There's No Place Like Home

Well we made it home. Little McMinnville Oregon. Who would have ever imagined a few years ago we would have prefered to be in Hooterville insted of London England. But it's true. The beauty of living some place small is the it does not have all the crud you have to endure to live somewhere "exciting."
Here are some things about home that are really great;

• Family- Well nothing compares to flying into PDX at 11 PM and there waiting for you are three little kids with signs saying Welcome Home Mimi and Pa. Nothing compares to the welcome you get when people you love are actually glad to see you. We didn't get little kids saying "Welcome to London, Leave Your Money, Now Get Lost" when we arrived in London. No, having a wonderful family to come home to is...well...it is priceless.

• Home- think about all that you have in your home, a comfortable bed, internet you don't have to pay 12 pounds a day for (thats 24 bucks for 24 hours), your yard and garden...thats right...those same things we get so tired of, we also come to miss when we are not home.
• Food- access to your own food (that you prepare how you like every time), great coffee (everytime), variety, and our own food from our garden and fruit trees (loads and loads of cherries).
• Peace- just knowing that your home is a place where you can be yourself and not pretend you are something else, or not worried about how to get somewhere, or...well...actually driving on the right side of the road...it brings peace to be at home.

Well Mimi and Pa's adventures are far from over...we still have a lot of adventures left in us. Just the adventure of everyday life can be really thrilling. So we'll keep posting blogs of our adventures, and if your still interested you can follow along with us.
As most of you probably know by now, I am also on sabbatical right now. What a blessing that is to know I have six weeks (well actually 5 weeks, 4 days, and 13 hours left) to get refreshed, renewed, and restored so I am fit to attack another seven years of ministry. During that time I am going to try and finish a book I started three years ago and for the last two years have let slide. It's working title is "Driving a VW Bus in an SUV World." It is about feeling like your oddball and the attempts to relate to God and others despite your weirdness...or something like that. So I'd appreciate your prayers as I try to finish...it's hard because it is very personal and requires a lot of self evaluation as well...besides the fact that it is hard work to make sense of all that garbage within me.

That Sense of Awe

Some of you may know that I have worked really hard to make church accessible to people who don't normally like church. Over the years it has been a mission to remove barriers and make us in the church more accessible.

So imagine my surprise when after a long day of "power touring" around London, we show up at Westminster Abbey...yeah the one Chuck and Di got married in...right at 4 PM in shorts and backpacks and subway grime. Tracey went up to the really nicely dressed fella in a suit and fetching flowing robe and asked him what it would take to get in to see this unbeliveable church building. He said you have to get tickets...but the Abbey is going to close right after this service. This was our one real day in London, so it looked like our hope of getting in were dashed. But then the nice robe-y fella says, you can go to the service without a ticket. You mean dressed like we were...sure you canhe says...you are welcome.

Wow...can you believe it? We are in Westminster Abbey! Now the thing about the Abbey is, you don't need a bunch of posters and such to get people's attention...just the ceilings kept me mezmerized for an hour. Not to mention all the statues of people who have been faithful servants of the church but also the Lord.

I mean when you hear that organ start and the choir sing...wow...Chris Tomlin's got nothing on these guys. No fancy sermon with three points and a flashy ending....just a couple of Scripture passages and lots of standing and sitting and repeating after me's.

Now Mimi and I aren't exactly seekers, but the paper they gave us said if we will just listen and have an open mind, God could speak to us. We were so moved! We were awestruck!

But mostly we felt as if we were welcome both here in this huge building designed to help people feel a sense of awe, but also by the wonderful people we met.

Seeker freindly can take all shapes and forms...but mostly it is just being people friendly

So Maybe It's Not Soooooo Bad

You know, in America, we take a lot of things for granted. Really, I'm not kidding. One of the things we have that the UK does not is a million radio stations. We have AM and FM and any where and every where there are radio stations galore...some good and some bad.

But in the UK there are basically four stations. BBC 1-4. So as your driving and get those long silences...you know when Mimi is looking at the map...you know...I need a little...MUSIC!!!

So you turn the radio on and you have a choice of Classical (love it but not good driving music), UK Charts (a wide variety of Pop...except I love it when Amy Winehouse comes on), something else I'm not sure of, and then BBC4...mostly talk radio. So we ended up a lot on 4. 

Now it's not like the talk radio in the States...no way...this is actually good...it is smart radio. Now don't get me wrong...I hated it at first. I went on and on about communist propaganda and the lack of freedom...real freedom in the UK. But after a while, i kind of started liking it. They would discuss issues in depth with people from both sides equally represented. They would do short plays of historical subjects. They would do the news every hour. And, they would read books. Now generally I hate this. But I was completly won over, especially by one book in particular. Now if you are a guy friend of mine...stop reading...cause you are going to think I have gone...well bad.

But the book was called "Wife of the North" (I know...I know). But it was great...so great I added it to our Blog list. You should read it. I am looking for the podcast of it and I will make that available to you as well. It was great...Tracey and I would plan our driving around when it would be on...9:45 precisely. 

Soooooooo, the lesson is, sometimes when we have all we want we miss that which might benefit us more than having and re-having that which we know...or something like that.

More of Those Crazy Self Portraits

Okay so we're still freaks. But we do have a lot of fun taking these pictures. We seem to take turns looking either really good or just so so. So here are a few more from the places we have visited.

This one is taken in Edinburgh, Scotland

This one is in front of the Loch Ness

This is in the Cotswold area in England

This one is taken at Lower Slaughter, England

This is in front of one of the Stones of Avebury

And here we are in Piccadilly Circus, London

You know, I keep looking at these pictures and reflecting on what it takes to have a really happy and "successful" marriage, and the basic elements seem to be respect, trust, and a really good sense of humor, and it really doesn't hurt to marry a girl like Mimi.

There Are Some Strange Things in This World

So as our trip is heading south, (I mean literally not figuratively) we set our course for Stonehenge. Now we have seen lots of old churches and castles that are all 800 years old. But the thought of seeing something that was erected 2,000 years ago is pretty compelling.

But as we had breakfast with a couple of know it alls (the biggest downside of the B&B life…everyone thinks their interesting) they tell us how overdone Stonehenge is…too commercial…and not accessible anymore. So they happen to mention this place called Avebury (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury).

So as soon as we could break away from Cliffie Claven and Chatty Cathy, we head south. After seven or eight  missed turns (a good day) we arrive in this little tiny town of Avebury.

No one can really prepare you for what you find when you arrive. 

I mean we saw some other stone circles that I swear some farmers got together and moved with their tractors just to get the rocks out of their fields and then told everyone they had been there forever. But these were really really cool. Some of these stones had been standing in this field 3,000 years before the birth of Jesus (that is now 5,000 years old). 1,500 years before the Temple in Jerusalem was constructed, these worshippers of something arranged these giant stones into a very detailed pattern for some unknown reason.

Not only were the stones standing in the field, but they had obviously dug a deep gully around the perimeter and seemingly piled all the dirt into a burm around the gully. What were they doing? What were they thinking. What were they worshipping?

Unfortunatly, many of the stones were torn down by marauding tribes and by the church. The stones were used by the local church to construct their building to bring glory to God. I saw their church and frankly, I was more inspired by the stones.

When I see these stones I don’t see a bunch of pagans dancing around naked amongst the stones I some pagan rituals. I see people who were earnestly looking to explain this inner desire to know and touch the sacred within each and every person and the great wonders of the magnificent world all around us.

In Romans, Paul says that we can see the hand of God reveled in what was created in nature. David said the Heavens declare the Glory of God. These people found a way to express their awe and wonder by creating a natural temple made with the most majestic items they could find, stones, earth, water, grasses. And then the part of their nature that is like Creator God assembled them into a massive temple to the God they maybe never had a chance to know. Their sincerity and commitment could never be called into question…albeit misguided from an eternal perspective.

Why is it that we have to destroy everything that doesn’t fit neatly into our little box? Why can’t we recognize the God qualities in others? Why can’t the church see people and their practices like God does…feeble attempts to explain the sacred in each one of us. When we meet the source of that sacredness, it does put it all into perspective…but I still don’t get it right all the time. I would hope God’s grace will steer and guide me rather than destroy me. Trust me, I am counting on it.

A Dream Come True

So you know, I've been playing golf for 30 some years, and all that time I thought if I ever got to Scotland I would love to pay St Andrews. Well Mimi said I could and so we drove there and well it all worked out and I got to play. I said "c'mon Mimi, you play too." So she said yes and so we both played.

Here I am at hole number One at the Old Course (I thought they'd have rules about flip flops...what kind of joint are they running here).

So I get the obligatory Caddie (from a real Caddie Shack). His name was Bryan McCrackky.

So I was on the first green lining up my putt (putting for par...I thought this course was a lot tougher)

Of course it is a tradition to get your picture taken after completing your first hole (oh the pressure was off finally).

Mimi was a wreck after her 13 on the first hole...but boy you got to give it to the old gal for hangin in there...and at her age!

So we make it all the way around...and despite the Arse Whoopping she got, Mimi was so nice and kind to William the Conquerer.

Are you on drugs, we could never afford to play there. This all happened on the really cool Women's Putting Club course. 18 holes of PeeWee Golf...but at St. Andrews. Our cost was 1.5 pounds (3 bucks) versus 100 plus pounds (200 bucks). But it was awesome. So if anyone ever asks, yes I did play a round of golf at St Andrews...so I got that goin for me...which is nice!!!!

The Loch Ness Incident

Well so you know, Mimi and I were compelled by our two grandsons, Jackson and Aidan, to go to Loch (or Lake) Ness. You may have heard that there is this "monster" who lives in the lake. Well of course me being a black and white kind of guy, all science no emotion, you know me...well I just think it is all the ramblings of some Scottish fishermen who have been sampling Scotlands finest malt beverage (not the beer that's for sure).

But you know we just couldn't face our grandkids and not say we went looking for "Nessie" as they like to call her (apperantly it's a she...one more reason to belive it is a myth started by Seamus McTartan). So despite the 300 mile round trip, the exhorbrant price of fuel, and the commitment to one valuable day...we headed north to Inverness. 

We arrived and found the road to the Loch and headed back south down a very congested road. I can't believe all the saps who obviously believe this ridiculous myth. But they pile into the gift shops and buy all the junk for their grandkids (oh wait that was us).

So first chance we got, I pulls the car over to the side and head down to the water so Mimi and I could take one of our self portraits. 

So then Mimi says let me take one of you...I told her no because I look fat and all...but when I know she wont back down, I figure, hey I better send out some vibes you know.

Well then I was actually standing in the water, cause of all the things I'm afraid of, a mythical seamonster isn't one of them. So as I'm standing in the freezing water, Mimi starts shouting something...I'm like "what I have no idea what your saying." It's just like how she tries to talk to me while she's walking into another room...you know. 

So as she's taking pictures and trying to talk to me, she's starting to scream at me. Well I wos getting kind of hacked you know...who does she think she is? 

But the screaming persists...

"LOOK BEHIND YOU" she says. For what?

So I looks behind me, and as usual Mimi is seeing things that aren't really there.

Next thing I know...Mimi's passed out on the ground...must have been something she ate.

So I gets her loaded up on my back and haul her back to the car...what was it you ate I ask her...it was Nessie she says. Maybe it was the Haggis, I never know with Mimi.