Beth Tephila Retreat

We're exhausted but happy that the Beth Tephila summer retreat at our home this week-end appeared to be successful. Around 20 folks attended both Friday & today. We all enjoyed the BBQ, fellowship, normal BT service, horseshoe contests, etc. Chatting with the Olson family about the current warfare & life in Israel, was a highlight. After visiting relatives & churches who support them, they will return to their home & ministry in Jerusalem mid-August.

We started to catch up on watering our garden & lawn after folks left, but ended up flooding Esther's bedroom. I wish I could say this was the first time we've done that. Unfortunately it's become a habit! Thankfully Esther decided to go camping with her boyfriend & family after her return from Wildhorse Canyon. That gives us about a day to sop up the water & dry out the rug. We are not going to tackle any more projects until we've had a good night's sleep. Thankfully we finished picking the bumper crop of Bing cherries from our two trees the morning before the retreat started. Anyone want some free cherries?

Three good films - Thursday

Here are the three top recommendations for secular films worth seeing from pastors & other staff up at Camp Utmost last week: "Rabbit Proof Fence"
"Second-Hand Lions"
"Holes"

P.S. Here in August, we are renting these DVDs for 49c on Tuesdays. Louis & I laughed through our watching "Second-Hand Lions" & considered it one of the best films we have seen in a long time. The two men reminded us of some friends of ours. Yesterday, after my colonoscopy with the excision of a polyp, Louis rented the "Holes" DVD. I had been battling nausea and several episodes of emesis during the post-procedure period, so this wonderful film provided a great diversion. We can't wait to rent and see the "Rabbit Proof Fence" if it is as good as the other two.

Fire Season has arrived

Often God allows the starting of fires in later summer via lightning strikes in Montana. This year we are seeing the fire season start with a series of man caused fires. Monday I took our Yukon for some repair work in Hamilton. On the way home, I noticed a fire had started on a mountain side West of Victor. That fire is now partly contained. Since about 5 pm yesterday (Tuesday), we have been watching another forest fire NE of our home in the Upper Woodchuck area. It started at about 50 acres, increased to 350 acres last night due to a moderate wind and is now at 500 acres. Only a couple of homes have been burned, although 250 homes were evacuated last night. We have not been called yet. Now this evening, my friend, Janie, who lives close to Bass Creek campground and Larry Creek Canyon, called to say that a fire is raging in the Larry Creek area. Each of these fires was supposedly started by man. Everyone is hoping there is not an actual arsonist, but some careless accidents in a bone-dry environment. Esther called from Wildhorse Canyon Camp in Oregon where she & the Chidwicks are spending a week. It's 112 degrees F. there. They may see some similar fires if the weather continues to super-dry the forests and brush. We are praying & watering our acreage day & night. P.S. Thursday - the Woodchuck fire we are watching from our home has now burned over 700 acres. By the week-end, around 1000 acres was burned.

P.S. It's now August 16th, the Woodchuck fire is long over, PTL! The fire West of Victor still fills the sky with smoke. It's burned about 6000 acres now & is 60% contained. Many new fires in Montana have been started in the last couple of weeks by lightning. Most are now under control. Our weather remains hot & dry most days.

Camp was lively but our computer is dying

Camp Utmost was so fun this past week. Since several of the counselors were going rafting on Sunday afternoon along with RandyTurner, the activities director, I invited myself along. We had a wonderful float down a moderately quiet Blackfoot River with short stretches of rapids about the time we were getting bored. We were checking this stretch for use during the week with the 4th & 5th grade boys. The portion of the Blackfoot normally used had become too shallow with huge rocks sticking out everywhere in the river due to our extended weather in the 90's. We encountered numerous rocks too, but nothing that couldn't be avoided with good paddling. We even found a good swimming hole for the kids about half-way through the rafting course.

Once the 42 lively campers arrived on Monday morning, I had the fortune of "mothering" them until Friday afternoon. Tano and Ben Chidwick never had to visit my nursing station, many others did for splinter removal, cleansing & bandaging of abrasions, sore throats, etc. One asthmatic youngster became ill with the flu on the 3rd day. He spent the day up-chucking. His fever rose as high as 103 degrees F. before his family came to pick him up. Poor kid, he kept moaning that he didn't want to leave yet. He hadn't gotten to the rifle or archery ranges yet! There was a great spirit to the week. The 4th & 5th graders hadn't developed any "attitude" yet. Best of all, several campers came to know the Lord!

While I was at camp, Louis continued to have computer problems. He finally took our computer to "Computer Guys" for a diagnosis. Sigh, sigh... our mother board is dying. It's built in obsolescence. They think we may have a month or so left on our current computer. So, if you don't hear from me for awhile, it may be that I am without a computer.

Bound for Camp Utmost (with my vinegar)

After church tomorrow I will be driving back to Camp Utmost to be the Camp Nurse for the 4th & 5th grade boys' camp. Shortly after my last entry, I spent 3 days as nurse for the 7th graders. Camp nursing is an adventure... sometimes restful, sometimes stressful & tiring, but always interesting as I meet new campers & staff. I pray my way through the days that nothing happens that the Lord & I can not handle in my role. A sprained ankle was the worst that happened during my days with the 7th graders. I was still experimenting with drinking apple cider vinegar drinks to help my joint pain, so I brought the vinegar along. Guess what. It definitely helps arthritic conditions! Upon my return home, I have spent hours weeding in the garden & picking our raspberries. (Wish I could plant & harvest some of those apricot tasting ones Jeannie picked.) Louis & I also relished the preview concerts of the International
Choral Festival which Sherry spoke about in her blog. We treated the concerts as a free date. One of the best we've had so far! Too bad that this festival is held in Missoula only for a few days every three years. The hard seats were not a problem anymore than the gardening. Usually I pay for such activities with aching joints for days... I have slept like a baby and hardly feel a twing of discomfort. The vinegar is already packed in my bags again. I'll be back in a week or so. Then Esther leaves for WildHorse Canyon Camp with the Young Life group from the Bitterroot. PTL!!

Alpine Flowers

The tiny flowers we found everywhere among the rocks were so small they didn't photograph too well. They made the hiking above the tree line more interesting & colorful. We decided we were seeing "Spring" at the top of St. Mary's Peak although summer was starting to rule the plant life at lower elevations.

St. Mary's Peak Hike Photos

Judy loaned me her old digital camera with only 1.3 megapixels. Yet, that was better than no photos with my camera lost on our previous hike.

What to do on a 93 degree day...

What does one do on one of the hottest days of the year? It's Wednesday, so go hiking, of course! Even better, hike the highest peak around - St. Mary's Peak at 9351 feet above sea level. Judy & I did use our heads & started out extra early at 7:00 a.m. Our car climbed from the 3500' Bitterroot Valley floor to 6840' at the trailhead over 14 miles on a switch-backing dirt road in the Bitterroot National Forest. We saw blacktailed squirrels run across the road, as well as Lupine, Penstamen, Indian Paintbrush, Arnica, Yarrow & towards the top large, white blooms of Beargrass on each side of the road.

The moderately steep hike with numerous tree roots & rocks in the path, was divided into thirds by the landmarks. The steepest climbing was on the first 1 1/2 miles. Just before the grade changed from about 45% to 15-20%, we passed a spring guarded by an old corral. A couple wooden benches were nearby. Large flies ( horse or deer flies?) started to pester us as we hiked past stands of twisted Whitebark pine trees. We checked. They have 5 pine needles in each bundle.
When we entered the Selway Wilderness after 3 miles, we saw a chipmunk scamper across the trail & started seeing some snow banks up the slopes. The large flies left us. Instead, we were accompanied by a swarm of tiny darting flies. Judy, who talks more than I do, had 4 different flies zip into her mouth along the way. Two she was able to spit out. The other two she thought she swallowed. I had one try to enter my left ear. Through the trees we could glimpse a couple of small turquoise lakes. Gradually the trees shortened into scrub brush. As we climbed above the tree line, tiny alpine plants bloomed amongst the rocks & gravel. We arrived at the peak shortly after 11:00 a.m. Yellow Buttercups & miniature blue Forget-me-nots blanketed the hollows where snow had recently melted. We climbed the old look-out tower, where we sat down to eat our lunch & view primitive wilderness to the north, south & west. The manicured Bitterroot Valley lay far below us to the east. Near the peak was a huge basin ringed with large snow banks that were melting into ribbon waterfalls that we actually heard before we saw them. We could see some daredevil had skied down these banks several times! We marveled at God's creation & felt so grateful to be able to see everything from such an elevated perspective.

Modeling

I came across a Ghandi quote today: "You have to live what you want your children to learn." Dr. James Dobson said the same thing in the July 2006 Focus on the Family magazine: "Kids internalize our values when we model them." I am counting on the truth in these statements, along with many of God's promises.

Forgetfulness

The Hallelujah Hiker group consisted of Judy & me this week. We decided to return to Mill Creek to see the falls while there was still some snow runoff to make them more spectacular. The hike is 7-8 miles round-trip & great exercise with varied terrain. We still saw & smelled the wild roses that hugged the trail most of the way, along with the thimbleberry bushes & buckbrush. Patches of Indian Paintbrush took over near the falls, which was still in the thundering, roaring mode. We ate our packed lunches near the aquamarine pool at the foot of the falls. We prayed, sang, guessed wild flowers and trees & spoke of how forgetful we are starting to get at times now that we are in our later 50's. We then proved the truth of those statements. Judy left her purse in my car after the hike...coming back for it about 20 minutes after she left our home. Later, I found that the photos I took on my Sunday Lee Creek hike just beyond Lolo Hot Springs & this second Mill Creek hike were lost along with my digital camera. There were some other hikers Wednesday, so one of them probably found the camera. Sadly I had no identifying marks on it...just some great shots of blooming bear grass, bunch berries, the falls, etc.

Today is Louis's 59th birthday and our 34th wedding anniversary. I don't know if you can see the Hebrew on Louis's tie. Translated it reads: " I'm my beloved's & He is mine." (Taken from the Song of Solomon)

Next family wedding scheduled for September "06.

David & Carrie have scheduled their wedding for September 9th. They are both in Japan at the moment. Carrie is still working with the Japanese exchange program for English teachers, while David is continuing his usual computer job with Ross Perot's company...only working out of Japan rather than Montana. He wants to see how this arrangement will work. If it does, they will spend their first year of marriage in Japan continuing their present jobs. I think they are planning a Japanese wedding for all their new friends, as well as a Montana wedding for the relatives. Would any of you who read my blog be interested in the details of a Japanese wedding?

Teaching 6th graders is a challenge!!!

The week of VBS is complete. I survived teaching a room full of active, bright 6th graders. PTL! To tell the truth, they did keep me on my toes, yet I really enjoyed the challenge. I actually think that most of them listened enough to realize once again how much God loves them. They also learned some Hebrew & Greek words as we memorized the daily Scripture verses, reviewed some of Jesus's earliest miracles, adding some interesting facts & reinforced that new knowledge with a variety of fun games & crafts.

After Beth Tephila today, we drove Highway 93 at the tip-top of the speed limit to attend my nephew, Aaron's, wedding in Conner, Montana. The weather was perfect. Esther brought her boyfriend, Jessup, to the wedding and introduced him to many of her relatives. All went well. My nephew married into an interesting family. His new father-in-law is a scientist who works in Antartica much of the year. His mother-in-law is fighting cancer & winning at present. His wife is an identical twin. Her twin was the maid of honor. Except for the gorgeous cream-colored wedding gown versus dark blue gown of the maid of honor, I would have had a difficult time picking out which was Aaron's Anna & which was her sister, Ashley.

Mill Creek Hike

This past week's Wednesday hike was about 2 miles up Mill Creek Canyon before rain turned us back. We had planned hiking another mile up the canyon to a waterfalls. The dark clouds overhead were quite ominous as the raindrops began falling. We heard some thunder and felt the drenching of our pants as we pushed through the vegetation on either side of the trail. Thimbleberry, Wild rose & Buckbrush plants were thick along the path. A large forest fire raged through this area in 2000 leaving the soil fertile for the brush and smaller plants we saw blooming everywhere. However, it removed much of the tree canopy that would have shielded us from the sun or rain. Enormous rock cliffs rising on our right side spurred on our conversation about God often comparing Himself to "Tsur" - bedrock. This coming week I will be the teacher for the 6th graders at our Vacation Bible School. Our first day's memory verse is Isaiah 26:4. "Trust ye in the LORD forever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is your everlasting strength." In the original Hebrew this is a very emphatic verse since it doubles 3 main concepts. The idea of God as our "refuge", (found in "batach/trust or hide for refuge" & "tsur/cliff rock or refuge"but translated as "strength"), is the first concept. The second repeated idea of "ad/forever" & "olam/ just beyond the horizon, everlasting" speaks of our security in Him over time & beyond time. Lastly, God's personal name is repeated three times in this short verse. One of those times His name is abbreviated as "Yah" rather than the full "Yahweh/Jehovah" form. You can't miss that our triune God is the only source of secure refuge & strength over time & into eternity.

Senior photos - Sherry's Magic

Once again Sherry has worked her camera & computer magic so Esther could have a senior photo & announcement to mail to relatives & give out to friends.
Since she had prepared the day before, Sherry took fading light & minimal time and created these great photos for Esther. We are so very grateful to Sherry for her continuing friendship in action!

Apple Cider Vinegar cure-all

My mailbox is located about 1/4 of a mile down our lane. Today I walked with my two goldens to that mailbox & realized once again the aged condition of Tanna. Her back legs just don't function well anymore. She tends to walk in a sideways fashion with her hind legs, although her front legs are walking normally. If she tries to speed up, she tends to hop with the hind legs. Twice on our little walk her back legs just gave out on her. She sat a few seconds and started her typical forward-sideward movement. For 13 & 1/2 years, she's actually doing "ok". I've been reading about the health benefits of drinking a mixture of 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar, 1 tsp. raw honey or molasses and a cup of water once or twice a day. Perhaps I should add this mixture to Tanna's dry food instead of just plain warm water... It might be a good way to test some of the claims re. reversing arthritis, etc. Ginny, our other female golden who normally lives with Jan Hall, will be coming back on Saturday to stay for a few weeks. Jan will be attending the school for the blind again this summer. Ginny is 12&1/2 years old, so I may include her in the experiment, as well.

Shavuot - The Festival of Weeks

Shavuot starts at sunset this evening. This wheat harvest festival gets its name from the Hebrew word for "weeks", because it is celebrated 7 weeks or 50 days after Passover. It is one of the 3 pilgrimage festivals where the men of Israel were to travel to Jerusalem to formally worship at the temple. You may know this feast as Pentecost, the birthday of God's body of believers - the church - when the Holy Spirit came to indwell believers. (Acts 2:1...Pente" is the Greek for 50.) As well as rejoicing as the wheat crops were gathered in, Shavuot is traditionally celebrated as the day that God gave the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai to Moses for Israel. Many Jews gather the night before Shavuot for an all-night Torah study session called "tikkun leil Shavuot." If you manage to stay awake until the morning service, you would hear readings from the Ten Commandments and from the book of Ruth. This book describes the grain harvest in ancient days. Cheese cakes, honey cakes and other dairy foods are eaten to remember the Land of Israel as it was described as a "land flowing with milk and honey." Honey & milk are also symbols of Torah or "the Word".

Hallelujah Hikers

Our Wednesday hiking group has named ourselves the "Hallelujah Hikers" since we tend to break out in prayer, song or praise on our hikes. This week we hiked to Bear Creek Canyon Falls and then about 30 minutes beyond, as the hike was only 1 & 1/2 miles to the falls and we usually hike at least 4 miles round trip. We saw a couple more unknown plants in bloom like this bush with stems loaded with tiny pinkish or yellowish flowers with maroon centers. My friend, Laura, called the bush with the white blooms and interesting bark the "Nine Bark Plant". Montana Ash with their large white blooms were along the trail. They are more noticeable in the Fall when they have clumps of their orange or red berries until the CedarWaxWings come through and gobble them up. Because of a few mountain springs, there were ferns at places in this hike.

PTL!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow! We received Esther's official GED test scores today. She received more than a passing score in each test & has therefore earned her State of Montana High School Equivalency Diploma! We are so thankful she passed the GED tests on the first try. We are grateful for the hours of encouragement and help Sherry (& Andy) Chidwick invested in Esther so this result was more certain.

My favorite Spring hike

Last September I hiked Sweathouse Creek Canyon as far as the falls. This week some friends and I returned & found the canyon gloriously dressed in a multitude of flowering plants & trees, as well as cool with the spray from the roaring creek & falls on a warm day.

Sweathouse Creek Canyon

The Oregan Grape seemed to love the mist from the falls and boasted 4-5 blooms on each plant. The tiny Bluelips found the shade and most woody soil, as did the wild strawberry plants. The canyon's floor was littered with fallen older trees, but the youngsters were around as well. We again examined the flat needles of the fir, the multiple needles in a bundle on the soft Western Larch, and the different types of pines & their characteristics. The mixed pine & flower fragrances, the sound of the rushing creek or the thundering falls, & the glorious sites kept us wishing this hike would never end.