Max’s Summer Review: Baptism, Climbing, Music and Adventure

July is over. Don’t tell Max because that means one half of summer break is over and Max is having a great summer. He started it off with his baptism on July 2, then went to a music camp, then climb camp, then Slovenia for ReachGlobal conference, then climb camp and all that sprinkled with adventure trips into the mountains.

Baptism

A year ago Max signed up to go through classes to prepare for baptism. At the time, though, it didn’t seem right. He was confused about just where he was with his faith and almost at the last minute decided that he needed to wait one more year. That was a good thing. As he gave his testimony before baptism this year Max made a strong profession of faith. He said he wants to follow Christ no matter what that means, even if it means going to “the Middle East.”

Climbing

Climbing is always a big part of Max’s life and summer is the best because it means he can climb real rock outside. Max says he’s more interested in adventure climbing than competitive climbing. When we go hiking in the High Tatras, he’s always pointing out peaks or big walls that he’d like to climb someday.

On the rare days when Max has not been at camp he’s been asking to spend the day in the hills outside of town. So far he’s spent several days, sometimes with friends, sometimes on his own, hiking through the hills. He watches YouTube videos on survival skills and practices them while out for the day (building shelters, fashioning harpoons, weaving rope).

Music

Besides climbing camp, Max also decided to take part in Fusion camp this summer, which is an outreach camp with Americans teaching workshops for anything from running sound to dancing to playing just about any instrument they choose. Max decided he’d try his hand at bass guitar. (You’ll need some headphones or fairly good speakers to hear the bass in the video below.)