Finally... the winter video comes out!

This video has been a long time in getting posted. I just kept having troubles loading it up onto the internet, but it's finally here. It gives a good picture of what a typical day looked like for me as I was involved in teaching students how to build quinzhees (a type of snow shelter). One of the great things about teaching out in the winter environment is the amount of time I get to spend with all of the students. We are constantly hiking, building, talking, cooking, eating, and playing together, not to mention sleeping out in snow forts with each other! A huge value for me is time with people, and behind that is a belief that faith is largely caught not taught and a lot of that is experienced through a loving community. The winter also definitely allows for a lot of time to get to know people a lot better, to build trust, show love, hear where they're at and what they're dealing with and getting to share about myself and rely on them too. It all definitely fits into the bigger picture of all the students are learning in this 2 semester college program. By this time of year, most of the students are deeply in the mix of processing all that they are learning about themselves in light of all sorts of challenges and what they're studying about God and his character. It was a privilege to spend time surviving and thriving with them in the snow and to come alongside of them in their process as one who is very much also in the process of growing in faith through all of the challenges that God so readily and lovingly brings our way. Enjoy the video... I hope it makes you feel like you are right there in the action with us!

Leadership Training

It's easy for me to talk to someone about the job that I do. I can say with confidence what I hope to accomplish and how I will go about it, but doing the job is SO different. All of the answers seem like a mist blown away by the wind, and I even wonder if they were really there in the first place. So how then do I lead?

In the midst of long snowshoe treks, building snow shelters, and a lot of time with people out in the cold, the question rises unavoidably to the surface: how DOES all of this help people grow in their relationship with Christ and help train up leaders of strong character? It would seem that wrestling with that question now, in the midst of the adventure, might be a bit too late, but honestly there is no better place to be wretsling with it. I've been thankful to have the freedom to be seeking out the answer to that question while also getting to test out the answers with real life experience, as well as having the freedom to be in the process of growth rather than living under the pressure to know the answer already and to perform with perfection. Honestly... how often do we really know the answer? How often can we really look at what we're doing and claim mastery... that our questioning is over... that we have reached perfection?

On a different note, isn't it hunger that drives us to food... thirst that brings us to water. It seems that God plants a lot more questions in people than he does answers. It is the question that he gives us that drives us to seek him, and our search is not in vain, for he who seeks finds (Matthew 7:7).

So... that leads us to the title of this post, "Leadership Training." I don't think leadership starts when you have the answers. I think it starts when God plants a question in you and you respond with the courage to seek it out. I spent two weeks teaching winter camping along side of Shane, one of the college interns here at camp. We were constantly wrestling with and working out how to use the skill of winter camping as a tool for the eternal. Each time we had a new group we were able to tweek our methods and rework our strategy with what we had learned from the time before. After we took each group out, the students were each allowed to choose one of the three winter skills they had been learning over the last couple of weeks to specialize in and do further learning in for the final week. Six students chose to specialize in winter camping, the skill that I was helping to teach. Shane and I decided that rather than trying to apply one more possible answer to our burning question in our time with these students, we would instead bring them into the question with us. We started our time with askng them how they would incorprate the spiritual into the skills they were learning and then to test that out on the trip. The seed (the question) was planted, and for those who take the question to heart, leadership is growing. Now they too need to wrestle with how outdoor adventure can be used for building up leaders and for spiritual growth in people's lives. They weren't the recipients anymore of Shane's and my answers... receiving answers to a question they didn't have. Now the burden is in them to search for the answers and to lead each other in the process. The more they wrestle with that question now, the more they will be able to lead people in that respect in the future.

It's nice not to need to grasp on to control of the group in order to be seen as a great leader or as one who has it all together. And it's pretty amazing to see that sometimes the most effective tool a leader has is to let go and allow other people to start to lead. So all in all, it's been an encouraging season out in the snow, and I do believe that God is working through the things we're doing here, that people are growing in character, and that in the midst of my own questions, leadership training is still happening.

The students decided that with all of the time that would be spent with each other on the trip, whether at meals, or sleeping in shelters together, or building snow kitchens, etc., that they would be intentional about the conversations they were having with one another, sharing stories of God's work in their lives, how they came to faith, etc. It was a great time of being encouraged and getting to know each other on a much deeper level. The picture is of part of the group sitting in the indoor kitchen that we made out of the snow. It was a warm welcome retreat out of the wind and cold and many great conversations were had there by candle light late into the night.