We have over 3 dozen teenagers and adults in North Carolina right now. They are serving people who were devastated by Hurricane Heleine. More importantly, they are doing it in the name of JESUS. This is a MISSION trip, not just a 'helping' trip. The youth group and Christian school raised thousands of dollars, while the parents and students themselves paid thousands more.Why? Because Jesus said, "...  Read More

Alaska has more public land than you could walk in a lifetime. It has more mountain peaks than you could ever climb. It has more lakes than you could ever fish. We have a 'super abundance' of wilderness, but how do we ACCESS this abundance? There are so many roads going in and out of Los Angeles that google can't even give you a number. But Anchorage has 2 roads, one north and one south. We have o...  Read More

As a boy, virtually everything I loved involved a ball. Baseball, kickball, dodgeball and football were often included multiple times in the same week. Countless games of 'horse' were played on the basketball hoop my dad planted in the middle of the grass in our back yard. I wasn't born with a ball in my hand, but as you can see, I started early. Kicking, throwing and catching seemed to come as na...  Read More

I was meticulous when it came to keeping my meat clean. The snow helped but I still had to be careful where I laid it down. It was strange. The palms of my hands were hot from working with the meat, but the blood on the back of my hands glazed over into ice. It was a new and unpleasant experience, one I've had many times since. I continuously held the backs of my hands against the warm meat to tha...  Read More

With the fresh snow I didn't have to worry about finding my way back to camp. The caribou tracks were easy to follow, and my feet and body began to warm. I was still cold, and was thankful for the work of carrying a pack and rifle over uneven terrain covered with snow. Suddenly there they were- seven cow caribou and one young bull. Though the limit was five caribou, I only shot the bull.I had been...  Read More

"You'll starve to death before you catch those caribou." Ira Krueger was an experienced hunter and didn't want me wasting time and energy. It was November, bitterly cold, and I was on my first caribou hunt. We pitched our tents in the snow, melted snow for water, and wished we had brought warmer boots. Even from the air we hadn't seen a single track much less an animal, but overnight a small band ...  Read More

Being made in God's image also means that we were created to create. God gave us the ability to imagine things that do not yet exist, and to draw and paint and build and write. And for some, these talents flow out of them as naturally as the air that they breathe. My eight year old granddaughter Harper painted a picture last year of a famous building in Russia that I couldn't paint today. While ou...  Read More

Have you ever done something just for the challenge? Something that took time and effort and money and in the opinion of some people didn't make lick of sense? Many years ago a friend and I built a paddle boat that you pedal with your feet. It was an engineering disaster, heavy and slow, and we took it all the way down the Mississippi River from the headwaters in Minnesota to New Orleans. It was d...  Read More

So often in life we come to a place of decision. They range from as simple as, "What shirt should I wear?"; or, "What do I want for dinner?"; to extremely important- "Where do I want to live?"; or, "Where will I go to church?" So let me ask you, do you simply 'float' from decision to decision or do you actually HAVE A PLAN for your day and week and life? Trust me, your life is much too valuable fo...  Read More

There is no shortage of evil in the world, but remember this- there is also no shortage of the OVERCOMING of it. 1 John 4:4 "He who is in us is GREATER than he who is in the world." What does this mean in a practical sense? Because our FREEDOM has been purchased by the blood of Christ, the devil can no longer lay any claim on you or me. In the face of every temptation, of every attack, of every wr...  Read More

The human body is an amazing machine. People who have virtually destroyed their lungs smoking find tremendous healing within a single year of quitting. Skin that is cut and bones that break grow back together. Even a level of fitness and strength can be reclaimed and restored. But none of those things can be made brand new- not in this lifetime. The opposite is true spiritually. 2 Corinthians 5:17...  Read More

As you read through God's commandments you discover that every one is intended to make sure that we LOVE well. "Don't lie, don't steal, honor your parents, worship God..." In fact, Jesus acknowledged that the first and greatest commandment is this: "Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and all of your soul and all of your mind and all of your strength." He said that the second greatest co...  Read More