The Day is Finally Here

Left Springfield, Missouri early this morning and flew to Denver to begin the journey. My wonderful wife graciously allowed me to come out three days early to try to acclimate prior to beginning our climb. In the past I have had some troubles with altitude sickness (dizziness, nausea, disorientation, etc) so thought it would be best for me to come out a bit early to hopefully reduce the chance of troubles down the road.

Had a wonderful day exploring some of the country's most spectacular sights; Rocky Mountain National Park, Long's Peak, Estes Park, Grand Lake. Many beautiful sights today and thankfully no episodes of altitude sickness. Hung out above 12,000 feet for several hours with no problems. Saw three elk and two moose and got pulled over by a park ranger for speeding. Luckily he just gave me a warning and didn't spoil what was otherwise a great day.

The photo below was taken by a sixty-something year old man named Brent from Fort Worth that I met on the trail in Rocky Mountain National Park. He was with his wife and I had taken their picture before he took mine. He saw that I had on a Young Life, Frontier Ranch t-shirt and asked me if I was involved with the ministry. I told him briefly the story about our climb and he smiled. He got a little teary and told his wife and me that he had met Christ at summer camp at Frontier Ranch in 1961 when he was in high school and thanked me for our involvement in the ministry and told me to keep up the good work.

Had to smile as they walked away and thanked God for the message of encouragement he sent down to me. Brent was a great reminder to me of why we are out here. Stace and I are excited to begin our journey and are so thankful to all of you out there that have offered prayers and donations to the ministry. It's my hope that through your support there will be more "Brents" in this world that come to know Christ through the ministry of Young Life.