an end has come, but with it a new beginning.

"Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not...Great is your faithfulness." - Lamentations 3:22-23


Well, how to sum up the last two weeks of something we never wanted to end…amazing, joyous, heartbreaking, tear-jerking, bittersweet, memorable, too short, painful, scary, exciting, basically an emotional rollercoaster.
We ended up with our course in Christian Worldviews, which was really well taught, and then headed to Tofino for the last time for some surf and relaxation. When we got back from that we had a little more homework to do for the after-class work and for Kristie Voth and then we headed out in groups to ride the white water of the Cowichan Valley, that was a lot of fun, I was a little nervous at the start but turns out there was nothing to be so afraid of, go figure (thanks again Lord). Then we were of to Mount Washington one last time for our final out-trip of the year. There was only one day of ski left on the mountain and there were surprisingly few people there, the snow was pretty good most of the day, but if you asked Jordan he would say it was a little hard…on second though, you better not ask him because he would not remember anyways. I say this because he managed to be the one injured this time with a pretty major concussion, not to mention a rather scraped up face. All day he was repeating himself and forgetting things that happened five minutes previous, luckily he had his wonderful Jen Lee with him to (first of all be scared out of her mind…causing her to forget keys and sandwiches in the most unlikely of places) and to care for him for the rest of the weekend, putting gel on his wounds and feeding him T3’s and other medication all day long. What a good caretaker she was. We had more great times in the guys side for our chapels as we went over memories from the year gone by, laughs were had and some tears (however “thought-to-be-hidden”). On one of the days there we were given a few hours to go out on and around the mountain to have some solo time for reflection on the past 8 months and what God has been doing in our lives through all that we have seen, heard, and done. It was a beautiful day and the view of Albert Edward, which is where it really all began in many ways, was spectacular. So spectacular in fact that I found myself unable to concentrate, my mind wandered aimlessly from one thing to the next, and I even managed to get a short nap in the island mountain air and sun. Perhaps I just was not ready to face the thought of Kaleo being so close to finished. Perhaps God had something else for me to do, sure enough later that evening we had some free time and I grabbed my board and boots and proceeded to climb half way up the mountain, which is surprisingly steep at parts, and half an hour later, watch the sun begin to go down beyond a line of mountains on the not-so-distant horizon. It was an incredible view, and more incredible was the way that God provided breath and endurance for me as I climbed up just in time to see the view he had painted for me. It was like I could keep climbing up forever, I was simply not getting tired, there is NO end to what God can do. I know that walking up a mountain is maybe not the most miraculous way for that message to come across, but it was the one which worked at just that time, as well as the many times we were running on nothing of our own strength in India. So long as we keep placing one foot in front of the other (physically and metaphorically) God will give us the strength and the stability and the direction of where to put it down again. I was brought back to many of the fond memories I have of the times we spent together, and even though I had to strap on my board and head down before the sun was completely submerged by the protruding peaks so that I was not boarding in the dark, and the time was not as long as I wish it could have been sitting there at the top of the chair lift, I know that God used it exactly how he wanted to.
Later on, back at camp, we had a chapel service (the very last one) and in it we got to name ourselves, in the same manner with which we had been previously named by others. This time we chose names for ourselves which will challenge us to continue growing in some and every way now while we are apart from each other physically in the world. Those names, I pray, will be written on my heart for years to come. I was given the name Reaching Torchbearer (I say ‘given’ because I believe it was chosen by God) that I would continue to reach out to all those around me, to God in heaven for direction and provision, and within myself to seek who it is God has made me to be for this moment in time and who He is continuing to make me for time immemorial.
On our last night out on the town, we had a wonderful meal at a restaurant called Just Jakes, which Jen and Jordan our beloved interns are sure never to forget (or at least not for a long time…or if one has another ski hill-to-face collision, lets pray that does not happen)…that night the two of them got engaged! The man of Kaleo lined the stairs and held roses and as Jen walked up, Jordan nervously prepared himself to ask the question I am sure he has been waiting a long time to ask. “Will you marry me?” and Jen said YES!! And then proceeded to put the ring on the wrong finger, but that’s ok ;). The wedding is planned to be in September, unfortunately I will be in school in the USA and likely will not be able to attend. But I love them both and look forward to hearing all about it! After leaving Just Jakes, we went to Victoria and had a wonderful time at the sea wall, where a small memorial was set up reminding us to “Be the Light” and we sand together and remembered and made new memories together. It was a bittersweet moment, but a blessed one which I hope never to forget.
Then came the graduation day, it was a lot of fun, started out with Ben getting baptized in the morning and people running around between hanging out with family and getting ready for pictures and the ceremony. Kylie and Jordana were our wonderful valedictorians, and then did a great job on the speech, and Lech gave us a challenge I hope to always seek to fulfill, to take what we learned this year and really apply it, that the fruit which has been sown in me will not sit and go bad so to speak. Thank you to Lech for that word.
Sunday morning came around and there was a lot of strain on all of us as final packing was done and we began to say goodbye to each other, one by one leaving the place we had called home for so long. Each of us had our hearts torn in 30 different directions that day, and I am sure you could have made quite the puddle with all of our tears. Yet there is joy in knowing we are all part of an eternal family, promised to meet again some day.
Now we are, for the most part, home and settling back in, yet settling is the most inappropriate word to use, because we are not the same, and we will not settle, we are called to be different and we have been shown how to do so. Lord let us never forget and teach us more how to do and say the things to be the Light in the world to which you have sent us.
Such is the way which Kaleo 6, as it was at Camp Qwanoes, has ended; yet Kaleo 6, as it is in our hearts, has only just begun. It's time to go beyond, time to go deeper.
God Bless you all and thank you so much for reading this blog for these past 8 months, I pray that God has shown you truths through some of it, and given you joy from other aspects. I hope to update this blog once in a while in the future so please visit again!

Much love, and forever yours in Christ,
Miranda Tiede


"Farewell for a while, I’m going away, but I’ll be back, though I go ten thousand miles,
ten thousand miles or more..."

"I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." - Philippians 3:14

and here it comes...

last week we had our final class of the year, it was Christian Worldview, during that class we had a small assignment in which we had to answer the question "What are you learning to love?" we had to go through the things we have been 'learning to love' over the past year and during that week of class. i feel like it might be good to use that as my blog this week, to let you know some of the things which have been put on my heart and which i have been working through over the past 8 months (has it really been that long?). so here it is:

To be completely honest, the things which I have most recently been learning to love have come to me not in class, but most recently through our missions’ trip to India. Seeing the people there and being broken for them and over them has opened the eyes of my heart to a whole new world. Many of them are lost and blind to the truth that is waiting for them. They follow so blindly all that they have been taught from birth. There were so many things that we saw there which had both an immediate impact on me and also one which has continued to shape and inform me since returning. There are lessons being taught to me every day which I gather from things we did in those far away places.
A huge lesson that I felt the Holy Spirit teaching me through the convicting words of others was to learn how to love people through anger, even a righteous anger. One can not allow anger against the enemy to blind us from how we need to love those who are also being blinded by that same enemy. Part of how we need to love them is in getting to know them, having a personal relationship with them where they can see the light of the Lord shining inside of us who are children of the living God. Far too often we are kept from having those close, personal relationships with people who are lost because we refuse to look at them, we do not acknowledge that they even exist; we can not truly love people until we have begun to see them through the eyes of the Lord rather than the eyes of the world, which we have. Only when we see them through those heavenly eyes, and have been broken for them the way the Father is broken for them, can we love them like we are meant to, and like we need to if we are going to have a lasting impact on them.
Another thing which I have been challenged with recently is whether or not I have chosen to follow Christ on my own or if it is still simply because that is the way in which I was brought up. That question went through my head momentarily a couple of times this past week as we went through class discussions but it never stayed around all that long. I have seen the faithfulness of God in my own life as well as in the lives of people I know. As Pascal is convinced, it is faith which is a gift from God that provides the proof to what we have come to know. I have faith and I know that Jesus is real and that he Reigns. Again, in India in particular I saw the proof given as a result of the faith of His children, salvation came to families who had been lost in Hinduism for generations, prayers were answered even as we were praying them, strength was provided right when it was needed, and the prayer we prayed for brokenness over the people was answered in a way which brought many of us to tears. Just as Olthuis talks about how we both are and are still becoming, so I have learned and am still learning to love the Lord my God because he is good and not simply because it is what I was taught.
I am learning to love the fact that I can not see my future, that I need to simply rely on God for each and every step that I take. No matter if I can see the ground in front of me or not, I am learning to take the step of faith and know that He will provide a place for my foot to land before I tumble over. So long as I am faithful to Him, He will not let me fall. In following faithfully I am learning to love prayer, learning to surrender all things to Him at all times in joy and thanksgiving because I know that He is good and that He has plans to prosper me, plans which he has had since before my birth. I am learning to love the provision of the Lord, provision which comes in just the amount I need at the time. Just like the Israelites were given food and told to take only what was needed for the time and not try to store up the rest, so I am learning to love how He provides just enough to see us faithfully through and not any extra, that we might be tempted to say we did it ourselves. For on our own we can do no great thing, but through Christ who lives in us we can do anything.
I am learning to love the people around the world who share the same heavenly Father as I do. Even now as I look around at my fellow brothers and sister, I am brought to remember the brothers and sisters whom I was able to meet along our journey, I know that together we form an eternal family; I am learning to love each one as my own blood relative. In fact I am learning to love them more than simply that, for as close a connection as that might prove between two people, it is of this world and I know that the bonds which are made through Christ far outdo any earthly feeling of closeness. I am learning to pray for those all over the planet who live each day far away from home for the cause of Christ, those who face persecution on a daily basis for the sake of the gospel message. To put is simply, I am learning how to love.
The thing from class which stands out the most to me in relation to what I have been learning lately comes from the article we had to read which was written on The Good of a Flourishing Creation: Seeking God in a Culture of Affluence, written by David Warners and Larry Borst. They spoke so much about the wealth of North America, the greed we have in the way that we are constantly using up all the resources of the world, and how the concentration of the people of the world today is so individualistic that we do not see the rest of creation flourishing. In fact, just the opposite, we see the rest of creation falling apart. Again I am drawn back to think of India, seeing the people living in the streets, the many little clusters of slum neighbourhoods, and then my thoughts are brought back here to homes filled with pointless possessions which are acquired simply as a sign of status. Who cares about what the rest of the world thinks of you, if soon enough there won’t be much of a world left? Consumerism has taken hold of us with its nasty talons and we have stopped struggling to get free. Praise the Lord that He has let me see this now; it is my prayer that I do not forget it and go back to that exact way of living! I am learning to love the idea of living simply, of giving to those who are in need rather than fulfilling the desires of my fleshly nature.
To sum it up…I am still a student of life, and of love, and of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no end to the things which I have been learning over this past year and even in these past few weeks specifically. I am learning about the ways in which I am Miranda, and I am learning still how to become the Miranda that God wants me to be. In all that I am learning, I believe that I have been reminded that I still have much to learn, and that I need to let the love which comes from Christ bind up all those things, that his judgement, wisdom, guidance, and love would be the things I follow as I journey one step at a time into life.