Last Year

On this day last year I was at a Snow Boat Party, amongst other wild and crazy things. 

Because that’s what you do in Montana in the Spring.

Donchya know.

Who Put the Colours in the Rainbow?

Who put the colours in the rainbow?

Who put the salt into the sea?

Who put cold into the snowflake? 

Who made you and me?

Who put the hump upon the camel?

Who put the neck on the
giraffe?

Who put the tail upon the monkey?

Who made hyenas laugh?

Who made whales and snails and quails?

Who made dogs and hogs and frogs?

Who made rats and bats and cats?

Who made everything?

Who put the gold into the sunshine?

Who put the sparkle in the stars?

Who put the silver in the moonlight? ?

Who made Earth and Mars

Who put the scent into the roses?

Who taught the honey bee to dance?

Who put the tree inside the acorn?

It surely can't be chance!

Who made seas and leaves and trees?

Who made snow and winds that
blow?

Who made streams and rivers flow?

GOD MADE ALL OF THESE!

Because I am in awe…

as much now as I was one year ago, I thought I would post these pictures of the Beartooth Highway, connecting Cooke City to Red Lodge, MT. 

They were taken June 12, 2012.

Mind boggling, eh?

Montana Part 1

There’s simply no way to summarize the last three weeks of my life.  Good.  Great. Wonderful.  No word seems sufficient.  And I feel like I’m a better photographer than a writer these days (why I’m doing a PhD I have no idea) so this post is going to be one of photos.  Photos of faces in places. 

COOKE CITY

I spent a small sufficient amount of time up in the mountains playing in the snow.  The days were warm, sometimes reaching mid-50’s in the afternoon, and the skies were clear, making for sticky snow and plenty of sunshine.  It took me a couple of days to adjust back to the altitude, but once I did I was back in business.  We snowmobiled, snowboarded, snow tubed, built snowmen, and had snow bonfires.  Life was as perfect as if in a snow globe.  Here’s just a taste…

Lisa and Jeff.  Doing what they do best… or not.

“The Boys” – Miles (dog), Matt and Mark (Stella and Silas)

I played “soccer mom” - Cooke City style, of course.

Betty and Suzy trying not to fall in the fire!

I just met this guy for the first time.  He’s quite comical.  Especially when he does this on his first time on a snowboard since 8th grade.  The next picture would be his face kissing the snow.  That’s enough to give you a guess of what words he was shouting right about now.  Quite comical indeed.

We did a little fishing too.  Well, we attempted anyway.  Jeff seems to catch them only when he’s alone we’re there early enough.  Here he’s taking us to Rock Island Lake, which is outside of the wilderness boundary, meaning that we snowmobiled to the boundary and then had to snowshoe or ski in to the lake. 

Jeff leading in the troops, with Jerry trying desperately to keep up.  

He’s getting old(er), dontch ya know?

And then there was the Snow Boat Party.  It was 50+ degrees, full sun, and remarkably no wind, making for the perfect day for a boat party.  We pushed the boat out of the garage, cranked the tunes, set up corn hole, lit the fire, set the table and enjoyed the springtime afternoon.

Jerry, the tune master.

Mary, trying to break up some of the ice on the driveway to make room for corn hole!

Dale and Jason trying their hands at the good game.  Does it look like springtime to you?

Oh, Keith.  What can I say?  He makes me smile, AND he’s the best BBQ master in “North Tweener,” without a doubt... especially in the winter!    

Miles, Donna, Mary, Hannah, and Charissa all took a snowshoe trip to Bridal Falls during the party.  I hate to say it, but I was definitely getting tired at this point in the week and decided to stay back.  Someone had to supervise the boys, right?

Earlier in the week we took a Cat Trip to the Boiling River in Yellowstone.  What a riot.  I’m still recovering…

CRANDALL

The adventures didn’t end when I made that snowmobile trip back over the pass and into Wyoming.  Sheri, Bertie and I found ourselves on 4-wheelers, snowshoes, on hikes, and all over the place.

It was warmer there with A LOT less snow.  But, oh, it was good.

What these pictures do not summarize are the great conversations I had with all of them over puzzles, cards, and games, on walks, around fires, on job sites, in groomers, over meals, at the bar and everywhere else.  These people mean the world to me.  

I will love them as their friend and pastor for the rest of my life.  One thing is for sure:  They have not seen the last of me. 

Stay tuned for Montana Part 2 and Minnesota…

Also, there are more “scenic” pictures on the photo blog.  Just click on Magic through the Lens at the top of this page and then on the blog link.

on this day last year

Over the last few years I’ve kept a log of the highlights of each day.  The highlights are always represented by one or two word reminders either pregnant with meaning, such as “Scotland!” (implying leaving for Scotland!) or “Easter Bunny” (implying that the Easter Bunny came to Cooke!) or to one or two word reminders lacking all sense of meaning, true magic-in-the-mundane words, like “moose,” “Bible study prep,” “shoveled,” which remind me of everything and, at the same time, nothing.

Over the last few months I’ve stopped doing this (at least every day) for some reason; perhaps because they would all say, “sat and read.”  Yahoo. 

On my log for last year on President’s Weekend is written “Hawkfest” and “Lulu Fire.” If I wrote a log for today, it would say “FIRST SNOW!” (for 1.5 minutes!).  Both are very pregnant reminders that not only was my world then very different than anything I had ever known, but that it is very different from the world I now know, which is also very different from anything I have ever known.  You do not find these scenes in Scotland, nor do you find (some) Scottish scenes in Montana.  Both are different; both are good.  

Some of Cooke City’s finest here.

Snowhawks are one-ski snowmobiles.

I am making this picture huge hoping that you can get a sense for the fact that this bonfire was not your typical bonfire.  This one was Montana Style.  It is the same fire as the one pictured above, but had been burning and expanding for a good 4-5 hours.  By the time the earthen grasses started appearing at the bottom, the depth of the snow was about 8ft.  Just imagine the person in the upper-left corner of the picture placed in the pit, or it being filled with beer or coffee cans like those in the corner.  How many beer cans does it take to fill a Montana Winter Mountain Bonfire Pit?  The world may never know… 

I still want to be transported back. I haven’t transitioned completely, and I doubt that (on some level) I ever will.

In 3.5 weeks I’ll be back in Cooke.  I will miss Presidents Weekend and Hawkfest, Hog Roast and Sweet Corn Fest this winter, but the snow will be there, Oh-will-the-snow-be-there!, as will the mountains, the animals, the snowmobiles, the buildings, the church, and most importantly, the people.

3.5 Weeks…

The Advent of Spring

The advent of spring for you...

You've rejoiced at the disappearance of the snow, the revealing of the grass, the budding of the trees and blooming of the flowers. 

Your snow shovel is tucked nicely away in your garage and you've lost track of where you last placed your ice scraper.

You've walked the streets of your town in tennis shoes, a light jacket, and maybe even without a jacket.

You've stepped over puddles, washed your car of its mud splattered panels, and dashed from car to building through the rain.

Your shoveling muscles haven't been worked in weeks.

I'm glad for you.  Really, I am. 

But, I assure you, I had no pity on you when you complained in February about "all the snow you've had" this year and all the shoveling you had to do.  I did not feel bad for you when you received a foot of snow in the middle of March... a foot of snow that simply covered for a few days the already appearing blades of green grass.  In my head I thought, "you have no idea."  

Was I being cold hearted?  Possibly.  But you really did have no idea how good you had it.  And now have it.

As for me, it's a good thing I like winter and I like shoveling; because as it stands, I have shoveled about 25 feet of snow this winter and currently there is 5.5 feet (at a minimum) of hard-packed snow in my front yard with winter being nowhere close to finished. 

Forgotten what that white stuff looks like?  Be reminded by these pictures I took today, April 8...

 



So you can tell these pictures aren't deceiving you with perception.

And now look out your window at that beautiful brownish-greenish grass, and be thankful.  Be thankful that spring where you live truly does mean spring.  And say a prayer for me.

Ponderings

Yesterday was a pretty depressing day.  I was informed by St. Andrews that one of the relatively helpful scholarship schemes I had applied for was no longer being given out.  That leaves a total of three scholarships given out by the University of St. Andrews to three New Testament/Divinity students.  Three.  I am one of many.  How many,  I don't know, but many.  My chances of getting one of these three are slim.  Granted, my chances of getting into St. Andrews was slim and then being assigned to N. T. Wright was next to impossible, but still... I'm not confident that I will be chosen as one of these three scholarship recipients. 

I try not to think much about the decision awaiting me.  At this point, I don't have a clue what I should do.  What if Edinburgh offers me money and St. Andrews doesn't?  Do I do my PhD at Edinburgh for that reason and give up the honor of my career of working with Wright?  How much money is too much to borrow in student loans?  What is the wise thing to do and how great of a risk should I take?

What I need is an increased faith.  Faith that helps me to trust that God has brought me this far - he won't simply let me drift away now.  He has surprised me so many times in this process already... and the surprises might not be over. 

Hopefully I'll know in 2-4 weeks where my life is headed. 

On another note, here are a few random pictures from the last few weeks up here.  I went snowboarding for the first time ever, well... at least I went down the hill ten times or so.  Mind you, it's not a resort hill, so it took all of 20 seconds to go down, which is why I tried to draw it out a bit by spending so much time on the ground every twenty feet or so.  On two runs I made it down without falling and the rest were pretty major flops.  I'm excited to try it again!

Preparing to go for my first run!

Oh ya!

Jeff coming out of his house.  Completely buried.  When he shovels his roof now, he throws the snow UP!

There is nothing goofy happening with the perspective here... the snow banks really are THAT big!



A Wild West Snow Tour

My dad and brother were here this past week, primarily because they missed me and felt an overwhelming need to spend time with me, and seconarily because they wanted to snowmobile in the mountains and with me here they had free housing and guiding. I'm sure that's how it was.

They were here for only a short time, two full days, both of which were spent in the mountains behind Cooke City on their rented snowmobiles, tooling around and practicing they moves. While the snow they had was good at times and just okay at other times, the weather was unbeatable. Cool, crisp, no wind, no snow falling, clouds thick enough just to block the intensity of the sun and allow for fabulous snow landscape photography. Foolishly, I only had my camera with me for one afternoon, but it was enough to capture them in their element. Besides, that way I focused on playing and practicing my moves all the other times rather than focusing on capturing their moves. It gave me a chance to show them how it's done and then send them off on their own to practice. :)

The trip was short, but sweet. No injuries to report, other than to my dads windshield when he rolled the sled down a hill. It comes with the territory.