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.
