High above the mucky-muck.

This is the real post.

This week and the one before it were a real one-two punch. I am not going to dwell, but I learned more about the Kingdom and Family of God in these two weeks then I have in all of my life. I recovered famously from my sickness and was back with my boys a mere 7 hours after I started throwing up. I also want to throw out a thank you to anyone who was praying for me and the guys. I had a camper come to know the Lord this week, and I am positive that without prayer nothing would have been achieved.

So there is some cool stuff I have been doing recently, and the time has come for me to share them. Tree-bending is a sport that I think originated somewhere in Canada, and in spite of it's sub-standard country of origin it is a really really cool thing to do. Tree-bending is a rather simple activity, and the name pretty much sums it up. A rough description would be that you climb up an undeveloped sapling, usually about 30 feet or so high, about5 or 6 inches in diameter, and then wait till it bends to the ground. In reality, you are sweating blood from the effort of trying to pull your self up the flimsy pole of a tree that you are attached to. Since it is a sapling, there are no branches on which to hang or stand, and so you have to cling, quite literally, for your life. When you get to the top, you kick your legs out the side and the tree bends dramatically down until your heels reach the forest floor. At this point you let go and the tree goes whooshing back to a vertical state no worse for wear. It is so. much. fun. As much fun as it is, it is equally exhausting to haul my 190 pound body up a skinny little wooden pole with no substantial support except that which is coming from my arms and thighs wrapped around the tree. After two or three ascents, I am so sore and winded that I can barely even spell the word tree. Or climb.

I also have been called upon (last weekend and this week as support staff) to blaze what is left of the West Trek trail on RH property. It is the most difficult trail on all of the campus, and it was started a couple years ago and never finished. They got as far as a really beautiful gorge would let them, and now I and my buddy Dan have to chop our way through Rhododendron and Oak and God knows what else up the side and over the top of this gorge and finish out the last couple miles of the trail. It takes a while, but is very rewarding. Hopefully with a week's worth of time we will be able to finish. It makes me feel pretty manly and stuff to ride a four wheeler into the woods and spend the entire day chopping and cutting my way towards an unknown objective. The unknown is the good part. It keeps you going until you know it fully, and when you know the unknown, you really sleep well at night.

I will be putting pictures both of tree bending and trail blazing up as soon as I can make some space on my hard drive. I love living in the smokies, mere miles away from the continental divide and in the midst of God's "Wilderness Cathedral". I am indeed very fortunate.