Fishing

Saturday morning I was rousted from bed by the phone.

"Is Claire there?"
"This is she."......

"I figured out something we could do."
My mind was spinning, trying to decipher the voice. "...something we could do..." Then it clicked "Oh, it's J- [from my juniors Sunday school class]." I tried to bribe my students into doing their SS lessons last spring/summer by offering to take them hiking. It didn't work swimmingly, but a couple students scored and a couple others showed more initiative than previously.

J and his brother J wanted me to take them fishing. "Would today work?"

I didn't see why not, so 2:40 found me over at their uncle MB's place to pick them up. We headed up toward Estacada, stopping at their house on the way. We saw some fabulous frozen waterfalls along the hillsides.

{It reminded me of "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," but there is a key difference between our winter and Narnia's. Winter here is a beautiful thing, another display of God's character and the value he places in beauty. Winter in Narnia stood for spiritual darkness. Isn't it interesting how heat is linked to hell; how cold is linked to spiritual death; how lukewarmness is linked to spiritual mediocrity? But God created each temperature with a concept of its goodness.}

We headed to the PGE reservoir on the North Fork of the Clackamas river. We parked and crossed the river, then trekked, freezing in the windy cold, along the dam toward the spillway. One side of the reservoir was frozen, and a floe of ice had built up by the spillway.
We stuck it out for 40+ minutes, they didn't catch anything but reservoirweed and we decided to head home. I told them they could take a raincheck.