Challenge and Growth

The Little Bighorn trail is a challenge. Hiking 18 miles and climbing 7000 feet in four days can be rough. It didn't help that I had just gotten over a cold. It didn't help that I was running on very little sleep. It didn't help that I barely knew anyone else on the trip.

But it was worth it.

Tuesday was our first day. The night before, as you can see in the previous post, I was pretty anxious and tired, but still excited. After driving to Big Horn National Park, we had to do some car shuffling. Usually when you hike you go in a circle back to your cars, but our trail was just straight up, so we had to take our cars to the trail end and then drive one back down to the trail start. I volunteered to drive up and down the mountain, which was quite the experience. I'm usually pretty timid about driving but it was a ton of fun and just to see all the sights along the road was awesome. Plus, there was a lot of snow left on the ground as we reached the top so that was really cool to see in the middle of summer. Once we got back to the bottom we started hiking. I was fine for awhile and enjoyed some conversations with the students. BUT, then we started the inclines. That killed me. My attiude shot down and I got really angry at God for placing me on the trip. He knew that I had a hard time hikinig last year. He knew that I had just been sick. He knew that I was exhausted. But he was still making me do the stupid hike. I think I even asked for death a few times. Melodramatic much? I know. Finally Beth (my trip leader's wife), really challenged me to rely on the Lord's strength and reminded me that I was placed here for a reason. She also told me to only think about today, and not about the fact that I am doing this hike two more times. She really motivated me to push forward and just helped so much. The rest of the day was fine. Got to the campsite, set up, enjoyed wilderness food.

Wednesday the team got off to a pretty slow start. We ended up leaving around 10:30, only after a huge herd of cattle came through. So we were stuck behind cattle for a lot of the day. Slow and smelly, such fun. Finally it looked like we were making some good progress. And then, it started raining and thundering and the lightning was going crazy. So we had to stop and take cover in some trees and got to stay in lightning position for awhile. Several of the students were pretty scared, so Abby (fellow intern) and I started singing some hymns and worship songs. That was pretty cool, singing about how God controls the lightning as the storm was raging around us. Finally the storm passed, and it was SO cold, so we decided to high tail it to the campsite. By this point my feet were getting pretty blistered and tired, so the HUGE hill we had to go up to get to the campsite was not looking very fun to me. But we finally made it. The campsite for the second day is absolutely AMAZING! There's a big mountain on one side with waterfalls coming down it, and then on the other side there's a ton of pine trees as far as you can see. It was so fun to be there and see those sights again.

Day three is typically known as the hardest day of the hike. It's a ton of incline, plus people are just worn out from the previous days. I had been dreading it since the day I found out I was going to be in Montana for the summer. Once again, it started out fine. We stopped way too early for lunch, but apart from that things went well and I had a lot of fun with the students I was near playing games and chatting. The sights were breathtaking and really motivated me to keep walking. However, as the day wore on my blisters started rubbing really badly and I was having trouble walking. The inclines took everything out of me, and I was just in a bad mood once again. Finally, one of the students took my tent from me which took away a ton of weight from my pack. That helped so much and I was so thankful for the student's willingness to serve me. We finally made it to the campsite and I had never been happier to sleep on the ground.

Day four (Friday), we hiked out. We had to take care of the car shuffling once again, so one of their adult leaders, and Abby and I hiked out early together. We left at 6 in the morning, expecting the hike to take 2 or 2 and 1/2 hours. We made it in less than an hour and a half. We were SO proud of ourselves. I really enjoyed hiking that early. The temperature was wonderful and it was a lot less stressful hiking with just three people instead of a team of 18. We got the cars all together and waited for 45 minutes before we finally heard cheering as the students ran to the trail end. It was really cool to see the smiles on their faces as they realized that they had finally made it to the end.

After that we drove to Billings and got to shower!! Yay!! Best shower of my life. Then enjoyed an awesome meal at Fudruckers. The best part of Friday night was our final team time. I had a really hard time connecting with these students. I came halfway through the trip, so I missed out on the first few days of getting to know them. They also were just really closed and you really had to push to get anything significant or remotely deep out of them. So I had been a little discouraged and just felt like I hadn't made any difference. However, during our encouragement circle where each student gets encouraged by two of their peers and one adult, I saw the walls break down. I have never seen so many high school boys cry before. Their tough exterior finally cracked and I felt like they were really touched by what they had experienced on the trip. To actually witness this was really powerful. It just reminded me that I should never give up hope on anybody. God may wait until the very end to work in their hearts, but I should never assume that they are incapable of being impacted. The students also demanded to encourage us as staff, and honestly I really needed that. I had felt like I was not needed on this trip and that I had made no impact, but the two students who encouraged me proved me otherwise, and I was really touched by that.

This past trip really taught me a lot about how I respond in situations and showed me a lot of areas in my life that I want to improve. And that's the beauty of challenge.. it spurs on growth and helps you become transformed into who God has designed you to be. As hard as it was, I do not regret what I was able to experience. I learned so much and I am confident that God is going to continue to challenge me in order to bring growth into my life.

Pray requests:
- Team #4 arrived this afternoon: transitioning into this team and being willing to get to know them.
- Rest and renewal
- Continued bonding between me, Steve, Beth and Abby
- God to work in HUGE ways on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation: many to turn from their false religion and be brought into the light of Christ

Thanks for bearing with this long post! I am so thankful for all of your support and prayers!