Back in the U.S. of A

Greetings To All:

Whew! After a total of 40+ hours in airplanes and three weeks away from Kathy and Dakota I am finally home in Salem again. On the whole, the trip was nothing like what I thought it might be. Of course we worked a lot. Of course it was hard to communicate (but the translators we had were very good.) Of course it was hard to be away from my family for that long. My overall review of the trip to Russia is: it certainly was successful. When our team of three left here we had an idea of what we wanted to accomplish. When we got to Kamchatka we were able to see what we actually had to work with. In the time we were there we were hoping to set ten telephone poles, hook a lot of steel cable up to them, and design a flowing, teamwork-building, challenging element. All of it was successful!

Did you know that God cares about the little things you ask Him for? I am a witness to that truth. Before we left here we were planning on digging all of the holes for the poles and then having to set the 31' poles by "hand." What else could we do about the situation but pray? So pray we did. Upon arriving at the YWAM base in Kamchatka we discovered that their base had been blessed with a small tractor, which we used for clearing the land and moving the poles. Some one had blessed the base with the tractor only about two weeks before we got there. Also, a different person asked if he could leave his excavator on their base for a while, and oh, they could use it if they wanted. That, too, happened only about a week before we got there. Do I need to mention how much labor those two machines alone saved us? Here's the best part: they also found a guy with a drilling truck and lift to come and dig and set the poles for us! What we thought would take us the better part of a week to accomplish was taken care of in only three hours! All of us were so thankful for the blessing. The time we saved on that labor turned out to be very valuable. In that part of the country, they don't have ready access to the hardware that we do here. We had to plan a lot more carefully how to use the few supplies that we were able to take over while conforming to airline luggage weight regulations. When it was all said and done We started and completed nine high elements and one low element. Eight of the high elements were done as a circuit arranged in a spoke and wheel fashion. The ninth was a stand alone element. Those highs were completed at noon on Wednesday before the Saturday that we left. The low game, which was not in the original plan, was finished in a half of day. So, we even had time to train the people there and to have a couple of groups go on the course. In one day we had any one from a twelve yr. old boy to a sixy-five yr. old woman go up in the air on the circuit. Every one really enjoyed it. The work that we did will be used to bring more people to the base and open them up to hear about trust, faith, God, and Jesus. I believe that the blessings already given to build the course are only the beginning of the all the blessings God wants to give to the people of YWAM base in Kamchatka in this ministry. His hand was definitely in this project.

Our final days in Russia were spent in Moscow. We stayed at friends' apartment. Jeff, Petra, and I got a chance to see the city for a couple of days. So, we went to Red Square, Arbat Street, and saw some other sights as we were driven to and from the airport. The city is definitely a mixture of old and new. And they are often right beside one another: old, plain, communist-style concrete apartments adjacent to modern skyscrapers. The old times may be "gone", but there are constant reminders everywhere.

I want to say thank you to all who supported me/us in this experience. I want you to know that your prayers were certainly felt. And, even though I don't know what exactly you prayed for, I am confident that some of your prayers were indeed answered. Will an opportunity like this happen again? I can't say for sure. But I hope if one does that we can have your support again.

My hope for you is that you will ask God for something that you think "isn't worth His time." He cares about every thing about you. He even tells us in His Word to ASK! Please, seek His help.

God's Blessings To You:

Carson, Kathleen, Dakota

You Are You

Greetings To All:

Well, as is par for the course, it's been another month since our last update. Where does the time go? How have you been? We've been doing well. The Ropes Course has been busy recently. Just recently we had our annual inspection from an outside source. Although there is nothing serious that needs to be fixed, we do have a couple of days of work ahead of us. The main things will be replacing cable connectors that have been worn down. This will be good practice and skill development for me right before I leave for Russia. It's hard to believe that next week on the 22nd I'll be headed for Russia. A lot of time will be spent flying. Does anybody have a sure-fire way to get bumped up to first class without paying a dime? Please forward your suggestions to me.

One thing on my mind lately has been our uniqueness; each of our individuality. Isn't it amazing that God created each and every one of us, and yet no two people are exactly alike? What do you suppose He is trying to tell us? What about this: "Live out your walk with Me (God) the way I have called you to." I agree that it is okay to share similarities with others, but I believe that we are not called to walk just like other people and deny our God-given individuality. When I surrendered my life to God, I surrendered it to Him, not to anybody who would come along and give me suggestions on how to follow Him. Each of us is called by our Father to deny ourselves, which is to live a selfless, serving, humble, loving life. I believe that we can each deny ourselves (deny our sinful nature) while living out of and from our God-given individuality. Why else would He have created us so? If you have any answers let me know.

This past July 2nd marked four years of marriage to my BEAUTIFUL and loving wife, Kathleen. I firmly believe that God answered my prayers and desires for a wife in her. We have both grown from and through our marriage. (You know, that whole iron sharpens iron thing.) Life certainly has been exciting for us. Especially the past year and a half. Getting ready for the move to Salem to do the DTS and life during and since the DTS has been unpredictable. God knows every day of our lives before we are even born. HE holds the cards, I wish He would show me some once in a while. As wild and unpredictable as the past year has been, I wonder what this next year will bring.

To celebrate our anniversary we drove to Seattle. Jeff has a sister that lives there with her family. He arranged for us to stay at their house. So we had really nice free lodging, which was nice. The morning of the Fourth we headed into town and saw the sights: Pike Place Market, the Space Needle, and Ivars. We were told not to leave Seattle without trying Ivars' clam chowder. So we did. We also tried Pike Place Chowder; it was a two-chowder day. Life was good. Oh, and somehow that darn little guy with the hard hat and blue pants tagged along again. Where will he turn up next?

Thanks again for reading my blurbs. We look forward to hearing from you.

God's Blessings To You,

Carson, Kathleen, Dakota

Greetings To All:

Laughing Red Ligers...

Greetings Everyone...okay, so I haven't written in a while, so I decided that I would take these few moments that I have during Dakota's naptime to say 'HELLO' and to tell you a little about my life the past couple of days. The 1st picture here is of a group from the University of Oregon and they are doing an opening activity that we do with most groups who come here for a teambuilding experience. We divide them into 2 (or more) groups and then we place two bags of materials in front of them and we ask them to make THE tallest chicken tower possible, it has to be free-standing, with the chicken on top. They have 5 minutes to do this and one rule is that everyone has to be involved. What happens is that the activity 'immediately' turns into a competition. When everyone is done and each team is conviced that they have the best chicken tower, we pull everyone together and we ask them again what the rules were that we gave. They repeat and then we ask them "what would have happened if your 2 groups would have worked TOGETHER"?. It's so fun to see people 'get it' when they realize that they could have pooled their resources and worked together. We use this opening activity to help them to see that we can accomplish more together than we can competing against each other. We use a term called 'coopetition', which is competition and cooperation put together and that is what we like to teach people who come to work with us.

The picture on the left is a sign built by one of our facilitators; we have several different signs posted throughout our wooded course.

Dakota's 3 year old pictures (3)

This is a picture of the group that I had the priviledge of working with on Saturday (yesterday) for 4 1/2 hours. They were from the Casa De Belen Homeless/Transitional home in Roseburg, Oregon, 3 hours away. Their director contacted us several weeks ago and asked if we would be willing to work with their group of teenagers and our director immediately said 'YES' and then asked if I would work with the group. With fear and trembling I said 'yes' as well, since I have little to NO experience working with troubled, nonetheless, homeless kids. Our staff, Kevin, Petra, and myself bonded very quickly with these kids and their staff and we had a great afternoon together. We talked about trust, serving each other, working together, putting others above yourself, and encouraging each other. I had to step out of my 'comfort zone' (which is what we teach others to do when they come here) to lead this group, but I have to say that God gave me wisdom and guidance and helped me every step of the time with these kids. We are looking at possibly taking a trip to visit their shelter/home in the future to work with the mothers of these teens and to connect with the teens and the volunteers of the home again.

Look for our June Newsletter, we will be sending it out really soon. We'd love to hear from you and find out about your lives!!!

She's Three!!!

Greetings To All:

So, how have you been? Isn't it nice that we can sit, pour a cup of coffee, and catch up? It seems like we have not been able to do that as much recently. Oh, no thanks, I drink mine black. See? It's been a while; you even forgot how I like my coffee. Sitting is something that we haven't been doing that much of lately. But, with my training done and Kathy having finished the operations manual, life has returned to a "normal" pace. I paranthesised normal because we are still busy on the course.

Today we had 37 seventh graders for most of the day. I think we were all hoarse after that day. Can anyone guess how many times we had to remind them to "Listen Up!"? I lost count. Have you, in your adult life, ever heard that mystical voice telling you to "Listen Up!"? I sure have. Sometimes I get so excited about what God is doing in my life that I start to lose focus on where the excitement originates. Last summer during our DTS we read a book that pointed out an example of this. Our founder was praying for a large ship for a mercy ship ministry. When he finally got it, he immersed himself in making that ministry work that he forgot who provided the ship (God.) And soon the ship ministry went under (not literally.)

I personally have been so excited about being called to China in the long run. I would imagine waking up everyday to the sound of the bussling Beijing streets, rubbing elbows with the Chinese on the bus or subway, and bringing light into a dark place. But that's not the whole picture. What our calling is really about is God. It's about obeying Him and fulfilling His desires for us. The bottom line is: we can't do anything without Him. When I miss hearing His voice, it could quite possibly be because I've forgotten to listen. I get so wrapped up in making decisions about what He has told me, that I forget He told me. HE has called us, He has not forgotten us, He will lead us to the next step when He says we are ready.

Shifting gears a little bit. I have an exciting opportunity! Jeff, our team leader, has been invited to build additional high elements on a YWAM ropes course in Kamchatka, Russia. Jeff would like me and two other people from different countries to join him. I feel honored that he would ask me. He has a large pool of experienced builders from which to draw, but he asked me. No plans have been set, and no costs have been laid. But he would like to do the building for two to three weeks beginning the last week of July of this summer. Please pray with us that this opportunity is one I should take. (Kathy and Dakota would not be going along.) We want to know this is not from Jeff, but from God.

Dakota Mei Hershberger is THREE years old!!! We can hardly believe it. The teeny tiny bundle of legs and head that was born unto us is now three years old and sooo big. She continues to amaze us with her intelligence and hypnotize us with her cuteness. We simply marvel at her existence. All that encounter her know that she certainly has a strong presence about her. And we thank God that she has been and remains healthy. Kathy made a slew of delicious cupcakes for her birthday celebration with people on the base. We gathered picnic tables outside of our house and celebrated outside on a pleasant evening. All of Dakota's friends showed up: Jasmine, Maya, and Naomi. Drew and Isaac Beachy were unable to attend because they are currently out of state. Dakota misses playing with Drew. One of Dakota (and our) older friends, Marina, played "Happy Birthday" on her violin. That was a special surprise. (That is the video accompanying this entry.) Dakota had an enjoyable third birthday and went to bed a tired girl.

Thank you all for remembering us and seeing how we're doing. Please email or snailmail us to let us know how you are doing. Yes, I would like a refill. Oh, chust half, it's getting late.

God's Love And Blessings To You,

Carson, Kathy, Dakota

Gorgeous Blue Cheetahs!

Greetings To All:

So I sit down to write on this typical Oregon Spring day and wonder what is going on with each one of you. So? What is happening in your lives? Okay, okay, slow down, one at a time. I can't hear what one person has to say when everyone is speaking at the same time.

We have been seeing an unusual slow time in the Ropes Course schedule. However, we did have some groups come through this past week. We had a wide variety of people from sixth graders to high schoolers to "at-risk" kids from an alternative school to the boys & girls club kids. Yesterday some of our team, I (carson) went along, went to a HUGE church near Portland to train some of their summer camp counselors to play some games and to talk with the campers in an effective way. That three hour long program was for 200 people.

Apart from the games that we taught, which are fun, we taught the counselor/workers how to look at their camp in a different way. One lesson we teach people that come here or have us bring some games to them is how to promote a win/win result for all involved. Instead of making every possible thing a competition (as Westerners are so prone to do), we ask how can everyone come out ahead. And no, we don't mean that in the "you finished tenth out of ten people, but you're still a winner" way. We encourage people to work together to achieve a unified goal into which everyone participated and helped. And therefore everyone enjoys the reward. There can be smaller contests in which groups "compete" against each other, but in doing so they are still working toward the common goal. Why MUST there be a designated loser? (If you can answer that in 500 words or less, please write me and let me know.) An example of this on a small scale is how we have groups pick a team name. Some of them pick an adjective, some a color, and some an animal. When they combine the three they have a team name. Everyone participated, and everyone was working toward the same goal. The title of this entry is one team name that I worked with, and, no, I did not pick "blue" for them.

After talking with my mom the other day I realized that what we do is not clear for some of you. If you would like a better understanding of the course we work on you can go to ywamsalem.org and click on programs and select Ropes Course. There is a video that you can watch. Careful, the first couple of seconds may trigger an epileptic seizure. Enjoy. I'll also try to post some selected pictures with this blog.

Kathy has been working with our team leader and another teammate in restructuring our training manual for the ropes course. When finished this manual will be used for all YWAM Ropes Courses around the world. To date, those locations are in Germany, Latvia, Russia, Brazil, and of course the US. It's been quite the process. Jeff, our leader, is glad to have Kathy on the team, especially during this time. He is utilizing her computer organizational skills. She is doing a wonderful job!

What else has been keeping us busy? Not potty training. And it seems that we have an "open door" house. People seem to drop in at any time of the day. And it's not always the same people. We enjoy the company. When the same people drop in, it gives us a chance to get to know them more and to speak into their lives. Since Easter I have made ten cheesecakes! Five of them were for our base's Easter Dinner, and this past weekend I made five more for a Friends of All Nations (FAN) fundraising bake sale. I take it as a compliment that Virginia, a leader of the FAN team, personally asked for the cheesecakes. Her team makes lunch for us every Tuesday, and she is a phenomenal cook. The FAN team makes a different ethnic meal each time. Virginia gets most of her recipes from Extending the Table and More with Less cook books (Lynette S., you would be familiar with some of the recipes she's used.)

The pictures are of some of the activities on the course. And, as always, a Dakota picture for her adoring fan club. If ever there is a three year old, a spoon, and a tub of ice cream make sure you also have a camera.

As always, thank you for taking time from your day and seeing what we are doing. And please feel free to leave comments and/or send us emails.

God's Blessings To You,

Carson, Kathy, Dakota

The Season Has Begun!

Greetings To All:

Break out the raincoats and life rafts: it's springtime in Oregon! So, what is new with you? We have been busy with our training and leading the first groups of the season throuh the Ropes Challenge Course.

The most challenging part of the training for me (Carson) is learning how to help the participants apply what they experience to their various aspects of their lives. We don't sit down and talk with them one-on-one, but after each element or game they play we have debriefing time. We try not to have it last more than five minutes, but if they are receiving good insight into their lives, we won't cut them off. The main goal of the elements are: teamwork, trust, communication, balance, focus, goal-setting, and perspective. We, as facilitators, help the participants to put describe, observe, and apply their experiences to their lives during debriefing. Our hope, and the purpose of the course, is that when they leave here they have new tools with which to face obstacles in their lives.

So far we have had a variety of groups on the course. The very first one was a group of 13 college students, which included one 53 yr. old, from Montana. The older lady came to our house after they were done on the course to talk to us about her experience. She said that she had trouble knowing if God was going to show up for her when He was guiding her into new areas of her life. Throughout the day with us on the course we could see breakthrough in her levels of confidence and overcoming fear. And she reitterated that for us during her visit.

Another group we had was 43 eighth graders. They were broke up into five smaller groups. Within those groups they interacted with each other in ways they normally didn't. Cliques were broken down. They learned to rely on people who weren't their "best" friends. New leaders emerged as they found new ways to use their voices to help others. It was incredible to witness that happen; it was even more special to help bring that out in them. We are blessed with the opportunity to speak directly into their lives while they are with us.

Our work week is Tuesday through Saturday, with Sunday and Monday off (unless special circumstances arise.) This next week will be busier than last week. Training for us "newbies" is ongoing, but more of it will be done "on the job". We learn "hard" skills - technical, physical skills along with "soft" skills - the way to debrief an element. Kathy and I complement each other in that the "hard" skills come easier for me, and the "soft" skills come easier for her. We learn from each other. As we train with the other facilitators we see each of their different leadership styles and are able to develop our own. They don't expect us to all be cookie-cutter style leaders. Each individual on the team is valued for their contribution to the participating group and to our team. That in itself is a valuable thing to learn and take with us into our entire lives.

Finally we have pictures of the outside of our house. There would be some pictures of some flowers, I think they are daffodils, that I transplanted, but they haven't bloomed yet. They should be very pretty as they add some color to our brown corner of the base. Also, there is a picture of our team. Another picture is of Petra and Dakota. Petra is basically our sister. Kathy often jokes that Petra and I must have been separated at birth because of our very similar personalities. Dakota got to go down the zip line attached to Petra during one of our training days. She loved it! We have a little thrill seeker on our hands. (I wonder who she gets that from. Hmmm?)

As always, thank you for reading this blog. And I apologize for the long time span between this and the last entry. Please send us an email and let us know what is going on with you.

God's Blessings To You,

Carson, Kathy, Dakota