ANTHOLOGY OF CHRISTIAN WILDERNESS PURSUITS
A Book Proposal
    Biblically speaking, the wilderness has been a valuable stage upon which God and humanity have played out vital scenes. Noah, Job, Moses, David, Elijah, Jonah, John the Baptist, Jesus, Luke and Paul, plus the Apostle John had life changing episodes on the high seas or outback. They were outward bound. Each Saint had their rendezvous with God written down for us to read and learn from. Many modern day Saint who pursue wilderness activities and leads experiential education courses are great story tellers. The Anthology of Christian Wilderness Pursuits will be a collection of their adventures with God.

    Premise: The secular mountaineering realm has monthly magazines, yearly journals, expedition accounts, and the so called anthology. Rock & Ice, the American Alpine Club annual book, Chris Bonnington novels, and the collection Games Climbers Play, are all excellent literary publications. Christiandom has no such document. It is high time the church enter this field.

    Why does the church need to get involved? As a youth beginning my alpine career (non Christian), when I wasn't moving over stone or snow, I was reading everything I could get my hands on to learn more about these crafts. I still love reading the mountain adventures of others. As Believers, we need to be encouraged and taught by intrepid voyagers, hence this anthology. Calvin Landrus, president of Solid Rock Climbers for Christ, endorses this project. Will Toms of Sea & Summit says such a book will "benefit the kingdom."

    Who will accomplish this El Capitan size project? The anthology team consists of Jim Boucher (Summit Expeditions and Outward Bound, past president Christian Wilderness Leaders Coalition), David Mulkey (past instructor Summit Expeditions and Adventure, current faculty Azusa Pacific University, teacher of writing), Susan Wohletz (editor CWLC publications), and myself David Sweetland (tech rep for Sport Rock indoor climbing walls, writer for newspapers). All of us have extensive experience in church and outdoor leadership. We envision a year to collect Christian wilderness articles, missionary diaries, drawings, and photographs, then create this book that will be on par with our wild secular friends.

    Proposal: How to get involved. This project will cost money. The amount is hard to estimate as 1) we do not know how many pages the book will be; 2) the number of copies printed (and purchased); and 3) whether or not a Christian publishing company likes our project and decides to enter in. At present, we propose to do our own desk top publishing, but first things first. We will send out a world wide call for papers, then begin judging and collating. We are not interested in making this a For Profit endeavor, yet we will need financial help to pull it off. We will seek donations to help defray the production cost.

    The value of this anthology in discipleship, encouragement of the Saints, and education are reasons to publish. We are supported by CWLC, Solid Rock, Sea & Summit, Bufo rock shoes, and hopefully your ministry? To achieve this project we will need to canvass the world. To do so will require many agents who will gather the best pros and send them our way.

    Promotion: The Anthology of Christian Wilderness Pursuits is for Christians who climb up and ski down mountains, or run rivers. The stories, like an ascent of the Wall of Early Morning Light, El Capitan, Yosemite,will be entertaining. Yet the standards for article acceptance will be high. In the book of Philippeans, Paul said "I press on up to the higher call."

    A closing quote will be the beginning of this endeavor.
    Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I." (Psalm 61:2)

    The Editors

    To submitt an article, email..

Anthology of Christian Wilderness Pursuits