I was in Holland, MI all of last week. If you know me well you know that I have traveled to Holland in a frequent manner to see my best friend who attends Hope College.

I was actually there with 100 high school students and leaders attending a Christ and Youth conference. It was a great week.

While the week was serious and life changing there were moments of complete hilarity, as there should be when you are surrounded by 100 high school students and leaders.

One of these hilarious moments actually was self inflicted. My best friend was leading about 65 of us to a private beach to go swimming. She was on the phone and was trying to figure out how to get through all the different trails to get to the beach.

My friend Shelley, who also was an adult leader on the trip, thought that we would help Kelly and go on our own to try and find the beach. We headed out on the trail and actually spent a good forty five minutes walking and then running on hot sand looking for the beach. We finally got to a four hundred foot dune and had just seen a couple of young looking guys at the top. We thought, "Well those must be our students, so I guess this is the only way back up".

Now let me pause this moment and let you know that, unfortunately, I am not in the best physical shape in the world. I do not have that going for me. Just think of that while imagining the rest of the story.

So Shelley and I are looking at this dune and I am in shock. "I can't climb this" Is all that was running in my mind. Shelley actually tried to pump me up by telling me a story of how she lost her shoe in the mud but it didn't really help.

So we started up in and five feet up I stood there and said, "Umm...Shelley I can't do this..."

She encouraged me and we took twenty....okay maybe fifteen steps up the hill at a time. While she was encouraging me, I was cussing under my breath.

Every time I got tired I actually sat down, which probably caused me more energy because every time I sat down I had to get up.

We ended up at the top of this massive dune and took a deep breath. The beauty was incredible and I was so glad that I did it, but then I had to figure out how I was going to get down. Normally one would just walk down the dune but the sand that day was hotter than hot tamales. You would take five or six steps and then your feet would start burning.

I actually started walking down the hill, but then the sand was to overbearing. I then put my towel down and stepped on it and was going to slide down the hill that way. Again it didn't really work out.

I finally decided to roll down the dune. That's right. I started rolling down the hill and sad got everywhere. I finally just stood up and rand the rest of the way and into the lake.

All I know is that if I am ever sent to Hell, my punishment will be to climb dunes for eternity bare foot and wearing winter clothes.