Hello!
School is now in its full swing. My mornings are spent reading school books, responding to discussion posts, and preparing for deadlines. In the midst of the work, I'm making sure I still get out exploring.
On my days off, I went to Mesa Verde National Park. This was my second time visiting the park, but it's still incredible to stand surrounded by 800-2,000 year-old ruins hearing the stories of how the Ancient Puebloans lived in this region, farming the mesa tops for food, gathering water in reservoirs (one of which could hold about 800 million gallons!), and surviving the arid region around here. There are over 2,000 separate archeological sites here in the park, and 600 of them are cliff dwellings. The artistry of the architecture is incredible to explore. This is the only national park in the United States dedicated to preserve human artifacts instead of a natural landscape. While the early days of white exploration of Mesa Verde stripped many of the artifacts of this place, to see the walls, watchtowers, kivas, and homes still standing is an awesome sight. On the inside of a watchtower of Cliff Palace, there is even an original painting made over 800 years ago! Having visited several ruins and archeological areas in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico and across the nation of Israel, it's amazing to see similar ruins here within the United States.
In the midst of guided tours through the ruins, probably one of my best moments was sitting on a balcony watching a thunderstorm roll in while studying. In the canyon below I could hear elk bugling during their migration off the mesa, the smell of freshly fallen rain wafted across the breeze, and the rumble of ongoing lightning strikes continued to engage me in the midst of studying about the rise of the Google Age and how to minister within the virtual world. One of my new classes is called Communication in Ministry, exploring how to minister in a world that meets more people online than personally. No matter how much information the Internet or printed books can provide, there still isn't anything like the experience itself. This week has brought a good challenge to me: how do you take experience and put that into a blog? I say that sort-of tongue-in-cheek, because I've been doing it for two years with this blog, but something about this week's reading while being surrounded by ancient ruins really brought this to the forefront.
I first started this blog out of the demand of family wanting to keep updated on my adventures and because individual emails, and group emails later on, were becoming too much of a hassle. Attaching photos took so long in these areas with little Internet strength, and once summer ministry started, my time slimmed even further. This blog helped me stay in contact with people, giving me the chance to share my adventures vicariously with my readers. In response to this though, this week has caused me to really question the impact this blog has had. I've had to consider how many readers have gone out and had an adventure of their own, and whether readers now get out and away to spend quiet time listening to God in wilderness areas. While I recognize that not everyone can live the life I live, there isn't a substitute for experience. We read books, ebooks, and emails to learn and connect, but there will always be a threshold between those who are the recipients of another's journeys and those who step up and step out into something new. I don't necessarily have an answer to all my pondering for this week, but it's nice to step back for a moment and consider the reason why we do the things we do. As I seek to better understand how to connect with online readers, I'm challenged to lean more on God to show me in the weeks and months ahead.
Photos of the Week are included. My challenge for you this week is to intentionally spend some time outdoors in solitude and quietness. See what happens. Blessings on your week!
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