Christmas Balance

I've been back and forth over the years on the issue of Christmas. I think I'm finally finding the balance.

As a child, it was a wonderful, magical time. Memories of Christmas trees and presents and holiday music and food make me wax nostalgic. I'll never forget Dad pulling us on sleds to church one year. I also have fond memories of picking out the tree each year, and of Mom working endlessly to decorate the house and prepare for the various festivities. And we would stretch the holiday out over a week or more by visiting different relatives and exchanging gifts each time.

As I got older the "magic" kind of wore off, but not long after, I began learning more about Jesus and what it really meant to be a Christian. The celebration of his birth gave the season a whole new meaning that was awe inspiring. We had a big lit-up nativity set on our lawn in those days (including a make-shift stable that I helped Dad build). I believed and proclaimed that Jesus was the Reason for the Season. But that was not to last.

When I got involved with The Way, I learned that Jesus wasn't really born on December 25th. I was also taught that most of the traditions and customs of the holiday season were "pagan" in origin. Putting Christ back in Christmas was not possible, we said, because he was never there to begin with. Nevertheless, in The Way we allowed for celebrating the holidays as a time for family and togetherness.

Years passed, I moved to different areas and my siblings moved in different directions with their own families. And the "household" that had been The Way disintegrated. For a few years there was a small group of us in Rhode Island that were family-like, and it was our custom that anyone who had nothing else to do gathered at one house or another. It was fun, but I still saw Christmas largely as a worldly, secular custom that I just put up with every year.

After moving again and eventually getting kicked out of the group I was with in Syracuse, NY, I pretty much ignored Christmas. There seemed little reason for celebration, and there was now nothing to counterbalance the crass commercialism and drunken revelry that typified most of the world's holiday festivities.

While most scholars know that December 25th is almost certainly not the birth of Christ (for one thing the shepherds would not have had their flocks in the field at night in December), the consensus seems to be that we don't really know when he was born. (Dr. Ernest L. Martin made a good case for it having been on September 11, 3BC. They had adopted this idea in The Way, but I have since found the book where they got it from, The Star That Astonished the World. If you're interested, check out Dr. Martin's web site.)

But I learned something this year. It had been said that since we don't know when Jesus was born, December 25th is as good a time as any to celebrate it. But I still couldn't see going along with what I thought was the "white-washing" of pagan rituals. However I recently found out that many of the claims about the pagan origins of Christmas are not historically accurate.

While there are similarities between our Christmas customs and those the Romans had in celebrating Saturnalia, there is no evidence that one developed from the other. To be sure, many pagan customs have been mixed with the celebration of the birth of Christ. But there is evidence to show that Christmas was established on December 25th, not to "compromise" by adapting the pagan holiday to Christianity, but to present an alternative to the pagan holiday, so that Christians would have something to celebrate that wasn't idolatrous.

There are a couple of good online articles about this, by Dr. Richard P. Bucher. If you're interested, check out Christmas is Not Pagan, and The Origin and Meaning of the Christmas Tree.

Besides, even if Christmas customs did have pagan origins, they no longer hold that meaning today, for the most part. There isn't any Biblical reference to celebrating the birth of Christ, but there isn't anything forbidding it either. The Bible says that nothing is unclean of itself. It's what we do with it that makes it good or evil. If someone feels that it's pagan to decorate a tree, then they shouldn't do it. But if someone wants to celebrate Christ's birth with a pure heart, as many Christians have done for a few hundred years, there is certainly nothing wrong with it.

After several years of rethinking my beliefs, I have a renewed understanding and appreciation of Jesus Christ, whom I believe to be the promised Messiah, the coming King foretold by the Prophets. And after reading about the historic Christian symbolism of the Christmas tree in the above referenced articles, I can again enjoy Christmas, with the knowledge that those who say "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" may not have been duped after all.

(P.S. - I wrote a little Grinch parody called, "How The Way Stole Christmas." It's posted on the Grease-Spot Cafe, a forum for ex-members of The Way.)

Louie

Louie lived a long and full life for a cat, and he will be greatly missed. We got him when he was a kitten, barely old enough to leave his mother. In fact the vet who gave him his first shots said he was probably younger than what they thought at the animal shelter where we got him. Because he was so young he thought Melodie was his mother and sometimes tried to suckle! He was Mama's Boy ever since. He even came when she called him, which is very unusual for a cat.

We named him Louie because his black and white markings reminded me of a Holstein cow, and the dairy connection made me think of Louis Pasteur. Only afterward did we notice the L-shaped marking on his nose, so he was a monogrammed kitty.

We first got him as a companion for our other cat, Emily. She was about three years older, and was sometimes annoyed by her new "little brother" who would pounce on her when she was just chilling out. They would then proceed to chase each other all over our apartment. It was like having kids, especially since we didn't have any of the human variety.

Emily died of kidney problems when she was about eight years old, and Louie has been our "only child" ever since. When we moved from Rhode Island to upstate New York, he rode in the truck with us, and hardly ever complained. While we were living with another couple in New York he got out somehow, and was missing for two or three days. We thought we'd lost him, but one night we heard a pitiful little meow from the back porch and there he was. A tearful reunion followed.

He was very affectionate and loved to snuggle on Melodie's or my shoulder. The combination of fur and purr was so soothing it was better than tranquilizers. And he had a regular ritual with Melodie, where he would sit on the bathroom counter and wait for her to get out of the shower. She would then lean down to him and he would tilt his head so she could give a him a little kiss on the head.

He was a brave hunter too. When the apartment next to ours was being renovated, a few mice showed up in ours. Louie would stalk them, and when he caught one he would toy with it just like in a cartoon. And more than once he presented us with the trophy from his hunt.

When we moved to Georgia, he again rode in the truck with us, but got overheated when we were in South Carolina (it was August). There was a tourist information center that let us bring him into the air conditioned building and gave him some water and let him cool off. He made friends wherever he went because he was so damn cute.

The long trip from Georgia to here was even more surprising. He just settled in the truck and rarely complained, and it was a week-long trip. He was content just knowing we were with him. And he was nice to have on those cold nights sleeping in the back of the truck. He put up with so much through the years.

Except for the one time he got out in New York, he was always an indoor cat, and was only sick once, when a cyst on his back ruptured and got infected. But other than that he lived a happy, healthy life for sixteen years. Recently he started losing weight and not eating, and when we took him to the vet, they discovered a mass in his belly, which they said was most likely cancer.

They could have done tests to confirm it and even surgery to remove it, but it would have only been buying him a short amount of time anyway. They tried giving him steroids to stimulate his appetite and make him feel better, but that only worked briefly. He continued to get worse, and rather than have him suffer we had him put to sleep.

By that time he was so thin and bony and weak that he wasn't the Louie we remembered. We will miss him terribly, but it's better to have the memories we have of him, than to watch him continue to deteriorate. But it's never an easy decision.

It will be a while before I can open a can without looking for him at my feet or expecting to hear him demand, "Give me some of that!" But he also demanded attention too, not just food. If I was reading or doing something on my laptop, he'd climb right in front of it and say, "Pet me NOW!" I never thought I'd miss that.

His whole life, his whole world, was in the midst of our home. It's not surprising that he would want to be the center of our world. There is nothing quite like being the object of his investigation, with the tickle of whiskers and an inquisitive nose. So long, Fuzz-Face! I'll miss you.

Change Has Come?

We have a new president. Or at least, president-elect. Victorious cries of "Yes we can!" and "Change has come to America" ring in the air. I for one am glad that the race is finally over. It's been going on for nearly TWO YEARS! Do we really need to spend half of a term to elect someone to public office? It didn't used to stretch out that long. Maybe a little over a year, but this has been ridiculously long. And the ever-present ads with everybody calling each other a liar got old long ago.

In any case, I think it's fantastic that a black man was elected president, considering the history of race relations in this country. I only hope the majority of people who voted for him did not do so just because he's black. Whether he will be a good president should have nothing to do with his race or color.

Will he be a good president? Only time will tell. He seems to be what so many people have been saying they wanted. So let them have their way this time. The Republicans had their way for 8 years, the Democrats for 8 years before that, and the Republicans had 12 years before that. The pendulum has swung back and forth for years and years, and guess what? It hasn't made that much of a difference!

No matter who got elected, the monetary system needs to be reformed or there will be no real lasting change in the economy. And neither candidate has any plans to reform the monetary system. So the economy will continue, getting temporary fixes at best. And the country as a whole will not change until the hearts of the people change, and that will not be affected by any politician.

The main thing is that as a Christian I am told to pray for government leaders.

I Timothy 2:
1 First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men,
2 for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.
3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

So regardless of what I may think of his politics, the system works, the people have spoken, and he is our president. But he is not the savior. One day Jesus Christ will return and rule the world in perfect righteousness. THEN change will come! Meanwhile God is still ultimately in charge, and He will see us through the good or the bad, whatever comes. Yes He can!

What Is Music?

I've always loved music. And I've always enjoyed stuff that was "off the beaten path." Not content to listen to the usual top 40 songs as a kid, I wandered up and down the dial and discovered foreign but intriguing sounds I'd never heard before. In this way I discovered classical, jazz, and big band music, as well as progressive rock in my teens. See my profile for an idea of the wide range of tastes I have in music.

But for many years I was still "programmed" in a way. Or should I say in THE Way. My time in that organization served to condition my ideas of what was "Godly" music and what was not. But in recent years I have found myself re-evaluating those ideas, in addition to re-evaluating my doctrinal beliefs. Many Christians (not just in The Way) are taught that your basic, straight-forward, Western music is the most Godly, while other forms are pagan or devilish. But strangely they never referred to any Scriptures that demonstrated this. As a matter of fact there is a verse that says that "nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean" (Rom. 14:14). The context is talking about food, but I believe it can be applied to many other things as well. In terms of music, there is none that is evil in itself - it depends on what you do with it in your head. If it influences you in a negative way, then it's not good for you, though it may not be bad for someone else.

I started realizing this when I began to learn a little about music theory and how Western music developed the system of 8 notes in a scale. But in other cultures the system was different, which accounts for why music from, say, India or China, sounds so "different." I used to be afraid of listening to such music, because I was taught that it was "devilish" - whatever that meant. Granted, some Indian music was used in the worship of other gods, but that doesn't mean I have to. Is God so limited that He can only be worshiped with Western Church music? In fact, there is much evidence that the music of the Psalms, and music of the middle east in general, in Biblical times probably sounded more like the Indian or Arab music we hear today than Western music.

Then I started to see the validity of 20th century composers who experimented with 12 tone technique, atonality, randomness, and other things that to some ears just sounds like "noise." As I recall, many adults in the '60s said the Beatles sounded like noise, yet they have since been recognized as musically talented and innovative. Modern composers like Edgard Varese, Arnold Schoenberg, and John Cage weren't just making noises to annoy people. They were experimenting with "breaking the rules" and so challenging people to think about what, in fact, is music. There is still some controversy about whether some of their compositions are music, but that's the whole point - thinking about it and reconsidering, and not limiting oneself to what's familiar.

Another composer that is often underestimated is Frank Zappa. For years I had only ever heard the few "novelty songs" he had done, like "Don't Eat Yellow Snow", "Dancing Fool", and the big radio hit "Valley Girl". But I recently discovered that he was highly influenced by Varese and others, and in fact was quite an accomplished musician. He wasn't a drug-addled hippy, as he is often thought of. In fact he didn't use drugs and thought the use of drugs was stupid. Also, he didn't just play rock music, although he was a hell of a guitarist. He included classical and jazz elements, as well as experimental things like musique concrete (a movement started in the late 1940s and 1950s in which pieces were produced by editing together natural and industrial sounds - think of the Beatles' "Revolution 9"). Many of his instrumental pieces had weird titles, and his songs frequently had sexually explicit lyrics, but musically he was innovative. A lot of his stuff can be seen on YouTube. Check out "Peaches En Regalia", "Watermelon in Easter Hay", "G-spot Tornado", "St. Etienne", and "Yellow Shark Overture" to name just a few.

A lot of this modern stuff may not be everybody's cup of tea, but I've always enjoyed "weird" stuff. That's not to say I don't enjoy more traditional music as well, but a lot of times I like going outside the "comfort zone" and being challenged. I think the avant garde recordings of John Lennon and Yoko Ono were good for that, and some of it is still hard to listen to, but I enjoy trips like that from time to time, if for no other reason than to rethink what music is.

Follow the Money

With everybody talking about how to fix the economy, why isn't anybody addressing the real problem? Changes in government spending will not help the economy very much, and could even make it worse. The root of the problem is that our entire monetary system is based on debt instead of anything with value. Fractional Reserve Banking enables banks to lend money it doesn't have and charge interest on it. When you or I or the government owes money on those loans, we are under the control of those banks.

A big part of the reason that political races are irrelevant is that no matter who is in office, much of this control of the government remains unchanged. There is a tendency to give whatever administration is in power the credit when the economy is good and the blame when it's bad. But does the government have that much control over the economy? Not when it doesn't even create its own money.

How many people know that the Federal Reserve System is not a government agency but a privately owned entity? How many know the same is true of the Bank of England? How many know that top government leaders as well as leading economic experts have long known of and spoken about the dangers of having one privately owned central bank, not to mention the dishonesty of Fractional Reserve Banking?

Below is a link to a video that is very eye-opening. It's called The Money Masters and it deals with the power that international banks have over nearly every aspect of the economy and the government, and how they got that power.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936

If the link doesn't work, copy and paste it into your browser's address bar. The video is three and a half hours but well worth your time.

Also, here's a link to a shorter, simpler presentation of the same basic ideas. It's called Money As Debt and it's only 47 minutes.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279

The old saying holds true especially in this case: If you want to know who's really in charge, just follow the money.

A Brief Word on Politics

The race for president is almost over, after how many years? I was sick of it shortly after it started.

I have been on both ends of the political spectrum at various times in my life. As a teenager I was a liberal. In my days in The Way I was convinced that right-wing politics was equivalent to religion. Now I am even more convinced that politics is not the answer, no matter what the flavor of the month is. I am not so much "middle of the road" as "OFF road."

As Sharona said in Monk, "I never vote. It just encourages them."

Hey, here's an alternative:

What Now?

Seeing it's been almost two months since I last posted anything, I figured I'd better update this thing. There's been a lot happening in one way, and in another way, nothing.

I'm going through a period of re-evaluating and re-organizing my life. So much happened all at once in the early months of this year that I'm sort of still in shock. My goals were changed when I couldn't find work in Georgia and had to leave Atlanta Bible College. My sense of self-worth suffered major blows when I couldn't relate to people there, and was reminded that I've never been real good at relating to people. Then on top of that my mother died, and my wife has been having her own issues, so I can't rely on her like I used to.

I've been fighting off depression, anxiety, apathy, fear, bitterness, and several other emotions I can't even identify. I need lots of prayer and understanding.

My immediate goals are up in the air as well. The inheritance I received takes some of the financial pressure off, but it won't last forever (we invested some of it, though). But more importantly, I don't know what I want to do with my life. I got a degree in computer programming back in the 90's but have yet to use it, as everybody says they hire from within their own company. Programmers start off as something else, from what I've been told. That's what I intended when I got the job at Carrol's back in Syracuse. But I was there for six years and went nowhere. So now the only "experience" I have is helpdesk, but most of the places I've interviewed for here want experience in other things that I only dabbled in at Carrol's. Besides, I don't want to do helpdesk for the rest of my life.

I went to ABC because I had thought God wanted me to be a pastor, but now I'm not so sure, and I don't even think I really want to go that way anymore. But I don't know what I do want to do. And besides, I don't even know who I am. I feel in many ways the same way I felt in my teens and early twenties, and that's pretty sad at my age.

I hope things will turn around, but I am in a state of transition right now. Anybody who reads this and is so inclined can certainly pray for me. It would be appreciated.

My Website is Back Up!

After being down since my hosting agreement expired in January, the site has been relaunched as Godskingdomfirst.ORG (instead of .NET). The .net domain name was only renewable if I continued to be hosted by the same provider, but I found one that hosts for free. I only needed to register a new domain name, hence the change.

I made some changes to the layout and some of the content as well. The biggest change in content is a reworking and reorganizing of the "Future Events" page. The biggest layout change is the new Home or Index page, which has a site overview that includes graphics, making for a more attractive welcome. The rest of the stuff that used to be on the Home page is now on a separate page, called Introduction.

The link to my site in the right hand corner of this blog page has been updated to reflect the new site name. Click there to visit it.

Blessings and Hope

When we reached Seattle, we had virtually nothing left. Patrick and Michele were gracious enough to share their food with us, as well as giving us rides to some places. Michele is a wonderful cook, so we ate well while we were there. And while they thought the kids were annoying us, we actually had fun with them. Jacob is two, and at that stage where he gets into EVERYTHING. (They call him "Destructo-Boy!") But he would look up at me and say my name (repeatedly) and babble something else incoherent, and want to climb in my lap. Yeah, he'd have his screaming sessions, but it all balances out. (Easy for me to say since he's not mine, right? I pray for Michele and Patrick.) And Rachel is five (almost six) and has quite the wit for her age. At one point I had said something strange, and she replied, "I wish I had a pie to put in your face!" I thought I would fall over laughing. She gives great backrubs too!

Anyway, when we returned the truck, the rental people mentioned that it had been due back at 1 pm , so we were supposed to be charged another day, as well as being charged for the mileage we went over. For some reason they didn't charge us for it, nor did they charge us for cleaning it, because the rental place in Georgia hadn't checked the box that said we would be charged for cleaning. So we didn't have to pay anything extra.

We still needed to find work and a place to live. Most places here will not rent to you if you haven't been working for a while. And we didn't have any money for a down payment. I wrote to a pastor friend of ours, Chuck Jones in Pomona, CA, with whom I had corresponded for some time and finally met face to face at the Ministers Conference at the college. He was able to help out by sending us some money to help us get on our feet again. The family of God is so wonderful!

As we looked for housing we discovered how much things cost here. We would not be able to put down a month's rent plus security on much more than a studio, if that. It was starting to look like we would have to stay in a rooming house or something till we got settled. I was starting to get anxious, I have to admit. And so were our hosts, as their apartment complex only allowed people to stay with them two weeks. One afternoon we prayed, and within an hour Melodie had a job and our tax refund check arrived. And because of the amount that I had paid for tuition at ABC, we hadn't owed any tax this year. (It was called the Hope Credit.) Therefore we got everything back that had been deducted from my job in New York, which was over $2000! I had known how much it would be but didn't think I'd get it so soon, especially since it had to go to the college and then get forwarded to me here. Melodie didn't even know how much it would be, so she was even more surprised.

Shortly afterward, we found an apartment that we could afford, and when we filled out the paperwork (there was tons of it, more than Melodie had to do in the army or when she worked for the government!) it turned out we needed less than we thought for a security deposit, plus they were taking $25 off the first month's rent, which isn't due till June 1st because it's so late in the month.

The place is on the south side of Seattle, and you go through a lot of industrial areas to get to it. But the complex itself is surrounded by woods and there are lots of trees along the streets too. It's only one bedroom, but we can upgrade if a two bedroom is available when we have the money. The kitchen is tiny, but the other rooms are good size. It's not bad for now.

Melodie is working for a temp agency scanning documents at a bank. It's not what she wants to do for the rest of her life, but it's paying more than she has ever made at a job before. Meanwhile I have had several interviews. I haven't gotten hired yet, but I didn't even get as far as interviewing in Georgia. The bus system here is great. You can get anywhere on the busses, although it takes a while. So I'm not limited as far as location for a job. And I don't have to pay these outrageous gas prices!

Then I got some interesting news. I wrote in my previous blog that my mother had died the day before we were to leave. It turns out now that I have a sizeable inheritance coming, which surprised me, as I didn't think she had very much after all her medical expenses and other things. But a check is on its way even now. So that takes the pressure off financially, and maybe there is a job for me that I have to wait for.

I still wonder what God wants me to do, and what I want to do, and what I can do, and what I'm doing here. I try not to get anxious about it but sometimes it's hard. But God has blessed me so much already, I have to leave it in His hands. He holds the future.

P.S. - Melodie's pictures from our trip are up on her Photo Album site. Click on the link in the right hand column.

Big Country

It seems like we were driving forever. We left on Friday evening, April 18, after loading the truck and cleaning out the apartment at ABC. We wanted to at least get as far as the state line before we stopped for the night, and we did. Just over the line in Tennesee, we passed Chattanooga and continued west, stopping for the night at Nickajack Lake.

We were given a larger truck than what we had reserved (and charged a lower rate because it was their error). We had the bed on edge and tied in place to hold everything, and when we stopped for the night we untied and laid the bed down and we could sleep in the back of the truck. That was the plan anyway. That first night the door wouldn't shut all the way because the bed was about an inch too far out. So I had to rearrange stuff and get the bed to fit, and it was raining, so the edge of the bed got wet. Still, we were able to sleep and the bed dried out the next day, so things worked out.

Louie seems to like road trips. He was quite comfortable on the seat between us, and whenever we stopped he took his command post on the dashboard.

The next day we continued through Tennessee and Kentucky, passing by Nashville (below).

That night we stopped in Illinois, and the following day we crossed the Mississippi and passed through St. Louis. Melodie got some good shots of the arch. Looks like half a McDonald's, doesn't it?

From there we crossed Missouri, turned north just before Kansas City, and headed north through Iowa. Council Bluffs had a whole riverboat theme on the river.

By Tuesday, we had gone through the rest of Iowa and into South Dakota, stopping at Mitchell for the night. Wednesday was when we had to figure out how to continue since we ran out of money (see previous blog). We were finally able to resume on Thursday.

The rest of South Dakota was a long haul, and then we stopped to see the world famous Wall Drug in Wall, SD.

Melodie has several pictures from there, which she will be putting up soon on her photo site. We then continued west, and hit a huge thunderstorm at Rapid City. It was so bad we had to pull off and wait till it stopped, as I couldn't see anything in front of me. But we finally made it out of South Dakota alive!

We stayed overnight in Gillette, Wyoming. In the morning we awoke to a view of The Devil's Tower. Well, the sign SAID Devil's Tower anyway. I later found out that the sign was referring to the road which led TO Devil's Tower (made famous in "Close Encounters"). But this was a pretty cool looking mountain anyway.

We drove through a corner of Wyoming and crossed into Montana. We discovered that it was still winter in this mountainous region. Although beautiful to look at, it was COLD in that truck at night. We survived thanks to lots of blankets and body heat (including Louie).

We crossed Montana, and then a narrow strip of Idaho. This was actually the most beautiful scenery yet, looking down from the mountains into a deep valley, but the pictures didn't come out for some reason.

We crossed into Washington, and kept driving and driving, trying to find a place to stop for the night. Mile after mile of nothing passed by us. We finally got off at an exit where there was a gas station, but it was closed. Fortunately there was a small place across the street where you could get gas with a credit card after hours. It was expensive though, so we got enough to get us to the next town, where we could fill up for less. We spent the night at Moses Lake.

The last day of travel took us over and through the coastal mountains just east of Seattle. These were even more breathtaking than what we'd seen in the Rockies, with their pointed, snow-capped peaks. But sadly the last batteries in Melodie's camera were dead, and she couldn't get any more pictures.

We finally arrived in the Seattle area, and were warmly greeted by Patrick, Michele, and the kids. After a long trip through eleven states we were happy to be anywhere! But it was nice to have a warm, loving place to sleep that night.

Next time I will write about how God has blessed us since we've been here.

A New Beginning

I had a MySpace blog earlier in the year, but it was mostly complaining. And hardly anybody ever read it, which was part of what I got into complaining about. Besides, what friends I had on MySpace were all younger than I am (as is often the case there) so I didn't really fit in. After a while I deactivated my account, and recently decided to attempt a "real" blog.

I had been at Atlanta Bible College, and thought I wanted to be a pastor. Now I'm not sure what I want to do, or what God wants me to do. Neither my wife nor I could find work in Atlanta, and we ran out of money. The bad news was we had to leave. The good news was that they were willing to write off my debt and even give us money to help move.

We knew a couple in Seattle whom we had met in Syracuse, NY (where we lived before coming to Atlanta) and they offered us a place to stay until we got settled, if we wanted to relocate to the Seattle area. After much deliberation we decided to take them up on it.

While getting ready to move, I received word that my mother was in the hospital with pneumonia and was not expected to make it, due to weak heart, lung problems, and other ailments. The day before we were to leave Atlanta, she passed away.

This added to the overwhelming feelings of depression that I was already feeling, from not knowing what to do with my life, and having difficulties in relating to people. It reached the worst point when, midway through the trip, we ran out of money. The truck was getting way less mileage than we had anticipated, and in Mitchell, South Dakota, we were down to the last quarter tank with no way to get any more gas.

I tried calling my family, but they had just spent what extra money they'd had for Mom's funeral. I was in such despair I wanted to give up, but my wife managed to keep her head about her, and made some phone calls to people we knew back in Georgia. By the next day we had enough money to continue, thanks to the generous help of friends in Georgia.

They also prayed for us, and it made a difference. When I woke up that morning, I was not feeling the overwhelming depression and heaviness that had enveloped me the day before. We set out on our way, trusting (albeit timidly) in God's providence.

Next post, I will continue with our adventures moving to the Other Coast.