North Carolina Kayaking

Hello everyone so in case you’re wondering I’m still alive and well. After our Easter break we had a week back at camp and then we started our two day drive off to North Carolina. Our plan for the first weekend was to stay at the pastors’ house (Jeff and Jodi) at whose church we were doing a youth night. After that we were going to head to a campsite for the week and then stay at a different church for the next weekend were we were also doing a youth night. But God had different plans for us. After spending the first weekend with Jeff and Jodi they invited us to stay for the rest of the week! Then with the next weekend in sight they offered to take us in yet again for that weekend as well. We were all quite happy since we had started making friends with everyone there but also the other church didn’t have any showers or comfortable beds!

Our youth night focused on trust, communication, and centering oneself on God. To teach the youth about each topic we had a bunch of games planned and then lead them through short discussions. It was really fun and I would have definitely wanted to hang out with a bunch of cool Canadians had I been a teenager in Bryson City.

In total I kayaked six times, rafted once and tubed once as well. The weather was pretty awesome we only got a little rain while there. One day of rain was the last day we kayaked; it was the hardest and coldest river that we ran. About half way through Esther and I tipped our kayaks in a big wave I tried to do my role three times but couldn’t make it up so I waited for a t-rescue. This is where I rub my hands along the sides of my boat and then another boat taps mine and I pull myself up. Unfortunately by that point I had little air so I ended up wet exiting when no one came. After our spill we got back in our boats and kept going but it started to rain more and thunder and lightning. So we pulled out and Esther and I were freezing (supposedly we had mild hypothermia) Bean one of our instructors made us run, do jumping jacks, and push-ups which needless to say made us warm up fast.

The best part of the trip for me was meeting the people around the area and hanging out with all of them. We would play soccer, ultimate frisbee, basketball, hide and seek or just hang out it was great fun! God definitely showed me that it’s ok to make friends with people even if it’s for just a short amount of time.