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. 

What does God really want?

What does God want from us, when all is said and done?  Does He want our labor?  Our time?  If He were to say to me, "Jim, all I really want and need from you is _________."  What would that be?  There are undoubtedly a hundred ways to answer that question, but since this is MY blog, I'll answer it this way:  The longer I enjoy a relationship with God, the more convinced I am that all God really wants - which is also the most difficult thing for us to give Him - is our HEART.  For once He has our heart, He has all of us.  Think about it:  once He truly has my heart, then He has my ears, my feet, my hands - all of me.  Once He has my heart, He can direct all of the rest of me very easily.  If He does not own my heart fully, that is what He will seek and search for until He has it.

We worry about what we will eat, or drink, or wear.  We are concerned about where we will work, or how long we'll be able to keep our job.  We worry about keeping the roof over our heads, and providing the very best things for our families.  When it really comes down to it, our lives are governed far more by fear than by faith.  The decisions we make are often the offspring of our own insecurities and doubts, rather than being born and inspired by the voice of our Shepherd who has, after all, already promised to take care of us and to provide for all our needs.  "So do not worry, saying 'What shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear'?  For the pagans run after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  But [continually] seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided."  This has to be one of the most radical statements of Jesus in all of Scripture.  What He's saying - in my understanding - is that we live our lives filled with fear and anxiety about the same things the world worries about.  But there is another way.  There is a place - a state of mind - where we can find real, honest-to-goodness REST.  From the world's point of view nothing may have changed in our circumstances, but everything has changed in our hearts.  "Come to me, all you who are weary and heaven-laden, and I will give you rest."  God's not talking about a spiritual nap here.  He's talking about us living in a continual state of being at peace, where our hearts are always quiet and at rest.

One of my favorite movies of all time is "Signs".  I know, it's all about Aliens invading the earth. . . or is it?  There is a very deep message flowing under all the scary scenes and unexpected surprises.  I don't know anything about the spiritual background of the Director Shymalan, but I know that God spoke to me (and to my brother John) in a deep way in one particular scene.  Mel Gibson and his family have taken final refuge in the basement, fully expecting that the aliens would find their way in eventually and kill or abduct them.  Gibson's son has asthma, and his medication is (of course) upstairs where the aliens are - out of reach.  As his son's fears start to overwhelm him, he begins gasping for breath in a full-blown asthma attack.  Having no other recourse, Mel takes him in his lap with his arms around him and says to his panicking son - in a quiet, confident voice - "breathe with me.  Feel my breath going in and out.  You can relax.  Breathe with me... breathe with me... breathe with me."  As his son feels Mel chest going up and down, and hears His calm voice, and feels his strong arms - he starts to relax, and his breathing slows down, and he slowly recovers from the attack and falls asleep.  John and I love that scene because it's a wonderful picture of how God longs for us to trust Him.  When we panic, He takes us in His strong arms and whispers in our ear... "Breathe with me... breathe with me... breathe with me."

He never promises that life won't be scary, or that we'll be spared every hard or painful trial.  He just wants to know if He has our heart.  If He does, then He knows we'll make it through.

Who was John?

     Next month our church will begin a Wednesday evening service to cater to those who work on the weekends, or who simply enjoy more of a Bible study format.  I will be teaching each week, and I plan to start by going through the Gospel of John.  Why John?  Because John wrote to Christians who did not come from a Jewish background, and he wrote about Jesus in a completely different way than Matthew, Mark and Luke.  John was one of Jesus' "inner circle" along with his brother James and Peter. Only these three were present when Jesus raised Jairus's daughter from the dead, only they witnessed Jesus being transfigured on the mountain, and only the three of them were privileged to be with Jesus during his darkest hour in the garden of Gethsemane (even though they all fell asleep).

Cave of the Apocalypse: you have to use your imagination

     John was youngest of the disciples, but he lived to the oldest age - in fact, he was the only one of the 12 who died a natural death - the other 10 all died horrible, violent deaths as martyrs (and Judas, of course, killed himself).  Even John wasn't immune to persecution, because church tradition says that during the reign of emporer Domitian they attempted to kill him by boiling him in oil, but he escaped unscathed.  According to the story, the entire coliseum was converted when they witnessed this miracle.  Eventually he was banished to a little island in the Aegean Sea called Patmos, off the coast of modern Turkey. Of course, like any site of Biblical importance, the cave where John supposedly lived and wrote Revelations is now a shrine that in no way resembles what it once looked like. The same is true in Israel, and I found it so frustrating that every single site of Biblical importance is covered with a church, a shrine or a monument - making it virtually impossible to imagine the scene as it once was.  Anyway, as I've been doing research on John's life I've tried to imagine what it must have been like for him to realize, eventually, that he was the last of the original 12 disciples still alive.  He lost his brother James early on, when he was killed by King Herod.  The circumstances of the deaths of the other apostles are related through church tradition, so you can't put too much weight on any of the other accounts. The most commonly accepted church tradition in regard to the death of an apostle is that the apostle Peter was crucified upside-down on an x-shaped cross in Rome in fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy. The following are the most popular “traditions” concerning the deaths of the other apostles:

Matthew suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia, killed by a sword wound.  James, the brother of Jesus (not officially an apostle), was the leader of the church in Jerusalem. He was thrown from the southeast pinnacle of the temple (over a hundred feet down) when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat James to death with a club. This is thought to be the same pinnacle where Satan had taken Jesus during the temptation.  Bartholomew, also known as Nathanael, was a missionary to Asia. He witnessed in present-day Turkey and was martyred for his preaching in Armenia, being flayed to death by a whip. Andrew was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Greece. After being whipped severely by seven soldiers, they tied his body to the cross with cords to prolong his agony. His followers reported that when he was led toward the cross, Andrew saluted it in these words: “I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it.” He continued to preach to his tormentors for two days until he died. The apostle Thomas was stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church there. Matthias, the apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot, was stoned and then beheaded. The apostle Paul was tortured and then beheaded by the evil Emperor Nero in Rome in A.D. 67. There are traditions regarding the other apostles as well, but none with any reliable historical or traditional support.

So here's John, living out his last days in exile on Patmos - all of his closest friends having died terrible deaths for their faith in the living Savior.   John must have remembered the conversation that Jesus had with Peter after the resurrection as they walked on the beach - with John following behind.  Jesus said to Peter:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” (This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.” Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them, the one who had been reclining at table close to him and had said, “Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?” When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” 


I wonder if Jesus' last sentence was in reference to the fact that John did, in fact, see Jesus when He came to John in a vision on Patmos, and John wrote the book of Revelations.  Who knows?  I'm looking forward to walking through the book of John with our church, discovering together who Jesus is through the eyes and heart of "the Beloved Disciple".

Night Vision

I borrowed an automatic trail camera from a friend.   I wanted to see what wildlife frequents our property after dark - so I put a pile of meat on a couple of tree stumps about 50 yards from our back deck, and set up the trail cam to capture images of any "visitors".  I was hoping for a bear or a mountain lion, but all I got, as you can see from the images below, are a couple of foxes.  By 10 p.m. the meat was all gone.  I'll have to make it harder for the foxes to steal the meat next time.  The bears won't start hibernating until sometime in December, so I'm hoping to catch one on film before then.  I should probably just leave our garbage can out and put the camera on that!

I'm leaving this morning to fly to Austin, Texas to lead a crisis management training with a church down there.  I'm really looking forward to it.  This may be the last training I'll do for a while, because Daphne and I are investing our time and energy more and more into our local church - and my role as Executive Pastor is starting to pick up speed.  If God brings other training needs my way, I would consider them on a case-be-case basis.  But we've realized that our passion is to use our experience to help build this church - and this is probably the primary reason why God brought us to Conifer in the first place. 

The Aspens - God's marvelous canvas

We went to see the Aspens yesterday.  No comment needed.

Birthday hike & bugling elk

Daphne celebrated her birthday last Tuesday, and her birthday wish was for she and I to drive up to Estes Park to take a hike with our friend Sharon.  The particular hike Sharon suggested is a six mile in Rocky Mountain National Park - up a canyon in Moraine Park, across a river, then back down again.  Only one week earlier we'd driven up to see Sharon with our girls, and it was blowing an arctic gale.  On Tuesday, the weather was as perfect as anyone could hope for - warm, clear blue sky and a gentle breeze.  You'd almost think someone had dialed the day in for Daphne (she must be living right).  We had a beautiful hike.  We ate lunch at Cub Lake (covered in lily pads), sitting on a rock at the edge of the water.  Several ducks paid us a visit, and they are obviously used to being fed because one of them practically sat in my lap waiting for a handout. 

The Aspens are just about at their most brilliant, and this weekend  - today actually - we're hoping to drive up to Kenosha Pass where there are huge Aspen groves that should be spectacular. Anyway, the hike was pretty strenuous - six miles is a good hike by anyone's definition, especially at this altitude.  Daphne was starting to feel pretty "rugged" and proud of herself for making it up to the top of the trail. . . until we passed several groups of elderly women in their 80's who were shuffling along with their walking sticks.  Oh well, so much for pride!  Daphne's birthday present (other than the hike and time with Sharon) was the
full set of the TV series on Daniel Boone that was
produced back in the 50's.  She absolutely loves it, and now I've got to compete with Fess Parker (who plays Daniel Boone) for her affections.  I personally think she's smitten.

Several mornings a week around 7 am I drive around this area looking for the herds of elk, and hoping I can get some good shots of the bulls in rut.  Yesterday I went out with our friend Danny, who used to live next to us when we rented a house out in Bailey.  Danny is an avid hunter, and he has several elk calls - both a bugle call and one for the cows that sounds like some kind of loud bird.  We drove around until we spotted a herd grazing on the Evergreen golf course lawn.  There's a big bull that I've found several times, and he is distinctive by the curious crooked tine he has on the end of his right antler.  This particular bull is very aggressive during the rutting season, so I always have to be careful not to approach him too closely.  I was taking pictures of the same bull a couple of days ago, and met up with a man named Allen who's been following him for years.  Allen told me that a woman was attacked by a bull elk last year as she got out of her car in her own driveway.  Apparently,

she was on her cellphone and wasn't paying attention, and she didn't see the bull elk just outside her car.  As she exited the vehicle the bull charged her and gave her one rake with his antlers.  Looking at the size of the antlers on the left, you can imagine how easily she could have been killed.  She apparently suffered a puncture wound in her abdomen, as well as a broken nose.  I'm surprised these kind of attacks don't happen more often when consider how many bull elk there are in our area, and in what close proximity they have to humans every day.

I will be leaving a week from today to conduct a crisis management training in San Marcus, Texas with Cypress Creek Church.  I'm excited about this opportunity, especially as I'll be able to spend some time with Mike and Myra McCoy since Cypress Creek is their home church.  The last thing I need to work on for the training is also the most difficult - to create a crisis scenario exercise for the group on the last half-day of the training.  I want the exercise to be as realistic as possible, because the goal is to get the participants to "feel" the stress and tension that a true crisis invariably creates.  This particular church sends teams to Kenya almost every summer, so I should be able to come up with something good considering that I lived there for eight years!

My Nephew Aaron, his fiancee Minette and my nephew William are all coming up to spend the night with us tonight.  We haven't had any time with Aaron  - on his own - ever, and we've never gotten to know his fiancee. Should be a fund day!  I'll have to exercise great self-control to choose to spend time with them and not watch the Auburn-Clemson game this evening!  They are the priority today -- and I can always watch the reply later in the evening, as long as no one calls me to comment on the game ;)

Don't Mess With Me!

This morning Daphne joined me on a dawn hunt for Elk in rut.  We drove all over kingdom-come to find a herd of elk that I could photograph, and we finally came across several bulls in competition for a small group of cows only a couple miles from our house.  The dominant bull was on the right side of the road, bugling his challenge to two younger bulls on the opposite side of the road.  We pulled over on the shoulder and I jumped out to get some shots - hoping I could catch them fighting.  Well, the main bull was closer than I realized, and as I stepped around the truck he saw the movement and came up the embankment towards me with a determined look in his eyes.  I jumped behind the truck and took the picture above - and he then swung his head back and forth and knocked branches off the trees and dug at the ground with his antlers.  I don't speak elk, but I didn't need a translator to catch his meaning: "Don't mess with me!"   We sat there for the better part of 30 minutes watching the mexican standoff between the three bulls - but the two challengers never engaged with the dominant bull.  This being my first time to see the elk in rut, I wonder how often the bulls actually fight.  So far it hasn't happened when we've been present, but sooner or later the dominant bull has to lose the fight to a

younger bull.  I know now to keep a healthy distance from these huge animals, especially when their hormones are raging.  We were amazed by how loud the bugling is when you're close up.  We could also hear a strange sound like someone knocking two pieces of wood together, and then we realized the noise was coming from the main bull's panting breath.  Good thing the mating season only lasts a couple of weeks, because I doubt he ever takes the time to eat or rest while he's watching his ladies.  Just goes to show why polygamy is a bad idea!

Journey Racing Team

One of the things I love about our church is that we like to have fun, and we'll try just about anything to bring people together.  Not far from Conifer is the Bandemere Raceway - a quarter mile drag racing track that runs along the base of the foothills.  The fastest cars (and especially the motorcycles) can run the quarter mile in 9 seconds . . our car can do it in 14 (which translates to around 100 miles an hour). Our church's car is a 1967 Dodge Coronet that's been stripped down to the bare minimum.  The original engine has been replaced by an RV engine, so it has a huge amount of power.  The goal of having our own car is not just to win races, but to include kids and adults from church who can help in rebuilding the car, or learn how to drive in a drag race.  It's also a way to build a sense of community ( and bring along our friends who may never darken the door of a church). Anyone who has a valid drivers' license can drive on Wednesdays,  and you'll see just about every make and model of vehicle at the track.  Wednesdays are "Test-N-Tune" nights, which for most people means an opportunity to push their car to its limits prior to race day, and fix the inevitable problems. Although I didn't drive last time (I'm planning to drive this Wednesday) I had a great time watching the whole atmosphere.   I've invited my friend Bob to join me, and he is really excited at the idea of driving a car at the Bandemere track.  It's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know, right?  There's just something primal deep inside most men that yearns to drive at high speeds in a controlled environment -- in other words, we all want to RACE!  Ohhh yeah baby! 

Tomorrow is Daphne's birthday, and to celebrate the day she and I are driving back up to Estes Park to go on a six mile hike with our dear friend Sharon.  The weather is looking like it will be perfect, so it should be a great day.

Wild Weekend

We won't soon forget this past weekend!  On Sunday afternoon we drove down the hill to meet my sister Cathi, her husband Gary and my niece Beka at Water World.  I've been to some water parks in the past, but this place made them look minuscule - it is enormous.  We could not have possibly gone on every water slide in the park, but we went on several and we had an blast.  Two rides stick out in my mind as I think about our "wet and wild" afternoon: the first is called "Voyage to the center of the earth, "which is built entirely indoors and underground.  Of course, you have to pick up your large, three man inner tube at the bottom of the ride where everyone is getting out, and carry it (push it, drag it, roll it) all the way to the top.  Once you climb - with considerably difficulty - into the inner tube, the ride takes you down a series of large, downward spiraling chutes - and in between the chutes there are animatronic dinosaurs to keep things interesting.  I was in a tube with Nicole and Jacqueline.  I'm sure Jacqueline looked up a time or two, but for most of the ride she kept her head down in the tube and screamed at the top of her lungs.  It was hilarious.  The second, noteworthy ride is called "The Lazy River" . . . and you can probably understand why this one appealed to all the adults!  Now, it would (theoretically) be a nice, lazy, slow ride in an inner tube around a circular "river".  But throw in a billion people on tubes all jostling for position and you've got a rubber traffic jam.  Once you get separated from your group - good luck trying to find them again.  So you end up floating along with some guy with a beer belly and 500 tattoos, or Billy Bob's cousin - only with fewer teeth.  I talked with one guy who had a tattoo on his shoulder of the crown of thorns and three spikes which, he explained, illustrates his Christian beliefs.  He then told me how his next tattoo would cover his whole back - a picture of the entire zodiac calendar...??

But the most interesting part of the day came at the end.  Around 2:45 we all met back at the cabana that Cathi had rented for the day, and Cathi and Daphne told us to look through our things because they'd  seen a woman going into our cabana a few minutes earlier (they were in the pool at the time).  When they confronted her, she made up some story about getting mixed up with her cabana.  We discovered that Daphne's Amex card was missing, and when I called American Express they said that there had been around 10 charges made or attempted, starting two hours earlier!  So, this woman had come into our cabana, taken the card and then tried to charge several things in the park, and then at stores just outside the park.  Then she came back into the park and tried several more again, and apparently when Cathi and Daphne saw her she was looking for our zip code because the charges wouldn't go through with the wrong code.  We called security, and eventually had a police woman come to take our report.  Long story short:  they found the woman STILL in the park, sitting by another pool with her child.  She did such a good job of bluffing anger that Daphne wasn't 100% sure it was her, but in hindsight we know it was.  She's either the bravest or most stupid thief I've ever heard of, making multiple charges on the card and still hanging around the same park!  Even though to our knowledge she wasn't charged, it made for an interesting end to our day.

Rocky Mountain Adventure

On Monday we drove up to Estes Park to visit our friend Sharon McElwain (who previously worked with us in France) and for me to hopefully take some photos of the elk in rut.  We had a short visit with Sharon, and a very cold and windy picnic (see pictures below: Daphne kind of looks like the unabomber with her hoodie and sunglasses!) - but no luck with finding any elk.  We decided to drive home over Trailridge Road - which has got to be one of the most magnificent panoramic roads in the world.  Well, right on top of the mountain we came across a herd of elk with a large bull - and a second challenger bull who was making his way down to towards the herd.  The first bull outweighed the challenger by a good bit, and he was able to convince him to change his mind without a fight.  I got some great photos of both of them.  Then further down near Winter Park we came across a cow Moose with two calves, which was our first time to see moose in the wild.  It was a great day.
     The only down side was that I forgot to take my medicated patches, which meant I was up literally all night pacing the floor - I only got to sleep around 7 am.  Daphne and I prayed and prayed, and I ended up in tears in the wee hours of the morning - not just for myself and the frustration of this never- ending battle, but I was weeping for my brother John who suffers from chronic pain.  Although our ailments are of different natures, we seem to be living in parallel worlds of physical struggles - and have been for several years.  God has placed a very strong burden on Daphne's heart (and now mine as well) to believe God for complete healing from my restless leg syndrome.  This is perhaps the first time in our marriage when I am following Daphne's heart and what she's heard from the Lord, since in the past she has tended to follow the promptings I have felt from the Holy Spirit.  I have never seen her so convinced about something, nor so tenacious in her prayers.  Her firm belief that she's heard from the Lord has brought me to the same conviction - so that is how we continue to pray.  And I find myself often, in the early hours of the morning, praying the same for John.

Freezing Picnic in Rocky Mountain Park

Master of his Harem

The Challenger

Magnificent Bull

Cow moose with both calves

Lion Hunt

We had some excitement this evening; just as I walked in the door, the phone rang and it was Emily who's on staff at our church (and who lives next door).  She said her husband Sterling was looking off their deck and saw a fox meandering by.  Suddenly, the fox stopped dead in its tracks and stared down into the woods. Sterling followed its gaze, and about 50 yards away in a clearing he was shocked to see a large cougar.  It was walking slowly in the general direction of our house.  I jumped back in the truck with my girls, and we raced over to their house and picked up three more.  Just as we were pulling out of our driveway our Pastor's wife Amy pulled in to use our printer, and I asked her to let our beagle inside as she would make a tasty hors d'oeuvre for a hungry cougar!

We drove all over our neighbors property of 50 acres, but other than a couple of mule deer there was no sign of the mountain lion.  Still, it's exciting to know that they're in the area!  We're going to go back out after dark to see if we can spot it.  We're wondering if it was after the mule deer, but the deer obviously hadn't caught the cougar's scent because they were calmly nibbling on the trees and shrubs.  They would have been miles away if they had any idea who was lurking in the neighborhood!  Who knows - maybe we'll spot the lion after dark.

I submitted several of my paintings to a local gallery to be reviewed, as I'd heard they are looking for another artist to display.  I heard back from them a few days ago, and they decided that my work does not fit in with the gallery.  Of course, they have the right to accept or reject any artist based upon their own evaluation, and based upon the general theme of the gallery.  I would not have minded a simply "Not our style", or "We do not need an oil artist at this time."  Unfortunately, they added a final paragraph with some practical tips to improve my oil painting technique, and a final note "Good raw talent!".  The note bothered me, simply because I was not requesting an art lesson.  I've been painting for over 35 years and while another artist may not appreciate my particular style, I found the note to be inappropriate at best - and downright rude at worst.    I'm planning to write a letter back to the gallery to express my sentiments, and to encourage those on the jury to treat potential artists as professionals and not as middle school art students.

Nicole and I went back out after dark - we saw an enormous buck, but no lion.