The Mighty Jungle

Yesterday, I almost died... okay, not really, but that's what I was thinking as I was traipsing about the woods following my wonderful, yet at times crazy, husband! Our pastor and his wife hosted the youth outing at their "farm." One of the events, if that's what you want to call it, was running through the woods trying to find orange tape tied to trees and various natural items (flowers, bones, etc.). The team who gathered the most items (which were worth a certain number of points) won the game.

On this "farm," as some like to call it... I prefer jungle... there are 30 or so acres of pine trees, surrounded by rattle snake nests (brush is what most call it, but they lie). We didn't actually see a rattle snake, nor have they seen more than a couple in the 20 or so years they have lived out there; but be that as it may, there are indeed rattle snakes out there just waiting to nip at unsuspecting ankles. They are simply very well hidden snakes. Those very well hidden snakes almost killed me while I was running after my wild-man husband, and the rest of our team (can you tell I did little to make the team a cohesive unit? I was following them yelling, "we're all gonna die!").

Anyways, we were carried off by my sweetie (I do love him!) to the swampiest, most horrible part of the property, in search of the "skull of Cleo the cow." Unfortunately for her, Cleo passed a way, long ago by the looks of her remains, and never received a proper burial. Consequently, that was part of our scavenger hunt (or Bro. James' attempt to have his property cleared of litter... some items we were to find were cans, golf balls, and Styrofoam ). We were the team who found Cleo. There was quite a victory "dance" upon her discovery. We then proceeded to look for an old propane tank (are you seeing why it looked like an ill-disguised attempt to clean the place up?). We never found it, but thankfully for my sake, there was a time limit. I only had to spend one hour in the vermin infested wilderness. Praise the Lord. (One girl on the other time said this activity greatly improved her prayer life. She was praying the entire hour, "Lord, please don't let a snake kill me!")

After we arrived back to the house, we looked over our spoils, added up our points, declared our pine cone the biggest, and were announced to be the winners! That is a very fortunate fact for our team. I don't know if I would have forgiven them for the anguish they put me through had we not been the victors!

The trip, despite my slightly exaggerated rendition, was a lot of fun. After the hour in the woods, we ate lunch, had a quiz (funny questions like... how far can a dog run into the woods... half way, after that, he's running out), and played croquet. Much more enjoyable, if you ask me. We did have to take a thunderstorm break sometime during the day (I guess that's when we went inside and did the quiz).

I am very thankful for a pastor who has a desire to be involved in the lives of the people at church. He is definitely not a preacher who seems "above" everyone else. He's just the man who happens to preach (very well, I might add). He loves the kids at our church, and they know it.

Please see yesterday's post for all the pictures from this event!

I almost forgot... at one point, we were all "'Round the Mulberry Bush!" The Knoxes have a mulberry bush in their yard, and the group was picking them off to try. It was, unfortunately, next to a building, preventing us from running around it and singing the song.