It seems like every time I go out on any adventure the craziest stuff happens to me. I have an ability to find myself in the funniest and precarious predicaments.  Saying that it leads me to one of the crazier stories I have had yet.
Yesterday my outreach team was in Dawson Creek, BC Canada.  Our hosts wanted to take our team out quading on ATV’s.  I grew up riding quads but we mostly used them for work. Well quading in Canada is a big deal. I was a bit nervous going out as I had a feeling I might get myself in a dangerous or awkward situation. I had no idea how true that would soon be. We loaded 5 quads on trailers and headed for the trails.  It was about 6 when we started riding so not a lot of daylight but we wanted to make the best of it.  I was doing pretty good, and enjoying my time.  Everyone was riding through these big muddy water holes and getting mud everywhere. I tried to ride the edges to avoid the huge mud holes as I did not find it as exhilarating as some.  We started to head back to the trucks and it was getting darker. As we headed back to the trucks we took a different way then we came and I was starting to realize that the mud bogs where getting bigger and deeper and I could no longer avoid them as there was no other way to get around.  I was doing pretty good and still avoiding getting completely muddy.  I was thinking “hey I got this”. Some of others started getting stuck in the mud and we would have to stop to use a wench to pull their quads out.  The farther we went down the trail the more intense it got. I had it in four wheel drive and  was making it but I saw another quad that was pretty stuck so I just gunned it and flew past trying to keep my momentum going to avoid getting stuck.  So now I was ahead of everyone trying to find safe ground before stopping. As I was flying through I noticed right ahead was a mud bog and I tried to just plow through it, but the moment I hit the mud my quad sunk. Instantly I was stuck and sinking fast. The mud came up higher and higher. I started yelling for help but no one was paying attention as they where all behind me and busy.   I am not really sure what I was thinking at this point, but in the moment in my mind made sense. I decided to bail so the quad did not sink any farther. As I stepped of the quad and into the mud I instantly sunk. I am now in front of my machine sinking and rather quickly. I was being sucked down and I could do nothing to free myself or stop it from happening. So here I am sunk in the mud up to my thighs. I start yelling for help but no one comes. I try to stay calm thinking in my mind “how the heck am I going to get out of this”. It was cold, I started trying to wiggle around but as I did I started sinking more. I yelled out for help again, but the only think I knew to do as this point to pray. I did, I was like “please Jesus, I am really needing some help right now.” My imagination started to kick in as I was thinking of being hauled out by a wench or worse I did not know how this would ever work. I slowly sank for about  10 min alone in the mud and panic started to set in as I pictured all this stuff in my mind. I started to feel my legs and feet camping up. Pain was shooting through me. I had to wiggle but it made the sinking worse. After awhile my friend Anna who lives in Dawson Creek came to help. When she saw me the look on her face really started worrying me. As she stood there I sunk another 6 inches right in front of her  now up to my waste and I am scared. She sees me sinking before her eyes and starts yelling for help and she is telling me not to move. The pain, cold and panic is intensifying.  I am telling Anna that is pretty bad and I notice my mouth is going dry and I am starting to feel funny. By then Art (Anna’s dad) come over with his quad. He starts running to help and Anna’s is yelling “no dad you can’t go near her or you will sink”. They both look pretty worried and that makes me scared.  They are standing about 7 feet or more away and can’t get any closer. Art gets a tree and lays on his belly and extends it out to me. He says “Amy you have to lay backwards and roll out.” I was like ‘uh that is not happening as I can’t bend backwards and I am already up to my waste”. Now remember the longer I am in the mud its sucking in more and more and my legs are being squeezed by the suction and the cramping is intensifying. I am trying not to panic and not focus on the pain. Anna and Art are trying to keep my calm so I stop sinking.  I tell him I can’t bend backwards so he says I have to go frontwards. I was like “are you sure?” He says it is, so I bend forward face down in the mud but I can’t put my hands out as my arms would just sink. No my legs are strait down and my torso is flat in the mud. I reach out with both arms for the tree that Art extended to me and I started pulling myself as hard as I could. Now realize that there are lots of sound effects. One is of me gasping from the cold mud that I am laying in and others are groaning and heaving from pulling with all my might as well as shrieks of panic. Also while this is going on. behind me is the rest of my team trying to get out of another whole and have no real idea there outreach leader is sinking in mud.  I pull with my arms and wiggle my legs and slowly, very slowly I get my legs free. Now I am laying in the mud face down and Art tells me I have to start rolling but I can’t use my arms.  I am heaving to the side to try and get the momentum to roll through this mud. I finally make one turn and somewhere in all of this I tell Anna I think I will loose my pants. Ha, but at that point I did not care what article of clothing might be left behind as long as I was not.  Very slowly I rolled from front to back through this mud. Anna stepped out to help and her leg sunk, so as I laid next to her I had to help her free her foot and I rolled to safety. I was shaking and gasping and I think a little in shock, but I was thankful to be out and miraculously still clothed . I lay in the weeds and was crying out in pain as my feet where so cramped up. By this time some of the others where making it around and one of my students Ben runs over to me as I am laying in the grass covered from head to toe in mud and crying out in pain. I got my shoe off and he is trying to help me get the cramp out of my foot but its not working and I am still to weak to walk. Finally I am able to stand and guess what I do next? I jump back on my quad and try to make it out.  I got stuck two more times but never like that.  The adrenaline going through my body was so intense!  As we gathered around the table later that night I hear that all the years of the locals quading no one had ever seen anything like that. At first I did not think it was that funny but I knew in the back of my mind this would make for a good story! So today I am so sore I can barley walk. I find that when my mind wonders throughout the day it keeps going back to being stuck in the mud and what could have happened. I am thankful to only be sore!  

Out of the Fire and Fragrance school from the University of the Nations, Youth With A Mission Kona, Hawaii comes a  group of four (Amy Sollars, Jaimie Stickland, Josh Harmsworth, and Ben Peterson). We are about to embark on outreach for two and half months to Northern Canada, Alaska, Washington and Oregon. On September 16, 2009 we fly to Seattle, Washington from Kona, Hawaii. There we will get a van and drive through Canada into Alaska an then back to Washington/Oregon.  

Our vision for our school is :  Revival and reformation in the nations of the earth through intentional communities centered around valuing the presence of God through worship, intercession, and passion for Jesus! Imagine the transforming power of the gospel being lived out through communities living a life of deep devotion on an individual and corporate level flowing into anointed outreach in the hearts of individuals and spheres of society! The marriage of gazing and going, the monastic and the missional, communion and dominion, fire and fragrance.

Our Vision for our outreach is: Our vision for out school is the marriage of the prayer and missions together. This outreach is the living out of that.  Our heart as a team is to have gatherings of prayer and worship in key locations to cry out for the purposes of God for that town/village and state. We want to go into the community and release the Kingdom of God through prayer, worship, evangelism, prophecy, healing, releasing the love of Jesus.  We feel called to come along side things that God is doing already in different locations and fan the flame anyway we can. We believe a lot of what we will be doing is rekindling the flame in the places we go. We believe as we go and follow the leading of the Lord there will be many divine appointments with people to bring encouragement and life.

We would like to invite friends, families and supporters to be apart of this journey with us through this blog. We will be updating it with pictures and videos as we go along.

We are still in the process of raising funds. We will start our journey in faith believing the Lord will bring in all the finances we need even as we go. If you are wanting to sow into this outreach financially please donate to the pay pal account, if you don't wan to do it this way e-mail me and I will give you further instructions!

We also really want you all to partner with us in prayer as we go on this journey. We would love e-mails and encouragement's along the way.  [email protected]