A Change of Seasons

First, I want to apologize for taking so long to update the blog this summer. It's always so much harder than I expect to keep up on it.

Second, I want to fill you all in on some big news in my life. God has called Kallie and I on to the next season of our lives and ministry and we will be leaving Spring Canyon. God started stirring our hearts last summer and started a process that is just now starting to come together. He has given us a vision to take the 'experiential ministry' that we get to do with Rocky Mountain High and Father Teen Adventure, and use it within a church body.

This summer, after months of prayer and searching, God called us to step out in faith and move back to California to pursue this ministry. After wrestling with God for a few days we finally realized that this is what He wants for us and is calling us to. One day as I was praying for confirmation I heard him say: "Will you be like Joshua and Caleb and trust that I can overcome your giants? Or will you be like the other 10?"

So we will be moving to the Sacramento area of California at the end of this month. Please pray for us as we take this step of faith, and pray that God is glorified through it.

These last 4+ years have been amazing and I feel truly blessed to have had the opportunity to serve in these ministries and to meet saints like you.

I thank all of you for your support of this ministry through the years and ask that you continue to lift it in your prayers as Dean begins the search for my replacement.

If you would like to follow our journey check out our blog at www.mikeandkallie.blogspot.com

Thank you, and I pray that God allows our paths to cross again,

- Mike

Summer Update #1

Please forgive me for taking so long to send out an update. As usual once our summer programs start I seem to have trouble finding time for this kind of stuff.

Our summer has been amazing so far. Our numbers this year are not what they were last year, which is a little disappointing, but I have to keep reminding myself that God's view of success isn't always how we view success. To give you a glimpse of the this success here are some comments and stories from our first three RMH sessions.

"It was an amazing experience, one I would love to do again and I think every Christian cadet should experience."

"They [the guides] were beyond prepared, took time to be personal and answer questions, taught through active discussion, lead first by example, were flexible and dependable in all regards. They offered and created a safe place to grow and learn, as well as individually reached out to us."

"Both instructors passionately believed in what they were doing and teaching, and they taught about something that was applicable in everyday life."

"I learned how to pray/spend time actively in God's word. I also gained a keener appreciation of God's love."

"I learned that my spiritual journey has just begun."

"I learned that I need to have a plan as a Christian leader in the military."

"It is a great opportunity to connect with other Christians from a military background and regain support and encouragement for choosing to abide by a Christian lifestyle. Spring Canyon is a wonderful place to unplug from the day to day distractions that often take us off course in our walk with God and refocus on what truly matters in life."

These are just a taste of the comments we've received this summer. It is always amazing and humbling to see the ministry that God does each summer through this program.

Please continue to pray for the groups that we have in each week. Pray that God will use these programs to build His kingdom in these lives and in our military.

Trust in the LORD with All Your Heart!

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.Proverbs 3: 5-6

God has been constantly reminding me of this verse over the last several months. I know it’s a verse that we’ve all heard before, but as I’ve begun to meditate on it (like most scriptures) it means so much more than I used to give it credit for. How many of us really trust in the LORD? It is such an easy thing to say, and such a hard thing to do. We say that we trust God with our finances, but how many of us start to sweat around the 23^rd of the month as our bank account gets tighter? We have been so trained to be individuals, to be self sufficient, that we try to make things happen in our own power, and when that happens we start trusting ourselves and stop trusting in God.

I think the next part of this verse is so profound: “and lean not on your own understanding.” What that means is that sometimes trusting God defies logic. We don’t have to understand how God will come through, we just have to trust that he will. I love that the verse doesn’t say, ‘lean not on your own power,’ it says to lean not on our understanding. Sometimes it’s easy to read this verse and think, “we’ll I just need to sit back, trust God, and wait for him to do it.” Sometimes God will work in our circumstances without our effort, but sometimes He does require action from us. I love the story in Matthew chapter 17 when Jesus and Peter are asked to pay a tax. Jesus tells Peter to go to the lake, catch a fish, and in the fish’s mouth will be a coin to cover the tax. Jesus could have just made a coin materialize out of thin air, or made it appear in his pocket, and paid the tax. I love that he didn’t do that. He required Peter to go catch a fish to get the coin. He required faith and action from Peter. I’m sure that all the way to the lake Peter was thinking, “this is the silliest thing I’ve ever done.” But Peter still went. He trusted in the LORD, and not his own understanding, and Christ made his path straight.

I encourage you to meditate on this verse. Ask yourself, and God, what areas of your life you need to start really trusting. When you do trust, guard yourself from asking the how and why questions. You don’t have to understand the how and the why, just trust and He will make our paths straight.

This Is How We Roll

Praise God for His provision, and for the generosity of His followers.

As you may know, we started a fund raising campaign in February to raise money to replace our old Suburban, as well as raise some money to replenish our scholarship account. After sending out our fundraising letter we had one very generous RMH alum that contacted us and wanted to donate his suburban. He and his wife had been praying about it for a couple years, then came out to Spring Canyon during Winter Sports Retreat this year. When they saw our old vehicles they started talking and praying about it more. When they received our fundraising letter they knew what to do. They told us that they had a Suburban to donate and just need to find a replacement vehicle first. They finally got their new vehicle in, and earlier this week I flew out and picked up this Suburban and drove it back to Colorado. Spring Canyon is now the proud owners of a 2003 Chevy Suburban 4WD. Thank you again to the family who donated this wonderful vehicle to us.

We have also made some progress towards refilling our scholarship account, but still need some help. We are still hoping to raise nearly $5,000, so that we can continue to offer scholarships and group discounts to potential RMH students. If you would like to help us reach that goal please email me at outdoor@springcanyon.org, or call our main office at (719) 395-2328.

The Voice of the Shepherd

“I’m back to the shepherd and the sheep.  When the sheep follow the shepherd, they find pasture.  They find life.  Life doesn’t just magically come to us.  We have to make ourselves available to it.  There is a lifestyle that allows us to receive the life of God.  I know that if I will live more intimately with Jesus and follow his voice, I will have a much better chance of finding the life I long for.  I know it.  If I will listen to his voice and let him set the pace, if I will cooperate in my transformation, I will be a much happier man.  And so a new prayer has begun to arise within me.  I am asking God, What is the life you want for me?”

John Eldridge, ‘Walking with God’

               

I read this passage this morning in my quiet time and it stood out to me as such a profound thought, yet such a simple one.  As Christians we so often labor and toil to try to make life better, or easier, or more enjoyable.  In John chapter 10 Jesus tells us that He is the good shepherd.  He leads us out and we follow Him because we know His voice.  A few verses later Jesus says that “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”  God wants to give us abundant life, yet how often do we ignore the voice of the shepherd and try to find it on our own?  Then we get upset with the shepherd because we can’t find the pasture.  We need to learn to listen to His voice.  So simple, yet so challenging. 

 

I hope this encourages you the same way it encouraged me to listen more intentionally for the voice of the Good Shepherd.

"Dad, this is really cool"

Two weeks ago we celebrated my son’s third birthday.  We were in California for a family reunion where we got to meet my nephew and twin nieces for the first time.  The day before Jack’s birthday we all went Disneyland for the day.  It was quite an ordeal to get all 13 of us to move around the busy park, but it was a blast!!  My wife and I went into it not knowing what to expect with the kids.  We assumed that they wouldn’t take naps at the park, so we knew that we might have to leave early if the kids hit ‘meltdown status.’  Our hope was to make it to dinner time.  The kids did great and we were able to stay until after 10 pm.  The highlight of the day for me was centered around the ride The Matterhorn and the firework show.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with the ride, it is a roller coaster ride where you sit in bobsleds and race around and through a mountain.  It’s a great ride and Jack was just tall enough to ride it.  I wasn’t sure if he would enjoy it or if it would be too much for him, and the line was over an hour long all day, so I hadn’t pushed it.  At about 8:30 the kids were still going strong, and the line was short, so we decided to give it a try.  I let Jack watch it for a few minutes and asked him if he wanted to ride it, or if it looked to scary.  He said he wanted to do it, so we did.  Jack did great.  He didn’t make a sound the entire ride, then at the end said “that was fun, and kind of scary.”  As soon as we got off the ride the firework show started.  At Disneyland they launch fireworks from two different locations and we were standing right in between them.  Jack was sitting on my shoulders and every time a firework went off he’d say “ohh look, there’s another one!”  As the firework show was getting close to the grand finale, Jack said: “Dad, this is really cool.”  My heart melted.  I thanked God for allowing me to be a dad and prayed that He would not let me ever forget that moment.

 

                As I thought about that moment and the love and joy it made me feel, I thought about how it must make God feel when we share those times with him.  Those times that we’re sitting on His shoulders experiencing something truly majestic.  I’ve had several of those experiences in the last couple of years: sunrises, sunsets, looking at the stars, feeling a fish strike a fly as I’m standing in a mountain lake or stream, holding my kids and listening to them laugh.  I could go on and on, but I want you to think about what those moments have been for you.  In those times nothing else matters.  You don’t think about what you’ve just gone through, whether scary or fun.  You don’t think about how tired you might be.  You just stand in awe of that moment.  Next time you experience one of those moments I encourage you to picture yourself sitting on your Abba’s shoulders, and let him know “Dad, this is really cool.” 

Buxton Update: Summer is Coming!

It’s only the second week of March, but I feel the crunch of summer coming like a freight train.  We only have nine weeks left until guides arrive.  That is exciting and frightening at the same time.  I love it when the guides show up and we begin training, but there is a lot that needs to get done between now and then.  I have been spending a lot of time the last couple of weeks over in the gear room trying to make sure we have the gear we need for the summer.  Right now there are 18 tents set up in the Hemingway Ops Building.  I can barely move around because the floor is covered in tents.  Last year tested the limits of our gear and I want to make sure that we are ready this year.  I’ve also been working to create a good inventory of our gear so that I can track what we have, and the useful life cycle of each piece of gear.  I would like to get to the point where we have all of our gear on a lifecycle rotation.  That way we can purchase 20% (or so) of what we use every year, so that we never have all of something wearing out at the same time.  So needless to say this has been a much bigger undertaking than I anticipated.

 

I am very close to locking in all of our instructors for this year.  This isn’t much later than usual, but once we get to this point I always start to get a little nervous. 

 

We are looking really good for guides this year.  We have several that are going to return from last year (which is always a huge blessing).  I also have 14 new people who have requested applications.  Praise God!  A few years ago I hired the only 4 people that applied.  What a blessing it is to already have 18 applicants to choose from.  Now my problem is that I want to hire them all, but don’t have that many slots.  My hope is to hire 10 staff this summer, but some of that will have to wait until we know how registrations look for the summer.  

 

Right now we are doing pretty good for our FTA registrations, but have not started to receive any RMH registrations.  Again, this is not abnormal for this time of year, but it’s easy for me to start getting nervous. 

 

Please pray for our programs this summer.  Please pray for God to open the door for people to come.  Please pray for wisdom for me as I assemble the guide staff team, and pray for them as they prepare to be a part of this ministry.  Please also pray for the instructors.  Pray that God would give them a vision for the things he wants them to present this summer.  Most importantly please pray for the ministry that is going to happen this summer.  Pray that God uses these programs to do work that will have an eternal impact.

 

Thank you all for the prayer and support that you provide for this ministry.  We can’t do it without you.