Experiencing God During Survival

Survival this week has been blessed with amazing weather! The heroes have been out building debris shelters, learning how to use a compass (thanks to Mia and Nate Helweg from Altus Adventures), building temporary tents using tarps, gathering food, making fires, and cooking over their fire for lunch. During the survival challenges, heroes are taking time to see God whether it is in a hero, in teamwork, and/or out in His creation.

The heroes learned how to use a compass and made it off of Cuckoo Island!

On Wednesday, I witnessed God through restoration and forgiveness. Two heroes within a team had difficulty working together. Hero ‘A’ felt their ideas were not being heard or validated, while Hero ‘B’ felt Hero ‘A’ was not taking part in the team challenge. With all of this taking place, Hero ‘A’ was ready to quit and attempted to move to a different team. Through a conversation with the two:

Hero ‘A’:

Owned up to the lack of teamwork and participation during project time.

Shared the reason for no participation stemmed from not feeling heard.

Asked for forgiveness.

Stuck with the team and participated.

Hero ‘B’:

Showed humility by admitting a lack of listening to others.

Shared the desire to grow and become a better listener.

Asked for forgiveness.

Welcomed the hero back into the team.

Today was full of adventure as the teams (along with one to two additional ELS heroes), set up a temporary tarp and started a no-match fire as an entire group. After an hour of determination and one failed attempt, the second one was a successful! Following the no-match fire challenge, the EMS and ELS studios parted ways for their final challenge. Back in their EMS Survival teams, they raced to gather their food for lunch. Many of the heroes were not looking forward to this challenge, yet here are a few comments from some of the heroes after eating what they found and cooked over the fire.

“I thought this was going to be WAY worse, but this is the best lunch I have ever had!”

“I discovered I shouldn’t be as picky with my food. I tried something new and it was good, and I didn’t think I was actually going to like it.”

“Just because something might be difficult in life you can persevere and keep going.”

Have You Asked Your Hero:

What do you need to do to have a great fire – even before doing the magnesium and steel?
What surprised him/her during today’s challenges?
What has God been teaching them during this quest?

Heroes building debris shelters and temporary tent shelters!