 |
| Left to right: Andrew, Olivia, Emily, Kevin, Bridget, Rachel, Daria |
The mountains speak indeed but the words that come from them glorify God more fully than I had ever imagined.
"God called me, so I went."- Me and many other faithful servants who follow God on the daily and sometimes it's not the direction we WANT to go, but God NEEDS us to go in. With this being said, I went to Laramie Wyoming not really knowing what I would be getting into.
Truthfully, It is very hard for me to even compartmentalize what happened in this last month of revival, growth and discovery in what God knew all along would happen.
So I have an idea. I feel like one long post wont do my experience justice or make an impact worth lasting. So I will be writing posts as segments of my course and specific highlights that impacted me and those who were on the course with me.
I got on a plane and left California with a checklist of what was requested to be brought with me for a course that I really wasn't completely sold on. Between building lesson plans for topics I knew but didn't know how the topics should best be taught and meeting strangers in a random new location (one of my favorite things) I was pretty torn on how to even approach specific feelings on how best to react to this new unknown.
There were five students:
Kevin
Andrew
Bridget
Rachel
Me
There were three instructors:
Olivia
Emily
Jay
I was thinking from a leader perspective the things that I needed to work on and strengthen myself more in. However, God had better plans. My perspective was completely different than what His need for my life really was. With this in mind with in the 1st day alone my world was rocked to see what type of community God had placed me into and the intentionality of those who were facilitating the course. The genuine love and longing to be in Gods creation and understanding Him and who He is making us into on a daily basis. On top of that focusing on who and what we can be to one another with soul focused upon Him. The who and what is Jesus and Love. Genuine Christ like love. and my world was beautifully wrecked by the end of day 1. This was a full 3 1/2 week course mind you!
One of the first questions that was asked was this: Why do we do wilderness? Jay asked us to list as many people in the bible as possible that retreated to the wilderness to seek God. Paul/Saul, Jesus, Elijah, Ezekial, 12 desciples, Abraham, Jacob, Israel, Joshua, Jonah, Hagar, Job.
We took two days to prep our things, sort through gear and be oriented on how the first part of course would run. Efficiency was a huge component and my thought process and perspective already began to change and my respect levels rose tremendously for what SROM (Solid Rock Outdoor Ministries) was all about.
It is not simply a beautiful or harsh place to be it is a place that holds answers and promptings from God. In these places we must go outside of ourselves and the hard casings that have formed around us via electronics, white noise and distraction. When we began to strip these things away, I quickly began to feel a sense of guilt. There was unstructured time with in my day that I hadn't experienced in almost 6 months. Literally, I sat and stared at a tree for an hour and a half during out "Time Alone with God" (TAG time), thinking, not writing, or reading or praying. Just staring.This self understanding quickly caused me to redefine my role with in my job as a servant and as a daughter of God. How can I ever pursue intimacy in a relationship with God if I can't even designate time daily where I am FULLY focused on Him. Not partially focused. But fully focused and not feeling guilty for it? I needed to begin to let go of these insecure imperfections of pleasing those who I was afraid to let down. I needed to become more human. First step admitting I am human and allowing myself to just be. Baby steps...Baby steps.
Through out the first part of the course we spent a lot of time on rocks. We learned hard skills relating to Sport and Trad climbing. Anchor set up and belay rescues. We spent our time in Vedauwoo, Wyoming. A majestic part of Gods land where the volcanic rocks are shaped like potato chips and the granite cuts your hands deep. But man is it good climbing and absolutely unreal looking. Miles upon miles of stunning views and rocks so big we look like micro ants.In the weather, cracks and intimate discussions we discovered more of ourselves in these places. I am pleased/thankful to say that our team was already so vulnerably strong and humble in so many ways. We were all wondering what it is God was specifically teaching us on this course and more than ever it is so many things. One of these many lessons was to love who ever He puts in our lives completely and entirely, Unconditionally. Whether for a day, an hour, a week or the full course. God teaches in incredibly blessed ways.
While in "The Voo", we encountered a lot of different things. We experienced warfare and blessings. We encountered wildlife and crazy storms. We bid farewell to one of our beloved instructors, Emily, and welcomed Jay back to the team after spending a week battling pneumonia.
Clearly I can't fit life into a blog post. But I can say that this is only the beginning. This is just the intro into a beloved love story of how God carried His sheep and brought them in closer than ever.
And I can't wait to tell you more...
-Keep Adventuring
No comments:
Post a Comment