January in Pictures [2014]

[the following pictures are a combo of iphone + camera to highlight our month for you!]

Ringing in the New Year | Celebrating Snow | Hearing God's whisper
Hiring New Staff Member Manny | "Seeing" Kyle

Marketing WM | Welcoming First Campers of 2014
Sunshine + Palm Trees for 2 Staffers | Staying Warm

Togetherness | Unending Work | Slippery Driveways
Winter Crazies | Pecking Crows Problem | Sharing Work with Friends

January has already brought some hiccups, frustrations and stress, but strewn throughout all of that are the moments of delight, togetherness, and purposeful living. Whisper Mountain is in full gear prepping for our summer program, expanding and improving our facilities, and filling the calendar with many people coming to escape their noise and encounter God's whisper! We are thrilled!

Have you planned a getaway to Whisper Mountain yet? Now's a great time to gather some people and make some plans! We would delight in serving you!

seven years

His dream has been a reality for seven years now!

Yesterday came and went as any other Sunday does. We didn't have a grand celebration or even a conversation about it. But my thoughts were drawn to the beginning. To the place where God began to put cement to the journey.

Seven years of pouring out in ways we never anticipated; seven years of God bringing unexpected people along the trail to serve, grow and pray with us; seven years of deep personal growth; seven years of investing in campers, seeing life change and being in awe of God. The words fall short as I try to commemorate the mile stone of another year Proclaiming Jesus through the camp ministry of Whisper Mountain.

We are grateful to those of you who have helped make these seven years possible. We are grateful for God's faithfulness every.step.of.the.way. There's no God like ours!

October in Pictures

[nearly all pictures are phone pics]

October was a busy month for Whisper Mountain! Retreats, board meetings, maintenance projects, gift projects, marketing, and all manner of end of the year work in the office! Racing, slowing, rediscovering, quieting. Never a dull moment, but we are thankful for the work we've been given, the purpose of serving each day, and the beauty of growing in Christ and walking each season with Him! Happy [belated!] November!

Teen Perspective // Balancing school, sports and Jesus

Erin is sharing with us today! She’s a junior in high school and offers great perspective and encouragement, no matter our age! [Thanks for sharing your heart, Erin! You’re beautiful!]

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As I sit here, taking the part of my day I would usually be preparing for a volleyball game, I ponder the question at hand: How do I balance between school, sports and Jesus? I ask myself this question so frequently that it becomes more of a prayer than a routine. Obviously Jesus always comes first, right? I would like to say that’s ALWAYS the case, but sadly, it’s not. Teens, including myself, get side tracked SO easily. We get caught up in the excitement of school with friends, homework, sports, parents and jobs–the whole nine yards. The trouble is finding the time! We only have 24 hours in a day: take 8 for sleep, 7 for school, 2 for sports practice or game, up to 3 hours at work, and 1 on homework (two in my case). That only leaves 3 hours left in the whole day for 2 meals and to spend time with God. That’s not including extra clubs and activities expected out of honor students. That’s crazy! How could anyone expect that much out of a sixteen year old?!

Well, in my case, every day is different. I never know what the day holds for me. I try to find practical ways to remind me of my priorities. I always start the day with a Bible verse, taking the time to reflect on what God is trying to tell me and how I can apply it to the day ahead. Smiling at people down the hallway, talking to someone new, a random act of kindness–school might be the best place to show God’s love. It also might be the hardest. I know from experience, trying to talk to someone who isn’t in your “clique” is not only intimidating, it’s just not something anyone wants to do. However, as followers of Christ, shouldn’t we strive to be more Christ-like? Isn’t that what Christ did, spending time with the hated and mistreated, showing them LOVE? That’s a part of our mission, MY mission.

It’s a daily struggle to treat everyone the same and to respond to them in love. Although it’s not my love, it’s Christ’s and we need not show it only in school, but in sports too. I can’t express how hard it is to love others in the heat of a driven game. With all eyes on you, how you react in a game reflects who you are. If you are a representative of Christ, then what you do and how you act reflects HIM. In my situation, my prayer lately has been to give 100 percent in everything, and leave the rest to God. To be honest, it works! To my amazement, the first game I played after I prayed that I had no regrets. I kept a positive attitude and I played great! The power of prayer is the thing that boggles my mind.

However, when everything is going in a positive direction, it can easily change. I never thought anything bad would happen this season, and the thought really never sank in until I was sitting in the emergency room getting told I fractured my foot. My thought process was so scattered, I didn’t know whether I was more upset that I was hurt or the fact I wouldn’t get to finish what I had worked so hard for all summer. Then on the ride home, I realized I might have something great in store while not being able to finish the second half of my volleyball season. With some free time on MY hands, God could use HIS to mold me into something I could never become while playing volleyball. 

I answer the question, “How do you balance school, sports and Jesus?” with two words: I don’t. The definition of “balance” is “an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain up right and steady.” That is as far from my life as it gets! Nothing gets the same amount of time in my life. I fall apart. I get overwhelmed too easily. I have the attention span of about five seconds. I think about sports during class. I stay up way too late doing homework. I procrastinate everything. I try to do too many things at once.

With all this jumbled mess I call my life, I wouldn’t really say I balance anything. Yet, God gives me the grace to continue, and when my eyes are on Him, He makes my crazy schedule possible.

[video encouragement] Trail Mix // Episode 16

Phew! We made it! With a little perseverance and heaps of grace we pushed through! (If you've no idea what I'm talking about, read the backstory to this video!)

Have you been overwhelmed by the darkness of our world or filled with fear about something else? I'd encourage you to listen to Marty today! Less than two minutes could change perspective and offer hope!

 

{if unable to view above video, click here!}

Walk in His truth and hope today! Blessings, friends!

A Teen’s Point of View

[teen Kinsley (yep, she’s my girl!) shares with us today!]

Going from summer to waking up at six o’clock every morning to go somewhere I’d rather never go again is a hard transition. I mean, when I hear my alarm blaring in the morning, interrupting the best part of my dream, I’m not the happiest person on earth. Then getting home and spending around three and a half hours doing Algebra II homework and praying for the rapture to happen–this is not my ideal day!

But when all I think about is how tired I am, how much homework I have, how boring this teacher is, how I wish it was still summer life feels very overwhelming. Even though it’s really hard sometimes, I try to make my main focus on God. Some ways I try to do this is spending time in my Bible and talking with God every morning. This helps me try to live out the Bible. When I get to school I feel more ready to show God’s love to someone different every day, whether it’s encouraging them or just talking to them.

Today I want to encourage you to try to put your main focus on God because, let me tell you, it helps a lot!

a ninja has been hanging around camp

(last two photos taken by Tricia!)
All this week Whisper Mountain has been enjoying the presence of the three beauties you see above! And we get them for another week! You may recognize them from their recent trip or the video they were in! Aside from their general awesomeness, this is why I'm excited Tricia is here:

She's a PHOTO NINJA!!! Armed with her two cameras and a whole lotta spunk, Tricia has been helping to capture the camp week for campers and future marketing of WM. How awesome when someone's talent becomes a blessing because it was offered as help to others. Just how it's supposed to be done. (That whole pulling together thing we were chatting about the other day!) I personally have been blessed because it's a whole lotta work keeping up with the clicking, editing, sharing for ten weeks each summer! Second man on the job makes a world of difference!

(two pics above were taken by Tricia!)

Gracie and Lydia have been enjoying long days of roaming the hills, tasting some of the adventure and stealing tootsie rolls from the awesome jar!

If it weren't for a very generous couple donating their pop-up camper to Whisper Mountain, Tricia and the girls might be sleeping in the clubhouse!! Whoa…did you see that? The whole team thing just kicked in again. We are all thankful they have a place to rest their weary heads for the two weeks they are serving with us! The quarters are tight, but that's all part of the adventure, right?! (their dad will have to sleep in the clubhouse when he comes next week!)

Tricia, thank you doesn't cut it, but there's no other words to say. We appreciate your willingness to give up two of your weeks to serve with us and offer your talent to bless us and the work we are on mission with. You are a gift! True story.

row, row, row your boat

…gently on the lake! Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily campers have some fun! And that would be in large part to some awesome kids at an elementary school who raised money to help Whisper Mountain buy the boats for rowing! Adding to this wonderful generosity is a local friend of ours who donated his welding skills, time and some of the supplies to help build us a trailer for hauling the boats for rowing!

(green boats/kayak=donated boats!)

I know I say it all the time around here, but isn’t it a beautiful thing how people pull together for the purpose of Proclaiming Jesus?! Beautiful I tell you!

We enjoyed a day on the lake with our campers yesterday. Aside from jumping off the rock, they all wanted to be in a boat! Something fun and refreshing about being on the water, in a canoe, rowing with friends!

Something pretty amazing having people like you joining us in our efforts of Proclaiming Jesus through your prayers, serving with us, giving to us! As staff, we are entirely grateful to have you on our team!

Do you like to invade?

The time has come to rally our Whisper Mountain Prayer Invaders! For the love of blowpops what's a Prayer Invader? Glad you asked! PI's are people who believe in the power of prayer and are committed to fighting the spiritual battle raging on for the souls of young people.

So, do you like to invade? Not personal space, silly! In the darkness keeping people from life in Christ? Would you like to receive weekly emails throughout summer to pray more specifically for each week's needs and groups? Do let me know to add you to the list by emailing me at cassi(at)whispermountain(dot)org.

Seriously, if you haven't discovered the power of prayer, I encourage you to start now! Your world will be rocked…in such good ways!

a few faces stirring my heart right now

Today I'm making famous (in this small online space) a few of the faces who have been shining around Whisper Mountain very recently. A few may be familiar from a video or other spotlight moments, but what I want to share today is something that stirs my heart regularly.

God has led me and my family to share in the founding and running of this camp ministry. So it's expected we would pour ourselves out regularly for it. I am continually blown away and challenged by the people who have a few extra days, are passing through to somewhere else, or have chosen to spend a week or more with us just so they can serve. As if the serving in general isn't awesome enough, of all the places they could choose to serve, they choose Whisper Mountain! As a whole staff, we are encouraged by these people, blessed by their sharing in the effort, and grateful for their willingness to leave their mark here.

Thank you to each of you who have given of yourselves in some way to the work done at Whisper Mountain! You are a blessing!