Half way home

I am back in Louisville now. The road trip back was great, and the last moments in Vail were some that I will not forget for some time.

I don't know quite what to say, everything is a little overwhelming. Yesterday was definetely a day of hugs. I saw so many people that I have missed over the summer and there were a number of embraces.

God has blessed me with awesome experiences in life. From Vail to being here in Louisville to having parents who I can visit in Florida and a sister in Lexington. I get to travel all around. I have so many people in so many places that love and care for me and I can't tell you how much I appreciate your support. And as I do travel, I see Christ wherever I go.

It was awesome to come back and go to sojourn yesterday. I got to be reminded once again how many people truely follow Christ. In this western nation there are so many "Christians" that sometimes it is hard to sort out those who truly love Christ. So it's great to be reminded how soverign God is and how he does have his hand on so many hearts. It reminds me of a song by Audio Adrenaline called "Jesus Movement": "Imagine my suprise, when I realized. Everywhere I go, I can see I'm not the only one moving...moving to Jesus." It is an awesome reminder that the Church is not a building, but instead the true body of Christ for which Christ is the head of. The author and perfector of our faith holds us together. Great to have such assurance.

Anyway. The last banquet for project was great. We got to go to a restaurant called "The Wildflower". Very expensive, very good. I am glad that project paid for it. Otherwise I would have settled for the ramen back in my condo. After the banquet we headed to the church to reminisce and have a dance party. Both were a lot of fun. Some people suprised me with their dancing skills.

Going back a little farther. Two friends from project and I climbed a couple more 14ers on wednesday called Gray's and Torrey's. They were a fun climb. A lot shorter than Holy Cross.
Pics:


The trail view

Gray's is the rounded peak on the left. Torrey's is the pointed one on the right


Top of Gray's



Top of Torrey's


The snow we went through coming off of Torrey's. Snow in august...weird.

Top of Torrey's. My wind protection outfit


The marmot that we met on the top of Torrey's. Crazy that God created animals that can live at 14,000 ft.


SO now I am back into school mode. Trying to get my house together (i'll try to post some pictures of it if I get a chance), and work out all the stuff that needs to be transfered from Vail to here ($). Hopefully in all the action I wont loose sight of the things I learned this summer. I am already slipping on quiet times. Pray I wont loose sight of what's important. It happens all too easily.

Thanks again for reading this summer. If you have any question/requests for me shoot me an email at Quickchangemcgraw@gmail.com.

O and by the way. There is an article in the Vail Daily about our project. Here is the link:
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20080807/NEWS/650769654&parentprofile=search

I hope Christ is continuing to teach you things. Maybe now that my summer is done someone else should start a blog.

In Him,
Tyler Belcher

Too Close

The time which we have here in Vail is slower trickling away. Just yesterday it seemed to be wuite a while. But shortly after I found out that it was my last day of work things quickly became all too tangible. With only two days left I can feel the pressure of not seeing the friends here growing greater every moment. Thankfully, I know that it is not something to be sad about. As a friend of my sisters said on the project she was on last year: "Don't be sad it's over, be happy that it happened." Little cheesy...a little true.

I am glad that I can take things home with me from this summer. It is time to reflect on what I have learned, take it back to Louisville, and apply it to my life there. I'm glad I have Christ with me, I would feel overwhelmed if I was without him.

But these last few days will definetely be fun. I will be climbing a 14er tomorrow morning (a 14,000 ft. mountain) and then playing some basketball. And thursday brings the final banquet in which we all get to say goodbye. Only to be followed up by the car ride home on friday (which will defntely be fun if it is anything like that of the ride here) and then the new chapter in my life that is junior year at University of Louisville.

Speaking of 14er's though, a couple of friends (well 8) and I climbed one called Holy Cross on saturday morning. We began at 1:00 am and ended at 10:20 am. It was quite a climb and something I will never forget. We were even fortunate enough to make it up right before the sunrise. It was awesome to see God's creation. All I could think of was how if we were to cease worshiping Him even the rocks would cry out praise. I think that might be cool to see. But even now I can look at such awesome landscapes and not see Christ in them. Pictures follow:

My friend and fellow climber Jesse. This a view of the back side of the view from the top.


Just before sunrise


James decided to climb out onto a ridge adjacent to the summit

The whole group standing in front of the sunrise
The ridge we took to get back down (this looks relatively flat...but right before that we climbed down a boulder field, and the dropoff where you can't see anything is another large boulder field. Basically 11,000 ft and up were boulders. After the tree line stops there is intense erosion).


A pic of the peak from the ridge


This was taken on the sperate ridge you have to climbing down to start the hike up to holy cross' peak. But yea, there is the mountain in all its glory.


I will try to upload a video later. For now it was taking a little long and it is definetely time for me to sleep.

Thanks as always for reading. I will try to post more soon.

In Christ,
Tyler

This world

So camping went well this past weekend. We went someplace in a high altitude desert. Don't really know where it was, but it was a great time to get some relaxing conversation and fellowship in with the other CRU kids. Good time also to have an outdoor quiet time and to experience the awe of God's creation.

After camping we were able to go zip lining for free b/c of the awesome contribution of some friends from Vail church. I will try to get some pictures up of it, but basically it was amazing. Some of these lines were 1000 ft long and got you going 35 mph. 

After this I got to go and have dinner with my rents, and then I was privileged to go and see the Dark Night. All in all a pretty good day. 

Sunday presented itself as a time to regroup. After Church I basically came home and read a bit, took a nap, all that good Sunday stuff. 

Also, I looked for some apartments online. When I get home I don't have a place to live unless John finds one for david, him and I. So that is an interesting evolution in life. God will provide. 

Thanks to all who have sent me mail, it's been amazing encouragement. I will brave the day continuing to seek to spread the gospel. I hope you all in Christ are doing the same. I pray you are continually being encouraged and driven towards Christ by those around you and the things that you learn. 

In Him,

Tyler

Water works

7:30 couldn't come too soon this morning. I was able to go with my dad to fly fish the creeks of Vail. It was amazing, and something I have always wanted to do. I think he had a good time and I know I had a great experience. Learning how to fly fish is a little tricky, and I don't have it down by any means, but non the less we both kept going for about 5 hours. I was even fortunate enough to catch a fish. No big deal.

Everything kind of melts away when you are standing in a river casting. It reminds me a lot of rock climbing. These are two of the only activities that I can think of that really make me forget everything else. Being out in Gods creation and realizing how many things he has blessed me with kind of floor me.

Lately God has continued to increase my faith in Him. There are still a lot of things that I wonder about, and many times when I run from Him, but he keeps with me. I love and praise Him for that.

My parents are here until tom, but I have a camping trip tonight. Hopefully we will be able to see one another before they leave. Pray that we would be able to, and if not that we could continue to encourage one another regardless of the distance separating us.

In Christ,
Tyler

P.S. The Dark Night came out today. I want to see it very badly.

Out of the Blue

So my parents came to the red Lion to surprise me today. I must say I have never had such an unexpected visit. To come out of the kitchen and see my dad standing there was great. You just don't expect to see your parents when you're in Vail and they are hundreds of miles away in FL.

Night of reflection was tonight. Very inspiring. Read Jude and about David's mighty men. Good times. I cam continually encouraged to share the gospel.

In Christ,
Ty

P.S. Hello to those in Lexington whom I love dearly and continue to pray for. I hope to see you soon.

Struggle

Today was a good one. But it was hard. There were a lot of opportunities to talk to co-workers about Christ/Church/etc. Which is definetely a plus. But they were some difficult struggles. Please pray that the people we are given a chance to speak with here in Vail would have their hearts softened and that they would hear the gospel and realize Christ is the way the truth and the life.

Thanks to everyone who has, or is sending me mail. It is very much appreciated. I apologize if I haven't sent any back. This is def. a busy time in my life.

We had a huge soccer game tonight. Every Tuesday at Ford park. It is a great time and we almost always have enough for two huge teams. So its a good time to get to know one another and have some healthy competition.

In Christ,
Tyler

Carried

So Christ got me through work. It was as crazy as I would have expected, but overall a great day. I got a number of good responses concerning my expediting abilities, and owe it all the Him. I prayed quite a bit today. It was nerve raking thinking that so many orders where filtering through me and that people were depending on me for their food to get out to the tables right and in a timely manner. I know it might seem like a small task, but trust me it was a little crazy. I must say though, I couldn't have done in without my great food runners and the help and patience of kitchen management. There was no yelling today, which was a gift in itself. I hope that somehow it was a witness for Christ.

After work a lot of people went to see fireworks, others opted to see WALL-E. I went with the movie. It was awesome. I would def recommend it to a friend (that being you).

Tommorrow a lot of us are going to denver to spend the day and then out to a Rockies (vs. Marlins) game. I am hopeful for a good time over fellowship with the other crusaders. A lot of others are going to another area to a shopping mall (I think it's called silverthorn), and still others are doing their own thing (hiking, fishing, etc.).

SO the staff is gone now. Which means a lot more responsibility for the students. Especially a few of us, four main students are heading up the project now. I hope you will pray for them. That God would guide and direct their decisions just like he did their selection.

Overall continue to pray that the gospel would be spread through us here in Vail. So much oporunity is out there, I pray the Holy Spirit would continually work through us. I know He will, God wastes nothing.

I hope you all are doing well wherever you are reading this from. I hope to speak with you soon.

In Christ,
Tyler

Teva games and more importantly...ultimate

So today started with a great game of ultimate. This of course was only trumped by the scenery around us. The mountains behind the field we were playing on were ridiculous, on top of that it was an amazing day as far as weather goes. It's pretty crazy having God's creation overwhelm you even when your just playing a game of frisbee.
This picture should help you visualize:
The rest of the day was filled with the Teva games. Including getting a lot of free stuff (hats, shirts, cds, food, etc.) and watching a lot of activities. There was not only more kayaking but climbing and some freeriding going on. Being around world class athletes was very interesting.

Freeriding: Obstacle course in vail village for bikers, they make it look really easy. But some of the other guys we saw had some really tough times with the course.




The qualifiers for the world cup (rock climbing) were going on. I got a short video of an Italian climbing. Right before the Italian gets on the wall you can see a Japanese competitor fall off in the background. Sorry I didn't get any of the good stuff. People would go crazy when the guys would complete their routes.




One of the most fun things that I was able to see was the dog competition. There were two dogs I watched and one was an amazing jumper. The point was to jump out off a platform and grab a toy from a "toy holder". The dog in this video jumped 6 feet 10 inches to grab the toy. Incredible. There are only a handful of dogs in the world who can jump 7 and higher, so this one was pretty impressive.




And finally some more kayaking stuff. Bear with the video, the guy towards the end has a nice stuff to show off.




Towards the end of the day there was a concert for free. Many people attended and a lot of us were able to go out and speak with people. Some conversations getting only to small talk and others making it all the way to the gospel. Good times. It was awesome to be a part of the ministry. Overall a good day. Hope you guys enjoy the videos, I know they are not the best but they took a while to update...hopefully the effort was not in vain.

In Christ,
Tyler

Here are some girls kayaking in vail village. This area of gorge creek can be modified by bumpers in the creek to make the best possible wave. They did better later on, but I wanted to video tape a little bit for you all back home.

Life Eggs

Today was lacking in any type of organized activity for me. So basically I was able to get a lot of miscellaneous things done. But throughout this stuff I was able to hang out with fellow projectors. Playing games (ticket to ride, and a weird game called boomerang) and running with people early in the morning. A good reading this morning, prayer and some workout time. It's been a good day. I was able to bike over to Vail village and open a new bank account. Very easy...got a free bag and made $5 opening an online account.

Anyway, more importantly we had family group time again. More people were able to share their life eggs, which is an easy way to help illustrate their lives and help them tell their story. This was really beneficial when it came to getting to know one another. I must say it was one of the most encouraging things we have done so far.

So some of us are going to the Red Lion tomorrow. Hopefully it will be a great job that yields a lot of opportunity. I heard a lot about it walking around Vail today, so it must be a popular place.

Also very excited for the Teva games this weekend. Talking about it tonight got me even more pumped. Apparently there will be a ton of people there and we will have easy opportunity for conversation. On top of that I am really hoping to see some of the world class kayaking that will be going on right here in town. Amazing. Also, we have some temperature drop going on. It is supposed to snow tomorrow. Pretty crazy since I got a little sun burnt during Job searching yesterday.

By the way, it's great to hear from you all that are reading this blog. If there are any aspects of Vail that you want to hear about just tell me and I will try to shed some light on stuff. Other than that thanks for all the encouragement and prayers.

By the way I added some new links to two websites. One is another persons blog on the trip and the other is one of the staff men's websites for photography (which will soon have pics of Teva Games on it, since he will be in the photography competition).

Still reading:
Philippians
Jeremiah


In Christ

Here are some pictures from Vail. We had a little bit of a hike (20 mins). Basically climbing up the side of the mountain in between roads.

Red Lion

Today was job search day.

Went awesome. Began with some prayer and a group of us heading over to Vail village. We went to a number of places, and were fortunate enough to find a job on our first day of searching. Two other girls and I will be working at The Red Lion in Vail. It's in one of the oldest buildings in the city and is apparently a traditional place for people to visit (and eat at) when in Vail.

Unfortunately some people were not able to get jobs today. Fortunately everything works out in God's timing.

Tonight we went out to try to speak to some of the people around the Vail village. It wasn't that fruitful but me and another girl were able to get some conversations going. I hope to hear more about what others accomplished when we meet with our family groups tomorrow.

Side Note: A girl just came into Simba running away form a bear. Turns out we have them around here. Also, we got to talking and it seems that the crowd over at the Red Lion are quite an interesting bunch. Sound like fun.

So while I am still working on getting my pictures and such onto a computer I will just say that everything is amazing here. Scenery wise it's all mountains in the day and stars at night. Plus the fact that everything is very "expensive looking" adds to the whole resort feel. It is a big change from down town Louisville.

If anyone has questions about what's going on so far throw them into the comments.

reading:
Philippians
Jeremiah

The Vail Church

Waking up at 6:00 is a little weird. But when you have so much to look forward to and the sun is brighter than usual it is hard to go back to sleep. Unfortunately, after doing a few morning activities I dozed off, only to awake to one of the project members calling me to tell me we were leaving for church. Ironic.

"The Vail Church" turned out really well. The congregation isn't huge, the people seemed very kind and connected, the pastor seemed like a godly man who takes his cues from Christ. Love everyone that I met there. The worship was great to. Like I said yesterday, it was just awesome to be in a group of believers.

Got to do a little hiking today. It wasn't much at all, just up the side of a mountain (might seem like a bit, but when your already on the side of the mountain its not as long). I got some photos, and I would love to upload them, but I haven't gotten a cord for my phone quite yet. Hoping to invest in one soon.

Closed the day out with a meeting with our family groups. This was really encouraging. We were all able to share life stories, pray and eat dinner with each other. So overall a good day. I'm definetely getting used to this elevation. Though my heart is beating a little harder than normal still. Hopefully my body will calm down soon.

Christ is sufficient.

Half and Half

6 more hours in the car. Not bad at all, still awesome scenery. Especially when we came up on the rockies and saw them for the first time. The driving was crazy steep once we hit the mountains.

Arrived in Vail um zwei Uhr. Can definitely tell a difference in air pressure (and oxygen). At 8,000 feet a jog up a hill nearly killed me. Basic stuff going on. Had a cook out and scavenger hunt to get to know people on project, and drove around in the Valley. It’s not too bad hanging out in the Mountains. Excited to see what church brings tomorrow, overall it will be great to be with a body of believers. And I have never met any of them before, so it should be a learning experience.

Can't wait to:
Find a job
go biking
get used to the oxygen level
(^ it's crazy, they say we burn 1.5 times the calories here as you would in say...KY. We are told to drink at least 160 oz a day)