Waiting Expectantly

Waiting expectantly does not mean sitting back and watching God answer prayers exactly how I imagine them. To wait expectantly I have learned, is to die to the idea that I know what is best for me and have faith and anticipation for all that God has for me, regardless of what I ask. Waiting expectantly has taught me to loosen my plans for the week, and embrace the unknown with a new found confidence in God’s promises. 

We spend days before the trip reading about our participants, planning spiritual content to best address their group goals, figuring out how far to hike, when the rappel will happen, and which night we will have our “mexi meal.”  When I wait expectantly and turn my palms open to all of the uncertainty of guiding at Beyond, I am comforted by the thought of the thousands of other believers who have been standing exactly in my boots. Standing at the crossroads of self preservation and self abandonment into life to the full. 

“For the Lord himself goes before you and he will be with you, he will never leave you, nor forsake you. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged.” Please pray that we may all find time in our mornings to wait expectantly and to enter boldly into the fear and adventure of trusting Jesus with every detail and request of our lives, believing that He is always with us and is using all the elements of His creation to have us draw nearer to Him. Even if it makes us wildly uncomfortable. 

To Him be the Glory. Go Beyond.

- Adam Iverson 

Attempting to Fly

After four training weekends, countless hours of homework, a wilderness first aid course, and a ten-day training (in which we put all our knowledge to use), we were sent off into the mountains for our first trip. I’m the type of person who likes a lot of time to pack and prepare for things long in advance. Despite three months of doing just that, campers arrived and my state of receiving them was similar to that of a bird who had just attempted to fly through a clear glass window. And then, after a hard smack of rejection flutters around stunned on the ground. It took me about three days to get my legs back under me, before I felt like I came to and was tracking where I was and what I was there to do. The majority of my first week out in the mountains, I felt more scattered than any of the campers and I found a constant smattering of my things throughout our campsite- surrounding my pack. At one point I came over to find my co-guide packing my bag for me with a patient smile. Later I was told, “Welcome to being a first year” and to expect to feel this way (one step behind the rest) throughout the summer. Before we headed out of camp, we asked our campers their fears and expectations. Several of them told us boldly that they expected to have an encounter with God this week- expecting that He had some big things to teach them. What a daunting expectation to be voiced when I wasn’t sure we would ever get out of base camp! I know that as guides we are here to serve the campers and help facilitate their journey into the mountains, to create space for them to experience God through His creation. However, my human tendency was to stress out about what the campers were experiencing… as if I could better their communication with the Creator. The beautiful thing was, that amidst my chaos and human weaknesses, God was hard at work.
 The first few days, amongst my flustered state, it was difficult to see any evidence that God was meeting the participants expectations. However, slowly, as life stories unfolded we began to see old, unhealed wounds resurface and participants began to engage in prayer that had been silent at the start. One participant shared about the loss of parent. At the beginning of the trip, she portrayed an independent, self-sufficient, hard exterior. As the final days in the mountains passed, we watched her heart soften and ability to accept love and help grow. It is tough to describe the emotions you experience as you hear stories and deep, previously unspoken, emotions come pouring out of people. When else in life do we take time to dive deep into our hearts to identify and share our joys, passions, pain or sorrow with others?
 This first trip awed me. After our final ten day training trip I thought I was prepared for anything. We experienced all types of storms: high winds that shredded our tents in the middle of the night, lightning drills, sideways snow in a whiteout, freezing rain- I thought I was prepared for everything. Then, on the last day of descent with my campers, we hit the alder trees. My frustration hit a boiling point (that I was shocked to discover) and I found myself whacking every branch that snapped at me as if I could get back at it. Branches would slap me in the face, and then snag my pack and yank me backward. I have fully realized that I am on a journey much like the campers and I am definitely not in control. I do know that God is working intricately in a powerful way to meet me in those weaknesses. I have been truly humbled to witness how much work he was able to do as I stumbled along acting as the ‘guide’.
- Hannah Gary

Surprises

When I came to Beyond, I expected that being a guide would be spiritually challenging yet refining, exhausting yet life-giving, and emotionally draining yet encouraging. I knew that I came to serve. What I didn’t expect was that I would actually be having fun as well. 

Last week I headed out with my guide partner and campers to trek Long Pearkes. It was a grueling first two days. At times I felt like a slave driver as I kept telling the participants that we had to keep going even though they had blisters, tired legs, and were fed up with the branches slapping their faces. We got into camp later than planned and had less time than we wanted for planned spiritual content (Bible studies, quiet times, life stories, etc.). 

On day three everything changed. Due to a variety of factors, my guide partner and I decided we were unable to cross the Long Pearkes glacier and would need to change routes. As a mountain guide I felt defeated, dreading the time when I would have to tell our campers about the route change. I had to give up my own desire to test my physical limits and complete the epic route for the sake of overall safety. I had to embrace the mystery as my first trip became full of the unexpected. 

In the end, the situation turned out much better than I anticipated. For me, this had been a reoccurring theme associated with Beyond Malibu. God redeemed the situation and blew my mind with His sovereign goodness. The participants were overjoyed at the news of the route change; it meant less hiking and more time to be together and alone with God. This was the day that I started having fun as a mountain guide. I was able to be less task-oriented and more people-oriented.  With the route change, our group now had more time to hear everyone’s life stories, pray, laugh, cry, and overall be present with each other in some of God’s most beautiful creation.

As the week went on, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying the taping and re-taping of feet, purifying forty liters of water at a time, cooking amongst the seemingly endless bug swarms, and engaging in conversations on the trail, despite physical exhaustion.

In a few days I leave for my second trip as a guide. I’ll be okay if it’s not as enjoyable as my first trip. But I have a feeling that this whole guiding thing might really continue to be more fun than I imagined. Maybe that’s what God likes to do when we follow His lead into the unknown… surprise us. 

-Joey Hope

A Prayer For Rain

A Prayer for Rain

Rain.  The outcome of saturated air… Millions and millions of microscopic droplets of water vapor- nestled into the multilayered clouds, condense and transform into the rain drops that fall from our sky. This complex, but understated phenomena nourishes our world: soil moistens to foster plant growth and streams fill to power hydros and water mills. Rain replenishes and rejuvenates life.

It has been a very dry season here at Beyond Malibu base camp. Our mountains have  been basking in sunlight for a couple of months now… The sun is a radiant source, but now (as we move into our summer season of campers) we need rain! In the minds of modern people, rain is burdensome: soaking our clothes and acting as another element to our daily schedules. However, rain is a true blessing in the workings of our christian community. Rainfall promises plentiful supplies of water in the mountains for our guides and campers.

June 18, 2015 our guides left at 5am for their training endeavors. Six hours later, small rain drops fell from the sky. Praise the Lord! It was a mild drizzle, BUT it was a great reminder. A reminder that God PROVIDES. He is the source of life, for He made day and He made rain. He is faithful to us and our needs…Receiving rain the day the guides left encourages us to remember that it is not our timing that makes the world run, but HIS. When we feel doubt and anxiety, we need to surrender those encroaching feelings to Him, and  PRAY. Palms up, eyes closed, and heart open, so that He may fill us with assurance and patience. In His perfect timing rain will sustain our community.

Please continue to pray for all the staff, that their minds may be buried in his love and secure in His promises. Pray for rain!

Shalom

 By: Natalie de Guzman

Over the past couple weeks, we at Beyond Malibu have been learning and understanding the importance and meaning of Shalom (a hebrew word). It can be defined as peace, completeness, prosperity, and welfare: universal peace and flourishing. I long for it everyday. I long for peace and completeness. Today, I longed to come to peace with the endless bug bites that dot my legs, feet, and arms. I so often find myself feeling sad because I cannot experience brief moments of shalom as often as I want…Amy, one of our mentors and friends here, says “feeling sad and longing for the things we know we need and want is one of the secrets to experiencing shalom. Feeling sad that shalom doesn’t exist everywhere is important to come to grips with. It is okay to feel sad.” IT IS OKAY TO FEEL SAD. Broken shalom is just one of the many consequences of sin. We are willing to try many different ways to find shalom. Some will go to drastic measures. More often than not, “we settle for cheap imitations of shalom, never really getting a glimpse or taste of what it really is.” However, shalom will come again. It exists and our God “loves it. He created it. It was His idea.” Since coming to Beyond, it has become easier for me to recognize God-given moments and blessings of shalom. 

A couple nights ago, I remember tipping my head back in laughter. When I came up for air and looked around me, I realized I was surrounded by genuine, loving believers, whom I already felt a strong connection with, similar to everyone else here at base camp. The mountain glow was giving off a peaceful shadow, accentuating our faces and making the water in the inlet sparkle, while stilled and resting. We were sprawled out between three trees in eight hammocks — which we call Hammock City -- at the edge of the water, resting after a busy day of work. I felt happy. I felt peace and completeness. THIS WAS SHALOM.