Hike to the Lava Caves - "Can we stay longer?"
Visiting the Lava Caves was an exciting adventure with a lot of new views of nature and God!
Hike Theme: Apostles Fire 🔥
In this session, the boys learned about the fire of the Holy Spirit, what it is and what it helps us do in our lives as believers. They learned how powerful the ‘Fire of God’ as we witnessed firsthand with the real-life fire tunnels the lava carved into a caves . Our hike was a big prophetic act of experiencing the fire of the Holy Spirit. Everyone shared testimonies about the Holy Spirit and we talked about Pentecost in Acts 2:
"When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. "
A Cold Start
We started our hike in a light rain with a lot of clouds on a hill. We hiked down into the valley in Lassen through the a pretty green landscape of flowers, bushes and trees. Seeing the first lava rocks stirred up excitement for what lay ahead!
Entering the valley
It was impressive to see the lava rocks that had floated in 100 years ago through the valley after the eruption of the volcano, Mount Lassen. We saw the power of God present in nature. If God created the fire of a volcano that carved this entire landscape, how much more power do we have with his firey Holy Spirit living inside of us?
Arriving at the Cave
After 2.5 miles we found the cave after making a way through some bushes. The boys saw the spectacular entrance of the cave which fit the size of more than 100 of people. After a fun climbing session down and over the lava rocks we entered the cave. The boys discovered a lot of new things from ice pillars to small caves and special rocks. The excitement was big and it felt like we could stay many more hours exploring the area.
We prayed for the Holy Spirit to fill us right there where we were in a real fire tunnel that God created 100 years ago with the lava from Lassen's volcano
Hike back
On the hike back the boys were looking forward to making a fire. The goal in mind kept us going all the way back to the parking lot.
A Firey Finish
Building a fire and grilling some sausages was a lot of fun for us and felt like a big reward after a 5 mile hike. Some of the meat fell in the fire, 😅but most of it made it into their bellies. The boys enjoyed hanging around the fire and eating the sausages.
Overall it was a really fun adventure going after the apostles fire! And to top things off on the drive back, DG volunteer, Dillon,
led us in worship on his guitar. We felt Gods peace on the drive back home and the boys were already eager for be next hike.