Uh-Oh

This morning( Wednesday SLAM) I woke up and made the ultimate decision to NOT wake anyone up like prior days. Instead I slowly woke up before the time the morning alarm would normally screech at the lovely time of 7:45. I decided to take a shower... In the sink... and I put on my socks and left the rest of our room alone, as many do not like to be woken up on any day of the week. Breakfast was served a little later than usual which resulted in a late start to go root digging. We got in the cars and Jake, Liam, and I jammed out in Happy's car as we made it to the Long House where we met our host for the day. Our host told us hard stories of the results of drugs and alcohol which set a somber tone for the quick discussion. However, as she continued there were signs of hope and it was clear her faith was strong in our creator. She rescued dogs, and adopted a little girl at the age of 2 months, the baby girl had meth in her body as a baby. She has raised her ever since and she was her pride and joy in life. Back to our focus, we hopped back into our cars and hit the road to the mountains... that is where the true chaos began. So! We are now back in Happy's car and we began to ride down roads that clearly haven't been driven on for awhile. We had to pull over to hop in the back of Mollie's truck to continue on this bumpy and wet roller coaster ride. We drove through deep water trenches and I was most impressed by the way our church van kicked booty through the rough waters! We were going smooth until we looked ahead. Our lead slid into the side of the road which caused her to get stuck. Quickly, our team leaped into action as they hopped out of all vehicles and went to help her! Our team gathered logs, a bumper that was claimed as "un-useful" and some other scraps that may have helped? Ha. To continue, through rough waters and lots of pieces and parts to attempt to get this car free, we couldn't. The end. Joking, but we did call a tow truck as the rest of the group hiked along. Through beautiful plains that weren't disturbed by much, the rolling hills screamed comfort and it was peaceful. We got the the location were the roots grew and we began to dig on this majestic land. We heard that the men that came to tow us out were questioning why we were on this land. There was a possibility that we could to be fined. To elaborate, in tradition, non natives are typically not allowed to be on this land, and definitely not to go root digging. I learned later that women are the only natives that can do the root digging as well. In conclusion, it was an honor for our team to hunt for some roots with a member of the Yakama Nation. It was amazing to say the least, we even found a bearded lizard, that was radical! Lets go onto the next activity, cause I'm getting bored. We then went back to the long house and got to go inside, this was rare and this was great. We walked in their footsteps and learned how their funerals worked, it made me feel guilty, this is because they treat their bodies with so much respect and pride and compared to us, they honor the bodies with such care. Let me share a fun fact with you. Once the body dies, they must hold a funeral, and at that funeral they begin the grieving where they fully accept that the spirit has left with the dead for just one year until the memorial which is one year later where they can reveal all association with the body once again, if that makes sense. If not, feel free to talk to me later (; Okay, next subject folks! We got back in the caravans and hit the epicenter of Yakama Nation and went to their museum, I wanted to hang out with another one of our hosts, his name was "Elton" he took me on a tour of the whole museum and it was breath taking and it shocks me on how much he knows about his culture, at such a young age. He talked to me about fishing, it was his specialty, he knew so much and I could see his eyes sparkle when I talked about fishing. Now I am gonna go play wall ball, and to do so I have to wrap this whole spiel up first. We ended the night with dancing and a divine dinner of fry bread and salmon, the best salmon I have had. Everyone had smiles on there faces today and it was clear we all learned a lot more about our creator. What an amazing and blissful day.

Goodnight folks.

-Joshua Hren

H2O 2016

Last week was an incredible week filled with delicious food, new friendships, and (of course) lots of water.

We brought 28 students with us to Eastern Washington to enjoy 4 days away from the hustle and bustle of daily living.  Here are some highlights from each day:

Day 1

As we gathered in the parking lot, there was lots of excitement.  Students brought there stuff to the check-in table with smiles and lots of energy.  But there were also nerves in the air.  Nerves from parents who were saying goodbye, and nerves from kids who had never spent this much time away from home.  

For the first time ever we invited incoming 6th graders to join us for this trip.  While they were very excited in this first hour,  it was noticeable that they were nervous as well.  

When we got to camp, everybody had one goal, to set up camp.  The rule was set the moment we arrived, no going to the water until camp was set up.  So each group of kids were given a tent and told that they were in charge of setting it up.  

Now I can't lie, I was a little worried as to how this would go.  I had images of half setup tents and of kids giving up and claiming they will sleep outside.  But after handing out all of the tents, I went to the camp office to check-in and make sure they had everything from me that they needed.  After getting everything squared away with them, I came back to half the camp setup!  I couldn't believe my eyes.

After we were finished setting up, almost everybody went down to the water to swim.  Kids who didn't know many people were immediately included in joint swimming activities and it became clear that this was going to be a great trip.

The highlight of this day for most of us was when Paul Cranefield got out his telescope.  Students gathered around to see stars and planets close up.  Paul would flip pages through his book to find cool things to see.  One of the highlights was seeing the rings around Saturn!

Day 2

As I woke up early in the morning, and began to brew coffee for the leaders, I noticed Ben Fankhauser walking back to his cabin, hair dripping with a towel in his hand.  I couldn't believe it.  I have never known a middle school student who cared enough about his hygiene to wake up before even the leaders were up to make sure he could fit a shower in.  

By the middle of the day it was clear that the students who I was a little worried about (the incoming 6th graders) were doing great!  They had bonded with not only each other, but with the rest of the group as well.  They loved to get involved, and our group loved having them involved.  We were less than a day into the trip and they were already no longer the "new people", but just part of the group.

Much of the evening was spent talking about fun times on the boats.  Students talked about when they flipped the tube, or their first time knee-boarding.  

Day 3

On trips like this, I always schedule a leader meeting for the morning before students wake up.  This is a chance for leaders to talk about how the trip is going and if there are any things to keep an eye on.  By day 3 it was obvious that our trip was going great.  Our meeting was more just time for leaders to have coffee together and talk through meal-prep than to talk about any problems with students.  These kids were great!

As I was walking down to the water, I noticed 4 boys riding on a trailer behind the camp host.  She was doing her morning rounds of taking the garbage out to the dumpster, when they noticed and volunteered to help take it out.  They were even late for their boat run!  Thanks Ben, Stephen, Ian, and Spencer!

After lunch, I realized that I had forgotten to get out our rock painting craft.  Once students noticed this, they immediately flocked.  It doesn't take much to get the creativity out of  a middle schooler.  We had rocks with faces, rocks with notes, even starry night!

That night was smores, and nothing beats time around a campfire roasting marshmallows.  

Day 4

After our final breakfast, it was time to pack up, and I was again surprised at the great work of these kids!  I went to go pay our final balance and by the time I was back all of the tents were down and almost in their bags.  

It was a great 4 days with too many memories to try to write down, but I encourage you to ask your kids about the memories that they will remember.

My big highlight was the new 6th graders though.  This trip was a great way for them to plug in, and I am very excited to see them at Primetime this fall!

Here are some pictures to show off the fun time that we had!

Houseboats 2016 Recap

This is a quick recap of an incredible weekend with our HS KCC students. Take a look and see some of the highlights.

Day 1 – Gracie and Sydney

Today was the first official day on the lake. It was filled with a lot of thrilling events, from in the water, to on the party barge there were definitely laughs all around. The morning took a head start with early rising and an early breakfast and worship. Once the temperature warmed up, everyone was not afraid to get on in the water activities. With many boat runs there was plenty of time to go inner tubing or water skiing. The day wrapped up with some games led by Janelle, along with worship and a short but sweet talk from Paul. The week theme is passion and I think that Paul started it out very well. He kept it open enough for interpretation and thought, and left space for plenty more talks in days to come. This was followed with small groups. In my small group we talked about when the line is drawn between having a passion and having an addiction. With this topic, an interesting analogy came up. This was the connection between passion and addiction with the similarities of bread and toast. Earlier in the day, some of us were discussing about when the line is drawn between toast and bread. Although this question may seem silly, passion connects with bread and toast. Passion is a lot like bread, it can be taken in a lot of different directions, like making a sandwich or eating a piece of bread with jam. The same way you can with passion. Now with toast there are many different degrees of toastedness, similar to addiction. We just found this a funny connection and something to bring up. The night ended with games, snacks, and lots of laughs. Putting a great finish on an exciting first day on the lake.

Day 2 – Garen

Our second day on the lake started a bit rough with clouds wind and a bit of rain, but as the day moved on the clouds burned off and we got amazing clear skys. Dusty was particularly funny today. At one point he was out on an inflatable raft and kept shouting “Puerto rican baby!” while rowing himself in a circle. During some down time Emili taught Dusty how to say “C’est moche” and wrote it on his back...as a reminder. During the morning run we found a rope swing across the lake, so I decided to test it out and climb off the front of the boat, but when I swung I was so low my knees hit the water I had to drop while the whole group was watching and taping. In the evening Paul talked about godly passion vs worldly passion, to help convey this message he used the parable about saving star fish on a beach and told us the story of happy feet. After building up the story of saving the penguin he crushed us by telling us happy feet probably died. Paul connected this in by telling us that working to help one makes a difference. We finished the night off with great small group talks in the dark followed by games.

Day 3-4 - Josh

Wow, what a time it has been! Today I woke up to the sound of an air horn in my ear, signaling it was time to rise and shine. The sun was out and not a single cloud could be seen. Last night I fell asleep to the sound of birds chirping from every direction, with the night before that was lighting flashes in the far distance making me quickly put my head inside my sleeping bag. Today I accomplished something that I wouldn’t have the confidence to do in a hundred years. I had the help of all houseboat campers and leaders as well. They all pushed me to take a jump of faith into the calm and glassy water. I felt this nudge from God telling me it would be alright and that he would keep me safe. I finally stood on the land next to the rope swing and decided it was something that I had to try out even when I was unsure of the outcome. I was handed the rope by one of the Jake’s and I herd my name being called to just kick my feet out and the rest would come naturally. I looked to my left and saw my sister smirking and giving me a thumbs up, I knew that face. It was the “Mom is not gonna like this” sort of face. At that moment I kicked my feet out from under me, got over the water and let go of my comfort zone with a big splash! When I surfaced the water I herd chanting and cheering and that’s when I knew I was with more then just friends but with family. Later that day I went inner tuning with Jake Fank and Jake Stephens and what an incredibly good time. We were hitting big wakes and getting air on every turn Todd made. All along we were screaming a Christian song that is our song of the week "Undignified"! It talks about being undignified for god and giving him your praise and I felt that was really something neat that three guys were praising god while going on a very bumpy joyride. There are two speed boats ( Dave & Todd) this week and they sometimes teamed up to make crazy wakes for all of us! As the night went on we all were in the process of making friendship bracelets or playing one of many intense board games. Dinner was soft tacos that of course were delicious and enough food to feed an army, Russ has done an amazing job making sure every dinner would feed everyone! If someone didn’t want soft tacos he would make them spaghetti with out even asking them why they don’t like soft tacos. After dinner we all sat around and waited for Paul’s talk. It was an open discussion where we all got to find a passage in God’s word that showed passion. We are learning that passion doesn’t always have to be positive, and that many of the people in the bible were very passionate about what they believed in, even if it meant running around praising God in minimal clothing- like David. After the talk we wrapped up the night in small group where we had deep questions and had a long discussion about what passion can do in your life. What a time it has been and here is to more amazing days to come! On Friday we are going on a midnight swim with 100 glowsticks to light up the sky! I am still  amazed that all 33 of us had the honor of spending a week together, building friendships while deeply learning and praising God.

Day5-Emilie ( all the way from France- a.k.a. "frenchie")

What a trip and what a group ! First of all I’d like to say how thankful I am to be a part of this amazing adventure and thanks the Rebers for bringing me and being such an amazing family. I also want to thanks everyone that welcomed me in this group everyone is so nice.So… today was a lot of fun ! I woke up just for breakfast, I’m finally succeeding to sleep (yeahh). After a good bagel, I’m already on a boat ready to enjoy a morning ride with Todd & Janelle, Garen, Yasi and Elisabeth. I can’t even describe how amazing it was to see these people giving the best of themselves on the wakeboard with such a gorgeous background! And I have to give a special “Bravo” to Janelle who is the best water skier ever!Then we sang altogether, with the amazing worship team. It is a moment of the day I really enjoy because I really feel like the part of something beautiful and this is a peaceful moment of sharing. Devotional today didn’t touch me as the other days. I read the part of the Bible as requested and I tried to think about this idea of faith but I didn’t managed to feel as peaceful and full of questions as during the other devotional times this week.Then we had lunch all together, I took some time to read before going back on the boat for the whole afternoon (I’ve been really lucky today). The tubing was a lot of laughs and fun, at one point I was with Dylan and Avery on the big blue tube and we flipped which was both awesome and really scary but it was the first time I flew, so I took it as a new experience ! Except for the sunburns, I really loved every minute on the boat. I have this Image in my head that I hope will stay there forever, of the sun shining on the lake, all these people having fun in the tubes and laughing and falling and the music. It was perfect.When we came back I took some time with my small group to rehearse the talent show. Our show will be awesome, I have a really good time with these guys just sharing and laughing. Then I had to help Russ cooking dinner. Well, it was burritos so basically I cut the olives and put cheese in a bowl but it was good feeling helpful. I also made the dishes, I’m not going to lie, wasn’t the best part of my day but I’m receiving so much from this trip that if I can give a little bit of my time to help I do it. Then we worshiped again, that was a beautiful moment I couldn’t sing ‘ocean’ with everybody because I don’t now the lyrics but it was a beautiful moment of harmony and I really think that God was among us. Paul’s talk really helped me to figure out what I didn’t really understood during devotional and I now see that sometime faith can be challenging, but it ‘s important to keep it for it gives us power. I had the opportunity to share my own experience in my small group and I realized that I tend to turn to God when I’m being challenged rather than losing my faith. We also enjoyed a wonderful sunset, to end this busy and interesting day.

Day 6- Ryan 

House Boats are not for the weak! It will throw you and burn you till you wish you were back at your safe and unspiritual life. But if you take the challenge you will feel changed and the closest to God you have ever been. Every morning, waking up sore and barely able to wake up is the best feeling because you know you have been with God. This is mainly because you fell off a big rubber tube at 35 mph in the cold glacier water. Or it could also be the fact that Paul’s talk stir’s up the hardest topics that most pastor’s want to skip because it is so difficult to do while preaching on Sundays. Paul without a doubt spoke through the Lord and made the talk that much deeper. This talk has to be at the same if not better level than the talks at CHIC. It really beat us spiritually because every thing about passion we thought we knew was different in the Bible. For example, we think that passion is an amazing thing that everyone should have. But  I learned that in the Bible passion is used in a negative way and used for ungodly desires. One passion of mine on this trip was definitely inner tubing. Flying around the corner and hitting waves that propels you 10-15 feet in the sky and landing hard on the water all while holding on to the tube is an amazing feeling. Doing that for a week was the best and worst thing I could have done. But it is an amazing cycle that can change the way you do about your life when you come back to civilization.

                                                                             

 Day 7-Savannah Marburger 

It’s the last full day on the Houseboats and we are making the most of it! We had pancakes for breakfast which were delicious, then the leaders went for a morning boat ride around the lake. While they were doing that, we started worship where Evan let us pick the songs we wanted to sing. The leaders returned and we did devotionals like usual. I sat on the houseboat roof and by the end of the 45 minutes was ready to jump into the water. Lunch was next where the Blue Boat had made-to-order grilled cheeses. We were able to pick our bread and everything between them. I was on the 12:30 boat run on Dave’s boat with Yasi, Axel, Ryan, Lizzie, Kelsey, and Dylan. We only had the flat inner tube so Kelsey and Lizzie want to go that fast so they didn’t flip. I went with Dylan and Ryan and there were huge waves. We went over some and flew so high I’m not sure how we stayed on so long. Because of these we were laughing so hard our stomachs hurt. Finally Dave stopped because we had stayed on so long. Then Yasi and Dylan switched. We switched places half way through where I moved from the middle to the left, Yasi moved from the right to the middle, and Ryan jumped all the way from the left to the right spot. I kept making bread puns about Ryan because his nickname is Rye Bread. Then Dave made a sharp left and Ryan and Yasi flew off. Then the boat ride ended and now I am writing this blog post. It’s been a great day, and I hope the rest is as awesome!

Day 8 - Austin Freeman
Everyone has survived! We all woke up this morning bright and early (even Jonah got up)! We all ate up the leftovers, which was mainly cereal. And then we all ended up packing. We packed up our personal items, including our sleeping gear. We then put all of our stuff onto the boats and left the party barge. The views, as usual, were amazing. We then arrived at the Marina and began offloading all of the gear into the cars. It took a while, and by know it was 10:30 A.M. We then started on our way back home. We traveled in different vehicles, but many of us were exhausted. As we traveled on our way home, we caught up on the things we needed. Our snapchat stories, our phone updates, and sleep. There was a lot of sleeping on the way back, something that we all needed after those very exciting boating runs. We all finally arrived back at the church around 6:00 to a welcoming crowd of parents.


Houseboats, is something that students will be talking about. Our students made memories and they will be talking about for many weeks to come. We are glad that we were able to take 23 students and 10 adults with us, to serve God, and also have fun. We are glad that all of our students explored their passions and grew deeper in their faith.