Youth Dynamics Spring Adventures

Written by Missions Team on May 4th, 2011
Family and Friends,
 
Our spring with YD Adventures and Stonewater Ranch is going great.  We’ve just wrapped up spring raft guide trainings.  Love getting to train new guides to minister to students in a professional, safe, unique, and intimate way.  It’s such an extraordinary opportunity to be in a raft with a bunch of students for an afternoon, sharing life.  Ashley, Erin, and Julie have been working so hard as new guides in training.  We’re excited to see them use the skills we’ve taught them on the water.  We have our first raft trip of the summer in one week, we’re so pumped to get out there! 
 
We were rafting recently with a group in the midst of our training.  Just taking the day for granted, we all clambered into the boat, began instructing how to paddle and just chatting away, enjoying the weather.  Then one of the paddlers confided in us, ”I’m really scared to be out here, this is a big stretch for me.”  She shared a story of how she nearly drowned on a river several years ago tubing, now here she was going rafting on a more intense class III river.  Her fears were evident in the first rapid as she clung to the middle of the boat, crouching down, frightened to paddle.  We continually encouraged her, and as the day progressed, she moved farther out toward the water, taking stronger and stronger strokes.  By the end, our biggest rapid of the day, she chose to sit at the front of the boat!  And she loved it!  She smiled ear to ear proclaiming how glad she was that she faced her fear and paddled in the front! 
 
This is exactly what we want to accomplish in Wilderness Ministry!  We’re not out to entertain students, show them a good time with some exciting and adventurous activities.  We want to hand students a red helmet, that’s what wilderness ministry is all about for us.  Check out this video:
http://youtu.be/6Dcx4bcBfWo.  As we’re out with students, ministering in special ways, we want their eyes to opened to all that they are capable of, we want to see them “jump off the end of the dock,” to go for it, to give it some heat!  We want them to experience all they can do physically, but more importantly we want them to see that we’ve accepted the “red helmet” Christ has given us, His covering, that has made us whole. As Hebrews 2:14-15 states, we want them to see Him who conquered the fear of death.  We want to see them committ to jumping all in for Jesus!!!  We get so many unique opportunities to do that with our ministry, thanks for coming along with us on this journey!!  
 
Shane and Kady 

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Shane and Kady

Written by Missions Team on October 22nd, 2010

Deuteronomy 6:4-9, “Hear, O Israel:  The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children.  Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”  
  

It was the final morning of our trip.  The sunlight trickled through the trees. The air was filled with the loss of saying goodbye to new friends and the anticipation of heading home. Throughout our seven days on the Salmon River together, we explored life, shared stories, cried, laughed, prayed and learned to trust one another!  Most importantly we explored what it means to live in relationship with God!  On this morning, as these words from Deuteronomy were read, we took action to own them and identify with full life that God wants for us.  We tied vivid colored fabric (used in other aspects of the trip) to our wrists, as a reminder to live day in and day out with God, to love him throughout every facet of life! (see attached photo)

We then shared Deuteronomy 30:11-20, which expands on what it means to love the Lord.  The option to love the Lord presents us with the choice between life and death, blessings and curses.  It’s not difficult to attain for the word is near, but we’re still presented with a choice.  We are called to “choose life, so that [we] and [our] children may live and that [we] may love the Lord [our] God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is [our] life…”

The Lord is the life of the students we minister to; we are so thankful and humbled to be able to communicate that message!  Not just on the Salmon River trip, but on so many other trips we get to relay God’s offer to them. We encourage them to remember as they go home to take God with them, tie his commands on their hands.  Pray with us for the students that they will remember, that they will choose life, and love God!  Pray for James and Sarah from the Salmon trip.  Pray that James will realize his great need for the Lord and the life he offers.  Pray for Sarah as she continues to choose the Lord, and that she will remain intimate in her pursuit of Him.  Pray for the students on a different trip who witnessed Lauren getting baptized.  They got to see her choosing to carry on with God; pray that those students would see the significance in the moment and allow it to impact their daily lives. 

We are thankful to get to share life with these students; your prayers and support make it possible!  Thank you for ministering with us!!  Students are being changed, students are choosing life, and we’re thankful to present the choice! 

Blessings,   Shane and Kady J

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