The temperature on our van thermometer read cooler and cooler as we made the final ascent on Saturday, August 25 to Alpine, Colorado. It was about 58 degrees when we arrived at the 9,450 foot elevation of the family cabin where we would spend the next month. We filled our lungs with that crisp and dry mountain air. “Now this is Colorado!” I said to myself. The heat and humidity of this summer in Ohio were left behind. Then we began the process of unpacking the van and carrying our supplies up the stairs while breathing very heavily in the thin air of the high altitude. This would take some getting used to. But we have plenty of time to get acclimated.
We figured that we had driven around 2500 miles in 9 states since we left Pandora on Friday, August 17. It will be good to keep the van parked awhile or at least not make any extensive trips for awhile. (We will need to drive at least 32 miles round trip to Buena Vista to get Internet access at the public library to send this blog.)
We first drove to Cincinnati where we had tickets to watch the Reds and the Cubs play Friday night (The Reds won!) and the men’s semi finals of the Western and Southern professional tennis tournament on Saturday afternoon. (Djokovic and Federer won) Both of these were very exciting events but very different. More about that later. After the tennis on Saturday we drove on to Charleston, WV for night, heading for Harrisonburg, Virginia to leave off our daughter, Julia, for her senior year at Eastern Mennonite University. Sunday the 19th was a major driving day as we drove from Charleston to Harrisonburg and back to Columbus, Ohio. We spent less than three hours in Harrisonburg eating lunch and unpacking Julia and helping her get a few things arranged in her apartment before heading over the mountains on US 33 in West Virginia. Now Dianne and I were on our own again.
In Columbus we spent all day Monday and Tuesday and part of the day Wednesday under the guidance of a skilled counselor at Midwest Ministry Development. This was a very stimulating, encouraging and helpful time. After over 25 years in the pastoral ministry, I felt I needed a good tune up, oil change, and get the alignment checked. Our counselor was very experienced with pastors and the ruts they get into and asked very penetrating questions about all aspects of our lives and ministry. This gave us much to talk about on the long drive to Colorado and much to consider in the coming weeks. Then it was back to Pandora to pack up and take care of details for our time away.
Our destination on Friday the 24th was Dianne’s mother’s house in Newton, Kansas, a drive of 860 miles. Then Saturday we drove the final 550 miles to the cabin. Yesterday (Sunday) we attended the worship service at the little outdoor chapel here at Alpine. Worship services are held here in the summer months and have been for many years and we had attended numerous times over the last 25 years that we have been coming here. The speaker of the morning spoke about the spiritual aspect of fire mitigation. I don’t think I had ever heard the word “mitigation” before. It means making one’s property ready for the possibility of a wild fire that had been so destructive weeks earlier near Colorado Springs. Fire mitigation is taking actions like cutting trees too close to one’s buildings and cleaning up dry brush on one’s property that provide fuel for wild fires. He spoke of getting rid of the dead wood and brush in our lives that can interfere with our relationship with our Creator. This was especially poignant for the speaker as he lived near the Colorado Springs fire and was forced to evacuate for one day. The possibility of fire in a mountain community was very much a part of the mindset of the people here even though temperatures have moderated and the area around here has been receiving fairly regular rainfall recently. There are no fires burning in our area now and in fact, not much going on now in the whole state of Colorado. We met some people at the chapel that we had known from other visits and it was good to be a part of this Christian community in this majestic outdoor setting on our first Sunday in Colorado.
One news item: On Sunday, August 19, we found out that the Tabor Mennonite Church between Newton and Goessel, Kansas had overwhelming voted to extend a call to our son Philip to be their next pastor. He and his wife Mary will be moving from California and beginning his ministry the last week of September. They both graduated from Fresno Pacific Mennonite Brethren Seminary in May, Phil with a Master of Divinity and Mary with a Master’s degree in Counseling. While Philip will be full time with the church, Mary will continue doing her interpreting work for the deaf and looking for work in the counseling field.
Tabor Mennonite is in the same community that we were a part of when I was pastor at Alexanderwohl Mennonite church for 10 years form 1987-1997. It is an awesome and humbling thing for me to welcome my son as a colleague in the pastoral ministry. I never imagined that I would be able to attend his first sermon in his new church as pastor as we plan to do at the end of September. Pray for Philip and Mary as they settle in and begin their ministry.
Feel free to email us if you wish at my normal email gmc.dennis@bluffton.edu. We plan to go down and check our emails every 2 or 3 days.
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