I recently participated in the Outdoor Leadership Lab, put on by Društvo Prijatelja Biblije (Association of Friends of the Bible). This was a weekend spent in the beautiful Gorski Kotar mountain region of Croatia, and was all about showing how to use backpacking and the outdoors to teach people about Jesus. It was a great weekend backpacking trip but was also one of the hardest hikes I have done. We hiked for more than 12 hours on that Saturday, over about 18 kilometers, and gained about 1,000 meters in elevation, all with full packs. Toward the end of the day we were also running out of water. However, we had a great cup of hot tea waiting for us at the mountain hut which was our destination for overnight. The next day we hiked about 2-3 kilometers out of the forest. It didn’t start raining until we were literally walking up to the van that came to pick us up. There were many blessings like this along the way. Thanks to DPB for sponsoring this great weekend, and to Michael and Lydia, the mountain guides who came from the USA to share with us. I look forward to applying what I learned with young people here in Croatia.
