Holy Week

I've celebrated Holy Week a number of times- and for years before that, I didn't know what it was. Even knowing what Holy Week is now, I hadn't taken the time to put the events of Jesus' life into the context of the final week which we now call "Holy Week." Christians around the world are celebrating Good Friday today, and if you're unfamiliar with the traditions, or have resisted their celebration because of their origins, take a moment to read my condensed version of Holy Week. This interpretation is deeply meaningful to me, and provides a framework from which I can wrestle with my own suffering, and engage more personally with Jesus.

Sunday- Palm Sunday; Jesus humbly enters Jerusalem on a donkey. Just prior to his entry, he offers a prayer of Lament over what Jerusalem was meant to be, and what it has become. At the end of the ride through town- where he is greeted like a king, he enters the temple, and dismantles a system of religious oppression (somewhat violently). Saying “My house is a house of prayer for all nations- you’ve allowed it to become a place of robbery and dishonesty.” His action of healing the physical space was followed by actions of physically healing the people.

///Monday through Wednesday aren't specially celebrated in all traditions; this is likely because the text doesn't have incredibly clear events delineated for these days other than Jesus' teachings. I find that these teachings bear some added significance and weight in the context of Holy Week- check them out in Matthew 21-25; Mark 12-13; Luke 20-21; and John 12.///

Monday- Holy Monday; Jesus curses the fig tree for not bearing fruit on his way into the temple. The religious leaders immediately attempt to trap Jesus into meaningless arguments. Jesus asks them a question and instead of answering honestly, they feign ignorance to avoid “looking bad”- they value appearances over truth, they care more for the show than for the fruit. If the religious leaders were to answer Jesus' question honestly, their grip on cultural and political power would be loosened. Jesus continues to teach, and answer questions (Most of which were asked out of hearts seeking to appear wise, or clever, pious or righteous) In between questions he offers a few parables and final teachings, which he'll continue tomorrow.

Tuesday- Holy Tuesday; Jesus teaches in the temple courts, the religious leaders only grow more indignant with him; crowds of people are listening and amazed. His teachings continue to uplift the oppressed, and call out the oppressors. He glorifies the poor, the weak, the shamed, he shames the strong, the rich, and the influential. He threatens the systems of power that keep the religious elite comfortable.

Wednesday- Spy Wednesday; Judas- either fueled by greed, or because he’s had enough of Jesus’ upside down way of life seeks out the Chief priests and asks what they will give him in return for his handing over of Jesus. They offer a small amount of silver. From this point on his heart was not open to what Jesus said or did, but was focused on how to accomplish his task in order to earn his money.

Thursday- Maundy Thursday; Jesus serves his followers- washing their feet before the meal. He washes the feet of all- including the greed and power driven disciple who would later sell Jesus out for a (relatively small) sum of money. Jesus gives his final instructions- really a reminder of their entire ministry. He offers a simple command- one which he previously had taught as the fulfillment of the law and the prophets; Love. One. Another. (Fellow believers, your neighbor, your enemy- everyone fits within the “One another” category). By this command, he says all people will know that his followers belong to him; conversely, anyone who does not love has no part in him- those who disguise spiritual abuse as love do not belong to Jesus. This is the command on which he has established everything. He asks that his followers remember him (and his commands) by taking bread and wine to symbolize his body which he gives up willingly for them- he asks them to do this whenever they are together. They continue on in anguish to a garden where they’ve prayed and rested before. 

Jesus is overwhelmed by the weight, his sorrow visible in the sweat that drips from his brow. Jesus is in deep mourning, Jesus is in pain. His disciples, like so many other people before and after, do not have the words to comfort their friend in a moment of pain- is this because they are simple minded fools? Or is this the human response to deep suffering by someone you love deeply? Judas leads a group of religious soldiers (Those tasked with protecting the temple and its traditions and sacraments) to Jesus and despite his display of affection, has a heart that only desires money and power, not relationship with Jesus. Peter pulls out a sword and maims one of the high priest’s servants. Jesus rebukes the violence- and heals the man’s ear making it clear that even in moments of desperation, and self preservation, physical harm and violence is not the way of the Kingdom. In the garden, amidst the anguish and tears of Jesus, darkness has its hour. From this point, every one of Jesus’ close friends left him to suffer his fate. At some point either later tonight, or early the next morning Judas hangs himself- an event which would almost certainly have brought great sorrow to Jesus as well. His friend had lost himself, and then become overcome with guilt and taken his own life. The religious leaders do not grieve the death of Judas- he was just a means to an end.

Friday- Good Friday; At dawn, the religious leaders hold a meeting to berate and falsely accuse Jesus. Their purpose was not justice, or unity, or healing, their purpose was to mock, and accuse. The religious leaders embody Satan in this moment; and Jesus responds the same way he did upon encountering Satan in the wilderness years earlier. This sham of a trial continues- none in power looking for justice; all simply reaching for a way to stay in power. The religious leaders intentionally lie to others about Jesus, and the things he has said. They fabricate half-truths that paint Jesus as a divisive criminal, bent on destroying anyone and everyone in his path- in doing so, however, they betray their own hearts. The religious leaders saw an obstacle to their continued “peace” in an occupied nation, and a threat to their authority- they broke the commands they so strictly held others to in order to remove the threat. These religious leaders ran to the mistress of empire though the kingdom was in their midst. The same crowds who listened in awe to his teachings on Tuesday demand his death on Friday. As he is led away it is the women of Jerusalem who weep for what is happening, the men are blinded. 

Jesus suffers and dies on the cross at the hands of religious elite and empire. A sobering reminder that it was the confluence of religion and empire that crucified Jesus It was religious people afraid of losing influence and power who colluded with an oppressive empire in order to murder the Messiah. The religious leaders pledged their allegiance to caesar so they could crucify their own king and God. Despite a large amount of evidence that the religious leadership probably *DID* know what they were doing, Jesus still prays “Father forgive them- they do not know what they are doing” as nails rip at his flesh, and blood flows from fresh open wounds on his back and head. Jesus reveals what he feels in the depth of his being- loneliness. All of the people he has loved, and served, cared for, and led throughout his life have deserted him. With his breath growing more and more labored, he feels that God himself has deserted him as well- he cries out and there is no answer. Jesus dies, naked, bloody, alone, human. Some of his followers take down his body- surely to keep him from further shame, and from being eaten by birds and vermin. They place him in a cave, and plan to return with spices and perfumes after the sabbath. 

Saturday- Holy Saturday; Rest. Some accounts have the women who were part of Jesus’ close circle coming to the tomb as soon as the sabbath is over, others have the priests asking pilate to post Roman guards at the tomb. All of them have Jesus body lying in the tomb, dead from crucifixion and a spear through the heart.

///Just as a side note- in those days, a day began on the previous day’s sun-down. Sun-down on the sabbath is the beginning of what we call Sunday. An additional note that I found beautiful- in many traditions, the service held after sun-down on Holy Saturday is a time for baptism as well as renewal of baptismal vows- a practice I’ve never experienced, but find meaningful.///

Sunday- Easter Sunday; Jesus’ disciples (the women) go to serve him a the tomb by embalming his body. (Note that his male followers whose feet he had washed had still not understood the humility to which Jesus called them- they didn’t participate in the act of love the women intended to carry out). The women find an empty tomb- they fear the body has been taken away; there is anguish- no doubt associated with loss and grief, but also maybe associated with the fear of what the Romans and the religious leaders might do to the body of this beloved friend and teacher. In some accounts Jesus encounters and comforts the women in the Garden. By some accounts there are angels. By all accounts, this moment was transformative for those who followed and knew Jesus. Jesus experienced death in all of its power, he rested in death, and he awoke again as a victor over death. His resurrection is a promise to us- death has been defeated; even though we may still experience it’s sting in the form of loss, and in the form of our own deaths; in the form of oppression, and in the form of brokenness and corruption ruling, and “winning” day after day. Even while religious leaders seek their own glory and power and empire seduces them to reject the beauty of the kingdom, Jesus is victorious- not partially, but fully. Surely even Judas can’t escape the redeeming love of Jesus. Surely those who claim Jesus, yet deny him with their grasps for cultural and political power and with manipulation, deceit and spiritual abuse can't either.

Climate Change

Climate change

In life, there are a lot more things that are out of our control, than are in it.

As I write this, I'm trying hard to keep warm in the teachers room while looking out at the grey and bleak sky. I really want it to be spring. I'm tired of winter in a country severely lacking in insulation and central heating. I've sat in this exact spot, and thought the same thoughts almost every day for a month now, but to no avail. In Japanese there's a phrase that communicates this concept fairly well "しょうがない" (shouganai) which means "No ginger"... Just kidding, it actually means "It can't be helped," if you speak Japanese you'll get the joke. The weather in Mito, Ibaraki, Japan is completely out of my control, "shouganai." (Shocking, I know).

One of the more frustrating things about not being able to control the weather, is the way that it affects my mood, my energy, and even my work. When it's grey and cold I rarely feel like doing anything, I have to work extra hard to infuse energy into each lesson, and I tend to be more introverted than usual. This observation isn't breaking any new scientific ground, it's well known that we need sunlight (Vitamin D) to maintain physical and mental health. We don't do so great in constant grey.

Though I can't control the weather, I can control which climate I choose to live. I'm not in control of what the weather does, but I am in control of where I live; some climates have better overall weather than others.

The climate you're living in can have a big impact on what you do in life. People don't move to Seattle for the sunshine, likewise, people don't move to Florida for the skiing. The climate I grew up in is great for being outside- skiing and snowboarding in the winter, and just about everything else in the summer. Because of the climate I grew up in, I developed a love for almost all outdoor activities, if you can do it outside, for the most part I like it. Almost year round, I could be outside in shorts and a T-shirt playing a round of disc golf, fishing, or doing any number of other things.

In college, I spent a couple of summers working in Dallas, Texas. Summer in Dallas is not conducive to outdoor activity. I could still do things outside, but they were much more limited. I could mountain bike, but I'd have to go early in the morning, or keep it to a short and light ride in the evening just before the sun went down. Most of the other outdoor activities I could do either involved lots of water like swimming or kayaking, short durations (20 minutes outside followed by an hour cooling off inside with a route 44 drink), or waiting for the comparative cool of evening. I was certainly still able to do things outdoors, but every time I did I was fighting the climate.

The point once again, is that the climate in which you live directly impacts the things you can do.

Let's look at this in some other contexts. Every part of your life, contributes to the climate in which you live. Each relationship, all of your conversations, every decision.

Your work climate affects how successful you will be. If you work in a climate in which quantity of work is more important than quality, leaving at 5pm will never get you anywhere, even if you accomplish more than the rest of the office does in a week. Conversely, if your work climate values efficiency, staying until 9pm to accomplish a normal day's work is a bad thing. Additionally, your work climate impacts the overall climate of your life, unless you are intentional about keeping that climate isolated.

The social climate in which you live can greatly impact many areas of your life. If you choose to live in a climate of stormy relationships, you'll be like me on grey cold days, depressed and immobile. If you spend a lot of time with people who speak a certain way, chances are you'll start sounding like them. After living in Texas for two summers, I frequently catch myself saying "y'all", after moving to Japan, I'm more and more frequently speaking in Japanese (makes sense, right?). Similarly, your social climate can, and will, affect the way you think and act. If all of your conversations revolve around disagreement, you'll struggle to agree with anyone. If your social climate endorses speaking ill of or acting maliciously towards people with different colored skin, you'll likely begin to think this is normal or okay. If the people you hang around think it's ok to insult the Image of God by calling women inferior, or treating them as objects, you'll likely begin to see women in the way your climate portrays them.

Just as every part of your life builds your climate, the climates in which you choose to live will affect every part of your life.

As I stated, weather is out of our control completely, but a person who hates rain would be a fool to live in seattle.

A lot of times we choose to live in a certain climate, despite knowing that we can't stand the weather. You may not be able to control when the storms come, but you most certainly are in control of the climate you live in. If it seems like your climate has become overwhelmingly stormy and grey, maybe it's time to consider a climate change.

Don't let bad climate dictate your life; choose the climate that will encourage you to love the people around you to the fullest extent.

Thoughtcrime

The novel 1984 by George Orwell introduced, or at least familiarized the world with a new term, "Thoughtcrime." This term was used in the book in reference to having thoughts that were against the government of dystopian Oceania and subversive towards "Big Brother. "The term was entirely meant to describe a criminalization of differing viewpoints. The definition presented in the novel refers to holding thoughts or beliefs that challenge the ideology of the ruling party. In the decades since 1984's publishing in 1949, our culture has taken up arms against a new kind of thoughtcrime.

Because thoughtcrime is not a real word, and therefore not in a real dictionary, I went to Urbandictionary.com to see what today's popular definitions for the term are. Two of the top three definitions stated that thoughtcrime had to do with thinking about doing something criminal, rather than holding unpopular beliefs. I believe this horribly conducted statistical analysis is indicative of the popularly understood meaning of this word. The thing we decry has switched from noble non-conformity to a perverted sense of entitlement to unsavory thoughts.

And there's something wrong with that.

We know that thoughtcrime is something that should not count as real crime, we know that we're supposed to scream that we are free to think what we want when we hear the term, but we do not actually understand what the term means . The definition of the word has morphed to make us believe that it's OK to think something wrong as long as we do not act on it. It suggests that it does not matter what we have in our hearts, does not matter what thoughts we choose to harbor and dwell on. As long as we don't do anything, we are not guilty and we do not have to worry. It's OK to think bad things, it's OK to meditate on criminal things, as long as we do not actually do them.

I'd like to challenge this notion on two premises. 1) Thoughtcrime in Orwell's novel was not in reference to anything but holding negative or non-compliant thoughts in regards to the ruling party, AND 2) The line between thought and action is too thin, and not one worth straddling.

The border between thought and action is only separated by a few strings of neurons;. A handful of electrical signals calling the muscles into service The difference between entertaining thoughts of murder and pulling the trigger is less than one second and requires the compliance of only a few muscles. The more conditioned the brain becomes to fantasize about doing the wrong thing, the harder it becomes for the body to do the right thing.

We've drifted from protecting the beliefs of minorities, to justifying the thoughts that produce the crimes we abhor. Orwell never intended to write a book in defense of thinking about murder, or fantasizing about rape, or contemplating larceny, yet we've come to use his term to decry criminalizing the thoughts that build up to unspeakable actions.

We're pushing the line more and more every day. Sure, we may have the right to think whatever we want, but should we carry that on to mean that thinking these things is a good thing? 

If there's anything I've come to understand about my thoughts, it's that they almost always work their way out. The occasional swear-word that used to drift across the front of my mind slowly became more frequent and then worked it's way out, much to my surprise, during an exceptionally frustrating dry stretch in my career on MLB The Show '14 for PS4. And that's just the least of the thoughts I've seen grow into action in my life.

The more we allow negative, sinful, and criminal thoughts to invade our brains, the closer we drift to actually committing those thoughts. Thoughtcrime as defined by modern culture IS a bad thing and is something we should be concerned about. Just as Rome wasn't built in a day, so no crime is committed without a cultivation of thought.

Thoughts are the seeds of actions. What are you allowing to grow?

Matthew 5, 6, and 7

富士山 (Mt. Fuji)

A couple of weekends ago I went with some friends to climb Japan's tallest and most iconic peak, Mt. Fuji. You probably know this already, but Mt. Fuji is a volcano. I'd never climbed a volcano before. From the trailhead to the summit is just under 5,000 vertical feet over about 4 miles and some pretty intense terrain (For you colorado people, Longs Peak is around 5,000 feet over 7.25 miles.) On the way up it was dark, crowded, and steep, and on the way down I was constantly sandblasted by volcanic dust (think tiny particles of glass being blown into your eyes all day). The view from the (near) top was great! And definitely worth experiencing (once). Maybe sometime I'll write more in depth about the experience, but for now I just want to focus on some thoughts I had while climbing. 

We started the trek at 9pm in the dark. I had bought a headlamp for the trip, knowing we'd be climbing through the night and as such, I spent much of the night focusing on a small ring of light in front of me. Sometimes I would look up and see the lines of headlamps weaving back and forth up the beast of a mountain that lay ahead, but I'd immediately have to look back down to keep from stumbling, and to avoid becoming disheartened. Because I spent most of the 8 hour climb in silence and with my eyes fixed on the patch of dirt and rock in front of me I had plenty of time to think.

I thought about all kinds of things; .. The stars, geology, war, peace, wind, thunder and lightning, cars, escalators, chocolate-covered almonds, you name it Eight hours is a long time Eventually though, my thoughts settled on ". Your word is a lamp for my steps ;; it lights the path before me" this one verse from the book of Psalms -Psalm 119: 105. 

I've known this passage since I was little and sang the song for years, but that night on Fujisan it gained new meaning. 

I should probably give more context before I continue;. Since moving to Japan in April, I've noticed that when I read the Bible, new things stick out to me Verses that spoke to me in a certain way before, now have a different voice. I do not think this is necessarily because I'm in Japan specifically but because so much change has occurred in such a short amount of time in my life. I know that my perspective is continually shifting and being molded, but the recent dramatic and rapid shift has made some of these differences more obvious. I've become more and more convinced that the Bible is more than just a book of good advice and ancient stories, that it is indeed the active and living word of God spoken into my daily life on a personal level.

The circle of light cast at my feet on Mt. Fuji helped me to solidify and understand this concept. 

You see, with each new step the light stayed the same, but the things it illuminated were constantly changing. It would have done me no good to be able to see what was illuminated on the first step on steps two through 20,000. And I ' m convinced neither does the Bible or the Holy Spirit. It shows us what we need to know, when we need to know it. It does not illuminate the top, it illuminates each step on the way there. In the past, I think I 've looked at the Word like a stationary floodlight illuminating some goal I'm trying to reach, but now I'm realizing it's so much more. Sure there are some promises and revelations of things that will come, but the Bible working together with the Holy Spirit does much more, it shows us each step on the way to those goals. It gives us specific help and instruction for the next 20 inches, it helps us navigate up the switchbacks and scramble over the rocks. 

Without a headlamp to illuminate the next step I needed to take it would have been impossible to make the top; similarly life without the Spirit and Word of God is impossible. 

The word of God is like a light cast at one's feet; though the light never changes, the things it illuminates are different with each new step.

JAPAN (Part 3)

I know it's been a couple of weeks since my last post about my first weekend in Japan, but here is the final part in the series; training week at Souken.

You may remember me mentioning Souken before, and now I'll attempt to explain what souken is. First; Souken is the channel through which all AETs are employed, they hire us, they pay us, and they train us. An easy comparison would be a school district office in the US, but souken is a little bit more than that here. To be honest, I don't know the full extent of what happens at souken, but I know they develop curriculum, train teachers, do educational research, and about a million other things to make the schools run well in Mito. Hopefully that clears things up on the matter of Souken (maybe?).

Monday morning, the new AETs all met up with the Souken staff (Mr. Hosoya, Ms. Haginoya, Holly Reeves, and Annalisa Briggs) at City hall to register as residents and sign a bunch of papers. I remember sitting at the counter being told repeatedly to sign and initial and initial and sign and having a small anxiety attack over what on earth all these papers I had signed said (This anxiety has dwindled with each stack of papers to receive my signature). After getting everyone squared away at city hall, we all walked to Mito station to catch a bus to the Kencho building (Prefectural Government building) to set up our bank accounts. I'm sure you could have guessed, but setting up our bank accounts required even more signatures and hankos. A hanko is basically a bamboo stamp of your name in Japanese, it's the Japanese version of a signature. Each AET received a hanko prepared by the Souken staff in the morning at city hall.

Once our bank accounts had been set up we walked to the Souken building for an overview of the week's training schedule.

After Monday's training I went with Josh and Yukiko, some of my AET buddies, to get a cell phone set up (more signatures). This was relatively painless, except that the cell phone companies in Japan have decided to stop allowing people with a one year visa to pay for their phone on a two year monthly contract. This meant I had to pay $700 up front for my phone, but hey, at least now I own it!

We finished off the night with some great ramen at the station before catching the bus back home.

Tuesday I rode my bike to the souken building, not too bad on the way there; it's about 3 km away from my house, and mostly downhill. We had training from 8:30-5:00, but because of Jet lag and the east facing window in my entryway/kitchen/bedroom, I was up and ready to go quite a bit early and made it to souken with plenty of time to hit the local Konbini for some breakfast.

After training I made the 3 km bike ride (mostly uphill this time) back home and went with Daleth (Neighbor, AET buddy, all-around cool dude) to meet up with Mason (former roommate, AET, buddy, all-around cool dude) for some star gazing. When the stargazing didn't work out, we made our way back to my apartment and watched Japanese TV and talked for a while.

Wednesday was our shadow day, probably my favorite day of training.

I got to shadow Jordan Powell who is in his 3rd year as an AET at Sannomaru Elementary School. As you can guess, shadow day means we got to observe and follow Jordan around all day. This was by far the most helpful part of training in terms of learning how to be a teacher and putting my mind at ease as to whether or not I knew what I was doing. Two other new AETs were shadowing Jordan with me; Lisa McIlroy, and Nathaniel Nalley. Jordan taught several classes and had us join in teaching introductions by giving examples and practicing with the students. In between classes he showed us some helpful tools, talked through what he was doing in class and why, and taught us some playground Japanese. I was pretty nervous as to what I was going to do when training ended and I was standing in front of a class full of students with no teaching experience, but seeing Jordan teach and his advice really made me feel prepared.

Thursday was another training day at souken. I forgot to mention earlier that I was wearing a suit for this entire week of training, which made biking that much more intense. I definitely do not recommend biking in a suit ever.

We started with small group discussions about our shadowing experiences, and then shared tips and ideas with the rest of the group.

Today Holly (AET leader), who was training us with the help of Annalisa (AET leader), asked if anyone would be willing to give a speech in Japanese on behalf of the new AETs to the board of education in our entrance ceremony the next day. For a while nobody said any thing or really even moved, so I went ahead and raised my hand with brazen Wheat family unsubstantiated confidence and volunteered (as tribute). NOTE: I did not then, nor do I now speak Japanese; much less well enough to give a speech to the superintendent of Mito city schools and other top school board officials.

After training I met up with several of the other AETs to go to an onsen for dinner and relaxation. An onsen is basically a public bath house with a bunch of different types of baths. They have a sauna, a cold pool, a silt pool, individual tubs, an electro-pool (not sure what to call it), a scented pool, a carbonated pool, some jet pools, basically all of the kinds of hot tubs you can think of. they're divided by gender, and everyone showers before and after bathing to keep the water from getting disgusting. It's definitely one of the more relaxing experiences you can have in Japan, also, it's the cleanest I think I've ever felt (2 showers and 2 hours of bathing).

Friday I took the bus to Souken for training and the entrance ceremony.

This ceremony was all in Japanese and involved us receiving a certificate from the superintendent, Honda-Sensei and bowing a lot.

I gave my speech during the ceremony and everyone seemed to be following along and understanding what I was saying, a good sign. Seeing as I don't speak Japanese, I was reading a speech I had written in English, and our boss, Mr. Hosoya, had translated into Japanese for me. Luckily, Japanese pronunciation is relatively simple, each character representing a syllable that more or less always sounds the same (Unlike characters in the English alphabet that can represent whatever sound they want).

After the ceremony, we had our final training session before being picked up by some of the administrative staff at our schools. I got picked up by my Kyoto-sensei (Vice principal) and driven to my School. Most of the teachers were still in class when I arrived but a few were in the teacher's room to show me my desk and then give me a tour of the school. When all of the teachers returned to the teachers room after the students went home, we had a meeting concerning the PTA day coming up on Sunday (I think) at the end of which I introduced myself to everyone in Japanese. After a quick meeting with the fourth grade teachers to plan out our first lesson, I walked home. My first time at my new school!

Mason picked me up for dinner that evening, we had Indian curry (possibly Nepalese) at Ram's and had a great time of catching up. After dinner we stopped by WondeRex, which is basically a thrift store (They're much cleaner here) and I found a game boy color for $5.

Saturday I went on an expedition to Hitachi Seaside Park to find their disc golf course. In order to get there, I took a bus, then a train, then another bus. The course was pretty fun, though it seemed really easy until I found out from the only other disc golfer on the course that day that I was cheating. Japanese disc golf courses are made for 150 class discs, I was throwing much heavier 170 class discs. I asked him where to buy 150 class discs and his best suggestion was the internet. Hitachi Seaside Park is a really beautiful place, after disc golf I hiked to the top of a hill covered in blue flowers and had a great view of the mountains to the west and the ocean to the east.

I bussed and trained back to Mito station then walked to the post office to pick up my bank card. I figured I'd wait for the bus at the stop across the street from the post office, but when I had been standing there for 10 minutes with no bus in sight decided to walk to the next stop. About 100 steps after leaving the bus stop, I saw my bus go by. So I figured I'd wait at the next stop for the NEXT bus; once again though, after ten minutes or so I decided to walk to the next stop again (the bus schedule said a bus should have come by then) and yet again, a little bit after leaving the bus stop, there goes the number 3 bus. At this point I was starting to get slightly frustrated, and in the shadows of the buildings it was getting kind of cold, so I decided to stop in at a coffee shop and roaster I had seen from the bus to renew my strength and resolve. The coffee was great and they even had Côte d'Or chocolate imported from Belgium! (This is my new favorite coffee shop). When I left Maruni (coffee shop's name) And continued down the street towards the next bus station I kept hearing my name from what turned out to be the disc golfer from earlier, he had seen my name on my discs. We talked for a little bit about where we each lived and what our jobs were. Note: This would not be the last time I'd run into someone in Mito (a city of nearly 300,000) I had just seen way out at Hitachi Seaside Park. Anyway, as I was talking with him I saw the number 3 bus go by again... I went to the next stop, and then the next, and then stopped at 7-11 for some water (Bus went by as I came out of the store). Until finally (almost half of the way home) I just decided to call Mason (who was planning on picking me up at my house to play Catan with some others at his house) and ask if he could pick me up where I was instead. The end of this ridiculous 2 hour ordeal. Lesson learned: patience, young grasshopper. Busses come to those who wait.

I finished off the week playing Settlers of Catan with Mason, Carmon, Jordan, Abby (AET), Julia (AET), and Anna. As always, I lost, but it was tons of fun and a great way to finish off my first week working in Mito!

Thanks for reading! This is the end of my series about my transition (which is still ongoing) to Japan, but just the beginning of my adventures here! I plan to write frequently about my life, travels, and faith while in Japan! I hope you'll stay tuned!

JAPAN (Part 2)

After our bus ride from Tokyo Narita Airport to Mito, we were met by some of the other AET's who have been in Mito for a year or more, including my good friends Mason and Carmon Drumm, and several other people I had known at OC. My 'AET Buddies' Josh Huggins, Yukiko Sonoyama, and Daleth Mountjoy took me to dinner at an Italian place at Mito station called "Saizeriya" (Quickly becoming one of my favorite meals), and then dropped me off at my apartment to settle in and get some sleep.

Saturday (The next day), Daleth had us all over to his apartment (The crazy distance of about 20 paces from my front door) for breakfast. He cooked us eggs and toast, and then we talked about plans for the day. Daleth's girlfriend Tiffani was visiting from out of town and has a car, so she drove us to Nitori (Japanese Ikea) to get some things for my apartment. I bought (what I thought was) a fitted sheet, a couple of towels, an end table, and a lamp, and we ran into several of the other new AET's with their buddies picking up apartment furnishings. We took our purchases back to the apartments and then walked down the street to a noodle restaurant for lunch, I had sukiyaki udon, it was delicious. After lunch, I set set up some of my purchases, and found out that my fitted sheet was actually a duvet cover. **Side note: buying stuff in Japan can be pretty confusing, I imagine returning it would be a nightmare, so I kept it and put it over my comforter.**

That evening, Yukiko and Daleth, two of my AET Buddies who also are my next door neighbors had a surprise birthday party to attend. We walked to an Izakaya restaurant about ten minutes away, the food was great, and it turned out the party was for their friend Mac, who is from Loveland, Colorado. Afterwards, we walked back to the apartments and went to sleep.

Sunday, Daleth and I took a bus to Mito Station and then walked to church. I had visited Mito Church of Christ when I was in Ibaraki on study abroad, and it was really cool to be back and join that community in worship; they have a bilingual service which is pretty cool, you can choose to sing in Japanese or English. I usually try to sing in Japanese, I can usually read the words, but have no clue what they mean (I'll probably blog about that later).

After church, Daleth and I went to lunch with some of my OC friends and fellow new AET's Cameron Sutherland, and Taryn Parker. We walked down the Main Street in downtown Mito to a Chinese restaurant about 15 minutes away. Japanese Chinese food is much different than American Chinese food–and probably more like Chinese Chinese food.

After Lunch we all walked back to the station, and then about 15 minutes past it to a park where a bunch of AET's were gathering to play soccer and frisbee for Jordan Powell's birthday (AET, I once took a bible class at OC taught by his dad). It was a lot of fun playing soccer with them and just getting to know some of the AET's and other church members.

After the park, we took a bus back to the Migawa area (This is the name of our neighborhood, and also my main school) and I grabbed a meal from the konbini (Japanese convenience store; these things are everywhere, AND they are awesome) and headed back to my apartment to get to bed early for my first day of training on Monday.

To be continued...

JAPAN

For those of you who don't already know, I moved to Japan in April.

I was offered a job teaching English in the public schools in Mito, Japan back in December, participated in a one-day training seminar in January, sold my car in March, and packed up and got on a plane in the beginning of April. Since then, I've experienced and learned so much already, that it's hard to even begin to sort through it all.

I'm intending to use this blog to chronicle my time in Japan through stories, pictures, and thoughts, so I'll start off with an overview of my arrival in Japan.

Wednesday April 9th, 2014. Windsor, Colorado 4:30 AM, I woke up and got ready to head out to Denver International Airport to catch my 8:10AM flight to LAX. My parents drove me to the airport, I had narrowed down my belongings to fit into a suitcase, a duffel, a carryon, a backpack, and my trumpet case. **Bonus thought: If I can trim the stuff in my life down to such a small amount in order to move to Japan, do I really need all that other stuff I've got? (Yes, Dad, you can throw away all the junk in my room.)** At the airport I was forced to cram my backpack inside my other carryon and rearrange some books in order to avoid having to pay an additional $200 baggage fee for my trumpet. Thankfully the airline clerk was very helpful, and with all of our combined efforts we were able to cram the backpack into my carryon. 

I got checked in and printed my boarding passes and then my parents and I headed towards security, where we hugged goodbye, and huddled up for a prayer. That's one of my favorite things about my family; each time one of us is facing a big life change, heading out on a trip, or even just driving back to college we come together and pray. It's been that way since I was a kid, from starting a family roadtrip around the state of Colorado when I was 7 to moving to Japan at 24 it's all been covered by my family's prayers. 

Now back to my trip: I hugged my parents goodbye, told them I loved them, and then went through security. I boarded my flight to LAX, we took off, and just after we had flown over loveland pass and all the ski areas, I fell asleep for the rest of the flight. That turned out to be a mixed blessing as it may have contributedto my lack of sleep on the trans-pacific flight,but was also the only sleep I got on the whole trip. At some point after that, I landed in LAX, and found the gate for my next flight. In the process of finding that gate, I was lured astray by the aroma of a delicious hipster coffee shop; it was pretty good, I'll post the cappuccino rating for it soon.

I boarded my flight to Japan, found my seat, and then played with the window shades for a good solid 15 minutes (If you haven't seen the window shades on the Boeing 787, you should look them up). The next 12 hours of my flight were filled with movies, failed attempts at sleeping, and a couple of times through Nickel Creek's new album. 15 hours later, I landed in Tokyo on Thursday, the 10th.

It was three in the afternoon when I landed, so I had to figure out a way to stay awake until at least 21:00. I made my way through customs and baggage claim, and stepped out the door into Japan, where my first experience was having a camera and microphone shoved in my face, and being asked several questions about myself and my arrival in Japan. I'm really not sure who told the paparazzi I was coming, but I guess I should have seen it coming; I'm kind of a big deal in Japan.

After my TV interview, I went to find my shuttle bus for the hotel (neglecting to withdraw cash). I got on the bus, took a 25 minute ride, and then checked in at the Narita Radisson. At this point it was around 16:30, I showered, changed clothes, caught a little of the Rockies game, and then decided to head into Narita city to find an ATM and some dinner. 

I took the free shuttle bus to the train station in Narita and commenced my search for an ATM. And I found about 30 of them. At various different convenience stores, none of which were close to eachother. Needless to say, the first 29 ATM's didn't work, but then the last one...... ALSO didn't work. When they told me that getting cash with an American card in Japan is nearly impossible, they weren't lying (Tokyo, the airport, and post offices being the exceptions). So after my one and a half hour tour of the convenience stores in Narita, I decided to give up and take the scenic loop* through what turned out to be a cemetery to get back to the bus stop. The next bus wasn't for another hour and a half, so I just walked around at the station to up my Fitbit stats for the day. It's amazing how long an hour takes when you're starving, thirsty, and don't have any money. Finally, the bus came, and I got on and fell asleep on the way back to the hotel, where I mozied up to my room and crashed into my bed at around 22:00. 

Find money and dinner: FAIL. Stay awake past 21:00: SUCCESS. 

The next day I woke up bright and early, ready to succeed where I had failed the night before, and also driven by an insane amount of hunger. I caught the first shuttle bus from the hotel back to the airport where I knew there had to be an ATM that would allow me access to my money. I located the airport post office, only to find out that it didn't open for another 30 minutes. So I found a nice bench, sat down, and twiddled my thumbs for half an hour; unable to access the internet, unable to buy breakfast, and unable to read any of the free magazines around. When the post office opened, I stopped by only to find out that they didn't have an ATM, so I decided to expand my search radius and eventually found a citibank ATM in one of the check-in lobbies. I took out enough cash for to last that day and the weekend, then found a breakfast restaurant where I ate some kind of rice filled omelet with tonkatsu (Fried pork cutlet) on top. It may have been the best breakfast I've ever had, or I may have just been extremely hungry.

Feeling accomplished, I grabbed a cappucino from Starbucks, and took the shuttle bus back to the hotel in order to clean up and check out before 11:00. Once I had checked out and stored my luggage, I took the bus BACK to the airport to catch a train to Narita and explore the town in daylight and on a full stomach. Narita is a pretty cool city, with a really big temple, and lots of cool walking and shopping streets. I worked my way from the train station through some winding shopping neighborhoods to the Narita Shinshoji Temple. I stopped to take a few pictures and read some informational signs a few times, but mostly just walked through the temple from the South end to the North end. From there I kept walking through some neighborhoods towards the Narita Aeon mall, where I could catch a shuttle bus back to the hotel.

I picked up my luggage, changed into my suit in the lobby restroom, and then caught the shuttle bus to the airport to meet up with the other AET's and my bosses from Souken (I'll explain what Souken is in another post) Mr. Hosoya, and Ms. Haginoya. I accidentally got off at the wrong terminal initially, so I was a couple of minutes late meeting up with them, but thankfully ran into them right as they were heading to take their luggage to some vehicles. We dropped off most of our luggage in Mr. Hosoya and Ms. Haginoya's cars, and then walked back to the terminal and bought our bus tickets to Mito. From then we had about 20 minutes to kill so I withdrew more cash to make sure I had enough for the week, and edited some of my pictures from the day in Narita. The other new AET's were all there so we had some time to share our travel experiences and talk about what all we had done since arriving. 

At 17:05 we all got on the 2 hour bus for Mito, our new home!

To Be Continued...

*Scenic loop; n. route taken when Daniel has no idea where he is.

Trip Amnesia

Have you ever driven from one place to another with no recollection of anything that happened along the way?

I frequently have this problem where I’ll drive from point A to point B and have no idea what happened to me. I won’t remember a single thing about the drive. Sometimes I’ll drive 45 minutes and not be able to recall a single minute of the trip. Did I run a red light? Was I speeding? Did I hit a pelican? We may never know. It’s not that I’m not paying attention to my driving, deep down I know I was driving safely, I just wasn’t paying enough attention to remember any of it.

Of course, It freaks me out each time I get home and can’t remember stopping at any lights or making any turns, but it also makes me think of how I live my life when I’m not driving.

Am I paying JUST enough attention to make it safely through, only to arrive at my destination with no recollection of the journey?

If I came into contact with someone who needed my help would I be aware enough to see it?

In the parable of the good Samaritan, at least the priest and the levite were aware of the man’s predicament though they did nothing to help him.

(Whether it’s better to be ignorant than to be aware but not act is a discussion for another time)

In Matthew 25, Jesus calls his disciples to be aware of the needs of the people around him:

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

While this is indeed a call to serve the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, and imprisoned strangers, I believe it is also a call to pay attention; Christ wants us to treat everyone around us the way we would treat him. Ephesians and Colossians echo this call to be alert by warning us to be wise in our actions, especially those towards outsiders so that we can make the most of every opportunity.

We should strive not to just get where we’re going, but also to be able to give a full account of everything we saw along the way. To pay attention to the needs of the people around us and to serve them as if they were Christ himself. Life’s a lot like the highway; there are always people off to the side with their hazards flashing, it’s up to us to be aware of them and offer whatever help we can.

*this blog was originally posted at http://isixtyone.info/daniel/ click the link to read more from isixtyone*

Repairs

I originally posted this to my blog at isixtyone.info/daniel. It's a follow up to my super long story I posted here a few weeks ago so I thought I'd share it here as well.

This might be hard to believe, BUT there is a pretty big difference between identifying a problem, and fixing it. Shocking I know, but seeing a problem is NOT the same as fixing it.

I came to this realization recently when my car broke in the mountains, the middle of nowhere, miles from civilization, in the middle of a snow storm. My front passenger CV joint broke, which means that the front passenger wheel's axle wasn't properly connected, and was just spinning inside the joint. Subaru All-Wheel-Drive Traction Control works by sending power to the wheel with the least resistance to help regain traction. When one of the four wheels has absolutely NO resistance it gets 100% of the power and the other three wheels get nothing (doesn't really make sense to me, but it's been amazing in snow & ice so far). When none of your wheels are getting power, it becomes quite difficult to drive, especially in the mountains. When your car breaks down in the mountains (where there is no cell reception) you're basically up a paddle without a creek.

You might be thinking "wow, how unfortunate, a sudden breakdown like that" and you'd be right if it had been a sudden breakdown. The reality, however, is that it wasn't.

Rewind 16 months to July of 2012. I'm working in Lake Dallas, Texas and hopping in my car to drive to a youth event. Right when I pull into the street, my wheel jerks to the right and I hear a popping sound. I'd heard it once before so I got out and took a look at the CV joint. I was pretty sure it was broken but I sent a picture to Seth Meyer, my good friend who happens to be a Subaru mechanic, for confirmation. He confirmed that it was in fact a broken CV joint and advised me to fix it before driving back to Colorado at the end of the summer. I didn't.

In fact, I never fixed it.

I did think about it every once in a while on sharp turns that produced the same popping sound, I even complained once or twice about how it was affecting my cornering ability, but I never fixed it.

If you had asked me if anything was wrong with my car I would have said "yeah, the front passenger CV joint is broken, but I can still drive on it fine." That statement was true, until I decided to go off-roading on some pretty rough terrain. We were almost back to the nice smooth maintained dirt roads when I heard the CV joint break.

Knowing what was broken did me absolutely NO good when I got stranded out of reception in the mountains in a snowstorm.

People are the same. We are excellent at identifying problems (See: the U.S. Government and it's debt problems) but not so great at fixing them (See: the U.S. Government and it's debt problems). I can diagnose 100 things that are wrong with me at any given time, but I struggle to fix even one of them.

Christians are particularly good at this. We find things we don't like or things we believe to be broken ALL over the place. We talk about them, read about them, blog about them (this blog post is hypocritical, I know) but we RARELY take steps to fix any of them. Even worse, we often aren't willing to give anything up to fix things.

My breakdown happened during the government shutdown. The Buddhist commune groundskeeper that picked us up had some pretty wise things to say about it all. I say wise, but in reality, his wisdom was in his willingness to point out the obvious; The government had identified the problem but was too stubborn to fix it. Both parties knew what was wrong. If they knew what the problem was, why did the government shut down? The answer is simply this: neither side was willing to sacrifice anything.

You think the church should be doing more to help the poor? What have you sacrificed to make that happen?
You think churches should be more welcoming of homeless people? When was the last time you picked up a homeless man on your way to church?
You think your church should be better at reaching out to visitors and non-christians? When was the last time you invited a complete stranger into your home for a meal? Or the last time you knocked on your neighbor's door in an effort to try and bless them?
You think people in your church are inauthentic or hypocritical? Are you 100% honest about everything in your life with EVERYONE at church?

I knew what was wrong with my car WAY before I became stranded because of it. I had the money and time to get it fixed, I just kept choosing other things instead. I could have prevented the whole thing by taking the obvious steps to fix a minor problem before it got worse, but I didn't.

While Jesus may have been talking about one woman's sin when he said "Whoever is without sin, throw the first stone," I think it is incredibly applicable to the way people talk about and view church. We've been standing in a circle throwing stones at "the church" for so long, that we don't realize we're bludgeoning ourselves to death. It doesn't do anyone any good to sit around and talk about how horribly mangled something is, if you really care about the state of the church, do your part to fix it.

If you really believe the church is broken, BE the church and FIX what's broken within yourself.

The Backstory (The LONG Backstory)

Living in Fort Collins is great for many reasons; there are great coffee shops everywhere, the disc golf courses are great, people have really cool beards, AND we are really close to some awesome areas for doing mountainy-colorado-ey stuff.

For the last few weeks, Franco (friend, coworker, Peruvian-Ecuadorian-Trinidadian-Awesomedude) and I have been spending our days off doing various mountainy-colorado-ey things up the Poudre Canyon. A couple of weeks ago it was fishing and panning for gold, last week it was off-roading. We headed up U.S. 287 and then Hwy 14 at about 2:00 PM, and stopped once on the way up for a quick fishing break.

Our destination was WCR69 near Rustic, Colorado, about 25 miles up the canyon. Off of 69, there is a fairly vast network of Forest Service Roads riddled with huge puddles, steep hills, and rocky terrain. Also, it was snowing. Our initial plan was to drive the Sevenmile Creek trail which I had found in the Northern Colorado Off-Road guide book, but that turned out to be closed due to flooding. I looked at my Colorado Atlas and found some alternative roads to do some 4 wheeling on, and found a bunch of FS roads a little further up from Sevenmile Creek. Before going further up WCR69, I decided to stop back by rustic to get motor oil and a lighter, just in case.

We started onto FR 171 jus past an old ghost town site which had been bulldozed in the 1930's at around 4:00, plenty of time to do some good off-roading and get back to Fort Collins by 8 o'clock for small group. After a couple of hours of exploring including a coyote sighting, a dead moose, and a flock of sage grouse, we started back towards the main road to head back down. We got out of roughest parts by about 6:40 and I was hearing some strange sounds coming from the front passenger side of the car (Franco wasn't making the sounds). I stopped the car and immediately knew what to check: the CV joint on the front passenger tire which had broken not an hour earlier, or a minute earlier, but a whole YEAR earlier. I examined it and everything was, for the most part, ok minus the fact that I had been driving on a broken CV joint for a little over a year after Seth (Meyer) had told me to get it fixed ASAP. More about Seth later. So really the only thing that was wrong with the joint was that one of the bearings had fallen out, no big deal, I just picked it up, polished it off, and put it in the center console.

We were on our way again.

We got off of FR 171 and back onto WCR69, all that stood between us and HWY14 back to Fort Collins was a hill about a half-mile long. Normally, a gradual hill that's half a mile long is no big deal at all for my Fozzie however, when I made the turn onto WCR69, CV join apparently spat out all 5 of the other bearings that locked the joint into the tire. We coasted to a halt probably 50 vertical feet from the top of the hill, and that's about where I realized that my car was really broken.

The way Subaru AWD works, is that power is diverted to the wheel with the least amount of resistance, in theory, this helps keep the car going in the direction the driver wants it to, even when it's slipping. In my case, the front passenger CV joint (read: axle) was spinning inside the connection on the front passenger wheel, and therefore had NO resistance, so OBVIOUSLY it got all of the power. Which meant that the three wheels that were NOT broken had 0% power, and the ONE wheel that WAS broken had 100% of the power. In the more user friendly words of Franco my car went from being all-wheel-drive to being "Zero-Wheel-Drive." (At this point in the story, we weren't fully aware that there was ZERO power to the three good wheels)

As you can imagine, if a 2WD vehicle sometimes struggles to make it up a hill, a ZWD vehicle struggles a lot more. We decided that maybe it would help if Franco got out and pushed- it didn't. Or maybe if he opened the trunk and sat on the tail gate to put more pressure on the back tires- also didn't help. Then maybe if he pushed down above the front passenger side wheel. Any guesses? You got it! Didn't help. The last version of this weight re-distribution attempt was sitting on the hood above the driver's side tire, which, unfortunately also didn't help.

At this point, I decided I should try and fix it, which brings us to:

Repair Attempt #1: Spare Bearing

The problem that I was having, was that the CV joint no longer had any of the bearings that connected it to the wheel and enabled it to drive the tire forward.  I was very well aware that I had saved one of the bearings earlier so I figured I could just plop it back in where it was supposed to go, and voilà! everything would be fine!

I got the jack out, lifted the front passenger tire off the ground and got to work poking the axle with my knife, and shoving the bearing into place. It seemed pretty solid, except that the axle was pretty loosely in there. Once I felt confident in my quick repair, I pulled out the jack, chocked the back tires, and hopped into the drivers seat.

Car on, e-brake disengaged clutch in, shift to first, gas.

What followed was a quick marbles-in-a-blender sound followed by more of the spinning clicking axle contacting nothing sound we'd grown to love (hate). I got out to look and sure enough the bearing I had just put back in had been chewed up and spat back out in the form of bits of shrapnel littering the gravel road.

Repair Attempt #1 was a no-go.

By this time, the sun had gone down and the light was quickly fading as flurries of snow started to descend on the mountains. At this point, we were mildly concerned, but still confident we could figure it out and make it back to town for small group, we might be a couple minutes late, but we would be there.

** For those of you who haven't spent much time in the mountains, generally speaking, there is NO cell service, and there are NO pay phones, which is why we hadn't called anyone yet**

Franco suggested that we try turning the car around and backing up the mountain. The idea sounded pretty good to me; at this point we thought the other wheels had some power, just not enough. I coasted backwards, into a driveway, and then forwards onto the road facing downhill. Shift into reverse, gas, nothing but the clicking metal on metal of the CV joint bouncing around with nothing to grab on to.

The snow was steadily increasing, and Franco and I almost simultaneously had the idea to try and coast down the hill all the way across the valley, and out the other side. Our original route would have been WCR69 to Rustic, about a mile away, and then HWY 14 back to Fort Collins. This new route would take us down a bunch of hills, and then back up one big one to Red Feather Lakes Road, about 10 miles from where we were. Admittedly, it doesn't necessarily make much sense to go for the 10 mile option over the 1 mile option, but after having attempted and failed to push my 2,300 pound vehicle, even the possibility of being able to coast all the way up the other side was better than being stranded 200 feet from the top of this one.

So, with the initial flurries of snow turning into a driving shower, borderline blizzard and the daylight quickly fading to darkness, we decided to go for it.

I used the gas the whole way, thinking that I was actually getting power to the wheels on the downhills, and did my best to keep my foot off the brake to give us a chance of making it up the other side. The result of course (Mom, skip to the next paragraph) was that Franco and I were blasting through a winding, gravel, mountain road in increasingly blizzard like conditions (visibility about 20 yards) with no power to any of the wheels, in the dark, at speeds between 40 and 60mph.

We made it pretty far, I was pretty impressed with how close we came to making it all the way to the top of the hill on the other side. Still, we hadn't made it all the way, and were basically in the same predicament as before, only the hill that we were now stopped on was much less steep, albeit slightly longer.

We chocked the wheels and systematically pushed, then held while one of us moved the chocks, over and over until we had made it about 25 yards and were cramping up from the exertion. We realized that pushing it up this hill was also not an option, so we decided to coast back the other way; we had passed a cabin or two with lights on and figured if we didn't make it all the way back to the other side, we could at least borrow a phone or get a ride from someone.

Unfortunately, physics doesn't allow a vehicle to coast from one hill through a valley to another and back up the other side, so we didn't make it very far at all this time.

We coasted to a halt once again, on yet another hill, which brings us to:

Repair Attempt #2: Gravel and Silt

Admittedly, my repair attempts throughout the night gradually became more and more desperate and less and less realistic. But I really thought this one was going to work.

I mentioned before that the problem was that the CV joint had chewed up and spat out all of the bearings, and so there was nothing to hold it in place and give power to the wheel. So obviously, all I would need to do to fix the problem, would be to replace the bearings. As you probably know, ball bearings are very similar to gravel in almost every area, except that they are made of steel, uniformly sized, smoothly shaped, and are very strong. Other than these minor differences, ball bearings and gravel are essentially the same. The problem with Repair Attempt #1 was obviously that I only had one bearing where I needed 6, using a bunch of gravel would surely be better than one ball bearing. So I decided that a legitimate course of action to facilitate the emergency repair of my vehicle would be to jam a bunch of gravel into the CV joint to act as temporary bearings.

After jamming the joint full of gravel, I remembered that I was missing one VERY IMPORTANT thing: grease. Obviously I didn't have any grease with me, so the next closest thing I could find within 5 feet was silt in the drainage ditches to the side of the road.

To summarize:

Gravel = Ball Bearings
Silt = Grease

Pretty ingenious, huh?

The whole time I had been executing this second repair I left the headlights and the hazards on in case somebody came around the corner or something. However, I had shut the engine off so that there was no chance of the engine engaging the axle and grinding my hand to bits. Safety first!

Unfortunately, when you take 15 minutes to jam gravel and silt into your CV joint, while using the car battery to power the lights in below freezing temperatures, chances are, there won't be enough power left to turn over the engine. If you can't turn over the engine, you can't test your ingenious gravel-based repair attempt.

No worries though! We were parked on a hill, remember? All I had to do was point the car back downhill and push start it. I cranked the wheel and started backing up to get pointed downhill, but the road here was much narrower than other parts, so I ended up with both back wheels in a ditch, car perpendicular across the road, and I couldn't start the engine.

About 2 seconds after I got the car stuck in the ditch, a car was coming around the corner, we told the guy the situation, and asked for a quick jump (so that we could try the ingenious gravel based repair attempt). He gave us a jump and went on his way.

I put the car in 1st, gave it gas, let out the clutch............. and..... marbles-in-a-blender sound followed by more of the spinning clicking axle contacting nothing sound.

Repair Attempt #2 was a no-go.

At this point, we were already coasting back down the hill, so we decided to just go for it, who knows, maybe by coasting the axle would magically heal itself....

We came to a halt not far from there a quarter of the way up another hill, our attempts to coast out of there were getting less and less effective. So without any further ado;

Repair Attempt #3: Nylon Rope

While initially, nylon rope might seem like a much more legitimate repair option than packing the axle with gravel, I can assure you, it's not. At least not in the way that we used it.

Here's the concept: The CV joint isn't catching, maybe if we have a constant force pushing it into the wheel, it will catch. Who cares that the force of the engine was enough to grind up a bunch of gravel and a ball bearing, nylon rope is MUCH stronger.

I started lashing the rope around the steel wheel and then looping around the axle, tightening, and repeating. I spent probably about 40 minutes doing this process over and over while kneeling on the muddy, partially snow covered road.

Franco ran up a hill next to us to try and find a high point with cell service, he did not find any service.

Just as I was almost ready to try out the nylon rope fix, a guy pulled up and asked if we needed help. We arranged for him to wait until I tried the rope fix and then take us to use a phone.

I probably don't have to say this, but;

Repair Attempt #3 was a no-go.

The passerby turned out to be a staff member at the local Buddhist commune, which made me feel foolish for bringing a knife in case things went south. He drove us to the Shambhala Mountain Center (Buddhist commune/retreat center) to use the phone.

After about an hour and a half of phone calls, including a call to my parents and one to the insurance company (who initially promised a truck and then told us we'd have to wait until morning), I called my mom back and found out my Dad and brother were already on the way up with a tow strap.

The Buddhist guy drove us back to our car, and just after he pulled away, my Dad and brother pulled up in the 4Runner. They brought us apples, beanies, and cheese.

We hooked up the strap and started to tow, and made it off the dirt road to the main road.  The brakes were heating up a lot on the downhills, so we decided to park it on the shoulder and have it towed the next day. The odor from the overheated brakes mixed with the burning vinyl rope was quite intense.

The next day, I had the car towed into town and to the shop where my good friend Seth works. Before I even knew it had arrived, he sent me a text which read "it is finished" and said I could come pick it up whenever I wanted to. Only cost me a little over $200, HUGE thanks to Seth for saving my butt over and over again where car repairs are concerned...

Keep your eyes out for a post about my symbolic analysis of all of this in the next week or so....

Tumbleweeds

A few weeks ago, on my way to Colorado for a mission trip, I was driving (riding, the rental company wouldn't let me drive) through either Texas, the Panhandle of Oklahoma, or the south east corner of Colorado. I don't really know which one because I was barely coherent at the time. That said, I WAS, however, coherent enough to see the tumbleweed blow across the road in front of our van, and then to start questioning the meaning of life as a result.

You're probably thinking I'm going to start writing about Ecclesiastes "Meaningless, Meaningless..." or quote the Kansas song "Dust in the Wind," but I'm not. Truth is, the question that came to my mind when I saw the tumbleweed was this "What is the purpose of a tumbleweed?"

You might be thinking, "THAT is a REALLY dumb question. EVERYONE knows tumbleweeds main goal in life is to blow around, get jammed in someone's axle and cause hundreds of dollars in repairs!" Give me a break, it was the middle of the night, and I had been in a van for at LEAST 8 hours, with little to no sleep the night before, not to mention, it turned out to be a very fruitful question.

During about the same time, I was wracking my brain, trying to find something to speak about at the devo we had planned for that night. I was pretty stressed about it too as the plan for the next day was to arrive in Windsor, have a quick breakfast, change into work clothes, work ALL DAY, shower, then go to the church building for the devo. AKA, I wasn't going to be able to sit down and plan out a long 3 point talk for that night. No worries though, way long ago when God created tumbleweeds, he must have know I was going to be thinking that right when the tumbleweed blew across the road in front of me. 

That's enough back story, I think. 

So here it is. The purpose of a tumbleweed. The moment you've all been waiting for. The BIG mystery FINALLY unveiled. This sentence is purely here to stall and frustrate you just a little longer.

THE PURPOSE OF A TUMBLEWEED IS TO DIE.

Yep. Contrary to what human logic dictates, the entire existence of the tumbleweed is looking forward to it's death. That's not really the whole story though, because for a tumbleweed, to die is the only way other tumbleweeds can live. (I bet you're starting to see where I'm going with this now)

Tumbleweeds are FILLED with tiny seeds, that can only be released when the plant is dead. Even further though, the design and structure of a tumbleweed's branches are, I guess, optimized for maximum wind resistance and to be able to roll. Thats cool to me because it speaks volumes to the fact that a tumbleweed is NOT supposed to be rooted and alive, that is CONTRARY to it's purpose, nature, and design. Here is a quote from the Wikipedia (I know... bad researching...) entry about tumbleweeds.

"The tumbleweed is a diaspore, aiding in dispersal of propagules (seeds or spores). It does this by scattering the propagules either as it tumbles, or after it has come to rest in a wet location. In the latter case, the tumbleweed opens mechanically as it absorbs water; apart from its propagules, the tumbleweed is dead."

The part I bolded really stands out in my mind, and JUST based on that, there are A MILLION directions I could go with this. But the parallel that most interests me right now, is how a tumbleweed must separate from it's root cluster, and DIE in order to spread it's seeds. 

Thats pretty cool to me. Not ONLY does the tumbleweed have to ACTUALLY leave it's roots, but it also has to die. Hopefully by now you understand that tumbleweeds DIE.

Tumbleweeds perfectly embody the sacrifice Christ made for ALL of us, and in turn, the sacrifice He calls ALL of us to make.

He died on the cross to give us ALL eternal life, just like tumbleweed dies to create more life. Tumbleweeds, don't die, roll around, and spread cactus seeds. The intention of the life provided by the death of the one tumbleweed was NEVER to create comfortable easy stationary lives for a bunch of other tumbleweeds. The purpose of the original tumbleweed's death is that the life will NEVER stop spreading. In the same way, Christ NEVER intended for our lives to be comfortable and stationary. He intended to give us life that we might GO and give life to all we encounter. Create REAL life everywhere we go, just like the tumbleweed creates life by dropping it's seeds everywhere it goes.

"And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." -2 Corinthians 5:15

To an uneducated mind a tumbleweed is just death, symbolizes emptiness, lack of water, lack of life... The tumbleweeds role in movies is ALWAYS to symbolize desertion, emptiness and shriveled up dehydrated DEATH. 

But there is SO much more to the tumbleweed.

The life Christ calls us to live, like tumbleweeds, will seem foolish and empty from an earthly perspective, but if we choose to die to ourselves, we gain the life that Christ promised, which is better by far.

"For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it." -Mark 8:35

"I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." -Galatians 2:20

The ONLY way we can truly LIVE is if we DIE to ourselves and live in Christ. Plain and simple. You can't live for yourself AND for God at the same time, it's not possible. A tumbleweed can't stay put forever and still create life and fulfill it's purpose. God's purpose for us is to glorify him by putting ourselves last. Dying to give life.  "For we are GOD's workmanship, CREATED in Christ Jesus to DO  good works, which GOD prepared in advance for us to do." -Ephesians 2:10

So, like EVERYTHING else on that trip, when I was stressing about what I was going to do for the talk I had committed to give, God put the answer right in front of me, made my paths straight if you will.

DO stuff.