The West and Mountains

I can't leave the Northwest without some reflection. I have always been fascinated by the American West. Perhaps it was because of the old western movies, but probably more because of the wonderful topography, the vast prairies, (Little House on the Prairie and all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books), the wildlife, and the colorful historical characters who inhabited it. Many of those characters had lives that were stranger than fiction. And I can't leave out the native Americans who lived somewhat primitive lives, but had marvelous resiliency and tenacity, as well as their own myths and spiritual elements.

Mostly this past summer I have reflected on Mountains. We were within view of mountains, or at least high, high hills, almost everyday of our seven weeks in the northwest. I love the mountains. They challenge us to be stronger and braver than we normally are. They inspire us with their beauty. They draw us closer to God, not just in terms of height and feeling physically nearer to Him, although that is definitely there, but also in terms of understanding a little more of His majesty and grandeur. I plan to begin writing a series of Bible studies on the significance of mountains in the Old and New Testaments. I was going to start them this past month, but other events have pushed this to the back burner for a while. It probably won't start until after we get settled in Ukraine, but I want to write the studies and post them to the blog here, perhaps twice a month. It all depends on our work schedule there. Stayed tuned.

Yellowstone National Park

Well, it's been two months since I wrote here, but when we got home from the Northwest we had lots of things to catch up on, and nothing much seemed to happen. So I neglected the blog. Well, things are definitely happening now, so I need to get back to it. And I think a good place to start is where we left off.

In my last posting I wrote about the casinos in Montana and South Dakota. After that we stayed with friends in Fallon, Montana, for a week or so and then decided we couldn't leave the northwest without a stop at perhaps our most famous national park, Yellowstone. It is definitely the first national park established. So we headed toward Cody, Wyoming, which we used as our resting place two nights. We drove into the park from the east and were thrilled by the forests and mountains and geological formations along the way. And of course the first part of the park we had to see was Old Faithful. I took pictures from the front side, but the wind was blowing the steam and water vapor sideways, so it really didn't show up very well. But later we were walking behind the geyser along the pathways and Old Faithful shot off again and I got some decent pictures from the rear.

We roamed the park for two days, saw lots of animals (mostly buffalo again), and were fascinated by the geysers, hot springs, mud volcanoes and Yellowstone Lake and River and the Grand Canyon of the park. All of it something everyone should try to see at least once in their lives. We left the park from the northeast entrance and drove the next day over Beartooth Pass, along one of the curviest roads we have ever traveled. We were finally high enough to be at a level with the peak of Beartooth Mountain. In the picture below you can see the bear's tooth in the center of the peaks. We were just about level with the top of the mountain here.

After leaving Yellowstone we had a meeting in the small, small town of Reed Point, Montana, and met some more great people there. We left Reed Point Sunday afternoon and headed south toward home. We stopped at Dalhart, Texas, to see Evan and his family again and stayed there for a day or so. We finally arrived home on August 26 after seven weeks of roaming the northwest.
It was a wonderful summer. We saw our beautiful nation, we met wonderful people, we shared about the needs of both India and Ukraine, we raised some new support for our work in Ukraine, and we learned more about faith and trusting God for all our needs. We have lots of happy memories of July and August, 2009.

ON TO SEATTLE

Our time in Portland is finished. The campmeeting was really good, the preaching was excellent, the people were friendly. We did get a little monthly support pledged, and we will receive an very good offering.

On Sunday afternoon we headed north to Seattle. We had a meeting Sunday evening in an Evangelical Church where some old friends from India attend. Our meeting was good, again we did get promises of more support. It was wonderful to be with folks we hadn't seen for a long time. Lester and Mary Hamilton were missionaries with WGM in India for about 35 years. They were responsible for starting the Vacation Bible School ministries which reach more than one million children and youth every year in India. Their daughters are old friends who grew up with Frank and now live in the Seattle area. Unfortunately Lester is in a care facility for Alzheimer patients, but Mary is still living on her own although she is frail and needs daily help.

We are close to Mt. Rainier and can see it clearly from our motel. It is snow-covered and has a somewhat rounded peak which is a little flat at the top. Below is the short article from Wikipedia to tell you a little more. I know it's a little pedantic of me to post this article, but I found it interesting and says everything much better than I can.

"Mount Rainier is an active stratovolcano (also known as a composite volcano) in Pierce County, Washington, located 54 miles (87 km) southeast of Seattle. It towers over the Cascade Range as the most prominent mountain in the contiguous United States and Cascade Volcanic Arc at 14,411 feet (4,392 m).
The mountain and the surrounding area are protected within Mount Rainier National Park. With 26 major glaciers and 35 square miles (91 km2) of permanent snowfields and glaciers, Mount Rainier is the most heavily glaciated peak in the lower 48 states. The summit is topped by two volcanic craters, each over 1,000 feet (300 m) in diameter with the larger east crater overlapping the west crater. Geothermal heat from the volcano keeps areas of both crater rims free of snow and ice, and has formed the world's largest volcanic glacier cave network within the ice-filled craters. A small crater lake about 130 by 30 feet (40 m × 9.1 m) in size and 16 feet (5 m) deep, the highest in North America with a surface elevation of 14,203 feet (4,329 m), occupies the lowest portion of the west crater below more than 100 feet (30 m) of ice and is accessible only via the caves.
Mount Rainier has a topographic prominence of 13,210 feet (4,030 m), greater than that of K2 (13,189 feet (4,020 m)). On clear days it dominates the southeastern horizon in most of the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metropolitan area to such an extent that residents sometimes refer to it simply as "the Mountain." On days of exceptional clarity, it can also be seen from as far away as Portland, Oregon, and Victoria, British Columbia."

Okay, class dismissed!

Tomorrow we leave Seattle and head east to Spokane to spend two days with some of our supporters. Then on Thursday we head to southeast Montana to begin the Ridge Holiness Campmeeting. We'll be out in a National Forest and I'm pretty sure we won't have internet access or cell phone signals while we're there for at least eight days. So you won't be seeing us on our Facebook page or here at the blog for a while. This is where we will really be roughing it, so we appreciate your prayers!

AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL

Our trip was just over 2000 miles from our home in Yukon, Oklahoma, to Portland. After celebrating Anika's birthday we left Dalhart on Wednesday morning and headed west. From the time we sighted Raton Pass in northern New Mexico until we got to Portland we were in sight of mountains or foothills of the mountains. Some of the mountains were snow-covered, such as at Monarch Pass in Colorado. Others were not so high, but were rugged and beautiful in their own way.






















On the western edge of Colorado we stopped at Colorado National Monument, a ruggedly fascinating landscape of mountains eroded into fantastic shapes with deep canyons. In the Visitor's Center we saw a presentation that stated with absolute certainty that these formations began to evolve 2 billion years ago. When I get to heaven I want to ask God how all these scientific statements (truth?? theories??) fit into our Biblical account of creation. The geological formation is extremely interesting to study with numerous layers of sediment from inland seas that developed and receded several times over the 2 billion years.



After leaving the Monument we soon crossed the stateline into Utah. The landscape became a barren moonscape. It was desolate and empty, at least that's the way it seemed to us as we sat in the car on I-70 going westward. No towns or villages, no trees, no people except those traveling east or west on the interstate highway. The foothills of the northern mountains were barren and uninviting. But we eventually turned north and headed to Salt Lake City where Frank let me stop and visit a great quilt shop. I loved the shop and bought Laura's birthday present there. I might have to try it out before I give it to her!



The next day we continued northwest and drove through southern Idaho toward Oregon. In the afternoon we reached the Columbia River and traveled on I-84 westward along the river. It is an awesome work of nature. On the opposite shore is the state of Washington. On both banks of the river are many huge windmills generating electricity, more than we've seen anywhere else including Oklahoma. As we got further west we could see Mt. Hood in the distance and we entered a forest of evergreens. It really is a beautiful part of the country. In the coming week I will write more about Portland and the surrounding area.



Tomorrow we begin our ministry at the Clark County Holiness Camp in Vancouver, Washington. We need to get back into missionary mode as we prepare to share the needs of Ukraine. We appreciate your prayers as we try to help folks find what God wants them to do with regard to the needs of the world around them as well as around the rest of the world.