Hello everyone! Yes, it's true! After 2 weeks of frustration, I finally got my connection up and running today! Woooooo! So hopefully communication with you guys will be a lot easier from now on. It turns out that I was using a set IP address instead of one being automatically assigned. Silly buried settings giving me grief....
Whistler was pretty awesome last weekend! The streets were pretty clear, but the snow on the sides of the road was really tall. It wasn’t especially cold there and it actually rained at the bottom of the mountain on Saturday (just a sprinkling), but the skiing was great nonetheless. I wasn’t sure what to do with all the great snow at first, but I got my bearings pretty quickly. Wow, I haven’t gone in far too long – my legs were killing me after 15 minutes! I spent about half my time on Whistler and the other half on Blackcomb and ended up staying about 5 hours. I didn’t get to the top of either mountain, unfortunately. The conditions were pretty great at the bottom and in the middle, but things got really cold and windy as you went up, and the tops were encased in clouds. At the base of the last lift up to the top of Whistler, there was a sign and a flashing light that said that all runs are to be assumed to be expert level in those conditions no matter the posted difficulty. So I bravely ran away. It took me 45 minutes to even get that far on the lifts, and about 35 minutes to ski back down since I went nice and slow for my uncooperative legs!
This is that last lift, the one that looked scary - but here's the proof I made it! That's not empty sky at the top, the mountain went up farther, but that's how close that next layer of clouds was. 
These are the Shannon Falls. We stopped to see them on our way to Whistler. That's pretty much all the pictures I took because my camera was getting really wet all weekend and I was worried about shorting something out! Again, you can't see the top due to the clouds. Silly BC weather....We also spent some time getting connected as a team, doing a photo scavenger hunt in Whistler Village and then sharing our testimonies in the evenings. It’s pretty cool that we all ended up here at TREK even though we all come from such different experiences.
The day after we got back from Whistler, we piled into the vans again and we all went caving together! First, we visited a canyon up near Hope that used to have railway tracks going through it, but now exists as this amazingly beautiful walkway through the canyon itself with alternating bridges above the water and tunnels through the cliff face. Then we drove to the other side of Hope to go caving. It wasn’t serious spelunking as we mostly just crawled under and between massive boulders, but it was amazing! We climbed up and down through little passages and came out little openings further up the mountain. It was very wet since the rain was pouring down on us the whole time, but we just put that behind us and had a great time.
Since then we’ve been getting into a lot of sessions about various topics including forgiveness, worship, and “cat and dog” theology. It has been a challenging week, filled with a lot of things that come close to my heart, both in the sessions and outside them. There’s a lot of information and it’s taking a little while for it to all sink in. Very interesting so far though, I can't wait for next week!
Thanks so much for your prayers. I’m settling in well and enjoying the experience. Please continue to pray that the material presented to us will go deep into our hearts where we can hold it ready for the times we’ll need it.
The day after we got back from Whistler, we piled into the vans again and we all went caving together! First, we visited a canyon up near Hope that used to have railway tracks going through it, but now exists as this amazingly beautiful walkway through the canyon itself with alternating bridges above the water and tunnels through the cliff face. Then we drove to the other side of Hope to go caving. It wasn’t serious spelunking as we mostly just crawled under and between massive boulders, but it was amazing! We climbed up and down through little passages and came out little openings further up the mountain. It was very wet since the rain was pouring down on us the whole time, but we just put that behind us and had a great time.
Since then we’ve been getting into a lot of sessions about various topics including forgiveness, worship, and “cat and dog” theology. It has been a challenging week, filled with a lot of things that come close to my heart, both in the sessions and outside them. There’s a lot of information and it’s taking a little while for it to all sink in. Very interesting so far though, I can't wait for next week!
Thanks so much for your prayers. I’m settling in well and enjoying the experience. Please continue to pray that the material presented to us will go deep into our hearts where we can hold it ready for the times we’ll need it.
Pray for the leadership team here this week, and that God will speak clear directions for each member of the TREK teams. They will be listening for God’s guidance this Tuesday night to set up the teams, and we will receive the results on Wednesday morning. I’ll let you all know the results as soon as I get them!
Finally and especially, please pray for my brother Steven as he’s going in for his jaw surgery this week. Pray that God will keep him healthy this week so that he can actually have the surgery this time, and that he will heal quickly and properly over the coming months.
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