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Saturday, August 15, 2009

Challenge Ministry - KAYAK



I've started a new group at the church. It's called the Challenge Ministry and it's a group of guys who gather once a month or so and do MAN stuff. It's no 'craft and chat' and it's definitely not your standard pancake breakfast. Today was the second meeting of the group. Our first event, back in June, was Geocaching. I introduced them to the hobby with a nice easy hike in the woods, then challenged them with a difficult one that was in the middle of a swamp.

The new adventure today was Kayaking. I had never been kayaking so I new I was highly qualified to lead a group of men on a water adventure. We chose the Concord River. Nice and flat. I found a nice 4-5 hour round trip that went through some protected wildlife area. I rented yaks from the base.

The theme of today's event was men are the leaders of the family. The Kayak was the object lesson that you are the pilot of the boat. It goes where you lead it. You have to work to keep it in line, and if you want something new you have to work...otherwise the current will just take you along for a ride.

We stopped at the Old North Bridge in Concord for a rest and a snack (one of the guys made fun of my "goldfish" snack - if he had 4 little ones around the house he would have goldfish too). We discussed the men-leader-kayak thing, and also talked about the sacrifices some have to make as that leader (back to the Bridge reference and the 19 Apr 1775 when a few made a supreme sacrifice for liberty). By design the first half of the trip was upstream so the second half would be more relaxing. Our rental kayaks were not the best and my shoulders were done after 4 hours of paddling.
I was in a 2 man kayak - here's my shipmate.

Here's a few shots of the boys on the water.



The weather was awesome.



Still in early stages of planning - but late SEP we may load up some firearms and find a place to shoot.

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