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| The time has come to leave...
I will miss you all so much. I have no idea what's going to go on in 11 months, most of which I have so little idea of what's going on, and no real plan for getting home after hiking after the missions with Dirk Brussow, and a bit of a vague Christmas Plan. But, I have faith that it'll be amazing! Because I know that this is where I am supposed to be going. And to know you are doing what God wants you to is simply incredible. It's like getting a flashlight while hiking in the dark! No more worries! I will miss you at Augustana, you from C&C, you from Camp, and FAMILY! But I will miss my outback hat more than I should miss an object. You see I left it the top of a glacier with a rock on it, after a 6 hour uphill hike in the middle of the rockies. SO, my dear hat will be left to enjoy the view and grow wise from the mountains until I return for it in a year. Let me tell you about my fundraising. I had a to put a lot of faith in God when he told me to quit my job and go to kid's camp, but he provided more than I needed to get back to Augustana without a student loan! So I asked God to spare me the fear that comes with meeting a money deadline, and help me get all the money in I needed without stress. He answered me and I was done fundraising 3 months early. Wheww.. Whoa. I'm leaving to Barhead monday to help Trevor and Amy and my new nephew Samuel with the construction of their new house, and I'll come to Camrose just before I fly out on September 12th. The website I will update ever two weeks or so while in Africa is http://benscholten.myadventures.org/ You can write me while I'm in Johannesburg if you'd like. PO Box 1284 Ifafi, South Africa 0260 I want you guys to pray for me while I'm gone, even if you aren't Christians, because he hears everything, and he'll stick his hand in you life and change it for the better in his will. I need the support and safety from your prayer. It's a little dangerous I hear...
Goodbye Canadians! Goodbye Canoe trips and hiking!
Ben Scholten
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| This is the story of Gulliver the Canada Goose egg and his travels with Ben and Nhial on the walk till you drop. Gulliver was born on one late April day to the mother goose we shall name "Grendella" because it's a horrible name, and Grendella the Canada goose was a horrible mother. Grendella made a nest right on the side of the road on top of a culvert in plain view of everything. She immediatly rejected Gulliver and rolled him out of the nest and into the road! Luckily for Gulliver, be he a dead cold canada goose fetus, or an alive cold canada goose fetus, Nhial and I came by him about 5 kilometers into the walk. His mother honked and hissed fiercely at us, but we wouldn't be intimidated by poor parenting, so Ben picked him up and started to carry him. And for some reason Ben's destructive urges did not let him smash it on the next hard object or passing car that came along. Ben ended up carrying Gulliver the goose egg for 66 more kilometers, over about 16 and a half more hours. So in total, that means that Ben went 71 kilometers in 17 and a half hours. Nhial went 54 kilometers in 12 hours. Gulliver will soon enter the Guinness book of world records for longest distance walked without sleeping carrying a goose egg without dropping it. At 1:00 AM saturday morning Ben dropped about 21 km outside Camrose after doing a 52 kilometer loop to Tofeild and Kingman. Gulliver was thankfully not crushed in the drop, because he's probably rotten inside. Ben and gulliver traveled back to Camrose where Ben learned his knees no longer bend. Then they added Nhial and traveled to Barhead for a day and half of rest and recuperation. After thus Gulliver travelled another 1000 kilometers or so to Fort St. John BC, where his fate awaits him. Ben's knees bend now, and he and Nhial are fully recuperated. If you sponsored per kilometer, you'll soon receive a phone call. If you'd still like to support Ben's missions trip, or Nhial's school program in Sudan, you can mail them paper to: Ben Scholten or Nhial Tiitmamer, ss-2 site-3 comp-36, Fort St. John, BC, V1J 4M7. If you should be so credit card inclined, you can do it directly to the missions association at https://www.adventures.org/give/donate.asp?giveto=staff Remember to add Ben Scholten into the space for Staff Name. Thank you for all the support that you guys gave in prayer and encouragement. If not for it, I would have abandoned the idea for the walk long ago. Before the walk my knee and back were so sore I could hardly go anywhere or sit without noticing them hurting. I told a lot of people, and I didn't notice them the entire time. Not at all. Amazing! So please continue with the support, because that was the easy part. Now comes the 9 month part. And I need you all so much. Thank you all! | | |
| There's only 12 or so hours left until I begin the walk. I hope I can count on you guys for prayer in the walk for health. Also, it would be great if you could pray for my knees, they're really stiff from going down some stairs in the dark, and it would stink to have them creaking and groaning for hours. Thank you guys so much for all the support! | | |
| So as my sisters have all done, I decided to check out the lives that other Benjamin Scholten's have on the internet. First Facebook: 1. Ben Scholten, Judson Illinois: Enjoys football and weight lifting. 2. Benjamin Scholten, participant in the group of Gay wedding show organizers..... Now Google: 3. Dutch man dying in 1873, with children; Minnie, Ira and Johanna. 4. A seriously good German Gymnast! .... Dead. 5. A speed skating club organizer in Montreal. .... Also just died. 6. A member of the reformed church of America. Lived 1923-43... Died young.... 7. Made the Dean's List in Judson University! Yeah Ben! 8. German Ben playing the part of a mouse in a German Cinderella musical.... Ok, I guess that Benjamin Scholten is a pretty common name through the world, and I can't claim any their fame. (Some fame I wouldn't really want....) but I hope you were amused by the lives of my relatives. I mean hey, we're all related back there somewhere. I'm probably going to have to change the walk till you drop date to April 25th now, will update. Bye! | | |
| Hey Wabittes! How many wabbites are actually in Wabi? Meh. Home is where the heart is. It sounds like Becky is going to have a crazyer than regular summer. She'll finish finals, lead an Outdoor adventure program half the summer, work the rest, plan a wedding while doing this, get married and honeymoon, and then show up just in time for your last semester at school. I would expect nothing less of Becky of course. So it looks like Nhial is coming to stay with us for the summer for sure now! We came up for spring break together and we went on the job hunt 2 months in advance. What a great guy. There's a feeling I think new parents know best, where you get to watch a person try a totally new concept like kid playing with a cat for the first time. Nhial's from Sudan and we got him to try sledding properly with snowpants and coat and gloves and such. The last attempt had him with frostbite before he got a chance to go up the hill. So Nhial and Becky, Andrew, Steve and I went up a random hill in the Beaton Valley after a fresh new snow with 3 brand new crazy carpets and a "bat-sled." The bat sled just a Black batman saucer with some bat like shapes and fancy grooves. The first attempt we went up the hill about 30 feet, and when Nhial went down he started rolling, and laughing, and and slid to a stop. Then he jumps up and runs back up the hill! "Nhial! You forgot the crazy carpet!" So then he ran down and up 20 feet, then slid down rolling and getting a faceful of snow. Then up 15 feet, then up 10 feet, and then he just started jumping in the snow and running around, rolling around, and jumping off high stuff into deep stuff, a pure powder and winter feeling. It was fun. And we had fun sledding too. Steve did crazy stuff as usual. Really steep and fast. I felt bad for poor Andrew, who had already built his proposal snowcave, bought a ring, and has Becky back from school, but cannot get up the hill to sled with her! Aw shucks. Perseverence Andrew. I salute you. Well I have a non-definitive date for the walk till you drop. I also spelt 'til wrong as 'till' on all the t-shirts I made. Mass produced Ben error. GRAAGH! Why not scrol down to the picture and have a laugh at my spelling and grammar error. It's Friday April 13th. Yoiks! Friday the 13th! I can't accept any money until (untill ?) all my applications are complete, but I can accept a pledge per kilometer for when I do it. Nhial will be doing the walk to to raise money for the Bor Youth Development school he and some friends are trying to start in their home town in South Sudan. So he's looking for sponsorship too. I feel so guilty for my little plugs for our causes. So I did it. The evil excursion. I joined facebook. Poor xanga is going the way of the dodo. I hope that I get to come home again before the end of the year and catch up with all of you. And probably do more shameful plugs for my fundraising. Aw shucks again. I hope to hear from you guys, I love you all. | | |
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