They call it the “Death Zone” – 26,000 feet high, close to the roof of the world, where the planet’s rotation causes 140 mph winds. What makes alpine climbers risk fortunes and even their lives in order to stand for five minutes on the world’s highest peak?

Mount Everest is also the wind-swept battlefield for personality conflicts, the unfolding of ego-driven dramas, and the sometimes unheralded stories of courage and sacrifice as one climber lays down his life for another.

1996 marked a tragic climbing season in Nepal when icy storms blew in and left a number of climbers dead. The heartbreaking bestseller, "Into Thin Air," by Jon Krakauer told about the agonizing losses. I was writing radio sermons for the Voice of Prophecy back then, and these twelve programs were our response to that Everest headline. I tried to unpack spiritual lessons and offer glimpses of a heavenly kingdom so close to the stars above our world’s Third Pole. If you enjoy a sermon with an occasional sports motif, I hope you’ll also check out “Aiming For the Pin,” which uses golf as a way of thinking about Christian perfection. For anyone young in heart, we have ten books in the Bucky Stone Christian sports series, with adventures happening on the baseball diamond or the basketball court.

I grew up in Thailand in the 1960s, the son of missionary parents. Talk about a great place for love stories! Please check out ten in a row really good romantic adventures all happening at Bangkok Christian School. Rachel Marie is drafted out to Asia to be a superstar teacher for Jesus, and yes indeed, she falls in love nine time zones away from her California home. The debut novel is “Love in a Distant Land”; It’s a good story and an even better audiobook, performed brilliantly by my good friend Tonya Foster Yancey.

In terms of my own resume, I’ve just retired after fifteen years teaching math at San Bernardino Valley College. Lisa and I have two daughters, Kami and Karli, and four amazing grandkids.