Moses is dead

The Lord is beginning to speak directly to Joshua.

In Joshua 1:3, the Lord says to Joshua “ Wherever you set your foot, I have already given the land to you.” The emphasis on already is mine.

There is both a future and present promise encased in these words. Wherever implies not yet. Joshua and the people have not even crossed the Jordon! But the second part of the sentence is most striking; already.  A present promise.

This scripture appeared first on Saturday morning in a devotion I read every day. Today, the same scripture was in my bible reading.

I believe this scripture has great meaning for us, for JumpStart today. You see, the urgency Michael called us to last summer is rapidly taking on a life of its on. There is a feeling of purpose, of something larger than us. People are meeting and giving of themselves sacrificially.

Last week, our planning team met with Rob West, one of the directions of the Piedmont Women’s Center, at the sight of their new building. Piedmont Women’s Center ( PWC) is the CPC of Greenville County ( although in Rob’s eyes he said what Alexia is doing at CPC is the desire of all other similar programs!). Here is the GOD SIZE deal! A 2.2 million dollar building is being built for PWC led by FIVE General Contractors and dozens of sub-contractors who are managing themselves and donating ALL COST related to the building.  PWC will end up with a completely paid for and furnished building.

Rob told us money is flowing in ( they started essentially a building campaign a year ago) at such a rate they are having to get creative with what to do about the excess!!!. We witnessed a work of our Lord that left us almost speechless.

He shared with us the secret sauce (and it made me think of Alexia, again), prayer. For more than a year they all pause at noon on Thursday to pray. On the job site, each week a different church brings lunch and the whole work site comes together for prayer and a meal.

Our own prayer team led by Lisa is working on a similar plan right now.

Rob told us another story that really stuck with all of us. Rob lives next door to a peach orchard. Each year after the harvest, he asks the owner if he can pick what’s left behind with his grandsons. Rob said, “you know, I go in the peach orchard every year and hardly put a dent in what’s been left behind”.  Rob shared with us he feels this represents the provision available to God’s people.

We left this meeting and went to Dwayne's office. Dwayne is the Architect who is donating his time to create a vision of what can be for JumpStart’s Phase 2 village. 

While we have watched what began as a very simple idea develop into a fully functional campus for our phase 2 participants, the 4 of us present were completely in awe of what God is stirring. Not only has Dwayne dedicated and donated significant time to this vision, but Buddy of Roebuck builders is donating his time as project manager. A Civil Engineer and Landscape Architect have stepped forward to donate their time and expense. We even have someone willing to put down earnest money should suitable land be found. Also, someone has come forward to donate an artist rendering of the campus and site plan.

I share all of this with you for one purpose; to join me in celebrating what God is creating in our midst. 

I earnestly ask you join me in praying for this emerging endeavor. The ending of the Joshua story is sad. The Israelites only went 1/3 of the way the Lord promised them. They quit early.

Let our story be a story of fulfilling all our Lord has in store for us.

Yours in Christ,

Tommy

Prune your Plum tree

The Plum Tree                     

(This story is retold with permission)

Today was the last LifePlan review for a friend.  A LifePlan is a two-day, introspective look into where you are, where you’ve come from and where you must go based on your collective learning.

My experience as a LifePlanner has taught me the high value of ongoing coaching and accountability for those who complete the LifePlan process. At the recommendation of another LifePlan facilitator, I desire to stay in a coaching relationship for one year after the LifePlan. 

Today, I was holding the last review for a friend who’s LifePlan was exactly 1 year ago. When we were creating the LifePlan, he confessed, “Tommy I don’t know how to refuel; I simply can’t. I know it’s not scriptural to always be focused on work but I don’t know any other way.”

From experience, I know we are not designed for going without rest. More than just rest, we need to refuel. For me, it’s the mountains. I can’t explain it other than my batteries get fully charged when I spend time in the mountains. Many of my LifePlanners describe water or the ocean or simply time outside as their places of respite. Almost always, people will describe a need to be in nature or something similar as a means to find true re-creation.

I believe from my core we all need this time to truly find a means of balance in all domains of our lives. Pastors are particularly bad at this. Maybe that’s another blog.

Anyway, my friend told me a great story today.  As a result of our coaching call last quarter, he went outside and worked in his yard. He agreed to “practice” finding ways to refuel. One particular project was to prune a plum tree.  Today, in our review, he remembered he was to send me pics to prove he had done it (I had heard promises before and wanted proof!). In preparation for our review, he discovered the pics he had failed to send.  It made him smile inside and out. Yesterday, he and his wife sat in their back yard and admired the fruit of his labor from last fall. The plum tree he had pruned is loaded with a bumper crop of plums.

Today he said, “I think I found my refueling spot.”

Prune your plum tree.

Peace for your way,

T.

A Foothills Adventure

A Journey begins….

This idea was crazy from the start. Hike the Foothills trail start to finish, Table Rock to Oconee Start Park, without any real stops. A straight through non-stop hike. We planned for  10 min rests every hour and a 45-1 hour rest every 6-8 hours.

My friend, Erik Knutson, is an accomplished hiker and backpacker. He planned our food and water. Separately we planned our own gear. We expected it to be an adventure, just not the one it turned out to be…

The foothills trail is a great diverse hike. Beginning at Table Rock State Park it starts with what could only be ranked as strenuous. Your first destination is Pinnacle Mountain. It’s a 1800 ‘ climb in 4.4 miles. The Trail is great but that is 409 ‘ per mile climb is tough. Not straight up but pretty steep. Your calves know you aren’t on a stroll pretty quickly. The view from Pinnacle is breathtaking.

From Pinnacle the next stop is Sassafrass Mtn, SC’s highest point.  The trail after Pinnacle is pretty technical. Lots of boulders, small foot holds, and for us icy. There was a lot of moisture on the leaves and it had frozen over night. Not a place to try and make time.

I had been to Sassafras two other times, this was the first time it was perfectly clear. It was so bright I couldn’t get  a great picture. Sadly the top has been clear cut for a cell tower.  At this point we had been hiking 5 hours, covered 9 miles and total elevation gain of nearly 6000 ft.  All systems were go. We were breaking every hour for food and drink. Sassafras was a first stop longer than 10 minutes.  Our next destination was Eastotoe creek.  

We arrived at Eastotoe creek with some concern. We had not found suitable water since leaving Sassafras, which put us into conversation mode. Also, we had planned a stop around 6 for an extended rest. We needed to be near water when we stopped. No water, no stop. SO a couple of things are happening. We are behind in rest, nutrition and hydration. Oh, did I mention the temp is dropping? We’ve gone from a high of 61 on Pinnacle to a low of 45 at Eastotoe. Big drop. We worked so hard to collect food for fire, cook a dinner( quickly) and make any clothes, food adjustments, we spent nearly 2 hours and had not really rested. At 10 we are back on the trail.

Need to mention: The stars were unbelievable. We were hiking at the darkest point of the lunar calendar. We had to stop and just take in the view of so many stars with no surrounding lights to interfere.

My daughter Emily asked if there were any scary moments hiking in the dark. I wouldn’t call it scary but what we experienced did slow us considerably. The trails were almost completely covered due to the heavy leaf fall. We definitely relied heavily on the blaze marks. We did get off the trail a few times but were able to find our way back. Shout out to those who maintain the trails. As mentioned before, the ice forming in the leaf layers led to lots of slips.

We planned our next extended stop around 4 a.m. I had started feeling weak in my knees anytime we were doing a sharp descent, and on this trail, that’s often.  I told Erik I needed to rest before 4. The temp was in the low 30s.  We decided against a fire and would just try and sleep.  Erik was out immediately. No such luck for me. I was cramping in my right glute. I couldn’t get comfortable. We had each brought an emergency blanket for these quick rest.  These are the paper thin reflective survival type blankets. Strangely they worked great for our feet and legs but not our upper body. We think it had something to do with moisture.

So I didn’t sleep, we didn’t do a fire and we’ve been hiking almost non-stop for 16 hours and have had our second break.  We fuel up and take off.  My issues began within the hour. We were starting a seriously hard climb near Bear Creek when I just felt my legs were giving way. I was walking/climbing a few feet and stopping.  It’s hard to describe the feeling. My mind felt ok, I was cold but not terrible. I wasn’t breathing too hard but something was wrong.  I called out to Erik and told him  I needed to let my body rest. I ate and drank something and started again. Within a few minutes it was back.  I told Erik something was wrong.  At this time I didn’t know what it was but whatever it was wasn’t getting better and now worse Hypothermia was setting in.  I couldn’t stop shaking. It’s 6 am and the temp is around 30.  The thermometer we had wasn’t too precise so mid to high 20s is possible. I couldn’t work my fingers or think clearly. I just knew I was in trouble.  One thing Erik and I agreed on in our preparation was that most things that go wrong in these types of situations are from compounding bad decisions. Our agreement had been we would not let this happen. Ok, I know you’re saying “Hadn’t that already happened”, but that’s not my point.  Erik instructed me to really wrap up with my emergency blanket, drink what I could, and he would get a fire going. Once we had a nice fire, he made me drink coffee and made me oatmeal. We agreed to not move until I really felt better. I slept for about 20 minutes, drank an energy drink and fully began to feel better.

I think this is a good point to explain where things started going wrong. It’s hard to admit but I hope this is helpful to someone, certainly it has been helpful to me to reflect on what happened. 

The first bad decision was not to prepare for this trip like I would have prepared for a race or other similar high demand, high endurance activity. Friday am I ate a light breakfast with coffee. Later in the am while waiting on Erik to pick me up I had another cup of coffee. Once Erik arrived and we were on the road we stopped at Starbucks for another cup. Three cups of coffee with no other hydration. Bad decision number 1.

We were starting the hike about 1 hour later than planned due to a flat tire. The net effect was we were starting later in the day. It was already in the 50s. When you are wearing a 35 lb pack and hiking you begin to sweat profusely almost immediately ( remember 4 miles, 1800’ ).  We were stopping every hour to drink and eat but I know now it wasn’t enough. Erik, being the outdoorsman he is, had food and drink reachable on his pack while walking. I had food but no drink. It meant I either had to take my pack off or ask Erik to hand me one of my bottles. Not wanting to bother him, and being a guy, I would ignore that little voice that said “ I’m thirsty” and wait for the hour break. Bad decision number 2. Remember, they compound.

After the 6 am stop I came fully to terms with I wasn’t going to be able to make it. My issues had cost us valuable time. We need to average 2.5 miles per hour for 40 plus hours. We did it the first 15 hours.  

At this point the thinking turned toward getting out. If you look on a map the two highways, 178 and 107 are near the beginning and end of the trail.  That leaves the middle section without any real access. I believe it was providential that Erik hiked this section earlier and learned there was an access that isn’t shown on the Foothills Trail map. It’s the Frozen Creek Access for the Gorges State Park. Great news.  It was 5 miles from where we were and 1000 ft climb. Not great news. We contemplated me staying put while Erik got in touch with someone from one of the Forest Services.  Since the forest service isn’t a taxi service, we agreed the chain of events that choice would create was too embarrassing. Ok, so I decided we weren’t going that route.

As we climbed, we finally got cell service. I was able to place a call to Jared Ketterman. On Thursday evening, Jared called me and said “ I don’t care where you are, when you call or what you need. Call me and I’ll help”.  Wow. So I called Jared to pick us up, he had no idea where we were but said he would figure it out. We lost cell service almost immediately.  Erik went ahead of me as I was moving so slow so he could meet Jared. It was one of the greatest blessings of the whole trip.

Let me offer a special word of thanks to Jared for his unreserved offer of assistance. I can’t thank you enough. A special thanks to Erik who’s preparation and cool headed thinking kept a sticky situation from getting worse. Finally, a special thank you to Beth who puts up with all of my crazy undertakings.

This adventure came to an end but the journey continues….

General learnings from the trip:

·      Hydrate, hydrate and then hydrate more.

·      Even though we planned pretty thoroughly could have been better.

·      Know your way out, always.

·      On a long distance hike, weight really matters. I would do a better job keeping with down.

·      Better hiking clothes. Even though I had decent clothes, I really wish I had spent the money and had true technical clothes.

·      Plan your hike with some trial runs. Have your pack weighted the same as your longer trip.

·      Prepare your feet. I thought  I would wait until problems cropped up but should have taped up “hot spots” early.

·      Keep important items with easy access instead of having to take pack off to get things you’ll need often.

·      Descents kill. No suggestions here.

·      Got real tired of the pre-packaged foods. Dried foods are a great alternative.

·      Emergency blankets are not great for keeping warm. Just saying.

·      Foothills Trail.

§  Views from Pinnacle are spectacular 

§  Ascent and descent at the north end of Lake Jocassee are insane.

§  There are many excellent hikes get out and try one!