Lean Forward

Lean forward. Let your momentum carry you off the platform. And trust the zip line.

With these words I was able to encourage the students at Alliance Redwoods to ride our zip line; to encounter risks as well as rewards. Watching kids trust the zip line, watching them learn to trust themselves was the most encouraging, most fulfilling piece of my work as an Outdoor Educator. Hearing their screams of panic and regret turn to shouts of joy and delight was my absolute favorite part of the job.

Of course not every student was encouraged to take the “leap” off the platform by those words. Others needed to know the science and math of our cables and trolleys before they could muster the courage to leave the platform.

Most of our students however were unimpressed by the physics of their body in relationship to the pull of the trolley or the numbers that showed the reliability of our cables. Most students needed more encouragement to justify the risk of leaving a platform perched sixty feet in the air.

When this happened I knelt down next to them and said, “Bravery is not about being unafraid. It is about doing something even when you are afraid.” Most times these words provided the courage the students needed to experience the zip line.

When this happened I often heard the voice of the Lord asking me, “And what about you? Are you willing to be brave and trust me?”

My answer to the questioning of my God was, “I am at work. Can we talk later?”

But God is persistent.

After three years at Alliance it was clear that the next step God had for me was seminary.

However, there wasn’t much else that was clear. I simply knew that I needed to “Lean forward and trust God.” I did learn that I had been accepted into North Park.  I learned that there was a family in Chicago that I knew and who were willing to meet me at the airport, take me in for a night, and feed me.

After four years in Chicago I graduated from North Park Theological Seminary. I found places in Chicago where I could be completely myself. I found people who accepted me as I am.  What I didn’t find was a job. 

And so now I once again find myself in a place where there isn’t much that is clear. I am back in a place where I need to “Lean forward and trust God.”

As it turns out I know a family in Texas who is willing to take me in and feed me. My brother and his wife recently bought a house outside Houston and have graciously allowed me to move in with them.

On Novemeber 1st, I loaded my car with all of my earthly possessions and drove from Chicago to Texas. My desire is still to work for a church in the ECC and I am pursuing that goal. But until that becomes a reality I will be in Houston pursuing what God has for me in this time.

--Serving Him alongside all of you, just from further away
 --Jesse Letourneau

Back in the day:
Addie wasn't one who needed help leaving the platform