It is 2:30 am, and we just returned from fishing for sockeye salmon on the Kenai River for the last eight hours. The limit is now six, and we fished past midnight so we could legally have twelve fish in our possession. There are ten of us at Tim’s Lodge right now, so we could have 120 sockeye salmon in our possession. We didn’t have that many when we quit, but very close, and there are still two ultra-crazy fishermen fishing. It is very weird fishing at night with headlamps, especially when at least one person always has a fish on. The fish are running in high numbers; 120,000 fish were counted on the sonar counter yesterday, so we had a very successful night harvesting fish. It is funny because of the ten of us, there are two who like to net fish, and because we all were catching fish so often, the poor netters hardly got to fish!

I am now sitting in my chair in the corner of the living room in Tim’s Lodge. He has now given this place an official name, “Funny River Fellowship Lodge.” I even have an official sweatshirt with the logo on it. The lodge is on Funny River Road and Funny River is close by, thus the name. I like to catch fish, but I actually enjoy it more when there are fewer fish and we have to fish harder. Also as the fish numbers go up so does the number of fisherman and pretty soon it is a rodeo.

I have been working hard to focus on the Lord while fishing and praying silently in my head for people. It is an excellent discipline to develop, praying anytime there is an opportunity, such as driving, fishing, walking, etc. If you don’t have a prayer time regularly, daily is best, where that is all you do, focusing only on the Lord and nothing else; praying while you are doing something else will be fragmented, interrupted by various thoughts prompted by what you see. Many people say that is when they do all their praying while doing something else. If the truth were known, the quality and depth of their prayer life would be very shallow and focused primarily on their own needs and problems. The emphasis in the New Testament is praying for others. God desires time with us that is not scattered but focused, not convenient but sacrificial.