Coffee and Youth Ministry

Next Tuesday a passion of mine will come full-circle. My senior year at Whitworth College, I embarked on a position that most young adults in the Seattle area long to be, I was a barrista for Starbucks. Since then I have worked as a senior high youth director at a church in spokane, moved to Moscow, took a position as a property manager, watched my wife earn her undergraduate degree, moved to Boise, took a position as the Youth Pastor in my current church, and now I have returned to starbucks. Some might call it the "circle of life," and I would venture to say those would be the Seattle faithful, sipping their venti triple shot americano's raising them high in the air, saluting my return to the organized crime coffee syndicate.

With the arrival of this change in my life, I have returned to a bi-vocational lifestyle; one which entails:

-Loving God
-Nurturing the lives of students
-Pointing people in the church to the truth of God
-Free Coffee
-Above all, fulfilling the role which God has called me to: The Boise Youth Pastor Barrista

Prayer would be appreciated as Kim and i continue to have our lives shaped in ways that we would not have chosen, but are glad that the Lord's will is not our own. Life will be a constant educatory process, bowing to our knees, acknowledging the sovereignty of God in every are of our lives. May your will be done, not ours Lord.

Sawtooth Wilderness Trek

Here's a wonderful idea...take 5 people who have never been backpacking, much less hiking, into a wilderness area in the heart of Idaho for 3 days and 2 nights. That's what we did this last weekend with four students of mine from Trinity and my brother who travelled over from Seattle. On the outset, it doesn't sound like such a good idea, but in hindsight it was a wonderful idea!

There is a newfound passion in some students now for the outdoors and God's glorious creation. Most of the students had no idea that wilderness beauty was simply in their backyard. My brother was a trooper on his first backpacking experience and i know he loved every minute of it! It was neat to see my relationship strengthen with him through the vigors of intense hiking. My lovely wife was a tremendous help on the trip and we couldn't have pulled it off without her.

We began the trek from the all-too familiar Pettit lake trailhead. It was a little over a year ago that my buddy Jim and I first experienced the Sawtooths from this trailhead. The first day was not without it's snags however. We waited for roughly an hour after arriving, hoping the thunderstorm and pouring rain would subside and we would have some blue sky for the hike ahead. Luckily the clouds vanished revealing the bluest sky some of the students had ever seen. We finished divvying out trail mix and began our journey into the wilderness. We hiked up from Pettit lake over the divide north and down into the yellowbelly-macdonald lake basin. From here we explored the lakes, which were half a mile apart. While gazing at the marshy edges and crystal clear middle of MacDonald lake we heard a tree fall. Just previously on the trail another hiker had the decency to warn me about a black bear they saw a few miles up the trail. Immediately i thought that a black bear had pushed it over, after all they love climbing trees. I sauntered over in a stealth like fashion to where i had heard the crash. What do my eyes behold? A two foot wide tree laying in the bambles of the forest, sawdust still floating in the air, no critter to be seen. Phew. In all my years of hiking i have never simply seen a tree just fall over for now apparent reason. It appeared that the roots were rotten, but i'm no treeologist.

We finished hiking to YellowBelly lake and found a wonderful campsite overlooking the lake to the East, towards the White Clouds. We went swimming and played mafia, all the while amazed at the thunderclouds and lightning in the distance over the lake. 3am, i awake to hear panting outside my tent...too high pitched to be a bear, maybe a wolf or coyote or mountain lion...i will never know for i threw my pillow over my ears as to slow my beating heart. 5am, i awake again to the sound of thunder and the flash of lightning. The forecasters had gotten it right, thunderstorm early morning. Kim and i stared at each other wide eyed after every deafening boom and we began to realize after counting our one one thousands that the storm was closing in. There was a moment where the lightning was within a mile of us. Needless to say we were getting dumped on and i was praying that the bolts would find the tops of the trees and not our aluminum tent stakes. After the storm passed over we awoke to beautiful skies and lighting in the distance.

We hiked up another all-too familiar section of the trail, from yellowbelly up the toxaway drainage past tumbling waterfalls and jagged cliffs to our north, to a lake with a few islands named Farley lake. I had the bright idea of encouraging the studetns to swim to the island knowingly full well that i would be suckered into swimming with them. I think my chest still hurts from the freezing water and trying to catch my breath while swimming an olympic marathon to the islands. Michael Phelps would have been proud. We hiked back to our camp for the evening and built a warm fire and had a wonderful Bible Study around Ephesians 4.

The next morning we hiked the ridgeline back out to the car, where we promptly drove into Stanley for the best Huckleberry Milkshakes in Idaho, hands down. Kim and I can't wait till our next wilderness trek to the Eagle Caps this coming labor day weekend. God is gracious.