It all began with a conversation that never happened.  I had recently done a really cool hike and was anxious to tell everyone about the sights and sounds of the fascinating place I had been.  That next Sunday morning, one of the first persons I encountered coming into church, was Debi Rosen.  Debi has been confined to a wheelchair for almost 20 years from a car accident.  At 70 years old, Debi is one of those individuals that positively radiates sweetness and is one of my favorite people on earth. 
 
As I approached her, I wanted so badly to excitedly share my recent hiking experience, but found myself in the throws of a mental wrestling match---“Do I?, don’t I?, do I, don’t I?”  The words caught in my mouth and I ultimately decided not to tell her, fearful that my excitement would actually be insensitive, because what I was about to share was impossible for her to ever experience herself.  In hindsight, I am convinced that God held my tongue that day.
 
 For the next few days, that “non-conversation” haunted me (in my opinion, also God-orchestrated).  My spirit began to shout, “This is NOT cool.  I must figure out some way of enabling Debi, and so many thousands in her circumstances, to experience God’s amazing nature”.  Indescribably beautiful forests, trails, rivers, valleys, creeks, and mountains are a testament to God’s love and majesty, and make up 99% of the earth’s surface.  The Debi’s of this world are confined to the 1%, by no fault of their own.  That truth began to break my heart.
 
Next stop, Google.  But for days, Google did not deliver.  I discovered that there are umpteen companies out there that make adaptive equipment that enable wheelchairs to be slightly more effective off the sidewalk, but I wanted to take Debi to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and up Pike’s Peak.  Finally, I came upon the Joelette Co. in France.  They manufacture an awesomely engineered “chair-cycle” using the concept of old-fashioned mountain rescue apparatus.  In turn, I learned that the Joelette Co. has a US-based supplier in Denver.  I called them and they convinced me that this is what I had been looking for.

Next stop, Debi’s residence at the assisted living complex.  When I showed her YouTube videos from Joelette and Co., she began shaking in her chair.  “You’re telling me I can do this?  I can’t believe it.”  I said, “Yes, and when I get one, you are going to be the first to ride in it.  And better yet, I’m going to name it ‘Rosie’, after you”.  Debi was beside herself with joy and anticipation. 
 
Next stop, telephone.   I made a few phone calls to influential friends and before too long, I had pledges enough to order our first Rosie.  As I thought through the possible programmatic possibilities, logistics, audience, partnerships, etc. (BTW, much to my wife, Kim’s, chagrin, my mind always goes from zero to 100 in the blink of an eye), I knew we needed to give this venture a name.  My thoughts went to the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 5, and the account of the group of friends who took their paralytic friend to go see Jesus.  The house where Jesus was speaking was so crowded that they could not get in.  That didn’t stop them.  They were determined to enable their friend to see something amazing.  They carried him to the roof, cut the thatch away, and lowered him down through the hole in the roof to see Jesus!   I pictured in my mind’s eye, groups of friends by the hundreds, using Rosies to take their new friends to see places and things that heretofore have been impossible.  Not figuratively impossible, but, literally impossible.
​
Postscript (July of 2023): We were all greatly saddened at the news this last Easter week when we received news that Debi Rosen had passed away unexpectedly after a relatively minor procedure. She was not only the inspiration for the creation of Luke5Adventures but hiked with us several times after that first hike (COVID took away over two years of her freedom, being unable to leave her care facility or she would have hiked with us dozens more times). To honor her further, we have named our Israel/Holy Land tour project after her---The Debi Rosen Zikaron (Memorial) Adventures Project.