Compass story #1: The day we left for Mexico

We got up so early that the leaders had previously refused to tell us at exactly what time we were getting up. So, because I have a big mouth, the first thing I asked when bouncing into the common room on reserve energy supply was "Hey guys, what time is it? I need to know." One of the other girls checked her watch. It was two in the morning. We ate boxed breakfasts and climbed onto the big yellow school bus with our luggage, and left for the airport.
There was already singing going on in the bus. I looked at Friz and asked, "What's up?" because there was a funny expression on her face.
"I'm just so happy." she said calmly, and tackled me with a bear hug. (Yes, my roommate was a head taller than me.)
At about four we boarded a plane. The good news: we were seated in a certain order each time, so I always had the window seat. The bad news: the only time I got a traveling buddy was the fourth plane ride we took.
One of the guys, from another group, had taken sick that night. We'd made sure he got rest and prayed for him and everything, but he was too sick to travel with us that day. So we left without him, hoping he would join us later in the week.
We traveled until a bit past twelve - Mexico time. It was an hour back, so by our time it was a bit past one. We got picked up and taken to the hotel that culture training and stuff would take place at, and having been up by that time for about twelve hours and having the rest of the day to go, we had lunch and the director/main leader mercifully gave us two hours "to experience your first Mexican siesta." (The first of many.)
We had group worship and then training with the program we were working with that week, including two awkward and hilarious moments. In Mexican culture, a) "Draw your bubble of personal space...good...OK, now - pop it." and b) Guys hug guys and kiss girls, and girls kiss guys and girls, and you need to greet everyone in the room if you know the group well. So we were told, "You have one minute to kiss as many people as possible. Ready, set, go!"
Each group met its facilitator, and my group got a cheerful, spunky, hilarious young woman who I shall henceforth refer to as Pixel, because of her love of her digital camera (which was out literally about every other ten minutes at least). She's Japanese, so Spanish is her second language and English her third. But we got on OK.

Time for a session break.

Or, time to switch gears again. Yeah, I know, there isn't much for academic week. There will mostly be short anecdotes for Mexico missions, too. But, there will be more of them.
(One of my Compass friends managed to give academic week as much time on his blog as the other two sections. Then again, a) he's huge on theology, so academic week was maybe his favorite part of Compass, and b) he managed to blow through Compass in six posts anyway.)
Mexico missions was huge for us. My group stayed at a small storefront church called Iglesia Cristo Promesa Fiel, or Christ of the Faithful Promise Church. We participated in the church's first ever public evangelical outreach presentation, and did a whole lot more besides. However, there were some funny anecdotes and all that which go at least as far to define our experiences.

Compass story #5: City Day

On our last weekday on campus, we went into a local city and visited different church sites. I went with a group that visited and had lunch with a family from a low-income section's church. The lady we visited was AMAZING. She was so loving and enthusiastic and open and joyful, even when sharing her own life story and testimony (which wasn't pretty). She's suffered a lot of losses and stuff, but she's still full of the joy of the Lord. She told us, "The doctor wanted me to go on meds for depression again, but I told him, 'No, I don't need to, because I know Jesus!' I haven't suffered from depression since."
And she was so enthusiastic to pray! After we'd talked and a few of us (including myself) had shared our testimonies, and for the last hour of the visit, she was all, "Let's pray now, let's pray now..." When we prayed before leaving and it was her turn, she prayed for about twenty minutes. Her joyfulness and enthusiasm and love were totally infectious and wonderful to see!
We shared our experiences with different groups that night with the others, and I think it was incredible how these people were connected to God.

Compass story #4: Last day in class

We discussed general theology, the nature of God, more about the Trinitarian Triangle, etc. It turned out that the professor we had that day had been a Bible smuggler in his youth (into a country that is now no longer illegal to bring Bibles into). It wowed me big time when he described this as God's working in spite of him, when he was running this huge risk. He also recounted the following story:
He and his partner arrived with the hope that the person he needed to deliver the Bibles to would be there, but he wasn't. However, there was a note on the door in English that read, "Friends, Don't leave, will be back soon." He and his partner waited, and after a while the person they were smuggling the Bibles to arrived and explained, "I felt that God was telling me that there were Americans coming to make the delivery."
During a break, I went up, explained my interest in missions and we launched into conversation. He gave me a lot of good advice, referred me to one of his colleagues and told his colleague about me over lunch. So now I have a contact for any point in the future at which I might be ready to prepare for missions using seminary stuff.
During Mexico Prep that day, we discovered that the entire Compass group, consisting of people from all three teams, was putting together a team to perform the "everything" skit. My curiosity was piqued, and I stayed to watch the YouTube video and volunteer - to perform this with the big group and then again with my own small group. Having never seen the skit before, I didn't realize what I was getting myself into. Here's the Lifehouse Everything Skit. (Warning: not for 12-and-under year olds.

There are all sorts of ways to perform this skit. In both the big group and small group we removed cutting, in the big group there were two girls for alcohol and in my small group there was one guy, in the big group there were two more girls for cigarettes and in my small group we omitted that part, etc. However, the general gist was the same, with some of the same features - boyfriend, money, alcohol, model, evil dude. I was a different role in each group, and I will not say which parts I played, only that after practicing with the big group, when teaching the small group, I asked them please not to make me do the same role.
Then we were ready to go.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Trailer Official HD

Here's the trailer for the seventh Harry Potter movies. (Yes, seventh movies.)

Compass story #4: Academic week day three

On academic week day three we discussed church history in light of doctrine (no we did not cover persecution on either end, nor did we discuss the Crusades) and things like the Apostles' Creed, the Council of Nicene and the Nicene Creed, etc. We talked about the Trinitarian Triangle, and all that cool stuff. There were so many questions afterward that they cut down Mexico Prep class by half an hour so we could have any free time at all.
We prepared for Mexico City in our small group, and started preparing things like songs (in Spanish), skits and games and stuff. We put together a list of materials we'd need (a soccer ball, a bedsheet the purpose of which shall shortly be explained and so forth. They were talking about a certain skit called the "everything" skit, and I had no idea what they were talking about, so Glove Love tried to summarize it to me over supper. I had no idea how intimately familiar with this skit I would shortly become.
The rest of the day proceeded as usual.

Compass story #3: Day Two

On day two of seminary classes we talked about Old Testament history, and learned an acronym dividing the Old Testament into six distinct periods. The Old Testament is not written in chronological order (obviously) so going through and seeing it laid out chronologically was wicked cool. The acronym is CASKET, which stands for "Creation, Abraham, Sinai, Kings, Exile, Temple." The people who came out with that are working on a New Testament version, EMPTY, so that all together it will say CASKET EMPTY, a reference to the empty tomb and the resurrection.
Day two was the day I walked in on a meeting of the United States of Ninja Assassins. Ninjas were a huge thing for us all month, and we loved to play the game Ninja all the time. So some of the guys went and sequestered themselves in a classroom. I wondered where they were, and some of the girls and I went and found them. We walked in to find them in their meeting, and a young man whom I shall henceforth refer to as "Improviser" because of his talent with improv stood up and announced, "This meeting is adjourned due to female presence." The Joker suggested that they keep me "for her karate skills" (the fact that I'm a black belt was well-known) but Improviser refused. Guys and their "guy things" are well known to me, given that I have three brothers, so this was completely unsurprising to me.
We rolled down hills, joked around and dodged Mountain Dew from a water gun The Joker got in a care package from his youth group, and generally had a good time that afternoon. The subject material was fascinating and enjoyable.
We continued discussing "mission vs. missions" that day, and that night during group worship the main leader, who went by many nicknames (such as Jack Bauer and J. Bizzle) told us, "Tomorrow Compass will be half over. Let's use this time as reflective time. If there are any breaches between you and any other students, talk it out now. Reflect on what you're learning, pray, etc." I used the time to thank my teammates for what they did and who they were, and at one point Sweet n' Spazzy told me about one time on La Vida where God had used me to comfort and encourage her. Something about I reached out and patted her on the knee during Table Talk for no reason that I was aware of. At this point, overcome by the atmosphere of worship, love and fellowship, I just...started crying.
That night we were allowed to stay at group worship for as long as possible. One of the leaders played on his guitar, and I was just praying. When I finally looked up to leave a long time later, I was the only youth in the room. When I got back the the dorm, Sweet n' Spazzy and The Friz came into Friz's and my room and said, "We've talked about prayer requests and shared and stuff. Do you have any prayer requests?" We shared together and prayed together.
It was a Compass tradition to hold hands while we prayed (more than five times a day, generally), and this tradition was started by us, not the leaders. The three of us followed that tradition then.
It was one of the most wonderful nights of Compass.

Compass story #2: Some things we learned on day one of classes

Glove Love put a dollar bill into the vending machine during a break and it didn't work. Basically it ate the dollar. But the next day we went in to see whether anything had changed, and it credited the dollar so he could get something out of it after all. (A day late.)
The Friz introduced me to the joys of rolling down a hill on seminary campus, and I realized anew the strength of gravity's pull when unresisted. (Not that resisting it to climb that mountain was easy...)
I was so happy to discover that I had mail during lunch that day. I put down my lunch tray to go get a drink, and when I came back I discovered an envelope on my tray. It was from my Compass mentor, a youth leader from church.
We began studying missions in general and specifically our missions in Mexico City. That included watching the awesome, mind-blowing missions video I posted a while ago. "Aim lower, think smaller..." It makes sense after all! The bad news: Mexico Prep Class felt like school. Just as much as theology class did. Si. In fact, we did a writing assignment, and whispers swept the classroom. "I feel like I'm taking a test." "Someone pass the answer key." etc, etc.
That night was our first Table Talk (group nightly discussion) that actually used a table since before La Vida.
We began inductive Bible study that night, and learned a few things about what would happen during these Bible study sessions, including: Ask obvious questions, not profound ones for now; the Bible study leader had a habit of kissing on the forehead people who specially pleased him; don't pay too much attention to headings and verse and chapter numbers, because they weren't added until later, etc. etc.
And we had more group worship time. It was AWESOME.

Compass story #1: First day back

The first day back was a Sunday, the fourth of July. Basically we got up late, had breakfast late, did Compass Time and had some group worship, and that was all we did that morning. It was relaxed and nice, and we enjoyed being clean and not overly active. Group worship was amazing as ever. The point to make about group worship, not just then but throughout Compass, was that everyone participated. Any way they wanted. Sit, stand, kneel, throw your hands in the air. You would NOT BE JUDGED. There was such presence of the Holy Spirit and such openness, it was amazing. Group worship was possibly my favorite thing about Compass.
That morning we sang this song:

It was so appropriate, and so perfect, and every word meant exactly what it was.

That afternoon after lunch, we went into a local city for church. It happened to be my home church. I was so happy to be there, and it was amazing taking communion with the others there, the others who I'd gotten to know so well. From there, we walked through the city to a bridge, where we had an amazing Table Talk and waited for it to get dark. By the time the fireworks ended, it was really late, and we took the subway back to the vans. By the time we got to the dorm, it was past midnight. But it had been a wonderful day.

Compass stories season 2: Academic week

Yes, it's time to begin the blogging flood again. This season's theme: Academic week. The week we spent taking seminary classes. We spent this time living in a dorm with a general daily schedule:

7:30 Get up
7:45-8:15 Breakfast
8:15-9:15 Compass Time (devotional time)
9:30 Load vans
10:00-3:00 Class
3:15/3:30-4:00 Free Time
4:00 Mexico prep
5:30 Dinner
6:30 Table Talk
7:30 Large Group Bible study/worship
Somewhere between 9:30 to 10:00 we would usually get back to the dorm
11:00 Lights out

And in the morning do it all again. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of what I will be saying will be anecdotes about such things as the United States of Ninja Assassins, a water gun filled with Mountain Dew, a cranky and irritable vending machine, and soaking-wet volleyball.
There will also be some context in here that will be important for understanding our experiences in Mexico.

Time for a ten-minute packs-off...

Meaning, break time. That was La Vida, which was only 33.333333...% of Compass. So we're going to take a break now...

Compass story #11: 8.6 Mile Str - I mean "run" ;) and the bus ride

The next day was our last La Vida challenge, the 8.6 mile run. Of course, I'm not sure exactly how many people actually ran the whole way. I know of maybe two for sure. I ran as far as I could at first and then walked a ways before setting a new goal. I took the whole way with Sweet n' Spazzy, and we talked about life at home and stuff. Once in a while one of us would say, "See that street sign all the way up there?"

"Yeah?"

"Wanna run there?"

"Sure." So we'd run up and drop back into the walk to get our breath back before doing it again. Not the most incredible athletics, but we covered the whole distance on foot, ran the last stretch, and had some good conversations in the meantime. It was astonishing how much shorter 8.6 miles is than I had anticipated, after killing myself to go 4-7 miles a day on trail.
We weren't even the last ones back.
Upon arriving back, we returned the last of our group gear, filled out program eval forms and stuffed the stuff we brought in the back of the bus. Then we climbed in ourselves for the 7-hour (it wound up longer than that) bus ride back to campus.
Stop. Close your eyes (once you have finished reading this paragraph) and imagine. A school bus, yes, a yellow school bus filled with more than thirty people, mostly teenagers, who have been exercising strenuously nonstop for the past nine days, with absolutely no showers and maybe two changes of clothes. For about eight hours.
We opened almost every single window(literally, I counted two that we didn't open) and rode off. We stopped three times; once at Pizza Hut for lunch, once to get gas in the bus and snacks for us and once at Chick-fil-a for dinner. I don't want to know what the people at the restaurants thought when we came in! After the snack break, the leaders would walk down the bus billing themselves as "snack checkers." Hey, they need their perks after all they did that month. They deserve them.
I was singing a song to myself at one point in the bus, and was surprised when the guy behind me, whom I shall call "Calvin" because he was the group's only and most devoted Calvinist, leaned over and told me, "Lisa, it's so good to hear you singing that, because it's old-school ('90s) and it's got good theology." I was so happy to be with a group that cared about theology. It was the third of July, and there were fireworks out the window a few minutes after we left Chick-fil-a. The entire bus screamed the national anthem, cheered and laughed. It was amazing and so much fun!
We got back to the dorm around 11 PM, and were given instructions: Do your laundry, take a shower, call your parents (we were so happy to have an hour of cell phones allowed) and please go to bed!
I found a care package of a few dozen cookies my little brother baked for me had been left at the dorm, we called home and did all that, and it was bliss to have a mattress, and pajamas, and a shower, again for the first time in more than a week. I was so happy to be off La Vida (to be quite honest, it was a very very very painful week), and still be with the rest of the group, and we all slept soundly that night.

Compass story #10b: CELEBRATION DAY!!! part 2

Our last task before dinner was to put together a skit for the big-group celebration that night, a skit that would encompass our experiences of the week. Our skit was a group of snapshots of highlights of the week: Glove Love and The Bush getting soaked our first night on the trail, Enrique crying on his birthday, the "all will be destroyed haiku," the triumph of the hiker who had the most trouble hiking (namely me) reaching the top of the mountain, Skyscraper's and Samwise's "Jump on it" dance and our group countoff.
There's a bit of a story to that last one. When making sure everyone was there on the bus and all that, each team had counted off, starting with the leader. Each one of us had a number. My team, the Green Machine, had proven itself to be the worst at counting off because at any given moment someone would always not be paying attention, or would think they were the wrong number, or something. So we determined to practice and show off at the celebration. When we did our skit, we went up and down instead of just up. Pathetic that we had to practice that, but hey, we were stubborn.
Then it was time for dinner, and after concrete-like oatmeal, freako butter and nutella for the time on the trail, we were thrilled to have burgers, hot dogs, salad, chips, lemonade, and - joy of joys! - ice cream! We talked with the other Compass groups, as every group had returned that day, and enjoyed ourselves.
Finally it was time for the big-group celebration, and the Green Machine went first. The whole La Vida group consisted of we three Compass groups, a group of younger kids, and a few adult groups. Altogether we were maybe a hundred people. The whole audience sang happy birthday to Enrique with us in that part of the skit, laughed at the haiku, and cheered at the part about reaching the summit. Then we relaxed and watched the rest of the groups do their skits about their La Vida experiences, including the younger kids describing how obnoxious they were to their sherpa at the beginning of the trip and hearing an adult group sing, "On the first day of La Vida, our sherpas gave to us..." to the tune of "On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me."
Then we sang a few songs, like "Over the Mountains and the Sea" and "Open the Eyes of My Heart" and went into the reflective part of the celebration. Anyone who wanted could get up and share about a powerful part of their trip. And after a few people went, The Joker got up and shared about his solo. Suffice it to say, it had been more than incredible in ways none of us could have imagined, listening to God speaking to him. He started crying near the end of talking about it, and so did I, watching and listening.
More than half of La Vida shared their trip stories that night, or so it felt like. It went on for a long time, and it was amazing hearing these truly incredible stories (most of which were about solo, incidentally). Then the meeting ended after a few more songs, and I saw something else amazing. A young woman from another group went up to The Joker and said, "I know you don't know me, but could I pray for you?" They learned each others' names, prayed together, and after a big hug went their separate ways.
That night we were set up under the stars, and I chatted with Glove Love before going to sleep about the ukulele, but also about our faith and really profound stuff. And I could see the stars. (Again, I'm an inner-city kid, so that was a big deal.) It was a powerful night, and I felt so blessed, so at home, so loving and loved, so at peace that night, under the stars in the mountains.

Compass story #10a: CELEBRATION DAY!!! part 1

We arrived back at camp and stood together in a circle around the fire and stoves, still in silence. When everyone had arrived back at camp The Bush read a Bible verse Enrique had selected, and the solo was over. The first words spoken: "Hey guys, what's up?" Glove Love, of course.
We had "sherpa stew" (vegetable stew) and chocolate pie for breakfast and shared our ACEs, and BK and Lynn gave us "commitment cord" bracelets. Basically these are cords that they cut to fit our wrists and fastened by melting with a lighter and melding the melted ends. Thus, these bracelets aren't coming off unless we cut them off.
Then we packed up the camp we'd set up two days ago, before the solo, and set out. It was a truly short hike, maybe half an hour, to reach the bus that would take us back to La Vida base camp. I was so happy to see the bus after everything we'd been through on the trail that I legit(imately) gave it a big huge hug. No joke. We tossed our packs in and enjoyed our hour and a half in a van tightly packed together with other people who hadn't showered or used deodorant in several days. Si.
On the way we each shared the stories of how our solo days had gone, and at this point I have to admit something. The pseudonyms I chose for my teammates, in the case of those without nicknames, were based on their usual behavior, not on the more important stuff. The Joker had an incredible story to share for his solo, and it will also come in later.
Upon arriving back at base camp, there were a few things that we had to do. We hosed down the group tarp and solo tarps and hung them over a clothesline, put our leftover group food and stuff back in the cabin where it belonged, and all that. We also had to find a place to sleep. Somehow the sherpas checked the weather and as chances were that it was not going to rain under any circumstances, we set up our sleeping bags out in the field, under the open sky. No group tarp or tents that night. Just us and the sky. For a little while we sat out there and watched wispy cirrus clouds and read and talked about the Bible and chillaxed, enjoying the weather and each others' company.

Compass story #9: Solo Day

Here's the scoop on solo day: Twenty-four hours alone in the woods under a solo tarp, fasting, generally held in silence.

I discovered around the beginning of La Vida that the idea of the solo gave some of my teammates the willies: "We'll be so hungry..." "Alone in the woods all night?" etc. etc. Or something bigger, feeling that God was going to use the time to tell him/her something important and potentially devastating.

For me, Solo Day was peaceful and relaxing. The sherpas led us out to our spots first thing in the morning, I set up my solo tarp and sleeping bag and settled down with my Bible, and that day read the first five books of the Bible, along with Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and some of the Gospels. Hey, I had a lot of sunlit time to fill.

It was amazing not to have to worry about "what time is it?" There was no time to think about, no lunchtime or break time or anything. Just "it's too dark to read now, go to bed" time. The woods were so peaceful and beautiful, and I had all that time to devote to God. For me, as a high-school-and-college-student, that was incredible.
I also did our special assignment called "ACEs," an acronym for Appreciation, Challenge, Exhortation. For every person in the group we had to go through and say something we appreciated about that person and something that we challenged them to try or something that we exhorted them to continue with more vigor. Each of us did ACEs for everyone, including The Bush, Lynn and BK.

There was a bit of hallucinating, when you're so tired you start to dream and you see people and then you realize they can't possibly be there and wake yourself up. There was one other incident:

I was sitting there reading and heard a twig snap. I looked up and saw a huge dark shape moving towards me. What was it? It got closer and closer, dangerous-looking and menacing. It rounded the bend and -

It was The Bush. I hadn't realized I'd parked right next to the trail. It was just him, bringing us our backup water bottles.

It was even easier than I had expected to sleep alone in the woods under just a tarp. When the sun was vanishing behind a mountain, I just crawled into my sleeping bag, closed my eyes and conked off, and didn't wake up until The Bush roused me and told me to pack up and return to camp in silence to end Solo Time and break our fast. (Hence the term "breakfast.") I did so, and Solo Day was over.

Compass story #8b: Day of the Stalkers part 2

When we finally stopped for lunch, I found myself in the remarkable position of not actually physically needing to stop. This was new and exhilarating, and I almost hoped we would keep walking, because I was in the zone. So we stopped by a stream at a rocky area and settled down. A couple minutes later the adult leaders arrived, and The Bush silently held up all the messages he had collected.

He had not found the haiku.

The hilarity that reigned in the group was incredible, because we all realized that some random hikers who wouldn't know who left it would find the message. "All will be destroyed." It was so funny! We were alone for most of lunch, but the adult leaders came back for The Friz's and Skyscraper's life stories. Thus, lunch took a good hour or so, because we enjoyed the break and took as long as we wanted with the life stories and stuff. Then the adult leaders ditched us again and we set out.

There were fascinating discussions on the trail, about things like churches and homosexuality, and there were two songs that I had stuck in my head and kept singing constantly ("Jesus Take the Wheel" and "Over the Mountains and the Sea," both somewhat appropriate to the La Vida situation). It was a long hike, but not that hard. We continued on a gentle downward slope, enough to make the hike easy but not enough to make it hard. As we approached our campsite, Enrique called, "Lisa, how are you doing?" "Great!" I responded happily, and he asked, "Really?" in total surprise.

We arrived at another amazing campsite and set up. The group tarp gave some trouble, but they got it up at last. Glove Love had a row with our Coleman camping stoves, but we got water boiling eventually. Samwise and Skyscraper did their classic "Jump on it" dance ("Dah, duh duh duh, duh, Massachusetts, jump on it, jump on it!") and I pumped more water. There was then a little free time, I played Mau with The Friz and we tried to teach Sparky, but he quit quickly. When dinner was ready, The Bush, BK and Lynn arrived. Their first act was to make us change the group tarp, and then we had dinner and Table Talk.

This Table Talk, we heard Enrique's and Glove Love's life stories, and had some wonderful discussion and bonding time. Then the sherpas gave us the information on Solo Day, which was the next day.

Compass story #8a: Day of the Stalkers part 1

Sounds like a horror movie, right?

Enrique, Glove Love and Samwise woke us up the next morning and told us that the sherpas and The Bush were gone for the day. Those three, as LODs, were in charge, and we were legit(imately) going to be stalked that day. Meaning if we had an emergency, the adult leaders would be there, but otherwise, we wouldn't see them until after we had finished cooking dinner. Everything - breaking down and setting up camp, cooking, pumping water, etc., was all in our hands.

After breakfast, we went into Compass Time (which ended with Glove Love calling "The noise!") and then broke down camp and set out. I was still kind of sore, but it wasn't really that bad. We travelled single file for a while, with Glove Love at the front of the line calling things back like, "OK, everyone, starting at the back of the line and moving up, tell how do you like your eggs!" or "If all of you could be a superhero, who would you be?" We sang "Sweet Caroline" on the trail, and just generally had a good time. Furthermore, it wasn't long until we reached an intersection from which we could hear motorcycles. At first the six of us (the LODs were over consulting the map by themselves) thought they were helicopters (not a good sound to hear in the mountains) but realized the true meaning of the sound shortly afterward. Our guess was confirmed when the LODs returned and we moved on, and reached a parking lot and a road!

We crossed the street (holding hands just for the heck of it), the LODs decided we were in the wrong place and we crossed the street again, and realized that they had made another mistake, so we crossed the street again, and headed up the road a bit to the start of our climb. We stopped for a couple minutes and I thought, "I know, I'll distract myself by counting as high as I can in Hebrew!" (That's pretty high, by the way.) So when we stood up, I started counting out loud, having warned no one, and Sweet n' Spazzy and The Friz turned and stared at me in astonishment, looking as if they feared for my sanity.

I broke off and said, "What?"

"You just started spouting gibberish, we thought you had lost your mind!"

"It's Hebrew!" We all cracked up and I then taught the brilliant and knowledge-hungry Friz how to count to 10 in Hebrew. Then we played free association games ("Start at 'elbows' and get to 'school'") and stuff like that. Overall, it was the easiest day of hiking, because we were pretty much used to it by then. We played tricks on the adult leaders by leaving messages for them on birch bark on the trail, because they were a ways behind us. Mostly they were just stuff like "We are watching you" and creepy pictures of eyes, but Glove Love wrote a haiku that we left for them, that goes as follows (I have it committed to memory):

the clouds are moving

mothers embrace their children

all will be destroyed

We left it on a stick in the middle of the road for them to find.

Improv Everywhere: The Tourist Lane

Maybe some major cities could use one of these. (Not really; I think we don't need more bureaucratic nonsense. It is a cute idea...)

Compass story #7: The Descent

The descent was NOT fun. At first it felt so much easier. It was maybe two hours of easy, and I was thrilled that I could go way longer without resting than on the way up. Then the pain started to kick in. I could ignore it mostly at first, with stuff like watching Glove Love dance down the trail (at one point, Glove Love randomly came up to me and said, "So, Lisa, is your mother a good cook?" I spent a lot of time when I was around Glove Love staring at him in utter disbelief.) At one rest stop I asked Sparky how much farther there was to go. I'd thought it couldn't be far, we'd been going for a long time, but I got a feeling as I looked at him... "It's not close, is it." It was a statement, not a question. "No." he mumbled.

It got gradually worse and worse, and I began to fall behind the group. The Bush stayed behind with me and talked to be, despite my short temper and tendency to snap from exhaustion and pain. (I later apologized and thanked him for dealing with me.) At one point, all we could see up ahead was Samwise. The Bush called up, "When was the last time you saw the rest of the group?"

"What?"

"When was the last time you saw the rest of the group?"

"About ten minutes ago!"

Finally Samwise managed to communicate to the group the need to stop, and after a few minutes The Bush and I arrived at the place they stopped, I found a log and sat down, and looked away from the group so none of them could see my face. After a few minutes I heard a voice next to me. "Lisa?" It was Sparky.

"Yeah?" I struggled to control my voice.

"Are you OK?" Sparky asked, compassion warring with his usual attempt to remain unemotional.

"Yeah. Fine." I said unconvincingly.

"Do you want me to pray for you?" he asked, kind of awkwardly (we were still getting used to the openness of this community).

I continued to struggle to control my voice, and responded, "Yeah, please."

It took about another half hour to arrive at camp. Everyone was thrilled with the campsite, the best one we'd had yet. We had a large fireplace, a big open perfect area for group tarp, everything. Some of the guys with more energy left, like Skyscraper and Glove Love, we whooping and cheering at it.

I literally limped around for the rest of the day.

Compass story #6: SUMMIT PARTY!!

One thing I'd like to say about my team and La Vida: Each and every one of us had a supportive family around us all the time. Period. No, scratch that: Exclamation point! The Bush and the sherpas, who I shall call BK and Lynn for want of better pseudonyms (and more imagination), were there for us all the way and we were there for each other. Everyone had someone who prayed for them the day they shared their life story, and sharing mine with the group the first night on the backpacking trail was incredibly powerful bonding with the group for me. We all could be and would be totally open. When we were at Claymore on campus...bliss.

This was unbelievably important, because the next day we climbed Giant Mountain.

Wearing our packs, we climbed up boulders, stumbled across streams, etc. When we reached a tall rock or something difficult to climb, a guy like Skyscraper or Samwise would get a boost up (taking off their pack if necessary), and help pull others up, and spot us so we wouldn't fall. Our LODs, I think Sparky, Skyscraper and The Joker, would call a stop when we needed one, but otherwise we kept pressing on. We reached the alpine section of the mountain where normally it would have been cold, but in our t-shirts and shorts we were still warmer than was comfortable, due to the fact that we were carrying these huge packs up a mountain.

I enjoyed talking to Glove Love on the way up, about school and apologetics and stuff like that, and the troubles he's been having at school with jerk teachers who mark him down for writing about his faith in a personal essay and stuff like that. Not only did we have a good conversation, but it helped keep my mind off the trail and on dealing with, say, biased teachers and stuff. Nevertheless, it was a hard day, exhausting and painful, but there weren't really any moments I can remember that had utter despair (or gooey black mud). It helped that I spent about half the climb under the delusion that we were "almost there."

Finally, though, we reached a spot near the top and Samwise let out a yell of excitement and joy (WHOOO-HOOOOO!) because we were in a cloud. That was so cool for him. It was mere minutes from then when we reached the top. After a few minutes of joy, freedom and feeling like we could fly (the one perk of the backpacks was the feeling you get when you take it off) we dashed for our layers, because it was cold up there! Then we found a spot mostly sheltered from the wind and pulled out the stuff for lunch.

Lo and behold, Lynn and BK had brought candy, confetti and noisemakers for us to have a summit/day-after-Enrique's-birthday party! We went around and said things we wanted to celebrate that day, and mine was "surviving to the top of the mountain." Enrique said, "I think I speak for the group when I say we're all proud of you, little sis." I'm the second-youngest in the group. "You stuck with it and now, you're at the top of the mountain with your family."

"That's right, I'm with my family." I said, and meant it. Who says we can only have one family anyway?

We took group pictures on the mountain, funny pictures like the one of The Bush next to The Joker, who, true to form, had that morning taken charcoal from the fire pit and drawn a beard on his face to resemble that of The Bush, or the ones of The Friz saving me from "falling" and vice versa, and generally messed around.
Taking in the view was truly spectacular, staring at a huge bowl of land wayyyyy below us with the shadow of clouds moving across it from clouds almost low enough to be at our eye level. We could really see and feel the glory of God from that mountain, and be moved by His presence what with the view, and the love of the group for each other, and the success of having scaled the mountain up to the summit.

And we rested for the descent. The summit had been worth the climb, and the incident of the previous day, in my opinion.

Compass story #5: The day I almost died

The day after The Bush and Glove Love got swamped was our first full day of backpacking. And, incidentally, Enrique's birthday. Furthermore, it was Sweet n' Spazzy's, The Friz's and my day as Leaders Of the Day (LODs). This meant that we were caretakers of the map and of watches that were set to the wrong time so we couldn't know what time it was, and the ones to make the decisions for the group. (When do we stop, what now, etc.)
After eating some truly nightmarish oatmeal and packing up camp, we set out to Owl's Head Lookout for Compass Time. Once again, it was only about an hour's hike, BUT...

• it was intensely uphill
• we were carrying these crazy packs on our backs
• we weren't used to the hiking

So I was completely exhausted by the time we came to the intersection that told us that one way was the Lookout and the other way was to keep on going. Some of the team wanted...to keep on going until finding a spot for lunch. However, they opted to respect and go with the LODs' request that we stop for Compass Time. (Compass Time was our daily devotional time. We had an hour chunked into every day for devotionals.)
After a really short climb, we reached the lookout and had Compass Time and I managed not to fall asleep (yes, it was a struggle after the first half hour, even shivering cold on a rock jutting into the sky). After Compass Time, which made me feel amazingly better, we had some GORP and struck out again. That period wasn't so bad, aside from getting my legs ripped up by raspberry bush thorns. We stopped for lunch, and a couple things of note happened: the snakes scared one of our sherpas, and Enrique had an...emotional breakdown, and forged an emotional bond with Samwise, who went and was there for him.
But it was the after-lunch period time that was the worst. After a few hours, maybe three, I didn't think I could keep going, and there was nothing to do but...keep going. Finally we reached a point were the incline suddenly increased, and I stopped (I was in front because the slowest person has to set the pace) and looked at it. They stopped the group and Glove Love prayed for me, and we kept going. And not ten minutes on...
I fell into a foot-deep mud pit and lost my balance.
Skyscraper's comment, several weeks later: "It's never a good thing when you hear a scream and then someone else say 'I have a towel.'"
Someone grabbed my left hand and pulled me out. My hiking boots and socks and feet were, of course, completely soaking, and my legs and right arm were filthy up to my knees and elbow, and what could I do?
You guessed it. Keep walking. I was just so angry, not at the trail or at the group (who were my heroes that day) or with God or anything like that. I was just...angry. The Joker said if he'd been in my position he would have been crying and swearing and all that. I don't know whether I succeeded in not crying, but we finally made it to the campsite. Glove Love made me borrow a washcloth and I went and stood in the stream up to my ankles in cold water (still in my footwear) washing off the mud and telling myself, "I'll laugh about this someday..." (which is already true). My boots weren't dry until the day after solo.
That day my teammates were amazing, patient, supportive, etc. Most of all, though, God gave us all the strength to keep going, regardless of the obstacles. I learned so much from that experience.

Awesome missions video

Compass story #4: The night Glove Love and The Bush almost drowned

It was the night after embarking on the trail. It had been a "short" hike, only about an hour, and we set up the group tarp for the first time and all that. So. (I was asleep for the entire incident; the following anecdote is what I heard after the fact.)
Glove Love woke up to find that the group tarp was pressing him into the rock next to him, more and more, weighed down by the water collecting in the tarp (it was raining, obviously). He could see The Bush's headlamp through the water and tarp, and said, "Hey, all I can see is your headlamp." (In the skit we did at the end of La Vida, when portraying this incident briefly, it was "All I can see is your headlamp and your beard.")
The Bush responded, "Want to help and push up on the tarp?"
"Yeah, sure."
The two of them pushed up on the tarp and the water poured off the top and down the slope all over their stuff and sleeping bags. They were totally swamped. How does The Bush respond?
"OK, go back to sleep now."
"You realize now we're sleeping in a puddle, right?"
"Yeah, that's OK."

Their stuff was wet for the rest of La Vida.