Essentials of the Journey

As most of you know, I had the opportunity to participate in a ministerial program that took place last week. It was out in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota. It was a very enjoyable opportunity. Eight of us ventured out on a five-day canoe trip through the Boundary Waters wilderness to have an adventure together to strengthen our relationships. It was the first of a series of activities that Ministerial Services has planned. This isn't the only activity that will be offered. It kind of has to be a little bit custom-tailored towards the men who will go and participate in the various events.

This one was a five-day canoe trip and camping. Its purpose is to gather field pastors together in an environment that lends itself towards team building, towards getting to know one another, deepening relationships, developing a bond between the ministry, which I think is a wonderful idea. If you saw the e-news I sent out in Thursday's email, Mark Welch wrote an article about it. I want to just start out with quoting a little bit from his article. Mr. Welch says, several months ago Frank Dunkel, who heads up the Boundary Waters adventure challenger program for young adults, approached me with the idea of having such an adventure for some of the full-time men in the ministry.

To me, this was an intriguing proposal and one which I immediately saw strong merit. He says, the pastoral ministry is considered by many as a highly stressful occupation based on a variety of reasons. The ministry also has a great deal of impact on the overall health of God's church.

And these are two of the main reasons why I felt it would be beneficial to move ahead with this proposal. He says, it's my belief that the better we know and respect one another in the ministry, the stronger the bonds of brotherhood and the greater unity we will surely have as a ministry. End quote. I certainly agree with Mr. Welch's words. I think they're important. The stronger bonds we develop between one another in the ministry, the more likely we are to, I would say, work together to resolve issues that may rise in our midst.

More likely we are to go to your brother and to hear your brother in response as well and to develop a relationship that is healthy. And so this is something that goes beyond, you know, we're Facebook friends where there's name recognition. We've been in a transition period in the United Church of God for probably about five years. We're ramped up more fully of men retiring, other men stepping into the position of the full-time ministry. And so to be able to come together to get to know each other, form bonds, by working together, it's an important part of the process.

The United Church of God is structured after a model of cooperation and consensus in the ministry with Jesus Christ as the head of the church. We yield to God's word, but we also yield to one another. And we have a trust and an acknowledgement that God does work with those who humble themselves in service before Him. And as we get to know one another and have a relationship, again, that helps in the consensus and the cooperation that we all share.

But again, it takes a relationship. That's an emphasis behind these programs. A title for today's message is Essentials of the Journey. Essentials of the Journey. And today I want to share with you through PowerPoint. I apologize to those on the phone hookup. I have a number of pictures I'll be sharing today, but I want to share with you some of my reflections on the Boundary Waters adventure because there are many elements that, frankly, parallel this Christian journey. This calling that we have from God, many lessons that we can learn. If you've ever been backpacking, if you've ever been camping, if you've ever been on a canoe trip, again, you know that there are principles that we pull from these things that can encourage us in our Christian walk.

First, I'd like to introduce you to the eight men who are on the trip from left to right. The far left there is Mike Feich. Mike's the newly appointed pastor for New Zealand. I recall a number of years ago now, Daniel Porteous was pastor in New Zealand, became very ill, ultimately had to return to the United States, and there have been men who have traveled over, temporary, to travel to visit the brethren.

They've not had a permanent pastor. Mike was appointed, but then COVID hit and shut down the borders of New Zealand, and he's not been able to go yet. He pastors from afar. But he's also assisting Ken Scorseth up in North Dakota. In the meantime, Ken took over after the death of Herb Teijant, and Ken suffered an accident last year in which he's still not fully back to work. So Mike's helping him up there and pastoring in New Zealand as well. Next to Mike is Jeff Lockhart.

Jeff is in South Florida, along with his wife, and he assists Chuck Smith with the Fort Lauderdale congregation and travels to the Caribbean congregations as the assistant senior pastor there as well. Next to the right, next to Jeff, is Chris Roland. Chris Roland works at the home office. He's the human resource manager and the administrator for Ministerial Member Services. If there's any question that I have regarding virtually anything, I ask Chris. And he gives me the answer, plus the gentle reminder, check your policy, your pastor policy manual. That's, you know, 3.1.4, if you didn't notice.

But for me, he's been a great resource, and anything related as well to much of the Church of the business and the oversight of the employees of the Church, Chris manages those things, and he's also an ordained elder. Next to Chris is Frank Dunkel. Frank lives in Cincinnati, and he serves as a professor and the coordinator of the Ambassador Bible College. And he also organizes the Boundary Waters Adventures for the Young Adults Challenger Program.

So, Frank was essentially our guide on this trip, and also as a former pastor before he came into teach at ABC. He was a wonderful resource. Next to him is Mark Welch, who's also at the home office. He's the operations manager for Ministerial Member Services, essentially my boss in the ministry. Mark oversees all the ministry in the United Church of God. He came into that position, I would say, probably about two years ago now after 30 years of pastoral ministry out in the field.

And I appreciate Mark very much, and just his approach, his attitude, and the way that he interacts and relates with the ministry. Next to Mark, to the right is Doug Went. Doug pastors, congregations in St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida. Next to him is Skeets Mez.

Interesting relationship after so many years. Skeets was my boss when I was 18, 19 years old and working the landscape department at Ambassador College in Big Sandy. He now serves as a field pastor, and he pastors Mobile, Alabama, Dafuniac Springs, Florida, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Laurel, Mississippi. So he has four states and congregations which he oversees. And of course, you know the guy to the farthest right, the youngest participant at age 47. So this is our band of brothers for the trip, and it was very rewarding to get to know each and every one of them much better. This is a map of the region in which we traverse.

Chris Rowland's GPS phone tracked our stops. Those are the dots on the map. But I'll draw your attention down to the bottom left. I have a dash under ore. That's ore Minnesota. That's where the church's SEP camp ran for years and years, just to give you a little layout of where we are.

And the jagged line along the top there is the Canadian border. You might notice where the most top dot sits in reference to that, but as long as you don't touch land, it's okay. So this was quite an adventure, quite an outing. All northern Minnesota is dotted with lakes and mosquitoes. Next slide here. This is Tuesday, July the 6th. We all came in from various directions, met up in northern Minnesota, and here we are at Anderson's Outfitters now, picking out our gear, preparing to go. Anderson's provided the canoes, paddles, life jackets, so we had to go in and get fitted and pick out those things that we would take with us.

So, as I said, there are spiritual principles along these journeys because we are called by God to a spiritual journey as well. The spiritual principle number one I'd like to share with you as we go along is that it is God who equips us to make our spiritual journey. It's God who equips us to make our spiritual journey. Here we stop by Anderson's Outfitters and we need the boats, we need the life vests to keep our head above water, we need the paddles for forward momentum, but in the spiritual calling it is God who equips us to make our spiritual journey.

And just like any good journey, you don't want to begin unless you have the equipment that you need for a successful trip. You don't want to be floundering, you want to be proficient in what you're doing. In our spiritual calling from God, we won't progress anywhere, brethren, unless we allow Him to equip us spiritually. So our spiritual paddles, our life vests, which helps keep our head above water spiritually, our food for life, it doesn't come from any other source than from Him, and it is God who's our spiritual outfitter.

So that's the first stop, right? And you're called to this journey. That's the first stop is with God. And He is our spiritual outfitter. It's His Word for life, the Bible. It's His Holy Spirit, which equips us in our calling. It's the ministry that God has provided as well that equips His people. I won't necessarily be turning the Scriptures today.

I've built them into my slides. But Ephesians 4, verses 11 and 12, says He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Notice for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry. Ministry simply means service is what we've all been called to in God's service, for the work of ministry, for the edifying or the building up of the body of Christ. The things that God does to equip us all for the purpose of this calling is so that we can be able to do that.

And I'm going to give you a little purpose of this calling is so that we can be built up together, so that we can move forward together as a body, strengthening one another. He is our spiritual outfitter. You and I must rely on Him.

Here we had the orientation meeting out at Echo Lake Campground. We spent one night there before actually pushing off. It was a nice spot to basically get in, pull all of our gear out, sort through what we had, and discuss what we did or maybe didn't need to bring, see what other people had brought as well.

This is Tuesday evening. You see Frank Dunkel here on the page? He's pointing to the map. He's shown us where we've started out, where we're going to be going, what course we're going to be taking on this journey. Yogi Berra was a commentator, a baseball manager, and a humorist. He made the comments, if you don't know where you're going, you will probably wind up someplace else. That's a truism. If you don't know where you're going, you'll probably wind up someplace else. You're just going to wander aimlessly with no destination in mind.

Spiritual principle number two is that keeping your destination clearly in view is essential. Keeping your destination clearly in view is essential because we're not called to wander aimlessly in this life. We're not called to just simply do whatever it is we're going to do, go in whatever direction without a vision, without a focus. God gives us those things because if you don't have that, you'll wind up somewhere else. There is a purpose. There's a goal. There's a destination that God has set before us all. We must keep it clearly in mind at all times. Matthew 6 and verse 33, Jesus says, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

If we don't keep that vision fixed clearly in our mind at all times, we run to risk, again, of winding up someplace else, not reaching the destination and not running the course that leads to life who becomes spiritually lost. Proverbs chapter 29 and verse 18 in the King James version says, Where there is no vision, the people perish. So knowing the end goal from the beginning will have a dramatic effect on the course of your journey all along the way.

It'll impact where you place your feet, how you step, the direction that you head. Because we must put one foot in front of the other, but to what end? Again, it's the destination that our Father provides. Next, we had the opportunity. Kevin Kennedy made the trip up to see us before we shoved off out into the lake. He didn't actually have opportunity to come with us, but listening to wisdom of those who have successfully gone before you will greatly improve your chances of success. Kevin's made over 100 trips out into the Boundary Waters.

He's a very proficient expert canooseman, and he knows that territory very well. As I said, he didn't venture out with us on this trip, but he came up to offer advice, counsel, to answer questions, and to just help us get organized for where it was we were going. Spiritual principle number three is, let us consider the wisdom of those who have gone before us. In this journey, let us consider the wisdom of those who have gone before us, those who have lived this life for decades, who have had experiences, who have learned lessons.

The Bible is full of examples of younger, seek wisdom from the older. Older share those things with the younger. If you want to know how to make life work, how to make your marriage work, go to talk to a couple that's been married 30, 40, 50 years. If you want to know how to be maybe successful financially, what principles do I apply? Go to talk to somebody not who has been bankrupt five times, but has been successful in doing those things. And wisdom can be passed along.

Kevin was passing his wisdom on to us. Second Timothy chapter 2 verse 2, Paul's instructions to young Timothy, whom he was mentoring, and he writes, The things that you have heard from me among many witnesses commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. This Christian life is a pass-it-on experience. Paul received it from God the Father and Jesus Christ, and he said to Timothy, You've heard me preach it among many witnesses.

Now you take it, you live it, you preach it, you pass it on to others who can then also pass it on to others also. And so we see this progression generation after generation down the line of holding to the wisdom and the teachings for life. This is Wednesday, July the 7th.

We stayed the night at the Echo Lake campground and drove six, seven miles down the road to where we would put in. Outfitters met us early that morning, delivered the canoes, and we were off. Our first effort to actually set out required a portage from the parking area, so we loaded on packs, we loaded up the canoes, and it was a half-mile portage down to the lake.

I would say for me that was probably the hardest portage of the entire trip. I had a 45-pound pack on my back, and I had a canoe solo over my head, and you keep dropping your arms now because they're going to sleep. But it holds at a pretty good balance, but you've got to make your way down the trail and out to where you're going to put into the water. This is Moose River, where we all put in.

We navigated through creeks, through narrow and wide waterways, shallow water, deep water, lakes, slogged through marshlands, small lakes, large lakes. There were downed trees to duck under as you're going down this river, and trees have come down hanging over the bank. Sometimes you had to duck under them so you didn't get drug out of the canoe along the way.

Other times we had to get out and climb over the beaver dams. I think I have a picture here. There were small beaver dams, large beaver dams. Sometimes you had to portage around, and other times you just simply... if you got a good run, you could skim over. And other times, you'd get out and water up to your waist and drag the boat over and carry on your way.

It was a constantly changing scenery, and it made it an adventure, and it made it fun. Spiritual principle number four to our spiritual journey is diverse terrain and various obstacles are a normal part of the journey. Okay, diverse terrain and various obstacles are a normal part of the journey. As long as we live in this world, life is going to lay out before us in that way. There'll be obstacles to overcome.

There'll be challenges, difficulties that we face. The scenery around us will always be changing, and yet we just... it's something we have to deal with, something we have to walk through. It's something that develops character, gives us experience, and hopefully from experience we gain wisdom to carry on. But it is a constant change that's set before us, but the thing that does not change is the destination.

Right? God is set before us a destination that is sure and true, no matter what happens in scenery along the way. There's times when you're going to have to duck under the limb. There's times you're going to have to climb over the beaver dam and just simply reorient and keep going on, but you must keep going. The destination is waiting. That is the point.

Scripture for us, John chapter 16 in verse 33, where Jesus is encouraging his disciples, he says, These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. He says, In the world you will have tribulation. You can depend on it if you're a follower of Jesus Christ. You know, they hated him. They will hate you also, he said. In this world you will have tribulation, but be a good cheer. I have overcome the world. So, challenges will be a reality of this Christian life, but the comfort comes in knowing that Jesus Christ has overcome the world. And he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. You know, the comforter as well of God's Spirit and his presence that goes with us. So, challenges will come. That's the reality. But how we respond to them, God is watching. Journey to the kingdom of God is not about the destination only.

You know, sometimes we could have our vision so fixed on the goal, and we should, but we forget to look around. We forget to enjoy the scenery along the way. We think, I just need to get there. We can almost forget that God is doing something with us here, building something in us now through the things we walk through along the way to the kingdom.

So, it's about those experiences we have, the lessons we learn, the people that God allows us to engage with in the process. We should enjoy the journey. Again, we had a number of prayer requests. People are in difficult places right now, but God also did give us life to be enjoyed, to be encouraged by, and we should enjoy the journey to the kingdom of God. Lift your eyes up once in a while. Enjoy the view. You know, take in the scenery. When you're out there paddling and there's a headwind and maybe there's waves breaking, you're just putting all this effort into another stroke, another stroke, and I got to get across the lake, but maybe every once in a while it's good to just stop and lift up your eyes and just see what it is that God's provided right here before you. Take joy in that as well.

Multiple portages were a reality of the trip. Portage is where you have to traverse across land, now to get your boat and your gear from one body of water to the next. So we had multiple portages on this trip. Some were shorter, some were longer. We'd have to stop and unpack all of our gear, pack it on our backs, lift up the canoes, and go.

I believe Chris Rowland took this picture. My slides are compiled by multiple people's pictures. Chris took this one, had canoe overhead, just heading down the portage trail. Oftentimes he had a pack on his back at the same time, but you know each person had to carry their own gear plus gear that was common to the whole group. So it wasn't just each man for himself. You know, you jump out of the boat and you grab your own pack with your own clothes and you're on your way. Now you load it up with other gear as well. There were tents, there's kitchen gear, cook stove, water pumps, water jugs, canoes, paddles. Again, you carried not only your own load, but others as well. Some made one trip with multiple items, a pack on their back, a canoe over their head, or a pack on the front, a pack on the back, or some made multiple trips. Others hauled a whole load over and came back and helped those who were at the tail end of the group grab what remained and bring it. Others made it to the other end of the portage and then received as people came, helped them set their boats in the water, helped them load the gear in, strap the gear in for the next push out. So again, it wasn't just each man for himself. Spiritual principle number five is, as a team, we bear each other's burdens along the way.

Right? As a team, we bear each other's burdens along the way. This isn't a solo calling, brother. You know, God has called us individually, but He's brought us into a body, and we are a collective whole that works together. So as a team, we bear each other's burdens along the way.

It's not just me and mine. It's me and mine and yours and one another's and whatever load we can carry. Galatians chapter 6 and verse 2, the apostle Paul writing, he said, bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Well, what was the law of Christ? Well, it was a law of love, wasn't it? So when we carry one another's burdens, it is an expression of the love of Christ in us. Because he set the ultimate example. He took upon himself our burden, right, our sin. We were imperfect. He was perfect. He became sin for us in our place. He paid the price for us. And so in light of all of that, what is it between brethren when we help bear one another's burdens in this Christian life, especially if it furthers us all down the path together?

You don't look at somebody coming up the trail and say, well, slowpoke, I'm sorry that's so heavy, and don't hold me up. You take some of their burden, you help them, and you carry on along the way because none of us are in this together. There's times where the strong have to help the weak. And there's times where even maybe the strong maybe come weak for a season, for a time. I didn't say much, but last year, right around feast time, actually, I had about two months where I could hardly move because I'd injured my back. My wife had to help me out of bed in the morning. She had to put my pants on. It was one morning at the feast. I'm getting ready for church to be there early. She's by the bed saying her prayers, and I didn't want to say, hey, could you quit what you're doing and help me put my pants on? So I'm standing there with a coat hanger trying to reach the belt loop, you know, to pull my pants up. And I was pretty weak at the moment. I'm used to being strong, and that was a little tough to deal with. But we come alongside one another, and whenever we are able, we bear one another's burdens, and we are fulfilling the role of love just as Jesus Christ did. But it's teamwork, it's unity, and it's a relationship.

Here we are at the end of a portage. Eventually all the gear comes back together. You pack it in the boats, you strap it in, and you push out again. But again, it's all a team effort.

There's times when we came to portages and you had to wait.

And patience is a part of this life as well. And if somebody else was on the portage route, either loading up to push off or just coming in, there were times we would simply have to exercise the virtue of patience and wait on them. And there were even times when we helped grab their gear and carry it across. Like, we're going this way on a portage, and they're coming back the other direction. So we're going to their end, and somebody would grab some of their gear and bring it back as they're returning to grab more of our gear. You know, strangers, you don't know, but we help those all around us whenever we have opportunity.

Back to the map. Lake Agnes in the middle. I have that circle around there. That was our intended campsite for the first night. But all the sites were full. Except for one, we'd made our way around the lake site to site, and you can only camp in certain designated sites. They only allow a certain number of people to come into the Boundary Waters Wilderness each day. But this was one of the first and kind of closest in main lakes. And all the sites were full, except for one. There was a small campsite with basically one tent pad, which wasn't going to suit us back in the woods. And so, as we were there discussing it, Mark Welch said, let's not settle for this. Like, what are we going to do? This is, you know, we won't check the whole lake. We're at the other end. And he says, well, let's not settle for this. This really doesn't suit us. We'll carry on, and God will provide what it is that we need. So we did. We pushed on. It meant paddling when we were tired. You know, you'd rather stop if we'd been in the water and across portages for a number of hours already. But it meant two more portages and two more bodies of water to go across. And yet, God provided, because the reward on the other end was a very spacious campground on another lake. That was where we were intending to stop actually the next day over on Boulder Bay. But now we could stay two nights. It was a plus. You know, we could set camp and stay there for two days. But it meant pushing ahead. But the reward in the end was preferable. All in all, we traveled on the first day 13 and a half miles, including seven portages. We were tired. We were sore. But we were very happy. Campground God provided was private. We had our pick of tent sites. The lake was quiet and the fish were ours.

So, you know, how could you get much better than that? And we considered it to be very much God's blessing. Spiritual principle number six. We must not stop paddling until we reach the destination God intends for us. We must not stop paddling until we reach the destination God intends for us.

There may be times in this Christian life when we get tired. That's probably a guarantee for us all. Times when we've been pushing hard through the heat of the day, but the destination is still out there. Right? For years, pushing, working, striving, the destination is still out there somewhere, a ways off. And at those times, it could be tempting to simply pull up short and to say, well, this is good enough. I've come far enough. I put in the effort, but okay, this is okay. This may not be the spot to stop that I was hoping, but I can make it do. And we can sort of reason in our mind that it's okay to let up when we haven't arrived. But spiritually, that doesn't cut it.

God has called us to endure to the end, to never settle for something short of the goal that He has set before us. And the lesson is, if we pull up short, we will miss out. We'll miss out on the destination that God has purposed for us all. The Apostle Paul understood this principle clearly.

You understand what it meant to push on? Philippians chapter 3, verse 12 through 14, Paul stated, not that I have already attained or am already perfected, okay, he says I'm not there yet, but I press on. I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also lay hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended, but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Paul says I press because it's an effort. It's something you've been doing all along, and yet it's something you must continue to do, and you have to push. And sometimes you have to push really hard to keep going. It takes effort to say or to not say this is good enough, right? It takes effort to not say I'm done, I'm tired, let me just rest. I'll take this spot right here because I can live with it, but if it's not the destination that God would have for you, again, it's a compromise, and it's settling for something maybe because it's too hard, because it's too painful to keep going. That's not what God has called us to. The book of Philippians is a prison epistle. Okay, so it always amazes me when I read through Paul's prison epistles. He's upbeat, he's hopeful, and he's under Roman unrest and imprisonment, and he says, yet I'm not giving up, I press on, I continue forward, and it wasn't part of his calling to quit. Jesus Christ tells us in Matthew 24 verse 13 that he who endures to the end shall be saved. So it's a commitment, it's a determination to keep going no matter how far it is because we don't always know.

The church for years used the line, the phrase, the gun lap, right? This is the gun lap, this is the final lap, and yet it's been a pretty long lap. I would say the baton has been passed to another generation, and is it still the gun lap? I think so, but we push on, we carry on without just sort of settling in and calling it good enough. In the end, the results are well worth the effort.

Title this section of slides, each part doing its share. Each part doing its share because everybody had a part to play in the success of the trip. We didn't all do the same things, but we all did something, and the something that we did contributed to the good of the greater whole. Here in this picture we have Jeff Lockhart filtering water to distribute. You get the pump out and you're on the journey, you're on your way, you're not in camp, and so we filtered water as opposed to boil it. So you get the pump out and you're pumping for multiple people. Here's one of our campsites, the one we arrived at at Boulder Bay, past the lake we wished to stop at originally, but again, it takes effort of everybody. Not everybody just hit the shore and flopped on the ground and said, oh good, I'm glad we're here. Certain people set up tents, others went and got firewood, some got the fire going. Everybody had a part to play, and that's spiritual principle number seven for us. Everybody has a part to play and the effective working of the body.

Everybody has a part to play and the effective working of the body. No one should be sitting on the sidelines of this team, and one might say, well, you know, I can't grab a heavy piece of sound equipment and haul it across the room and put it away. Fine. I can appreciate that, but we can encourage one another. Certainly all of us, even with the least the physical strength, can pray for one another. There are things that we can do in support of the body, but every part does its share.

We don't sit on the sidelines, we benefit the whole. This is Frank Dunkel up a tree. He's running a line for a tarp that we stretched out over one of our campsites. You know what? Not everybody on that group could climb a tree like that, but Frank Strong, and he ran the line up there.

Mark Welch, he and Mike Feich were a couple of our biggest fishermen on this trip, and we ate very well. Had fish every day but the Sabbath. We took the Sabbath off, but they would venture out and fish. Four of us got our fishing license, and were able to provide for the rest each and every day.

I know those are kind of small compared to the others, but they tasted better.

We have Mike Feich out on the point there. He master fillere all those years in Florida, so he was showing us, okay, here's this kind of fish. Here's how you fillet this one. Here's this kind of fish. Here's what you're going to do to get the best cut off of this one. Everybody brought their experience and what it is that they would do to the support of the whole.

Frank was up, I don't know, Mr. Dunkel, 5.30 every morning, 5.30. When the rest of us drug out of bed, or at least me, 6.30, 7 o'clock, he comes staggering out of the tent after sleeping, you know, how you sleep on the ground. And you struggle out with your coffee cup and Starbucks because you got to survive somehow in the wilderness. And the fire was always going and the water was hot.

And that was a blessing. That was Frank. He was up early. Here we have Mark Welch and Mike Feich. They bring in and cook the fish that they would catch and kind of made the freeze-dried, just add water. Dinners look substandard next to the fresh catch of every day. But each part did its share. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 16, Paul says, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of self in love. So when we all contribute, it causes growth. And it's for the purpose of growth of the body and the building up of the body in love. And when we each play our part, it is for the benefit of all.

And much can be accomplished. More can be accomplished working together in a synergy than can be accomplished by the exact same number of people working independently on their own. And it's a spiritual principle that I believe God has built into his church.

But again, we're talking about relationships, aren't we? We're talking about knowing one another, interacting with one another on a very personal level in order to engage in this process in this way. It's not just, they're my friend on Facebook and I click like on their post every once in a while. That's great, but we have to engage one another in the process. Thursday was a leisure day.

It was kind of a recovery day from all the paddling we did the day before. It was a day for fishing, exploring, going to see the lay of the land and just enjoying the environment of where we were.

This section I've titled Iron Sharpening Iron. And this was the driving purpose behind this trip, the major focus of why we were even out there. Because as ministers, it's kind of a rare opportunity. I appreciate Mr. Irons very much, somebody that I can rub up against here and bounce things off of. To be honest, the ministry is sometimes a lonely place, even if you're surrounded by people, because there's decisions you need to make, things you need to counsel on, various things. So it's just good to be together. As ministers, we spent many hours over the course of six days discussing topics related to the ministry. Talking about our greatest reward in the ministry, talking about our greatest challenges in the ministry, talking about what it is that we could do to help serve God and the people of God in a more effective way. We shared lessons learned, and this was the most valuable point of our time together.

And again, the driving force behind why we came together in this way. The spiritual principle number eight is iron sharpening iron plays an essential role in the strengthening of the body on the journey. Iron sharpening iron plays an essential role to the strengthening of the body on the journey. Proverbs chapter 27 and verse 17 says, as iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. And it's an interesting characteristic about iron, because you can take it, you can rub it up against another piece of iron, and it shapes it, it molds it, it sharpens it, depending on, you know, the angle and the pressure that you apply, and the heat and the friction that's born out of that application, much can be done.

In a similar way than people, can help each other to grow, to mature by rubbing up on one another in a right and proper way through our relationships, and it shapes us and it sharpens us in our interactions. The core of the scripture is about relationships again, the quality of our relationships, the depths of our relationships. It's not something that happens only in Sabbath services, where we show up for two hours and then go on our way. This is something that happens through through interactions, and the quality of the relationship that doesn't only sharpen me, but sharpens you, and it cuts both ways.

Life Application Study Bible has a footnote commentary to Proverbs 27, 17, and it sums up the concept this way. It says, there's a mental sharpness that comes from being around good people, and a meeting of the minds can help people to see their ideas with new clarity, to refine them and to shape them into brilliant insights. This requires discussion partners who can challenge each other and stimulate thought, people who focus on the idea without involving egos in the discussion, people who know how to attack the thought and not the thinker. It says, two friends who bring their ideas together can help each other become sharper.

Again, I would just say this is obviously describing a deep and an interactive relationship, and it is what is meant to be among us in the body of Jesus Christ, that we have God's Spirit in us, binding us together.

This past year has been difficult, hasn't it? And we've had challenges. I'm excited. We're having a barbecue this afternoon. We had one a couple of weeks ago. Kennewick's having one this afternoon. There's another one in Kennewick at Lindy's place next week. It says, the opportunities to come together, we've missed that. And yet, that is the time in which we get to really sit down personally one-on-one, get to know each other, and get to grow in our relationships together. There's something about breaking bread together, right? Something about sharing in an adventure together.

Even something about sharing in challenges and adversity together that can bring us out sharper on the other end than we were before, and it brings us to a deeper level with each other.

So I would say as we move forward from this point, it's important we seek that contact. We seek to have each other in one another's homes, to interact as often as we can, even outside of church services.

This is a beautiful picture of our surroundings. It wasn't hard to think about God, you know, when you're surrounded by His creation. And as I said, there's times you just need to stop, get your eyes up, look around, see what it is that God's provided. There are no motorized boats or loud noise-making devices allowed in the boundary waters. And in fact, the airspace over the boundary waters is a Federal Reserve as well. So no low-flying planes, no drones below 4,000 feet over the boundary waters. And when you just stop and listen, there was nothing but you and creation and the hum of mosquitoes. There was that too. But, you know, it was a blessing to simply stop and think about God. Spiritual Principle number nine, taking time for God is essential to the journey. Taking time for God is essential to the journey. And don't worry, I'm going to stop with 10 principles. I think the most I've ever had in a sermon. Taking time for God is essential to the journey. I often found myself looking around at God's handiwork and just thinking. And it would cause you to think about Him and to engage Him in prayer and meditation. I want to scroll through a few pictures here. I'm just going to give you some silence. I just want to scroll through a few pictures and let you see the scenery. Just consider the majesty of God and the blessing of being amongst His creation.

When you have times of peace, of reflection, it gives you opportunity just to more easily, again, open up to God. And it's not the first thing I think about when I'm stuck in traffic, right? Rush hour. Thinking about, oh, this is peaceful. I just, you know, open a meditation to God. I'm actually fighting to keep other thoughts out of my head. But just in the surrounding of God's creation, you see His handiwork and the wonder of who and what He is. It just lends itself to opening up with Him, meditating in prayer. Psalm 145 in verse 5. Psalm 145 verse 5, King David writes, I will meditate on the glorious splendor of your majesty and on your wonderful works. Because I'm just going to thank God about who you are and the glorious nature of simply you as a being and your plan for us and your purpose and even the reason for my existence. The stars were brilliant out away from the city and made me think of David, again, at a window unzipped on my tent and I could look up through the screen and see the stars out at night. Two, three in the morning, they're just brilliant. And I thought of David just looking up through the heavens and saying, you know, what is man that you're mindful of Him? And it provokes that unity with God, I think, is so essential in our relationship with Him. On Friday, we packed up our gear from the beautiful campsite. We doubled back by way of a different route, able to avoid a couple portages and come down a side river back out into a lake that was nearest what would then be our final push for pickup on Sunday morning, but we could come around and spend the Sabbath on Nina Moose Lake.

And it was about two hours within range of where we would meet the outfit or Sunday morning.

So we spent the Sabbath here, we set up our camp in the middle of the point, and it was another day for time together. We actually weren't out fishing or exploring. We spent the whole day together, just again discussing things related to our calling, to the ministry, and to service of God's people, and it was a very peaceful and relaxing day.

Aww. Looks innocent, doesn't he? Our adventure wasn't without friends along the way. Fortunately, no bears. We met one canoeist who stopped and stayed at the one tent site that we passed up back a couple days previous. He woke up in the morning and there was a bear rummaging through camp. So I think it was fortunate for us to keep moving on, but in the final camp site we had these adorable little chipmunks, and they thought they were tame anyway. And being a close in sight, I think they're used to campers, and as soon as you turn in their back, they were in your gear. One of the guys opened his backpack up and there's rustling inside and he picks up a ziplock bag of peanuts and there's a chipmunk inside the ziplock as he chewed through the side of the bag and was having a snack. So this one went out with oatmeal and raisins, and if you set something down right next to you on the log and you're visiting, they would sneak up right behind you and grab and make off for the woods with whatever they could sink their cute little teeth into. This was our remedy each night to the bears and chipmunks. The food was packed up in the canoe and anchored out in the lake where it would be at least safe and edible. So Sunday was our final push. We rose about 5 30 in the morning on Sunday. We broke camp. Skeets, Mez, and I had gone out fishing Saturday night after sundown and we pulled in four fish and we fried those up for breakfast on Sunday morning and we pushed off about 6 45, heading back towards where we would eventually hike out for the pickup. We went back across the lake, back up Moose River, across portages, across new beaver dams. I mean, you just... busy beaver is a appropriate term. You come up and it's like, where was... this wasn't here four days ago, five days ago, when we passed through and there's a dam full of tree limbs with green leaves and grass on them and so they were out of the boat and over the dam once again. We are again at the end of another portage and half a mile portage now uphill back to the parking lot. But we finished strong and, you know, that was actually a focus because when we put in at the last portage, the thought was, okay, we got plenty of time. We're an hour ahead of schedule to meet the outfitter and we could just sort of meander up there. We can make a few trips, make it easy on ourselves, but we kind of had this determination of, all right, let's finish strong and, you know, we put a pack on your back and put a canoe over your head or a pack on the front, pack on the back and we all made our way that half mile uphill. I think we were stronger coming out than when we went in and there was a sense of accomplishment that we all felt over finishing strong. Just spiritual principle number 10, final principle today, spiritual principle number 10, we have to finish strong. Really doesn't matter, brethren, how long you've been on this spiritual journey. It doesn't matter how tired you are or even if the last leg is uphill with a pack on your back or a canoe over your head. It's not how we start the journey that matters in the end, it's how we finish. And the manner in which we finish means we must continue to paddle and we must finish strong.