Old News (May 2-20, 2010)

I wrote this in May before I left for Turkey and never got around to posting it. So, just in case you are interested, here it is:

Monday back at work was super busy since I left on Tuesday for another conference in Cheyenne, Wyoming. I spent Tuesday through Friday there at a really nice resort. It was a great conference with lots of great speakers. One even talked about all of the dangerous chemicals we are exposed to on a daily basis through plastics, flame retardents, dangerous contaminants in water/fish, and more. He linked a lot of these to the feminizing of male species (seen in many animals...such as male and female parts of frogs) due to increasing estrogen levels. Even more reasons to go organic! Friday I flew back to Great Falls, MT where I met up with Emily and Shannon and drove to Helena where we did a trail run (I did the 30k and they did the 12k). I was thinking it would be pretty easy since it was only 18.8 miles, but apparently a trail run in Montana means running up and over mountains. I ran up and over at least 5 mountain peaks. It took me just under 3 hours to finish the race. It was super difficult, but very beautiful and a lot of fun. Another thing that through me off were the "mile markers." In most races these indicate what mile you are on. So, when I saw the 16 marker I thought I only had a few miles left and so I charged the down hill sections full of switchbacks passing several runners and thinking "wow, I'm making really good time!" Then we hit an open road and I saw the 18 sign so I picked it up even more and blew past more runners who all said "great job!" Then I saw some cars, people and tables with cups of liquids and figured it must be the finish even though it looked small. I started drinking with a couple other runners and then they took off down through the fence as the volunteers said the trail is that way. I figured maybe their markers were off and we had another mile or so. We hit a narrow steep trail and the other runners turned to me letting me pass and saying "lead on!" thinking I had tons of energy. After passing the 19 and 20 signs I started to think something was wrong and asked a guy next to me if the signs were in Kilometers. They were! That means we were only 2/3 done and had another 6 miles. We had already been running for 2 hours. Turns out that was the last aid station. The rest of the way was rough since we still had a lot more climbing and I was running on empty. I had only eaten 2 eggs, an orange, and a couple bites of healthy banana bread. So, I finished the race at just under 3 hours with drinking only 3 cups of fluid. So, for the next hour I just ate, drank, and stretched.


Sunday was Emily's farewell ceremony at the church. Everyone said their goodbye's to her and prayed for her before her trip to Papa New Guinea. I met Heidi's brother, Levi at church and then ate lunch with their family and helped cooked for their mom since it was Mother's Day. After lunch Levi, Heidi, and I went to a gymnastic recital to watch the daughter of the music minister perform. Next I went for a bike ride and found some sweet dirt trails that I rode on for about an hour on my mountain bike until I saw a guy playing soccer and joined him for an hour. His name was Preston and he played for the high school team. He invited me to come practice with the team, so on Tuesday I took him up on his offer and had a blast practicing with the team and doing sprints and push-ups with them. A few of us even stayed for about an hour after the practice ended to take shots on the goal. I ran straight from there to Emily's going away party with a few families she is close to. It was a great day and I will miss Emily. She has been a great friend and I am very happy for her and proud of her for leaving everything here to serve the Lord in Papa New Guinea.

From Istanbul to Ephesus and back… by bicycle

In Turkey

We were a team of 4 guys from across the US with an idea some people thought was a little crazy—to cycle from Istanbul to the ancient Biblical city of Ephesus and back, a total of 700 miles, in less than two weeks. It was a charity bike ride raising money for a church that helps poor refugees in Istanbul . The trip meant a great reason to slowly work our way through parts of the country that seldom, if ever, see foreign visitors. We flew in, bringing our bikes with us, and after a couple days in Istanbul to recover from jet-lag and visit the church we were helping, we set off. We also had a guy living in Istanbul come along as the driver for the support vehicle and Turkish speaker for the group.

We made our way slowly, going about 50-90 miles per day, stopping in a different little town each night, staying in small, family operated guest-houses or hostels. We tried to stay off the main roads by riding on country roads, or as they call them in Turkey , ‘village roads.’ This, as the name implies, means that we went through hundreds and hundreds of off-the- beaten-path towns and villages, some of which have probably never had a foreign visitor before. Usually when foreigners show up in these sorts of places in Turkey , the local residents are somewhat suspicious of why you are there. But seeing a group of weird looking cyclist all decked out in spandex and matching jerseys bike through (which might as well have been aliens, as far as some villagers were concerned) almost immediately changed suspicion to curiosity.

We were able to stop in most every little town and village and talk to the guys hanging out in the square. We gave them little brochures which explained in Turkish what we were doing and why—because Jesus asked His followers to help the poor and needy—and at the bottom cited James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.” We met a lot of wonderful people, people whom God loves, and made some friends whom our friends in Istanbul plan on keeping in contact with and visiting in the near future. Best thing about the entire trip was being able to hand out 3 Turkish Bibles to people who have never read the New Testament before.