111- Expedition Log Expedition log: January 12th, 2023. We set off on our expedition late last night. With wide open roads and perfect conditions, it took us less time than expected to arrive at our base camp situated in the heart of Munising, just blocks off the mighty Lake Superior. The crew wasn’t exactly thrilled with a lack of cell phones and sleep as we initiated our first alpine start. It was approximately 4 am when we started to prepare
110- Ice Tales I am a product of Project Forty discipleship. My connection to Project Forty first began through a Facebook marketplace ad. No, Matt was not selling his never ending trail riddles, he was selling chalk bags as a fundraiser for wilderness ministry, and I wanted to know more. I needed more than just a chalk bag at that point in my life, I needed to be mentored and encouraged in my walk with Christ. I was at the
109- What Do You Do When You Hit 'The Wall'? “I can’t” leaked from Jahiem’s lips for the final time in my humble opinion. My feet remained planted on the root covered rock that acted as my belay platform, while I gently sat into the rope a bit more, letting Jahiem know that I “had him.” He had battled his way up the first twenty-five feet or more of the dry, sandstone face that had likely split thousands of years
96-How Open Is Open? I motioned to my wife as to keep silent as my friend was still sharing his difficult circumstances at the moment. I took a scrap of paper from my make-shift desk and quickly scribbled, “Can I invite him to stay down here a couple of nights?” I never really imagined when I was a teenager that I would be inviting guys into my home for days; that seemed like a high school thing—spending the night at
95-Can I Get A Witness! Keys—check. Strava app engaged—check. Helmet—check. Gloves—check. Water—check. Bike… brakes, shifters work properly—check and check. Taking a quick peek behind me to see that the new kid was following my lead I slowly cranked down on the bright blue pedals that in conjunction with pure muscle, propelled this machine forward. New kid—check. We rolled through the deep green grass not allowing the transition of the sidewalk to slow us down as we eagerly aimed for the
47-The Caver’s Route Experience When I was a young boy, my family and I went to visit Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. Fortunately for me, I was small, still am; but really small back in the late 80’s. There was one particular section of cave named, “Fat Man’s Misery.” Being small came in handy for this cramped, moist wall of rock in the face. Another section was known as “Tall Man’s Misery.” Another favored part for the vertically challenged
29-The Josh Story Intentional black lines and dots once again, my friends. The good news it that my movie-maker program seems to be working again so I should be back to videos next week! In the meantime, allow me to share another mentoring story to piggyback onto last week. This one is about a young man named Josh. Josh attended the monster Project Forty trip (the kids weren’t monsters, there were just a lot of them!) with his church youth
28-Mentor When You Don't Mean to Mentor What’s up y’all? I come to you once again in the form of text. Very soon I’ll have these blogs up on my new website and you’ll be able to write comments and post them on your favorite social media sites! I’d love some feedback about my writing and topics. Most of all I hope that my words fade into the background of the truth found in the Word of God. That being
1-How Wilderness Adventure Shapes the Lives of Our Future Generation Project Forty creates a unique opportunity for you to get involved in the lives of struggling teenagers. They’re everywhere! They need our help and our support. They need us to reach out by spending time with them. Project Forty allows mentors and students to go on a really awesome wilderness adventure together. Through that unique trip, just 4 to 7 days long, where you rock climb, you ice
