Everglades Challenge 2013

This morning I kissed Debra goodby with tears as she left for work and I left for Florida. In 11 days she will fly down along with Emily and the grandchildren to cheer us into Key Largo...or if the weather is good we may beat them there.  I had a great day of traveling with great weather, no traffic and a great book on my iphone.  DEEP SURVIVAL by Laurence Gonzales.   I'm planning to get to St. Petersburg tomorrow and take Wednesday to spend some time paddling since I haven't been in my kayak since the 2nd week of January.  I will be camping at Fort DeSoto State Park  which has one of the most beautiful beaches in the US. Great campground too with very large ratcoons who like to steal your food.
With all of our boats and gear unloaded there I will drive my car on Thursday to Key Largo, rent a Budget car and drive back with a few other paddlers. On Friday morning Ben will fly in and we'll get our boats and gear down to the beach and all loaded up. We begin at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.

If you would like to track us there are two ways you can do it. One is to go directly to my SPOT tracking page. If you press HERE this will take you right to the link.

If you want to see all of the boats or where we are related to the others you can go to the WATERTRIBE web page.  Once there click on the "Tracking Map". The you need to go to the category of "Challenger". My paddling name there is  "PassaicPaddler". If you click on my name then you need to click on "regenerate view". Ben's paddling name is "Macatawa".  Please keep us in your prayers for safe travel and paddling. I like to think of Psalm 23 that "He leads me beside quite water, He restores my soul."  

Here is an ancient Celtic Prayer that you could pray for us as well.

Deep peace of the running wave to you,

of water flowing, rising and fallin,

sometimes advancing, sometimes receding....

May the stream of your life flow unimpeded;

Deep peace of the running wave to you!

Deep peace of the flowing air to you, 

which fans your face on a sultry day,

the air which you breathe deeply, rhythmically,

which imparts to you energy, consciousness, life.

Deep peace of the flowing air to you.

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you, who, herself unmoving

harbors the movements

and facilitates the life of the ten thousand creatures,

while resting contented stable, tranquil.

Deep peace of the quiet earth to you.

Deep peace of the shining stars to you,

which stay invisible till darkness falls,

and disclose their pure and shining presence,

beaming down in compassion on our turning world.

Deep peace of the shining stars to you.

A Week at Home

 This past week has been a week at home with Debra, time in Scripture, Prayer and reading. I forgot to mention last week that before I returned from Vermont I went to visit my brother Robert and his family in Hull, MA. It was good to be with them overnight and catch up. Please keep my brother Robert in your prayers as he is still recovering from a severe head injury a year ago.  Here are some of the books that I have been reading this week.
 I have been reading my Bible and during the Sabbatical set a goal to read the entire Bible chronologically by OT & NT. I have already finished the NT and have been reading some of the 2nd century church Fathers who were discipled by the Apostles. In the OT I'm now into Kings & Chronicles. The Bible reading plan I'm using for a chronological order is organized by "Back to the Bible" and can be found HERE!  I'm doing this at an accelerated pace with about 1-2 hours of slow Bible reading a day.  While I was up at the Cabin I also began to use the Psalms in my morning, evening and night devotions by reading them slowly out loud. I have found this very effective and meaningful and have been reading out loud and slowly 5 psalms a day; 3 in the morning and 2 at night. Give it a try...but remember.... slowly and out loud.




















Some of the other books I have finished reading this week are:  The Source: James Michener: This is a historical novel of the history of Israel and was assigned reading for before going on our trip to Israel (as well as the 1st 5 books of Moses).

 The Philokalia (Lover of Beautiful). This is a compilation of the Eastern Orthodox Mystics and Spiritual leaders from the 6th - the 17th century. This is the book that the man was reading in the classic
Way of the Pilgrim. Its full of very profound spiritual insights.
Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ:  Jeanne Guyon. Also known as Madum Guyon she was a 17th century French mystic of profound significance. This book had a tremendous influence on Watchman Nee in China,  the Quakers, Moravians, John Wesley & Methodists, Hudson Taylor the grandfather of the Western missionary movement and more.
Dark Night of the Soul: St. John of the Cross: A 16th century Spanish mystic who helped reform the Carmelite order. This is deep reading but a Christian classic in finding God's love through and in the midst of the suffering and pain of our lives.
The Little Flowers of St. Francis: Yes, he did preach to the birds and the fish but the Fransician Friars believed in following Jesus completely. This is some of their stories.
The Writings of St. Francis of Assisi: St. Francis:  Not real inspirational reading but their love for Christ and level of obedience was astounding.

Black History Month t shirt

This week there have been lots of wonderful events going on for Black History Month at church. I'm  sorry I'm missing them but folks sent me a t-shirt (thanks so much) which I plan to wear Monday on my trip down south.
I'm also watching ROOTS again in honor of Black History. Its very profound and hard to watch due to the horrors of slavery. But its worth watching.

Finally I have spent this week going through all my preparations for the Everglades Challenge. Next Saturday Ben and I will leave the beach at Fort DeSoto State Park in St. Petersburg Fl to paddle (sail if able) 300 miles to Key Largo. I'm gotten my equipement, food and other gear all prepared and think I'm ready to go. Heres a picture of my kayak and gear in the basement where I was seeing if I could fit everything in. Yes it does.
Next week I will post some more details about this along with a link so you can follow us if you like. Please keep me in your prayers as I'll also be doing alot of driving ( over 4,500 miles) in the next 3 weeks.

A Week of Silence & Solitude

 I have just returned from a week of silence and solitude on top of East Haven Mt. in northern Vermont about 28 miles from the Canadian Border. When I got to the cabin at the beginning of the week the outside temperature was 5 and the inside 20 degrees. Needless to say it took awhile or the wood stove to heat things up but once going it kept me warm.  The cabin is actually very cozy and its far from roughing it. The stove keeps it warm, there is propane gas for cooking, limited solar electrical power for lights at night and lots of snow to melt for water. "The Cabin" is a ministry of Shiloh Retreat Center.
My goal for this week was for this to be my "going to the desert" experience to be with God. Like Jesus began his ministry going to the wilderness, like the 4th century "desert fathers" went to the wildness this was my going. I wanted to see if I could actually be a week without talking to people. I had arranged to text Debra & Ben first thing in the morning and posted an OK on my SPOT every evening. Debra didn't get her text on Sunday due to my mistake but finally reached Ben to know I was OK.  In a world of so much talking and noise I wanted to really listen to God, let God search me out and see if I could actually be with just myself for a week.   I put all the clocks away in order to structure my day around prayer. Morning prayers at sunrise, evening prayers at sunset and night prayers at bedtime. During these prayer times I would also read Psalm's slowly out loud as part of my prayers. Try it sometime, its very profound.

Sunset to the West

The Chickadees provided company

Sunrise from the East

This past week I concluding reading the Torah in the Old Testament finishing Numbers & Deuteronomy and concluding reading the NT. It was very special the last day reading John's vision of Revelation in one sitting from the top of the mountain. My other reading this week included.
The Wisdom of The Desert: Thomas Merton: excerpts of the Desert Fathers & Mothers
The Little Flowers of Saint Francis: stories of his and the friers life
Early Christian Fathers:  2nd Century writings of Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, Didache & Justin Martyr
Walden: Henry David Thoreau : His 2 year experience living in the woods at Walden pond in 1845
The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert & Mountain Spirituality: Belden C. Lane
 This last book was by far the most profound for me as Lane explored the his own wilderness of his mom's death by cancer and compared this to the Biblical desert experiences. The two words that he used that were profound for me were "attentiveness" and "indifference" that give birth to love.  Learning to pay attention to what is most important and to ignore what dosen't matter. You'll have to read the book to get the whole meaning

Mt. Washington in NH viewed from Cabin deck.

 Every afternoon I would take a 2 -4 mile snowshoe hike on some of the surrounding trails. It was very beautiful and good exercice. Ever evening after dark I enjoyed reading the Chronicle of Narnia that were at the Cabin.   It was wonderful to be free from time and sleep when I was tired, get up when I was awake, eat when I was hungry, etc.

  It was wonderful to be free from time and sleep when I was tired, get up when I was awake, eat when I was hungry, etc. Although I cannot say that like the man the Apostle Paul mentions I went to the "7th heaven" God met me there. Much like Elijah on the mountain the Lord was there in a "still small voice".  God's word to me from the Psalm's was "be still and know that I am God." There is so much more to tell but I'll leave it at the Lord can have the last word. :)  Please continue to keep me in your prayers as I do you.
 

East Haven Mountain Cabin

 Tomorrow morning I leave for East Haven Cabin. Here are a few pictures from October when Rev. Miller and I did a one night test run.  This cabin is owned by "Shiloh" which is a retreat center in New Hampshire about 45 minutes away.

 The cabin has a woodburning stove for heat, limited electricity for some lights at night from solar panels and propane fuel for cooking. Its 12 ft. x 16ft.  and is very comfortable. It sits at 3000 ft. elevation and the trail to get up there is 2 miles long with over 1000 ft. rise. From the top you can see the states of NY, NH, Mass, Maine and Quebec, Canada. My purpose in going here is to spend a week of total silence and solitude with the Lord. This is my way of experiencing the "desert experience" of Jesus (who spent 40 days in the wilderness) and the early "desert father" who went to the Egyptian desert to draw closer to Jesus.  I'll let you know what the Lord has to say to me when I get back the end of next week.

Joshua Luke's Baptism

 On Friday Debra and I headed out to Michigan for our grandson Joshua Luke's baptism. We made it to Toledo OH for the night without any snow. It was snowing in the morning but we did well and were to Ben and Emily's by noon on Saturday.

 By the time we got out to Holland MI there was lots of snow. I was priviledged to be able to be able to participate in the baptism with Ben and Emilies Pastor. What a gift to be able to celebrate God's covenant promises and for a child to have the gift of Christian parents and a Christian community to vow to help disciple them to follow Jesus.

I was also able to preach this Sunday at Graafschap CRC. The title of my sermon was Joshua: Pointing to Jesus:  The text was from Joshua 1 and Hebrews 4 that makes the point that one greater than Joshua will finally brings God's people to REST.  Some of the sermon points were that Joshua's OT name and Jesus NT name are the same name and mean The LORD saves or is salvation. We also saw how Joshua led the people of Israel across the Jordan to REST in the promised land as Jesus was baptized in the Jordan as a sign for us of the forgiveness of our sins. It was an occasion for us to "remember our baptism" and the significance of dying and rising with Christ. It was also a time to remember that being in Christ we are able to hear the words God said to Jesus at his baptism be said to each one of us. "You are my beloved sons & daughters, whome I love, with you I am well pleased."  What a message each one of us crave from our heavenly Father.  Last week at the monastery each even prayer time ended with a "rite of sprinkling" when the priest sprinkled water over all of us. The meaning of this rite is to "remember your baptism". Just as we did today. We had a wonderful time together with Emily's family and Gloria and Randy afterward. We were very grateful for this time together with our family.

As you can see Michigan has alot of snow. We will be driving home tomorrow hopefully without to much weather. We will be leaving on Wednesday for a week of Silence & Solitude on the top of East Haven Mt. in northern Vermont. The picture at the heading of my blog was taken from this cabin when Rev. Miller and I went to visit it in October. Its basically a 12 ft x 16ft cabin with a wood stove, fuel for cooking and passive solar for limited electricity. It sits 1300 ft on top of East Haven Mt and is accessible  only though snowshoeing up a 2 mile trail. I will use this time for prayer, Bible reading, reflection, meditation and for reading some of the desert fathers.  I have wanted to see if I could do an entire week alone with the Lord. I guess I'll find out.