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August 11, 2001

We are on our way to Portland. We will be there till next Friday. We left Stephanie Topps in charge of the house. I hope she has a good time and does a good job. Well what am I going to do in Portland? Renea will be free the first few days, but will be in meetings the rest of the week. I think it would be fun to rent a cycle and ride around. I would check out Mt. St. Helen and some waterfalls that we visited before. The only thing is that I have not ridden a bike in years and the traffic would be maddening.

I started keeping a journal before on a previous laptop. I think I will put that on my web page just to see if anyone is paying attention. I think the "e-journal" would be great. If others would lock into it. It would be a blessing to look into the ongoing e-journal (ej) of others to see what was going on in their minds. Too much information is confusing but in relationship, a certain amount of info is a must to stay abreast of the evolving personalities of people.

I am going to see about e-journal.com and encourage others to email me their ej and see how that goes.

1:29 PM 8/11/01

I just had my free airline snack. Ej is really got me pumped up. I fully intend to get it going when I get back online. OK the concept is...

** I will put an area on "sparks for living" called e-journal. I will put a sub area called Justin, Renea, and Steve etc. I will email any and everyone to send me their ej. I will explain that this is just a startup plan. Their email to me must include:

Email address

Date & time

And a journal.

I will encourage them to use notepad at first.

They can read any persons ej, the only name or id will be email to let anyone remain anonymous. Every email or ej will be plugged into a master ej so people can search everyone's ej for dates, times, subjects or location.

The most recent ej will be placed at the top of the ej file.

People can send, give me a disk with this info.

No cussing or sexual or offensive ej will be allowed. The policing will be by any and all readers and I will hold the final judgment as to what will be removed or prohibited.

The key will be for and of people of the same ekes.

***

This is kind of fun. I would love to go back through my Rhema files and add those to my ej. Ej could become as familiar as PJ's used to be.

The flight from Columbia SC to Dallas was on a 48-50 seat plane. I was surprised that it was so small.

Another aspect of ej would be its prayer aspect. What brought this to mind was the praying going on in my heart for the service at church tomorrow. Lord please be with Dale and Rev. Geo. Koon. I lift up Bernie Medley, touch his leg and make him well. I lift up the Police chaplains. Help us as we try to get together in the next few days.

The airplane is a CRJ-200, it is almost totally full. Since it is small, it is a little bumpier then the bigger planes. I almost didn't shave this a.m. What's the use of having a vacation, get away if you can't let your hair down.

One of the big projects that I am in the midst of is painting the house. It has been kind of fun, and it is good exercise. I have about a 1/4 of the house primed. This took a gallon of paint. Now I am going back and putting the second and final coat on when I get back. I think the second coat will be a lot easier to do because the prep (cleaning, sanding) will be practically nothing. One of the things that ej can do is answer some of my questions about prep. Lowes suggested that I spay clean it with some cleaner stuff they sell and hose water. I started out cleaning, scrapping and sanding using gas. Someone said gas is not good cause it has an oil substance. I tried bleach but my hair turned blond...just joking. Now I am just wiping clean, sanding, scrapping and wiping clean again then or than??? Painting. It is a job but I am going slowly. I started last fall, but W.E. Gray convinced me that hot weather was a better time to do it. I got (re) started about a month ago.

It was kind of cute this a.m. Doug called me and said he wanted to take about 20 minutes of my time. He wanted to borrow the log splitter as well. I told him he could come and get the splitter but that I was leaving for Portland in 30 minutes. Thank you Lord for Doug and Faye. They are so devoted, I wish that I could give up the idea of starting their own church and put them to work at Mt. Carmel.

The plane is losing altitude; I hope it is preparing to land. With that thought I close for now.

***

4:08 PM 8/11/01

We will be here in Dallas for a while. They just informed us that boarding has been delayed for at least 20 min while they refire the engines and pressurize the cabin.

I lived here in Dallas for 10 years, from 78ish to 88ish. I found a free Dallas paper in a seat. I read that they are building a golf course by the college I went to, it will cost a person $125,000 for initiation fees.

6:04 PM 8/11/01

We are setting on the runway; there are at least 40 planes ahead of us. The pilot told us it would be another 40 minutes. The flight was delayed because maintenance found a leaky seal. They gave us a 5 minutes calling card to phone ahead for our delay. We also got a food voucher for $10. Usually when a plane is taxiing or taking off all cell phones and laptops must be off and stowed away, but since there is such a long line and the jets are turned off to conserve fuel, we can use our gadgets. Oh yea, we were all boarded and they said the feds called and mandated that Delta put more fuels on this flight for bad weather. I guess I didn't tell you it is raining and we have some thunder.

7:17 PM 8/11/01

Ladies and gentleman, we have lift off. We are in the air. Time change is quite confusing. We were trying to figure how long this flight will be. Originally we would leave Dallas at 3:40 p.m. and get to Portland at 5:25 PM but there is a 2-hour time change. Well we left Dallas about 6:10 p.m. so we should get to Portland about 8:55 ish. Renea is trying to bother me. She is working on cross-stitch. She is trying to take up half the plane to stretch her tread out.

8:11 PM 8/11/01

Finished our 5-course meal. It was cheese and spinach filled pasta. I had apple juice. The coffee afterwards was real strong. We concluded it was to keep the pilot awake. I am two rolls behind the first class section. There is one roll, 3 seats on both side of the aisle, in front of me and a curtain is drawn and 1st class is on the other side of the curtain. I can see that they have steak and steamed veggies with wine and what not. Their seats are leather and a little bit roomier. We are crossing the continental divide; I think that is a large mountain range. I kind of wish Renea had given me the window seat, I enjoy looking out the window and she is doing her stitches. I guess I could say she is in stitches.

The clouds are really something to look at; you can see the shadow they cast on the earth. Sometimes they are so thin you can see through them and other times they look as if the plane would crash running into them because they are so solid. The ground for the past hour has been flat and farmed in almost perfect squares. In other places you see a perfect circle of green in the midst of vast brown sandy soil. The circle is produced from an irrigation system.

I tried my cell phone and it would not work, it said searching for service. I think most of us are looking for service. It is interesting that Jesus said it is better to serve the to be serviced. The phone just found service. It goes from searching to finding and automatically updates the time. It was an hour time change from SC to Texas and two hours from Texas to Portland.

The pilot just told us we are over Denver. Renea said she has never been to Denver. We could of flown to Denver and stayed for 2 or 3 days and then went on to Portland.

It is so vastly different in Colo. The mountains look so dramatic compared to the flat lands. The whole area is a lot greener. I took this document over to MS Word and did a word count. I have over 1400 words already. This is quite fun. I think the idea of placing this on the WWW for others to enjoy is very motivating. It would be wonderful if our young people at church got motivated by doing ej.

I hope none of these mountains under us are volcanic like the one I saw on the news lately. Hum where was that, South America or Europe? None of these mountains are snow capped but maybe some in Oregon will be. I was talking to the gentleman next to me about Lewis and Clark. Hundred years ago this would have been one taxing trip.

We will be going close to Salt Lake City, the pilot told us.

I am typing on Renea's laptop. It has good battery storage. I am at 35% power now. One of the reasons I started typing was to see how long the batteries would hold a charge. Of course the other reason is boredom.

There seems to be 4 roles of 1st class seating with two seats on both side of the aisle. That would be 8 people. There looks like there are 22 rolls of 2nd class seats with 3 seats on both side of the aisle. That would be 132 and 8 would be close to 140 people. I would say we are 90% full or so.

The sun setting on the clouds is quite pretty. I am memorizing James 1:17 "... the Father of the heavenly lights," that is so wonderful of a thought. It goes on to say, "who does not change like shifting shadows." The sunset is causing some shadows. I don't know how shifting they are.

I get mixed up on those "they" and "theirs", I guess I should get that straighten out.

Well the battery is down to 30%. My little mind may run out of stuff before this computer runs out of power. I am running out of power. I got up early; it had to be an hour or so before sunrise, maybe 5. It is 9 PM in SC according to the time on the laptop. Thank God, I have a sabbatical for the next week. In fact I will not preach/teach till Wed. a week.

It is so interesting how much I wanted to preach in Bible School even before and after. Mainly from my conversion in 1973, maybe it took a few months like up into 1974 till well into pastoring in the 90's. Now it is still the joy of my heart but to keep it fresh and real is quite a burden. Thank God for the privilege, I sure don't want to complain.

Renea & I had an interesting discussion about what it would be like to start a new church work. I know that the big thing I would do different is more emotional worship. Emotional worship. Is that the right description I am looking for? I changed the name in the bulletin from Sunday morning worship service to Celebration. The phrase "all your heart, soul and might" is just not happening in my observation. Emphatic or emotional worship, where you are lost in your adoration and concentration of God.

Renea went to the restroom. I am moving to the window seat. There are lots of clouds as far as the eye can see. You cannot see the earth except in a few places. The mountains here have a lot less green. They look so barren. There are sections on the down slope of the mountain that are even lighter; maybe it is strip mining, whatever that is. In the valley I can see the old square looking farm fields. I wonder what they farm here? On the other side of the valley are some more mountains. Little winding white strips, I guess roads wind along the mountains. A large body of water is in the distance. I wish I had a GPS to tell me right where we are. Around the water is a concentration of farm fields, square and round. The round ones sometimes look like a pie with 1/4 or ½ taken. It looks like a damn on one end of the body of water. The farm fields go out from the water and stop abruptly. There it begins what looks like a moonscape. Mostly flat and barren as far as the eye can see. It is rough like the top of a forest but there is not green living thing visible from high in the air. The sun is hastening down and barely above the line of the clouds. The sunbeams seem to ricochet off of the clouds. A lone path wanders aimlessly through the wilderness. No sign of life, nature or human. Far off in the distance is a small collection of square farm fields. Mountains of clouds burst up amid a growing haze. The edge of the mountain of clouds yell with the reflection from the setting sun. The flat ground grows into mountain range.

The battery light has started flashing. The power is at 7%. As in Star Trek... give her all the power she has Scotty. I afraid she will blow captain.

The captain of the plane mumbles over the P.A. something about national monument. The mountain range below looks like at its peak it had a huge crater hit it. These mountains have a few trees. All the peaks are barren.

The battery is at 5%.

In the mountain range below there is hardly a sign of a road. In the deepest gorges or valleys is a white line. It is either a road or a dry riverbed. Oh, off in the distance is a town, with blocks of houses and roads. It is very small and has large barren mountains on every side. The range now has many roads weaving along. Suddenly the mountain range changes to having no sign of trees. There is a large black road or river running down the valley. Once again a town pops up, who in the world lives out in the middle of this wilderness. These dry, barren treeless ranges seem so weather worn. Time has washed their rough edges and ribbed the flat land. Up ahead a large river nestled with farms and houses, the fields are like checker board squares.

The battery is less then 3% and I am getting warnings that I will lose data. I am going to save and exit, I may just watch it die.

10:56 AM 8/12/01

Good Morning Portland! Keep in mind that we are 3 hours behind. In fact this computer's clock is way off because it is 8:21 am here. Let me see if I can change the time on this cpu.

8:23 AM 8/12/01

OK now the time is right, for some reason the computer was way off time.

We are at the Mark Spencer Hotel. "Built in 1907, this European style hotel offers a unique combination of modern convenience and old-fashion integrity infused by the essence of its colorful history." I got that quote off of the post card. It is a sunny morning. The view out of my room window shows the sun beaming on another wing of the hotel. It is 20 feet away. I can see the windows of about 6 rooms. I will keep an eye on any of their activities and let you know. We are on the third floor. The room is nice (but old). Let's see; 2001 minus 1907 is 94 years old. The outer wall is roughly brickwork, which has a fresh coat of paint. There is a living room with Fridge, oven. A small hallway leads to the bathroom and bedroom. Two window units serve as air conditioning and a long heater coil runs along the floor to serve as heater. We will not need the heater. We are about eleven blocks off the Columbia River and three blocks from the courthouse square which serves as the center of this bulging city.

The hotel boasts a roof top garden on the 6th floor. I just went down to get another cup of coffee. On the way back up I went to investigate the gardens. On the 6th floor I walked to one end where a window was opened to a fire escape. Large metal stairs (fire escape) went down 6 floors; I may have to try that before I leave. A small stepladder ascended into heaven. Surely this is not the way to the garden. I walked the whole length of the 6th floor; at the end another open window and fire escape. Well if that little stepladder is the only way, I guess I must.... no the garden can live on without me. I found the elevator and wait... another stairs. I climb the 94-year-old stairs, they groan and crack at my intrusion. The cracking stairs remind me of my boyhood in Greenville. The old library, now torn down, had the children's books on the second floor. The stairs sounded as if one more person weighted down with books would send it crumbling to its ruins. Anyway back to Portland, I found the garden; a 12 by 12 foot space gave way to an 8 by 8 space. The weather is sweet, the sun bright and the view from the roof top gardens is nice. It doesn't quite compare to my 1.2-acre garden that I call home in Orangeburg but city folks have to make due with what they have.

Renea and I are going for a walk before it gets too warm.

9:52 AM 8/12/01

It must be in the low 70's and sunny. Portland is a nice place, lots of flowers and history to ease the cluster of so many living in such a small space. The time change makes it interesting; the NASCAR race is just starting. Renea has her camera and she is out taking pictures of the flower boxes on the hotel.

A blues music concert is in town tonight, "The Gypsy Kings" it cost from 40 to 60 bucks a ticket.

12:59 PM 8/12/01

Oh Lord make me more aware of YOU. Help me not to think about what I want, or what would be pleasing to me but let me serve YOU. How can I serve you better? Is there someone I can minister to that will glorify YOU?

It is warming up here in Portland, but still quite nice. Renea has been out walking and now I think we are headed to the "Saturday Market." I know it is Sunday but I am just following orders.

3:42 PM 8/12/01

Renea and I had a nice long walk. We concluded that in larger cities, where there are so many people, people do more strange things to stand out and be deferent in a crowd. Colored hair, baggy/crazy clothes, pierced skin and such are all attempts to declare individuality in a crowd. I would encourage people to dare to be different, but with a purpose.

We walked around the craft market. Renea bought an angel ornament and was given a piece of a plant to plant and grow. Renea said to tell you her feet are worn out. We walked by the river and clusters of people gathered under shade trees. I called them the Church Under the Shade Tree. We rode the public transit system back. I am looking forward to riding around Portland from one end to the other on the transit system.

I was wearing my SC hat and someone who attended Clemson introduced himself. We had a nice chat; he was from NJ, went to SC and resides in Portland. He said he choose Clemson because it was a big school with a small town or school flavor.

7:20 PM 8/12/01

Hummm Good Supper. We had salmon that was cooked on cedar board or so they said. We ate at Jake's Famous Crawfish Restaurant. It was 109 year old. I think I enjoyed the sourdough bread as much as anything. After we ate, we walked up hill 7 ish blocks and went to Safeway. I have a cold sore and got some lip stuff.

Oh Lord our Lord how majestic is your name in all the earth...

Come to think about it, I didn't do my Bible reading today. Don't put off till tomorrow what you should do today.

5:59 AM 8/13/01

The three-hour time difference is hard on the system. I woke up real early and went in and out of sleep. I think that coffee is ready at 6, so I am going down to the lobby. They have a nice free breakfast from 6 till 10.

Ummm good, coffee. I walked around the block. It must be in the low 60's. Things in the big city are just waking up. I came up on a homeless guy pushing a shopping cart. I really want to get my project going to put together a Power point presentation for the homeless shelter we are starting in Orangeburg; it will be called Samaritan House. It will have a:

Title Page

Page addressing the need

History

Bad experiences we have had with present solutions, people we know who had needs.

Prayer laying the foundation.

Gathering a team.

Planning and Conceptualizing

(I was not sure conceptualizing was a word but it is and here are some words related to it.)

Conceptualizing and its synonyms

Concentrate on the matter in hand

Concentrated effort

Conceptually

Concern

Concert

Concerted

Concessions

Theoretical

Idea

Work of art

Masterpiece

Composition

Attack

(Homeless presentation continued)

Today, a description of what our efforts has produced up till now.

Goals.

Those involved. Board and other advisors.

8:58 AM 8/13/01

I took the train from downtown out about 3-ish tops pass Beaverton. I remember B. because it had a mall; I intend to take Renea to. I talked to a lady who just got off the night shift at a call center. She said it was so boring. I humbly submitted to her the great joy and pass time of surfing in the Spirit, which I mainly do with Scripture meditation. I had an index card with James 1:17 on it. I had been storing it in my spirit when the conversation broke out. I did not show her the card nor push the concept but I pray she will at least think or even pursue this joy.

I was moved by all the people and the little worlds they isolated themselves in. More people does not equal more relationship thus I use this for a reason to minister in a small group. I think it is a misconception to believe quantity is always quality or success. I would rather be in Jesus' inner circle of 12 then lead Rome's legends.

I was conceptualizing (new word for the day) on the need for mass transportation in SC. Rural areas would be reborn with a proper mass transportation system.

Daily Bible reading is Romans 4. Abe discovered. I believe there is a deeper truth for me to discover. I would love to discover a truth today like Abe. Abe discovered and so have I that we are justified by faith and not works. I have discovered this but I am still learning to apply it.

3:37 PM 8/13/01

Yummie, we just finished a Mexican meal. We got it to go and brought it back to the hotel room. We traveled the train from Portland State U. to the other extreme close to Union Station. Then we went on the Max train, the opposite direction from where I went by myself this morning. We went to Wood Village.

I am logging onto the www but it is so slow that I can type awhile and see when the web page loads in the background. I am so impressed with the mass transit system. I must of gone 50 ish miles out one direction this morning and Renea & I went 50 ish miles out the other direction around noon.

I have a vision of a water fountain under or around the new sign in front of the church.

8/13/01 5:52:02 PM

How refreshing is a little afternoon nap especially when you are 3 hours ahead of your normal schedule. It is almost 9pm in SC.

I had an idea it would be fun to have some potted plants in glass pots so you could see the roots doing their thing. I guess the pots get dirty and lose their transparency.

I was observing some of the homeless or so they seemed. It is cool to me to have a day when I don't have to shave and can wear my ball cap and don't have to groom as much. What a relief it must be to homeless to shave, shower and sleep on clean sheets.

I think that sin and worry are much more destructive to humans than germs. I want to have the victory over both the physical and spiritual woes.

When we were in DFW (Texas) I remembered managing the plus side of a Radio Shack plus computer store. While I was working there Tim Lahaye came in. Tim would fly in from Washington DC and teach a Sunday class and fly out of Dallas back to DC every Monday morning. Tim made it a habit of stopping in and seeing me or just to shop wether I was there or not. I sold him a laptop. It was a Tandy 200, it was 32k and He may of got a third party chip to upgrade it to 64k. Tim was writing a book call The Race for the 21st Century, I think. I have always wanted to read that book but early on was too broke to buy it. I should be able to get it cheap at a book store. Within a few blocks here in Portland is the worlds largest new and used bookstore called Powells. Tim Lahaye would use his laptop to work on his books and type newsletter he published. He would send it to his secretary in Washington DC from phone where ever he was. Sharon, his secretary, would call me and thank me for making her life so much easier.

8/14/01 6:36:53 AM

Sleepless days and sleepless night.

8/14/01 5:14:15 PM

This was Renea's main day to get about and get about we did. Renea got the 1 day pass on bus system ($4) and I got the 3 day ($10). I went up to the Safeway grocery store about 7am and the customer service which sells bus/train tickets did not open till 8. When I got back to the hotel, Renea was up and ready to go so we went back to Safeway. Safeway did not sell the 3 day pass, we had to go to the main office.

On the www I found a craft show at Oregon College of Arts and Crafts OCAC. We used our new bus passes and whip out there on a train. Then fumbled around and found our bus. I told the driver where we were going and she looked more confused then I. A nurse who was headed to work chimed in to info us and the driver where to go. The nurse got off at the 1st stop. The driver let us know where to get off. The only problem was that she put us off at the wrong school. We were put off at the 8200 block and needed to be at 8500, close right? No! It was uphill about ½ mile. UGH! I wonder how many times that lady had driven up that hill. She had "trainer" on her shirt. I hope her students were more observant then her.

OCAC is a neat place. It really wasn't a craft show. OCAC had youth in groups of 6 to 12 going from wood working projects to collage, print shop, pottery, photography, play ground and so forth.

Around OCAC there were these big black berries. I picked one and it was so good I had to pick a hand full.

There was a "Hands On" cafe on OCAC. It had the most wonderful smells. I sat outside in a eating area while Renea shopped. I almost considered eating there but as I was sitting a big rat ran across the patio. Renea bought some spoons and glass ornaments.

I may have the take on my sermon for Sunday.

Sermon notes (S.)

I felt the prices in the art store were high. Let's look at value, the basis for value is utility, unique or preciousness, and uniformed approval or appraisal. This led me to the question, am I pleasing, useful and fit for the Master's use? I don't have access to my Bible program, so I am not going to look up and document some of the verses I have lingering in my heart. You can be a clay pot of usefulness or a precious silver tray. For me to be useful to God, I must be clean and separated. Fire purges and the Word sanctifies. Like bread we must be broken. Without faith it is impossible to be pleasing to God. Faith is the basis of God rewarding us. If we are in the flesh we can not please God.

We continued our bus trip and as is my habit I stop at all or most thrift stores. Whoooo (whatever the sound is for slow down) a Goodwill Store. We spent almost $100 on two leather coats, shorts (which I am wearing) couple shirts, fleece jacket and a pair of "Pro Walker Rockport" shoes for Renea. I am wearing a pair that are very similar, they are so very comfortable. Well Renea is ready to trout and I didn't finish my story. Hold your breath I'll be back.

8/14/01 8:31:15 PM

We had supper with about 30 of Renea's co-conferees. We ate at Chancey's ish, it was good. I had oysters and Renea had pork chop.

s. The thought of being more useful and valuable to God has really settled upon me. When the talk at supper moved into hi ed, I found myself pondering and praying or praying and pondering.

Renea is meeting with the group and I want to take a good walk before I retire.

Super, they had almost as much Charlie Brown stuff as me. I bought about $30 worth of books. They had the major collection of Bibles and Christian books.

Wednesday, August 15, 2001

3:31:21 PM

I really covered some territory today. Renea went to her conference at 7:30 am and I took off on the bus. It was early and their was not much traffic. I went to Vancouver, Washington. The whole trip was over an area that is being rebuilt. In Wash. I looked for a trumpet. I am looking for a C-Trumpet and have been looking for several years. One place had a b flat and I almost bought it but we were still $15 dollars off an agreement. He started off at $100 and I started off at $50. He got to $75 and I wouldn't go above $60. I called around and found two C-Trumpets in Oregon City. I ventured out a Hawthrone and bought a baseball hat. The hat says "God's Property - 1 Cor 8:20."

I almost came back to the hotel because it was getting hot. I pressed on to Oregon City. The ride was great, very scenic. I asked the driver where the music place was and he said his bus didn't go there and it was all uphill. When we got to Oregon City, the driver told me about an elevator. The elevator was less then 100 yards from where I got off the bus and the music shop "Walley's" was about the same distance. The music shop was so cool. There was one C for $1100 and one for $600. Guess which one I got, I am not going to tell you unless you email me. The guy I bought it from is going to a Mennonite Church.

The trip back was another banner scenic trip. We came back on the other side of the river. I passed 3 huge Thrift Stores , I made a note, I may go back later. I wanted a Hymn book, so it was back to Powells book store. I have found that you can not always rely on people's advice. The guy in the music dept. said "no Hymn books." Not to be defeated, I went to the Bible section. The lady looked at me a little funny, my accent throws people, and said "HymNALS." I thought, I never heard it pronounced like that, but that is what I was looking for. I found one I will treasure. I may station myself in a major traffic area and test the cities noise ordinance tomorrow.

Renea is getter some socks, We are headed to some water falls in 15 minutes. Later gator.

8/17/01 4:16:47 PM (Friday)

WE are about 10 minutes out from Salt Lake City, Utah. I will get to that later. The trip to the falls was super. We had been before but this time we had supper at the lodge. We could see and hear the falls, and the meal (Salmon) was too good. I went down stream and picked up a few smooth stones from the creek.

I just checked the battery on this laptop and it is at 34%.

Thursday, I went down early to the main square (Pioneer) and played my horn. I got several strange looks and one lady and man were especially appreciative. The lady had some complaint about life's unfairness. She was probably in her 60's. I could hear her singing some of the songs. I did "Amazing Grace, America, Old Rugged Cross" to name a few. The lady said I was making her said, so I played "When we all get to heaven." I went back to the hotel and left my trumpet. I had several thrift stores on my list. I really was impressed with the transit system. The first store was the "Good Will Surplus." What a dump! I did get a leather case, I Samsanite suitcase. In the Samsanite I found a clay thing you stick in plants that changes color to let you know it needs water. They sell the cases by weight, or max at $2. These were both $2. I got a book by Bill Gates that has a interactive CD for 50 cents and a children's Gospel video for 37 cents. Oh yes, I want to tell you about my obsession, Renea calls it that. I just love my ProWalkers but they will not stay shined. I carry some shoe polish and a rag in a zip lock. Couple times a day, true to form, they need it and I shine them. Here I am waiting on the bus shining my shoes.

I visited several other thrift stores but did not find anything. I did buy a gallon of distilled water, so my bags were quite heavy. I headed back to the hotel. I went back to Pioneer Square to play the trumpet. It was about 1pm and loaded with people. I did not play long. It was very oppressive. Some young people (really rough looking) sang along. They liked Amazing Grace and requested "My Country Tis of Thee." I did several of the Blood of Jesus songs. What a place to minister. So very many hurting people.

The battery is at 29%

I took my trumpet back to the room. I had seen a Goodwill Super Store and got lost but I just got a bus back down town and tried again. I found it and was really impressed. It was as big as the Kmart in Orangeburg. I found Act software which I use for keeping addresses and schedules. I got some more Charlie Brown books. I like the Reader's Digest "how to" books and found one on guarding your rights.

Now back to today. I needed a haircut real bad. I caught the 1st train and found a Supercuts. It was 8:30 and did not open till 9. I was walking around and found another Goodwill. I spent $10 on a few things. I am wearing the Greek fisherman's hat now, you'll have to see it. I also got a pair of Foster Grant's for 49 cents.

The hair cut was fun. I talked to a girl in college who goes to a large 4 Square Church. Jack Hafer is 4 Square, I think they are a lot like Assembly of God's. I was witnessing to the girl who did my hair. She was Oriental and was a nun for a while.

It was getting late and I made a dash for the train. I had to use the bathroom and went into a Marshal's. They had this major sale going and I got 4 pairs of pants. I had several chats with different folks, one was a college football buff and we talked about USC. I had a long talk with Frank Hasebe. He is a great guy who sells real estate. We were going by the zoo, the train goes 22 stories below the mountain on which the zoo was built. I got to testify to creation, it was very civil discussion on creation vs. evolution.

The battery is at 18% and they will feed us soon.

When we got to the airport in Portland they told us to go to a different gate.

Time to eat. (Meal being served on airplane.)

Battery is at 7%.

We took our sweet time and when we got to the gate found that we had been rerouted. It must be stormy in Dallas, so they directed us through Salt Lake City into Atlanta and then home. We were going to get into Columbia at 10 or so and now we will get there at 12:30. We are somewhere between Salt. And GA. It has been flat as a pancake with lots of sharply cut out gorges. Quite different from coming out where mountains and valleys dominated the land scape.

Well the battery is at 5% and I keep getting a warning.

August 20, 2001 (8:55AM)

Monday. I am still suffering jet lag, getting used to the 3 hour time difference from Portland. My main focus this morning is catching up on my Bible reading. I am up to Saturday. Let me go back and recap the last few days.

Friday the 17th.

As the sun was setting we got some wonderful colors. The darker it got, the more we could see the storm in the distant south. The lighting seemed to go on constantly. It was dark when we got into Atlanta. In the darkness for the last hour of the flight, I was amazed at all the lights I could see on the ground. Little towns seemed to line up one after another. Many times I thought for sure this large collection of lights must be Atlanta. When we got into Atlanta, we had to go two gates up from where we landed. You go down these steep escalators. They most span out some 60 yards. Then you can walk on moving sidewalks 200 yards to the next gate. If we had no time demand we would walk but we wait for a train that runs automatically. We wait only a few minutes. The train stops and 40 or 50 people pile on. At the second stop, which only takes minutes, we jump off and proceed up the steep escalator. When we got to the gate where we would get our plane to Columbia. I went to try and get Renea & my seat together. The plane was over booked. That plane would get us in to SC pass midnight so we asked to be bumped to Saturday if the plane was full. They thought they needed six volunteers to give up their seats and go Saturday but they must of had some no shows because only Renea and I were bumped. They gave us $20 to spend that night, $12 for breakfast, put us up in the Holiday Inn and gave us $700 worth of "Delta Dollars" to spend on future flights. We got to bed about 2 in the morning and had a wake up call at 6:30. We rode from Atlanta to Cola. In 1st class seats. It was a clear sunny day and the view out the window was breath taking. We verily got up to cruising speed till we were coming down.

Saturday the 18th. Finally at home. Now my work begins. I returned calls and got the bulletin lined up and begin printing it. It takes about 2 hours to print it since we are doing it in color now. I spent most of the day getting the sermon ready and just doing little jobs around the house.

Sunday the 19th. There is nothing like sleeping in your own bed. I feel much refreshed. The concern for church is heavy on my mind. It is really challenging to trust and rely on The Lord yet be faithful to prepare and do what we can to make the church service all it can be for God. The joy and thrill of seeing the wonderful people of Mt. Carmel. As the song goes, "I love the thrill that I get when I get together with God's wonderful people." I am excited about my new trumpet but one of the valves is sticking. After the morning service I am emotionally spent.

August 20, 2001 (9:45AM)

I never cease to be amazed at the humming birds. One of the feeders just ran out and I refilled it. They are flying all around and as I rehang it, the feeder swings back and forth. The hummers watch and finally one, then 2, then 3 land and begin feeding as they all swing back and forth.

I have 9 birthday cards and so to mail. I am caught up in my Bible reading. I plan to finish getting unpacked and visit the Hutto's and Ms. Janie and a few others. I hope to put this on my EJ web page. That could take a week or so.