On Going Back

Mel and I were at our former church this morning. Mel pastored that church for almost 6 years. Almost 6 years out of our life. It was weird going back. Much has changed. Some of the faces were the same, but there were many more new ones than old ones. Part of that is because this area is a 'snow bird' area - people come in the summer and leave in the fall when the weather turns cold. Many of the people are elderly, some have died, some have moved to lower elevations, some just don't go to church there any more.

The pastor was surprised at how many people were there today, being a holiday 3 day weekend and all. But for us it was great - some of the ones who showed up after being away for weeks or months are people we knew from before.

Good to catch up, sad to learn of a divorce, sad to learn of a couple deaths, sobering to hear that one of the boys I taught for 4 years in junior church is now in his 4th tour of Iraq.

It was great to see Dasha (Donna) again - a woman who was raised in an orphanage in a city less than 150 miles from where we live in Ukraine, a woman who lost her mother but found her again just a couple years before the mother died, a woman who lost her youngest sibling and has never found him again, a woman who was taken by Germans into Germany and from there found her way into a refugee camp for several years and then upon growing up, met and married an American GI and has lived in Japan and then the States ever since. Donna - I called her Dasha without even thinking about it and she got tears in her eyes. Dasha - 80 years old.

It was great to see the guy who actually founded the church many years ago as a Bible study in his home. I spent several minutes talking with him and it was like old times again.

It was sad that another one of our friends didn't make it to church due to almost dying yesterday from a bad reaction to a medication he was given after a minor surgery. Hopefully we can meet up with him this fall.

It was very good to sit with the current pastor and his wife in their home and talk for almost 3 hours after church. There was a time when I didn't think that would ever be possible. But God is good - we all change and grow and find out what is really important in this life. :)

The church is bigger now - when we left there was just a big hole out front, now there is a two story addition with Sunday School classes in the daylight basement. A log cabin church with windows that look out on one of the most beautiful views in the whole world - the Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the Wet Mountain Valley.

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We drove up to Poncha Springs last night and found a teeny little room in a motel right on the corner before the highway turns to go up Monarch Pass. We are staying here two nights and I am glad.

The drive up Highway 50 and the Arkansas River Canyon was wonderful. I told Mel, as we drove most of it again tonight, that I think this is my favorite part of Colorado. The river is in flood stage right now due to snow melt and all the rain over the past week. Raging rapids, high water level that rushes through grasses on the far side of the river, rocks that usually stick up out of the river are covered with a foot or more of white water. It is beautiful. And dangerous. And the road travels right along the river, so close sometimes it seems like I could roll down the car window and reach out and touch the water.

As we drove yesterday I realized that my eyes were full of tears. Something tense and tight and rolled up inside of me was beginning to relax. The winding highway, the high canyon walls, the rocks, the river, the deer, the lack of traffic - all of it working together inside of me, releasing a spring coiled tight.This evening as we drove back from the Wet Mountain Valley I realized that my heart was singing and praising God once again, marveling at the beauty and the age and the design and the creativity shown all around me. Uplifts of rock - maroon and deep purple - who knew rocks could be deep purple? Cliffs of dark orange and burnt yellow - twisted and cracked by God only knows what forces under the earth, thrust up and decaying slowly in the wind and ice, water and sun. Red rocks, huge boulders, rounded by weather. And in the back ground, around every corner and seen through the frame of every valley - the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, the tops covered in new snow, fields of old snow shining in the deepening darkness, heavy rain clouds creeping over and around.

Yes, my heart was singing and crying at the same time, loving the beauty and thanking God for giving me the gift of seeing it all again. I miss it so much....

Horses and cows, deer and pronghorn antelope, greening hay meadows and mountain forests, yellow golden peas and bright orange indian paintbrush, dark green evergreens and bright yellow-green aspen, purply gray rain clouds and bright blue Colorado sky.

How I love my homeland. Thank you, Father God in heaven, for this gift you have given me - Colorado, my heart's home here on earth. (Photos not mine - click on them to see original internet address)