Strawberry Jam

It's such a blessing to participate in God's story. Last Sunday I was sitting on the grass after church with Cara and we were admiring the kids running around outside, talking about how we wished we were back at their age - the care free simple life, everything was so joyful! The reason I mention this is because this past week has felt like one long childhood memory for me. God is to thank for this, as always.

From the sweet scent of homemade(!) strawberry jam to the drive home from the mountain - passing farm lands on a cloudless sunny day - it brought back amazing memories of my childhood.

Peter Bichan, the creator of the adventure Bible school on the north island came down to teach us... in a different environment. We packed up our bare essentials (deoderant is not a bare essential apparently, sorry girls) and took off with nothing but a backpack and headed to Mt. Somers for three days to experience God in the wilderness.

My relationship with God this week was directly comparable to that of a seven year old boy's relationship with his dad. It was a good time warp.

We were given a packing list before the trip and whatever was not on the list was absolutely condemned. We weren't allowed to bring watches. We weren't allowed to bring any gadgets, any toys or other distracters. It was just us, the Bible and a teacher.

Time was irrelevent. We got up when the sun woke us up, we went to bed when we were tired. We didn't bother with checking how long we had been hiking for or how long it was until dinner. We got away from any routine, we weren't participants in a robotic time schedule. This was freeing.

Exploration was the all day activity. Whether it be as a group hiking from hut to hut through forest, dryland, rock or across river streams, or going off alone, or with a few Capers'. Wide-eyed and excited as to what would be around the bend, I felt a freshness and excitement I hadn't felt since the days of freaking out the parents because a 50-pound body on a narrow strip overseeing a cliff provided fun (for me) and fear (for the family). The most rewarding exploration came with Michael on two occassions. On the first day of hiking, after dinner we skipped from rock to rock up a river stream to a really cool narrow waterfall which was accessible on 3 different tiers. The second day after lunch on another hot sunny day found the water caves which has to be one of the coolest things I have seen in my life. Inside a dark cave with water up to the knees, we had to climb through tight spaces, past/through miniature waterfalls to get through the cave out to the other side where there were... more waterfalls! Farther up the rocks we got, the more waterfalls... and even a natural slide at one point. Later in the day we got to witness Dale falling off a rock into glacier water... funny stuff.

The family atmosphere, much akin to those of family gatherings with extended [second cousins, great uncles] family was ever-present. It didn't matter that making dinner for our small groups only took two people, we were going to use four just so we could be ultimate team workers and be around each other a bit longer. Shooting each other up with hand (literally) guns in pretend war and following each other through untouched terrain even though there's a clear path which would ensure scratchless legs from pine trees, we did things together just for the sake of being together. Driving home from the mountain with Dale felt so nostalgic. I remembered all the times of going out to the country side, passing nothing but farm land to go to cousin gatherings in Abbotsford or in the valley somewhere.

There was also a naivity, a childlike dependence on God this week. We try to grow up so much, realizing our newfound maturity it's easy to believe we can do things on our own, without the presence of God. However, there is nothing we can do without God, and so we learned to recognize that we need to surrender completely in all situations, He is capable.

The absence of time, the family atmosphere and the constant exploration of new territory made this week feel like a flashback to the golden age. It was a great refreshing trip. The challenge now is to bring the mountain (experience) back to the Crossing and keep it safe in the closet, safe in our hearts and minds.