(See Pictures) As Lisa and I walked off the airplane in Colorado Springs, the first thing we saw was the sign of the driver that said, “Modano, Morrow & Turco.” For those of you who don’t know Dallas sports too well, those are the names of the superstar players on the Dallas Stars hockey team and apparently they were on our plane. Thus began a remarkable week of remarkable occurrences in Colorado Springs last week.

Every year, as ISI staff, we are required to go to our annual staff conference. Often it is in Colorado Springs, but sometimes it is at some other exotic location, like Seattle, Niagara Falls, Amsterdam, etc. (2011, a family conference will be in Hong Kong, pray for how we can do that) Sometimes it is a family conference, other times it is not and we cannot bring our kids. This year, it was not but for the first time, through the generous offer by Lisa’s mom of watching the kids during the conference Lisa and I were able to go together, just the two of us. On reflection, it was the longest we were together without any kids since Jonathan was born, a full 8 days.

Actually the conference itself was 5 days but there was a chance I would have to lead ministry technology related seminars before or after the conference so we put some buffer days before and after AND this is the 15th year that we have been married and we had not celebrated our anniversary in much of a special way, we decided to make this trip special.

The first couple of nights we stayed at the Navigators’  Glen Eyrie Conference Center. On arrival we were told that we would be in General Palmer’s room in “The Castle.” While walking around we learned that General Palmer was a Civil War General and railroad magnate who was the founder of Colorado Springs. “The Castle,”  a long time fixture in Colorado Springs, nestled between mountains and monolithic rocks much like Garden of the Gods, was build by General Palmer as the home for his family. It really looks like a Medieval castle complete with a great room with fireplace, stone walls, a “keep-like” tower, vaulted ceilings, and even a coat of armor. On arrival to the 19th century styled “General Palmer” room, we found out that the room was the good general’s actual bedroom and bathroom and that the bed we slept in was the actual bed he used. It was an incredible couple of nights. The ground were beautiful too. On one of the days, we took a hike the day before my Birthday that took us to varied places like Dawson Trotman’s grave, to the top of a mono-lithic rock formation, under a overhanging cave, through and English rose garden and through many other gardens kept up by volunteers on a daily basis. On the same day, Lisa treated me to a delightful dinner at the Flying W Ranch for my birthday. While there we were treated to an authentic outdoor Chuckwagon meal complete with a show presented by a bunch of believing singing cowboys (the second oldest western singing group in the world). I’m not much of a cowboy music devotee but it REALLY was FUN! All in all, the unique peacefulness of Glen Eyrie, made the time very special and a great way to decompress to focus on God before our conference. In fact during this week, Lisa and I read three books each (but with each other which was very rare indeed).

We then went on to the conference which was one of the best ISI has ever done. We heard from Singapore pastor Edmund Chan (excellent), Political Commentator Dinesh  D’souza(even better), Biola president Barry Corey(first rate), and a former muslim terrorist who is now a believer(inspirational). The talks were extremely relevant to what we do and timely and contemporary. The workshops were very good too. I was able to lead two of them and in one of them, we had all the tech savvy people personally help the less tech savvy ones and it was wonderful watching people working together to grow together. We came away energized and raring to go.

After the conference, Lisa and I spent some time in another part of Colorado Springs. After visiting the cliff dwelling in nearby Manitou Springs and the special internet related ministry All about God/Got Questions?, we checked in at the reasonably priced, Spur and Lace Bed and Breakfast in the Colorado City portion of Colorado Springs. When inn keepers Leo and Sharen Janzen greeted us as we arrived we had not idea what to expect. The intriguing name and theme (cowboy & lace) made for some mystery. Leo is an amiable man with a smile permanently etched into his weather worn face. He later shared that he was farm boy who became an educator. On hearing that we were campus ministers, he shared that he had a grandson who worked in some capacity in campus ministry. After he checked us in, we were touched by how he visited the guests just to chat an catch up.

After checking in, we went down the street to a coffee shop and bookstore, Agia Sophia. On going inside, we found that it was run by the local Orthodox Church, there were books all over about Jesus and the church as presented from the Orthodox perspective. For me it was like being a kid in a candystore. There were some theology books that you can’t just find anywhere, especially in the area of the Trinity. Good coffee too. A couple of nights later, we talked with Father George, who in addition to serving up Coffee Frappe’s was the pastor of the church. It turns out he became a believer through the ministry of Young Life, went to Fuller and turned to the Orthodox tradition because he was seeking the deeper life that he read about through people like John Michael Talbot, Henri Nouwen, etc. It was really fun talking.

After visiting the coffee shop, we walked along the Colorado City Streets and ran into a outdoor Jazz concert which just happened to be at the band stand in the center of town. While there we just happened to run into an ISI home office staff person with her family enjoying a time of rest after serving us so well at the conference. Having enjoyed the company and music our stomachs were ready to be filled with some great Greek food. Wow!

The next day, we took the 3 hour trip via the Cog Railway up to the rarefied heights of Pikes Peak. It was absolutely beautiful up top (though my legs felt like lead because of the altitude). We really could understand how Katherine Lee Bates would have been inspired to write America the Beautiful because of her time up there. You could see so much!

The next day, we boarded our plane for home. It was really nice seeing our family again… but the time together was very, very special for Lisa and I. It really felt like a second honeymoon in many ways and we learned so much about each other and SO many other things. Thanks all so much for your prayers and support during this time. It was a blessing in so many ways and I believe God will be able to use us more effectively because of this time.