Best Friend, New Adventure and Colorado

As I had mentioned last Thursday I got on a plane headed for Denver, Colorado. I was heading out to see my best friend, Clare. It was such an incredible trip! I am so glad that I got to spend the time with her and catch up on life.

Let me take a couple minutes to talk to you about Clare, she is definitely a noteworthy person.

CLARE: Nickname - Soap Bubble. Why? Because she is bubbly and light. She has so many different, beautiful colors about her. She is a stunning human being inside and out.

Clare and I met almost 7 years ago. Holy cow, I can't believe it's been that long. We roomed together throughout college. We struggled with life together, we laughed together, we cried together, we explored together, we talked deeply about God and love and school, we discussed and challenged each other, we grew together. We did life together and then we did life apart. After college Clare settled in Denver and then shortly after started school to get her masters. As you all know, life has taken me to many different states. But despite the distance our friendship stayed strong. For as loyal as I am, Clare is equally as loyal. Thanks to phone calls and skype we have been able to keep up with each other's lives, regardless of how busy we are. Even more reassuring is that even without seeing each other for almost a year in between each visit, we fall back into life as if no time has passed at all. I am beyond thankful for a best friend like her.


So during this visit to Colorado we filled each day with adventures and quality time. Grace and Annie, two of Clare's sisters spent time and adventured with us too, along with Dez, Clare's boyfriend. It was so great to be able to spend time with all of these wonderful people; it brought my heart so much joy and I'm thankful for all of them.

We spent one day at the Garden of the Gods and then for whatever reason we hiked The Monitou Incline. I get tired even writing the name of it. The Incline is only a 1 mile hike but it climbs 2,000 vertical feet during that 1 mile. Meaning the summit is some 8000 ft. It was awesome and awful at the same time. It took Clare and Grace about an hour and 3 minutes. It took me about an hour and 10 minutes. But it was really awesome and I'm glad that I did it. The picture to the right give you a little bit of understanding as to what it looked like and the video clip below will help you understand what I felt like climbing it!  

We also spent a good portion of a day rock climbing, which was awesome! This trip was definitely filled with adventures and good memories. And among all of these incredible memories I also got to share a really awesome moment with my best friend too. But here's a little back story: 

As you all know I was waiting to hear back about a potential job opportunity out in CO. As I wrote about in previous blogs I have been working on accepting God's timing over my own. So last shift I intentionally decided not to bring my phone out into the field to be intentional about listening to God and his direction. I won't lie, I fully expected to come out of the woods last Wednesday with an e-mail waiting in my inbox telling me one way or another. I will also be honest and say that I was extremely disappointed when I did not find that e-mail in my inbox. But I remembered, God's timing. So I waited, and Thursday I sent out an e-mail reaffirming my interest and asking what next steps look liked. A phone call was in the works of being scheduled but with my travel plans and also their traveling on Thursday, it was moved to Friday, again, God's timing not mine. Come Friday we set up a time for the conversation to take place, 3:00p. As the time drew closer I became more anxious and jittery. And literally minutes before 3:00p rolled around I received a text saying the the phone call would have to be delayed for about an hour due to an impromptu meeting with the president of the ministry. It was literally like God (lovingly) smacked me and said, "HELLOOO! My timing remember! Stop being anxious!! I got this!" And at that point God just removed my sense of time; I had no idea when the phone call was happening and I just had to let it all go. So I did. And through all of this, Clare was patiently sitting by my side watching all of my crazy. And then the phone rang. 

I am so excited to announce that I was offered the job and will be moving out to Colorado by mid April! I am now the Activities Manager and Retreats Coordinator at Sky Ranch Horn Creek! 

It was so much fun to celebrate this new opportunity with my best friend and I'm thankful for her support and love through it all. As I transition into this new chapter of my life I hope that God continues to remind me to trust in His timing. I'm also pretty excited to only being living 3 hours and 3 minutes (we mapped it) from my best friend! But also that I am going back into ministry with so many exciting opportunities within my new position! I can't wait to see what God has planned for this new adventure!! 

Well, that's all I got for now. Thanks for sticking around until the end :)

Until next time, take a breath and trust that God's watch works better than yours. 

(At the top of The Incline. We could see for miles!) 

Temporary Drifter

Hi Friends! It feels like it has been so long since I have last written. Hopefully this post will fill you all in on the adventures that I've been having.

I feel as if I've turned into a temporary drifter. I haven't slept in the same place two nights in a row since March 5th. It has been exhilarating and exhausting. My last off shift I had an amazing opportunity to be flown out to Colorado for a meet and greet job interview for a full time year round position at a Christian Camp and Conference Center. Before anyone gets too excited, I am still waiting to hear the outcome but regardless of how it turns out, it was such an incredible experience.

I flew into Colorado Springs and since I don't remember anything from when I was out there as a kid (sorry Mom and Dad) I was in awe of the beauty that I found. The size of the mountains and the vast open spaces are such a unique combination that inspired a profound admiration. I stayed in Pueblo for a night, so thankful to sleep in a bed (it had been about 3 months)! And the next day drove to the Great Sand Dunes National Park. What a beautiful and yet random place! Afterwards, I traveled to the camp grounds and spent the next day and a half meeting people and getting acquainted with the grounds. As I said before, it was a really great experience. I traveled back to Asheville that Tuesday and went out into the woods on Wednesday.

My week at work started out hot right from the start. From 4p-12a me and one of my staff were occupied with a student who had attempted to run and we were trying to keep her safe. At one point my head had the unfortunate pleasure of being introduced to her water bottle, which ultimately resulted in a concussion. Like I said, my week started off hot. After a whole bunch of logistical things, the group, myself and one of my co-staff headed out to Panther Town for expo. We hiked to some cool campsites and the group did really well. It is always hard to only have one other staff, especially when you have 7 kids. Safe to say, I got very little down time. But my week was filled with lots of laughter and joy despite it all. The week also ended with a bang! Tuesday night somewhere around 12, I had finally crawled into my sleep bag and was just getting warm and toasty when not 200 ft from camp I could hear a bear clawing and scratching his way up our bear hang tree. Then a conversation something like this:

*Whisper* Staff: "Hey. Hey! There's a bear at the bear hang."
Me rolling over: Yeah, I know. I can hear it.
S: I think I'm going to go scare it away.
M: Uh, what?
S: Yeah. That will work right?
M: Um. It's a bear, I'm going to stay in my sleeping bag. I'd rather it eat our food than me.
S: It will be ok, I'll take my radio.
M: Wait, what? I'm pretty sure I'll hear you without a radio.

Then she was gone. Enter high anxiety and all senses heightened. I hear her clapping and shaking branches. Not 6 minutes later she is back.

M: Well?
S: I just looked a bear in the face. We locked eyes. And it wasn't scared of me.
M: Good thing you had your radio.
S: What now? Can I have the multitool? (There's a knife on it)
M: For what? It's like 6 inches long. We'd be dead if it was close enough to use it.
S: Should we hang our food? (We had been munching on food while working on paperwork and didn't hang our bear bags)
M: I think it found the food it's going to eat. It already walked past our food. And again, I'd rather it get my pack than me. But if you want to go out into the dark night with your food and a bear lurking somewhere, go ahead.

*Also keep in mind that at this point it is silent and we have no idea where the bear is. So yes, I was still very much anxious. And there is a lot of laughter going on between me and my co-staff because this situation is just kinda ridiculous*

S: Well.. sleep well I guess.
M: Ha! Yeah, you too.

Ironically, I did sleep great that night. I guess I was just too tired to care if a bear was going to eat me. If that doesn't tell you something about my job, than I don't know what would.

It was a great shift. It felt like 5 years since last Wednesday but a lot of really neat things happened within those 8 days.

Today I went out riding this morning and in a few hours I will be getting on a plane to head to Denver, CO. This time for a mini VK to see my best friend Clare! It has been almost a year since our last adventure together and I am so excited to hang out with her for the next few days.

So my drifter ways continue and the adventures and memories are worth it. I'll keep you all posted on my adventures as they unfold in front of me!

Until next time, "the world is full of good people, if you can't find one, be one."