It has been a few weeks since I last posted. The month of October has been very busy. Tess and I went to Montana the first part of the month to see family and to work on Kingdom Camp. We flew on a buddy pass to save a few bucks. In hindsight we should have bought some tickets. Flying standby has always been an adventure, but it is even more so now with less flights and more over-selling seats on planes. Airline employees are gracious to give their buddy passes away, but you can detect an air of apology when they give you a pass. They know what you are about to experience and they are already praying for you and your fortitude for trials! I heard someone refer to a buddy pass as "torture your buddy pass."
Even with the added adventure, Tess and I had a great time. We had the opportunity to check out six different airports. The airport at Minneapolis/St. Paul had a newer concourse where all the traditional terminal seating had been replaced with chairs and booths with I-pads. You could sit there and surf the web, play games, or order food and drinks. I didn't mind being stuck there! One of our stops was in Pittsburg. What a beautiful landscape surrounding that area of Pennsylvania. I would love to one day check it out by car. Over-all, even with the insecurity of getting on flights, we had a great time hanging out with each other. God used that time for relationship building with each other and with Him. That is what living life is all about!
Our time on the mountain was also a blessing. There were six of us altogether. Tess did all the cooking, and as usual she "knocked it out the park!" One of the guys who usually goes with us could not go at the last minute. I have always put him in charge of operating the saws. He is a professional and works very efficiently. We were not able to accomplish as much as I had hoped, but over-all we enjoyed working together and getting to know each other better. Also, spending time with my dad on the mountain was great. Kingdom Camp was born out of a vision God had given him about fifteen years ago. He is excited to see it almost complete and ready for active ministry to pastors in crisis.
On our last full day on the mountain it began to snow. When I woke up the next morning I looked outside to see if there was enough snow on the ground to run the snowmobile. To my surprise, there was just enough! I took the time to crank up the snowmobile and ride it around on the mountain top for about thirty minutes. I knew it may be years before I would have a chance to do this again. I can't tell you how many times I passed up opportunities to do something fun thinking "I'll get the chance to do this again later." And as life has proven over and over again, those chances did not come later.
After we returned from our Montana trip, we had a few days to recover and get ready for a four day and night hunting and camping trip to the woods of middle Georgia. We don't eat a lot of red meat, but if we had our way, we would only eat venison when we do eat red meat. I try to put at least two deer in the freezer each year. This year I'm hoping to get four deer! I was able to bag one small doe while on this hunt, so I'm one quarter of the way there.
We don't have any kind of camper, so we primitive camp. You know, in a tent! Yes, my loving wife spoke my love language and hung out with me in the woods sleeping in a tent. I take my camping very seriously and have a pretty good set-up for surviving as comfortably as possible in the woods. As we were heading home I looked at her and said, "if the zombie apocalypse takes place, this is how we will have to live!" She just smiled and rolled her eyes.
I know I usually don't use this blog page to talk about what we are doing in our lives, but I wanted to catch everyone up on what we have been up to. Ministry at CFT has continued to be exciting. I will share more about that in my next newsletter.
Blessings!
