God Always Moves!

Recently we had a college group here on the ropes course and the contact person from the college specifically asked us not to mention anything about God during their time here.  Before the group came the ropes staff gathered and prayed that we would somehow have the opportunity to share with these students without directly talking about God.  The really cool thing is that God can always make a way when the door seems to be shut tightly!  

During the day we were able to share many kingdom principles with the students like trusting, serving, and using your gifts and talents.  It was a good day of team building and all, but God had a lot more planned for the day.  On the last element of the day... the Giant Swing... God totally opened the door for me to talk with a couple of girls.  They were on top of the swing platform and were pretty freaked out about it.  I was talking to them about fear and was being really careful to not bring God into the middle of it all when one of the girls asked if I could pray for them.  Wham!  The door swung open and I got to talk with them about trusting God and choosing to push through the fear to experience the freedom and fun on the other side!  We prayed and... whooosh... they were off! 

So cool that God can open any door that man may shut!

The Climbing Tower Gets a Face Lift!

It rains a lot here in Salem so our beloved climbing tower needed some repairs this summer.  The plywood and beams were rotting and as you can see it didn't really look that great.  This project didn't seem like it would be that big of a deal to me, but boy was I mistaken!  

I'm not real experienced in construction so this was a great learning experience for me.  I learned to measure with the carpenter lingo of "strong" or "weak" to add or take away a smidgen.  I'm pretty thrifty with a drill now, even suspended some 30 feet above the ground and I really know how to slap on sticky glue with a trowel like the pros!  I even know the secret to getting it out of my hair :)  

Here are a few photos that show the progress of the construction:

Our 40 foot climbing tower needing repairs.

Down to the skeleton after taking off rotten plywood.

Had to replace all the rotten beams as well.

Hanging from the wall as we work.

After new beams and plywood.

Adding a layer of Vinyl to protect against the moisture.

What we are calling the "Smurf Tower."

We will be adding more obstacles to this side for an extra challenge.

Only a couple things left to do on the wall... finish the obstacles and put on rock holds so we can once again climb the tower!