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.