On Thursday, February 19, we had a tour at Living Waters Publications. It was interesting to meet Ray Comfort and his staff. The night before we came, the Living Waters parking lot was filled with cameras and actors. They were filming a scene of “Audacity”, their newest movie. We got to watch a couple clips of a scene with an EMT, who was actually Ray Comfort’s “favorite” atheist friend:)
We also got to see Ray Comfort’s very humorous side. The whole bookstore area was covered in different funny signs. He also had a whole Bible in one picture frame. Those words were mighty hard to read, even with a magnifying glass!
If you blow this picture up, you will see: “Stand up. I’m just a man!” We all bent down on our knees to see what the tiny print said:)
Upon coming out of the building, who of all people should we see but Josh and Anna Duggar getting out of their car! They were doing some work with Ray Comfort.
We had an awesome time, and pray that the Lord would use us and the tracts we bought for His glory.
On Tuesday, February 17, we toured the Grand Canyon with Canyon Ministries. Note, If you click on the individual pictures they will be enlarged to see the grandeur of the canyon.
It is amazing to see the view from the rim of the canyon for the first time. All of the sudden you are gazing at a huge piece of artwork before you and it literally looks like it cannot be as vast as it seems. It almost makes you think that what you are looking at is just a picture.
The tour started off near the townsite of Grand Canyon with a presentation on the rock layers and intrepretation of the evidence in the canyon. Then we did a short hike along the rim. One nice thing about American tourist sites compared to Canadian ones is that in the US you are allowed to go off the walkways or walk around the railings, if they have any, (that is if the womenfolk in your family let you:-) ).
If you look in the above picture you can see the same peak near the middle of the photo that Jesse and I took pictures near while hiking down.
Nate Loper, our tour guide.
This little guy was sun-tanning and enjoying the view!
As you can see there are hand-rails here, but at this point they were nice because the drop was far enough that if you fell you could probably count to ten before hitting the plateau far below.
After the hike we toured some of the museums and had lunch. Then the tour continued with us stopping at various points along the canyon with our tour guide, Nate, explaining things from a Biblical Creationist perspective all along the way.
The immense size of the canyon is hard to even comprehend when standing on the rim, yet alone from a picture, but at this point it probably is at least 16 km across! To give perspective, the widest point of the city of Saskatoon would probably fit in between the two rims of the canyon in this picture. It is hard to tell when you are there but the canyon is cut through a sloping piece of ground, so the North Rim is about 1000 feet higher than the South Rim where this picture is taken.
I had Andrew lean a little back over the railing to get a perspective of what I am guessing was a 2000 foot cliff.
Contrary to what I expected there were actually a lot of trees near the top of the canyon.
Of course most of us had to get our pictures taken preferebly near the edge! Not to say that we were as extreme as many of the tourists who stood inches from the edge or even had pictures taken of themselves jumping within a miniscule distance of the edge. But we also were not as chicken as the fellow with a snowboard helmet who said he was not taking it off until he got out of the state. He would not even go near the railings to be in a photo with his friends.
As the afternoon drew to a close we made our way to Desert tower lookout.
Before we climbed the tower, we stopped and had one last explanation of the canyon as well as a wonderful mini worship service, which was awesome!
Then up the tower we went.
The windows in the towers almost seemed like picture frames.
We were pleasantly surprised to see a plaque with a Bible verse on it overlooking the washout!
In this picture you can see the Kaibab upwarp in which the water would have had to flow uphill had the canyon formed via slow erosion by the Colorado River. This picture is taken pretty well level, as you can see, the land naturally slopes upward about a thousand feet. This alone is proof that the canyon is not a result of millions of years of erosion.
Then it was back into the Bus where we watched a Creation video while we were driven back to our hotel.
The Creation tour was wonderful, and the Canyon was breathtaking!
Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever. Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains. At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth. Psalm 104:5-9
On Febuary 25, shortly after 7am, Josh and I hit the trail. Although it is not recommended to go down to the Colorado River and back in one day, it is possible but difficult! We hiked down the South Kaibob Trail.
Starting off the hike in subzero weather made us thankful for microspikes!
From a distance
Close up look at the same rock formation you see on the picture above and below this one.
Looking back to the South Rim where we started.
Skeleton Point!
Continuing to descend
A mule train. This is how many people come into the canyon, how food and supplies are hauled down to Phantom Ranch and how garbage is hauled out!
Looking back to the South rim from the plateau
And the North Rim
First view into the inner canyon. Might look close but still a long ways to go!
Met a friendly Longhorn Sheep!
Red mud on the trail was the story of most of our way down.
We got to cross two suspension bridges. The first: Kaibab (Black) Bridge which was made in 1921. It is 420 ft. long and about 60 ft above the river!
The second supports the Trans-Canyon pipeline which supplies the park. It pipes water from a spring on the North side all the way up the South Rim! To give scale, if you look carefully you can see me on the bridge.
The “burning” bush!
You can barely see the rim of the canyon rim from the river!
On our way up Bright Angel Trail.
In the background of this picture you can see some bent brown rock which shows that this rock would have bent while it was still soft because if it is bent after hardening it would only crack and shatter.
We made it! 10 hours later, 27 kms and over 9000 ft of elevation change PTL!
Ah Lord God! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: Jeremiah 32:17
About a week ago, I posted about filming at an old western movie set. Well, here is the finished product- “Do LORD” also known as “I’ve Got A Home In Glory Land!”
Monday morning, February 23rd, around 10:30 a.m. we started our ascent of one of Phoenix’s mountains with our friends the Johnson family who are doing concerts in the southern states.
By 11:30 a.m. all the boys got to the top of Echo Canyon trail.
Jesse:) The big city of Phoenix and its suburbs. It went almost as far as the eye could see on all sides!
Jesse & Andrew in front of one of the many cacti.
The two cavemen also known as the Micahs:)
The giant Cave!
The kids on the giant rock. After we finished hiking, all of us went to Chik-Fil-A for lunch, and swam for the rest of the afternoon.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Psalm 90: 2
