LOST MAPLES and GARNER STATE PARK

During the middle of November, the WA family loaded up for a surprise trip to Lost Maples and Garner State Park! Both parks were extremely fun and served as a time of blessing and growth amongst each of our hearts.

This specific trip we would be focusing on three different spiritual disciplines, similar to how we focused on three different disciplines while at Padre. The three spiritual disciplines this time were Fellowship, Confession and Celebration. I plan to write an individual blog for each spiritual discipline experience so look for those in the next few blogs! But for a simple run down…

LOST MAPLES

 

As we arrived at Lost Maples on our first day, we were sent off to our separate campsites, unlike our usual plan of business. Generally, the whole WA family camps at the same site and stays together, but this trip would be different! Each of our campsites were about a mile apart from one another, some were even further! This gave us the opportunity to get to know our group. Since we were separated you may have already gathered this, but we were placed into 5 different groups to camp the night with. Both groups were filled with a few girls and a few boys!

My experience is based on my own personal group so I can’t speak for everyone or any other group, but we had a great group with two girls and three guys. As we hiked to our campsite, we chit chatted and explored along the way. I plan on telling a lot more about our time spent together during my FELLOWSHIP section of my blog! So look for that blog for more info….

We spent a lot of time getting to know one another through our fellowship and CONFESSION (look for that blog too) time at Lost Maples which made for such a great experience. If you remember from my past blog… I have been struggling with acceptance and love in my WA family. That beach trip was extremely hard…And for once… being placed in this small group of 5 – I felt loved, supported and accepted. These four friends took the time to listen to me, pray over me, and laugh with me. I was SO BLESSED…

We only stayed at Lost Maples the one night, but so far that trip has been my absolute favorite!

GARNER STATE PARK

Another experienced that we shared together followed the first day on trail in Lost Maples… the next two days and nights would be spent at Garner State Park and was a lot different than Lost Maples. We continued our fellowship as a discipline and focused also on CELEBRATION at this site. Look for my celebration blog to know more about that spiritual discipline through my eyes!

When we arrived at this state park, we immediately set up camp, all together this time! We had tents set up everywhere and 5 or 6 of us slept in hammocks! It was more of a relaxing trip with not too much on the agenda. Time to spend alone and focus on fellowship and to think through things going on during our Walkabout experience.

We spent a good about of time in a “solo” during this trip… focusing on our disciplines we were given in the beginning of the WA semester. Mine were to focusing on reading my bible more than reading books and to not complain to the leadership. As I thought through the disciplines and how they were evident in my current experience… I prayed over each one and allowed the Lord to speak to me. I was shown that my current disciplines needed to be added to and taken away from. Personally, I feel that I have done a good job at reading the bible or focusing on a bible study ALWAYS before reading any of my nerdy books that I love to read. So with this in mind, the Lord allowed me to move from focusing on this discipline (removing it from my fake list in my head) and adding focusing on pure thoughts. This addition to my discipline makes more sense if you read the confession session of this trip (different blog post)!

The other discipline about not complaining to my leadership was a lot heavier on my heart and had actually been something I was battling internally and finally was willing to sit down and talk to the Lord more about it. I spent a lot of time in prayer during this “solo”… so it was a lot harder to think through. But ultimately it came down to the Lord speaking to me that I can’t continue to hold this anger, bitterness, and just pure frustration in any longer. I personally removed this discipline from my list and in addition added prayer. Prayer for my leadership and prayer to learn how to submit even when my expectations are not being met and I disagree with the way things are done.

 For those of you reading… please don’t misunderstand the intention of sharing my heart and my struggles. It is hard to be the same age as your leader. It is very hard when I am a natural leader and have to serve under a different leadership style. My leadership always means well and does a great job with the younger students in the program!

Anyway after this solo and the additions and the subtraction of my personal disciplines… a much needed conversation needed to happen with my leadership and my accountability partner.

So…

We had a great time of celebration (blog) our last night at Garner State Park and had an eventful last day the following morning. This section could go along with fellowship, but I’ll give you a rundown of the events! We basically participated in our own AMAZING RACE throughout the park. It was a time spent running around the trails, trying to find different markings and spots we were to take pictures at! My group, the same 5 people from the Lost Maples group, had an awesome time!!! Hopefully I can post some pictures for yall to see J

Well sweet friends… that’s the summary, but you should definitely read the individual blogs about Fellowship, Confession and Celebration!