YOGA

No, not that kind of yoga! This YOGA stands for Youth Organized Games and Activities - a church activity for the kids ages 12 - 18 from all over the middle portion of Alaska. Our ward was in charge for July, and we decided to organize a canoe float trip down the Chena river. Sounds pretty straightforward, until you start to think about the sheer logistics of getting almost 100 teenagers, and all of the adult leadership associated with said youth, equipped with bottled water, life vests, paddles, properly inserted into canoes, and sent down the river.
Compounding this activity was the fact that our ward's scout troop planned an overnight float trip of their own, meeting up with the YOGA at the put-in point. It was to become a remarkable event, nearly ballet-like in it's beauty, strength, and precision.
I had to drive about an hour to the BSA (Boy Scouts of America) summer camp - appropriately called Lost Lake - to pick up a trailer of six canoes, life jackets, and paddles. Well, the trailer lights didn't work, and it had no license plates (a fact that didn't dawn on me until I had driven all the way into Fairbanks). After picking up the trailer, fixing the lights, labeling all of the BSA's equipment with duct tape, we were off to the YOGA.
In spite of my worries and misgivings, the event went off without a hitch. Nobody drowned, no canoes were tipped (accidentally or otherwise), no giant sturgeon ate any teenagers, and all of the youth were able to disembark without incident. Most of them even had smiles on their faces as they got out of the river.
And that is what a YOGA is all about.