update

What an incredible trip it has been so far!!!!! ....and I'm still in Philly. I was scheduled to be on three different planes by the time that I got out of Albany. In Philly I found out that my tickets had been cancelled by the travel agent without notifying us. So I spent the night in Philly. Praise the Lord that we were able to get tickets through our normal travel agent and their office is based in Philly! Def a God thing! So I took the train downtown and got my tickets. I fly this am to Africa. Pray for me 'cause someone doesn't want me to get to Africa.

Leaving for Africa -The journey begins.

Well I leave tomorrow to begin my long trip to Africa. I will be out of computerland most of the time but I will try and call a few times to give updates that will be posted here: http://www.climbingforchrist.org/ so check there often to keep track of whats going on and to know how to pray for me. Thanks for your prayers and to all of you who gave $ to make this trip possible.

Prayer request

Please join us in prayer for our van. It has become an unreliable money pit. We are praying that God will either A. keep this van working or B. provide us with a different one. Will you join us in praying?

What was Abraham thinking????

How could a man of God like Abraham think that God would approve of him having sexual relations with his wife's handmaiden in order to try and "help God out"? That is what I was pondering yesterday morning just before my wife called and said that our van quit running(again). It appears to be another fuel pump(#6). Why now God? No money, big bills(taxes/water/etc), a wedding to go to in Binghamton on Thur., leaving for Africa next week,.......why now God? My first reaction is to go into problem solver mode, and try to figure out a way for me to make it work out. Would God approve of using a credit card to pay for unexpected expenses or would that be like having sexual relations with my wife's handmaid? Hmmmm?

Not quite sure where I'm headed, but walking there by faith.

No end to the excitement!

The problem with waiting so long to update is that there is sooo much to report and I might forget something, but I will do my best.
Praise the Lord! He provided the funds needed for both Kris and I for our trip to Costa Rica! Thanks to all of you who prayed and gave!
We were supposed to go on a family hike for "Take a kid climbing" day for Climbing for Christ back on Aug. 19th, but it got rained out. We ended up going on Monday the 21st instead and had a good hike up snow mountain. Our family arrived at the trailhead 10 minutes early(a miracle) only to discover that we had left the kid-carrier backpack for Moriah in the kitchen at home. So the family started up the trail and Moriah and Dad drove 40min. home to get the carrier and 40min. back. Dad got quite the work out carrying Moriah at a "catch-up" pace up the trail! My memory is not what it used to be- I don't remmeber Moriah weighing so much and I don't remember the trai up snow mountain being so steep right from the start. Luckily the other two families got a late start and I met them at the end of the steep section. The trail eventualy turns into an old logging road for a while and I was able to let Moriah out to hike on her own and we caught up to the rest of the family in time for the climb to the summit. Moriah wasn't excited about getting back in the carrier(thankfully) and turned out to be quite the climber. Gideon had his climbing shoes with him and got in a little bouldering in near the summit. Had to believe he starts pre-school tomorrow! We had three families go for a total of 14 kids and 5 adults on the summit! Quite the crew.
I(Todd) was able to get some tree work in to provide some income and pay some bills. Then we were able to squeeze in a family vacation(unpaid when you are self-employed). We went camping at Rollins pond campground in the Adirondacks. Sorry no photos, we took the camera but never took any pictures. We went for a family bike ride to check things out. The next day while renting canoes we realised, when we told the lady that we had rented canoes there when we were on a youth group trip in the 80's and she said that it was probably her parents or even grandparents that rented them to us, that it was more than 20 years ago! Man we are getting old! It was fun for us to share some memories with our children and introduce them to an area that we came to love so many years ago. We were blessed to be able to eat lunch on "R" island in Floodwood pond where we spent many nights camping on wilderness trips "back-in-the-day" that was neat for Kris and I even if the kids didn't comprehend the significance. The rain held off and we were able to complete the loop(including 2 canoe carries) just as it started to sprinkle. The next day we tried to go to church in lake Placid but by the time we got there the service was half over so we went out to lunch and went window shopping in "Lake Plastic" then we went to the local elementary school to check out their playground. Moriah came off the end of the slide and smacked the back of her head with instant blood and Gideon had an accident in his pants almost simultaneously. After cleaning them both up (Moriah's head wasn't as bad as it initially appeared) we headed back to the campsite. We decided that instead of packing up and moving to Fish Creek Pond campground and setting back up for one night (rollins pond closed on labor day) we would just head home. So we packed up and my dump truck wouldn't start! After paying a guy $60(he would have taken $80 if I had it in my wallet) to come out and tell me my alternator wasn't charging my brand-new battery. We got it started and started limping towards home. We got as far as North Hudson and ran out of gas(gauge doesn't work). Kris continued home (+/-40miles south) to get some gas cans and drop some of the kids while I waited with Gideon at the truck. After some gas and another jump start we finally made it home. No end to the excitement, and that was just the highlights.
If you are still with me, I will give you a ministry update. I leave next week for a build in Wisconsin with Signature Research. Then the last week in Sept. I leave for Lesotho for three weeks. Please pray that I will have wisdom and discernment as I seek to know what if any role Climbing for Christ will have there in Lesotho.