About time I saw a mountain goat!

In a couple weeks I go to Manila. I'm going to be teaching 5 sessions for a training for the leaders of the Urban Church Planting Project-- 3 on "house churches", one on mission teams, and one that will be a "team building" session. Furthermore, I am preaching the same weekend I leave - May 20/21. It's difficult to prepare for teaching at the office -- there is a constant demand for administrative activity and personal interaction. So I scheduled a day away just for study. I called my old youth pastor from high school -- Grant Esborg -- a great guy who happens to have a condo in Leavenworth, Washington. He lets me stay there from time to time.

Everything worked out -- so I set aside a Friday for study and drove over Highway 2 on a Thursday night to spend Friday studying. OnThursday night and Friday morning I knocked out my sermon - I'm looking forward to it. It is based on 1 Peter 4:7-11. After that I went for my customary run. The only difference here is that there are awesome trails out my backyard along the Icicle River. First I tried for Mt. Cashmere, but there was too much snow. After a 50 minute run I returned to my truck and went down to the Snow Lake trailhead.

The sun was beating down as I made my way up ten continuous switch backs. As I ran with my head down I was stunned to look up and find myself nearly face to face with a Mountain Goat! For some reason, in spite of all the hikes and climbs I have done, I had never had this pleasure before.

I quickly stumbled for my camera and found my tame majestic friend to be very compliant with photography. I took all these photos, and even a video as I forced him off the trail when I passed by. I made my way further up the trail until it became impassable. I headed back to my truck -- 3 hours of running or hiking. It was a nice break before I "hit the books" once again. Thanks Grant for sharing your condo! My sermon is ready to go, as are my outlines for Manila. On top of that, I feel like God surprised me with a face to face encounter with a Mountain Goat!