Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Day 82... Heading South

Brothers and Sisters in Christ!
It has been an interesting few days since I last blogged. Since that time, I have been through Yellowstone National Park and saw some amazing things from waterfalls and canyons to Elk and Bison to Geysers and mountains and lakes. It was an awesome stay and of course, one with many pictures. Last night, I camped next to the Grand Tetons and this morning drove along side of them taking pictures in the morning light. It is crazy how much the landscape changes in this section of the country and how diverse Yellowstone is. Truly a beautiful place!

Now, the weather has been somewhat disagree-able. The first day in Yellowstone, I think the high was somewhere between 37 and 44 and it was windy, cloudy and I even drove through a few snowflakes. Crazy! The past two nights of camping, one in Yellowstone and the other by the Tetons, it has dropped below freezing. I was forced to dip into the bottom of the saddlebag where my thick pants and coat were for some proper sleeping attire. This morning, when I stuck my head out of the cacoon of my sleeping bag, the thermometer said 22 degrees, but I think it was lying to me because right after that, when I started moving and stuff, it jumped up to 30. So, either way, it was between 22 and 30 in the tent. Hopefully, it warms up a little.

Have any of you heard of Bahi? Yesteray, I was having supper and a man drove up in a van and set up camp across from me. He came over and we talked for a while and he seemed nice enough. Well, I decided that I needed to talk with him more, so I prayed that God would grant me success in gathering enough firewood for a couple hour fire and after much cracking and smacking and chopping, I had a good size stack of wood. An invitation was extended and he came over. I was set on bringing up religion at some point in the evening, but as usual, God led him to that topic. He said that he was a part of a religion called Bahi and they basically believe in the validity of all religions, except that they claim to have a religion higher up on the totem pole, so to speak. He acknowledged Moses and Jesus and Buddah and Mohammad and Joseph Smith as all men sent by God to speak to the church in certain contexts. I could describe their beliefs further, but I want to read more about it myself.

Basically, we sat there talking about varying beliefs and he kept trying to make it sound like it fit with Christianity and the Lord would just give me parables of Jesus and teachings of the prophets and Jesus to shoot that down. Basically, I tried to tell him the gospel in comparison to what he was saying to me. It was a great discussion and he was a super nice guy, but as with other things, I can't see the impact that our conversation had on him. He didn't back down at all and I just pray that the Holy Spirit moves in his heart.

This morning, he invited me over for some oak meal, so that was good as well. It was nice to get something hot in me and have a little more time to talk with him. Over the past few days, there have been several encounters with people, not on the religious level, but where I had nice conversations with them and these three instances, God used to show me, again, the goals I had when I left. So, please pray that God continues to challenge me and also pray for the man I met last night.

I hope to be home in about 2 weeks and I can't wait to see and talk with you all once again! God bless you!

Tim

By the way, I am in Jackson, WY and heading for Salt Lake City, then Arches National Park and then Denver.

1 comment:

Kim K. said...

Tim,
I bet your MN family and friends can't wait to lay eyes on you again!
BTW, I know you've been roughing it, but "oak meal"? That sounds like real MAN FOOD.
We keep praying.

Kim