Malibu 2015 Post #4

This week has become the smoothest yet.  Heather Hoglund's arrival as our new Head Leader has been a huge blessing. We are all healthy and seem to be hitting our stride.  The thick, ashy yellow skies are cleared up and blue skies are back

Tanya has been on a 4-person panel each week called "Real Life."  Days 3, 4, and 6, she and the other 3 (Nicole Ramos, Ross Stewart and Tyson M) share critical, formative elements from their past that led to them understanding their need for God, often through being confused or angry with him first, and how they decided to entrust their lives to God. Kids have responded very openly to this style of sharing...authentic, honest, and descriptive.  It takes a lot of emotion to stir up the past, yet it has served as a guide for kids to see how others overcame their hurdles to faith.

I was able to take our team (38 of us) to the legendary 'Chatterbox Falls' for a few hours of adventure and rest.  This site is one of the Top 10 'Most Beautiful Places' to visit for boaters in the world, often called the "Sistine Chapel of the Pacific." This pic is of Elizabeth Aagard doing her best impersonation of Ariel from Little Mermaid. Dietrich climbed all the way up the stream to the waterfalls with Bryan Blair guiding him, while others and I performed a 'rite of passage' of diving underneath the water in the frigid rapids, pulling a submerged stone out of a cavernous spot underneath a giant rock (with a GoPro on...footage to be posted later from our friends via a flashdrive we will send home.)  Dietrich, me, Work Crew Boss and 20+ year volunteer leader/Shorewood HS leadership teacher/coach Paul Villanueva, Josh Thrash, Darrelle, and Bryan Blair all became 'men' with this act.  Great to have some fun memories as we serve tirelessly to give every kid and leader the best week of their life.

Great stories are surfacing here.  Today, when I was on the ropes course, a leader recognized me.  He updated me on a student, Baley from Mt Si High School, who I met on the ropes last year.  As Baley hesitated to jump for the bar off the platform at the end, out of pure nerves, I got his attention and said, "Baley, go for the bar. This is just like reaching out to God and trusting that He is there for you and will catch you, this is your time to take a step of faith."  He looked at me in a way I didn't anticipate. His eyes transformed from panic, to peace before my eyes. He nodded his head, and he said, "Okay, I will do that!"  And he jumped.  I was told by his leader that later that night, he took the leap of faith and prayed to God to commit his life to God.  I thought that was solid.

So today, that leader, Josh Baldwin, told me the backstory. A year or so previous to coming to Malibu, Baley's brother had tragically taken his own life. Shortly after, in the wake of this, his parents divorced.  Baley doubted there could be a God and had no interest coming into Malibu. By the day of the ropes course God had reestablished Himself to Baley, he was open to giving God another chance to trust, despite the heartache he blamed on God.  At the ropes, he took the symbolic jump to trust that it was sin that led to his brothers suicide and parents divorce, not God's plan.  I got the update that a year later, Baley, is at YL's WFR-Creekside camp leading middle school kids. He went on a mission trip.  He is flourishing in his faith and is a changed person since he opened his hurt heart and trusted. There are SO many young people, gosh, and older too, who have seen the hardships of life and blamed God for doing a disappearing act. What if the disappearing that happened was us, as people, who turn our back, leave God out of the equations of our lives, and God truly is there, omnipresent, with his arms out to us, able to do more than we could ask or imagine?  That my friends is the gospel. "For I came not to condemn the world, but to save it..." John 3:17.