Alaska Missions with Calvary Baptist Youth: What a SWEATY day! Day 6 July 8, 2013

Boy was it hard to get up this morning when the alarm went off! It was kind of a rough start in many ways for many of us.......Thank God for our many blessings! Some of those would be....
1. There is a Starbucks in the Fred Myer (King Soopers) grocery store just a couple of blocks up the road! Good morning Chai!
2. Gordon made his famous green chile sauce and Lynda and Suzanne helped him make a very tasty batch of breakfast burritos! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
3. We got to leave about an hour later this morning since we had such a late night last night
4. The rain we woke up to again this morning stopped before we got to our work sites today and we had a very productive day of work for our last day of jobs and clean up of the campus before their Alaska Flag Day celebration tomorrow that we are helping with.
5. We were very blessed to be invited to participate in a sweat lodge ceremony led by Kelli

Today was a day of work, a day of prayer, a day of reflection and a day with a sense of resolution. Resolution not only for some who went through the Sweat Lodge ceremony but also for the work jobs we have finished over the past several days.
We had a lot of little jobs to finish up as well as some larger ones.
The youth all did such an amazing job of really getting down and dirty, pitching in and helping out in many different areas. It is good to see that our two groups have begun to really break down those invisible barriers of separation among the groups and work together freely, opening and with a sense of togetherness. The grounds look amazing! As we broke into our working crews a smaller part of the groups would break away to experience the sweat lodge ceremony. To be given to opportunity to experience a different way of worship, a different way of connecting with our God and ourselves and with others is such a huge gift. Many people live their entire lives without experiencing the worship styles of an entirely different culture. What a powerful way of showing love to everyone no matter who they are or how they worship! I think for those who participated in it, it will be something they will never forget and for some a life changing experience, as well as bringing those who shared their 1 hour ceremony much closer to each other as well as to God.
If you were to look at the sweat lodge from the top it would look like a pregnant woman's stomach. The entrance/exit being narrow and with a pathway leading out. As you exit it is symbolic of being born anew. The sweat lodge face to the East and the sacred fire pit. This has very significant spiritual value. Each new day for all begins in the East with the rising of The Father Sun, the source of life and power, dawn of wisdom, wile the fire heating the rocks is the undying light of the world, eternity, and it is a new spiritual beginning that we seek in the sweat ceremony. There are 4 sections to the ceremony, each about 15 minutes, with a break in between each prayer section. We had 15 youth and adults in each session and had 4 sessions today. The average temp in a sweat lodge is 120 - 140 degrees. I am not sure what the temp was in our experience but Kelli did an amazing job of creating a safe and knowledgeable ceremony for us and a wonderful job of leading and guiding each group through the prayers, the explanations, the emotions and the entire experience. I am not sure how she survived to 4 ceremonies back to back in those conditions. She is truly a unique and wonderful blessing to the Alaska Children's Services, to us and to anyone who meets her.
Below are a few quotes from our journal question today, which was....
"Describe how your experience was in the sweat lodge ceremony."

"Emotional and cleansing to the soul."
"HOT AND SWEATY"
(10 people had this response and this response only)
"Very cleansing"
"Lost some weight. Really connected with the emotional aspect of it but had a hard time staying in for the entire session on a couple."
"Very emotional, more than I expected. I wasn't prepared for such an experience but I would love to do it again sometime.
"I started with a negative attitude about the experience but ended with feeling like spiritually and mentally I could get through or past the heat and I got a lot out of it."
"Out of body experience."
"Claustrophobic"
"The power of God helped me to power through it."
"What better way to strengthen our faith than to give others the chance to experience different ways to pray and worship." Quote from Kelli Williams

I for one would love to repeat that experience given the chance. Please make sure you ask you youth to explain more about their personal experience.