An hour and a half of driving, 9 cars, God's amazing landscape, and fifty-some people and I find myself beginning, for about my 8th year in a row, our annual Beaver Creek hike! This past saturday we took our largest group ever to a fun hike into a box canyon with cliff jumping and swimming just east of Sedona. While hikes are a fun break from the normal day-to-day campus life and everyone loves the adrenaline rush of throwing yourself from a rock ledge into the crisp cool water, the real joy is found in the relationships that are formed and strengthened during these shared experiences. Whether its the student leader who spends two hours hiking discussing who Jesus is and what he did for us with the Hindu student, or the new freshman who has felt completely alone at ASU having her first real conversations and finding her first real friends at college in a group she heard of for the first time only a week before, Beaver Creek always proves to be more than "just a hike". If you want to get a chance to know someone I say take a walk. If you want to get to know them well and have deep, meaningful conversation, make it a 3.5 mile walk (each way) set in the backdrop of a beautiful arizona canyon with a great place to swim and hang out in the middle of it all.
