I am traveling to Albuquerque on Saturday to spend a week meeting with folks, including some time encouraging a new family that will be moving to Mongolia this summer from the Duke City. After my time in Albuquerque is complete I’ll make a quick run back to Tucson to pack up for my return trip home to Mongolia.

I’ve been in the States for eight months, minus the three weeks I spent in Ulaanbaatar in January for Rochele’s wedding. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to getting back home, being with my wife and youngest daughter Whitney, and getting back to work.

About a month after I return to Mongolia I’ll be starting some distance education classes on Old Testament Studies through Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS). I’ve wanted to attend RTS for the last twelve years and this was the first year that my schedule and finances would permit it. Why am I taking seminary classes with RTS? To prepare for future ministry of course, and to augment my current ministry with Eagle TV.

During the last week my course materials have been arriving. Stacks of books, software, and audio lectures are sitting on the kitchen table waiting for packing day. Among the many books, almost half of them are for Hebrew studies. Needless to say, language isn’t one of my strong suits. Mongolian has been more than a little tough for this full-time working guy. I’ve no little trepidation about taking two classes in Hebrew. In 1993 I took six months of Arabic and did pretty well. I’m hoping that the magic will come back, so to speak, for the Hebrew studies. One of the things I enjoyed about Arabic was that is was a completely different animal from English, not just in sentence structure, but also the characters. There was something about that that actually helped my study. The characters can’t be confused with anything English, unlike Mongolian where an H is an N, and a P is an R, and so on. I’m hoping the same thing that happened to me with Arabic will also happen with Hebrew.

By the way, don’t ask me to translate anything from Arabic. I’ve lost almost everything I knew, which was just an elementary level anyway.

Looking forward to being in Albuquerque for a few days.

We had a great time yesterday morning at the staff photo shoot. We usually do our annual shoot in December, but I was in the States and the staff didn’t want to do the pictures without me. Very thoughtful. (Click the image for the Flickr version.)

Of course we have to have a little goofiness with pictures each year, and yesterday was no different as you can see by Bayaraa’s approach to dealing with upper management.

As for other activity…today I’m picking up vistiors from Calvary Chapel of Albuquerque. One of them is my new friend, Servey, who will be moving to Mongolia to start a Calvary Chapel movement. He’ll be here learning about Mongolia life, visiting with Mongolian believers, and getting the lay of the land before moving his family here.

I was part of Calvary ABQ for four years when I lived in New Mexico during my KLYT days. Since last year we’ve been airing The Connection with Skip Heitzig. The program is very well received and the Calvary style of strong expositional teaching seems to work here, which is good, because expositional teaching is a bit of a rarity in Mongolia.

After the visit we all head back to the States together. They head home and I head to Board meetings and time with my doctor before returning home to Mongolia in March.

Pulled into the driveway about an hour ago. The trip back was a nice one.

We usually take the “Hatch” route and get back to Tucson within seven hours. This trip took ten. We ditched the usual and took the “back” route with stop offs at the VLA (Very Large Array) and Salt River Canyon in Arizona. The drive was much longer, but honestly I much prefer it. The sites were great.

I lived in New Mexico for nearly seven years. During that time I never visited the VLA. I love astronomy. I was determined not to leave the state without spending at least an hour at the VLA.

I wasn’t dissapointed.

Our trip to the Duke City was short. We were there for only three days. Most of that time was spent consulting a family from Calvary Chapel Albuquerque about a possible move to Mongolia. The rest of the time was spent trying to get a fax done with our bank in Florida. No joke. We must have wasted 8 hours over a two day period trying to get it done. Crazy.

Now we’re back, ready to work on some web projects for ministries, and gearing up for Thanksgiving week. Rochele is coming and I could not be more excited…except…I wish Ben was coming with her.

Sage is back home. Aside from pain in her face and puffiness, she is okay. You can’t make it out in this picture, but one of the puncture marks from the rattlesnake bite is quite noticeable on the bridge of her nose.

We’re thankful that the cost to save her was $400 less than the estimate the doctor first gave us. That really helps. Also, on behalf of my wife and daughter, a big thanks to those who called to help and express sympathy. I have to confess that, for me, this wasn’t so much about the dog as it was about my wife and daughter. They’ve been through a trying time with me the last few months. It’s hard to say no to my family when they want to save the dog after all they have done for me.

We’re leaving for Albuquerque tomorrow morning to consult with Calvary Chapel of Albuquerque about a family they are sending to Mongolia to start a movement there.

We’re hosting a barbeque tomorrow for friends from our old Sunday School class. After that we drive up to Show Lo to spend a day with Matt & Elaine Gatson and drive through the Petrified Forrest and Painted Desert. On Monday we load back up in the car and speed off to Albuquerque where I’ll be consulting Calvary Chapel of Albuquerque about a family they are sending to Mongolia to start a Calvary Chapel movement.

All that to say I’ll be out of pocket for about a week.

CYA.