We love being a part of the National Team for Celebrate Recovery. We get to meet people all over the world who are followers of Jesus Christ.  People who love to share the hope they have in Christ.

A few years ago, Mac and I decided to bring our oldest grandchild to one of the training events. Ever since then, as the other grandkids are getting older, we bring one or two of them to a conference occasionally.

Last week we were in Orlando teaching at a Celebrate Recovery training event. We took two of our grandsons, ages 12 and 10.  Johnny brought his son, 11.  And Marnie brought her daughter, 12. It was so sweet watching them interact together.

My eyes filled with happy tears having them with us to experience the amazing praise & worship we get to be a part of at each conference.  We are planting seeds in our grandchildren’s hearts; the desire to minister to the hurting, to help them find healing. 

They are the next generation of people who will be equipped to deal with life’s hurts, hang-ups and habits. Unlike many of us in our younger days, they will be prepared.

I have always prayed our children, and now grandchildren, won’t have the hurts we’ve had in our past. And they haven’t so far. But since we live in a broken world, they will have some kind of hurt living on this earth.  

I believe there will always be a need for Celebrate Recovery. Everyone is welcome. We say to come as you are.  All you have to do to qualify is to be human and identify that you, too, have a hurt, hang-up or habit. No perfect people allowed.

An added blessing for us: when we take a grandchild with us, after the seminar is over, we find something close by to make a fun memory together! This time we took them to Disneyworld. Our grandsons said it was a trip they will never forget. But the thing that took us back a little was when we asked their favorite memory of the trip, expecting them to say something about Disney, they said being with the other two other kids who came on the trip.

Our grandchildren are starting to get it.  It’s not about the rides. It’s all about relationships and who we take with us on the ride.

October 9, 2019:  Meteorologists predict snow for the mountains.  Mac stacked chopped wood on the deck, winterized the camper, drained all the garden hose bibs, removed the shade cloth over the garden and took the cats to the barn.

Afterwards, we decided to take a hike before the winter blast hit. It’s a beautiful drive towards Cripple Creek on Hwy 67.

We love getting to share the good news of Jesus across the globe for Celebrate Recovery. I have to say, though, the travel part of it isn’t so glamorous as some may think.

This year so far out of 80 flights we’ve had only 4 that weren’t delayed or cancelled. My heart skips a beat when we receive an alert that our flight is delayed or worse, cancelled.  Lost luggage.  Eating on the go.  Grumpy people.  Weather alerts.  News monitors everywhere proclaiming bad news. 

I reminded myself of the verse I had written down recently: “They do not fear bad news; they confidently trust the Lord to care for them.”  (Ps. 112:7 NLT) So what do you do? You can worry, get angry or pray and praise God. I choose the latter.

Then here we go again: Yesterday, 2 delays in Dallas. We finally made it home last night. I opened my suitcase. Everything was wet. I had packed a brand new large bottle of shampoo. I didn’t take the time while packing to pour some in a small bottle. In the high altitude, the top popped open!

I always take my own comfy pillow with me. It was soaked through. So I put the pillow in the washing machine along with the wet clothes. As I was wiping my suitcase down with multiple washcloths, I heard a loud banging.

Sounded like the washing machine was going to bust through the wall! Mac & I both ran to the laundry room. The washing machine was sideways from the imbalance in the washer.

We had just done a talk on Anger at the CR training event the day before. Both of us looked at each other and wanted to blame each other for something!  Blame stands for Be Lame. Instead, we admitted we both were tired. We needed to keep our mouths shut and go to bed. Tomorrow would be a new day.

I woke up this morning with a grateful, rested heart after a good night’s sleep. We are so blessed in what we get to do through Celebrate Recovery.

We got to share with 500+ people in South Carolina last weekend hearing story after story of changed lives. We wouldn’t know any of those people if God didn’t bring CR to our family. We wouldn’t know the Bakers, the National Team, State Reps, Broken Chains members or church leaders from all different denominations if not for God’s plan in each of our lives.

We don’t have to travel by ship or walk on a dusty road like our forever family did in Bible times. We also have technology to talk face to face, even though we live thousands of miles apart when we need to plan future events. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11 NIV)

I have to close with a funny memory while thinking about my drenched suitcase…at least my suitcase smelled good. 

Once we were traveling to Canada for CR. We told a friend, Marnie, how liquid smoke was good to splash on food on the grill. She had never heard of it. I wanted to surprise Marnie by bringing her 2 bottles to Canada.

My suitcase was jam-packed. So I told Mac I was putting the liquid smoke in his suitcase.  I didn’t think to put it in a Ziploc bag, oops!

When we were unpacking our suitcases at the Canadian hotel, you know the rest of the story, right?!! Mac’s suitcase, all the contents in it and our hotel room, smelled like a barbecue pit! We laughed all weekend calling Mac, “Smokey.”

Lesson learned: order liquid smoke through Amazon to send to a friend or use a Ziploc bag. Also, no matter what happens while traveling, we want to smell sweet to God and one another.
“Live your life with love, following the example of Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us. He was a sacrificial offering that smelled sweet to God.” (Ephesians 5:2 CEB)

I would like to tell you we summited Mt. Elbert, the tallest mountain in Colorado. However unexpected weather prevented it from happening. Mac checked the weather before we began our ascent at 5:00 a.m. It was supposed to be just partly cloudy. It started raining on us after the first hour. 

I started out full of joy thinking of all God’s creation we were going to see! People had told us ahead of time how wide the path was for Mt. Elbert, just a very long hike. 4 hours into the hike, my legs and shoulders started aching. At one point my left knee buckled for a moment. I looked ahead and realized we still had at least another hour to go using all the strength I had. I kept saying to myself, “One more step. Just one more step.”  I slipped and bruised my arm coming down hard on a rock. That hurt my feelings and I had to fight back tears.  

I remembered our daughter, Cherry, telling me a story about Rex, our youngest grandchild when he could barely talk.  He loved chocolate. He found a bag of chocolate and ate several. Cherry took the bag away. Rex kept begging, “One more cocklett (chocolate). Just one more cocklett.”  I laughed recalling that story. So I started telling myself, “Just one more cocklett” instead of “one more step.” Laughing about Rex helped give me more energy to keep going.

It was fun conversing with hikers along the way. One college student told us he was a soccer player and thought he could do this with no problem. He ended up turning around after the first 2 hours. He arrived in Denver just 36 hours before. Nope, his lungs were not acclimated for Mt. Elbert. Another guy was from Pennsylvania. His athletic shoes had no tread on them and he was walking out of the sides of them with no ankle support. He trudged on ahead of us. We never saw him again. I hope he made it back down safely. Another young couple turned around before us saying how bad it was ahead.  They said they weren’t prepared for this.

As we continued to climb to the top of the steep “false summit” the rain turned to snow and a cloud set on top of us which brought zero visibility and the rocks turned slick. We couldn’t see the trail anymore.  We talked about it for a minute and decided it would be wise for our safety to head back down. We took a picture in the clouds before we turned around. 

We were disappointed thinking how close were were to summit Mt. Elbert. As we descended a surgeon from Denver asked how bad it was up top. By this time the sun was peeking out of the clouds. We told him our experience but it could be better now. So he went for it. His wife was at the bottom of the steep part with their lab. The lab was whining because she wanted to go with her master. But he said no. He went alone while they waited.

Mac and I told each other that day was a win for us because we were on an adventure together. Afterwards we sat in a coffee house in Leadville being thankful we were warm and safe while eating homemade carrot cake and pecan pumpkin bread.

Last image is on Mac’s iPhone. I looked at mine later. I walked 12.2 miles and 29,511 steps. Mac takes big steps while I take little steps. :)

If you haven’t read our previous post, read it first for the back story.

4:00 am we were on the road to try again to hike the 14’ner Mt. Sherman. We were so excited and ready to do it!  The previous hike I wrote about, there were no markers so we hiked blindly by just looking for a trail that was worn from travel.  That hike didn’t turn out so well. We just found out recently we WERE on Mt. Sherman. But because the trail head was so hard to find and there were no markers, we were actually trying to go up the face of the mountain! Nobody but professionals should do that with proper gear with ropes!

This time there were some hikers getting out of their truck where we parked. We pointed to the mountain and asked if that was Mt. Sherman and which trail to start on. They had actually done the same thing as we did the week before. They went up the face of Mt. Sherman too! So they came back for round 2 as well!

I have to say Colorado hikers are so encouraging. Hikers ascending had the right of way. Hikers descending would pull over and say encouraging words as we continued on. They were shouting, “Way to go!  Have an awesome hike! It’s a beautiful day!” It was so cool this time as hikers stacked rocks to show the way! We added our own rocks along the way to the markers. I love my trekking poles and knee pads I use for CrossFit. My knees never hurt going up or down! And the trekking poles give more balance!

Beautiful wildflowers are still in bloom everywhere. The columbine, our state flower, was proudly blowing in the wind along the way.  Something interesting we saw:  10 feet tall old telephone poles that I guess were the first installed going across the mountain from Fairplay to Leadville years ago. I can’t even imagine how the workers were able to get the poles in that rock solid ground on the side of a steep mountain!

My backpack wasn’t so heavy starting out. But after much climbing, I stopped. While leaning on a boulder and breathing in oxygen, I told Mac I didn’t know if I was going to make it. He said we could go down if I needed to. I really did want to summit. I looked up and saw we were only halfway there. I prayed and said I want to make it.

Mac said he would carry my backpack. He would do whatever it took for me to be able to summit. He is a strong man! He reminded me to keep my eyes on his steps so I wouldn’t stumble on loose rocks when the path got tricky.

Our conversations consisted of, “This is good!  This is not good.  Whoa, this is scary!  Wow, this is beautiful!”

I decided to not look up or look down. Looking up seemed insurmountable where we were headed. Looking down made me dizzy and want to go back where my security was.

We got to where we thought was the summit and discovered it was a “false summit!” We couldn’t believe it! We hadn’t even seen the worst and steepest part yet!

At one point on the narrow part of the saddle between two peaks, the wind was blowing it felt like 50-60 mph. We were hanging onto boulders to keep from getting blown off the mountain. At this point we were going really slow and staying low inching across.

Oh, but the view when we stood at the top….I wanted to cry happy tears! First,  for making it to the summit. Second, we saw such majestic beauty surrounding us with mountains upon mountains. It was totally serene up there with the wind blowing just a soft breeze on top!  There were other people already there and we all hollered in celebration we made it! I see why people love to hike mountains!

We walked around and took pictures while talking to other hikers. Soon we noticed a huge cloud hovering over the top that continued to grow darker. So everybody started their descent. Then the wind kicked in and it was fiercer than before! I was praying and trusting God would keep us safe. I would do my part to the best of my abilities to be safe.

Before descending I thought with gravity in our favor, it was going to be a piece of cake! I forgot we would be using different muscles going back down. ¾ of the way down, my body was getting weak. I had to really pay attention to not trip. I fell hard once as my foot slipped on the scree! I looked down to see where the car was. When I saw the tiny speck of our car, it seemed so far away. At this point I realized it wasn’t going to be a piece of cake just skipping down the mountain!

I quit looking at the destination and put my eyes back on what the next step was in front of me.  Before I knew it we were at the bottom! Well, after a few more hours of boulder hopping, rock choosing and scree sliding!

I told Mac in the car on the way home in a soft southern tone, “That will be the first and last of my 14’ner hikes.  It’s like snow skiing. I don’t ski “Black” runs anymore. Blue & Green runs for me! I like to slow down a bit and enjoy the view. I love to hike to waterfalls and camp overnight in the national forest. But hanging onto the side of a mountain cliff trying to keep from being thrown off….no more!

Mac said, “Don’t make any hasty decisions. You’re just tired right now.” Makes me think of when family ask right after you have a baby and you’re in pain, “When are you going to have another one? How many more are you going to have?”  Hah!

The next morning I wrote this in my journal: I’m not telling Mac this yet but I may hike another mountain.  Just not for a while.  I’m smiling and shaking my head in wonder of what all we experienced in that 7-hour journey on Mt. Sherman.

All great journeys come with a cost.  This one was hard work and made our bodies really sore. But after a good night’s sleep I felt exhilarated.  I’m amazed remembering all we experienced.

We left the house at 4:00 am to hike the 14er (14,000+ elevation) Mt. Sherman. What a sight to see; gold and silver mines in Leadville that have been abandoned over the past 100 years. There are no markers for the trails. We hiked over 13,000 ft. like mountain goats. We walked past old mine shafts as far up as we hiked! How in the world did they build those shafts so high up?! We saw square-head nails and 4-sided nuts around the shafts. Mac said blacksmiths made the nails back in the pioneer days.

As we ascended sometimes our feet would slip on the trail where it was narrow and steep with loose rocks. We kept low and slow while placing our hands on secure rocks. When we made it to almost 13, 000 feet thick clouds started rolling in and a huge rock slide covered the last steepest part. We decided it was too dangerous. As we turned around, the view was absolutely stunning!  

On our way back down, Mac said 10 times: “The is the last of the worst part.” Every time he said that, my heart skipped a beat realizing we had to go back through some tough stuff! So Mac would tell me to keep my eyes on his feet and step where he stepped. That really helped to slow my breathing down and not look down at where we still had to go. Through the scary parts, as I would choose the rock to place my hand on to take the next step, I thanked God for that strong and secure rock. He kept us safe all the way back down.

As we got back in the Jeep and looked back at the mountain we had traveled, we shook our heads in amazement at the majesty of those mountains. Then we headed to Buena Vista to K’s Dairy for a hamburger and hot fudge sundae to celebrate our adventure.

We told our son, Heath, how surprised we were how difficult the trail was. After he saw our pictures, he said, “You hiked up Mt. Sheridan instead of Mt. Sherman!” Lesson learned: we need to do more research and talk to those who’ve gone before us before attempting again. I know one thing is for sure; another climb is in our future to try to summit Mt. Sherman.

I love when each new season begins. It’s a new beginning of hope and wonder. I was so excited for summer and it whizzed by! Now kids are back in school and another season is here. I love hearing about their new schedules, new subjects to learn, new teachers, new schools, new memory making ahead with old friends along with making new friends.

I’m giving this verse to our grandkids to store up in their hearts: “Don’t worry about anything. Talk to God about everything. Thank him for what you have. Ask him for what you need.” (Philip. 4:6)

I’m praying this over our family:
Lord, I commit our grandchildren into your loving and safe arms and I pray forth your perfect will over their life. Draw out of them every seed you planted in their soul before time began (1 Corinthians 3:7). Mold them into everything you designed them to be. Lead us clearly, Father, into your plans and purposes and reveal to our family according to Amos 3:7. I ask you to protect them, to put a guard around their heart, and help them to hear your voice clearly and obey Your Word.

As our grandchildren go back to school, I ask you to help them to be a light in their school (Matthew 5:14). Go with them and reveal yourself to everyone through them. Anoint our grandchildren’s minds for their schoolwork and give them wisdom (Proverbs 2:6) and favor (Proverbs 3:4) in their school. I ask, Lord, that you would grow their spirit as you grow their intellect.

Lord, I pray that you would place our grandchildren in the right classroom with the right teacher(s) and classmates for this season in their lives. 

Draw the right friends to them that you selected long ago and help them to minister to each other. (Ecclesiastes 4:10) Speak to our grandchildren’s hearts and give them the strength to stand their ground when they are fighting for truth. Help them to be a voice of truth and justice and give them the courage to honor you even when it’s unpopular. Draw our grandchildren’s hearts to the hearts of the outcast, heartbroken and lonely. Give them compassion and tenderness towards those who could use a good friend. (Psalm 82:3)

Lord, even though it is hard for us sometimes to see our grandchildren struggle, I trust that you are in the midst of it and you are using everything for their good—to mold and shape them—to sharpen them— to groom them to be successful in your plans for them. (Romans 8:28)

Help their parents, Heath & Carmen, Josh & Cherry, Jacob & Callie to trust you completely. Reveal your plans to them so that they can be a helpful guide to our grandchildren. In faith I know that you are showing them how to parent each of their children and how to pray for them. I thank you for having your hand on each member in our family. (Psalm 37:23) I thank you for your never-ending love and mercy. 
In Jesus’ precious and mighty name I pray. Amen.

adapted from:   https://www.createapeacefulhome.com/prayer/back-school-prayer-pray-kids/

*The picture begins with Caroline, our oldest grandchild starting a new adventure moving to Dallas to dance school. And ends with our youngest grandchild, Rex, starting Kindergarten standing proudly with the principal of his school 

We survived the snow apocalypse. Yesterday, Mac snowplowed for 8 hours digging us out and helping others. Many times the snow prediction misses us. And then other times we get twice as much. We thought we were going to wake up to a fresh white blanket of snow on March 13, 2019. There was no snow in sight. Then within the hour, soft snow starting falling. Then the bomb cyclone began.

I was so worried every time Mac would go outside to check on things. Our generator was acting up. The electricity kept flickering. I would look out the window for him but visibility was zero. I would open the door and call his name. But the snow was blowing so hard there’s no way he could hear me. I wouldn’t hear from him for a couple of hours at a time.

Our neighbor who lives about 4 miles from us knocked on our door. He wanted to surprise us by plowing our driveway. His truck had slid off the driveway and was stuck. After Mac pulled him out, we told him to go home immediately! This was not a normal snowstorm.  

Mac decided to go to the barn to get on his tractor and do a snowplow run to stay ahead of the storm. His truck slid off the road and became stuck. So he came in and we watched as the storm developed on TV News11 Live updates.

We were hearing stories of hundreds of people stranded. A trooper was killed while he was helping a stranded person. Another car went out of control on the snow and hit him. Another person was climbing The Incline. It took a team of 18 first responders to rescue him. Our poodle, Monroe, was even scared to go outside. He would go to the door, but when he heard the wind and the snow hit his face, he turned around and came back in quickly. It was insanity outside!

Our neighbor’s wife called around 6:00 pm saying her husband wasn’t home yet.  She went out looking for him and got their vehicle stuck and had to walk back home in the blizzard. I said, “What?!!! He left our house at noontime, he should be home!!!” I called 911 for her. I worried nobody could get to our neighbor before dark. What if he ran off the road again and was knocked out?

At this same time, Mac was in his Jeep going to the barn to try to get the tractor out again. I didn’t know it but the Jeep got stuck and the 4wheeler was stuck in high drifts of snow. Mac was trudging through hip deep snow to get back home.  I went outside with Monroe to see if we could find Mac. We both sank hip deep!  I felt helpless not knowing what to do!

When Mac came back in the house, I told him what happened to our neighbor. Mac turned around and went right back out to go try to find him.  It was going to be dark in 30 minutes. The snow cyclone was relentless. Now I was worried about Mac leaving with darkness coming. My worry escalated to thinking of me being left all alone in the house in this storm while Mac may get stuck somewhere in the freezing dark forest. And I couldn’t even imagine what happened to our neighbor!

As Mac was preparing to leave, I called his wife back to tell her Mac was on the way to try to find her husband. She said with excitement: He just walked in the door!!!  In the whiteout, he had turned on the wrong forest road going back home.  His truck got stuck again. He started walking in the blizzard. He didn’t have on snow boots. He had no phone, water or food.

All of a sudden he realized he had turned on the wrong road! He backtracked walking and finally made it back to the main forest road. It took him 6 hours to walk home! He is blessed to be alive!

I never heard of a bomb cyclone before March 13^th.  I’m thankful it’s a new day!

#snowapocalypse, #bombogenesis, #bombcyclone, #bombcyclone2019

Recently, Mac & I were enjoying a beautiful day yesterday skiing all over Breckenridge mountain. All of a sudden things changed:

We were on Peak 7 heading to a TexMex place for lunch skiing a Blue Run called Phoenix. I was gathering some speed where it was straight down. I was going to make an S turn to slow down. My downhill ski caught my other ski.

My feet flew up in the air. I turned a flip and landed on the back of my helmet & neck. My legs were hurting because one leg was turned backwards over the other. So I sat up to try to take my skis off to straighten my legs back out.

I couldn’t unbuckle my skis from the pain in my neck. So I laid back down crying in pain. Mac was already at the ski lift and didn’t know what happened wondering where I was.

A skier (angel from Houston) stopped to help me. She got my skis off & called 911. Then she found my phone in my coat pocket to call Mac. My whole body couldn’t stop shaking. I couldn’t move my head from the excruciating pain.

I lay in the snow for 45 mins while paramedics assessed my situation. Mac talked to the paramedic in charge and she said for him to stay put because they would be coming down that way. The ski patrol put skis up in an “X” to warn people to stay away.

I asked if it was going to hurt my head riding down mountain on the back of a sled. She said, Ma’am: We’re going to do the best we can to keep you comfortable but you are on the side of a mountain up in the alpines. :)

Mac said there were 3 “red coats paramedics” and 7 “yellow coats safety patrol” bringing me down the mountain on a sled wrapped up like a burrito. Then Mac got on one of the snowmobiles with one of the safety patrol to ride the rest of the way down the mountain with us. They took me to a medical facility, thoroughly checked me out and then said it was imperative I be taken to the hospital in the next town, Frisco.

During the ambulance ride the pain was so severe that they tried to get IV in for pain meds but I was dehydrated and the needle refused to go in. So they gave me nasal spray of Fentanyl. I know why people get addicted to that now. It took the pain away immediately & I quit shaking. At hospital they gave me more pain meds.

I called the ER nurse, Houdini, as she was able to get my 2 shirts off without moving my head. Doc assessed I didn’t break my neck because my legs & arms could move and weren’t tingling. But they said I may have fractures in my neck or scapula. I lay flat in a neck collar until the cat scan was read. There were emergencies all around us in the ER. Intercom saying things like “Trauma Team stat to Room 4.” I was thankful they weren’t having to come to my room.

Cat scan revealed no concussion and no broke bones! Cervical muscle strain; I can deal with that! Prescribed pain meds and Doc said I will be good to travel tomorrow to Austin for the conference. I believe I would not be here today if I had not had my helmet on.

I can’t sing praises enough to the Breck Staff, Ambulance Paramedics & Summit Medical Center. They were all amazing and I thank God for each one of them that attended to me. Thank you!!!

Mac said after we knew I was going to be ok: Life is never boring with you, Mary. 

Mac gave me this verse as we keep thanking God: “But you, God, shield me on all sides. You ground my feet. You lift my head high.” (Psalm 3:3)