BOUNDARY WATERS CANOE TRIP

BY: ANDY WADE

Iwas blessed to grow up in southern Kentucky in a time when cell phones were not in everyone’s pockets, the internet was uselessly slow, and with loving parents who would not buy me a Nintendo. I grew up playing in the woods, building forts, and riding bikes, all while exploring the hollers and hills around Lake Cumberland with my friends. As I grew older, my love for the outdoors grew as well. While being a student at Highland Academy and then at Southern Adventist University (SAU), I continued to broaden my interests and hone my skills in backpacking, caving, climbing, whitewater rafting, and canoeing, all the while learning about God through His book of nature.

When I returned to work at Highland in 2005, I wanted to share my love of the outdoors with my students. For several years I struggled to plan and execute small weekend trips that would include floating the Caney Fork and the Big South Fork rivers, climbing trips, backpacking trips to Savage Gulf, and many caving trips. With each year it would become increasingly difficult to slip these trips into Highland’s already busy schedule, making it difficult to create momentum and interest with the students.

In the fall of 2009, as I was finishing up my Masters in Outdoor Education, I was blessed with the opportunity to go to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) as part of some of my classes. That trip introduced me to the beauty of the North Woods of Minnesota. In the BWCAW, life somehow became real, time disappeared, and the story of God’s love was broadcast across every pristine lake we paddled. I came back from that trip with a new passion and desire; I wished to one day introduce my students to the place and experience that had changed my life in so many ways.

Fast forward to 2011. I recommended to the administration that we needed to stop focusing on trying to do periodic weekend trips and focus our efforts on a larger, longer trip that would be worth the time, energy, and money spent. So that September, I planned what would be the first annual Adventure Ed. Boundary Waters trip. With the BWCAW regulating group size to nine, I remember those first few trips when sometimes it was just seven of us headed north. I believe the first three years, my fellow teacher, Shelly Miller (’04) and I took some of the same students every trip. Signups usually filled up the year before, but there were times that we were inviting more students at the last minute to fill up the boats we had reserved. It did not take long, though, until word got out that there was something special about the trip and the experiences that were taking place. After a few years we maxed out one group and began filling another. Today I am excited to say that we have both groups booked up for three years out. This is due to the in-coming freshmen signing up to go their Senior year!

This past September was our 11th annual BWCA trip. So far we only missed one year, 2021 because the BWCAW closed due to an overly active wildfire season. We have gone from having absolutely no gear and having to borrow most of it from very supportive contacts at SAU, to today, having industry standard portage packs, and all the other canoe tripping gear we need. Last year, we purchased two more new canoes to make our fleet of four boats and are working toward acquiring an additional four boats so that we will be self-sufficient!

I have been blessed to have many Highland alumni volunteer their time to be Adventure Ed. staff. Doug Thompson (’95) joined me in 2015 giving the program another experienced guide able to lead our, much needed, second group. In 2016, Kaleigh Benge (HA Chaplin ’15-’18) and I put together a BWCA Journal, full of information, guides, and daily worship for each student to use while on the trip. Today, with the help of Sara Bagshaw (’16), Sandy Haviland Miller (’04), Kim Kassaw(’15), Gabbie Clifford Groft (’11), and many other sponsors, we have been able to use wilderness canoe tripping through the beautiful BWCAW to show the Creator to nearly 150 students and counting.

BY: WILL LABRENZ

Last spring, as the school year was drawing to an end, I found myself feeling spiritually drained. One day I was impressed to look through my bookshelf filled with devotionals and other inspirational books that I have accumulated over the years. I came across a small booklet that I do not remember ever seeing before about the power of praying out loud. This book, The Power of Crying Out by Bill Gothard, is based on Psalm 18:6, “…I called upon the LORD, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry came before Him, even to His ears.”

Of course, God hears the silent prayers of our heart but something powerful happens when we pray out loud. So, I began praying my prayers out loud and was amazed at how my prayers became more like a conversation with God–not to mention how these verbalized prayers seemed to get answered more directly and with more frequency. As I shared my experience with praying out-loud with my classes during our prayer & praise time, I challenged my students to start praying out loud as well. Within a few days I had students giving testimonies about how God had answered their prayers prayed outloud-including a quiz being canceled in another class! Over the next few weeks as students came to my office to share their concerns, I found myself prompting them by asking, “did you pray about this?”-to which they would reply, “oh yes, Pastor Will! I prayed about this-out loud!” When it came time to choose the spiritual theme for Highland Academy this year, it only seemed natural (or should I say supernatural) to carry on the emphasis of the power of prayer.

This year’s theme is based on Philippians 4:6 which says, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.” Whenever someone expresses a worry, concern, problem, or frustration, our theme reminds students and staff to invoke a call to prayer by asking, But, did you pray about it?