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...too soon

It has been a whirl wind. Tears from the depth of our soul and then laughter that cuts away at the sadness. Last night Chad found out that his father had been killed in a car accident. We packed the bags and drove over the mountains to be with family. When it's hard to accept reality and words seem to be so elusive, it is good to be with family...with people who understand the tears brimming in your eyes and the aching in your heart.

On Monday we are flying out to Michigan to join Chad's other sister and his mom...

We are going to be out there for two weeks, celebrating, mourning, comforting and starting the process of healing.

Please pray for us. Chad's dad was a great man...the best father-in-law a girl could ask for. He loved Jesus and people well. He loved his family well. He loved his son well...not many sons can call their dad their best friend.

Tom...thank you for raising up your son to love his savior and family the same way you did!

Streaming My Sermon

Here is a stream of my sermon in case you don't want to download the MP3.

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My First Sermon

I just wanted to quickly post the MP3 of my first sermon.

A Change in Destination

Well, its been a whirlwind. These last 4 weeks have gone by fast. I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who was commenting on how he never reads missionary email because they are too long. I agreed with him and we both agreed that if we could just get the letter in bullet points we would read it. Well, here are the bullet points to get you up to date with what is going on with us. For an elaboration of the bullet points please scroll down, otherwise enjoy the cliffsnotes of the last 4 weeks.

• We are still living with the Pastor and his wife in their basement.
• I have a job working security at a Community College in Auburn Washington. I work 7-3 Monday through Friday, but hopefully am moving to part-time soon.
• We are leading a bible study with the college aged members of Christ the King Bible Fellowship that is meeting once a week.
• We have decided to not move up near the University of Washington at this point and instead focus our efforts on the needs of the students currently at CKBF.
• We are also focusing our efforts on starting a Christian club at the community college that I am working at. There are 13,000 students that attend and no Christian influence on the campus.
• I am going to continue to lead a small bible study on the campus of UW once a week.
• We are looking for a place to rent near the community college to be a base of operation at the school.
• God is taking care of our needs.

To start out with we are still living the basement of the Sims'. He is the pastor of the church we are working at and is friend of my family's. So far our time here has been fantastic. Living with their family has been a great way to get to know them better and for us to have one less thing to stress about. We are continuing to look for a place to live. We looked a lots of apartments up at the U, but just recently decide that for this year we are going to live down near the church and my job. This will allow us to pour our lives into the people who are going to the bible study, the majority of which live in this area. Only 2 students actually attend UW and only one of those lives on campus. We decided that if we really wanted to impact the students who are faithfully attending then we needed to live by them, crazy idea huh.

Two days after landing in Seattle I had an interview and got a job working security at a Green River Community College in Auburn. I took the job but have already informed them that i can't work full-time. Unfortunately, for the now i have to work full time. This has limited the time that i have available to work with students. Fortunately, the hours are great and the income is enabling us to save some money and look for a good place to live. The job has also been great because it has allowed me to get connected with students. God is clearly at work. My second day at work i was able to work with the pastor that i am living with (yes, he is working security too) and we were patrolling around campus when we ran into a couple who attend our church sporadically, they also work as trainers for the basketball team at the college. Well, we ran into them and they told us that one of the freshman coming in was a pastor's kid from Alaska. Later that day we were patrolling through the Gym and ran into the pastors' kid from Alaska. I introduced myself, told him i was a Pastor's kid and asked him if he would be interested in starting a bible study on campus. His eyes lit up. Come to find out the coach of the basketball team who is also the assistant athletic director and the head of the student judiciary is also a believer and has wanted to start a college ministry to students there for a long time. The next week i went an met him and he is going to be the faculty sponsor of the Christian club on campus. Mike, the pastor's kid came to church with me on Sunday and is going to be heading up the process of starting the club. Being a recognized club on campus will provide $500 in funding and allow us to promote events on campus as well as a meeting place. Please pray that God will continue to move on campus there. Everyday we are meeting believers who are go there and are interested in being involved in out campus group. For now we believe God wants us to focus on the students currently attending the church and the students at the community college.

It has been amazing to see how the Lord continues to provide for our needs. A few weeks ago we made a late night run to my wife's favorite store, Walmart. We were waiting in line to pay and an old man came up to us. He smelled kind of funny and kind of looked homeless. He asked me if we had started a savings account for my son, i quickly corrected him and said rather rudely that my daughter did not have one. He then pulled out his wallet and handed me a $20. I told him we could take this, he politely insisted and told us that his higher power told him to do it. We continued to refuse, but he insisted. We checked out and after checking out he found us again and explained that he had early Alzheimer's disease and wanted to make sure he gave away his money to good people while he could. It was sad, but yet it was one of those things that has helped us see that God is in control and he is taking care of us.

Well, that is a brief summary of what we have been up to the last 4 weeks. Please be praying for us. We are trying to figure out how best to manage our time and who to invest in. Pray that God would use us. I get to preach 2 weeks from yesterday so that is going to be exciting. Thank you so much for your prayers and for your gifts to the ministry here. It is a beautiful thing to see God work and to be part of it. More updates to follow.

Risk.

Hope.

Peanut butter and jelly.

"Hope is the thing with feathers."

Let hope be graspable.

For risk begets risk.

Road Trip

Day One: Kent City, Michigan to Galena, Illinois: 363 miles

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Construction on the way was horrendous. It really is true that there are two seasons in the Midwest, Winter and Road Construction. Traveling with a 3 month year old is also quite different than hitchhiking across Israel. Lots of crying and stops every 3 hours. Jeff was my roommate my last semester at college as well as my co-driver at Modern Moving for a summer. It was great to get caught up on life and be encouraged by him and his wife and daughter. His love and knowledge of God's word was inspiring to me.

Day Two: Galena, Illinois, to Sheiffield Iowa via Cedar Falls, Iowa: 178 miles

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Day number 2 took us to my hometown of Cedar Falls. I was born in a small hospital there in June of 1981. My dad was a college pastor at the University of Northern Iowa. I grew up hanging out at the green house which was the ministry on campus. In fact legend has it that my brother saved me from drowning in the creek next door. I have many great memories of this place. There were students all over campus on Saturday and being there got me excited for doing ministry up at the University of Washington. I have so many good memories of the students at UNI. Most of the people we saw on this trip were students who's lives were impacted by the ministry on campus at UNI. While we were in Cedar Falls we were able to stop and see a few old friends who i hadn't seen in years. I also was able to visit the school i went to kindergarten in. After spending a few hours in Cedar Falls we continued on to the metropolis that is Sheffield, Iowa. It was great to get caught up with Mark and Jill Peterson and their family. They were students at UNI when I was young. Jill babysat me a few times and Mark spent hours playing with me at various events on campus. They have a fantastic family. It was a great encouragement to see a family that seemed to enjoy each other and loved the Lord. I was challenged by the purposeful lives that they are living in the small town of Sheffield.

Day 3: Sheffield, Iowa to Des Moines, Iowa: 103 miles

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Day three took us south to the French city of Des Moines. My college roommate Tim came and visited me there. It was good for Maicy to be able to meet her other aunt, aunt Tim.

Day 4: Des Moines, Iowa to Wheaton, Illinois: 309 miles

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Day four we drove across Iowa and Illinois to the Christian Mecca, Wheaton Illinois. Home of more churches per capita than any other city in America. It is here as my boss once told me that like a christian bookstore slogan you can "get everything Christian for less." We were able to stay with the Berthels, my old employer in Wheaton. It was so good to see them and to be encouraged by their family. They are a family that loves the Lord and have taught their kids to love Him as well. They were also part of my parents ministry at UNI.

Day 5: Wheaton, Illinois to Cedar Lake, Indiana via Oak Park, Illinois: 73 miles

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Day five brought us to Cedar Lake, Indiana through Oak Park Illinois. We stopped to see the Stoffer family in Oak Park. I spent hours at their house during college, eating countless meals. They were so generous to me and i am eternally grateful. Their son Dave is a good friend of mine and it was good to get caught up with him. He is currently studying Hebrew at The Ohio State University because he wasn't smart enough to get into the University of Michigan.

After, having lunch with him we headed out to Cedar Lake, Indiana the home of Jake and Megan Manne, my best friend from high school. I started hanging out with Jake when i was in 8th grade and continued to hangout with him all the way through our time at Moody. He is a youth pastor now. It was great to see him and his wife and to see how God is using them in the lives of students. Our time with them was so refreshing.










Day 6: Cedar Lake, Indiana to my parents house: 192 miles


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The last leg of our trip led us back to my parents house. Overall we traveled 1218 miles altogether. It was an encouraging trip, filled with friends. It was exciting to visit with many of the people that were impacted by my parents ministry and to think about what God has in store for us as we serve him at the University of Washington.

Small Town Livin

I love rainy nights. They put me in a great introspective mood. There might not be anything better than reading while listening to some mellow music and the rain and wind. I feel close to God in these moments, even if i'm listening to Radiohead and reading Kierkegaard.

So Jodi and i have been in Kent City for almost a week and half now. I haven't been to Kent City, my home town, in three years and i have to admit that it is a bit of a culture shock to the system. I think growing up I never realized just how much of a hick i was. My hometown is so small, and the church i grew up in is filled with blue-collar people, good people but people that are very different than the people i live with now. There probably couldn't be a more different place to live than Portland and now Seattle. Now that i think about it I don't think there could be anything more opposite than for a kid from small town Michigan to be working at a black church in Seattle.

I'm so thankful for my hometown. I have great memories of it and the people in it truly loved and cared for me. There is real community in a small town. People who take care of each other. It has been good to catch up on people who I grew up with and to find out where everyone is and what they are doing. I miss having the kind of closeness that people have in a small town and a small church.

Its good to be home and feel like I fit. All around are people who look like me, talk like me, and think like me. I understand why people never leave their small town. However, I don't think i could go back, at least at this time in my life. I like that people disagree with me. I like that people disagree with me even at church. I think it makes me sharp and it makes me think. I think if i lived in the same place my whole life i would go crazy from boredom.

Small town livin is good, but at least for right now its not for me. I am excited to be working with students at UW and working with a church seeking to bring Christ to people from all tribes and nations. I'm excited to be be working on a campus that is 40 times bigger than my hometown.

fly little bird

Last night I realized that there is a disconnect in my heart about moving to Seattle. I think I believe that God is faithful...I have listened to hundreds of stories that about how He provided and cared for them and what He says about himself. ...what I'm having a hard time with is believing that He sees me worth being faithful towards. Often I wonder if God really is faithful, placing the malfunction in belief on the character of God...when the malfunction is in my court!

So right now I have to chose to fly...to move despite not feeling put together...to love despite feeling inadequate...to trust despite feeling unworthy...

...and He is choosing me as His means to share His love and grace to students at the U...

oh that I wouldn't be afraid of my own humanity

jodi

My Car

So, 3 years ago i bought a 1991 Geo Prism from my brother-in-law. He gave me a sweet deal and i took it off his hands. For these last three years my car has been fantastic. The only thing i have had to fix on it is the radiator and that was relatively cheap. A few months back i went to spend the weekend with my sister and her family. One night she piled all of her kids in the back of the car and took the kids for a joy ride to the neighbor's house. The next morning i went out to drive to church and they shocks on the car had bottomed out. I blamed her. I drove to church with it that day and came back out ready for the bumpy ride back to Portland. When i reached my car the shocks were no long bottomed out, God healed my car. This was 3 or 4 months ago.

A month ago, i was driving home from a terrible day of work and pulled into the driveway at Multnomah. The driveway has multiple speed bumps. As i raced over the bumps the shocks again bottomed out, for what i thought was the last time. For the last month my car has just sat as we have tried to decide what to do with it. I finally decided after much trouble to sell my car for whatever i could get out of it and then buy a new car when we moved to Seattle. Today i went to pickup my car and drive it to a friends house for him to sell for me. I went to start it and it wouldn't start because the battery is old and crappy. Jodi was there so we jump started it. With the squeal of the belts it started. As i looked at the car sitting their I thought to myself, "Self, you should keep this car, its been so good to you and God healed it once. Its sacred." I think maybe i should name my car Corbin. As i waited for my wife i decided to call one more shop close by and see how much it would cost to fix the two shocks on the back. I had gotten a few prices before and they were always at least $400 bucks, which is almost more money than the car is worth. So i called today i was $250. We decided to get it fixed.

The shop is right down the street from where my car has been sitting so i immediately drove it over to the shop. On the way there i drove down the same driveway and over the same speed bumps where i broke the shocks before. After the first bump it suddenly felt like i was riding on air. My car seemed to float on top of the bumps like I was riding in the clouds. My shocks were working again, my car had been healed, again. Well, me being of little faith, i drove to the shocks place anyways and i am still getting new shocks on the back of the car. I have faith, but i also don't want to drive all the way to Seattle on bad shocks. By the way, if all shocks that you buy have a lifetime warranty, why don't they put those on the car in the first place.

Postcards on the Way

We just finished making postcards of Maicy and have sent them out. If you would like to get one email us and let us know. In couple of weeks we will also be sending out a letter explaining what we are going to be doing in Seattle and how people can help. If you want to receive that as well email us at chadwhammond@gmail.com.

Jodi, Chad, and Maicy

The Beginning

It's 12:15 on Thursday July 23 and here we go. Two weeks ago I quit my job, a month ago Jodi quit hers. For the next 2 months we will be vagabonds wondering from Salem, to yakima, to Chicago, to Michigan to Seattle. We are moving because we sensed that our time in Portland was done and that God was calling us to step out in faith and obedience. Faith is not something that i am particularly good at. On one hand faith has been easy for me. I have traveled and gone places that would appear to be dangerous for some and never had much fear, but on the other hand I have always struggled committing to one particular path in life. I have been noncommital, putting my toe in the water but not fully submersing. Finally that is changing.

We are excited to be moving forward and would appreciate your prayer over the next few months. I still have moments of shear terror and fear, but i also have moments of peace and excitement. Hopefully this blog will allow you to be better equiped to pray and partner with us as we move forward.

Chad, Jodi and Maicy