The Road Trip - Bristol Motor Speedway

So in the last part of May we flew from Anchorage to Chicago and kicked off an 11 day road trip. In that time we cover 15 states and drove 3,235 miles. I don't know that I would do that trip again, and I don't think I've recommend it to others, but we had a great time. We got to see A LOT of country, traveling along the Appalachian Mountains.

The plan is to do a series of post sharing the pictures from the trip. It's going to be kinda random but hopefully you'll enjoy it. I think I'm going to start with our time at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Full Disclosure: A good chunk of the text below was copied & pasted from Wikipedia.

Bristol Motor Speedway is the 4th largest sports venue in America and the 8th largest in the world, housing up to 165,000 people. The track is so short that speeds here are far lower than is typical on most NASCAR oval tracks, but they are very fast compared to other short tracks due to the high banking.

 We took a $5 hour long track tour that was well worth the money. For part of the tour they stopped and let us walk up to the top of the bank. It's hard to see in the picture, but it is steep, measured at about 26 degrees.

The tour also took us up to the owner's suite. It was pretty impressive. The track is ringed with suites overlooking the track. Most of them are leased by large corporations and sponsors and offer the chance to watch the race in style.

Right now the infield is painted with football field grid. On October 14, 2013, after years of attempts to schedule a game, Virginia Tech, UT, and Bristol Motor Speedway announced plans for the game to be held on Saturday, September 10, 2016. Organizers envision attendance for the non-conference game, dubbed the Battle at Bristol, College Football's Biggest EVER, to draw 150,000 spectators, which would surpass the current NCAA record for highest single-game attendance.

 The track is so small that "Victory Lane" sits on the roof of one of buildings. We got to go up here and take some more pictures. With all of these pictures, you can click on them for a larger version.

Scout Ridge & The Palmer Hay Flats at Cottonwood Creek

In early March I took a couple of hours to walk around one of my favorite areas here in the Valley: the Palmer Hay Flats. The weather was perfect.... It was sunny & warm enough that I didn't need any heavy clothing. In the summer this area can be swampy, but in the winter the ground is completely frozen and great for walking on.

You can access this area by traveling down Fairview Loop and onto Hayfield Road. A map link is here....
Once your turn off of Hayfield road, you'll drive a short way down a narrow gravel road. There's an upper parking area for accessing Scout Ridge and then a hill down to the lower parking area for accessing the flats.

A recently installed pedestrian bridge provides easy access over Cottonwood Creek. In the summer, salmon swim up this stream on their way to the spawning grounds. Unfortunately at this point the stream is full of glacial silt and the fish would be hard to spot.

  On the other side of the bridge they've installed geotiles for a hundred yards or so... This provides for stable walking year round. If you are in the area and looking for some beautiful vistas, you can walk out a little way without your feet getting too wet.

High above the flats is Scout Ridge. A viewing platform provides the perfect place to sit and take in the scenery. It's easily reachable from the upper parking area.
So the next time you are looking for beautiful vistas, rugged mountains and everything that is Alaska, swing by the Cottonwood Creek access point. You won't regret it...

Servant or Slave?

This applies to so many things in life: marriage, jobs, relationships, getting healthy, etc. 

I got this from John Bevere's Bait of Satan curriculum and thought it was pretty good. 

A slave: has to. 

A servant: gets to. 

A slave: does the required minimum. 

A servant: does the maximum potential. 

A slave: forced to go 1 mile. 

A servant: choses to go 2 miles. 

(Matthew 5:41)

A slave: feels robbed. 

A servant: gives freely. 

A slave: fights for his rights. 

A servant: lays down his rights for the sake of others. 

Card tricks & Jesus....

When we think about "God-given talents" we usually think about singing or maybe preaching. In more recent years the church has begun to recognize more & more of the arts as being something that we can use to proclaim Christ to the world.
But what about card tricks? What some people might call magic tricks, what other might call slight of hand. Could God use that? Give this video clip a watch. It's from Central Christian Church in Henderson, Nevada. They partner with God Behind Bars to provide the video service that we use at Goose Creek Correctional Center on Friday nights. This clip is from this weeks service:

The young man is Josh Flom. You can check out his stuff here... He's got some good tricks. Give it a watch.

Prison Ministry... A Captivating Experience

It's been 9 months since I was in a meeting where Jim Duncan, the statewide Chaplaincy Coordinator for the Department of Corrections, made a call for volunteers for the newly opened Goose Creek Correctional Center. It's been 8 months since I first went out to Goose Creek and met some of the inmates. And it's been 7 months since I taught my first Financial Peace University class with 20 guys from the Faith Wing program at Goose Creek.

Last week I graduated my second class of guys. I've had about 35 guys complete the 12 weeks of Financial Peace University. And in two weeks I'll start my 3rd class with 22 new guys. I wasn't sure how Financial Peace would be received in prison... The guys aren't earning an income (unless they happen to have a job in prison, where they make 50¢ an hour) so there's nothing to budget. But the guys are loving it. The sign up sheet for my next class filled up within an hour of being posted. I've been told there are guys trying to get into the Faith Wing just so they can take my class.

But that's not all that I'm up to. I've also taught one 12 week session of the Bait of Satan from John Bevere. This curriculum teaches how to deal with bitterness and unforgiveness and how to handle being offended. Again, I wasn't sure how the course would be received, but the 20 guys that went through the first class were deeply impacted and my next class that will start in two weeks is also full.

But wait, there's more... In October I was part of launch of God Behind Bars at Goose Creek and now I am in charge of the Friday night service. God Behind Bars utilizes the video service from Central Christian church in Henderson, Nevada. We have around 80 guys from General Population that come each week for service. We have also launched a Sunday morning service for the guys that are in the pre-sentence/pretrial mods. You can watch a great video report on the impact God Behind Bars has had at Hiland Mountain Correctional Center here...

So it's amazing how much can happen in less than a year. I am so thankful that God has opened this opportunity for me. When I started I had no idea how all this would work out. Each inmate going through the Financial Peace class needs a $20 workbook. The prison does not provide any funding for the Faith Wing classes, so it was all on me. I put out a call for help on facebook and on this blog and with 26 hours I had all the money I needed for my first class. Enough was also given to cover my second class, this class I'm about to launch and two other classes I'll do in 2014. By the end of this year, almost 100 inmates will have gone through the class.

I'm still accepting donations for future classes at Goose Creek. If you'd like to support this financially, you can get the details here... But my biggest need right now is not financial. I need people. For the Friday night God Behind Bars service I'm out there by myself. And I'm doing my best to make a connection with as inmates as possible, but I'm just one person. I'm still looking for local individuals to come out and be a part. It's not complicated... It's just being there to talk with and pray with the inmates. It would be a perfect outreach opportunity for a men's group. There's a volunteer orientation class coming up soon for getting your volunteer card for DOC.

I want to say a HUGE thank you to all who have given towards my efforts at Goose Creek and thank you to all have prayed. And the guys I've been ministering to also wanted me to pass on their thanks. Often they feel like the world has tossed them away and forgotten about them. But they still matter to God and when their sentence is up they will rejoin society. I see their time in prison as a chance to bring the light and truth of the Gospel to them. We serve a God of second chances. He gave me a second chance, He gave you a second chance and these guys are doing their best to make something of their second chance.

Valdez Avalanche

The recent warm spell weakened the snow layers here in Alaska. In the narrow Keystone Canyon outside of Valdez, an massive avalanche buried the road under 100 feet of snow 1,000 feet long. The Lowe River has been blocked off and backed up into a lake where it used to be road.
Government officials and Valdez residents are worried about flash floods should the river break through the ice all at once and are monitoring the situation closely.
On a recent video posted to YouTube, you can see the destruction. At the 1:09 mark, you can see the water rushing into a tunnel. That tunnel is a partially completed railroad tunnel built in 1907 by the Guggenheim Syndicate. You can read more details about the colorful history (and a shoot out!!) here...

So here's the video of the avalanche. Again, the water entering the tunnel is evident at the 1:09 mark.

And here's a picture from a couple of years ago of me and my dad standing in that tunnel:

Your Life is a Result of What You Do...

I got this list from Dave's blog, who got it from here....

1.70% of wealthy eat less than 300 junk food calories per day. 97% of poor people eat more than 300 junk food calories per day.

2. 80% of wealthy are focused on accomplishing some single goal. Only 12% of the poor do this.

3. 76% of wealthy exercise aerobically four days a week. 23% of poor do this.

4. 63% of wealthy listen to audio books during commute to work vs. 5% of poor people.

5. 81% of wealthy maintain a to-do list vs. 19% of poor.

6. 63% of wealthy parents make their children read two or more non-fiction books a month vs. 3% of poor.

7. 70% of wealthy parents make their children volunteer 10 hours or more a month vs. 3% of poor.

8. 80% of wealthy make Happy Birthday calls vs. 11% of poor.

9. 67% of wealthy write down their goals vs. 17% of poor.

10. 88% of wealthy read 30 minutes or more each day for education or career reasons vs. 2% of poor.

11. 6% of wealthy say what’s on their mind vs. 69% of poor.

12. 79% of wealthy network five hours or more each month vs. 16% of poor.

13. 67% of wealthy watch one hour or less of TV every day vs. 23% of poor.

14. 6% of wealthy watch reality TV vs. 78% of poor.

15. 44% of wealthy wake up three hours before work starts vs. 3% of poor.

16. 74% of wealthy teach good daily success habits to their children vs. 1% of poor.

17. 84% of wealthy believe good habits create opportunity luck vs. 4% of poor.

18. 76% of wealthy believe bad habits create detrimental luck vs. 9% of poor.

19. 86% of wealthy believe in lifelong educational self-improvement vs. 5% of poor.

20. 86% of wealthy love to read vs. 26% of poor.

21. 23% of wealthy gamble vs. 52% of poor people gamble.

What are you thoughts?