Mid March @ TDWC & The Gathering

So life is going on,

Hung out with some people that my boy Tommy knew so that was a good time, it’d be nice to meet up with them again since we naturally have a lot in common because army.

So my house purchase is kinda at a standstill, the price range of houses that are in the area I want to live in are kinda out of my price range? But I also need to find out if I’m able to apply for this interest free Deposit, it’s worded like this:

“8.3.11 Interest on a short term loan

Core benefit

CF members are entitled to reimbursement of the interest on a short-term personal loan or a personal line of credit required solely to pay the minimum deposit on the purchase of a principal residence or a new house construction at the new place of duty.

The required minimum deposit amount must be in accordance with the written contract to purchase and shall not exceed the minimum amount required by the local market.

For new construction, when the building agreement describes a payment schedule or advance payments, the interest on those payments is not considered reimbursable.”

Anyways aside from that, I’ve been thinking about my upcoming move on or before April 27,

Basically the bottom line is I can probably store everything in the basement that my other stuff is in already.

I could ask one of my bosses to help me out if I need a room for a short term to sleep in basically.

I’ve already applied to CFHA, for a PMQ, I talked to the padre about my situation but I’m pretty sure I’m on the low priority list, so that’ll probably take a while to sort out.

Accommodations can get me a bed for $250 I’m pretty sure since I’m on P3 pay now.

Umm, so Jeri is almost through adopting Luna, which is super cool for her.

It’s obviously not the best situation from an objective standpoint, but I really hope that everything works out for Luna’s parents and their relationship. 

Honestly it’s kinda tough mentally for me to be physically removed from my friends and family, I only get to see them every so often, and when I do I usually have to focus on the most economically viable route for me, so Christmas flights and summer drives. I can’t believe I didn’t do that last year I really regret that, I should have thought ahead and found out more information about the entitlements that I get since my immediate next of kin is in Hythe.

Oh yeah I went out to the churches pancake night so that was a good time,

For my fitness goals I’ve got my forces test in April, I don’t know if I’ll be able to get platinum without a lot of cardio work. I want to talk to a psp person about it but I’ll have to make that happen.

There isn’t actually much going on in my life, but there actually is a lot going on in my life, yknow?

It’s weird, but I acknowledge that it’s my own frame of reference and having to move is a huge deal. It’s going to change my whole routine and that’s probably the biggest mental issue thing that bothers me.

I do have a huge amount of resources at work because of the freedom my work gives me, full hygiene facilities, washer/dryer, bbq and fridge, and nothing but time to cook some lunch and supper.

I don’t want to change my routine,

 I should make more of an effort to go into the base gym, that’s the biggest routine I should create, bringing shoes, gym shorts, socks?, and shirts to work.

Figuring out what time of day works best with my work routine, knowing what I’ll need to do afterwards, whether it’s cooking or packing for the next work day.

Kind of an aside, Horizon: Zero Dawn makes me ask philosophical questions, and I’m not sure if it’s fun or super lame, but I think the difference is alcohol.

Like when I was watching Rick and Morty while having badly mixed 

I can’t remember if I’ve decided a good place to put in new names of people I’ve hung out with but let’s just try to start putting in in between my personal thoughts section (start of each post usually) and the church section.

Whoa Jordan you’re making each post have sections? Bold of you to assume anyone else reads this ahaha.

So this week I met new people,

CAF: Hutley, his brother Who’re #1, Candice Post, Jon _____(3 syllable but I’ve seen him around before), I met the grey water guy Darcy _____, and his brother with the big gauge hoops,

Church: I met Johanna’s PHD friends totally forgot their names though, Jordan ____(part of the big church leadership family), Greg, 

Late since reasons.

Also it was daylight savings time, so my body gets a reasonable excuse.

I showed up midannouncement

Announcements:

Volunteers needed for the Youth Ministery/Kids Church

Young Adults Retreat May 30-Jun 2

...

Church @ TDWC

Apostle Armstrong(also known as Pastor Francess) (I’ve seen him around but I’m still working on names)

Kids dismissed, and worship

Guest speaker Service w/ TJ (the only name I heard anyone call him)

He’s an amazingly charismatic speaker,

...

Living stones, not broken stones

The letter kills but the spirit brings eternal life

Idk which verse we were reading from here,

Matthew 21:44?

...

The dominion of darkness

Gaining a new citizenship and revoking the old one

If your testimony does not align with the Bible

“The kingdom will be taken from you... whoever falls on this stone will be broken”

Acts 12:

Story about his pregnant wife,

God is a good father, he is angry at the wicked everyday

The difference between a sinner and a wicked person,

The drug dealer vs the addict, the wicked person embraces the evil things and promotes it to the innocent ones.

...

Popular culture references, cnn is bad, etc

...

Our pastor is one who torments demons

Story about the Nigerian minister,

A man who could not be controlled, but he got prayed for and spoke to him “Come our” and that was it.

‘With a word he cast out demons’ the centurion knew about authority and said speak the word and my servant will be healed 

...

Baseically the Sermon: the twofold plan of salvation

To deliver his servants,

And to render his wrath toward every wicked adversary of his servants

...

God will show that we are not alone in this race

Those who desire to live a godly life will suffer enormous persecution,

Some people battle things that don’t even exist,

Without the Word they can create mental things that are ephemeral

...

Daniel, shadravk meeshack and abednjgo, 

Refusal to bow to the religious system of the world,

...

Altar call.

Church @ The Gathering

Pastor Lisa Chisholm-Smith

Story about Lisa reading Jesus restoring a young girl to life,

‘Daughter, your faith has made you well’

Matthew 9:18-26

The fine print of the laws of the woman’s dire situation, concerning bodily emissions.

They are very egalitarian

Women in biblical times menstruated much less frequently, they were pregnant or Breastfeeding during their fertile years.

She is sick, socially isolated, and destitute.

Her courage to reach out, and trust in Jesus ability to heal her is very important

It also relates to the girl who Jesus told to get up,

By restoring both to new life, the daughter literally, and the woman socially and emotionally, Jesus shows that he cares for all.

Mark has a difference in that Jesus gives priority to the poor, he stopped to find out who touched him.

The girls father understood that Jesus had power over death itself,

Exstasis: used in marks version

Jesus cloak had four tassels, which were memory aides to recall Gods attributes

Matthew says take heart daughter, for your faith has made you well,

Daughter is used in all 3 synoptic gospels

“...Women were first at the cradle and last at the cross...”

-Dorothy Sayers

Discussion Question:

What is your favourite Jesus healing story and why?

That’s all for now.

Church @ Third Day Worship Centre

This week has been less busy than the past few, but still pretty good.

Work stuff is work stuff so that’s been a change to the routine, not a bad one but it just means I need to be more vigilant to make sure all my after work stuff gets tracked.

I’ve kinda been getting discouraged with the house purchase agenda, but maybe it’s my expectations there...

Basically I want a house close to downtown Kingston,

The reasoning there is:

I already live near there so it’s familiar,

Queens, plus Summer Kingston Events, & my ulterior motive of getting out more (basically if it’s a short walk I can’t talk myself out of it, esp if I want to try a new beer or some mixed drink, etc)

And my current commute has already taken every route around, through, and over  Downtown Kingston, so the familiarity to timings already exists.

Also I want a detached house for some reason...I should talk to my brother about his experiences there

Are there many cons to this list?

Well it comes with a premium price tag...

Parking and garage access will probably be minimal,(need to buy a Kingston parking pass during the winter probably)

Church @ TDWC

Sean invited me,

First impressions, really outspoken, almost more evangelical? (can’t think of the ‘Christianese’ word right now) than Chanpion City Church, (obviously they aren’t really comparable but basically I’m saying that it’s a good first impression), classically welcoming, and I’m sitting at the back because I like to write these things down for my mental health.

It’s a family church, looks like a huge amount of families and young adults so that’s a really good opportunity to volunteer and get involved.

Names:

Pastor Edith video psalm 119:10-19 ladies bible study

, Pastor Robert,l

Service w/ Pastor 

Announcements,

‘Mercy the missing key’

Passover, 

Rally for parental rights in Toronto?

E-Transfer tithes, donate@tdwc.ca, memo line

Len of Osirius? A prophetic voice, she’s from Australia

‘Provision is coming by divine alignment’

2 Corinthians 9:6 passion translation

Stingy sower poor harvest, 

Let giving flow from your heart

...

Govt providing illicit things, so look to the church to provide the wholesome things

God provides seed for the sower,

Pastor  talking about replying with love, answering questions and intelligently responding, not hammering them over the head with your bible

I really relate with his perspective and attitude when it comes to answering questions like, ‘is homosexuallity wrong?’ Because even though he does have a firm stance on that it wasn’t in the way that I was familiar with growing up,

Tithes & offering

Kids church 

Encounters with God that are scary

Because of his magnitude, examples from Isaiah, etc

After Isaiah 6, he doesn’t prophecy the same way after

God got sick of him looking at the wrong guy, he revealed himself to Isaiah

When Isaiah was looking at Uriah

When angels show up you’re on the floor shaking like a leaf

The angel took a coal and touched Isaiah’s lips

The message that we carry is not popular, because the cross is about a bloody mess, his blood our mess

Churches are not to appease the seeker

Successful = spiritual

Saved =\ spiritual

They get angry, always hurt, and become critical and judgemental of others, but want to go to heaven

If we don’t forgive we aren’t Christians

Forgive, love, don’t judge, = no option if it comes from the Holy Ghost

Song and intermission

Worship & prophecy

Isaiah 40:12, 50, 22

Who has measured heaven with a span, in the hollow of his hand

Dust is you, this house is always filthy,

Calculated the amount of the earth in a measure

The nations are a drop in a bucket

And are counted as the dust on the scales

Young grasshopper, wax on, wax off

Heavens like a tent to dwell in

Story about a writer in the front row of an orchestra

Described it as glorious, felt both exhausted and exhilarated afterwords

The name was God the most formidable name our word has ever spoken, trying with music to explain what God is, rendition of trying to capture god in music

A great effort and a dismal failure

Infinite cannot be made finite

...

God has no rival

Romans says that you and I were made for glory

Taking kids to Disney world and stopping short at a billboard advertising Disney world.

Don’t stop at what is advertised, don’t be distracted 

...

Left early

I totally forgot that I had multiple churches today, so it’s kinda an abormally long post, eh, idk who would still read this anyways so I’m not too concerned

Church @ The Gathering

Sermon by Doug Caldwell,

He serves as a criminal defence lawyer in Kingston

New Wine, Old Wine Skins

Matthew 9:14-17

Like 5:31-39

Story about Jesus ‘should the eddding guests fast while the bridegroom is still with them’ ‘new wine in new wine skins’

Luke’s ending “and no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says the old is good”

...

This parable is much more allegorical than other parables

...

Questions about how concerned he is with the New and the Old

The new and old are just not compatible

Jesus’ audience is the Pharisees,

They want the old wine, they don’t want the new wine.

This is a similar argument to our culture here,

Jesus is asking of his audience

Old wine

Jewish culture and ways of doing things and traditions

Old covenant

Law

New wine

Galatians was a response to this parable by St Paul

Why are we tempted to put new wine into old, new patches on old garments, mixing the old and the new? 

I’m probably going to have to leave early so I’ll have to remember to text Sean as I get more involved here

(But I’ll definitely pace myself because I can’t make myself overwhelmed with work and home and. Church things, especially since I’m trying to buy a house  and that has definitely put more stress on me)

That’s all for now!

The beginning of the end

Finished Farnham.

I'm just goona copy down some things I texted people:

"Well I don't think you'd recognize me anymore, let me tell you a few hints about myself.

I go by Smith 123

I wake up at 4 am every day

I run up and down 9 staircases 3 times a day

I polish boots and iron shirts in my free time

I run 8 kilometres with 50 kg on my back

I can field strip a rifle in 55 seconds

My estimated exercise V02 is 56.6 ml/kg/minute.

I cannot think of anything else good right now, how have you been?"

"Everything is awesome, I just got back from 4 days of intense field exercises and training.

I marched 13 kilometres with 50 pounds on my back and my feet are dead"

Basically Farnham was great.

First day, getting settled in Farnham, kind of a camping atmosphere, minus all the cool things (campfires, games, etc). The environment was fairly cool in the sense that we learned a good amount.

How to run a camp stove, spark a lantern, how we should arrange ourselves, disciplinary actions that are tactically minded (walking clockwise around the perimeter of the camp), how to set up a hoochie (wind break tent shelter thing), where to position during an enemy attack (Stand To! Stand To! Stand To!), what our arcs of fire are, how to determine friendlys (Hotel. Response: Oscar. It is a five letter password), we also put on cam paint that evening (it sucked and didn't come off fully all week), 

Next day, we tore down camp, took a bit to figure out how to do everything quickly, also the cam paint and shaving led to us not getting our timing.

Basically putting on and taking off FfO all day, this day I decided to wear my goferex boots because my zippers broke on my good combats, worst decision ever. So much pain in my feet all day, since this was the day we did the obstacle course, walked to the range and shot, and did a team building exercise as well.

We also had to do the Fire! Fire! Fire! exercise during the night, which sucked. This night we didn't get too much sleep.

The third day we had our obstacle course I think... yeah that's right.

zip line, tapell rower, and bridge crossing. Amateur hour basically, but al this week my feet hurt so it wasn't the greatest. Next we had to go and do some other team building exercises, where we xompleted obstacles and scenarios with the supplies we had in a tactical simulation.

After that I was tired like all day, and we got jacked up so much that afternoon. It was super sucky, like we had a good week but we wee getting jacked up like it was week 5. This continued, we did fast showers and cleaned our rifles/rucks, then we had to go to Kalen where in our PT gear, everyone's worried because we have no idea what's happening.

Then sergeant Poirier comes and gives us the yelling of the century. Like holymoley, 5-10 people cried, everyone was sad and disappointed. Sergeant said things like "17 people failed the drill test," "you lose every weekend for the rest of bmq," "phones go away for 3 weekends, you'll have 5 minutes to talk to your fairly, I don't care what you tell them."

But it was all an elaborate ruse, we did good, everyone passes the weapons test, we got a canteen offered to us where we could buy snacks, and we watched Fury.

Basically the best evening ever, we didn't even have fire pickets or patrols that night.

The past day in Farnham was the 13 km ruck.

My ruck got randomly selected for weighing and it was perfect. I had a chance to tie my left shoe again when we were outside, but I didn't retie my right shoe, so I think that partially caused the pain I'm currently experiencing with the blisters and numbness on my right foot. It's not too bad though, it could be worse.

That's basically Farnham, we came back and got steak so best Thursday evening meal ever.

Church at Saint-Jean 

Padre Irish

Hymn 260 alleluia, alleluia

Acts 2:14a, 36-41

Psalm 116

1 Peter 1:17-23

Padre B______

Luke 24: 13-35

_____?

Bagpipes

Statement of faith and apostles creed

Contemporary songs 

Prayer

Hymn 479 the church's one foundation 

That's all for now!

Day before field exercise

So next week (tomorrow) we're going to Farnham.

Cleaning rifles, waking up often, sleeping outside on the ground, sllvthat to look forward to.

I'm packing my kit right now, I need to rebuild my rucksack because my fire team partner accidentally "ghost locked" her locker. Fortunately it wasn't anything that I did, but my FTP is still part of my responsibility. I was pretty lazy, when my FTP was right next door I checked out pretty often, now that Michaud is in he girls pod halfway across the floor I've been super lazy.

We also don't have the greatest relationship, even on a professional level we don't really communicate, and I don't really contribute anything productive to that. Just time and communication will help fix that, but I've been moving other priorities (including leisure ones) above my FTP, so I know that I need to do better in that area.

When 4 Section was reformed into what is colloquially referred to as the "remedial section" (not seriously, just in a meta and sarcastic sense) Michaud admitted that she took it personally, and her attitude in that was evident with the way she acted around the rest of 4 Section. The staff, Sgt Rubin and Mcpl Boudrias told us that we were a section that "needed extra help."

Yeah, ___ing ow.

Idk about my thoughts on that, it's been 3¿ weeks now and I feel like I haven't actually changed too greatly. (That's a lie I'm more disciplined, but that's neither here nor there) anyways I'm happy jay I haven't been moved from 4 section, I've been here since the beginning, I haven't even moved pods so that's pretty nice.

I'm basically going off on different tangents but I'm basically saying I wish things were easier here. It would be so nice if I was just able to relax every day, do the physical stuff at a proper pace, sleep every day, leave my kit the way I like it, leave my bed "good enough", have my phone on my all the time, etc etc.

But it's not. If I haven't had the rigid discipline I wouldn't have the habits I have. If I was cutting corners whenever I could my body wouldn't be able to be driven during drill.

PT wise I'm doing excellently. 12 points from platinum on the Forces test, I'm impressed at my own abilities and how easy it feels like it was. I now know I need to be pushed, and I need to use that inner drive to produce qualities that will not fail when subjected to stress.

Physically-awesome

Mentally-discipline is coming, laziness is being staved off

Emotionally-family and friends from home are on my mind when I have downtime, I have a very positive association with everything I do or have done and I think that is healthy

Spiritually-church is a semi regular thing, same with bible readings. Morally I feel like I am doing ok, I can always improve there, but acknowledging that this is a specific season of life gives me a chance to take a step back and focus on the moment, knowing that building bear habits and disciplining myself will result in the desired outcome of a fully-trained CAF member.

CCC friends were on my mind this last weekend, I really love those guys and I'm glad I have that church group, I don't know when I'll return but I'm going to put more effort into talking with them semi-regularly in the last month here at CFLRS.

Encounter YEG is another group I've been getting more into contact with, love those guys. Josh is always hanging out, so I'll probably text him more often. He's still looking for work so I'm going to have him in my prayers. (Haven't prayed too much recently, working on that)

Haven't talked with Alyssa, semi talked to Andy. Layden, izzy, Brennan and Ashley are also some people who I haven't texted or called, but they are on my mind.

Chapel at Saint-Jean Garrison

First Sunday after Easter "Second Sunday of Easter"

 

Hymn 464 "Come ye faithful, raise the strain"

Reading Acts 2:14,22-32 

psalm 16 

1 Peter 1:3-9 

Kids service

Hymn 463 he choirs of new Jerusalem

John 20:19-32

Today was more of a personal reflecting chapel for me. I'm glad for opportunities in environments such as this, it's truly a blessing.

I just need to remember to post my blog stuff

That's all for now.