Off to Kyrgyzstan!!!

I had the honour and pleasure of singing at my brother and families going away party/fundraiser. For those of you who do not know, my brother John, Wife Julie and two of his children Emma and Bekah will be moving to Kyrgyzstan for 6 months. They are on a n ongoing missions project. They do wonderful things in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

Join me in following and praying for their safety and success. You can follow their journey at the actofkindness blogspot. Here is a cut and paste of the post, but go their anyway as there are lots more pictures........

We are so encouraged by the support given to us by our family and friends. The fundraiser was an incredible success. Even more than the money raised, we know that we are going with a real sense of support behind us. I know that many on the mission field can feel alone some times, and we may as well, but all we have to do is think back to Saturday night. The party had a coffee house theme and, along with several friends from our home community, my Son and a friend sang for the crowd. The evening finished with a set by my brother Don..... always appreciated by the Norwood folks.
Between sets we had a full coffee shop on the go.... Starbucks, eat your heart out - gourmet coffee's, espresso's, cappuccinos and teas from around the world served from a genuine samovar. The big hits were the fruit smoothies and the ice cappuccinos .
As all this was going on, we had a silent auction with close to 100 items up for bid including this beautiful black lab puppy.......The most beautiful thing about this photo is not the puppy , but it's new owner. This young lady was part of a group of 16 from Quebec who traveled about 5 hours on snowy roads to come out and support us. They have always been an encouragement to us, the way that they have embraced the work in Central Asia. I was thinking the other day, that this will be my first trip in a long time that I have not been traveling with our friends from St Andre ....But you know what... I think that wherever the Lord leads us.... our friends will be there . Thank you to all those that came out to support us and give us a real send off. ......oh ya.... we raised $7900 in one night .....I can just see Sammy dancing when he reads this in Latinta Guatemala where Possibilities International is leading a team right now to......well that's another story. I will tell you about that tomorrow

#4 on the Temagami list

Did you know that there have been numerous site-ings of Cougars (Mountain Lions) in the Temagami area? I read through a number of discussion forums and there are many many people who beleive that the cougar still lives in that forest. I find this interesting. It appears that the official word is that cougars DO NOT EXIST in this area BUT the forums speak differently. So number four on my list is to see a cougar in the wild.

My buddy Mike says that seeing one would be highly unlikely as they are so stealth that if you see them, then they have already seen you for 30 minutes. They may choose to run and you will never see it OR, they may chosse to stay and "check you out" During this time you need to hope that he doesnt consider you a culinary appetizer. Mike has experience with Mountain Lions when he lived in Colorado. He says they "lay in wait" and then pounce. A human really doesnt have much of a chance if Mr Cougar thinks you are a TBONE steak.

None the less, this is a beautiful creature and another fine example of Gods incredible handiwork.

HHMM reminds me of a bad joke. This guy comes across a mountain lion and the mountain lion licks his lips. The guy freaks and prays to God...PLease Lord..make this lion a christian. With that the guy notices that the lion is actually praying. Excited the guy listens closely.......

"For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful"

Old Growth Forest

The wonders never cease! While investigating the Ishpatina Ridge hike trip we'd like to take, I came across yet another interesting article. This article speaks of the Old Growth Forest at Temagami.

Here is a quote from the article....

"This unique stand at the north end of Obabika Lake is the largest continuous stand of old-growth red and white pine forest remaining in the world.

The 380-year-old white pine in this ancient ecosystem were young trees at the time of the founding of the Hudson's Bay Company. Among their neighbours are old-growth white cedar and black ash. After naturally going about its day-to-day struggle for thousands of years, this forest played a pivotal role in the protection of Temagami and the recognition of old-growth forest in eastern North America. If you haven't seen old-growth pine — and I don't mean gazing at the treetops from your canoe — then you must beach your canoe and follow the Triangle's hiking trails."

So I emailled my buddy Mike and said "Take me There" He replied...."thats a tough piece of real estate to access. the first removed bridge is a 55 minute atv ride from emerald lake. then its another 14 miles or so of what appears good road (with another removed bridge)to the top of lake obabika. thats where the roads appear to end. the heart of that area has no form of access. alternatively one could canoe the length of the obabika...about 18 or 20 miles and then camp at the northern shore. the area with the hiking trails is a .5 km or so bushwack from the obabika. its a beautiful area and another adventure for the to-do list."

OK so nowI have 3 items on the to do list at Temagami

1 Climb Ishpatika

2 Catch an Aurora Trout

3 Hug an Old Growth Tree

And thats all I have to say about that.

dw

Aurora Trout

So further my story about Ishpatina Ridge...........

Ishpatina Ridge is located in Lady Evelyn Smoothwater Park.

Not only is it home of the highest point in Ontario, but also appears to be home of a very rare and endangered species of trout known as Aurora Trout. In fact, it appears as though this trout ONLY lived in 2 lakes within the park. They have since been stocked in a few others.

Here is an interesting read for fishing and trout enthusiasts.

Initially I thought I could bring my fishing rod and hike in, BUT, I understand that If I even got caught dipping my little toe in any of these 2 lakes I'd likely be shot by the ranger and eaten by the bears. I did read about a fellow who knows whereone of the "hidden" lakes is, BUT it would cost $400.00 to get him to show me....hmmm...no thanks. I'll read a bit more and research a bit more and I'll find all my answers.

Hey, when I catch one, I'll take a picture and post it.

dw

Ishpatina Ridge

I went for the weekend up to North Bay to visit with my buddy Mike. He and I have been exploring the backwoods of Temagami. We had heard that Ontario's highest point was a little north of where we have been "playing" so we decided we should go anfd climb it. WHY? well just because thats what people do. If you see a high hill, you should climb it.

We got to thinking a little more seriously about the trip. We learned that Ishpatina ridge is not really accessable. You just cant drive there. Its kinda like an amazing race. So we did some internet searching on the topic and found several accounts of other peoples expeditions.

Here is a great read. If you have a few moments and love the outdoors and hiking, I highly suggest this read.

So using this information, we began to search some more. We found many people have done the trip in many differant ways. We are currently considering many of these experiences to "find our own way"

I find this to be pretty exciting. With Internet/GPS/Google maps and earth/stories of other trips/top maps/ATV's/canoes/bikes/legs/dreams....we have everything we need to conquer!

Hey, if you are interested in this kind of thing let me know. I love to discuss it with you.

Oh and I found out lots of more cool stuff that I'll talk about later

blessings
dw

Jesus Saves!!!!!

Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was better on the computer. They had been going at it for days, and frankly Jesus was tired of hearing all the bickering. Finally fed up, Jesus said, "THAT'S IT! I have had enough. I am going to set up a test that will run for two hours, and from those results, I will judge who does the better job." So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away. They moused. They faxed. They e-mailed. They e-mailed with attachments. They downloaded. They did spreadsheets! They wrote reports. They created labels and cards. They created charts and graphs. They did some genealogy reports They did every job known to man. Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was faster than ever. Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power went off.. Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld. Jesus just sighed. Finally the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their computers. Satan started searching frantically, screaming: "It's gone! It's all GONE! "I lost everything when the power went out!" Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours of work. Satan observed this and became irate. "Wait!" he screamed. "That's not fair! He cheated! How come he has all his work and I don't have any?" God just shrugged and said,

JESUS SAVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!