FRIDAY - Our First Hike

Our first full day in Sedona began with a wake-up call at 6:30 am. By 7:30 we were out the door and on our way to our first hike. It was easy to see the advantage of going early, as the temperature was a lot cooler in the morning before the sun was high in the sky. We drove off the highway onto a very rugged back road, and then got out and began walking. James, our guide, was very knowledgeable about the land, it's history and its plant life, and we stopped frequently to learn about various things we were passing by. (Remember that you can enlarge any of these photos by double-clicking on them) The hike was to three different levels of the mesa. At the first, we spent some very special time sitting in some ruins under a huge overhand. It was the dwelling left behind, it is said, by the Senagua people who had lived here about 1500 years ago. It was an amazing place to be. Wendy led a teaching time in which we sat in silence for a while, and then put words to the most important questions they have for themselves. We wrote these down on bits of paper, shared them aloud, and then rolled them up and stuck them in the walls of the stone dwelling, like Jewish people do at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. We then continued on to the next level of the hike, up to a higher ledge. For this, we used ropes and grappling hooks to scale a rock face. James is an expert in guiding people through this process, and he brought a fellow guide named Greg to assist him. It was quite the challenge for some of us to scale the rock face, and called forth courage that we hadn't known we had. Once we were all up on the ledge, the view became even more awesome. After a bit of a rest, we then climbed to the third and final level - this time to another ruins that was also located beneath a giant overhang. This was our destination, where we rested, and ate our snacks. By this time the temperature was reaching about 100 F, so it was good to be in the shade of the overhang and to catch the breeze. While we were there, the Youth spotted some caves higher up and climbed up to explore them. It turned into quite a discovery! They found petrified corn cobs left behind by people centuries ago. They also followed the cave till it to them to another entrance down below in the side of the same cliff. Their finding represented a new discovery in the area, so everyone was suitably impressed with their accomplishment!The hike down was a long one (if you look closely, you can see our two vans far below on the bottom left). We stopped at a lookout where we could take in the complete panorama of the valley and its surrounding mesas. Truly breath-taking!!!When we finally got down to the vans, we were SO hot - the temperature was 40+, and the sun was baking us. We had to wait for everyone to get down from the mesas, so while we were waiting, several of us found the only bit of water in this whole, dry valley: it was a pool of water that had collected in a crevice during the last rainfall (whenever that was!) It was fairly brown water, and kind of slimy on the bottom, but such was our desperation to escape the scorching heat that some of us succumbed to temptation and waded in. Aaaahhh - it may not have been pristine, but it sure was cool!! The water was dyed with the colour of the rocks, so we didn't have to buy a t-shirt with that quality in town anymore. Crazy, but true! We ended the day with a meal we cooked for ourselves at the Church of the Red Rocks, a beautiful facility that the minister literally turned over to us to use in the evenings (more pix to come tomorrow). After our meal, we had a ceremony and a teaching while sitting outside the church on the hillside, overlooking Sedona and the various red rocks which surround it. Here we shared the Questions that we had generated earlier in the day, and then burned them in a ceremony using the candles of blessing which had been lit by the parents when we left Ottawa. This ceremony was a symbolic way of putting our personal questions into the hands of God, and by doing so, expressing our belief that a) ) it's possible to enter into a personal relationship with God, and b) that we have faith that God will always be there for us in that relationship. We then went on to discuss the importance of being active seekers in this relationship, and then shared some of the conditions we each felt we needed to be active seekers.

HALEY & EMMA’S GROUP LEADERS' REPORT
Today it was very hot. Believe it or not but it was 45°C! We went on a 5-hour hike on a trail called “Hole in the Rock.” It was given that name because of holes in a steep rock, made by Senagua people long ago. They are used for climbing. We all managed to safely climb the rock and some overcame great fears in doing this. We saw 2 ruins made by the Sanagua people about 1500 years ago. We found some broken pieces of pottery, which were used as tools. We also explored and discovered a small cave in a rock, where we found mummified corn. After the hike, some of us decided to go from a nice swim in a small hole full of very dirty water. It was that hot! After, we had never appreciated a shower so much before. We also had our first visit to the nice church that is letting us cook our food in it. The view from the sanctuary is beautiful.