I thought I'd just share a little bit more about my week with the church youth group on our camping adventure.

One of the last things that we were going to do was go caving.  Sounds simple enough I was kind of wishing that we would skip it and go home!  I was really tired of the outdoors :).  The outdoors was really tired of me; we needed a separation!  Unfortunately for me though God had other plans; or not unfortunately. 

To start out with we had to hike down a mountain through a field with super high grass! This was more frightening then anything else on the trip because I am terrified of snakes!  All I could think about was stepping on one but I kept up with our guide so if I was to meet a snake I could just jump on his back or something if I was going down I wasn't going down alone!

Well we made it through the field climbed under a barb wire fence ..lol..and went deep into the woods only to climb another mountain!  Luckily it wasn't a very long climb before we had another climb back down.  This was where the fun began.   We had to hold onto a rope that had been tied from one tree to another down the mountain because the rocky hill was so steep!  It was fun hopping from rock to rock not knowing if you would be taking a tumble or not :). 

Once we were at the bottom of the rocky slope there was a tiny little opening into darkness this was the long awaited Cave!  I'm thinking WHAT???!?!?! We have to go in there in that little hole?  Yeah my claustrophobia was about to take over.  I hadn't brought my own flashlight because I thought the cave would be simple I could use the light of someone else ya know just a walk in the park.  Wow I underestimated allot of this trip! 

Once we entered I could barely breathe even with a flash light or two beaming in my midst I was terrified beyond my expectations.  I couldn't see anything it was so dark and the excited shadows of the people ahead of me were moving into a tiny crevice that led further up into the cave.  I quickly gathered up my fears and pushed them a side I didn't have much of a choice because I didn't want to get left alone in the dark!  I crawled up the drippy wet muddy rocks and kept going.  Soon the fear really did leave without force because I was having the time of my life!

This was so much of a FUN challenge it was constant climbing over rocks through tiny little spaces it was an incredible adventure through darkness and ended up being my favorite thing on the trip.  We all had to depend on each others hands and lights.  Some of the rocks we couldn't get up without a push or a pull of our friends.  God again showed me the importance of trusting others.  There were a couple of times when Amanda a really small girl put out her hand for me to pull myself up with and I told her if I grab your hand were both going down :D...but it was easy to trust the youth pastor with his muscles :).  Although this is silly it made me think of how wise we need to be with our decision and where we put our full trust is it in God or is it in Satan's' lies.  Satan often comes to us and tells us that his way can support us just as good as Gods can but we know that isn't true!  God is always there to remind us of his way before we make a decision he is always there offering his hand in opposition to Satan's' all we have to do is choose the right way he is there he will never let us fall as Satan will.