Two new Missionary Talks episodes

Actually, one has been up for a little more than a week, but I was not able to blog about it at the time.

Missionary Talks episode 65 was a conversation I had with Jonathan Reed. Jonathan and his wife are going to a remote area in northern Brazil to work with an indigenous tribe on the Amazon River. They will be leaving in April and are excited about the ministry the Lord has led them into.

Episode 66 is an interview with Bob Ingram who works with soldiers at Ft. Benning, GA. Bob does a great job in describing what he and his wife try to accomplish with these men in the short time they are able to minister to them. He also talks about what we can do to help his ministry or other serviceman’s centers around the country.

I was able to interview both these men at a conference I was at a few weeks ago.

Alumni Week

This has been a week of getting together with old college friends.

Wednesday
We rescheduled a meeting a couple of weeks ago and were needing a place to pass a couple of days in Pennsylvania. I called Dave, a college friend, who pastors in the area we wanted to be in to see if he had a missionary house/apartment at his church. We had trouble making the connection. When I finally got in touch with him and confirmed that he had a place we could crash for a few days we were only 15 minutes from the church. Dave has been at the church for 9 years as the pastor. He allowed us a chance to put up our display table and let me preach his Wednesday night service.

Sunday AM
Knowing that I would be in Michigan for a couple of other meetings I called a friend from college who pastors near one of my scheduled meetings. Unfortunately Mike was going to be gone the weekend we had free, but he allowed us to be in his church and present our work. Mike has only been at this church about 9 months. We will be seeing him later this week as we drive back through the area headed south.

Sunday PM
One of the meetings in Michigan we were most excited about was with our friend Bruce. He has been in this church about 6 years but we got to know him best when he was an associate pastor in Florida. Bruce’s wife and my wife were suite-mates in college. Bruce and I had several classes together and many mutual friends. It was great sitting and talking with him and his family after church tonight. We ate some great pizza and reminisced for a couple of hours.

There was a time in our ministry when we seldom ran into guys from our college days who were pastoring churches. I guess as they get older they move from being youth pastors and associate pastors into the driver’s seat. I am excited as I think about the many more meetings we will have in the future with former college friends.

February Goals Report

Running
I was still trying to get my weekly mileage up during the month of February. I was making a slow comeback after my injuries in October and November. Finally things are headed the right direction. Even though I am still not consistently hitting my goal, I am not having any physical problems. It is now a matter of scheduling. I am getting that better under control too.

The goal is to run 1000 miles for the year which means 83.3 miles a month or 19.2 miles a week. In February I ran 66 miles with 2 weeks of hitting my goal. I should be able to make up the lost miles by the end of the year if I stay healthy.

Reading
My goal is 800 pages a month and I read 869.

The only significant book I read was The World is Flat. An interesting book on understanding how the global job market and economy are changing.

Recent Runs

Seven Sisters TrailI won’t bore you with all the details, but I have had some great runs, and some not so, recently. I started out last week trying hard to get a nice long trail run in.

Last Friday (a week ago) we were in Wytheville, VA near the Appalachian Trail. I was very excited about running 3 or 4 miles on the AT. When I went in search of it I was driving along I-77 which runs several hundred feet below the AT. The interstate goes through a tunnel under the AT which goes across the mountain ridge. I guess they figure someone walking the AT has more horse power to go over the mountain than a car.

I ended up on the Seven Sisters Trail near the AT. I was still hoping for a longish run, but knew quickly that my efforts would probably be thwarted as soon as I started up the trail. Up literally, not just figuratively. You only go a couple hundred yards on the trail before it becomes a climb. After running for 36 minutes I heard my GPS beep telling me that I just crossed another mile of my run. Assuming I had crossed the 3 mile mark, that meant a 12 minute mile which seemed reasonable based on the terrain. I finished the run in just over 50 minutes. I was a bit surprised to look at my GPS and find out that I had run less than 3 miles! Total distance and pace was 2.93 miles at 17:17 per mile.

Connellsville, PASaturday I tried again to do a good long trail run. By this time we were in Dunbar, PA just south of Pittsburgh. There is a Rails to Trails track from Pittsburgh to Washington DC that runs right through Dunbar. Or, so I thought. It runs close to Dunbar. I had my wife drive me to the closest point we could get to the trail. I was going to run down a dirt road and onto the rail bed. She left and within 3 minutes I was calling her to come get me. The road that my GPS showed would get me to the trail had signs down both sides saying that anyone who steps foot on that property would be shot and left to rot. Or something like that. She came and got me and I scrapped the run. I was limited on time anyway and it was probably just as well that I did not get to do it.

6 to 10 trailMy efforts were rewarded on Monday when I went to another spot on the same trail in Connellsville, PA. Instead of going towards Dunbar I ran towards Dickerson Run. It was a wonderful 9.2 mile run that was everything I had been hoping for in my previous attempts.

I ran out of town along a river. I saw a few people also running and walking when I started out, but after 10 minutes or so I was all alone on the trail for the rest of the run. Because it was a converted rail road track it was very flat. There was a gradual incline over the course of the run, but nothing dramatic. I had to cut the run a little shorter than I wanted because of time, but I really felt like it made up for the two previous failed attempts.

Then we were in Duncansville, PA on Wednesday where I did a very nice 3.73 mile run up the Allegheny Portage Railroad’s 6 to 10 Trail.

Today (Friday) in Jackson, MI I ran on the Falling Water Trail. I ran 4 miles on the very flat and straight paved trail. I love these old rail beds, but sometimes when you turn around after having run 2 miles and can see your car parked at the point where you started it makes that return trip seem to take forever.

One thing I have really enjoyed about running as we travel is that I can enjoy these different locations without getting bored of running the same path over and over.

Back in the land of Internet

For the last 2 weeks we have been without a consistent Internet connection. It has been rough, but we have managed to survive. I don’t know if we could have done it much longer though. That said, we are only going to be here for a few short days and then be on the road again.

One of my friends suggested that we hit a Starbucks to get Wi-Fi. I think there is a requirement that the town have more than a few hundred people before Starbucks will move in.

I have several posts in my head that I need to get on the blog now. But not tonight. If I started now I would never make it to bed. I will try to get a couple up tomorrow and the next day. I had wanted to get an itinerary up here so that as we traveled over the next several weeks we might be able to run into some college/facebook/twitter friends. I will try and get that posted tomorrow even though the trip is 1/3 over now.

Kids, don’t take your Internet connection for granted. That would be shameful.