Summer Wilderness 2017

(​CEM’s annual 15-day backpacking trip serves as an opportunity for our students and interns to unplug from the responsibilities and distractions of daily life and experience the great outdoors. CEM has been leading wilderness backpacking trips since its inception over 40 years ago.)

​Read below for glimpses of how this 15-day backpacking trip in Tahoe National Forest with no toilet paper (and other essentials) rocked our world. Somedays we wanted to give in and give up, but instead we learned to look in and look up. To God be the glory.

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This trip has taught me how a family really takes care of each other through encouragement, patience, and honesty.

​- Anthony, student

The biggest thing this trip taught me was to keep pursuing God through failure.

​- Salena, intern 

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Bri races to the finish line, completing a 10K run, signifying the end of the 15-day trip.

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There were days where I would wake up exhausted and remember that I smell like a garbage can and realize today we’re going to climb up and over a mountain and I would just want to give up. In those moments I was really tested to either accept my situation and persevere or throw a fit and give up…There are always going to be things you don’t want to do in life and [doing them] just comes with growing up and gaining maturity.

- Kalah, student

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Austin takes up the rear as the group descends Old Man Mountain

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I went out on [the eight-hour] solo and took the advice someone told me. I was going to actually put my trust in God for the first time in my life and pray. I decided to just start writing prayers down, because I knew my mind would get distracted if I didn’t. I feel like that time was the first step to me starting to connect to God in a real way.

​- Kalani, student 

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Nate, Salena, Dorrie, and Anthony endured the frigid water to reach the end of the mine shaft.

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This was the first time that I have ever attempted running six miles...When I heard the cheering I knew for a fact that I could make it no matter how tired I was…

​- Dorrie. student

[Solo times] were the best time for me because I felt so intimate with God. It felt like He was sitting right next to me and I was talking to Him one-on-one.

​- Nate, student 

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Want to see more photos from the 2017 Summer Wilderness Trip? ​http://www.christianencounter.org/wilderness-trip-2017.html