Friday, July 11, 2008

Day 1 - Team Building Time

So, Hello to those who might be reading this.

It's 11:20 pm and the group of mentors has settled in for the night. It was a full day. They are all quite tired, some sore, and some VERY glad to be on the ground again.

Let me tell you about the last 24 hours. It began by picking up Stacy and Rachel at the airport yesterday at 5:15 pm. They had a good flight and arrived safely. I dropped them off at Evert and Annet's place, and proceeded to take a bit of time and have dinner with a long lost past youth group member from my Sarnia days. Nice to catch up.

Then it was back to the church to tie up some loose ends and then wait.... and wait....and wait until Hannah showed up at 11:30 pm. She'd been driving since 4:00 pm that day to get here. Quite tired, but happy to be here. She too was shipped off to Evert and Annet's place for some shut eye.

A few hours of the same for me, and then up at 7 am to pick up Jackie and whisk her off to Evert & Annet's (yes, their house was getting full by now). : )

Off to take my son to a friends for the weekend, then back home to pick up my wallet which I keep loosing, and then off to the church. When I walked in the building, there were MANY faces staring back at me. The mentors were arriving. I'd forgotten I'd told them to be hanging around by 11 am. Thought I said noon. Over the next hour, we all arrived and had lunch together. The mentors slowly began to get to know each other, and then it was off to the high ropes course. About an hour drive into Quebec.

Some were very excited to be trying the course, others, .......not so. To keep the day's story short, here are some things I observed during our 4 hour time in the trees (pictures below):

1. Shellie and Janine DEFINITELY have a fear of heights. Having said that, they conquered those fears and completed course #1. No small feat for them. I was proud to watch them.

2. Same goes for Adrianna (still not sure if I got her name spelled right). She conquered MANY fears today, and I think is pretty proud of herself. Though, I don't think you'll see her up in the trees any time soon. She sure hugged some of them quite tight today.

3. Someone likes to take LOTS of pictures of Harold. Hmmmm, I wonder who that would be, Bea!!

4. Some also likes to take lots of pictures of peoples posteriors with their harnesses on. Not sure why : )

5. Julia decided to take a spill while snow boarding in the trees. She's ok, but it didn't look pretty. She got a cable burn souvenir out of the deal. I know how she feels. I got one once like that my second time doing the course.

All in all it was a good day of facing fears and conquering some, or relenting and knowing that we will try another day. Not unlike what we will be experiencing here this week. There will be challenges, there will be good times. We will be faced with issues not normally faced with, and we will have to decide what to do with them.

Back at home, we enjoyed a GREAT dinner meal. Anne, our head cook, is doing a wonderful job already. We will all be well taken care of in that department.



Some of the kitchen crew for today. Anne is the one on the left.





Then it was off for some badly needed showers (quite honestly, we needed them), and then back to the church for a time to get to know each other.

Questions like, Where you were from? Why are you here as a mentor? What was your most embarrassing moment (some of those stories were priceless)? What are you most looking forward to? What are you most concerned about?

A good time to get to know each other. We ended in prayer, and then it was off to bed. No need to coax anyone as they were all pretty tired.

Our first day together completed and tomorrow we add to the team. May God bless everyone during this week.

Now, look below for some pictures of our day in the trees. (Forgive me as I'm still getting to know the names of all these wonderful, new people. I might just get them wrong.









When we returned from our high ropes, Tamara, my co-coordinator, placed something on my door that I think means she just might be tired of my work here at Calvin......hmmmmmmm : )




Some of the Mentors looking over schedule's etc. as they get comfortable with their surroundings and each other.




At the high ropes course. Harold had a hard time putting his harness on.


This is just one of those many bum shots I have on file now.



Learning the rules of high roping. 1 person on a zip line. 2 people on the course. 3 people allowed on the platforms.


Harold is yelling, "You actually want me to go through this thing. Yeah right!!



Harold looks stuck. Not sure to go forward, or turn back.



Some of the aerial manoeuvres we had to do.




The stirrups on course 3 are NOT fun. Yes, this is me cheating my way across.


Shellie is doing very well here. She did GREAT.

Looks like Danielle is have LOTS of fun.


Hard to tell here, but Julia had just taken the spill I was talking about. She's simply hanging by her carribiners (? spelling).


Harold and Adrianna made a good team. co-encouraging.


Stacy taking a walk in the trees.


Rachel doing well here. She had to stop after a while.


Silene made this look easier than it was.



This was VERY high on the course. A long zip line. LOTS of fun.


A shorter zip line, but no less fun.


Hannah looks like she's hanging on for dear life here.



Shellie's had enough. I'm not moving and you can't make me, is what she's thinking here.



Melissa makes quick work of most of the course.

1 comment:

Elaine Yost said...

It looks like the high ropes course was a lot of fun! I hope all of you are having a great day! This is Mallory, (Rachel's Sister) Hi Rachel, saw your picture on the high ropes course, it looks high! Well I have to get going. I hope all of you have a WONDERFUL day!

Hi Rachel, Megan sang happy birthday to herself!
when she asks about you, she will say work and when we say no she says Canada-pretty good huh? The pictures are great-looks like a fun time. We will check the blog daily and of course everyone is in our prayers. Mom