Finally! An Update!

Hello friends and family! Yes, Jeff has finally made an update to the blog!

I've uploaded some pictures from our past two outdoor excursions, caving and rock climbing.

Last Wednesday we went to Eagle Cave and spent 6 hours in the cave. There were many many bats inside the cave! We had a nice arctic start to the day that morning, and left early. By the time we got out of the cave, it was mid-afternoon, and the sun was shining and there was blue sky around us, and it was warm. The cave was awesome! It was pretty challenging getting through some small nooks inside the cave, but I made it ok! We saw many stalactites and stalactmites while we were inside the cave too. One of the pictures above is me in the cave. I don't know what I was pointing to, but I was happy to be there! The morning hike in was pretty tough for a lot of us because it was raining a lot, and there many people who were just not fond of hiking up the mountain in the rain!

Yesterday, we had a great day of rock climbing at Moss Island in Little Falls, NY. It is a state park, which is full of huge rock faces and boulders. Our leader (Squanto, AKA: Tim Trezise) set up some ropes from the top of the rock faces, and we spent all day at Moss Island climbing. I climbed a 5.2 and a 5.4 climb on one rock face. (The 5.4 climb is the crack to the right of me going up the rock face) It was pretty awesome and challenging! One of the pictures of me above is me climbing the 5.2 rock face. The other one is me just fooling around on one of the bouldering rocks on the island.

Classes have been good. I can't believe we are two weeks away from going to Brazil. We have been getting into a good mindset of how to prepare and what to expect while we are there. I am one of the LIFTers in charge of putting together some children's and youth activities while we are there. So I am looking forward to seeing how that develops in the next week or so.

Thank you all who contributed both prayerfully and financially to make this trip feasible for not only myself, but for the group as a whole. We are praying each day for Brazil and its people, God's protection while we are there, and for his provision in all that we need to make the trip run smoothly. I look forward to coming home in May to share these great experiences I have had here at LIFT and in Brazil with you.

God Bless! I hope update you more often on here as well! :)