“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly … God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:6,8)

You know, sometimes I’m prone to complain. Complain about things, situations, people, but especially this summer, about my kids at camp. Some days some of them just don’t want to cooprate and act in such an immature way in comparison with their peers. On those days I’m quick to be frustrated and complain in my heart about those kids. Why can’t they just listen when I speak? Why can’t he just participate as everybody else does? Why do I always need to remind her not to mock people? Ah man, I get tired of their attitudes sometimes. But then I think of Jesus and how God in Christ died, (DIED!) to receive the condemnation that was mine, to clothe me, a sinner, with His righteousness, to reconcile me to my Creator and bless me with blessing without number. I meditate on Christ and how He died for me, (ME!) even when I was still not born, even when He knew I would reject, mock, hate and despise Him until the day He would bring me to Christ. Jesus rained down grace upon me even when I was still a sinner and is now still blessing me in amazing ways day-by-day in spite of my foolishness and lack of love for Him.

So when I have those tougher hours with my kids, I try to remember Christ and how in fact, I am not more righteous than any kid I have no matter how much they disobey. I don’t have any reason to complain about the slightest thing because I used to be a “son of disobedience” myself until God freely gave me Christ.

It seems that all there is left for me to do is rejoice in God’s grace.

So I’ve been in Sherby for a few days now. I did the usual stuff like empting a dresser to put my stuff in it, getting some simple groceries, putting air in Do’s pink bike’s tires, getting my fingers greasy from putting the bike’s chain back on in the middle of a hill, having the cat eat my headphones halfway through and finally assist to their final breaking on that same hill.

The headphones story is kind of a funny one. The cat ate one of the wires only haflway, so I put tape around it. When Iwas biking uphill after my work meeting on Wednesday, I was listening to some music with my iPod sitting in a pocket of my backpack. I changed gears just to realize that the bike couldn’t take it and the next thing I knew was that the chain wasn’t on anymore, trying to pedal was useless. I could either stop or start going backwards. I stopped. Then I got my backpack off and threw it on this person’s lawn by the street so I could fix the chain. I sort of forgot I still had headphones in my ears. So the iPod in the bag left with the bag on the ground. The headphones were obviously pluged in the iPod, so they followed the backpack too. It hurt my ears a little, but then I realized that I still had one headphone in my right ear, while the other was on the grass. Nice. I looked kind of silly, as you can see on the picture I took afterwards.

Another, but small story… the camp head monitor is a Christian (the camp is a language camp, not a Christian one). So after our meeting on Wednesday morning, the head monitor was talking with a returning monitor (that is, this monitor was working, like me, at camp last summer and is back this year). They happened to be talking about me and the returning monitor said to the head monitor: “Gab loves Jesus. Whatever you do, don’t offend her Jesus.” How interesting this is! This guy, with whom I only had a few small conversations about God last summer felt that the head monitor should be careful not to offend my Jesus. I’m glad that’s one of the things he remembers about me, but I wonder why this particular thing.

Alright. I’m officially starting work on June 25th. In the meantime I’ll be planning, getting my criminal reccord thing and hanging out with my sister and her kids in a Bible school’s camp cabin.

The cat is now eating the remains of my headphones.

Departure from Montréal will be on Tuesday June 16 and arrival in Sherbrooke will be… on June 16, just two hours later. It’s kind of nice to think that I’llget to spend my summer again in Sherbrooke, away from the city. I would spend my life away from the city actually but it seems that it’s where universities are so I guess I have to live in the city.

Talking about university. I finally finished my winter semester on June 9. Sounds funny? Yes it does. I started my summer course (distance learning) on June 9 and I’m glad to say that I’ve already started my first assignment, not even a week after starting the course! I’m putting in a lot of my time so I can get as much as possible done before I really start working at day camp on June 25. So if you wonder what I do in the evenings and weekends this summer, don’t be mistaken, I’ll be reading and writing for that course all the time, ah and I’ll be planning my daily English lessons  for camp too.

I don’t know how much I’ll be writing here this summer. Hopefully you won’t read the same kind of stuff I wrote last summer. I remember writing about flat tires a lot… I hope this time I won’t have trouble with that.

Ok, I’m a bit too random now. Take care.

As most of you know, summer is coming. As some of you may know, I’ve been hoping to get a job. Why? Because it’s summer time. Things haven’t been working the way I wanted them. I wanted to work in adult education centers (teaching ESL), but the process to be hired by school boards is quite long for unknown reasons. So I decided I would be willing to work in a summer day camp as I did last summer and applied to different places. I finally decided I would apply to the day camp I worked last summer, especially because I’d be teaching ESL there, which is good experience for me anyways. Guess what? They told me on Tuesday that they had an evaluation meeting for the prospect monitors on Wednesday. So my dad dropped me in Montréal Tuesday morning (I wasn’t home), then I quicckly finished three assignements that were due on Wednesday and handed them in at university, then caught a bus to Sherbrooke and went to the meeting on Wednesday morning. Needless to say that I was quite tired (especially from painting and moving stuff out of my sister’s house for four days!!!). So anyways, I got the job!

I really praise God for the job He’s given me. I really didn’t want to have to work in a store or in a restaurant, I wanted to do something related to my field of study. The timing was just perfect also. I’m quite glad I’ll spend my summer in Sherbrooke instead of Montréal. Getting some fresh air and being in a different setting will be refreshing to me.

Well, I better go to bed. I still have two papers due by June 10th. This has been a weird June so far.

Well, I am quite happy to be able to say now tha it is Monday and I am not at work because… Camps are over! My last day was on Friday the 15th, what a joy to simply leave and bike, for the last time, this hill. After 4 flat tires this summer, I’m kind of happy to stop using bikes.

I’ve been on vacations since Friday and I’m leaving tomorrow. I have about two weeks before I start university again (something I do not look forward to). I don’t feel like going back to Montréal. Sherbrooke is so nice, the city only needs a metro.

Anyways, I don’t have much to write here, but that’s it, you know where I am at now.

Since a week or so there has been a lot of downs at work. I won’t go through the details, I don’t mean to put people down or spread my wrong thinking here. I say wrong because it’s probably wrong to the eyes of my employers, and it’s probably wrong to just vent out here anyways.

What I notice is how grateful I am that I am not part of this world anymore. I don’t live for my own sake or the sake of an organization, I don’t strive to glorify an institution or broaden the fame of human beings, no matter the good they have done. I am not caught in that trap that keeps me from trusting someone else than me and oblige me to use people and whatever means I have to gratify its own desires so that I look better and I am richer. I don’t know if you know what I mean. I don’t need to fear man or what people can do to me or say of me. I strive to do what is right and honest in God’s sight, putting people’s interests before mine and serving graciously even the ungracious. I have the privilege to do that simply because I don’t care about my own standing and fame among the people of the world, I care about God and God glorified through my life. I care about His justice and love He calls me to spread. I don’t need to use people and be malicious in my dealings with those around me, it is God I trust for my life and needs, not myself, not people. He is my Rock and Fortress, I need simply to rest and obey Him.

It is not true that I do this all very well. I quickly forget that I am God’s and I try by my own efforts to obtain all sort of things. I fall but I get up trusting Christ alone again.

Well, I bike to go to work. It takes me about 20 minutes going down and then uphill – lots of fun for my calfs and heart. Since Tuesday, I had been limping, I think I pulled a muscle in my foot. It was no fun and by the end of the day, my foot was quite tired while my other foot was working twice as hard throughout the day to make up for the sick foot. Lots of fun again.

So last night I was biking home and it was around 5:30. First, it started to rain, I mean it as pouring rain. Great. I still had 10 minutes to go. Then, I got a flat tire. So I had to drag my bike (since only one wheel was actually turning) home, as I was limping my way through the rain, thunder and lightning for a good 30 minutes. At times I laughed out loud, sang songs about the rain, or almost cried from the pain that came from my foot. Lots of fun!

When I got home, I open a pocket of my bag to find my keys only to find a pond in the pocket. Everything in my bag was wet to the core. Even my ipod was wet and wasn’t working anymore (and still doesn’t). I was so wet, so wet, so wet.

The first thing that I heard when I got home was Do (roommate) laughing and taking a picture of my wet beauty.

Hello there,

Thanks for the great suggestion of songs you all left in my last post, I appreciate it. I was actually quite impresed at how you guys actually remembered the numbers in the Célébrons Dieu, good job.

It’s been a while now that I’ve posted anything and I don’t feel like there’s anything in my head that’s interesting for you guys to know so… But I know that those who are far away would enjoy learning how I’m doing in Sherbrooke. So, here’s an update:

I started my training this week – which went pretty smoothly. People are all nice. The day camps are starting this coming Monday, my stuff is pretty much ready. I’ll be teaching ESL one hour a day to 6-8 year olds (man, I don’t know what to do with that age level!) and having fun so we’ll see how it goes. I’m certain the first week’s going to be a little tougher in terms of getting used to how things are done and how to teach to 6-8 year olds, but I’m sure it’ll be great anyways.

I’m biking quite a bit since it’s the only way to get to work. Well, I could take the bus, but I don’t feel like paying 3.10$ twice a day when I can bike. I enjoy biking, but, if you’ve ever been to Sherbrooke, well, the city is sort of… hilly. It’s quite a challenge to go up the hills sometimes and I’m often out of breath, but it’ll get easier as the weeks go by.

We’re moving into a smaller apartment next weekend. We’re not really looking forward to it (the moving in itself), but eh, we’ll have to go through it.

Hey, cool thing: there’s another Christian girl at work! Half the monitors are Christians, that’s quite nice for an organization that is not Christian. Uncool thing: Our tshirts don’t look really good and they’re quite too big for me. Very enjoyable.

I’ll leave you with a text from St. Augustine that I find very …. well it gives me rest somehow:

“O  Lord God, grant us peace, for all that we have is your gift. Grant us the peace of repose, the peace of the Sabbath, the peace which has no evening. For this worldly order in all its beauty will pass away. All these things that are very good will come to an end when the limit of their existence is reached. They have been alloted their morning and their evening.”

Hello there,

I just wanted to let the world know that I’ll be off to Sherbrooke for the summer (!). I must say that it’s been two years now that I’ve spent in Montréal and it’ll be good to see something else… that is less… less like Montréal eh.

What for? Oh, you know I’m a student so I need to work during the summer (and during the year when I’m not lazy or too busy) so I’ll be working in an English immersion day camp with a beloved friend.

Oh, and if anyone would need to rent a room in Montréal from mid-June to mid-August, let me know, my roommates would be thrilled to have a third person in the apartment while I’m gone.

I felt quite good about my trip to my job tonight. I never work on Wednesdays (actually I’m down to one day a week because of my internship) but I paid them a visit.

Saturday November 24, 2007 will be my last day at VV. And I rejoice. It’s been a long long while I’m thinking of quiting. And especially these days as I am busy with my internship. I was just tired of giving all my Saturdays to my job, tired of the threats when I asked to cut down my hours, tired to be treated as a kid, tired to have just enough time for school, tired of the people who dislike their job there.

I’ll be looking for something better in 2008. I’m taking a break from working and will be concentrating on university and internship stuff, then I’ll fly to BC… and 2008 will be there.