Of Motorcycles and Jellyfish

Kristen Au

This past weekend, the CFC interns had a chance to relax and wind down from several weeks of conferences by spending time at a California ranch. The Walter family invited the whole team down to their huge ranch in Carmel, CA for a few days, where we had an amazing time.

On the night we arrived, we piled into the Walter’s Jeep and pick up truck and drove up to one of the highest points on their ranch. There we spent nearly an hour looking up at the stars, locating constellations, and simply enjoying the pleasant breeze in God’s wonderful world. The whole night was entirely unforgettable.

The next morning, the team was able to sleep in until 9AM when the day’s tightly scheduled activities began. The girls and guys faced off in several timed events. First, we learned how to use the ranch’s backhoe to transport a watermelon from one location to another. The guys had the clear win in this race. Then, we got to practice our motorcycle skills and had to drive a figure-8 around three cones. This time the girls won. During all the competitions, we took turns speeding around the ranch on the Walter’s four-wheelers. After lunch, we had a chance to swim, attempt to shoot squirrels, and search for fossils at the top of one of the hills. We had great success and came away with several fossils for all our work.

In the evening, the team had the opportunity to give a presentation about the ICC and CFC. The Walters had invited some (okay, more like 50) of their friends over to the ranch to meet us. Following a fabulous dinner, we put on a hour-long presentation about what we do. We were also able to present parts of the Evening Program for them. Once the program was over, we hung out with everybody there and had some amazing conversations, not to mention the scrumptious desserts.

We were pretty tired that night, but didn’t want to miss Tuesday’s activities. So, the next morning we drove over to Carmel and Monterey. The team broke up into smaller groups as we toured the city with the Walters. We were able to spend time out on the beach and got to visit the aquarium in Monterey. We were completely fascinated by watching the jellyfish and decided it was our hands-down favorite exhibit.

After a good three days of rest and rejuvenation, the CFC team headed out on Wednesday morning, thoroughly renewed and pumped for our add-on performance of the Evening Program in Texas. We are so thankful to the Walters for sharing their home and time with us and so humbled to see the way God blessed us with a lovely few days in Carmel Valley, California.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 6:48 pm and is filed under Conference Tour 2009. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.