We can’t fall too far.

Welp, with one week left I’m looking back at the lessons I have learned throughout the summer. One that slaps me in the face every day is we cannot go it alone. Before this job, I did not have a Christian community. I didn’t have a church family. I didn’t have those people my age I could really connect with over my faith. Now I do and will be eternally grateful. But the one person I had through all the “not having” was Jesus. He never left me through my times of struggle or sin. He was there. All I had to do was reach out and take his hand. 

The most recent parallel I have is high ropes. An old family friend (Seth McClure) came with one of the groups this week. While taking pictures, I got the bright idea to attempt the “Dangling Duo” with him as my other half. We start on the bottom step of a ladder that gets farther and farther apart. I would get up to the next one while he helped me, then he would get up. Eventually, we got to the final step, and I just could not do it by myself. I had to put him up first in order for him to pull me. You see, it’s a great example for life. If you put God second things are going to be a lot harder, but if you put Him first life is so much easier. Not to say it still wasn’t difficult for me, because everyone goes through trials, yet when you have the strength of the Lord pulling you upward those trials become less scary.  

The second example I have is about a young girl who came to camp this week. She went through the high ropes course and came to me afterwards saying, “I knew it (the tether) would catch me because I fell a million times and didn’t die.” Out of the mouths of children come the most beautiful messages. We fall “a million times” when trying to walk the Christian wire. It’s narrow and tough at times, but we can never fall out of His grace…

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Author | Koda Moody
Photography | Cassi & Koda Moody

2020 | Fall Retreats

We have had a swelling retreat season this fall! We usually have a decently full fall, but 2020 was different – people needed to get out of isolation and into community in the great outdoors!

Some groups requested we didn’t post their group while at camp and we also desired to protect people from seeing an image and misunderstanding how we were following the proper protocols, so we didn’t share very many pictures of our fall retreats on social media. These times are crazy, aren’t they? So much fear has been instilled in us during this COVID time that we don’t always see clearly.

All that aside, we have felt privileged to serve the people who have come our way. We shared about our Men’s Retreat here (click that!). Below are a few pictures we felt were okay to share of some of the groups we welcomed (following all the proper protocols!!).

God pulled people from isolation and brought them into the mountains this fall where they could be with people who encouraged them, spoke truth from His Word and provided the face to face community all of humanity was meant to have!

How are you handling these times? Hope may be harder to find in these times, but the God of hope is able to “fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)

Keep believing!

Sam, Soccer, Worship?

by Sam Wammock 

Worship? Outside of Sundays?

 

I grew up thinking worship was something that happened before the pastor would get up and preach. I had no idea how wrong this is. I finally became aware of how worship can happen as we do anything in our lives. I learned how to worship while I play soccer and how to worship as I am going throughout my day. It has been a really cool experience to learn how to take a bunch of things that I love to do and use them as an act of worship.

 
There are two things that helped me get to a better place of understanding when it comes to worship.

The first thing is Romans 12:1, which says,

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

I began to think that if Jesus could offer his body as THE living sacrifice that offered me eternity with him, then I should be able to live my life in such a way that is for the Lord. The biggest misconception I had when I started learning this is that I cannot do anything that I enjoy (soccer, biking, hanging out with friends) because I needed to live a life that is holy and acceptable to God. How silly of me to think God would give me passions in life that I could not do because it was not holy or pleasing to him. So I learned how to instead use the things that I love to honor and glorify him as an act of worship.

The second thing that helped me understand worship better is realizing I can choose to worship God or his creation/people in His creation. We were made to worship something, so if I choose to not use my life to worship the Lord, I will find something else to worship. I think this was a hard pill to swallow because it reminded me of Romans 1:18-25 which says,

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

This is a bit more extreme than what is going on in my life, but the concept remains from Exodus 20:

“You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”

I want to make sure that I am always worshipping the Creator and not allowing myself to worship any other gods in my life.

Worshipping is something that is so important and I want to make sure that I am aware of how easy it is to worship anyone or anything. I want to stay constant in offering my body as a living sacrifice to the Lord of what is holy and pleasing to be my act of worship to the Lord.

What’s something in your daily life you can turn into an act of worship?

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Author | Sam  (Photos provided by Sam)
FUN FACT: Sam played 4 years of collegiate soccer at Columbia International University. She was named Female Student Athlete of the Year and All-Tournament at Nationals for 2 years!

A Secret Ingredient of the Christian

by Cassi Werner

If you’ve been in the Church or a follower of Jesus for any period of time, you understand prayer to be a vital part of your walk with Jesus! But WHY should we pray?

>> Fellowship: In its most basic form, prayer is connecting with the God of the Universe, which is a grace we tend to take far too lightly.

Sitting with or abiding with God changes us, shapes us, focuses us on God and eternity. Talking to Him wherever, whenever about whatever keeps us moving toward Him. We gain a greater understanding of Him, see more of Him, are led by Him as we spend time in prayer. Praising Him, calling out to Him and interacting with Him: there is nothing quite as amazing as prayer. If we were honest, this is something we know, but might not tend to practice. At least the without ceasing part!

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

Hebrews 11:6

>> Intercession: Big word for praying on behalf of others!

All throughout the Bible we see how God has involved people through prayer to accomplish things on earth. Some examples of intercession were when Moses stood in the gap for God’s grumbling people and God heard his prayer. There were prayers for healing, protection from destruction, obtaining favor, restoring the sick and so much more. As the body of Christ, we can seriously support each other by consistently praying for each other. Praying for those outside of the body of Christ maybe even more so.

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men.

I Timothy 2:1

>> Spiritual Warfare: We have an enemy prowling around seeking to destroy and devour, which should motivate us to be fervently and continually praying! We are up against unseen powers and yet we “seldom consider the nature of our opponent, and that is to his advantage.” (Elisabeth Eliot)

A few places in the Bible where prayer brought about deliverance from spiritual attack are when Jesus Himself prayed against Satan for Peter; some demons could only be cast out through prayer. Peter was released from prison because of prayer. The early church knew the power of prayer and they were always found devoting themselves to prayer. Prayer is vital in our battle against the forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving

Colossians 4:2

Prayer flexes our faith in a way that activates the power of God in unexplainable ways in our lives. Not because He needs us or there’s something special about us, but because He desires us and a relationship is a living, active, responsive thing.

What’s crazy is we are busy wandering around inside our days doing what we call living, often without so much as a nod toward the One who knows our name and created us to do all of our moving inside of Him. We get the chance to connect with THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE, but often we exchange that connection for lesser things. I’m so guilty of this. You to?

Let’s become fervent and intentional and committed to prayer! Our walk with Him depends on it!

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.

Jude 1:20-21

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Author & Photography | Cassi

The Balancing Act

by Marty Paul

Balance. There has to be balance.

I have lived long enough to know life can get really busy with lots of things taking every minute of my day. Early in my marriage with a young family, I was teaching school and coaching basketball. My kids were gym rats because I was always gone and they were usually with me. If I wasn’t planning my work, I was serving at church in student ministries or raising my family and taking time with my wife. When all this is going on, it’s easy to think I can get by with a few minutes of quiet time with God. It’s always easy to put God on the back burner because, hey, I was doing life!

In Galatians 5:13-17, Paul tells us not to turn our freedom into an opportunity for the flesh. He doesn’t want us to fall back into sin and worldliness. Paul goes on to tell us to walk by the Spirit and we won’t carry out the desires of the flesh. The flesh sets us against the Spirit because they are in opposition to one another. There is nothing wrong in living your Christian life like I was, but when it leads to less time with God and more time with works, there becomes an imbalance.

Life will become hard to navigate as more struggles come into our lives. By spending time each day in God’s Word, we will be able to pursue the life of sanctification, of being made holy, like Jesus. Can I ask: Are you putting in the time…the required quietness so God can speak into your life each day?

Let me encourage you today to walk by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives within you to empower you to walk in this struggle called life. We always make time for what we want to do. I hope you are making time for Jesus.

“Put on the Lord Jesus Christ…”

Romans 13:14

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Author | Marty Paul     Photography | Adrienne & Cassi

Life | When God Feels Absent

by Selah Werner

Hey guys!
So today I want to share something that has been popping up a lot lately, and something I personally need reminding of myself.

I have reached the point in my life where I am faced with the “what’s next” question. I need to decide where I want to go and what I want to do after I graduate high school. This feels so daunting and overwhelming. I sometimes feel like I’m walking in the dark or in fog and I can’t really see what’s in front of me. I’ve been reminded recently that the waiting is an important part of the process and can actually sometimes feel exciting!

Waiting is not my most favorite thing to do. In fact, I can be quite impatient in life. There’s a big part of me that wants the frustrating things fixed, the questions answered, the chaotic things quieted. But really, what’s the fun in just arriving at something without the journey? The adventure is where it’s at, so I’m told 😂.

I think God likes the adventure part because it stretches and pushes us to trust Him like never before. The adventure tends to pull us in close to Him and allows us to see Him work. Where will He take us next?

I love when people tell their stories of life. Taking a look back at our story helps us see a little better just what God was doing, how He perfectly timed everything and arranged things better than we could have ever done ourselves. During the waiting process, God can feel absent. It’s hard connecting with him during this time, but I wonder if by trusting that He’s present when He doesn’t feel like it causes us to actually exercise our faith in the best of ways. I know He really is there and has control of all the things. Sometimes we just need reminded.

Psalm 62 demonstrates this well. Verse one and verse 5 are similar:

“For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. (v1)

For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him.” (v5)

Isn’t it interesting how verse one says, “My soul waits in silence”, while verse five says, “Oh my soul, wait in silence”? It’s that reminding of, “Okay, Self, keep waiting because God really is my hope and salvation.” Just as David reminds us all throughout the Psalms, we can have peace knowing “that the power belongs to God (v11).” We can overflow with peace and find patience to wait in silence when we remember who He is. (see also Job 40) The scary trek in the dark then becomes a hope-filled adventure!

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Author | Selah Werner    Photography | Cassi

Living In Tents can be Intense!

by Shaun Werner

“For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands.”

2 Corinthians 5:1

I don’t know if you’ve heard me say it or not, but one of the phrases I like to use at camp is “Camp is intense! We sleep in cabins, but camp is in-tents!” This play on words, among many others, is one of my favorites. So much so, that my lovely wife made a shirt several years ago that expressed this saying.

We also used this idea of camp and life being intense for our summer camp theme — were you here that year? Based out of 2 Corinthians 5:1-2, we talked about how our bodies are earthly tents and we have an eternal home in heaven.

Remembering this earth is not our home, this life is temporary, we are just passing through offers hope in times of trouble and encourages us to not invest in things that are fading away.

I Peter 2:11 also encourages us to abstain from worldly desires because we are sojourners or temporary residents. Our perspective, or rather God’s perspective from His Word, helps us to stay on track as we seek to follow Him. God’s Word encourages and calls us to this higher road of living for what we cannot see, to walk in this faith that stretches beyond our right now.

I don’t know about you, but what’s happening around me seems to distract me from this big picture living more than I want it to. My focus gets so easily pulled from the eternal things and placed on things that, in the end of all things, really don’t matter at all.

So I leave you with this encouragement: stay in the Word daily so God’s perspective becomes ours and can rightly be placed on the eternal things. Let’s keep stepping toward abstaining from the “worldly desires” today so we can be in pursuit of those eternal desires as we keep passing through to our eternal home! Keep walking, Young People!

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Photography | Cassi Werner

Zooming In on Your Walk with God

Sometimes the whole idea of pursuing God or knowing God can feel too big and overwhelmingly vague that we quit before we really get started. Even when we are doing what we are “supposed to” be doing, we can feel far away from God.

In case you’ve felt the struggle, our staff understands and we have a heart to walk along with you and to zoom the lens in a bit more in your understanding and growth so you can experience a close-up, vibrant walk with the Lord.

Because even while God may feel far away or this vibrant life you hear about may feel just out of your grasp, God actually does see you and know you and desire to be close to you.

He wants you to know His presence in the midst of your struggle. He wants you to know His love in personal ways that light you up in the deepest parts of your soul.

He wants you to know the balance He can bring to your life. He wants to redeem whatever mess you are in and heal whatever brokenness you carry with you. He wants to direct your path where you will flourish. He wants you to know Him so personally that you can’t help but make Him known to others!

And it all begins by interacting with Him through His Word!

We say all this to let you know that our staff is pretty excited (and thankful) about being more intentional with encouraging and leading you through weekly blogs and monthly YouTube videos throughout the year! We can’t wait to see how God is working in your lives and to share how He’s working in ours!

Feel free to reach out to us with questions or struggles you’re having or to share how you are experiencing God in your life! We sincerely want to share in the journey with you!

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Author | Cassi Werner      Photography | Ethan + Adrienne + Cassi

the simple truth

Hello there, dear friends!

As the celebratory season of giving thanks and Jesus’ birth warmly embraces us this time of year, I’ve been prayerfully yearning a simple, powerful desire: Give me Jesus. My mind has been warpedwith a recent love of simplicity, and the truth is, learning the power behind it is anything but simple for my over-analytical brain to do. When one of my students falls out of her chair “accidentally” knocking over and spilling my coffee all over the place during a formal test, Lord, Give me Jesus [grace] When I drive to work 55 minutes late for being early, unknowingly forgetting my classroom keys and lunch but get to see the glory of His sunrise over a silent highway, Ah, Lord, Give me Jesus. [peace] When I am constantly being pounded down by hearing unrelenting bad news of family’s health issues, day after day, Just give me Jesus. [power]

All of these daily common circumstances are always bringing me back to the simple reality ofneeding Jesus, simply because of who He is. In John 14:6 Jesus tells us, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” What is the truth? The truth is Jesus. Who is Jesus? Jesus is the most compassionate, loving, gracious, peace-giving, powerful, and faithful man who ever walked this earth. He faithfully took on our ugly sins, shameful regrets, and broken pieces. He washed us clean, forgot our past, and wholly put us back together on the cross that He died on. The truth is, in everything that we say and do, we are to do our humanly best to become the truth, to become Jesus, even when it seems impossibly complicated to achieve.

What does this have to do with discipleship? Everything. We can claim and proclaim all about Jesus as much as we want so people hear us and so we are doing our “active duty” as an obedient disciple of His Great Commission (Matthew 28:19), but if we are telling the truth without being the truth, nothing we say will be heard. Sometimes we try to dig so deeply into the Word to try and extract truths to gain more knowledge, all the while missing the simplest truth. Sometimes we simply read the Word because we know we should, all the while missing the simplest truth. It’s so simple: Just get Jesus. An aspiring theologian, avid disciple maker, and one of my best brothers in Christ told me this one day: “There is a big difference in knowing something and becoming it. I think it’s a problem with Christianity. We become consumed in our rational and intellectual pursuits of God instead of simply allowing Him to change us into that which reflects Him the most.”

With all of this in mind, I have a simple question for you: Truthfully, what are you doing with knowing the truth?

|Author >> Chelsea| ^^ |Photography >> Cassi|

flying cars and other pursuits + [video]

For those who haven't been around here before, the folks at Whisper Mountain (and some awesome people walking Along the Trail with us) offer short video encouragements meant to spur you on in your own walk with Jesus! We all can use a little spurring on, right? The Trail Mix videos run about once a month, unless it's summer camp season; then you're lucky to hear from us at all as we run dog tired Proclaiming Jesus to a bunch of teenagers! Just wanted to fill you in!

I must admit, I was expecting to be flying in cars by now. Anyone else with that childhood thought? Obviously things don't happen like we hope, but life does happen. Boy does it! My turn came on the Trail Mix so today I'm sharing a little encouragement as we remain on the front-end of 2014! (from insecurity–it's out of focus and I was interrupted a bunch of times! so see Jesus!)

  

[if unable to view video, click here!]

Even as life happens, may we be found pursuing Jesus!