From Work Camp to Yurt

Friday morning we woke up to clean what had been our home for the past week: Celebration Point Church. Each church had their various tasks to collectively contribute to the up keep of our home site for the week. The students completed their work and we loaded the bus for the handoff of two of our students who had to go home early. We gathered for a bit of caffeine and the annual work camp awards for our students. Awards included "The Eric Clapton", "Schlond Poofa", "Mario Andretti", "Epic Reader", and so on. We said our goodbye to the students leaving early and began our journey to Walden, CO where we would stay in Yurts for the night and do trails in the State Park. Little did we know we were in for such a unique experience when we began the drive. Tim did an amazing job driving us through the mountains! Upon our arrival in Walden we learned their grocery store closed down on Thursday of the week before and realized our resourcefulness would be taking on a new level with this trip. We found our way to a Dollar General for a few basics but they did not have meat, dairy, bread, or vegetables - this meant we would be heading to the local meat market for the remaining items. Thankfully this meat market allowed for us to get enough items for lunch, dinner, and breakfast the next day. After we finished our grocery adventure in the main city of Walden we traveled about 23 miles out to the Yurts. The crew unloaded and began to settle in our digs to eat lunch before the students, Garrett, and Morgan went to the State Park for a trail walk while the Bessey's kindly cooked dinner for everyone. The evening consisted of laughter, heavy rain, and card games. It was a day filled with stories and memories, that is for sure. We all also learned how to be resourceful when the plan is given a curveball and the Yurt life takes on new meaning. Everyone did a great job rolling with the punches and the students had a great time on the trail - not to mention the endless fun the found in multiple games of Spoons.

The reflections come from Thurbil, Gaawar, Leigh, and Tim.

"Today was the last day for the week of hope. We were able to come up to the yurts and have a great time hiking.It sucked to say goodbye to everyone at the church but i was missing calvary. I can’t wait to be in my own bed.When all the youth were sitting messing around 4 of our youth leaders ambushed us with silly string. This week was one of the best weeks of summer and I can’t wait till next year."
-Thurbil 

"Today day was the last day of the week of hope. It was a great week serving and helping people in need. Luckily we went up to the Estes park area where we are staying at yurts. We went hiking up on a trail close by. After the hike this happened out of nowhere, we were ambushed by four of the youth leaders. They sprayed us with silly string. Great week and I can’t wait to go back home with my family."
-Gaawar

"What a remarkable week we have had at Week of Hope.  I have had the privilege of watching our Calvary Youth grow in their faith.  As a church we are blessed to have youth that care for those that are less fortunate.  They walked away wanting to do more to help disabled adults, feed hungry children and maybe become the next horse whisperer. For my part as a Youth Leader I had the opportunity to meet students from all across the country who are committed to their faith.  I  spent my week with many of these children filling 30 thousand water balloons so that underprivileged children could be apart of the largest balloon fight in Colorado.  What a great week!"
-Leigh   

"This week I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with a group of young adults through the “Week of Hope".  One representative from Iowa, two from South Dakota and one from Texas.  Many times when people are put together to perform a task, they go through a process that is referred to as "Forming, Storming, and Norming."  Essentially, the team comes together (forming), works through differences in ideologies, and personality  (storming) and then hopefully arrive at a harmonious way of working together (norming).  Many times that process takes a great deal of time.  This week the team/crew I was a part of was assigned to work at the Orchard apartment complex in Loveland, Colorado.  Orchard is an apartment complex for low income, under privileged people.   Once we arrived at Orchard and began to meet the folks that live there, all thoughts of ourselves melted away and there was no need for us to work through the norming process. We first met a little boy named Curtis through his second floor window.  Curtis challenged us about working in his yard.  Quickly, we were able to gain his trust and assure him that we were “Ok folks” and meant no harm.  In about an hour Curtis came  out of his apartment to meet us.  Once that happened, many more children came out to meet us. Through the rest of the week we worked to trim bushes, pickup trash, and most importantly play with the kids at the complex. By the end of the week, the crew that I worked with and the children at Orchard were all fast friends. We may have made some improvements to the appearance of Orchard, but most assuredly the children of Orchard improved and enriched the lives of the crew."
- Tim

It was a great week with a wonderful group of students and leaders. We safely returned home earlier this afternoon. There will be one more blog reflection to come in the next few days that will cover Saturday and reflections from Garrett and Morgan. That post will also include photos from the trip, so be sure to keep an eye out for it.

We are thankful for all of you who journeyed with us through this blog! We hope your week was as good for you as ours was for us.

Goodnight from Denver!