ADVENTURE  

Adventure - an exciting or unusual experience. It may also be a bold, usually risky undertaking, with an uncertain outcome.
This is a value that I know we're going to experience all throughout our life.  You have to fill your life with adventure.  I feel that you have to fill your life with different and unique experiences to stretch yourself and allow yourself to grow.  Through these adventures, I feel that your self understanding grows and your self confidence is strengthened.  
Adventure comes in different forms.  It could be that you're going to College, it could be marriage, it could be your first child.  Adventure could be going somewhere that you know nothing about, but want to learn and experience more.  When one chapter of your life closes and another chapter opens, that could be considered Adventure.  Whatever your adventure is, embrace it, learn from it, and you'll be a better person because of it.  It all depends on your attitude and your willingness to ask the question, "what can I learn from this new adventure that I'm going to embark on."


Personal Experience - There have been a number of times that I have felt like my "adventures" have allowed me to grow and experience things to make me who I am today.  I have been on several camping trips, ski trips, road trips, and lived in several different areas.  I have lived in Idaho (lots of adventure there), Japan (Kobe area), and Iowa.  I have visited several states in the United States, been to Mexico, been to Ecuador, and Canada.  I have had so many adventures in all of these places.  I have learned so much about the different people, the cultures, and what makes them unique.  I am grateful for all the adventures I have had.  There is one adventure that I recall that allowed me to grow as a father and allowed my 3 oldest kids to grow.  
     We love to hike as a family and enjoy the outdoors.  There was one time that I took my 3 oldest kids on a hike to some mountain lakes called the Hansen lakes.  Logan (my son) was about 11, Makayla was 9, and Maddison was 7.  
      We had to hike about 3 miles along a well marked trail, and then hike 3 miles cross-country up a steep mountain side to the lakes.  I had never been there before, but we had heard from a friend that there was some great fishing there.  The start of the hike, we had a great time.  We were talking, singing, and having some bonding moments.  We were hiking late June and the start of the hike was beautiful and comfortable.  My 3 oldest kids had smiles on their faces and were excited to catch some great big fish. 
     After we had hiked about 3 miles, I looked at the map and decided to hike a little further before hiking cross-country.  Well, we had overshot the distance.  We had hiked too far.  We started hiking cross-country up the steep hill side.  We started getting into 3-4 feet of snow and it was slippery and really tough to hike.  In fact, there were several places where I was afraid my kids or I would fall off of some steep cliffs.  I felt like a horrible father and knew that if anything happened to the kids, Heidi (my wife) would KILL me.  The only thing that fell of the steep cliffs were my kids packs.  We had to hike down and retrieve the packs.  We continued to hike for a couple of hours and I could tell that my two little girls had had enough.  I told them that if we didn't find the lakes in another half hour, we would stop and camp right there.  At this point, we were hiking in about 4-5 feet of snow in some areas.  We were equiped and warm enough, but it was hard to hike in that deep  snow. 
     After about 40 minutes, we finally saw a creek that was coming out of the bowl that we thought would be the lake.  I showed my son and two girls where I thought the lake would be.  It gave them new hope and new energy.  We hiked for another 20 minutes and saw the lake.  The kids were so excited!  When the kids took a closer look, the lake was completely frozen over!  WHAT!!!!!  All of us were so disappointed, but we were at least glad to have made it.  We couldn't fish, but we set up camp, we told some great campfire stories, we saw a full moon, and we had a great couple of days of backcountry camping and hiking.  We played games, we ate some great food, we sang some songs, and we laughed at the situation that we were in.  We had worked so hard to get to this lake and catch some great fish, but instead, we made some great memories that will be everlasting and taught my kids some great lessons.  One of those lessons is to not trust Dad to lead you to a great fishing spot in the middle of the Stanley mountains in late June.  :)  The kids look back on this experience and laugh.  They know that they can do TOUGH things.  We ended up hiking about 8 miles each way.  When times get tough later in their lives, they know that they've done tough things in the past and they can do tough things again.
I know as we embark on this journey to Tonga to serve the people there, it will be an amazing adventure and we will learn so many great things.  It is my hope that our 5 kids will learn to have adventure, love the people that are there, and learn from them and their experiences.