Meaningless, meaningless

I just got back from visiting the Habitat For Humanity home site that my son Rusty is supervising. He has 15 students from Portland State that he is trying to keep busy. They don't have any construction skills to speak of. Their accomplishments over the last two days are probably less than what two good framers could do in one day. The students all feel good about what they have accomplished, and they have contributed their time to help people less fortunate. This is a similar problem to me as my experience at Koinonia farm. I really like efficiency and high productivity. When I used to build houses I would often tell buyers who wanted to do some of their own work on their house "You would be better off working at what you do and hire a professional to do the work". Still I had people taking time off of their jobs and working on their house, usually doing inferior work and taking longer than it should, messing up my schedule. I can't help but think the world would run better if everyone would just do what they are best suited for, but how do you know what your field should be? Maybe one of those students will come away from their experience and revolutionize home construction.

I have recently started a study of Ecclesiastes, a book I find humorous and depressing at the same time. The "Teacher" says everything is meaningless. All of man's efforts, whether for industry or pleasure are "chasing after the wind". If he is right, then I guess I need to lighten up and not let other peoples efforts bother me. My father always used to say "a hundred years from now it won't make any difference" he's probably right about most things. It is becoming clearer to me that much of what we work for and spend our time doing is truly meaningless. I am not advocating that everyone just stop working, but maybe change our perspective. Work hard at what you enjoy, do good for others, spend time on noble causes, opt out of the "Rat Race".

This is still a work in progress, just keeping you updated.

Koinonia Farm

I've been putting off writing this blog because I'm not really sure what to say. My first impressions were not changed that much after my stay. Koinonia was started in 1942 by Clarence Jordan. He was a man who grew up in privilege, graduated from college with a degree in agriculture and went on to get a PhD in new Testament Greek. He was troubled by the prejudice and segregation of his time. He wanted to use his degree in agriculture to help poor farmers improve their situation. He used his Greek knowledge to make some translations of the bible called Cotton Patch Gospels. He also wanted to improve race relations. He used the example of early Christians in the book of Acts as his blueprint. He wanted everyone to share with each other and not consider anything their own. He and his wife and another couple bought a large farm in an impoverished part of Georgia. He was considered a harmless kook at first. He paid the farm help the same pay whether they were black or white, that didn't sit well with many. Then the civil rights movement got going and Koinonia was seen as a problem. They were shot at and there were some fires and businesses that traded with them were boycotted and burned. Koinonia persevered and started selling their products mail order. Clarence Jordan will probably never get the recognition he deserves, he remained at Koinonia until his death in 1969. Since then Koinonia has gone through many changes, with the last change trying to return more to it's roots. They are trying to make the farm more environmentally friendly. They share work and resources, and seem to get along pretty well. They are a community whose main goal is to promote peace. I don't think that is a bad goal, but I got the sense that they were content to live a simple life, just think nice thoughts and live a peaceful relaxed life. My main problem is I see that as somewhat lazy. Now here in Irvine I am confronted with this community thats main goal seems to be to live the good life. Everything is clean and new and in order. You don't see any cars older than 10 years every yard is well cared for, everyone is busy and in a hurry. I'm starting to feel like the writer of Ecclesiastics, "vanity, vanity, rich and poor, industrious or lazy, the same fate comes to all"(my paraphrase). I know the people here are too caught up in unimportant things, that was driven home at Legoland yesterday. I watched a woman get on a ride with her son and go on the entire ride and get off while on her cellphone. I think my problem is I can identify more with these Californians than the Koinonians. I really want to say that their simple life is wrong, but I can't. I don't want to live that way, I really like all my things. I have to do some more thinking on this, later though, I have to go play with my grand kids now. Let me leave you with this quote that I wish I had never found.

"When an honestly mistaken man is confronted with the truth, he must either cease being mistaken, or stop being honest". Author unknown

Back on the left coast

We left Koinonia farm Friday morning, we went into Americus and toured the Habitat for Humanity Global village. They have some actual huts and shanties that people live in in some of the slums of the world setup in a little village, then you go to some examples of the kind of homes they help build to replace them. If you are ever near Americus Georgia I recommend that you visit. The houses they build are pretty basic, I doubt you could get many Americans to live in them, but compared to what they were living in they are quite a step up. We left there and hit the road heading west. We drove out of Georgia, across Alabama and Mississippi and stopped for the night just across the Mississippi river in Louisiana. D'Linda only wanted to drive 6 or 8 hours a day, but I didn't mind the driving, and didn't want to just sit somewhere. I remembered that I wanted to stop at The Grove Church in Chandler AZ, we figured out the time it would take and I figured we had about 7 hours to spare, so we could even stop and get some sleep. We headed out early and got halfway across Louisiana before it got light. We made it to Fort Worth about noon and found a Costco Gas. We had missed them, we had been using them until we hit Houston on the way east, but they don't have any in the Deep South. We also picked up a couple of audio books there. We listened to one across most of west Texas, it is pretty boring scenery there and it helped. We stopped for the night about 150 miles east of El Paso. I woke up about 1:30 and didn't think I would be able to get back to sleep so I figured it would assure us of making Chandler before 11:00. I put in the other book and headed out. We made it to western New Mexico before I started getting tired so we pulled into a truck stop to get a little nap. The wind was blowing pretty hard there and it had been work keeping the motorhome on the road. We still had a couple hours to spare so I took a nap. I woke up and went into the restroom, when I went in the wind was still blowing, but it wasn't that cold. I didn't think I was in there that long, but when I came out it was colder and starting to snow. I didn't think it would last long so I decided to head out. We only made it two exits before we had to pull off, it was snowing so hard the wipers couldn't keep up. There went our two hour cushion. We headed out again, but we were going slower because of the wind and we were afraid it would start snowing again. By the time we made it to Tucson we had decided we weren't going to make it to Chandler in time so we went to Costco for gas. The weather cleared up and it was beautiful the rest of the day. We drove up to Mesa and went to a big flea market, then to Suncity and spent two nights in Karen's (D'Linda's good friend) mother's driveway. We left there just before dawn and made it to Andrea's house just before noon today. The girls were excited to see us, and it is great to be here. I'm not sure how long we'll stay, but we checked the weather back home and it says rain for as far as they can see, so we might stay for awhile. I will write more about Koinonia soon, but I'm still trying to sort out my thoughts on it.

Jimmy Carter

We went to church with Jimmy Carter this morning. I wasn't all that excited to go, but D'Linda was, so we went. I was really impressed. Before Rusty's head explodes, I haven't turned into a liberal democrat, but he impressed me on many levels. Another family that is staying here at Koinonia was going and offered to give us a ride so we took them up on it. Plains Georgia is about 10 miles from here, it is a very small town, the sign going into town boasts "Home town of the 39th President". The church he attends is called Maranatha Baptist Church. It is a brick building that is nice looking, but not very big. The Sundays that he is there they have Secret Service agents there, they examine all bags and purses and you get a wand waved over you. This time of year the crowds aren't big. In the summer they tell you to be there by 8:00 for the 10:00 Sunday school class that he teaches. We got there about 9:00 and got seated near the back of the auditorium. The auditorium seats about 300 and by the time class started it was full enough that they had to set up a few folding chairs. The regular members have some reserved seats near the center of one side of the auditorium. Then Miss Jan gets up and tells you the rules. She was Amy Carter's fourth grade teacher, she so impressed the Carter's that she was on their staff for quite a while. She laid down the law about what was and was not permissible, she did it with humor, but reminded us that she had some armed Secret Service agents at he disposal. She was a member of the church herself, she said they had 130 members on the role, but average attendance was about 40. When the Carters are present they always have more visitors than members. You can call ahead and they will tell you if he is going to be there. The bulletin for last week read members 26 visitors 138. We had a group of students from New York there today, and it is president's day weekend so the place was just about to capacity. They did allow pictures at times, and everyone that stayed for the whole service got the opportunity to get a picture with the Carters.When he came in he greeted the crowd and said "I see we have a few visitors" he was interested in hearing where everyone was from. He was friendly and seemed to enjoy the crowd. He addressed some of the issues in the news and informed us of some things that weren't in the news. He then led a bible class out of Numbers 12. He is the only President to ever teach a bible class while President, and the only one to do it on a regular basis after office. He comes across as very caring and sincere and uses humor with his lesson. I was impressed that he still attends a small church in his hometown, and that he will give his time to be photographed with all that want. I may differ with him politically, but I really respect his genuineness and humility. One of the ground rules was that we couldn't applaud him, or stand when he came in, Miss Jan said his applause would be if we took the lesson he taught to heart. Many people left after his Sunday school class, another of the rules was that if you left you wouldn't be allowed to come back at picture time. The Pastor gave a lesson that wasn't terrible, about what I would expect for a 40 person congregation. I was impressed with what such a small congregation had to go through to accommodate so many guests on a regular basis. They were very efficient in getting the pictures taken afterwards. The Carters we very gracious even when a few people didn't follow the rules. If you ever are near Plains Georgia I highly recommend you go to Church and see him for yourself. He seemed in good health and he had great command of his memory, but he is 86 so if you do put it on your "bucket list" I wouldn't put it very far down. He may be the only President you can get your picture with without donating a hundred thousand dollars.

Where am I?

We left the gulf coast of Florida and drove through the southeast corner of Alabama, then the back woods of western Georgia and ended up somewhere near Americus Georgia. I say near because we haven't actually seen it. We didn't have an address for the Koinonia Farm that our GPS would recognise, but we happened upon it as we were heading to Americus. It is not what I expected. There are a number of buildings and homes on the farm,most in need of repair, or demolition. The farm produces pecans, blueberries and grapes. They have a bakery here that makes a peach, date and some other fruits kind of cake. They also produce a chocolate pecan candy. They have a brisk mail order business for their products, especially before Christmas time.

I am hesitant to comment on the place because I've only been here 24 hours and I'm hoping that my opinion will change. The people are really friendly and hospitable, but I would characterise them as redneck hippies. There are about 30 full time residents. Some are interns that commit for 3 months first and if they still like it after that they commit for a year. Then if they still like the idea of living in this community they become an apprentice for a year, then a novice for a year, then they take a vow and become a steward. They have a few employees and there are some people who help out but don't live on the farm, they are called partners. They are a peace loving community that is trying to live as Jesus would.

They are getting heavily involved in the permaculture movement. It is a system of living that tries to minimise your "footprint" and restore natural symbiotic relationships, man, plant, animals and soil. I read the book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" not long ago and it deals with the concept. I can appreciate their goals, but they don't throw away anything, "you never know when you might be able to use it". They love to recycle and re-purpose everything. So they have piles of junk everywhere. They have old farm equipment and vehicles and stuff all over. Their chief source of income is the 90 acres of pecans, but the pecan orchards don't fit with their permaculture plan. They require chemicals and machinery to harvest. So they will phase them out. They have some chicken tractors that they move around, pigs in a pen that has a fence made of all kinds of re-purposed material and cattle, some are some kind of endangered species. They have some large garden spaces that are pretty weedy. I can understand their goals, but it is all way to cluttered and messy for me. It is probably more of an indictment on me then them, they really pride them selves on living simply and being happy with much less than most of us "need".

One of the first things we saw when we pulled in was a half finished steel building. Just like the kind I built before I retired. The contractor they hired to erect it had been paid and now he won't come back to finish it. Rusty said it reminded him of Africa, I must admit there are some similarities. We spent some time today correcting some mistakes and started to put the siding on. We didn't have a stapler for the insulation so while the forman tried to find one, everyone else just picked everything up and quit early. The forman got sidetracked and I'm not sure if he'll get one tonight or just begin his search anew tomorrow. Calm down Jack, they are a community of peace, they just don't get excited about things. The building isn't very big, if I had Ric and Rusty here we could build the whole thing in about a week, but they don't think that way. They really only deal with today. They have some long range plans, but they don't set schedules and worry about stuff like that. It is really a hard concept for me to grasp, I see projects and they have to be done!

They start the day with meditation time then a short devotional. They have lunch and dinner communialy and ring a bell a couple times a day so that you stop what your doing and meditate and pray. It is almost like what I think a monistary would be like. Most of the Stewards are older women, kind and gentle souls. It will be an interesting week, I'm going to try and understand this lifestyle.

Getting Bored

Last time I updated you we were just leaving Houston. We did leave and spent a night just east of Baton Rouge, then on to Pensacola. We spent a couple days there with some friends we met last year in Israel. It was fun to see Roy and Tracy and their girls, their older daughter, Lea Hannah attends Alabama, but she was home for the weekend so we got to see her. The younger daughter, Mary Willis, said she was going to come and help me hay this summer. After I told her that I hirer high school boys to help me she said she was coming for sure. D'Linda and I really like the girls, they are just so much fun to be around.

We have been at a RV park just east of Pensacola for the last 3 days. The beaches here are white, when we were driving along it looked like it had snowed. The weather has been nice, mid 60's and clear. We went to a Valentines dinner here last night and they had an oldie weds game that we won. We went for a bike ride today, but the road in front of the resort is real busy and not really bike friendly. I am getting bored. We have one more stop before we head back, Koinonia Farm in Americus Georgia.

When I was in Houston I went to a book store with Gregg. I saw a book that's title caught my eye "True Religion". I read the jacket and the author grew up as a missionary kid in Liberia, where we visited Rusty last year, so I had to buy it. I liked the book, it goes along with the way I have been thinking lately. Palmer Chichen, the author leads groups overseas a couple of times a year. When he isn't overseas he pastors a church in Chandler AZ called "The Grove", I'm hoping that it will work out to visit there on the way back. This is just the latest in a series of books that have changed my thinking over the last couple of years. I read "Radical" by David Platt at the start of this trip. Just before we left I read "Resident Aliens" by Hauerwas and Willimon. Last year "Mere Discipleship" by Lee Camp turned me towards pacifism. Before that "Humanity: The Moral History of The Twentieth Century" by Jonathan Glover got me thinking about how stupid man really is. The modern world really hasn't done anything to turn people towards God. In fact it has turned people away, we think science can figure everything out. Here in the US we are more concerned with our comfort and possessions than people who are oppressed and starving. I write this from the comfort of my motorhome on the Gulf Coast in Florida. Maybe I can gain some insight at the Koinonia Farm, or on the drive back. I sure hope so, cause like I said I'm bored, just relaxing in the RV isn't for me.

Friends

Its Thursday morning and we are in Houston, we'll be leaving later today for Pensacola, after it warms up a little. It is below freezing here, but it is suppose to warm up later. We spent 3 nights in Liberty Hill in Alex and Nicole Dossey's driveway. The weather was real nice the first two days there, but it got cold, so we had to move on. We had a great time there, the Dosseys were wonderful hosts and made us feel at home. Their children, Olivia (6), Autumn (4) and Carter (11 mos) were fun to be around, the girls reminded us of Andrea's Naomi and Daphne, and Carter is just a happy little guy crawling all around. Nicole is a lot like Andrea and they are the same age, we had great time there with them and they let us use their vehicles to visit other friends in the area. We were able to visit Lloyd and Sue Hodges and see their ranch. I got to go have coffee with Wade and we solved a lot of the world's problems, now if they"ll just listen to us. Later we had dinner with the rest of Wades family, Heather, Caleb and Elijah and the Dosseys at what was supposed to be one of the best bar-b-cue joints in Austin. I don't know if it is the best, but I do know that if I lived closer I would weigh a lot more.

A couple of months ago when we were planning this trip D'Linda started trying to locate some old friends we had lost track of. Pam and Gregg Stewart were close friends when they lived in Bellingham in the 80's, they moved to the Dallas area in 1989. We had visited them there a couple of times and they had been back to Bellingham once, but we new they had moved and we hadn't been in touch for a few years. D'Linda had searched the web and hadn't had much luck. She even asked our son Scott who works for Google to look, but we couldn't find their trail. About a week or so ago she managed to find a Clayton Stewart, who she thought might be their youngest son, on Facebook. She sent him a message and a couple days later he responded and said he remembered us and that his folks would be glad to hear from us. We waited, but he didn't get back, so D'Linda sent him another message, but no response. The day before we were going to leave Liberty Hill D'Linda started to search more, she got on Clayton's page and found he had a Ryan and Gregg Stewart as friends and messaged both of them and they responded almost immediately with a phone number. She called and was able to talk to Pam. They were both so excited, and they lived in Spring Texas, just north of Huston. We would have driven within 20 miles of their home the next day. We have been at their house for the last two days and it has been great catching up. Their sons are all grown up and all men of character. Brandon (30) is a junior high history teacher and football coach. Ryan (26) is a personal trainer and shares an appartment in Allen Tx with Brandon. Clayton (22) is attending Abilene Christian U studying to be a youth minister. We saw a video of a sermon he gave last year and it was very good, he also plays guitar and sings songs he writes. We saw a video of him singing one of his songs, he has a very good voice. I was able to talk to Clayton on the phone and invited him to come to Bellingham and preach for us this summer, he has plans, but said he would love to come back and see his birthplace. I'll keep working on him, I figure if he does come then Pam and Gregg will have to come and visit. They are all very handsome, and to Pam's chagrin single. If anyone out there has daughters or nieces that are women of character give Pam a call, she would really like some grandchildren. I remember the boys as wild blurs, maybe Jamie can identify with that, but they have grown into real men of character. We heard some stories that prove that Pam and Gregg's pride in them is justified. They kept offering to show us the sights of Houston, and I'm sure Houston has some great sights, but we came to see them not the sights. This whole trip we haven't seen to many sights, but we have been able to visit with a lot of friends and I think that has been more fun. If you have someone you've lost track of I recommend hunting them down, it is great catching up, good friends are what makes life valuable.

We are off to visit friends in Pensacola we met last year in Israel, Tracy and Roy and their beautiful daughters. Their oldest daughter is at college in Alabama, she is smart along with being a woman of character. You know, Tracy and Pam are both southern girls, they speak the same language and Roy and Gregg would get along great, maybe I'll try to do a little matchmaking

The R V life

We are in Liberty Hill Texas. We spent three days in Tucson, it was pretty cold, but it was colder to the east so we were waiting out the weather. We probably would have stayed one more night there, but they had someone coming in for our space and didn't have anymore spaces available. We left there on Thursday and went as far as Las Cruses NM. We stopped there because it looked like it was going to be colder if we went on. The TV news said that they had just broken there all time coldest record by 15 degrees. We left there Friday morning and as we were going through El Paso we heard a loud bang and a side panel of the RV was loose and banging on the side of the motorhome. We got off of the Interstate and made it to a Lowe's. The fiberglass panel was one that covered the area around the rear wheels and was only held on by double back foam tape. I got some tape and put it back together, the panel had a couple of cracks in it and I didn't want it to happen again so I added some screws. While fixing it I realized that I had a flat tire on my inside rear dual. Luckily there was a tire store across the street, unluckily they couldn't service my size tire. They recommended a truck tire store up the road. It wasn't far, but without GPS I don't think we could have found it. They were very helpful, the tire had a big cut in the side wall so we had to buy a new one. The only model they had in the size we needed was a top of the line $390 one. That was only the latest of our RVing experiences. When we left home our backup camera quit working, and on the way down we had trouble with automatic step, and it quit altogether just before we got to Yuma. I'm long legged, so it didn't really bother me, but D'Linda was a different story. I waited until we got to Casa Grande to try and fix it. In the process of trying to fix it I broke a switch, and couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work. I had to call a professional. He determined that the step motor had burnt out, but he couldn't figure out why the camera didn't work. He suggested calling Winnebago. He had to order a new motor for the step and said it would be a couple of days. There was a RV store across town so I rode my bike there to get a replacement switch, they didn't have one in stock so it had to be ordered. In the mean time I was trying to figure out why the hot water heater wouldn't work on electric, only gas, I found a corroded wire that when I wiggled it, it broke, now the hot water heater wouldn't work on gas either. I rode back to the RV store and they had the part I needed, but it came as a larger assembly, $42 later I was riding back. The step motor came in and when that was replaced it was just under $500. I called Winnebago and got a very helpful man who told me I needed to replace the fuse for the step alarm, that was for the backup camera and a fan I didn't know I had, and as far as I know there is no step alarm. Anyway that worked and the camera is working fine, the man told me that if I switched the mystery fan on it would probably blow the fuse again. At least that didn't cost me much, just a 15 amp fuse. We were talking to our repairman and asked him what brand of motorhome was best and he said none of them. He said he would never own one, he just rents them and gives them back, and he doesn't tell them what he does fore a living. He might have a point, oh did I mention our windshield has developed a couple big cracks.

Leaving Casa Grande

Well we have been here for 2 weeks so it must be time to head on. Our plan, such as it is, is to go to Tucson this afternoon and have dinner with my nephew Jeff. Then we plan to head on to Austin Texas, but D'Linda was just looking at the weather and it said it was only going to be in the 30's in Austin. I told here that we could take our time and maybe spend a few days in New Mexico, she just looked and there is a winter weather watch in effect there until Thursday. We may have to go to Mexico. If we wanted cold rain and snow we could have stayed home. We'll head out pretty soon, but it is looking like we may not go much farther than Tucson for a few days.

We have had great weather here, they say it has been unusually nice. It has been a little cold in the mornings, but it gets to the mid 70's by afternoon.

Two weeks is about all I want here, it is nice, but not really my cup of tea. The spaces are all big enough for a large motorhome or trailer and parking for a car or two with enough space left for all the lawn chairs and tables everyone seems to pack along. They have an active softball league that I would join if I stayed. We watched a few games, I would be one of the kids here. Some of the guys are so slow to first you should be able to throw the ball around the infield and still get them out, but I only saw a couple double plays. When they get to first a lot of the guys get a courtesy runner. Some teams must hope they never get the bases loaded because they wouldn't have enough guys that could be runners.

They have all kinds of shops here if you want to make ???, the wood shop is well equipped and only costs $1 an hour to use it. There is golf, tennis, pickelball, lawn bowling, shuffleboard and softball. They have organised outings, from hiking to skydiving. If you got bored here it would be your own fault, but I like a little more space, and what is wrong with being bored once in a while?

We drove around some yesterday and looked a homes for sale. The prices are incredible. We have some friends in Maricopa, the 1400 sq. ft. 5 year old house across the street from them just sold for $44,000. We looked at a very nice home with a big lot, probably close to 2,000 sq. ft. 3 car garage less than 5 years old, asking price, $99,900. We went into a very nice gated 55 plus active adult community. It had a series of canals running behind some of the homes, large very, very nice community center with large heated pool and many amenities. All the homes are built with the latest green technology and very well done. They would build you a brand new 1600 sq. ft. for $168,000 or right at $200,000 for one on the water. They said they are continually stocking the lakes and we saw people fishing. D'Linda said if we decided to winter here this would be the place, I have to admit it seemed to be an exceptional value. You could have a very nice place right on the water for less than a large motorhome.

Well it is about time to move out, we'll go get our oil changed downtown then head for Tucson, and hopefully we can stay south of the could weather.

PS Don is still wearing his bracelet.

Does Truth Matter?

When we got here our friends were wearing some little rubber bracelets. They look like the ones you get for all sorts of causes, but they have a small metal disc, about the size of a dime, on the inside. Don told me that they give you better balance, more strength and greater flexibility. I am a sceptic at heart, but he said that the salesman could do pull ups off of his outstretched arm after he put the bracelet on. I never believe the type of claims that something will make your life better if you take it, or wear it, but Don said it was real. He said that the little disc put out 17 different frequencies that countered all the other radio waves that are constantly bombarding your body. I had my doubts, but I thought if it makes him feel better what's the harm?

Sunday we went up to the Mesa Swap Meet. My in-laws used to winter in Arizona years ago and I remember going to the swap meet with them. Back then it was open-air in the parking lot of a dog racing track. Now it is under cover and it is huge, we spent about 4 hours there and probably only saw 1/3 of it. There is almost anything you can imagine for sale there. Don found a booth with a guy selling a similar bracelet and insisted I let the guy give me a demonstration. He told the guy that I was a sceptic and the salesman said he used to be also. He proceeded to give me a demonstration and he "proved" to me that the bracelet gave me better balance and more strength, but it didn't do much for my flexibility. I thought it was funny that he told Don that his bracelet really only had 1 frequency and the one he was selling had 100. He wanted $35 for a bracelet, along with being a sceptic, I'm pretty cheap and I wasn't going to buy something I didn't really believe in even though his demonstration seemed to prove it. When we got back to the motorhome I googled EFX scam and found a youtube video that showed how the demonstration worked, a complete scam. The video was the exact same demonstration that I had gone through.

Now my dilemma, do I tell Don that he got scammed, or just let him feel better? The more I thought about it the more religious implications I came up with. Don was essentially an evangelist for this product. He truly believed in it. He was promoting it to help others, he had no other motive than helping his friends to feel better like he had. No matter how strongly he believed, it was still a fraud. I really got mad thinking about the salesman preying on some really hurting people that he was working with while I was there. One man who seemed to have a balance issue the salesman put a bracelet on him and promised wonderful results, but it would take a little while. While he was working on me he asked the man if he felt a little tingling on his wrist. The man thought for a minute and then said maybe, the salesman said so you can feel it working, it may take 30 minutes or more in your case. After seeing the youtube demonstration I knew that the salesman couldn't be a believer because he had to use trickery to "prove" its effectiveness. I got even madder thinking about the people who manufacture these worthless bracelets, knowing they are scamming gullible people. Why couldn't they use their resources to produce something that could help people. I know the answer, then they couldn't make as much money. I thought about preachers who are just in it for the money, preaching things that they don't really believe. They think it is just an easy job that gives you some power and prestige. I equated the manufactures with Satan who will do anything to get us off course, he doesn't really care if your a little off or completely evil, just so you don't know the truth. I believe that there is absolute truth, that there is One God, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. I know I don't have all the answers, but I know that they are out there, and I will continue to search for them. Please be sure of what you believe, it is important, don't believe something just because a good salesman played a trick on you. It really doesn't matter how strong your faith is if it is in a lie.

Casa Grande

We left Irvine a little over one week ago, went to Yuma to visit my aunt. We stayed in Yuma for two nights and had a nice visit with my aunt Ruth and her husband Byron. We took Austin for a couple of walks out in the dessert, he loved running in the sand and sagebrush.

From there we came to Casa Grande, or Cass Grand as the locals call it, we met up with our friends Paula and Don Hovde. We are at a RV resort called Palm Creek. It is very nice. It was started about ten years ago so even though it is for retired people they are "younger oldsters". Our motor home is a 32' 2003 model and when we go to state parks in the summer it is usually one of the bigger nicer ones, not here. They don't even allow one over 10 years old in here, and the average is probably only 2 or 3 years old. There are a lot of Park model Trailers here, but the motor homes average 40' or more. Don used to work for an auto dealership and knows the value of the motor homes, we saw one the other day that he says goes for more than a million dollars. I would guess the average here would be close to $300,000. The facilities her are very nice and include a golf course, 2 pools and lots of different hobby and craft facilities. Again, like Irvine, I really like it here, but the thing that bothers me here is the tremendous waste of talent. There a lot of very nice friendly people here that don't do anything productive. They are enjoying the "American Dream", the part that says that once you reach retirement you can just enjoy yourself. There are many very capable people here most in very good health, just playing golf or tennis or pickle ball or shuffle board or making different little doodads. I wondered if they wouldn't feel more useful if they actually did something to benefit the community. I thought that there are probably engineers, managers, HR people, lawyers, all sorts of areas of expertise living here. What if they started a business, produced something the community, or mankind could benefit from, it wouldn't have to be very profitable, and they wouldn't have to work long hours. Or maybe they could just make a catalogue of the skills and talents here and start a consulting service for struggling businesses in the area. Or maybe a restaurant to serve the community's less fortunate, or a daycare, I have to believe that there are many grandmothers here who would love to spend a little time with some children. If the time commitment were kept low people could still make their doodads and do some real good. I guess we don't have to be in a place like this to waste our time, we can do that on our own too. I was wondering that it might work from the other end also. What if a business that was having a hard time getting good dependable workers put in a nice RV park to have a source of employees? Just some thoughts, think about it and let me know if you know of any examples of this.

Irvine

We got to Irvine CA on Tuesday afternoon, we had a good trip. We were just ahead of the snow in a few places, but we didn't have to drive on it anywhere. We have had a nice stay with the girls, Naomi, Daphne and Maggie. Andrea, Arthur and Jack are also here, but it is mostly about the girls, Jack will get in the mix as soon as he gets a little older. They are just so much fun, Andrea and Arthur are good parents and manage to spend time with each of the kids individually everyday.

I was in Irvine for a week in October when Jack was born. Irvine seems to be the perfect community. Every yard is manicured, there are no rundown houses, any vacant spaces are mowed. The construction sites have nice fences around them. I have not seen a single panhandler or homeless person on either of my visits here. The streets are all wide with most having landscaped medians and in good repair, unlike I 5 from central CA to L.A. There are lots of newer stores in well done neighborhood malls, they can be hard to find because tall signs are not allowed. There are well maintained parks and trails everywhere. Andrea said she got a letter reminding everyone that Christmas decorations could not go up until November 28 and had to be down by January 14. This is a prime example of a planned community. I must say it is very nice. For this to work there has to be a lot of rules and conformity.

I do like the look and feel of Irvine, but what is lost? You don't have that neighbor who thinks a bright blue house with pink shutters would add character to the block. There are no homes with junk cars in the driveway or chickens as pets. There are no sandwich board signs on the sidewalks, or garage sale, lost dog or any other signs on the telephone poles. I haven't seen any home operated businesses. I don't know where the poor are, I guess they outlawed them along with all other unpleasantness.

To achieve this a certain amount of individuality has to be sacrificed. I think that we have placed the importance of individuality way to high, but should we sacrifice it for pleasant surroundings?

I am not really sure what to make of all this, it would be wonderful if we could all live in a pleasant beautiful community and never have to confront poverty or crime or decay, but removing those things from sight doesn't mean that they don't exist. I really do like this place, but it just doesn't seem real.

I have not explored all of Irvine, and I am sure some of my observations are not accurate. I am pretty sure there are other communities like Irvine around, my question is, is it wrong to want to build a community like this? Should we live with the poor and unfortunate around? I certainly am not saying all the people that live here are evil, shallow people, I love one family here a lot, and they are really good people. I'm not really sure what is bothering me so much, but for some reason this just doesn't seem right.

Leaving Bellingham

Well we are pretty much packed and ready to leave. We plan on going to Church in the Motor home tomorrow morning and hitting the road after services. We will check the weather in the morning and if nothing has changed we will begin our great road trip. We are heading to California to Andrea's first, even though they were just here we do like to play with the girls, and we have the Motor home half full of stuff that they couldn't take home on the plane. After that we will head for Arizona. From there we are pretty unclear, we would like to eventually make it to visit some friends in Florida. There are also people in Texas we would like to visit and we would like to spend some time at Koinia Farm in Americus GA. All of it will be up to weather and if we don't find something more compelling somewhere on the road. We haven't set a return date either, I guess when we get tired of being away we'll turn around and head back.

We are taking bicycles along and plan on getting plenty of exercise. We both could afford to lose more than a few pounds. We aren't going to allow any junk food in the motor home.

Austin, our 2 and 1/2 year old yellow lab will be going with us. I plan on working with him to try and train him to track. He is a very good dog and only has a couple of bad habits, he is nothing like Marley.

I plan to post often, probably not as often as I did from Africa last year, but we'll just have to see if I find things to write about. Feedback from my last post was underwhelming, but it is the kind of subject that you have to think about for a while. We will have cell phones and computers with us so it's not like we are very far away.

I ask for your prayers, that we will see with our eyes and hear with our ears. I am pretty sure we all miss so many valuable things in our busy lives, so we will make a real effort to be unbusy.

Leaving Egypt

Yesterday I challenged the Church to make this a year about leaving Egypt. I don't think I did a very good job. I have been thinking about this general idea for a couple of years, or maybe longer, but I finally came up with what I think is a good metaphor. It is probably foolish to think I could convey everything in a 30 minute talk. My premise is that we have taken on way to much of the "American" culture and think it is Christian.

The Israelites took on too much of the Egyptian culture, even though the two societies didn't intermingle. When they left Egypt many complained and wanted to go back to a repressive society because they could have their leeks and onions. They built a golden calf to worship, an Egyptian god, because they didn't have a good understanding of the true God. God put the Israelites in Egypt to protect them, but they forgot him, but He didn't forget them. The story starts in Genesis 37 with Joseph being sold by his brothers, and continues through the first part of Exodus. It is a fascinating narrative, with many lessons that we could apply, but the main one is how they lost sight of the true God.

Comparing Egypt to the USA was a big stretch for most of my audience, there are obviously some huge differences, but they are both Nations controlled by men. Even though we hear that the USA was founded on Christian principles by Christian men and is a Christian nation, it is still governed by men. Nations have different goals than God. I am not advocating hating America, I feel very blessed to live here. I have served in the US Navy, I vote and pay taxes. I have the means to live anywhere I want and I choose to live here. I should have said that Egypt represents any nation governed by men. I could make the same statement about Canada, Brazil, Spain or China. I think for most of us though it would be easier to see my metaphor if I used North Korea or Iran, but it applies to the USA just as well. In fact because we tend to see our nation as good and right it applies even more. We have accepted "American" principles as "God" principles. Our allegiance should be to God first and foremost, not a flag. We are taught that we have rights, that our government guarantees those rights. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 50 million unborn Americans have been denied the right of life, liberty is used as license to live immoral lifestyles and happiness is used to justify greed and selfishness. I love America, and it has done some really great things for the world, but I can't worship it over God. Jesus said that you can't serve two masters, the problem is too many people don't see that America and God are not synonymous. I believe that God has blessed America greatly, but He doesn't sanction everything "American", as Christians we must see that, and live as Resident Aliens in what ever country we find ourselves in.

I am not advocating that we withdraw from society and form our own little nation. I'm not really sure what it should look like, I need your thoughts. I suspect that actually it may require us to be more politically active, to stick out like sore thumbs. To be the subject of ridicule, to opt out of the "American dream". Most issues are not easy, when does feeding the homeless become enabling? What of the many great injustices do we spend our energy on? Who should we give grace? Who should we rebuke? I have many more questions than I have answers, but I believe that we must "Leave Egypt" and follow God. Christianity is a journey, not a destination. Jesus asked his disciples to follow him, knowing that they didn't understand, but just that they follow.

Life is not about defending the Faith, it is about living it. Help me out with your comments and prayers.