What It’s Like Here

Hello everyone!

I come to you while we are gathered together as a squad watching the Chronicles of Narnia.

We sometimes have squad movie nights, and the kitchen was even kind enough to provide us with popcorn.

But this blog is not to critique the works of C.S. Lewis, no matter how good they are. I wanted to bring to you what life is like here in Gainesville beyond the every day schedule I posted in my last blog. I have some stories to tell you, and this one happened to me only a week ago.

We were taking bucket showers, as one does because hygiene is important. Now, the place where we take the showers is basically a shack with slightly more walls than a normal shack would have (to make the stalls). Me and my friend Kate noticed a black something within the walls between some beams. We both assumed it was a tire, to support the walls.

So, we pay it no attention and continue and finish showering. The next round of people go in and come out screaming.

We investigate.

Turns out, the ‘tire’ was a very large, very black snake.

Thank the Lord it was snoozing while two people showered right next to it!

So the authorities are called and the snake is removed and thrown into the forest. Mothballs were put on the ground to hopefully deter it from returning.

The next day, reports circled around the entire campus about another littler, very small black snake that had come to the showers in place of its mother. Or, what we assume was its mother.

So that snake is also thrown into the forest. Fast forward to the next time I head to the showers with Regan and Kate – two days later.

We had begun the routine of sending the bravest among us inside with a pitchfork and seeing if there were snakes inside. There were none so we headed inside, showered, and were leaving when Regan saw it.

Another medium size black snake.

(This was likely the oldest sibling snake, or maybe if there were more it was the middle child. It sure acted like a middle child. Not sure, but also I don’t really care about how many siblings it had.)

It begins slithering to the showers.

We watched in horrified fascination as it sniffs the mothballs and moves right past them like they weren’t even there. Here’s a tip: mothballs don’t deter snakes.

“I wish I had my stick,” I said, because I have a rather impressive walking stick I call Moses. It’s very useful for many things, such as poking snakes away from the showers.

“THE PITCHFORK!!!!” Regan shouted in a moment of genius. “Get the pitchfork!!”

I ran to get the pitchfork, shoving everything I’m carrying into Kate’s hands.

Armed, dangerous, and squaring up with a snake, the adrenaline was running through my veins as I prepare to defend my teammates.

I lower the pitchfork over the body of the snake. I have no idea what to do. The prongs are too far apart to do anything, so I ended up going with ‘grab it and fling’.

It did not work that way.

The moment the pitchfork touches the snake’s body, it recoils and lunges at me.

You can imagine the screams from the three of us. I don’t think I’ve ever run faster from something in my life.

I can still clearly see the snap of its jaws. The fangs were rather impressive, and for a snake I’m sure it was thinking something along the lines of “????”

Then, as if it had not just been poked with a pitchfork, the snake sat for a moment, then turned around and slithered away like it was just going for a walk.

Or, rather, a slither.

So we just… left. We alerted everyone else to the presence of a third snake in the showers. But the day after, AIM had just finished building us indoor showers so we no longer have to worry about rat snakes.

But that’s just a bit of what it’s like here in the wilderness all around us; bugs are everywhere and I’ve even named the banana spider near our campsite Ajax. There are at least two toads that live here; one is named Frog and the other is yet unnamed because we’ve only seen him once.

(We like to name things, if you haven’t noticed!)

Life here is simple. It’s honestly amazing that we get to spend every single day with the Lord and in each other’s company. It gets a little tiring being around people, and the annoyance is inevitable, but the constant community is the best part, in my opinion. I love that I have people to rely on every single day for anything and everything.

For instance, I hurt my knee a few days ago and I felt God asking me to ask my squadmates for prayer over it.

“Where two or more are gathered in My name,” He reminded me, “There I will be.”

It took a bit of courage and humility at the same time, but I asked and nearly cried at the overwhelming response of my friends around me.

“This is the church,” He said.

I’m sure there’s more to discover along the lines of what the church is and what everything ties in together with that, and I’m excited to learn.

I have a few prayer requests for those of you who have kindly added me into your prayers.  Firstly, I ask that all of you continue to pray for my hike on Monday; God has actually assured me that He has heard your prayers! I am feeling significantly less nervous about it because of your prayers and also because I’ve practiced the trail a few times. My squadmates have also agreed to do the trail with me so I won’t be alone when I do it.

I tell you, living in community is literally amazing.

My second prayer request is about fundraising. I still have a little under a month to raise $2,321 in order to meet my next deadline of $10,000 by October 15. Please keep me in your prayers about this! I told God I didn’t want to miss anymore deadlines, and it’s significantly easier to believe He will provide since that $4,500 came in so I could be here for training camp.

The blog post with the Huge News is still coming up this Sunday, so be on the lookout for that! It’s very exciting news that all of you will absolutely love.

I think I will also do a ‘story blog’ every once in a while so that you all can catch a glimpse of what it’s like here. I have a feeling you all probably liked this one even though it was about a snake in the showers.

See you Sunday with the Huge News, and then Monday with an update on how the hike went!!