Boone & Crockett

Bodacious Bear

I picked up the cleaned bear skull a couple of days ago, and the fellow who does the cleaning told me that my bear may qualify to be in the record book! We measured it together and the total length plus width is close to 20.5 inches.  For black bears, anything over 20 is considered a record, and above 21 is considered in the "all-time" record category.  The closest official scorer for Boone & Crockett (the "Guiness Book" of records for all animals killed with a gun world-wide) lives down in Denver, so I need to find time to get "down the hill" (as we say up here) to get it scored.  If he agrees with our unofficial score, then I can get my name in the book!  I knew the bear was big when I saw him. . . I just had no idea how big he really was.  Who'd of thought the missionary-turned-mountain man would bag a record sized bear on his first attempt?  Not this boy.  Now I just need to get a monster-sized elk :)

I am a bachelor this week while Daphne and the girls are in Alabama for Thanksgiving.  I would have gone with them but I was gone all last week and we have ongoing counseling appointments here.  I'll be with my sister Cathi and her family for Thanksgiving day.  Daphne, Nicole and Jacqueline took a girls' road trip and spent two days driving to Birmingham to save the considerable cost to fly all three of them down there.  They had a great time on the way, and the second day they drove along parts of historic Route 66 and stopped to see some famous landmarks.  
     Karine knew nothing about them coming, even though I almost gave it away by mistake when I was on the phone with her the week before I left for Turkey (more on that below).  The rest of the family were in on the surprise, so when Daph and the girls pulled up outside the house Bill started filming.  Karine was literally speechless as they walked in the house - it is hilarious.  They'll spend Thanksgiving with the Birmingham Myers crew and then start driving back home on Friday.


My folks are in Birmingham as well right now.  Dad had surgery on his vocal cords yesterday to remove what was left of a cancerous polyp, and they'll follow up with a laser treatment when the surgery has healed.  Bill told me the growth was deeper than they'd anticipated, but that the surgeon was fairly sure to have gotten what was left. 

The hotel where I spent the night in Istanbul
on my trip home.

As I mentioned above, I was in Antalya, Turkey all of last week attending the last combined NAMESTAN conference before the region is divided into
two new regions.  Henri had invited all those who had 
served on the leadership team over the past 10-12 years to attend the last three days of the conference to honor us for our years of service.  I had mixed emotions when I read the email invitation: our leave taking was difficult for us and for the team we were a part of, and I wasn't looking forward to opening new relational wounds.  However, my time there went much better than I had hoped and I had many good conversations with former teammates.  In the end I felt like I gained some more closure emotionally, and I am better able to close that chapter on our lives in a good way.  At the closing banquet I, along with the other current and former members of the leadership team, was honored with a very nice plaque to thank each of us for our contribution to the ministry in NAMESTAN.  It was a good memory to end on.

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