FIRST Session

The First Session of camp has come...and Gone. I had the pleasure of working with 6 summer staff. Two bike wranglers and four life guards.

It was an awesome Month. I cant believe it is over. I will write more about the month this week. when I have some time off.

Tomorrow starts session two craziness also its day one week one session two. WHAT? 500 more campers coming in. I am stoked

The Ranch

First and foremost I am terrible at bloging I feel like I need something exciting to say. So I will talk about my somewhat recent trip to my good friend Amy Morgans Ranch!

Amy is another Year long intern from Texas. Her family owns a beautiful ranch in Uvalde Texas. I was blessed to be able to go and have an incredible vacation there with 8 of our 9 interns. It was the best.

Her parents were kind enough to let us come hang out and use there stuff. It was so cool to see people just live out Acts and share what they have. All of the interns were greatful. Anyway this ranch is a 4000 acre deer ranch. They own long horn cows as well which is awesome. Basically just land to play on. 

This is one of the bulls! He was huge and really friendly It is alittle intimidating with such huge horns but still awesome. Ryan, Amy's Boyfriend, hung out with us all week. He is an incredible man and just was very welcoming when we were there. He called in the cows 

Which when you see the horns it can be unnerving!

We also spent a great deal of time at the pool. Lots of jumps off the diving board till one of the interns broke it. Sorry Amy!

She also has a shooting range on here ranch. It was so much fun. She has a small arsenal. It was crazy. I dont think I have the ability to describe how good it was to relax. Spend time together as interns. And just not work. Great way before the start of the summer. 

Ill write soon About the summer season!

Alittle knock out at the clay shooting range

Camp

The more I live here in Colorado the more I am in love with the beauty the Lord displays in Nature. Also here specifically at CCR I feel more and more at home with the staff and community.

I think it takes me a while to adjust to a new place and truly feel accepted and loved. Some of it has to do with my own insecurity and some of it is just the fact the major change in location takes time to really feel comfortable. It is the end of March, and the snow is melting. We still have a month left that Winter Park Resort will be open and I can go snow boarding. However I believe this coming sunday may be my last day on the Mountain for awhile. The snow is hard and slushy, and Icy. Seeing as I have had an incredible season I have nothing to complain about however, I have become a slight snow snob. Though next year when I most likely will not be in the west I think my upper class snow attitude will diminish when I only come to CO twice a year to do some boarding. We shall see.

The friendships I have in this world are some of the best. I was saving this post for when Tim Barnes sent me photos of his and David Perks trip out here however he has yet to edit them and get back to me. So I will say what is in my head and heart.

The Lord really has put key players in my life that have influenced the way I interact with people, the way I love people, and the way I love God. I believe two of these players are Tim Barnes and David Perks. I worked with these fellas for two years up at Young Life's Saranac Village in the Adirondack mountains. We grew in friendship over those two summers. Then have had to many incredible adventures and dumb stories together. Many more were made over there trip to visit good ol' Fraser CO. One such dumb adventure was when we decided it would be fun to snow shoe up Sheep mountain which is the mountain on the back side of camp. The trip up wasn't exiting but down we decided to run in our snowshoes down and take pictures. Hilarity ensued because at some point all of us took a headlong tumble into about 3-5 feet of powder. Im sure one can imagine.

But these are the kind of friends that no matter how much you talk, see each other, or how close you live, are always as close to you as a brother. You cant stop laughing and you can always be open about how Christ is moving in your life. I dont know exactly how to say it. They are the kind of people you want to be around. So I hope that the Lord has placed a person or persons like this in your own life.

Its been awhile

So updating in the month of February did not happen. Life was so busy with friends, work, and just general chaos. It probably was the the best and most exhausting month of my life here at Crooked Creek Ranch.


It was a month full of visitors. First week I had my friend Anna out to go skiing and she brought her friend Liz. It was a blast to see her and get to know Liz. Then the next week two of my best friends came up. Tim Barnes and David Perks. I will write a longer post on there visit as soon as Tim gets back to me with some pictures. He took them all on his camera. Then the day those to jokers left my Cousin Dan came in. So I snowboarded a good deal in the month of Feb and it was all a blast. However hosting people can be super tiring. I wouldnt have had it any other way though.

February had a group in just about every weekend and a lot of mid week groups. Some that have never rented the camp out before. Those groups can be difficult because they just don't really know how to utilize the camp yet and theres just a lot of running around to get them set up correctly. I did a good deal of picture taking and hiking this last month as well.

Snow showing in the rockies is just incredible. One the invention to disperse wait so you dont sink into 4 feet of snow. Its incredible. I have just been having to much fun running around with friends up sheep mountain to see the view of camp and the valley I get to live in.

Its definitely a blessing. Colorado. I find my self thanking Christ on a regular basis for bringing me out here. Last week all the interns went to an Avalanche Game in Denver and before we went we visited boulder CO. As we walked around the streets and just enjoyed the 60 degree weather (a 35 degree difference of Fraser only 40 miles apart across the mountains.)
I thought about that College town and how many times I wished that God had called me somewhere crazy when I was in college. Then I remember How I have been called out here this year to live somewhere crazy in a crazy situation! It was awesome.

Also the view outside our intern house just has displayed Gods glory so often. During the day or at night its been unreal. I wish that Blogspot could capture the beauty of what I have seen. I mean one day I was walking back from working out and the color of the sky was outragous. It was this beautiful read and the depth and beauty of the clouds was unimaginable. In the five minutes it took me to walk home it appear and was gone as the sun set. I couldnt believe what I saw and I know perhaps I make zero sense in this paragraph but imagine the most beautiful red and it being in 100 different shades spread across the dusk sky. And it was there for an instant and gone. Just a wink really. That was what it was like. The sky up there wasnt to shabby either.

               

I took both of these also out of our kitchen window. I wasn't sure which shot I preferred as similar as they both are. Opinions are always appreciated! Just a little haze on the mountains.

God is doing big things here at Crooked Creek and big things in our community. The men and woman that I intern with here are moving into march and we all know it is going to be our hardest month. Because the job is not getting any different and can be redundant.  Plus summer is looming and summer is going to be too much fun seeing God work in HUGE ways in the lives of Kids that will be coming here each week for 11 weeks. So It is late and I could keep rambling but I really just wanted to show some photos from the month and make a post because it has been too long. 

Here is our lil neighbor.

Winter Camping and exploring Narnia.

Lately I have been pretty stir crazy. Just always being inside. Ive been in the kitchen for two months and besides snowboarding I just haven't done any hiking or really anything outside. So Brady Carter and I decided we would go do some winter camping. I haven't done any winter camping before and Brady took me on some serious camping.

We went on this past monday night. left at 10 pm hiked up sheep mountain to the summer lunch site that kids all hike up to. It was only one mile away and in the summer an easy 30 minute hike. However with three feet of snow on the ground it took us about 2 hours before we hit our camp site. I snowshoed and Brady used his skis with skins. Skins are basically cloth on the bottom of his skis that give him traction. We had to dig out the inside of the cabin.


We built ourselves a fire and boiled some water to put in water bottles and keep in our sleeping bags. It was super warm once we got into the bags but
                                                                    

outdoor temp was about -15 according to the weather report. We just enjoyed the outdoors and a moon filled night. The mountains on the backside of sheep were beautiful and I just really felt close to the Lord. In the morning the sun woke me up and I just went out of the cabin that didnt have a door on it (by the way). I spent some time with the Lord just praying for my fellow interns and other things that were on my heart. It was an incredibly way to start the day. Brady woke up late and We went over to the side of the mountain that was treeless and planned on snowboarding and skiing down.

Snowboarding back country (or slightly back country) Is TOUGH. I did okay but having an extra 50 pounds on my back wasnt helping and I fell a few times getting myself stuck in like 4 feet of powder (Im not complaining about the amount of snow it just was hard to get out of.) The whole experience was awesome. Brady and I will be doing some more while we are still out here.  I will be switching departments to Guest services next week and that will be my last rotation before I get my summer Job. Pray for the leadership team deciding Summer jobs and that I will be excited about the job they decide for me.

Hebrews 11:1

"Now FAITH is being SURE of what you hope for and Certain of what we do not see."


A week or maybe two ago, time flies here and I can hardly remember time frames anymore, my good friend Marshall McCarroll and I were having a conversation about the future. I had mentioned to him I am not sure what will happen or where to go. I say where to go because I know the end date of my time in Fraser, CO. Sept 30, 2011. My job is over I will no longer be an Intern at Crooked Creek ranch. I will have to pack up my stuff in the intern house and move it somewhere else. There are plenty of places I could go where friends will love me well, and most importantly the Lord will teach me. However where is it the Lord is calling me next? That was my big question. Was it back to Rochester? Where quality people and my family live? Or somewhere new? Marshall said really that thinking about the future was a chance to live in fear or freedom. Christ gives us freedom, John 14:6 "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" As long as I am Faithful and trusting that I will be lead in the right direction, whether thats just a place the Lord puts on my heart or a job opportunity that pops up, I must trust he will reveal his intentions for my life when it is the right time. I will not live in fear and worry about "whats next?" I will live in freedom here at Crooked Creek Ranch and live in the now. Learning what I am meant to learn and doing what I know the Lord called me to. 


We are one week into New staff training. It has been a blast thus far! So much work but just so incredible to serve all the new Field staff associates. Its awesome.


Please pray for them while they are out here. About what they are learning so that they can implement it back home in there own ministry. Also pray for me that I will continue to be Faithful and trust the Lord in whats next.

The Calm before the Storm

Right now I am on day three of days off. It has been awesome because right after my lil vacation home I have been working hard in the kitchen for a ski camp. Then the other interns and I had to do house keeping to get camp ready for New Staff Training. For those of you that dont know what that is, all the new field staff in young life so the people that are leading volunteer leaders and also building relationships with high school students to live life with those students and show them a vision of who Christ is. They will be here at Crooked Creek Ranch from January 6th-20th. It is going to be some crazy days in the kitchen long hours but lots of fun! Please be praying for the New Staff and their work with Young Life, also be praying for myself and the other camp staff as we will be working our butt's off! Its awesome to have this experience here I believe. Seeing and serving all the staff that will be ministering to kids and one day probably help guide this organization making major decisions for this ministry that will effect kids for Christ. Awesome.

Besides getting ready for NST I have been reading through the book of Matthew. We were asked to pick a gospel to read through this year and just continue reading it. I have really been loving it. I dont have anything specific but next post I will give you some details!