Colorado Springs

Sunday, June 17, 2012

It’s a beautiful morning in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It’s also Father’s Day. Sadly, and disappointingly I have been off traveling the last three summers, meaning I haven’t been with my dad on Father’s Day for the last three years. Luckily with technology and cell phones, I was able to spend some time talking to him during our Sam’s run in the afternoon.

Waking up to a mountain view is such an incredible moment. God is so visible and it’s just magnificent to see the works of the Father. I’m really excited for the work this week, and can’t see what God is going to do!

Monday, June 18, 2012

This morning all of the CCYMers stayed back at the church here in Colorado Springs. (We’re staying at First UMC of CO Springs. HUGE church). Each of us worked on our devotions for the week, talking with each other for ideas and inspiration. While waiting for Bev to return from Woodland Park (This is where we meet the workers from the Coalition of the Upper South Platte, or CUSP, for training/debriefing and depart into the mountains for work) the CCYM got a little adventurous and decided to bleach some hair. Let’s just say a bunch of youth with a bottle of bleach probably isn’t the greatest idea. But it was a lot of fun! After our hair bleaching experiences we proceeded to Sam’s for a giant grocery run and spent our afternoon monitoring showers and helping out in the kitchen.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Today was a hot one. My goodness is the sun scorching hot here! Today Tristan, Garrett, Luke and I stayed back to help in the kitchen while the others departed for the mountain. Nothing really exciting happened, but it was a very productive day. I learned what it means to be extremely hydrated. Let’s just say that I’ve never used the bathroom so many times in my life! But on the bright side, I’m staying hydrated! This afternoon was full of getting lost with Bev, searching for Wi-Fi and gawking at God’s marvelous works. Today was a good day.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Mountain time! I always love the Colorado mission trips because they are so different from the other mission trips we put on. Most places we do basic construction, painting, etc. But here in Colorado, we work in the mountains, in the great outdoors! Ten years ago, a terrible fire, the Hayman fire, tore through mountainsides in Woodland Park and surrounding areas. Today we continued restoration work that has been going on for ten years now. There are still parts of the fire path that the trees haven’t been cleared out yet, and are lying on the ground on mountainsides. Today we worked in an area pulling noxious weeds (harmful vegetation that won’t allow the healthy stuff to grow), bundling and watering willows, and covering hill sides exposed to erosion.

My team was assigned to watering willows. Honestly, I’ve never seen so many little trees in my life. EVER. The job turned out to be an awesome arm work out, hauling five gallon buckets up and down the mountainside to water all the little trees. Upon our completion of watering every willow, my shoes and jeans were soaked. But it helped us beat the heat! Working in the mountains today was a lot of fun, and allowed me to do work that I haven’t done in years past.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Today was just another ordinary day back at the church. I did a small load of laundry, prepared lunch stuff, shopped at Sam’s and then cleaned the kitchen. Unbeknownst to us until yesterday, the health inspector was due for a visit. Today. At 11 am. I’ve never scrubbed a kitchen counter so deliberately in my life. Luckily, the church passed the inspection and our cleaning efforts paid off. We treated ourselves and the lovely cooks, Dean and Nancy (who I’ve now worked with on three mission trips) to lunch in downtown Colorado Springs at a local sandwich shop. It was delicious!

This afternoon we traveled down the street to the Olympic Training Center. I’ve been to Colorado Springs three previous times for mission trips, and this was my first time to visit the training center. It was awesome to see where the athletes trained and we even got to go into a couple of the training rooms! Unfortunately Michael Phelps, who was spotted prior this week by other church groups, had left this morning. Bummer. But the experience was still really cool!

Friday, June 22, 2012

I always dread the last morning of every mission trip, partly because I hate goodbyes. Each week there’s always people that I grew close to throughout the week and don’t want to say goodbye to. If I had a choice, I’d sneak some of them into my suitcase. It’s actually probably big enough to fit a person. I’m not even kidding. After saying goodbye’s we started the trek back to Springfield. We stopped in Kansas City though for dinner at Famous Dave’s. Brody, Nik, Garrett and I invited our families out to join for dinner, which ended up being a lot of fun. Plus it was nice to see mom, dad and Nate after being gone for a couple of weeks. Even if it was just for a few hours for dinner.