Vida Encounter

Don’t worry I’m not driving while blogging

Kelli Hofstra — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 02:50:36 +0000

We are on our way home having a great time chatting about the week. We are going to be home in the very early morning (sorry parents) so we stopped at Cracker Barrell for supper and waste about 2 bours. When the check came and I said i’d take it the waitress then proceeded to ask if all the kids are mine. They all loved it and the jokes started coming. For a special treat I let them all pick a candy stick and while I was paying Kim kept trying to get them to go to the van but they were joking they wanted t o wait for their mom. As I finished paying all at once they loudly say "thanks mom". This is just one of the many jokes and good times we have had this week.

As we left for the drive I asked the kids to come up with a sentence of a lasting impression, here they are.
A life changing experience I’ll never forget.
This was a soul reviving trip for me.
This trip definitly challenged me, it also showed me how God cares.
This week was such a great experience for me, I was challenged to do many things that I could have never done without the great people that came along and encouraged me to try new things or without God and His love.
It was an amazing experience and opened my eyes a ton to just see what God’s plan is for me.
Gave me a chance to strengthen myrelationship with God and gave me new understanding of the depth of God’s love for me. I learned so much about my own limits and what God can help me accomplish. Also, I beast at rock climbing.

This week has been an amazing time. It has given me a chance to reflect on God’s love and glory he has for me. I definitly have grown closer to Him.
This week was a great experience for strengthening my relationship with God and I got to reflect on what God does for me and how amazing his creation is while looking at the magnificent mountains.
This week gave me a chance to make new friends, overcome challenges, and most of all strengthen my relationship with God.

Thanks for reading all the updates. The blog will continue with other Encounter and Vida trips and meetings so we hope you check back during the summer and school year to hear about all that is happening with the youth groups.

Into Marvelous Light I’m Running

Kelli Hofstra — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 05:00:55 +0000

It has come to an end. The last chapel is over after an extra 30 minutes of praising and jamming with the band. Jeff concluded the week asking the question of what does it mean for you to walk with God? What does walking with God look like? To walk in the presence of the Lord is to walk knowing Jesus is beside us, ahead of us, behind us, over us and in us. It is to grow, progress, and increase, to get your strength from Him. Jeff encouraged us by reminding us that the presence of God that we feel here in Colorado is at home too. God has broken some levees, poured living water on us and life has returned. It is important that all of us find a way to continue what has started here when we go home.

The time of worship tonight was amazing. I feel like I have used that word a lot this week and it can’t even do it justice. Hearing a room filled with 330 people singing with all their might praises to God, raising their hands, dancing with joy and not being ashamed because they are praising the God who loves them and that is all that matters has been an experience that gives glimpses of heaven. Watching the students continue to sing and stay in chapel after already an hour and half for 30 more minutes has given me goosebumps more this week and is a joy to watch.

As we prepare to head home, I ask for all your prayers for the students. For Ben, Jake, Anna, Laura, Becca, Kara, Hallie, Molly, and Jaclyn that they would continue to hear God speak to them and they would say yes to what he calls them. That they would be able to praise God and not be ashamed to lift their hands or sing with all their might at school chapel or church, to be able to boldly speak about God with their friends. Thanks for joining us on this journey, with prayers, financial support, reading what they have been doing and caring for these students. Tomorrow will be the final Colorado Challenge posting.

Always have a helmet

Kelli Hofstra — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 01:18:21 +0000

No one got hurt, it has been the theme with activities. I don’t think there has been an activity where you don’t have to wear a helmet and today was full of them. We first had horseback riding in the morning, so the students and Kim (there were only 10 spots) wore riding helmets. Then it was straigh to mountain biking…again a helmet. After lunch we went to the high ropes course which ends with an amazing zip line, another helmet. Then right off to play some paintball and a helmet/mask. We have has a full day including some naps, the beginning stages of packing and mom’s you can probably imagine what a room with 9 girls can look like. I will be amazed if they don’t come home with someone elses stuff. It is hard to believe tonight is the last night. It has been an amazing week with great spiritual growth. I will blog later, probably while on the road Saturday to close up the week and hope to get lasting impressions from the students.

We are hoping to be on the road around 8:30 tomorrow, but aren’t in a big rush cause we don’t want everyone to have to come pick up their child at 4:00am. We will keep parents posted via phone tree on Saturday night about sunday’s arrival time.

Hosanna

Kelli Hofstra — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 00:54:51 +0000

Thursday night chapel, Jeff Klien talked about our role in joining Christ in his mission to restore God’s creation. He sent the students out in silence around camp to listen to what God has to say about their call, how God wants them to prticipate in his kingdom. He also encouraged us to say yes and be apart of it, to not let fear hold us back how many took hold of fear this week and made the jump off cliffs, floated down rivers, got on horses and so much more while enjoying it. After the time of silence the band closed with a song and many of the kids came back. The song is "Hosanna" by Hillsong United and it sums up the whole week theme. Here are the lyrics.

I see the King of glory
Coming on the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes, the whole earth shakes
I see His love and mercy
Washing over all our sin
The people sing, the people sing

Hosanna, hosanna
Hosanna in the highest
Hosanna, hosanna
Hosanna in the highest

I see a generation
Rising up to take the place
With selfless faith, with selfless faith
I see a near revival
Stirring as we pray and seek
We’re on our Knees, we’re on our knees

Hosanna hosanna
Hosanna in the highest
Hosanna hosanna
Hosanna in the highest

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like You have loved me.
Break my heart for what breaks yours
Everything I am for Your kingdom’s cause
As I walk from earth into eternity.

I can finally blog my fingers have thawed!

Kelli Hofstra — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 15:54:05 +0000

Thursday was rafting day! The whole camp makes the drive to Buena Vista which is about an hour and a half away early in the morning. We left camp at 6:20 and the drive is always a quiet one. No different yesterday. I think at one point I was the only one awake. The Arkansas River is flowing over 3000 csi (normal at this time of year is 1800. It was a great ride. The rapids where big and the water was about 43 degrees. Normally the sun is shining and it doesn’t seem too cold, however yesterday I think we saw the sun for about 10 minutes total of the 2 hour rafting trip. Fingers were so cold the it was hard to straighten our hands. Inspite of the really cold water everyone had a great time.

The drive home from rafting was just as much an adventure. We were planning to visit some hot springs near the rafting place, which was sounding amazing as we all where very cold, but those plans were rained out. As we were getting ready to leave there was a very dark big cloud rolling in with lightening so we decided to head back towards camp and find something else to do. We were unable to beat the storm that was coming. It was intense. There was major wind, we even saw tumbleweed bounce across the road. Pouring rain that then changed to major hail. Many cars pulled over to wait out the storm but not knowing how long it would take and seeing some blue sky ahead we slowly made our way. The ground was becoming white with hail, there was a pile at the bottom of the windshield and the road had tracks of hail. Half way through it finally cleared. During this major storm, we couldn’t even hear the radio but somehow all the kids fell asleep. As we got out of the storm and everything quieted down they all began to stir.

Our backup plan was Sonic, a treat the kids had been asking for since day one. We still had some time in the afternoon so I decided we would go on some back roads bear scouting. We didn’t see any…well some kids tried to make me believe they saw one and I quickly learned they were joking. During our exploring we stopped at a school playground. I don’t think the kids have run to do anything faster all week. They couldn’t get out of the van fast enough. It was fun watching them play around and just let loose.

Last night after chapel it was movie night and a later curfew. Some of the kids spent time sing with another group around a guitar for a while, played some four square and others played some cards. It has been a busy week and hard to believe as I type this we are on our last day.

A Day of Recovery

Kelli Hofstra — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 01:35:54 +0000

At about 7:40am Wednesday, the Soldier Mountain campout group returned, they didn’t leave anyone behind and saw no wild animals. They all said they had a good time, it was a night of staying up late watching for shooting stars and chatting. There were about 40 people up there, 3 other church groups. They were warned when they got to the top if they heard growling to not worry, it wasn’t a bear but Laura’s stomach. After a night of sleeping on hard rocky ground and slipping down to the bottom of their sleeping bags because it wasn’t completely flat ground they were tired. Wednesday was another free day and I had planned on taking the morning easy so the group could recover, which they did. Almost all of them took about an hour nap at 9:00am.

At 10 we met up and went to do some low ropes team building challenges. The first one the group had to stand on a log and reorder themselves in shoe size order without talking or getting off the ground. Some really struggled with not talking. There were then some challenges they had to do in partners on cables. Many of the students wanted to keep trying till they completed the task. We only got through 4 of the possible 10 in an hour and stopped for lunch. After lunch we went back and spent almost an hour on the zig zag. There are three stretches of cables between 4 trees that make a z. The goal was to get at least one person to the 4th tree, while staying on the cables. Each person had to be connected to at least one person or tree at all times. They were so close many times and wanted to keep trying. It was great watching them all chime in and it took the whole group to accomplish. They finally got 2 to the end. After low ropes we took some time to go to Manitou Springs for some shopping. Because of rafting Thursday everything in the evening moved up an hour so we had kind of a short night.

Late night Early Morning

Kelli Hofstra — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 04:21:20 +0000

Tonight’s chapel ended ontime and then as it ended the band continue to play songs and invited anyone who wanted to to stay to sing, pray, listen. All of the student stayed and it was a powerful night. An hour after they closed and we did small groups all together. The new word among the kids they made up on the way to Pikes Peak "awefull" not awful like horrible but awefull like awe full and as I watch the kids sway arm in arm singing, praying, some crying together I was sitting there thinking how aweful. There are some pictures (I ran all the way to our room across camp to get my phone to get a picture to share for tonight) from tonight.

So it is now after 10:00 and we are getting ready for a really early morning to head out for white water rafting. So I will update more tomorrow because I am getting up at 5:20 and that is going to be here too soon. If you couldn’t tell by the bad wording of this post I need all the sleep possible. GoodNight!

Pikes Peak

Kelli Hofstra — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 06:29:37 +0000

Tuesday we had a free day and one of the must sees on free days is going up Pikes Peak. It is a 19 mile drive to reach the summit that is at 14,110 ft. It is a fun drive with very few guardrails. We had a sunny and kind of cold drive through the construction of the Pikes Peak Tollway…yes even construction up the mountain. We could not have had better weather. Once we got to the summit we were able to see the mountains in Denver. After filling up on water and checking out the shop a bit we ventured out around the summit. Jake and Anna started to climb down towards a pit and it looked like they were much closer to the edge than they were but we (Kim and I) were constantly telling them t be careful and come back up. On the southside of the mountain you can venture out on some ridges which Anna and I took advantage of. The picture below of just scenery is from our hike out. While ate the top some of the kids were getting interviewed from the News 5 crew that was at the summit and they may be on the air Friday (I am working on finding a tv we can watch it on in camp since we will be in camp Friday). There is a picture with some of the kids, the news anchor and camera man. They weren’t sure if the segement would be online. After spending about 2 hours at the top we started our trip down making a few stops. First was devils playground and one of the pictures of all the kids on a boulder is from there. It is called devils playground because during afternoon storms the lightening will bounce from rock to rock and can be very dangerous if you are in that area…no afternoon storms today. Then we stopped at another pullout so we could play in the snow a bit. Our last stop was at on of the resevoirs for some silent time listening to God. Many of the kids have commented that they don’t understand how people can see this and not know that God is real.

One of the highlights and what the kids were looking forward to since Monday was the Walmart stop. We then got back to camp in time for showers before dinner. Tonight the group (all but myself) is sleeping on the top of Soldier Mountain. It is suppose to be about 40 degrees so it will be a cold one but the chance to sleep under the stars and be able to see many shooting stars will hopeful make it better.

So as they went up the mountain around 10 it has given me some time to update all that has been going on. Everyone is having a wonderful time and there are steps of growth in their personal faith happening each day.

Pictures from Tuesday

Kelli Hofstra — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 06:29:24 +0000

Here are some of the amazing pictures from Pikes Peak Tuesday.

Our loveability

Kelli Hofstra — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 06:03:17 +0000

Monday and Tuesday night chapels have pushed us to look deep at our loveability and what keeps us from connecting with God’s Heart. Monday night we talked about two lies we often tell ourselves about our loveability: that we must perform-be the perfect christian, be a good person, do things to be loved by God and secondly that if we make a mistake we are no longer worthy to be loved. As we talked in small groups some of the girls shared that they often think God’s love is based on them and they do not always trust that they are loveable. A perfect connection from earlier in the day, one of the girls talked about how she likes climbing over rappelling because rappelling you are in control of letting the rope go through the rappelling devices and climbing you can only go as fast as the bylayer at the bottom let’s you. We struggle with knowing and relying on God’s love when we put it in our hands and in our conditions. But we need to remember that God’s heart longs to be with us, he constantly is reaching out we need to not be afraid of crying out to him.

Tonight (Tuesday), Jeff continued by talking about brokenness in our lives and how it blocks our heart where we are unable to hear God’s love. He asked us the question of what is connected to our hearts that is unhealthy for us? What stands in the way of our connection with our Father? Whatever it is, God will peel that away from our heart, He will peel away the bandages we have placed on our heart. We were given the opportunity to come forward if we were ready to ask him to peel away the bandage, the blockage and place mud on our face and then walk out to a location in camp spend time in prayer and ask Him to do so, to circumcise our hearts so that we are no longer blocked from seeing his love, hearing his love, speaking his love and know his love. God wants to heal our hearts, heal our brokenness and we again have to lean back, like rappelling and climbing lean on those ropes, and surrender to Him.