Category: Advent Series

Have you toweled off after our time in the river yesterday? Ready for another watery episode in our “Advent Adventure”? All campers faced a tough canoe trip downstream through 22 sets of rapids. Each dugout canoe that we used weighed from 500 to 1000 pounds and held half a dozen passengers plus camping gear. Our …

Welcome back to Chiapas, Mexico. We are about halfway through our “Advent Adventure.” The jungle river that swirled past our camp was a never-ending challenge in our training. We rode in huge 500-1000 pound dug-out canoes through rapids, we bathed at the river, we swam there too. One day, Judy had one foot on land …

Thank you for returning faithfully each day to join me here for this “Advent Adventure.” Not all the lessons God taught me at the jungle training camp were painful memories. After returning from that 50-mile hike, staff who had remained behind in camp met us as we trudged in at the gate. They handed us …

Welcome back to another episode in our “Advent Adventure.” Our first night at Naja was miserable. Torrents of rain poured down, soaking our sleeping bags and leaving us shivering in the cold. At last, we erected a plastic tarp where we could gather underneath and build a fire. Our local Tzeltal guides were as cold …

Have you ever been camping? Join our “Advent Adventure” today for another episode in learning to depend more fully on God. This year, my son John and his family bought their first tent. They went camping in a state park. They hiked to a nearby waterfall. That evening, the family sat around the fire and …

Are you enjoying our “Advent Adventure”? Why not invite a friend to join us in the jungles of Mexico? Swimming class was held down at the river, complicated by flood season and steep muddy riverbanks. One day, after class, my contact lens fell out. The whole group of girls helped me search for it but …

Welcome back for another episode in this “Advent Adventure.” During the first week of our jungle training camp, I was assigned to make breakfast for the entire crew of over fifty people. Little did I imagine how one of God’s angels would have to protect me that morning! At 4:00 a.m. I trudged to the …

Can you believe Christmas will soon be here? Thank you for taking time from your seasonal activities to join me here for another thought about this “Advent Adventure.” Once I arrived in our jungle training camp, communication with family and friends became much more complicated. Fifty years ago, there was no Wi-Fi or email. A …

At last, our “Advent Adventure” has taken us into Jungle Camp! Here’s a glimpse of my new home as described in a letter home. “Like a small Tzeltal village, camp is a series of mud-walled, dirt-floored, and thatch-roofed buildings. The largest one is the kitchen and dining room where we meet. Smaller huts are toilets …

Are you ready for take-off? Today’s “Advent Adventure” lifts us across the mountains and into Tzeltal country. Let me quote from my letter home that day: “I woke early, ready to fly out at a moment’s notice. Because we were among the last campers to arrive, we were also last on the flight priority list, …