Adventures on Mount Washington!!

Hello everyone!

It's now been nearly two weeks since we've last checked in, but that was because we have just had one of our most exciting and eventful weeks of the year. There is no doubt that any of you with loved ones in the program have heard stories of our trip to Mount Washington! We have just spent the majority of last week snowboarding, snowshoeing, and genuinely enjoying ski resort life!

We left early in the morning (around 5!) on Monday and headed our way up to the mountain. We were lucky enough to be able to get there reasonably around 9 in the morning and spend out first day either learning or reacquainting ourselves with skiing and snowboarding. Most of us rented equipment and were lucky enough to receive lessons with our package. Mount Washington is the biggest ski resort on Vancouver Island, it is well known for having one of the largest snow bases for resorts in the world. Conditions are usually very favorable and the powder is kept amazingly groomed. We were so lucky to have this within driving distance to us.

We also had some amazing accommodations. We rented a chateau situated directly at the bottom of the ski hills. You could literally make your way down the bunny hills and side-track to where we were staying. The chateau had a number of bedrooms, common areas and hot tubs which were all used regularly as most of us were pretty sore in the evenings and needed some down time. We also were lucky to have incredible food all weekend (steak anyone?) I'm not sure if these pictures can quite capture how nice the area was, but we all felt so blessed to be able to stay and enjoy the amenities.

Wednesday brought another fun adventure, as we were able to go snowshoeing for the afternoon. We took a chairlift up the mountain and all walked together (with our guides) to an awesome out-of-bounds area. It was here that our guides taught us a bit of survival techniques such as how to build a snowcave, how to use a compass, and how to see where avalanches might happen. I think we all enjoyed just how much fun this was. At one point we separated into groups and used our compass to find our way down the mountain. I know it was my first time snowshoeing and this was definitely a highlight of the week. We really enjoyed our guides as well, and you'll see in the pictures below we decided to build a little homage to them.

Nights also brought some really special times as we had the opportunity to get to spend some amazing bonding time together. Some nights were spent encouraging each other, and some were spent talking about what God is doing. I can truly say that one of the hugest benefits of this trip is how close it makes us as a group. We can truly see the bonding and closeness being magnified after this trip. I think we definitely grew together with the quality time we were able to spend.

You'll notice there's not a lot of pictures of our skiing and snowboarding action so far, and that is because we were able to have some of our incredibly gifted students take a video of that! Special thanks goes to Matt who edited this video and took most of the shots!

We arrived home on Friday night, some with more bumps and bruises than others! After a couple of days recuperating, we are now on our way to Vancouver for Missionsfest. I will give you a full report on what that is when we return. But we are on our way tomorrow for yet another adventure! Things really don't slow down here!

Please continue to pray for us! We are so grateful for all of you!

Derek