Courtesy | Nicole Foy

The Biola Adventure Club isn’t all about thrills.

Instead, the Adventure Club seeks to build an intentional community to worship God through experiencing his creation. All of the “adventuring” isn’t even the top priority, according to the club’s president, senior biochemistry major Alex Krevor.

“Our number one priority is Jesus, the second is community and then the third is all of our adventuring,” Krevor said. “Community is so much more important to us than actually doing the stuff we do.”

Krevor started the club last fall semester with junior Becky Todd and senior Parker Gross as a way to share their love of the outdoors and God’s creation and to engage in a community that wants to foster spiritual growth above all else. The first year of the club’s existence saw its members cliff jumping at the Malibu Rindge Dam, hiking Mount Baldy, exploring the Crescent tide pools, bouldering at Joshua Tree and hiking to the Hollywood Sign. All these activities culminated in a four-day retreat during this past Labor Day weekend to Yosemite National Park to hike Half Dome, North Dome and Mount Dana.

Slip-and-slide and cliff jumping aimed to generate interest in club

This semester, the Adventure Club has three main events planned. The first is cliff jumping at Malibu Rindge Dam once again on Saturday, Sept. 29 in order to get people interested in the club, followed by a big hike and a community hangout day.

However, a total of 350 students who signed up at the Biola Club Fair Sept. 11-12 appear to be interested already. The first official meeting for all new and old members on Monday, Sept. 17 had a record attendance of 175 students, according to Krevor.

Adventure club members meet weekly to fellowship and participate in fun pre-planned activities and games. Case in point: The kick-off event for returning club members on Monday, Sept. 10 featured slip-and-slide kickball, where everyone ended up rolling around in the mud, according to new club member Jenna Lucas.

Lucas, a sophomore from Mesa, Ariz. tagged along with a few friends to the kick-off event because she had heard from several people about the incredibly close community the club offered.

“I don’t know if I was supposed to be there, because I wasn’t on Adventure Club last year, but I went and it was so much fun. Everyone was super exuberant and inviting,” Lucas said. “When you are with people you don’t know, you kind of have to put yourself out there, and they were really understanding of that. Because I opened up to them, they welcomed me.”

Finding a core group of friends

Junior Lindsey Burke, a returning club officer, had a similar experience last year when she first joined Adventure Club. Burke knew no one in the club before she signed up, but because of the welcoming community, she soon found a core group of friends that she could depend on. Burke remembers her favorite trips as the simple backpacking excursions focused on worship and the presence of community in creation.

“When we went to Yosemite, it was gorgeous and we did a lot of backpacking, but it was more about being in the camp and the woods together with fellow believers,” Burke said.

Worried you aren’t the hiking, backpacking, hard-core adventuring type? The Adventure Club asks you not to let that stop you from signing up.

“You don’t have to know how to be adventurous; you have to be wanting to try. You don’t have to be in the best shape or have any experience in backpacking, you just have to be willing to be a part of the community,” Burke said.