COLORADO 2017

JOIN US ON A BUCKET-LIST ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME TO COLORFUL COLORADO!!!

Oct 2-7, 2017 (Mon-Sat) (6 Days / 5 Nights)

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Happy New Year (sort of)!

No, this isn't an accidental post from 5 1/2 months ago... it's actually for today - May 16, 2017. Because of the Christmas holidays followed by a huge mission trip to Costa Rica and then a full calendar of events from January through the end of April we had to push pause on several of our office obligations, important responsibilities, and personal priorities until things slowed down enough to go back and pick back up from where we left off... which was right after our greatest banquet ever in December. So today marks the day that I return back to where we pushed pause at the end of 2016. In a weird way it feels just like January 1st all over again (Happy New Year!). We have thank you notes and gifts for our banquet donors, unopened mail that dates back to Dec (don't worry, we made sure we opened the urgent and most important items), several months of emails (we did already handle most of the urgent and highly important emails), over $80k worth of receipts to enter into our financial software (again, not to worry, we have paid all of our bills on-time, entered all of our income and donations, and taken care of all time sensitive reports and responsibilities), and countless other tasks... in fact, with the exception of about 15 minutes, I still haven't seen the 4 hour tribute video with 170 videos submitted by many of you awesome people!! So, that's our ministry update. It's New Years in May in the GTD office and I'm tackling 6 months of tasks that had to be pushed to the back-burner. They're now on the front-burner and I'm running full steam ahead. Many of our upcoming posts for the next few weeks will be updates related to things from the first half of 2017. There's a lot to share so get ready for an adventurous ride!


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DoLa (Doug & Laurie) - The Proposal at Niagara Falls

This is our original proposal video at Niagara Falls just prior to New Years 2010 =)

THE SET-UP: I told Laurie that we were making a promo video for a future GTD trip to Niagara Falls, but I was actually preparing to take a knee and ask this cherished treasure to be my wife. We crept past a chain that was closing off the upper overlook terrace. We set our jackets aside for the promo video. She was standing in the cold while I was setting up both the camera and video camera on tripods. And then it happened! This is the priceless footage that was captured =)

Although 2010 wasn't the right timing for us, we consider this our official engagement. It was the beginning of a 7 year journey to the right timing. Sometimes it's better to be right on time instead of too early! =)

FUN FACT: Laurie's parents were married at Niagara Falls. As they like to put it, they "took the plunge at Niagara Falls!"


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ONE OF OUR BEST SPRING EVENT SEASONS EVER!

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NEARLY 8000 PICTURES UPLOADED TO GTD's ONLINE PHOTO ALBUM!!
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We want thank all of the Pastors, Churches, Group Leaders, Participants, Volunteers, Ministry Partners, Board of Directors, and GTD Supporters for making this one of our best event seasons ever!!

We divide our year into 3 Seasons (Jan-Apr = Season 1 / May-Aug = Season 2 / Sep-Dec = Season 3). We were blessed with an overflow of events during Season 1... it seemed like we were running group events almost every week!

Thank you to everyone who participated! And we've got great news for you... All of the event pictures (nearly 8000 of them) have been uploaded to GTD's online photo album. Download as many of them as you want for FREE! Re-LIVE all the fun and impacting moments!!

God did a lot of great things over the past 4 months!! Thank you to everyone who helped make it such a great success as well as a lot of God-awesome fun for so many! Glory to God!!

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GROUPS & PHOTO ALBUM LINKS:
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TRINITY CHRISTIAN COLLEGE   |   SWAMP THING   |   SKYCREST COMMUNITY CHURCH (THRIVE)   |   BEYMER MEMORIAL UNITED METHODIST CHURCH (YOUTH)   |  CALVARY CHURCH OF CLEARWATER (MEN)   |   MORNING STAR CHURCH (MEN)   |   PADDLE PROWL   |   IGNITE   |   CALVARY CHURCH OF CLEARWATER (ELEVATE)   |   LIQUID (TRIPS 1 & 2)   |   TAMPA COVENANT CHURCH (FATHERS & SONS)


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AFTER NEARLY 10 YEARS IN THE MAKING...

AFTER NEARLY 10 YEARS IN THE MAKING...

It is with great joy and hearts full of love that Laurie and I officially announce our engagement to be married!!

Our journey has been long, but not wasteful. Good investments can yield great returns over time. So it is with long term relationships that deepen, mature, and grow over the course of time. Mushrooms grow up overnight, but strong oak trees take hundreds of years to mature. Often, quality takes time. Laurie and I desire quality and we are striving for excellence. We are opposites in many ways, but we have built a strong Christ-centered foundation over the past decade, and we are blessed to have great communication. We are excited about what lies ahead and the future that God has for us as husband and wife.  We want a marriage that pleases God, serves others, and relishes in mutual respect, love, joy, and happiness. We desire for our light to shine brighter together for God's glory more than it ever did as individuals.

We want to thank our family and friends for your support and encouragement over the past decade! (I know I've worn most of you out through the years with this long process!!)

Our wedding is scheduled for August 26, 2017 (3 1/2 months away) in upstate NY, and a reception is being planned for late October in Seminole, FL. ... Details forthcoming.


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To build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. - Winston Churchill

Perfection is attained by slow degrees; it requires the hand of time. - Voltaire

Slow and steady wins the race. - Robert Lloyd

The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit. - Moliere

All great things must have time to grow. A mushroom can be grown overnight but an oak tree takes half a thousand years. But the mushroom perishes with the passing hours while the oak fashioned into the skeleton of a great ship will dare the storms of any sea. It takes time to build... and the beginnings must be small. There must be the steady development time to send down roots... the proper launching of a ship intended for a long voyage.  - T. DeWitt Talmage: His Life and Work

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"THAT WAS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!"

That was the exclamation from one of the young boys to his dad as they were leaving from the Father/Son retreat with Tampa Covenant Church earlier today.

That memory with his dad will be replayed and retold thousands of times for the rest of his life! What a GREAT investment of time!

Dads have a very special and powerful God ordained role they play in their children's lives.

It was such a blessing to watch dads intentionally pour into their sons during the past 24 hour concentrated time of bonding.

Camping, swimming, rock climbing, ziplining, camp games, hanging out on hammocks, cooking out, canoeing, reading the Bible together, praying together, laughing together, working together, overcoming fears together, being taught and guided by dad... it all culminated into a God-awesome Father/Son retreat that will have lasting impacts for many years to come.

Thank you Tampa Covenant Church for the wonderful opportunity to work with your incredible church and amazing dads & sons!

And thank you GTD supporters for making ministry and moments like these possible! You share in the harvest because you planted and watered the seeds that blossom on each event! Thank you so much! God bless you!!

FATHER & SON RETREAT WITH TAMPA COVENANT...

A GREAT WAY TO END OUR RETREAT SEASON!!

LIQUID RECAP

We had a splashing good time on our annual LIQUID canoeing day trip this past Saturday with 34 fun loving paddlers!

It was a beautiful day with perfect temperatures as we meandered 3 miles through a mesmerizing maze of mangroves and finished up with a 1 mile open water paddle to the finish.

Our water-top Easter-eve devos focused on the most heroic words ever uttered as Jesus wrestled in prayer (to the point of sweating blood) about the task ahead of being crucified for the sins of the world yet proclaimed to the Father, "Not my will, but Yours be done." Then He went on to die a brutal and horrible death to give mankind the opportunity of salvation and everlasting life through faith in Christ. His death leads to our opportunity at life! Thanks to Jesus we have so much to celebrate!!

Thank you to all of our wonderful participants for coming out and spending your day with GTD! And a heartfelt THANK YOU to all of our donors and supporters for making these events possible!! We couldn't do what we do without you!!

And a special thanks to Jesse Altamarino, Mike Cartwright, Noel & Jeanette Dunham, Ruthie, and Olivia for volunteering their time, heart, and physical strength to help prepare and provide a God-awesome canoeing trip! God bless you all =)

All of the remaining LIQUID pics will be uploaded later this week =)