In my four-plus decades of ministry, I haven’t had many opportunities to go on missions trips. My first experience, 22 years ago, took my wife and me on a two-week visit to Singapore and Malaysia. I had the opportunity to speak about 20 times to families and young people at…
October 1992 marked our first autumn living in Vermont. Up to that point, the farthest east I had been is Washington, D.C., and no farther north than Cooks Forest State Park in western Pennsylvania. But as the leaves began to change in late September and peak in early October, we…
My wife’s work as an Administrative Assistant for the Reformed Baptist Network requires her to attend the annual General Assembly. This year it was held in Riverside, California. Aw, shucks! Now, we couldn’t fly all the way to California and spend just the three days required for the conference, now,…
In our year-long quest to fulfill the “365 Hiker’s Challenge”—hiking 365 miles in 12 months—my wife and I look for hiking trails near our home. Within an hour’s drive is ideal. Most of our hikes are along the nearby Rock River Trail or Hennepin Canal Trail—we access both just a…
The stereotypical Thanksgiving celebration in America involves people—a lot of people. That’s why Thanksgiving weekend is the busiest travel season of the year—even more so than Christmas! So the vintage scene includes a large table overflowing with food with people seated all around. Through the years, many of our Thanksgiving…
I live in river country. A few blocks from our house flows the Rock River, coming down from the north and emptying into the Mississippi River about 40 miles away. My wife and I frequently walk a path that looks over the Rock. If we head the other direction, the…
When life hands you a bunch of lemons, make lemonade!” So goes the old adage. In the last several installments of the Pastor’s Page (if you missed them, begin here), I shared the experience of our (my sister and I) foiled attempt to hike Vermont’s Long Trail—that 273-mile journey up…
Due to the unexpected pole incident (read about it here, if you missed it), my sister and I found ourselves at the Green Mountain House a couple of days earlier than our initial reservation. The host graciously made room for us. The Green Mountain House Hostel is a way station…
After years of dreaming, months of planning, miles of driving, and an almost 4-mile climb up the Pine Cobble Trail, I finally stood in front of the iconic “Welcome to the Vermont Long Trail” sign. (If you missed last week’s beginning of this adventure, you can read it here: The…
If at first you don’t succeed, then try and fail again! Well, that’s not how the saying goes, but that’s what Phillip Vasto did. Mr. Vasto hails from Brooklyn, New York, but on a recent trip to Arizona, he decided to climb a mountain near Flagstaff. Most of us think…
