Home | Spirituality | Caving | Backpacking | Climbing | Events | About Us
Greetings! My name is Skeeter Medlock. I am the director of eXtreme Outdoor Ministries (XOM). That’s me doing a tandem rappel with my son. I have been an outdoor enthusiast since I was 3 years old. My parents instilled a love for the outdoors in me that I have cherished ever since. My experiences in nature have helped keep me focused, taught me lessons about life, and brought me closer to Jesus Christ. I have been privileged to see beauties that only the adventurous get to witness. Standing on top of a mountain, viewing the surrounding range, and realizing that everything I see - the vastness of it all - was spoken into existence helps keep me humble. In addition, the awareness of the complexity of a human being in every aspect, in spite of the greatness of the whole of creation, reminds me just how much I am loved. God truly does have many wonders for us to discover in all of His creation; but His love for us is the greatest wonder of all.
XOM is a project of the Oasis Seventh-day Adventist Church in Portland, Tennessee. Let me give you a bit of my background... I have been working with youth since I was a teenager. I have served as a counselor in a church-based youth club, a teacher, and am now a youth director at Highland. I am 35 years old (yep - I’m an old man, now) and married with two kids of my own. I have been winter backpacking since I was 3 years old, spelunking since my pre-teen years, and climbing and studying rescue techniques for 7 years. I’ve been teaching wilderness survival for 20 years, including first aid. Having almost died from hypothermia when I was 14, I have learned the warning signs and how to prevent and treat hypothermia in the wilderness; and I make this a high priority in my instruction.
Above all, an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ is encouraged and taught. He is the question and the answer, the beginning and the end, the Grand Designer of all that we enjoy in the great outdoors, and to Him I am eternally grateful. So if you have a thirst for adventure, or maybe you just haven’t discovered your adventurous side yet, give XOM a try, and see how you like it. If adventure is for you - you’ll get hooked on XOM and you’ll get set on fire for God.