Two Weeks to Wander Begins

Smello there friends and family. So, after that last group we were planning on heading to the Tetons to backpack for two weeks with just Robbie, Dave, and I and do some discipleship training. And of course, that didn't happen because of a number of things. The first being snow. Way too much snow to spend more than a few days up there. Also, because the Big Horns are snowed out for the next little bit we have to hunt for some places to take the next group or two why the snow melts off.

So, that brings me to where I am now. Billings, Montana. After the group left on Sat, we spend time cleaning stuff up and simply relaxing. It was quite a challenging week. We took off from Sheridan Sunday afternoon and headed south to find dry land. Arriving in Lander, we pull up to a ranger station who directs us to NOLS. (National Outdoor Leadership School- don't be surprised if I work there one day. It is quite the place!) They help us out by saying that everywhere they are leading trips they need snow shoes but have run out so that are post holing it. Great....


So we head out that night to get a jump start on traveling back up North. Finally arrive in Casper at another famous KOA. (such a life savor this summer) Wake up bright and early and continue North East to where we started the summer off in WY at a pit stop for lunch off I-90, in Sundance, WY.

We know for certain that the Black Hills up there are dry so we had to map out a route to take. After linking a few trails together, we decided to do it ourselves in a day and a half. We start about 8am and by noon have already traveled nearly 8 miles. Packs and everything. We have our tents, food, and warm cloths. Turns out we needed water and food only. We decided that we have a feel for the terrain and could map out a decent 5 night hike, so we hunker down and crack out the rest of the hike before 8pm. Yup, that's right! We killed 20 miles in 12 hours! Not to mention we had all the dumb unnecessary stuff in our packs. But hey, no one can complain when we drop a few extra pounds in a day!








(Pictures to come)



Yesterday morning we woke up at our KOA in Sundance and headed straight to see Devil's Tower. Pretty cool if you ask me. I was itching to climb it though. I am definitely starting to miss my climbing gear, slack line, and soccer ball more and more as we move forward. Then we headed straight up to Billings through an Indian Resorvation. Along the road were about 30 or 40 natives riding their horses. The front leaders had big head dressings and flag/staff things they were holding in their saddles. Pretty cool. It is a shame what the US has done to these people, I think they have every right to be mad!

So, brings me to this morning. We are scooping out some stuff to hike up here. Beautiful country up here. Our motive is to discover another place to take groups. We know Sundance area and want to use it as a back up because yes it is pretty, but it reminded me of Spruce Mnt for all you Monument people. It is more of a day hike area that we are linking stuff to make it longer. Not ideal...


Anyway. God is doing some cool stuff. Definitely reveal how the body of Christ is meant to operate and how we are to utilize the community and our brothers and sisters to help us. We can't do things on our own and I feel as though that is how I have lived much of my life. I considered myself independent and may have said I rely on God for everything, but in reality still tried to deal with a few things all on my own. God wants to help, He wants to be there through the joys and the pains. I am shifting my mentality of what an independent person looks like. I am now independent from this world and dependent on God.

John 15:4

Starting with a Twist, or a few....

Well, it has been quite the adventure and I have only been in the Big Horns for 7 days…and won’t be here much longer. Alright so lets rewind about nine days to last Friday, June 10th.
It all started when we forgot to get gas at a lunch stop as we were driving to WY from Chicago. We discovered this just as we hit the middle of Buffalo and Gillette with 45 miles both ways. We decided no reason to turn around to chance the same distance, so we go as far as we can on what is left in our reserve tank of our rockin’ mini van. Just as Dave (my trip leader) starts to feel the gas spittin’ we cross ‘Crazy Women Creek.’





Just after the creek was an exit that goes straight into this house/farm. “Hepp Brother’s Farm.” During this time our car was pretty quiet with a few jokes here and there to keep our optimistic attitudes in check. We pull off at Crazy Women Creek exit, I mean come on, who wouldn’t with a name like that in our circumstances?! Haha. Not gunna lie, I was a little spectacle, but as we pulled into the drive there were two 5 gallon gas tanks right outside the garage. Of course there were! Robbie goes up to the front door and explains the situation to our newly made friend Paul. He offers as much as we need as if it wasn’t the first time this has happened to him. Thank goodness for Paul! In fact, he is the owner of the nearest gas station 15 miles down the hwy. He tells us to be sure to go to that one to fill up. Now, we have our gas, Dave, Robbie, and I are in shock of all that has happened. So random. Dave’s next task was to document this. How many people stop and bum gas from the Hepp Brother’s at Crazy Women Creek?! So we trek about ¼ mile back up the hwy to capture the photo Dave wanted to badly! … hilarious.


We finally make it into Sheridan and stay at a KOA (Kampgrounds of America for all you dumbies! ☺) for the night. Saturday’s plan was to get up and check out our trail heads, come back and take inventory, then spend some quiet alone time for a couple hours to prepare for the week. We should have known that because of the gas event on Friday that our plan would not be accurate.

THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF A WEEK FULL OF THE UNEXPECTED…. Without going into extreme detail, I am going to list off all the events that took place this week.

_Saturday
1) 7:45am Drive to Burgess Junction Ranger Station to simply check in with them. Discover that the road we reach our Trail Head (TH) on is closed due to snow. This is the advise we got, “There is going to be anywhere from 1 to 10 feet of snow up on those trails.” Wonderful.




2) Check out the road for ourselves and pull in 200 yards before our sweet mini van can’t go on.
3) Begin traveling on HWY 14 south in the Big Horns to find dry land to plan a 5 night 6 day hike.
4) Discover Shell Canyon with Ranger Creek Station and Campground, Bench Trail at Post Creek, and Chimney Rock after nearly 3 hours of driving up and down a 3,000ft elevation difference canyon. The car remained positive, but an extremely quiet and thoughtful ride. With no food in our bellies and the altitude starting to kick in, we finally decide to head back to Sheridan to map out a route.
5) 3:00pm Find a book store and purchase some Topo Maps to begin linking different trails together to get a full trip in. After picking our brains we decide to sleep on it so we head back to KOA and take inventory and hit the hay.

_Sunday
6) Start fresh with breakfast and mapping routes. We finally have a TH and a TE and are eager for out team to meet us in Dayton to begin.
7) Our team arrives nearly 2 hours late as we wait at a park for them. We finally get to meet the team, full of energy of course, and head up the mnt!
8) We pull into our first TH and discover we cannot reach it because it is on Private Property. Of course. So we pull into the next road over about ¼ mile back up the road and find out it is a lady name Gal’s camp called Kedesh Ranch. She and her sons willingly allow us to unload and start our hike from their property until we reach BLM and back into the National Forest.
9) Finally begin hiking about 8pm with our Student Leaders of the day in the lead. Our only direction from the ranchers to get back to our trail was to “follow the fence to the gate.” Sweet… That didn’t work out so well. The terrane was intense. Mix desert and mountains.





10) Nearly an hour in we were still searching for water and our campsite that should have only been a 20min hike in.
11) About 11pm we discover a stream down a steep hill. As we trek down, our friend Jordan sprains his ankle pretty badly. Dave directs Robbie and I to take control of water fill up and lead the group to set up camp. We had to retrace our steps so we stayed of BLM property.
12) About midnight we have our tents up and dinner cooking.



_Monday
12) Dave and Tom (the youth pastor) wake up early to hike back to the camp to contact LeaderTreks and figure out an evac plan for our injured friend Jordan. My morning devos get interrupted by a four wheeler coming in to load up Jordan and evac him out. I am ordered to take two of the adults back to camp to drive up the canyon, pick up their vans at the TE in Ranger Creek and load up the kids.
13) I begin the drive up the canyon and see two red flashing lights…. ROAD CLOSED. There had been a landside on the canyon road.
14) Jordan is taken to a clinic 30 min away and Robbie and I stay with the students on the green grassy camp area doing team builders and lunch.
15) 3:30 rolls around and the canyon opens up and Jordan is back from the clinic on crutches. Gal offers a cabin for Jordan and an adult to stay at for the week as the rest of us head up to our trail end to set up base camp and do some day hikes.
16) We get to Rancher Creek and just as we begin setting up tents, it rains. The rain was off and on all night and into the morning.

_Tuesday
17) We do a day hike up snow show pass. With cold, wet shoes from the snow drifts we trekked through, we finally make it to the top. It was a fairly easy day on Tuesday.
18) That night a student’s stomach was not feeling well and we had to evac her in the morning to the cabin at the ranch with Jordan and Nora also.






_Wednesday
19) Decide to break camp and hike up Adelaide Lake Trail. We starting the trip with trouble finding water, and now that we were higher up we had trouble finding trails that were crossable. The river was roaring because of the glacier run off.
20) About 3 hours got us about 1.5 miles up and we struggled to cross the over flowing creeks. A few soaked shoes and one girl with wet pants from a slip. We set up a base camp at the first dry land we find. There was moose and bear poop everywhere. Definitely in some wildlife country. Robbie almost stepped on a baby dear, Bambie, as we were crossing through a valley. It was definitely sick and would not even lift his head as we stood less than 5 feet from it.






_Thursday
21) Time to tear down camp and take Old Mail Trail Loop to reach Ranger Creek that night. We hit 5 foot snow drifts ½ mile into the hike. Deciding to continue, we preserver through that mess.
22) With hope of the snow to clear, we only hit more and more. No one is prepared for this, shoes and clothes are soaked by now.
23) Things continue to get worse. We hit a ranging river that seems uncrossable. We find a sturdy tree that is over the water and set up some ropes to cross. A definite nail biting moment. If anyone where to fall in, bad news bears. Thank the Lord everyone made it across safe.
24) Reaching the top of the hill we know we must continue on. So back down the other side of the hill we hit a valley. Beautiful valley, but marsh land galore. The road we needed to cross over the river at was under the water too much. No way we could put 20 students through that depth of water.
25) 30 then 45 mins pass and we have searched up and down the river numerous times and cannot cross anywhere. Night was near, students are freezing, wet, and tired and we couldn’t go on.
26) We retrace steps again back up the hill to set up camp. We get two fires going, the tarp up, and tents stacked in. Then… guess what’s next, yup. Rain. Dinner and Team Time came and went fast.
27) Just as we were getting into tents for the night, the wolves just a few valleys away began howling. Yup, wolves. Great. Our bear bag was not hung and not placed far enough away from camp, the dinner pots didn’t get cleaned, and we had 20 kids up on top of a mountain. Sleep didn’t come that night…. But I will tell you what did.







_Friday
28) Snow. 1:30 am I hear “pitter patter, pitter patter.” Just as we thought all of our trials were over, we get showered with more. Boots outside, bags outside, and tent walls caving in, the morning never seemed to come.
29) Knowing the only way back to Ranger Creek was the way we came, we began our trek back from the way we came through the 5 foot drifts and log river crossing we already accomplished, but now with 5-7 inches of fresh snow. Wonderful.
30) Finally reaching the last mile stretch with the sun shining means mud everywhere. Muddy muddy trail back to the vans. The sight of two white vans never felt so good.
31) Pack up quickly and head back to Sheridan, about 1 hr 15 min drive… o wait, not this time. We get to HWY 14 North and yup, you guessed it, ROAD CLOSED. So we take the longest route possible back to Sheridan. 3 hour drive, with road construction….
32) It never seems to end!







So, quite the experience for a first LeaderTreks Trip. I am leaving out all the great stuff. I learned a lot about leading from the back. About the wilderness and backpacking. About unpredictability. About dealing and handling the unexpected. About honestly with self and others. I am learning how the body is meant to work together. Healing in lives is definitely taking place. God is expanding His love and leadership into the lives of youth, which is encouraging the older generations.


We are currently in the Starbucks in Sheridan getting ready to head south to discover a new trail that is not covered in snow. We have two weeks without any students because of one drop out. We were supposed to be in the Tetons walking through a discipleship devotional together, but instead we will be blazing a new place. I will keep you updated!

Thanks to all who are following. Love you all.

Daddy- Happy Father’s Day. You are the best Dad a girl could as for. You are the roots to the rose between the three thrones. Thanks for everything. Enjoy the condo at Table Rock.

Intern Training and Starting Out

Intern training was great. With all 16 of us interns from all over the place, we traveled up to WI to a camp called Expeditions Unlimited. Lori, Juls, Justin, Abby, and LZ taught us all we need to know about LeaderTreks.

We went through all the principles, traits, values, teachable moments, and so much more of LT. Every time, learning something new.

The final full day was the most fun! It was called challenged day. Starting at 8am, my team of interns and freshly made friends got to play games all day long. This is where all our newly acquired skills were put to the test. A wide variety of challenges including marbles, spider webs, freezer maze, maps, blind folds, and even planks on survivor island out at the lake in Devils Lake Park. A totally blast!

God continues to reveal to me what it is like to be submerged in the community that Christ desires us to be in. That we need others to guide us as we walk this life that is not meant to be east. All the interns were so focused on what God's plan is for them. I loved hearing what everyone's gifts, strengths, and weaknesses are. It created automatic bondage between everyone. Which, in the end, makes it so much harder to leave as we all go to our separate work sites for the summer.

I am so blessed to be partnering with Robbie. He will be a senior at Ceaderville next year and grew up just outside Indianapolis. I loved going through the intern training books with him because our "gifts/talents/weaknesses" are really going to work really well together. It is a great balance and I think he is going to be a great co-worker. It is great to watch him constantly improving himself so that he can better other people. Its great!

Dave, He is awesome too. Extremely knowledgeable about the wilderness and has devoted so much of his life to helping youth discover their unique leadership abilities. Although traveling some today is really the most time I have spent with Dave, he seems to really have a genuine heart for students and the service he does. I can't wait to work along side him as well.

The plan for now is to get to Montana/Wyoming. We are at a hotel in South Dakota simply relaxing. Should only have about 7 hours drive time tomorrow before we get there. I believe we are camping tomorrow night. Our first group does not get to us until Sunday. In the mean time, we will be scoping out the trail heads and spending some solo time. Pretty eager to just get started!!!


Missing everyone and can't wait to let you know how next week goes! I will keep you updated as I go!

Luke

Starting with Leaer Treks!

This blog is intended to keep my friends and family updated with my newly found adventure for this 2011 summer with LeaderTreks.


I will spend my summer back packing in Wyoming/Montana interning and leading wilderness trips for youth in Big Horn National Park with a nonprofit organization called Leader Treks.

Leader Treks (http://www.leadertreks.org) is an organization that offers adventure, mission, and wilderness trips to youth to help intensify their leadership abilities. The Lord has really placed all this in front of me filled with His Love and Guidance. God is continuing to put opportunities in my life that will build me and help me grow. Leader Treks is such a blessing because it falls perfectly into my passion for youth, the outdoors, and furthering God’s Kingdom. Leader Treks’ mission statement is to “Develop Leaders to Fulfill the Great Commission.”

After intern training in late May, all of June, July, and the first part of August will be spent developing high school students into effective leaders of the Church. These students have opportunities to learn through bible studies and the incomparable experiences of the wilderness. As an intern, my duty will be to help facilitate these 7-10 day trips by being a humble servant-leader. Servant Leadership is one of my greatest passions, as well as a great gift the Lord has blessed me with. Leader Treks is the perfect way to begin taking my passions into the professional world.

I have never been tested financially with Christ before, and I just successfully raised nearly $2,000 with the support of incredible friends and family. It is a big step of faith to count on other people financially, but ultimately I know that the Lord will provide, support, and take care of me. He always does. And a huge thanks and round of applause to all my friends and family members who were able to financially support me, thank you so very much!



I am in Seattle right now, visiting my brother Alex before I head to the LT office in Chicago. We will head straight up to MI for a cabin/camp to have some time together to train. I am extremely excited to meet and hang out with all the LT staff. They seem so great.

I will have the ability to hop on the computer every Saturday night to update a blog and get some school work turned in! Feel free to contact me, but know I wont get back until Saturdays.

Thank yo all so very much for your involvement in my life, and encouragement as I continue this summer on another adventure the Lord takes me on!

Love all you guys,

Peace and Blessings


Isaiah 58:9-12 <---- check it out!

Starting Fresh

Well Well Well. How do I even begin this? I think I will just start with the beginning of January. School started up again for me and I was not a happy camper. Going from livin' on my own, to being told what to do and how to do it was not working. But, I went along with it and it hasn't turned out too bad. The first month back was easily the worst. I never realized that my experience in Iceland would really show my who my true friends are, but it did. I left Monument having people at the house day and night and constantly doing something with a lot of people, to come home and have to search and search for just one person to hang with. Not exactly my style. :) ---side note, I'm going to just start another story into this, so try to follow--- While I spent lots of time alone and hanging with the family, I decided I would try to memorize a verse each week. So I started with Ephesians 5:2 as I randomly turned to it. :) "Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that." Love that, don't you? So, I started to go by that more often.

Some awesome stuff began falling into place in my life. Finally decided on a college after an incredible visit in January. I will be playing soccer at Indiana Wesleyan University and studying Recreational Management. My dream job outside of college is to be a camp counselor. IWU is absolutely perfect for me. Everything about it, ok well maybe not that its in Indiana, but i know that is where I'm supposed to be. Maybe God will place some corn children into my life! :) The team was everything and more that i had hoped for also. I stayed with Kylie Dial and spent a lot of time with Megan Marshall. Both awesome, incredible girls. I cannot thank them enough for helping me make my decision to be there. I loved the week i was there, Summit. Once a week each semester guest speakers come in and do a morning and night 7 day lesson thing. I loved it. And Chapel was a perfect combination of Forest Ridge CC and New Life. Therefore, perfect! The coach is also super friendly. He is helping me possibly get hooked up with the rock wall there and maybe a job already! can things get any better?!?! i submit that they cannot! I still give and get encouraging txts and messages from the girls at IWU. Praying for them and being prayed for! So awesome!

Tuesday mornings there is a prayer meeting that takes place in Ms. Ferguson's room at 7am. There is a solid group of about 15-20 who have committed to come each week, then also people who come in and out. However, that solid group, I feel, has become the prayer warriors of Lewis Palmer. All year, especially this semester, we have been praying for a movement, a revolution, in the school. The mornings are powerful prayers full of passion and scripture. Austin Hawk, a dear friend, and I have shared on numerous occasions that God is doing work; strong, powerful, hidden, and meaningful. A few of us felt that in our hearts God was about to make a huge move. Not knowing what it was, we remained faithful and obedient to Him. The Saturday night before spring break, there was an event called Unify. It invited all the youth groups in Monument to come together for a night of worship. And it was just that. A night filled of unity and community. My friend Austin Hawk spoke. He preached on unity. God is doing work at Lewis Palmer and in Monument, and Austin is intoned to it. The scripture that he used during his message was none other than from the book that has been on my heart the past few months, Ephesians chapters 4 and 5. He read that, and I could feel God tugging on my shirt saying, "Yes, this is it! Become one and all I want you to do is love as my son loved you." It was time for something big to happen. Spring break was great, spent it in Mexico with my family, until the night I came home. My driveway was snowed in, so I got dropped off at Austin's house to hang out and watch bball with my friends until we could reach the house. About 45 min after my arrival, Tyler Yoder got a weird text message from a number in Cali saying RIP Levi Patrick. Levi Patrick was our dear friend, there was no way. We made a few frantic phone calls, just to find out it was true. No one believed it.
Saturday, May 2, 2010 Levi Patrick died in a car accident on his way home from a road trip from California with his friends.

The first day back from break was hard, really hard. Being a peer counselor, i took on the responsibility of being strong for my classmates that needed it most. The school auditorium was open all day for kids to come in if they couldn't sit in class. There were sheets of paper on the stage where they could write something to the family, to Levi, or just a prayer. Some incredible things were written. We also plugged in an ipod for the day. Worship music all day long. ok so i'm going to say just a little bit about Levi. He was a servant of God, a leader, a friend, a son, a brother, a homecoming king, a football star, elite athlete, gentalmen, colorado boy. Above all his many attributes, Levi is remembered for his heart for God. Even those who don't believe in God know this. They see what a man of Christ is capable of doing. Levi's death has saved so many lifes. We prayed for a movement, an awaking, and we got in. There is no doubt in my mind that we have recieved it. Thank you, God. Ok, so in the auditorium we had worship music playing and there were hundreds of students, facalty, and outsiders in and out throughout the day. Prayer, songs, readings, fellowship, tears, comforting, writing, and so much more took place in there on that monday. I witnessed so many miricales happen.

God is moving in some pretty crazy ways. Some of the stuff i can't even find words to describe to you right now, but i know what he is doing. One of the biggest and most evident things i saw God working on were different relationships. People realized that life is too short, and its not worth not being "ok" with someone. Broken relationships were mended. Old break-ups that resulted to not talking didn't exist any longer, and old friends with grudges became impossible to find. I saw one inparticular that broke my heart and all i could do was smile. My friend Jermey Dill has not spoken with a guy Richie Eaton in a long time. Jermey was sitting down in the front of the auditorium and Richie walked in, no one knew what would happen next. Jermey stud up, they starred at eachother for a moment or two, then simply embraced eachother with tears. As easy as that! God does things we can't understand and we would have never been able to, isn't that why he is the Almighty God? There are numerous stories similar to this one. I am a part of that number. AJ and I dated, broke up when i left the country. I was home and he had moved on to a new girl. Fine with me, not a problem at all, but for some reason we supconsciensly decided that talking and socializing was not an option. We broke that silent agreement quickly. Its just not neccassary in a world like this. Hundreds, i mean hundreds, of relationships are now standing at a much better place. God taught us that its pointless and not worth it to not be on good terms with someone. We are all human, we all have the same feelings, why act like thats different than what it really is? (Phil 5:2 ..to iron out their differences and make up. God doesn't want his children holding grudges.")

As that day moved on, i was feeling pretty drained by lunchtime. For some reason God gave me a strong heart and i remained composed for the day. Dispite the envirment i was in. However, lunchtime was slow and most of the other pc's had left to grab lunch. So i decided that i really needed a pick me up and a refreshment. So i went to the back chairs and i opened up to my bible in Philipians. I started reading. Read half of the book. God's timing is incredible beceause the begining of the book was about loving people and living a life like Jesus lived. That message is alive and will never be stripped from us, so we must use it. also on how we must rejoice together. that everything we do we must do it readily and cheerfully. I stopped reading in the middle of chapter 3 where Paul wrote on knowing God personally. "All things i once thought were so important are gone from my life. Capred to the high prvilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything i once thought i had going for me is insignificant." Phil 3:7-8 It was no accident that i chose to stop reading at that moment. The next hour or two had so many conversations with poeple on that exact subject, not sparked by my words but by theirs. God is sooo good! His timing is unbelievable. A number of girls came up to me and asked if we could start a bible study because.... then they would break down before Christ. All i could do was smile. The whole day people were morning and grieving for Levi, all i could do was rejoice in what Christ has done! I decided to pick up my bible again and finish Phil because it had so much to offer earlier. The rest of the book is about focussing on the goal and prayer. God spoke throgh Paul saying that, "If any of you have some else in mind, something less than total commitment, god will clear your blurred vision- you'll see it yet!" That is exactly what He has done with Levi. He has cleared our blurred vision and made it obvious that we are living for Him, nothing else. Nothing else even matters. Paul also wrote about prayer. " Dont fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray...Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come settle you down. It's wonderful wht happens when Christ displaces worry at the cener of your life."

Prayer is powerful. i beleive, scratch that- i know, that the silent prayer for someone is more powerful than prayers outloud for individuals. Don't get me wrong, praying for and with people is important and very much so needed, but God is a goofy God were we can pray al the time in our heads, and God will reveal things in crazy crazy ways. It has been so incredible to see kids i never would have imagined at this time in their lives to turn them around and follow Jesus! I lvoe it! The school is moving, and its not just students. Staff members are touched, changed, and encouraged. its a pretty cool thing to seee happening. Some of it is a slow process, really slow. but that is what we are meant to do, plant the seeds no matter how small they are. Now, i feel like this seed planted is slightly bigger than a mustard seed... but hey, what ever works ya know?

As that week moved on, i continued to see God working. No shock there. Nate Matteson, Jake Oakey, and Chase Yaegar were in the car with Levi. 3 walking miricals right there. Chase walked out of the hospital with some scratches and a concussion, Nate spent a few days with extra care just to leave with 27+ broken bones and head injuries, and Jake walked out with scratches, head injuries, and painful images in his head. I have known all three guys throughout high school, jake since 8th grade, and nate since 5th grade. The Matteson's and my family have soccer, summer boating, and family function memories together. Hearing that Nate came so near to death was hard to grasp, but knowing he and Christ are so solid now was quite the refresher. Chase, I think, was a believer before the accident but ever since has been a different man living for a different reason. And Jake, Jake is a morman. One of the sweetest guys I know. I got the chance to really sit down and be real with Jake. Scratches will heal, but pain and images take a different medication to remove. Jake never blacked out during that accident and got up running to help his friends, only to find one of them already gone. Imagine... I can't even. I did my best to comfort Jake and guide him through some of the trama. There is only so much a friend can do in a situation like this... The following week, Zack Meerkreebs (a dear friend to the Matteson's) started a bible study at the Matteson's on Tuesday nights. The first few weeks we had nearly 20+ people there. Eager to hear about this guy named Jesus that Levi was so in love with.

Levi's funneral was incredible. Held at New Life Church and packed full. Hundreds of people were there. The speakers and musicians all did so well. The conclusion of the ceremony was unbelievable. The pastor called for anyone who wanted to commite their life to Christ to the front steps. Nearly one hundred people, students, teachers, and adults came to the stairs to be saved. Just what Levi would have wanted. All he wanted to do was to save just one life, just one. His legacy will forever live, and the hundreds of lives he saved will forever thank him. God smiles towards Levi. I had yet to shed a tear over Levi's death. I had been so awstruck over God's movement and all that he had been doing that smiles powerfully replaced any sort of grieving or pain. One week after the funneral I decided to attend New Life sunday service with Bobby and the Howards. The end of the service Pastor Brady Boyd touched on the funneral service ealier that week. He didn't spend but 45 seconds on the subject, but for some reason it got to me. I couldn't stop crying! Now if you dont know me, I am not a cryer, especially in public. Nope, not me at all... but I just could not stop! I left realizing that I need to put some focus on myself and stop trying to make everyone better. I learned that everyone needs to take care of themself sooner rather than later in order to be a real help. Also, learned that you must greive; and that it is an ok thing to do...

The Lewis Palmer High School Class of 2010 became one after that saturday night. Not only did walking through the halls feel different, but it felt real. Love is a powerful word, I have always known that, but I am not sure I have ever seen it alive the way it was at school the last few months of high school.

God does wonders, His timing is simple perfection, and His love is extravagant.

Ephisians 5:1-2
Watch was God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He did not love in order get get something from us but he loved to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.