Hey Friends
Mike & I have both prayed about this trip. We know it's kind of crazy. Both to take a bike across the country, (in July) and to be spending money right now. But we both feel like he should go.
Go where? Fly to Santa Cruz, CA, pick up a (beautiful) BMW bike, and ride her back to AL. Yep. Between 8-10 states, depending on the route. Off the main hi-ways, no cell coverage. Old school.
Why?
Let me share a paragraph that sums up the idea:
The seasons remind me that I must keep changing, and I want to change because it's God's way. All my life I have been changing. I changed from a baby to a child, from soft toys to play daggers. I changed into a teenager to drive a car, into a worker to spend some money. I will change into a husband to love a woman, into a father to love a child, change houses so we are near water, change again so we are near mountains, and again so we are near friends, keep changing with my wife, getting our love so it dies and gets born again and again, like a garden, fed by four seasons, a cycle of change. Everybody has to change, or they expire. Everybody has to leave, everybody has to leave their home and come back so they can love it again for all new reasons.
I want to keep my soul fertile for the changes, so things keep getting born in me, so things keep dying when it is time for things to die. I want to keep walking away from the person I was a moment ago, because the mind was made to figure things out, not read the same page recurrently.
~ Don Miller, from his author's preface to "Through Painted Deserts"
This book was given to me by my music friends (Ashley, Atlanta, and Katie, Tres Dias) the last time we served in T.D. together. But that's what it says. Don and his friend Paul traveled from Houston, TX to Oregon. They visited the Grand Canyon. They lived out of a VW camper van.
Thank you all for being so supportive of us during this. Mike has been living out a difficult couple of years, spiritually. This trip is also a spiritual journey for him to reconnect with God and hear His voice. So in your prayers for his safety, also ask God to speak to him clearly.
I thought you'd like to know some of the story from the CA side. It turns out, the bike is currently owned by a woman, who is very pregnant. She is about 5 weeks away from her due date. She put the bike out by the side of the road, several months ago. But no one was interested. Tina lowered the price, a few nibbles came around. She finally listed it on a bike buyers internet site. She began getting inquiries. One fellow said he would send his agent with a check. Tina was very happy to finally be selling the bike and getting some money for baby things. But when the agent arrived, she had a "bad feeling." She asked him to accompany her to the bank. At the bank, the check was proved to be fraudulent and the "agent" was escorted away. So, the poor mama-to-be was left holding the title to her bike. And she's moving.
Yep, turns out, she's moving to a different apartment, getting the baby's room ready, and the bike can't go to the new place. (Don't know why. Noise? she would have to buy a separate parking pass and then not use it after selling the bike?) Anyway, she needed to sell it, and needed to move on Friday. Mike has already bought a plane ticket to CA for Friday. So, whose prayers are being answered?
When Mike related his travel plans to her, Tina replied that she loves Yosemite and the Grand Canyon, and is so glad her Bike will get to visit there one more time before "her" adventure to "her" new home in the South.
I'll let you know what I find out when I hear from him. His phone he has now has a terrible battery, and there is very little coverage in the West once you get away from the Interstates.
Keep us in your prayers!! Thanks.
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