On Saturday we took on Longs Peak, which is the tallest mountain north of I-70, with a group of 18.  It is not called Longs Peak for nothing.  The day started when we left the house at 2am for the one hour drive to the trail head.  Spirits were high.

Then we started climbing.

The first two hours were in the dark which was sort of fun and adventurous.  The sunrise was spectacular and sparked a need to worship God.  Even after a few hours, the climbing was still enjoyable and we were having a great time.

Then came the keyhole!  Duh, duh, duh!! (hear that sinister three note jingle)

It was so bad that I am only showing just this one edge.  The whole thing would be asking too much for you to take in at once.  And just think, we were there and couldn’t get away.  And, to make matters worse, to continue to the summit we had to enter the keyhole (duh, duh, duh).  That’s right, the trail goes right through the keyhole.

Upon crossing through the keyhole, we entered an alternate mountain universe.  No longer was there a nice path to walk on.  No longer were there grasses or trees or color.  Only rock.   Cold, hard, steep, and in some places, sheer rocks with only air below us if we took a wrong step.

After a harrowing trek across the side of a cliff we came to the Trough.

Notice how the color has left the world.  After dodging falling rocks, kicked inadvertently by other climbers or sent by the Keyhole (we’ll never know), several stops for rest and making it to the top of the Trough, we were greeted with, not the summit or anything close to the summit, but a length of narrow ledges.  I’ve omitted these pictures as well for the faint of heart ( and myself so I don’t have to relive that part).

After that nasty little part we made it to the Homestretch, which is a nice sounding name for a long climb up a steep, flat rock face which keeps your insides twisted with the possibility of a long slide down.

After many stops for rest and prayer, we finally made the top.

15 out of the 18 who started made it.  Oh, the other three weren’t taken by the Keyhole, they smartly turned back before entering.  Mark it up to prophetic wisdom or a word from God.

At this point, all I wanted to do was just go home, except I was 8 miles from the trail head and feeling bad with altitude sickness ( or Keyhole disease).  So we started the trek down.  It had taken us just over 6 and a half hours to reach the top and, when all was said and done, it took 8 and a half hours to get down.  Now I know what your thinking.  Doesn’t it take a shorter time to go down?  On most mountains, yes. But this is Longs Peak (its not named that for nothing).

So 15 hours after starting our jolly little jaunt up the mountain, we were back to the beginning.  It was a slow and arduous descent compounded by shortness of breath and weakness and a stop for sickness. Oh yeah. There was also rain and hail that pounded us before and after, you know what I’m going to say, (duh, duh, duh) - the Keyhole!  Slick rocks with a sheer drop off is just not my idea of a great time.

Everyone was grateful to be back down and all mentioned how they had prayed the entire time.  Most made it down quickly (11 and a half hours), a few in 14, and me, one other student and our good friend and the one who helped us down, Menkes (15 hours).

So the adventure came to an end.  I will do more hikes in the future, but not that one.  And praise God that all made it back.

I saw this post by Joshua Harris about Jason Powell’s pictures.  These are cool pictures.

These remind me of something I read in a leadership book several years ago.  In a study mentioned in the book, it was found that those people who look back farthest into their lives, i.e. reflect on their past, see how God has worked, remember what they have learned, etc., have the longest forward vision for their lives.

What does God want us to accomplish with the lives and time He has given to us?  We should set aside some time to look back as far as we can and ponder deeply the path we have walked.  Taking this into consideration and laying it open before God, we should then ’see’ where we can be going.

It is time for an update on things in this wacky world we’re in.

-  We are grateful that Josh had his shoulder operated on last week.  His labrum was torn and so his shoulder was not working like it should and the bone at the top of his arm seemed to prefer not staying in the right place.  The surgeon is a great guy and we praise God for procedures that can be done these days.

-   We are 30% of the way towards what we need for our SEA trip! Yipeee!!

-  Spring break is coming soon.  We will be taking students to New Castle, CO to serve RiverChurches there and pray.

That’s the quick word from Boulder.

It is no secret, I have had a hard time with this blog business. But I can read them and this one from Between Two Worlds explains what my problem has been.  It looks like #7, 4 and 2 in that order.  Maybe this can be my burst of motivation.  Or, since I am having to write that, maybe not.

Justin Taylor|10:45 am CT

Blog Fail

Rev. Paul McCain, who blogs at CyberBrethren, has a wise post on why so many blogs end up failing.

Below are the reasons, but read the whole thing for an explanation of each.

1. They offer little more than constant axe-grinding and carping on a particular subject.
2. They lack focus and purpose.
3. They indulge too much in playing to the crowd.
4. They do not serve the niche they are trying to reach.
5. They are not comfortable in “their own skin.”
6. They are insincere or desperate cries for attention.
7. They don’t have a plan for regular posting.

I shall endeavor to be a better blogger for all 2 of you who read this!

It is still snowing.

The left is yesterday morning’s shot of the back porch and the right is this morning’s view.  The official total as of 10 pm last night is 17.3″ for Boulder (and its been snowing through the night).  So we have a winter fun play land right now.  CU is open as normal and Boulder Valley schools are all closed.  This makes for a tough circumstance for those who work at CU and whose children are in a Boulder school.

It is a tougher circumstance for our home schooled kids.  They are still at home and so don’t have to postpone any learning just because a little snow is outside.  Life is hard!

p.s. we did get in some good sledding yesterday, however, along with all those who weren’t in school.

We woke up this morning to a new view out of our front window.

And the same thing had happened in the back yard.

It is fun to live in a place where seasons occur.  Looks like we will have to do a little sledding today.

My good friend, Menkes, is a post doc here at CU.  He is now famous.  you can see it here.  Check out his mad skills in the video.

School has begun and so have we.  This is such a fun and also prayer filled time as we meet new students, but are just one of the many, many new things bombarding them as they arrive at school.  So we pray and try to connect as much as possible with as many as we can.

We had 12 freshmen over on Monday night and had a good time with a little name game, some of Julee’s fajitas, and looking at John 5.  Please pray as we try to be as faithful as possible in reaching and training freshmen this year.

Last night at a campus dorm we witnessed a collision of worldviews and spiritual forces.  A group of students had received permission to hold a 24 hour worship/prayer event in a dorm.  A lot of work went into setting up sound equipment, lights, pictures, prayer areas, food, etc.  The atmosphere was well done.

About 2 hours into the event, a student whom I guess was with the dorm council, stormed into the area and announced loudly and rudely that it was being shut down.  This started a conversation with more of the council which lasted for over an hour.  Their position was that in their understanding the event they approved was not the event which was happening.  Complaints had apparently been received which contended that it was not an ‘inclusive’ event and that students were being pressured to ‘convert’.  So the council said that the event was ‘too Christian’ and not inclusive of all religions.  So, while no student was turned away - anyone could be a part or hang around to check things out and several students did just that - and no one was pressured or even invited to convert, the crux was that an event where Jesus was being worshipped, could not be tolerated.  The authorities could not risk for a non-Christian to be offended in anyway.

So a collision occurred between a worldview that says Jesus is truth and one that says ‘our truth is that there is no truth’.   There was also a very evident spiritual  force at work with one student who exhibited anger and beligerance and even hatred.  Very evident when only  music was being played and sung and students were quietly praying.

On the front lines anything ‘Christian’ cannot be tolerated and the blindness of the other worldview is displayed.  While obviously drunk students were entering/leaving the dorm and using all sorts of colorful language and, assumingly, engaged in various sorts of activites in their rooms, it was not okay for students to be singing about Jesus or praying for the dorm they were in at an event in a common area.

It is the worldview that says ‘I have a right not to be offended.”

This event was admittedly very Christian and may not have been the most effective way to move dorm students towards Jesus, but it was also certainly not deterimental to students well-being and even interfering with their pusuits of the evening.  And so in the middle of a labor-intensive event, a group of students made another group of students tear down and pack up in a hurry so that no one would be offended.

This post has  nothing to do with a chihuahua, just thought it sounding intriguing.

Please pray for us as we go to speak tomorrow to the Project Impact students in Denver.  We are to talk on dying to greed and developing a generous heart.   Another one of those talks when you end up speaking to yourself as much as the audience.