The Trip Before 'The Trip': 5 Days in the Rocky Mountains

Greetings Friends and Family,

At the risk of making you wonder if those of us in full time pastoral ministry really work that hard at all, I want to share with you an opportunity that I (Ryan) am currently experiencing. I have the privilege of being in Estes Park, Colorado at the YMCA of the Rockies for a 'Denominational Orientation Week' with the church organization that Corvallis Evangelical is associated with. It is an opportunity to spend time with my friend and mentor, Ron Johnson, and to learn more about our denomination's history, theology and mission. Much to my excitement, the meetings are taking place at the foot of the beautiful Rocky Mountains.

Sunday morning in the Rocky Mountains

We arrived here yesterday after a day of flying and driving, to a HUGE campus retreat center. The various lodges and cabins are absolutely beautiful and the accommodations are extremely comfortable...I'm really suffering for Jesus. The camp sits at about 8,000 feet in elevation, which even for a guy from Sandy, Oregon is quite high and it took me a little while to catch my breath. The other elevation issue that I have experienced is thirst. I've been thirsty and no matter how much water I seem to drink, I'm still parched and trying to stay hydrated.

During our worship gathering and times of reflection and prayer today (the classes start tomorrow) there was a theme that God kept bringing to my attention and its reflected well in a teaching from Jesus in John 7:37-38:

"Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believe in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them." 

The invitation that Jesus has given to me during this 'trip before the trip', is to 'come and drink'. To drink from the life-giving water of God's Holy Spirit because there is nothing else in all of the world that will satisfy or quench my thirst like God's Spirit will. I want to be the husband, father, pastor and person who is committed to passionately pursuing a relationship with Jesus each and every day and my need for that relationship becomes the same as my need for water to sustain me. So, in the same way that I am physically thirsting for water at 8,000 feet, my prayer for myself and for each of us, is that we might come to Jesus for the gift of His Holy Spirit, to renew, refresh and fill us up in order that we might be a life-giving presence to those around us.

I'll try and post some pictures and maybe additional thoughts from my time here. Pray for Kealy and the kids while I'm away.

Grace and Peace,

Ryan Thorson

Here are some photos from a hike we took this morning...we happened to come across 5 bull elk about 10 feet away...pretty cool!

Up the Trail

Rocks in the "Rockies" #ironic

a herd of mule deer

a herd of bull elk

the big daddy elk from about 10 ft away still with velvet antlers