Snow is this beautiful, incredible creation of ice crystals each in a crazy unfathomable design. It a quite, peaceful covering that spreads over the whole of the ground. Its a playful aspect of creation that allows us to do so much! I love frolicking around cross country skiing, tubing, snowshoeing or simply just walking out on the frozen lake and taking in the expanse of God's creation. Its fun to fall in and tackle people in. Snow is enjoyable, the cold is becoming more than tolerable. It got in the upper 20's and even to 32 this weekend and it felt great. I also love making bonfires for groups in the snow near the lake; sitting around and making s'mores.
Doing ministry here is kinda like running in the northwoods. The terrain is much more hilly than Illinois. The hills give you a break just enough to catch your breath so you can gear right back up for the next. Groups come, we pour ourselves out serving them... we get a break, rest and gear up to do it again. It is worth it. Creating a place for people to meet with God and experience him more deeply is worth everything I am.
On a different note, Daniel and I fell in the channel the other day. We have a channel that we do winter canoeing in. It doesn't freeze all the way because it connects two lakes and it stays moving. We decided to just go for fun. There is a frozen shelf of ice that we dock the canoes by (see picture below). Daniel pushed the canoe in the water with me in the front. He had most of the back end in except for the very tip still on the shelf. He got in and thought he would push of the ice with his oar. Well.. as he pushed, the part where we were at was too high and tipped us right off balance and into the channel. AHHH! We have been trained that this is a full on emergency when you fall in cuz hypothermia kicks in within 15 mins. Well I fell in chest deep and swam back onto the ice and hopped out somehow. Daniel fell in waist deep and got out right away. We pulled the canoe out. We started running to our bosses house who lives on the channel. We are supposed to go there and get in the shower. We got there and he was like.. well... what do you want me to do? Are you guys wet? And we had been in such a shock just in straight survival mode to realize it wasn't that bad. We weren't that cold because we hadn't been in for hardly any time at all. I changed my shirt and jacket but we managed to get home and dry off just fine. So we have done our own polar plunge of our own.
