What a blessing to break in the new cross! We logged 12 walking miles, claiming three high motroable passes—the Taglung La (17,482 ft.), the remote Yar La (16,240 ft.), and the Polongko La (16,305 ft.) We also walked the cross through a nomad camp, from the high point at their mani stone shrine down to the main highway.
Read MoreNearly 20 years ago, I met two young Muslim men from Kashmir on the streets of Leh as Jamie and I were pushing Bethany in a stroller up the steep hill of Fort Road. I built a bit of a relationship with them over the ensuing weeks before they had to suddenly depart the area because of a death in the family. On October 11, 2006, I penned these words in my journal:
Read MoreYesterday, we had 13 encounters with Israeli backpackers here in Leh. Today, we enjoyed another 7 encounters. Carter preached to a group of six or seven outside the Airtel Office (where everyone goes to get a cellular SIM card that works in Ladakh). He took them through the Law and the Prophets and declared Christ. All took Hebrew Gospel tracts. At the new Japanese coffee shop in town, it seems Israelis are always there. Josiah preached to a group of four young men on leave from the IDF, and the girls shared with two young ladies. A lot of Hebrew tracts have gone out.
Read MoreTeam Yeshua made it to Keylong today for a night of acclimatization at 10,000 ft. We got here from Manali several hours faster than with our last volunteer team that came here in 2016. And 2016 was much faster than 2014 when my family and I got stuck for six hours because of a washed-out bridge. The kids were little and tracted everyone stuck there with us. I remember it vividly.
Read MoreThis morning, we finished up a teaching on the general revelation of God that all men in every place have heard. All men have heard from the Lord: CREATION declares there is a Creator. The CURSE of sin declares there to be a problem between the Creator and His creation. And the CONSCIENCE shouts said problem to be personal: There is a problem between the Creator and you. The solution to this grave dilemma is by special revelation, the Word of God. Many have never heard the answer to the problem. That’s why we gotta go tell ‘em.
Read MoreTwo to three days in Delhi is usually about all I can take. As recently as two weeks ago, the heat and the apocalyptic yellow haze would have been so much worse. But, praise the Lord, the monsoon has begun! Temps are in the 80s with some rain here and there. Unfortunately, a lot of rain in the mountains we have to cross means mudslides and washed-out roads. Our overland path crossing the Himalaya, at this point, is uncertain. Prayers appreciated. We head out early tomorrow morning in a 12-seater Tempo, bound for Manali at about 6500 ft in elevation. It’s a 12-hour drive that must start early to avoid Delhi traffic.
Read MoreYour prayers are much appreciated as Team Yeshua Big Sky departs early tomorrow morning for South Asia. Lord willing, we shall rendezvous with Carter & Bethany in Qatar. We’ll be traveling many miles by land and over big mountains for the next 6 weeks. It has been a good time of training and preparation here under a big sky in Montana. It’s now time for the next chapter, under a big sky in South Asia.
Read MoreToday, Team Yeshua enjoyed a great time of outreach in downtown Missoula. I sent them out to put into practice some of the things we have been teaching them concerning our Lord’s Great Commission. They walked several city blocks with the cross and had not a few conversations about the things of the Lord. Many Gospel tracts went out, as well as a few pairs of fresh socks for some homeless souls.
Read MoreThis Independence Day, contemplate for a moment the above question? Here in Montana with our Team Yeshua volunteers, I have recently been asking this question of folks we meet in the highways and byways. While pounding some pavement in Madison County with the cross, I stopped to ask this question of a lady sitting outside a bar in the dead-end community of Pony. She replied, “I really don’t care.”
Read MoreSince arriving in Montana this summer, we have walked about 65 miles of spur off #TheLongWalkUSA main route (including 28 miles of previously “un-walked” pavement in Madison County) and have enjoyed around 73 witnessing encounters. 2 Bibles have gone out, and there has been one encounter with a lost sheep from the House of Israel, a father down by the riverside with his children. We are truly whipping our Team Yeshua volunteers into shape for the high-altitude of Ladakh, and Montana has proven a great place to do it.
Read MoreThe team is headed out to do some cross-walking, along a spur route from Missoula to Seeley where we aim to connect with #TheLongWalkUSA main route as it turned north toward Seeley Lake back during the summer of 2023.
Read Moret’s a joy to finally have my wife officially alongside Team Yeshua here in Montana. Saturday, we made an airport run to Spokane, Washington and enjoyed a good time of street ministry. After several days of training concerning the Christian’s responsibility to evangelize the lost, I turned the volunteers loose in Riverfront Park (a great place to preach) while I went to snag Jamie form the airport.
Read MoreIt seems like I just got back home to North Carolina, and now, it’s time to go back out again. It’s been said of great adventures “there and back again,” but for us, it seems more like HERE AND BACK AGAIN. I rejoice to announce: God has raised up this year’s Team Yeshua, and we are already seeing doors open in both Montana and South Asia. It’s going to be an incredible summer of ministry. What a blessing to train up young people and to give them a taste of real missions at a literal end of the earth!
Read MoreIn the 1970’s came the drifter-tourists. Having completed very tense Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conscriptions in very tense times, these individual nonconformists began reacting to the predictable status quo of Jewish life in a land surrounded by enemies who wanted to push them into the sea. They took a break and went trekking!
Read MoreMuch has already happened in 2025, our 23rd straight year of Great Commission ministry and consistent Gospel testimony. The same message we preached in 2003 as I rode a bicycle across America is the same message we preached in 2023 on a long walk across America. It’s the same message we have preached in forty-six foreign countries and it will be the same message next month in #47 …
Read MoreTeam Yeshua 2019 has competed its work, and the volunteers have all returned home safely to their families. This group was younger than our previous ones, but it proved to be one of our best teams yet and one of the most hungry to learn. It was a great summer down here in Peru . . .
Read MoreTeam Yeshua has three weeks left, my family and I a little more than ten weeks; but soon, the entire season will be a tale that is told. Should we all be found faithful stewards of the Gospel, then the tale will have been, as we say in Spanish, valió la pena (i.e. worth the effort) with a guaranteed happy ending . . .
Read MoreOn May 31, 1970 at 3:23pm, the earth trembled in the Ancash and La Libertad Regions of Peru and the mountain town of Huaraz with its quaint Spanish colonial ambience, the place where we are currently based, was completely flattened. More than 95% of the regional capital was destroyed and 25,000 people living here perished. Today’s Huaraz retains little to none of its former ambience. The earthquake lasted a mere 45 seconds, and it is estimated that between 65-70,000 people died and approximately 50,000 were injured in Northern Peru . . .
Read MoreHistorically, the word colporter was used to reference those who labored to distribute the printed Word of God, those who traveled far and wide to give out the Bible to folks who didn’t have a copy for themselves. In earlier American history, the Baptist Colportage Board (extinct for many years) did a lot of good work on the frontiers and in the army camps of the Civil War . . .
Read MoreWe just returned from a quick road trip out to South Dakota and back for the wedding of two quality young people who have served as Team Yeshua volunteers in times past, both in South Asia and South America. It was a good time, and as we posed with the bride and groom during the reception alongside a hodgepodge of other former Team Yeshua volunteers, two words came to mind against a backdrop of joy: ONCE AGAIN . . .
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