So much for the 6:30am optional hike. No one was up for that. But we were up to getting the fire going again. Meyer was on fire duty and found a good bed of coals leftover from last night. It wasn't very long before we all were enjoying a Saturday morning roaring fire.
After breakfast, some of the group went outside to explore the property. Some went to just kick the soccerball around. The rest of us waited by the fire for Nancy and Ahmin to arrive. We got a call around 9:30am that they were given wrong directions and would not arrive until 10:30am. We decided to hold off on our morning meeting. I didn't mind personally...I was just find on the couch and next to the fire.
Once Nancy and Ahmin arrived and we got them settled, we started our group time. Nate did another great job on guitar. He even expressed an interest in being in the praise band we are trying to start.
Our theme is 'Be still and know that I am God' from Psalm 46:10. We ended our time together with 30 minutes of silence. I invited everyone to go off by themselves, in doors or out, and just be still. I instructed them to think of a question, based on our theme (or anything else we've discussed) and let that question be there prayer. It can be very difficult to focus the mind for that long. It's very easy to wander in your thoughts, so this was a good excercise
We came back together for lunch and then decided to finally get going on our hike. It was about 1pm and the first time I had been outside since I arrived nearly 20 hours ago. Can you tell I like the fireplace?
The hike turned out to be a mixed experience. First, we never did see any of the sights that the directions said we would see. We basically went on a random walk/hike through the woods. The one highlight of the trip, the one that will be talked about for years, involved Travis. Let me paint the picture.
One of the trip destinations was called the "Water fall". We think we found the location, but there was no water going over the fall. It was as if the pond that feeds the falls went dry. There was a small trace of water left but it appeared that the water was maybe 8 feet down from it's normal level. So here we are, standing on top of the falls; behind us a 20-30 foot drop (waterfalls) and in front of us an 8 foot drop to the bottom of the pond.
Travis and some others went up the hill a bit further to look over the small stream that was feeding the pond. Again, there was not much water coming in, so they came back soon after. Travis decided to walk in the now dry pond bed. Well, he hadn't taken 2 or 3 steps before one of his feet started to break through the bog like bed. And instead of turning around, he choose to head for the pond bank. He didn't make it.
After his foot went in, his knee followed. After that...he was down up to his chest. We were pretty confident that he was fine, so we laughed at him. Good times. The rest of the hike was kind of difficult for him. Squish-Squish-Squish
We got back to the lodge in time for a game of Capture the Flag. There was no clear winner but we did find out Ahmin can climb a tree quite well.
After a dinner of Taco Soup we adjourned to the living room. Since it was dark, I decided to set-up a lodge wide game of Sardines. I believe this was the first time for Russ, Nancy and Nancy. The best hider and winner was Emily Wood. She manged to stay hidden in a kitchen cabinet.
I found out earlier that Nate unfortunatly broke a string which left us without a guitar. Fortunatly I found a CD with the music from 5 or 6 of our songs. Nice. The worship time led us to more discussion about Psalm 46 and the idea of 'stillness and peace". The promise from God is, no matter what life throws at you, even if it feels like the world is shaking apart, God is still God. He offers us peace and inner security.
There was no real curfew tonight. Most just hung out in the living room playing games and enjoying themselves. I found out that I enjoy the game of chess. Jacob and I played until 2:30am.
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