I had the privilege of being asked to speak at the First Year Retreat for the new students this semester. Our school's theme for orientation this year is "I am Called". I was asked to share about how God called me to Columbia Bible College, some of what I have learned here, and what I feel my calling is for the future. I thought I'd share my talk here as well! As I often find with talks, it changed and developed as I was speaking, but here is the script I went up with.
Hey everyone, my name is Leane Winger. I am in my fourth year of Caregiving and
Counselling at Columbia. My husband
Jesse is also at student at CBC. He
graduated with a BA in Outdoor Leadership last April, and he’s back for more
classes. And in case you are wondering,
yes I am pregnant. We are expecting our
little one right around December 31.
I love life.
There are many different things that I am passionate about. I enjoy the arts, including music, theatre,
visual arts, and pretty much any other kind of arts that you can think of. I love learning, whether it is in class,
while having a conversation with a friend, or watching TED talks while doing
the dishes. I love creation, getting out
in creation, hiking and camping, or caring for the little bit of nature I have
in containers on my deck. And I am also
passionate about hospitality. I love
making my home a welcoming place, and my husband and I are always having people
over for games, dinners, or movie nights.
If you’d like to be invited, just let me know!
At the center of what I am passionate about is
being creative and caring for others.
What led me to Columbia:
I was one of those high school students who had
no idea what I wanted to do with my life.
There were lots of things that I enjoyed doing, but I didn’t have a goal
or dream for the future. I was very
involved in theatre, particularly directing theatre, during high school, and I
thought that maybe that was a path that I could pursue. I looked into many different theatrical
schools, but none of them felt right. In
the end I decided to take a year of Bible school. My love of British classics like The
Chronicles of Narnia and Pride and Prejudice led me to attend Capernwray Hall
in England. My year there was very
transformational, but not in the way that I expected. The primary thing I learned was that I did
not know as much as I thought I knew and that I wasn’t as special as I thought
I was. While it was a wonderful year of
new experiences and adventures, it was also a year of frustration, loneliness,
and long walks through sheep pastures in the rain, yelling at the sky. During that year, I heard that Capernwray
Harbour, just off the coast of Vancouver Island, had a second year leadership
program, and I decided to attend there the following year. That was a year when God started putting back
together the pieces of my life. I
rediscovered who I was, and learned things about myself that had been true my
whole life, but that I had never noticed – that I have a heart to welcome in
the marginalized and rejected, that I am fine being alone and don’t have a need
to fit into the popular crowd. After
that year, I worked for 6 months as a nanny in a broken home. The parents had recently split up, and seeing
the pain and heartbreak in that the children were going through was very
challenging. When that position ended,
once again I didn’t know what I wanted to do.
I knew myself better, but I still didn’t have a dream. However, my experience while nannying gave me
a desire to be better equipped to help the people I meet who are going through
hard times. So I decided to look into counseling
programs. I also wanted to go to a Bible
college so that I could continue learning more about God too. Through my search for a program that sounded
like a good fit, I was led to the Caregiving and Counselling program at CBC.
I have learned a lot, grown a lot, and
experienced a lot during my time at CBC.
I wanted to highlight a couple different events that had a significant
impact on my life.
The first was within a couple weeks of arriving
at CBC. I was a January student,
starting after Christmas. Something that
happens fairly early in the winter semester is that student leader applications
become available for those who are interested in joining student leadership for
the following year. I was just chatting
with someone in the cafeteria, and they told me that I should apply to be an
RL. That surprised me. I mean, I barely even knew what an RL was (it is a leader of a unit in dorms),
and I was new to the school. Why would
someone choose me to be an Resident Leader in the dorms? I was sure there would be other much more
qualified people. But as I thought and
prayed about it, I decided that it was something that I would actually like to
do. I applied, and was accepted to be an
RL for the next year! Through becoming
an RL, I learned very practically the importance of being involved on
campus. Going to events, leading events,
meeting new people, pushing out of my comfort zone – through all of this my
time at CBC was deepened and enriched, and ever since then I have always tried
to stay involved on campus in one way or another.
Another thing that happened during my time at
CBC, in March of my first semester, I found out that my mom had a brain
tumor. It was cancer. She was rushed into emergency surgery, and
then went through rounds of chemo and radiation. My family lives on Vancouver Island near
Victoria, and I was here in Abbotsford.
Understandably, that was a very hard time for me. But what turned out to be a blessing was how
my new friends at CBC came around me and supported me and prayed for me. The community here at CBC was what helped me get through those
tough few weeks before the semester ended and I could go home to be with my
family.
As I am finishing my degree this semester, what I
will take away with me? Well, a
husband. But seriously, I think the
central concept that I will be taking with me from Columbia is the idea of
Shalom. If you haven’t heard about
shalom this week yet, you can be sure you will hear about it once or twice
during your time at CBC. God’s all
encompassing peace and well being that he desires for all of creation has
become a very important concept in my life.
This concept includes so much – being in a right relationship with God,
caring for creation, loving other people and promoting peace in a non-violent
way, and also being at peace with myself and who I am.
The community at CBC has been very important to
me, as I mentioned. I would describe it
as a life-giving place. But I would
encourage you and challenge you that you get out as much as you put in. Get involved, get out of your comfort zone
and meet someone new, and your experience at CBC will be totally transformed.
What am I called to now:
In the time since my husband and I were engaged,
we’ve been talking a lot about our plans for the future, our dreams, and what
we feel called to. It has been amazing
to see how God has shaped both of us and our passions, and how that fits
together into a dream that we share. A
big dream.
One day to own a large piece of land where we can
live in community with several other families, farm sustainably and enough to
provide for ourselves, and to use that community as a base for ministry. I have watched many people I care about get
burned out in ministry, and I feel called to provide a warm, safe, welcoming
space where burned out ministry workers can come with their families, and be
refreshed and renewed through quiet, time in creation, and supportive Christian
fellowship. My husband Jesse has a
passion for troubled inner city youth, and he wants to use the back of our farm
as a base camp for taking them out into nature on backpacking trips. I feel called to raise a family, care for my
home, and do all I can to make it a comfortable, welcoming place for whoever
finds their way to our doors, and I am called to continue using all that I
love, music, theatre, baking, crafts, gardening, and everything else, to the
glory of God and to bless those that he has put in my life.
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