Faith in the trees

Over the years as a Kanakuk Kamper and staff person there were many things that challenged & strenthened my faith. As an 8-year-old at K-7 I put my faith in Christ as I accepted Him as my Savior. When I was 10, I learned about faith as I built up the courage to go off of the K-7 trapeze into the pool for the first time. When I was 13, my faith was strengthened as I was went to K-West for 2 weeks instead of my regular 1 week term. As a staff my faith was strengthened in learning how to find energy from the Lord morning after morning.

Kamp’s structure increases confidence, maturity and most of all strengthens faith. High-ropes elements are a key part to all of this. The first time I can remember having to put faith in something other than myself was when I was faced with the treetops course at K-7.

I was in teepee 9, and I had waited for such a long time to be old enough to do treetops. With confidence I put on my harness, grabbed my partner, said my commands and began my assent into the trees. Having never been scared of heights before I began the first challenge and encouraged my hesitant partner out onto the swinging log. We made it through and were off to the polls that were shaped like a diamond. This was said to be the hardest element in treetops and it didn’t take my partner and I long to realize we needed each other to make it through this one. As we got to the hardest part, bothwith tears in our eyes and fear covering our faces we froze. The view to the ground was terrifying and the fact that we were harnessed in completely left us. We were scared, and we didn’t know what to do.

It was at that point that a kind familiar voice from below called out to us. “Girls, you can do this, I have faith in you,” our counselor was below cheering us on. As we began to take another step, my partner Sarah’s foot slipped and we both went tumbling. Our harnesses caught us and we both began to laugh. We had forgotten the most important part was that no matter what we did we weren’t going to fall too far because we were harnessed.

It was that day that faith became real for Sarah and I. It was the first time either of us had experienced an illustration of faith. After we were off of treetops our counselor came and talked to us about it. She helped us process how our faith is similar to treetops. There will be times when we are terrified and don’t know what to do and that is when we remember God is in control.

It is moments and memories like this that impact kids every day at Kanakuk. And for these moments I am eternally grateful.

Facebook friends make your comments in the original post at Inside Kanakuk.