GETTING TO THE "HEART" OF THE PROBLEM

 

Please keep Dad in your prayers. He swelled up with 20 lbs of retained water over the period of a week or two, and his bloodwork came back with some concerning numbers. His Primary Physician wanted him to go to the ER, but Dad is so worn out with being hospitalized that he wanted to try to manage it from home. After a few days of increased diuretics, a trip for a couple diagnostic tests, and a few home health nursing visits he dropped 10 lbs. It was looking like he may avoid the hospital. But his heart Dr wanted to see him. After another set of labs his bloodwork was showing that despite the drop in retained water some of his other numbers were significantly worsening. The P.A. & Heart Doctor implored Dad to go on to the ER so that he could get several diagnostic tests immediately and be admitted to the hospital where his heart and kidney doctors could treat him and zero in on the cause. On Tuesday we went straight to the ER from his heart Dr's office where Dad spent 6 hours getting a myriad of tests by a great hospital staff. Around 10pm he was admitted to Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater. Yesterday his Dr's were trying to figure out the cause and then the course of treatment for whatever is going on. Even though his kidney numbers were crashing they were able to rule out his fragile kidneys as the root problem. They have narrowed it down to his heart, and are still determining exactly what's going on, and ultimately what means of intervention to take. Open heart surgery was mentioned as a possibility, but later ruled out. We were hoping to have a final diagnosis before posting this update, but would rather ask people to lift him up in prayer while it's all being figured out. He has had an excruciating past 7 months and has displayed an amazing level of resiliency with each crushing situation. Over the past 2 months he has actually taken several positive steps forward (literally) since his knee replacement surgery. We knew the recovery would not be a perfect straight line and that he would probably have a few hiccups or setbacks along the way... this is one of those hiccups. PTL, he has been trending in a better trajectory since mid February. Today he is battling something related to his heart plus the exhaustive toll that journeys like this take on your overall morale. Thank you so much for your love and prayers (even if it takes us days, weeks, & months to reply back to your loving & supportive comments, cards, texts, & voicemails). We are not worthy of such love and support, but we praise God for it!! Traci and I will keep you updated as we learn more specifics. All our love <3 !!

 

 

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5 DAY GTD ADVENTURE TRIP FOR ONLY $55!! JOIN US IN TN THIS JUNE FOR OUR 28th ANNUAL SLAMMED!!!

  

Join us JuNE 21-25 in Benton, Tennessee for my favorite GTD event >>> our annual SLAMMED Adventure Trip!! 

 

This trip is regularly $250/person, but we run one public SLAMMED event each year at a greatly reduced cost, and this is it!

 

This trip includes tent camping at a fantastic group campsite, daily devotions, nightly campfires, waterfall sliding, cliff & bridge jumping, rappelling, paddleboarding, hiking, lake swimming, team sports, group games, nice restrooms with flush toilets & warm showers, tons of fellowship, an outdoor movie, and the option to go white water rafting on the world famous Ocoee River (add $50pp for rafting)!! Now that has all the ingredients for what we call a God-awesome time!!

 

I would wish the trip upon everyone!!

 

For more details and to register for this event click HERE!!

 

Aaaaaaaaaand as always, our deepest love & appreciation for all of our generous donors, supporters, & volunteers that make events like this possible!! You! Are! Simply! AMAZING!!!!

  

Going The Distance Adventure Ministry

God-awesome adventures since 1996!

 

 

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Our next FREE event is PADDLEBOARDING on May 6th!!! LUNCH INCLUDED!!

 

Join us on May 6th (a Saturday) for our annual SIDEWINDER Stand-Up Paddleboarding Day Trip to a nearby island in St Petersburg, Florida. 

 

This event is FREE and INCLUDES LUNCH!!

 

We have 24 paddleboards so register very soon to reserve your spot!

 

Beginners welcome!

 

A HUGE THANK YOU to all of our phenomenal supporters that have enabled GTD to get some pretty awesome gear (including new paddleboards) over the last few years and expand our list of activities!! You guys ROCK!

 

For event details and to register for SIDEWINDER click on this link.

  

We hope to see you there! 

 

Going The Distance Adventure Ministry

God-awesome adventures since 1996!

 

 

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RECORD BREAKING CROWD OF NEARLY 60 PADDLERS JOINED US ON LIQUID LAST SATURDAY!!

 

Despite a few hiccups here & there we had a blast this past weekend with a record breaking crowd of nearly 60 paddlers on our annual day-before-Easter LIQUID Kayaking Trek!! The weather was perfect, the food was delicious, the devotional was impacting, the people were fantastic, and we even got to see a few dolphins! God blessed us with a great day :) 

 

Special thanks to Dad and Dianne for preparing a yummy 5-star lunch, to Nate Zeitler for preparing a heartfelt devotion, to our volunteers & staff for helping prep equipment & shuttle participants, and to Cocoa Kayaking & our awesome donors for enabling us to have soooooo many tandem kayaks & great gear!! We praise God for this total team effort that made LIQUID 2023 very special :) 

 

See pictures of this event here:

https://goingthedistance.smugmug.com/2023/2023-Day-Trip-LIQUID-Paddling-Trek/

 

Register for LIQUID 2024 here:

https://gtdbullhorn.blogspot.com/p/liquid.html

 

Check out our next 2 public events here...

SIDEWINDER Paddleboarding Trek (May 6th):

https://gtdbullhorn.blogspot.com/p/sidewinder-sup-trek-war-veterans.html

 

SLAMMED TN Adventure Trip (June 21-25):

https://gtdbullhorn.blogspot.com/p/slammed-tn.html

 

Going The Distance Adventure Ministry 

God-awesome Adventures Since 1996!

 

 

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HAPPY EASTER!! HE IS RISEN!

HAPPY EASTER! 

 

For Resurrection Sunday we attended a wonderful church service to celebrate our risen Savior, and we went to the National Cemetery to see the new headstone of our amazing Mom (BIRDDOG) who put her complete trust & faith in that same risen Savior. For us it was a mixture of joy & sadness. We miss Mom & Dad misses his wife, but we know that for followers of Jesus to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord so we celebrate Mom's new address at the intersection of Joy Avenue & Peace Street in the presence of Jesus :) . 

 

They did a great job with the headstone, and the entire cemetery is an incredibly beautiful hallowed ground full of military veterans and their spouses who faithfully served this country. 

SOLD OUT!! OVER 50 PEOPLE REGISTERED FOR TMW'S LIQUID KAYAKING TREK!

We are thrilled to have such a great response to this year's LIQUID Kayaking Trek! With over 50 people registered it's officially SOLD OUT!!
 
HUGE thanks to Cocoa Kayaking for donating 15 amazing tandem kayaks and to our loving & generous supporters who enabled us to purchase 10 tandem kayaks a couple of years ago before the cost of kayaks & equipment inflated.... and an additional HUGE THANKS to our incredible supporters because we are able to offer monthly public events like this for FREE or at a greatly reduced price! From the bottom of our hearts here at GTD, THANK YOU SO MUCH AWESOME SUPPORTERS!!!
 
We are looking forward to a God-awesome adventure tomorrow! Happy Easter weekend everyone :) 

 

 

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HAPPY GOOD FRIDAY!!

Thank You Jesus that brutal Good Fridays lead to liberating Resurrection Sundays! Only from a Godly perspective of what was to come could a blood soaked cross grossly attached to someone with a pummeled unrecognizable face be seen as a "Good Friday". And that's the Gospel (which means Good News)... that by grace through faith Jesus took our sin, suffering, & scrutiny upon Himself and by the scourging on the cross He exchanged it all for our salvation. His marrow removed my sorrow! The old adage that blood is life has never been more true! As one of my T-shirts proclaims, "A blood donor saved my life." That Blood Donor was Jesus... and the date of His blood donation is what we refer to as Good Friday! THANK YOU JESUS for dying on the cross so that we may have eternal life by grace through faith!!
 
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."
- Ephesians 2:8-9

 

 

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DAD IS BACK AT DUG'S SHANTYTOWN... AND BACK TO WORK!

 

Over the weekend we successfully moved Dad from The Vescovi Resort to DUG's Shantytown. We are 6 weeks into renovations for Dad's space over at my house and he jumped right in with the renovation work. We have many many months of work as we create his space, reconfigure the GTD office, and eventually renovate my personal fixer-upper home. Dad has made great progress with his knee replacement over the past few weeks PTL!

 

 

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JOIN US FOR OUR FREE KAYAKING TREK (INCLUDING LUNCH) AS WE DEBUT OUR NEW KAYAKS ON APRIL 8th!!

   

It's our annual Day-Before-Easter FREE Kayaking Day Trip we call LIQUID, and everyone is invited! Join us for a fun day of yaking as we debut our newly donated kayaks from Cocoa Kayaking!

 

To claim your spot all you have to do is register on the link below and show up ready to paddle!

 

Location: War Veterans Memorial Park

City/State: St Petersburg, Florida 

Date: Saturday April 8, 2023

Time: 10:00am - 2:30pm

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Website:

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

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Registration Link: 

https://gtdbullhorn.blogspot.com/p/registration-liquid-canoeing-day-trip.html?m=1

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We can't wait to host another God-awesome GTD event that we hope blesses your day & soul!

 

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A TRIBUTE TO A GTD DOG NAMED FAITH!

I'm saddened to share that one week ago today we had to put one of our GTD Dogz (Faith) to sleep. Faith has blessed our lives and so many of our participants for nearly 15 years. She & her sister Courage "joined" GTD when they were 6 weeks old - a day after a bear came into one of our campsites and I decided to get a dog to be our "wild animal alarm". Faith & Courage instantly became part of my family & the GTD family and traveled with us on adventures throughout the southeast from the swamp trails of the Everglades, to the canoeing trails of central Florida, to the rock climbing mountains of Tennessee, to the waterfalls & gorges of North Carolina, and to the backpacking trails & State Parks of north Georgia. Faith loved going on all of these great adventures and both dogs did an outstanding job fulfilling their role as alarms for & deterrents of wild animals entering camp, alerts of strangers walking nearby, and most importantly they served as a fun-loving face-licking affection-giving representative for our ministry. In many ways they were as much of a GTD staff member as any employee or volunteer. Everyone loved Faith as soon as they met her, especially kids! No matter how God-awesome an event was this Labradoodle could always make it even better just by being the lovable & silly dog she was. I never used to understand how people could get so attached to pets until I got these dogs. Second only to God Himself, these dogs have taught me more about unconditional love, the power of asking and receiving (they were always asking for snacks, truck rides, belly rubs, & to go outside), unstoppable joy, not holding a grudge when others (me) let them down, and the importance of stopping office work & going outside for some fresh air. Faith was a much better dog than I was a owner, but she was always so happy when I walked through the door and would run over and start pouring out the love. And as much as she loved me she adored Laurie. They say that you don't pick your dog, your dog picks you. Courage picked me as her best friend, but Faith picked Laurie as her bestie. As happy as Faith was to see me she was a thousand times more thrilled to see Laurie. Laurie is a much better pet owner than me. I call her, "Laurie Finger - Friend Of The Animals". Faith would come alive and sprint to Laurie as soon as she saw her... it was like everyday was Christmas and Laurie was Santa Claus! With all that was going on with my parents over the past few years I never posted this on social media, but Faith has been aging very poorly over the past few years. She went completely deaf, had terrible arthritis in her hind legs that made walking difficult & caused her to fall many times throughout the day, and for about 18 months she has had dementia which caused her to walk aimlessly & stand facing the corner in any room. Even with all of that she was almost always happy. But there were also times when she would fall and be unable to get back up on her own and begin to panic. I was hoping she would make it to the end of the year, but last Thursday she took a sudden turn for the worse and lost all sense of balance. She couldn't sit, stand, or walk without falling and hitting her head. Her eyes were twitching uncontrollably. We believe she developed Nystagmus. I didn't want to put her down, but over the next 24 hours it became obvious that was the only option. We called Laps of Love who come out to your house. Laurie came over and slept next to Faith all night on Thursday night and then we had Faith outside (her favorite place) all day Friday feeding her rotisserie chicken & cheese. Faith's final act of affection was to nuzzle up into Laurie's lap just before the meds were administered. It was so touching and crushing at the same time. Faith passed painlessly while laying securely in her best friend's lap. She was a fantastic dog and lived a great dog life, and she served our ministry well for nearly 15 years! Thank You God for making animals... what a cool invention!! A few years ago there were 4 cats and 2 dogs living with me. Now it's just 1 dog. The house feels a whole lot emptier without all these fun-loving furry friends... but that's the hard & unfortunate part of having pets... they just don't live as long as you wish they did. Goodbye Faith! Thank you for your service and all the doggone good times!! And thank you to the thousands of people who loved on Faith over the past 14+ years on events and to the long list of people who dog-sat for her & Courage during trips and events that they weren't able to travel to (like Costa Rica, the Grand Canyon, etc). Check out all of the great pictures of Faith (and Courage)... from 6 weeks old to her last day... with thick hair, closely shaved hair and everything in-between :) . Faith was one-of-a-kind with so many quirky & hilarious behaviors... the house and our hearts are emptier without you Faith! That just shows what a great dog you were!!

 

 

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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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