I am on a houseboat!!!

This post is written about what we did from October 9th-12th
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“I am on a houseboat. I am on a houseboat. No really, I am on a houseboat here people! Like really, who does this?! This is amazing!!!”

It would be utterly useless to try and count how many times this thought ran through my head during the week! As our group launched from the beautiful harbor in Sicamous, our excitement rose when we began to realize just how awesome our time on Suite Dreams (the girls boat) and Summer Reflection (the guys boat) was going to be. Sure there were definitely some tight quarters and interesting sleeping arrangements to be discovered but I mean, really…it’s not like we have much of a personal space bubble anymore.

No sooner had we set sail, when we come face to face with the incredible beauty of the Shushwaps. While we floated along the water it was easy to feel small since our surroundings consisted of nothing but sky and the mountains towering over us. Like most days that week, the air was crisp and the clouds hovered extremely low.

Our week entailed one memorable moment after another. Dance parties on the top deck, hot tubbing on the mid deck, movies, chess and card games on the main deck. A few of us were even crazy enough to jump into the lake off of the back of the houseboats. And I do mean crazy because a) it’s freezing cold water in October, and b) these were some of the words of encouragement “Don’t worry Mei-Lin, you’re totally safe. Just be sure to jump far enough so you clear the boat. Oh and don’t hit that rope down there either cause that would hurt. You’re good Mei-Lin. Do it.” And while some perfected the art of skipping rocks, others simply perfected the art of making more room in their suitcase to bring home the beautiful rocks that they had found. Yes, I was most definitely one of those – my bag is bursting because of this new found addiction. But what can I say – rocks are pretty. Each shore we beached on had a very different feeling; smooth, jagged, round, rectangular, sparkly. One couldn’t help but fall in love. Ok. I couldn’t help but fall in love.

This week wasn’t without some really thought-provoking moments as we spent time working through a “Knowing Yourself” module led by our site leaders. Each session focused on something different. Jodie kicked it off by taking us through a really awesome activity called Zoom where we were each given a different picture & told to make up a story about what we thought was going on in it. The person with the first picture started – and from there we went to the next – and soon enough we began to see how every picture was linked & as we saw more pictures we got a grander view of what was actually going on. Jodie challenged us to think about perspectives and how it shapes us and our community. It was an awesome reminder that everyone can see things differently and often times we need to stand back and zoom out on a situation; while other times we need to recognize the possibility to zoom in for more detail.

Another really encouraging time was when Anita talked with us about gifts and abilities. She gave us three questions to think about before discussing them among the circle. They consisted of: what am I good at? what gives me energy? and what have other people affirmed me in? For some people it was rather easy to come up with something, others had difficulty really pin pointing anything. This got me thinking about how we so often dwell on the bad things about ourselves or the things that we don’t think we can do. It was awesome to learn more about the people around us and with a simple smile or nod – be able to kind of affirm them in it. Along with this discussion, Anita also had us think of ways in which we can bring our gifts and abilities together and use them within our Outtatown community for the coming months. Born were a vast array of useful teams for people to be a part of, but of course, Team-Ridiculously Good-Looking was all of South Africa Site 2.

For one of our other sessions, Sabrina introduced us to an activity that I don’t think any of us really saw coming - an afternoon of silence. She opened with a scripture reading (John 15:1-17). And we talked for awhile about why is it important to remain in God, what are some ways to do so, and how can taking some time to be still and silent before God affect us. I’ve come to think that silence is not always an easy thing for our generation to find. There’s cell phones and t.v. and iPods. Things to do and people to see. Sabrina said something that really stuck out to me about how we have so much in a day and how it feels as though we always have to fill it with something. Perhaps it’s not that silence is hard to find, maybe it’s simply that some of us are not quite comfortable with it yet. There were a lot of stretching moments that afternoon as some hiked to the waterfalls, walked along the shore, and/or found different places to sit and be still. I think I can speak for most of us when I say that the quiet time to be on our own was more than welcomed. As everyone gathered back together at the boat I could sense people feeling refreshed and excited to share their stories about what they had just experienced! It felt good to be wrapped up in this positive vibe and finish the day with an awesome night of worship led by Simon & the crew!

And so with that and much more, this week was once again full of incredible places and experiences! How blessed are we to be able to go through such things and be with such wonderful people. This week it was on a houseboat. Next week it will be in Mission. Until then…

By: Mei-Lin Ing

The houseboat cruising through the waters

Simon steering the boat

Mei-Lin enjoying the view

Corey adding to the beauty of the moment

James setting the stakes

Sarah, Sabrina and Carrie setting the stakes

Stretching our legs and exploring the beach

Marla looking at the rocks

A great game of beach bocce

Jumping into the water

James going off the water slide

Meal time on the boat...it was tight

Playing cards

Amanda, Carrie and Sarah taking in the beauty