Trail West

TRAIL WEST — 1964

“Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” (Psalm 46:10).

Are you a busy person? Do you find yourself constantly running from task to task, seldom slowing down, resting or being able to listen? Fortunately, even in the midst of running a growing mission, Jim Rayburn slowed down long enough to hear God’s plan for Trail West. By 1959 the mission of Young Life faced a problem that became an opportunity for God to once again act and influence the future. Between the three Colorado camps, Young Life’s horse program had grown to include 120 horses and required more land. This “problem” led to the acquisition of a 640-acre ranch just west of Buena Vista, Colorado. Because Jim Rayburn was out of the country when this purchase was made, he was, in the words of Dale Kaiser, “none too pleased. You didn’t do anything without telling Jim Rayburn. So I took him in a jeep and we drove up into that country. As we were coming off the ridge where the Lodge now sits, down in that little valley were about 50 elk. Jim just came unglued. ‘This is it!’ Rayburn quickly realized that this land could be the extravagant answer to his prayer for Young Life’s first adult guest lodge.” Rayburn fell in love with that property and often hiked through the aspen grove there. In the words of Char Meredith, “It was a small piece of heaven that he wanted to share. As he was sitting on a lichen-spattered boulder in the middle of the rocky hillside, God said, ‘Build it here.’” And that is precisely where he built it. Trail West Lodge was completed in 1964 and to this day serves as a world-class family camp and window into the Young Life mission. If you were to walk through the main doors today, you would see to your left that exact rock upon which Jim Rayburn sat and prayed when he heard God say “Build it here.” (MFT, p. 50)

Buena Vista, Colorado

Like Jim Rayburn’s “lichen-spattered boulder,” are there places in your life where God has spoken? When was the last time you stopped and remembered those moments and places, and what God was calling you to? God still has plans for you, but He wants you to slow down. Maybe today you could find a “rock” to sit on and listen.