Everglades Wilderness Trip

Well, our Summit Team made it back safely last week from Everglades National Park. It was an amazing experience that helped us grow as a team. LeaderTreks uses the wilderness as a leadership laboratory, so our trip consisted of prepping us for that laboratory. Here's a tour of the trip. We put in at Everglades city on Monday and went south through the wilderness waterway on the left side of the map. By Wednesday we reached the Gulf of Mexico and spent two days on island campsites.

Ah, canoeing: my favorite way of travel. Chase and I are clearly working hard as we paddle through the waterway. In the back you can see the mangrove forests surrounding all the rivers.

I am obviously confident in my canoeing skills. Then I saw what was in the water in the next picture.


Yep, that's a alligator. It may not look big here, but that sucker is 13 feet long. I'm not confident anymore.


The sunset at our second campsite, Watson's Place. Which, by the way, is haunted. Watson used to take slaves out to his land in the Everglades, promising pay for their work, but then murdered them. It's said that his ghost still wanders the forest, looking for more lives to devour. But I slept pretty well that night. Go figure.


The amazing Mrs. Susie Gerber. She's our new favorite addition to Summit. Well, not official, but she's welcome whenever she wants.


A sweet shot from one of our kayaks looking into the passageway to the Gulf.


When we got to our first island campsite, Pavillion Key, we spotted huge manta rays fishing near the shore. Phil decided it would be fun to pet them. Needless to say, Phil is no longer with us.


Renee, Susie, and I pull our canoes onto the key before the tide comes in.


Aww, I love you Pavillion Key!


By the way, Phil survived. I was totally joking. He's loving the fact that this is his job!


An osprey, Florida's state bird, prepares to do some fishing of his own over the ocean waters.


A pretty cool pre-storm shot on Pavillion Key.


Billy and I decided that instead of prepping for the hurricane coming our way, we would read. Our high school English teachers would be so proud.


Storm clouds rolled in, thus the hurrying of us in the picture. Have you ever seen a tornado form over water and come right towards your island? I have. Twice. That night.


Luckily, the next night on Rabbit Key was a little calmer. Our four tents set up on the shore line, just above tide level.


Sunset over the ocean. Beautimous!


Thursday night=Our first fire. We had our team time on the beach next to the flames and it was totally magical.


Then we woke up in the morning to find the tide had completely beached us. That whole area where the guys are walking is supposed to be water. We were literally trapped on our own tropical island. Pretty amazing!


So, while we were waiting, Andy and I decided to race through the mud past the island. Here you can see how close of a race it was......in the beginning.

This is where I notice Andy is 45 pounds lighter than I am, thus making me sink a ton more into the mud and proving that this was a stupid idea.
But I gave it my all, running as much as I could. This was one of the few times I wasn't up to my waist in poop smelling mud.
Sweet victory! But not really. Second place actually, which also means dead last.
Chase looks hopeful, but hope is not enough. What he really needed was water.
Our team:(from front, left to right)Steve, Andy, Me, Phil, Renee, Billy, and Chase. It was an amazing journey and I wouldn't have picked a better team. Thanks for all your prayers. Enjoy your days.

Pawleys Island Staff Missions Trip

Well, the week is over. For those of you who didn't know, I spent the last week in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, which is a small beach town on the Atlantic about 45 minutes south of Myrtle Beach. About 8 of us drove the 16 hours down there on Saturday, September 22, while the others flew because they were attending a wedding of two former staff. Our entire staff of 16, plus two wives and a baby son, spent the week in Glen and Joanne Hall's beautiful home. The Hall's are long time supporters of LeaderTreks and gave us their amazing house for the week while they were on vacation. I have never met this couple, yet I could feel their love through the gift of their house last week. Our trip served two purposes: to serve as a classroom for our summit team on how to run a missions site, and to provide our management team time to cast vision for the company for the coming year. It was a great trip and amazing time to spend with everyone at LeaderTreks. There's so much to explain, so I figured I'd give a tour of our trip.

This picture was taken of the Hall's backyard. They live on the intercoastal waterway, a 3,000 mile river which runs from the Gulf of Mexico along the Atlantic to New Jersey. It was an awesome sight to wake up to each day.

And an awesome sight to go to bed each night.

Their deck served as a retreat of solitude for many of us, and a whole lot of fun too.
A sweet shot from the pier into the river. Steve Gerber, one of my bosses at LT, built this kayak himself. Pretty crazy!Our summit team went to work for a woman named Donnela Smith. At age 24, she is single with five kids and lives in a run down, beat up trailer. Filth pervades the area, yet her and her children have not let that poverty pervade them. They are a wonderful family. LeaderTreks has been working with her this summer and will continue to work with her next year as well as we build a completly new home for her. What we're actually doing is building a house around the trailer, then we'll remove the trailer from the inside. This way, the family has space to live while we're working and the permit is cheaper for a home addition than a whole new home. If we just leave the supports of the trailer under the home, it counts as an addition. News for all who were wondering. Our team did a lot in a week. As you can see, we built a whole new wall in the front of the house, laid down support flooring so the children wouldn't fall in, finished tar papering the whole house, and built steps to the deck.

Greg and Chase concentrate on pounding the wall in as I move the ladder into position. I know, I look like a dork. Get used to it!

Our ministry partner Jess puts a cross in front of each house that has work done on it by our teams. His goal is to someday drive through the streets of Pawleys and see crosses everywhere. It's an amazing goal and an image I'm proud to be a part of.

Don't worry though, we had fun too, on and off the work site. Greg decided to harrass one of Ms. Smith's boys, Nazire. Shortly after this, Nazire slapped him in the face. Sorry Big Head!

On the last day, we felt the need to help Andy cool down a bit, for the temp. was pretty high that week. Greg distracted him, then jumped out of the way so we could soak the poor guy.

On Tuesday night Doug(our main boss at LT) took us all to Myabi's, a Japanese steak house. It was an experience!

Like I said earlier, we made good use of that pier! I'm on the top in the white swim suit.

And yes, we went to the ocean. Twice!

On Friday our whole staff went deep sea fishing in the Atlantic! It was amazing! I caught 11 fish, but only 2 were keepers.

One of our staff, Renee, caught a small dog shark. We kept him and ate him that night. Delicious!

Thanks to everyone who was praying for our trip. We had an amazing time and learned a ton. I continually am thankful for you all. Again, if you're still looking to support, I wouldn't mind it at all. Have a good one.

Thoughts on the Heart

So I wrote this in my journal a couple of weeks ago and just thought I would share with whoever wanted to read it. Not sure if it's "right" exactly, but it's what was going through my head at the time and came out through my pen.

THE DISTANCE OF THE HEART

One can only truly know someone as much as they are willing to let themselves be known. You can really go your whole life thinking you know someone, only to discover you know nothing about them, about what's really going on inside them. The human heart and mind are so complex, so maze like, that it becomes so easy to lose oneself in them and never come out. By giving the appearence of complete honesty, yet revealing only safe thoughts, one can remain unknown their entire life. This seems to me so contradictory to the deepest longing in each and every one of us: to be fully known and loved. We all yearn for intimacy in relationships, another to share our deepest desires with, another who will know as much or more about our hearts as we do, yet still love us completely. But instead, what we do with that longing screams for an explanantion, for we run from love instead. We run so fast and so far from intimacy with others. We run with no goal in sight other than to escape those who would demand honesty and depth from us. And when we're done running, when we're out of breath, gasping for air as we place our hands on our knees in exhaustion, we decide to hide. We know the others will continue to search for us, so we hide, hoping beyond hope we will not be found. And it works. Our hiding protects us, for while others are outside frantically searching for us, calling our name, yearning desperately to catch a glimpse of our hearts, we remain hidden. We choose to close ourselves in this cave, this insurmountable cavern of despair that we ourselves have created. "It's safe in here," we tell ourselves. "No one can hurt us here," we tell ourselves. "No one will find us here," we tell ourselves. And no one ever will. No one can for they do not know the way into the cave or even what it looks like. Eventually the voices fade. The cries of loved ones longing to find us disappear, for the search has been called off. The worst has been declared. We are dead. No one will look for us anymore. We are truly alone. The hearts of those who loved us so dearly and longed to see us have vanished. Our actions, our apathy, our hiding have kept us safe from anyone ever understanding us. We have chosen this solitude, this supposed victory, yet it feels anything but victorious. Our hearts still long for intimacy, and we finally admit the truth: we are lonely. "This is not what I imagined," we tell ourselves. "This is not what I wanted," we tell ourselves. "I need to get out of here," we tell ourselves. Yet we do not move. Our bodies, as if in suspended animation, simply remain just where they have always been. We are alone, and while it is excruciating, we do nothing to stop it. Our deepest desire of being known is clouded by the idea that when people really do see our hearts, they will not love us. So we remove the choice from them, retreating further into this pit, succumbing to the darkness. And the years go by without incident. This retreat into the depths has broken us, yet we remain in pieces rather than seek the comfort others longed to give us. The love they intended was not obligatory. No, it was sincere, real, but we pushed it away when we ran and hid. In our brokenness, we are finally silenced. Our mind is at rest for there is no need anymore to scheme or plan out how to evade love, for it has been evaded. We are lost. Even if we wanted to, even if our heart longed to find its way out, we cannot. We are awaiting doom and we are silent. It should come soon. How much more can a mere man really hold on for? How much more of this solitude can a heart contend with? That's when we hear it. The thin, small whisper, calling your name. It is not like earlier, not the same as the screams from loved ones attempting to discover you from the outside. No, this voice does not yell. It does not need to. You cup your ears, straining to hear from where in the darkness this lone voice is coming from. As you slowly spin, attempting to narrow down the location of the whisper, you discover the voice is calling not from the entrance, but farther into the cave. "Odd," you think inside. "I thought I was alone in here." You gather up courage for the first time in forever, stand, and slowly walk. As you journey toward the voice, it grows louder, slowly, but enough to let you know you're walking in the right direction. The passage way winds around and around as your hands grope in darkness, unable to see your way, but constantly following the voice, thinking it may know another way out of this cave. Your hands grip the cold, damp walls as they guide you on. A desire begins to grow inside you once again to be known and a desire to share youself with whoever else is in the blackness. Then, without warning, the walls disappear, giving way to a massive cavern. Still unable to see with your eyes, yet hearing the voice more clearly than ever, you step forward in blind faith and walk. Yes, there is fear, in fact you are terrified, but this voice offers something you did not have before: hope. It is this moment, the small second in which the acknowledgement of hope is realized, that the room is pervaded with light from every angle and the voice now surrounds you on all sides, beckoning. "Welcome. Welcome to the inner depths of your heart."
"Who are you?" you ask. "And how long have you been here?"
"You know who I am and I have been all along, whispering your name, longing for you to discover me and discover your heart, for there is no place you can run, no place you hide from me, even in the abyss of your own heart."
Peace surrounds you like a cloud, covering every part of your body.
"What is this feeling," you wonder to yourself.
"Love. It has been a long time since you have felt this, isn't it? But you have to realize, I know you completely and I love you. Before even time began, I loved you. You know not love, for you will accept it. I know love for I am love, and I give it freely. Others long to know you as I know you, and though they may not know you as completely, they desire the chance. You must give them the opportunity. Do not fear. Your deepest fear should never hinder your greatest desire. I know you. Your heart is good. Look around you, it is filled with light, and with love."
"But I do not know the way out," you exclaim to the voice.
"Then let me guide you, and you will finally experience life. Follow me."

LeaderTreks Started

Well, it's official. I've started as full time staff at LeaderTreks in Wheaton, IL. Thanks to all of you for your continued support this summer as I was going all over the country on trips. I got emails from many of you and knew I was being covered in prayer. My newsletter about the summer will be sent out this week to tell all about it.

I've moved in with Rich and Barb Kolton in Carol Stream, IL, which is only about a six minute drive from the office. They are amazing people whom I have already grown to love a ton. They are very honest and open about their lives and their struggles, which is amazing to be around. They have been a great support to me so far in the first week. Rich is a ton of fun and a huge Bears fan, so it was great to rub their loss in his face yesterday and scream praises for the Packers. He takes it in stride, for his humility is very apparent. Barb has a level of depth not commonly seen and an openness with her life and her fears. She has shared with me on several occasions about the struggles she is going through.

This past weekend I got initiated into the First Baptist youth group this past weekend. I'm starting to volunteer on a weekly basis, so I went on the fall retreat. It was a great time to get to know all the students in The Cause, the name of their youth group. I'll be leading a small group on Sunday nights for guys and regular meetings are on Wednesdays, so I'm pretty excited about being involved in this way.

As for work, I've had a busy time so far. There are four of us right now who make up the Base Camp Summit Team, which basically means we're the newbies. Chase, Renee, Billy, and myself are all in it together and learning everything we can about LT. All last week was introductions to a lot of what we do at LeaderTreks. This week we've started training for LTE's, or Leadership Training Events. These are weekend events where we try to combine a lot of the same principles and experiences from trips into a single weekend trip. I'm totally on board with them. They are amazing! My brother Shannon just ordered an LTE called Foundations of Leadership, which is the one we're all learning this week. I'm excited for his group to learn everything in this LTE. I have my own desk area, which is pretty weird because that signifies a real job to me. Which, it is, but it's still weird.

I've loved getting to know all the staff. They are amazing and have opened their hearts to me. My parents came down to Wheaton on Friday to visit and got to meet the whole staff at our company picnic. After getting into the car, they both turned to me and said they now knew exactly why I had come to LeaderTreks. I hope at some point you get to meet the men and women I serve with.

Today the Base Camp staff and I begin our training for LTE's. We're all a little nervous because we actually have to lead them in front of everyone, which would be fine, but we just learned the material yesterday. Pray for wisdom, guidance, and confidence for all of us. Thanks again for everything.

Dan

P.S. These are just some pictures of the office at LT.