Pa Blankenagel - Trek Day 1: Gathering

** Sarah "Ma" and I spent last weekend on a Pioneer Trek, pushing handcarts across mountainous terrain with a "family" of youth ages 14 to 18.  We carried absolutely no electronic devices.  Thus there are no pictures to share at this time, but a camera crew did document the event, and we expect to see (and share) the result in November.  In the mean time, we'll try to describe a few experiences.

We've been preparing for the trek for some time now.  We went to a couple of training meetings to receive basic instructions on first aid, preventative care, and dutch oven cooking.  A list of equipment needs was provided, and in the week leading up to the trek we finally got around to filling the list.  We even contracted my mother to come care for our children while we were gone.

On the first day of Trek, Sarah and I loaded our gear and made our way to the church.  We went to our family meeting room and waited to meet our children.  They came in one at a time.  I'd say they seemed a little apprehensive, but generally ready for adventure.  A couple of them were all smiles, and that became contagious.  Soon it was time to move to the opening devotional, but we were still missing one of the nine children, Miranda.  We sat down at the front of the chapel, and then I went out to the sign-in area to find out about our missing child.  No word yet. 

At the end of the devotional, we sang "Come, Come Ye Saints".  As we started the 4th verse the first line struck me:  And should we die, before this journey's through...  We were already missing someone from our family.  She was extremely close to making it to what promised to be an amazing spiritual experience, but had not made the cut.  I choked up.  Which was a sign of things to come.  Honestly, I knew this was going to be a spiritual weekend, but for it to start with such emotion shocked me!

Then what joy...as we boarded the bus, Miranda found us!  We hadn't even left town, and failure was overcome.  I know, I know...silly little occurrence, but it meant a lot to have everyone there.