Friends, if you haven’t yet checked out my wife Kathy’s well
written follow-up to my International Youth Convention post, here is the link. Alternately, a link to my original IYC post from Denver is here,
paling in comparison. I hope you enjoyed
Kathy’s stint as guest blogger as much as I enjoyed my break from blogging.
Our all-guys backpacking trip into the Mt. Hood Wilderness ended
yesterday. I was truly impressed by the
views from Elk Meadows, and also by the full-bore hiking pace of our high schoolers:
Brandon, Claude, and Michael. I’ll post
some camping photos here when it’s time for the next BlogSpot E.P.I.C. student ministry
update.
Meanwhile, those skydiving and birthday weekend pics from my
friends are still M.I.A. As we all impatiently
wait for my friends to cough up those skydiving photos (you know I love you
guys!), let’s hit this from another angle.
I shared during my sermon last week (The link to the free
MP3 is here: Who’s the Boss?, though after a totally sleepless night it took me a while to get warmed up as
I preach) about the most terrifying 15
minutes of my life so far-- the Skydive Oregon plane ride that flew me and the
gang up higher than 12,000 feet for the Big Plunge.
Personal cameras were prohibited onboard, so there is no visual
record of the moments leading up to the conquering of my fear of heights AND of
falling. Fortunately, Elitch Gardens
theme park in Denver emailed me a photo that approximates the look of fear that
must have been on my face as the airplane door cracked open:
The only difference is that that the
Boomerang roller coaster provided Aloha High School senior Will and me a restraint
bar to grab onto as the G-forces came a knockin’.
If there is a moral to this story, it’s probably that facing
your fears is at times an essential segment along the road to becoming a man of
courage.
But other times, that stretch of road can reduce men of courage to
quivering, traumatized crybabies.
Speaking of babies, here is a bonus video clip of baby Lena from
our Denver trip:
Swaddle the “Play” button above for
an irresistible video of Lena’s contagious laughter as she yanks Daddy around
by his youth pastor lanyard, on Day 3 of our trip to International Youth
Convention in Denver.
Coming next on BlogSpot...
Our daughter Lena turns one year old on Monday! Let’s celebrate with a cutesy retrospective
of Lena’s first year… followed by a roundup of my favorite recent hiking trails with
Lena!
