Door Creek Church

Fourty-two students and eight leaders left on July 19^th with the Xtreme youth group for an extreme adventure in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.  During this week-long trip, everyone was exposed to the magnitude of God’s glory and goodness throughout all creation.  What more beautiful of a place could we have experienced this than in the mountains of Colorado!   

In the evenings, we had a team meeting to discuss who God is and our purpose here on earth.  Kyle, our trip leader, used road signs to describe our life.  He used “stop”, “yield”, and “dead end” as helpful visuals to describe what sin is and what it means to have Christ take control of our lives.  Along with road trip signs, we used the theme of “God’s glory in creation” to share with the students who God is, and the joy they can have in living for Him and not for themselves.  It was a powerful week.  God worked in awesome ways as six students gave their lives to Christ, and many others were able to hear the Gospel for the first time, having seeds planted in their hearts!

The intensity of the trip helped in showing students what the Christian life is: hard, but worth it.  This was understood more clearly each day as new challenges were laid before us.  Whether that was mountain biking, white-water rafting down the PoudreRiver, falling from rocks by faith into the arms of our friends, or hiking up steep mountains, no one could deny this trip wasn’t an easy one.  The climax of our activities was our hike Friday up Long’s peak, a 14,258 ft. mountain that stands 350 ft. lower than the highest point in continental U.S.  Half of the students and leaders made it all the way to the top, while everyone else did AMAZING at making it as far as they did!  God was so good with our safety, the weather, and the experiences of seeing him throughout that whole day!  It was not easy, but the views made it totally worth it! 

Along with our daily activities, students were asked to complete a “Challenge Card” by the end of the week.  Each card had different challenges on them, including things they were asked to give up (like soda and candy), verse memorization (Psalm 8:3-8, Psalm 19:1-4, and 1 Corinthians 10:31), and questions they were to ask their peers before arriving home.  Along with these challenges, students were asked to not use their cell phones during the entire trip.  Many of the students did awesome at completing the challenges on their cards and refraining from their cell phones for the whole week.  It was a huge sacrifice, and it was so good to see God work through it. 

Being able to see God’s glory and power during the hard times of this trip was amazing.  Like God says, he doesn’t promise it will be easy, but he promises it will be worth it! 

Article written by Summer Intern Emilie Lecheler