Next saturday… only a week from tomorrow, i’ll be speaking at our church’s ladies’ retreat. My topic title is “God works outside the box” under the umbrella theme of “God works in all things.” Obviously, I’m talking about my experiences at El Rancho. I knew I had a lot to say, but two nights ago I decided I would start typing it out so I’d be more organized. I worked on it last night and the night before, and so far I’m on my 12TH PAGE! And I haven’t even reached what I consider to be the heart of my adventures. Plus I’ve got a video to show, a short photo slideshow, a game, and other powerpoint slides. Apparently I need like 8 hours.

So…. maybe I’ll just write a novel.

last saturday, i was asked to come up to camp manatawny and instruct a youth group through our low ropes/challenge course. the additional perks being that i wasn’t on my own (mark wilson did it as well and i learned some cool stuff from him) and that we got paid!

in the morning, i was feeling really reeallly sick and didn’t want to go AT ALL, but they were counting on me and i just didn’t really have a choice to back out, so i hopped in my car with a sugar-free rockstar and an odwalla bar and made the drive up to camp.

camp is beautiful in the autumn. absolutely gorgeous. it’s almost a valley amongst the hills, so there are trees everywhere. i have a couple of pictures i left at work that i can post

so i got there with just enough time to catch up with mark quickly before we met the group. in my true camp style, i had made a game plan for us, but thankfully mark was cool with it, so i took it and ran.

something really cool is that if you work with a group you’ve never worked with before, you can pull from anything in your arsenal and kind of pick the best stuff out…. so we did an intro activity i learned from adam in nz, set up a contract like aimee taught me in nz, prayed, did an activity on the way up i learned here at manatawny during my first ropes training, then split into two groups to complete a couple of the elements up at the course.

my group did the wild woozy, then ann-a-log; mark’s did the mohawk walk. unfortunately, i still don’t quite know how the mohawk walk is run because i didn’t get to see it, but the activities i ran went over quite well.

finally, we brought the group together to the cool new seating area that some guy set up at camp for some kind of project. it reminds me a lot of the outdoor chapel at el rancho that i think an intern put together as a final project.

now, i didn’t mention it yet, but the group was awesome. like, fantastic. they did as they were asked, took things seriously that they were supposed to take seriously, had fun, and really worked together. but it got really good at the final breakdown. i didn’t have a plan for this bit, but i just put the question out there to the group to share if they were going to take something away from this experience or if they could make a spiritual connection.

they did. i don’t remember any of the earlier comments because they were all blown away by the final comment from the group. i’ve got to set this up first i guess with the activity…

first, all the teens paired up. then we explained to them that one person would be closing their eyes as they made their way up to the course. their partner would lead them. but the catch is that the partner can’t talk. the person who is blind can talk all that they want, but the person who is mute must communicate in some other way. most of them work out some kind of tapping system, i give them some info about how to safely guide them and we head up the hill. immediately, you start making it hard for them, cutting through the bush, over logs, under low-hanging branches, even making a circle…. usually they haven’t quite prepared how to communicate these things and it brings up good talking points about trusting their partner even though we seemed to be going the wrong way. we swap halfway, so both get a chance to experience both aspects of the activity.

which brings us back to the teenager, who couldn’t have been more than 16 years old, who said,

remember when we did the mute and the blind activity? when i was blind, it’s a good metaphor for how God leads us. because He doesn’t lead us out loud, or through dreams and visions…. he’s more like a gentle tap or nudging. and even when we feel like He isn’t with us, or we’re going through difficult places, He’s always there.

we pretty much ended there. seriously, THIS is why i love camp. i think that people are often put in a good place to experience God at camp. there’s the nature aspect, and the fact that you are away from the distractions of everyday life, the people you come with and experience things with…. not that God can’t talk to us anywhere, and He does, but i think camp provides a wonderful environment for us to grow closer to Him.

…. as i miss el rancho and everyone in new zealand, i’m thankful for experiences like this that bring el rancho and manatawny closer together and remind me that God isn’t done with me yet.