Intrigued by the title? Good! Figured I needed to capture your attention for this one! Yesterday, Melissa and I joined the rest of our group in training for a team-building day in Hope, B.C. It involved a few group exercises, you know those ones that build faith in each other, challenging you to do something you think you cannot, and learning to rely on those around you to keep you from falling into something/somewhere you don't want to go!
We joined Walden from Wilderness Adventure Outreach for this day - a wonderful guide and fun guy to follow. The day quickly evolved into something we knew we were there for: caving. Right across the street from our team-building exercises, behind the cafe, is a mountain with a wonderfully vertical rock face. Sometime, several years back (Walden thought a 1,000 or so), much of the rock face collapsed, forming some interesting cave systems.
So is this something Melissa and I do on weekends for fun now? NO! But part of our training here is about taking risks and being willing to be stretched (no pun intended on that one...). We knew Walden from being here in April and rock climbing/repeling with him and his team. So the trust was there. We started by entering a larger cave area and seeing if we could handle being in a mountain. A couple people got this far, and decided to wait outside. Melissa and I both felt we could press on, and take on the full route. Walden put us in groups, and we joined Reg and Faa, a great couple headed out with MBMSI as well. Not sure why caves are set up this way, but it does seem they get narrower and narrower as you go in. I like standing vertical when moving forward, but caves are not really in line with this concept. Thanks to Walden, we had great helmets to keep our heads from getting dented too much, along with lights, a backup light, coveralls, kneepads, and gloves. As we moved forward, there were more and more "tight" spots. The word "tight" here is used because that was the word others used. I might use the words: "impossible", "I can envision how much pain I will be in if I proceed through that hole", "Why in the world are we doing this?", "Pretty sure Melissa and Faa will make it through but this almost-40 body will very likely get stuck", and "You want me to do what???". With the risk of getting in trouble here, I will share a picture of my wife in one of those spots (note to all - keep the camera with you on these trips and there will be less pictures of you getting stuck...):
(Melissa here: I just want you all to know what's happening in this picture. I wasn't stuck... believe it or not (I still almost can't) I was coming OUT of that space - head first on my back. Had to do that twice. Don't really want to ever do that again!)Finally, after going through probably 3 or 4 "tight" spots like this, we found (with Walden's help of course) the "exit". Once again, the "exit" was "tight", as you can tell by this picture of Reg making his way out:
It is amazing how fresh the air smells and how bright the light is as you approach the exit. There were spots in the caves where we saw roots from the trees above pushing through small cracks in the rocks, and water seeping through in places, so some things were penetrating the depths. The air wasn't bad in the caves, but for the most part, it was dusty from our moving around. We turned off our lights a couple times to see if we could see light from the outside - even a crack coming through was visible. Emerging through that crack in the mountain felt oh so great.
Today we are recouperating. I am icing my back, Melissa is taking a nap. We may never get another chance to go caving like that again, but I hope we do, especially when the kids are older and can go with us. God has created some pretty incredible opportunities for us all to experience, and I want to have a chance to celebrate many of those. We just finished a rich two weeks with David Shenk, an amazing man of God, who shared with us a clearer understanding of what others in this grand world of ours believe and where they place their trust. One of the things I liked about Walden was that, while we naturally placed our trust in him during the Saturday events, he kept pointing us back to the Creator and how these adventures could strengthen our trust in Him. It was a rich week, and I am glad Melissa and I were able to be a part of it.
O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you. Psalm 84:12
Lowell
It is amazing how fresh the air smells and how bright the light is as you approach the exit. There were spots in the caves where we saw roots from the trees above pushing through small cracks in the rocks, and water seeping through in places, so some things were penetrating the depths. The air wasn't bad in the caves, but for the most part, it was dusty from our moving around. We turned off our lights a couple times to see if we could see light from the outside - even a crack coming through was visible. Emerging through that crack in the mountain felt oh so great.
Today we are recouperating. I am icing my back, Melissa is taking a nap. We may never get another chance to go caving like that again, but I hope we do, especially when the kids are older and can go with us. God has created some pretty incredible opportunities for us all to experience, and I want to have a chance to celebrate many of those. We just finished a rich two weeks with David Shenk, an amazing man of God, who shared with us a clearer understanding of what others in this grand world of ours believe and where they place their trust. One of the things I liked about Walden was that, while we naturally placed our trust in him during the Saturday events, he kept pointing us back to the Creator and how these adventures could strengthen our trust in Him. It was a rich week, and I am glad Melissa and I were able to be a part of it.
O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you. Psalm 84:12
Lowell
