surfers and snow

I planned to pass up writing tonight, but decided that there are stories to tell of God's faithfulness. I'll make them brief because honestly, though I love writing, I enjoy sleeping too, even more I enjoy seeing Jesus high and exalted. i long to see the train of His robe filling the temple. With the song I sing: "Open my eyes Lord I want to see Jesus."

The college group that I spoke at was having a pizza night this evening and since I taught last week I thought I should attend (and if Josh is reading this, I wanted to see you too). I wanted them to know that it was more than a fly-by-night Gospel bombing the week before. About 3/4 of the way through the painful movie What About Bob? I was wondering why I had come. My first thought was one of embarrassment for liking the movie so much when I was younger. For second reasons, I have been harping on myself a lot for not guarding my time better. I want more time alone with Jesus. Right as Bob (in the movie) was getting married to Dr. Melvin's sister a shaggy, blond surfer walked in the front door of the house I was at. In retrospect I was not very welcoming. I was only dropping by, was my excuse. I hate it when I fall into the mentality that "my ministry" is elsewhere. O God, use me here and now. There is never a time for cold hearts and detached heads. But God thinks of me more than I think on Him so the night was better than my passionless plans. It was a meeting of souls. Matt just moved here from the small town of Quincy, in the Leavenworth/Wennatchee area, with his bride of only a month. Explaining the growth of beauty and evidence of God in his relationship he asked, before sharing a story, "are guys into Jesus' stories?" I was riveted. I already thank God for bringing a guy here that sees how big He is and if that not enough he plays the drums!!! Weeks before I landed in Bremerton, as God gave me an exciting vision to see His name worship, I had started praying for a drummer. Please pray for Matt and that he will be encouraged as his wife is out to sea (Navy) and as God may bring him into ministry in Bremerton. Exciting times!

Ps. I had the greatest run today. It was fast. Well, it felt fast. Probably because it was dark out. You always feel faster running in the dark. But that is not the story. The story really starts three years ago. Three years ago myself and two other kindred spirits forged our own trail into the thick of Moscow Mountain to find a choice tree. You might imagine since I used the word "forging" that there was a great deal of snow. It's true. The mountain was bound in snow. We found our own trail-less way into a slanted meadow of snow, sheeted with perfectly preserved crystalline flakes of snow. It was there we found our tree. To be more clear, it was only the top of the tree that caught our liking, which was fortunate since we could not fit the whole Fifty foot structure in Elmherst, Apartment H. So I climbed up the tree and topped it. As I climbed the tree that day I was wearing a pair of Nike running gloves that had been issued to me earlier, while I still competed for WSU x-country. It was that same pair of gloves that I wore today on my "fast" run. To this day the gloves still smell strongly of the pine tree I cut down that day. Thinking that I was only overcome by nostalgia I asked my mother and sister to smell the gloves. Same result. They distinctly smell of that tree and that day. I thought I would share the story that brought me so much joy on my run. There are days I miss the mountains in Moscow and snow deep enough to wear tennis rackets in and drinking baileys hot chocolate with CJ in a single-pain windowed apartment. It made me laugh to smell that day again three years and hundreds of runs later.