A Navy friendship, many years in prison, a beloved book found at the garbage dump, to sitting as a new Seventh-day Adventist listening to the son of that beloved book's author. God works in so many amazing ways!

I love being a father. My 7-year-old daughter Sarah is the joy of my life! At first it was hard, and I’ll admit, there were times when there were times when I didn’t know what I was doing.

The village of Falgunjoy is in East Satnala in the far northeastern Indian state of Tripura. A company of Seventh-day Adventist believers meet here, in the small frame house of one of the members. They have Bibles and a few hymn books, and they love to sing songs about Jesus and heaven. However, they had no musical instruments to guide the singing.

My first real memory of camp meeting in Oregon was through the service window of the Snack Shack. I was an awkward kid from the Midwest who had no idea what camp meeting was all about. But if you were at Gladstone in 1995, there’s a good chance I handed your Pronto Pups and Shamburgers to you through the window. I didn’t know much. Yet even through that tiny window into the camp meeting world, I could see the connection, the camaraderie, the joy that came from Gladstone Camp Meeting.

The small quiet town of Boring, Oregon, near the base of Mt. Hood, is home to DeVere and Cynthia Crawford who have been adopted by Betty the Chicken.

“Do what you say you are going to do.” This is a motto living in my mind every day. I’m realizing more and more that if I make plans to do something, even if those plans were just made in my mind and not said out loud, I feel obligated to follow through. If I don’t follow through I think of myself as “not good," a failure.

The poems began in 2003 when God gave Marcia the idea of writing a short poem, putting it on a postcard, and then mailing the postcards to each of the church members who were housebound and unable to attend church in person. “Even if I couldn’t visit everyone,” Marcia thought, “at least they would all have a note of encouragement.”

This past week I got to visit Big Lake Youth Camp. The old lodge made some good memories for thousands of us through the years, but it was so good to see the progress of the new lodge being built. Ross von Pohle, facility manager at Big Lake, gave me a tour.

A local friend, an experienced photographer with an uncanny sense of direction, promised me, “You can’t miss the perfect little muddy trail that leads down to Secret Beach on the Southern Oregon coast.” Three tries later I had proved him wrong. I could follow his good, detailed directions and still miss it.

I want to tell you a story about my friend Pat.

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