Tours, Bears, and Lakes

What a life! I can't even begin to describe how awesome the last few days have been. The best part about this job so far is that the time seems to be flying by because I'm having such a good time, and doing things that I can't believe I'm getting paid for. In the last few days, especially today, I've gotten paid to ride on tours, ride on the most scenic railway in the world, ride four wheelers in desert sand dunes, drive a freeking bus, hang out, read books, and watch shows about the gold rush.

Oh, that list above? Yeah. All those things were activities that I was paid for, and I paid nothing to do. Aweeesome.

In the pictures are the beautiful emerald lake, a lake that has very light blue water, turned that color from calcium deposits. It was an amazing lake, just pass Carcross, YT. Another picture has a bear that was on the side of the road today hanging out.

The last picture is a few other drivers and me during our four wheeling adventure in the world's smallest desert. Lots of places let other companies guides and employees onto their attractions for free. After a great free lunch with the other drivers at Caribou Crossing, we jumped out for this great free adventure in the small dunes. What a life!

I gave my first two long tours. One was a summit tour that included a trip to Liarsville for their show and gold panning, then a trip up and back down the pass.

I also got to be trained on a different type of bus. The old GMC Jimmy busses are a little more old school. They have no power steering, have a huge bench seat in the back, and look more or less like a space ship. Craazy. They're pretty fun to drive. I can't complain. To turn them on, they have a dial that looks like a washing machine control knob. To put the bus into reverse, neutral, or forward, there is a small switch that looks a lot like a lightswitch.

Tours!

Wow! The last two days I've been able to go on other people's tours up the pass and into the Yukon. Both drivers were fantastic, and I couldn't have had better people to ride with. Even better, both tours provided awesome barbeque lunches. I've heard though that I'll even get tired of the awesome food after eating it for 30 days straight. Oh well!

Both days have left me done early, so I've gotten a chance to slow down a bit and explore Skagway. On the first day, a few of us rode our bikes out to a point on the edge of Skagway with an awesome view of the ship that was in town, as well as the Lynn Canal. We layed on a few rocks and read books, enjoyed the view, and tried to stay warm in the wind.

I'm terrified of giving tours, but less so than I was when I first got here. I'm feeling better about it the more and more I learn about this place. Now that I have a better understanding of where I am, I'm understanding more about what has happened here, and how to weave it all together into a coherent, entertaining, educational, and timeworthy story.

Today is my first day off, and it feels really weird to sit around and not do anything. My activies for the day have only really included laundry, a ride to the grocery store, and watching movies with people when they come back from doing their transfers. What a life! Probably back to work tomorrow, and my life will look like the picture below again:





Oh well, can't complain!

Finally Set up!

Well, I'm here! Finally, I'm set up in beautiful skagway, AK, home to tales of gold rush adventure and ruin. Amy and I flew into Juneau on a regular sized plane, but then jumped in a small Wings of Alaska plane that held about 10 people. It was a fantastic experience. To get into Skagway, the pilot has to fly up the canyon a bit, then make a super sharp 180 to get back to the run way. Craaazy.

The flight was beautiful. Even coming into Juneau, the little that I was able to see from my window got me excited and made me think that maybe Alaska is all that the movies make it out to be. I was greeted in Juneau with small planes, woods, a small airport, and a feeling that we were somehow surviving the wild. In reality, I would imagine we weren't as isolated as I felt (although, Juneau has no roads leading out of it!).

When we got into Skagway, my feeling of isolation increased a little, as we realized that we weren't able to get our stuff off the barge(that we had sent from seattle two friday's prior) until "later". Not only that, but when a manager picked us up at the airport, he informed us that we'd be driving in about a half hour. Craaaazy! We did it, and did well. The next day, I had my first passengers.

I've got my uniform and all that. It's quite nice looking actually. A nice shell, fleece, and shirts. I don't mind wearing it. It isn't quite a Fred Meyer brown polo, but it'll do.

On Wednesday afternoon, the barge called to let me know that our stuff had come in off the barge. It took a while because the produce that comes in takes top priority in getting off the boat and to the store. I can live with that. I then realized that although our stuff at the barge was ready, it was also down on the docks, about two miles from our house. With a car, it would be no problem to make a trip or two. On foot, it would be a killer trek of one heavy box at a time. With 20 or so boxes, it could make for a pretty nasty 40 hour walk. Luckily, a good friend had borrowed someone's truck and was able to pick all the stuff up and bring it to his house, which is probably only .25-.5 miles from our house. Our solution to getting the stuff to our house was to empty our backpacks at home, and ride our bikes (which we have now, thank goodness!) back and forth until we got it all. We did a few trips of that, then a friend was able to borrow the truck again.

I was originally really excited to live at the Shop house, where all the busses are kept, because having my bus 100 yards away from me at all times makes for a nice early morning commute. The last four days though, my plans have been foiled, as I've continuously been dispatched to busses in the "in-town" lot, about 1.25 miles away. Now that I've got my bike though, its not too bad, and actually a pretty good way to wake up in the morning, as long as I don't swerve into the road and get hit by a different bus. Craaazy!

In AK!

Wow! I'm here. This is a beautiful place. There are mountains all around, and very nice people. Unfortunately, the internet is slow here. I'll see later how long it will take me to upload pictures!

Graduated

As weird as it is, I'm now graduated. It's over. Soon a degree will land in my hands, my book will be published, and I'll school work free. From now on, books will be better to read. At least until my next educational step. Woo hoo.

Graduation parties today, and more packing. Goodness... there is always more packing to do!

Next post will come from AK, assuming all flights happen like they're supposed to on Monday, but we know how my luck is with getting between places!

Lots of Random Things

As of today, and more officially tomorrow, my life as a university student at Western Washington University is over. It's really weird. I don't think it hit me until after this morning. I spent this morning helping some INN folk pack up the office into a box. Seeing that place emptied out of all familiarity made me realize that all familiarity of how I function at the INN, as a person, and as a "professional" are all about to take a dramatic change. It hit me again as I walked up the stairs of my house looking at the enormous yellow beast as I have so many times, but this time realizing that I don't get to be a part of living here again next year. I think both these changes are for better, but I'll absolutely miss everything that came with the last three or so years.

Our weather has been terrible this month. I'd like to think it could be Bellingham's way of saying goodbye to a lot of friends who are graduating and heading off into the distance, but in reality, its just a continuation of more weird weather. I should expect it by now.

To celebrate this change that happens every year, the last few weeks have been littered with fires near the beach. It's been a fantastic way to see friends before leaving.

Finally, in the last few days of this week the weather has gotten nicer and we've been able to go outside as roommates for a few last times to experience the landscape that Bellingham has to offer. I love it. So good.

The end of this quarter also marks the end of the "Sunshine Experiment". This was a challenge between our house, Fred's "house" and Mara's house to prepare cheap meals entirely from components from Sunshine Liquidators and live to see the next day. Well, we're all still here, so I suppose it was a success. It was a great way to get our houses together and have some fun times as we shared in wet dough balls, nacho cheese soup, and crunchy mexican surprise.

Zach introduced us to a new dice game called Greed. It's excellent. I hope to play a lot in Alaska(where I'll be on Monday!). I've won 2/2 of the games I've played, so we'll see if that record gets broken. I'm pretty excited about that!

Ski to Sea 2008

Well, at the last minute I had just a bit of time to finish up with the Ski to Sea video for the youtube video contest. It turned out better than I thought it would, but there are some things that I would much rather be different. Anyway, check it out and enjoy!

End of some things, starts of others!

I've started the process of packing up all my stuff to get it moved home, or get it ready to go to Alaska. It's kinda sad, because I've lived in the same house for the last two years, and definitely have some great memories here. It's also weird to see my room being much cleaner than it previously was. Oh well. Packing up and leaving is essential though. It's making room for new people to move into this house that will bring a fresh view and an excitement to live in a great place that is both close to campus, FPC, and has cheap rent. If all goes according to plan, all three floors of this building will be filled with INN students. Actually 10 total to be precise. 10 students, 8 bedrooms. It'll be an adventure to say the least!

Moving also makes a space for my new, graduated, life. I've heard it'll be different, and I'm already starting to see some of the changes. I'm okay with it, and getting more excited as each day goes by about what next year will be like. Until then though, its pretty sad to have to box up all this stuff and pack it out. It's been a great time!

Fantastic Retreat

I love eastern Washington. It's a good place. When a great place like that is combined with a purpose, like a youth retreat, things just can't get any better. Three of us took a few students over to bridgeport state park for the weekend. Last year we went to Chelan. Bridgeport is nearby, just a little east. It's near the town of Bridgeport(woah, I know), which is near the town of Brewster, neither of which are large.

The retreat started with us leaving the church in two shifts. I headed out with the first load in parent's van while Kyle stayed back. One of the students that thought about coming on the retreat couldn't make it till a little later, so Kyle had one car wait for him while my van left to set up the tents. This is a huge advantage of a small youth group/small retreat. While we would have hoped for a few more kids to come, I think the kids that were there were there for a reason.

We ate dinner on the road, and after an enormous trek of near 300 miles, we landed in Bridgeport. Our group site was beyond huge. It could have slept 60, but we had 8. Awesome. The grass provided a great space for running, climbing on rocks, playing kickball, and all things good.

At youth group, I can easily (and often!) get frustrated with how little it seems that the kids listen to anything that is said, being either directions or (more importantly) a message. We had individual devotions, small groups, and one talk on acceptance by Kyle.

Kyle gave us three biblical examples of acceptance. All were very powerful, and I think the guys in my small group grasped their meaning later that night when we sat up on a huge rock and discussed what it means to be accepted, chosen, loved, and wanted by God. We dug pretty deep with both the questions that kyle gave us, as well as some that I brought up that flowed from where our discussion was going. At that point, God took my doubt about the students' growth and listening to the message and shook it upside down. As I neared the end of the list of questions and any discussion that was related and flowing, I expected to climb down the rock and continue my night of smores and games. Instead, the guys started asking questions... tough questions about doubts, acceptance, God, and all other things related. It felt like an "a-ha!" moment right then. I could see on their faces their desire for acceptance, and also their begining of understanding of what God has done for them. It was the most beautiful moment of the retreat, and maybe even my entire year.

I think in youth ministry I get too often bogged down with the number of attendees at our events, what activities we have planned, or even what I think that God working in these students' lives should look like. When these expectations are missed, we feel let down, disappointed, and at times worthless. We begin to question why we're doing what we're doing. It's in these moments we need to remember to turn to God and trust that he's placed these students in our care for a reason that only He knows. We need to trust that He's doing something inside the hearts of these students, just like he did inside of us years ago, that we can't always see. When I think in worldly ways, this waiting for what feels like forever is the worst thing about youth ministry. When I remember to ask God for wisdom about this challenge is when I see that this is the best part of youth ministry: getting to experience God changing lives firsthand, having the opportunity to support and play a role in this, and the beauty of the wait while God does something to their hearts that I can neither see or understand.