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Solid Rock - Climbers Reaching Climbers for Christ
Two-Minute Message - #37 (July 30th, 2001)

From Calvin Landrus, National Director

Hi all (it’s been a while),

Well, if you have been receiving these email messages about Solid Rock for over a year, you know that summer is my real busy time in my role as pastor. And this year, I added a climbing trip to Yosemite (read below for a summary and devotional thought). WOW, I have been swamped. Now finally, I have gotten a few moments together to write a new message.

A “Good Job!” goes to Dave Engle for organizing an Outreach to the Greater Seattle Area. Dave reported that only Bob Loomis of Spokane showed up for the outreach. They were able to hand out about 23 bottles with an outreach message stuck on it. They had a good conversion/dialogue with a climber who professed to be an atheist. Seeds for God’s kingdom were sown. And that is always a great thing!

Now all that is needed is that everyone who receives these messages needs to do as Dave did…. organize an event with one, two or a few others. If that would happen one time, we would sow over 2500 seeds for God’s Kingdom to climbers. What a thrill that would be! (The next message will be on basic guidelines for doing an outreach)

And that number above only reflects a small percentage of possible involvement. We are still only reaching a small part of the Solid Rockers. Many are only normal mail contacts. And I believe there are many more out there who could be activated by ads in the climbing magazines. But we need financial resources to make this happen. Use the information below if the Lord leads you to support Solid Rock.

Serving the Lord with you,

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Our objective was the Triple Direct on El Capitan, the easiest way up the big side. On Monday, we did what some may consider cheating. We hauled our 100 pound bag of stuff up fixed lines to the top of pitch 10 (Mammoth Ledges). Then we rapped and fixed the first three pitches of “Free Blast,” where we aided anything that was hard. On Tuesday, we left the ground and climbed to the top of pitch eleven for a wonderful ledge to sleep on. Everything was in place: moderate temperatures, plenty of food and water and experienced partner. A dream of nearly twenty years was going to happen.

Well, here is where the devotional thought begins. We got up on Wednesday morning to overcast/cloudy skies. My partner expressed concern. I thought they were only morning clouds and would burn off. At least, we could wait awhile. But my partner (and great friend) of 20 years wanted to go down and do it immediately. The weather cleared on the way down and was perfect the rest of the week.

At that point, I could have allowed the frustration I was feeling to significantly hurt my relationship with my friend. But because I have poured the Word of God into my life through the years, I was reminded of what Jesus said in Luke 12:15, “A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions”… (in my case, climbing accomplishments). And I realized my relationship with my friend was more important than any climbing dream I wanted to see happen. So by God’s grace and power in my life, we are still friends and we did and will climb together again!

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