... over

Exhausted. That is a pretty fair way to sum up the state of the team right now. Exhausted and yet... excited. Happy. Pick an adjective.

interPLAY is over, and it was pretty darn fantastic. We ran our own little stage - the "Kaos Kreative Cafe" - and it was the talk of he weekend. And when I say talk I mean our small, little area was packed with people. It was really cool. We had a lot of really high-quality acts performing so that there was no down time. And the acts covered a really wide variety of genres of music. We had some country acts, straight up acoustic guitar, rock bands, a worship band, a really cool DJ... to much fun to handle. Some of the team members also got involved in some of the acts as well to show off teir talents. Made me wish I had brought my clarinet...

We also preformed the Lifehouse skit five times this weekend, bringing the total number of time prefomed up to ten. It was really cool though because each time we did it at the Cafe (twice each night) the place was packed with people. We had some really positive feedback about it and it looked as if it really touched some of the people we have really been praying for.

Overall, even though it was a lot of hard work to set it up and decorate and do all the little detail things, it was a totally awsome and fun weekend. A good way to spend our last one here. Yes people, that is correct. In just over four days we will be heading home.

In fact, some of our team is already headed out. Yesterday we said goodbye to Jenn, who was headed off to BC to start a west-coast journey that is taking her down to California. And today Jay headed back home to Ontario so that he could make it back in time to start work at another camp. So now the team is down to twelve and we will miss our team-mates greatly.

- Mike
Dei Gratia

interMADNESS

Yesterday was slow in the morning but picked up when lots of the regulars came in. Schylar is going to sing in interplay and has been practicing her heart out and sounds amazing! She's really nervous though and had a bit of a break down but we assured her she'd do awesomely! I have been so impressed by her courage and she's really an inspiration to me. I taught her how to make hemp bracelets and she's been making them non-stop and is really proud of them. She learns really quickly and has been excited to learn new things the whole time she's been here. She's also excited to help clean, which for a 12 year old I would say is a bit of a shocker but not for her. She likes helping and being with people. I helped Kayla with her newsletter about the Dugout and it looks good :o) I'd say we make a pretty good team. There have been lots of improvements in attitudes of kids here and many are showing more respect. We've been broken into 7 times since we've been here, but the kids here have the same fun they always have and think that it's dumb for people to wreck this place! I agree whole-heartedly and am mostly just excited that their spirits haven't been broken. I am not looking forward to saying goodbye to these kids.
Last Thursday was also cool. Jen and I got to take a man, David, to detox - what an experience! He was really open to hearing what we had to say and actually started the conversation by asking us if we could get him to detox. Pretty stinkin' cool! It renewed my hope and was just cool to see where it was and all that.
The days are getting busier!

- Seana

Ok, so am I allowed to say that yesterday was ridiculous? Because it was. Yesterday was a hugely busy day. We finally started work on our various interPLAY stage needs: Rona kindly donated a tonne of stuff to us to put together the backdrop and fencing stuff for the Cafe, so Jay and I spent the morning with Rick and Sarah Kirschner at Rona shopping for spray paint and regular paint. Then in the afternoon I helped to prime the boards we are using for our backdrop. It was fun, if a lot of work.
The major, major work is today though. Meetings with the mayor, meetings about interPLAY, helping Alan and Vicky - two of the Kaos workers - move, painting the design... on top of our regular work. But more about that tomorrow.
I can't believe that our time here is almost done. Some of the kids here we are really going to miss, as well as many of the other fantastic people we have met here. I can only hope that whatever impact we have made now continues to carry on even after we have left.

- Mike
Dei Gratia

Rainy Days

It has been raining like mad here for the last couple of days. It has been really cool because there have been some awesome sun-showers, but unfortunately the rain has had some downsides as well. Take for example the graffiti cleanup we were supposed to have on Saturday. Rained out. Not cool. So we have been rescheduled for Monday. As in, the day after our weekend of interPLAY craziness. As in, we will all be dead tired on Tuesday. But it should really be awesome. Melody and Hannah are currently working on the backdrop for the Kaos Kreative Cafe (don't worry, we were concerned about the name as well...lol) which should be really cool because we are doing a huge graffiti-like paint job for it. Somewhat ironic considering we are cleaning up graffiti, but this is on hige pieces of plywood and it should all be fairly decent.

It is actually going to be really cool... intePLAY that is. We actually have a lot of people and you getting involved in it from outside of the team. Actually, we are seeing a lot of youth getting involved in our activities in general. We have youth going to the Salvation Army food wagon with us, and to the soup kitchen/bbq at Fellowship Baptist as well. It is really neat to see these guys, who usually don't do a whole lot, getting active in the community. This, I think, is probably one of the more important things we are doing: connecting youth to activities and volunteer opportunities they may not have known existed.

That's it for me, for now.
- Mike

ps. The King's Kids site is now up!!!

the capital E

Hey! what's up everybody? I know I haven't done a blog in quite awhile so here it is! I've been running into a lot of problems with the 3rd part of the Kaos Repo Co Documentary lately which has been a little frustrating but I'm sure the video will be completed in just a little while! I've also began working with a Canon GL2 Camcorder so the video will look quite a bit better than the first couple of parts. I've also ordered a new macbook for college that will help me with a little bit with working-on-the-go. I've been helping Kaos Radio with some on-air stuff, just covering the afternoon DJ if he needs to take a day off. Other than that there's not too much else going on. Thanks to everyone for your prayers for the team and I hope you all are having an amazing summer!

~Lukas Stevens~

Hey everybody! Promises, promises, I know. Things here have have been really crazy as we near the edn of our trip which is in *shock!* two weeks!!! Time has just flown by! But enough about how busy we are gearing up for our second graffiti cleanup tomorrow or interPLAY which is in a week; lets talk about... Edmonton!!! Specifically the West Edmonton Mall which we spent three - yes THREE - of our four days at. While the mall is huge and has some really awesome things in it, three days had even the most shop-a-holic girls worn out. That being said, we didn't spend three full days in the mall, we also hit up some other sweet spots as well. Like on Saturday, when a group of us went to Whyte Avenue to go to a farmers market and just wander around. Whyte Ave. was cool because it had a very old-school, artsy feel to it - a feeling heightened by the eclectic nature of the shops. While the girls were out shopping, Jay and I (Lukas and Bill opted into an early start at the mall for some reason... lol) were completely distracted by the amount of good, artistic graffiti covering the area. And so we set out on a graffiti walk. We found many cool pieces of art, but the walk was capped when we found an entire wall done up in a giant graffiti mural by about 12 different artists. It was way cool! The girls had a fun time shopping and even managed to get me to buy some things and all in all it was a fairly restful weekend.

- Mike

Radiohead{s}

Hey, ok.
So here is the latest exciting news!
Kayla is *sniff* leaving us today to go on vacation to... Ontario!! As her birthday is coming up, we piggy-backed a dinner she was having with a few of her friends (we were invited, actually) and had an awesome time with our (not so) secret birthday card of awesomeness and her wearing giant moose antlers. It was very amusing. Not to mention that some of the... older... members of our team were, well, causing a little bit of mischief with some ice. I have decided that the next time Bill and Rick are sitting at a table together, Cathy will need to separate them, lol.

It was also a pretty exciting day at the dugout with quite a bit of action. I'm not sure if I can really go into the details, but suffice to say there were some very amusing developments on Friday's break-in here at the Dugout. The fifth break-in so far. I don't believe anything was taken, but it was still an irritation.

I, sadly, was removed from most of the action because I was doing some work at home with Lukas on the various video projects we have on the go. The exciting thing for us, however, was that we got to voice track for Kaos. As in, Lukas and I did the entire afternoon show AND the top 7 @ 7. We had so much fun doing that!!! I can see why it takes a certain personality to has radio though; it is kind of hard to just jump in on the breaks and get the song/ artist names right on th first try. It was sweet though.

Tomorrow should be exciting as well... we have a graffiti clean up on the go... though this is merely the warmup to next Saturday's city-wide cleanup event. And, I have to be honest here, things are tensing up a little as we get closer to August and the interPLAY festival. Luckily, we get to chill for a bit in Edmonton this weekend, an event I know the girls at least are stoked for.

- Mike

Anime-ted Conversation

I was really encouraged today when Bill came to fetch me in the Staff Room. Why would that be encouraging, you ask? Well, as much as everyone loves Bill, it wasn't his presence that warmed the cockles of my heart – it was the message he carried: "Domenic's here for you." Domenic happens to be a crazy fun, 13 year old lad that I met precisely a week ago. Last week had been the time of the Art Elective; and last Thursday was actually the day that Leah was in charge of the Art Elective (teaching people how to make stellar bracelets). However, that happened to be the first day of the entire week that I'd had anyone come and draw with me. Let me take you back…

I was wandering rather aimlessly, that Thursday morning, when I saw Sarah drawing and talking with a boy at the Art Table. "Sweet!" I thought to myself. "I need to get in on this deal!" The boy was Domenic. I recognized him as the boy I'd seen the day before talking to Adam and Leah near the Basketball Court. Domenic, Sarah and I drew for a little bit and then Sarah was called away to go do Ink Speaks stuff. Domenic and I weren't talking for long before we discovered with no little excitement that Domenic and I both watch anime, and happen to have almost all of the same favourite shows: InuYasha, Naruto, Avatar: The Last Airbender, (he doesn't like One Piece but he respects that I'm in love with it), Full Metal Alchemist and Pokemon (some of which I've seen, but only the Old School episodes). Needless to say, we were pretty much insta-friends from that moment on. We chatted, drew, laughed, and discussed the finer points of various anime episodes in glorious detail. Our conversation was also spiced with more serious topics. Domenic told me all about how he used to bully people, until one day he realized that the people he was bullying were just like him.

The next day (Friday), Domenic showed up at the Dugout again – this time he brought a friend: a boy named Mitchell, with a Nintendo DS permanently fixed to his hand. So, today, when Bill tapped my shoulder and announced that Domenic was looking for me, it brought a smile to my face. I found him outside the Staff Room door and he quickly informed me that Mitchell would also be making a reappearance and I certainly hope that the pair of them make many more appearances in the future.

Melody

Image by FlamingText.com

---

Sun, Ink

Amanda and I have been going out to different locations every day to engage people and do some tattoo stories, but it has been pretty stressful at times. We have a hard time finding people who have the time and and willing to talk to us, but they are getting done slowly. It helps that Jay is now also doing stories. We have definitely met some interesting people, both with many tattoos and some with only one. Yesterday, we talk to Lauren, a reporter who interviewed us and then we talked to her about her single tattoo as well. She is actually quite interested in knowing when I am getting my tattoo, which will hopefully be within the next week or so! I am super excited, but also pretty scared. But I think it will help my connection with people because they see that I do have something in common with them. I have felt like a fraud because I do Tattoo Stories but don't even have one myself. So that is pretty much where I am at right now: tying to stay on top of transcribing while figuring out how I am going to fit my own tattooing appointment in with it all. AND I am doing electives again next week.

- Sarah

Officially, this trip is perhaps the most disorienting I have ever been on. In a good way. The days are just so packed with stuff that they all seem to blend together in a massive, oozing, pulsing tangle of memories. Like the day we moved out of Keyano. That day was long enough to feel like two days. And Canada Day was pretty long as well. For the first two full days, I felt was if an entire week had gone by. Same things seems to be happening here. I doesn't help, I suppose, that the sun goes down really, really late. But meh.
So, Tuesday was a Tuesday kind of day. Y' know, the kind of day that is just there. Kids came into the Dugout, we hung out. Had a super long debrief in the evening. Day to day stuff. I spent most of the day coding... finishing the new King's Kids layout and beginning to adapt it for the blog that is accompanying it. That is a bit of a daunting task. I have reams of data to go through, edit, delete, change... all in all, an enjoyable challenge.

Cheers!

- Mike

A new week! A new adventure!

Yesterday I went to the soup kitchen to help at the BBQ. There were a lot of volunteers there and it was cool to see how some of them have built relationships with the regulars who come to the soup kitchen.
In the afternoon I went to the PB* to hang out and talk to people. We met a guy from the Congo who has been in Canada since 2002. It was neat to hear that after high school, he taught primary school in his town for five years because they were really short on teachers and he was a smart guy. We also met another guy with a couple tattoos who couldn't catch his bus (he actually had to run to the next stop before the bus got there). He's only been here since last August and he works as a cook at the hotel and now his friend is teaching him how to DJ.
After supper I was able to talk to a good friend of the team who had just received some really bad news about his brother. He was shaken up about it but was calmer than he had been in the morning. Later that night he sent us a text thanking us for our prayers. It has been really neat this summer to see relationships grow and how many youth we have been able to attract to the center through the summer programs.

- Amanda

*slang for the Provincial Building

I have essentially become a shut in, after a fashion. Ok, maybe that is a little melodramatic, but I have spent a lot of time recently in front of a computer. I spent Monday morning at home helping out Lukas and spending hours trying to find a font online. Have you ever tried to match fonts? As in, you have a font in an image, don't know the name of the font, and then try to find it online? Challenging work. Yet such was the challenge before me as I tried to find the King's Kids font, a quest which as ultimately successful... albeit in a fashion which makes me feel like an idiot. As in, it was the very first font on the very first page in the search...
I suppose I should clarify what exactly I am talking about. On top of all of our street work and various volunteer responsibilities, there is a small group on the team who are busy working away on computer work: documenting the trip in video format, creating graphics for pamphlets and cards as well as designs for the Kaos Cafe at the up-coming InterPlay festival, and in my case, building the new King's Kids Promotions website. So look for that in the beginning for August!

- Mike

Lazy Posting

Ok, here is the latest. Sorry for not updating in forever, things here have been a little hectic lately. For me at least. Either way, lots of cool stuff has happened since the last update. Take for example yesterday. We, being the drama team, performed the Everything Skit (also known as the "Lifehouse skit") in both services at the McMurray Gospel Assembly and the team more or less ran the service last night at Fellowship Baptist Church. On Saturday we learned a little about the oil sand work at the Oil Sands Discovery Center. It was actually a pretty cool space, though a little on the small side. This way we should be able to understand people a little more when they talk about working on site.

Anyways, that is all I have to say for now. I'm going to get on myself about getting back into the rhythm of regular updating, so you should be seeing daily updates again. Here are some perspectives on the week from other team members to keep you sated for now.

- Mike

This week I was leading the soccer electives, but no one showed up. Later in the day thought I was able to convince enough people that it would be fun if they all came and played a game with me. We walked to the closest soccer field just down the road and had a great game of scrimmage. There were about 12 people there aged 10 - 23. It was just so awesome and exciting to see this random mix of people all having a great time running around and they respected and encouraged each other all the time. I don't know how often kids get together to play big games like that, but it seemed like everyone just loved having someone to play with.

I also talked to a girl who wants to quit smoking because she thinks its disgusting and misses her sense of smell. In the past she had managed to quit for about three weeks before starting again. She is cutting back gradually, but it will take a while to quit completely.

It has been awesome to see small differences in everyone we have been building relationships with. Whenever people hang out with us, they seem happy and enjoy just talking to us.

- Amanda

It Rained Today!!!! LIGHTNING!!!!

So Wednesday we started electives for the kids which run out of the Dugout. I only had two guitars and need one myself so I could only teach one at a time. Not that there was a huge amount of interest or anything. I taught one lesson in the morning and one in the afternoon for about an hour and a half each with breaks and stuff. Making kids who have never played before play for long amounts of time is sooo not fun because those poor kids with their callousless fingers can`t handle the pain. I don't know if that sentence makes any sense, but oh well. I only do guitar lessons once during each music week so that won't be a big issue. The rest of the time I am doing drama. No kids have shown up for the morning session yet today but we will see about the afternoon. Amanda and I, being the awesome team that we are for Ink Speaks, are co-running the drama elective. Actually we spend most of Wednesday transcribing (when we were running electives) so we have definitely spent a lot of time together over the last week.

SO that is pretty much it so far. I am pretty boring these last few days. Just sit in my room in a dark corner, concentrate on my breathing, draw on myself in permanent marker... sometimes people will come and sit a plate of food in front of me and I may or may not eat it... I braid and unbraid the front pieces of my hair... Not much to my life really...

(Yes, that is an entirely last paragraph is a lie...)

- Sarah

I am starting to really get used to the schedules now and was able to hit the streets and get some tattoo stories done for the first time. All in all a good day I'd say.

- Jay

Hello people of the world! So, I totally could write about yesterday, but... I think that seeing as this is my first week here, I should probably talk about first impressions. Which were awesome!!!! I had an awesomely unique opportunity to see Fort McMurray that the others were denied. Mostly because I got to fly up here. And I mean, even with some of the negative things you hear about Fort Mac, seeing it from the air - with the sun pseudo-setting over a vast expanse of trees separated by a rift in the earth - well; it kind of disperses any negativity and makes a really, really good first impression. The other good first impressions-ness was that you can buy Coca-cola in glass bottles, lol. No, there are some really cool people here that I have met so far - Kayla as one example - and some really cool people that I hope to meet. Clowning around on Canada Day for 8 hours was also cool, as an aside. L-O-L.

Anyways, on to yesterday... we - Hannah, Jay and I - went to clean up "Humpty Dumpty", so named because it is by the Humpty Dumpty chip factory or something like that. Essentially, some heavy lifting and quick cleaning of a tonne of garbage. It was hot, but it was fun.

Oh! Quick story as an aside. I get to Keyano and I have like a bottle of water or something. And then I spend the next 10 minutes looking for a recycling bin. Which was apparently crazy of me because they don't recycle here. Go figure, eh?

PS. Today is America's birthday... and also Ailin's !!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

- Mike

Canada Day MADNESS!!!!

We interrupt this broadcast for a special news bulletin from Mike:

So, I have now been appointed as blogmaster and we are kicking Sarah out. lol, what goes around...

Three days, and I already think that Fort McMurray rox. I'm excited for the summer.
Just thought I would throw that in.

We now return to your normal Canada Day broadcast:

Yesterday was Canada day and we had lots of fun!!! I had the opportunity with nine others to be clowns in the parade. We walked and skipped behind the Kaos cruiser, giving candy to the kids. At noon we were at the Borealis Park around the dugout. Some of us dressed as clowns and others helped with the BB. We had lots of fun meeting the kids and making them smile. It was a great day to celebrate with the community of Fort McMurray.
-Ailin
So I was the creepiest clown ever, but it was actually pretty funny. Vivian from the Baptist church brought her face paint, which she has for doing dramas when she was in OM. It was cool, she did my face, Sarah and Sam's and it looked cool. We all started with a completely white face and the design went on top. Sarah had flowers and Sam had some weird geometric shapes but mine was like, stereotypical clown. I had the red smile, rosy red cheeks and actually some orange eyebrows and a red nose :o) It was exciting and fun. There were nine clowns.
Fort McMurray has some pretty insane festivities and FRED PENNER CAME!!! THAT'S RIGHT!! I SAW FRED PENNER LIVE!!! :D:D:D It was actually so amazing! :o) We then had drama where we did The Rock and The Lifehouse skit. I got uberly thrown about, and if you've ever seen the drama you'll understand how much the main character gets beat up. I was she and Adam enjoyed throwing me at the ground. It was actually pretty awesome looking and apparently really effective. There were a lot of positive comments surrounding it and apparently we're doing it again for some churches so that's pretty awesome. Overall, a great day.
-Seana

Quite brief...

Yesterday I spent most of the day in the kitchen. Preparing hotdogs and pizza pops for the youth. With the help of two team mates and Kathy we prepared lunch and dinner, for lunch we had raps and for dinner pork chops and rice. We have kept the team well fed so that they can keep up the good work.

- Ailin

I unfortunately forgot Jay's post for the day back at the residence because Jay was so on the ball in getting it to me last night. I will try to get that up later tonight or put it with tomorrows up date because we are here until 10 tonight.

- Sarah

Wacky Wednesday... (wacky was Sam's suggestion)

So Wednesday was my third day working at the Dugout. It's been really awesome! There have been school groups in over the last few days so it's been busy, but really enjoyable. I'm beginning to get a hang of it and I'm excited for what's to come.

- Sam

Wednesday began with a visit to Girls Inc., a group formerly known as Big Sisters. The lady there shared with us the various activities they do – some as part of the curriculum of the school – and others as after school programs with teenage girls. It offers the girls the freedom and security of being away from guys – of putting on a show, and just being themselves. Unfortunately, they have budget and human resource constraints, and are thus in only one school per year. But it really sounds like a profitable program for the girls.

Adam and I went to the soup kitchen yesterday, and the highlight for me was seeing Luke. I first met Luke when he was drunk, sitting at a park bench. However, I had heard there was a change in his life because of a church service he went to at the Baptist church here, and when I spoke to him Wednesday, he shared he had been sober now for 3 days, and while difficult, God was helping him stay that way. He also shared of his desire to return home to a small coastal community in Nunavut, but the expense of the trip = $3000 was prohibitive, but that he was saving money. He said that normally he woke up each morning, broke from spending all his money on alcohol, but now was saving up his money. It really was nice to see Luke in control of his faculties!!

- Bill

New friends

It seems every time I write this blog I've been in meetings, but yesterday just happened to be a meeting day with Norma and Genevieve about the youth street survival guide. It went well and that ball is rolling. Yesterday morning was sweet because Sarah and I were in the soup kitchen which was a lot of fun and it was the same people I worked with last week. They're pretty sweet, from the alliance church. There's this cute little girl named Suzanne and her brothers Devon and Dillon were there too. I actually got to talk to all of them and make garlic bread and it was a lot of fun. I didn't have too much interaction with the people using the facility though, which is unfortunate but I still got to talk to some people and that was also very cool. Monday I met a girl who came with her school named Anke who's from South Africa. They visit every two years, she lived there until she was almost 5 years old then they moved here and she likes that too. Things are starting to pick up and we're sending more people out into the community in two's and really interacting with people. I'm excited to see how it turns out. :o)

-Seana

I got asked by a little fellow named Chase to go and play Chess. I told him that he’d have to explain the rules to me, and he agreed to these terms with a rather astounding eagerness. While he did seem to know what he was doing, the rules Chase abided by were far different from any I’d heard of before. However, being something of a Chess newbie, I didn’t make much of this. That was until my new friend Chase, began revealing key pieces of information as soon as they became relevant… and he was in a position to collect. Always quick on the uptake, I began drilling him with questions about his set of rules, haha. When I pointed out an inconsistency in what he was doing and what he was telling me I could do, he grinned impishly and said, “I thought you said you’d never played before…” I hastened to inform him that this fact in no way impaired my judgment and I was going to keep my eye on him to make sure he wasn’t trying to pull any metaphorical wool over my eyes.

It wasn’t long into the game before we were joined by a girl named Natalie, who attempted ever-so-valiantly to come to my rescue. The pair of us united mental forces and put up a strong defense (which, in this case, was a good offence) against Chase’s dark army. The whole series of chess games consisted predominantly of sending out the Queen (who, according to my good friend Chase, could pretty much go wherever she wanted – ignoring every obstacle, penetrating any and all lines of defense). Needless to say, victory was given to whoever rallied their omnipresent forces and appeared somewhat magically beside the opponent’s King. The rules of play were alien, and I still have the sneaking suspicion that Chase threw rules on the table at whim. But victory and defeat were each accompanied by good-humoured laughter by all parties… and, in that way, we were all continual winners.

- Melody

The new kid on the block...

Well well...after the long four day trek I have finally arrived
and yesterday was my first day here in Fort McMurray.
I had some time to get oriented a bit with my surroundings
and get oriented.
Made my first trip out with the 'Ink Speaks' crew and had some
positive leads. All in all not a bad first day.

- Jay

I just got back from the Soup Kitchen with Seana. It was my
second trip there but I haven't been for about 2 weeks.
Again it was a great experience. I washed a lot more dishes
than before though, that's for sure. I did feel like I had
less interaction with the people coming to the Soup Kitchen.
I worked with new people this time as well. And I must add,
the chili was amazing and garlic bread was so delicious, we
brought some of the left over bread home with us. It was
great that we had enough food because last time we did end
up running out and made up a bunch of cheese and mayo sandwiches
because that is all we had.
Well ya, that's pretty much my day so far. I guess I was really
supposed to be talking about yesterday because that is how this
 works but being the BLOG MASTER I feel I have the right to write
about what I want. HA! well maybe not...

-Sarah

KAOS Birthday Bash!

Yesterday morning after breakfast we all split up and went to different churches, after an awesome time of prayer and reflecting on the week over a late Sunday breakfast (by late I mean 8:30 instead of 8:00). Afterwards we hoped across the street to the station and started moving boxes to the Golden years society to set up for the KAOS Birthday party that afternoon. The event was awesome, it was amazing to hear how many lives Kaos has been affecting, even in only 1 year of being here! And the people that showed up were so supportive and just totally working to support this vision of lifting up the community. It was incredible. Afterwards we cleaned up and got back to the college around 4:30. We were exhausted though. It was a long weekend, but a total blessing to us too, because we really just got to see deeper into the good works that were going on in the city.

Afterwards we got back to Keyano and the rest of the team had arrived! We had a really good evening of relaxing and filling everyone in on what had been going on, and getting debriefed on their car ride. After a late night of talking and praying we all set in for a solid night sleep, because with the new team here, a new wave a workers had arrived.

- Jen

Hello there faithful readers!

I don’t even know if anyone is keeping up to date with this old blog but I’m gonna write and write I will. Yesterday was the big KAOS birthday party bash for their first birthday. It was exciting to hear different people’s stories of how KAOS has affected them over the past year. One family in particularly were arguing over the best station in town, and despite the efforts, KAOS won two against one. The mother and daughter were very happy with the variety of different music playing on the station and the great message it portrays, although the girl wasn’t too thrilled that she had awaken to Black Eyed Peas that morning.

There was cake, music, food and trivia, but most importantly great company with amazing people. I cruised around and took a bunch of pictures and talked with all the people who have helped raised and support this radio ministry. Thanks to all those who came out on Sunday, and special thanks to everyone who helped make it happen!

- Leah

Updates and Apologies

I just want to say that I am very sorry for slacking on my duties as "Blog Master". We have been profusely busy but that is no excuse. I will be getting back into the grove of things and stay on schedule form now on. Now I did miss todays blog post and this one is technically for tomorrow. Therefor I will not update it tomorrow but will resume on Monday about Sunday. It is the KAOS Birthday Bash tomorrow so there will hopefully be lots to talk about. Also, the rest of our team should be showing up tomorrow so you will soon be hearing from more voices on here. And maybe not so much from me personally! haha I'm sure that would make you happier. I do have my own blog already after all. I think that is good for now. Have a good continued weekend.

- Sarah

Friday our team was able to volunteer in the Summer Solstice. It is this big event that is free for all to attend. It is targeted towards kids but everyone enjoys it. There is a free BBQ, face painting, a clown with balloons, bubbles, chalk drawing, bouncy castle, stage with live bands, etc. It was great to be outside all day setting up, tearing down, helping at various stations and the KAOS booth. I loved spending time with the kids at the bouncy castle as well as stopping random people to give them KAOS fliers and tell them about the station. Just being outside and doing a physical project was awesome.
So, Saturday was the big skate competition. There were not as many people as we thought would come out but it was still good. The competitors were able to show off their tricks and they all seemed to have a good time. We were also able to clean the 7/11 lot with the Tennessee team. It was a really good experience and a lot of fun too. We had a few people stop by to see what we were up to and one told us that we were wasting our time. For now the lot looks a lot better and it was great to do a project in the community.

- Amanda

Food and Break-Ins

Sorry about the lack of post yesterday. And I'm pretty much on my own today because Jen isn't feeling well and Melody is back at Keyano doing work of some sort. But I will explain what happened yesterday that cause our non-posting.

So at 6 o'clock on Wednesday morning, the Dugout was broken into. We aren't sure who was behind it, but this is the 3rd time in 2 and a half weeks for break ins and we are quite sure the same people are behind all of them. The TV was smashed up and the back windows are broken and Tonya's office was broken into and money stolen. The cops never came yesterday and only got here this morning. They didn't get any fingerprints. We were off work yesterday and this morning so I didn't have access to good internet.

- Sarah

So we're still under investigation from the break-in. Sarah mentioned it before so the details are there. Yesterday was kind of relaxing, kind of not. With the break-in it meant that there was a free day available but it didn't end up being too free as I still had work to do and food to pick up - which finally came! Thank the Lord.

Lots of projects and a crazy weekend ahead. Oh! The other team left yesterday for here too! :) I'm excited for them to get here! :D YAY!

- Seana

Monday Madness...

So I want to apologize to Hannah for not getting her post up yesterday. Here is it...a day later:

It is so good to have a day off after the weeks activities. Sunday morning we visited the Anglican Church where they were kind in having us stay for lunch afterwards. Then we all settled in for an afternoon of relaxing and catching up on laundry before heading breaking off into groups for evening church services. Some went to the McMurray Gospel Assembly while a couple others, including myself, returned to the Fellowship Baptist. It may not be that exciting, but it was fun day to hang out with people and relax for a bit.

- Hannah

Yesterday was a slower day with regards to youth coming in. No one showed up until almost 4:00. Last night we were all cleaning our suites like crazy because all this week is res inspections. If we don't pass- which is highly unlikely - our suite receives a fine. We also had our first chance to work on drama. I started teaching a few people The Rock, which is a powerful mime. It was so much fun to be doing drama again and I can't wait for it all to come together. I walked to the school boards with Kayla yesterday afternoon to drop off calendars for the Dugout. I hope kids take them home and show their parents so they can come to all our events this summer. That's all for now. To everyone who's reading - have an awesome summer.

- Amanda

I’ve now been here for just over a week, and yesterday was a good day.

Communication in the team is improving significantly, at least from my perspective!

In addition, we began to go out into the streets of Fort Mac in pairs, to meet the teenagers and invite them back to the Dugout. Jen and I went out yesterday, for about an hour, from roughly 2:30 to 3:30, and went to the Alberta Provincial Building, where we met a number of youth, some of whom we already had contact with. We also went to the Peter Pond Mall, and met a couple there, returned to the Provincial Building and made some more contacts, and then returned to the Dugout.

We also officially began our daily participation in the Soup Kitchen, hosted by the Fellowship Baptist Church. Once I get more information about the Food Wagon – a Salvation Army ministry – we will also be participating in that.

- Bill "Yo" Yeo

Our super busy weekend...

Yesterday we had the possibility to visit the Anglican Church in the morning, and the Baptist and MGA churches in the evening. It was a day to rest and recover our strength for the week that it ahead of us. We are looking forward to another week doing our different activities.

- Ailin

Hey, so we did laundry yesterday! What a blessing it is to have washing machines... Oh and I am sorry for not updating on weekends. They are not that busy, but it is difficult to find a computer and/or internet access while we are at home. Yes, I have taken to calling the Purple Palace our home.
Saturday was rather uneventful. I was at the Dugout for about 4 hours, but only a couple kids were here. It was pretty rainy so the skate park was abandoned too. That night we saw The Incredible Hulk with Alan from KAOS. Awesome movie! I am actually starting to get in to the whole superhero thing. And that is pretty much our weekend...not so busy. Yah... that title was meant to be ironic...

- Sarah