Posted on 24 September 2009 | 
Here three weeks in already and so much has happened its hard to relay all of what we have done.
In my first week it was very much about winding down doing stuff around home and chillin’. Dawn was at work for some of the days so I found things to do on my own. The next week it was all about getting ready for our great adventure. We had a day with Lucy then went to Ruth’s to see her before heading off to the airport. We had a terrific flight courtesy of BA and an on time arrival in Lois Angeles. Picked up our hire car (upgraded to a convertible) and set off to out friends in the suburbs. After a night with him our great trek around California was about to begin.
Our first objective was Death Valley through the southern deserts of the state. I cannot communicate nor can photo’s convey the awesome ferocity of the desert and the violence of the valley. We stood on an outcrop of land which stood vertically 1 mile above the valley floor in temperatures in excess of 100 degrees F. Looking down into a couldren of dried salt lake. I was reminded of the temptation of Jesus when he stood on a high place and all he could see was the depravity of man when the devil thought he was offering him the world.
Our second day took us to Yosemite park. Nothing can prepare you for the scale of the creation as portrayed in the mountains that you travel through and in whose arms you are drawn into the valley. We stood on Glacier Point looking down on the green trees that covered the floor of the valley and seemed to flow down the tributary valleys towards the main one. We passed by mountain lakes with water so crystal clear that in the air they glistened with a shimmer of light in the ever present sun. In a day we had moved from 250ft below sea level and a temperature of 106deg to an altitude of 9,500 ft and a temperature of 60deg!
Having had two days at Yosemite we moved on to Lake Tahoe. We used an agency to arrange our accommodation for the night. Little did we know at that time that it was a Casino! As the sun broke over the hills on the far side of the like it was impossible not to draw the comparison between the beauty of the creation of God and the obscenity that man had made out of steel and glass in order to extract money from willing customers at the “slots”; needless to say we resisted temptation.
Today we have been through Lasson Park an area of profound volcanic activity where there are still hot springs gurgling up from he centre of the earth and mountains pushed high into the skyline by the very forces of nature that our God put onto it. How great and mighty is He. I am not one of great artistic ability yet I have to say that I cannot imagine how anyone could not have been so moved having been on a journey such as we have done in the last 5 days that something must deeply stirring within.
We are spending the night in Redding and going to a pray meeting in the morning a the church of Bill Johnson who we saw speak at last years New Wine conference. Should be interesting! Then its a 3 hour run off to the Pacific coast. This is the part I have been so looking forward to yet I cannot imagine it can measure up to what we have already seen.
We have travelled in excess of 1000 miles already yet each turn in the road brings new excitement and expectation.
Unfortunately our bus trip from San Francisco has been cancelled because of lack of participants but we shall do our best to make whatever contacts we can make.
Be assure you are always in our pray and both Dawn and I have known the intimacy of the Lord through the wonder of His creation. and we hope we remain in yours.
