The Lake of the Ozarks

I wonder sometimes how New Tribes Mission picked this place, smack dab in the middle of missouri, to set up their training center. It’s beautiful here, tree’s everywhere and our campus is located on a nice section of water. We have a little cove all to ourselves and it’s been awesome for those students and staff who like to fish or go boating. Don has even decided to get into fishing and has been learning a lot.


The shoreline of the lake here is massive! We are living right at the bottom of this map, next to Camdenton.


This is one of the most beautiful pictures of our area that I've seen, to give you an idea of how it looks.


Sometimes looks can be deceiving though. Beneath the beautiful waters of the Ozarks swim some very freaky looking fish. I am no fish pro, but I can recognize some creepy ones when I see them. Here are the scary ones (that I know about).


I think this one is called a Brown Cicada.. but I'm not sure.



And this is a Spoonbill otherwise known as a Paddlefish. They can get huge in size! I have seen a baby one in person, but I have no desire to come face to face with a large one like this picture below.



Fishers come from all over to try to snag some of these guys. I don't blame them.


We also have all kinds of catfish, bass, bluegill, crappie, muskellunge, buffalo, walleye, warmouth, and freshwater drums. So if you are fishing lover! Come visit us! :)


I think they picked this location because just like most tribal locations it is beautiful, but also comes with some downsides. We have lots of critters and creepy crawling bugs, one of which is the Brown Recluse Spider. I knew they lived around here, and have even heard of people getting bit by them on campus.. but I had never seen one until yesterday. Guess where we saw it?


In our bedroom!!! I am not afraid of bugs or spiders but I don't love them. So I squished it and flushed it. But the thought has been bothering me just a little bit that we have these things in our bedroom. I chose not to put a picture of one of their poisonous bites up because it is a little bit overwhelming if you are squeamish. If you are curious you can look it up on google images. :P



We also have chiggers galore! If you have no heard of chiggers they are microscopic little bugs in their larval stage that live in the grasses around here. So if you spend too much time in the grass (or sometimes just walk through it) you can come out with them all over you. You won't know you got bit until you break out in tiny little red bumps soon after. I talked to a staff guy here last week that got them all over his body, the worst case I'd ever seen. :( Here is a picture of a mild case.



And last but not least, there is an endangered species of bat living in the area. I have not seen one of these in person.. but they are pretty cool looking in pictures.



So, the point of this update is... you can rest assured that we are being trained to go overseas and live in the jungle in classes and out of them!!



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