Mountain, Cave, and River

Where to begin...since I last wrote so much has happened. I have learned so much and experienced so many new things. Lets see...the night that I last wrote we were woken up at 1 am to go on a silent team night hike and slept in our tents on the lawn of Tauernhof not talking again until after breakfast the next morning-amazing experience shadowing how the people of the region smuggled in Bibles in 1620, I'll be doing my devotion on that next week. We also have just returned from our first multiday tour which began with a long hike mostly uphill to a beautiful Alpine hut which we stayed in for two nights in which the girls all shared one room consisting of basically a elongated mattress that we all shared, spent the entire next day rock climbing, legit rock climbing, with beautiful views of the entire mountain and surrounding valleys then headed out the next morning to hike to the summit of a nearby mountain with a cross at the top before continueing a few hours down to a grassy field with cows where we were given more water and caving gear. As soon as we had finished packing our bags a storm hit us and we were al told to put on our rain gear, spread out, and sit on top of our backpacks as to not get struck by lightening. After the hail storm had passed, we hiked uphill and through a small snow field to a cave which we spent 2 hours climbing down into through wind tunnels, down strategic ladders and via narrow and slippery passage ways. Once inside, Heli, our mountain guide, gave a beautiful sermon about light and darkness from Matthew with all of our lights out and we sang Amazing Grace in the complete darkness. We then made our dinners with the stoves we had carried in-soup and bread, and also made some delicious hot chocolate...its was very very cold inside the cave 0-1C. We then set up our sleeping bags on a tarp and attempted to sleep through the night though most of us were unsuccessful. We fit 9 of us girls in a space smaller than 2 queen size beds side by side. In the morning we made our way back out of the complete darkness of the cave and hiked all the way back to Schladming: exhausted, sore, and high on life. I can't believe that was just yesterday. This morning we awoke to find out that we would spend the day in the river...literally. We spent the first half of the day do water challenges I guess I would call them, then spent the afternoon making a raft as a team and floating, well steering, down the river, through a few mild rapids before walking our way back to Schladming. All in all it has been an amazing week and I will post some pictures that I have tomorrow if we have free time as well as expand on some of the stories.

Peace and love.

Jeremiah 29:11-12