I got an email from an old professor a couple months back... Due to a series of crazy events I didn't actually get to reply back until now... as I was writing it out, I thought maybe I should copy and paste this here... because this is the very definition of what I am learning about Soaring 4 Him this year... Besides... it's pretty well a run down of my entire life at this moment.

My apologies for the delay in replying to your previous email. 
You sent it during my final 2 weeks of figuring out my 1 year plan... I sent her an email but unfortunately she was unable to speak with me until after my self-made deadline. So I have passed by the internship opportunity at this time. during the last week I had so many people decide to "catch up" with me and my life that I am afraid I've never quite caught up and then when I was going to sit down and send a reply to "How are things and what is happening?" I was having an awful week and I had no idea what to reply with :P 
but in short, here is an update on How things are and what is happening in the life of Me.

Things are great and I love my current life! I'm broke... and busy... but when has that not being the story of my life? Just continually learning to find the balance between paying my bills and trusting that God will take care of things if I put Him first in everything. 
I work at the Turtle Valley Donkey Refuge, and on my worst stressed out weeks about finances they give me a raise before I decide to talk to them about more hours. It's more or less a part time job, they're always promising more hours but right now there is much chaos on the farm as they have finally sold the old farm and can finally afford to build the barns and get all the donkeys moved to the new place. They've been working on training me to help with more health care so that when we have all 93 donkeys in one location [the assistant manager] has some extra help keeping up. (We do have 103 all together but 10 are in foster care) At this point I mostly just clean barns, which gives me a good couple hours of silence which can be used for prayer, listening to my audio bible, I tried listening to Steps to Christ but everyone was very chatty that week so it was hard to focus :P It's a good 4 hours where people are learning I'm kind of a religious nut... Vegetarian, No caffeine, have never drank, never smoked, always have some sort of youth group event on the weekends, bible studies monday nights... leads to some good discussions, haven't had alot of depth but it's fun... I got named as the most religious person they know by one guy who was around for a month or so... I won only because of going to a religious school. 

With the refuge keeping me busy in the mornings I am also running the youth group at church. I think more and more about how I regret taking ABC [Adventure Based Counselling] instead of ABYL [Adventure Based Youth Leadership], but I knew that would happen either way I had decided :P The Youth group is going well though, we're aimed at the 15-35 age group, which is a large group, but it's very hit and miss as to who will show up and make it to everything. the group we have mostly grew up in the church but there hasn't been anything for them once they leave the church school in gr. 8? so they end up at the public school, making new friends outside of the circle and there's just nothing to keep them around. some of them live out of town and visit they're parents every couple weekends, some have families that keep them "busy" and so it's difficult to plan events that everyone will be happy with... Our supper & vespers on the 1st Sabbath of every month is going really good though, we had our 2nd last night and I think we've averaged about 15 people at either. I've decided to invite church members to host them at their home, get them involved, get to know the church family a little better and who doesn't prefer meeting at someone's home with comfy couches or a fire pit vs a dark empty church thats cold... Unfortunately with that decision comes much stress depending on who has accepted host duty... it's hard for me to not be completely in charge and to rely on someone else to be prepared... probably good for me :P but definitely not easy! last nights was at one of the group members home and they are a home of chaos so we started late trying to get food prepared... but she had invited some non-church folks and there was some good discussion around the fire so let no one ever mistake chaos for failure.

I'm also helping out with Pathfinders, I talked to the Pastor about how I was there to help out, but I don't want to take over too much because I grew up in Pathfinders, leading Pathfinders and I needed to just let him do it until I can learn his way so I don't end up taking over [my way]... He actually told me he'd hand it over... but trying to get my life balanced I declined the offer this year.

I'm working on starting up a discipleship training program with the church. I'm not going to lie I barely know whats involved... but it's a 26-week study to help; - build a spiritual foundation: devotionals, verse memorization, etc - train disciples to give bible studies, share the gospel - and I believe it finishes with training the individual to train others. so hopefully that will be started in November and then I'm really committed to being around for awhile.

With all of the above I've decided not to look for more work because I just don't have the time. but I pick up odd jobs when I can, the Grill in Sorrento keeps asking me to come back and work for them, I cover a shift or 2 if they're desperate enough... as one with little responsibilities of my own, I'm the go-to person for house sitting around my family and friends. Living with my grandparents in the upstairs apartment and helping them clean out their house of dust collections... The more I find to get rid of for them, the easier it is to convince them to let go.

As far as the future goes: I'm starting to look into the possibility of being a youth pastor, I haven't really gotten to the point where I know what I'm looking for specifically or what kind of education I need to look for with that plan. And I'm still trying to decide if Youth Pastor, or Owner of a "wits end" type cafe is a better thing to aim for. Or if maybe I should be aiming for both. 

I will not lie, it can be very lonely out here. I'm surrounded by old people who are convinced people will go to hell for wearing Jewelry, my closest friend (geographically as well as personally) doesn't go to church and although she comes to the odd AY event (usually the hikes that no one else comes to). My closest church friend has a family of chaos. The pastor is still young and I find when I try to work with him we just end up arguing over dumb things and unintentionally he is pretty good at making me feel like I'm failing. [an old classmate] actually moved nearby but he's still a 40min drive and has a family that doesn't make our schedules very compatible. But I do find I have at least 1 person who can be there for different things.

God is definitely blessing me, and although He certainly does not always make the road easy, He's fun to work with. I live in the country on a mountain top, I work with 93 wonderful and often bratty animals, I can be there for my family and friends when they need me. I have a fantastic role at the church where I basically do my job by making up a social life. I have cheap rent and free food. I still have a beautiful jeep that runs on prayers by the grace of God... and in my spare time I get to organize disastrous piles of junk(well... priceless treasure ;) )! (and weirdly enough... yes... I find great joy and peace in that)