Please do not take this as an accusation. I am simply pleading with you to examine your own heart. Please ask yourself, “Would I really want to see Dale fail in his mission? I can understand how that you could wish that I would leave you alone and shut down this Website and delete all of the posts that I have posted, but you know as well as I that such thoughts are not realistic. There really is, in essence, two outcomes to this road that you and I are on. Either God truly has sent me on this quest for you, or I am a nut that has an incurable obsession over you. There is no middle ground.
If I am that nut, I will most certainly come to an unpleasant end. I will fail to get anywhere close to Singapore, and my infamy will live on for several years to come. Who knows how long my Website will continue to stay up and running? If anything, my demise would probably spur some popularity for some time to come, before slowly petering out over time.
More than that, has it ever been said that my demise would be to your benefit? I do not believe that you would feel that way, yet perhaps somehow somewhere there have been whispers of that suggestion in the air.
Would it not be better that my quest for you be a genuine command from God? Even if I were to die in my attempt, it would prove that my love for you is a true and a pure love and that I am a true man of integrity. Is it not better to have a true man of integrity bidding for your soul?
Lenticular Cloud over Harold’s Cross Dublin Ireland, Omnisource5 – 2015
My friend Bee,
I hope that you are beginning to see that this entire enterprise truly is all about you. Is it evident to you that I am not trying to glorify myself? This is all a pretty strange way of going about things, if that was my intent.
Please understand that I have never wanted to cause you stress, anxiety, fear, anger, or any other unpleasant feelings or emotions. I know that many of the things that I have written to you have caused you grief, sorrow, and pain. There are certain things that I knew at the time that I wrote them would be a discomfort to you, but there are other things that I have written where I did not foresee tears in your eyes. However, I have always been careful to be as truthful with you as I could possibly ever be to anyone. I have leaned very heavily upon God to lead me as I write to you, to be certain that I really am being truthful with you.
This is the problem. Often times, the truth can be painful, but it is only by facing up to the truth that we can understand what is wrong and where the deception, the lies, and the subtlety exists in our lives. The truth is a light that reveals the darkness. Without the truth, we are unable to see the darkness in our lives.
In all soberness and sincerity, I have never knowingly allowed myself to say anything to you that I thought would cause you pain unless it was for the specific purpose to help you understand the truth. It is out of love that I have thought to cause you to suffer, so that you might know the truth and to be able to see the darkness and to be free from that darkness. Is it not better that you suffer sorrow and pain for a season in order to discover and to take hold of eternal joy and light, than it is to live in an undisturbed darkness until you finally realize that you will never ever be free from that darkness – a adarkness that continually becomes ever more dark? I have only ever wanted you to be happy and filled with joy, but you will never be able to find true happiness and to live in untethered joy as long as you are living in darkness.
When I first began this blog, I did not anticipate that my struggles with my health and my diet were going to be quite as extreme as they have been. Neither did I expect the Bible Study effort to be so all-consuming. Do not get me wrong. I fully anticipated that both of these aspects were going to be exceedingly difficult to handle, yet they both turned out to be far greater challenges than I expected.
I knew that the battle with my gastrointestinal affliction was going to be exceedingly difficult. After all, I have been battling with this affliction for 20 years. I knew that it was going to be insanely difficult, but I had no clue that, in the process, I would be uncovering this long-standing body-fluid balance issue. The whole situation has been a huge surprise to me. It is an incredibly complex problem, and it is not a situation that can be resolved quickly by any means.
With the Bible study, it just never occurred to me that the beginning of the Scofield Bible would contain so many comments to grapple with, as well as comments of such complexity and depth. With the Scofield Study Bible, well over 10% of all the comments in the entire Bible are contained in the book of Genesis. Moreover, some of the most complex and comprehensive comments that Dr. Scofield includes in his Bible are situated in the first half of the book of Genesis. Therefore, the effort to produce these Bible studies, here at the beginning, has been about three times as great as what I anticipated.
As a result, I have had no choice but to completely neglect the care and feeding of my blog, and, more importantly, I have not been able to focus my attention on you as I feel that I should. As I stated in my most recent blog post, “The Waiting Drives Me Crazy,” God has let me face these difficulties for very definite purposes. There are reasons why these difficulties have come about, and they are very good reasons. Furthermore, they are all reasons that need to be explained; however, I cannot explain them to you until you understand more about the quest itself.
Person In A Space Suit Waiting At The Bus Stop, Tom Leishman 2020
My dear friend,
It is hard to believe that it has been two whole months since I last posted a letter to you. When I started working on the Bible studies, I very quickly became inundated with that effort. I found that I did not have time for anything else. Virtually everything in my life has been put on the backburner. Even those daily and weekly activities (such as house cleaning and hygiene) that we all must do in order to keep ourselves fit for living have suffered because of my effort in producing these Bible Studies.
I knew long before I started work on these Bible Studies that they were going to be a very big challenge for me, but now that I am doing them, I find that it is a far greater effort than I could ever have imagined. It is somewhat humorous; because, when the idea first came to me, I was envisioning that I would simply be reading the text of the Bible to you. And nothing else! (This was before God gave me the errand to circumnavigate.) I had this idea that I would set up a blog site with the main purpose of communicating my own love to you in a way that you might come to realize the true nature of my love for you. I thought that if I did it that way, that you might understand that I genuinely never had any desires or intentions to take anything from you.
(To this very day, I am still completely perplexed as you why you ever thought that I wanted to exploit you in any way at all. How could my affections for you have been so completely misunderstood? From where, and how, did you ever arrive at such a dreadful conclusion?)
I figured that if I communicated to you in the form of blog posts (and the like) that you might see that I am honestly not seeking for nor expecting anything in return. Although, I have told you this before, but what can I do? You are trapped in a world of darkness my dearest friend! I am not able to comprehend what it is that has a hold on your heart and your mind, but this I do know. It is not of anything that is good and pure!
You say that you do no believe that God exists. You say that the Bible is fake. Oh! But my friend! You know deep in your heart that those words are only lies. You know deep in your heart that there is a God. You know that you … your very own self … you have a soul! You have a spirit! Where is that spirit of yours going to go when you pass on from this life to the next? What are you going to do when you find yourself in that boundless abyss after your body has died and been buried? What are you going to do when you stand in judgement before that very one that you claim does not exist?
Can you not understand how completely heartbroken I am over you … over your soul? I make no claim over your body or your soul. It is God that wants your soul! God gave you life. God gave you your body and your mind. All He is asking is for you to believe in Him. God has already provided the salvation for your soul. He simply asks that you believe.
Since I have been working on the Bible studies, I have not been able to keep up with any posts or updates on my blog. So I put together this video update. It is a bit rough around the edges, but I suppose that it is better than nothing! LOL
Back on February, 20th 2021, I posted a letter for you titled, “Our Shelter.” You may recall that in that letter I was explaining to you the great paradox that I found myself in, and how I was not able to reconcile the choice between laying down my life for you or for my wife (in a manner of speaking). I said:
“If I had two lives to give, I would gladly give them both so that God’s love would be made real to you and to her. It is a great conflict to my soul! … but in truth, I have never actually had a choice in the matter.”
Ultimately, I finished by proclaiming that “she will not accept it!” I said that she would not accept the perfect love of God that I had attempted to give her for so many years! I even went on to add that, “She will gladly accept my carnal love, but she will not accept God’s true and perfect love.” It was a very harsh thing for me to say, and I certainly heard about it! Especially, from my mother!
I rejoice in my great God and Savior that I have been proven wrong this day! For this day, I have come to understand that I did not rightly understand the situation.
I began to write another sketch about my wife, but the Lord forbad me. Nevertheless, with the few that I have already written, I think you can see that I truly do value, honor, and love her. How could I ever deny all that she has meant to me and the great influence that she has had on my life? Thus I find myself in a great straight! God has put it into my heart to sacrifice myself for you. How do I reconcile this paradox? I only have one life to give. If I had two lives to give, I would gladly give them both so that God’s love would be made real to you and to her. It is a great conflict to my soul! … but in truth, I have never actually had a choice in the matter.
For many hundreds of long agonizing days and nights, I felt as if it were a test. How would I chose? I did not understand the reality of the situation. Indeed, it was a great while before I was able to comprehend what it was that God was telling me, and then my eyes were opened so that I was able to see what God was showing to me all along. There has ever only been one door open! This is not because God is limited. All things are possible with God. If He had wanted to use me to show the perfect love of God to her, He would have made it possible at some point in the last 25 years. Yet, despite all my tears, prayers, and supplications to my faithful God and Lord! … it never did happen!
In my last post (titled, “Treasures New and Treasures Old”), I gave you a Bible passage from John’s 2nd epistle, written to the “elect lady.” I would imagine that you read that section of my letter and wondered in yourself, “How could God truly mean that Bible verse to be directed to me?” I can assure you that it is indeed meant for you, and you alone. You may wonder how that could be possible, right?
My blessed friend! Do you not understand that it is a promise from God?
It is God’s message to you, but He wants everyone to see what it is that He has promised. He will bring it to pass, and everyone that sees it will know that He is faithful and true, and that His love and His mercy endures forever.
“6Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off. 7Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me. 8The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.”
Yesterday I published a blog post (titled, “Sleepy Head …”) where I was going to begin discussing the preparations required for the conquest proper. However, before I was able to get to that subject, the Spirit of God diverted me into a much greater and more urgent subject. I am sorry if it seemed a bit strong. Please do not think that I get any satisfaction out of delivering tough messages or preaching judgment … or that I am trying to belittle you. Nevertheless, I do it out of obedience to my Lord and God, but also out of the love that I have for you.
It is all important that you understand that none of this is for my own glory. It is no mystery to me that very few people think that this endeavor is anything other than pure foolishness. I do not expect that sentiment to change anytime soon. I am nothing more than a spectacle in the eyes of most that see these posts or stumble into the Website. That is perfectly fine with me. I am more than willing to bear the shame and reproach for your sake and the sake of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I am nothing more than a vessel … a messenger.
It is not important if you take me for a fool or not, because I am not the one that is important here. God, the creator of the Earth, the cosmos, and everything beyond our cosmos is giving specific place and attention to you. He is using me to send that message to you, but that is my end. I am only the messenger, and the message to you from God is that He loves you. Listen to Him, not to me.
I do not know why God wants me to give you these verses at this moment, but for some reason He wants you to have them:
“1The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth; and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth; 2For the truth’s sake, which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever. 3Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.”
A tired black-footed ferret kit yawns for USFWS photographer, Kimberly Tamkun 2012
My dear friend,
I have already established that the starting point will likely be in Singapore, in the summer of 2022. To be more specific, it would be undesirable to depart out of Singapore any later than the end of July 2022. If I left any later, then it would certainly dictate a stay in Tasmania for the winter of 2023. (Winter in Tasmania runs from June to September.) If I leave Singapore in July (or earlier), then I may have a shot at making it all the way to Cabo de Hornos, Chile before the fall of 2023 fully sets in (around May or early June).
That could only happen if everything were to go perfectly. If I were able to average 50 miles (80 km) each travel day, it could be possible. 50 mi/day on the water is achievable when conditions are good, but expectations for perfect weather somewhat diminish the closer one progresses towards Antarctica. By land, that rate of travel is slightly more attainable; however, 50 mi/day on the snow and ice is pure fantasy. Therefore, the overall conditions would need to be especially perfect and consistent, and I would need to be able to maximize my travel days as much as possible.
Therefore, I suspect that I may have to winter in Tasmania (or perhaps in McMurdo, Antarctica) in 2023. Then when the weather improves, I would be able to move forward with my crossing of Antarctica in the summer of 2023/2024. God only knows! The idea of traveling from Singapore to the South Pole to Cabo de Hornos, Chile in a single year is preposterous! Even still, I do not want to limit the arm of the Lord. If it is His will to make it happen, then it will come to pass.
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