A Million Miles in a Few Minutes

Greetings friends and strangers and those in between,

Yes I totally ripped off Donald Miller in the title. Because A, you should read him. And B, it feels like there’s a ton of things to show you this time. And C, naming things is hard – I wonder what must have come over Adam.

Travis and I were given the assignment of building a playhouse to be sold at the auction. A guy named Doug bought it for his little niece (I think). She was quite thrilled, as most little girls would be, with her miniature house – made mostly of cedar.

The Harvest team (Glendon and Lorna, Delbert, and Titus) from Goshen, Indiana flew out to help us out with a banquet and the annual Gospel Echoes Northwest auction. We really enjoyed having them around, even if it meant someone had to ride in the bus shower at times.

This banquet was in Ellensburg, WA. The people were so nice there. If you ever go through you need to swing by the Daily Bread and Mercantile, which is basically a real nice bakery, and see Matt and Dana Wise. This place even sells KISS soda in glass bottles; I respect that.

Volleyball in the parking lot is the preferred pastime on the road.

Whenever people from across the country come out we try to take them to the coast. It turned out to be a beautiful day for such things.

After being on the road for about four days we welcomed ourselves home with a great feast of Biblical proportion. Since I’m from down where they aren’t afraid of sugar, I made the tea.

The auction brought in around $115,000 this year – I thought that was pretty incredible. This allows Gospel Echoes to supply Bible study courses for the five states it serves and also pay the help and such.

It was very special to have my dear mother and sister around for a few days. They flew in on Thursday and stayed about six days..but it felt like much less time than that.  One night Mom and I went and seen Hidden Figures together. We had a really nice evening and I would have to recommend the movie. I’ll admit it goes a little over the top to make its point, but it’s worth seeing.

They were also taken to the coast. I wish I had more pictures of the things we did. It was so nice of them to fly out and see me and the place where I live.

Mom and Aleah flew back home on Thursday (I think).

We had two church services to sing at on Sunday. But before we left on Saturday, our good friend Ben took us on a nice hike. The route to the trail took us through a bunch of switchbacks and winding curves. I had been dozing in the backseat of Ben’s Civic, which is only cooler than mine because it has no muffler, when I was awakened by a sudden spraying of gravel, four G’s of forward force, and the raising of voices. We had arrived – and nearly missed our turn. We stepped out into the fomistain (fog, mist, and light rain) and shortly another vehicle pulled up. A lady got out and proceeded to inquire if the bridge just ahead would hold her and her friend if they walked across. I sized up the wooden structure and concluded you could probably drive a military tank safely over it. “Yeah you should be good.”

Somewhere along the way I smashed my camera lens cover. I feel like this was a real milestone in my photography career.

The first service was at the Rock of Ages retirement village/community which presents the best view I’ve ever seen from a pulpit. It was here that we witnessed Oregon lose a heartbreaker to North Carolina…gotta box out.

The service that evening was in Sheridan. It was an a cappella gig which always makes things interesting.

I seen this saying somewhere. I’m not too sure what to think of it; I wonder if maybe salvation is in fact all of those things. It does rhyme quite nicely anyway.

Mike sold his chicken coup on Craigslist. It was an adventure getting it on that poor truck. Somehow it quite reminded me of where I come from.

We got to see the Newsboys in Salem two nights ago. It was a good show. I was waiting for Peter Furler to emerge from the wings..but alas, we settled for Michael Tate’s rendition of He Reigns. The silver lining was that Michael Tate was there to sing Jesus Freak.

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I recently finished The Kite Runner. I think it’s a story worth the time it takes to hear it. I also stumbled across Evan Koons and Letters to the Exiles the other day. He’s even cooler than Ben’s car. Here he’s talking about the poem that I have on my guitar case. I had my painter friend write it out and laminate it so I could plaster it on. I bet I’m about the only guy with Gerard Manley Hopkins on his guitar case – that has to make me cool.

Take care my friends,

Javen.