Halloween!

Its Halloween Time ( i know not really but Im trying to play catch up). The night before a couple of us went out to find this mysterious "Door in the Field". Some of us were unsure if it really existed and others were scared to see what was inside. Some people on campus have been but no one will tell you about their experience. We finally found the area it was supposed to be in and parked the car and started walking around this random farmers field. Eventually we found it. It turned out to be an old shelter that someone had built along time ago. The door was the only thing you could see above ground and then it had about 10 steps down into a smalle bathroom size living area. It was all made of stone and kinda creepy but totally cool. Planning a camoing night soon.
We all really wanted to carve a pumpkin but there are no pumpkin patches up here and the IGA ran out of them. So i kept checking back and asking the workers there when they would get more. Finally it was the day of and I was like hey, yall still dont have any...and they were like uhhhh. So I asked if I could just have the one they were using as a display and pretty soon after that I was walkin out with a free pumkin. So we went and hid it in a patch of grass on the trail on the way to the tracks and asked if the girls wanted to go for a walk on the tracks. So we were walkin and they were in front and they stumbled on it and they were like oh look a pumpkin, lets carve it. They quickly figured out we had put it there but it was still fun. Anyways we carved a sweet face in it and put it propped up in a tree between the domrs. ( we found the leg of an animal and decided it would look good hangin out of the pumpkins mouth and so we put it in).
As you can see above the green team dressed up and went trick or treatin that night. We all collected cans for the food bank. Some of the people insisted on givin us candy we to turn down would have been just rude, so we took it. I was huck finn with a wife beater, fishin pole, overalls roled up and no shoes. It was freezin cold. Sometimes I wish these guys would talk me out of my good ideas.

Theres Beauty in them there hills!

Well its back to schol and the flat lands of Three Hills. It has been tough getting to know people here and to branch away from our own group that we have grown so close to. It has even been hard to hang out with people because alot more people will just stay in their dorms and wonder we everyone is at. One of my favorite places to go and walk or talk is the train tracks.
There is beauty here through nature but it is so different than it was in Montana. We like to go out and have fruit sets on the tracks. Whats that? A fruit set is going to the IGA after dinner and getting a peach ( not as good as a Georgia Peach) or your fruit of choice, and taking it out to the tracks to eat while we watch the sunset. (Update: They dont ahve peaches anymore and the sun sets before dinner at like 4:15, its crazy early). We have fun here too but again we have to look harder for it and often times be a little creative. Pic up top is Vanessa, me, Julie, and Jason.

Goodbye to Montana Till January

We are leaving Montana now (October 16th) and wont be back untill late january. It has been a challenging blast. The tops of the mountains around us were already snowcapped during our kayaking skills. The pic above is of the main lodge. On the top level is our classroom and on the bottom we eat, and hang out by the fire. Its easy to find people because there are about 6 people to a small room so you cant really hang out in there. Everyone goes to the lodge, basically the only other building. Now that we are done with skills we can check out any of the gear and go kayaking our climbing or whatever. The nearest town is Plains and you have to get a ride there and it supper small. After an all nighter full of movies and hot chocolate we are ready for the ten hour bus trip back to the flat lands of Prairie.This is the cross that overlooks the camp that is situated on one of the smaller peaks after a short but strenuous hike up.

Challenge Course Class

This Was the static course at Camp Bighorn. It consisted of 6 events that were 30 feet in the air on the side of a mountain. The way to get down was a 330 feet zip line with a wicked free fall drop at the beggining which you will be able to view below. Please enjoy


We went through 3 days doing differnet ropes course events and"initiatives" that meant anythig from walking through mouse traps to navigating a broken body trail with people who couldnt see or use their arms or legs, etc. It was pretty awesome and the leaders made the debreifings after the event very good. After this we were done with skills rotation and I had to pick a specialization. Oh man, tough decison. I really wanted to do kayaking just to learn the skill more and also it was sooo fun. I finally decided to go with challenge course and so i got to say challenge is my specialty. I realized that this would be good to learn for any type of ministry. I would be able to talk to people and lead events, and discussions that go beyond sunday school answers no matter if we are on a river somewhere, in the backcountry, or downtown. We got to check out some other coruses as well as lead a group of middle school and high schoolers at the camp through seveal differnet events that we designed. Later at lunch I learned that one of my kids was the pastors soon at the church that I go to in Montana and love the pastor and his sermons. Also I think next semester he is gonna give me banjo lessons! Anyways it was a good week and I learned a ton.


There was only three people that choose to do challenge course and one of them was my buddy Jason so we had alot of fun no matter what we did. The last couple days were spent designing and building a new ropes course at the camp. The coolest event was a rolling log obstacle. Picture a ladder laid down on its side and the rungs are logs that spin as you step on them, it was totally awesome and no one has every made anything like it. This is one of the 6x6 trucks that camp owns and we used to get people down from the zip line when we ran the event for other students.

Kayaking Class

I finally got this dang thing to work. Everytime i tried to post and wait for the pictures to upload it would then give me an error. Oh well. We continued kayaking class for the three days after my birthday. I was totally excited because it is always something i wanted to do...wear a skirt and get in a little boat and go down some huge rapids. We went down many of the same rapids that we did with rafting excpet this time we actually got some sun which was amazing.
We were too far away from the rapids with the camera to get any good shots but this is me eddying back into the third set of rapids on triple set on the Clark Fork River. It was a ton of funa nd very challenging. The waves continued to change so i either got smakced in the face, launched over the top, or tossed upside down, it was soo sweet!

This is the green team after we ate lunch. Alot of this year has been abotu building healthy relationships and what it is like to live in community with that love that God fills us up with. Kayaking is a very individual sport and it forces the student to take responsibilty of whatever happens to them going down the rapids. The teacher can show you how to roll, paddle, and navigate the rapids but when the currents gets you and you start floatin in there is prettty much nothing they can do. If the see you are about to flip and you cant perform your roll to upright yourself they must wait till you float down through the rapids and then at the other side help you back in your boat. We talked about how God is like this and how He gives us everything we need to handle tough situations. We see how His strength is made perfect in our weakness. So we are goin through hard times and cry out for help, but He is often times not a God of the eleven o'clock hour who is gonna swoop down to rescue you. Often times we have to completely die to ourselves and then after 12 and into the next day He will be there for us and let us know He was there. Hopefully we take advantage of those times and learn quickly from trials. Count them as joy!
Even though it was sunny it was still cold. For one half day we went to a local hot springs with our kayaks and practiced in the warm water. This is a picture of me upside down in position one of the roll before you snap back up. It was nice but i still wasnt vey good at it till the end of the day. I actually left my bathing suit at camp so i had to borrow one from the lobby where the had a box of old ones. Then when we were getting back on the bus someone said whose bathing suit is this under the seat...ohhh those are mine.

Birthday Party

Happy Birthday to me! This is pretty much a good activity for a birthday.

Thanks Mama and Dad for sending me a party in a box. There was like 2 pounds of confetti and we threw it on the floor and all over our selves, then slid on our stomachs on the wood floor.
What else would we do now but line dance!
And then some more dancing. At the end of the night my shirt was totally covered in sweat and my legs were sore.
We put the pinata up outside and it took several good beatings before buckmaster busted it open and everyone dived ontop of the candy. My intern Jules birthday was the next day so we had a comined party. Everyone had a blast and told me my parents were awesome and to thank them for everything. Thank all you guys for your cards and letters, it made for a really sweet day.

Rock Climbing Class

I was really looking forward to rock climbing class sense i have never donw any real climbinging before, outside, on real rock. This was the first day with Tim Kickert just showing us some basic technique
We learned all about tying knots and equiptment. Also how belay people, and set up our own top rope anchors. This means that we could go anywhere and i could set us up and get climbing.

Climbing is a individual challenge. You want to be able to climb a really fun route but eventually you dont want to be able climb everything you get on you want a challenge. So you pick a hard route and you keep failing and thats not fun either. Its like you gotta push yourself to do things you dont think you can do and sometimes youll get it and sometimes you dont, thats when learning takes place.
This is what we climbed on the last day. Its what is called a multi pitch climb meaning that you climb all the way to the top of one rope, then you transfer to another rope that is set up because it is so high. This one was about 120 feet high. We set up a loop so you climbed up the two ropes and then belayed down three ropes to do it all over again.