SHF Wilderness Program

This is a 12 – 18 month residential wilderness program offered to both boys and girls from the ages of 13 to 18. There are a number of non-traditional components to this program including, but not exclusively:

The Environment and Peer Culture

The challenge of living in the woods for the duration of the program takes the teens out of their comfort zone. It requires they learn new and more effective coping skills. They participate in building their own cabins from the land while experiencing life without the negative cultural influences that so often draw attention away from the responsibilities and obligations of the real world. This experience calls for communal cooperation and is necessary for even the most basic daily needs, thus a significant motivator toward re-thinking one’s role in society and his or her obligation to others. Rights and privileges are taught to be exercised only to the degree that responsibilities and obligations are fulfilled.

Authority

Without a healthy concept of authority, teens have no transcendent reference point for moral right and wrong. As the teens see staff and leadership submit to an Authority greater than themselves, as recognized throughout nearly all of our nation’s history through the Judeo-Christian tradition, the reference point becomes clear. This, in turn, fosters a sense of security which frees the teens to better submit to their authority figures. As their capacity for self-restraint increases, so does their self-esteem. These two qualities combine for a better atmosphere for learning.

The Spiritual Nature

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone; the new has come”

II Corinthians 5:17

Our ability to think and reason is rooted in the spiritual nature of our being. As teens understand the spiritual origins of our nation and the world, they are challenged to choose and think for themselves about the reality of the inevitable issues of life such as origin, meaning, morality, and destiny, in light of truth as it relates to facts, and not just theory. As the teens acknowledge the validity of being created with a purpose, in the image of an almighty and loving God, as opposed to a happenstance evolution from a lower life form, expectations for themselves can only increase.