Wednesday, September 19, 2018

July 8-16 Grand Canyon Tour: Post #1 (July 8)


In July, I had the unique opportunity to spend 9 days in Arizona, 7 of which were floating down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.  I am grateful to Canyon Ministries for the invitation, and to the trip leaders (including Arizona River Runners!) for the absolutely outstanding experience.  I'd like to take the next little while to blog through the adventure.  Bite-sized chunks ... I hope you enjoy them.  All of the posts are transcribed from my hand-written journal that I kept while on the trip.  I tried to take time during lunch breaks, evening camps, and various other times to record thoughts and impressions - I'm presenting them here in unaltered and unvarnished fashion.  My first post will be quite short, just to get into the trip; some later posts will be quite lengthy.



July 8, 2018, 2:50PM MST
(my new Grand Canyon hat!  Clean now ...)


We are about midway through our flight from Oklahoma City to Phoenix, the first leg on this once-in-a-lifetime adventure in the Grand Canyon.  I will spend 7 days on the Colorado River, starting at Lees Ferry (mile 0) and ending about 190 miles later near the South Rim of the Canyon.  The river rafting is operated by Arizona River Runners, while the whole excursion is organized by Canyon Ministries, headed by Tom Vail in partnership with Answers in Genesis, a YEC (Young-Earth Creationism) educational ministry.
The tour has a dual purpose.  A) Adventure and awe – to be in one of the most majestic icons of God’s creation will be an awe-inspiring, worshipful week.  B) Education and worldview challenge – I will learn a great deal about geology, hydrology, and history, and will have my own OEC (Old-Earth Creationist) perspective challenged by the best evidence and reasoning that YEC has to offer.  On both counts, I consider myself tremendously blessed to be taking part. 
At the same time, it is difficult to leave Vanessa and the kids behind.  I already feel loneliness, missing my life partner and companion.  I don’t like missing days and weeks of my kids’ lives.  Even as they get older and less dependent, I still cherish each day that we have together.  I know that each day is a divine gift, not to be taken for granted.

I also feel guilt over the opportunity.  I get to experience this, but my family doesn’t.  Would that we could do it together!




1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing your journey with us. Looking forward to reading the coming posts....