so it begins

So, here I am in Calgary, and I have finally started work. Today was my second day and it went fairly well, I somewhat learned how to run the till, and trying to sell stuff to customers is still a little awkward, but it is ok, it will come in time. So, that is where I am now.

Don't mind this entry.

Well, seeing as I just took part in a major event, it is only proper that I tell all of you about it. It is going to be hard to put the last 5 weeks into words, so much stuff happened, and to get a full grasp of it all you would have to experience it for yourselves. To begin, we set out from Summit College on April 2nd for Arkansas. It was a 2 day drive with nearly 40 students crammed into 3 15 passenger vans. We spent our first 2-3 nights at Steel Creek on the Buffalo National River, the bluffs were amazing. When we finally set out the water was low and the first 3 days of paddling were spent pushing our boats over what should have been small rapids. Between each day of paddling we would have a day off to hangout and check out the hikes and sites, and we made a couple stops on the days we were paddling to check out some waterfalls and other sites. At one site we had our Easter dinner, deep friend turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce, quite the meal considering we were camping. After the third day of paddling the interns and staff left us students and we had to make our way 50 miles to Gilbert, where we would meet up with them again. During those 4 days we didn't encounter any serious disagreements, but afterwards when we debriefed about the time some issues were brought up, but in the end it all worked out. When we met up with the others in Gilbert we went for supper at this amazing little cafe and had the biggest hamburgers I have ever seen, 1/2 lb of beef per patty, and most of the guys had the double bacon cheese burger, that is 1 lb of meet, it was rather filling, and the next morning most of us went back for breakfast and the servings for that were huge as well, and everything was so cheap. We also got to go to a small church the Sunday we were in Gilbert. We did some special numbers for them, and they had a huge potluck for us after. For a church of only 40 or so people they sure made a lot of food. It was an amazing experience, and the pastor did an amazing sermon on Psalm 23. After Gilbert we continued paddling and at our next stop, South Maumee, we had a day of fasting. The day after our fast we built the 8th Summit Love Barge, a tradition that has been off and on for a number of years. We strapped all the canoes together, 14 of them, and floated our makeshift raft for our final day of canoeing, to Buffalo Point, where we spent the next 8 days. After a couple days at Buffalo Point we started into our kayaking and climbing classes. We were divided into 4 groups based on our comfort in kayaking, I was in the last group, the one that felt least comfortable. On our first day of paddling the water was fairly low, the features weren't that big and the rapids weren't too tough for us to handle, and all through the day after every rapid we would chant what became our group's motto "DEWAYNE'S." We were told at the beginning of the day that if we got discouraged about our kayaking skills to think of Dewayne's, which is the restaurant that every group got to go to on their first day of kayaking. Once again, another restaurant that serves insane amounts of food for really cheap. I had so much catfish that I felt sick, 6 pieces plus potato salad, coleslaw, mashed potatoes and hush puppies, which even the waitress didn't exactly what they were. The night before our second day of kayaking we had a huge rain storm which raised the water 2 feet over what level they close the river at, they close it at 5 feet so we ran it at 7. That day was spent simply trying to make it through alive. It took us far longer than it should have to run it because, for the first half, people were tipping at every rapid. Kaj and Jordan showed up half way through to help us. When Kaj had seen the water level at the put in he had wondered why we even attempted to kayak that day, and our lead instructor was sure that someone was going to die or get seriously hurt that day. But, on the last half of the rapids, our confidence had built up enough that we made it through without too many more tips, and we ended up running a low class 4 rapid. It was one of my favorite days of the trip, which is ironic because I was in the group that didn't care to kayaking, and it became the most hardcore group, hence the reason we started being called Hardcore Four. There was a lot of encouragement going around, and it really pulled our group together. We did our climbing at Horseshoe Canyon Ranch, which has over 300 set climbing routes, and numerous bouldering problems. I didn't climb as hard as a climb as I wanted to, but it was still tons of fun. Once that was all done we packed up and headed back to Canada, but we encountered a slight problem the day before we were supposed to leave. A number of us had stored our passports in a tupperware container that was locked away, and the morning before we were to leave it was in our trailer, that night it wasn't. But, we needed to leave, so we headed off for Canada, got to the boarder and we still had no passports. God did His thing though, and all our vans made it through without any hassle, the van I was in got asked how much everyone spent on average while in the States, then he sent us through. Praise the Lord. As it is, we still haven't found our passports, so hopefully they will be found before we leave for home. So much other stuff happened on our trip, but it would take so long to write it all, but this gives you at least some idea what I have been up to for the last 5 weeks.

hey hey

well, lin thinks i need to write more on here, so i will throw in a little entry before i leave. on monday april 2nd summit 11 leaves on our 5 week trip to arkansas. apparently we get to sleep in walmart parking lots on the way down, how cool is that. our first 3 weeks are spent on the buffalo national river. after a few days our interns and staff will leave us behind for 4 days, and 50 miles, and we have to get ourselves to the rondevous. then we get to do a week of white water kayaking on a class 3 rapid. and then a week of rock climbing at horseshoe canyon ranch. tristan and i are bringing down our own climbing gear so we can get some extra climbing in. and we get to eat the largest hamburger anyone has ever seen, i kid you not, this thing is enormous. so yeah, this week has been spent packing everything up for the trip. the interns are actually ahead, and we could leave today if everyone was here and ready. i have been packing up everything, for the trip and for going home after. we only have 3 days when we get back to pack everything up, cuz we are gone on a rafting trip the second day after we get back. tons of fun here at summit college. peace out homeys. God bless!

winter camping

Well, life at Summit may get dull from time to time, but our out trips never to. Our latest adventure was winter camping. Thursday morning we were getting ready to leave, and one of the girls told us she was sick. So her and the other girl in the group stayed behind to go with the group going the week after, so we were left with a group of all guys. Amazing. Our ski to our camp site took a total of 10 minutes. We set up camp and proceeded to chill for the rest of our time there. We found some fun stuff to do, had some sweet fires, Ryan and I went for a long ski and found this huge hill which we skied down. Here is where the story turns a little more interesting, and where I begin to see God's hand in everything. One of the guys got insanely sick. He was puking constantly and it wasn't very cool at all. Shortly after hoping in bed, like 10 minutes, we decide to pack up and head back, because Evan was way too sick. It took us under 30 minutes to pack up camp in the dark. Caleb, one of our interns, and Evan took there time getting back to our pick up area while the rest of us went ahead to call for a ride. The problem was we only knew the guys dorm number and we thought they were all going to be gone to this movie we had all been waiting to see for the last few months. So, I called my parents, got the number for MBC, got a hold of the interns and they sent Kaj to pick us up. Now Caleb and Evan are finally caught up. It was a blessing we were so close to our pick up point, even so I was amazed Evan made it that far. So, Kaj got there, but he came in is car even though we had told the interns that we all needed to be picked up, all 7 of us. So, we had to wait there for them to drive back with Caleb and Evan then drive back to where we were with a van. We ended up waiting there for around 3 hours, but we finally got back around 3:30 in the morning. And now it gets even cooler. One of the guys had to leave Summit for some very good reasons, so we were all able to be back to see him off. Sometimes circumstances seem to screw things up, but God knows what He is doing.

Ice Climbing & Clear Lake

So, this story starts on Tuesday this week. It was our first day of ice climbing class. It went well. We had a couple short and easy, but fun climbs. On Thursday we had our second day of class. The climbs were a little more difficult, and a little longer. And then today came along, our last day of class. And oh what a day it was. I was all set and ready to get up at 6:45 this morning, my alarm went off, and then I slept till 7:30, and had to rush around trying to get ready and have breakfast before 8:00. So, once we got going we headed out to our drop off place and started our 3 hour ski in to the ice climb. We kept hitting these slushy areas, so our skis would get sticky and we would have to stop and scrape them off before we could continue, so that was a little bit of a pain. Finally we got to the climbs, got everything set up and went about enjoying our day. It was so much fun. The first climb I did was a little sketchy. It was cold and the ice was in the shade, so it was really hard and every time I would throw my axe the ice would dinner plate(crack in a circle around the axe). The second climb the ice was rather thin, and I was using dull axes, so it was a little difficult, but fun none the less, but it really tired me out. And shortly after that one I did another rather long climb. It was easier than the second climb, but just as long. I finished that climb as the sun was setting. The view from the top of those climbs was absolutely amazing. We could look out over the lake, and I can't even describe it, you will all have to go out there and have a look to see what I mean. So, we took down the climbs and got supper going. Instant rice, beans, salsa and cheese have never tasted so good. Nicola is an amazing cook! And now we come to the funnest part of the day, and I am not being sarcastic when I say that, it seriously was the funnest. We packed up and headed back around 7:30 in the evening, so by this time it was well past sundown. The first part of the trek back was fairly eventless, but as we skied across the first lake the ice was adjusting to the temperature and we could hear and feel the ice cracking. We would hear this big boom and feel the vibrations in the ice, it was absolutely amazing, then we started hitting the major slush patches again. This was maybe 1-1 1/2 hours into the trip back. A few people took there skis off here and just hiked. We went a little farther and took a brake. All this time Nicola was pulling a sled with a bunch of climbing gear in it, not the lightest stuff, and for future reference Henry and Jordan had left earlier than the rest of us, so they weren't with us at this time, and Jordan had another sled. So, we got going after the rest and hit some more slush, a few more people took off their skis. Then we hit more slush. I had managed to keep my skis on until this point, but then they got too much slush on them and they popped off, burying themselves in the slush. I got them out, but they were too frozen up to put back on, and I had other stuff strapped to the side of my pack so I had to carry them the rest of the way, which was around an hour. After all this, Nicola and Jodie are the only two with their skis still on. So we kept going, we kept coming upon slushy spots and we would sink in up to our ankles or deeper, so our feet were wet and we were all tired and sore, and it should have been an absolutely miserable experience, but it was probably one of the funnest times I have had this year. At this point it was just Nicola, Danita, Dan Riddolls and myself, the others were all ahead of us. Finally we made it back, Nicola still on her skis, laughing and singing and having a wonderful good time. We found out later that Jordan had broken a pole on his sled and had to pull it at an awkward angle most of the way back. And Henry apparently is quite the hiker, he and Jordan made it back in 1/2 an hour less than we did, and Henry hiked the whole way, he didn't at all use his skis. So we packed everything into the van and headed back to Summit. It was an amazing day!!!

24/7

So, last week was 24/7 prayer week here at Summit college. Basically what we did was sign up for an hour, or more if we wanted, and we had a small storage room set aside that our interns painted up real nice, and we would spend our hour in there praying or writing or drawing, really anything we could think of to worship God, and as the name implies the room had someone in it every hour of every day that week. We could post stuff on the walls, and on one wall there were pieces of paper with our names on them and we could write prayer requests and others could write encouragement on sticky notes and stick them to our paper. It was a really cool week. We, the guys at least, had been talk about taking our community deeper, and this provided a very cool way to do it. I would suggest that all of you who read this should try this. For those of you near Calgary, there is an actual building you can go to, it is at St. Paul's. I have no idea where in Calgary that is, but I am sure it wouldnt be too hard to find. If anyone wants any info on what this 24/7 prayer thing is you can check out there website www.24-7prayer.com, and for info on where they have headquarter sort of things click on the "boiler room" link. Again, i will suggest that you should all try this, maybe get a group from your church and do it for a weekend or something, or just take time in your day to pray or just spend time with God, reading your Bible or whatever. If you think about it, as Christians we are devoted to God, He is our life, He is everything to us, and if we cannot take an hour a day, which really is not that much time in the span of an entire day, then how much do we honestly care about Him. I need this advice just as much as anyone, but just think about it. So yeah, it was an amazing week, and we are planning on keeping it going on Saturdays. I took some pics of the room, so I will post them when I get them developed. Yes i still use a film camera.