Thank you for all of your prayers - we needed ‘em. Three feet of snow over the past few days. Bad driving conditions. Avalanches. Oh how fun.

It actually turned into a mini-adventure of faith. I was gaming to return home this afternoon from a 3 day staff conference. With a youth retreat last weekend and now this conference, I haven’t been around my family for a week. I wanted to get home. So the conference ends at noon, I grab Jessica (my trusty office staff), we toss our stuff in the van and head out of there.

On our way, we get word that the mountain pass has closed. A trucker ran off the road and the pass will be closed till 1:30 pm. We drive the van to a near by diner and chill drinking coffee for a while. Then word comes that an avalanche happened and the pass is now set to open 6pm. So we wait.

In a few hours, word comes that the pass has been plowed and it should open around 5. We get our van in line and wait some more. Then a police officer tells us that chains are required. So I get out and start to look at the directions for how to put the chains on (hey, I’m a southern boy and have never had a reason to use ‘em). Evidently, the 30 seconds I was taking was far to long and a Texan, from the car behind us, comes over and decides to help us put on our snow chains. Note: never let a Texan put snow chains on your vehicle. If a Georgian can’t do it, a Texan is just as far off. People who come from warm climates are ill equipped to deal with anything involving snow.

The pass then opens half an hour later and we start to drive. Driving with chains is not a quiet endeavor. I’ve never driven with a jack hammer, but it sounds about the same. Within a moment or two, it gets quiet on one side of the car. We had lost a chain. But, there’s so much traffic and the snow banks are so loaded that there’s no where to stop or turn around. Ahh, God bless Texas.

So we decide to brave it with one good tire. The roads had been plowed, but the snow was falling so fast, the roads were piling up again. It’s quite fun to drive with one snow tire, let me tell ya. But in the end all we needed was one good tire.

I’m just so glad to be done with the snow for a while. I’m home now and thanks again for your prayers.

I’m sick and haven’t really had time to process the scope of our trip. I’ll write more in days to come, but for now I will say that it was amazing. It was better than anything I expected. God is good.

Here’s a taste of the trip:

The whole crew

Making an igloo.

The igloo is almost done.

Some people like to tube in the snow, we prefer rafting.

Hot Chocolate in the Snow Kitchen.

YD Stonewater Ranch

I’d appreciate your prayers for myself and most of the YD staff driving to our staff conference at Stonewater Ranch today. Yes, I was just there 2 days ago, but the snow has been dumping ever since. Being a southern boy, I don’t take kindly to driving in compacted snow and ice.  Above is the picture of Stevens pass - I’ll be going through there in a couple of hours, so keep me in your prayers! Be back in town Thursday.

I was tagged by Kevin Bussey to participate in the following exercise in self-disclosure.

1. Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random facts about yourself.
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.

Seven Facts About Me

1. I crave change and adventure, but often wonder what the heck I’m getting myself into
2. I love good conversation, but rarely find it (outside my blog, home or office)
3. As I eat better, I’m losing my tolerance to consume processed foods
4. One of my best friends, I’ve only hung out 3 times with in person the rest of our relationship revolves around phone and email conversations
5. I’m so over winter right now
6. My wife is the coolest (and hottest) person I’ve ever met
7. I hang out with a group of youth pastors who are all going to do a whole body cleanse together (the colon and the works…)

I’m tagging Joe Martino, Mud Puppy, Brian Kirk, Jessica Maher, Erica Martino, Kristina, Grahame, Jerome

This morning I woke up to Aida yelling, “It’s a blistered!” Then James came in our room and was telling me it snowed. I shook it off thinking that they must have been mistaken. Last night, I arrived home after a weekend youth retreat in the snow. There was no snow in sight. I brought with me a cooler full of snow for the kids to play with. They played on the porch and tossed the snow around. So when I heard that it was snowing, I shrugged it off.

Then I got up, opened the blinds and saw our backyard with 4 inches of snow covering the ground. Evidently, I can’t escape the snow…

Here are some pictures from this morning.