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As part of the grant requirement that allowed Outdoor Outreach to attend camp, students had to take a visit to a National Historic Site, in this case the Manzanar Relocation Center located just between Lone Pine and Big Pine. The students also participated in a Youth Summit where they had group breakout sessions and discussed the benefits of getting more kids outdoors and participating in recreational activities.
Aside from Outdoor Outreach’s own goals, The Station was also able to facilitate their own programming with the usual camp games and on-hill instruction courtesy of June Mountain. Many of the campers had gone snowboarding before, but it was still a pleasure introducing them to Mammoth Lakes and June Mountain. More importantly, the goals of both The Station and Outdoor Outreach were met during this trip. “I heard from a few students that this trip changed their lives and opened their minds to endless possibilities!” says Adventure Club and Leadership Program Manger Gavin Daly. In order to make this work, The Station and Outdoor Outreach came together to make sure each other’s needs were met. “We were able to focus on strengthening our relationships with the kids…and I really felt that we were on the same team, and the kids benefitted hugely from our teamwork,” says Daly. The trip worked out so well that Daly mentioned discussing with Outdoor Outreach’s Director of Programs on “[finding] a way to make this trip happen in the future.”
For more information on Outdoor Outreach and to find out how you can support their program, visit their website at www.outdooroutreach.org
*Picture album to come shortly!
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This week we had an all-girl foster care group from SoCal called HerShe. Overall, we had 8 campers and their 2 leaders. We were hoping for more girls, but God obviously had other plans in mind. A lot of these girls have had horrible experiences with [the men in their lives], so to help them feel safe in a new environment we had the male staff serve behind the scenes.
On day one we took the girls snowshoeing to Lake Mary. For some of the girls, this was their first time to see the snow (all are high school age, btw). Less than halfway through the hike I had attached 5 pairs of snowshoes to my camelpak and carried another pair by hand. The warm weather caused most of the snow to melt and then freeze overnight creating a very difficult trail to snowshoe. I hiked the rest of the mile up-hill hike in the snow like that. After the hike we made plans to go ice-skating, but the rink closed that day due to warm weather (58*) that had caused the ice rink to melt. The girls were all secretly happy to hear the news because the high altitude had sapped them of all their energy during the hike.
After their naps we had dinner followed by some quality time in small groups. These girls blew me away by their faith. Going into small group none of my co-workers or I thought any campers actually had a relationship with Christ. Boy were we wrong! They knew all about keeping their faith strong and enduring hardships. What these girls really needed to learn was how to be girls. Their circumstances had caused them to grow up before their time. Leaving each one burdened with cares they were never meant to carry. We had all the girls then write down those burdens throughout their time at camp and then burn them on the last day of camp. It was radical. After the small group we had a guest speaker come and encourage the girls. Her name is Amy and her story is PHENOMENAL. I could write a whole blog wholly on her testimony and her impact on my life alone. After Amy spoke she asked the girls if she could prophecy over them. They said yes. I am so glad they did. Each girl received a word from God and experienced the power of the Holy Spirit. One girl gave her life to Christ that night. If we were to end the camp after this night we would have accomplished our goal of each camper leaving forever changed and never the same. But God wanted to do more in their lives and gave us and extra day.
The next morning we snowboarded/skied the whole day. I played photographer and appropriately asked the girls to make sure they wipe out where I can get a good shot of them. They unintentionally listened to me. The best part was when one of the girls skied past me in a panic because she couldn't stop. I snapped photos of her the whole way.... (WHAT?! I couldn't have stopped her if I tried!) Instead the camp director stepped out and gave her a bear hug which brought her down with a THUD. She stayed down for a minute and eventually got up laughing. PHEW!
For dinner we had a winter luau for the girls and all the male staff dressed up and served them as waiters would serve guests at a restaurant. It was beautiful! And delicious. We had some more small group time followed with an affirmation circle. The circle of affirmation was SO GOOD! We probably sat their lifting up one another for a good hour and a half. We finished the night with some karaoke and stand up acts.
The girls left this morning and they are already missed. The one thing I'll take with me for the rest of my life is when one girl, during the affirmation circle, told me that I was the type of person she wants to be. Did I bawl my eyes out? Duh! I had doubted my own impact on these girls' lives because my testimony is not at all like theirs. Why would they listen to me? What could I possibly bring to the table? But I guess the differences in our lives doesn't matter after all. All that matters is our ability to love and love in return. Thank you Moulin Rouge, and THANK YOU JESUS!!
You can view a gallery of the photos from the weekend here
]]>Bethany McCormick: Snowboarding!
Jeff Alan: Snowboarding dawg.
TS: What brought you to Mammoth and The Station?
BM: God brought me here. That's the short answer. The long answer would take three pages or more to explain.
JA: Besides the Holy Spirit leading me here. I really have a heart for kids to be changed and encounter God in some way. I also really enjoyed camps when I was younger so its pretty rad to be a part of one now.
TS: What's your favorite thing about living in Mammoth so far?
BM: I can walk everywhere or take the transit and never spend a dime on gas! And, if I had a pass, I could go snowboarding everyday.
JA: Snowboarding almost everyday and just the people here make it a super rad experience.
TS: What are your expectations out of this internship? What do you hope to gain?
BM: I expect to learn more discipline and to be used by God in a ways I've never been used before. But what I really hope to gain is perspective, courage and purpose.
JA: I try not to have any expectations because things don't go how we expect them to and that's completely fine with me. So far, the first camp was such an amazing experience. I don't hope to gain anything but to grow and to love and build relationships with everybody in the camps that come up.
TS: You've gotten the chance to experience at least one camp up to this point; what was your favorite part and what do you look forward to with future camps?
BM: My favorite parts of the camp were the outdoor activities such as: hiking, ice skating, and the Amazing Race. The other part of camp I look forward to are the small groups. It's a chance for me to be real with the campers and vice versa. It also gives me guidance on how to pray for each camper on a deeper level.
JA: My favorite part of the camp was definitely the karaoke night when a group of guys decided to sing Creed and the whole camp started to head bang. It was pretty epic. I look forward to just pouring into the lives of the people who come up in any way that God can use me.
TS: What's one of your biggest dreams you have for the camp and for yourself?
BM: My biggest dream for the camp is to be financially stable and to be supported by the community of Mammoth. As for myself, well, I'm still working on that.
JA: Well, one of my biggest dreams for the camp is financial breakthrough... we need that paper. For myself? I would say to eventually become a full-time staff member and worship leader for the camp.
TS: What fuels your passion in being up here?
BM: The people are what fuel my passion. Both the campers and the staff. If there is someone who needs hope, I want to show them where they can find it. If they need prayer, I want to be available to pray.
JA: The Holy Spirit fuels my passion. 'Nuff said.
TS: Last words?
BM: I'm really grateful to be here and to have the opportunity to make a difference in people's lives. Thank you!
JA: The Station... Get Stoked!
Jordan Gibson December 2011 Short Edit from Keith White on Vimeo.
]]>Last winter, we were fortunate enough to have Heart of the Canyons set the tone for the season as they were our first winter camp. This season started off no differently as HOTC was again our first winter camp and brought an amazing spirit of energy to The Station! Although snow conditions were minimal, campers, leaders and staff still had an incredible time together whether they were playing volleyball (yes, it's warm enough to play volleyball on the lawn!), snowboarding at June Mountain, singing karaoke, taking pictures in our photobooth or competing in our version of the Amazing Race.
Along with all the craziness and fun that comes with winter ministry camp also came a new understanding of the word Incendium, which in Latin means to ignite with passion - in this case, a passion for God. Campers received an incredible message from Mammoth/Bishop local Michael Geringher accompanied by worship leader Patrick Paegel. Together they broke down what it really means to passionately live for God and how that passion can happen not just in church but throughout campers' everyday lives. Michael also gave the campers a fresh look into words of encouragement and how those words could have a powerful impact on campers' lives, especially as many of them transition from middle school to high school and beyond.
To properly send off the group and cap off an amazing week, The Station staff were asked to give each camper words of encouragement, which was probably the highlight of camp up to this point for many staffers. Many of the kids have never been encouraged this way before and were completely blown out of the water as they received a refreshing love from each staffer.
All in all, it was a fantastic week and great way to kick off the season. We're stoked to see what the rest of camp looks like this winter and how many more kids' lives become forever changed!
*Pictures of our photobooth coming soon! Stay tuned for an update
]]>So give us your background and the history behind Mimi’s Cookie Bar
Well, I’ve always liked to bake, and I’ve always baked cookies. Pretty much any occasion I could get, I’d bake them. My signature was the Dad’s Coconut Chocolate Chip so that’s pretty much the cookie that started the whole company. My friends were saying, “This is so good! You should be doing something with this!” so I kind of just got inspiration from them and the people I was giving cookies to all the time that were bringing them to work or parties or whatever.
I was working full time at Roxy, and we were having a lot of layoffs a couple of years ago. I didn’t get laid off, but it got me thinking what would I do if I did. So that’s when I really started to think about it and technically start the company in November 2009. That’s when the idea, the name, and everything else came about and it kind of went from there. I didn’t know anything about the food industry…how do I do this, you know? It was a lot of research, and after I figured out I could start it online, rent space in a commercial kitchen, and bake whenever I got orders…that’s pretty much what launched the e-commerce website in September 2010 and led me to move here to open up a location.
Besides being a cookie bar, what sets your business apart from the other coffee shops and cafes in town?
Well, we are a cookie bar [laughs]. We’re also not really a coffee shop. We do offer black coffee, but we don’t do espresso or any of that stuff. Our old fashioned hot chocolate is definitely different than everybody else’s – it’s made from scratch and stirred instead of just steamed milk poured over chocolate syrup, and people have been tasting the difference in that. I had someone call yesterday and ask, “What time are you open until? We heard you have the best hot chocolate!” I had never even seen them before so I don’t know if they’re visiting or live up here.
We also do catering for parties and weddings if they want cookies. A lot of coffee shops don’t really do that so we’re kind of like a bakery in that sense. Also, we only use organic, natural, fair trade ingredients. I don’t really think anyone else in town, maybe Stellar Brew, really commits to that. Pretty much 98% of our ingredients are organic. There are only a couple of things that we make that are all-natural because the price difference is just ridiculous. But I carefully check all the ingredients and make sure where they come from.
We also have vegan and gluten-free [cookies]. Pretty much every cookie we have we can make it in vegan, or gluten-free, or vegan gluten-free. And we offer vegan and gluten-free every day and we’re starting to offer vegan gluten-free once a week.
Our dog cookies are also really good and only have 5 ingredients, which are all organic because a lot of dogs have problems eating certain treats. Some people even eat our dog treats and say they taste way better than other companies who actually market dog treats to dogs and humans.
So the response from the people in town has been pretty good then?
Yeah. I still get the straggler people who say, “I haven’t been in here yet!” For example, there were some people who came in last week and said, “Oh you’re so eco-friendly! I can’t believe we haven’t been in here!” So I’m sure people are busy with their routines and schedules. They haven’t had the chance to come in, and they don’t really escape from their routines some times so I know it’s hard to break out of that and try something new, but I hope that word is getting around that we have awesome cookies, hot cocoa and frozen yogurt!
People have been calling in orders, too, like a lady who called in from Lone Pine (about two and a half hours away). She’s frequented here a couple of times since we’ve opened, and she ordered four dozen peanut butter chocolate pretzel ones for Thanksgiving because she wanted her whole family to try them. She made her husband drive all the way here to get them! So I’m really stoked when people make an effort like that because it shows they really like our cookies. I had someone else call yesterday from Fish Lake – I don’t even know where that is, somewhere past Bishop – about our dog cookies. Not a lot of people know, but we make dog cookies and donate 50% of the profit to Save a Life No Kill Rescue Shelter just north of Los Angeles.
What’s a typical day look like for you?
A typical day…I usually don’t get here until around 10, which is nice. Right now we open at 11. I’ll probably start getting here earlier, probably not until 9, once we’re super busy. Some times I’m baking until late the night before. It just depends how busy we were that day. So I get in here, start baking, usually put the yogurt in the machine, which doesn’t take very long. After I have everything out in the case and the yogurts all done, I’ll Facebook our flavors because we have a lot of followers on Facebook and Twitter that depend on those updates to know the yogurt and cookie flavors every day. Then it’s just basically hanging out here, seeing how busy we are and trying to get people to come in.
I do all the updating of the website myself, so things like Cookie of the Month I’m always updating. I’m also constantly updating the website with menu items like all of our vegan flavors on the custom cookies page. Some times I’m taking photos in here for the website or doing online orders, depending if we have any.
Do you ever get time to go riding?
Not right now. I’m hoping after Christmas it should be a little less crazy. I don’t even have a pass yet because all of my money went into the cookie bar! But my boyfriend Delaney, who works at the mountain, gets vouchers so I’m hoping to use some of those. One of my good friends just quit Roxy a couple of weeks ago, moved up here and will be working for me. She’s my only employee and is pretty much going to be working for me on my days off.
What’s your favorite flavor of yogurt and favorite cookie?
My favorite yogurt flavor is coffee or chocolate. Always has been. I like when I put them together because then I can swirl them! The Yia-Yia cookies are probably my number one favorite. Yia yia means “grandma” in Greek (I’m Greek) and my yia-yia always made these amazing cookies when we were growing up for every holiday and every occasion. So we just called them yia-yia cookies because we couldn’t say the real name. It’s like an Italian wedding cookie or a Russian tea cake. We only sell them in here and don’t ship them because they’re too fragile. I also like the Dad’s Coconut Chocolate Chip and the Chubby Dougie.
Any big plans for the future? Dreams?
We hopefully want to expand to more yogurt machines so we can have more flavors and be more of a yogurt shop, but that’s a very expensive plan because yogurt machines are ridiculously expensive and a lot to maintain.
I definitely want to do more catering and weddings because I think we’re great for that. We’ve done some in the past – weddings and sales meetings for companies down south. I just hope they’re going to keep us around because cookies are a great dessert. They’re an easy, grab and go snack for any sort of event like that. You don’t need to sit down and eat it with a fork like you do with a cake.
If we’re doing well in a few years, we might want to open a new location. At this point, I don’t know where it would be. We did decide that if we were to open another location it would only be one of the five original owners that could run it. We don’t want to franchise because we don’t want to have that vibe where you go in and it’s not personable or family friendly and you can’t relax. If you go into Golden Spoon down south there are high school kids working there. It’s not personal at all - you get your yogurt and you leave. I want people to hang out here! So if we open another location it would be run by me, Delaney, Kimmy, Chris or my brother, who is also an investor, but I would most likely stay in this one.
This would also do really well down in Huntington, Newport or Encinitas or somewhere like that. Then maybe by that time we’re expanding to sponsoring surfers on our team so we can go with another vibe that would match the environment. Or we could open up in another mountain town like somewhere in Colorado or Tahoe. Hopefully one day. That would be pretty sweet to have more locations. And I want more business for online.
Any shout outs?
Thanks to Delaney, my brother Doug, my dad, Kimmy and Chris, everyone on the team and everyone who comes in here! Visit the website www.mimiscookiebar.com, www.facebook.com/mimiscookiebar, www.facebook.com/mimiofmimiscookiebar and www.twitter.com/mimiscookiebar
]]>The Station: How was your Thanksgiving?
Josh Stock: Dude, scientists just finally watched and documented a star being swallowed up by a black hole, and they just found a planet super comparable to Earth 123 trillion miles away. A couple years ago I was super into reading these old sci-fi novels from the 50's because they're pretty entertaining and hilarious, but that was one of the things they always talked about.
There is SOME PERSON (I'm trying to find out WHO it is) at YAHOO NEWS who has the most incredible gift ever. The captions they write on their homepage suck me right in every time. They're so clever. I always find myself reading about something I'm only remotely interested in all because those captions are magnetic. Crazy! They should get paid more.
Can I ask you serious questions now? I'm not sure how much sci-fi talk I want to put in the interview
Oh, okay. Let's talk about real pressing issues
How did this year's national conference go?
Freaking SOOO awesome. We've been getting so many compliments from our chapter leaders. And I don't want this interview to be about me, buuuuut...For me as the Director, most of our leaders know that in years past, I've been stressed and frazzled coming into all the conferences because I have worked so hard to get everything organized from airport pickups to food prep to housing to speakers...and this year, the Station took care of so much of it that I went snowboarding a couple days leading up to the conference, hung out with my wife a bit. Haha. It felt crazy like a HUUUUUGE burden was taken off my shoulders in the few days before the conference.
I have NEVER felt that sense of "Oh my gosh, they're taking care of like EVERYTHING" in the days leading up to the conference.
What an UNREAL blessing, man. Honestly. I got to focus on ministering to the chapter leaders and really focusing on using the gifts that God has given me. It was a NEW experience, but an AMAZING one!
That's awesome to hear. It sounds like The Station and SFC have a pretty good set up going
Dude, it was so good for us.
People are the key, man. I mean, OF COURSE we love The Station. Every trip out there feels like it's too short and we want to stay longer. Not for the rad park or the adverse weather conditions, but because the staff is so rad. They love us, we goof off together, we worship together. We get deep, and we get silly. It's the best combo! The way we love each other and serve each other makes the difference. It sets us apart. They'll know we are Christians by our love, by the way we treat eachother. I love it.
Are there any new revelations or insights you gained from the conference that you'd care to share?
We talked a lot about the act of sharing our faith with people. Vic Murphy freaking brought it, too. He said a lot of challenging things, but what I took away from it is...I think in the Western world we shy away from sharing our faith because most of our fellow shredders only ever hear the bad stories about "church" and "religion" and how this pastor or church leader ran off with all this money or was sleeping around or some scandalous thing has been going on with this "organization" that sets itself up as "better than everyone else." I actually was talking to this new videographer guy on the chairlift this morning and he saw my drawing of Jesus on my board and was like "Are you like one of those RELIGIOUS guys?"
And that is usually how it goes. Everyone has already formed an opinion of what is coming next and I just said, "Dude, I think Jesus was a radical. I think we as the church have messed up and did and said some stupid and terrible things over time, but there is no denying that Jesus came and everyone was like WOAH, what?! This dude is DIFFERENT. He's either a good teacher or a prophet or God Himself or something, because he's a radical. And as hokey as it sounds, man, THAT makes Him worth talking about and studying. Dude was a revolutionary and everyone knows it. The Gospel He spoke was gnarly and called a lot of people out and they ended up killing Him for it instead of humbling themselves."
"And no matter how much people talk about don't do this and do that or you're going to hell, Jesus said that we could never manage it ourselves and that He had to come to be the ONLY WAY to get to Heaven. It's not about us, it's about Him, and so the kids call me the Reverend because I think Jesus is worth talking about."
I think that dude is gonna come eat free pie with us tonight. He seemed keen. But all that to say sharing our faith is really super simple.
That's rad. A lot of people don't always get it, but I suppose that's why there are organizations like SFC to shed some light and truth
And we get scared of what people are gonna think of us if we start talking about Jesus, but usually dudes will track with you and it's just getting that convo started.
So, give us a brief background/history of SFC And how long you've been doing SFC USA. How did you get involved?
It was super grassrooots the way it grew. Floyd and I met in Japan at Northstar Outdoor Adventures. He was there serving with the SFC Canada guys and I was with the SFC New Zealand guys. We jokingly talked about getting something started in the States and wouldn't you know, two years later God changed both our directions and we wound up here. We started SFC in Dec 2004 in Summit [Colorado] and we just wanted to shred here and start doing some outreach to all these seasonal kids who live here (an estimated 3000-5000 each winter). We didn't know what to do once we got here, and we would hang out at his [Floyd's] house once a week and invite whoever we met on the hill that week to come over for dinner.
We just started building relationships with people and noticed that there were some people that wanted to talk about Jesus who had believed at one time or who were just searching for something. As we made more friends, more people started giving their lives to the Lord or recommitting their lives and we were like, "Oh wow, now what?"
We started a second meeting every week so that we could have a hang out night AND a Bible study night. Then some people started moving away at the end of the season and said, "Hey, that was awesome. We need something like SFC where I live." And we're like, "Uhh, yeah. Do it. Get it going."
It came to the point where we were like, "Are we allowed to just tell people to go start one?" And so we asked the guys who run the Canadian and International SFC's and they were like, "We don't have an SFC USA National Director. I guess you're it." And I'm like, "Wow. Yeah, I don't know. That sounds heavy. What does that mean?" And they're like, "Just keep doing what you're doing." So we did. And it kept growing.
So what are you doing to get people involved with SFC and put them in the know?
Well, we decided at one point, "Crap, man. We should be raising up other leaders. I wonder how you do that." And we just started handing things off to dudes who had come into the organization and who had just been hanging around, like Seth Davies, and then it clicked. Jesus handed off the future of the Church, I mean like the HISTORY of HIS CHURCH to these eleven chuckleheads that were His disciples. And we're like, "Yeah, dude. God used those chuckleheads, why can't he use US chuckleheads?!" And so it began, handing off leadership and giving people ownership. This isn't OUR ministry, it's God's. Hand it away. Trust that the Holy Spirit is working in and through all of us. He's got it handled.
How are you all reaching the local shred communities? Do you guys host events and meetings and invite whoever wants to come hang out?
Yeah, we run different types of meetings. Super loose and unstructured meetings for people just wanting to hang out, cause people always just wanna hang out in shred communities. And then others that we hope to have a little more structured.
Building relationships and "reaching out" to the local shred community is literally as easy as this: "Meet dudes on the hill. Love on them. Encourage them. Remember their name and invite them to free pie night or something." We just build relationships with people by trying to be selfless. People notice and will eventually ask questions. You earn the right to be heard, and more importantly you develop real, genuine relationships with people.
What's the response been like?
If people come in and believe, we get them plugged into a local church body and then we say, "Hey dude, you wanna help us setup the miniramp? Just show up a few minutes early on Sunday." If they show and they're stoked, we try to help get them dialed. Most people in these transient resort communities are looking for a community. They want purpose and to just be a part of something. We have dudes who come back every week who still don't believe in Jesus but they'll tell us, "You guys, this group of friends are unlike any other friends I've ever had. Like, I can rely on all you guys." We just try to love on people without an agenda. They know we love Jesus, and they know we love them. Sometimes they decide to believe. Some don't. But we're doing our best to fulfill "Love God, love others." I think that's our part, man.
What are your future goals and dreams for SFC USA and SFC Summit County?
Wow. Yeah, the FUTURE...silver suits and flying cars and interplanetary travels.
There you go with the sci-fi again
Haha sorry.
I think we see it getting bigger as we go. Naturally. We obviously hope to continue learning from our mistakes. We've always operated on this trial and error method where we go, "Hmm, this might work. Let's try it." And it doesn't and we go, "Let's never do that again." Or we fine tune it or whatever.
We ultimately recognize that God is the One who has made this thing grow and if we really believe that it's His ministry, we're going to continue doing what we know He's called us to and see where He takes us. I mean, we don't want to get so stuck in OUR plans that we miss His, you know?
It's easy to go, "Yeah WE need this thing to do this." And then we miss His still small voice and His promptings. Planning in ministry can be good and bad in that sense. When people ask me, I always go, "Well, this is where He's brought us, and on that trajectory, I guess it's going to this point, BUUUUT...we'll see, you know."
Any last words?
Last words...hmmm, Jesus is worth talking about. That's my new slogan. Well, that and, "It's adventure time." But I think I like the first one better.
Shout outs
I wanna shout out to Jesus and my wife VALuable. And can I shamelessly self-promote my sponsors, is this where I do that?
This is definitely where you do that
It's a Jesus thing that I even have sponsors. He's given us so much rad favor with so many rad people in the industry. It's such a blessing to do this shred thing with all these guys. All of the SFC chapter leaders who do selfless ministry in a thankless industry. Walter at ZION Snowboards who has been nothing but supportive of me and SFC all these years. Shawn G at VANS whose supportive still blows my mind. Floyd now at Me.Glad, shoot. What can you even say? BFF. Justine, the team manager, and the entire marketing crew at KEYSTONE who keeps me around for who knows what reason. Brad at VonZipper. Wow. So many people to thank and show love to...sorry you can cut me off.
The Station, the Livin It Alliance, JSAW, LASTCLCK (go register right now), freaking, uhh, Adam, Randy, Snowflex, Dean at Chrstian Surfers...man. So many people feed into this thing. Jesus has been so good to us to let us take the reigns on this and have so many good people be a part of it.
I'll stop now. I hope there is something in there that you can use