a lot clearer. Brad used a radio analogy, we need to be tuned into what God is saying to us, and that he talks in a ton of different ways. Brad also talked about seeing God, and how we can use the imagination God gave us to see him. We learnt how to seek out God and meet with him.


Province: British Columbia
City: Vancouver
Location: Ivanhoe Hostel
Dates: Nov. 12 – 16 / 04

Description: We went to Vancouver to do an inner city plunge with YWAM, Youth with a mission. We spent time on the streets of Vancouver for a day getting to know people and the way they lived. One night we went out to hand out roses to prostitutes, the next day we cleaned up garbage on the streets. We did a lot of different activities that taught us to appreciate what we have and to have a more open heart to the people that live on the streets. (see stories section)

Back to Kawkawa – where we continued our classroom studies


Speaker: Iona Snair

Dates: Nov. 17 & 18 / 04

Topic: Three story evangelism

Iona and her husband run a program called Lifeteams in Abbotsford. She came out and talked to us about how we need to listen to people more and to learn their stories. She showed us how important it is to see their story, God’s story and our story. We need to see all three parts and how they all tie together. Iona taught us that our stories are never finished and that God’s story puts our story into context.


State: Washington
City: Seattle
Location: The Farm
Dates: Nov. 19 – 21 / 04

Description: We stayed in a youth center / community center. The people
that work there had a praise and worship night for us the first night. On the Saturday we got to experience Seattle with help from our new friends. This was a great day to get to know new people and explore a new city.


Province: British Columbia
City: Victoria
Location: Howard Johnson Hotel
Dates: Nov. 21 – 28 / 04

Description: This week in Victoria was relaxing, but very informative. We began our prep for our next semester in South Africa. We broke off into four groups, so that each group could study a different people group of South Africa. (Afrikaaners, Blacks, Indians, and Coloureds) This week helped us to get a better understanding of the many cultures within South Africa. While in Victoria we also had a Peer Mentoring Group day, a day of silence, and one day of classroom studies.


Speaker: Keith Davis

Date: Nov. 25 / 04

Topic: African History

Keith Davis is a Pastor at Victoria Christian Fellowship. He had lived in
Africa during the Apartheid times. Keith talked to us about his life during these times and how South Africa dealt with the struggle. He was very insightful to the people of South Africa and really gave us a broader idea of what to expect upon arrival.

Back to Kawkawa – were we continued our classroom studies.

Speaker: Phil Cann

Dates: Nov. 30 – Dec. 3 / 04

Topic: Evangelism


Phil Cann is a traveling youth speaker. He spoke to us about how we need to be showing God’s love to people by our actions, not words. We learnt how important it is to be Christ-like in our everyday lives. He talked about how if we were to meet a person for only one day, and then never saw them again, that they should have an impression of Christ from there interaction with us. Phil used the analogy of being a link in someone’s chain, meaning you have impacted someone’s life enough to strengthen their relationship with God.

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December

Province: Alberta
City: Canmore
Location: Rundle Mountain Hotel
Dates: Dec. 5 – 8 / 04

Description: This was an amazing couple of days to hang out with our site one last time before we all went our separate ways for Christmas break. We also had the opportunity to go snowboarding or skiing if we so chose to. Another great thing about this time was we had the privilege of spending it with the other 2 sites and getting to know the people preparing to go to Guatemala.

DEC. 8 ARRIVED BACK IN WINNIPEG

CHRISTMAS BREAK

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January

Cities: Winnipeg, Toronto, London, Johannesburg
Location: Airplane
Dates: Jan. 13 – 15 / 05

Description: LONG!! It was a cool time to see the world (from the air) and reconnect with our fellow site members. Our stop over in London became longer then we had expected, so that created even more time for us to visit and catch up. We arrived in Johannesburg safely and extremely excited to start our adventure.

City: Soweto
Location: Ipelegang
Dates: Jan. 16 – 23 / 05

Description: Soweto is the biggest Black township in all of South Africa. It is also one of the most famous because of the uprisings to protest against Apartheid in 1976. Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela grew up in Soweto, both of which played important roles in the ending of Apartheid. While we were living here we stayed in a community center. This was a great time; it gave us the opportunity to meet a lot of people and experience Black culture hands on. Many of us were taught how to drum, dance, and play new games by the local people that were using the community center. During this week we as a site worked with many different organizations helping out where ever we could. We worked at an orphanage feeding and entertaining kids, painting a local school and gardening at an aids hospice. On the days we were not working we were kept busy touring different areas of Soweto and surrounding areas, all of which were both interesting and heart breaking. The Saturday before leaving for Pretoria we had a blast at Gold Reef City amusement park.

City: Pretoria
Location: Host Families
Dates: Jan. 23 – Jan. 29 / 05

Description: Pretoria is the legislative capital of South Africa. We spent a week here living with Afrikaaner families. During the week we attended classes on South African history and learnt about The Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Among classroom studies we visited many memorials and museums to help us further understand South Africa’s history, and how it is working towards being a stronger country. For a lot of the team the Apartheid museum was the most impacting museum, because the events are so recent the museum made it very real. The time we were not in classes we spent getting know our new families. This was a great time for us to build strong friendships and try to learn a new language, Afrikaans.

On the weekend, our host families entertained us. It was amazing to experience their culture hands on.

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February

City: Cape Town
Location: Fish Hoek
Dates: Jan. 30 – Feb. 13 / 05

Description: We were there for two weeks to enjoy everything from days on the beach to days in the classroom. The first week was more of a relaxing week of laying in the sun, shopping, and a little site seeing. We hiked table mountain, which was about a 2 hour hike, it over looked all of Cape Town. The team had a chance to grow closer through encouraging and supporting each other. The classroom studies were an interactive workshop on Conflict Resolution. We learnt the definition of conflict and how to deal with it to find the best possible out come for each person involved. We also learned how each of us deals with conflict in different ways, and that each way is okay for that person. We all learned a lot about ourselves and how God truly made us individuals.

City: Strandfontein
Location: Host Families
Dates: Feb.13 – 20 / 05

Description: The team got split up once again to experience what it is like to live the life of a different race. This time it was in the homes of the Coloureds. While living with them we helped out in a township, we built houses, moved bricks, and painted houses. This was an incredible experience because we worked along side the people that were receiving the house once it was completed. Evenings and weekends we got the pleasure of spending time with our families, doing whatever it was they were doing that day.

City: Stellenbosch
Location: Christian Brothers Retreat Centre
Dates: Feb. 20 - 26 / 05

Description: This next week was a great mix of work, touristy things and relationship building. We had a couple different work projects this week: painting a mural, paving, and gardening. We did the work projects with our small groups and it created a great time to work together and catch up from the week we spent apart. The touristy thing that we had the opportunity of doing was going on a wine tour. Stellenbosch is world renowned for its many vineyards and wine companies. The girls got to build stronger relationships with each other by staying in a dorm room setting at night. This was awesome because all the girls got to be in one room together, which helped us all to reconnect after being in different homes the week before. The guys were also all together this week, but that happens almost every week for them. It was a great week of work and fun.

City: Bonnievale
Location: Outdoor Adventure Camp
Dates: Feb. 26 – 28 / 05

Description: This was an interesting weekend for us all. We all had no idea what to expect and were all pleasantly surprised. We drove out to this remote camp, we got there in the dark, grabbed our bags walked down a path for about 5 minutes and ended up at a beautiful little campsite. We had the option of sleeping in a room with no walls, only a roof, or just under the stars. We had all our meals cooked over the fire and served outside under the sun, or stars depending on the time of day. The couple days we were there we got to do things like jumping off a big rope swing into a river, canoeing, swimming, and high ropes course, which included a leap of faith and a zip line that took you to the other side of the river. It was an incredible weekend of getting out of your comfort zone and having a great time!

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March

City: Jeffrey's Bay
Location: U.C.S.A.
Dates: Feb. 28 – March. 5 / 05

Description: Jeffrey's Bay is world renowned among surfers; it has held the world surfing championships and has some of the best waves in the world. After 3 weeks of classes and work projects we got a much needed week off. Some spent it doing the least amount possible, some spent it as busy as possible. February 28 was the much anticipated (for most, anyway) bungee jumping day!! About 24 of the 30 of us bungee jumped, some did a huge zip line also, a few did just one or the other. During the week we had many options of adventure type things to do such as: horse back riding on the beach, surfing lessons, sandboarding, paintball, rock climbing, and shopping. Believe me shopping was an adventure...Quicksilver, Roxy, Billabong, etc...all outlet stores. Great times were had, great clothes were bought. That Friday we had a chance of a life time, we went to a lion park. There, we not only got to see many lions and lionesses, but we got to pet, yes actually touch, 4 month old lion cubs. We were all shocked to find out how big a 4 month old lion really is. Friday night the once in a life time experiences continued, we tented in an elephant park. This was absolutely incredible because in the evening while sitting at the look out, which over looked the watering hole we saw a family of elephants. A family of 7 coming to drink and wash up, Gods creation is truly amazing.

City: Middle of no where
Location: Mdumbi
Dates: March 5 – 11 / 05

Description: This week we had classes on Knowing Yourself. We had to do a lot of self reflecting and connecting with God. " Who are you?" is a big question to try to figure out in one week, but with our tranquil and beautiful surroundings it was easy to feel and experience God’s love. One of the activities we were asked to do was write a personal mission statement to help us have spiritual direction in our lives. Most of us spent a lot of time on the beach, or up early in the mornings to watch the amazing African sun rises.

City: Pietermaritzburg (PMB)
Location: Project Gateway
Dates: March 11 – 18 / 05

Description: In PMB we stayed in an old jail that has been transformed into a historical site that focuses on outreach to the community. A couple of the outreach programs include feeding the hungry, giving jobs to the unemployed, and giving shelter to the homeless. While we were there, some of us went abseiling (110m beside a raging Howick Falls) and on a 12 hour hike. For the hike we split into two groups, one group of 15 went at a time. We hiked all day to Rhino’s Peak and slept in a cave at night. This was an incredible time for a lot of us to feel God and truly rely on his strength. While we were not hiking we were having classes on HIV / AIDS, African history, and doing gardening work in the church yard.

Location: Kwasizabantu
Dates: March 18 – 22 / 05

Description: We were here for four days of work and experiencing the community. This place is a self sustaining community that does outreach to the Zulu people. The project that we had for the weekend was to peal the paint off of the outside of the school and begin to repaint it. The community appreciated our work and held a brai (BBQ) for us.

City: Durban
Location: Host Families
Dates: March 22 – 29 / 05

Description: Not Yet Available

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April

Location: Kruger National Park
Dates: March 31 – April 2 / 05

Description: Not Yet Available

City: White River
Location: African School of Mission
Dates: April 2 – 13 / 05

Description: Not Yet Available

Cities: Johannesburg, London, Toronto, and Winnipeg
Location: Airplane
Dates: April 13 – 14 / 05

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