This is my team:
Andrew Benefield, Drew Crowell, Louis Rogers, Ryan Reeves, Chase Carter, Mary Holland Doan, Dru Anderson(girl), Me, Jessa Grindell, Bill Blair, and Ben Derrick. As you can see there are 5 guys on the team, 2 male leaders, 1 female leader, and 3 girls. Small and awesome. We love eachother..especially after the awesome camping trip I’m about to tell you about.
I arrive at camp sunday afternoon to find out that I have 30 minutes to get ready to leave on a 4 hour andventure to Alabama to go camping.
We arrive in Sibsy, AL and park in a parking lot on the edge of intensity a.k.a. the woods.(some national forest maybe?) We stop and make our food in the parking lot (around 8 at night) and we eat some rice and chicken. Then we pack up our 40 pound packs–which I will just take a second to describe. You know those huge backpacks you see hikers wearing that sit on their hips and just extend upward? They look ridiculously heavy and intense? Well, we got to use those. The camp provided packs, sleeping bags, and sleeping mats/tents, for everyone..awesome. And they were heavy, since they were sitting on your hips you couldn’t feel all the weight necessarily, but enough to knock you off balance pretty easily 
So–we start hiking. A good mile and half into the pitch black woods. Each of us carrying our flashlights. It was ridiculous. Once we got to the camp site..by way of a creek(which was stinking hard to cross for me), some muddy hills–that I found I slipped on everytime, and steep paths, we set up our tents. In the dark. It was hard and entertaining. Once we got to lay down in the tent..it was so hard to fall asleep. Owls hooting, team members snoring, and the thought that bugs were crawling all over you, kept me from falling into a peaceful slumber. Somehow, by God’s grace, I fell asleep. Woke up-oh by the way none of the team had watches on nor cell phones–so we woke up and no one knows what time..and we ate a little grub to get us going. Grub= poptarts and oatmeal. We set out to hike some more.. We got to this place called Wet Bend and decided to stop for some lunch..crackers, sausage, and cheese. We decided, by way of the leaders, to have a little chat to get to know one another. To find out our weaknesses, our backgrounds, our strengths. It was awesome. Mainly to see each person and what they derived from. Their family lives, everything. Ben and David talked to us after our talk and spoke about service and love to one another. And how we are part of the “big picture” but we are such a small aspect. Mainly talking about how we have to love and serve eachother..Then our wonderful leaders decided to tell us “alright team..here we go. You have all the resources you need to make it to ‘Easy Bottoms’ to see what cannot be seen.” Go. We stood there dumbfounded and didn’t really know how to start. We realized quickly that our objective was to find our next campsite. So, after much talking and deliberation and prayer, we set out on a trail we had only hoped was the right way. We reached this campsite and something kept telling a few people on our team that it wasn’t right. So, we walked on. We walked for a good mile and a half, into thick thick thick trails. We stopped in this little walkway bc Ben needed to stop and get some water. Then, one of our members asked, “why are we walking” and no one really responded. We all just kinded mumbled to ourselves thinking of the best possible solution. At this point, I was super frustrated. I just wanted one of our leaders to tell us where to go, because our team really had no idea what to do. So, I voiced my opinion and reminded the team, that it’s about loving eachother and serving eachother. Then, out of nowhere, Bill yells(at the top of his lungs) “Hold up wait a minute, put a little love in it!” I just stared. Some chuckled. Then he said “Maybe y’all didn’t hear me, and (even louder, he yelled) Hold up wait a minute put a little love in it!” And like nothing happened our team began to decide whether or not to keep going. Some said they didn’t want to regret not seeing what was ahead and some were tired and wanted to go back. Finally I said, “why would Bill just yell that randomly at the top of his lungs? It’s not about where we go, it’s how we go about doing that. It’s about being a team and loving eachother as brothers and sisters in Christ.” So the leaders left to have a team meeting..and we stood in a circle as a team, and prayed. Prayed that God would give us direction. Prayed for unity. Etc..After their meeting, we told them that we wanted to go back to the other campsite and that we had seen what couldn’t be seen: our love and service to eachother. And Bill said, “Team, you have made it to ‘Easy Bottoms’.” So we hiked back and on our way, there was thunder. I was like, “please God, no.” Then more thunder and lightening. Our leaders told us to start running. And we did. We ran until we got to the campsite and put up our tents faster than I can even imagine. Had the tarp up to sit under and put our packs under and then, the rain came. And it didn’t stop. 11 hours of thunder, lightening, and heavy sheets of rain. I haven’t really been this scared..ever. As I layed in my tent I was terrified that a tree would be struck and hit one of the tents set up..you know all the negative things. Then, God spoke to me, through what Bill talked about earlier. The verse when Jesus says “Oh you of little faith, why are you afraid?” (paraphrase) and He was like saying, Jenny, what can you be afraid of when you have Me? It was calming. I fell asleep, woke up to ridiculously loud thunder, went back asleep. Woke up to see it still sprinkling. We had to hike back the next day in the crazy mud. The creek that we crossed first, we crossed on rocks..on our way back the water was above our knees. Everyone with chacos on had to stand in the now river, ha, to ferry packs across and to help the tennis shoe people. It was crazy. And fun..the whole trip. Mud, bugs, and God.
The past two days have been orientation/working in the wonderful hot sun trying to prepare for the group coming in on Monday. It’s been a blast so far. Our team is really close and we all love eachother, alot. They guys are amazing, respectful, full of compassion for people, wanting to know how the team is doing. I couldn’t have picked a better team. God has definitely put His hand upon us. The leaders are amazing. Funny, wonderful, godly men, who will do a great job over the summer to lead us. I love it.
I hope you are doing great.
word count: too many.
But really–1227.
I love you.
