I did a teaching today on the foundations of our christian faith. I spoke for 20 minutes and I had a lot of fun doing it. I have discovered that I have a very unique teaching style that makes people laugh. My reviews have mostly all been "You are quite random" and "You would be really good at teaching a group of young people" so I suppose that is good because I work with youth at home anyways. I never would have thought I could speak for so long and actually feel comfortable being in front of a group of people. Normally my body and my voice would be shaking but today I had a weird amount of confidence. It is so exciting because I really want to teach. Not just in a youth or church setting but I think it would be really cool to actually look at that as my career. God has got some good stuff in store for me!

I did my first ten minute teaching on thursday. It actually only ended up being about 8 minutes but I really enjoyed it. I talked about the parable of a dog that ate a rabbit and then threw it up all over my youth pastors living room floor. I had to give a health and safety warning before i started for those who have weak stomachs but it just made everyone laugh which I loved. On wednesday we have another ten minute teaching but this time it's supposed to be on a healing retreat topic which is alot less exciting. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet.
I've also discovered the joys of Settlers of Catan and Monopoly Deal with my new friends. It feels like a whole different Pierrepont with the new stage starting. I guess that's another reason why they call it Never Ever The Same.

I like stage 3 way better than the other two stages. We have been doing a lot of interactive activities like team building and sharing in front of the class. We've only done one minute sharing so far but on thursday we all have to give a ten minute talk and in a couple weeks we have to teach for twenty minutes on one of the healing retreat topics. I haven't decided which one I will do yet... probably an easy one like forgiveness or acceptance and belonging. I'm only a little bit nervous but I'm more excited because I think my comfort zone levels have been gradually stretching over time and I feel more confident to speak to a group of people. 

I'm in a dormitory now instead of a room and there are five of us girls with three empty beds for whenever we have something happening on the weekend and the guests need somewhere to sleep. My roommates are from England, Italy, and Syria. We all get along really well. I have been so blessed to have easy going roommates so far. There are quite a few young people in the new group of stage one folk and I like them a lot. It's going to be a very good next nine weeks I think

This break at home has been so refreshing! I got really excited as soon as i saw the rocky mountains from the air plane on my way here and it was like a breath of fresh air when i saw the rivers and drank Chilliwack water again. My family greeted me at the airport with lots of hugs and flowers from my brothers girlfriend. The first thing Alma said to me was "Lise, you don't smell very good" It was good to be home. My grandmas funeral was really lovely and I think everyone did a good job of telling people about what kind of a person she was. It was even recorded so we can watch it later (http://www.dignityabbotsford.com/ Doris Marie Pearce) 
As sad as this whole thing has been, it was good timing because there was a three week break between stages 2 and 3 anyways and it was time for my family to go on our annual vacation to Seaside Oregon! I'm very proud of my grandpa to take on that first family tradition so soon after her death. He did very well though I could tell it was hard for him. Everyone had a really nice time. The weather was fantastic and we stayed at a house right on the ocean. Beautiful! I spent alot of time with my siblings and my cousins running around on the beach, chasing waves and seagulls. My sister found a jelly fish washed up on shore! 
I was struggling to pay for stage three again this month. I was about $1000 short but lots of opportunities came up for me to earn money and more people sponsored me again so I was able to get enough money and then some! God is so good :)

Thanks for the prayers and support!