there and back again (not a hobits tale and not by bilbo bagins)

this past week has gone by rather quickly. we left on thursday morning to catch a ferry over to the mainland where we took to the streets of downtown vancouver. splitting up, we explored the city where we wanted to go. it was fun, a lot of walking, and then we went to the church where we were going to be sleeping, we were able to set up and then relax and play games with each other, games like madgab and monopoly. good times all around.
the main events began on friday when we got up and ready to visit a muslim mosque and then a hindu temple. the mosque was our first stop, there was an emam who told us about their beliefs and values and how they differ from christianity. i was suprised to learn how similar the two are, besides the fact that they do not believe in a triune God and they do not believe that Jesus Christ was the real son of God. to them this is basphemy. then we took off to visit the himdu temple, nothing like christianity at all, they worship idols and believe that they are reincarnated until they are either eternally in the "hell fire" or they become too good and merge into "god". these two 'adventures' were worth while in getting to know a little more about what the other people of the world believe in, to know how to pray for them and how to interact with them as christians showing the love of God and witnessing to the validity f Jesus Christ.
the rest of that day and all of saturday were spent at missions fest in vancouver, we were able to walk through booths where countless missions organizations were giving information and showcasing outreach opportunities for places all over the world. i was thrilled to see things happening in the world in places i had no idea that were being reached to, and i was excited to be able to gain some information on places like africa inland missions, ywam, crossworlds and so many more. my eyes were opened to the fact that there are chances to do outreach even in Europe! i knew that there was stuff happening in those places bt i did not know what the issues were which are dealt with over there.
this week we are in class, Old Testament, i am excited for this class and at the same time i am feeling very stressed out as today we were told of several large assignments that are due very soon. that along with all the things we need to take in during class and outside commitments like India training and planning a youth event for this week for well over a hundred youths, put on top of that the fact that we dont get out of class until 4:30 each day, i am feeling very stressed about how it is all going to get done, this is the reason for my scatter brained blog and the lack of detail about things, i hope to clarify what went on last week in better detail at a later time but i wanted to let you all know so far the basics of what has been going on lately.
basically, if you could pray for calm and for me to be able to focus on getting things done this week and yet through all the rush, ggetting out of it what God wants me to learn rather than just mindlessly doing homework that would be awesome!
and now i need to get some of these things done! talk to you laters! hopefully with a much less heavy plate to carry!