Day 14 - 06/15/2008

I had set my alarm for 9 a.m., and woke up to shower and get ready. I went upstairs for breakfast, and ate with Todd and Kayla, the only ones out of their rooms thus far. Todd told me they had an iron, and told me where to retrieve it. I brought it up from the laundry area because there was music (they almost always have praise music playing lightly in the main rooms upstairs) and the family up there. I started ironing, but some of the rust on the iron’s face started to come off on my shirt. I iron them on the inside, and it hadn’t set in as a permanent stain, so it will come out, but figured it best just to go over to Amy’s to finish the job.
As I walked back upstairs, I met Roxie fixing up Kayla’s long dark tresses, and she said how glad she was that I had become part of their family. I was so touched by her saying that. I talked with Roxie for a little about their church, and was glad to learn they had found one that fit them so well.

I dashed over to Amy’s, and she let me in to iron in her kitchen while she finished getting ready. The placemat kept bunching, and I ended up just using the flat countertop, which worked pretty well. I finished getting ready before Amy, and so I got a little journaling done as I waited.

Amy drove us the short distance to her church, Mirabeau Chapel. Ruby and Sarah M. met us in the foyer. Since they just moved here, they’re trying out different churches. Amy had said this was a Foursquare church, but I didn’t see Hebrews 13:8 on the walls anywhere. I planned to ask for a doctrinal statement at the information table later. Then I looked through the program. On the back, I saw a staff listing, noticing five associate pastors, as well as someone on staff for “illuminate performing arts.” Yep, this was probably a Foursquare church.

As we walked in, an usher was holding raffle tickets and asked if I was a dad. I almost said yes because of all my dorm daughters, but decided that probably didn’t count with them. During the service, two associate pastors and the senior pastor did the drawing. They prefaced it with a discussion that Fathers Day typically has very low church attendance, particularly among men. On their day, many dads don’t want to spend “their day” that way. On the flip side, Mothers Day typically has the third highest attendance numbers, following Christmas and Easter. This is because for Mothers Day, moms want “the whole family to go to church together” (we all echoed this with the pastor) on “their day.”

So they drew five tickets. The first four were for recliners at the back of the sanctuary with Dad’s Root Beer and Krispy Kreme doughnuts to consume at will, and it made me glad I hadn’t gotten a ticket to have the possibility of being tempted with that junk food for over an hour straight. But the fifth ticket made me regret not getting one. It was a $50 gift card to Home Depot.

To give the sermon, the senior pastor Craig had asked his adult son Scott to co-preach with him that morning. Their message was entitled “Things I Learned About God from My Kids.” The topics were 1) Uniqueness (Gen 1:27, 1 Cor 12:18), 2) Gratitude (1 Thes 5:18), 3) Pride (Matt 3:17), and 4) Delight (Ps 37:4). It was a very neat message, and very funny to hear the family’s anecdotes. They even brought Scott’s 2-year-old son Hayden up to the front near the end of the message, and there were lots of “awwww’s” from the audience every time he did something cute.

We had been told during the service to turn in our information cards at the visitor center for a welcome gift. We stopped by there and it took awhile because the woman manning the booth had run out of the welcome mugs. She said they get a lot of visitors, but they did find some for us. They were nice-sized coffee mugs with a Hershey bar, a welcome note, and a gift certificate for a free beverage at their coffee bar (which strangely was closed).

After church, Amy and I rushed back to her place to change for Lisa’s graduation BBQ. Amy wanted to bring something, and decided to guess at a casserole with the leftover pasta from last night sans sauce, cheese bits, peas, mayo, and raspberry vinaigrette dressing. We would later discover that it didn’t work. She also brought Kool-Aid.

The BBQ was a lot of fun. The ribs and chicken were both amazingly delicious, and I was able to meet some more people in Amy’s life. I met her friends Aaron and Sarah B., as well other friends of Lisa’s: Laura, Elise, and Elise’s husband (whose name I’ve forgotten). Aaron is in the Moody program, and is from Michigan. Sarah B. used to be in the Moody program, but decided not to pursue it. She’s in the process of getting her degree from Biola, and is from Colorado. We were really able to connect through both having lived in Southern California. Laura is from Texas, and like Lisa, is doing her first few years at SCC and will transfer into the Moody Aviation program later on.

Elise and her husband are an older couple who used to live near Lisa and her family in Northern California, but now live over in Idaho. They are to her like Don & Barbara in North Fork are to me: a set of pseudo-grandparents looking out for her in her new home. I also met Placer, a huge dog (I’m not sure what breed). I’m not sure who she belonged to (Lisa and some other girls are renting this house we were celebrating at), but thankfully she wasn’t too drawn to me. Placer did really like Amy, though, who does like dogs.

Brian was at the BBQ and asked what I was doing after this. I told him that Amy had lost her To-Do list of places to take me, to which she nodded in agreement. So he invited me to hike Mt. Spokane with him and D.J. (Sarah M.’s brother) that afternoon. He gave me about ten minutes to decide, and since Amy didn’t mind, I accepted. He said the hike would only be about forty minutes up to the top, so I figured I’d still have the evening to hang out with Amy.

I left with Brian in Rosy, his 1987 Lincoln Town Car, and we went back to his house to grab a few things. Thank goodness I didn’t follow Amy’s advice and wear sandals to the BBQ. I borrowed a sweater from Brian because there was snow expected at the top. We then headed over to rendezvous with D.J. He’s a cool guy, and as I got to know him, I was really glad to have him on the hike. They are both finishing their first year at Moody. It was a long drive to the base of the hiking trail. We passed a circle intersection, and Brian told D.J. and me that he held the record of making 25 consecutive circles at that intersection, and put D.J. in charge of tracking if any of the new starts next fall tried to beat it. The drive up gave me a chance to ask both the guys about their particular calling to be missionary pilots. For both of them it came later, as Brian had spent a couple years at San Jose State, and D.J. already had his bachelor’s degree from a school in New York. I love hearing the stories of the people in this program. I think it can be harder for those who have already put in some time at school to get a calling from God to essentially start over. I’ve been impressed at the humility the older guys display, being back in school with guys just graduating high school.

We entered Mt. Spokane State Park, and parked at the base of the trail. We grabbed Gatorade, cameras, sweaters, and started up. Brian also brought his pistol, which apparently he always carries (he has a license to carry a concealed weapon in the state of Washington). I’m learning that Spokane is a very unsafe area with a high degree of crime, and that several guys even in the program are always packing.

We initially had two options for out hike: the road or the trail. We opted for the trail to start. None of us were expecting this, but there was still a lot of snow (sometimes a couple feet deep) on the ground even at the base of the trail. I learned that snow is difficult to hike in. I was quickly out of breath, but don’t think I slowed them down too much. I think I needed to stop for a minute or two only twice the whole hike, and other than that kept up pretty well with them. Brian had asked on the way up if I walk fast. I almost laughed as I responded in the affirmative, thinking of how many people complain that they can’t keep up with my normal stride. I was glad I hadn’t told that detail to him because it probably would have encouraged him to faster still.

I would pause and take pictures periodically, and Brian would authoritatively warn me that I was wasting my pictures as the top was that much better. I was skeptical and kept snapping away. I’ve been on a few mountaintops, and I don’t think the view could be that spectacular not to take pictures of the beauty on the way up.

D.J. was stopping along the way to look for new small trees to take back down the mountain and plant. Craig had talked about doing the same thing, and so I ended up joining D.J. in grabbing a few for Craig. What surprised me was the method. D.J. was uprooting them, claiming that they could just be replanted upon getting back down. I was skeptical, but I certainly had no desire to dig up and carry dirt down with me, so I didn’t argue.

We alternated between the three ways of ascending this mountain: following the paved road (slowest option), following the clear foot trail, and just going straight up the side (not a climb as much as a STEEP hike). Each afforded us some new perspective on the whole experience. We abandoned the trail and road near the top and started going straight up, climbing up hills and over rocks.

Getting to the top and looking around offered an unbelievable view. There were marked poles where metal tubes were attached, guiding the viewer to lakes and other areas visible to the naked eye. But just walking around offered witness to God’s majestic creation. I took a lot of photos, and Brian got out his fancy camera to take several pictures. He wanted some pictures with D.J., and gave me a quick tutorial on his camera, describing the shots he wanted. I like Brian because not only is he particular, but also decisive. We took some pictures of the three of us after the short photo shoot.

There were two antenna towers at the top, which helped guide us after we left the trail. Brian wanted us to climb one of them. D.J. decided not to, but I figured that I really don’t do enough stupid things, and decided to go for it. I have a fear of falling that kicks in intermittently, but seeing how well anchored the antenna tower was helped erase the possibility that the tower might collapse. D.J. photographed us as we climbed. I was still experiencing trepidations, so I climbed cautiously. Brian, however, scurried up to the top and started looking around. He yelled down that he saw a sign about disconnecting some wire before removing a faceplate to avoid radiation. He didn’t see anything to disconnect, and thankfully he had no desire to encounter radiation (much less expose us as well), so he started climbing down.

I was still climbing at that point, very ambiguous about when to stop and go back down. I started singing “‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus” to keep me going. I finally made it to the top, and climbed back down with a great sense of satisfaction.

On our way back down, as D.J. and I were pulling up trees, Brian stumbled upon something lying on the ground. It looked like the top two feet of a walking cane. It turned out that the plastic handle pulled out from the metal tube to reveal an encased knife, very much like a saw blade. We had no idea how it had been left behind since it seemed like a personal weapon rather than a forestry tool.

There were mosquitoes and biting flies (apparently called “face flies,” we would later learn), and Brian was getting bitten without mercy. D.J. and I were pretty much untouched. Mosquitoes don’t seem to like my blood (thank goodness!) because I always seem fine whenever people complain about them. I did get one bite, though. Those face flies were actually leaving open wounds and causing blood to trickle down Brian’s legs at a few bite marks. He wasn’t happy about those.

When we arrived back at Brian’s car, there was a note held in position by the windshield wiper. At first Brian thought it was a parking ticket, but then saw that it was a personal note. Some friends of theirs from the Moody program had also been hiking and recognized Brian’s car when they got back down themselves. They invited us over for some pizza at their nearby cabin. We stopped and were very grateful for the sustenance (pizza, veggies and potato salad). I met Dan and his girlfriend Brooke, and both of their sets of parents.

It was a long drive back, and my cell phone had died. We used Brian’s phone to call Amy and asked her to pick me up at Brian’s house. We talked more about California, my road trip, Brian’s upcoming summer travels, and several other things. There was something that prompted a high-five, and Brian commented on how soft my hands were. I realized that was the first time he had touched my hands, since he hugs everyone, and we had only hugged hello and good-bye, never shaking hands.

We returned to the house to find Amy, Ruby, Sarah B. and Sarah M. sitting at the top of the driveway near the garage, having a tea party. I’m not sure if there was even really tea in the teapot. We waited for Brian to burn me a CD of his pictures.

As we left the house, the girls started giggling and running to the car. They hurried me through putting my stuff away and getting in myself, and Amy drove off screeching her tires through several turns and laughter exploded in the car. It took awhile to get it out of them because they were in hysterics, but I finally learned they had stolen all the toilet paper from the house. As funny as the act itself was in the moment, I felt terrible for the guys. They were about to have a potentially difficult house meeting, and that problem certainly wasn’t going to help the tensions there.

We went back to Amy’s apartment. The girls had just started watching P.S. I Love You before they came over to pick me up. I wanted to stay and watch the movie with them, but I needed to get home and to bed so that I could be rested for the road tomorrow. So I just set up my computer to unload my pictures.

I finished transferring my pictures and typing out an outline for today, and then shut down my computer. I waved good-bye to the girls, not wanting to interrupt the movie. Amy followed me out to walk me to my car and say good-bye. I am so glad I came to see her and her life here. I think her move was a really good one for her, and I can see how God has blessed her. As much as I miss having her nearby, I can see that this is where she needs to be.