Arkansas and Cincinnati

I'm attempting to be better at writing on this blog. At least that's what I tell myself every time I write a new entry, that next time, I'll write more often!

So here's the lowdown:

Arkansas

Two weeks ago my team and I travelled to Ozark, Arkansas for a week of camping with the Ozark DTS. On our way to the campsite, our van broke down in Lebanon, Missouri. By the grace of God, a member of a local church stopped by and invited all 27 of us to stay at his church and found someone who could fix the van the next day. Half our team left the next day to set up camp 3 hours away while the rest of us explored Lebanon while our van was being repaired.

We made it to Ozark National Forest on Monday night/Tuesday morning. It was pretty scary driving those roads in the dark when there was a huge drop on one side. Our campsite was incredibly remote! We did, however, have morning class and evening class (around a fire!) with a speaker that camped as well so he could share about Spiritual Warfare.
During one of our afternoon sessions we were taught how to navigate using a map and a compass, the following day we were sent out into the Ozark National Forest in our teams and had to make it from point A to point B. My team consisted of 6 Madison students and 3 Ozark students. Our hike was around 15 miles and halfway through we had to camp for the night in the tent we made out of tarp and string. It started to downpour seconds after we finished making out shelter, so we spent the next half hour worshipping God and singing at the top of our lungs. We got up before sunrise, dismantled camp, and hiked the rest of the way to the end point, which we reached 20 minutes before time was up.

Cincinnati Conference:

Topic: Finish the Task
Speakers: Danny Lehman and Dan Bauman. With a testimony from Jackie Stanely.
The conference was really awesome but completely exhausting. We had to be at the church from 7:30am until 9:30pm with various lectures and speakers. They gave us food though (: The speakers had gone through so much! Their journeys were so motivational and heartwarming. So glad I had that experience to go through. I got to hear firsthand about how God works through someone even in an Iranian prison, how He provides for a family when their father dies when they are in a 'restricted' country and about Osama Bin Laden. Remarkable experience.
 
And now I'm hanging out with my best friend in Grand Rapids, Michigan while she works. Tomorrow it is back to Madison and back to learning more and more about God from my lovely staff.