"Go West, Young Man!" . . . The Great American "Wild" West, 20th anniversary (1991-2011) . . . U.S. national parks--Glacier, Big Bend, Olympic . . . 19th-century frontier missionaries

This month (June 2011) marks the 20th anniversary of the fulfillment of my boyhood dream of leaving the east coast of West Hartford, Connecticut, for the Great American "Wild" West.

I am so thankful for the geographic change as it was used of God to change my life forever. To God be the glory for placing the desire (Psalm 37:4) and giving me the courage to heed the call to "Go West, Young Man!"

It was as a struggling 20-year-old University of Hartford student that I went west for the first time during the summer of 1991.

After working in the hotel/restaurant industry in three national parks--Glacier National Park (Montana), Big Bend National Park (Texas) and Olympic National Park (Washington) --I settled in Port Angeles, Clallam County, Washington, in 1992. Except for six school years of Bible college and seminary in Canada (1994-2000) and the last two years in Israel (May 2009-June 2011), I have mostly lived in Port Angeles--the "gateway" town to Olympic National Park and where the park headquarters are located--ever since.

Upon taking Amtrak trains "Lake Shore Limited" (New York City to Chicago) and "Empire Builder" (Chicago to East Glacier, Montana), I worked the summer of 1991 as a security guard at the historic, 214-room Many Glacier Hotel (built 1915) in Glacier National Park.

It was the best summer of my (pre-Christian) life in one of America's "sacred cathedrals."

The scenery of Montana's Rocky Mountains combined with the North American and international tourists and 150 co-workers I met--including co-worker and special friend Stephanie B. Freedman from Marblehead, Massachusetts (now Sara Mizrahi of Jerusalem, Israel)--made for an unforgettable summer. It was my first solo time away from home (Connecticut), thus adding to the adventure.

After Montana, I worked for seven months (October 1991-April 1992) as a hotel receptionist at Chisos Mountains Lodge in west Texas' Big Bend National Park. My hiring via a brief phone interview came after I quit my studies at the University of Hartford a month after the 1991 fall semester had begun. Quitting my studies was a big financial risk as I had free tuition because my mother worked at the expensive private university. Four of my five older siblings had graduated from the university while conveniently living at home only four miles from the school. My life of risk taking and "going against the grain" had begun.

In May 1992, I began what turned out to be my first of nine summers (1992-97, 1999-2001) as a seasonal waiter at the historic, 52-room Lake Crescent Lodge (built 1916) in Olympic National Park. Soon after arriving at Olympic, I attended my first-ever Evangelical Protestant church at Independent Bible Church (IBC) in Port Angeles, Washington (pop. 20,000).

Six months later, in mid-October 1992 and when 21.5-years-old, I became "born again" (John 3:3, 7 and 1 Peter 1:23 in the New Testament) in a Lake Crescent Lodge employee dormitory room. On November 1, 1992, I was baptized by water immersion at IBC by associate pastor Mike Chinn.

Some resources that have helped me appreciate more the Great American "Wild" West--and its 19th-century frontier missionaries--have been the below items.

Most of these same resources were used in my organizing the October 31, 2004, event "Go West, Young Man! A Tribute to Lewis & Clark and the Western Pioneer Missionaries that Followed." Sponsored by the Pensinsula College Christian Student Fellowship (where I served as founding advisor, 2002-09), the 2-hour Port Angeles, Washington, event saw about 200 in attendance. For a free video of the event, contact UCM.

+ DVD (1996), "The West," 8-part documentary series by PBS's Ken Burns and Stephen Ives . . . "journey through a boundless landscape where myth, vision and dream seem to shape to historical reality"

+ DVD (1997), "Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery," documentary series by PBS's Ken Burns

+ DVD (2009), "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," 6-episode documentary series by PBS's Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan

+ DVD (2008), "Great Lodges of the National Parks," documentary series by PBS

+ Music CDs by Montana's David Walburn, especially his albums "Lewis & Clark: West for America" (1999) and "Montana: Life Under the Big Sky" (2002). . . "captures the songs of Montana and Glacier National Park like no other artist. Whether historical ballads, love songs or personal tunes, David's Montana Music flows easy, like a cool mountain stream" . . . every summer, Walburn performs live shows six nights a week at Glacier Park's Many Glacier Hotel 

+ Book (1971), Bible in Pocket, Gun in Hand: The Story of Frontier Religion by Ross Phares (Bison Books)

+ Encyclopedia (1998), The New Encyclopedia of the American West by editor Howard R. Lamar (Yale University Press)

+ Book (1997), Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose (Simon and Schuster)

+ Book (4 volumes, 1931-46), Religion on the American Frontier, 1783-1850 (Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists, Presbyterians) by William Warren Sweet (1881-1959) (University of Chicago Press)

+ Museums, National Museum of the American Indian (part of Smithsonian Institution) in Washington, D.C., and New York City . . . and Jefferson National Expansion Memorial's Museum of Westward Expansion (and the adjacent Gateway Arch), St. Louis, Missouri

"Eastward I go only by force; but westward I go free. . . .

I must walk toward Oregon, and not toward Europe."

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), Walking (1862)

Planting terebinth trees in Israel . . . Jewish National Fund + Karen Kayemeth LeIsrael (JNF-KKL) . . . Stephanie B. Freedman (Sara Mizrahi), Marblehead, Mass. + Jerusalem

"And when you shall come into the land, and shall have planted all manner of trees for food . . . ." Leviticus 19:23

On November 9, 2009, three trees were planted in the 7,000-dunam Aminadav Forest in the Judean Hills near Jerusalem. (One dunam is equivalent to 1/4 of an acre or 1/10 of a hectare.) The trees were terebinth trees (pistacia palaestina), a member of the pistacia family.

The terebinth is mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures (or Old Testament), where the Hebrew word "elah" (plural "elim") is used, although the word is sometimes translated as "oak." The most well-known clear reference to a terebinth (elah) in the Hebrew Scriptures is that of the Valley of Elah or "Valley of the Terebinth" (עמק האלה), where David fought Goliath (1 Samuel 17:2, 19). (I visited the Valley of Elah last month.)

Being an American citizen, the newly planted trees are fittingly near the Kennedy Memorial (Yad Kennedy, built 1966). The monument depicts a felled tree trunk symbolizing the 41-year-old U.S. President John F. Kennedy whose life was prematurely cut off (November 22, 1963). The surrounding Aminadav Forest--formed with the help of German Jewry--is "the largest and most impressive open, green space available to Jerusalem residents."

It was nice to see the 3-fold ethnic partnership take place in the planting of the trees. The trees were purchased from a Jewish Israeli JNF-KKL worker (Eli) and planted by an American (me) with the help of an Arab Israeli JNF-KKL worker (see photo above).

The planting of the trees was through the Jewish National Fund (JNF)/Karen Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL). Over the past 108 years, JNF-KKL has "evolved into a global environmental leader by planting 240 million trees, building over 200 reservoirs and dams, developing over 250,000 acres of land, creating more than 1,000 parks, providing the infrastructure for over 1,000 communities, bringing life to the Negev Desert and educating students around the world about Israel and the environment."

If visiting Israel and want to plant a tree with your own hands in Jerusalem's Judean Hills, click here (see the left tab menu "Touring In Israel?"). If not visiting Israel but want JNF-KKL to plant a tree to recognize or memorialize friends, family and loved ones, click here.

Why three trees? . . . Stephanie B. Freedman (Sara Mizrahi)

Spiritually, I planted three trees in honor of God the Father, God the Son (the Lord Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit (the Holy Trinity) for His saving and sustaining grace in my life.

On a human level, the three trees are in honor of the estimated 1.5 million children murdered in the Holocaust (Shoah), and of Stephanie B. Freedman (now Sara Mizrahi) a young lady friend from Marblehead, Massachusetts whom I met while working at Many Glacier Hotel in Montana's Glacier National Park during the summer of 1991.

Stephanie played a major part in my decision to leave the east coast and West Hartford, Connecticut for the Great American West (Texas's Big Bend National Park, then Washington State's Olympic National Park) in 1991-92. Being Jewish and having had worked on a Reformed Jewish kibbutz in southern Israel's Negev desert prior to our meeting, she also increased my desire to one day visit Israel.

After we met in Montana, we kept in contact during the fall/winter/spring/summer of 1991-92. She was in Arad, Israel, volunteering with Sherut La'am (the Jewish Agency's educational-volunteer 6-month program) and I was working at Big Bend National Park. We eventually discontinued contact with each other by 1995 as our lives took different spiritual-theological and geographic directions. At the time (1995), she was a student at Jerusalem's Hebrew Union College and I a student at Canada's Prairie College.

Happily married now to an Israeli and with children, the Tufts University graduate (Stephanie) Sara Mizrahi now lives in Jerusalem.


Planter's Prayer

On a final note, and though not an environmentalist/earth worshiper nor a big proponent of formal/written prayers, here nonetheless is the "Planter's Prayer" as provided by JNF-KKL:

Heavenly Father, Thou who buildest Zion and Jerusalem, take pleasure in Thy land and bestow upon it of Thy goodness and Thy grace.

Give dew for a blessing and cause beneficent rains to fall in their season, to satiate the mountains of Israel and her valleys, and to water thereon every plant and tree, and these saplings which we plant before Thee this day.

Make deep their roots and wide their crown, that they may blossom forth in grace amongst all the trees in Israel, for good and for beauty.

And strengthen the hands of all our brethren, who toil to revive the sacred soil and make fruitful its wastes. Bless, O Lord, their might, and may the work of their hands find favor before Thee.

Look down from Thy holy habitation from heaven, and bless this land that it may flow again with milk and honey. Amen.