Snowmobiles and Sumo Suits

Daphne and I went on our walk in Flying J this morning (local hiking area), and about half-way along the trail we had a nice surprise: a fully decorated Christmas tree with ornaments and garlands out in the middle of the woods.  We almost missed it, because it was set back from the trail about 30 yards.  So someone carried a box of decorations out in the woods and decorated a tree... just because it's Christmas.  I love it!  Makes me wonder how often I do something because it's my job, or because I'm told to - versus doing something just for the sheer joy of it.  It's possible that no one else will even see that tree between now and Saturday, but it sure made my day. If someone decorates a Christmas tree in the forest, and no one is there to see it... is it still worth it?

Demon Santa

We've got a dancing Santa Clause out in front of the diner.  He's a loaner from one of the gals in our church, but I have to confess - he gives me the creeps.  He works off a motion-sensor, so he stands there with this blank stare on his face until some unsuspecting victim happens to walk past - then he starts singing and dancing like Elvis doing the Hula Hoop.  I can't tell you how many times I've forgotten that he's there, and I'll just about jump out of my skin when he starts singing and doing his little jig thing.  I think he's possessed... but that's just me.

 On the other hand, we had the REAL Santa and Mrs Claus here last Sunday.  Yes, it's true: Santa has a vacation home right here in Conifer, Colorado, and he made a charity appearance at The Journey Community Church.  Unfortunately, he got into a tussle with one of the rookie reindeer recently, and he had to wear a sling on his right arm; at least, that's the story they told the kids.  In reality, this particular Santa tripped on the sidewalk and did a face-plant, breaking his upper arm in the process.  Kind of ruins the "Santa Aura", doesn't it?  The kids loved it, and Santa and Mrs Claus did this particular appearance free of charge.  They're regular customers at the Angry Llama Diner, and he actually wears red most of the time - I guess he's really embraced the Santa role!

A few days ago, several of us from church drove up to Breckenridge to visit "Good Times Adventures", which is a Dog-Sledding and Snowmobile company run by one of the men who attends The Journey.  Our reason for going was to make a brief news story that we can show as part of the "Journey News" portion of our weekend service.  We did do some filming, but in the process we had more fun than humans should be allowed to have.  Brian, the owner, had us spend an hour on the dog sled, followed by a two-hour snowmobile ride right up to the Continental Divide.  The dogs are purebred Siberian Huskies, and they only have two gears: full speed or stop.  The only way to control their speed is by standing on the brakes behind the sled; if you tip over and fail to grab the sled in time, the dogs just keep on running . . . all the way back to their kennels.  To avoid this, one of the staff rides in front of the dog team on a snowmobile so he can jump off and grab the dogs as they race past. 

The snowmobiles were just as much fun, only a whole lot faster - I think we got up to 45 or 50 mph on some stretches.  What a ride!  The guide took us to a couple of sites where thriving towns used to exist during the gold rush.  It was hard to imagine what it must have looked like, because all that's left is part of a log building, or just an open space in the woods.  It's amazing how fast a town of 1500 people can simply disappear and get taken over by nature.

 Once we got up to the Continental Divide, the view was breath-taking.  We were grateful to have a beautiful day, as there are some days when you can't see 20 yards in front of you due to fog or snow.  From the top we could see clearly for at least 50 miles.  The snow was a little thin on top, so we couldn't race full-speed around the open meadow like they'll be able to in another couple of weeks.  Apparently, from what the guide told us, the wind is so strong up on top that they can have four or five feet of snow in one night, and by the next morning it's all blown away.  Pretty amazing.

It was an incredible adventure and I'm grateful that I was given the opportunity to go.  Hopefully, our whole team can get back there together sometime this winter so the others can have the same experience. 


Last Sunday evening the youth ministry had their Christmas party, and we rented sumo suits for the occasion.  I'd never seen a sumo suit before; once you get in the suit and put on the helmet, you look like a giant dog tick.  The goal of the game is to either knock the opposing sumo person out of the yellow circle, or knock them down and fall on top of them.  The only problem is, once you're down it's impossible to get back up by yourself - you just lie there flailing your arms and legs like a giant upside-down tortoise.  The little kids were the funniest to watch because their heads barely stuck out above the suit.  All they could do was waddle towards the other kid and kind of lean forward, and hope the other one fell down before they did.  You hoped you were one of the first ones to get in the suit because by the time fifty sweaty kids have been rolling around inside, you can imagine how rank the suits and helmets were. 

Last night I finished teaching through the book of John.  One of the other staff - Adam - will take the next couple of weeks as I work on preparing for the next series called "Jim's Believe It Or Not: Amazing but True Adventures From The Mission Field."  Michael thought it would be fun for the church to hear some of the stories we've accumulated over 20 years as missionaries overseas, and the lessons we've learned in the process.  Should be fun!

When God Puts On A Spread

Frozen Waterfall near Idaho Springs, CO

We had our weekly home group meeting last Sunday evening.  I've started looking forward to those two hours as one of the highlights of my week, not only because I'm always encouraged and inspired by those in the group, but because I can see a real sense of unity and community growing between us.  Every so often at some point in the evening there will be one particular event - maybe a word, maybe a story - that grabs everyone's heart, and in the end that's all any of us will remember thereafter. There were two "memory maker" moments for me last Sunday.  The first one came when we were discussing the third sermon in Michael's "Unwrapping Christmas" series - this one on Mary's role in the Christmas story.  One of his points was that Mary was willing to give up her life plans (a wonderful wedding to Joseph, living in the warmth of family and friends, a peaceful life) to accept God's plans for her.  For Mary, God's plans included an "illegitimate" pregnancy (at least in the eyes of her community - I mean, how many woman are impregnated by God?), rejection by the community as a "loose" woman, starting off her marriage to Joseph as a pregnant woman,.... and the list goes on and on.  We wondered together what it must have been like for Mary to raise Jesus: what was His sense of humor like?  What was it like to watch Him as He slowly grasped His true identity as God's Son?  There's a song that I've always loved called "Mary do you know?" that describes so wonderfully the life that Mary lived as the earthly mother of God Himself.  None of us could remember the words, but I do remember how moved I was the first time I heard the song.  So while we talked I looked up the lyrics on the internet, and once more I was moved to tears as I read these words:

Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you.

Mary did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when you kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God.

Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?
This sleeping child you're holding is the great I am.

Later, our conversation moved to God's goodness to us - His undeserved, unmerited love and compassion.  One of the women in our group shared an incredible story of how God takes care of us just because we're His "Kids".
She works six days a week - including the weekends - at the Veteran's Hospital in Denver.  Her expertise is in the area of Music Therapy, which simply put means using music and rhythm to help a patient through a difficult therapy.  On Thanksgiving day, the hospital made a turkey dinner for all the residents, but the paid staff had to settle for their brown bag lunches.  This fact really bothered me, that the VA can't even provide a Thanksgiving meal for their staff - they get to smell the Turkey and all the trimmings all day, and then be content with their sack lunch.  Anyway, as she left at the end of the day she decided that she would try to stop somewhere to buy a Thanksgiving dinner - maybe Denny's, or Perkins, or the like.  Then she remembered a great Italian restaurant right off I-70 and she just knew they could cook a truly gourmet dinner.  She figured out in her mind that she could spend up to $20 to treat herself since it was Thanksgiving.  The lights were on in the restaurant, so she pulled in the parking lot.  When she went inside she saw all the chairs stacked on the tables, and she realized it must be a private party.  A tall Italian man heard the front door and walked in.  My friend explained to him that she was looking for the "Best" Thanksgiving meal in town.  He told her that the restaurant was only open because he had gathered his friends and family together.  She turned and started to leave, but he stopped her and said, "How many did you want for?"  She said only for herself, because she'd had to work that day.  He said "Really?", then he took her arm and said, "Come with me."  He led her back into the kitchen, handed her two large take-away containers, and told her that he wanted her to go through their buffet line.  When she hesitated out of embarrassment, he smiled and said, "Come on!" and started piling her high with the most incredible, gourmet Thanksgiving meal she'd ever seen - six different kinds of stuffing, meats, exotic vegetables, incredible desserts.  She filled both containers.  He led her back to the front door and simply said, "Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!" 


She giggled all the way home and all through the night - that her Heavenly Papa saved the best Thanksgiving meal of all for her, just because He loves her. 


That's what I'm talking about! :)

Black Like Me

This is Sterling and Emily, who are also on staff here at the Journey Church.  They've both become great friends of ours, and we (the whole team) give Sterling a fun-loving hard time because he's the only black member of the team - in fact, the only black member of our church (the only black man in Conifer?).  He has an awesome character and walk with God, in spite of a very tough upbringing.  I told him recently that he's like an "anchor" in this team - always there, always steady; he the kind of man who adds stability and safety in a team.

This morning I showed him a picture and told him that he's no longer the only black member of our team.  He looked at the picture for several seconds, and finally said, "Who is this?"  "It's me - I was working on our fireplace yesterday".  I was cutting the damper out, knocking out the wind shelf (concrete), and just making the opening large enough to put in the liner for the wood stove.  At one point I climbed out of the "cave", and Daphne took one look at me and ran to get her camera.  "Oh, I hope that all comes off!" she said.  "Why, what's wrong?" I asked.  Of course, I couldn't see my own face, so I had no idea how all the soot had transformed me into Michael Jackson in reverse.  Anyway, I had to put this picture in the blog.


Daphne's parents - Felix and Valerie Posselt - arrived last night from England to spend two months with us.  Her Dad is 82, and her Step-Mom is.... younger than that.  We hadn't seen them for over a year, since just before we left France to move to Colorado.  They've both been like little kids in a candy store since they arrived, as neither of them have ever been to the U.S. before.  They arrived in the dark, and this morning they were greeted to the incredible view we have from our living room windows.  Val kept saying this morning, "I just have to keep pinching myself - I can't believe we're really here!"  They were treated to a special mountain welcome last night when a beautiful mule deer buck crossed the road in front of our car as we climbed up Shadow Mountain towards our house.  They haven't seemed to be negatively affected by the altitude so far, and we hope they'll adjust fine.  We keep trying to impress Daph's Dad the necessity of drinking lots of water, but he's not convinced.  The problem with drinking large quantities of liquid is that it all has to be evacuated sooner or later.  Oh well, he'll adjust as he goes I guess.

_______________________

I've been thinking lately about all the promises in Scripture that speak about how God will provide for us, that He offers a life free from worry and anxiety, and that we can trust Him daily to answer our specific prayers.  Unfortunately, for many of us these promises are pie-in-the-sky bye-and-bye: nice to read and certainly comforting, but far from our daily experience. Why?  My guess is that we generally have no urgent needs, as most of us have money in the bank and probably a healthy balance in our IRA, as well as having health insurance, life insurance, and savings accounts.  When it comes down to it, we really have no genuine NEED to trust the Lord at all.  I should probably qualify what I've just written, as there are believers around the world who have to believe God for the impossible every single day - it's just not normally our experience in the West.  There is something deep in my heart that desperately wants to put God to that test - you could call it a spiritual longing to trust God for my daily bread, because only then would I be in a position to see His supernatural provision.  I suppose we could say that God has already provided through our employment and our retirement income; and yet, Jesus said on many occasions that we shouldn't "store up" treasures for ourselves here on earth where moth and rust destroy, but to store up treasures for ourselves in Heaven.  In Luke 12 Jesus actually condemned the rich man who wanted to hoard his riches: “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’  So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”  He then immediately exhorted His disciples not to worry about life - food, shelter, clothing - but to trust that God knows of their needs and that they can rely on Him to provide.  Even more challenging is His conclusion in verse 33: “Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." 

I think of men like George Muller from 19th century England, who made a willful decision to trust God alone for his every need - and God provided and intervened supernaturally on what seemed to be a daily basis.  George had such an intimate walk with God that He KNEW God had already provided even before the need was met.  But what is most amazing is that George chose this life of daily trust of his own free will - rather than being forced into such a lifestyle by life's circumstances. I was just reading an excerpt from an article on Muller's life:  "Muller was a man of fervent prayer, who believed that spending time with God should take priority over all other tasks one might have on their agenda.  To this end, Muller himself got up early each morning at four o’clock to spend time in prayer before he started his day.  Never were his days too full to spend ample time in prayer each morning.  In fact, he was often heard saying that if someone only had five hours to accomplish a task, then one would definitely accomplish more through one hour of prayer and four hours of work than through five hours of work alone. This was especially true for those involved in full time Christian work.  Muller warned ministry leaders everywhere he went to not let the work of the Lord prevent someone from spending time with the Lord in prayer." 

I find it humorous to note that almost every time I bring up George Muller's example in conversations with other Christians, there is an almost instant emotional reaction - "George Muller had exceptional faith" or, "God isn't asking everyone to live like that!"  Maybe he isn't, but why the instant, emotional rebuttal?  There's something in Muller's example that strikes a deep chord in our hearts and we long to see God working supernaturally - but the price we would have to pay is simply too great.  I'm not there either.  But I find my mind and my heart turning more and more in that direction, almost like Daphne's parents longing to visit America... and hardly believing that they're actually here now.

Conifer Christmas Parade... one year later

What a difference a year can make!  One year ago we attended the Conifer Christmas Parade as spectators.  We knew only a handful of people, and our girls had only just started school.  This year, we walked in the parade with 100 other members of The Journey Church.  Who would have imagined how much would have changed one year later.  Our float won first prize for creativity; we made a mock-up of a local Victorian home (the theme of the parade was Victorian) decorated as a ginger-bread house.  We also had our own Grinch - he didn't go with the theme, but we'd already reserved the costume before we decided what kind of float we would make.  He was a big hit with the kids in any case.  I was one of two designated photographers from our church, so here are a few shots of the parade and of our float.  We handed out flyers inviting everyone to our Candlelight Christmas Eve service.

Hershey's Kiss... or Anti-Alien Head-wear??

Mr Grinch and a less-than-enthusiastic fan

Silas: Mr Gumdrop Head

Forecast of sleepless nights to come

 

This is the view from our living room window this morning - it's been snowing lightly all night, and it is still coming down.   

I was up all night last night; Daphne and I decided to see if I could wean myself off of the patches I've been taking for my Restless Leg Syndrome, because continuing on them is cost prohibitive.  I need to give my body several days to evacuate all the medication in my body - at which point I'll be able to make a real evaluation.  Until then, these next few days could mean a week from hell as I contemplate many sleepless nights.  I have to find out how much of RLS is psychologically based (and tied to my relative restlessness of "heart"), and how much is neurological.  

I spent much of the night last night in prayer for a number of issues that have been troubling my heart.  I found some resolution from the Lord around 1:30 this morning, at least He clarified in my mind what has been troubling me that I couldn't put my finger on.  I wish I could say I slept well after that point, but I didn't.  Maybe my back and legs will calm down during the day so I can catch up on my lack of sleep from last night.

Greatest Comback in Iron Bowl history

Just had to show some pictures from Auburn's last victory over Alabama in the Iron Bowl 2010.  Bragging rights have been nailed for the next 356 days, and Auburn moves to the SEC Championship game this coming Saturday against South Carolina.  

The Righteous Prevailed

Auburn defeated Alabama by ONE point yesterday - 28 to 27.  It was probably the greatest comeback in the history of the Iron Bowl (the annual match-up between these two teams).  It was sweetest because of the poetic justice, as Alabama fans had been mocking Auburn and Cam for weeks - not only because of the allegations swirling around Cam Newton, but because they were convinced Auburn could not win this year in Tuscaloosa.  It must be short-term amnesia for Alabama fans, because Auburn's come out on top  5 out of 6 times the two teams have played in "Tusca-loser". 

We put off our Christmas tree hunt yesterday because we needed to finish preparations to have the whole Journey team over for lunch, so maybe I can get the girls out this morning to find a tree.  It's still hard to believe we live in the mountains and we can cut down a Christmas tree on our own property.  There's no snow on the ground, so it should be easier to get a tree back to the house.  Speaking of snow, this has been a strange winter; we've had one (1) snowfall so far, and we're almost to December.  I haven't lived in Colorado long enough to know if this means we'll have a dry, cold winter - or if we're going to get dumped on when the snow finally comes.  We've got enough firewood to last us for a month or so, but I need to get out and cut down some more dead trees before the snow starts to pile up.  I love being outside working, but I don't have the stamina I used to have - and cutting firewood is an energy-intensive activity.  A couple weeks ago I finally decided to rent a hydraulic wood-splitter for the morning, and we split up all the cut wood we had around.  Sure beats the heck out of swinging an axe for 10 hours!

Me helping our quarterback off the field w a ruptured Achilles

 

 

 

 

 

 

Each Thanksgiving morning our church organizes the "Turkey Bowl" - a game of flag football for all the men and boys in the church.  In past years they've played with snow on the ground, but this year is was just plain cold - I think it was 20 degrees outside when we started the game. Around 35 men and boys showed up, so we did a lot of substitution so everyone got some playing time.  Our team lost our quarterback after only three or four plays when he ruptured his Achilles tendon (someone gets hurt every year), and we didn't have anyone else who could throw the football worth squat - so we got hammered 24 to 0.  While the point of the game is to have fun, some of the guys take football (even flag football) VERY seriously. There was one play that really made me laugh: one of the guys on our team who is not big but who is extremely competitive got knocked on his butt hard by Sterling - who's the only black guy on our staff, is very large, and who's just as competitive.  Our guy got up and called Sterling a name (edited out for the more sensitive readers) - and Sterling shot back, "It's time to put on your big-boy pants!"  By the end of the game everyone was laughing, and we had a great time.

_________________________

Last Wednesday evening I taught from John 14 and 16 about the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  When we're done with John I think I want to teach a series on the Spirit, or maybe teach through the book of Acts.  I've often asked the question - to myself and to others - what would happen if God suddenly removed His Spirit from the earth?  How long would it take us to notice that He isn't around anymore?  It's a hypothetical question, I know, because the Spirit isn't going anywhere.  But I guess my question springs out of both longing and confusion; longing, because I believe in my heart that God wants to do so much more among us than we're willing or have faith for Him to do, and confusion because it so often feels like we're satisfied to settle for so little of His presence and power today.  In preparing for Wednesday's message, I found myself reading excerpts from the life of George Muller (1805-1898).  Muller led an extraordinary life that was characterized by unbelievable faith - but he is often seen today as an eccentric man, or somewhat of a Christian "mystic".  I personally believe otherwise: I think Muller's faith and the dramatic (even unbelievable) answers to prayer he received are a model for all believers of what an intimate walk with God can and should look like.

This is how Muller described his experience in prayer:

"I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord's will, whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.
"Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impressions. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.
"I seek the will of the Spirit of God through or in connection with the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also.
"Next I take into account providential circumstances. These plainly indicate God's will in connection with His Word and Spirit.
"I ask God in prayer to reveal His will to me aright.
"Thus through prayer to God, the study of the Word and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgment according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. In trivial matters and transactions involving most important issues, I have found this method always effective."

The Elk Lodge

Elk Tracks: it takes an expert eye to spot them

I spent last Friday and Saturday hunting with a couple of friends up near Grand Lake, Colorado.  I fully intended to come back with enough elk meat to fill our big freezer for the next year.  Instead the elk are having a party,  pointing at my footprints in the snow and telling elk jokes about the safest place in the forest being as close as possible to Jim when he's carrying a rifle. I'm sure that they were playing the elk-version of "Look at me - I'm imitating a tree". There is a positive note, however; I tracked my first elk in the snow (actually several elk) for over an hour - through a creek, into green patch of fir trees, up a hill and finally to the summit of a ridge - all in knee-deep snow.  When I reached the top of the hill, I  realized I'd been following elk tracks all right, but ...  the WRONG WAY.  You'd think it would be easy to determine which way the animals are heading - but they're sneaky, and sometimes they walk backwards just to keep you guessing.  They left plenty of poo and pee along the path too, just to convince me they were around the corner - when in reality they were all back at the Elk Lodge, sitting by the fire, drinking beers and toasting each other.  

I'd just had my ATV "repaired" the day we left, and I was looking forward to some awesome trail rides thanks to my four-wheel-drive wonder.  We got as far up the road as we could in the truck, and then two of us jumped on the Quad to head to the hunting area.  We rode about two miles, and the engine died.   We did manage to get the ATV back to the truck, and I'm grateful for that.  Pushing an 800 pound machine through the snow would not have been my idea of a good time. 

Much to my joy and delight, I found out when I got home that while I was wandering aimlessly in the snow drifts, my neighbor shot an elk about 150 yards from my back deck.  There were only 40 or 50 of them to choose from, so I felt sorry for him.  Now I know that as soon as we arrived at Grand Lake, the elk herd hopped on a bus and headed down to Conifer to soak up the sunshine.  At least Brian broke up the party.


There is more to being a Pastor than hunting, believe it or not.  There's also cutting down trees, splitting firewood, and building decks.  Seriously though, our church is growing by leaps and bounds.  All three of our weekend services are getting full, and we calculated that we have somewhere between 350-380 regular attenders or members.  For a church up in the mountains, that's actually incredible.  I'm still teaching the Wednesday night service, and I'm loving it.  We've reached  John chapter 14, and tomorrow evening I'll cover one of my favorite topics: the role of the Holy Spirit. I've found over the years that the Holy Spirit is the most misunderstood of the three persons of the Trinity, and we've given Him all kinds of strange characteristics, or we attribute people's bizarre behavior to His influence.  Should be fun!

One of the ways we're trying to draw more people to the church is through a 15-second ad that we've put in two movie theaters down in Denver.  I'll add it to the blog so you can see it.  I got to help shoot the ad, and it was hilarious.  When we started filming, the buffalo were 100 yards away on the opposite side of the fence.  However, their curiosity got the better of them, and by the time we were done filming several of them had come almost up to the fence.  I think the fake buffalo head was what did the trick.  The voice you'll hear at the end is Daphne - just in case you didn't recognize her. 
                                                                                                

I bleed orange and blue!

OK, I'll admit that I'm a die-hard Auburn fan.  But enough is enough!  I've never seen so much hype, lies, exaggerations and false reports about one football player in my life!  Just about every news report I've read about Auburn's star quarterback Cameron Newton has subsequently proven to be false.  The whole story that was leaked about him getting caught for cheating at Florida and almost expelled has now been denied by the UF Student Affairs Committee.  So, he didn't cheat.  Then the story came out that the NCAA was going to suspend Cam "within 3-4 hours"... just how exactly would someone know that kind of info?  Of course, that didn't happen either.

Here's what I believe is going on:  Somebody- actually, a lot of somebodys - has it in for Auburn.  Just when the Tigers are on the verge of winning another SEC championship, and possibly playing for the national championship, all these stories suddenly "emerge".  The fact is, these allegations about Cam being "shopped" to the highest bidding college have been known since January.  These stories coming out now are a case of pure, unadulterated bad blood towards Auburn.  I just feel sorry for Cam and his family at this point.  Even if they did seek money for Cam to play at Mississippi State or Auburn, that fact has to be proven by a REAL investigation, and there's no way it could be completed until next year sometime.  I'm not saying Auburn is beyond wrongdoing; I'm just saying I'm sick of the hype and rumors that are flying around, and someone should be taken to task for starting them.  In fact, the person who spread the rumor about Cam cheating at Florida has committed a felony crime, and I sure hope they're caught.

Enough ranting.  We had our first good snow last night - only a couple of inches, but enough for me to figure out that my ATV needs some serious attention.  Our wood stove downstairs is working like a charm - heats the basement like a cozy furnace, but the upstairs is still cold.  Got to figure that problem out before we get some SERIOUS cold weather.

At last night's mid-week service we had 26 people - that's a record!  We held a prayer meeting for all interested parties at 6 pm (before our service at 7), and we had quite a few people from other churches who came.  The purpose was to pray for the families of all those who've died in car accidents on Hwy 285 in the last two months, and to pray against any spiritual powers that may be involved in the recent series of tragic deaths.  After the prayer time I spoke from John 11 on the topic, "Why bad things happen to good people".  There were two main things I focused on:  First, that Jesus chose to delay His arrival (and risk being misunderstood and misjudged) until after Lazarus was dead for four days.  Interesting fact about first century Jewish culture:  mourners would often remain near the tomb of their loved ones until after the third day, because they believed the spirit of the dead person would stay near the body until the fourth day.  After that, they were considered to be really and truly "dead".  It makes more sense, then, why Jesus waiting until that critical day to raise Lazarus from the grave.  My point was that God often chooses to delay answering our prayers in order to accomplish something more significant in our lives.  The second point was this:  in a personal tragedy or crisis, Jesus will meet us wherever we are - emotionally or spiritually.  He dealt with Martha in a very different way than how He responded to Mary.  Martha came wanting answers - rational, theological answers.  Mary came to pour out her heart to the one she felt had forgotten her.  In both cases, Jesus didn't condemn or judge - He just met them at their level with a rational discussion or with tears.

Interesting Day

It's evening now in the Colorado mountains.  We've got a fire going downstairs in the wood stove, and the sausages and "mash" are cooking (fine British cuisine).

My day didn't start nearly as well as it ended.  Last night at our Wednesday night worship and Bible study we had four who attended (not counting the church staff who were there).  For the first three weeks the numbers of those who came increased significantly each week.  But for the last two weeks we've dropped down to just a handful.  I found myself wondering during the night - when I should have been sleeping - if the problem is me or my teaching style?  I got up before 5 a.m., and around 7 took a long walk around the block by myself to work through my feelings of discouragement.  Our "block" is 2 miles around, so I had some time to think and pray as I walked.  I was definitely feeling down, and I spent the first 1.5 miles just telling the Lord about what was going through my mind and heart.  By the time I was within sight of our driveway again, my heart felt a little lighter.  I sensed that God was confirming to me that this first year of our involvement with The Journey Church is more about what God wants to do IN us, than about anything He might want to accomplish THROUGH us.  We've been given a gift of time: time to watch and learn, time to get to know the church team, time to allow others to know us, and time just to read, pray, exercise, etc.   I guess I hadn't thought of it quite that way, but it did make me feel better.

I spent the morning preparing and printing an important update that we've sent to all of our financial partners.  It seemed like it was finally time for an extensive update on our family and our future plans, and that took me most of the morning to print, stuff and mail.  Our friends Bob and Diane joined us for lunch at the diner, and I was reminded again of how grateful I am for the ever-increasing circle of good friends God has given us here in Conifer.  I know I speak for Daphne too when I say we feel rich in friendships and relationships, and some of the pain and wounds from our departure from France are beginning to heal.  Three days ago we commemorated the one-year anniversary of our departure from France.  It seems impossible that it has already been a year -- but then, when I think about all we've been through this past year it really is amazing where we've ended up.

Around 2 this afternoon Michael told me that a news reporter from Fox 31 was coming to do an interview with someone from the church related to the abnormally high number of deaths we've had on our stretch of highway 285.  Mike doesn't enjoy giving TV interviews, and he asked me if I could represent the church.  I did the interview - my first one for TV.  The reporter asked a bunch of questions about how we feel as a church about the recent accidents, including the one that happened right in front of our church on Sunday morning.  It should be possible to see it tomorrow if you go to their website:  www.kdvr.com  and look up the news archive from last night related to accidents on Hwy 285.

We ended the day with a counseling appointment with a couple from church that went great - I love watching God at work in people's lives doing what He does best;  healing and putting broken things back together.

Post Note:  Here's the link to the news story - http://www.kdvr.com/videobeta/84edb748-e13d-4493-b9be-243da2c46fce/News/Highway-285-accidents

(the reporter got it slightly wrong by saying I'm "the" pastor of The Journey Church)

third fatal accident in four days

I just heard the news that a third fatal accident has occurred on highway 285 that runs through Conifer.  This time a vehicle crossed the median and hit a Sheriff's deputy head-on.  The other driver was apparently killed, and the deputy has been airlifted to a Denver hospital.  The day after the fatal accident in front of our church, a single car accident occurred about five miles down the same road and a woman was killed.  This makes three fatal accidents in four days.  Our pastor believes there is a spiritual aspect that at least partially explains the incredible statistic of traffic deaths on this 25 mile stretch of highway - from the bottom of the mountain to Pine Junction this section of road will see one death per mile, per year.  To compare, the next 25 mile section will have an average of one death per year period - on a much darker, windier part of the highway.  There is no way to explain this difference as this section of highway is four lanes, fairly well lit and well maintained.  Weather has not been a factor in any of the accidents.  This is just bizarre.


On a lighter note, the Trunk or Treat outreach we did on Sunday evening was a huge success.  We had tons of people from the community who came with their kids - we lost count somewhere around 100 adults.   We decided to decorate our pickup truck as "Booger Holler", since no one here had yet met my alter-ego "Billy Bob".  It was hilarious; there were members of our church who walked past us three times without ever recognizing who I was. A picture is worth a 1000 words, so here's a sampling of The Journey's finest:

Who's that handsome devil?

Danny is 17 - he shaved his head for the occasion

The Dragon's Head shot candy across the parking lot - it was a big hit

notice Jacqueline's teeth

In the Blink of an Eye

I will never forget yesterday.  I'm still processing what happened, and it helps to write some thoughts down.

Yesterday, being Halloween, was a big day for our church; we had not only our normal two morning services, but we'd planned a big "Trunk or Treat" event in our parking lot as another way to connect with people from this community.  We had just started the first service - around 9 a.m. - when one of the guys on our team ran inside and said an accident had just happened on the highway in front of our building.  I grabbed one of the firefighters who's a member of our church and ran outside.  From the balcony I could see two smoking cars in the middle of the road and some people running around.  Later on, I found out that at the moment of impact one of the vehicles flipped completely over, landed back on its wheels, and then burst into flames.  When I got across the street I saw a man emptying a fire extinguisher on what was left of the engine of the first car - a jeep with the front end completely caved-in right up to the dashboard. As I got to the car a man was kicking at the passenger side window as hard as he could, but it wouldn't break.  By now I could see the second vehicle - also an SUV - the front end also destroyed by what was clearly a high-speed, head-on collision.  This was the most horrendous accident I'd ever witnessed first-hand.

For some reason when I first got to the scene I thought the passengers had survived and were already out of the their cars.  And then it hit me like a ton a bricks: they were all still trapped in their vehicles, and precious seconds were ticking by.  Time has a way of slowing down in the middle of an crisis, and the whole event I'm describing probably lasted only five minutes - though in the heat of the moment it felt like an eternity.  I looked in the window of the passenger side of the jeep and saw the blond hair of a young boy, down low between the window and the dashboard.  He wasn't moving, and I couldn't imagine how he could survive such a violent impact.  Those who'd stopped to help were trying to break the window to save the boy, but it was like it was made of steel and not glass.  The driver's side of the Jeep was smashed beyond recognition, and at first glance I couldn't even see the person who'd been driving.  She must have died the very instant the two cars collided, in the blink of an eye.  I wondered if she'd even had time to react before the impact, as there were no skid marks anywhere on the highway.  About that time one of the men standing there grabbed a large rock and smashed the passenger window in.  Doug, one of the firemen in our church, put his hand on the boy's neck but couldn't detect a pulse.  They smashed in the back window and reached in to check the woman's pulse, but as I feared she was dead.  I thought, "Oh God, there are no survivors".

There was a brief moment - maybe only a few seconds - when Doug and I were standing next to the passenger window while the other guys scrambled for a tool to pry the door open.  On an impulse I put my hand on the boy's head and started praying that God would intervene supernaturally and save this little boy's life.  The passenger door was jammed shut by the impact, so there was no easy way to get him out.  Doug put his fingers on the boy's neck again, and this time he felt a pulse.  "He's alive!" he yelled, and we all jumped into action to get the door open while there was still time.  One of the volunteer firefighters had brought a pry-bar and a pick axe - so while Doug supported the boy's head and neck, the rest of us heaved with all our might to open the door.  It wouldn't budge.  I was feeling more and more desperate as each second passed, knowing the boy could die as we tried in vain to open the door.  We pushed, pulled, hammered -  but the front door was jammed tight behind the rear one.  By this time a firetruck had arrived, and with it the pneumatic tools that were needed to cut through the metal.  It probably took them another three minutes - even with the power tools - to wrench the door open .  During all this time the little boy hadn't moved.  They put a neck brace on him, and as they lifted him onto the gurney his eyes opened.  I felt a surge of hope that perhaps he would make it after all,  and I was so grateful for the rescue workers who knew exactly what to do.

I walked around to the other vehicle and saw four or five emergency personnel trying to save the life of the second driver who was lying on the ground next to his car.  They were trying to get a breathing tube down his throat, and I wondered if the boy would be the only survivor of this terrible accident.   I walked back to where several people were sitting on the guardrail, and asked if they'd witnessed the accident.  A young woman in her twenties said that they were in the car behind the jeep, and they watched in horror as the SUV drove right across the median and into the oncoming traffic.  It was a bright, sunny day - no ice, no rain, and only a few cars on the road.   What could explain the actions of the other driver?  Was he drunk?  Did he pass out, or fall asleep at the wheel? 

Two Flight for Life helicopters arrived to evacuate the boy, and eventually the driver of the second car.  This is a small mountain community, and I knew it wouldn't take long to find out that someone in our church knew the identity of one or all of the three victims.  As it turned out, the woman who died was the secretary and receptionist of the Baptist Church down the road, and she and her son were obviously on their way there when the accident happened.  Many of those in our church knew her and her three sons, so the crisis on the road turned into a minor crisis at church as our folks realized what had happened.

How can you explain such a bizarre accident?  I can't explain it, but even before I knew the identity of the woman driving the Jeep, I sensed that God was somehow in the middle of this terrible tragedy - not that He caused it, but in His sovereignty He allowed it to happen. There was hardly any traffic on the road because it was a Sunday morning.  Just a second earlier or later, and the driver of the red SUV would have missed the Jeep.  But he didn't miss them, and now there are three boys without their mother.  My one comfort is that they are part of a community of believers who can surround them and care for them; they are not alone.   I couldn't get to sleep last night, and as Daphne and I talked about the experience I told her how comforting it is to me to know that we, too, have a church family (not to mention my sister and her family down in Denver) who would do anything to help if we were the ones to suffer a similar tragedy.  I found my mind imagining how I would feel if it had been Daphne in that car, or one of my girls... and I literally had to put the images out of my mind.  I got out of bed and went into the living room to start writing this blog entry.  As I wrote, I found my emotions bubbling up, and I ended up calling one of my friends who had also been with me trying to help rescue the boy.  I just needed to talk to someone to help me process what had happened.  We both agreed that we did everything we could humanly do to help in that situation, and we would do it again today if we had to.

I finally got to sleep somewhere around 1 a.m. this morning.

Real Men Move Dirt

     Winter is fast approaching.  We've had a couple of light snows in the past week, and the nights are getting cold - last night it dropped down into the 20's (for those of you in Florida, that's Fahrenheit not Celsius).  Our wood stove works great, although I'm still trying to figure out how to get the heat to move upstairs.  I ordered a fan unit that fits under the stove and blows the hot air out into the room - and hopefully up the stairway as well.  The only hitch is that someone (me) has to get up in the middle of the night to stoke the fire again - otherwise it goes out sometime around midnight.  One of our neighbors gave me a small cast iron stove that I want to clean up, repaint and put in front of our upstairs fireplace to add some heat.  My goal is to deprive Colorado Natural Gas from any of my hard-earned cash.

    Ever since we moved to our current home Daphne has been worried about using our driveway in the winter.  It's 200 yards long, and drops off steeply on one side.  It's true that once the road freezes (and because it's shaded by the trees all year) it stays that way all winter.  It can get pretty slippery driving in and out, and she's afraid of sliding over the edge and into the trees below.   She's been asking me to widen it since last winter, and finally last week the church graciously offered to help us rent a mini-excavator so I could dig into the hillside.  I loved it!  Every guy needs to drive some kind of earth-moving equipment at least once in his lifetime just for the experience.  Course, it would have been even better to drive a bulldozer, but I'll save that for another day.  The mini-excavator was all the weight my truck could handle, and even that much weight almost led to a disaster.  I didn't want to attempt to back the trailer with the excavator down our long driveway, so I parked my truck and the trailer on the side of the road.  The county has recently improved our road by adding a couple of feet of compacted dirt to the surface, but at the same time they created a steeper drop-off on each side of the road.  After I parked I lowered the gate on the trailer and got into the excavator to drive it off the ramp.  Just as I started down the ramp, I realized that the whole trailer - and my truck - were moving backwards.  The weight of the machine on the end of the trailer was pushing my truck towards the edge of the road and a very steep incline.  I panicked and tried to back the machine up onto the trailer, but we started sliding even faster.  Funny how many thoughts can go through your mind in a split-second:  I imagined my truck, the trailer and me in the excavator all falling down into the ravine with catastrophic results.  I yelled "Oh _______!" (expletive deleted) and jumped off.  Everything stopped.  I ran back to the truck and threw it into reverse, but the tires just spun - then I realized that the trailer was actually lifting my rear tires off the ground.  I stood there and "pondered" the situation for a few seconds, and realized that the only solution was to move the excavator off the trailer as fast as I could, and pray the truck didn't slide too far.  Full speed on that machine is about 1. 3  miles an hour, so the five seconds it took to drive it down the ramp were the longest of my life.  The truck did slide some more, but not too far.

I dug out as much of the hillside as I could in three hours, leaving big piles of dirt the whole length of the driveway.  Yesterday my neighbor Brian came with his skidster and pushed all the dirt over the side of the hill, so our driveway now looks like a superhighway!  Daphne can hug the hill-side and feel more secure this winter.

Tonight I'll be speaking again at our Wednesday evening service.  The title of the series is "Jesus According to John", and we're looking at who Jesus is through the eyes of His Beloved Disciple John.  I found a great resource on the internet recently: it's the whole gospel of John in one, three hour movie.  Every word spoken by the actors is taken literally from the Scriptures, and each week I'm able to show a short clip of the particular passage I'm teaching from.  It's a great visual tool.  Our attendance has increased each week - the first week we had seven, then ten, and last Wednesday 18 people came.  I would love to fill up our meeting room each week.  The format and teaching are very different from Sunday mornings too.  We're very relaxed on Wednesdays, and I'm able to go deeper into the background and context of a passage than Mike can do on Sunday mornings.  The crowd is different as well, because Saturday nights and Sunday mornings are more directed towards the unchurched or de-churched folks who make up the majority of those who attend The Journey; Wednesday evening is mostly more mature believers who want to dig deeper into the Bible. 

I love it, and I can't wait for this evening.

  

Skunked on the hunt

I drove home from my three-day hunt yesterday - sans elk.  I had a great time nevertheless, and part of the enjoyment of hunting is hoping to bag an elk, but never being sure.  In this case, hope deferred did not make my heart sick - I'll just look forward to next year all the more.  I also enjoyed spending time with some great guys and their sons, and Spencer's wife Annette cooked us a hot meal every evening when we came down from the mountain.

I left before dawn, and as I drove through the valley near Buena Vista and looked in my rear view mirror, and saw the image above.  I just had to pull over and take a picture.  The first snow had fallen the night before, and the sun was just hitting the tops of the peaks - it was breathtaking. 

I have to describe what it's like hunting with Spencer.  We would head out each morning around 5 a.m., to get to the spot we'd chosen the previous night before first light.  Elk tend to stay put at night, and start to move around looking for water and grazing at dawn.  By 10 am or thereabouts they will seek shelter back in the dark timber and wait until evening to come back out.  Spencer has been hunting these mountains his whole life (he's my age), so he knows the roads like the back of his hand.  He drives a beat-up old suburban, and we would take off at a break-neck speed down the highway, then turn onto a dirt road.  The road would soon became a track, and the track would eventually become a trail.  He drove that truck up and down roads that I thought impossible to navigate - all at high speed, in the dark, steering with one hand and drinking coffee with the other.  There weren't any seat belts in the truck (at least none that I could find), so all five of us would be bouncing around trying to hold onto our rifles and keep from knocking into each other.  We kept bullets in the magazines of our rifles, but nothing in the chamber (no danger of the rifle going off in the truck).  That way, if we saw something once we got up on the mountain, we could jump out - jack a shell into the chamber and let the lead fly.  At least, that was the theory.

  We would finally reach a parking place, and either find a spot to sit and wait for the elk to come out, or stalk through the woods.  In the three days I was out there, I never saw even one elk that I could shoot at.  We did see some elk on a ridge above the road as we drove out one evening, and almost turned around to get a shot - the only problem was that we were past hunting time (30 minutes after sunset), we were on a road (can't shoot from a road) and the elk were on someone's private property.  Just as Spence was about to turn around, he said, "Nope - can't do it.  I must have had a brain fart".  That was the closest any of us - other than Spencer's Dad - came to shooting at elk.  We sat, we walked, we tried driving the elk out of the woods - zippo.  C'est la vie.

 I had to take a picture of the Indian Head Rock that's not far from where we were staying.  What a great profile!

I've got to go so I can prepare for our Wednesday night Bible study at church.  Can't wait.

Elk Hunting and First Framed Print Sold

I am writing this from Ohio City, Colorado with Spencer Nicoll and his family.  We're in a valley surrounded by sage-brush mountains and dark timber.  We've been hunting for a day and-a-half, and so far only Spencer's father Dave has managed to make a kill - a beautiful six point bull.  Granddad has been hunting for more years than I can count, and he's never managed to shoot a big bull until yesterday - at age 74.   His two sons were so excited you'd think they'd shot the bull themselves.  The photo shows three generations of their family.

I'll say one thing for elk hunting - you stay in shape!  I climbed a ridge yesterday that just about did me in.  It took me almost an hour to climb up near the top, and I had to stay in the woods to keep any elk from seeing me out in the open.  I probably stopped to catch my breath 2o times along the way.  Every time I stopped I pulled out my phone to see if there was any signal, because when we left camp Auburn was only beating Arkansas by two points 30 to 28.  I sure missed an exciting second half - Auburn eventually won 65 to 43, and set a high-scoring record for the SEC.  Anyway, back to hunting.  I sat up on the hill until nearly dark, only to find out when I got back that the elk were only one hill over from where I was - welcome to the unpredictable and often frustrating world of hunting.  This morning we went to a different spot, and after walking for quite some time I sat down to rest and wait (most of hunting is just waiting - you're lucky if you fire your gun even once).  I saw several mule deer does coming down the hill towards me, and I wondered how close they would get before they would see me and get spooked.  They walked right past me - probably only 10 yards away - and never saw me sitting in among the trees.  Too bad I wasn't hunting deer this time.  All in all it was a beautiful morning, and I've got this evening and tomorrow to get a cow elk before I need to head home for our Wednesday evening service. 





Last week I got a phone call from the office manager at Southwest Counseling Associates, where I had one of my framed prints displayed for sale.  She said a man had come in, wanted the print and left her a check - my first framed print to sell!  I replaced it the next day, but I am excited to have finally sold a print.  Maybe one of these days I'll be able to sell an original.  The timing of the sale is a "God Thing" that I will share more about in another blog entry.

I hope to have my own elk story before I have to leave.  I think I'll go cast a few flies in the river behind the cabin and see if there's any trout to catch.

Wood Stove Hernia

This evening I finished installing a wood stove insert into our downstairs fireplace.  We decided to make the investment now, to save long-term on our heating costs in winter which can be dramatic.  Two of the guys from church came over to help me unload the stove from the back of the truck, and into the house.  There's a reason why they used a forklift to place it in the truck in the first place - the stove (empty) weighs almost 500 pounds.  I've never lifted anything so heavy - pound for pound - in my entire life.  I knew we were in trouble when we pushed it to the edge of the truck bed, counted to three and lifted . . . and nothing happened.  After a few scary moments of nearly crushing a hand or a foot, we managed to get the stove through the basement door and onto the carpet where we could push and pull it across the floor to the edge of the fireplace.  Another hernia-popping lift and we had it onto the hearth, and finally into the fireplace.  I thought it would be a simple process to drop the round liner down the chimney, hook it up and voila! We're heating with wood.  After cutting out the metal damper we did manage to get the liner down the chimney, but to actually get the top of the stove to hook up to the bottom of the pipe required knocking bricks out of the back of the fireplace.  Anyway, we're now enjoying a MUCH warmer basement, and the temperature upstairs has increased by around 4 degrees.  Of course, the stove doesn't run by itself all night - it has to be stoked or re-lit around 4 am.  Now we just need another two or three cords of wood.

We started our first Wednesday evening Bible study last week, and we had 11 people show up for the first in a teaching series from the book of John.  I was encouraged, and I hope the more in-depth Bible study will meet a need that has been expressed by a number of people at the Journey.  This week it's the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus, which leads to the most famous Bible verse of all - John 3:16.  While I was doing some research for the series I came across a You-Tube video from a movie that was made of the entire book of John.  What a gold-mine!  I love to add video clips to any message if it will help people to understand, and here I have a potential source of clips of every significant event that John recorded in his Gospel.  The whole purpose of the mid-week service is to dig deeper than we can do on Sunday morning, and those who come on Wednesday are usually not new believers.  I've learned some new things about Nicodemus while preparing for this week, and I'd love to give it the title of "Jesus and Nicodemus... say what?".  I didn't realize that the Jews of Jesus' day - as well as today - believe that when a pagan converts to Judaism and is baptized, that they are "born again" to a new life.  But Jesus gave the term a whole new meaning.  So here's Nicodemus - a Pharisee, teacher, religious authority and leader of the people being told by Jesus that he also needed to be born again.  No wonder he was incredulous - if Nicodemus couldn't be sure of salvation, then who in the world could?  I found a great quote that describes why Nicodemus might have come to see Jesus in the first place:

" Suppose you are a renowned pianist, trained by the finest concert pianist the world has ever known. When you perform, crowds gather to listen. Everyone hails you as the master in your area of musical expertise. Now suppose some young man comes along who grew up in the Ozarks and who never had a piano lesson in his life, but simply taught himself to play on a broken-down instrument in his grandmother’s house. When this hillbilly musician comes to town, his talent is discovered, and people throng to hear him perform. When he does, tears come to the eyes of those in his audience. You too listen to him play. You, better than anyone else, recognize in him a musical genius that you have never had and that you never will. When you hear him play, you wish you had his abilities. I believe this is the way Nicodemus must have felt about Jesus. Nicodemus is a Pharisee who is at the top of his field. Not only is he a member of the Sanhedrin, he is the most renowned Bible teacher of his day—the “Billy Graham” of first century Jerusalem. Yet when he hears Jesus teach, he hears the answers to questions that have bothered him for years. He watches the crowds as they listen to Jesus, and he knows he has never held the attention of an audience like Jesus does. Jesus speaks in simple terms, but His message has great power. Nicodemus observes the miracles Jesus performs, knowing he has never performed so much as one miracle. By nearly any standard, Nicodemus does not hold a candle to Jesus."

Seems like a plausible explanation to me - Nicodemus just wanted to meet this young "genius" himself to ask a few questions - but Jesus was way ahead of him.  When Jesus tells him that he, too, had to be born again, I can imagine his response being, "Say What?".  Should be fun on Wednesday.

__________________________

Mike has been putting out feed to attract the deer this winter, and he gave us a whole bag of it.  I put several piles of grain leading up to the rocks behind our house, and I'm hoping to convince the deer or elk to climb up where we can see them better.  Once the snow comes and grass becomes harder to find, I think we'll see more wildlife coming around.  When the guys from church went to the hardware store they asked the cashier what kind of grain would attract the deer.  She said, "Well, you're not supposed to feed the deer ... but off the record, I would use this kind."  I love it. We'll see if it works.

What A God Thing

The four-wheeling morning turned into a real adventure because the road was one, long, series of huge rocks and boulders.  Bob could easily get through them or around them on his trail bike, but with an ATV you just have to plow over them.  We must have ridden up 4 miles or so on this really tough road (I'm not exaggerating) to the top of the mountain.  I called a couple of people from the top and I was amazed to see that I had a full signal - until Bob pointed out that we were standing right next to three or four cell towers that had been built on the summit.  We took 1.5 hours to get to the top, and 45 minutes down.  It was a wild ride.  Just after we took the picture below, I started the quad to head down and heard this grinding noise coming from the engine.  Bob said, "What was that!" And I thought - "Oh darn (except I didn't say darn), if this thing konks out now, I'm going to be pushing it 4 miles back down the worst road I've ever been up!"  I said a quick prayer, started it up again, and made it all the

 way down the mountain without a hitch.  I forgot to mention that while we were admiring the view from the top, I heard a train whistle coming from the Georgetown scenic railway way down below.  I thought how much fun it would be to take my family on the train one day.  This is connected to what happened later in the day.

We got to the bottom, loaded up our bikes, and Bob went on home.  I headed into historic Georgetown where I met up with a new friend who is on staff with Crusade, but who for several reasons is considering a new career.  While I was waiting for him to arrive, I noticed a jeep pulling a second car on a trailer - which I thought was somewhat unusual, but nothing more than that. After my lunch meeting I started back to Conifer via Evergreen on I-70.  There's a short-cut that I normally take that cuts off about 15 minutes of the trip.  I was watching for the exit, but before I knew it I'd driven right past it.  I kicked myself (which is hard to do when you're driving) for missing the short-cut, because I now had to take the long way home. I decided to "redeem" my mistake by stopping at Home Depot to pick up a few things I needed to finish my deck.  I got off at the exit and pulled up to the red light.  I looked to my left and saw a car on a trailer, with the trailer hitch sitting on the ground.  The only way this could happen is if the trailer hitch broke and dropped into the road. The car that had been pulling it was nowhere to be seen.   I also noticed an older man sitting on the curb, holding something to his face (which I found out later was a kleenex, as he had a very bad nose-bleed).  The trailer was blocking the way for anyone who wanted to exit the highway, and I thought how embarrassing it must be for the poor guy sitting there.  At this point I have to go back to my previous blog entry where I wrote about the marbles and the Random Acts of Kindness, because the thought crossed my mind that I should go and help him out.  The light turned green and I went across the intersection and headed down to HD - and I could clearly sense God's Spirit saying to me, "Where are you going?"  "Well" I thought, " I'm just going to run into HD, buy a couple of things, and if on the way out this guy still needs help I'll stop."  Again, even louder, God said, "Where are you going?"  So I turned around, drove back to the trailer and pulled over in front of him.  "Do you need a tow?"  I asked.  "Well", he replied, (holding a very bloody kleenex to his nose), "the pin on our trailer hitch broke, and my wife went to Wal-Mart to buy another one."  When I asked where he was going, he said "To that hotel" and pointed up the road about four hundred yards.  I offered to tow his trailer up there, and he gratefully agreed.  There was a problem, however, as I couldn't lift the trailer due to the weight of the car on it.  Another man had stopped by that time, and even the two of us together couldn't lift it.  We discussed how we could lift it high enough to get it onto my tow ball - and decided to try using my truck jack to raise it up.  We jacked up the trailer, but it wasn't high enough to fit over the ball on my tow hitch.  We tried several times without success, and finally used several pieces of wood that I just "happened" to have in my truck to get the trailer high enough to back my truck up just under the socket - and the trailer just dropped down onto it. 

While we were still fiddling with the trailer, Ron's (bloody nose man) wife pulled up with her daughter and granddaughter.  "Wow" she exclaimed, "We call the police and they don't come - but the Good Samaritans do!"  I asked her where they're from, and she replied "Michigan."  "You're a long way from home. Where are you headed?"  She said that she and her husband had recently been forced into retirement, and they were on their way to Yuma, Arizona to try and start over.  She told me that they'd just been to Georgetown to ride the train, and I laughed and said, "I saw you there! I went 4 wheeling on the mountain above the town, and I also heard your train whistle!" What a funny turn of events.

Then I said to her, "This may sound funny, but God told me to stop and help you."  I told her how I'd bought that tow hitch two weeks before, but had never used it, and how I'd actually passed by their trailer to go to Home Depot when God told me to go back and help.  "You must be a Christian" she said, and I replied that I was.  "So are we", she said, and started to cry.  I stood up and put my arm around her, and said that God must be looking out for them because if their hitch had broken on the highway it could have caused a catastrophic accident.  God made sure it happened right there, off the highway and out of danger.

I got back in the truck and towed them up to their hotel.  After we switched the the trailer back to their jeep, I walked back over to the wife and asked her name.  "Mary Beth" she said.  "Well Mary Beth, You know what's even funnier?  Yesterday at church we talked about looking for opportunities to do a random act of kindness for someone, and that's why God led me to you!"  She lit up, and called her husband over to tell him, and he got a big smile on his face (still holding an even bloodier tissue to his nose).  She told me how she and her daughter had been planning to drive on their own to Yuma because of her husband's health issues - and how grateful they were that we'd stopped to help.  She then grabbed my hand and said, "We need to give thanks".  The other man who'd stopped to help was just kind of standing around looking awkward, so I said, "I don't know if you're a religious man or not, but do you want to pray with us?"  "Well, why not?" he said.  So the six of us stood there in the parking lot holding hands, thanking God for His protection, and thanking Him for the new life He is leading them to in Yuma.  As I was getting into the truck to leave, I said, "Mary Beth, I think God sent us to you today for two reasons: first, just to remind you that He loves you.  And second, to tell you that He's got great things in store for you in Arizona.  The rest of your trip is going to be great." 

I drove home with my heart full of gratitude to God that I'd missed my short-cut, but I hadn't missed God's appointment to show a little kindness. 

I still need to get back to Home Depot though.

Dumpster full of bear

Michael called me last night - "If you want to see a bear, now is your chance."  When I asked him what was going on, he said that Brian had gone out behind the diner to throw the trash into the dumpster.  He threw in the bag and locked the dumpster - and an almighty racket broke out inside.  Apparently,  a young black bear had climbed into the dumpster and was enjoying a quiet evening snack when he was hit on the head with a bag full of garbage and then locked inside.  The guys had already called Animal Control to come and release the bear - since they weren't too interested in opening the dumpster when they heard the noise and saw the claws poking out of the opening.  I jumped in my car, hoping to catch "The Big Release" on film - and I arrived only 30 seconds after the bear managed to squeeze itself out and escaped.  Too bad.  A little excitement to end the day.

Today is the day off for our church team, and I'm off on an adventure of my own.  I've got the ATV loaded into the back of the pickup, and in about an hour I'm heading off to meet my friend Bob to go 4-wheeling for the morning.  I've wanted to take the quad out onto a trail ever since we got here, but this will be my first opportunity - and probably the last for the season, since the snow could start soon.

Last week I conducted my first crisis management training, in Wimberley Texas.  This was the first and and only contract that I had for Storm Guides.  The training went well  - we were hoping for 14 participants, but only had 9 in the end.  We had a good time, and I learned a lot in the process.  There
are definitely several things I would change for next time - things that you can only see when you're actually leading a training.  On the morning of my flight I was getting ready to leave home, and I turned to Daphne and said, "Doesn't it seem strange for me to be taking off for a trip?"  We both agreed that we don't miss the frequent trips and me being gone from home so much of the time.  This is probably the last time I will benefit from the advantages of being an "Elite" member with United's frequent flyer program - and I couldn't care less.  It used to be such an important thing to maintain the gold card status - just shows how our lives have changed this past year. 

This past weekend we had 40 visitors at church - all three services combined.  I have never been a part of a church that is growing so fast, or where we can sense such a movement of God's Spirit.  People who've never darkened the door of a church or who've been away for years are coming in just to check it out.  A couple of weeks ago Mike challenged everyone in the church to look for opportunities to do  random acts of kindness for someone each day.  We have bowls full of marbles next to the exits of the church, and the idea is for each of us to take several marbles each week as we leave as a reminder - and the following Sunday to put one marble for every act of kindness we did into a large 5 gallon container.  The goal is to fill up the large container by the end of the year . . . fill it up with love and kindness.  Several people have come to church the past two weeks simply because they were so touched by the kindness someone showed to them.  One funny story:  a couple of the guys on our church staff went to the grocery store late one evening, and they decided to help the young man who was gathering up all the stray shopping carts for the night.  He was so grateful for their help he offered to share his marijuana with them!  What a hoot.