JITrekking: An update on our Sojourns so far and Revisiting our Honeymoon

Irene and I were married in September of 1980 and one of the places that we went on our honeymoon was to Yosemite National Park. (The first time I had gone there was in 1978 to help Bill Johnson record the sessions as part of his WCJ Enterprises. The church used to hold what was called "Yosemite Family Encampment" there. Bill had the contract to record it for a number of years. I helped gather the original masters and then Don Ossman would use those to create a duplication master and duplicate them. I then placed the labels on the copies for sale to anyone that requested them). So, Irene and I went there on our honeymoon so she could see its beauty.

This year one of the sojourns we signed up to lead was the Yosemite Bible Camp Sojourn. Yosemite Bible Camp (YBC) is just outside of Oakhurst on CA-41, which is called the South Yosemite Highway. It was started in 1957 as a camp that individual churches of Christ could rent at which they could hold VBSes, church retreats, summer camps, etc. We got to YBC on Friday morning and set up our rig. Unfortunately we got a little to close to a Douglas Fir tree and broke the Drivers Side Mirror off. OUCH!! They say you don't learn a lesson RVing unless it costs you at LEAST $500. Well, this is apparently TWO lessons worth then. The new mirror is being shipped to us from Tiffin Motorhomes in Red Bay, AL even as we speak.

Just to fill you in on our 2 earlier sojourns - the first at the Port Lavaca Church of Christ in Port Lavaca, Texas and the second at the Imperial Highway church of Christ in Downey, California. They were quite successful.

In Port Lavaca we preached a Meeting on Some of the "Hot Button Issues" of the day: Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage, Homosexuality, Abortion and the Christian and Civil Government. David Johnson and I split the preaching duties of the gospel meeting. We didn't choose these topics. They were selected by some in the congregation.

We also had a congregational Lectureship there where I taught three lessons on reaching out to those around us with the Gospel message. As a result of all of these efforts one man was baptized into Christ.

At the Imperial Highway Church of Christ the Gospel meeting's theme was "I must be about my Father's business." The lesson titles were:

Sunday Morning Bible Class "Be Not Anxious"

Sunday Morning Sermon "But as He Who Called You Is Holy"

Sunday Evening Sermon "Love One Another for Love Is of God"

Monday Evening Sermon "Love Your Enemy"

Tuesday Evening Sermon "Go into All the World"

Wednesday Evening Sermon "Preaching JUST the Gospel in Love"

Irene also taught the Monday Ladies Day Class. And she went through her double bible study with some of the ladies on Tuesday. As a result of that teaching a 72 year old Deaf lady was baptized into Christ. Amen!

That sojourn was also a physical sojourn. Lewis Frisby and I had to replace 2 bathrooms - one had a tub and then the sinks and stools in both of them. This included laying new vinyl flooring and a lot of wall patching and painting.

So, here we are now at sojourn # 3 - Yosemite Bible Camp. Today we broke out at lot of deteriorating concrete while the ladies cleaned the kitchen. Tomorrow their cleaning will continue and we will begin to re-pour new concrete in the areas we wrecked out today. Irene and I are both sore and tired.

I thought I'd close this blog posting with some pictures we took Friday afternoon on our trip into Yosemite National Park itself. God has truly placed many amazing things HERE and no where else.

The picture above shows, very dramatically the Yosemite valley's "rounded bottom" left behind after the glacier that formed it melted away.

That is "Half Dome" Yosemite's signature mountain"in the

center of the picture above at the top.

This is "Bridal Veil" Falls one of the Parks stellar waterfalls.

This is Yosemite Falls (I Believe). If not, it's another one!

This is "El Capitan." If you'll sign the proper liability waiver, you too can be so foolish as to climb the face of this megalith outcropping and join those that have scaled its 3000 foot face (the largest granite outcropping in the world). Click here to watch a video about doing it.

The Yosemite valley is first seen emerging through this 3/10 mile tunnel through a solid granite mountain. If you look at the wall of the tunnel you can see the stone its been dug through.