It is now without a doubt looking like winter and feeling like Christmas. Both of the local Christmas pageants have been cancelled because of bad weather and icy roads. And it just seems strange to me because the fields are still green, and I seen some of Debbie’s roses still hanging on all the way through November.

Every year Gospel Echoes embarks on the ‘Cookie Projects’. The idea is to get a package of cookies – (there is passionate debate among staff as to which kind is best..I’m leaning towards Chocolate Brownie or Oatmeal Raisin), a Christmas card, and a red address book to as many inmates as possible. The Christmas cards are each colored and inscribed with a short message of hope by someone – kids and adults from all over. The address book is a Gospel Echoes trademark; that’s often how they recognize who we are.

There were twelve of us on this trip which lasted five days. This picture is from when some other volunteers were hanging out for lunch..but that’s the idea – lots of humanity side by side for many miles.

We left on Friday evening and got into bad weather almost right away. We battled to keep chains on the bus wheels, once having to walk down the white interstate looking for where it might have fallen off. We did about 20 mph for a long time..and finally arrived at Walmart about 3 a.m. Good times.

We would usually drive to the city where we were scheduled to go into a prison, and then the next morning or afternoon we’d meet up with the volunteers from the area (or abroad) who were going in with us. After all the cookies and twenty or so of us got checked in, we’d form a sort of line where the inmates would file through to get the things we’d brought for them. The person at the front of the line would shake their hand and greet them, on down they were handed the cookies and such. Often we sang carols while this was happening. For a lot of these guys this is just about all the Christmas they’ll be getting from the outside –  not that Christmas is so much something you give and get as much as it is a celebration of something ancient and true. But still, I doubt if feels much like a celebration when you’re the missing place at the table. It’s a special thing to be able to go find someone and give them back a tiny part of what’s taken from them. They aren’t much different from ‘the rest of us’. In fact they are the rest of us. I read something in a book today I thought seemed apt:

“Gatherers care for orphans because they want to earn a pardon, not because they’re decent. You think they make good teachers? Is that why you take your little treasures to them? You feel safe among thieves and bullies and liars, do you?”

She cocked her head. “Never met nobody who wasn’t a thief or a liar once in a while. The Gatherers are just the folks who got caught.”  – Jeffery Overstreet (Auralia’s Colors)

We had so much fun inside the bus on the way to the next place. There was an excess of rubber bands and mountain dew along the way.

Shoulders are pillows.

There was one church service mixed in on Sunday. There was Sunday school (where they were discussing loneliness and how to help those ‘lonely people’ we know. I wished they all could have heard what Rich said about it..I’ll put it at the bottom if any of you care to), we played some songs, and then we hurried to a prison to meet our check in time. Later that night we came back to pack up the equipment.

Mike at his post – keeping her between the lines

On the left is where we stopped to get water..much to the displeasure of certain lady. She approached Travis and me with a very menacing demeanor; we quickly decided this situation was above our pay grade and went to find Mike.

On the right Mike is using a heat gun to get something in the bowels unfrozen.

Snow.

Lo and behold we finally found a Panda Express to eat at. Ellie had been waiting for this since like Summer tour.

We got back home on Tuesday night about 3:30 a.m. That is as near as I can tell about the deadest part of the night – kind of a cool time to be alive and aware of it. The next day began the dropping of the flies. Pretty much everyone except Debbie got sick, thankfully we were home. She made Travis and me some chicken soup which greatly lifted the morale of our spirits..or something. We also lost power for a while which is always exciting and gives you a chance to use those oil lamps that everyone seems to be saving for the occasion.

One of the volunteers was Glen Showalter (I apologize if that’s not how it’s spelled) – a real nice guy with a real nice jacket. Turns out he is related to my Grandma and knows my uncle Serge.

.

Tomorrow morning (Sunday) we’re taking off about 6:30 for another cookie handout. On Tuesday I’m getting on a plane. I’m coming home.

If you think I just put these things down here in the bottom because I think they’re cool and  I want you to like them too – yeah that pretty much sums it up.

Christmas Bells – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

    I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

    And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

    Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

    Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

    It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

    And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

    Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

————————————————————————–

Take care my friends,

Javen.

Hello my friends.

It has been quite a while, I’ll bet you hadn’t noticed. But I cut a deal with myself that I’d update this sucker before I watched a movie. And if you break a deal with yourself, you are the wrong-doer and the wronged. A few things: first, I changed the format of this site’s theme because I didn’t like the other one very much. And yesterday I won an auction on eBay for a used 55-200 mm camera lens, which means you’ll be treated to pictures zoomed up much farther once it arrives.

Wow I just finished and you might wanna get a cup of something hot to sip on before you read. So many pictures. I’ll try to start doing less or posting more.

I got to make a trip home to South Carolina a while back. It started out as a casual  phone conversation with Dillon while I was sitting in a restaurant. There was a concert in his area that we both wanted to see. So I threw out the idea of me flying to him, us taking it in, and then driving back to our hometown. He was easy to convince..so we made it happen. Trips like that are great. And in ten years I might stumble across these pictures and smile. I doubt I’ll wish I had just saved the money and stayed home.

I did a whole bunch of things, lunch at Grandma’s was a highlight for sure.

As soon as I got back to Oregon we hit the road en route to two banquets and a church service. It was a fun couple of days save for the sickness that followed us.

The first banquet was in Twin Falls, Idaho.

The banquet in Albany found me feeling quite miserable. But we made it through.

This is the park in Brownsville that I like to go to. I finally had to retire my faithful blue backpack. It had carried much homework and even traveled to a few other countries, but alas it was worn and torn.

One Sunday afternoon we went for a hike with some friends. There were beautiful hills that made me feel like  I was part of the Fellowship running through Middle Earth.

For two weeks we held down the fort while the owners of this lovely house were in Belize.

During our stay I made friends with the dog, learned how to do a little origami, and waded through a season and a half of Prison Break.

The Willamette Valley from Washburn Heights

I feel a little sorry for those of you living on parched ground. It rains here about every other day at least. Everything is green. I’ve got my plane tickets to come home for Christmas. Until then, thank you for praying for me. I’m doing quite well the last few days. God is good to me, and so are his people.

Javen.

Someday I’d like to have a desk that looks like Einstein’s.

I got to go a concert last week to see Jason Gray, Josh Wilson, and JJ Heller. It was a pretty good show that was held a beautiful dome-shaped church. JJ Heller was my favorite; her and her husband Dave did most of their songs with just her voice and a Gibson. It was really lovely. ‘Who Will Love Me for Me’ was the highlight..so good. Probably the most surprising part of the night was seeing how much Josh Wilson looks like Karlin Bacher.

On Tuesday the long-awaited arrival of Travis Miller from Missouri was accomplished. He drove his red Honda all the way. He plays a Taylor, brought a bunch of snacks, and we like a lot of the same things in life..so he’s a pretty cool hombre thus far.

It’s always a nice thing to see big boxes on my doorstep, and even nicer when they’re addressed to me. My dear mom sent me some essentials. Timely ones too, we leave for a two week tour to Canada tomorrow evening. These will be a great addition to my living quarters. Said living quarters will be much more crowded this time around since Travis’s six foot three frame and earthly possessions will be sharing it with me. It’s alright though. I’ll gladly trade half the space for a bro to go with me. ‘Friendship halves our space and doubles our joy’..or something.

Last night, Wednesday, Travis and I decided to go to a concert in Eugene at five and left at six. Since we were in a hurry and our printer is broken, we decided to buy our tickets at the venue. As I was handing the box office lady at the Hult Center my $21, a kind lady named Heidi came up and offered us her two extra tickets. So we got to watch Steven Curtis Chapman, Mac Powell, and Brandon Heath put on a great show from the $38 seats. It was a really good concert which I don’t have any pictures of it because I think it’s so dumb when you go watch fireworks and half the people just video the whole time. I decided this time I’d just take in the show instead of trying to capture it for later. I think there’s something to be said for that. They were all three fun to watch perform; masters of their craft no doubt. Two of which have been around for quite a while…not sure if Chapman was using in-ear monitoring or hearing aids. My favorite part was Brandon Heath doing his song ‘Paul Brown Petty’, a story about his grandpa. When the most expensive part of a concert is the milkshake afterwords, maybe God broke the printer.

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Today I replaced my guitar’s saddle. Sounds easy enough in theory I suppose. But when you buy a saddle (made out of bone), what they send you is too big and you have to shape it to fit your guitar. So today I spent about two hours sanding bone to match the size of the old saddle. But alas, it fits and plays and does not buzz. Victory.

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Remember to pray for those of us that are far from home.

Ashton – Colorado,

Aleisha – Arizona,

Mahlon’s – Colorado,

Joe’s – Virginia,

Kris – Ohio,

Judd’s – Ireland,

Shawn, Corey, and Tristan bound for Asia,

Dillon – Virginia,

Christi – Africa,

Amber – Jamaica,

Karlin – Africa…unless he’s still on his honeymoon…

Travis – downstairs

(and those I probably couldn’t remember tonight)

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Here’s what I’ve been eating for midnight.

October Sky, Dead Poet’s Society, 

Marigold – Reliant K, Sound Of A Living Heart – JJ Heller, Floodplain – Sara Groves, Paul Brown Petty – Brandon Heath, Won’t Back Down – Tom Petty, On Jordan’s Stormy Banks – Jars of Clay,    If You Feel Too Much – Jamie Tworkowski, The Complete Stories – Flannery O’Conner,

– Javen.

on 9/28/16 at 12:25 a.m. I was thinking about the Townville ‘shooter’ named Jesse.

That all went down about six minutes from my house.

———-

It’s an evil something awful,

That lets you kill your own,

What kind of demon runs inside you,

How many times have you been lied to,

In this hell of a nightmare,

That keeps you waking up alone,

It’s the loneliness of the wilderness,

That wells up inside a man,

When everything he hears spoken,

Kills and leaves him broken,

He shakes his fist at Heaven,

And turns and kills again,

I wanna know,

What was the reason,

How are you sleeping,

At three in the morning,

Where do you stand,

I’m so sorry,

That when you awake,

And rise to meet the day,

You’ll tie your shoelaces,

With blood on your hands,

There’s an anthem of mercy,

That’s calling out to you,

While you’re sitting in the prisons,

Of the darkness where you’re living,

That even a murderer,

Can be made new,

Even kids like me,

Even boys like you,

Murderers and liars,

Can still be made new,

The Rock of Ages retirement village in McMinnville, Oregon hosts an event every year that features lots of live music, hot air balloons, food tents, face painting, bouncy houses, and my favorite, a huge water slide for anyone who wants to get wet. As it turned out that meant me and tons of kids from five to thirteen charging down a soapy black tarp at high speeds for a long time. It was pretty awesome. The Hummlys, which is a band comprised of three siblings, played about half way through the day. They were super good.

The lady on the left (Joanne?) made a comment about my t-shirt..which turned into a long conversation about all kinds of things, including their friendship with the young Mat Kearney. Joanne and Dianne.

One day I went fishing on the Calapooia River which runs right through my hometown of Brownsville. The fishing was good. The catching was not so good. Reminded me of the quote I’ve seen on my calendar for the last four years, “I’ve fished through fishless days that I remember happily without regret.” – Roderick Haig-Brown

About a week ago our youth group headed to the coast after lunch on Sunday. We chilled on the beach, ate supper, watched the sunset, and sang some songs. I also ran into a really nice guy named Greg who was carrying a much nice Nikon than mine. We talked for a while, and he shed some light on that very subject.

In this photo there are four home states represented: South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Missouri. Shania is in town to visit family, and Travis will be joining the Gospel Echoes team and moving in with David and me later in September. There’s obviously a mighty northerly gale whipping at the moment.

Every year at the Gospel Echoes auction some kind people near Salem donate a meal to the highest bidder. Through a series of fortunate events, at least for me, I got to go along. The trip includes a ride to the coast in the tour bus, hanging out in some seaside towns, and of course, a meal with four of them. This year it also included a spontaneous stop to a mostly picked over estate sale. But I did snag an old AM radio for a dollar. The food was incredible, and was served to us by about ten people.

Last night some friends (including Brianna and Alisha Mullett who are in town for a few days)  and I went to the state fair. It featured a free (unless you got VIP) Jeremy Camp and MercyMe concert. They were both pretty good. MercyMe was my favorite. Afterwards we bought some tickets and road a mini roller-coaster. Quite thrilling. And then on the way out to the van this energetic worker of the ‘Rock and Roll’ ride beckoned us to hop on free of charge. A good Mennonite does not simply turn down such generosity. And wow. The thrill. The terror. The screaming. The rush of blood to the head.

Here’s a picture of the cool old barn in the Brownsville park.

Javen.

This is the coolest thing I seen today. So I thought I’d paste it in here. If you have fifteen minutes to be encouraged, click the middle.

‘Be strong, all you people of the land,’ and work. ‘For I am with you,’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’ – Haggai 2:4-5

Summer tour has been wrapped up. My good friends have come and gone. Here’s pictures of it all.

Butte, Montana

We had a day where we got to go hike around the falls in Idaho where the Snake river takes a plummet. I forget where these houses were but they really cracked me up. They apparently live in the same house but everyone gets their own colors and stuff. The one with the different size hedge looks straight out of ‘Picture Perfect’

George: ‘Yeah, and here’s a joke for you: I think your pathetic hedges are a violation of the homeowner’s code. ‘

Vickie: Oh my, illegal shrubs. Whatever will I do?’

We parked at Mike’s parents’ house in Canton, Ohio for part of a day. While there they were kind enough to put my name on the cake along with Michelle’s and Abby’s.

We went to the Bruneau Dunes in Idaho. The picture of Mike on the right does have a story. He’s just beginning a valiant charge down the dune. Little does he know scalding, sun-baked sand awaits his tender phalanges. He was thoroughly singed and soon after reported that he’d, ‘had enough sand dunes for forty years.’

some interesting signs..

Collin and Colson came and hung out for about six days. We  really enjoyed the coast. This is Cannon beach..not where I had intended we go..but it was a cool beach nevertheless. I thought we were headed for the place I’d been earlier..turns out there’s more than one place on the Oregon coast with big pointy rocks.

Javen.

Here’s pictures from our week in Goshen. We had a nice meal in a beautiful old barn and then later in the week was the annual ‘all team sing’.

While in Goshen we stayed with Ron and Julie Martin..they took us swimming..

..and fishing with a friend on Lake Michigan..

That night Everett and Charlotte Martin came over and we ate fish. #fresh

A few more from the road..

Javen.

The kids finished recording their new album after three days of hard work with the guys in the Gospel Echoes studio. I think it turned out pretty well. During the recording I didn’t have a whole lot to do besides observing the process.

During the time we were in Goshen, I got to see the Ron and Julie Martin (Dad’s sister) and family. I hung out with their church’s youth group Friday night and stayed the night at their house. They were very good to me, and it’s always good to see faces you know the names for.

We headed out of Goshen Friday the first of July bound for Michigan. We met up with Mike’s parents (and his sister Christine) who were gracious enough to buy our supper at Bob Evans..which serves up a pretty good salad.

A group of about 60 people gathered in a Walmart parking lot on Saturday morning to get ready to do a prison rally. We headed to the prison and played music and served ‘pop’ to many many inmates. It was a fun thing to be a part of, and you could tell the guys really enjoyed the fact that people came out and served them. Then we drove several hours up into the first finger on the left side of the Michigan hand to Corwin and Trenda Schrock’s house in Traverse City where we parked for the night. They are really nice people. We used their shower, petted their dog, ate their pancakes, and played at their church on Sunday morning. It was an a cappella service which was difficult for us since we don’t ever sing a cappella at services. They were kind enough to serve us a good lunch in the basement church afterwards before we drove downtown to see the Blue Angles air show over the bay of Lake Michigan I believe. Someone told me this is the first show they’ve done since one of their men crashed and died. It was a good show and a beautiful day.

Does it get more American that the Blue Angles on July 4th weekend?

After the show we hit the road and got back to Goshen in time to see fireworks from Jim’s yard..along with quite a few others. Good food, sweat tea, good times.

We’ll be here in Goshen for the rest of the week for the annual planning meetings. My family is coming on Wednesday I think. I look forward to that. Take care my friends.

Javen.

On Friday the 24th we arrived at the annual gospel sing event that happens in Winkler, Manitoba. It’s a great gathering of people (about a thousand) who come to camp, hear music, and spit sunflower seeds. I found their spitting method peculiar. They put one seed in their mouth at a time instead of loading in a whole handful. We definitely weren’t in America anymore. Our team sang four times over the course of the three days, and we were privileged to sing alongside the legendary John Schmid  in one set. He had also been traveling with us several days that week and doing services in prison with us. He’s a great storyteller, singer, and even throws in a little rap now and then: I definitely enjoyed hanging out and laughing with him all week.The man is a walking library of great tales and abides by Mark Twain’s advice to ‘never let the truth get in the way of a good story’. We were also privileged to travel with Corbin one of the nicest John Yoders I’ve ever met. John is the director of Gospel Echoes Canada and did the speaking/preaching in the prisons we visited. He also took us out for Denny’s and Tim Horton’s quite a few times. The man has given up the fight and is unashamedly addicted to Tim Horton’s coffee.

There were quite a few different groups that came out to sing, including the Wissmann family. Basically you jumped up on stage, plugged in whatever you needed, and performed for 4o minutes and then someone else came on. It was fun..hard for me though as we had to dig deep to play different songs for 4 sets..and I didn’t know most of them. So I either tried to look like I knew what was doing or chilled in the white tent to the left of the stage (pictured below). The weather was beautiful Friday and Saturday. Sunday was rainy and cold..so the  musicians were at times about 100 yards from the audience taking cover under the big white tent.

Below are pictures from Thousand Oaks and the road towards it..

Traveling.

Around Thousand Oaks

We left Manitoba on Sunday night, parked at a Walmart in North Dakota, and then got to Indiana Monday night. Now we’re in Goshen where the kids are recording their new album. Thanks for all your prayers and good words.

_____

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me

____

Javen.