Daniel: Behind the Book

The story of Daniel is a story of someone who goes from having his land ravaged and being taken away to a faraway place against his will, to be being put into a high ranking position next to the king. All of this happened because Daniel refused to compromise. He refused to turn away from God and give up his religion and his customs.
What Daniel does is actually very brave in my opinion. He is in a new place with new customs and is being educated in their ways and instead of giving in to them and their ways he risks his life by following God. That is something that we could all learn from Daniel. We should be able to live life for God without fear of the consequences and without caring what other people think about.
The way that I can apply the book of Daniel to my own life would be to not fall into the pressure of what others are doing around me. If what they’re doing is bad of course. Daniel was with 300 other people like him and him and 3 others were the only ones that stayed loyal to God. God in turn blessed them by putting them in places of authority and blessing them with the ability to interpret dreams.
From Daniel, it is obvious that God blesses those that are committed to him and that do not compromise for anything in place of him. That being said I’m going to do my best to commit myself to God and start living without fear of what other people think of me or are going to throw my way.

Daniel

No Compromise

Hey God! This week we’ve been studying the book of Daniel and I never realized that a book in the Old Testament could have so much impact and say in my life today! Daniel has opened my eyes to many things that I never knew before. Daniel was an amazing servant of yours and even though he was in a vulnerable time at the age that he was when he was taken from his home, he still decided that you were his God and that no one could take that from him. He was so committed to you and would not compromise his faith for anything! This has made me think soo much about my life and all the stuff that I have compromised for you before. For example, when I’m with my ’strong’ Christian friends I make way smarter decisions about what I say and what I watch then when I’m with my ‘not so strong’ Christian friends. I don’t always set a very great example for them. I sometimes act like two different people and Daniel has really reminded me that I shouldn’t compromise my beliefs or values for anything, not popularity, wealth, or even to make myself feel better. Daniel also is not afraid to live for you. He really had NO FEAR. He spoke up against some of the most powerful people in the world at the time and told them, nicely, that he wouldn’t do what they asked of him. He totally trusted you with everything and knew that you would be with him whether it meant life, or death. I would like to be able to say that I’m not afraid of death, but I have to admit that I am a little. There is some part in me that doubts. In my mind I know that you will help me through everything and I really do trust you, but yet when it comes to actually speaking aloud about my faith, I’m scared that you won’t fulfill your promise that comes in Philippians 4:13; “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. I know I shouldn’t be but yet there is a part of me that is scared. I want to trust you completely and I pray that you would help me to overcome this fear and to be courageous like Daniel who was completely and totally committed to following you. At one point in Daniel’s reign he had the opportunity to let his people, the Jews, out of exile and back to their homeland. But Daniel didn’t do this even though it would have made total sense. You must have put him in that position of authority for that very reason. Daniel, though, didn’t assume anything and decided to listen for your voice instead of doing what seemed totally logical. He humbled himself before you and gave the entire situation into your hands. God, I also ask that you would help me to get rid of my view that you can only speak through situations that I find comfortable. I tend to think that you can only work through the good situations that I come across. The ones that already seem to be Godly and with you as the focus. Please take this view away from me and help me to get a fuller understanding of you and how you work. Also, help me to be able to understand your voice and to know when it is you speaking to me and when it is not. You are the only God for me and I pray that this would be soo evident in my life that people would instantly know, when they see me, that I belong to you. I want to burn brightly for you and to serve you with all my heart, soul, and strength. Just like Daniel, I want to have such a deep love for you that there would be no thought of ever serving something else. Please tear down anything in my life that might be becoming and idol and fill it with a deep, deep passion for you and to know you more. I ask that you would just be with me and help me to remember these lessons that you have taught me and will teach me through the great example that you have shown the world through your servant Daniel. Amen!

Daniel: The Book

There are a few different themes about Daniel that people can learn from. The most important one that I am learning from at this point would be no compromise. Throughout the first five chapters of Daniel he shows a handful of situations where he does not compromise. In each of these situations that Daniel listens to God he grows, it seems to get easier for him to do what he knows God wants. He puts his feelings from God in front of what would be logical for us. Lately, as we have been going through class I have started to apply this to my life.

Over the course of old testament class we have been given a few quiz’s, which include a section at the end where we as students are aloud to right in how much reading we have done. This is worth a portion of our quiz’s that could determine a pass or a fail. Who’s to stop us from filling out a completion of reading, even if we haven’t completed any. It always seems the logical thing to do would be to get as many marks as we can. I know I have had times in my head were I have felt like filling in a completion even though I have not finished. The only thing holding me back from doing so would be my values, which I get from the bible. Cheating is not something that christians should get into. I have grown up taught not to cheat or lie, and now is a time where I am given a choice to take that in as my own way to live. The book of Daniel has just been that much more help to me in situations were I am given the choice to cheat or lie, knowing nobody will find out. Even if it is only one time, Daniel has really helped show us that God has a plan and even if there are things that look logical to us at the time it doesn’t mean that’s what God wants.

Tomorrow I am going snowboarding with some of my friends, and I have to cough up some money for a pass. I have been given the chance to get a free pass from a friend. This is tempting, but I know it would be wrong. Even if it is a small thing like this I am working hard not to compromise and I think God put this situation in my life for a reason. I will listen to God on this one and buy a pass.

These are just a few things which the book of Daniel is helping me with in my life. I wait for further test from God and I hope I can remember Daniel’s story during these times, and always look to God first.

Jeremy Klassen

DANIEL

REFLECTIONS ON DANIEL.

What the book of Daniel is teaching us: I think the book of daniel is teaching us many many different things that are repeated through out the book. The first thing would obviously be to not compromise. Every story about daniel in that book proves that he did not compromise and he still became the second most powerful man in Babylon.
Another thing that is repeated in this book is honesty. Daniel never once lied about his interpretations towards the King, which could of had him killed instantly if he told him the wrong thing.
Both of these things would have got Daniel killed, but YHWH made sure he didn't die. This is proving to us that YHWH is in complete control of every situation and that we should just hold true to our faith.

How this applys to us today: The Book of Daniel applies to me today because compromise is still all around us. We are still called to be honest, and YHWH still calls me to have faith that he is in control of everything.

chris hildebrandt

REFLECTIONS ON DANIEL

The third week of December was dedicated to the Old Testament book of Daniel. We worked through the chapters focusing on the over-arching themes, the historical context, and some of the translation issues that make this such a personally-challenging text to study. On Thursday, we visited the parliament buildings in Winnipeg, as various government issues kept surfacing during our discussions. The students were given the assignment of responding to the central theme of Daniel, essentially answering the question of what this book speaks into their life and how they plan to respond to it.

Joy First...Then Food...

One thing I learnt about while on this trip is true meaning of joy. While we were in Mexico I had the opportunity to help hand out food hampers some of the local families. We focused specifically on the families who attended the church, or whose kids attended the Kids Club, which is put on by the church. Their thankfulness was evident as we were handing out the hampers. We also prayed for the families if they allowed us to, you could also see how thankful they were for our prayers. During the time we were in this specific area, we were blessed by so many gifts from the people. One of these gifts was a meal, which was worth an entire week of wages for a family. One lady we worked for also made us cookies; she would normally sell them to her neighbours. She also made us a piece of artwork; it would be worth enough to feed her family for quite a while. Even though they were living in poverty they were still joyful, and you could tell that it was not their possessions that gave them joy, but rather their joy came from God and from their relationships. They truly trusted God to provide for them, even though they were living in complete poverty. I was reminded again of how much we have, and how much we lack if we do not focus on what joy really is.

This one time in Mexico...

God Showed opened my eyes, he showed me a whole other culture, another world, an entire people oppressed by wealthy countries. He showed me People, people who know him in a way that do not, those who are in desperate need of him, and those who came to know him.
I was given the opportunity to serve, to love and to bless people and in turn be blessed.
Blessed by changing the way I think of people and the way I relate to people.
Mexico.

What I learned in Mexico!

Hi everybody! My name is Steph and I am going to tell you all about one of the things I learned while in Mexico. One of the days we went to a poor part of Guaymas, the city 20 minutes from where we were staying, and we helped build some stuff for these two young moms. At the one house that I was at we cleaned up the yard and built a fence in front of her house. I didn't really do to much physical work like that but I played with her 2 young sons and some of the neighbour boys. It was so much fun. Their names are Caleb (age 6), and David (age 5) and they were soooooo cute. Their mom makes money by selling these cookie type things and tin plaques. Even though she had so little she just gave and gave and gave anyway and trusted that God would provide her and her sons with whatever they needed. I saw this and was just blown away by this. I realized that no matter how much or how little "stuff" we have we should always give with all our hearts, minds, and souls and trust that God will provide us with whatever we need. When we got back we were all hit with "reverse culture shock" (as our OT prof put it) because we realized just how much we have and how little we give and these people in Mexico we went to minister to ended up ministering to us. So now I have been trying to think of ways I could help people around me in that same way.

WOW

We met the fonz









At night.

pickles and cheeze :O

i had an incredible time in mexico! God taught me so much. the biggest thing being love. the people in mexico were so relationship focused, generous, and full of joy. They were such a blessing to us. it made me realize how i really don't love people like i should, or like God calls me to. i found it easy to love the kids that we met, and the people i had just barely met, but i know that i usually struggle to truly love people. i have a heart for the people in mexico but God showed me i need to love people back home as well, and make friendships and relationships with people more of a priority.
my favorite part of the trip was definately walking through different neighborhoods in Mexico and just meeting kids and people, and getting to know them. it was such an awesome experience. can't wait to goooo back! :D

Tales of the Margarine Brigade

I had such an amazing time on this Mexifornia trip. Everywhere we went was sweet and was another opportunity to minister to the people around us. We basically spent the first few days getting to California and we spent around a week in a place called Mount Hermon which is like the richest, biggest and most amazing camp I've ever been to. The people there were super nice and they made us delicious food. On one of our days off we got the chance to go SURFING! It was a wicked time with many wipe-outs and many times being slamed against the ocean floor. It was a day filled with awesome near death experiences.
Then we were on our way to Mexico. San Carlos to be specific. Mexico was a really great time of service and allowed me to realize that you don't even need to be able to talk to someone to love them. I realized so many things on this trip, I already knew to not cling to matiral things but after watching some of the people and families out there who like literally had nothing, giving and giving to us. It just made me sick to my stomach thinking about how mad we get if we miss our show or how we're always trying to get the newest/biggest/shinniest thing.
We met so many cool loving people and we worked with such awesome people who I hope I never forget. If I get the chance I'd love to go back and do more work with the people out there.
Thanks for reading, I'll probably update more later.

there's alot to learn from the people in Mexico. the love they have for each other is incredible! theres alot we can learn from that! these people live in absolute poverty, they have so little, yet they have so much! they have each other, they love each other, they have time for each other. this trip really showed me how selfish our North American society is, and that we need to each individually change.

Oh, Betty!

Hi everyone, I'm Luci!
Our bus had enough problems to meet the annual tradition. Between malfunctioning air brakes, an oil flood and scraping the back of a van, it would have been easiest to look at our poor circumstances and think we weren't going to go anywhere, but God was teaching me a lesson about relying on Him for EVERYTHING including ol' Betty. Our air compressor cost less than $35, shaking the bus 'cured' the air leak, and the bus was the only thing to get scratched; clearly God was the only way we got to Mexico and back on schedule. He had quite a plan for us.
P.S. Brittany I beat you praying!

You'll Never Know

Well I better explain the title of this blog. The truth of the matter is that I can't expain to you my experience enough to have you experience it. It's a little frustrating. I don't want this blog to be a newsletter like you get from every other missionary but I fear it's not going to to be that way anyway. Oh well. We travelled to California where we spent a week doing maintainence for a camp in the mountains. We then travelled to Mexico. We spent the remainder of our time in Mexico. Two weeks later we headed home. We left the 31 of October and arrived home the 27 of November. What's more important than experiences, times and events is the lessons learned from them. I think the most dominant lesson for me was that our lives should missions trips. We are never off duty. We should be loving and living Christ to the people of Canada as much as we do for the people of Mexico. I realize there are different needs in Mexico as there is for Canada but there are still needs here too. I had a real passion to serve in Mexico and I really enjoyed the culture and language. I would like to learn Spanish so that I can communicate properly. All in all it was incredible! I found myself relying on God to keep me sane at times. I'm thankful to be home. God is gracious and good. Praise the Lord!

Hey this is Chrispy

I dont realy have anything to say at this time excepy the fact that we are incredebley selfish n the way that we spend our money, and our time.

tylers blog

greetings, i am a blogger. and i'm going to blog about my time in California and Mexico. I think that a hard part of this trip was the transition from a rich bible camp in California to a poor community in Mexico. It went from very wealthy to poor. But one thing that never changed was the hearts of the vollunteers working at the places. the cooks in california were always cheery, and were giving us some awsome food, and even giving us a banquet on the last day. Then when we went to mexico we stayed at a very nice home, and our hosts were awsome and loved serving the lord. I learned wherever you go the hearts of god's workers never change.

TEAMWORK EXPERIENCE NIGHT ADVENTURE

Salutations, I am going to blog about our teamwork experience night adventure. One night, Jeremy, Tyler and I went on a night adventure. It was a dark night, so we couldn't see. We found stairs leading into a dark abyss, and I, being the bravest, grabbed a feeling stick and lead the way. Tyler put his hand on my shoulder, and Jeremy on his, and slowly we made our way down the stairs together, into the forest. After about 10 minutes we reached the bottom of the stairs. Using my feeling stick, i found the edge of the cliff that dropped to the roaring river below. We travelled along the precarious path courageously, running into many obstacles and dangers along the way. It was getting darker, and we were beginning to lose hope that we would ever find our way out of the forest, when suddenly we saw a light in the distance! I began to lead them faster, feeling around vigorously with my feeling stick. We came up to the hairiest rope bridge, and carefully made our way across one at a time. Tyler and I made it safely across, and just as Jer was at the half way point, a board broke from beneath his foot! He fell through, barely clinging onto the next board with one hand.

"We both know what must be done", I said to Ty.

"Oh, Jordan, just be careful!"

I slowly eased my way onto the bridge, boards cracking beneath me. I managed to reach Jer, and grabbed his hand just as the next board snapped and fell, hurling into the depths below.

Jeremy was barely conscious from all the trauma he had experienced, so I threw him over my shoulder, and we decided to head back. We weren't sure how safe the bridge was at this point, so we quickly ran across at once and made it safely. By now I was an expert at using my feeling stick, so we made it back to the light quickly and safely. We laid Jer in a soft patch of grass and nursed him back to health.

And thus ends the teamwork experience night adventure.

Shorty's dear big burger

This is a blog for shorty and his big stinking burger.

Shorty had a great love for his massively oversized burger.
He had great adventures during the point in time between purchase and consumption.
But sadly, both Shorty and his grand burger both knew the eventual fate that lay ahead.
It was a short goodbye before Shorty started to chow down.
The huge freakin burger tried compromising with Shorty before its doom, but it was hopeless.
Shorty was just too bloody hungry.
The photo below shows the gruesome ending to Shorty's love

California/Mexico

During this trip God taught me -and is still teaching me- about trust, wisdom and patience. I am learning to trust God and the people in this group. Because of this trip i feel like this group is a lot closer and more united. The kid's clubs were amazing. We sang a song, did a skit, a puppet told a story, sang some more, and did games. At the end of the program and usually during the games, the kids would climb all over us and just want attention and love. The first kid's club we did there was a little girl about 2 or 3 years old and she wouldn't talk or smile. She was adorable. She just wanted to be held. We could not get her to smile, although, she almost smiled twice. Almost but not quite. The people down in Mexico were amazing. They didn't have very much, but what they had they were willing to give to us. We went to a church and because of the work that we had done for some members of the congregation, a man who owned a restaraunt wanted us to go and have lunch the next day there. The food was amazing and the man refused to let us pay. All he wanted was for us to pray for him and his family.

Flogging Logs

For all of you who didn't know we went to Mount Hermon. While we were there we got to do some maintenance projects. For the first two days my group had to split red wood logs, when these logs were on their sides they came up to my chest! (i'm not a short man) It normaly took two of use to lift the log onto the hydrolic log spliter which almost took my hand off. After two full day of this we were sore and slept like babies. This is my story and welcome to the twilight zone.

near death experience

biggest waves of the year almost killed us. the ocean floor felt amazing as i was smashed and rolled over it. Oh, and by the way i don't know how to blog or what to write. the board shot out of the water like a spaceship and almost ripped my leg off. every one laughed at me:( Then i showed them up and road a 40 foot wave but it was only actually 10 or 12 which is still huge!!!!!! ps Dave and i look dang good in wet suits

Cali/Mexico '09

Hey! So I'm just gonna share a few things with you that I learned on this trip. Riding on a bus for many hours at a time without a break from each other can bring about a lot of frustrations and irritations. I did A LOT of praying about this and God told me some things. This past year God has really been teaching me that love is NOT just a feeling but a choice. We might not always get along with the people that we are put together with, but God calls us to show love and to be love to the people around us. We might not feel like loving people at all times, but we need to choose to love them because God loves them. We need to love others without expecting to be loved by them in return. This is my story. CHARLIE

Hello, im just going to blog now about the mexico mission trip. Over the trip, with driving, sleeping in church's, eating, and working God has been working with me on dealing with fairness. It is very hard living in such an unfair world, and on this trip I encountered many situations that seemed unfair to me. Whether it be getting the shaft in sleeping areas on the bus or in church, getting the smallest dorm rooms and having to share bathrooms with 13 people, or getting last pick for food. God has really been helping me with bitterness in these times, and it has been getting easier to worry less about those small things and just focus my mind on other things of importance. The people in Mexico that we worked with are living with barley enough to get through the weeks, and we just have so much back at the camp and back at homes. The people didn't seem to care about having such little, all they cared about was just loving one another and sharing whatever they can. This really has been helping me as I still grow in this area. Looks like im all outta blog...

Walmart, Water Fights & Spanish

We have had one normal day back at the camp, it feels so weird to be back! The trip was really good! It's good to be home, but I really enjoyed my time out there! God taught me many things while I was away. I was in Mexico this past February working at an orphanage, so I had already experienced the language barrier; so I thought going to Mexico again would be no problem with the language! When I got there the first Saturday we did our first kids program, I came into that problem thinking it would not be hard at all, but to my surprise it was very difficult. I thought the kids thought I was a crazy canadian and they probably did, but I know I was not giving my all to them. I let my insecurities of not knowing the language get in the way of relationship building! I was like to God, I don't remember it being this hard so I prayed about it for the rest of the kids programs. God taught me again that I don't need to know the language to have relationships with these kids. They actually quite enjoying laughing at me when I try to learn new words in Spanish. In the one village where we were cementing a church floor the way I got to know some girls were by them teaching me spanish words! At the end of those two days those girls didn't want me to leave and they were begging me to stay! It's amazing to see how God will use you in anyway to show his love; even if that means making a fool out of yourself!

My favorite part of the trip was when we went to a women's house who had two little sons, David and Caleb, and cleaned up their yard and built a fence. This women's husband was in jail, so she had to raise her two sons in a very small house and yard which was filled with rocks and weeds. I loved playing with the two boys and starting water fights. It's amazing how you can know one word "agua" (water) and motion pouring on head and a water fight begins! It was a really cool bonding time for me and the little kid, David. Every time he would get someone wet he would come and "pound it" it was so cute, and alot of fun!

Oh! Sleeping in the Wal Mart parking lot was alot of fun too! We had to sleep in the walmart parking lot because we were behind schedule, it was quite the experience! This happened in Idaho, and it was sure not warm out! Sleeping with shoes on in a sleeping bag isn't what I call comfortable! It is a memory I will always remember!

My very own mexican adventure

Hi my name is Chris and I am writing something in this blog.

The one thing that I have been thinking about after this trip is the Pentecostal Church we went to down in Guaymas. The Church to me seemed like the opposite of a standard mennonite church. The people there sang loudly and with a very fiery passion, sharing during the church service was a normality. The people there were so happy to see us, and one member of the church bought us all lunch the next day from his own chicken restaurant, which was about a weeks wages from his pocket. It was a smaller church but it was definitely making a difference in the community, which i thought was incredible.