Our Stake- Spokane Valley Valley Stake- planned a youth TREK activity for this summer. They spent the past year planning and organizing this event.
It was held at a place near McCall, Idaho, a near 6.5 hour drive away, at a place where other Trek experiences had taken place. There was some grumbling about the inconvenience of the distance, but in the end it was worked out among the wards how they were going to get themselves and all the kids & gear to the Trek location.
Each of our boys was able to go and each was assigned to their own Trek "family" led by a husband/wife pair from our stake who had been called as a Trek Ma/Pa earlier this year. Each family had 8 kids, and there were 3 families to a Company, with each Company having a governing 'Grandma/Grandpa'. The families worked together, played together, walked together, ate together, slept together.
Each participant was allowed to bring one 5-gallon bucket of personal items (clothes, hygiene, etc.) along with a pillow, sleeping bag, and sleeping mat- all contained in a black, labeled garbage bag.
It was a planned 4 day event with the overall church youth theme of "Walk With Me" and each day had a chronological theme as well: Past, Present, Future.
Day 1 was arrival, check in, and getting to know your Trek family.
Day 2 they focused on their ancestors and played games that would have been the norm 150/200 years ago. On this day they walked from the check in location several miles uphill pulling legitimate handcarts. This was the hottest, dustiest day for them all. But they all made it and had some good times along the way. That night they had a"Faith Walk" where they gave the kids music players to listen to tracks along the route and they visited sites like a wall of challenges (each kid upon check in wrote in invisible ink something they struggle with and then those papers were put up on the board under a black light so everyone could see common struggles without identifying individuals), a similar wall where people wrote what they think Jesus thinks of them, and other faith building experiences in the dark. This was probably the most poignant, spiritual experience of the whole Trek for most people. Everyone was talking about it and how much it impacted them.
Day 3 was scheduled to be focused on the Present where they would focus on their own experiences and how they stay focused on their own spiritual paths. However, they all woke up to rain. Sleeping under the stars on tarps meant that everyone's gear was wet, their sleeping bags were wet, and they were pretty cold. Nonetheless, they trudged on until the trail was so muddy they were slipping up the hills and the handcarts were getting stuck in the mud. It was about midday when the leaders decided they needed to evacuate the camp due to an upcoming storm. And what a storm it ended up being: lightning dancing around the hill top on which they were camped, feet of water dumped on the valley below, multiple inches of hail collected on the ground. It would have been a dangerous situation if they had decided to stay that night. But what a difficult decision that was! After all the work and planning that went into the event- just to have to emergently cancel it and send everyone home! It was a sad day. Kids came home that night between 12am and 1am. It was a late night with much to discuss.
Day 4, the day that was supposed to focus on thinking about the future and what lies in store for them and how they can plan for their futures, the trek planners pulled together a literal last minute Trek fireside at 7pm at our local stake center, where they pulled the experience all together, got the kids some closure and finished up some of the activities that were planned but which they weren't able to complete due to the evacuation.
This was an incredible experience for the youth of our stake; one they are unlikely to forget.
Kai, in particular, had a Trek family that really bonded together and connected with each other.
An article appeared in the Church News about the youth's experience (because it was pretty extreme) and after all was said and done, there was a video montage put together by the leaders that each company was supposed to share with their kiddos- to bring everyone together and tie up the experience.
Though we don't know what the future holds, we hope that Trek will continue to be an experience our youth can have with our Stake, as it brings our youth closer together as members of the stake, secures bonds between youth and adult leaders, but most importantly, really develops and deepens youth relationships to Jesus Christ and helps them build a stronger desire to learn about and follow Him.
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