Jon and Heather Hoppin

This weekend was our first rock climbing training for WMI Colorado Guides.  Things weren’t looking so good Friday morning as the sky darkened and the rain and snow began to fall. Thankfully, we were able to move to an indoor location for Saturday’s session and get the bulk of our classroom teachings done.  Craig Huston opened his home up to us and we made use of a few boulders and trees in his back yard to practice our anchors on.  Sunday morning was clear and we were able to get up to the climbing area and actually do some real climbing.

WMI Colorado Guides

Everyone did great, I was so encouraged how fast the new guides picked up on all the knots and anchor techniques.

We’ve really got a solid crew this year.  It was also really cool to see how stoked everyone was to be guiding this summer.  Aaron Banks for Colorado Springs was telling me how he has his whole church fired up about doing wilderness ministry this summer.  Not only will they be taking high school kids out in August but also it sounded like they have something planned for every generation of their church.  Yeah Aaron and Catherine, way to spread the vision!

Eric, Grant, Craig and Kyle

I’ve just returned from my fourth trip to Nepal. It’s pretty crazy for me to think that I have been able to go to Nepal four times in the past two years.  This time two years ago I never would have guessed this would have been my path.  The journey that God takes us on is full of surprises!

Leader Training Group Picture

This trip to Nepal was a short trip but definitely a fruitful one.  The bulk of my time in Pokhara was devoted to introducing and training new youth workers in relational ministry.  We have had the privilege to partner with Young Life in Nepal every time we are there.  Thankfully, because of my extensive Young Life background it is easy for me to jump in and teach.  Hom Tamang, director of Young Life Nepal, has grand vision for his country.  There are 75 districts in Nepal and Hom has dreams of Young Life being in every one.  For the past few years he has been focused on building Young Life strong in one district.  At this training there were five new districts represented!  Way to go Hom!  We are so excited to be walking with Hom in this journey!

18 months ago a few of the leaders from Young Life in Nepal felt led to start a small church plant in Pokhara called Binay Church.  The idea was that Binay Church would be geared towards reaching the youth population in the city.  They began their little fellowship with ten people.  Over the past year and a half their little fellowship has grown to over thirty-five people, all of which are new believers!  This little church has reached a point where they need to bring on pastors in full time positions.  On this trip we were able to help Binay Church form a partnership to aid in supporting these pastors as their fellowship grows.  The elders of the Binay Church joined a Church network called Crossway Chapel Network.  The Crossway Chapel Network will help provide financial resources and pastoral training but the Binay church will continue to operate as an independently governed church.  It is exciting to have seen the birth of this little church, it’s growth over the past year and a half and to see it get the resources it needs to continue to grow.  Now Binay church has it’s sights set on planting new fellowships in the near by communities.

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This past weekend we had our first counseling and content training for WMI Colorado.  About twenty of us spent three days together packed with teaching, fellowship and fun at the Noble’s cabin in Fairplay, CO.  There were several different churches from all across the Front Range.  It was so encouraging to see so many people passionate about reaching young people in their church through adventure and outdoors.

It was the beginning of a series of weekends this spring that we are using to empower churches to start their own backcountry ministry.  Our vision is that more and more churches will take kids out and experience God in a way that they never have before.  Training churches to do it themselves allows them to be flexible and have extremely affordable trips.  It also is a fantastic way to build up leadership from within the church.  Our goal through WMI is to be a resource for youth workers in Colorado and give away everything we know about taking kids out in the wilderness.  We have seen wilderness trips do amazing things for building ministries through small groups of leaders and we are excited to see what God will do right here in Colorado!

Here is some of the feedback we got:

“Love the idea of empowering us to do it ourselves and for us to be applying it.  We felt like you are saying ‘ok this is yours, it doesn’t have to look just like this.’”

“The whole entire purpose was God’s glory not necessarily backpacking.  You guys were setting a standard of expecting God to move.”

“It was awesome to be with others with the same vision.”

“The way you cast vision was Christ centered.  You prepared and built us up as believers, not just guides.”

“This weekend helped me apply the Gospel to basic things in life.”

Thanks Guys! Can’t wait to see you again in a few weeks!