A Very Crimean Adventure…

Local advertisement: "During the Summer Shelter+ heads to the mountains with large groups of 30-40 people. Teens and young adults are disciples as they face many challenges during these unforgettable adventures. Team games, jokes, creative tasks, deep conversations about life, God and destiny around the campfires, mountaintop views of Crimea - all combined to teach youth to overcome their fears and confidently face life's difficulties."

This place was beautiful... more beauty than I have ever imagined would exist here. I feel very lucky as well because Crimea is only a hop, skip, 10 hour-overnight train ride and $.10 trolley-bus ride away. We boarded the train with 30 teenagers at 7pm and arrived in the city of Simferopol at about 5:30 AM. After a brief breakfast, we boarded the trolley bus for a 30 min ride to the base of the mountain ranges.

From the bus stop we began the first hike which is straight up for about 1 hour (with 40 lbs on our backs). It was tough. And not tough like going for a run after you took 5 years off but tough like we had to stop every 10-15 min to rest even with very energetic teenagers (and I consider myself still in pretty good shape). This is the "hardest" part of the whole hike, mostly because of the initial steep incline and we have lots of food on our backs (as each day goes by our bags get lighter and lighter obviously). After the first hour hike we found our spot to make camp next to a mountain stream which provided us fresh drinking water. This would be our "home" for two days as our group took day hikes up some of the closer smaller mountains and saw amazing views, fields of wildflowers and even some underground caves to explore.

The following days we hiked and camped in different places each night. These hikes were long and difficult as well. Some points were were walking sideways because it was sooo steep and others leaning against rock walls as we walked along cliff sides. I was just amazed at the difficulty of this terrain. All I can say is that this type of retreat would NEVER happen in America. There was at least 5 different moments where I was literally scared to death (maybe a little dramatized). I was just amazed because if any of these kids were to hurt themselves, in America it would be one major lawsuit and the whole operation would be terminated. Last year a boy fell and broke his arm, it was no big deal here and the rest of the campers continued. Parents never even called to question, in fact, the same boy came on the trip again this year. There were just way too many risks and liabilities for such an event to ever take place in the USA. But that's why I LOVE Ukraine! It's such a shame when you think about how our legal system has impacted the lives of kids in America today. I just feel that they are missing out on so many opportunities that we took for granted as kids ourselves...

Anyway, there was one day when we had such heavy rainfall and the rivers were overflowing and at one point in our hike we had to cross a river. With the flooding, we had to take our shoes off and simply walk through the craziest white-water rapids I have ever seen. One slip and you could possibly go cascading down the next waterfall and be pulled under. Fortunately, there was about one guy to every girl on the trip and we paired up and everyone made it safely across.

I will admit there was some extremely tough times for me including the 24/7 Russian conversations, torrential down pouring rain, 4 inch spiders, poison ivy (Ukrainian version, ouch!), sunburns, no toilet/shower for 14 days, walking through ice cold rivers, sleeping 5 people in a tent in 90 degree weather, exhaustion and LOTS of mosquitoes. But these hikes were easily my favorite times in Ukraine so far. Mostly because I really got to bond with a lot of the young adults/teens who attend my organization and made some really good friends.

One of the leaders and also one of my colleagues here at work, Roman, was our spiritual leader on this "Quest". He would explain to everyone how these hikes, though difficult, are only about 15% physical. The remaining is mental and spiritual strength. I couldn't agree with him more... :)