A nice wall said, “You are not important enough to get to see Main Street today.” (See the metal detector door?)

Secret Service agents and other White House personnel roamed around where we were unable to go. So how were we to get to the rides? We had to enter through a side gate and go around the ugly backstage of Main Street… not the best of circumstances… right?

But leave it to Disney to make a bad situation into something fun and unique!

Too bad a camera doesn’t capture sound (Apple, are you working on that?) There was lively music playing, employees with Micky gloves on waving us through, giant flags and floats from the parades to see.

Disney took what could have been a very negative situation and made it into something fun and festive!

They even set up some photo opportunities along the way:

Luke posed in front of a Treasure Float that was very shiny and glittery and…

I posed in front of a Giant Crocodile!

By just putting a little creativity and energy into it, they turned a boring walk through the backstage into a fun detour. Later, Main Street was open again, but we felt like we got to see some things that most visitors to Magic Kingdom don’t get to see… so it was special instead of a bummer.

(And we got to see President Obama later from the People Mover posing with the Royal Family in front of the Disney Castle, which was kinda cool!)

When things go bad in ministry, instead of considering it a negative – instead, think of it as an opportunity to be creative! People will end up thinking it was a special Sunday instead of a bummer if you just put a little time and creativity into creating an environment and experience that is unique.

BONUS: One of my pictures was Featured on MagicalTrash.com

We chose the latter, and headed out to Castlewood Canyon State Park!

We had a great time, and without mommy, of course, we were free to roam “off the trail” a little more than usual. (hehe)

And boy oh boy does this boy love to climb! Of course, I have a knack for taking pictures that look a lot higher than they really are!

Both of these above, Luke is about five feet off the ground. (LOL)

I would never let Luke climb up anywhere high!

I get such a kick out of him stopping every now, turning around and saying, “Take my picture daddy!” I can’t imagine where he got that!

At one point, Luke decided to show me how strong he was! I was pretty impressed! He was going to roll it all the way the down the hill, but I made him put the rock back where he found it.

But what is a hike without bringing some cars to play with? Hiking with Luke is unique, it involves stopping every so often to play with cars, especially if a great spot is discovered…

For example, this was a cool “car cave” we found!

This was my favorite picture of the day – if you click it to enlarge it, you’ll see he is splashing water. (It’s my Macbook Air wallpaper now!) We found this mini pool on the top of a ridge overlooking a beautiful vista and spend quite a while there just hanging out, playing cars and relaxing.

Since we didn’t have mommy, we missed out on her usual great picture taking, so there are no pics of daddy, so I had to get creative – and settle for one of my shadow pictures!

It was a great day! Next was ice cream and then off to pick out a pumpkin and carve it, but that’s tomorrow’s blog post!

It was great having a convertible at a time like this!

We had driven past this scene and a mile past I ended up doing a U-Turn to go back and took about twenty amazing amazing pictures here…

It ended up being one of the most beautiful stops of the entire day…

The horses kept posing for me in different arrangements!

But Luke’s favorite was when we spotted a UFO back in the hills that had just landed! We got a picture and then got out of there before they abducted us!

Here is a close up zoomed in:

That had to be the highlight of Luke’s day! For me, it was just being out with the family, cruzin’ with the top down in the PK Cruiser:

Which is why THIS is my new Facebook Profile Pic!

Later, Sara said her favorite stop was by this old tractor and wooden barn, and I must say, I did enjoy photographing my favorite subject here:

And he was a great sport as daddy made him pose this way and that… but then, he was getting to climb all over a tractor, so it was a pretty cool deal for both of us!

Even peeking into a mysterious old shed has it’s appeal! (I found my way in, but didn’t tell him, there were too many ways to get hurt… but it was cool!)

I dread the day the cooperation with the camera will cease… but right now he puts up with it, knowing it is our love that drives the click, click, click. Perhaps there is a little vanity in him that enjoys looking at the pictures later? I’ll take it! I want to remember these days.

The barrel was filled with spools of old string. Letting him keep one was the deal that got him to climb in for a picture, though later I realized he probably would have climbed in anyway… it was kinda fun!

Even Sara agreed to pose for a few pictures for me!

Now there’s a facebook profile pic!

I thought it funny that we both got pictures of ourselves in the car mirrors:

That’s the road up the Continental Divide she is taking… which I took up at the top:

and then from the other side of the Divide as well, looking the other way:

It turned out to be a pretty crazy day, though fun. We chose a route on the Lodge “Activity Guide” and charted it out on the map, thinking it was perhaps a 3-4 hour drive and it turned out to be a nearly TWELVE HOUR drive! We went over the Continental Divide a total of FOUR times by the end of the day. We were laughing that they would give guests a “leaf viewing tour” that was a 400 mile tour of Colorado and not tell them it takes 10-12 hours. We only stopped for one meal and one store and to take pictures a few times, so it wasn’t like we lengthened the trip by much. We were just glad we had left around 10a.m. and not after lunch!

Of course, as the driver, I was getting most of the blame from my weary passengers, but I kept blaming the piece of paper we were following. But in the end, we mostly laughed it off and just enjoyed the day together.

I did end up deciding there were some lessons from the day, and you can hear all about that in my Kidmin Talk Podcast #3 which I recorded earlier today. There were really quite a few fun applications to the Adventures of the day to ministry, but I won’t go into that here, it’s best told on the podcast already.

But it was a great day with the family! Fall is definitely here – and God did a spectacular job showing off His creative abilities with splendor. He didn’t have to make the changing seasons beautiful you know. He could have just been practical. But He chose to do it with class and color and have a little fun with it, just for our enjoyment. The same opportunity is given to us. Why be practical all the time? When you can, do things with class and splash a little color and fun into life too. Not because you have to, but just because you can. That’s how God operates. And guess what? You were created in His Image! So stop being so practical and waste some time and be creative and unpractical for a change!

Do something beautiful and unnecessary, before you forget how.

That will make God’s day – just like He made mine this week.

I left the family watching the show, exited the entrance, rode the shuttle back to the parking lot and searched the car.

No iPhone.

It was lost.

What was I to do now?

Then I remember… “Find My iPhone” is a feature of Apple iPhones and my iPad was in the car. I fired up my Verizon Broadband card on my belt and turned on my iPad and got online. I went to www.me.com and was informed there was now a “Find My iPhone” iPad App so I downloaded it. (Me.com will no longer allow you to use the website to find your iPhone with an iPad, it forced the App use.)

It took only a minute to download the app and log into the app and within seconds my iPhone was located and YES!, it was on the military base somewhere!

Just like Google Maps, I could zoom in to right where it was:

But… then it happened…

Every time I refreshed, it MOVED!

Someone had my iPhone, and they were on the move!

Was it stolen?

Were they trying to find the owner?

Were they leaving the base?

Was it on someone’s person, or in a car?

I immediately used “Find My iPhone” to lock my phone so they could not access it without a password:

And then, I sent them a message:

So they would have a way to reach me if they looked at the phone. I realized my mistake in not borrowing a phone so that IF they DID call my wife, she would have a way to reach me and tell me! (oops!) So I wouldn’t know until I got back to the family, so now I just needed to give up my search, and head back.

Their message would look like this: (recreated later, as was the message above)

I road the shuttle back to the show entrance, expecting to wait for “the call.” I kept refreshing the map and noticed that my iPhone was moving in a pattern. That was when it hit me… perhaps it wasn’t a person who had my phone, but a vehicle… AH HA! A shuttle! Maybe I had dropped it on the shuttle on my way in while carrying chairs and all our stuff and managing a five year old!

I stopped a soldier and asked him to help me interpret the map, since I didn’t know the names to the roads and I showed him the different places the iPhone had been. (He was very impressed with my GPS technology and tracking my phone!) We switched to Satellite View and Hybrid View and he helped me figure out where the shuttle stop was. I enjoyed him pointing out all the buildings around the base! Then, I simply kept refreshing “Find My iPhone” watching my iPhone go around the circuit one more time and then stop at the point where it was dropping off people for the show. When I went in to search the shuttle – I asked the driver, (ironically the same shuttle I had just ridden back on!) if anyone had found an iPhone, and she picks it up off the dashboard and says, “I hoped someone would come back for it.” I had been that close but hadn’t yet figured out that the moving iPhone meant it was on a shuttle joyride.

Find My iPhone saved the day!

While it wasn’t very fun losing my phone and walking around the parking lot and missing almost an hour of the show, it was kinda cool tracking my moving iPhone on my iPad via GPS with my broadband card and solving the mystery with modern technology.

I’d like to thank both Steve Jobs and Sergeant Nelson for their help in assisting me recover my iPhone on Saturday. I was able to get back to my family and enjoy the rest of the day without the stress of having lost a valuable tool that I use in many aspects of life and work and ministry.

Pretty Cool, huh?

I recently got a great new hiking book called Colorado Lake Hikes that I highly recommend. This was the first hike I’ve done in the book. We decided to visit St. Mary’s Lake and “Glacier.”

On the way, we spotted this beautiful water fall on the side of the road. That’s one of the things I love about living in Colorado – there are gorgeous spots like this all over the place. We can just pull over and Luke can get to play in Creation just off the side of the road. It was simply beautiful!

Soon we were on our way up the mountain. This was Luke’s second “real” hike. I haven’t had a chance to blog yet about our family vacation in Yosemite yet, where he hiked up to the top of Sentinel Dome! He is very proud of that feat!

He is proving to fit into nature just, well, naturally. I wonder where he gets his love of the outdoors from?

Luke wants to climb on top of every rock we pass… which adds quite of bit of time to the “hiking time estimate” that was in the hiking book!

Can you find mommy and Luke in this picture? By the way, every picture in this post can be clicked on to view larger in a new window!

We often call Luke “our little poser.” He climbs up on stuff and says, “Take my picture here, Daddy!” Hope he doesn’t outgrow that too quickly!

Spotted something beautiful through the trees!

It was an all uphill hike, but Luke held up pretty well for the most part…

Spotting WILD LIFE is always a highlight. We thought we heard a bear, but Luke claimed that was just Dad making toots! We’ll never know for sure.

But we did see lots of Chipmunks!

Finally, we reached the lake and glacier… which technically isn’t a glacier, but a “permanent snow pack.” There were a lot of “cool dudes” with snow boards hiking up there to surf down it! Crazy, we thought!

Just beyond those rocks, was the lake! And it was BEAUTIFUL!

But Luke wasn’t impressed. He was more interested in throwing rocks in the water:

and seeing how BIG of a splash he could make:

But at least the backdrop was nice:

467 splashes later I was able to get him to walk along the shore to where we settled down for some Birthday Cheesecake to celebrate 42 years of life!

THEN IT HAPPENED! A huge gust of wind came along and BLEW our stuff! My hands were full and I couldn’t stop the plastic container and yelled to Sara and Luke to grab the cheesecake dish but it was too late!

It blew “out to sea” as Luke said, and was gone!

It wasn’t just the potential $500 fine I was worried about, I love my state and the outdoors, I didn’t like the idea of leaving with this huge plastic “boat” (as Luke called it) floating out to the middle of the lake!

We kept an eye on it, and about a half hour later, the wind changed and it actually drifted back about 500 feet away and I was able to retrieve it! Luke thought it was the funniest part of the day and keeps telling people all about it!

Here we are! Luke didn’t want to leave his splash making for a picture, so we got creative with this picture… turned out even better we think!

I love the outdoors. It refreshes me. It refills me. It rejuvenates me. It recreates me. It refocuses me. It renews me.

People ask me why I moved to Colorado. I want to show them pictures like the one above and just say, “This is why.” Why would you want to live anywhere else, if you have a choice. I know I am blessed to have a choice. For now, God allows me to be here. So I am breathing deeply and filling my lungs with Colorado Air.

Next, we headed into Idaho Springs, and went BeauJo’s Pizza – a famous mountain town pizzaria joint here in Colorado, where I order Beaughetti! Spaghetti in a garlic bread pizza crust! Yum! Yum!

So to the 164 Facebook greeters, (new record this year!) and all those who wished me a happy birthday via Twitter and in the Kidology Forum too – THANKS!

I had a great birthday, and YOU were a part of making my day special!

But most of all, it was special, because I spent it with my two favorite people doing my favorite thing…

I’ve been on the road (well, technically, in the air!) for weeks – speaking at Camp Hartland and Camp Timber-lee, and all the while my convertible has been in the garage with the top down while I’ve been filming in my car DiscipleTown videos for the next series. (How to Navigate the Old Testament, due out Aug. 20th)

So when I pulled out today, I had no idea the top was broken, its been down for a month! I discovered when I was out on a conference call with DiscipleLand after lunch with the family at the mall. I was then meeting at Speed Stacks HQ getting the low-down on some new products (BTW, I am the VERY FIRST non-employee to get a prototype on something I’ll blog about later!) when it started to rain!

What to do? Go home and cut out of an important meeting? Park under a tree? Then the innovative team at Speed Stacks discovered that the back double doors of their building might provide shelter!

Only problem – the door width was 70 inches and my car only fit halfway in the building, it was 75 inches mirror to mirror!

The view from outside

The view from inside

The car only fit in (with LESS than an inch on each side) up to the mirrors, and then we had to put cardboard over the front seat to keep the rain out! But we saved the rest from the rain.

Sometimes in life, you just have to be creative!

If you are an optimist, the car was half inside!

If you are a pessimist, the car was half out in the rain!

I only suffered a slight scratch when pulling out, but like I told Bob Fox, great memories in life come with a slight price tag!

Me and Bob Fox, President of Speed Stacks

PS: Me beating Bob’s daughter at Sporting Stacking!

Saturday the family headed to the Pikes Peak Radio Control Club’s “Warbird’s Over Pike’s Peak’s Air Show”, and it was incredible! (Don’t miss HIGHLIGHT VIDEO at end of this post!)

NOTE: Click on any image to see larger in a new window.

For Luke, it was a real treat! He brought a box of toy airplanes and enjoying playing with his planes while watching grown men play with their toys. As the saying goes…

The difference between the men and the boys, is just the price of their toys!

It was hard to believe these things were not real! Especially when the jets went straight up into the air spinning until they were a speck in the sky!

They even SOUNDED like real jets… well, actually, there WERE real jets… just smaller and without a real person inside!

They literally flew up to the clouds! I had to use a telephoto lens to keep up with them!

Luke enjoyed chillin’ out on Daddy’s hammock, which I got for Father’s Day way back when he was just a baby… (remember?)

Everyone had their cameras out trying to capture these birds in the coolest pics possible – the pics in this post and in the video below, are from all three of us, me, my dad and his wife Patty.

The planes took turns putting on a show for everyone, and the stunts they did was just like being at a real airshow with real planes!

And getting to walk around and look at them and talk to the pilots was fun too. (That’s my dad and his wife.)

The variety was amazing. They even let us vote on our favorite and there were awards for the pilots in different categories. I felt good when the one I picked won for best design!

One of my favorite features, was the “little pilots” that a lot of controllers put into their planes:

Pretty amazing detail, isn’t it?

It was an incredible day for a young boy. I love taking him to things that show him you never need to grow up. You can pick a hobby and enjoy it into adulthood, whether or not airplanes is what he chooses, you can have fun at any age!

Days like Saturday are days well invested in your kids.

Even if it does make him think his toys are too small!

We can’t wait to get home and fly dad’s little remote control helicopter!

It may not be as cool as these eight to ten foot remote control airplanes that can soar through the air… but it shows my son that growing up is optional, and that is worth a day is the scorching heat.

That’ll teach him, that HE can soar in life, if he is willing to never grow up!

ENJOY THIS HIGHLIGHT VIDEO: *Recommended full screen!

Every year when Yosemite Summit rolls around, I am never ready for it.

And that is exactly why I do it.

I have projects that are not where I want them. Deadlines I’m behind on, so many to do’s unchecked they are overwhelming at times, countless more items floating in my head that need to get on a to do list. Even more dreams and ideas of things I’d like to do. The reality is, I’ll never be “ready” for a week off of work to just relax, refresh, renew and re-create. I am too driven by my life Mission and Calling. But I am also driven by disappointment. We all have this ideal in our mind and hearts of the way life is supposed to be – and when life turns out differently and we don’t get want we want (the core of sin is selfishness) we bury it in busyness, and as Christians we can bury it in Christian service and “Godly” busyness – whereas the rest the world may attempt to hide it in entertainment, the accumulation of power, wealth or pleasure – if not outright debauchery. (Some do seek to redeem it through a life well lived, though those are rare.) I have this ideal in my mind of the type of man, husband, and dad I want to be – and I just can’t get there. And I’m not just talking the deep stuff, its the simple stuff too, like an organized garage or getting the landscaping in the back yard finished. Hanging out with my dad more or reading all the books stacked in my office. So much to do and not enough time to do it in. I have a Calvin and Hobbes T-shirt that says,

“God put me on this earth to accomplish a set number of things. Right now I am so far behind, I will never die.”

But the reality is, I am haunted by what I will left undone that I wanted to do, and what I did instead.

So I go to Yosemite Summit to STOP – stop everything – and Think. Listen. Reflect. Refocus. Reconsider. Recalibrate. Reconsider.

Have you ever just wanted to scream, “I need everything to just STOP ALREADY!” Well, that’s what Yosemite Summit is. The world freezes for several days. Everything stops. Nothing matters for a few days. You aren’t so important anymore. People can get along without you, and guess what? The world survives! And everything is OK when you get back. Sure, there is some pile up, but its manageable.

That’s why I created Yosemite Summit. Because first and foremost I need it. It’s for me. I know that sounds selfish, but it is the truth. But it’s so good and I need it so much, I decided NOT to be selfish about it, and decided I’d invite just a few guys to come with me. First of all, because part of me wishes someone had invited me to something like this a long time ago when I didn’t know I needed it. But mostly because its just too amazing a time to keep to myself.

I hope you will create your own Summit. Don’t wait until you are ready. You never will be. Just put it on the calendar, and promise yourself you won’t cancel it no matter what happens. And when the time comes, just go. Pick a place you love. Invite some others to go with you. And just do it. You know you need it. Freeze the world for a few days. Honestly, we’ll be fine without you. And we might like you better when you get back.

This will be my last blog post until June. Until then… try to survive!

CHECK OUT THE GUYS I’VE SHARED THIS EXPERIENCE WITH THE PAST THREE YEARS AND CLICK ON THE PICTURE FOR A REPORT, HIGHLIGHT PHOTOS AND VIDEO:

2008

2009:

2010:

2011: UPDATED:

Will you be in the 2012 picture?

It was an exciting day for ME, because I got to drive my family on a sled across the snowly plains with mountains on all sides of me! What a thrill it was indeed!

Luke got to see some dogs, which he LOVES but can’t own due to daddy’s alergies (and no e-mails about allergy-proof dogs, we aren’t going there, been there, tried that!)

Here’s proof that I LIKED the dogs, just ain’t gonna OWN one!

But mushing was a BLAST! And being on the sled with my wife and son inside was a really cool feeling! (Quite literally too)

I realize those dogs were in more control than me – but I since another guest DID wipe out (woman driver, ha!) there was some steering to it! And I was the only one that got to do some downhill driving, though it was mostly level the whole way.

We never got over 15 MPH, but it was very windy and snowing, so not sure I’d want to go faster…. nah… I wish I could have, just not with the family on board!

But how could there be a Leadership Lesson in my day of Mushing? Could there BE any lesson on Leadership from my day Mushing? I think so. These dogs have done this run a thousand times. A few of them have run the Iditarod in Alaska. Some as competitors, others as medical dogs. I’m merely a tourist who gets to feel like I’m doing the real thing here. The reality is, I’m just along for a ride. But they humor me and my family. (For a buck.) But they know the trail and run it well, really just for fun! What they ran with me today is really quite easy for them compared to what they are actually capable of, I’m sure!

Sometimes in life and leadership we get to thinking we are pretty hot stuff (or cold stuff in this case) but the reality is, we are just following a path that has been laid out for us ahead of time. Either by others who went before us, or – if not – by God Himself, who determined that He wanted us to do what we are doing, He chose us, gifted us, and prepared for us the very things we are doing. And while we might think it’s pretty impressive all we are doing, it’s actually a piece of cake for God compared to what He is capable of!

I Corinthians 4:7 is a verse my dad made me memorize as a young boy, “For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” He saw that God had given me some gifts that would lead to a certain level of success in life, and wanted to make sure early on I never thought for a moment it had anything to do with me – but that I would always know, I was just riding a sled being pulled by God.

And if I ever got off that path, I’d end up looking like this:

Yup. That’s me. I did go off the trail to see just how deep the snow was, and it IS deep! Luke said later, “I didn’t like when you did that daddy, I thought you were going to sink and I’d have no more daddy!”

I think I’d better stay on the path for my son’s sake!

Last year I tweeted that I was heading to Yosemite for a solo snowshoeing trip and @32NorthSTABIL tweeted me and recommended that I get a pair of their STABLicers for my trip. Well, I replied that I’d take a free pair and try ‘em out!

Next thing I knew, these arrived in the mail:

My Gift From 32 North!

So I took them to Yosemite in the middle of winter:

It was a great trip! In fact, I snow shoed and hiked around quite bit taking all these amazing pictures:

But whenever I didn’t have my snowshoes on – I had to walk on ice and slippery roads, and MAN did I like having THESE one:

My STABLicers!

They gave me a firm grip even if they did make me sound like a rusty tap dancer everywhere I went! I highly recommend them to anyone who plans to be walkin’ around on ice or snow! They go on quickly and pack small, so I was able to keep them in my pocket and have them handy. It’s dangerous to be walking around on ice – one fall can pretty much ruin your trip!

I keep them in my car now and have them ready for whenever I find myself out and needing to walk around ice or yucky ground, which in Colorado, is OFTEN!

THANKS Heather for the STABLicers and sorry my review took so long! It’s just that now it’s so easy to be out in the snow having FUN with no fear of falling!

Do you remember the first thing I said to at the beginning of the week? (How could you forget? I said it over and over, emphasizing a different word each time LOL)

“This week could forever change the path of your entire life.”

Well, I hope it did! I hope that as you listened to my lessons they weren’t “my lessons” but GOD’S and that you heard somethings that will make a difference – because a small difference now – over time – will end up being a huge change over the course of your life – the path of your LIFE WILL BE CHANGED! That’s why I love being a camp speaker, to have that opportunity to be used of God to maybe have that chance to help change the path of your life. Wow, it gives me goose-bumps! That’s for all your words of encouragement, drawings and shrinky-dinks!

We had a GREAT theme this year:

“Walk the Way” – and we studied how Joseph walked the “way” of his God no matter what happened… and it was a good thing, because God was workin’ an awesome and amazing plan for his life that he would have TOTALLY MISSED OUT ON if he at any point had decided to mope and complain and stop following God and trusting God. He kept his chin up with he was mistreated, falsely accused, and forgotten… because He knew that GOD would never mistreat him or forget Him and was working behind the scenes where he couldn’t see!

The same is true for you, remember Jeremiah 29:11?

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “Plans to prosper you, and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”

but that promise is follow by a condition: (most people forget the next 2 verses)

“Then you will call on me (prayer!) and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

See, that promise of the awesome plan – it’s for those who WALK THE WAY, it’s not automatic for everyone… so I DO HOPE that the path of your life turned toward God this week! It will make a difference for the rest of your life, and just like for Joseph, for many others even after your life – those who will be impacted by your life. (That’s amazing to think about!!)

I had sooooo much fun meeting all of you, and miss you so much! If you want to e-mail me, you can by writing to me at karl [at] toyboxtales.com and I’ll get your e-mail! I know you are wanting to see that video of me on National News dressed as a Jedi, so here it is so you don’t have to hunt for it:

My YouTube Channel: YouTube.com/Kidologist

And remember, I didn’t dress up as a Jedi and confess my nerdiness to you for nothing – it was to teach you about the EPIC ELEMENTS of STORY! There are REASONS why all the Great Stories become so popular and make millions of dollars and it isn’t because of special effects, great acting or because so-and-so are in them. Movies with famous people in them flop, movies with awesome special effects flop, and movies with great acting flop. But movies and books with these EPIC ELEMENTS touch us deeply, and people flock to them. WHY? Because they trigger deep needs in us – something we all want. And the crazy thing is, most are made by non-Christians! They so often put their finger on our needs in movies, even better than Christian movie makers do. (But don’t get me going on that!)

Let’s review the EPIC ELEMENTS:

1. Dangerous Journey (of Significance)
2. Great Sacrifice (dying to save others)
3. Ancient Book (or Order or Legend)
4. Secret Power (or Language)
5. Fellowship of Friends

And on Saturday morning at the Parent Rally, which some of you may miss, I added a 6th: A Guiding Spirit. Luke Skywalker in Star Wars had the ghostly spirit of  Ben (Obi-Won Kenobi) who would appear and guide him. In so many films and movies there is some spirit or ghost or presence that guides the main character – often only they can see or hear this person. We have a Guiding Spirit too! After Jesus left, He promised He would send a Guiding Spirit: His name is the Holy Spirit. (John 14:15-29)

See kids? Everything we long for – that makes it into all these movies, GOD HAS GIVEN US! We don’t want a boring life – God invites us into a Dangerous Journey – a life of adventure and significance of following him, a life of great importance and significant. Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for us, even when we didn’t care, know or deserve it. We HAVE an ancient book filled with answers, if we would only READ it! And we don’t need “The Force” – we have the Power of Prayer and can tap into God’s Power at any time, entering the Throne Room of the Creator of hte Universe!! And I hope you have a Fellowship of Friends who also know and love Jesus and will help you Walk the Way – if not, you need to work on forming your own small fellowship, you can’t Walk the Way alone.

I will be blogging on each of these in more detail in the weeks ahead – a summary of each of my lessons for my blog readers, so if you are more interested in this – just follow my blog!

Noduh, the Wise One had a great time being here this week and helping you learn the ways of the Lord so “powerful Christian you could become!” Remember,

“If powerful Christian you want to be, listen to wisdom from Noduh, that’s me!”

Here is a link to a NoDuh Video on Fasting you might enjoy. (28mb!)
(I have a whole series on Kidology.org that is part of a curriculum)

If you are interested in other stuff I have available for kids, here are some things to check out. My main website, Kidology.org, really isn’t for kids – its for other grown ups like me who love kids and teach kids, so you won’t find much there for you. BUT, you will like www.toyboxtales.com! There you will find over 100 videos I have made with toys that teach the Bible and are REALLY FUNNY! I made them in my kids church and they are now shown in children’s churches all over America (and in some other places too). While people can buy DVDs, they are totally free to watch online, its like YouTube, you just click on them to play them. The newest ones are called Object Talks are from the curriculum I write for a publisher – talking objects teaching lessons about the Bible – but if you go through the links you will find the Toybox Tales, which are videos of talking toys telling stories. There is HOURS of fun to be had on that site!!

Also, if you didn’t get my book at camp – you can check out the website about it here: www.orderoftheancient.com for info on it or order it here on Kidology.org

Well, Luke had a great time “hanging out” at camp – thanks to everyone who was so nice to him, helpful, gave him little treats and made him little gifts – you truly made camp special for him. One counselor bought him a sucker and taught him to play Torpedo Ball and was so patient and kind, and as Sara (my wife) and Luke walked back to the cabin, Luke looked up at her and said, “Mommy, I think that guy really really loved me. I could tell.”

That’s what Camp Timber-lee is all about – sharing God’s Love with kids, whether they are campers or just the speaker’s kid. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone at camp for doing a super job, week in and week out, all year around! You Rock!

I’m always a little bummed and sad when another year of my week at Timber-lee comes to an end, I’ve been speaking here almost every year since 1997! Most of the kids’ speakers are my friends I helped recruit – I just love this place.

But campers – it is YOU GUYS AND GALS I miss the most each year. I asked this year if any campers were born in 1997, the year I started speaking here (or after), and a bunch of hands went up! (I about fell over!) And then some kids yelled out, “Will you be here for my kids?” I was floored. All I could say is, “I sure hope so!” (and added on some humor about my cane and false teeth by then!)

Oh, and in conclusion, we can’t forget the BUTTERFLY INCIDENT can we?! Here is the picture I took with my iPhone in the middle of chapel when that butterfly descended upon on my head and I took this picture when he wouldn’t leave!! AND THEN – when he did fly off, he came back!! I’m still working on the spiritual meaning of a butterfly landing on your head, flying away and returning to your head while you are teaching! Too bad Joseph isn’t around to interpret that for us, huh? But it was pretty cool!

I hope to see you again someday. As the saying goes, Christians never say goodbye, they only say,

“See ya later! Here, there, or in the Air!”

]]> http://kidologist.com/2010/07/17/hello-2010-timber-lee-campers/feed/ 5 http://kidologist.com/2010/06/01/what-is-it-about-yosemite/ http://kidologist.com/2010/06/01/what-is-it-about-yosemite/#comments Tue, 01 Jun 2010 11:22:43 +0000 kidologist http://kidologist.com/?p=2870

Me as Evening Settles in over Nevada Falls (click 4 large view)

This place is beyond description, though of course, I try. As I often say, it is where God showed off. Our language lacks adequate words to do Yosemite justice.

Incredible. Amazing. Spectacular. Breathtaking. Beautiful. Magnificent.

I suppose the best I can use is awe-inspiring. Awe at the sheer size, and height, and depth, and distance, and beauty, and splendor that hits your eyes all at once. And no matter how many pictures you take (and I take a lot) you can’t contain it. You can’t get your mind around it. You have to be there and just experience it. But what is the “it” – “it” is not Yosemite, it is GOD. His Bigness, His Majesty, His Beauty, His Greatness, His Power, His Creative ability, – I do not worship Yosemite – I love Yosemite because it draws out of me a depth of worship I can only experience there. It’s like somehow God is more there than anywhere else. While I know theologically that isn’t true, this broken spiritual vessel is somehow healed there – even if only temporarily – and able to feel God’s presence like no other time. All doubts, All worries, All concerns, All pressures, All temptations, All guilt, All my earthly distractions vanish there – and I get a taste of what heaven will be like. Not necessarily what I see the outside there – but what happens to me on the inside there. And I beg God to let me take Yosemite (His peace and presence) back with me when I return to my normal life. May I not forget those mountains, those waterfalls, those trees and those vistas are all still there – even as I hurry about my busy life – to remind me the HE is still there too, quietly, patiently waiting for me to STOP and ponder Him, worship Him, and return to that place of Awe wherever I may be.

Many people joke that going offline must be ‘torture’ for me, and they forget I created this event. This may come as a shock to some, but while I very much ENJOY ministry and serving others and am comfortable ‘in the spotlight’ I do not crave it, I am, in fact, an introvert and crave being alone and feed off being disconnected and long for times like this.

So, fear not, I’ll be back, for it is my Calling from God – but I’m very much going to enjoy the next few days and will not be bothered a bit that my inbox, voicemail, and snail mail box will be piling up while I am away.

I appreciate your patience while I recharge!

PS: I’m also testing mobile blogging from my iPad here, lets hope this worked!

These are images and journal entries from my Solo Sabbatical to Yosemite in January 2010. (Pictures are all from Day One, two more days yet to come.)

Day 1 – February 1, 2010

First Glimpse of Half Dome - Always Stunning

Knowing God.

Started thinking about this topic this morning – so been mulling it around all morning as I snow shoed around the base of El Capitan and Merced River taking pictures today. (Love snow shoeing by the way.) Really thought it would be a lot more laborious than it is, it’s easy and enjoyable. But anyway, “knowing God” – isn’t that the promise of the Christian life? We can know God!

I gave away my Badger Pass ski lift passes each morning (also included tour bus passes and other perks) at breakfast that came with my Lodge “all inclusive deal” because I didn’t need them, the meal vouchers were all I needed. I’m here just to hike and take pictures. I was offered money each time and just said nope, “they’re as free as God’s salvation.” I almost added, “I hope you’ll get to know Him like I do.” That’s what got me thinking about this. How well DO I know Him?

El Capitan Aglow in Late Afternoon

That’s supposed to be the big offer of salvation! How many Gospel tracts have on the cover, “You can KNOW GOD!” Then why don’t I feel like I know Him? (Should I not be admitting this?) Oh, I know a lot about him – probably more than most people. Try me. And not just on a biblical knowledge basis either, philosophically even. (Don’t ask me to explain, it’s complicated.) ;0) But know God? – come on,  are you serious? He’s GOD for crying out loud! How am I supposed to KNOW Him? What does that even mean?

Understand Him? Yeah, right. Predict His behavior? I wish. Anticipate His moves? Never. Influence His decisions? You could argue prayer – but that’s a stretch. Hang out with Him and shoot the breeze? I hardly think so. Worship Him? Certainly! (I’m doing that here in Yosemite!) But that isn’t knowing Him.

Brideveil Falls in Winter

I worship Him (especially here in Yosemite) precisely because I don’t know Him enough – how He created this place, etc. I understand what He expects, wants, and demands of me well enough – and how far short I fall – and I understand His mercy and grace, even friendship and salvation through the person and work of Jesus Christ — and have accept it!! BUT KNOW HIM?!?!?

El Capitan On Fire from the Evening Sun

I’m not so sure about that – and I’m not even convinced I’m supposed to KNOW HIM – just His TRUTH. The more I marvel at the wonders of Yosemite – the more I am convinced my purpose is not much different from that of Half Dome or El Capitan. I think I have about as much chance of knowing God as one of those Rocks! And only man’s pride tells me I have more chance of knowing God than a towering tree or a flowing river.

Seriously. The more I think about who God is – the more I see that I am just another of His creations. Sure – I’m MORE than a rock – I can talk, write in this journal! (or blog) I’m self aware – and aware that I’m self aware -  and aware that I’m aware that I’m aware and so on! I have a free will, and therefore the capacity for love as well as rebellion – I can be loyal to my Creator – or selfishly act independent of Him even as He sustains my very existence and breath. But know Him?

A Snow Covered Half Dome from Sentinel Bridge

I’d like to meet someone who claims to know God. Seriously. (email me if you do.) I’d like to know what that looks like. For me, I’d like to stop telling people, “You can know God personally.” I’m not sure that’s true. However, perhaps we can say, “God knows you personally, and you can be right with Him.” I think I want to give up trying to “know God” and instead focus on being right with God. Living a life of obedience that pleases God, honors God – and reflects His glory.

Half Dome from Sentinel Bridge After Dark (time lapse)

As I said earlier, my purpose, as a creation of God, is no different that these mountains here – it is to be a testimony to God. The only difference is that they are far more limited in what they can do, however they get to do it for for hundreds of years! I don’t get as long – but have been given much more ability to testify! With words – actions – love – attitudes – etc. HOW I LIVE, the testimony of my life.

I’m not sure my goal in life ought to be to “know God” – I think it is rather that others might be right with God too because they knew me.

Yosemite Fall Taken in Pitch Darkness with Open Shutter

I wonder every time I come here, how people can be in Yosemite and not believe in God. I ought to wonder how people can know me and not believe in God.

It seems like just yesterday I was blogging about how I hoped 2009 would be better. And here it is 2010! Aren’t we supposed to riding around on hover boards and beaming from place to place by now? I read that post, and instead of writing a post about my New Year’s Resolutions, I think I can just say “ditto” to that post!

But I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that an entire year has passed by when I reflect on all that I accomplished in 2009 – it’s actually quite an astonishing list – no wonder I am so exhausted!

• Survived a heart attack!
• Survived being struck by lightening!!
• Hosted the 2nd Yosemite Summit
• Started a retreat for women: Unbridled
• Relaunched a completely NEW Kidology.org
• Oh, and an entirely new ToyBoxTales.com as well
• Not to mention, a brand new curriculum: DiscipleTown
• AND two completely free three year curriculums!
• Attended CPC Nashville & San Diego
• Published an article in Children’s Ministry Magazine (PDF)
• Then got a column in CM Magazine and CM Pro
• Launched the Kids Church Cookbook!
• Squeaked out a few more podcasts
• All while moving from Illinois to Colorado!

And I wonder why I’m feeling exhausted?! No wonder I wasn’t ready for 2010 to arrive! I usually spend the last week of the year doing evaluation of the year just past and planning for the year to come, but I had some projects culminating and family visiting and am writing at CPC in Nashville (which I really don’t like being right after the new year) so I missed out on my week of margin for reflection and I can really feel it. Just reviewing my blog and making that list above has been very encouraging and eye-opening. For now – I need to survive this week at CPC – finish a few deadlines that still loom over me, and then do the planning and reflecting I wanted to do last week.

I’m excited that 2009 is behind me, and have NO desire to see 2010 “top” last year. In fact, you know what I am MOST excited about in 2010? Starting a guys hiking group here in Colorado for children’s pastors! Yup, I’m calling it “The Fellowship of the King.” (I know it’s corny, but I do like to hike to LOTR music.) I’ve been collecting a list of guys in Colorado, friends and soon-to-be friends via facebook ad twitter, and I’m going to be inviting them to join me hiking around this beautiful state to spend time away from ministry and with God. One thing I learned from Yosemite Summit was that once a year just isn’t often enough to disconnect from normal life and connect with God out in nature with others who share your passions in life. Most of them already know about this and are just waiting for info on the first hike – if you live in Colorado and are a guy – let me know, and I will add you to the list! (No, you do not have to be a children’s pastor or even in ministry to be included. But you may have to endure some worship music, prayer and spiritual conversation if you are not a Christian.)

So here’s to doing less – and being more in 2010!

I went to see the sunrise and to work in my new office: Colorado!

This was my view for my morning staff conference call. Not too shabby! It was a little chilly, so I eventually moved to the Visitor Center across the street where I had a counter, power outlet, free refills and an elevated view:

Next I headed off to Chipotle for lunch and on my way back I noticed a Navigator’s sign right before the turn to Garden of the Gods, and turned in. Soon I was at a Castle Gate being stopped by a Gate Keeper. I wasn’t sure if I would get in, but after speaking a little “Christianese” I was granted a pass and allowed to proceed into the most amazing compound that rivaled the Garden of the Gods next door! Turns out the Gen Eyrie retreat center may be one of the best kept secrets of Christiandome! Not only are there more red rocks….

and over 700 acres with lodges and hiking trails…

there is even a Castle!

But on to the CAVE!

As I was exploring, I noticed a CAVE up on one of the cliffs!

Now, GUYS, why is it when you SEE A CAVE you have this thought… I must go up in that cave! I’m sorry, but I REALLY TRIED not to. I seriously thought, I could get hurt. It might be too much for my heart. There could be a bear or a cougar or something worse! No one who loves me even knows I am here at Glen Eyrie, how long until my car would be found? I signed a release to hike, so they wouldn’t even cover any medical costs if I got hurt. Would my insurance…

but the CAVE WAS CALLING TO ME… so I climbed!

I got closer! I half expected some fierce animal to peek out at me! Would I run? Or would freezing work? What if I found treasure? Bones? I’m sure no one else has ever climbed up here!

Finally, I made it! Here is the view from INSIDE THE CAVE! And there is the PK Cruiser, to prove it is really the same cave! It was about twenty feet deep. No wild animals or bones or treasure. I was actually a little disappointed. (About the treasure and bones that is.)

I put on the fisheye lens to try and show the entire cave from the back!

Just as I was about to head down I was surprised by a great view of the Glen Eyrie Castle from the opening of the cave! Pretty cool, huh? You know, if you don’t get out of your car in life, you miss out on some of the best experiences.

The next time you are driving in life and you see something cool – don’t drive by. STOP, and just do it! I’m way behind on email and a bunch of stuff from moving last week, and I know just as I get caught up when I’m moving in next week, I’ll get behind all over again. I have every reason to work all day and into the night non-stop.

But then, I would have missed out on this neat cave!

WHAT IS CALLING OUT TO YOU TODAY? GO FOR IT!

In his book Visioneering, Andy Stanley makes the following statement:

“Everybody ends up somewhere in life.  A few people end up somewhere on purpose.”

I have been in Chicagoland since my parents brought me here in 1985. My wife has been here since she married me! I LOVE the city of Chicago! The architecture, the sports teams, the political corruption, the hustle and bustle, the malls (that’s for Sara) the blizzards (yes, I love to snow blow), and the friends made over the years, will all be things I will miss. It is a world class city. I have traveled throughout the world as well as the United States and there is NO CITY like Chicago – not even close.

But in m

y heart I’ve always been an outdoors guy. And after hosting two Yosemite Summit retreats, nearly dying in April, and again in May, it was time to stop putting off for “someday” what could be done now.

I grew up in Colorado where my dad pastored a country church in Elizabeth, Colorado. We got picked up from school on Friday and drove to the country where my

imagination was unleashed and bows and arrows and BB guns and a countryside to explore were all mine before returning to Denver for the week. I even had a horse that was “mine” named Rusty that a rancher we called Rollie let me ride

freely all over his property. My preacher dad’s sermon prep and prayer retreats were also father-son weekend camp outs where I fought off Indians, discovered lost civili

zations and explored abandoned mines and railroad cars while he studied before we made a camp fire and then argued the finer points of Calvinism and Eschatology over s’mores. Those were the days!

Becoming a father myself has changed me deeply in ways I can’t even put into words. T

he ambitions that drove me in my younger days – to be a “mover and shaker” in the world of children’s ministry – to make an impact in as many kids as possible and to equip and encourage as many workers as possible – suddenly slipped behind becoming a better husband and wanting to be the best dad in the world to this ONE boy rather than a great teacher or entertainer to the crowds of children I used to regularly stand in front of.

Don’t get m

e wrong, my Calling has not changed! My life mission is still to Reach and Teach as many children as possible with the Good News of God’s Love and in the process to Enlist, Equip and Encourage others to do the same. But my ministry

hot rod crashed three years ago from going too fast in too many directions for too long and I’ve been rebuilding it for three years from the inside out. And its a much slower vehicle now. And it needs some new roads to drive on and some new scenery. Like Rascal Flatts sings in I’m Moving On, “I never dreamed home would be where I don’t belong.” I’ve reached a point in my life where after nearly 25 years in Chicago, I need a fresh start and it is time to start again back where I began as a boy. (And as a bonus, my dad is back in Colorado too now – so we’ll be close to Grandpa and Grandma for Luke!)

I’m looking forward to a mountain view and hiking trails to walk with the family on – to  riding my recumbent bike more and to practicing my photography more. And t

o being in a place where it is easier for me to simply be still and know my Creator more. There is a State Park just minutes from my new home where I plan to hang out with the Maker of that park quite often!

And, yes, I plan to find a church to minister in and will continue to serve the Lord and others thr

ough Kidology.org. But sorry, the hype-active super-busy over-achiever Karl has faded away

and the new, much slower paced, chilled out, freer Karl is moving with his family to Colorado. I’ve called myself a recovering pastor for three years – the recovery is about complete – the final step is this move. A fresh start in a new place.

Thank you for your interest, your support, your grace and your friendship.

Karl

Thank you to everyone who showed up to help us LOAD in Illiois and then UNLOAD in Colorado. It was awesome to see folks from Twitter show up to help us unload! (Since we didn’t know anyone in Colorado! Now that is the power of social networking!

NOTE: There is NO change to Kidology.org operations, staff or address.

Well, I was going to keep this kinda quiet… but word is getting out about my electrifying experience with lightening in Yosemite and the pressure for me to tell the “full story” is increasing, so I’m giving in hoping this doesn’t discourage anyone from coming to Yosemite Summit in the future!

The question I keep getting is, “Were you really struck by lightening at Yosemite?” Well, since I’m typing this from my current location on earth (rather than heaven) the technical answer is, NO! But… I was in the middle of a strike that hit trees all around me and there is that mysterious jagged hole in my poncho to account for! So when I posted on Twitter and Facebook that my most exciting experience at Yosemite was being struck by lightening… it wasn’t much of a stretch!

So here’s the story! We started out Day One with a spectacular all day hike that began at Sentinel Dome, where the view is absolutely breath-taking. Here we all are on the top of Sentinel Dome:

After our chapel time and quiet times alone, we took the Ponomo Trail, a little traveled segment of a longer trail, in order to loop around through the woods and then to the edge of Upper Yosemite at the top of Sentinel Fall. Here we are at the top:

Yes, I photo-shopped myself into this picture, since I took it! You can’t see the water fall in this picture, because, well, we are above it, BUT you can see we are higher than El Capitan in the background! O.K., here is a picture of the falls… as close to it as I wanted to get:

It’s hard to tell in the picture how HIGH we are, but that is the valley below, some 3000+ feet below! Here is a view of it (from Google images) from the bottom, it cascades for awhile before it final long drop to the valley floor:

Next we left the sunny warm open areas and entered into a forest where the temperatures were still cool and snow was still on the ground!

We forged rivers… (OK, one creek)

and finally all arrived at Taft Point at different times since the group spread out over time depending on their hiking pace and whether they constantly stopped to take pictures. Which is why I usually am one of the last to arrive at the meeting spots. Taft Point is simply amazing!

Taft Point is one of the highest places that has a STRAIGHT DOWN view, over 3500 feet. (hard to see in this photo, but there is one of the few railings in all of Yosemite at the very tip where you see the guys standing!)

I know, I know… what about the LIGHTENING!? I just want to make sure you know, it’s not like we just went to Yosemite and got attacked by lightening, it was a spectacular day… with an even more spectacular ending! So, on to the lightening…

Here’s me at Taft Point, in what very well could have been the last picture of me ever taken! It indeed was the last picture of me that day! By the time I got to Taft Point, we had started to see some clouds appearing East of us toward Half Dome and heard some thunder in the distance. It is a known fact for Yosemite hikers, that being out on large open granite surfaces is not safe if lightening is even remotely possible, as the lightening, being unable to absorb into the rock, will travel across the surface at, well, lightening speed, until it finds grounding. Being in the path of that lightening is, well, let’s just say, not recommended. Oh, and Taft Point is a huge open granite area, oh, and with a metal railing at the highest point!

As the leader of the expedition, and taking our group’s safety seriously, as soon as I got to Taft Point, I called out to the guys that we needed to leave and skipped going up to the point myself even though I’d hiked all day with this being the final destination. But there was another “final destination” I wasn’t interested in reaching today, if possible. Let me say for all the wives reading this – the group was not in any danger at this point, but we weren’t going to stick around until we were!

We regrouped, counted to nine (something we did often!) and once we knew the entire group was accounted for, headed back to the van. At this point, due to the loop we were doing, we were only about a mile and a half from the van. We headed back, and over the course of that last segment, the group spread out again until six were back at the van and I had two guys with me. About half way to the van the rain started, and by the time we got near the parking lot it was pouring HAIL. Seriously! We went from a beautiful sunny day with clear skies to rain and hail!

AND NOW THE EXCITING PART! (you skipped to here, didn’t you?)

Because the trail was blocked by a creek and in the rain we didn’t want to walk across the log that would normally be the easy way across, the three of us headed down river a bit until we could find some rocks in the creek that were high enough to cross over. I went first, called out to the two guys behind me that I’d found an easy way across, and then headed up toward the road. I could see that I was about 200 feet from the road, and gathered that the parking lot was probably another 200-300 feet up the road. I was almost out of the storm and into the van! I was feeling bad knowing that the six ahead of me were locked out of the van in this hail, but fortunately they had found a small pavilion to huddle under.

At this point everything is both fuzzy and crystal clear – don’t ask me to explain that – but as soon as I reached the road and started to walk toward the van – IT HAPPENED. It is difficult to describe. The words I have to use don’t do it justice. But there was this incredible NOISE – yes, an explosion, all around me. Scared is not the word. I was beyond scared, but only for a nano-second, honestly. It was like I was so terrified in that instant as I had no idea what was happening – I just froze – then I saw red billowing flames ahead of me followed by a pillar of smoke of biblical proportions and realized that lightening had struck VERY close. For the next few seconds, I wondered if I was dead. That sounds strange, but I just had a stent put in my heart a month before, and had been given the OK to go to Yosemite via stress test, but in that frozen moment, I wondered, “If your heart stops, do you feel it?” I couldn’t feel anything anywhere in that moment, so I wondered, “Do you die instantly, or do I have a minute to soak in life?” It was literally just a few seconds and I could feel that I was truly was OK and not about to keel over. I heard the guys behind me calling out to me and asking if I was OK. I heard them, but was still in shock (no pun intended) so while I answered, I knew they couldn’t hear my soft answer. When I could, I yelled that I was OK, and we’d better get to the van as fast as possible. I was finally able to look away from the explosion that was still smoking and noticed wood fragments were scattered everywhere, I instinctively reached down and picked up the piece at my feet before starting toward the van, the last two guys were now with me.

Yes, I thought of taking pictures or grabbing my video camera. No, I didn’t!

When I was walking toward the van my head was down and I noticed that there was a huge jagged hole in my poncho. Was I struck by lightening?!?!? It was a brand new poncho and it had been fine before the lightening strike! It was then that I realized my leg hurt a little. Not much, but like I’d been hit. We got to the van and I just handed the key over and asked another guy to drive, I was still kinda in shock. (not literally!) I was wearing zip off pants that convert to shorts so I unzipped them to look where my leg hurt, and there on my leg was a bruise – not huge, but clearly new. (I took a picture, but I’m sparing you that!) I looked at the wood in my hand and realized I must have been hit with “shrapwood” from the exploding tree! (Later, when putting my PJ’s on, I was to discover multiple bruises, I had been hit in several places by flying wood!)

The conversation in the van was charged with excitement. This was both exciting and sobering. Debate broke out on where the lightening struck, and how close it was to me. The guys by the van saw it hit much higher and farther away than I described. The guys behind me described it as being even closer to me than I thought. It was a bit of a puzzle, but we were curious, so we decided to return the next day to investigate.

The following morning was our sunshine at Glacier Point, which just happens to be a mile or so farther down the road than where we had parked the van the day before. It was pitch black out when we drove by so we couldn’t see anything.

After an awe-inspiring time at Glacier Point and our chapel time, we headed back to to the cabin to pack up for our hike that would begin in the valley today… but not without stopping first at the scene of the crime from yesterday:

Of course, I wanted to go back to the very spot I had been standing when the lightening struck! It felt kinda wierd to revisit the spot. My foot prints were visible and it appeared, that contrary to what I remembered, I had actually moved backward 4-5 feet reacting to the explosion, judging by the foot prints and dug in impressions that matched my shoes. (We were all acting like CSI guys!) Most of the wood debre was now gone, either washed away in the storm, or perhaps cleaned up off the road, but as I was standing in “the spot,” someone pointed out the large piece of tree that was lying RIGHT NEXT to where I had been standing!

It may go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway… what if THIS ’stick’ had hit me? In a very large area, on BOTH sides of the road, wood scraps lay everywhere.

Not all of it was on the ground, some was up in trees:

Look a little closer, that’s not a twig!

As we walked up and down the hill, it turned out ALL the reports in the van were correct, as lightening had struck several trees, on all sides of me, in an area probably more than 50 feet circle.

This is the tree that I saw on fire and whose fragments probably hit me. It doesn’t look like much damage to the tree from here, but up close it’s kinda crazy…

Wood was ripped off these trees so fast and so hard that branches still stuck out in places like rebar from concrete! And the parts of the trees that were damaged spiraled from top to bottom, so it was hard to get a picture of all the damage.

Here you can kinda see how the damage spirals toward the top of the tree! And there is another 8 feet below and up higher on the other side toward the top!

Hard to even image the POWER of something that can rip through a tree like this!

Matt McDaniels holds up a massive segment of a tree he found… yeah, I know.

Me and my tree. Wow.

Well, what can I say? Yosemite Summit was a blast. Can’t wait until next year. Statistically, it can only be safer!

In conclusion, one of the guys shared at our chapel time the next day that God had given him a verse for me, and thought perhaps this could be my theme verse for Yosemite Summit 2009. I think I like it!

He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him —
the dark rain clouds of the sky.

Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced,
with hailstones and bolts of lightning.

Psalm 18:11-12

Yes, I still have that piece of wood I picked up, and plan to keep it as a reminder of how God protected me that day. Every day of life is truly a gift… perhaps that is why it is called the Present.

The full story is here if you missed all the updates on Twitter and Facebook!

Yes, I was twittering (which updated facebook) during the whole thing, and live blogged to give more detail than you can in status updates. It was really quite amazing that due to today’s technology I literally had more people praying for me probably than your average church prayer line – for those scratching their heads that I would twitter while having a heart attack, let me first say,

A) I didn’t technically have a heart attack (explained in blog post)

B) I was never in great pain, just enough pain in my chest to know something was wrong and decided the smart thing was to go straight to ER and

C) I really truly believe in the power of prayer and wanted to get the word out so that I’d have prayer for myself and family during the critical hours when it mattered most. I never really felt dread or fear, though I had a sober understanding that this was indeed serious – and yet really felt peace that I was in God’s hands and that He was walking me through the steps to address this.

Did you know if you hold your breath the
white line on the monitor will go flat?

If I were to add a D) it is that a big part of me is wired to want to encourage others and remind others that God is in control – thats easy to say when everything is going hunky dorey – (good) – but I wanted to show that even when our life is in danger (literally) there is always reason to laugh, enjoy life and savor the moments – even if our time to say so could be soon over. My twitter updates were intended to show that there can be moments of joy and reasons to smile even in the midst of hard times. You can’t say it if you don’t live it!

I asked not to be “put under” during the procedure because this is my LIFE and as long as I am alive – i want to LIVE every moment of it, even those moments that should be scary. I gotta tell you, its very sobering when they have you remove everything you own and you watch them put it all in plastic bags. (I hid my iPhone under my leg, I wanted to take it in with me – my link to all my friends and family!)

It was amazing to watch on a screen what the surgeon was doing inside my heart! The funny thing was later, even though I was never “out” or asleep, I couldn’t remember the journey from the surgery room to ICU. I finally asked my nurse if I had indeed been out because there were some details of the day I couldn’t remember and she said that they did give me a drug that caused short term memory loss! Wow! I asked if I can get that at Walgreens, that could come in handy in life! In fact, that might come in handy in pastoral counseling too! “Just take this, and soon you’ll forget all about it.” I’ll have to look into that. (My wife probably thinks I already take that it on a daily basis!)

One of the cool things was getting to meet a fellow Twittering in person, @scotthodge who I was hoping to meet today anyway, since I was doing the children’s services at this church at 3,5 and 7pm after the massive egg hunt this morning. Well, I did get to meet him, but not as I planned; he visited me in the hospital! It meant a lot since I was too far away for most friends/family to come visit, and I know he’s in the midst of Easter weekend! Even a pastor enjoys a pastoral visit! (Our pastor from our previous church did call too and offer to come, but we told him it was too far from Easter-eve, but that was very nice too!) Of course, my wife DID come while my awesome sister took Luke for the entire day!

I am now staying over night but it looks like I’ll get to go home tomorrow. Please pray for my sweet wife, I know this is harder on her than me!

I was able to get my friend, Jonny Magic, to take the shows I had the rest of today as he was in town to perform with me tomorrow, but pray for the church I was supposed to be at tomorrow – they’ve got a lot of entertainers, so they should be fine, but I was doing their preschool program so they’ve got to make adjustments. I have a pretty good excuse, but I still feel bad!

Going to sleep now – just wanted to let some friends and prayer partners know the scoop.

Being the tech geek I am (and wanting prayer support) I’ve been twittering the journey which also updates my facebook status. Yet another good reason to link the two!

O.K., here’s the scoop. Did a big magic show at Stuart Sports Complex in Aurora IL right before a helicopter came to drop eggs. Before the show I rode around on my giraffe unicycle to attract attention toward the stage. I rode out on the grass which is extremely difficult on cold hard lumpy ground and it was a work out! I managed to stay up much longer than I thought I would but after 10 minutes fell. (thats how get off a giraffe unicycle, eventually you just fall to dismount) i was so out of breath, I could hardly talk or breath, but immediately had to do the program.

The show went well despite high winds and cold air, but I got through it. It wasn’t until I was packing up that I first thought the blasting music was hurting my chest since I was so close to all the speakers that were playing upbeat contemporary Christian music. I went to take pictures of the helicopter but was starting to realize something was wrong since I was away from the loud music but my chest was still hurting. Packing up was a challenge as I was back by the speakers and just felt fatiqued and sluggish and loading the car seemed far more difficult than it should have. I was eager to drive away from the pounding music since the next 3 shows at the church weren’t until 3pm, 5pm and 7pm. The pain was not going away and while I had planned to just go find a place to eat and work on my laptop for a few hours, I asked a cop directing traffic where the nearest hospital was.

Seemed keeling over at Chipotle was less desirsble than going to the ER and being told “you’re fine, you’re just a wimp” so I headed to the hospital thinking, I can just work in the waiting room so at least I’m close to serious help if I neef it.

Well, pain got worse and I asked to just talk to a doctor knowing I’d be out $75 for it.

Then it all just unfolded. Technically NOT a heart attack, as heart attack is non-reversible damage; which I avoided by coming in when I did. My EKG was a very abnormal one and my right arm was feeling weird, not the usual left. So next it was off for an angioplasti (sp?) and I asked to not be sedated so I could watch on the screens! Simply amazing what our doctors can do today! To be watching something IN MY HEART squirting out liquid and watching it flow through my heart. I asked the surgeon if he could see Jesus since I’d asked Him into my heart when I was four. He assured me Jesus was fine and had triggered the pain so I’d come in today!

Gotta go, time to order from room service, as I see they have cheeseburgers, hoping they’ll make me a double with extra cheese!!

Thank you everyone for your concern and prayers, more later! (Lord willing!)

Proverbs 16:9 rang true today!

ANYWAY – the point of this post is less about blogging, and more about my dad and how proud I am of an accomplishment he just made this month: his first solo flight on his life long quest to become a pilot. He just sent the family the poem below to try and answer the oft asked question, “WHY FLY?” I love the poem and am proud of my dad, but I teased him that he left out the time he took me up for a flight, and he replied that he doesn’t remember it, and to send some “proof.” Which is why I mention the ancient blogging, as I blogged the adventure was back in the early nineties, pre-Y2K!

The original post is here: AIR DAD, but I include a few pictures here for those too lazy to open yet another window. Just ignore the contact info on that page, as it’s a tad bit outdated!

But first, the poem:

WHY DO I FLY?
By Doug Bastian
12/20/08

It’s a question you’ll ask me,
I have asked myself, too.
A clear day pulls my gaze up
And my day-dreams turn blue.

Back in grade school I wandered,
Since my bike set me free,
To the airfield on Broadway
Lots of airplanes to see.

Walked around them, peeked inside,
Wondered how each one flew;
Found some books to explain it,
“I can do this!” I knew.

Years of dreaming passed by me,
Just a ride here and there
With a pilot acquaintance
Lifting me in the air.

The first ride was with Welman
Over Lansing near by.
Then, a cross-country junket,
Mountains, desert, and sky.

Moody Church had some workers
Flying missions and such;
Stayed with David in Haiti,
Flew the island so much.

David once was on furlough
And he offered a trip
Out of Midway…took Jordan,
Overflew school he skipped.

Came the time I was lonely
And my kids took a cue,
Bought me one airplane lesson;
I was hooked for a few.

I became the Red Baron
In son Karl’s view;
We flew South Chicago,
Then he blog’d me so cool.

Later, Jeff was my blessing,
A full CFI, too.
This bush pilot could teach me,
So, real lessons I flew.

Now my logbook had hours,
But, the time was not right.
Many years would flee past me
Without one single flight.

Finally had to decide it…
“To give up, or give in?”
Dash the dream, impossible!
I would try, lose or win.

Now I’ve crossed the first threshold,
I have soloed my plane.
I can do it…I know it.
Life will not be the same.

Have I answered the question
That of, “Why do I fly?”
I can’t think of an answer.
Got to run…”Coming, Sky!”

My dad promised to add a stanza about our trip if I can send some proof of the flight, so this post is my proof along with the pictures from when I had to explain to everyone who saw it, what a “digital camera” was! (‘You mean there is NO FILM?!?!) I love being on the edge of technology!

Here’s your proof, Dad. (entire original post here)

Is that proof enough that your eldest son once flew with you? I love you, Dad, and I’m proud of you!

The Little Red Baron!

I’m so excited! Why oh why did we buy those season passes? I can’t believe they didn’t notify me before they posted this on the Disney site and broadcast on the news! Whoo-hoooo! I’m trying to figure out now how to call and claim the prize.

Thanks to Trisha Joy who let me know about this via Facebook, you made my day!

It might surprise you that I am famous in a town that I’ve only been to a few times. Well, Karl Bastian is famous anyway! In fact, if I go around town and mention my name, people stop in their tracks and say, “Really? Are you really?!? Nice to meet you!” and shake my hand!

Me at the source of my Indiana fame

Here I am at the source of my fame… the Gas City Fire Station. Why am”I” famous here? Let me tell you the story in a fun way… a few years ago, I was in Sweetser, Indiana to visit a friend, Ryan Frank’s, church for a Kidology seminar. (which was really just an excuse to visit Ryan, a guy who shares my passion for reaching kids and encouraging and equipping others who minister to kids, just check out his magazine, K! which he started a year ago for that very purpose.) But I degress…

Ryan with a collage of his kids

When we had a few hours of free time, I told Ryan I wanted to go for a drive, but I didn’t tell him where or why. And I shold mention, I often teased him about being from Indiana, little did he know my roots go back to just a town or two over from his home town. So we headed over to Gas City and the Fire Station, which was locked up because in such a small town, it is a volunteer department. So we headed over to City Hall. I walked in and introduced myself to the receptionist, “Hi, I’m Karl Bastian.” She about dropped her pencil and said, “Really?” I said, “Yup, and if possible, I’d like to get into the Fire Station.” She said, “Certainly! Go over to the Public Works building, just behind here, and they should be able to help you out.” Ryan seemed a little surprised by the welcome I got, but I still didn’t explain anything to him.

Next we walked back to the Public Works building, which was pretty simple and had some various people working at desks, and no one person seemed to be a receptionist, so I finally kinda just spoke out as politely as I could, “Um, hello, excuse me, the receptionist at the City Hall sent me here and said someone here could probably get me into the Fire Station… my name is Karl Bastain.” Everyone stopped and looked up at that point and either said verbally, or with their looks, “Really?” And one person said, “Certainly, let me call the police.” At this point, I was really enjoying Ryan’s surprise at the welcome and recognition I was getting. Soon a police officer arrived and said, “Is it true? Are you Karl Bastian?” I said yes, and asked if I could get into the Fire Station, that I was visiting my friend here from Sweetser and was hoping I could show him inside the Fire Station, and the officer said, “Of course you can. I’ll get a fireman over there right away, sorry I can’t take you myself…” (he had some obligation, I forget exactly) “… but head over there and someone will be there as fast as possible.”

We drove over there and by now Ryan was bugging me to tell him why everyone in Gas City seemed to know who I was when as far as he knew, I was from waaaay out of town. But it wasn’t time yet to tell him. We waited outside the station for no more than ten minutes when a red pick up truck arrived and a man got out and walked up to me and said, “Are you really Karl Bastian?” After I said yes, he heartly shook my hand and said, “It’s an honor to meet you.” The look on Ryan’s face was priceless, but he would soon learn the secret of my fame in Gas City, Indiana.

Karl and Karl

Once we got inside the simple office of the Fire Department, I took a picture off the wall and showed it to him and said, “This is why I’m famous here… check out the name on the bottom.”

“In Memory of Karl C. Bastian”
Gas City Chief of the Fire Department

The family legend (and I call it that to acknowledge that all I have is the family story passed down to me, unconfirmed by outside sources, which are welcome if anyone reading this in Gas City knows more about his story) is that this Karl Bastian died as a hero when he went on an emergency call even though he was retired from being the Fire Chief, and was attempting to save a mother and child from a fire, when he was overcome by smoke and died. He died on May 6th, 1960. He is listed as an American hero on supportingheroes.org even though there is very little info recorded there. On the wall next to the picture is a newspaper article about him that I hope to get a copy of someday.

Oh, and I should probably mention he was my Great Grandfather, and I got his name when I was born on his birthday, September 19th, nine years after his death.

Wondering what he was like…

The story goes that I was to be named Brent Camdon Bastian*, but since I was born on my great grandfather’s birthday, my father changed my name to Karl Douglas Bastian, since my dad’s name is Douglas Karl Bastian. (*if you have read my novel, you now know the source of the main characters name, Brent Camdon!)

Karl Bastian, An American Hero

So if I am ever in a position where I really need a job, I think I’ll head to Gas City and run for mayor, I’ll probably have a good chance at winning! And while the painting is hanging where it belongs, in the Gas City Fire Station, I do hope that someday it can come into my family or at least I hope I can get a copy of it. This painting is the only picture I have of the Karl Bastian from whom I got my name.

I never got to meet him, but I’m proud to share his name.

Karl Douglas Bastian
Son of Douglas Karl Bastain
Son of Ronald Victor Earl Bastian
Son of Karl C. Bastian

Turns out, I am available on the 9th – and so got the privilege of heading up to beautiful Sierra Madre for an afternoon of teacher encouraging! Good thing I have good prayer support, as you can see, I was really suffering for Jesus that afternoon.

Notice the turtleneck! Funny thing was, it was in the 60’s and I was enjoying what I thought was a beautiful warm California day and yet the kids and some adults were commenting on how “cold it was.” Ha. These poor people don’t know what cold is!

The church has several building right in a nice downtown area with the community park across the street. I learned that the “Old North Church” is called old, because across the street is the “New South Church.”

It’s “new” because it was only built 100 years ago! Across the street next to the “old” church is a new children’s ministry building. Really, truly, it is new. In fact, they had only been in it for six weeks the Sunday I visited. Now what are they going to call the “New South Church?” The “Not As New, But Still Newer Than the Really Old Church.”

After seeing the view, I immediately wondered if Kristy should consider retiring and giving me her job! Such a beautiful area, and, oh yeah, so “cold.”

Inside the “Really New, Really” building, they had Easy Risers for their seating. (I love those!) and the rooms were all creatively decorated and kid-friendly. While they are new in the building, I like a clean, neat, attractive simple look that simply communicates that this area is for children.

One of the perks of being in “cold” California, you can meet outside in the frigid weather for class!

I love visiting churches and seeing what creative things different children’s pastors have come up with. And I LOVED this idea! All the students have a personal folder that they bring every week to church. Here is a close up:

They keep their notes inside, and on the outside they go home with the verse and a challenge. (These pockets are empty because this was taken before class.) They also earn “tallents” for various things, including bringinfg their folder back, which can be spent in the store that opens monthly, which happened to be the week I was visiting.

Some things never change – “stores” are a great incentive for kids to be engaged and work toward goals so they get some tangible benefit for thier hard work. While there is a popular trend agaist extrinsic motivators, until I meet an adult that is completely intrinsicly motivated, I think there is a place for rewarding children for hard work. And I’ve seen it work in both the long and the short term. Kids form habits while they are young that remain long after they outgrow the “store” or need for the simple toys and prizes.

Here is Jordan finding out how much he has to spend in the store. He was there early and ran to the store when it was time. After hanging out with him for awhile before church, I found myself thinking ee was one of those kids you say, “I hope my son turns out like him!”

Kristy has a lot of energy and does a great job not only relating to the kids, but equipping and encouraging her volunteers too. I lost track of how many times she said something postivie about a volunteer or expressed the potential in a young helper. They’ve be blessed to have her for eight years, and it doesn’t look like I’ll be getting her job anytime soon. Besides, it’s too “cold” there!

Besides being a wonderful CP, she is teachable and committed to encouraging and equipping her volunteers. She asked me to do my favorite workshop, “Kidology 101″ and I as she introduced me I got to hear a wonderful story of how it impacted her eight years ago at her first CPC when she was a brand new children’s pastor. That’s what it’s all about. You never know who you are impacting, and sometimes you don’t find out for years. Many times, you never find out. And that’s O.K. But thanks to Facebook, I got to find out this story, and minister to some kids in children’s church and volunteers over lunch. It was a great day!

And she wasn’t “late” with the Mountain Dew, but I was looking for some caffeine to combat the frigid temperatures! A Dew in need, is a Dew indeed!

Thanks, Kristy, for the update, for connecting with others who love kids, and for a great opportunity to minister to your kids and volunteers, it was a great day. (Oh, and for the Dew too!)

Of course, we saw all kinds of animals! (Took the ones above from the tram!) I enjoy taking pictures of the animals – I do not enjoy smelling them!

However, it is not the animals that Luke enjoys the most. Oh, sure, he likes them. He’ll look at them when we point, and can even identify several by name. But there are other “creatures” on display at the Zoo that he will run to! And he’ll spend more time with each of these “animals” studying them, than he will on anything with fur or wings or hooves. Yup, you guessed it, the Cars on display from various dealerships.

Oh, yes. The cars. When we said we are going to the Zoo today, Luke’s answer is, “See Cars?” But our favorite thing about the Zoo is not the animals or the cars… it is being in a safe place where Luke can run around and enjoy a rare form of freedom to lead us around for a change, and for me, it is a wonderful opportunity for my hobby – “Luke Photo Journalism.” Here are some of my favorites from today. (Thanks for indulging me!)

Luke enjoying the playground. It’s a tunnel!

Luke behind bars… “I’m innocent!”

Luke, the fashion model.

Luke, the old fashioned greeting card.

Eager to get on the carousel.

Around and around with Dad.

Proof that I take pictures of my wife too!

It was a great day hanging out with the family. One of my good friends, Alan Root, said recently at Kid U, “Every day God gives us a gift – he gives us today. That is why it is called the Present.” It was a good reminder to live in the moment and enjoy TODAY. As Jesus said, “Tomorrow will take care of itself.”

Today was a present.