I Once Was Blind, But Now I See

Some people may not know that I directed an outdoor adventure ministry for about 12 years. I guided backpacking trips, rappelled groups off the side of mountains, taught survival schools, and taught outdoor education field trips.  In wilderness medicine, I was trained what to do in a bad storm with lightning. Honestly, nothing can prepare you for actually being in a lighting storm. I was guiding a trip along the Appalachian Trail on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina. Beautiful views and the group was great. A lot of very new hikers. In a certain point of the trip, we were hiking across balds. A bald in a place on top of a mountain where there are no tress, shrubs, etc. It is just wild grass. Off in the distance, we saw storm clouds coming. I was starting to get nervous, so I told the group that we need to pick up the pace a little bit. At this particular point, I began to see what kind of danger we were actually in. This particular bald stretched about 2 miles of up and do...

 In 1978, Ron Hamilton met with doctors to talk to them about the newly discovered cancer in his left eye. At that time, Ron and Shelly Hamilton were in the ministry full-time with Majesty Music. Ron ended up losing his left eye, and began wearing an eye patch. Innocently, children began to call him either "Patch" or "Patch The Pirate." Instead of letting this innocent name calling drag him into depression, God laid it on Ron's heart to start a children's music ministry based on his nickname Patch The Pirate. This ministry allowed him to travel around the world, and minister to thousands of families and children through Patch The Pirate. None of this would have happened without the cancer.  The word Bible literally means "The Book." Please do not misunderstand me, but i n my mind, I wish that the Bible had a different title.   You would never see a New York Times Best Seller titled with such a vague description. To me, the Bible would be better sui...

Last night, we had our normal family devotions. We talked about how God allows suffering in our lives for the purpose of growing our dependence on Him. For many Americans, it is a struggle for us to really understand true soul wrenching struggles. Many of us define struggles as "anything that messes up our planned activities." All the while we miss the opportunities God places in our path by changing up our planned activities. Last week, I went to have my eyes checked at Walmart. Not any real reason to the check up. I wear light readers. Something inside of me urged me to go. The lady told me I didn't need any glasses, but I had a freckle in my right eye. The next Monday, I was on my way to another eye doctor to try to find out what the freckle was. That morning started off with a prayer asking the Lord to give me someone I could share the Gospel with that day. God answered that prayer, but not really in the way that I was thinking.  The eye specialist came in to have a c...