Adventures…

 

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Track where I’ve been with the help of this map!

 

 

                                                                                                                                                    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Key:

Orange star= the Bahamas

Yellow star= Australia

Blue star= United States (including California,                                                                                                                                                                Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana,                                                                                                                                                               Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, South Dakota.)

 

 

The Bahamas…

          I had the privilege to travel to the island of Eleuthra in the Caribbean the summer of 2007 for a week long mission trip with my church. We stayed on the Windermere High School campus where we worked to paint and clean the dorm parent’s apartment. Not only did we work, but we also had time to be tourists ourselves! Our leaders, Marty and Marilyn Mauk, had lived in the Bahamas as missionaries in this school and knew all the right towns and beaches to show us.

 

 

Here is a building on campus. There are classrooms, a computer lab, boy’s and girl’s dorms, a cafeteria, laundry room, weight room, and basketball court. However, none of it is as you would picture it in the states.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is our team at church. We were so surprised it was air conditioned!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The beaches were gorgeous and usually we were the only ones there. Snorkeling and shelling soon became a favorite pastime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, those cabinets! We took off all the doors, painted every inch, put on new handles, and reinstalled the doors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We encountered some pretty interesting creatures while in the ocean. Marty is holding a spider starfish. One day when we were at Graveyard Beach, our team leader and I were out exploring the ocean when this eerie four foot white and silver fish glided by about 10 feet away, eyeing us the whole time it swam by. I freaked out, tapping Marty to come to the surface, and asked, “What was that fish?!” “Oh that, a barracuda,” he replied nonchalantly.

 

 

 

 

This starfish is actually alive. They have tons of these little suction cup like things on their underside, very cool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Snorkeling was amazing. This picture was snapped at a beautiful reef about 400 feet from the shore. I’m shocked I made it knowing there were sharks sharing the same water!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Australia…

          I traveled to the land down under in the summer of 2006 for my first mission trip. I went with Campus Crusade for Christ when I was attending the University of Iowa. We lived at the Brisbane Holiday Village for 6 weeks and ministered to the students on the Griffith Uni campus. As with my trip to the Bahamas, we also had a chance to tour around Australia as well. Again, what a beautiful country!

 

 

We took the train and spent the day at Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo. We got to encounter some pretty amazing animals, like kangaroos and koalas, up close and personal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s downtown Brisbane at night. We took a water taxi up the bank.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent lots of time on campus, doing surveys with student and engaging in spiritual conversations. This is the Iguana Room where we held some bible studies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Five of us ventured off to Stradbroke Island. I saw a sea turtle swimming down by those rocks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These birds were all over! They are literally every color of the rainbow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

United States…

          The US has provided some exciting vacation spots allowing activities ranging from white water rafting to backpacking.

 

This was my very first trip into the backcountry. What an experience; miles from civilization with no running water, unless you count the streams.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With all of your clothes, food, housing, and toiletries, those packs get really heavy really fast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sliding down the snowy mountain is kind of scary when you have sharp jagged rocks looming at the bottom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ahh, the mountains. Colorado offers a nice backdrop for serenity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My carabiner that was clipped to my lifejacket and holding my camera unhooked and my waterproof camera fell into the rapids while on this trip. I broke the cardinal rule of white water rafting and took my hand off my paddle to reach down and rescue it. I was shocked it even popped back up out of those raging rapids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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