Week 2: Into the Wild

Well, who doesn’t like being woken up at 4:30 in the morning? I certainly didn’t. But this past week we were at Wildwood. Going into it, my heart was so closed to the idea of spending a few days sleeping in tents, getting attacked by bugs, and not showering (talk about gross!). I prayed the night before that God would open my heart to it but even driving off into the wilderness, I was still turned off by the whole thing.

We hiked into camp around 6:30 probably ( actually I have no clue, we weren’t allowed to have watches). After getting all settled in to our tents (I stayed in Compassion), we had breakfast. We had time to do devos, and the started our GI’s (group initiatives). My team got to start out with the stumps and logs where we had to figure out how to get from one stump to another using only 4 logs and a bunch of smaller stumps. Jenna kept disabling our strongest player by making them blind, deaf, or lose a limb. I was so miserable from my allergies plus I broke my glasses, so I was afraid I was going to ruin the whole exercise for everyone. We never made it to the other stump, but we never really got frustrated with each other, which was kind of the point to the GI. However, we did manage to break one of the small stumps! Afterwards, we had a ton of free time before dinner, ate, and then had a campfire where we got to know a little about the staff. We got to hear about when  God became real in their lives. I also learned that Brett is afraid of invisible cars and Jen has a fear that people come into her house and move her furniture while she sleeps!

The next day, our GI was the high ropes. It started out good, just climbing up the wires and walking across the “Giants Necklace” but then came the partner ropes, where we had to lean on a partner to get across. The second I put one foot down, my legs started shaking like crazy. Lexi was my partner and I seriously don’t know what I would have done without her. She calmed me down by talking to me. When she mentioned the verse “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me,” something clicked in my head, and I was able to make it across. Of course I burst into tears as soon as I reached the platform, but I did it! Walking across the wobbling balance beam was hard too, and I cried after that also. But then came the Tarzan ropes, and I completely froze. My head was spinning and my heart was beating a million times per second. Fortunately, I went to the bathroom beforehand so I didn’t pee my pants. As soon as I stepped on, my legs went crazy again, but this time I didn’t have Lexi right in my face helping me get across. It was just me… or so I thought. I grabbed the first rope, terrified out of my mind, and scooted across the wire. As I went to reach the second rope, I realized I had to let go of the first so I really started freaking out. But then I remembered, “I can do all things through Christ….” And I kept repeating that in my head. Suddenly, I felt like I was being washed over by a wave of calmness. I got a grip and slowly made my way all the way to the other platform (where of course I cried hysterically), but I did it! And I realized it wasn’t Lexi who got me across. It was God working through her and through me. It was an incredible experience (which I will never do again).

Later that day, they had us go out into the woods, alone, and just spend time with God and His word. I was out there for probably a good 6 hours. The first hour wasn’t so bad, but being the type of person who gets distracted easily, the other 5 hours weren’t so great. I had a hard time trying to focus that long, not knowing what time it was or when we could come in. Now I wish I would have spent the time more wisely, but I’m still learning. After about 5 hours they started playing music for us, which was really nice. We were called in by the conch and had hobo dinner (meat & veggies cooked in tin foil over the campfire).

The third day, our GI was to swing from one platform to another and then using a bunch of small planks, getting keys and buckets off of trees all without touching the ground. We were rocking at it, even when we got a penalty, until poor Mallory blacked out. She was okay afterwards, but we stopped just to make sure she was okay. My group worked so well together all 3 days. We also awarded the plunger award to Brandon the first day because he was awesome even when both his arms were taken away, Lexi the second day for being so encouraging to everyone, and to Fletcher the third day for literally getting down in the dirt and letting people stand on his back.

That night, we also had dinner, but this time our wrists were tied to the people’s next to us! So we had to get up as a group, walk to the kitchen, get our dinner  (which was Cesar salad, spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, and RED punch), go back to our table, pass out the food (it was family style) and eat, all while tied to two other people. It was hilarious and we all worked so well together. It was me, Jonathan, Sara, Lexi, Megan, Logan, Morgan, and Eric. We also had to go up and get cake (it was Brett’s birthday! And also National Talk Like a Pirate Day) . Later on, after we were untied, we had a book discussion on the first 8 chapters of Spiritual Leadership.

The last day at Wildwood was spent mostly tearing down the camp. I got to help Kelsey with the kitchen so we got to go to the trash compactor and back to the building. After dinner, we had a girls night in our jammies while the boys had a guys night at Wildwood. We had different flavor popcorn,  got to know our female staff a little more and even had a one song dance party (“We Are Young” ftw!).  When it was a little more serious, we all filled out a paper anonymously of things that we might struggle with & it helped us to realize that we aren’t alone in our struggles.

Friday and Saturday I picked up some extra shifts in the kitchen on my weekend off. I love working in the kitchen but I spent 3 hours cutting 75lbs of bell peppers! Marty  says by the end of the year I’ll be in the 2000lb club! Sunday night I was even dreaming about cutting peppers! That is, until my stomach started hurting. Between 1:30 and 5:00am, the pain in my stomach moved from there to my chest and I started having trouble breathing. I tried to walk to the bathroom to get some pain medicine but it was like all my muscles were shutting down. I managed to crawl to the counter & take some pills but when I got back to my bed, I was so weak and couldn’t breathe. I woke up Shelby and she ran and got Jenna and Jenae for me. Jenna helped me get my breathing back to normal after a while but it was so scary. I genuinely thought I was going to die.

I’m feeling a lot better now and I even went down to Pondi to see if they still needed my help. I ended up helping Jason and Sarah off the clock. Everyone thought I was crazy for working without getting paid, But I really enjoy doing it.