1 Week in

  3 days. 21 students and 5 leaders. God's creation. 1 mountain. It was indescribable, but I'll do my best to tell you what it was like.

 As I said, it was a 3 day trek, and the first 2 days were absolutely beautiful - sunshine and tons of green! We started the first day 5:30 in the morning with a 3 hour commute to the mountain. They split our group in to four: group A, B, C, D. Groups A & B went on one path and C & D went on another. My group (D) spent a lot of time hiking, eating and talking together. There was Hannah, Tessa, Michael and Jon with our Leader Viktor and it was really cool to get to know these people even better and have the chance to see their strengths and weaknesses in play during this trip. The first day we hiked 8 km and it took us 4 hours. It was incredible being in such beautiful nature with crystal clear (but not clean - it was soo tempting!) lakes. We made it to the 1st campsite by 1:30/2 and then decided to hike to the viewpoint, where I got the picture that you now see here. That was spectacular and another hour of hiking! We settled down for a delicious sidekick spaghetti dinner and went to bed for 8:30 which became 9:15 after all the talking and prayer :). 6 am wake up the next morning to hike to the other campsite to meet up with groups A & B so that we could summit the mountain together. After 2 hours we made it, and our friends were just waking up...I guess you could say we were a little envious. Thus begun our trek up towards the summit, and it was difficult, but phenomenal in what we saw. Our spirits were quite high for most of the trip, and those that struggled were only encouraged more by those in front and behind. We had this group mentality of getting to the summit together...we could not let those around us lose heart and turn back, so there was a ton of support in what ever direction we turned.

*side note: We have these memory verses which we have to memorize for monday, so we're all trying to commit them to memory together - which is still hard, even though we're all doing the same thing.

 So when I thought of losing heart, my mind kept going back to one of our memory verses: "Therefore, do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So fix our eyes not on what seen, but what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. It gave me such hope, not just for the summit, but in general with our daily struggles and obstacles.

 So we finally reached the final stretch, the crawl up to the peak. The hardest part, but the view at the end was breath-taking. I could see forever and still some. In fact I could see the Rocky Mountains on the Mainland...I waved at you guys over there, but I don't think you saw me :) So anyways, after climbing nearly 6,000 ft our entire group (minus a few who couldn't climb 'cause of health issues) made it to the top and right before we descended we sang the doxology - what a moment!!

 On the way down we overshot the trail quite a ways and couldn't find our way back, causing us to become a little more worried because it was getting darker, but God proved faithful in keeping us safe and we made it back in time for a late dinner. After 10 hours of climbing/hiking that day we were physically exhausted but still in fantastic moods because of what we were witness to up on the mountain. However, the next day seemed to stretch us all a little more than we could have thought as is poured rain on us all day long. It was miserable trying to trudge through the mud and the flooded paths, but we managed to have no injuries or casualties. Erin, one of our Kaleo Interns has this chronic lung condition, so the elevation was really terrible for her, so Viktor (her husband and our leader) carried her pack for 6km on the way home. For me it was such an act of service that it quite humbled me - for I was struggling with just having a heavy, wet pack when he had the same thing, but was willing to carry someone else's burden. Eventually I noticed that he was past the point of exhaustion so I sucked it up and volunteered to carry Erin's pack, even if it meant that I would be worn down even more rapidly then I already was. I have to say that it was hard, but I was able to take my mind off of my own troubles and fill the needs of others - and that was enough for me to make it to the point where someone else was willing to carry the pack. 6 hours later we finally made it to the parking lot, soaked to the bone but so happy to be getting in to the warm, dry vans (where we discovered that we stunk very, very bad). 3 days, 20 hours of hiking over 40 km, 6000 ft up - together we accomplished what we thought we could not do, together we revelled in the footprints of God and together we realized that we are a part of this creation. Michael did bring forth a profound thought that really has stuck with me: "Looking out over the mountains, I get this thought: That God is jealous for me, He wants all of me, even though He created all of this." how amazing and true that was.

 Thus ends our adventure to the mountain, but there are so many positive repercussions of this trip - we've bonded, created fun and lasting memories and friendships. Thank you for praying for us, God surely answered many a prayer on this trip.
 We've recovered well - now that we've showered, been fed and slept. Only a few sore bodies...thank goodness nothing worse has happened, we are definitely thankful.

Now I'm off to prep for our upcoming class...now that I have some downtime I can actually get some things done, like laundry, organization and best of all getting time to skype with mom and Elliot (so glad that the mullet is gone!). Also, the phone lines are still not up and running, so email, facebook or the written word is your best bet.

Till next time :)

Ps. Here's some photos of the trip: Mt.Albert-Edwards - Enjoy!!