Moab Musings

My brother and his wife and Sandra and I all piled into the car early Tuesday morning and drove from Denver to Moab, Utah, for a day and a half of biking and hiking. We saw lots of terrain that reminded us of Bonaire, but on a mind bogglingly larger scale.

The world famous Slick Rock trail was really tricky to ride without doing serious bodily injury, but we managed to pull it off. It was also a lot of fun in an extremely challenging sort of way, and the views were awesome as well.


You can click on the pictures to see them bigger.

My brother and I cycled into Arches National Park the back way through the desert and ended up at this Balanced Rock area. We then met up with our wives and checked out other parts of the park by car.



This is called "Delicate Arch". We had to hike a mile and a half each way to see this up close and personal, but it was totally well worth it. The whole area was really beautiful in a rugged sort of way.

Surprise, More Biking

Wow, Saturday turned out super clear and sunny, and about 62 degrees.

After a morning trip to Kohls where I bought some underwear and socks on super sale, (we always stock up while we're in the States) we all piled in the car and went to a cool park a little ways up Deer Creek Canyon.

That picture on the left is me going DOWN Deer Creek Canyon. Down is definately better than up, here in the rarified air around Denver. You can click on the pictures to see them bigger.

We road some cinder paths that had me huffing and puffing due to their steepness. We also enjoyed some super narrow singletrack on the backside of the park.

I must confess doing a double take when I saw a sign telling one what to do if attacked by a mtn. lion. Fortunately, the only wildlife we saw was people walking some nice dogs.

In the picture on the right, we see my brother and me enjoying the view.

Colorado Cycling

I'm visiting my brother and his family in Littleton, Colorado. We're getting in some great bike riding on the multitudinous bike paths and trails south of Denver.

Yesterday we rode up Waterton Canyon to the Colorado trail, and the single track Roxboro Loop.

The photo on the right shows one of the friendly bighorn sheep that we encountered.

The one on the left is my brother negotiating one of the many switchback turns on the Colorado trail.

You can click on the pics to see them bigger.

Bonaire in the news

Cousin Bud just alerted me to a nice newspaper article about Bonaire in the San Francisco Chronicle. It captures the spirit of the place and they type of people who would like it there.

Medical update and opportunity to comment

Here is another chance to use the "comments" feature to guess exactly how I managed to wound myself, in the foot this time.

The photo of my calf that I posted in August showed the result of my bike's front chain ring biting my calf when I frantically unclipped and put my foot down on a gnarly Washington park hill.

This most recent wound occurred at a missions conference in Maryland, so the much loved answer "a hungry goat" won't work this time.

Also on the medical front, it seems to be time to begin paying the price for 29 years of fun in the sun on Bonaire. I have an inch and a half incision with like six stitches in it on my shoulder where a nice young dermatologist removed a basil cell cancer on Monday. I won't post any pix of that one. I'll have another basil cell removed on Nov. 1.

I had my first colonoskopy last Friday. It went well and the doctor waxed eloquent about how great my colon looked. (You can vote on whether or not I should post pix of that one!) It must be all the raw broccoli we eat on Bonaire and all the shredded wheat I've been consuming here in the States.

TWR E-Snapshots

I've been telling people at our furlough meetings about the various ways they can stay up to date on the doings of TWR around the world.

I subscribe to the TWR e-snapshots email service. It is only one email per month, but sometimes I learn about cool stuff that I put in this blog.

For example, this month has brief stories about: new programs for Niger, a Swiss lady who married a guy she knew was HIV - positive, new developments in India, and an update on the new Spanish program for South American pastors and church leaders.

I first wrote about it on May 24, 2004 and it looks like it is progressing well.

Pastors and church leaders in Latin America are hearing and benefiting from a popular radio program called Escuela Biblica (Bible School), a broadcast aimed at providing solid biblical training to those who teach God's Word to others. In countries like Venezuela, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Chile and Uruguay, the 15-minute weekly broadcast is a theological shot in the arm for many lay shepherds who lack seminary education or sound doctrine.
We've aired this program for about two years, and it's getting a tremendous response, says Annabel Torrealba, director of RTM-Venezuela, a TWR partner ministry. Torrealba says her staff has received numerous requests for correspondence materials and other Christian literature. These resources are used to help prepare sermons that are preached every Sunday, she explains.
Besides providing theological instruction to existing pastors and leaders, the Escuela Biblica broadcast helps emerging evangelists and believers experience growth in Christ. The program covers topics like discipleship, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, parables of Jesus and spiritual maturity, says Torrealba.

You can sign up for e-snapshots and a bunch of other good TWR stuff here on the TWR web site.

Merry Munchkins

We were at a missions conference in Maryland all last week. Christian workers from Europe, Africa, the USA, South America and Bonaire :) were there to report on their ministries.

We had a great time with our host family of 6 persons, who's names all begin with the letter K.

You can click on the picture to see it larger.

Missions Conference Posters

We were part of a week long Missions conference in Maryland last week. Here are posters that 6th through 8th graders made about the missionaries that were there.

You can click on the pictures to see them bigger.

They had to do a collage type poster including certain elements like a map, picture of the missionary, flower or bird from the country, and a Bible verse.

The young people had some great ideas.

I'll not be more specific about the location of the event for the safety of the young people.