May 10, 2011 - One Year Ago

It is AMAZING to think that this was one year ago. Where has the time gone. In the last year I graduated college, purchased my first car, drove cross country, started my first official adult job, moved to a new "city"/ it is probably better of stated moved to a new area since Plain/Leavenworth is nowhere near a city. Which I should know since my degree is in Urban Studies. started the journey of support raising, went snow camping,  went snow rafting on the water and on a hill, guided a raft through class III whitewater..... and and and. It has been a glorious year. I can't imagine a better first year in the real world.

May 7th, 2011- Shuttle Driving

There is a LOT of training that goes into YD Adventures ministry every year. Every trip we offer is customized to the individual group. You might say, but it would be so much more efficient to just offer pre made trips. That is true it probably would be but the personal touch of each trip being designed to meet the needs of the group is what we are about. We don't want to just offer a cookie cutter program we want to meet the needs of the group so that we can interact with them where they are. It doesn't do  us much good to offer them a trip talking about discipleship and growing in their faith if they have no faith to speak of.  We not only customize are trips but we cross train our staff so that they can do the whole trip with the students not just pass them off to the next guide when they leave your area of expertise. So that is why we spend so much time training.
     To be certified technically in all of the different areas of adventure we offer it doesn't just happen over night. I have spent most of my weekends this spring working towards becoming a bonafide white water rafting guide. This weekend we had our first group of the season. Instead of being on the water this weekend I was being trained as a shuttle driver. We rotate support type roles and who is doing the guiding. You might think (like I did) what is the big deal you drop them off you pick them up and maybe read a book and work on you tan in the middle... that is pretty funny (I laugh now because I know but don't worry I will fill you in as well then you can laugh with me)
     You start out in the morning getting to the put in, helping the guides rig up the boats. We have a REALLY sweet set up that one of our volunteers hooked up so we can blow up our boats off of car batteries instead of using a stinky loud generator.  But you still have to do some hand pumping. Then you meet the group and issue neoprene to each guest. Then while the guides are giving the saftety talk you (as the shuttle driver) get to "shuttle" the guests cars to the take out (don't worry they get the safety talk as well, just in the van) You get eveyone back to the put in and wave goodbye as they set sail. Now is the time that you might think you can bust out that book but alas... it is not. First, you grab lunch at Safeway then you go to the lunch spot and set up lunch for the group. Complete with a handwashing station with warm water. You serve lunch, clean it up and then you head for the take out. Timing is all dependent on water levels so you might have a little time you might not. As Kady put it this is the "hurry up and wait" portion of the day. At the take out we have to wash all of our neoprene/ de-rig the rafts, and say good bye to our guests. There is a lot more to washing the neoprene but I won't get into that today.
 My original thought of how the day was going to was that it would be busy but much less intense then rafting, but alas I was beat. I am pretty sure I was in bed by 9:30 and asleep by 10. Tired but glad that I got to be a part of making a trip/ relationship building possible for the group that came out.

May 5, 2011 - STOKED!

Quite frankly I enjoy meetings... well let me rephrase I really enjoy productive meetings. On thursday afternoons we meet together as a planning team to plan Summer Staff training. Though I do get to have some imput I really am there to learn. It is quite the feat planning a three + week training that encompasses all areas of our ministry to get our summer staff fully trained and certified on the technical side of guiding but also balancing that with the fact the only reason we exist as an organization which is to minister to teens. We aren't just a typical outfitter. The purpose of our trips are to give students a fun experience but to more importantly create an environment where they are able to interact with God through His creation and challenging experiences. 

There are so many variable that go into training a group of 12- 14 people.

• Food: When you live an hour away from the nearest Costco you have to really plan this stuff out ahead of time. There is no quick trip for that forgotten item
• Location: The forest service has different maximum numbers so that there aren't large groups out in the middle of the backcountry so where can we fit that will still fit our needs. More trail names/ lakes/ rivers have been thrown around as options and all with Native American names that are hard to spell and say.
• Topics: There is so much to teach from technical expertise to ministry training as we sit looking at the schedule it can be a bit overwhelming. Like today when Shane pointed out that we go 8 days without a shower.... That Van will smell good on the way home.
• Just to name a few

For those of you that know me personally you know that I love the details. I love to make lists and plan so I really consider all this planning type stuff great fun. It is like a big puzzle that I get to help solve. 
When our director asked how I was feeling I blurted out "Intimidated" but as I got to thinking about it yes it is a little intimidating when you look at every hour of your life being scheduled for weeks on end. (really it is no different then college) but more than that I am STOKED! I am stoked to be in community and build friendships with the other Summer Staff. Stoked to gain more skills so I can minister to students using adventure and the outdoors.I am stoked to have lots of happy laughter and noise around the ranch, stoked to finally stop getting all the gear ready in preparation for the summer and have the summer to be here, I am stoked for warm weather and to ditch the wool socks (well at least for everyday wear) and most importantly I am STOKED to see what God is going to do in my life, in the lives of the staff and the lives of the students that we come in contact with.

April 24, 2011- Easter

Easter is always a big celebration for your family. It doesn't always look the same but everyone that is around gets together to celebrate the Resurrection

 But it wouldn't be a family holiday without some kind of project. This time it was to reinstall the gazebo.

 Some of us are more creative them others.

 We also celebrate my cousin's birthday at Easter.

April 21, 2011- Oh the Shame

To set the scene: I am at my parents house for Easter and I am out in the driveway washing my car. It is nice and warm so I decide to just go down the line in the driveway we have quite a few vehicles when everyone is home and you throw in my dad's work truck. The neighbor kids are out playing 3 square. They are triplets so they have to made it work but to make it four they came down to ask me if my mom could come out and play. Let me repeat. They skipped over me to ask if my mom could come out to play. What has the world come to!

April 20, 2011 - AWANA

This isn't the AWANA current logo but it is the one that was "in style" back in the day when I was in AWANA.

I was asked by my good friend Teri to speak to her AWANA group. I was able to share with her 5th and 6th grade girls about how God gives us passions and there are lots of ways that we can use those passions for Him. I get to use adventure activities such as rock climbing, white water rafting and backpacking to glorify God through vocational ministry. They were a great group of young ladies and it was a priviledge to get to share with them.

April 16, 2011 - Celebration

This was a crazy weekend. Good crazy but still crazy. I started out friday night with raft training. Saturday morning I was rafting on the Wenatchee. After our first run I headed over to the west side where I quickly changed and got ready to attend a celebration in honor one of my family members accomplishments.

I stayed in a hotel in seattle with my sister then got up sunday morning and headed back to the East side to be a part of the second run of the day on the Wenatchee. It was quite the full weekend.