vegas so far!

well , hello again. sorry for the lack of updates. we've been pretty busy here at the base with orientation week, and getting settled in. on my dts there are 7 students, and 3 leaders.. -- 4 canadians, 3 americans, 1 korean, 1 swiss, and 1 english. so its cool to have 5 different countries in our dts. (5 girls, 5 boys)
we've started to move away from the 'rules/guidelines' and more into a bit of teaching. we also got our first book report thats due sometime in feb. for the book called 'is that really you God?' by loren cunnigham (the founder of ywam). but i like just read the book a month ago, so its pretty pointless for me to read it again and do a book report on it. so one of my dts leaders are going to pick another book for me.

the dts is going great so far..lots of fun stuff to do. today after supper, about 8 of us went to a near by childrens park and played some soccer which was fun. im going to try and get back in shape .. i dont know how well that will go, but its worth a try. and after me and my friend went for a mile or so run around the block, and it actually wasnt to bad! i didnt die! haha. i think im going to go again tomorrow morning.

we went to the strip to explore last night for the first time for most of the people on my dts. it was fun to see it all again, but i was dang tired of walking around !! im sure that soon we'll all be sick of it !! but we have some fun adventures that we're going to be doing soon. this weekend we're going to red rock and do some hiking, and then on sunday we're having a super bowl party at one of the guys' house that works here at the base. apparently its been sweet there, with like tons of big screen tv's and stuff.

well thats all for now! it might take me awhile to update often because the internet hasnt been working that great lately, and i dont have my own computer. some of my dts mates put some pictures of vegas here so far that you can check out on my facebook. leave some comments, talk again soon!! :)

im alive!!

ive made it to vegas !! i got in yesterday night at 1030pm .. so 230 am NS time. i was SUPPOSE to get into vegas 12 hours earlier, but i had some "diffficulties" at my stop over in toronto. i had to get a visa, so i had a request letter for one from my DTS leader. when i went to get my visa inbetween flights they were taking forever. at one point i went up to the guy and told him that my flight leaves in 20 min "and i kinda need to make it". after a lot of sitting and waiting, and them not understanding anything, they guy eventually gave me the visa (yet, its not the one that i requested, but it'll do). Conviently he gave it to me at about 935am .. the same time that my flight as leaving. he said that i'd still make my flight. so i RAN to my gate ( i felt like i was in some movie or something) and when i got to my gate, the plane had already left. and then i couldnt get out of the gate area and i was just calling people at the base (woke them up at like 4 or something) here balling my eyes out trying to figure out what to do. i eventually made it back to baggage check in and told the lady what happened. they gave me a ticket on the next flight out .. which was at 850pm ... it was like 10 am !!! they tried to charge me 45$, but i wasnt letting that happen. she "waved the fee, just this once!" because it wasnt my fault that i had missed my flight. so then they made me go and get my bags, and push them around with me until about 5pm. i was basically pushing my weight in bags. i now hate the toronto airport because 1)they wouldnt let me through 2)its soo huge and confusing, i got lost wayy to many times 3) the people suck at giving directions. half of them didnt speak english either. ohh, i forgot; the lady put me on stand by so i wasnt even guarenteed a spot on the flight. but thankfully she said there was lots of extra seats on and that i'd make it. i arrived at my gate about 3 hours early. there was NO way that plane was leaving without me on it!
so, my 3 dts leaders, one of their friends and my friend sam who works at the base picked me up at the airport. at that point it had been about 20+ hours of travelling, and i had only slept in the airport for maybe a hour, and for about a hour on the plane aswell. my friend took me out to drive down the strip, and re live all the memories from last year !! i really did miss vegas! im glad to be back
i'll have a computer for the next couple of days because sam's gone to oregon or something to speak at a retreat for the weekend. i have to work on a dance written assignment that i didnt quite get done before leaving. ohhh school !!! how im glad im done with you !!
so, that is that !! bottom line; i'm in vegas, safe and alive ! im the first of 7 DTSers, so i just get to chill and do whatever. theres also 2 girls here from ywam tyler (texas) and theyre here until this friday. theyre crashing in my room (or im in theres? it'll be mine after they go . which i think im sharing with 3 other girls. ekk!) today im going to help them work on the prayer room, and paint and stuff which should be fun. i didnt sleep much last night; i went to bed at like 2 .. and woke up at 730. i think im soo over tired, that im not tired .. or something like that?
check soon for more updates. when i get a chance to update, i will ! i dont know how often after this weekend i'll be able to use a computer, but i ll try my hardest ! :)
love beth

ps--my canadian phone doesnt work here because it costs money for me to text back to canada, and i have no balance left on my phone. so i think you can text me and i ll get them (i dont know where my phone is right now ..) but when i get my new phone hooked up, i'll give you the numberr :)

the weekend

this weekend i had my going away party in the city at the belairs. i have some pictures for you too! YAY
after school on friday i headed to the city and went and hung out with michael and ryan for a bit and watched part of a movie. On saturday we did a lot of baking, decorating food and going out buying stuff for the party. Me and gabrielle made the cupcakes in the picture (well, lisa anne baked them, brittany iced them and we put them m&m's on. joint effort i guess).

it says "good byebeth jan 09 vegas!"

picture of gabrielle, brittany and me !

this last picture is the cake that lisa anne and brittany made; black forrest! lisa anne remembered me saying that it was my favourite kind, and i said that probably 3 months ago! yummmy.

after the party on saturday night, i hung out with brittany and gabby for the night and we just acted silly, and dressed up. maybe you'll see some pictures on facebook, i dont really have any good ones. it was a fun last night in the city to say the least !
it was hard to say goodbye to some of my friends today after church, and knowing that im not going to see them for the next 5 months! it sounds crazy, and im really going to miss my friends. its great to know that theyre excited for me to go!! after church michael, luke, matt & i all went out to swiss chalet for lunch. kinda a tradition to go there for lunch after church. i wonder if they have swiss in the states??

as of tomorrow morning, it will be 9 days until i go !!!! 9 days .. that just seems crazy. time really does seem to fly. im starting to get a little more ready, and i ll probably try and do some packing tonight. i also bought a camera this weekend for my trip because i figured that since im going away on such an awesome trip, im going to want to have pictures to remember it all by ! i only have 7 days left of school too ! (but im hoping for a snow day tomorrow!). check soon for another update !! leave me some comments ! :)

23

23 days .. the count down is on! (its been on for quite some time now actually). i cant believe im leaving for 5 months in less than a month! im ready to leave now! i cant wait. im starting to get more ready as the date is getting closer. ive started laying out some of the stuff that i ll be taking that i wont use before i go. i dont think im going to be able to fit everything i want to take in just 2 suitcases! that seams almost impossible.
Christmas break is more than half over. its felt pretty long, but it was a much needed break. but im ready to go back and only have 2 and a half weeks of school work to worry about!! so awesome. you dont even understand how excited i am. i didnt have any homework over the break (other than easy reading) which was nice too! ive been working a lot lately, so ive been keeping my self busy.
i havent booked my ticket yet, but im probably going to be going on the 22nd, although the DTS doesnt start until the 25th.
hopefully when i am gone, i ll do better updates, when i actually have things to talk about that are interesting (unlike now) , and hopefully they'll include photos too. i looked alll over facebook for a picture of the building that im going to be staying at, but somehow while me and my friends were there in march, none of us took a picture of the building, but we do have ones on the inside, but they arent quite the same.
check back soon, and comment!
love beth

so, its been a long time..

sorry for the hugeee delay in posting updates. truth is, im just lazy and getting get around to doing it. not a lot of interesting stuff has happened since my last post .. kinda.

so lets back track to the summer; over all it was really good. much needed break from school. i felt really busy tho with going away and camp and such.



in september, school started .. just like it has for the past 13 years. but this year was a bit different. knowing it was my last first day at school was ohhhh so lovely. and knowing that im going to be done at the end of january made it 10 times better!! i didnt end up taking all the courses that i had signed up because one course was only offered for second semester, which im definnntaly not going to be there for. i have about 20 school days left of high school, oh how i cant wait!!! im just tired of high school .. the schedule/routine and whatnot. not to mention that i dont like my courses; african heritage english 12, which is a good class; not overly bad. math 12; good good boring at times. gym leadership 12 which can be fun. i have a good class, but sometimes its boring. and then... the dreaded dance 11 class. i almost dropped it but i decided to stick it out and stay. to say the least, i hate it and have like no friends in it.


i turned 18 last month, but i didnt do anything exciting; it rained my birthday weekend :( . i just went to the city and hung out with my friends and such. the past 2 weekends i didnt go to the city because i had to work, and i felt like i really needed a break. just to have some time to do NOTHING. oh, it felt so good!!! im back at it again this weekend, leaving on friday. im going to try and go a lot before i go because there arent that many weekends left until i leave. i'll miss my friends!



enough about the past. onto the whole point of this post. since about september or so, i was trying to decide whether to move to halifax/bedford ish area in february after i was done school and just work and hang out with friends and help out at the church, or to go back to vegas and do a DTS with YWAM (more info on what that means later). I went back and forth on the whole idea, talked to pastor mike about it, and prayed A LOT, and eventually decided to go out on a limb, and take advantage of the semester off that God has given me. So, Vegas, here i come. i leave in 6 weeks, and i honestly cant wait. what is a DTS and whats YWAM? thanks for asking. (if you already know, dont read the next paragraph)



YWAM (Youth With A Mission) is an international, interdenominational movement of Christians whose goal is to help people “know God, and make Him known”. For over 43 years YWAM has been mobilizing and sending people around the world to help meet the needs of and minister to hurting people worldwide. For the first three months of my DTS (Discipleship Training School), I will be in Las Vegas learning from other missionaries and professors from all over the world, who come to help my team mates and I grow in our relationships with Christ. They will also equip us with the tools that we need to help reach the lost world. For the last two months of my DTS I will be going to another country overseas with my team to apply everything that we learned in the first three months.

i chose to go to Vegas because i was there in march doing missionary work.(if your a frequent visitor on my blog, you'll remember past posts about it). I fell in love with the city, and what God was doing there. After a verrry long application process, i have finally been accepted!! each day there seems to be something new for me to do in order to get there, whether it be finding out about flights, visa's, working to pay for it all and writing support letters (and many other obstacles). Support letters have consumed me for the past week or so. I never knew it would take me so long to prefect them, and address them all, send them out. Which im stillll working on. time flys, and before i know it, i'll be all packed and moving to vegas. i cant say it enough; i cant wait !!!! i have a couple of friends who work at the base in vegas; it should be tons of fun. ive also been able to 'meet' some of my dts mates via facebook, which is kinda cool.

so thats whats new in my life!! hopefully, i ll get around to updating this thing more often. while im in vegas i plan on either updating my blog every week or so (which i know will turn out to be every month, seeings how i'll have to borrow my friends computer). or i'll just send a email out to people saying whats up.

check back soon for more updates!! merry almost christmas :)
love beth

homee

im finally back from alberta after a long night of travelling and barley any sleep. mikel picked dad and i up at the airport in the morning, and he took us home. i unpacked my bags, just to pack them all into another suitcase for ashram. in the late afternoon mikel and i came back to the city and just hung out with a couple of people while they watched movies and i slept. tomorrow we all go to ashram for a week, where we do the kids program at a family camp type of a camp which is a lot of fun, and even funner when its with all your friends. mikel and a couple of other guys are leaving early because they are going to sweden for a week and a half for gomissions, which is a bummer that they arent going to be there with us, but theyll be having fun!
im sure i ll do another update with more pics of alberta and more into details. since the beginning of june, ive slept in my own bed 2 times .. !! (living with a friend for 3 weeks, alberta, ashram) and its been nice to have allll this time off work. i dont want to go back !
BYEEEE

alberta update!

so i haven't updated my blog in awhile. i feel like ive been on the go ever since the beginning of june when my parents left for sweden and i went to live with a friend. right now im in alberta waiting for megan to come home from work. the only place we can seem to get the internet to work is on megans condo's porch that over looks the rocky mountains. last night dad megan and i drove part way up one of the mountains and we saw some cool animals. we saw 3 deer/elks (i dont know which ones they were) and 3 or 4 goat/sheep things. we tried desperatly to get some pictures of them but our cameras arent good at taking pictures in the dark
tonight we're driving into calgary for a concert thats going on for part of the stampeed. LIFEHOUSE. its a band i acutally like, which will be fun and megans really looking forward to it. heres a pic of us with our cowgirl outfits on .. dad said that i had to get one because you dont come to alberta and not dress like an albertan !! i l make a better update in a couple of weeks. we fly home wednesday night and get in on thursday morning, and then on friday i go to ashram bible camp for a week to help out with the kids program , which im really excited about because its with all my friends and its a blast!!