GOAT (Great Outdoor Adventure Trips)

    ( May 1, 2012 )

  1. We wanted to share our newest shirt from The Mountain Goat (our climbing gym - if you haven’t checked it out yet, you should).

    Most basic climbing knots. But upside down. So you can look down to cheat.

    Clever, huh?

    get your own at store.goattrips.org!

    (Thanks to our dear friend, Matt Moreau for making it happen! We can’t take the credit for it)

    2. ( March 22, 2012 )

  2. Just planting seeds…

       

    Last summer Robbie, one of our interns, and I went on a backpacking trip in Panthertown Valley with a group of boys from a community center in Greenville. The boys we took on this three day backpacking trip were some of the older “veteran” students of the center’s summer program and considered leaders among their peers. Robbie and I went into the trip with this in mind and decided to go a little heavier on the challenge side of our theme for this trip. Our theme would be to teach the boys about how God has a history of leading his people into the wilderness to speak to them- to show them something about Himself or about themselves. From the very beginning of the trip, Robbie and I both saw the leadership qualities in these boys and the “potential” that their group leaders had been telling us about. We spent our time hiking through rhododendron tunnels, catching crawfish, sliding down waterfalls- interspersed with conversations about men like Moses, Elijah and Jacob who learned their purpose, regained their strength, or wrestled with God in the wilderness. We challenged them to seek out why God brought them out into the wilderness and what he might want to teach them, and we challenged them to step up as leaders in their community. We expected the boys to be giddy with excitement after spending the day exploring a waterfall, to open up to Robbie and me about being a leader in their community, and to respond to our challenge, but we really didn’t get this type of response from any of the boys. Mostly we got blank stares and awkward silences in our conversations, and we ended up spending a lot of time dealing with the boys complaints and arguments.  This was not how Robbie and I saw things shaping up for this trip, but this is one of the biggest lessons I’ve had to learn working with our kids- not to be results driven.

    Often I’ve found myself measuring our impact on these kids by how much tangible change I get to see while were are actually on the trip. I want to be the “harvester”- the one who gets to prayer the prayer with the kid who is accepting Christ as their savior or to be there when a kid realizes he doesn’t have to be a slave to sin. But I’ve learned that what a lot of our kids need is for seeds to be planted. This isn’t as glamorous or thrilling of a side to ministry as the “harvesting” often is, but what’s one without the other?

    A few weeks ago I was meeting with the leader of the community center that the group of boys that I went backpacking with last summer were from, and he shared something really surprising to me. As I said before, the group that went backpacking with Robbie and I are considered the leaders among the rest of the kids at the center and have been a part of the center for years, having the opportunity to have a lot of fun and exciting experiences. What their leader told me was that if you asked any one of the boys what their favorite activity or trip that they have experienced over the last few years was, they all say hands down it was the backpacking trip. He told me that eight months later they were still talking about the waterfalls, campfires and conversations we had on that trip. This was one of the most encouraging conversations that I have had with a group leader. To hear that - although we did not get to see fruits of our labor on that backpacking trip last summer - our time spent with those boys was still worth the effort.


    3. ( January 6, 2012 )
  3. Congrats to our own Program Coordinator, Joey, and his beautiful bride Kathryn on tying the knot this past Sunday!

    Congrats to our own Program Coordinator, Joey, and his beautiful bride Kathryn on tying the knot this past Sunday!

    4. This post has 14 notes ( December 8, 2011 )

  4. On Saturday, October 15th, we hosted our 3rd annual Cornhole Tournament at Cleveland Park. The proceeds from our event will help provide funding for our summer programs, which are coming up quickly! Thirty teams faced off against each other this year in the double-elimination tournament, hoping to win awesome prizes and of course, bragging rights. Prizes were provided by our awesome friends at Mountain Khakis, Smith, and Hydroflask. We also gave away free passes for the Mountain Goat and a cornhole set. After a few hours of intense face offs, it came down to the Carpenters, last year’s runners up, and Steve and Rebecca Yates, who came all the way from Pennsylvania for our tournament and were our third place finishers last years. (We take our cornhole seriously here at GOAT). In the end, the Carpenters won the tournament and bragging rights for a year. Thanks to everyone who came out! We had so much fun and we can’t wait to see how God uses your generosity to reach students in Greenville this summer.

    5. This post has 8 notes ( November 30, 2011 )
  5. There’s no way we could not post this photo. I mean, it’s got all the neccesities; GOAT sticker, jorts, axe.  Thanks so much for the shoutout, Jordan! Way to sport that GOAT sticker in style!  Need a GOAT sticker? Give us a shout on our facebook page, or twitter and we’ll put on in the mail!

    There’s no way we could not post this photo. I mean, it’s got all the neccesities; GOAT sticker, jorts, axe. 

    Thanks so much for the shoutout, Jordan! Way to sport that GOAT sticker in style! 

    Need a GOAT sticker? Give us a shout on our facebook page, or twitter and we’ll put on in the mail!

    6. This post has 8 notes ( October 18, 2011 )

  6. The bike shop is now finished! Hopefully you saw the video update on September 20th where Joey showed us around the bike shop and told us what was coming our way. If not, go check that out now and come back to this post. (We mean it. Go now).

    Back then it was just an empty room and now we’ve gotten all the bikes in, assembled, and up in the shop! Check out these pictures for your personal tour of our bike shop. 

    7. This post has 11 notes ( August 23, 2011 )
  7. A GOAT sighting of our good friend Yates saving the world in Bamyan Afghanistan.

    A GOAT sighting of our good friend Yates saving the world in Bamyan Afghanistan.

    8. This post has 15 notes ( August 1, 2011 )

  8. One of our most recent goodies - Have you ever been to an amusement park or whitewater rafting and they show you a cool photo of you on the ride or raft but then it costs a million dollars to keep the photo?

    Well we do that now, except it’s free. Every (ok, more like as many as possible) student who comes on a trip with us gets a photo of themselves in action before they’re even home from the trip. They print in this box in the bus on the way back. It’s like the future, except right now. Pretty cool, huh?

    9. ( July 18, 2011 )
  9. It’s true, we do raft in business wear here at GOAT. Props to Rachael for defining the style for our (future) female guides. Don’t mind that serious look on her face. Seriously though, what do you wear to work? It’s not like we’re about to show up to work in shorts and a t-shirt. 

    It’s true, we do raft in business wear here at GOAT. Props to Rachael for defining the style for our (future) female guides. Don’t mind that serious look on her face.

    Seriously though, what do you wear to work? It’s not like we’re about to show up to work in shorts and a t-shirt. 

    10. This post has 5 notes ( July 13, 2011 )
  10. The best part of a backpacking trip? Jesus, followed closely by a hamburger as soon as you get out of the woods. Yea, that’s how we roll.

    The best part of a backpacking trip? Jesus, followed closely by a hamburger as soon as you get out of the woods. Yea, that’s how we roll.

    11. This post has 3 notes

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The high mountains belong to
the wild goats.
Psalm 104:8