Lee Saalfeld

The life of a traveler and an adventurer, that’s the one I’d choose! Little did I know when I was attending grade school in a two-room, midwestern rural school house that I had actually chosen this path for my life. The nearly empty book case there had a complete set of World Book encyclopedias that were so old they had only black and white photos. I made myself a promise that I would turn each page and look at every photo in that 24 book set (not 26 because XY and Z were all in one book). It took me 5 years, but when I was finished I knew for certain that there was a real big world out there and it was inviting me to come and experience it! As a child my mother at times would say, “My son Lee, well he can be very different.” And different I was; it was a choice. I was determined to not follow that same path that everybody in that small, dusty old town had taken before me. Immediately after high school I joined the Navy. I was not 18 yet, so I asked my father to sign for me. He consented, even though our country was at war. Since then life has been one adventuresome experience after another. Even today I continue looking forward to the next one, seldom looking back. I’ve been to 46 states and visited 59 countries in the process. The Lord has blessed me and allowed me to live in all the fullness that He desires for each of us to experience. The path I’ve chosen has not been without it’s challenges and there certainly have been dangers along the way. “The Machete And The Cross” describes a very real, true-life experience that in the natural order of things, I should not have survived. I trust you will be as captivated by reading about this adventure as I was in getting to live it all then the opportunity to write it all down. Enjoy!