Trust Fall

As you read this, a group of around 50 children are out at Tshimakain Creek Camp near Ford, Washington, having fun, experiencing God’s creation and learning through relationship what it means to trust. One of the activities on the camp’s challenge course, in fact, is called the “trust fall.” Children and their leaders take turns standing on a four-foot platform and falling backward into the arms of their cabin mates. Four feet is higher than it sounds when all that stands between you and the hard, rocky ground is eight, squirrely, 11-year-old boys. Can you trust them? Will they catch you?

Trust can be a risky proposition – not only for kids at camp, but for the men and women who enter our recovery programs, as well. They’ve been disappointed and betrayed by people they should have been able to trust.

This month’s newsletter focuses on the portion of our purpose statement that says “so they may become God-dependent.”  In order to depend on someone – whether it’s catching you as you fall or supporting you on your life journey – you need to be able to trust them. Are you familiar with the old hymn, “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”? The last verse goes like this: “What have I to dread, what have I to fear, leaning on the everlasting arms? I have blessed peace with my Lord so near, leaning on the everlasting arms.” The everlasting arms are arms into which you can fall without fear. God can be trusted. That’s the message we want the men and women in our recovery programs to grasp and cling to.

Michael Morrison graduated from UGM’s recovery program last June and went off to culinary school. He was doing extremely well when he hit a big bump: the woman to whom he was engaged broke things off. Michael was devastated, and as he recently confessed to staff, his first response was to turn to a familiar pain reliever – alcohol. He relapsed, but the important thing is what happened next. Instead of staying stuck in his addiction, Michael pressed into God. He got on his knees and poured out his heart. He reminded himself of important truths about God’s love. He contacted friends at the Mission and let them know he was hurting. Things did not immediately get better, but Michael has continued to lean, lean, lean on the everlasting arms, and day by day, God is providing the strength, the encouragement, the healing he needs.

All of us will face trials and crises of one kind or another, but rather than turning back to old addictions, we want our graduates to become God-dependent.  Thank you for partnering with us to teach and model what it means to “lean on the everlasting arms” in the course of daily life.