I don't usually feature other writers on this page...but my wife wrote a beautiful piece talking about where we are on our current adventure, and what God has in mind for us. I pray this is helpful. I request prayers for us. Most of all I pray that we are continually shaped and molded by God as we journey with him. 

-Eddie

This is just the beginning…

We are in the waiting…the hard and silent wait. The long, long months (even years) after hearing
the promise of the Lord over our future. Yet, we are now having to walk through the desert to get
there, or sometimes stay exactly where we are (which can be even more difficult). Like Abram and
Sarai being called to a new land, to the unknown, into the trust. To trust the Lord with all we have. To fully rely on His plan and not our own. To start walking in faith, into the wilderness and entwining our future in the spoken promise of our God.

The summer of 1996, I was facing brave. Me, the shy girl, the girl that didn’t really feel like she belonged but desperately wanted to, signed up for her youth group wilderness trek trip. Going with a mostly seasoned and experienced group of adults and other teens, off into the Colorado Rockies to climb Mt. Elbert, the tallest in the state. Fear and doubt surged repeatedly through my entire being as I, the freshman never been in snow Texan, prepared for the journey. I carried my 40ish lb. pack up the rocky soil path. At that time, it was the most challenging, uncomfortable, longest, coldest week of my life. The highlight was standing on a summit at an elevation of 14,433 ft… and experiencing my first snowfall all on my 16th birthday. I came back to Texas  with a blistered sun burned chin and a feeling that I checked mountain climbing permanently off my bucket list.

Fast-forward to the summer of 2002, as a newly wed wife of a youth minister, accepted the challenge to once again head to the mountains. Older and slightly more optimistic about this trek, I prepared to hopefully impress my new outdoor loving husband. Going more prepared, more knowledgeable, more excited than 6 years earlier we journeyed once again up the well worn path of Mt. Elbert. This climb was still challenging but not nearly what I remembered or feared. I’m sure I had extra endurance  and drive with the love of my life next to me. Standing again on the summit, overlooking the valley below began a surge of love for this physical, spiritual challenge.

Summer of 2013, my first time back in the mountains after years of school, work and raising two babies into kids old enough for me to leave behind for a week. I had prepared the whole previous year for this experience. Running, working out, buying better gear…here I was hopeful to take on a
new mountain. Once again, with my husband by my side and this time dragging some dear friends with us, we took a group of teenagers up Mt. Tabeguache (14,162 ft.). The crew, the teenagers, the
friends all helped shape this trip as an amazing and
memorable trip. Yeah, my boots rubbed my heels off. Yes, me and my favorite high schooler had to boulder our way down by ourselves trying to catch up to one of our guides. Yes, I ended up getting a parasite when I got home and spent a day in the emergency room. Yet, the fire was lit. I was desperate for another trail and another summit.

Back again June of 2014 with a adult group of our own. Leading them up Mt. Blanca (14,351 ft.),which has one of the longest, rockiest, hottest hikes to base camp. With a great group and a  gorgeous valley to set up camp in we gathered around camp fires, told stories, laughed and studied the word under a star lit sky. I didn’t  summit this mountain (due to two not feeling well-I volunteered to stay behind). However, I did experience the beauty of this scenery by hiking around and meeting an all too friendly marmot and exploring an old decaying mountain cabin. Allowing, my soul to soak in the beauty of God’s fingerprints all around me. Feeling the song “Oh, how He loves me”, singing it’s way through my veins. Desiring to take in and memorize every angle of that high altitude clear watered lake and every peak that surrounds it.

Seeing our adults off on their way back to Houston, Eddie and I stayed to wait on our church youth group to make their way up a few days later. While we waited we day hiked Mt. Yale (14,200 ft.). I would of never thought I would day hike a 14er. Such an impossible idea to this flat-landers brain. We managed however, to conquer it and make it back down in time for dinner. We laughed, we talked, we took A LOT of pictures, and opened our hearts to the birth of a dream of being in the mountains more than just in the summer time. As we hiked Mt. Democrat (14,154 ft.) with our youth group that next week; God etched a dream on our hearts that we could not ignore. A dream of the mountains being our Promised Land but we had no idea how God expected us to get there. We came back from that trip whispering prayers and dreaming dreams of what may be in our near (or not so near) future. And wondering what is God up to? With our hearts jumping in with full commitment and minds whirling with possibilities.


The following summer of 2015, we once again had an adult group put together. Eddie went ahead to help lead our church youth group, so we were meeting him up there. Our adult group this time is 14 strong. A mix of married and singles, a mix of twenty somethings and up to the prime of life forties. All desperate to hear and see God is a whole new light. All braving the unexplored and conquering fears and doubts with every step. We began up Mt. Belford (14,203 ft.) singing and talking excitedly. This is one of the prettiest trails I’ve ever seen. Following a mountain stream with various falls, surges and dams. Trees towered overhead as we rounded narrow bends along the cliff trail. We walked through glorious valley’s tearing off our jackets and long sleeves as the sun warmed us. We settled into our campsites in gracious unity. Working together gathering water and starting meals. This group had my heart and I knew the Lord was among us and the Spirit was going to show up in a powerful way. Our wet and wild summit was quite the adventure, pushing many beyond limits. Wearing them down physically and allowing sole reliance on the Lord. Many events unfolded as Eddie and I had to hustle a couple off the mountain that same day, to send them home for a family emergency. But as I sit here and reflect on that week, I realize how at comfortable I felt, how I felt at home.

Back in Houston, we sold our home and readied ourselves to head to the hills…but God had a different timeline in mind. We stayed with friends and are now in an apartment, while spending lots of time in prayer for our church and for our future. We decided to get incorporated and through that process officially birthed Full Life Adventures. Now the task of completing the paperwork to submit to be a Non-profit and launch a fundraising campaign to buy the promised land in Colorado. Believing still, the promise spoken by our God. We are waiting. Waiting on Him to continue to guide us, whether by burning bush, pillar of fire or still small voice into this new endeavor. Like, Abram and Sarai, feeling that our age may be working against us. That we need to hurry this process along but knowing His timing is always best. Then also, are we to laugh at the thought that we may be called into the desert (Abilene, TX) to pursue Eddie’s desire to finish a Marriage & Family Therapy degree? Are we to take two more years to have all the many, many pieces fall into place? We know and trust the big picture that God put on our hearts…we know that had led and highlighted every step we have taken. That just like hiking the mountains the trail may be long, and tedious at times, that the summit will still be there. Waiting for us, beckoning us to keep pressing in and trusting our Lord into the promise. That this is just the beginning…
-Megan