A Day Long Adventure and an Arrival at Sharp Top Cove!

Hey Everyone! Last night I officially arrived in Jasper, Georgia at Sharp Top Cove! It was certainly a long trek from Michigan yesterday. I took off around 5:45am from Flint and drove straight down I-75 until I stopped in Dayton for Breakfast at the local Waffle House at about 10am. Then, I continued to the middle of Kentucky for lunch. I was definitely making good time. At this point I was planning on arriving at camp around 6:30pm.

There was certainly quite a bit of mountainous terrain going through Kentucky and Tennessee. I didn't think much about the possible wear and tear on my vehicle at the time. But when I exited the freeway near Chattanooga, I realized there was definitely something wrong with the good ol' 96 Mercury Sable. Whenever I would stop at a stoplight and then attempt to accelerate to go ahead, the car would "jump" for a second until the transmission could catch up with my request to go forward. This lasted for a couple minutes until the conditions worsened even more. I pulled over at a gas station to let it cool down and observed an apparent transmission fluid leakage dripping onto the pavement.

After going inside to get food from the McDonald's and calling my dad for advice, I proceeded to purchase six quarts of transmission fluid. I used two quarts to begin with and then kept the other four on hand for later use. It's a good thing I bought extra, because just a couple minutes after crossing the state line into Georgia the transmission made it's presence known again. I pulled over at a local ice cream shop, prayed, filled up, and drove off. Just about fifteen minutes later I repeated this process in a town called Talking Rocks. I was only about twenty five minutes away from camp. I could only hope the Sable would be able to endure that a bit more.

Sadly, my worst fear was realized after five more minutes of rugged hill driving; the transmission appeared to have given up. I coasted to the side of the road on the state highway and to be honest I was in a bit of a panic. My ETA of 6:30 was now three hours in the past and I was stranded on a busy road in the dark. Frantically I grabbed my cell phone which was flashing "Low Battery!" at me and called the camp. Despite very bad cell reception I got through and enlightened them on the situation at hand.

Finally, about twenty minutes later one of my fellow interns, Mike, arrived to help. We loaded up his car with a majority of my luggage and left the car for the night. After a night's rest at camp, I went back for the car with my roommate and fellow intern Joseph. We arrived to the site and was greeted by aSheriff deputy who was just about to call for a tow truck to impound my car. Thank God we were able to arrive when we did! Just a few minutes later and the car would have been gone with many fees attached. However, the deputy was very helpful and talked with us for a bit, while we waiting for a tow truck that Joe called using his AAA roadside assistance. For the time being we decided the best bet was to just bring the car to camp.

So, now the car and myself are both at SharpTop! I praise God for his protection and safety yesterday through the craziness of the long journey. The hard part is the realization that I will probably need a rebuilt transmission, which will most likely cost around 1,800 dollars! I barely just had enough for gas money to get me down to GA, so this is a tough reality to swallow. However, I know that God is faithful and will not forsake me through this. I am blessed with the reality that I live at a camp where there is food provided for most meals, a warm place to sleep every night, and if need be other interns who have vehicles.

I would really appreciate your prayers though right now concerning this situation. Pray that God will provide the means necessary for my car to be fixed in a timely manner. Also pray that this disappointment will not affect my excitement for starting this new internship with eight other awesome people. I look forward to updating again in the near future. Please keep in touch! Blessings!

"It's not goodbye, it's see ya later"...

It's hard to believe my summer internship at TWL has come to an end. The last three months have been filled with many incredible memories with the amazing people I was surrounded by. I really enjoyed each of my three groups of summer staff I supervised in the kitchen. While personalities varied, each group was committed to serving well each morning and genuinely wanted to grow in their relationship with Christ.

Along with the summer staff and work crew, I had the pleasure to work with great property staff. Each day I was encouraged by many of them. It always brought a smile to my face to see the maintenance staff walk through the kitchen each day with their big smiles, asking what the menu provided for breakfast. Most of all, I am appreciative of the three kitchen staff, Nate, John, and Jessica, who helped us interns lead well each day.

Finally, the best element of the summer was being a part of an amazing intern community. The sixteen others I lived with for ninety days at the Swamp did tremendous work in their respective leadership positions around camp. With our daily jobs spreading us out around TWL from morning to dusk, I learned to appreciate greatly the off days we were able to spend together. Some days we traveled to places such as Traverse City or Sleeping Bear Dunes. Other days we just took it easy and rejuvenated at camp by the beach or enjoying 18 holes of Frisbee golf.

I'm definitely going to miss these interns. I truly hope and expect to maintain friendships with some of these people for the rest of my life. It has been so powerful hearing their stories and seeing how each individual had arrived to where they were this summer at camp. I can't wait to see where God leads each of my fellow 16 interns over the next year and beyond.

As for myself, I am excited about the opportunity in front of me to enter a new internship at Sharp Top Cove in Jasper, GA. I expect to arrive at camp in just a few short days on Friday evening. I am looking forward to trusting God on this new journey and being able to serve in a new community and environment. While I'm excited, it definitely will be difficult moving twelve hours away from friends and family for a whole year. I would love to have you walk alongside me in this new journey with encouragement through e-mail, facebook, phone calls, or especially letters/packages in the mail. My new address will be:
Brandon Tschirhart
Young Life Sharp Top Cove
76 Camp Hope Road
Jasper, Georgia 30143

I hope to update again once I get to SharpTop! Talk to you all soon!