Compass story #3: High Ropes Day

High ropes day. Remember, I said that heights and edges for me were always a huge no-no. But this was an experience that was common throughout Compass, for me: The assumption of fear turning out to be wrong. Everyone in my group except one made it all the way through the high ropes course.
Ways of coping with height:
Focus on the next step, the next step.
Keep breathing.
Sing Hillsong United's "Desert Song."
Have teammates standing underneath yelling, "You can do it! Way to go!" etc.

At least, that's how I got through without panicking. While I was on the ground, I went around yelling encouragement, backup-belaying, etc. like everyone else did while they were on the ground. Altogether, we did a lot of community-building through this experience, because it was physically and emotionally stretching, and we backed each other up.
One funny story: We caught a teeny tiny itty bitty Adirondacks mouse and took pictures with it before the sherpas came over and told us sternly to leave the wild animals alone.
Another funny story: There was this one dragonfly that kept sitting on the catwalk, the last (and easiest) stage of the course, and we named it I forget what, but we would call up to those entering that stage, "Don't step on him!" He was there for most of us when we reached the catwalk.

Compass story #2: My teammates

Alright. My teammates. I don't want to give their names (privacy) or just their initials (confusion) so I'm going to give each of them a pseudonym. Let me give you a list.

My roommate: The Friz
The only other girl: Sweet n' Spazzy
Guys: Glove Love, Enrique, Skyscraper, The Joker, Sparky and Samwise.
The leader is "The Bush" because he has this amazing beard. Jokes about his beard were sooo common. I like to say that they will soon outnumber Chuck Norris jokes. Some of them have nicknames that they have or earned on the trip. Some of them just have nicknames. The cali dude I mentioned in the last post was Sparky.

The Friz is amazing, brilliant, theorizes that there is no such thing as randomness and has been my big sister for the duration of Compass. Sweet n' Spazzy underwent amazing healing on Compass, and is just soooo much fun to hang around with, and has a beautiful laugh...Glove Love plays the ukulele and is prone to break out in unpremeditated dance, and has unlimited physical energy. Enrique is very open, encouraging and spiritual, but when he cracks jokes he can do so with a totally straight face, and he's ticklish all over. (Mexico City stories - that will come up.) He turned 17 over the course of Compass. Skyscraper is more than six feet tall, and he loves to make fun of my small stature, but he's a load of fun and was great on La Vida. The Joker is a scream, a ton of fun, understands a lot of what I say at Table Talk, is brilliant with his guitar and was hilarious when talking to The Bush. Sparky is very sarcastic, but he can be very profound and kind. He turned 16 over the course of Compass. Samwise is an amazing gentleman, is very sensitive to other people, and ate a lot of Froot Loops over the course of the month because of his allergies. The Bush isn't very demonstrative, but he's always willing to listen, has great insights, is an amazing mountaineer and lets us crack jokes about his beard.
You're going to hear a lot about these people.

Compass story #1

It's been just more than a week that I got home from the Compass program RMI. As I process what's been happening, there are a few things that I'd like to share that I miss, and they are about the community.
Compass participants numbered 27, including me, and we were divided into 3 small groups of 9. Each group had a leader, and there was also the director, the worship "specialist" and the missions "specialist," so that came out to six staff members. The groups were named Kaleo ("called" in Greek), TBC (True Blue Crew, Truly Baptized Crew, To Be Continued, or whatever they wanted at the moment), and my group, the Green Machine. No story there. (The group had twice as many guys as girls. Blame them.)
The first leg of the trip: La Vida. Meaning: Each group, the members of which had only known each other for two days, were thrust into a situation with a few key points:

• My group stayed nine people under a tarp, three people in a tent. For nine days. (Yes, that comes out to 12 instead of 10. La Vida had two leaders or "sherpas" who were part of our group while we were there.) I was under the tarp.
  
• No showers. 'Nuff said.
• Facing fears. Rock climbing, high ropes course, climbing a mountain...suffice it to say it was the hardest physical ordeal of my life. (This from a black belt.)

• Life stories. Over the course of La Vida, each of us had to share our life story and testimony with the group. Everyone was totally open, with the result that we knew pretty much all about each other by the end from the story and from being around each other nonstop.

So, maybe four days after meeting (there was a commute day) we did rock climbing. I remember vividly standing on a ledge looking for a way up, deciding finally that I would come back to it. We also repelled that day, and it was truly terrifying. I have - had - this thing with heights, and especially this thing with edges. So here's how my conversation with Nate, the guy doing the repelling belaying went:
Nate: OK, good. So you're going to use this hand to hold the rope, away from you to go down, close to you to stop. There are two speeds: Moving and not moving.
Me: M-hm. And this hand doesn't do anything?
Nate: Right. So I need you to stand backwards, here at the edge.
Me: I'm having second thoughts. And third, and fourth...
Nate: Back up to the edge.
Me: I am at the edge!
Nate: No, a little more...
Me: Please can I step off now and get it over with?!
Nate: No, keep edging backwards...
Enough said. But I finally managed to get over the edge and repelling was actually loads of fun, once the part about "conquer your fears!" was over. Finally, going back to the rock wall determined to get up, culminated in my standing on the ledge with my entire team standing there yelling, "Do this!" "No, Lisa, do that!" Finally, one of my teammates, a young man from Cali, the only one on my team younger than I am, came over, made a foothold with his hands and helped me into a commitment move. I made it to the top with just that teensy bit of "cheating."
I'll tell more about climbing the mountain and the high ropes course later, but suffice it to say that encouraging each other was such a major part of our La Vida experience it provided an entirely new dimension to our team. We were in this together, as a family, as a team. I miss my teammates with a passion, and community is probably what I miss most from Compass.

Compass...

I'm back. Normally I would do a data dump, but there are a few reasons I'm not going to.

• too many stories
• such a long time period
• topics jumping all over the place

SO, what I'm going to do is when I think something from Compass is relevant (believe me, you will hear so much about this trip) I will say so. There are a few things I'd like to say though:

• I got so much closer to God and learned so much
  
• I met possibly the most wonderful community I've ever known (and I've been part of some great ones)
• I learned so much about myself
• I got a tan ;)