A Holsby Adventure
By Hilary Wiebe (Holsby student 2014-15)
On our third week of Bible school we were sent on an adventure into the wilderness of Sweden. One day of hiking and one day of canoeing. We spent one night camping at a site not far from the school. We were split up into four groups. Two groups went at a time while the other two stayed and had lectures.
The hiking portion of the trip required us to orienteer ourselves to the campsite. The majority of it was on paths, but there were times when we were required to bushwhack and completely rely on our leader’s ability to use a compass and map to get us there. Our actual staff leaders, however, were giving us the responsibility to guide ourselves through the forests and I think all of the groups ended up getting lost for at least a brief amount of time. I’m not going to say that those two things necessarily had anything to do with each other; they’re just the facts. It’s all the better if we wandered off a bit though, because Sweden is one of those places where you can go anywhere and it’s all beautiful scenery. The hike lasted about five hours, so not only was it a good time to get to know some of the people in our groups better, but there was also time to walk quietly and just admire God’s wonderful creation.
The canoeing part of the trip was a little longer than the hike, or at least time wise. It took about six or seven hours. We had two people per canoe, but we all tried to stay close so that we could travel as a group. Our journey took us through lakes, canals, and a few incredibly rocky places, which required expert steering to get through. Of course not all of us are experts, but we all managed and amazingly no one tipped their canoe out of all the groups! We also had to portage a few times on our trip; that wasn’t a big deal, at least for my group, because we had some excellent teamwork going on. Once again we got to see even more of the picturesque land in which we are living.
The two groups split up between hiking one day and canoeing the other, but for the night we all camped together at Aspödammen, which is a lake about a 45-minute walk from campus. The hikers arrived first and set up the tents and not long after the canoeing people arrived. After a long day of adventuring we had a lovely hot supper brought to us. The next morning we were off again to continue on our journey. When we got back at the end of the second day we were all happy to be back at Holsby in our comfortable dorms. Overall it was tiring trip, but the time we got to spend with each other and with God’s handiwork made it a wonderful experience and gave us some good memories to look back on for the rest of our time together.
