My Next Father/Son Trip

About 6 years ago, I had an incredible experience in Maui, Hawaii.

I was there because my mother-in-law had cancer, and she had always dreamed of taking all her kids and grandkids to Hawaii. So she did. Incredible thing #1: My mother-in-law, who was told she had about a year to live, beat the cancer. We praise God for that to this day.

While I was there, I went on a little trek to the interior of the island by myself. It began with a hike through a giant bamboo forest. The gentle sound of these tall and looming stalks of bamboo in the wind made me wonder about what gods the ancient Hawaiians worshipped.

I ended up at a clear and beautiful stream, which I started following up. This led me to a picture perfect waterfall. It was about 20 feet high, falling into a perfect sized pool, good for swimming or just sitting beside, watching and listening to the falls.

I found a rope tied up the left side of the waterfall, so I climbed it and was able to keep going. This led me to a 30 foot high waterfall into a pool about 3x the size of the first! I was all alone on this trek, ahd the place to myself, and just gawked at it, spellbound.

Inspired by the promise of greater things, I climbed the rocks beside this waterfall and kept going again. I ended up at a spot where the stream could not be followed on foot any farther, as it disappeared between 2 winding walls of ancient solidified volcanic rock. I had been alone for this whole trek, but I still hid my backpack and hiking clothes in some distant brush, and swam up the river to see where it would go. I kid you not, I was in Eden as I swam through floating wild fruit through this watery corridor. After a couple of bends, it dead-ended at a small waterfall about 8 feet high. I swam to it’s base and the only way up was to grab the rocks behind the water and climb up the falls.

Then…glory.

I walked around another bed and what I saw was nothing short of awe inspiring. I was at a giant pool of water (more like a small lake) that was covered with mist caused by a 150+ tall waterfall that was falling from what looked like the top of a volcano! I now it wasn’t, but looking up, it felt like I had entered into the rounded shoot of a huge volcano.

I stayed for a long time…all alone…worshipping.

Ever since that day, I have wanted to go back and take my son, who was 4 at the time.

He’s 10 now, and I’m starting to save up.

So keep an eye out for some great books for sale on eBay.

For starters, I’ve got two Church of Christ treasures that some of you might be interested in here and here.

I’ve got a couple of cool and useful Bibles here and here.

And the crowning jewel (thus far) is this copy of Bacon’s Essays that was a gift from the Reverend AW Tozer to his friend the Rev. F. Bertram Russell (this is the only one with a reserve price…I’ve held on to this one for over a decade).

I’ll have many more, including some very interesting ones printed in the 1800s, 1700s, and even a couple from the 1600s.

Do me a favor and spread the word to anyone you think might be interested!

Watch out Maui…here we come!

My Family