I met Dean (and Bette) Hellenga in about 1976, or so, when they came down from Alaska to Marysville, CA, for Dean's mother's funeral. We got to know each other much better when I had the privilege to be his/their pastor in Anchorage, AK, from 1982-1987. Dean was an ordained Nazarene pastor, but that really wasn't his forte. He was a teacher his students loved and he was an outdoorsman with a great love for nature and and great knack for story-telling.
One time at our Alaska District Church of the Nazarene Jr. Camp, he took us out to an area where there was plenty of room and told us to spend whatever time we needed to record what was going on in our circle. At first we thought he was off his bonker, but he spent time with each of us and pretty soon we began to see what we had never seen...bugs, plants, little critters, worms, clouds, birds, again, way more than any of us had every seen before.
That's the Dean Hellenga who spent time with me today.
One time on the Resurrection Trail on the Kenai Penninsula, Dean and 15 or 16 of us were camped out by a lake. The strangest thing happened. Across the Lake a cow moose came down into the water to what we thought was to consume some lake cabbage or other water delicacies. All of the sudden she erupted into a frenzy of bucking and kicking and snorting. All of us, except Dean, leaned backwards with the hope that the cow would not come our direction. Dean watched and munched on a stem of some wild oat plant and thought. Pretty soon he ventured, "I'm guessing the cow had a calf and the calf was killed by a grizzly bear and when her udder hit the cold icey water, she remembered and, thus, the eruption."
What a great story! Early the next morning I heard a voice outside my tent, "Pastor, you need to come see this." In a minute I was outside my tent and with Dean as we headed just a few yards from where we all were camping. I did notice that Dean kept his hand on his long-barrelled 345 magnum revolver. We walked over to a mound. "Grizzly bear cache," Dean whispered while watching all around. With a stick in his hand opposite his revolver, he moved some grass and sticks back and flipped out a piece of bone and after a few seconds of silence, "Shoulder bone from a moose calf."
That's the Dean Hellenga who was with me today.
But, I have to tell you that the day got off to a fabulous, unusual, start. Heading down the hill from our place in our Isuzu Rodeo, I came around a corner and, low and behold, there was the most beautiful Blue Morpho butterfly flying right in front of me. Have had that happen before. This one moved to the driver's side and flew exactly one foot away from me for several yards before veering off to the left. Amazing! I honestly felt like I was in an ultra-light filming a goose in flight!
Then, I dropped the car off to have new brakes installed and walked a mile to the entrance of a Costa Rican National Park. Since I didn't want to pay the $6.00 entrance fee, I decided to go over and look into a river flowing into the park to see if I could see anything unusual.
That's when Dean came for a visit. (Don't go overboard with this too much. I do not believe in communicating with the dead. It was just a Dean Hellenga setting and a Dean Hellenga moment. That's all!)
There was a nice rock on the edge of the river with some nice roots from a nearby tree that made for a very comfortable place for me to relax. I heard Dean say, "Now, just measure out a piece and give it your full attention. See what you will see and listen for what you wouldn't hear if you didn't take the time.
Okay.
Here's my list.
A man came through the jungle on the other side of the river. He had a little dog with him and he had a large gunny sack full of something over his shoulder. He waded into the river and came across. The little dog swam. When he got to me, in broken English he said, "Be careful. Alligators." I was. Didn't see any! Thank goodness!
After a few minutes, movement to my left capture my attention. With God as my witness, it was one of those lizards that walk on water. He started at the far side of the river and walked all the way (30 feet, or so) across!
In the river in front of me, there were large schools of a bottom-feeding fish. They had small mouths with tannish colored lips. Their eyes were dark and large and there was a large blue dot right in front of the dorsal fin.
There was movement again off to the left. This time it was in the trees above the river. Something was making its way through the jungle. When I saw it, I could hardly believe my eyes, a Costa Rican Squirrel Monkey! He leaped from a tree limb on the far side of the river to one stretched out from my side of the river in one fell swoop and was back up in the canopy in an instant and out of sight.
A red dog came from behind me to get a drink in the river. I don't think he ever knew I was in his vicinity.
Soon my focus was drawn to a strange fish. This one, and his buddies, scoured the surface for food. Talk about funny looking! Their eyes seemed to be on top of their heads. Not sure. Going to have to look it up, but I'm pretty sure I've seen them on National Geographic. They are the ones that search for insects on leaves in the bushes just above the water's edge and then blow a stream of water to knock the insect off the leaf.
Then a very large iguana came down from an arching limb stretched out across the river. He seemed like he was just warming up for the day. When he got out of the tree, he rooted around in some scraggly area at the base of the tree and it looked to me that he was having luck finding food. Later, when I left, he let me get to within 6 feet before he disappeared into the hollow of that same tree!
This is probably enough. But, I should say the birds put on a special show. Two more water walkers came across the river. A white egret and several other shorebirds made appearances. At one moment I was surrounded by 5 or 6 little multi-colored lizards.
Most all of this had to do with sitting quietly for over an hour. Me and Dean!
And, me without my camera!
Friend,
Wes
