Being an outdoorsman, I submitted an article I wrote in 2012 for consideration to outdoor magazines. Fur Fish and Game picked it up as the cover story of their June, (2012) magazine. The article was about an encounter I had with an especially large and aggressive grizzly in Alaska. It will always be in the top ten favorite memories for my life. If you want to read it (nothing to do with church security), you can buy the Fur Fish & Game, June 2012 edition at http://furfishgame.com/store/product275.html for $4.00. I named the article, “Old Friends in Alaska”, as it was my friend from Kindergarten I was hunting with. John and I have enjoyed outdoor adventure together for almost 60 years. While the FFG editors made very few revisions, the ones they did make were a total misrepresentation of me. First, they renamed it, “The Big Bad Bear”. That sounds like…
2022 October
A good friend carries Galatians 6:9 as the signature line of his emails. A year ago, when I got an email from him, he had no idea how much I needed that reminder at that moment. Consider the entire quote of Paul when he wrote that line in his letter to the Galatians, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Paul knew struggles and he knew that we too would know struggles. Struggles are different for different people. Our struggles change with the seasons and situations in our life. It could be marriage, raising children or grandchildren, health, finishing a book or leading a company, community or country. I often think of David in the 12th chapter of 2nd Samuel. In that passage he faces the reality that his son would die as a…
On the plane home to Kansas, I was going over the memorial service I had just attended for Dan Bourne (Albuquerque, NM Calvary Chapel security operator). Looking out the window, a song came to mind that just didn’t seem right. One line in that song said, “The best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep.” Church security wasn’t something Dan Bourne did because it was the latest catchy, cool thing. He lived his life as a responsible defender. I met his oldest daughter (Jamie) and her family. Dan had put Jamie into Martial Arts training when she was 4-years-old. He wanted her to be ready to defend herself in the evil world he understood. Dan’s first job was in the Coast Guard. After the Coast Guard it was the Bernalillo County Fire Department. Though retiring in 2008 as a Battalion Commander, he was always known to…