APRIL / MAY 2006 IN THIS ISSUE... From The Editor........................Page 2 Along the Trail of Truth.............Page 3 Trail Tales.................................Page 4 Encouraging God's Children.....Page 5 Previous Newsletters    (Archives)   Home Page  (Trailheads) * Contact  Hiking the Trail of Truth,  PO Box 1443, Crestline, CA, 92325-1443 Mark's Trail Phone # 707-477-2460, or e-mail   hikemark@hotmail.com Page 2 From The Editor... Hello, and Welcome to the April / May Newsletter!  Our cover picture was taken by the editor on the trail to Mt. Whitney, highest peak in the lower 49 states. The view is from above Mirror Lake (10,600 ft), toward the Owens Valley and Lone Pine down below, and the White Mountains to the east. It was indeed an exhilarating hike!  You can read about it on the High Sierra Trail, Hike #7, at this website.  I sincerely hope this day you have allowed the Spirit of God to be active within your heart, and that you are perhaps able to get out for a hike and consider many of the wonders He has made. We are drawn to these wonders because we were formed from the very dust of the earth. I hope also that you will do the best you can to share your hiking inspirations with others along the daily trails of your life. Knowing God is first seeing Him through the things He has made. Hiking the Trail of Truth is here to help you along in your journey of discovery and sharing. If you have been or are presently unable to get out this season for a physical hike, just visit our website's feature trail for this month; The High Sierra Trail. Your mental trek there can take you where you may be unable to journey physically. The education, inspiration and lasting encouragement which you can find along the 7 hikes of the High Sierra Trail will be well worth your time... Just click on the High Sierra Trail link on the bottom of this newsletter, or click on that trailmarker on the left side of the website's Home page, or you can locate the marker on the website's Hiking Maps and Trailheads page as well.— I sincerely hope that you will hike all of our devotional and educational trails at the website in this year. This would indeed be the wisest of decisions that you could make... Again, we are here to help you in any way we can and, as always, look forward to hearing from you. Hiking the Trail of Truth is currently the most truthfully informative Christian site on the web. Please, explore and discover! WEBSITE NEWS: Our newest trail addition to the website is the Discovery Trail.  Along this trail, you can immediately add to your knowledge of truth through some most profound discoveries... The Discovery Trail is an eye-opening place for you to begin the adventure of exploring Hiking the Trail of Truth, a most informative and unique website. Be sure to visit the Wilderness Trail, our next most recent trail addition. Wilderness wanderings are the times in our life when God brings about circumstances or events to discipline and train us for better things, namely, to accomplish His earthly purpose for us according to His will. These wanderings are usually the difficult times of our lives, which may or may not come about by our own choice; the wilderness of failure, the wilderness of doubt, the wilderness of affliction, the wilderness of fear, the wilderness of despair, the wilderness of loneliness, and the wilderness of anxiety. I hope you will take the time to visit the Wilderness Trail, and that you will write to us regarding your discoveries. I have learned that the most important way to begin your day is with a short reading from the Bible. Today is indeed a good time to begin that resolve. For this purpose, the Mountain and Valley Trail was built. There you will find daily Bible readings for the entire year, created especially for you. To locate this picture/Scripture calendar, simply click on the Mountain and Valley Trail. You will find a compass there that will lead you to the calendar of months, and you can then choose a month to begin your day-by-day readings. Your daily journey through life is sure to begin in the right direction!  After all, we live only one day at a time, right?— Why don't you then take opportunity this year and begin a one-year hike along the Mountain and Valley Trail. You will not be disappointed, in fact, your journey will be full of enlightening, life-changing insights! Don't forget that HTTOT offers FREE COUNSELING to anyone who wants it (Lord knows we all need it). Your varied questions are also important, and are given the utmost consideration in answering them. For you to be aware of the truth, in a world where falsehood abounds, is very important to us. Your spiritual struggles are of our utmost concern—we can help!  So just write, e-mail, or phone any time. Contact information is listed at the bottom of the cover page of this Newsletter, or you can visit Questions and Answers Trail Camp at the website, where a ''submit a question" link is provided... Apr/May Letter From the Editor:  Our Daily Failure Dilemma In our members there is a slumbering inclination toward desire, which is both sudden and fierce. With irresistible power, desire seizes mastery of the flesh. All at once a secret, smoldering fire is kindled. The flesh burns and is in flames. It makes no difference whether it is sexual desire, or ambition, or vanity, or desire for revenge, or love of fame and power, or greed for money... At this moment God is quite unreal to us. (Remember those words) He loses all reality, and only desire for the creature is real. The only reality is the devil. Satan does not here fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God... The lust thus aroused envelopes the mind and will of man in deepest darkness. The power of clear discrimination and of decision are taken from us; The questions present themselves as,  "Is what the flesh desires really sin in this case?"  And,  "Is it really not permitted to me, yes, expected of me now, here in my particular situation to appease desire?" ... It is here that everything within me rises up against the Word of God... Therefore the Bible teaches us in times of temptation in the flesh, there is one command: Flee!  Flee sexual sin. Flee idolatry. Flee youthful lusts. Flee the lusts of the world. There is no resistance to Satan in lust other than flight. Every struggle against lust in one's own strength is doomed to failure... If you do not run, you will fall. It's only a matter of time. Most of us go through life not knowing the depth of depravity within our own, individual human nature. That's because the modern psychology of mankind has never really accepted it. If we are fortunate enough at some time in life to become aware of it, then we can joyfully thank God for allowing us the privilege of that revelation, and for allowing us to live long enough to begin an attempt to understand it. This can only happen when we have individually progressed into a state of total humility. Some form of affliction can usually bring that type of submission about. From that point only can we begin to know who we truly are.  As the prophet Jeremiah once said;  The Lord is good to those who wait for Him; to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. It is good that one should submit to the yoke of His discipline. Let one sit alone and keep silent beneath the Lord's demands. Let one lie down and put their mouth in the dust—then at last there may be hope for them.  (Lamentations 3:25-29) The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9) —  Just how wicked is our individual nature? I believe the most profound description of it was written in the first century by the Apostle Paul. This inspired writing can be found in the Biblical book of Romans. Depravity is a condition we live with from the time of our birth until the time of our death. No matter who we are in the world, who we think we are in the world, or where we are in the world, each and every one of us are infected with it. As long as we occupy the body of our flesh, the deceitfulness of our human nature will be a part of us and usually eludes us. Bottom line is;  there is no human being anywhere in the world that is not capable of the most frightful behavior; just turn on the evening news and you will see. There are many Scriptures throughout the Bible that describe who and what we truly are. They are indeed powerful. To shed some more light on this subject, let us look at the passage in Romans: We know that the law of God is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold as a slave with sin as my master. I do not understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree with the law against what I am doing, yet, I can't seem to help myself, because it is the sin inside me that makes me do these evil things. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature (Living Bible; I know that I am rotten through and through). I have the desire to do what is good and right, but I find that I cannot carry it out; When I want to do good, I don't. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. It seems then to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God's law with all my heart within my inner being, but I see yet another law at work within the members of my body; the law of sin and death, waging war against the law of my mind (heart) and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thank God the answer is found in Jesus Christ our Lord!  So you see how it is; I myself in my mind serve God's law, but, because of my sinful nature, I am a slave to the law of sin.  (Romans 7:14-25) This is our daily failure dilemma. There is no escaping it. No matter who you are, you will fail in something this very day, whether in thought, word, or deed. How people who are not Christians can claim to have no need of a Savior is beyond me. If Christians need the help of a Savior on a daily basis, how much more the non-Christian!  Everyday I am faced with myself, and as the great Job once said... I loathe myself!   I say "great" because Job was just about the most righteous person who ever lived, yet he went through a series of afflictions that caused him to realize his failure dilemma and his need for total dependance upon God. Since none of us could hold a candle to Job, shouldn't we all the more realize our dilemma and submit to the will of God?  For God disciplines those whom He loves, and he punishes everyone He accepts as a child (Hebrews 12:5,6). We need God to become real to us every moment of every day. Life on this earth is not to be directed toward pleasure, but toward the serious consideration of who we are and what we need to become. James teaches us to change our laughter to mourning and our joy to gloom as we consider our sinful impurities (James 4:4-10).  In our daily thoughts we are all infected with murder, adultery, strife and anxiety. We are thieves and liars, deceivers and boasters as well. Our tongues are our worst enemy; a flame of fire. This is our daily dilemma. Only through the intercession of Jesus on our behalf and the forgiveness of God do we maintain any hope. Bottom line—be careful not to think more of yourself then you ought. To build good self-esteem is a human philosophy, and far from the truth of who we truly are. Only God can build us up through our humility and obedience toward Him. Our attitude needs to adjust to our plight and to be one of service to Him each day; in thought, in word, in deed, and in humility. This is the only way we can live with our daily failure dilemma, for we will not overcome our human nature in this lifetime. In the next HTTOT Newsletter, we will take a profound look at yet another Letter from the Editor. Until then, I thank you for and am honored by your time.  Next letter from the editor; Allowing God to Build Us Up. Back to top Page 3 Along The Trail of Truth Along the Trail of Truth is HTTOT's newest addition to the Newsletter and replaces the former Friends Along the Trail segment. Along the Trail of Truth is a no-nonsense look at the world's latest ideas and/or publications, and 'sets the record straight' concerning them. God's word teaches us that the wisdom of the world is indeed foolishness with God, and that He has also chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the so-called wise (1st Corinthians 1:19-31). Relative to this profound reality, Along the Trail of Truth takes a look at natural mankind's perception of things and respectfully passes onto you the truth of the matter... Higher Learning? The world's concept of higher learning is indeed a deceitful matter. I have discovered that most everything I had ever learned in school—up through college and beyond— was really not what I needed to know. If I planned on making a career out of depending on this world, it would have been helpful. But if I wanted instead to develop true understanding—about life and beyond— it would have profited me nothing. I was taught that two plus two equals four, but I was not taught that my ancestors were formed from the dust of the earth. I was not taught that I was related to Noah. I was most importantly not taught that I had a proneness within me to do that which is evil; to wander away from that which is good. I was taught things that would perhaps insure me a life in this world, but I was never taught who I was. I was never shown why I was. I was only taught things the world wanted me to see, and somewhat of who they wanted me to be. After I was long through school I learned the most important things in life. Not understanding the things I should have been taught way back when proved to be my downfall. As a result, much time has been wasted on foolish things in this life. Sorrow and remorse are my constant companions. The world believes and teaches that God is only a religion, a myth, or a dream. This is the conclusion of men's wisdom. But God says, on the other hand, that man's wisdom is foolishness to Him, and that His own foolishness is wiser than men. Believing in the one, true God is not religion, myth or dreams. It is in fact reality in the strongest sense of the word. Today we have a few groups endeavoring to have "intelligent design" taught in the public schools. They have met with fierce opposition. The Scriptures teach that the worldly mind is not subject to God's will, neither indeed can be. The foolishness of the world is due to the rebellion of men and women, of whom the ruler of this world (Satan) has control. They cannot see the light of truth due to their love of darkness. They deny every truth and believe every lie. If I could go back to school age, I would say, "Don't teach me about men and monkeys, or ridiculous theories about the age of the earth and the heavens, and don't mislead me through earthly psychologies and the like; teach me instead the truth, so that I will live long on this earth and know how to love my fellow man."   I have learned to live through loss—through pain and sorrow, and through the hurt that I have caused others. These things ought not to be, but that is the way it is in the world. Life is made extremely difficult through the deceitful teachings and ignorant practices of men. Don't blame wars on politics. Don't blame the fact that you pay taxes on the government. Don't blame sorrow and pain and death on the world—blame sin, for is it the culprit; your sin, my sin, and the sins of the whole world. Our so-called higher learning has made fools out of each of us. Your Ph.D. or certificates of achievement mean nothing. The condition of your heart means everything. Don't be deceived. A heart controlled by the Spirit of God is life and peace. Respect for God is the beginning of true knowledge. I lost everything except my sanity before I learned that one most important fact. Love not the world, neither the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of God is not in him/her. Now I know more than all my teachers, for I meditate on God's precepts (Psalm 119:99). Yet, as Solomon declared; with an increase in true knowledge comes an increase in sorrow. That sorrow is for the condition of my fellow men and women, for very few will listen to what I now have to say, nor can they comprehend what I have learned, nor do they even have the desire to do so. They would rather hear lies than truth (Isaiah 30:10, 11). That's the consequences of earthly "higher learning", falsely so called. I will open My mouth in parables, I will utter hidden things, things from of old—what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, His power, and the wonders He has done. He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which He commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget His deeds, but would keep His commands. They would not be like their forefathers—a stubborn and rebellious generation, whose hearts were not loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to Him. (Psalm 78:2-8) Thanks for hiking "Along the Trail of Truth" for April and May. See you again next time. Back to top Page 4 Trail  Tales Previous Episodes of Trail Tales can be found in Newsletter Archives ! Snowstorm! Oh Lord, You are our refuge from the storm...  (Isaiah 25:4) Winter seems a long time goin' this year but its beauty is certainly unmatched. I took a hike through the snow onto the Windy Gap trail just the other day, high in the Angeles Forest. It was most inspiring to say the least. This time of year it becomes very easy to track the bear, the deer and the coyote as they leave their distinct marks across the snow. A good size bear leaves his tracks under my window each night. He wanders from trash can to trash can throughout the campground with purpose. He or she is in search of some tasty morsel left by the visiting humans. There are no other humans up around the campground today, but there is another big snowstorm fixin' to blow in up here and I'm about to go out and hike in it. If you can come up and hike with me, perhaps we can track some animals together, watch them play and enjoy their life in this high country. You can always learn something from them. You will undoubtedly witness the natural beauty of many things while you're up here... Life goes on quite well, even amidst a snowstorm. — Com'on along, Hiker... I'm sure you need a break from that crazy world down below... If you are keeping an ear on local and world news, you know that things are in an uproar; mass starvation, earthquakes, fires, destructive weather, riots, bombings, wars, murders of countless people, disruption in our schools, failures within our government, failures and retaliation among foreign governments, and a general feeling of distrust and despair among the people of our nation and the other countries of the world as well. All of these events or tragedies I have mentioned are the predicted storms; the signs of our times... God has warned us within His only written revelation to us (the Bible) of the increasingly decaying condition of the earth and of the depravity of the human race itself... There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands. No one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have altogether become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves, their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear (respect) of God before their eyes. (Romans 3:10-18) The Bible teaches us these things so that we may come to have both understanding and hope during times like we are now experiencing. These things have been and are the "birth pangs" which mark the end of the age (1st Thessalonians 5:3). Gods' plan however is to deliver we Christians from this present world, destroy this present world, and to provide us with new heavens and a new earth, where only peace and goodness and truth dwell. He has promised us these things (1st Thessalonians 4:16,17, 2nd Peter 3:10-14). Personally, I find both these warnings and promises, in addition to many others relevant to the end times, to be quite uplifting and even exciting during these troublesome days. In fact, I am looking forward to the end of things as we now know them, quite comfortable with my lack of dread for what is coming upon the nations. Don't get me wrong; I do grieve for their rebellion and their upcoming fate, yet hopefully my reasoning in this matter will become obvious to you... Keep in mind if you will that Gods' vengeance is long overdue... Please consider this... It is not God's fault that the world is in the condition it is in. He has nothing to do with it. We, mankind, through our fallen nature, have caused our own dilemma. Each of us have, in one way or another, participated in hanging the Son of God on that cross. Our fate is as it will be because we have (1), forgotten to honor God as God, and (2), have refused to be thankful toward Him (Romans 1:21). We have indeed chosen our own way, followed false teachers and have not taken the initiative to seek the Truth of God. Only true Christians, those who believe in God, repent and obey His teachings, will be saved and will, by His grace, escape the utter devastation at the end of this world.— Keep in mind too that by being on this earth, we are within the domain of Satan and his angels (John 14:30). In delaying His promised coming, God is allowing us time to see the living characteristics of that hopeless domain, and to escape it by the amazing grace which is offered through our obedience to His Son (1st Corinthians 15:24). With all that is going on through the upheaval in our world, why not learn something of Gods' patience toward us?... God is in control no matter how things look down here. He has allowed Satan to roam and to rule the earth so that we might see the terrible consequences of rebellion, sin and evil. His hope is for us to see this dread, recognize the hopeless, destructive reality of it, which should not be difficult at all, and to discover within it our own individual contributions to this dilemma, which are many, and to change our minds, our direction of travel, and turn from our rebellious ways and literally run in repentance toward Him. (Romans 12:2) We need, with this sincere "turning about", to honor and to trust Him, both in His dealings with mankind and in His promises toward us. Those who come to believe in Him through His promises must endure. We must seek to commune with Him each day and trust Him in His personal dealings with us. His plan to return us to Himself and to peace is flawless. There is nothing then at this point in turning that can happen to us further up the road, seemingly good or bad, that He won't use to work for our own ultimate good (Romans 8:28). We shouldn't be fearful; we are destined to hike the trail of Truth amidst and through all these storms of life so that we might come to understand the reason as well as the hope behind it all. Learn then to stand strong through the blinding snowstorms of life. To truly see is to not look at things through the eyes of the world. Learn to not be afraid. Learn instead to trust in Him, for He is with us (Matthew 28:20). Endeavor not to concern yourself then with the decaying condition and material cares of this present world (Mark 4:19), for it is indeed fading away (Isaiah 24:4). Get out there and learn more about God through the things He has made. Look forward to His coming... Let those endeavors be your full time concern (Philippians 4:8). Take your Bible along with you on your journeys. Enjoy being in His presence while reading His words. Increase your knowledge regarding His truths. If you continue on in this valiant quest, which is every Christians' purpose in life, you will not only save yourself, but perhaps those who hear you as well (1st Timothy 4:16). Chase them with your fierce storms. Terrify them with your tempests. Utterly disgrace them, filling their faces with shame until they submit to Your name, O Lord... *Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last. I am He who lives and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. (Psalm 83:15,16 *Revelation 1:17,18) Our journey today comes from The High Sierra at this website. Thanks for hiking with me today. I hope you will join me again next time for another Trail Tales adventure. Until then, may God be with you along your journey in life. Sincerely, MS Taylor HTTOT Back to top Page 5 Encouraging Gods' Children Here is this months' list of those who need encouragement through your prayers and letters. I hope you will take the time to encourage them... Some of their problems are personal and we will respect their privacy; leaving it up to those individuals to share at their discretion. Please pray for them and write to them (I can provide addresses for you. Please call, E-mail or write to me for that information). Encouragement is a noble thing and a profound way to honor God through lifting up His children... Please inform me if you would like to add anyone to our prayer list. Also, please check Newsletter Archives for folks previously on the prayer list. Let us this month encourage and pray for... March 30th, OK Mark... we need some prayers here for an old classmate and good friend, Darlene {Parker} Greer. Have attached an email from Tom....................Love, Noreen... Hi Folks;  Darlene wanted me to notify those closest to her in her email contact list about why you haven't heard from her in awhile. She has been feeling badly with severe back pain for many weeks. After a couple of trips to the doctor, an MRI and more doctors, they finally stopped treating her as though she had a ruptured disc, which was what the severe back pain suggested. She has been diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma, which had settled in her L-5 vertebra. This caused the back pain that probably saved her life, as it was her only symptom... She was admitted to Akron General Medical Center late Tuesday (5:30 PM). They started her on massive steroids to shrink the tumor in her back to relieve the pain. A few hours later they started her on radiation therapy. She started chemotherapy last night. She had a second dose of radiation and more chemo this morning. Her improvement in such a short time is astounding. She can sit up straight in bed, eat a meal and use the bathroom without help for the first time in a month. Her oncologist says she expects a complete remission even though the lymphocytes are all through her torso. There is a 5" x 6" mass behind her sternum as well as involved lymph nodes on her liver and pancreas. She will be home some time next week, but will have to be treated daily, then weekly as an outpatient for about six months... We have stayed in Ohio waiting for this house to sell rather than leave it in the hands of realtors, who cannot figure out how to lock the patio door or turn off the lights. But now we have decided it would be best for her mental well being to move to the new house in Tennessee as soon as her therapy is well defined enough to pass it on to the doctors at the Cumberland Health Center in Crossville, TN. If we later have to sell that house to pay the medical bills, we can hopefully find (Lord willing) a suitable home for less money in that neighborhood. Thanks in advance for your prayers... Love Tom (end) Sarah, Jason, and Baby Hogan... Hi Mark, I am calling on you and your site, with all of its wonderful readers, again..... I have a very dear friend, whose daughter and son-in-law just found out they are going to have a Downs Syndrome baby. Sarah and Jason are expecting a baby boy in July and have just received the news. They are from a very large, wonderful and loving family, the best a baby could ever want to be born to, and will have lots of love and support. I just want to ask your readers to pray for Baby Hogan, he will need all of the love and prayers than any baby could need. I know how much prayer helps, have been the benefit of it ourselves, as you well know with Carli (who is flourishing I might add) and would love to have that extra benefit for our friends. Thank you so much Mark, you are a very wonderful and Dear friend yourself. Love, Cheryl Update on Carli, Feb 6th... (More information on Carli can be found in the Oct/Nov 2005 Newsletter)...  Hi Mark, I am calling on you and your site for prayers for Carli, again. She goes back to Baltimore on Feb 27, and will have surgery to correct the turning out of her leg from the knee down on Feb.28. Seems that the doctor overcorrected her last year, and now she will have this surgery to correct that. She is a walking, running, talking ball of energy. The prayers for her last year, were a great help, and I hope they bring her the same results this time around. I will let you know how the surgery goes, just wanted to get her name out there for the prayers. Thank you so much for all that you and your site do, Mark. Love, Cheryl  (A very grateful Grandma)... Update on Carli, March 1st... She came through the just over three hour surgery like a trooper. Dr. Paley has a new procedure that he used on her, that will make her ankle much better and more normal looking than what he did last year. He learns, as well as teaches; he is a great man. Anyway, she hasn't really come out of the anesthesia totally, but has opened her eyes and goes back to sleep. She was awake for about forty five minutes and said, "Brace Off", and then just went on like nothing happened. She has the epidural still, and nothing for pain other than Tylenol so far. With the new procedure she will only need to wear the fixator (Jill and Brian call it a brace when they talk about it to Carli) for 6-8 weeks instead of the 3-4 months like before, which is great news!  I hope you keep her and all of the children in the world in your prayers. Prayer works great miracles. Thank you from the bottom of my heart... Love, Cheryl. Timothy P. Murray...from Sierra Vista, Arizona...Tim is a retired police lieutenant from Arcadia, California. He has been fighting cancer for over three years now. He has had thirteen tumors; six in his torso and seven in his brain. Therapy, surgery, radiation treatments and cancer drugs have taken quite a toll on his physical life. His spiritual strength however has allowed him to accept this great difficulty and to fight on. Please think of him daily in your prayers; that God will comfort him in his struggle, and strengthen him, allowing also that, Lord willing, Tim might have a little more time on this earth with his wife and family. Those in the US disaster areas...Folks from Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky and Indiana still need your prayers. This is a great time to both pray for and help those displaced by the great storms. God will hear your prayers, and He will notice your gift, no matter how small. There are several countries throughout the world experiencing disasters as well, both human and natural. Pray that our Lord will continue to watch over and strengthen His children during these times, and perhaps bring those who are not His children into His family. The Lord is our refuge and strength in any type of disaster. Please remember our US Troops...who are on foreign soil defending our freedom and the freedom of others less fortunate. We have many sons and daughters engaged in this effort. Let us pray for their ability to endure, and for their safe and victorious return from a land where the one, true God is unknown. Update on Suzi Schnippert of Florida, January 23rd... (More information on Suzi can be found in the Oct/Nov 2005 Newsletter)...  SUZI: Ah, the patience and help of the Lord is a great help to those who call on it. We too have been the small child riding on our Father’s back this month… your newsletter for the month seems to have been written by looking over our shoulder. After our last update, we went to see the Dr. who AGAIN asked us if we had heard from the transplant team! I made a few phone calls and discovered that- after 9 months of being told we were waiting for the transplant center to contact us we find out that- the ‘insurance specialist’ at the Dr’s. office had not made the single phone call that would have started the process to get Suzi on the list for a double lung transplant. Well, we got that fixed real quick and were told by the transplant center that they agree she is a candidate for the transplant… BUT she was tentatively turned down due to her weight. They will monitor her progress and after she loses to a certain point, start up the more detailed testing procedures. Well, we were under that point 9 months ago and could have probably had the transplant by now but … we have to move on now. We have started a diet and are well on our way to losing the weight- 4 pounds in 4 days to start! Keep us in your prayers, Suzi’s numbers are still worsening [up to 6 lpm] and we pray that they will get better as she loses weight and at least maintain as we march toward the goal. Awesome newsletter this month… Please remember all of the homeless and the poor of the world again this month. Try to locate a homeless person and help them in any way that you can... Continue to pray for all of those in need of daily bread, and please pray earnestly for all the people of the world in which we live, in every country, that men and women will desire to find wisdom, that they will turn and seek God's face in this world full of spiritual blindness, rebellion and increasing depravity. The Lord's coming will not be delayed much longer. Endeavor to encourage others to seek Him, in truth, while there is still time. Father, grant us the humility to seek Your face for the well being of others. Help us to reach out to them, with kindness, in word and in deed. We are, each one of us, in need of Your guidance in the use of possessions, our prosperity, our tongues and our talents. Though we are quite unworthy, we ask you to bless our efforts... In the name of your glorious Son, Jesus, we pray. Thank you so much for hiking with us through the April / May issue of the Hiking the Trail of Truth Newsletter. Until June then, may the grace of our Lord Jesus be upon you... Sincerely, Mark S Taylor END Back to top [Home] [Hiking Maps & Trailheads] [Discovery Trail] [Bible Map] [Trail of Time] [New Birth Trail] [Mountain & Valley Trail] [Desert Trail] [Lake Trail] [High Sierra Trail] [Wilderness Trail] [A Hawk's Trail] [False Trail] [Monthly Newsletter] [Newsletter Archives] [Questions & Answers] HIKING THE TRAIL OF TRUTH Mark S. Taylor (707) 477-2460