Once more, one of my favorite times of the school year has come and gone. It used to be called interim, but now has more aptly been renamed “African Field Studies (AFS).”

It’s a time where our 11^th and 12^th grade students head off on adventures all across the continent, many in Kenya but a few beyond, to learn about other cultures, ministry contexts, some sort of contemporary issue being faced by the local communities, and of course to have a complete and utter blast.

One of the most magical parts of these AFS trips is that every single year, every single student comes back with the perspective that their trip has been the best. The best adventure, the best leaders, the best group. My trip this year was no exception!

When I first learned of my assignment, I was a little bit bummed. There are over a dozen trips offered every year, what are the odds I’d be assigned to leading one I’ve already done? Whatever the odds, this was my lot. I started complaining to a friend about it, but of course to make the complaints real, one has to show pictures of what the complaints are about. Let me tell you, about point five seconds into showing this friend pictures of my previous trip, I started gesturing with my hands enthusiastically and smiling huge as my volume decibels rose, excitement building in my chest, complaints and disappointment completely washed away.

My group roster just added to the joy, a dynamite dynamic crew, mostly students from the class I sponsor so I know them quite well.

Our trip was called “Conservation Through Adventure” and adventure it was!

We practiced throwing spears and shooting arrows in a session on learning bush skills.

We set up camp, pitching tents, digging our own latrine and making our own dinner in the middle of the forest, elephant dung on the path and a leopard harassing baboons in the night.

We hiked to a canyon where we cliff jumped, rappelled down a waterfall, went zip lining, and cliff jumping again!

We went rock climbing on a sheer face overlooking stunning views, we rode mountain bikes through town, having just learned the art of wheelies (I only almost crashed once practicing).

We shot at balloons after a thrilling archery challenge.

ATV’s and Go-Kart racing came up next, followed by stand-up paddle boarding and white water rafting in the river “where the crocodiles and hippos are further down-stream, not where we’ll be.”

The last day was our final leap of faith, off a towering platform over the river, bungee chord attached at the ankles. We spent our evenings learning from my co-leader about different characters in scripture who faced some pretty significant fears, reflecting on some of our own. We got to learn about reforestation efforts to help maintain the habitat the elephants are constantly tearing down, and help pot dirt for seedlings to be grown and planted.

We then got to learn about biogas, a unique way to harness the natural gas released from cow dung to be used in cook-stoves, simultaneously saving the back breaking work of gathering wood for fires, and allowing the wood to remain in the forest aiding in the cycle of decomposition and fertilization, or leaving wood to grow into even larger trees. Yes, the students even mixed the dung with their own hands!

My favorite moment of the whole trip came during the day of the big canyon adventuring. We’d already repelled down a massive waterfall, jitters still in our systems from the intensity of water beating down on our heads as we carefully lowered ourselves down the cliff-face. A pack lunch passed out and we were back on the path to the other half of the canyon. A gorgeous blue lagoon awaited us after a 15-foot jump following being lowered 10 feet by rope onto the edge of the precipice. Roots clung to the sides of the rock as we swam under an overhang into a small cliff, just in time to watch the instructor jump in from over our heads. Our next stop was a zipline! Seven of us were put as tensioners on the rope, heaving, heaving and heaving again to allow the instructor to tighten it at the top of the waterfall. Our harnesses we’d been wearing all day were attached to a pully, and like a slide, we sat at the top of the waterfall… about five feet down the slide though, our bodies went airborne as we continued over another stunning pool to a tree on the other side. From the top, we had a blast cheering for the rope-pullers as each student had to draw back the pulley for themselves before it was their turn to whiz to our next stopping point.

The catch? We were coached that this was the point of no return. After going down the zipline, the only way out of this part of the canyon is continuing on the last jump. We’d done at least three jumps previously, starting at 4 feet, then 8, then 15… each progressively higher. The biggest, coming in at 25 feet was at the bottom of the zipline, and there was no way back to the top until after the big jump.

After we’d all gathered at the top of the next waterfall, Peter Parker (our guide) prepped us for this next jump in a way I did not anticipate. He picked up a stick and broke it in three, a math lesson in the middle of stunning pools, rock formations, fantastical trees and cascading waterfalls.

“You all know what the hypotenuse is yes?” He said as he formed the sticks in his hands into a triangle.

Yikes. I knew where this was going.

“At the bottom of this waterfall is a shelf of rock that juts out, so when you jump, you have to jump the hypotenuse.” He started gathering a handful of stones.

“I’ll throw a rock to show you where you need to jump.” He tossed one into the water as an example.

“Put your foot here, and here, then push off with this foot to launch yourself forward.”

Our other guide Spicy Dorito took up the position next to demo.

“Send it Spicy!” Peter said with a grin on his face. NOPE. THAT was not in the briefing at the point of no return. I found myself at the very end of the line as our brave (crazy?) teenagers started one by one launching themselves off this cliff. There were about five kids left when I realized I wasn’t the only one who had strategically positioned myself at the end of the line. C got up to the edge, asked Peter to throw about three more rocks to show to where she needed to jump before volunteering to wait till after her friend behind her went. To the edge she went, then allowed another friend to pass. Finally, I called her to come back and sit with me. I wrapped my arm around her and had the honor of a little chat.

“Girl, you can do this! We serve a big God who can give us the strength to do hard things. When you get to that edge, don’t stand there and think about it. You’ll psych yourself out. You already know where to jump, don’t ask Peter to throw anymore rocks. When you get to the edge, don’t think, just jump!”

So focused on coaching C I was that I didn’t notice it was only C2 left to jump. I looked up as he looked back. Hands shaking and tears streaming down his face, his feet shuffled slightly back away from the edge.

“I’ll go first. If I can do it, you can do it!” The student I’d just been coaching said. He backed away from the cliff and sat beside me, C taking his place. She took a deep breath and leapt forward! The whole group waiting at the bottom erupted in cheers for her.

I wrapped my arm around this next student and repeated my speech once more, but with a slightly different take as he shared his intense fear of heights.

“You may still be afraid of heights after this, but today you get to face this fear. There is no going back, no way out except to jump. You HAVE to do this, and you CAN!” After he took a couple of minutes to close his eyes and calm his breath, he approached the edge and jumped.

My heart burst with pride! Then, fear because in my strategy to go last, I hadn’t considered there would be nobody to coach me! I aligned my feet, right where Peter told me to, then said out loud the very words I’d used to coach my students, “Don’t think, just jump!” and off I went, soaring through the air far longer than should be normal for any human to do before my feet hit the icy blue below. I bubbled back to the surface for air a huge grin on my face and adrenaline pumping through my veins.

When we shared later that week about highs and lows of the trip, this was on my list of highs for sure! It fascinated me how for one student, bungee jumping was a walk in the park, but mountain biking sent them into a tizzy. Abseiling down a pounding waterfall was no big deal, but rock climbing? Not a chance! Each student had their own challenges to face. In their own way, they had to figure out how to overcome or conquer what was hard for THEM.

At the end of the trip I had the privledge of reading their journals where they were required to respond to different prompts we’d provided them with, figuring out some different challenges in their own lives they may be facing, and what they could do to overcome them. God is on the move in so many of their hearts! I wish I could share all the things they said, but to honor their privacy I’ll just close with some prayer points instead:

Prayer Points

Please pray for courage and boldness for our students! So many of them want to face these giants in their lives but are afraid for whatever reason.

Pray for rest as they are home over the term break, that they would enjoy time with their families, and that they would come back to campus refreshed. (we start back up at the end of the month!)

Please pray for wisdom as many of them are facing difficult decisions, some minor, some not so minor.