Day 6: Thursday, July 17, 2014

This was the last day of the Freedom Climb. The ladies as well as Josiah, Thomas and Alex, did their list 14,000 foot climb. Josiah and Thomas got up and close to a mountain goat that came right up to them. They also said that there were some ladies that continued to be beasts on the mountain flying up to the top and back. Incredible!

Worship that evening was probably the best we had all week. The ladies really connect with worship and I have to say that for the first time this week, I was able to really worship and not concentrate on what I was playing.

Dan and I did our own Freedom Climb. We decided to go to the top of the mountain behind Breckenridge Ski Area. We thought we could make it to the top, ride for a few miles along the Colorado Trail, and then back down into town and back to the house...in about 5 hours. Well, that was a nice thought, especially seeing that the top of the mountain was around 13,000 ft and the house is sitting right around 10,000 ft...no problem! We knew we would be doing a lot of climbing, but what we didn't expect was how long it would take.

We got lost a couple times, but we got back on track, and for the next 3 hours we climbed to just a little over 12,500 ft, right where the service road met the trail. We made one of our goals which was to get above the tree line. While we didn't quite make our ultimate goal of getting to the top of the mountain, we got a new respect for these ladies and what they did by climbing to 14,000 ft. It gave Dan and I the experience of what the ladies were climbing for, and that is to help stop human trafficking and slavery!

We chilled for a few minutes on the mountain, even had a snowball fight, and then we started down. What took us 3 hours to climb, we rode down all the way to the town of Breckenridge in 35 minutes! What an adventure, and what a great cause!

On our way up the mountain

Dan with a camera on his head

Top of our ride/climb.

Dan throwing snowballs!

Our elevation

Dan

Panorama at the top

Alpine flowers

Having a bite to eat before the ride down

Freedom Climb Ladies

Kate leading worship

Worship at the lodge (Dan and Kate)

Worship (Kate and Thomas)

Sunset at the lodge

Elevation profile of our climb/ride

Day 5: Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Beautiful days in Colorado continue. The women continued their climbs today, although the guys chose to take this day off from climbing. They didn't prep for these types of climbs, and to their defense, none of them knew that they were going to make these climbs until the last minute. They said it was a much needed break, however Thomas did say that he missed climbing today. They all said they have a new respect for these women as some of them were beasts climbing up and down the mountain.

It was a chill set for worship this evening with Josiah on guitar and both Josiah and Kate leading. I ran the lyrics and the others enjoyed worshipping. After worship, Jill (although its pronounced Jzhill) from Brazil spoke. Although she spoke for over an hour, what she said was amazing. What was even more amazing is that she thought she was speaking tomorrow and not today. She told stories about how parents in Brazil and other countries would sell their children into slavery, never to be seen again. Operation Mobilization's Freedom Climb helps these children by stepping in through the churches in these countries to help give these children a chance. Unfortunately some still get kidnapped back into slavery. The more I find out about Freedom Climb, the more I am seeing how the enemy doesn't like this...which is why Freedom Climb is very important to children and women, not only in 3rd world countries, but even here in the United States.

During the day, Dan and I went to Keystone and did some shredding going down hill. AMAZING!!! We took the ski lift to the top of the mountain and then went downhill on the trails. The first trip up was a bit intimidating, mainly from the fear of the unknown. But once we got down to the bottom, we couldn't wait to get back up. The first trip we took the "green" trails. The guy at the ticket counter at the base said their "greens" were our "blues" and our "blues" were their "advanced." For those who don't know, green is easy, blue is intermediate, black is advanced. Here at Keystone (and maybe others, I don't know), they even had a double-black diamond...to me this means the risk of injury or death...lol!

The dude was right, the greens were very  much like our blues. The second trip we took mostly black runs. These got me very nervous. I was able to do them, but I was very uncomfortable doing them. They were filled with 1 to 2 foot drops off of rocks and roots which you landed on other rocks and roots. The main thing is that I did it! About 2/3 of the way down I had had enough of the black runs and we came to an intersection where one way was green and the other was black. Dan took the black and I took the green. Amazing that where the  two trails re-connected we came out at the same time. Dan said it was crazy and intimidated him. He also said I chose the correct route! Ha! But props to Dan, no spills.

Finally in the 3rd time going up the lift it started raining and sleeting on us. When we got to the top we started to hear thunder so we decided since this was our last run, we would take the greens and blues just to get down the mountain due to lightening. Unfortunately during the 2nd run, Dan's contact came out and so he was now riding with only one contact in. We just left the top of the mountain when he took a little spill, nothing major. It rained and sleeted on most of our run down the mountain, and yes there was lightening. We probably did our fastest going down of all three runs. Dan took another spill on a small bridge, but to his credit he was riding with only one contact. When we got down to the bottom of the mountain we were covered in mud. There was a bike wash at the base of the mountain so we not only hosed off the bikes, but ourselves as well.

Base at Keystone

Top of Keystone

Dan at the bike wash

Me at the bike wash

Kate and Josiah leading worship

The women of Freedom Climb

Fitting lyrics for worship

Kate leading worship

Jill speaking

Day 4: Tuesday, July 15, 2014

It was an early one for Josiah, Thomas and Alex as they had to be at the lodge at 330 AM to head for Mt. Elbert. This mountain is the tallest of all the mountains that are being climbed on this mission trip. All the guys made it to the top before the storms hit but it was a long hike. The guys and the ladies from Freedom Climb hiked for 9 hours to get to the top of Mt. Elbert. They made it back just in time for dinner at the lodge. Some of the pictures I've seen from the top of Mt. Elbert were amazing! (sorry, don't have any of those to post here).

Meanwhile, Dan and I took an easy day on the trails. Kate drove us up to the trailhead at over 10,700 ft. We did mostly downhill, but not before climbing to over 11,200 ft. The downhill was some of the steepest I've ever done! It was a little un-nerving, but I did it and loved it! When we finished we stopped to get lunch, and just in the nick of time too as a storm moved over Breckenridge and dropped pea sized hail on us.  Fortunately, neither of us took any spills on the trails, which was a good thing!

Worship tonight was great! Dan and I started playing during dinner and then we went right into worship. It took a while for the ladies to get settled from the days climbs, but when we entered into worship it was awesome! (see the pics below).

Freedom Climb Ladies during Worship

The Worship Team
(from the left) Thomas, Josiah, Kate, Me, Dan

Freedom Climb Worship

View From the Bakers Tank Trailhead

Bakers Tank at the trailhead

Dan

Me

Day 3: Monday, July 14, 2014

For part of our team, it was a very early rise this morning. Josiah, Thomas and Alex (the videographer from New York) were at the lodge at 430 AM. Their climb today was to consist of climbing two 14,000+ ft peaks. Unfortunately they only climbed one due to altitude sickness. However a good portion of the ladies made both climbs today!

While they were climbing, Dan and I rented bikes and rode 15 miles today. Our route took us immediately up above 10,000 ft and for most of our ride we stayed above 10,000 ft with our highest being a little over 10,200 feet. The downhill was excellent. However we thought we'd be smart and take a trail up to our house. What we didn't know was that this trail was mostly straight up, and after doing 14 miles at that point, our legs and lungs were nearly dead.

We got to the lodge to do worship which was excellent. Although the ladies were very tired from their climb, they really got into worship. Right before worship a young woman from Moldova told us about the atrocities the young women and children experience in Moldova which has the highest rate of human trafficking in Europe. Operation Mobilization is working with the local churches in Moldova to help these women and children. This is a very good cause!

Josiah, Thomas and Alex will be getting up even earlier tomorrow morning (Tuesday) as they will be climbing Mount Albert, the highest peak in the series of peaks that the Freedom Climbers are climbing.

Please keep praying for us, the worship team, and these ladies as they climb the 14,000 ft mountains in central Colorado!

Dan after riding down to the old mine

View of the mountains in the background

Trail between the piles of rocks from the mines

Me at the mine

View from a little further up the trail, but still at the mine

More views from the mine 

Dan after his spill

Days 1 and 2: Acclimating to nearly 10,000 FT

Day1: Saturday, July 12
Our day started very early, around 4 AM, and by 430 AM we were headed to the airport. Our flight was on time and we actually landed early in Denver. Met up with Kate, had a few mix ups with the rental car, but by 11 AM mountain time we were on our way with me and Josiah following Kate and the rest of the band.

Unfortunately some one with the same exact looking car like the one Kate was driving started to get off the interstate. In my thinking I thought "Well, Kate decided to eat early." When we got off the ramp and came to the stop light, I told Josiah, hey look, someone put a Florida Gators label on the back of their SUV. Then I noticed it was a Lexus and Kate rented a Ford. Then we get a call from Dan asking why we got off the interstate. Ha! It all worked out and we all ended up in Breckenridge at the Lodge.

The scenery is absolutely beautiful! Took several pictures (see below).

When we started to set up the stage area at the lodge using the equipment we rented from a company in Denver. Unfortunately none of the cymbals for the drums arrived, neither did one of the monitors. The keyboard I was to use did not have the midi USB output I needed either. After several frustrations we realized that God is still in control and whatever happens, He was still in control. Worship was going to happen whether we had cymbals, the right keyboard, the number of monitors we thought we needed. Worship went very well, in fact it went great!

By the time we got back to the house we were staying in, it was around 10 PM mountain time, which was Midnight eastern. That means we had been up for about 20 hours.

The other problem was acclimating. Breckenridge sits at 9600 feet and the lodge was at 10,000 ft. Going up stairs or up a hill was rather a challenge. We remembered to drink lots of water and that seemed to hold off the headaches...well at least keep them at a minimum.

Dan, Thomas, Josiah and my left eye

Me and Thomas

Arriving in Denver

The ride from Denver to Breckenridge

View from the Lodge at Breckenridge

Breckenridge Ski Area

Day 2: Sunday, July 13
After a really good service this morning, we did an acclimation hike which took us to 10,750 ft. We did pretty good and I noticed I was doing better going up and down the stairs. After that we came back to the house and relaxed for a couple hours, then it was back to the lodge to set up for rehearsal and then worship. It appears that everyone in the team is having problems with frustrations, things not going right, so we had a good prayer before worship. Even the leader of the Freedom Climb out here was having problems and so we brought her into our prayer. After that, we felt a lot of peace.

I'm thinking that with all the frustrations, distractions, etc coming against each team member INCLUDING the leader of the Freedom Climb...this cause that they are climbing for, is much bigger than I think. We must really be stepping on the enemies territory, but hey, God is with us, and with God with us, who can be against us!

Ready for the Acclimation Hike

Pretty flowers along the hike

Views from the hike

Climbing down some rocks

Chillin' in Breckenridge

Friday, July 11, 2014: Day T-1 The Goal is Reached!

It is the evening before we fly out to Colorado. Last night we, the band, served at Joe Friday's Brick Oven Pizza. This is a really cool place and the food is fantastic. The family that runs this business helps out charities on Thursday nights where they allow groups that are going on short term mission trips to serve the food from 5 PM to 8 PM. There is a donation box at the register where people can donate money to the mission AND Joe Friday's donates 20% of the profits that night to the charity.

This was the last fundraiser we did for this trip. The first fundraisers included 2 yard sales, then there was a Bike-A-Thon where myself, Dan Miller and my wife Tammy rode around 147 miles between the three of us. Our goal was $5000, and because of last night, we exceeded our goal! Give a shout out to God!!!

If you want to know more about Joe Friday's, click on this link:

http://www.joefridayspizza.com/

A huge thanks to every one who has donated to this trip, y'all are awesome! Whether you donated or not, please pray for us during this next week for safety and that God will not only use us while we are out there, but also that God ministers to us as well!

Mission Trip 2014: Freedom Climb Worship Team

On July 12, 2014, myself along with a team of 4 others will be traveling to Breckenridge, Colorado to support the Freedom Climbers as they climb seven 14,000+ foot peaks in 4 days to raise money to help stop human trafficking (for more information on the Freedom Climb, click on the following link http://www.thefreedomclimb.net/ The Freedom Climbers are a group of ladies doing this climb. In fact, our team will be the only men at this event.

What will we be doing? Our team will be proving worship music for the climbers each evening after they do a climb. These ladies will be tired and our job is to provide them a time to refresh in the presence of God.

The worship team is made up of some great guys and one awesome lady that I have worked with before on worship teams. They are Dan Miller, Josiah Haner, Thomas Yeager and Kate Sawtelle. 

During our off-time, myself and Dan will be mountain biking the slopes of Breckenridge Ski Area as well as other trails around Breckenridge. Josiah and Thomas will be helping with videoing the Freedom Climbers, which means Josiah and Thomas will also be climbing these 14,000 feet mountains.

To raise money, we have held a yard sale...twice. This past Saturday, myself, Dan and Tammy (my wife), did a Bike-A-Thon. Tammy did a road ride completing 62 miles, a metric century. Dan and myself did a combination mountain bike ride on Stinky Trails plus a cart path ride on the Peachtree City golf cart paths totally 42 miles. Here are a few pictures...

Right before starting the 42 miles

Tammy Before her 62 miles

Post Bike-a-Thon Legs Completing a combined total of 147 miles

 We need to raise another $900, and on this Thursday, July 10 we will be serving at Joe Friday's on Highway 34 in Sharpsburg. 20% of the days profits go to the Freedom Climb, so if you want to help out, come and order pizza...thats all!

We will return from Colorado in Sunday, July 20. I will be posting pics and comments throughout the trip, so stay tuned!