The New Website Has Been Launched!

Check it out everyone, Beyond's new website is up and running at last. Head on over to beyondmalibu.younglife.org and have a look around.  We've been working hard on this for months but we're sure it's not perfect.  If you see anything that seems a little off, send us an e-mail and let us know. Otherwise, enjoy all of the new pictures and videos.

Losing the Trail

“’My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."  2 Corinthians 12:9-10

God reveals His power to me in new ways on every trip I lead as a Beyond guide. For instance, on my most recent trip we lost the trail in the forest on the first day. We were off track for a full hour before I realized we needed to turn around. So we lost two hours by the time we got back on the right trail. It was definitely a bit humiliating for me as a second-year guide who has been on that trail multiple times to miss such an obvious turn. It happens, it wasn’t the end of the world, but it was frustrating. Even though it was unfortunate in the moment, God was able to use that moment to teach a lesson to some participants. Getting lost ended up being so significant to one girl in particular that she mentioned it again at the end of the week. She likened the part where we got off track to how she turns away from God without even realizing it. Many times in our lives we get lost; by the time we even realize we have been away from God we have wandered way off track and have wasted so much time. But He always welcomes us back. The participant made this connection to her own life, and throughout the course of the week realized that she wanted to return to Jesus and not continue off His path.

I had my own impactful moment on the summit of Zion on that same trip. It was a complete whiteout and we weren’t able to see the route down. I was a little nervous about the path down and really couldn’t see anything. I asked God to provide a clearing so I could have a better idea about how to safely get off the mountain. It doesn’t always happen this way but within minutes the clouds lifted and the route was totally exposed. I took a quick picture to capture it and almost immediately the clouds swallowed us and we were back in the whiteout. No need to worry though, with that picture we had not problem safely navigating where we needed to go to get to the campsite. We were in a position of weakness and God was able to reveal His awesome power. He was definitely looking out for us. It was an incredible moment to experience how easily God can change a tough situation into something that was a piece of cake.

God is so big and His vastness is made obvious in this huge wilderness that we get to play in. It is such a privilege to have the opportunity to guide young people into these mountains and facilitate their encounters with the Creator.

Living the journey,

Brian Louchis

2^nd Year Mountain Guide 

Monumental Work by Monumental Hands

By Kati Tremayne

“How many tons of sky can I see from the window? It is morning: morning! and the water clobbered with light. Yes, in fact, we do. We do need reminding [that] we are created, created, sojourners in a land we did not make, a land with no meaning of itself and no meaning we can make for it alone ...We sleep to time’s hurdy-gurdy; we wake, if we ever wake, to the silence of God… [It’s] time to toss things, like our reason, and our will; it’s time to break our necks for home.” –Annie Dillard

Annie Dillard wrote Holy the Firm while living on the north end of the Puget Sound, an area not unlike the Princess Louisa Inlet. Her backdrop was the Cascade Mountains of Washington and mine is the Coastal Mountains of British Columbia, two stretches of the same, rugged band that stands guard over the western rim of North America. We have both found ourselves hemmed in by these peaks for a season, overwhelmed by their unforgiving faces and raw summits. Theirs is a beauty threaded with wisdom and violence, and it is as terrifying as it is humbling.

Kati is a first-year mountain guide 

As Dillard writes, these hard places are reminders not only of our smallness but also of the absolute sovereignty of the one we call “Lord”. Our trite and petty pursuits sputter to their manufactured end where the rock rises from the sea. The spheres that I once fancied to control have spun violently out of my grasp to reveal microcosmic glimpses of a monumental work being forged by monumental hands. This here – this brutal exposure and deep repentance –is reality. I feel it profoundly in this place, but it is my prayer that each of us could feel this reality no matter our location. May the presence and power of our Maker always weigh heavy on our hearts, and may we always break our necks for home.