7/12/17

5:21 p.m.

Mobile, Alabama

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Mobile is, as it turns out, the hometown of Forrest Gump in the novel – but not in the movie.

Colson is the d.j. as we head south and west towards New Orleans. I’m sitting on the bed we framed into this van as we roll down 65 to the the likes of Don’t Stop Believing and Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now. We have discovered to our dismay that the air conditioning unit we had such high hopes for is not able to keep up while we drive, at all. So we just open all the windows and let the warm wind blow. This baby is a far cry from air tight even with the windows closed. It’s fairly bearable, but we’re driving west towards thinner air with great anticipation. Last night was our first night inside of Talulah; it was hot as beans. We neglected to fill the gas can before we got to Walmart for the night. So when the generator ran dry about four this morning it became stifling. At about eight we could bear it no more and headed out.

We began the trip last night around nine p.m. in the wake of a great send off party. Party as in group of people, it wasn’t really a party. Our parents and a few other of my relatives gathered at Allan Steiner’s as we made the last minute preparations. And surprisingly, it’s day two and we haven’t even thought of many things we forgot to bring.

Despite the fact that I’m sitting above two totes chock full of vittles donated to us by friends and parents, we have eaten breakfast and lunch at Dunkin’ Donuts (where ‘Karen’ made me an ice coffee that was about the closet thing to battery acid I’ve ever tasted) and Taco Bell respectively. The prospect of grilling pork chops under the blazing Alabama sun hasn’t been appealing thus far. After lunch we got $5 tickets for the one o’clock showing of the new Spider Man movie. Traveling in the daylight is hot, and we’ll easily make it to New Orleans this evening. Spider Man seemed the best option for killing air conditioned time. It was somewhat disappointing, but a lot of stuff blew up and there was one plot twist we didn’t see coming. It’s a yes we can, no we can’t, yes we did plot the whole way through with some suspense at the end that begs you back for the next movie. I thought the girl who liked him but he didn’t like her was a cool character…as well as Peter’s aunt.

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This evening we ate at a place called Morning Call Coffee Stand which is in the New Orleans City Park. It’s a pretty cool looking place that serves everything from coffee drinks to Cajun food. We had the jambalaya, gumbo, and crawfish etouffee. It didn’t quite live up to the lore…but it was pretty cheap. I guess it would be like coming to America to try the infamous burger and doing so at McDonald’s. The waiter wanted us to give him his tip while he was standing there so that the money we left wouldn’t get snatched. I was telling the other guys it would be really great to have a local show us around. It seems like a city that’s teaming with culture and life – but not one that makes you feel really safe when your inside its boundaries. The pot holes and flooded roads alone are enough to unnerve a man. After supper we jaunted around the park and then headed outside the city to a truck stop where we’re parked for the night. Tomorrow we hope to make San Antonio and the Alamo.

Javen.

This page was created as a medium to keep friends up to date with what was happening in my life while I was away from home. And now July has come, I am home at long last, and its purpose has been fulfilled. Moving forward I’m not sure if I’ll use it anymore or not. If I do, you won’t be getting the updates in your inbox as you did before, unless you follow the page and sign up for the emails that way.

I would post pictures of the last days. But alas, I moved away from the computer that had the file resizing program and tomorrow, Lord willing and the creek don’t rise, I’m taking off with a couple friends in an old van for about a month. There is a page on Facebook called Fading West – Our Manifest Destiny which you can find if you wanna see where our white-walled tires roll us.

It’s good to be home. It was the thing that sometimes looked so far away I barely dared to think about it. But the days all gave way to each other, and tonight I’m sitting on my bed in our new house in South Carolina, suitcase packed again. When I stepped off the bus in Kansas it felt like I was indeed getting close to home. The summer air east of the west just kind of wraps you up in a smothering hug like that old lady at your church and doesn’t let you go. The muggy air was my first welcome home. While the rest of the team played a concert in Hutchinson, Kansas, I caught a ride with the Stoltzfus’s who were eastbound from Canon City and made it home in time for the funeral.  I was convinced of these words this past weekend. It is a heavy thing to behold the cutting short of a life well lived.

It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that day of death is the end of every man, and the living will take it to heart and solemnly ponder its meaning. – Ecclesiastes 7:2 (AMP)

Everyone seems to want to know ‘How has the past year been for you’. It seems kind of like someone asking ‘So how has your marriage been‘. There is too much to tell without some coffee. It’s a blivet. I think I learned a whole lot – and maybe un-learned a few things too. I told someone the other day that in five years I’ll be able to tell you the ways I grew up and how I changed in the last year. Someone asked me recently if I regretted going. And no, I do not regret it at all. I’m quite glad that I moved to Oregon with a whim and a prayer and a guitar. I do regret the fact that I know I left some things unlearned and unsaid and undone. Such is living. It does seem a little like cutting yourself up and leaving a piece behind. Come June there were friends out there I had to part ways with to get back where I belong. Anyway, all to say I’d love to tell you about it all sometime if you’ll buy the coffee.

Tomorrow we plan to leave in ‘the van’ named Tallulah headed for the west coast. For the past several days we’ve been building beds and buying mattresses and spray painting flowers and frequenting mechanic shops and finding a spare tire and becoming steadily poorer in preparation for an unforgettable adventure. And adventure that we will greatly embellish and recount to our children in the days to come.

While I’m thinking of it, I think one thing I’ve been learning lately had to do with cleverness. I tend to get caught up in the romance of being clever, of saying something in three sentences that could have been said in one. It’s the same thing I think that wills us strive for answers and methods that no one else has ever found or tried, to our own glory. I’ve been realizing that sometimes everyone does something a certain way because it is indeed the best way, regardless of how clever it is to do it another way; and regardless of how tired the method may seem. Just because something is mainstream and widespread doesn’t mean it isn’t worth your time. The masses love Nike and the NIV and Coldplay…and really all of those things are quite good. Being clever really doesn’t give you access to joy barred from everyone else. Hating mainstream or orthodox stuff for its own sake is a waste of time.

“There are some very clever people who cannot enjoy the joy unless they understand it. There are other and even cleverer people who say that they lose the joy the moment they do understand it. Thank God I was never clever, and could always enjoy things when I understood them and when I didn’t. I can enjoy the orthodox Tory, though I could never understand him. I can also enjoy the orthodox Liberal, though I understand him only too well.” – G.K. Chesterton

Cheers,

Javen.

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Javen.

Leaving home and volunteering with a ministry which focuses on traveling, I get pretty good at, or used to, saying goodbye to places and people. Goodbye room.

This trip was a banquet tour, which means that most of what we did was put on banquets instead of going into prisons. These banquets raise support and get the word out about what Gospel Echoes is doing. We were in Montana for the majority of the two and a half weeks. Big sky country.

Eating is one routine that traveling for weeks at a time really distorts. Travis takes it to a whole new level though. In the span of about an hour he subjected his just awakened stomach to canned oysters, raw carrots, doughnuts, and coffee. I only happened upon a really bad tornado and a free air guitar. (We didn’t even have to buy the pint.)

Our first stop was in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. We played at the church where Steve and Jan used to attend and an awesome guy named Ben took us up the hill and let us try out the camp’s rope swing. Pretty intense.

We did a banquet in Thompson Falls. The highlight was chucking around ‘tape balls’ with the Baker kids. A tape ball is made by wadding up all the black gaffer’s tape used to hold cords down during a service. Chaplain Bill Babb from Indiana joined us for a few days. He was the speaker at a couple of the banquets.

Eureka, Montana and doing laundry.

In Fairfield we got to park the bus and hang out at the home of Craig and Marita Swartzentruber. That was a highlight of the tour for me. They let us ride their horses and took us to see a Lewis and Clark Museum which is right by the Roe River, the nation’s shortest river. Joanna happened to be visiting Matt and Elaina, so I got to talk to her for a little bit.

Libby, Montana was a pretty cool stop. There’s a community there who’s people build pretty much all of their stuff out of logs. They have a mill where they prepare the logs. We got to go on a swinging bridge (they told us a young man drowned there a few days after we were there). I’m told that this is the section of the Kootenai River that Pat McManus wrote about in his story called ‘Whitewater Fever’ in the book ‘The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw’.

This is the church, which they call ‘the community building’, the general store, the construction operation, and the one guy’s house. The big valley where the church sits is said to have been cleared because a World War II B-52 landed there when he ran out of fuel. The field had to be lengthened to give him enough room to take off again.

In Kalispell we did a banquet with Sister Lynn as our speaker. She’s a really cool lady, and she explained to us the differences between sisters and nuns. The attendance was meager, in fact attendees outnumbered personnel by about twelve or fifteen. It was that night that we played Crowder’s song Come As You Are with Sister Lynn – that was really fun.

Plains, Montana is actually quite mountainous as it turns out. We sang at the Grange Hall, whatever that means. The Beiler’s kindly let us chill at their place afterwards.

Then we came home.

That was a lot of pictures. But I figured that if I took the time to take them, sift through them, and edit them, then someone else might as well see them too.

We’ll be heading out on summer tour June 15th. I’ll be taking my possessions with me on the bus and moving them into our new house sometime in July when we get to South Carolina and I get home.

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I found the animated Tarzan movie at a Goodwill one day. After watching it the P.S. 1 game makes so much more sense. Phil Collins wrote some great songs for it, but this one in particular is just wonderful.

Lately I’ve been enjoying reading Lemony Snicket and the 50’s chapters of Isaiah. Today after work I went to the river and practiced casting. Luckily no fish broke my concentration. Tomorrow I’ll be working with the pastor, Kevin, doing construction. And the next day..who knows.

Cheers,

Javen.

Some weeks ago, about three, I got to go hiking with some friends. We walked about seven miles total and saw lots of lovely things. This is what it looked like from the point of view of the guy always trailing behind and clicking away.

Ben’s Honda Civic traversed several miles of the most pot-holed gravel road I think I’ve ever seen to get us to the trail head. People with nice cars, you would have cared…

We found some snow to chuck at each other. After Jenny threw some in Emily’s boot she was kind enough to help get it back out.

A lot of this hike is by the river – which is nice.

I don’t remember hearing why the place is called Jawbone Flats. Maybe there was an incident where Samson or someone like him was involved.

There were a lot of very old vehicles sitting beside the trail.

And some coal cars.

Apparently some people live back there. Maybe they maintain the area or something.

At one point Ben jumped into the a pile of drift and made a snow angel, but he was back up before I could take a picture of it. And that’s pretty much it. I’d recommend this hike; it’s not very difficult – except that it’s a fairly long loop. And watch out for the pot holes.

Javen.

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.

Hello my friends,

We recently, sort of..it’s been at lest a week, got back from a twelve day tour to Washington, which is somehow even rainier than Oregon I think. The winters out in this part of the country are just relentlessly wet. The other day it rained as we walked into church, snowed briefly while we were inside, got sunny for few minutes while we ate lunch, rained again, and then snowed pretty hard during the evening service. Quite moist. We keep a passing vigil on the lake that’s gathered itself on both sides of Seven Mile Lane, which gets us to the office and such, and wonder if it will overtake the road. How high’s the water mama? She said it’s five feet high and risin’. Here are some pictures of our trip.

We sang a few songs at this beautiful church with a white cross on top. I think this was the first time I’d ever visited a Methodist church. The inside was so cool..by the time I went back to take some pictures it was locked up. You’ll have to take my word for it 🙂

And as with most churches, we borrowed some of their water.

We sang at this church located in the Pugent Sound area. The Pugent Sound is basically that part of Washington where the coast looks like it got shattered into a thousand pieces just so more people could have bay-front views. It’s really a neat place. This church hosted us for a concert and a ‘pot-providence’..there’s nothing lucky about it.

We went way up up to Neah Bay to play at a small church that sits just off the ocean.

Getting all the equipment up the stairs and into the sanctuary was no small task. After we had muscled the ‘coffin’ out of the bus, through the rain, and up the narrow passageway, we heard the pastor say, ‘Oh I could open up the door to the ramp for you guys.’ Ah yes the ramp. Ultimately it was Travis’s mighty brawn and high-lifting capabilities that solved the problem.

Along the way..

We stopped at this place to get water..some things happened.

I was, for a few seconds, the northwesternmost person in the continental USA. This is Cape Flattery which is a part of the Makah Reservation. Those mountains in the distance are part of Canada. Standing out there I felt like Lewis and Clark..but probably more like Clark because Lewis may or may not have committed suicide.

More scattered pictures.

Brent and Rita (Gospel Echoes directors) invited Travis and me to travel with their family out to the coast where Bryant, their son, was playing in the 3A state high school basketball tournament. The discovery was made that National Treasure was among the collection of movies at the rental house. What an epic tale – it’s a bit cheesier than I remembered..but still awesome. We had a grand time, and the guys took third place in the tournament. After the last game we drove back home and hung out at the Krabill family gathering. Arlen and Sharon Krabill are back from Grenada for three weeks; theirs is the house we live in. But I don’t have any pictures of the gathering or of them.

I would like you all to know what a good day I had today. It stated being good when I woke up to pure, unclouded sunshine for the first time in weeks I think. Winter is a long time of waiting for the sun – so a reminder it’s coming is good every now and then. Then about ten o’clock Travis got a text on his phone that said that my phone and wallet had been found. We played basketball at a gym the other night, and I was sure I didn’t take them in with me..I was wrong. When the guy told us he had found them, I told him that was about the best news I’d heard since the gospel. It felt really good to have God answer my prayer to lead it back to me. I remember whispering a plea while taking a sip of Gatorade telling God that I’d really love it if he’d let me find it, but also that I knew his goodness didn’t depend of anything I could or couldn’t find. It’s strange how easy it is to forget that. Anyway, he did let me find it – the reunion was beautiful.

Another thing that happened today after the finding of the lost items: Travis and I are trouncing along the streets of Albany in my little Honda Civic looking for a business where we’re supposed to pick up some stuff for the auction. I was driving, he was navigating, and we were talking and laughing about something as we pulled up to a four way stop. I heard the voice of his navigation app say something about a left turn, so I put on my blinker. There are three cars that have pulled up to this intersection, me, an SUV to my left, and a lady in a car straight across. Everyone’s got their blinker on. The guy on the left got there first so he makes his move. Then me and this lady are left to figure out who’s supposed to go next. Travis sees my hesitation and motions for her to come on out, ‘after you‘. She begins motioning something back. oh she’s gonna let me go ahead, how thoughtful. Then it became quite apparent she was doing far more gesticulating that what was required to say you first. So I sit there turning my head from this lady to Travis and back to this lady, all of the communications going over my head. I was tempted to just start flailing like an idiot..see i can do it too. Eventually her frantic message began to take shape in our minds, you should probably not make that left turn since it’s a one-way street. Ah yes an excellent point. I gave her the oh ok I’m tracking with you now international symbol: it’s where you put your first finger and thumb together and make an ‘o’. Then I proceed to wave at her to tell her that she really can come on out now that we’ve been sufficiently warned and have altered course. But apparently I had arrived at the crossing first..so she waved at me oh no, after you. I hit the gas, let out the clutch, and rolled on across all the while whacking my palm against my face. There’s a chance I’ll study communication in college, but I doubt any class will attain to this level of complexity.

Our friend Ben got tickets for me and Travis to go with him to see a Trailblazer’s game tomorrow – which is actually today since it’s two in the morning.

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Here’s a riddle for you. The answer is up in the second paragraph, twelfth word in.

The hottest of hot, 

The coldest of cold,

The mother of pearl,

The bride of pure gold,

The shoes of the young,

The crown of the old,

And here’s my new favorite song. The Rainbow Connection – The Muppets, I think the last verse is simply brilliant.

I recently finished reading All the Light We Cannot See and Silence. Both are stories that give you a lot to think about and pull questions out of you that you didn’t know you had.

After hearing this song I think I need to read The Grapes of Wrath. I think it’s funny how so many people think of Springsteen as a redneck rock and roller who did nothing but scream about how he was born in the USA. I’m finding he was actually a wonderful poet who told  the stories of many many people in a way that made you want to hear them, and know them. A book by its cover and all that…here are some thoughts on that subject.

Anyway, enough with the underlined words. I hope you all can wake up to as good a day as I did. But he is faithful either way.

Take care,

Javen.

Subway. 9:31 p.m. – Lakewood, WA

Hello friends. I hope you’re having a good Monday. This morning we played a few songs at a lovely Methodist church with giant sloping wooden walls and a big stained glass window where the pastor talked about the love language of quality time and how we ought to take time for each other. This evening we ate at Applebee’s and then parked for the night at Walmart, inside of which is a twenty-four hour Subway with one electrical outlet.

The past two weeks we’re a really nice time for me back in Oregon. Eight of Travis’s peoples from his home in Missouri (and Sarah from Indiana) flew ought to see him for whole week. Good people – the kind you feel privileged to share life with, even for a few days. Admittedly, they came out here to see him; but by the time we drove them back to the airport, it felt like I had known these people for much longer than a week.

Before they all arrived, Travis and I took a certain pastor, who shall remain unnamed for the sake of keeping his job, to a Switchfoot concert. It was a grand experience, I even got to eat at Five Guys for the first time. They were playing with Relient K at this small venue in Eugene. Relient K was without their lead singer, which made it kind of fun to watch. They had a bunch of different people trying to fill his shoes..reading lyrics off pieces of paper as they sang and stumbling through their songs – it was refreshing to see the very human side of a band.

I did take a couple videos..they did a nice acoustic version of ‘ Hello Hurricane‘ around one mic, as well as one of my favorites off their new album ‘I Won’t Let You Go‘.

One day we loaded up in the bus, or the Whale as it’s been dubbed, and took a trip to the coast. We stared the journey off right with a Black Rock Coffee pit stop.

We went to Beverly Beach and to an old lighthouse where we worked on long jumping.

We took a trip to a nice hiking spot that Ben showed us. There seemed to constantly be Lord of the Rings theme music playing…and I thought I may have glimpsed an orc at one point.

And another to Silver Creek Falls where you can see maximum waterfalls for minimum walking.

Kevin (the last v.s. guy’s and Travis’s oldest brother) made us his famous pizza one night.

In Luke I found another man with a deep appreciation for good ginger ale. One day him, Austin, and I made a massive haul that kept us in good supply of beverages for almost the whole time. This is the skeletal remains of so much refreshment. Several nights we crowded around my laptop in the living room to watch a movie, with popcorn and said refreshments of course. Second Hand Lions is such a good story.

Today is our fourth day on the road on this trip to Washington. We’re singing a lot of new songs and learning as we go, but it’s been going really well so far. The next two days we don’t have any services.

The people over at the Word Shakers were kind enough to let me post some thoughts about chasing geese  on their site.

Thanks for praying for me; some days I wake up and feel quite prayed for, and I really appreciate that. Earlier tonight I read Tristan’s update about what’s going on with the guys on Edge. It’s so cool to hear about the ways God is faithful and patient enough to keep on teaching us. I’d ask you especially pray I’d be humble and living in a way that I hear what the Father is telling me.

“The secret that we share I cannot tell in full,

But this much I will tell,

What’s lost is nothing to what’s found,

And all the death that ever was,

Set next to life,

Would scarcely fill a cup.”  – Frederick Buechner

Take care friends,

Javen.

Hello my friends. This is my January as described in words and images. I hope it was a good month for you all. It definitely dealt its ups and down to me.

Saturday, a week and a day ago, our youth group loaded up drove a couple hours west towards the coast for the annual retreat. This year the house was actually on a lake instead of the beach. It was a lovely old house – at least a hundred years old with floors that kind of sloped down towards the water. The guys ruled the basement, the girls the upstairs, and we hung out in the middle.

Some of us did take a venture to beach to see the ocean, and a precious few of us braved a voyage across the lake in the small yellow kayaks they had there. But mostly we played games and ate food. Liar’s Dice and Signs  were the weekend favorites. It’s kind of funny how Oregonians view their coast. We were playing Code Names, where you try to come up with a word that pertains to certain other words, and the word was ‘cold’ – and they were thinking of the beach. It’s definitely not the same as the balmy beaches of Florida.

We went to Mo’s on Saturday night. They serve a pretty decent fish taco. I thought I had lost my wallet, but it’s found now.

Me, Ellie, and Travis

And then we came back home. My guitar had her 18th birthday yesterday.

‘There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.’ – Ernest Hemingway                             

A few nights ago Travis and I went to Eugene to see the movie ‘Silence’. I don’t think I’ve ever watched a movie that left me with as many questions or provoked more thought. Maybe I have; I don’t remember when. Someone said of it, “This is not the sort of film you “like” or “don’t like.” It’s a film that you experience and then live with.” I think maybe that’s true..because I’m still not sure if I liked it or not. I think I did – you should probably see it for yourself. I’ll warn you, if you’re a big fan of the ‘yay Jesus’ moments you get in God’s Not Dead and the like, you’ll probably be quite disappointed. Because the bad guys don’t convert to Christianity while dying in the rain – this one isn’t that easy.

On Sunday morning I went with Mike, Debbie, Travis and two other men to the a prison about forty-five minutes from here. The three man worship team and about four other guys came out to chapel. There is nothing quite the same as worshiping with a small group of men in the small room of a prison on a Sunday morning. It was the last time we’ll see their worship leader before he is released back into the free world. He is special guy and an incredible guitar player.

February 16 (I think) we head back out on the road for about two weeks. We’ll be in Washington playing songs.

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I’ve not listened to much of Josh Garrels – but I love this.

A few articles,

Rebecca Reynolds – and of course the song, The Silence of God.

Looking For America: Because Hope Deserves An Anthem, because the cynic is just a dreamer with a broken heart. – Jon Foreman

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Take care my friends,

Javen.

It’s 11:35 p.m. in the living room and there’s a fire burning. This is about my favorite time of day to be alive.

They let me fly home for Christmas on December 20th. The plan was to go home for Christmas, head to Florida for a few days, come back for another week, and then fly back where I came from – and that’s pretty much how it went down. I had a great three weeks.

I flew nonstop into Atlanta Tuesday night and was reunited with my family again. It seems like there’s been a lot of that lately. On the plane ride I watched ‘The BFG‘, which I would highly recommend to anyone who likes a good animated story. The next day the guys told me that we were going camping the following night. We ventured out to our favorite spot: the Cape of Pretty Good Hope. It’s usually an island, but because of the drought it was a peninsula. We had more meats than Arby’s: pork-chops, hotdogs, sausages, bacon, and fresh venison.

On Christmas Eve Grandpa, Grandma, and Esther came over to eat low-country boil and dip stuff in chocolate with us.

After church on Christmas day we went to Grandpa’s house and hung out. There was of course the annual, somewhat painstaking, family photos by the blue barn. We’re not really increasing, but the front row is getting taller.

Luke, Emily, Aleisha, and I drove down to Florida in Aleisha’s car on Tuesday. They’ve got summer on demand down there. It’s a great place to chill for a few days, but I don’t think I’d want to live there. There’s throngs of people, most of whom know each other or are at least there for common events and reasons. I think it makes you feel kind of removed from reality for a few days – maybe like you’re in a Brian Adams song or something. It’s quite the atmosphere: Amish people rollin’ down the streets on rented segways and the rest of us trying to look as cool as they feel. Luke and I stayed with Mike in his grandparents’ house in Pinecraft. Some evenings Ashley, Aleisha, and Emily would come over to bring us food (or steal our food) and play Rook while we listened to our favorite tunes on the old boombox.

The volleyball tournament was on Saturday. I played with Sean and Ashton Overholt and some other people I had never met. It started at 7 a.m. and went until 3 a.m. the next morning.

One evening we went to Lido Beach to watch the sun set. It was gorgeous. After the sun had done its thing, we went to The Salty Dog where Rachelle instructed us to order the fish tacos – they were delicious.

Collin, Lauren, and I headed for home on Sunday morning. We stopped in Atlanta to pick Krista up at the airport; how we got her suitcase to fit in the trunk with all our stuff is still a bit of a mystery. Jumping up and coming crashing down on the lid with all my weight was definitely involved. Somewhere in Georgia we drove under a sign that said there had been fifteen hundred road fatalities this year. With it only being the first day of the year, the state is on pace to lose five percent of its population. It’s a dangerous world we live in. After I got back home I still had about ten days until flew back to Oregon. which was really nice.

It was great to attend a couple school basketball games.

Mom got a record player for Christmas so we there was a lot of Peter, Paul, and Mary and John Denver floating around the living room. That’s a medium of music that should never be forgotten.

It did snow the one day.

I had to bid farewell to my room as next time I’m home we’ll be living elsewhere, at least that’s the plan. On Tuesday the 10th I flew back to Oregon. Right now we’re trying to get the rust spots off the sides of the bus..driving through salted roads is rough for a lot of reasons. We head back out on the road again about the middle of February.

On the plane ride back to Oregon I got to watch the movie Sing Street. If you like Ireland or have a brother or have ever wanted to write songs or be in a rock band, you should probably watch it – it really is excellent.

My friends at The Word Shakers have got a cool project going on where they’re practicing writing as an exercise, and I’d encourage you to check it out.

Take care my friends,

Javen.