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.