Interview with Sam Ebeyer - Part 3

Finally - the last part of our interview with Sam Ebeyer:

Bardin & Marsee (BMP): You took a Waterproof Bible with you, how did you find out about it? Why did you take it and not a regular bible in a plastic bag?

Sam: I found out about the Waterproof Bible on Google. They told me to prepare for brutal climate/rain forest type jungle and mountainous terrain. I knew a plastic bag and a paper Bible would not cut it. They told us we would have to wade through rivers and streams and sit in torrential downpour (which we did) and this was the only Bible I had ever heard of that I thought could make it through all of that.

BMP: How did the Waterproof Bible hold up to the elements of your surroundings?

Sam: The Bible held up brilliantly. No smudges, no tears, no problems through the worst conditions imaginable with some of the worst equipment. My pack was made of wicker, not Gore-Tex and the Bible took it in stride. I kept thinking of Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” I wish I had a tent made of that material, it would have been helpful. I read it whenever I had down time (as the journey went on, rest became more and more of a necessity) and was warmly encouraged and lifted to have it.

BMP: Any particular scripture passage that helped you throughout the journey?

Sam: The scripture that helped me the most was Psalm 121. I felt like I was experientially fleshing out the reasoning behind why that Psalm was penned. In adverse circumstances, men realize that they are men and they are small and at best, at the mercy of this world. I think God hard wired us to have to look to Him for deliverance. Even a mighty warrior king like David and a Louisiana boy in the wilderness named Sam. I needed to know that He who watched over me did not “slumber nor sleep” and that my help “comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth.” All of the wonder and hardship came from His sovereign hand. Knowing He was behind it for His glory was just wonderful.

BMP: Did you receive ridicule for carrying a Bible?

Sam: I didn’t receive ridicule for having the Bible specifically. Everyone, save for Mike, was respectful of my faith and my desire to bring a Bible with me. What I did receive ridicule for was the weight of the Bible. The cast and crew could not believe that I was hauling around an extra three pounds of weight. I just kept telling them, I need the weight of it. It is the food when I had no food and the good kind of weighty. I needed God’s word. I needed it. I wouldn’t have left it behind if they offered to pay me millions. I knew better, by experience.

BMP: What lessons from the show will you take away that will help shape you and your future?

Sam: The lessons I took from the show concerned the omnipresence of God. He was with me in the middle of a foreign place with total strangers, thousands of miles from home in the worst of conditions imaginable. We were chewed alive by bugs, soaking wet most of the time, starving, bruised, cut, blistered etc. But, He sustained me through His word like Jesus in the wilderness. The lesson I will take with me is that God is faithful. Period. It is an objective fact. He will hide His words in our hearts. He will be faithful when we are not. He will be strong when we are weak. He is God. He made this world beautiful and dangerous for His glory. It is a reflection of Himself.

 

Many thanks to Sam for taking the time to talk with us and for telling us about his time on the show - Out of the Wild: Venzuela. But mostly for the great reminders about who our God is and how He loves us!

 

Photographer - Luke Terbieten

Interview with Sam Ebeyer - Part 2

Here we go to continue our interview with Sam Ebeyer - as he tells us about his experience on the show, Out of the Wilds-Venezuela.

BMP: How did your relationships with others change or what did you learn about relating to others?

Sam: My relationships changed as our group grew in the context of relationship. That sort of experience made that group friends of mine for life. Earlier on, they were strangers but once we all got to know each other, the depth of mutual care and encouragement was pretty amazing. We started out as strangers and ended up being very close. I still keep in touch with Brad, Duz, and Beanie.

BMP: What piece of equipment helped you the most? Least?

The most useful piece of equipment was undoubtedly the machete. The applications in our setting were myriad. We needed that machete to do most things from clearing brush, to cutting branches for making camp, to splitting firewood. That heavy machete was undoubtedly the most valuable item we had. The magnesium and flint was pretty important as well. Fire is a big deal in the wilderness. The least helpful piece of equipment was the hammocks we carried around. They were cotton string hammocks that sucked up all of the water and moisture so they weighed 4 times as much when they were wet. We kept using them for bedding but I wish we would have ditched them much earlier or made a bunch of cord out of them. Everyone wanted to ditch them but felt like they couldn’t. If I could do it again, I would burn those hammocks.

BMP: What is your favorite location or scenery from the show?

Sam: The most amazing scenery was being on top of Roraima (a tepui) near angel falls. We were at 10,000 feet and we could see for miles all around. It felt like another world. That location was responsible for the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World. I understood the “why” behind that almost immediately. It felt like an alien place. There was an amazing waterfall as well.

BMP: What challenged you the most during the show?

Sam: What challenged me the most from the show was the calorie deficit. I lost 32 lbs in a few weeks. We burned 6-10,000 calories a day hiking with 60-70lbs at altitude and lived off of the land. If we ate a few hundred calories each day, I would be surprised. There simply wasn’t any food and we felt it. Lethargy, irritability, fatigue, and constantly being rained on/crossing rivers. These were par for the course and a constant hurdle particularly while dealing with a group of people struggling the same way. Relational aspects proved difficult as we starved.

Photographer - Luke Terbieten

 

This ends Part 2 - more to come...

Interview with Sam Ebeyer - Part 1

A while back we stumbled upon a photo of a Waterproof Bible being used on the TV show - Out of the Wilds–Venezuela. Needless to say we were curious about how the Bible held up to the rough elements and about the person(s) who used it.

Here is our interview with Sam Ebeyer - he'll tell you much better about how the whole experience got started and how it went!

Bardin & Marsee Pub (BMP): Why did you want to do the show, Out of the Wilds–Venezuela?

Sam: I did the show because, shortly after they (the production company for the show) called me back, it became apparent that this experience would be a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience. I am a bit hard wired for the camping/hunting/surviving sort of life anyway (I grew up in the swamps in South Louisiana), so this was the golden opportunity to realize a real adventure in a foreign country akin to Teddy Roosevelt-esque expeditions.

BMP: Tell us how you were cast to do the show?

Sam: I was cast for the show after seeing a miniature blurb outlining the preliminary method for application while watching “Dual Survival” on the Discovery Channel. It popped up in the bottom left hand side of the screen and said something like “If you think you have what it takes to rough it in the wild, then apply.” So, I did. I told my wife about it in passing, and they called me back the next day and told me to put together a video resume for them along with a brief biography. I did so. Then there was a lot of paperwork and background checks. Once I passed all of that, they flew me to LA twice for screening processes and finally to Venezuela where they selected the final 9 for the show.

BMP: What is the show about?

Sam: The show’s premise is that they take 9 strangers, put them together in the middle of the Venezuelan wilderness and they have to make it out of the wild by living off of the land. The hike was over 90 miles through the mountains and jungles with primitive/indigenous supplies. It was a “survival” show.

BMP: What is your favorite memory from the show?

Sam: My favorite memory from the show was after a 15 hour hike (8 of which were done in the pitch black of the jungle). We reached a clearing to make camp and saw the stars. I have never seen a spread of stars like that before in my life. That starry sky paired with the knowledge that we were going to be able to rest was great. I grabbed my mosquito net and wrapped up and crashed on the open ground.

BMP: How did your relationship with God change throughout the show?

Sam: My relationship with God changed in that there was more faith building proof behind the promises of God. We were under the most adverse trying circumstances and my encouragement/comfort all came from the Lord faithfully staying with me throughout. Things I knew about God before I really knew about him after the show. Suffering tends to make our vision of Christ sharper.

 

Photographer - Luke Terbieten

 

This ends Part 1 - stayed tuned...

KJV Bibles and Green Tomatoes

What do green tomatoes and KJV Bibles have in common?

For starters, we have lots of both. More than lots to be exact.

The kids and I did some green tomato picking the other day - we kept picking and picking till finally the excitement wore off for the kids. But I still did some picking to end up with a crazy amount!

Then later that night when "the farmer" got home, he went and picked...more! So what in the world do we do with all these green tomatoes?

Speaking of lots of tomatoes, we have tons of something else too...KJV Bibles with an "oops" in them. Yep, talk about a downer. Last year, about this time or to be exact, the day BEFORE Thanksgiving - Bobby dropped the bummer bomb about the KJV Bibles we had just printed.

A typo. Well, more than that, a complete book was missing with a duplication of another one in it's place.

So what do we do with so many KJV Bibles...

...and green tomatoes.

Its a dilemma for sure, but with a little cream cheese icing and some plastic stickers - we'll get through to the bottom of the pile(s). Eventually.

 

Post by Anna - who will be making a cake with green tomatoes really soon...

Irony for Dinner

We like to garden. Or maybe I should say, Bobby likes to garden. But mostly it is a family affair, if you count the help the kids put into picking raspberries or blueberries or tomatoes - only to have none to bring inside...

I won't get technical about our gardening, we do it the same way it has been done for a long time, just dirt, plants and water. We do get funny looks every now and then - like we are tree-huggers or organic-gurus or something. Some might think we do it for the healthy benefits and such. Or to be "green."

We actually just enjoy it. Especially eating what comes up.

And as for the health part? Well, this is where the irony comes in.

What do you do with a huge crop of figs? Can them? Yes, we did that. But we still had so many...

So naturally we dipped them in a sweet batter and deep fried them...and served with ice cream! This was after we had fried eggplant for dinner...convenient that the oil stayed hot to fry the figs.

A few weeks ago we harvested our sweet potatoes, which is definitely a fun way to get the kids involved - so much dirt to dig up! We'll be eating sweet potatoes for awhile too...

What better way to eat them?

With marshmallows on top!!

And tonight for dinner? Some homemade, roasted tomato soup with...mac-n-cheese!

Call us what you will, but I like to think of us as Heavenbound!

 

Post by Anna

 

satan interrupted

We had one of "those days" last week. The kind that makes you want to smash your head in the wall.

Do you know that kind?

These kind of days can be caused by a variety of factors, but most notably, satan interrupts.

That is how my five year-old put it. Now she is six. She has such a way of saying things that really makes you think.

What exactly does it mean to interrupt? I teach this to my kids on a daily basis:

- "Shhhhh, your dad is talking!"

- "I'm on the phone..."

- "Your sister is asking me a question, wait."

You get the idea, that is what it means to interrupt.

So when satan interrupts, that means who is talking? I would love to get inside my daughter's head some time. Often I can watch her thinking. She knows that interrupting is to talk or get into something when you aren't supposed to - mainly when someone else is talking.

I would like to think, that when satan interrupts, it is God who is "talking" or maybe just his presence is being questioned. That day for us was full of squabbles and testing of obedience and just overall badness. But don't we all have those days? The "bad hair day?"

I do remember when a bad day was something silly like that. We all have bad days, but what is it that is actually happening?

Better yet, how can we discipline satan and ourselves to not let him interrupt? I would like to say that bad days will never happend again around here, but that is a fantasy not worth thinking about. More important is how we handle those interruptions. How can I keep my focus on God, who is doing the talking and listen to him and not satan (who just might be thrusting his will upon my children)?

Prayer is my best tactic, and probably the only good one. Because at the very best, that keeps me talking to God - and satan will just have to wait........

Isaiah 33:6  And he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is Zion's treasure.

Praying for Happy Days Ahead - Anna

 

Challenges

We have posted a few times about our "free" promo going on right now. Free with any purchase is the devotional by Chuck McAlister, Adventures in God's Country. So just to give you all a little taste of what it is about, below is one of the devotions. And just in case you were wondering...yep, this book is 100% waterproof too!

Challenges

Proverbs 27:19
As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man.

   Recently, I had the opportunity to do something that was a great deal of fun but was also very challenging. I went sea duck hunting off the coast of Massachusetts at Cape Cod. While I’ve become
accustomed to hunting ducks in Arkansas, this was a most unusual duck hunt. Instead of spreading the decoys and calling in the ducks as we do here in Arkansas, we spread the decoys on the open water and hoped that the sea ducks who were flying by would deviate from their path and come by our location. Then came the challenging part: we bounced up and down on ten-foot waves while we tried to shoot a duck flying by at what seemed to be supersonic speed. I realized that we had to hit the duck exactly right with our shot, or, because of its hardy nature, he would keep right on flying. I’ll have to confess that I had many misses, but thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon; I was actually able to bag a drake eider, which will soon be gracing my wall.
    As I sat in the boat and tried to compensate for the motion of the waves, as well as the speed of the ducks that we were trying to bag, I realized that this particular hunt was a tremendous parable for life. We all face challenging situations. For some, it can be habits that need to be broken; for others, it may involve relationships, finances, or even attitudes that we have embraced that need to be addressed. Ask yourself in what area of your life do you face challenges right now? Is it the pace of your life? Are you excessively worrying? Are you holding on to the past? Are you struggling with an addiction? Have your expectations not been met in a relationship? Do you feel a need to control others?
    How do we compensate for those things in life that toss us up and down and for these circumstances that fly by us at alarming speeds? The scripture says this: “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34 NIV).
    We can only give attention to what’s happening right now. God will help us deal with what’s coming up. Your challenges were not created in a day, and you won’t make the changes you need to make overnight to deal with them. Thank God for each challenge you face, and deal with one challenge at a time. You can’t change thirty things in your life at once, so focus on that one thing you can change, on that one challenge you can meet. Ask God which challenge you need to work on first.
    Have you heard the saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” When you face your challenges, you have to break them down into bite-sized pieces. When you get up in the morning, ask God: Will you help me deal with this one challenge today? It may involve controlling your temper; you may need to forgive someone, or it may mean eating less or having a
positive attitude. For some, dealing with that challenge today may be too big a bite. You may need to say: God, help me deal with this challenge for the next hour, or even just the next thirty minutes.
    As those eiders came in, I recognized that they were coming at me faster than I had anticipated. As the flock flew by, I had to pick out one duck to focus on, just as we must focus on that one thing that needs to be changed in our lives. Proverbs 3:7 says it this way: “Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil.”
    When we learn to rely on God’s power, when we are willing to associate with the right people, and when we realize that facing those challenges begins by changing how you address them, then we know we are actively facing life’s challenges.
    We can make three very real mistakes in regard to our behavior in facing the challenges of life:
(1) We try to change our behavior first...However, we must first change our thinking, which changes our beliefs, which changes our attitudes, which, finally, changes our behavior.
(2) We wait for God to change our circumstances...more often, God wants to change us more than He wants to change our circumstances.
(3) We wait for circumstances to change our behavior. That just doesn’t work.
    Ultimately, the greatest challenges we face are not the circumstances around us, but those in our own heart. Proverbs 27:19 says it this way:  “As water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man” (NIV). In other words, just as you can see the reflection of your face outwardly in a pool of water, so a man’s heart reveals what he really is.
    When I was hunting sea ducks, it wasn’t long before I began to gain the confidence that I could really meet this challenge, and soon that confidence became reality. I not only met the challenge, but I took a banded drake eider. For duck hunters, that’s the equivalent of hitting a home run. The challenge had been met; the victory had been won. I had figured out the right thing to do, and I just kept doing it until I had faced the challenge of my performance.
    We change our lives as we consistently do the right thing. However, we should never fall into the trap of thinking that God isn’t going to love us until we finish facing our challenges. God looks at us right now, wherever we are in the process of facing our challenge, and says, “I love you and I want to help you.” God wants to meet with you and help you face the challenges of your life. He wants to help you change, and He will if you let Him. That is why He sent His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus came to face the challenges we face so that He could sympathize with us, and, ultimately, deliver us from those
challenges. Trusting your life and your challenges to Him is the greatest victory of all.
    That’s the truth…about facing challenges, in God’s country.

Something to do...

That phrase is usually a complaint/whine around here - "Mama, I need something to do...!"

Oh, to keep little fingers and minds busy. That has been my challenge lately. In our age of convenience and fluff we don't need kids to do much around the home any more. My girls are obsessed with "Little House on the Prairie." So, therefore, I am too. But in a manageable sense. Even as I write this they are quietly watching an episode from season 2.

What is it about the life of those during that time? Are we really that bad off nowadays? Some days I wish I could live back then, despite the fact I would have to work much harder, but maybe family life would actually be easier. Less distractions, more together time, happier together, etc...

You get the drift. And this year I began homeschooling for the 3rd year, if you count the 1/2 year I did a couple years ago. So back to the "something to do" comment, that seems to be the theme of my day.

I read some great advice in a Charlotte Mason book, about children.

Be sure that your children each day have:

- Something or someone to love

- Something to do

- Something to think about

Seems to be more of challenge for me than for them...but it has been great for me to keep in mind. And to work to help them in things to do or love or think about.

Here is one of our latest "something to do" events. What better than a opossum trap? Late one night, Bobby spotted a baby opossum quickly dart up the drain pipe just outside our side door. So naturally he had the kids help him set up a trap.

 

Complete with bells from the instrument box and a cantalope rind tied to a string to "trigger" the basket to fall down. The kids loved it, of course, and they would "check" on the trap throughout the day.

But, did we catch the baby opossum? No, but it was great to have "something to do."

- Post by Anna, the prairie-mom wannabe

 

Gazing Outward

I just finished reading one of my favorite books. Yes, it is one I've read several times - and no, it isn't a parenting book!

Written in 1955 it captures an interesting perspective on life and good reminders even for today. As I was just purusing the web to figure out when it was written, I stumbled upon some very interesting history about the author and her husband. Funny how you can be so diligently into something then get completely sucked in to something else...

Anyway, now the book has an even different meaning or significance to me. Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote, Gift from the Sea, a look at life in the areas of love, family and work. She wrote it while vacationing alone at the beach. The simple things of the beach taught her some profound lessons for her busy life back home. Using seashells, Lindbergh captures these ideas to share with her readers.

Lindbergh discusses life's challenges from a woman's perspective in an ever changing world. In the 1950's life really did change, but not any more than now. We have all the modern conveniences that were founded through those years (and more), and we face great challenges, as did her generation.

One of my favorite quotes from her book is actually a quote from Saint-Exupery - "Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction."

To me such a thought-provoking quote. But I won't bore you with all my thoughts about it, just leave it for you to mull over...

What makes this quote and Lindbergh's book more interesting is that both she and her husband (Charles Lindbergh) had affairs. During my sidetracking, I was intrigued by this, because in her book she talks at length about marriage and keeping it together. She even offers simple advice on how to "look outward together."

And as I write this, I am reminded that no one is immune to such faults or temptations. Even those we seem to want to esteem or honor, even they fall.

King David comes to mind as well, wasn't he to be esteemed? And didn't he fall hard? But yet God's grace covers him. How much more now do I want to gaze in the right direction!

From my thoughts, to the blogosphere...to you,

Anna

Failure and Parenting

I've been thinking a lot lately about parenting. I'm a perfectionist, so for me parenting is just another challenge to conquer.

Or is it? I've read the popular parenting books. I went through a phase when I couldn't put them down. And I couldn't stop thinking about parenting. Which is back to where I started...

But the books didn't answer my big question as of late. They tell us all about what we should do and how to avoid being a bad parent. How to analyze our own childhood and own parents, to make sure we avoid those mistakes.

So I have embraced the challenge, conquering parenting. And of course, I fail everyday. What is it about this part of life that seems unsurmountable? The books tell you everything you should have to do, right?

Wrong.

My question is, what will I fail at with parenting? I can't be perfect, I will fall short on some aspect or lots of aspects. (Hopefully not the latter.) God doesn't call us to be perfect, but sometimes the Christian life seems to call us to that. If we just did this better or tried doing that, etc...

You've heard it all too. What is it we will fail at?

So I've decided that I need to figure out what it is that I will be no good at with parenting. Maybe if I hone in on that, I won't be so disappointed when I do fail. I can quit the disillusion that I'll be better than others around me, or I won't make the same mistakes of those before me.

Almost like we are lead to believe that bad parenting is a disease, we just need the right shot in the arm to make the bad stuff go away. But sin will never go away, at least not here.

So I will stay on my journey, every day it will challenge me. And I will keep thinking about what I should fail at. Only to push me to love my kids more.

And to love God more.