Sheep and other activities

I posted a low res video of our encounter with the Big Horn Sheep on Facebook. Here is a better resolution clip. I thought that it would be fun to share this.



We have been home from Glen Eyrie for about 10 days now and time has been hectic. There were many open activities we needed to deal with. Like new glasses, new license plates, bills to pay, and a doctor's visit. Tonight we are spending the night as chaperones for a group of high-schoolers from The Navajo nation, who are in Des Moines as guests of Lutheran Church of Hope. The are engaged in leadership training for the week. This is the second time we have invited a group like this to the Midwest; a long ways from New Mexico.

BigHorn Sheep

Usually I like to write about the places we visit and the activities we are involved with. But because I have blogged pretty extensively about Glen Eyrie, the Navigators, and the Pink House, I decided to mainly share some pictures of our surroundings.


Sunday we went on a nice hike with our daughter, son in law, and another volunteer. We especially wanted to see some scenic sights, so we took the “Echo Rock” trail and migrated up onto “the Scar” which is an old gravel harvesting area. There we encountered a large herd of Big Horn sheep. Of course we took very many pictures. I included a few for your enjoyment. Also some scenic views from the scar give a great shot of the “Castle” and the “Garden of the Gods” with Cheyenne Mountain in the background.

The Navigators

big horn sheep on our front lawn
We are here! One week has alreadygone by of our current month at Glen Eyrie, home of the Navigators.
We went from winter to summer.
Last week we had snow on Sunday and Monday, but now we had 70 degrees (F) on Saturday and 80 today!


We took a hike on Thursday also with beautiful weather. One of the places we hiked to was Dawson Trotman’s grave. He was the founder of the Navigators. The Navigators is a non-denominational Christian organization. Trotman wanted to share his knowledge of God with anyone who would listen. He worked regularly with military staff, starting in the Navy. He taught them to navigate through life, hence the name “Navigators.” The biblical basis for the teaching methods used is found in 2 Timothy, Chapter 2, verse 2. Trotman developed a memorization system using small card, simple booklets, and pamphlets. Such trained Navigators spread to college campuses after their military service, spreading the salvation message and learning system. The Navigators also provided counselor training and follow-up for the Billy Graham crusades. In 1953 the Navigators were able to purchase the property known as Glen Eyrie, here in Colorado Springs. The property contains National Headquarters and Nav-pres, the International Headquarters, the Glen Eyrie conference grounds, where we work, and Eagle Lake.
Eagle Lake is one of the reservoirs general Palmer built for water storage and is used as a summer camp for many youths. You can get much more information by going to the navigators web site. (www.navigators.org)



As I said earlier, we are the volunteers at the Pink House. We also manage the newly renovated “Eagles Nest” which contains 4 premium rooms, a great lounge, and a guest kitchen. I am being groomed to become a tour guide, which is a really fun job. It allows me to share the richness of this beautiful valley and the Creator, who allows us to enjoy it all.

We are preparing to travel to Colorado to again spend another month as Pink House hosts at Glen Eyrie.

I did some elaborate blogs on Glen Eyrie in October - December 2009 and also in May of 2010. You can find some nice pictures and a description of our duties there.



Spring is here , I guess. We had snow every weekend we were gone from here. When we were visiting our children in Missouri we has sleet and frost and had to scrape the ice of the windshield. During the visitation of Corrie’s mom in Michigan, we were exposed to cold weather with hail and sleet. When we visited our children in Minnesota last weekend, again we had sleet and ice to deal with.

I wonder what will happen when we get to Colorado this coming weekend; last year we did have snow here as well. Fortunately, we have missed the devastating storm which have caused so much havoc in many parts of the Midwest and even further east.

Easter was here. We celebrated Resurrection Day with thousands of other worshipers and again focused on the words of the apostle Paul: “...if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile;...”

Even Bertrand Russell (atheist) said: “Unless you assume a God, the question of life’s purpose is meaningless.”

Our life is meaningful !

SPRING?

I have been lax in keeping up with my blog. I could make excuses, but that does not alter the fact that it has been over one month since the last post. Some sickness, unexpected travel, an a funeral do take up a lot of time. While looking for spring we found more snow and after the funeral of my mother-in-law in Michigan Iowa welcomed us with summer-like weather.

Needless to say, we found a winery to ride to with our local children. As the dust of the last several weeks settles, we are preparing to go to Glen Eyrie again. We are looking forward to work there for the month of May.


Our trip to CEF in Missouri was cut short because of the passing of Mom Kasper. She reached the ripe old age of 94 years and three days. The farewell ceremony was officiated by the oldest grandson and was attended by a majority of the family which consists of 38 grandchildren and 86 great-grandchildren and 5 great-great-grandchildren. All eight of the still living children were there. These numbers do not include the spouses, just the blood-relatives. Life goes on. The youngest family member there was just 2 months old and another great-great-grandchild was expected “any day.”

Choices ?

Today I remember my dad’s birthday. He was born on February 28. I always wondered what it would have been like for those who were born on the 29th, they would only be able to celebrate their birthday every four years, on the actual date of their birth.

In a way I felt sorry for them; like they got cheated or something. But in reality, they could not help this any more than we can choose the family we all are born into.

None of us got to choose our parents; although some parents get to choose their children. ( I just re-read this, and found that I am using both past and present tense, but this helps to make the point.) There are very obvious choices we get to make, like who the parents of our children will be. Whom we associate with, whose advances we choose to ignore; as long as it is not one who has authority over us. Like flashing red lights behind you, you’d better not ignore those.

Some of life’s choices are made for us. Some seem to allow more freedom of our will than others and some of life’s realities are borne on choices we made earlier. Since we cannot manipulate time we need to make informed choices, whenever we can. We don’t have the luxury to change the past, but we can in some form affect our future. Of course there are many factors which we cannot control, or even influence.

I received a draft notice within the week after we were married. I had no choice to ignore this. I could have chosen to go to Canada, or Sweden, or maybe even go back to the old country, but I chose to obey the summons. Once in this situation, I had some control about what I wanted to do in the armed forces. I choose to be in the medical field, expecting hospital work and so avoid combat duties. But, I wound up as a combat medic in the infantry. I did my year in Viet-Nam and experienced the horrors of combat. But now, many years later I can get together with others from the company I served as a medic. We have a common bond, we can reminisce about our experiences. There is honor and pride, particularly about our Viet-Nam service.

I am not saying that one needs to make a choice to serve in combat, but believe it or not there are worse choices one can make. No one is guaranteed a trouble free life, a future free of hurt, or avoidance of the loneliness and pain of separation, irrespective of the choices he or she made. To try to choreograph you future is at best an exercise in futility. “Exercise” being the positive aspect of this. To become president you need to have made choices and sacrifices along the way, but even then there are many more “also ran” than those who actually won the race.

When I moved (emigrated) to the US, I did not envision myself to be a career military man, those choices were made for me. But, as opportunity arose to be a better medic, or get advanced training, I made informed choices. With hindsight, many of these choices were good.

We have enjoyed the retirement benefits of military service. We were able to retire at a younger age than many and travel and spent time in some places others dream about. We have friends and acquaintances all over the world, but we don’t have close, lifelong friends, who have always lived in the same area.


In spite of all our choices, good ones, or mistakes, there remains one truth: God remains the same. Just as I could not cause my birth, I could not cause my re-birth. God choose me, I am adopted into His family and ultimately the only choice I have, is to follow Him.

Mid Winter Thoughts (2)

Winter is waxing and waning. We live in the “Heartland” and as such have moderately severe winters. But we are south of Minnesota and that really makes a difference. It seems like most of the big storms missed our neck of the woods, at least partially. We have been spared the large amounts of snow. Fortunately, nothing like last year; when we had snow falling in foot amounts.
The news informs us that a lot of areas south of us are worse of with snowfall than we are.
So much for going south, this winter! We did stay in during the last blizzard, which came through here Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Got a lot of pictures edited and made collages of our trip-to-Holland pictures. Some of these pictures have been posted in the blogs of this fall. We are going to a midwinter tropical event tonight. The central Iowa wineries have a “Heart of Iowa Wine trail Event.” This event takes place in the warm environment of the Des Moines Botanical Center.

(I included a picture from last year.) An evening of fun and faux tropical environment in the middle of the winter in the middle of the country.