THE COMEBACK KID IS... WELL, HE'S MAKING A COMEBACK! THAT'S WHAT HE DOES =)

 
Thank you to everyone who has prayed for and checked up on our Dad! We are happy to report that he is doing really good. His cellulitis is gone, swelling is gone, redness is gone, and pain to the touch is gone. His knee replacement surgery was a success and he is receiving physical therapy. He is walking with a walker and making small gains of progress everyday! This guy is The Comeback Kid! PTL!!
 
He has been at The Vescovi Resort & Spa (aka, my Sister's house) for the past month. Traci, Dave, & Carson have been doing a fantastic job of caring for him while we continue to move forward with preparing a nice place for him at my house. He really looks forward to being more independent and a lot more mobile! This guy never gives up! Way to go Dad!

 

 

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SAY HELLO TO GTD's NEWEST ADDITION!

 
We are beyond thrilled and overwhelmed with gratitude for a local grant we received during our annual fundraising season for $10,000 to go towards replacing our aging trailers!! Since we are a mobile ministry trailers are one of our top 3 most important pieces of equipment. Without a trailer we couldn't run most of our events. All of our trailers are 20+ years old and have served us incredibly well. But they are aging and we need to replace them as we gear up for our next 20 years of ministry, and work on our expansion strategy. Well say hello to our newest addition!! This is GTD's "new" 2019 barely used trailer that spent most of its life parked at a house and utilized as a storage container. It's a heavy duty enclosed car hauler and it's in mint condition including new tires! It's 6 ft longer than out current trailer so we can hold a lot more "fun stuff"!! And it's 7 ft tall so Carson & I won't hit our heads anymore haha! Wowww, we are soooooo happy to have received this generous gift!! This is such a big deal for our ministry! I estimate that this trailer will be used to provide God-awesome adventures to over 20,000 people in the years ahead... now that's an impactful use of just a portion of a $10,000 grant! Aaaaaaaaand we still have remaining funds from this grant to go towards more trailers!! Our kayak trailer is rusted out so that's next on the list... especially since we have "new" 2-year old tandem kayaks that were just donated to GTD (from Cocoa Kayaking) in January that are worthy of a new ride :) . It's with hearts overflowing with gratefulness that we say THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH to our local grantor!!!! You just made this ministry stronger, better, and more capable to impact young people's lives (and all ages, but especially the youth) for many many years ahead!!! God bless you!!!!!

 

 

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MEGA THANKS to Tabernacle of Tampa Bay and the Zeitler family!!

MEGA THANKS to Tabernacle of Tampa Bay and the Zeitler family for setting aside last Saturday for a volunteer work day & service project day at GTD Central Command (aka my house) including my Dad's renovation project!! They shoveled tons of leaves... moved, stacked, & stored building materials... removed old windows... washed & cleaned backpacking gear... helped us clean up from the last project... and thoroughly blessed me & GTD immensely!! I want to thank Pastor Dan for making outreach and serving others an emphasis of his church and for the wonderful fellowship we were able to enjoy on top of all the productive work. Carson & I spent the next 4 days building upon the work this wonderful group accomplished. Thank you TTB for blessing GTD, my Dad, and my life! You guys rock!! God bless you!

 

 

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HAPPY "ST ANNIE'S" DAY!!

 

Happy "92nd" Birthday to my Mom in Heaven! I could write a 2000 page novel about how much I love my Mom and praise God for all she did for us throughout my entire life. At least one of those chapters would be about the spiritual influence she had on my life, and how that influence lead me to Jesus (the best "thing" that ever happened to me). As I reflect today on this amazing woman and celebrate her life I wanted to share one of the most important pictures from my life of my Mom and I going to church together when I was a dashing 12 year old heartthrob... this was a regular thing we did together since I was a kid all the way up to her final years... this is probably the single best thing any parent could do for their child. Mom put me in position to learn about God and to fall in love with Jesus... it also introduced me to some of the best and most loving people on this planet... and lead to the most amazing friendships I could ever experience in life... and ultimately lead me to my life's calling. Wow, what an immeasurable impact my Mom made in my life simply by taking me to church and Sunday school every week and living the truth in front of me. I'm forever indebted to my Mom for her selfless love and for "keeping The Main Thing the main thing" as my former pastor used to say. Mom, I miss you, I love you, and I selfishly wish you were here today. BUT, I know that would mean you would be here suffering and continually declining AND more importantly you wouldn't be fully healed and joyfully celebrating in the presence of your Savior. I have great comfort in the fact that you are whole now, overflowing with joy - peace - and love, and that you're enjoying ice cream that doesn't melt (as my friend says). Thank you for leaving a legacy in my life! I love you more ;) 

  

Today I'm spending the day going to places and restaurants that I often went with my Mom as I celebrate her life :) 

  

Thank you to all of our family & friends for your amazing support over the past few months. We are in the process of writing many thank you notes, but please know that your support means more to us than we could ever express. As Mom would say, "Love you more!"

 

 

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THE RENOVATIONS FOR DAD KICKED OFF 3 WEEKS AGO!

Huge thanks to some awesome dudes & a dudette that launched some major home improvement projects for my Dad a few weeks ago!! Dad is permanently moving in with me and there's lots to get done to create a nice space for him. My overwhelming deepest heartfelt thanks to my fantastic cousin- Dennis, one of my all time best friends- Bryan, his INCREDIBLE 85 year old Dad who we couldn't keep up with- Ron, my fantastic nephew- Carson, and his amazing girlfriend- Lauren for setting aside 4 days to work nonstop at kicking off some big transformational renovations to bless Dad! It will probably take till the end of this year to complete the projects, but this crew launched the momentum, and that's no small thing!! Special thanks to Dennis & Bryan for travelling out-of-state and taking time off from work to make this happen!! You guys are phenomenal men with huge servant hearts! God bless you guys!! We also were deeply touched by others who reached out to want to help fund some of the projects... talk about causing our hearts to overflow with love & joy!! Thank you soooooo much!!! We have continued the projects since Dennis & Bryan returned home and we are making good progress. We will be working on the renovations every week (usually Tues - Sat when I'm not running GTD events) if anyone wants to help. In addition, we are also working on several GTD projects as well as my own personal home improvements along the way. I'm years behind on everything so having some help to jumpstart some major projects and get the ball rolling is bigger to me than I could ever articulate!! I'm beyond grateful!! Thank you guys & gal... and Thank You Jesus!

 

  

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IGNITE WAS A BLAST!

  

Last weekend's annual IGNITE Camping Retreat was a blast! We had about 40 people that joined us for some great praise songs around the campfire (huge thanks to Mark Routman!) as well as lots of fun at the climbing tower, zipline, basketball courts, water slide, swimming pool, hot tub, hammock area, outdoor movie night, & fun times around camp! With only 3 weeks to plan it & promote it this year's IGNITE turned out really good! PTL!! Check out the pictures from this event at the following link:

https://goingthedistance.smugmug.com/2023/2023-Retreat-IGNITE-Public/

  

GTD's next Public Event is our FREE Annual Day-Before-Easter LIQUID Kayaking Day Trip on April 8th (a Saturday) in St Petersburg, Florida. It includes a FREE lunch, and we will be using our NEWLY DONATED (from Cocoa Kayaking)TANDEM KAYAKS!!! (See website for details and to register):

https://gtdbullhorn.blogspot.com/p/liquid-tbd.html?m=1

  

Aaaaaaaaaand IGNITE 2024 is already scheduled for next year: April 19-21, 2024! Our venue is already booked, website built, and registrations are already open!! This is a perfect opportunity to go ahead and book your rooms and suites if you are going to opt for hotel style rooms instead of tent camping or bunkhouses! For more details and to register for this event at the current price click on the following website:

https://gtdbullhorn.blogspot.com/p/ignite-camping-retreat-2.html?m=1

  

Thank you to all of our supporters, donors, prayer warriors, volunteers, and encouragers that help make these events possible for free or at an incredible price!! We have survived so much over the past 5 years and we have so much more ministry ahead of us! Thank You Jesus!!

  

Going The Distance Adventure Ministry 

Celebrating 27 years of God-awesome fun!

 

 

 

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Possible Blood Clot!

 

Dad is headed to the ER for a possible blood clot in the same leg he just had his knee replacement surgery. Please keep him in your prayers!

 

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UPDATE: No blood clot PTL, but being admitted to Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater for possible infection. HUGE thanks to Carson & Lauren for all their help today!!

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