WESTMINSTER WOODS
Mini-Mission Trip for PYGs-Plus
August 1 through 4
THURSDAY.
We leave the church around 2:15 in the middle of a thunderstorms
deluxe. Rain and hail all the way to La
Grande. Brief respite, and then another
storm over the mountain pass. Pretty
much ended as we arrived at the woods.
Nice.
Our crew for today: Rick and Ginger, with Kourtney,
Kate, and Bryson in our truck; Luke and Tom Averett with Sarah McNeil, Evan
Bigler, and Spencer; Katy Nicole who picked up Amber, Carl, and Benny. Annalea
will drive up later to join us. Grandma
Doris decided to stay home. The weather
forecast was too cold and wet!
Dale
Wilkins gave a short presentation on our mission in fighting the St. John’s
Wort (a plant we will be pulling) and tree thinning. We took a walk of the woods and he shared
stories and history. All good, but kids
were getting hungry! Dinner was largely
leftovers from the Missional dinner last Sunday night.
Campfire
time with songs, devotions, and s’mores.
Annalea arrived just as the campfire was winding down. We played a game in the dining hall, and then
Luke, Annalea, and kids went up to chapel to watch a movie (with popcorn!) Rest of us went to bed!
Headcount at bedtime: 7 adults, 8 youth. I will continue to give headcounts, as our
group shifted constantly during the four days!!
FRIDAY.
I got up
around 6:20 to a gray, but rainless morning.
Hoping we can get some good work done today. Lazy morning rising as youth were probably up
too late last night! Around 7:30 Tom
Averett came in for coffee. Tom slept on
the picnic tables last night! (He
started out up on the chess board, but it started to rain around midnight!)
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| Bark chipping the walkways. |
A slow start to the morning (it was the youngest crowd who stayed up the latest with the movie!) but at the 9am designated devotion time, all were present and ready to go! Of course, Dale had been up here for at least an hour or more….puttering. I think he rises around 4:30 every morning!
Luke
divided the youth into two work crews with Tom as lead in one and Rick the
head of the other. (He did a good job splitting up siblings and senior high
leadership!) One called the Narwhals
and the other the Manatees. Luke and I
are Shrimp and we float between both group, helping as necessary and I am
assigned to take plenty of pictures! At
first both groups are spreading bark chips on the upper trails near the
volleyball court and meadow. Then we are
given garbage bags and begin the process of pulling and bagging fields of St.
John’s Wort – this weed has medicinal value in some areas as a treatment for
depression. However, it is toxic to
livestock and multiplies rapidly to the detriment of the native plants. A great time pulling, chanting the crew songs
(Kate and Kourtney provided leadership here!) and in general encouraging each
other.
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| Singing our grace at lunch! |
During
the morning, Jodie Averett joined us to bring our count up to 16: 8 adults and
8 youth.
Lunch is
sandwiches, courtesy of the leftover deli meat tray from the Boyd funeral
reception last Saturday. After lunch,
Spencer and Bryson were picked up by a family friend – they had to leave due to
family commitments that night. However,
shortly after we returned to work, Roxanna Swann and nephew Nick arrived. Count stayed the same but shifted: 10 adults,
6 youth!
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| Giving some directions before tree cutting. |
Afternoon
work was wort pulling in the chapel area and tree thinning. Many youth were able to wield a bow saw and
practice their “Tim-brrrrr!” signals!
Most of the trees we were falling were 2 to 6 inches in diameter and
under 20’ in height. Many white fir were
cut, but also a few lodgepole, ponderosa, and larch. The larch hurt to see cut down, but thickets
were growing that needed to be cleared.
Much of this is being done to keep the clearing in front of the chapel
healthy and open. Youth enjoyed the
‘scavenger hunt’ aspect of finding the orange tags and then cutting that tree
down! Other work done included Tom who
fell a couple of trees and then bucked them up for firewood. Evan eventually helped Tom with the final
load in the truck up to the storage shed.
Much of this wood is donated to needy families in Pendleton during the
winter.
While the
weather just after lunch threatened a little storm, none materialized, and the
sun came out. It was nearly HOT!!
Jodie
Averett brought up all the fixings for a spaghetti dinner! Sixteen of us gathered for the meal
together. Sadly, after the meal, 5
people departed: Tom, Jodie, Kate, Sarah, and Kourtney. We also had received the phone call that
Michelle Lehman wouldn’t be able to come up.
Disappointing.
Ten play
‘Luck of the Draw’ after dinner….the first time out for my new copy of the game
purchased after Christmas last year. It
is such a good big group game. Evan was
the winner, but everyone, including Benny, possessed cards at the end! Hurray! Luke served as our MC, and I gave up my spot
after a couple rounds to Carl.
Campfire
tonight was plenty of singing! Roxanna
brought her violin down to the campfire to play along with Luke’s guitar. We took the green books down which are an
eclectic mix of traditional campfire, gospel, and 70’s music!! We sang John Denver, Joan Baez, spirituals,
you name it!! S’mores and devotions,
again from Luke’s Praying with the Earth book.
Earlier
bedtime tonight! By 10:30 all have made
their way to the dorm or trailer to bed down for the evening! G’night!
Headcount at bedtime: 11: 8 adults, 3 youth
SATURDAY.
Beautiful
morning!! Clear skies with a few puffy
clouds. Up around 6:15 to write, drink
coffee, and enjoy the quiet of the woods!
(And to catch up on the blogs I haven’t written in the past two
months!) It is well over an hour before
I see or hear anyone else! (Rick at 7:45!)
We are
dragging a little this morning!
Definitely feeling the reduction in numbers…. Katy, after a mock Presbyterian committee meeting last night, was given permission to work on
funeral sermons this morning instead of pulling trees. Roxanna and Nick were pulling out sometime
during the morning after a leisurely breakfast.
By 9am, the rest of us were ready for morning devotions and a romp up to
the upper meadow to help Dale thin the thickets of the large island area. And oh my, what thickets were growing along
the edge of the meadow with easy access to the sunlight. Everyone was wielding a bow saw or the lopers
to take down trees from 18” to 20’ – again mostly white firs or white pines,
but also some ponderosa, lodgepole, and a few larch. Douglas firs were left no matter what! Our guide was a large, ‘valued’ tree every 8
feet – clear out the rest!
I ended
up walking – two trips to the chapel area to retrieve saws and covers, another
trip making a wide circle of the area in search of a missing set of loppers
(which we still haven’t found!)
Break for
lunch. Our group is tired. Annalea and Evan are napping on top of the
tables after lunch. We excuse Carl and
Benny as they worked HARD this morning.
Dale wanted to do one more section of thinning, so Luke, Amber, Katy,
and I went up to help.
By 2 pm
it is time to play!!! Frisbee golf! Carl, Benny, Evan, Annalea, Katy, Luke, and I
head up for a round of golf. After the
first hole, it is evident we need a Frisbee throwing lesson, so Luke takes the
group into the softball field (right after the 1st hole!) and
everyone practices tossing into the backstop!
That helped! We stop around the
chapel and practice ‘search and rescue’ technique to spread out in search of
the missing lopers. No luck. Maybe the
PYGS will just buy the Woods a new set.
One more hole and then it is time to highball down to the dorms and get
ready to leave for the WATER PARK!!! 
The
Pendleton Church made arrangements to host the group to attend the Pendleton
Aquatic Center and provide dinner while we are there. Everyone from the Woods Commission came and
brought part of the meal. Wonderful time
spent talking with people I have come to know from the Pendleton church: Dale
and Judy, Jack Skutt, etc. We had a
great time sliding down the giant tube slides, playing water basketball, and
watching Luke, Katy, and Evan go off the diving boards! Eventually, all enjoyed a little hot tub time
after dinner.
Back to
camp for evening devotions, a short game of Blink, and all into bed by 10
pm. A tired crew!
SUNDAY.
A
beautiful clear sky morning. Little
cooler, but not bad. Up at 6:15 again to
write, shower, and begin preparations for cleanup, etc. Mornings in the woods are SOOOOO
pretty!! Katy rose quietly and left around 8am - bound for church in Baker, although thankful that Jim Kauth is preaching! So now....we are down to 8: 5 adults and 3 youth! After breakfast, we gather up at the chapel for Sunday morning worship. A simple service of music, readings, and some individual time outside in the woods. I sat at the edge of the patio and gazed at a towering larch tree. I wrote the following poem the next day:
Take a few moments, Luke said, to find a holy place.
Walk around, sit in the sunshine,
Meditate. Listen for the voice of God.
We all spread out from the chapel
To spend some time alone.
I found my holy place
Along the edge of the patio.
Beneath a towering tamarack tree.
I leaned back and gazed upward.
The air was still but the branches gently floated in the winds.
Graceful and feathery, the needles of the larch.
The longer I sat, silent and still,
The stronger I felt God's presence,
One with the tamarack tree.
The strength and power of the trunk,
Tall and mighty.
And then the waving branches,
Shifting by the winds of the Holy Spirit,
Changing direction through Spirit power.
Butterflies, birds, dragonflies and bugs:
Darting in and out of lacy spaces,
Carrying tiny messages from God to the world,
Little angel carriers connecting the pieces of heaven.
The sun lit up the branches until they glowed...
Lit from within by the sunlight,
By the Son Light?
Am I lit from within as well by Son Light?
Father, Son, and Spirit -
A Holy Place.
A Holy Tree.
We don't need to be IN the church building
To find the places where God dwells.
Our holy places are everywhere,
Just like God.
(Based on Westminster Woods Worship on Sunday, August 4)
Another good time spent at the Woods!! Hard workers!
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