Okay, so it's been a while since my last blog entry... but i think the content of this one will make up for it!
Friday evening i met up with others in our bible study group that are going to the Philippines this summer. our team gathered together at the coffeehouse to go on a team-building trip out to Sidonnie's Ranch outside of Brady. it was a long drive and we brought LOT of supplies out there, leaving a bit later than we expected to leave (7pm instead of 6) and we got to the ranch at 830 or so.
along the way it got dark, really dark. our convoy continued down the winding country road until we came up to the little road that leads finally to the ranch, as we came up there were two vehicles coming up the other direction of the same road we're on and as we start to turn onto the road those other two wait to follow onto the same road as us. we wind around to the gate for the ranch and those other 2 cars come right along with us! okay, I'm really curious who they are now... there's no other houses where we are headed to and the ranch house has no one living in it right now. well, leave it to Andrea to make the right guess... she said, "hey, i wonder if it's Leslie and Angela". turns out she was right! somehow they'd ended up arriving at the exact moment that we did! from two different towns, headed towards each other from opposite directions, leaving at different times and no coordination as to when we're leaving or they're leaving... Only God could have arranged that! so our first amazing event took place this weekend before even pulling in to the drive way.
after getting in past the gate with a musical interlude of car/truck horns we pull up to the house and start to unload everything, several of us going up to the front door to hunt for the spare key to let us in. well, we never did find the key! seems it wasn't put back where it belongs so we had to go with Plan-B; find one of the little windows in the back and pop it out so we can open the door and get inside. Leslie was the one to pop the little window out and go unlock the front door.
we all get inside and start putting our stuff in various rooms (divided to boys' bedroom and girls' bedroom) and then went back outside to hang out around a nice big camp fire. we started to worship and get ourselves in the right mind for the weekend. we came before the Lord and praised him, bringing ourselves into a place of worship and prepared our hearts.
after a few songs we finally heard the first part of the plan... WE'RE DOING WHAT?! And it's already what time?! yep, despite the fact that it's already 1100 and very dark, we're all fixing to climb up this huge hill/mountain behind the house.
i don't know how far we walked just to get TO the mountain, but it took about 30-45 minutes just to get there from the house... though it might not have taken so long if we weren't all tied together! that's right, Leslie brought out this long heavy cord and tied each of us together in a big line in the following order:
John
DouglinZach
SpeegleRachael
KarstetterAngie
SchumMelissa Murphy
Chris-Jon Simmons(That's me!)
Andrea
VeranoMatt
RoddamFaith Alexander
Sam Goza
That's all of us that were in the line, but there were a couple more who went up with us; Leslie was outside the line so that he could forge ahead and clear some paths for us. his daughter Hailey also came along, though she was untethered and Angie's Bull-Terrier Dog, Abby, came along with us as well.
11 adults, one 6 year old and one painfully useless dog (sorry, i don't really like Abby very much) all headed up to the mountain together at about 1015. it took very little time before we're laughing about every little thing. we hadn't even left the yard yet and we were playfully beating each other up with our huge supply-stuffed Ruck-Sacks since there's not a lot of space between each other in the line. "Look this way!" WHACK... "no, look that way! WHACK
along the trail (while we still HAD a trail) we'd all holler out "POOP" when john's leadership made us nearly walk right over every cow-pie out there! Angie, being typical "Angie" picked one of the dry ones up at one point and thew it back along the line, hiding Andrea in the jacket.
after a while and going a long-ways from the house we got to where we needed to start heading up the face of the mountain. there was a place pretty early on where we realised that it would be quite impossible to climb up while tethered together so we all untied and started up the beginning of what would soon prove to be quite a challenging non-trail. 4 years ago Angie, Melissa and Angela went up this same mountain with a different crew, they'd used an existing trail and made it to the top by about midnight. our group, however, did things differently this time; we don't believe in using existing trails apparently and decided to blaze our own trail up the mountain.
many difficult challenges later and we're still only half-way up! we'd already dealt with lots of cactus and cat-claws, getting ourselves stuck with little needles and lots of scrapes by poky sharp plants that cling to the same rocks that we're using to climb up. Angie managed to get the souls of her shoes ripped off somewhere early on and kept complaining about "the cactus poking right up through her shoes" before she even realized that there was nothing under her feet to protect them. no wonder it felt like you were climbing barefoot!
as the path went up the mountain we kept encountering lots of places where we'd have to scale up over large boulders, and there would be little-to-no places to grab on to. these were where us guys could really shine as we'd help get everyone past these places no matter what it took. this included (but was not limited to) pressing ourselves up against the rock so as to provide a knee for someone to step on, crouch down on hands and knees so that someone could climb up on our back, holding on hands-and-feet within a large gap between boulders to make a human bridge that someone could crawl across because they couldn't stand up and jump it.
needless to say, our group was growing closer with each new challenge. my sweetheart, Andrea, did so well on that mountain! things like this are a bit tougher for her, mainly considering her short arms and legs and her fear of heights but she pressed right through with such determination that she wasn't about to let anything keep her down. and the gentlemen in our group were very gracious as they'd help her (and all the others) get through the tough spots doing whatever was needed.... so yes, unfortunately there were some much-needed butt-
pushings by everybody on everyone else at some point or another just to get up over rocks and such.
part way up Abby, Angie's dog, got her nail hurt and it was pulled off to the quick. she started bleeding and getting blood on anyone who carried her. poor Zack looked like he'd been in quite a fight with all the blood he had on himself from her. Abby has always been scared of heights, so this trip was quite taxing on her. she never liked to go up anything more than a gentle incline and would constantly get herself stuck in various places where we'd have to get her out and carry her over big rocks and such.
i wish i could say the view was amazing. i wish i could say that i took lots of pictures of the countryside while we climbed. i took plenty of pictures of our group, but it was much too dark to aim the camera out from the mountain and catch anything more than blackness. from time to time we'd all turn off our flashlights while we rested and we'd let our eyes adjust to the dark, letting the bright moonlight illuminate the world below. it was in this low-light that we could see where we've been and how far we've come. we could always see the house with its 4-square windows lit up so as to give us a relative bearing on our position as we traversed up the hill.
after 4 grueling hours of climbing we finally find the REAL top of the mountain. i say "real" because the other places where we thought we saw the top weren't really the top but spots where the hill was pushed back a bit and you just couldn't see it continue past the next rise. anyway, the top was kinda nice. full of cactus still but at least it was pretty level and had a nice breeze. Angie sent out a few people to try and find this large rock that they'd slept on 4 years ago when they did this last time, thinking that we couldn't be very far off the trail that they'd used before.
well, seems we were quite a bit off from the trial of 4 years ago so there was no large flat rock to sleep upon. instead we found this spot that was kinda low like a bowl and surrounded by some nice trees to help block the wind a bit. we started settling in and realised that one of the backpacks was missing; it was the bag with David's camera in it so Zack went back to the spot we crested from and hooked his shirt over a tree limb to be able to find it again at day-break so he could head back down that path and pick the back back up.
sleep was a precious commodity and it looked like few of us would get to enjoy much of it. the weather quickly turned cold, amplified by the wind that picked up and stole our body heat with each new gust that rolled through. since warmth was the name of the game we all decided to put decency aside and just cuddle in groups to keep warm. Angie and faith
laid down in basically the middle of the "bowl", just kinda dozing off to sleep under a blanket or something while the rest of us were starting to settle in.
Leslie wrapped his 6yr old daughter Hailey into a cold-weather blanket and folded it around her "taco style" then climbed in with her. Andrea and i slept right next to Angie though there was about a foot of clearance between us and them. i think we had the wimpiest of all coverings since it was just a liner for something else that we put over ourselves and could only cover our upper bodies, so we cuddled in close and wrapped our arms around each other to try and conserve heat. on the other side of Angie and faith were 3 more people, Melissa, Matt and Rachael in that order with Rachael being closest to Leslie's head and Melissa being on the other end with Matt in between them. the three of them were perpendicular to how Angie and faith were laying, so their heads all pointed at faith while Leslie's head pointed at their sides. down at my feet was where john slept, taking a ruck-sack as a pillow and the WARMEST of all the sleeping bags! it could have held 2 people inside never mind that for now.
anyway, after a bit of everyone trying to sleep through the constant giggling from Angie and faith, a number of us sat back up again and each partook in an M.R.E. to get a bit of sustenance into our bodies since we didn't have any dinner prior to leaving the house. each person enjoyed their meal and before long we were all sleepy again. though finding that same spot between the rocks was impossible so new positions in our relative locations was required.
in my adjusting i found myself now only 6 inches away from Angie and she told me later it helped since there was less wind on that side now. Zack and Sam finally decided to settle in for the night as well and headed off a short ways from the group, choosing to sleep together for warmth but not with the rest of us. they spooned (their own admission of it!) all night for warmth and kept waking up to the annoying giggling of our fearless leader.
Matt, Rachael and Melissa were all making various sounds and chatter over on their side, complaining about "
Jaggles" poking into their backs which were the jagged rocks that we all had to sleep on. they'd make some comment and all giggle. one of the comments that came from over there went something like this:
Rachael: "
Ack, what's that I'm feeling?!"
Matt: "Oh, that's just my hand"
Angie sits straight up quickly: "WHAT?!"
it was about this time that Angie said something like, "well, we'd better enjoy this night. it's going to be my last. If a Norther blows in it's all over, and David's going to kill me! I've killed his dog, lost his camera and now I've let this happen!". after that everyone started giggling about something and no one could sleep just yet.
the wind started blowing in, bringing that Norther that Angie was joking about, making everyone shiver and huddle closer together for warmth. i don't think that anyone slept very much, but the bowl shape of the ground certainly brought everyone closer together in a very literal sense. i ended up being right up next to Angie while Andrea was cuddled in even closer to me. faith had slid down a bit towards Angie's feet and was face-down while Angie remained on her back. my feet were pressed up against john's ruck sack so i didn't end up scooting much at all. Leslie's ruck that he used as a pillow ended up in front of his face by morning and yet his head was still propped up on something.... something warm and soft. his hand was extended up over his head and someone was holding it and playing their fingers in his palm to which he asked, "um, who's playing with my hand?" his response was "oh, it's just me. Melissa.
" he realised his head was on some one's butt and asked who's it was, to which Rachael replied sleepily, "oh, that's mine. don't worry, I'm doing the same to faith". so it seems that several people found much better "pillows" to use during the night. lol
in the middle of the giggling i lifted a flashlight up into the air and pointed it back down at the group, quickly flicking the light on and back off again. everybody groaned, thinking I'd taken a picture of the awkward pile and started making demands about where these pictures had better NOT end up (FaceBook, digital picture frame, Internet, David's Email in-box, etc). all this led up to jokes/demands that we all sign gag-orders swearing that we do not tell anyone any of the things that transpired upon the top of that mountain!.... obviously by reading this you can see that I'm doing no such thing and actually makings sure I'm very detailed in what i share because of how funny it was (and i honestly don't believe there was anything to hide, we all behaved).
we all awoke slowly as the sun crept up and lit the sky, making it hard to keep eyes closed so we all stretched and tried to pop our creaking bones back into place as we surveyed what had happened. Angie told me that she was tempted to offer me $5 just to tuck in the sleeping bag over herself and faith to keep the chill from sneaking its way inside. then my services were being bribed as a number of people said they should have offered likewise for me to come tuck them in too!
after getting a lot of things together and packing it all up, including garbage, we had communion together. after a night like the last one there was nothing sacred, everyone had been put into compromising positions and such through the climb and the sleep yet we all remained respectful and the morning communion was further proof of that as we all partook of it together and made sure to keep it sacred.
the morning brought a renewed sense of accomplishment as our camp-site just so happened to overlook the entire west side of the mountain, letting us look way out to the distance as the sun rose behind us, lighting the ground far below. it was a clear day and the chill was quickly fleeting as we grabbed all our gear and headed back towards the spot where we'd crested the ridge, marked by Zack's shirt.
at this point, Zack, Matt and Faith all set out the way we'd come up, heading back down in a group to search for the missing camera bag while the rest of us pressed a bit further south to try and find the original path that was used 4 years before. we wouldn't discover until much later that to find that trail we would have to have gone a long ways NORTH instead of south from the camping spot to find it. this means we found what looked like a good area and started back down the mountain, blazing a brand new trail once more but without the aid of 3 of our more nimble members. it made the trek down very tricky. what's more is that Leslie gave up his shoes for Angie to wear down the mountain, this meant that our trail-blazer was going barefoot down the mountain!
as we came to the point where there was a lot of large rocks and boulders that we decided would be best for descending i was able to look eastward over the back side of the mountain and caught a beautiful picture of the sun coming up and flooding the ground below with yellow light while casting unique light and shadow on that side of the mountain. it was an awesome sight, but i also knew that before long that mountain would be shining down on our side of the slope and would begin bathing us in the hot of light.
so we start down and it's a very different climb this time. Abby doesn't want to do much walking, so she's carried most of the way down. For the most part we stuck together until Leslie moved on ahead a bit with Hailey Rachael and Melissa. John, Sam, Andrea, Angie and i stayed pretty much at the back most of the time, with periodic meetings with Leslie as they'd stop and wait for us to help us get past some of the trickier spots. Andrea was very cautious going down, holding my hand a lot more than when we were going up, but she was also a lot braver now and was willing to try things a lot more quickly. her fear of heights that she confessed about last night was quickly fading away and i could see her overcoming it right before my eyes.
in fact, there were a lot of people overcoming things on our way down. i myself found a great encouragement from the fact that i wasn't leading Andrea hardly at all during this weekend, mostly i was helping her from behind which meant that she was going first on a lot of these difficult places rather than making me go first and then she try to follow. her fear was pretty much crushed by this point now and my own fear had no business sticking around either, we were on the move and while cautiously slow at times it was always sure-footed and steady progress.
Sam was a big help to us as he was honorably making himself last in order for much of our decent... actually he did the same going up too! he made sure people got through tough spots and was always willing to make it easier for everyone else, even if it made it harder for himself personally. as we proceeded down, he'd carry Abby much of the time and seemed to not mind having her slung around behind his head like a helpless sheep. Angie as cracking jokes along the way with Andrea and myself, all of us making funny remarks and commenting about the mountain. most of the comments were between herself and Melissa about how this HAD to be the trail they used 4 years ago and how it COULDN'T be the same trail from 4 years ago. it was rather amusing. so after a while i pipe up with, "Hey, Angie. Look! we're halfway down!" by this point we'd been climbing down for a very long time and nobody wanted to hear that they were only "half way", so my comment was met with much groaning and rolling of eyes yet further down the hill she asked for another update. lol
now at one point we were able to see that the other group (Zack, Matt and Faith) were making very good progress and that they'd basically made it down the mountain already. all three of them went back to the house, then Zack was kind enough to come back and help the group by working his way up while we worked our way down. by this point John was near the back with angie, sam, andrea and myself with john being in the back-most position and dealing with abby. Sam was gracious enough to take abby from this point which let me proceed on in such a manner that i could still help andrea.
it wasn't long before john pressed on past us and caught up to leslie and the other girls along with angie, leaving andrea, myself and sam way behind to try and guess which way the group had gone through each set of bushes. i got a little hot under the collar since it didn't feel like we were a team any longer and on several occasions i hollared ahead for directions, telling them to wait for us to catch up or to come back or something, ANYTHING. but leslie was not able to back-track, the trail itself would not let him and we were forced to figure our own ways through some of these difficult areas.
the sun was beating down by now and we were all gettting hungry and tired, we'd pretty much run out of water and were all longing to find the house miraculously around the next tree. sadly it wasn't there and we had to keep pressing on, even when the path seemed to offer no suggestion or hint as to which way the group had gone. Zach was starting to make his way up to us 3 after we'd hollared to eachother and we couldn't figure out which one it was. so andrea and i press through these bushes that are right infront of us until the very last bush to push through turns out to be a thorn bush, a big one this time. Zack is so close too! it's just about 3 feet infront of us and yet just out of reach. i try to hold as much of the thorny tree at bay while andrea successfully pushes through, coming out with just a couple scratches. but as i try to go through, all the branches grab hold of me and my ruck sack. i'm stuck. there's no being dainty about it this time, each time i push through the tree literally pulls me back, i'm physically unable to get out of it. finally zack takes my hand and pulls me out, literally ripping me from the clutches of the tree as the thorns dig in and leave some nasty bloody scrapes all along my hands and arms, tearing at my hat, jacket and especially the big ruck sack.
once free of that thorn tree i can see sam choosing some other path around and successfully getting through without much trouble. obviously the path we should have taken. anyway, the 4 of us now head out again, this time to meet up with the rest of the group as they wait for us in the shade. when we meet up we start heading out towards the house once more, finally on flat-level ground with just a bit of unevenness as we deal with a dry creekbed. when we get within sight of the house, just about a thousand yards from it or so, andrea starts to overheat, getting to where she's seeing spots and feeling feint so i take off her jacket and give her my hat to keep the direct sun off her head.
for some reason, those last yards felt the hardest, coming up the road behind the house, so near to it that i could touch their back fence and yet so far because there was no cover from shade and we still had to walk around the fence to get into the yard before crossing the yard to enter the house. Sam looked like such an angel as he came out of the house carrying those 2 cups of ice water. i was so happy to see them in his hand that i took the one he offered to me and passed it quickly to andea without even taking a sip. i let her drink some to help cool off before drinking some myself.
as we came up to the house, we also saw something else that touched our hearts... Zack was carrying leslie, still barefoot up to the house. apparently he'd picked him up some time earlier along the river and was letting leslie's poor feet have a break from all the stickers and cactus that was so thick along that stretch. it was very touching to leslie, as he was crying on the back of zack's shoulders as he was so graciously carried up to the house and inside.
once within the house it was time to cool off, i got andrea into a chair downstairs and we rested a bit before i noticed melissa coming down the stairs having obviosuly just showered and cleaned up. i urged andrea to do the same and we went upstairs so i could start picking cactus needles out of our clothing while she gets into the shower as next in line since the heat was making her sick and i wanted her to not wait for anyone else before washing up and cooling down. but leslie urged us to wait as there was something special that we were all going to do shorly and that she'd have plenty time after it to shower. so we waited.
what we waited for ended up being something quite unexpected and very touching. we all gathered at the back portch and preyed a bit before we started washing eachother's feet just as Jesus had done with his deciples. leslie and zack started with washing angie's feet, weeping for joy through it all before having all the new team members come up and they wash their feet. so Sam, Andrea, Matt and Faith. as they went through they'd speak a word over each person, proclaiming what the Lord was showing was a major strength of their's. after the frist timers the veterines of the mission trips went next, including myself, angela, john, zack, and leslie. each person took turns washing eachother's feet, showing to one another that we're all servants to eachother and we are all on the same level. the whole thing was very touching and was quite a solomn event.
shortly though, andrea started overheating again so we went inside and she just relaxed in that chair again while i layed out before her on the floor at her feet. we both fell asleep before long and apparently set a trend, because we woke up about an hour later and nearly everyone else was asleep all around the house! we took this opportunity and went upstairs, letting andrea take a shower while i gathered up all her stuff and started picking cactus needles out of her clothing and shoes. she changed into her pajamas since they were the only complete outfit that didnt' have needles in them and we went back downstairs to get some lunch, fixing a couple sandwiches and starting a little trend once again as slowly people would wake up and decide they were hungry too.
before long we're all up and about and i get tasked with finding some paper and pens to play a little team-building excercise before we'd all be heading home. once items were found we were broken up into 2 teams with team-captains and we were given a task. basically the ship we're on is sinking due to a fire we cna't put out. we have limited supplies that are listed, of which we can only take 6. we're told there's some island 1000 miles away and that's about it. our task was to sort and pick 6 items from the list and devise a way that as many people on our team would survive. then Leslie (who was kept out as judge) would grade our responses.
it was little more than a simple team-building excercise that we all had fun with, both teams ultimately coming out at a tie and both teams earning the privilage of cleaning up sidonie's house before we'd all leave back to Brownwood.
All-in-all God did some amazing things on this trip, He showed strengthes and pointed out for us how to build those up to be even stronger strengthes and he revealed weaknesses and ways for us to improve upon those and lift eachother up as one body, closer than even just a team of bodies.
