August 21, 2009 by jcollins.

Sam wanted to return to Focus on the Family to ride the big slide. When we got there, they we were closed for their all staff chapel service. Our guide on Wednesday told us that the public was invited to attend, so we changed clothes and walked over to join the staff. The band Rush of Fools was leading in praise and worship. They are a pop music band that performed several well know worship songs, a traditional hymn and a few of their own songs. We were impressed.

After Rush of Fools, the host introduced the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush.

Secret Service surrounded him as he entered from the back and shook hands coming up the aisle. This was too good to be true; literally, it wasn’t really President Bush, but instead President Bush impersonator John Morgan. He spoke for about 15 minutes as President Bush, played a couple of blues songs on his guitar, and then gave the balance of his presentation as John Morgan. It was a very funny speech with a solid message about living double lives.

When “President Bush” finished the host came up and introduced the president of Focus on the Family, Jim Daly. President Daly spoke about the challenges facing the organization during the recession. He also told of visiting some Christians in China. As we was departing they told him they were praying for him. When he inquired what they are praying for they responded, “We are praying that the church in America will be persecuted, because from where we stand you appear very weak.” I guess God is listening to their prayers.

After chapel we visited the bookstore to have our photo taken with “President Bush”. The local news was covering it and if you click this link and watch the clip at the bottom of the story carefully, you will see Sam’s smiling face.

We then went downstairs to the children’s section, called Whit’s End. The entire area is designed like the incredibly popular kids radio drama Adventures in Odyssey. There are many of the props used throughout the years and they even have a Whit’s End soda fountain store.

The best part was their Kids Radio, where Sam and I were able to record an episode of Odyssey where we were two of the characters. We left with a very special CD of the session.

Just before we left, Sam was able to go down the big slide called “A Bend De Go”, it’s 70 feet of curves and fun, leaving inside the building, going outside and finally ending up back inside. He said it was a blast. They warned me that no one over 5’9” was allowed on the slide, because you WOULD get stuck and it’s not a lot of fun for them to have to go and down and push you through.

I think this was our best day in Colorado Springs.

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August 19, 2009 by jcollins.

We decided to visit Focus on the Family today, Dr. James Dobson’s amazing organization.

In 1977, while on staff at UCLA he saw that so many of the problems in the world were related to family issues, so he resigned his position at UCLA to start the ministry. Today, the ministry’s radio programs are heard around the world. In fact, 24 hours a day, somewhere in the world their radio programs are being broadcast.

The facilities are very nice and more importantly debt free. After our tour of the administration building, we were able to watch and episode of “Last Chance Detectives”, a mystery series written for 10-14 year olds, in their theater. The series is very well written and judging from this episode the videos are of the highest quality for children’s videos.

The entire downstairs is a children’s area, featuring many of the props and accessories from their radio dramas, including the wardrobe from Narnia

And a B-17 from Last Chance Detectives.

Our last stop was the bookstore. It was very neat, as an interview with our friends Alex and Brett Harris were being broadcast on the radio program that day. We were able to pick up a copy of the CD with their entire interview. We picked up a few other books and cd’s as well.

They had a huge slide for the children, but Sam wasn’t feeling up to the slide ride today. Maybe we will get a chance to come back before we leave town.

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August 17, 2009 by jcollins.

With Kristi and Katie off at debate camp, Sam and I set out to discover the best of Colorado Springs. Three things seemed like must dos: tour the Air Force Academy, tour Focus on the Family headquarters, and tour the US Olympic training facility. Since we didn’t get started until about noon, we thought we would drive around and get acquainted with the town find out when the tours take place, etc. The first road sign we passed said “Air Force Academy Visitors Center”. Let’s go find out when the tours are. As soon as we exited the interstate, we were on Air Force property. As I pulled into the cement barricaded area, and the armed guard approached the RV, I knew it would be difficult to quickly get information and turn around, we had committed. Change of plans, I guess we’ll start here.

Our tour of would begin at the visitors center. The ten minute walking tour took us to the chapel, from there the guide pointed out what all of the building were and showed us how to tell which cadets were freshmen. They would be the ones walking, or running, being careful to stay on the narrow marble walkways. Apparently as part of their initiation into the academy they are very limited in their freedoms until about March, at which time they are free to walk around the campus with the other classes. Sam was quite impressed with the airplanes in the courtyard, all of which had been donated, and had been used in wars.

After giving us the details of the happenings in each of the buildings, our guide left us to discover the chapel on our own. The architecture was very impressive, with it’s 17 massive triangles,

filled with beautiful stained glass.

The building itself houses the Protestant chapel on the top floor with Catholic, Jewish and Buddhist facilities on the bottom floor. We were most interested in the HUGE sword dangling from the ceiling in the Protestant chapel.

The most emotional moment was when we noticed the sign on the second row. It reads, “RESERVED in honor of all prisoners of war and those listed as missing in action. “Greater love has no one than this…” John 15:13”. It wasn’t so much the sign that choked me up, as the lone candle lit in the middle of the row.

The pipe organ was also something to be admired.

After our tour of the chapel we saw a short film about cadet life. It was quite inspirational. We then browsed the bookstore, but were a little disappointed that almost everything was labeled Air Force Academy and not simply Air Force, we had hoped for a neat gift for my dad branded Air Force, but we didn’t find it here.

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August 16, 2009 by jcollins.

This morning we began our day with praise and worship with the Homeschool Alumni (HSA) folks. We’ve had a great couple days with them and said our goodbyes. It took us a little while to pack up the RV and get on the road, so by the time we hit the road, most everyone else had left the premises.

Next stop on our tour: the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs. We planned to meet up with our friend Chris Herndon at the Garden, he thought it would be easier to take his car through the garden, as opposed to our bus. On our way to the visitors center we spotted some big horn sheep grazing on the side of the road.

Since I was the only one who saw them outside of Estes Park last week, we pulled over to see these guys.

These had even grander sets of horns than the ones that I saw. Now off to meet Chris at the visitors center. As we pulled up, we noticed something interesting, car after car seemed to have HSA written on them. Sure enough, many of the alumni had planned to visit Garden of the Gods today as well.

I guess they are socialized after all.

Our drive and stroll through the gardens was really awesome. The evidence of creation and the effects of the flood were truly awe inspiring. I think our family favorites were the huge balancing rocks.

I assume one day they may fall over, I’m glad it wasn’t today.

We wandered around a bit more and then went into the town of Manitou Springs. Chris took us to a penny arcade, where believe it or not, some games still cost a penny to play.

This is obviously the place where old games come to die. It was like walking through a time machine as video games from my childhood were still being played and enjoyed. There were some game that had to date back to the 30’s and 40’s. Oddly there was a game called Rodeo, where you shoot the bulls. Hmmm, doesn’t seem like the rodeo would last long like that.

We ended our evening by breaking bread (okay it was actually cheese sticks) and eating Colorado’s best bar-b-que. Our conversation covered music, Colorado’s Incline, and the role of father’s in families. We had a delightful time and look forward to spending time together again soon.

Chris’s Obama Impression

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