Every mountain has a slog. I mean that both literally and figuratively. As an avid mountain climber, I get to experience all the ways that a mountain illustrates various truths of life, shedding on them new light, and giving me something to think about. One does not need a mountain to illustrate truths of life. We can read about them or experience them firsthand. I venture to presume that anyone who has lived longer than a few years on this earth can guess pretty quickly at m

“There he goes!” “After him!”  “I’ve got him—no I haven’t!” “There he is—under that rock!” From the large, colorful Collared Lizards  of Oklahoma to the small, spiny lizards and fence lizards of the Southwestern deserts, there is always a lizard to chase, and we must always at least try to catch it. This time, the lizard was a Western Side-Blotched Lizard  at the bottom of the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona. This lizard is a small, brown one with a dark blotch behind its fo

"Have you been to the Grand Canyon?" That is often the first question we’re asked when we tell someone we travel the country. It’s like the Grand Canyon is the most important thing to see. In our opinion, it was something we’d see if we had the chance, but not necessarily our top destination. After 4 years on the road, we got our chance to visit the Grand Canyon while staying in northern Arizona. But If we were going to visit Grand Canyon, we would do it our way - the Ad-Vent

Join the Ad-Venturos on a hilarious ride in the Coral Pink Sand Dunes of Utah! © 2025 by Anchor & Fish Ministries. All rights reserved.

Chapter 6: The secret of the best; the story of the quarrel between the bakers In Chapter 5, I introduced you to the baker in the Cranberry Village. His name is Bundt, and he makes the best breads, cakes, and cookies on the Island. But now I must introduce to you a problem which I didn’t mention in Chapter 5. If you remember, I told you that Bundt the baker makes delicious cranberry bread. Do you remember who else in the Village makes cranberry bread? You’re right. It is Mrs.

“Work” means different things to different people. For some, “work” is the name of a place you go every day to earn your living. For others, “work” constitutes the whole range of activities in which you may engage on a daily basis whether you work a job, stay at home, or go to school. Yet more broadly speaking, work can mean than just what you do. Everyone’s life is characterized by some sort of work—what we might call your “life’s work,” your legacy, your stamp upon this wor

©2026 by Joshua Venturo Much of the American West is dry rocky land dotted with small patches of brown or soft green bushes. Lofty mountains soar upward from tree-covered valleys, but in most places, once the sweeping ridges give way to lower, more predictable hills, dry grassland or desert prevails. In Arizona, saguaros push toward the sun through the rocky hillsides, slowly soaking in any water available. In California, strange-looking Joshua trees, with their long, pointed

We found him huddled in a hollow between the boulders. We saw the fear in his face as he looked up at us with his big round eyes. And we saw the cruel, barnacle-encrusted rope around his neck. The rope was old and crusty. It looked like it had been there for a long time. It was so tight that it was digging into the poor animal’s skin. There was a deep cut all around his little neck. He was a sea lion. A little baby sea lion all alone in the rocks on the shore of the Oregon Co

“Our lives depend on it!” - sign on cache   “Okay, guys,” I announced, calculator in hand. “We need to figure out how much water to bring.” Everybody started talking at once. Statistics and logistics flew around the room until my head was spinning. But eventually we got things ironed out. I went over the details . . . again. Just to make sure we had things right. “Okay.” I rattled off the numbers. “One gallon per person per day. That’s the minimum for drinking, cooking, and h

Part 4: The Burial, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ Introduction At the heart of many false notions about Christian living is an incomplete understanding of the transformation that takes place when a person repents and believes in Jesus as his Savior from the wrath of God against sin. Repeatedly in his letters, Paul combated two opposite attitudes from false teachers about Christian behavior. Some argued that strict adherence to the Mosaic Law was necessary for salvatio

Join us on another adventure as we explore the Sierra Nevada mountains of California! We are excited to introduce Episode 2 in the Ad-Venturos series. We hope you will be inspired to get outside and make discoveries in God's incredible Creation. © 2025 by Anchor & Fish Ministries. All rights reserved.

One of the joys of our backpacking trips (see here, here , here , here , and here ) is studying a book of the Bible together. On a recent trip to Joshua Tree National Park, we studied the book of Titus. Paul had left Titus on the island of Crete to “put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town” (1:5). After giving qualifications for elders in Chapter 1, Paul turns his attention to instruction that Titus was to provide to other members of the church. Paul d

Want to Watch a Desert Hairy Scorpion in Action? ©2025 by Joshua Venturo The Mecca Hills of Southern California are dry, dusty, and hot. Each day, the sun beats down, parching the ground until only a few shrubs can survive. Down in the wetter washes and canyons, there are catclaw and paloverde trees. Higher, on the rocky slopes and ridges, there are creosote bushes and spiky ocotillos scattered here and there. Once in a while, there is a branchy cholla cactus bristling with s

It is a nice but anxious dinner. The slightest sounds cause us to turn our heads in nervous anticipation. We sit outside in our gazebo, enjoying the cool night air and the Christmas lights that we’ve hung around the ceiling. Suddenly, a louder sound throws us into confusion. I whip my head around, peering into the darkness and seeing a row of lights on top of what appears to be a tall vehicle. “Dad . . . I think that’s it!” Dad vaults from his chair and tears open the zipper

“Will they be ready for The Wall?” - TV announcer When I was growing up, we did not watch sports on TV. At least not typical sports. We watched bike races. While other families I knew got together to watch the World Series or the Super Bowl, we gathered in the living room watching the Tour de France. We knew people who would drive to the city to spend, it seemed, a fortune to eat a hot dog and sit in a gigantic stadium for the big game. We drove to a small, grassy parking lot

Over the past few months we’ve viewed the Resurrection of Christ from multiple angles, covering both its crucial place in a Gospel presentation  and its present comfort  for believers today. What happened, though, after Christ rose from the dead? What is His place and role now? The Bible teaches that Jesus ascended into Heaven after being raised alive from the dead, where He took His rightful place in an exalted position at the right hand of the Father (Acts 1:9-10; Romans 8:

Yellow eyes shone out of the black forest, just outside the half-circle of white light our headlamps made. One winked out, then they both disappeared. Moments later, the eyes shown again, this time a few feet to the left. We summited this small Nevada mountain on a nice afternoon hike We had to do something . It was winter in the northern Nevada hills. The days had been getting shorter, and we were out later than we expected. The eyes, and whatever creature they belonged to,

Have you ever stepped into another world? I’m sure most of us have entered another world at one time or another in our imaginations during our childhoods. But there are times even as we grow older, if only we are willing to step out of our own busy worlds for a moment and look closely, when we find ourselves in another world. This past month, our family had just such an experience on the Oregon coast. The Oregon coast is made up of rocky shores, crashing waves, and tangled bu

Chapter 5: A secret about bread; the story of Bundt the baker In the middle of the Cranberry Village, there is a tiny, barely noticeable shack that sits by the street in the middle of a long row of shops. And hanging over the door is a crooked sign on which, if you look closely enough, you can barely make out the words “Bundt’s Bakery.” For Bundt the groundhog is far too busy making the best bread in the country to worry about making the outside of his shop fancy. He doesn’t

Have you ever wondered to yourself, “What if I sin after I become a Christian?” The Resurrection of Christ plays a role in helping to answer this question. Whereas last month  we studied why the Resurrection of Christ is such a crucial part of a Gospel presentation, in this devotional I hope you will be encouraged by how that historical event of over 2,000 years past affects you personally today. When Christ died on the Cross, He atoned for your sin and became your propitiat

This year we were blessed to spend several weeks on the Oregon Coast, and we are excited to publish our first video in what we are calling the "Ad-Venturos" series! Join us in a hilarious--and sometimes death-defying--adventure among the rocks and tide pools of the southern Oregon coastline! We hope you will be entertained and challenged to explore God's incredible world.

He knew we were in the water. On the four different occasions that Kelly and I came to swim in the sheltered cove on the coast of Oregon, we saw this same seal. He was watching us carefully. He would poke his head out of the water to peek at us, and when a wave came he would stretch his neck so that he could still see over the crest of the wave. Back and forth he went, popping up on one side of us and then the other. Maybe he was curious? Or maybe he was irritated that we wer

©2025 by Daniel Venturo It was a nice evening on the Oregon coast, and we had decided to take a tide pooling excursion before cleaning up and having dinner. We climbed through the rocks and started finding things—mammoth green anemones, orange and purple starfish, and spiny sea urchins. We called each other over to see tubeworms , new kinds of starfish, or strange gelatinous blobs. Then, as we peered under a large boulder, we saw a lemon! As we gathered around to examine the

“It will let up any minute now!” – a statement we now view as more of a joke Bivouac. Or bivy, for short. Because few of us can actually pronounce “bivouac” properly. Either way, it is just a fancy word for waiting. And yet, it is more than waiting. It is waiting on steroids. Take normal waiting, say, before a doctor’s appointment or standing in line at the DMV, and add wind, rain, mosquitos, hail, or snow. Or all of the above. Lower the temperature to a level that you can ba