30 years of Kevin

The lying is over. Probably not a good thing, but I'm actually really good at it. I had Kevin going for over a month about his 30th birthday celebration and tonight all the preparations came to an end as we partied with friends. Here's how the last two days went:

Thursday: Kevin thought I was babysitting in Worthington. I was actually driving up to the cities to complete some last minute party details and move a few boxes into my new room in Stub Hall. That night I went over to Andrea's house where she helped me make 50 cupcakes for the party. I was there for over 3 hours. Sharing stories, talking wedding details, and decorating them all super cute! Andrea is such a wonderful blessing to me. The more reliable, energetic, and caring person I know! When we were halfway through the baking, I called Kevin and said I was on my way up to see him and that I probably wouldn't get there until 1:00 a.m. He said he'd wait up. When we finished with the cupcakes, I headed down to the Bergeson's to whip up a salad and went to Stub for a while to kill some time. I made it to his house just before 1:00. He kept saying, "thank you so much for driving all the way up here!" Yeah, sure Kev! Anything for you! :)

BIRTHDAY morning! I signed Kevin up for senior citizen benefits at all the local restaurants. I tried cooking breakfast for him. The sausage got fried and were as hard as bricks. He enjoyed the eggs and french toast. I need to take some cooking lessons.

We had lunch with Kevin's parents and his relative Anders from Sweden. Anders brought Kevin a Swedish Bible and flag for his birthday present, so I wrapped it (the flag, not Bible) around myself and pretended to win gold in the Olympics for Sweden. It was quite fun! Kevin asked Lynda what their plan for the day was, and Lynda just about blew our cover. She's not as good of a liar as I am. I told Kevin I thought she was bummed that she wasn't invited to the "friend party" later and that was why she was acting unusual. It worked.

Kevin knew that I was taking him out for supper with some friends. In his presence I called my sister to make a "reservation" for 12. He seemed a little bummed that I hadn't gotten more people together for it. We spent the afternoon running a few errands and then got ready for the party.

At 6:00 I got him in the car, told him I'd drive, and then when he sat down, told him I had to put a blindfold on him so he wouldn't know where we were going. I drove him 30 miles and he couldn't see a thing. It was hilarious. I texted my sister the entire drive (it's not illegal to text in MN so don't even go there), to let her know how far away we were. When I drove past the Bergeson's I could see a bunch of cars, and a few people standing on the hill in their backyard keeping a lookout for us. I parked him across the street so he wouldn't recognize the turning, then got him out and began walking him toward the party. Presley was standing on the hill waving her arm off, and Holly kept telling her not to say a word. I handed my camera off to my dad at one point. Kevin didn't even realize it. When we climbed the hill, I got the first glimpse of about 40-50 people standing in the backyard ready to surprise him. I said, "Kev, I know you really wanted to go to Como Park for your birthday, so..." I took the blindfold off, and everyone shouted "SURPRISE!" He was shocked. He kept on saying, "NO WAY!" Friends from every walk of life. Childhood, college, seminary, church, and lots of family! As the night went on, many more people showed up to wish him a happy birthday. Pastor Bob and Beth were there, Karishma and her parents Gopee and Smita. People drove from all over to celebrate with him. And it was a great night. Food, cupcakes, kids, stories.

Thank you so much to everyone who kept this whole thing a secret! I'm glad it's finally over. I couldn't keep up with all the lying and pretending. It was a great day, and Kevin felt truly blessed that you all were there!

reunions rock!

Another day of babysitting, Auntie style. We've been hanging out here the last few days just playing. Presley's new favorite imaginary playtime is playing "wedding." She comes to me to buy her dress, and tells me how excited she is that it's finally her wedding day! She marries Jason & Kevin usually. I think she's pretty excited for the actual wedding.Tonight we had a BBQ and invited our lifelong friends the Hoffman's over for an evening of good food, conversation, and of course, horseshoes and photos! It's fun seeing good friends and sharing the excitement of engagement with them. Showing off the ring is always fun! Mom and Alice (bff's for a LONG time) had a great time mimicking us girls in their photos. They even tried jumping off a one foot high cement cistern in the back yard to try and get more air. Didn't work out so well. Mom ended up on her butt! I got to meet Amanda's son Lucas for the first time. 10 months old and super adorable. It was so fun spending time with them!

home again

Our final morning at Shoshone. Pretty bitter sweet. This was my third trip to Shoshone in six years, and what an honor it was to be back. A few groups left too early this morning for us to say farewell, but about eighty of them were still there for their final “first word” of the trip. Kevin had been dying to play guitar and lead a worship song, so he borrowed Clint’s guitar and we had a blast teaching sign language and beefing up a favorite. We sang “Light of the World.” When the song started, we were standing on a picnic table in the shade. By the final verse of the song as we were singing “shine, shine, shine where you are…” the sun rose above the tree and casted a glow on the group. God is so great at reminding us of God’s presence among us.

Eric told us a story about a man who when trying to discern what God wanted him to do with his life tried making an agreement with God. While he was on a camping trip, he said, “God, if I see a bear this weekend, then I’ll be a pastor!” (He really wanted to be one, so he had his heart set on seeing one). The people he was camping with saw a mama bear and her baby close to camp and ran back to tell the man. When he went to see the bear for himself (and secure his hope that God wanted him to be a pastor), they had left. Within minutes, he could see they had been there, but never actually saw them. So he didn’t become a pastor.

When I heard that story on the way to camp, I tried making a similar agreement with God. I said, “God, if I see a moose this week, then I’ll be a pastor.” As you know, from reading my posts this week, I’ve seen SEVEN moose. Four in one day. Ok God, I get the picture. Thanks for the exclamation point on that one. I keep hearing the echo of Pastor Bob's statement to me: "Amber, when are you going to finally stop questioning your call?" Got it.

final days

Monday-Wednesday we had the privilege of going from site to site checking in on the kids. Clint insisted that we take his car and spend the day together. We drove up Dotson Pass and saw some great views of the city, the trees, and other unique scenes. The road lead us into historic Wallace Idaho. It would be such a perfect place to open up a studio. Old buildings, trolley rides, texture, color, and history. We hopped on the 90 and drove to Coeur d’ Alene. We drove through the city on our way from Spokane to camp, but wanted to get a closer look at Lake Coeur d’ Alene. We found a place to park, walked through a awesome little indoor mall with unique shops. I found an awesome bridal shop with the most unique dresses yet. Kevin patiently waited in the hallway while I tried a few on. Definitely some unique stuff. But it just wasn’t the same trying them on without family and friends along.

Coeur d’ Alene has a main drag with more awesome shops. We found a glass bead store where you could pick out your stone and ribbon to make a necklace. I love getting a piece of jewelry when I travel. A picnic lunch overlooking the lake, and we headed back to camp to be part of rec time.

Along the way is a wonderful set of rocks where you can choose from 3 levels of rock to jump off of into the river. The first year I went, I jumped off the 20 foot one. Last year we all jumped off the 10 foot one and just about died because of the 45 degree water. After seeing tons of people jump off the highest 30 foot rock, I figured it had to be warm and safe enough to do it, so Kevin and I stopped so I’d have a chance to say I jumped off them all. I’d love to say I walked right up and jumped off no problem, but that’d be a lie. It was scary. It was déjà vu from the time I bungee jumped. I got up there and froze. Looking down 30 feet into a slowly moving river was terrifying. My legs started shaking. Kevin was standing by with the camera and I kept on saying, “Ok, you ready? One…I can’t do it I can't do it!” Eventually I just looked straight out and did it. Falling for three seconds, losing my breath and trying to catch a quick one before hitting the water is not my idea of fun. I’m glad I did it. I wanted to do all three, and felt great to check that off my bucket list. I managed to cut my leg open somewhere along the way, so we left to go get a napkin to clean up the blood dripping down the back of my leg. I still have a scar from the time I tried skim boarding in CA and scraped my leg, so why not get another wound to remember a trip by?

We made it back to camp in time to get our lesson ready for the night and climb the rock wall. Last year when I was about 15 pounds heavier, I tried climbing the harder side of the rock (which I had made it up 3 years earlier), but couldn’t make it. For the last year I had been dying to get back and prove I could do it. I’m super happy to announce that in less than 8 minutes I was up the hard side of the wall!! WOO-HOO! I knew if I took my time, my hands would get tired and it’d only get harder. So, I just went as fast as I could and made it!

Our final night of teaching was awesome. The kids really did a great job of participating, talking in groups, and interacting with us as speakers. The restoration of this week is evident and we’re thrilled we played a small part in it. Kevin taught them the loon call. We prayed with all of them, helped them understand what it means to be called, and got to share some personal stories to reinforce it all.

Psalm 80: “Restore us, O God. Make your face shine upon us that we may be saved.

It’s been fun teaching some more experiential prayer styles at campfire. We taught the refrain of Psalm 80 and have used it all week. They have it memorized, so its awesome to be able to pray all together (without media help and Bibles).

holy moose!

It's pretty incredible to see one moose in a week. Today we saw 4. Even slammed on the brakes on the interstate to get the picture of these two! That brings the count up to 7!! Holy buckets that's a lot of moose!

Lazy river. For real. We spent our afternoon floating down the river in tubes. Warm water, butts scraping on the rocky river bottom, and wild highschoolers made the experience quite entertaining! The tubes were pretty small, so to sit in them without tipping over was quite the skill. Kevin kept flipping out of it. Hilarious! That won him over with all the boys. I floated most of the way on my stomach. The clear water and colorful rocks were so fun to look at. An underwater adventure!

Tonight our teaching time was spent encouraging people to listen to the Spirit. We gave all the kids time to go outside and spend some time alone listening. It was awesome to see high school kids taking this time seriously and writing, reading, and spending some time in silence. Within 5 minutes of the teaching time, one of the students came up to me with a picture he had drawn and asked me if I knew what he was trying to say. I affirmed that God speaks to us in images and asked if he'd share his image with the group as a way to reinforce what I had said. He agreed. All the other kids listened quietly to his story. How wonderful to have unscripted witnesses to God's words. Our final activity was to do foot washing. Kevin and I said we'd plant ourselves at two basins so the kids who didn't want to wash wouldn't have to. Within minutes we were getting kicked out by other kids who wanted to wash feet! Awesome!

Wednesday night ends up being a really moving night as Shoshone does an activity called "Prayer around the Cross" where there are stations for kids to do. Kevin and I asked if we could become a human station and be available for prayer during that time. We had no idea if anyone would want to, but figured it was worth a shot. It didn't take long for the line to start to form, and for kids and adults to come up and share their prayer concerns. There was a line up! By the end of the night I was completely zonked from all the heavy emotions and stories. Being young isn't easy, and we can't pray enough for young people to be influenced by positive forces. If you don't have a young person in your life, find one, and start loving on them. We need you!

moose count = 3

Our morning devotion today included a really bad prank that we hoped would emphasize the importance of humility and a servant heart. We had Clint interrupt our morning prayer and come running outside to announce that there was a nasty toilet problem in Big Creek and that he needed some people to come quick to help. Eric (the maintenance guy), David (a staffer), and two youth took off running to help. The other 118 people just stood there. It worked out perfectly. We grabbed the plunger from Clint and brought back the two volunteers to interview them on our humility television show. We had no idea how many would actually go run to help with a dirty job like that. Two.

We saw moose numbers two and three today. A mama and her baby by the side of the interstate. We were driving too quickly to get a photo of them, but that brings the moose count up to three for the week. We're loving our time here so far! We really wanted to incorporate some media into our teaching time, so we cram all 120 people into the chapel for about 25 minutes before we let them go and break into small groups. It really works well. Good Shepherd worship styles have really come in handy here at camp as we think about teaching young people in a fresh new way. Yet another moment where I am truly grateful for the internship I had! After campfire tonight Kevin and I made our way down to the trading post where we loaded up on otter pops (as they call them in Idaho) and red licorice. By the time we got back to my room to take a picture of it, all that was left of 6 licorice sticks was one 2 inch piece. He loves his red vines.

gnats galore!

It looks like the campers are in a competitive dance off. Arms flying, bodies moving. But they’re not dancing. The gnats are taking over, and the campers are in survival mode. The gnats are the worst, but there are tons of bees and mosquitoes to go alone with it. I’m thinking about taking a bath in 100% deet tonight to see if it’ll help this week.

Our job here as speakers is to lead “First Word” (the morning devotion), travel to all the work sites, visit the kids as they work, help out if we can, and build relationships in the afternoon. At night, we’re responsible for an hour of Bible teaching on the theme “Restore” using Micah 6:8 as our launching point. We’re leaning more toward Psalm 80 this week, but Clint (the camp director) has given us permission to deviate however we want from the outline they sent us. While out traveling from site to site we saw our first moose today! Eating in a pond, close to the road. So cute. I wonder if we’ll see any more. In the afternoon the kids are given rec time and have about 2 hours to jump off the zip line, rock climb, tube down the river, swim in the water hole, nap, slip-n-slide, etc. Today I got the chance to do the zip line. Scary stuff to think you have to voluntarily jump off the platform. They had to stop when I was done, so Kevin didn’t get a chance to go. Probably a good thing, because he would’ve made me look like a baby when he jumped gleefully off the platform. Supper next. Then we lead a closing prayer at campfire each night. It’s so fun being here with Kevin to do this together. He’s so gifted at working off the cuff and going with the flow. I’m learning a lot about how to lead with more flexibility. I’m thankful we can both learn here. I help bring out the organization/structure side of things (get power points ready, organize structure). We both talk content and work together to teach at night. I'm so thankful that we get to do something like this together. Teamwork!

Shoshone Base Camp!

I wish I could say I’m a fan of flying. I used to be. All of a sudden now I’ve become a freaked out flyer. It’s really just the take off that bothers me. Speeding down the runway, not a problem. Once we become air born, the noises start, the shaking begins, tilting, tipping, shaking. Definitely not settling. Did they forget to check something? Is the wheel broken? We took a little prop job from Seattle to Spokane this afternoon. It had propellers on the outside of the plane. Hello 1950! When we took off, the dropouts were so frequent, the lady in front of me angrily said, “What is he doing?” Definite thanks to God for our safety on that plane ride.

Up high, no shaking, no worries. Just a glass of iced orange juice. Making our way down to the ground, it comes back. I usually watch out the window and plan, ‘Each second that passes gives us that much better a chance to survive if we have to jump out of the plane.’ Maybe I should load up on sleeping meds or something before our trip home.

We got off the plane in Spokane and realized we had no idea if someone was picking us up, if we were to get a rental, or what? We went to get our luggage and were met by a Shoshone shirted, khaki wearing, hiking booted man named Eric who was ready to take us to camp! We rode an hour and a half in a single cab pickup truck. The bed was filled with chainsaws and mattresses. It was awesome.

We pulled up to camp and both Kevin and I said, “WOW!” at the sight of 120 people sitting on the grass awaiting our arrival. They clapped and cheered until we ran over to hop on a picnic table and say hello! This is going to be a great week! Fellow Minnesotans from Jacob’s Well in Minneapolis, folks from Washington, Colorado, and Oregon too! We moved our things in to our rooms. We each had 6 beds in a room that only one person was staying in. Well...lots of room to put my stuff I guess!

Idaho Servant Adventures at Shoshone Base Camp. Let the fun begin!

wedding widow

I got to take pictures today of a couple who got married at a historic courthouse in Stillwater, MN. I love that town. I loved the place. So many textures, colors, neat floors, and an awesome couple who were too fun to work with! Lots of smiles and a great sense of humor and willingness to let me try some new things! Light sprinkles and rain kept most of the guests shivering outside, while I was in heaven. Overcast skies and cool temps! Love it! By the end of the night, I was a train wreck. This is common the night of a wedding. Aching legs, dirty feet, dehydration, right hand locked in the camera holding position, and a bum knee. All are worth it though to be able to celebrate such important days in the lives of friends! 12 miles to run tomorrow with Kevin. That's going to kill our afternoon. Pray for us.