Caving and Claustrophobia

Today our staff team (minus Eric who was sick and Jason who was at his other job) spent the afternoon at Devil's Den State Park for a little team building. We left the office at noon and after dropping Aaron's car off in a random parking lot, we hit the highway. After about 10 miles or so, we saw a lady with a flat tire on her Jag-You-Are, so we pulled over and Aaron and I jumped out to change her tire. After doing our good deed for the day, we jumped back into our car and headed out.

Upon arrival at the park, we ate our lunches at a picnic table and had a good discussion about church, community, and how to simplify your life without sacrificing quality of life. Fun stuff. Then we took off for the trail to the caves.

After a brief hike, we arrived at the cave. Our staff has been very scattered all summer (Brett in Colorado - twice, Kent in Tibet, Aaron all over the place fundraising), so one of our purposes was to catch up. Before we took off into the bowels of the earth, we spent a little time discussing our most enjoyable experiences from the summer. Then it was off into the caves - Dave was our leader.

We headed down into "The Icebox", which starts out as a spacious cave that is a consistent 50 degrees and very wet. Soon, the cave became quite tight as we continued sliding and scooting along. Eventually we reached a spot that left us confused about our next move. We could go to the left or to the right, but both routes looked very difficult and extremely narrow. Several of us tried each route a little and were very close to deciding they weren't possible and turning back. Eventually Aaron tried the route that branched off to the right and yelled back that it was very tight, but that he had made it through and could see daylight. So we all took off that way. It took some time and a little courage to pass through the tight spots, but eventually we all emerged. We were very dirty, some of us were a little scraped up, but we were all happy.

There are so many lessons (spiritual and otherwise) that can be learned from an experience like this. We spent some time processing those lessons. You learn teamwork because you definitely need the help of the person in front and back of you because you can't always see where you are placing your hands and feet, so they need to be your guide. it is also an illustration of how community can pull you through tough times. For instance, sometimes life gets really hard and you don't think you can go on, but with the encouragement of those around you (especially those who have already been down the same road), you press on and no matter how difficult, you emerge in the light.

After talking about our experience, we hiked on around the loop, played a bit in the creek, then jumped back in the car for the ride back.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.