Life's calling leads outdoors

"God knew all along that I could do this, and that it would make me thrive in a way that nothing else could."

By Andrea Ykema  | 

Andrea Ykema (top, left) and a group of Outdoor Leadership students explore the mountains. AARON JOHNSON PHOTO

The sky was a mess of heavy dark clouds, windswept wisps and patches of bright blue. Rain would spout without warning, even when the rare bit of blue seemed to be directly above. The wind was pounding us, pushing up from the south through the jumbles of desolate peaks in the Cascades. I could feel the cold blasts cutting through me, despite the fact that I was wearing every bit of clothing I had. I glanced around.

Eight keen first-year Outdoor Leadership students bustled about in front of me. They were busy tucking a cold and weary member of the group, wrapped in a sleeping bag burrito, into a rock-formed haven. There she and a friend or two could dodge the wind and sporadic rain for a few hours while the rest of us charged further down the ridge to Grimface, our most challenging peak of the weekend trip.

When we were ready to go, Chris Dyck, director of Columbia Bible College's Outdoor Leadership program, took the lead. We bounded down the trail, willing the blood to start pumping in our fingertips and toes again, gritting our teeth and ignoring the rain and cold. The promise of a summit lay ahead of us.

When Grimface became visible from behind the immediate stacks of rock, we paused in awe. The jagged mass of volcanic rock loomed over us, dark and sharp and ominous. This only piqued our interest, and we moved on towards the base of the scramble.

Four years ago, I went on a similar trip with a similar group of people. I was in my first semester of this same program, tripping about trying to make it look like I knew what I was doing. I could never have foreseen where I am now—a certified guide for rock climbing, assured in my vocation as a mountain and rock guide, and enjoying the privilege of imparting little pieces of my knowledge to new students as an intern with the alpine portion of the program.

"Let me take this time to tell you about the hazard of rock fall," I heard myself saying to the eager mountain men before me when we reached the base of the scramble.

I'm not sure when or how it happened, but I have slowly come to inhabit the dream world I had only haphazardly imagined during the years prior to coming to Columbia. Being a mountain and rock guide had seemed as far-fetched as becoming a super-model astronaut. Now that I am standing on the other side—doing this thing that empowers my soul and gives me life—I'm not sure what I ever thought I could have done instead.

There is no pious moral to this story and no surprise ending. The scramble was insignificant as far as summits go, and no one set any records or had a brilliant epiphany. Rather, this is little more than a story of being surprised by the gift of life. I love the mountains. I love bringing people into the mountains. I came to Columbia's Outdoor Leadership program because I had the vague idea that I could find a job combining my love for people and mountains—I'm not sure that I ever thought it would really work.

But God is the one that put my soul in place. He is the one that built my passion into me. My attachment to desolate places, remote summits, small groups of motivated people and the artistry of the human body at work has been celebrated and fostered by being at Columbia.

God knew. He knew all along that I could do this, and that it would make me thrive in a way that nothing else could. So this is a humble thank-you, a shy and slightly embarrassed offering of gratitude for the enormous orchestration that is my life. Even though I'm often oblivious, its music is making a beautiful sound.

Andrea Ykema is a graduate of Columbia Bible College’s Outdoor Leadership program.

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