Since I’ve been up here with little
connection to the outside world, I’ve been having many adventures. On one day
off, I went to Crystal Cave with some friends. The cave tour was led by an old
friend from high school, which was kind of a fun accident. He introduced
himself to us as “Wilson, like the volleyball.” The tour was educational and
entertaining, full of fascinating facts and sarchasm (yes, I meant to spell it
like that). The inside of the cave was breathtaking but admittedly one of my
favorite parts of the tour was the spider gate at the front. To open
the gate, one had to turn the spider in the middle 90 degrees, then the door
turned on a hinge on the middle. One memorable part of the tour was when the
tour guide turned off the lights and we were in total darkness. My mind made me
believe I could see shapes but I really couldn’t. When the lights were turned
back on I was afraid we would be surrounded by Weeping Angels. But we weren’t,
so that was good. On the drive back to Lodgepole, we saw a couple bear cubs
climbing up a tree with their mother at the base of the tree. My friends and I
have a competition going on for the number of bears seen. At 9 bears, I’m
losing. The winning number is currently 28 bears.
A
couple weeks later I went to Yosemite National Park with some of the other
ACMNP members. That was my first time there, and I thought it was absolutely
beautiful. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to go up to Half-Dome, so we did
one of the only hikes we had time for: Yosemite Falls. The hike was only about
a mile; not long at all. But that was only to the place which is a safe
distance from the falls. There were signs telling visitors that going on from
this point would be slippery and dangerous. We chose to ignore those signs.
Trailblazing
a way, I led the team up the rocky path to where the water hits the rock and
forms a pool. My first instinct when seeing this pool of water underneath a
waterfall at Yosemite was to swim in it. So I did. The compulsion to do this
came from my thinking “When is the next time I’m going to be here and get this
opportunity?” Some may refer to this kind of thinking as “YOLO” but I’m glad to
say that’s not the term that went through my head when I decided to enter the
water. However, the term “You Only Live Once” really did start to ring true
once I was fully submerged in the water.
Usually when I enter a cold pool or
turn on a cold shower, my breath is taken away for a moment and I breathe
quickly as my body’s way of trying to keep warm. This is what it was like when
I entered the waters under Yosemite Falls, except that the fast breathing
didn’t stop. I tried swimming and moving around to stay warm but it didn’t stop
me from hyperventilating. I was pretty sure I was going to get hypothermia and
die. I was glad one of the members of the team was a lifeguard because I was
pretty sure I was going to need him to save me.
In the end, I didn’t die. We got
out of the water, took a picture to prove we were there, and then headed back
to the main Yosemite Village. While walking back to the car, the team and I
heard something that sounded like thunder. My first thought was “Ooh, thunder!
I love storms!” My second thought was “wow, that thunder sure is long…” We then
looked over to a mountain face where the thunderous noise was coming from and
we saw a trail of dust coming from near the top, to lower down the mountain. From
this, we deduced that the thunder was in fact a rockslide. As far as I know, no
one was hurt, but it was awesome to see something like that. In a weird way it
was cool to have experienced two near-death experiences in the same day.
On the subject of near-death
experiences, I had a nasty fall one Saturday afternoon. It was after I got off
work and I decided to go to the ranger pools near Lodgepole with a fellow employee.
My first mistake was wearing flip flops on a rocky trail. While crossing the
stream on the way to the pools, I stepped on a rock that was a bit slippery. It
seems that whenever I fall I never remember the fall itself; just the moment
before and the pain afterwards. I remember finding myself in the water with two
scraped arms and an ankle that didn’t seem to work as well as it usually did.
But why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.
I mostly ignored the pain at first,
and I managed to make it to the pools alright. The cold water felt good on my
ankle. After swimming a bit I laid down on a rock and sunbathed a bit, resting
my ankle. But doing so gave my ankle some time to swell up. I knew when I got
up from the rock, the walk back would be difficult. At first it was, but then I
started to not feel the pain as much. I think it’s the same kind of thing like
if you’re in the middle of a battle and you receive injuries, you don’t feel
the pain from the injuries until the battle is over and your body has had time
to calm down. When I got back to Lodgepole, I iced my ankle for a bit and
mostly sat in front of the TV the rest of the day, watching movies and writing
my message for the ACMNP service the next morning.
ACMNP
Which
reminds me: I should let people know how A Christian Ministry in the National
Parks is going so far. Including me, there are seven of us on the team this
summer, but it sometimes feels like two different teams. Three team members got
placed in Grant Grove, which is technically part of Kings Canyon National
Park. Three more of us, including
myself, were placed in Lodgepole, a part of Sequoia National Park and about 40
minutes away from Grant Grove. Our team leader was placed in Wuksachi, which is
about 2 miles away from Lodgepole. For most Sunday mornings, the Grant Grove
members lead worship services there, and the rest of us lead services in
Lodgepole.
Within these groups of three and
four, we split up the parts of the service each week. We switch off who will
give the message, who will help lead the worship songs, who will lead the
congregation in receiving the offering, and other elements of the service. I’ve
spoken twice so far. The first time I spoke about experiencing the wonders of
God’s creation, and the second time I gave a message on the parable of the
sower. I may at some point post versions of these messages on here.
One big accomplishment I’m quite
proud of is the fact that I can know play guitar. I’ve only been playing for a
couple months, but I think I’m doing really well. I think most of it comes from
the music genes in my family. I inherited long guitar fingers and a pair of
musical ears from both my parents and their parents. The first few weeks were
rough on my fingers, but now I finally have callouses on them! Typing with
callouses on my fingers took some getting used to, but I don’t mind it now.
Aside from playing and practicing
songs from the ACMNP worship leader book, I also printed out chords from others
songs as well. These songs have helped me to learn and practice new chords. The
most recent chords I’ve learned are Bm and F, which I practice by playing
“Everything has Changed” by Taylor Swift and “Fireflies” by Owl City. I also
frequently practice “I See Fire” by Ed Sheeran, “Ackbar” by Jeffrey Dallas, and
“The Saga Begins” by “Weird Al” Yankovic.
Just recently, however, I broke a
string. Luckily it didn’t snap me in the face when it broke. The guitar I play
is my dad’s guitar which he got in Italy when he was a missionary there. It was
a pretty old guitar and I have no idea when the strings were last changed. But I
was able to purchase new strings for the guitar fairly cheaply from Guitar
Center.
When I go back to Cedarville in
mid-August, I plan on using some of my money from work to purchase my own
guitar. I’m really looking forward to doing so. I’m mainly just super excited
that I now know how to play a musical instrument somewhat decently. I’d like to
buy my own guitar so that I don’t lose the callouses or muscle-memory in my
fingers. I also look forward to getting a hard guitar case for my guitar and
putting tons of stickers on it.
Work
Overall, work is
going well. It’s neat getting to experience working a retail job. I’m the
cashier at the Lodgepole Snackbar. I feel like now that I know what it’s like
to have that kind of job, I can sympathize with people who work those jobs all
the time, not just during the summer. I can also know to not ask cashiers the
same questions that every single customer asks. all. the. time. “No, we don’t
have wifi, but they have some at Wuksachi Lodge.” “Restrooms are by the visitor’s
center.” “Yes, this is the only place to eat at Lodgepole.” “No, we don’t serve
breakfast all day. We have our hours of operation listed on this sign here” “Yes,
we sell pizza by the slice. The prices are right there on the menu, right below
the prices for whole pizzas.”
I’ve
learned to be patient with other customers; especially the foreigners who are
harder to understand. I’ve also learned that sometimes people can be very
unobservant. So far I’ve only seen one customer who has stopped in front of the
patio doors, read the signs that say “exit only, use other door,” and walked to
the other entrance. And when our fryer was out of order, we had a sign
explaining that we were unable to make any fries or chicken tenders, yet people
would still ask for them. (In the next
two to three weeks, I’ll be posting my account surrounding the mysteries of the
fryer…). But this is not to say anything bad against the customers. Many of
them have just driven or hiked a long way to get there and are only thinking
about food.
But
despite the repetitiveness of the job, I find ways to have fun. One day at the
register I began speaking to customers in a British accent, just for the fun of
it. In case anybody asked me about it, I had somewhat of a backstory planned so
it wouldn’t seem like I was faking it. Other times for fun (and if there is no
one in the Snack Bar or the Deli next door) I’ll go over to the Deli and ask
them all the questions that customers ask them. And sometimes if I work the
morning shift, which gets off at 4pm, I’ll go back to the Snack Bar at 7:16 and
try to order a whole pizza (the last pizza order we accept is at 7:15).
One
thing we learned at the ACMNP conference is that while we are mainly there in
the National Parks to lead worship services, another huge part of the ministry
is in our jobs themselves. We have the opportunity to give the managers and
employees different and perhaps better views of Christians than they may have
had in the past. We also get a chance to develop friendships and relationships
with our co-workers, which has been awesome. Many of my co-workers are from
countries all over the world, like Colombia, Thailand, Taiwan, China, Ukraine,
and Russia. We also get workers from various states in the US. It’s been great
getting to know the other workers and managers up here and I’ll honestly be sad
to leave them come mid-August. Every now and then we get employees from Lodgepole
and Wuksachi coming to the services on Sunday mornings, which is very
encouraging. I’m not sure how many of them are Christians, but I continue to
pray for them all anyway. This is also something that you, the reader, can be
praying for as well. That in my last 2-3 weeks working at Sequoia National Park
I’ll be able to help shine a light for people; that the hearts of my fellow
employees especially would turn to God because of what the ACMNP team and I
have done up here.
The Future
Because
of the lack of internet up here I can’t actually post my writings too often,
but that doesn’t mean I can’t write them. I’m currently working on several
blogs, but there’s no knowing when I’ll actually post them. Some of them I may
never post because I may never find them suitable for other’s eyes. One blog
post I’m hoping to post in the next week or two is a fictionalized true account
about an encounter with alien technology. You’ll understand when you read it.
Another post I’m writing is a review of William
Shakespeare’s Star Wars Trilogy. I
may also post part of a Spider-Man story I’m writing with my youngest sister. I
can also expect that at the end of the summer I’ll write some kind of overview about
what I thought about my experiences.
