Last week in Washington DC

We arrived at Sacramento Airport at 6.00 am for our flight to Washington. Our seats 22A and 22B were good and Kevin had enough leg-room. The surprise this time was that we needed to buy some breakfast food for then early 4 hour journey on the airplane, By the time the food trolley was near us they had run out of the healthy options and in stead we had to survive on a box of ‘survival rations’. The flight was wonderfully uneventful and we arrived at Dulles Airport to be met by Mike Woods.

Mike with wife, Lynnette with their great kids, Kathy and Steve live in a home in a leafy housing cluster. It is not far from the New Zealand Embassy where Mike works. It was quite an experience to drive in a car with ‘Diplomatic’ registration plates. As we drove out of the car park and showed a pass we did not have to pay. The car was technically not local territory but under the authority of another country’s rule. A thought came to us that it was much like the way we live as God’s people, in the world but not belonging to it!

After dinner that evening Mike took us for a walk along the magnificent Potomac River not far from his house. As dusk fell we watched birds reflected in the silver waters and looked out for deer and moose that frequent the area. Kevin was wearing a pair of new sneakers that rubbed his heel so much that he hobbled along the track more than he normally does! Stupidly he kept going and resulted in a pretty impressive blister the size of his thumbnail!
It was great to have time to catch up with the Woods. We talked till after midnight!

The following day we ventured out into the streets of Washington with the Woods family, viewing the monuments and museums and caught a little picture of this busy city which is often the scene for world changing events. We took some time to visit the Aerospace Museum and saw the collection that included the Wright Brothers famous plane, ‘Sputnik’ the very small satellite that we remember peering into the sky to see when we were kids and many other craft including the space capsule that landed on the moon and a facsimile of the motorized craft that explored Mars.

In the evening Mike had invited over lots of people who again, shared some of their journey and fired many questions at us - it was such an interesting night - to meet total strangers and feel as though you have known them for a long time. They came from a radius of 30 miles and were of many ages and backgrounds. All had sensed God had led them on to walk without the structures of the past.

Sacramento, the capital city of California!

Our flight to Sacramento was wonderfully uneventful apart from the fact that we were flying on a 50 seat aircraft and Val's seat was almost out the back door! She says that the bump as the plane hit the ground (sometimes called a landing) was so severe that she thought her neck would break. They did stop the plane before the end of the runway and we had arrived in the capital city of California. We were met by David Fredrickson who some will remember accompanied Wayne when he last visited Australia.

David was Pastor of a fellowship in this city until Father seemed to call them to close down the structures of the church and dispose of the building in which they met. David tells of the adventure in his book, "When the Church leaves the building". David puts it this way:

On a Sunday morning in the fall of 1989 about 35 people gathered in a barely functional facility for the first meeting of a new “church plant.” Everyone there was tired of “church as usual.” We hoped that God would respond to our passion for Him with an outpouring of His Spirit. Eleven years later we and a bunch of others were still burned out on “church as usual. We cancelled the programs and sought God for His heart. That’s when we began a journey away from organized religion toward a more relational expression of Father’s life within and among us.

We’re not a house church or a cyber church, nor are we a part of any “movement.” We’re simply followers of Christ who are discovering a greater dimension of His love and freedom than we have ever known before. Although we have few answers, we have a passion to see others come into the freedom we are learning about.

You can find out more about the creative crew who work together here in Sacramento on their website: www.familyroommedia.com.

David with his wife Rachel welcomed us warmly. We were delighted to meet Rachel's parents who were also staying in their home. Jim and Wanda Wilson live in Oklahoma and are a wonderful couple who allowed us to celebrate their 58th wedding anniversary with them. Jim is an octogenarian and Wanda is not far behind. They have an infectious love for God and life that stands out.

The evening after we arrived we met a bunch of people in the home of one of the creative bunch. The discussion was wide ranging and real and in a short time Val and I felt that we had known these folk for much longer than a few hours!

Then the weekend was really full - Saturday a "day retreat" held in a lovely home on a 5 acre property in a place called El dorado - in the foot hills around Sacramento. In fact it's location reminded us of Benloch as it is amongst lots of trees and even a couple of kangaroos on the next door property (the neighbours have a lot of unique working animals used in places like Disneyland). It is very dry there right now and in the paper today there were warnings to the folks there to be alert for any signs of "wildfire".

The folk who gathered were from quite long distances around the state and had in common that Father had led them to live in relation to him and others outside the institutional frame of the Church. They came form many backgrounds and reflected many age groups and shared their story together. We were made very welcome and one brother, a used car dealer, asked all over 60 to stand. there were 6 or 8 of us (I had to poke Val to get her on her feet!.....she was mumbling that she had never had to declare her age at a meeting before!!) The guy then suggested that the 60+ should be honoured and prayed for us. It was a significant action.

On Sunday after a quick shopping expedition and the indulgence of a free sample of wonderful strawberries covered in chocolate from 'Shari's Berries' They were wonderful and very American. Yum! (you can share too - order them from www.berries.com!!) We spent the afternoon and evening in a home around a pool (on a wonderful summer's day) with a barbque meal. We talked for hours about God's kingly rule. It was quite a day.

Two brothers from New York state flew across the country to share the time with us all. Ravi, a Singaporean Indian was a pastor until Father enabled him to see something more of where Father was moving his church. His traveling companion, Marty has recently retired from being a prison officer. They are mischievous blokes whose love for Jesus stood out to anyone who met them. They told too of folk feeling led to know Father more intimately.

On Friday we recorded another podcast with the local creative crew. And what a creative crew! If you have looked at their web page and seen the video clips and the productions they have made you will know what I mean. Their podcast can be connected through the web site. We then viewed the penultimate version of two half-hour teaching DVD's which they had made. They cover both the history of the church in overview and the implications of the decisions made. I am hoping they will be finished in time to bring a copy home with us.

To back up a bit...

We seem to have got ahead of ourselves in the story. Our brief mention of arriving at the home of Sara and Wayne Jacobsen in Moorpark, a large town about an hour north of Los Angeles highlights our delight to have time with these dear friends. It was a long weekend in California and many people who we might have met with were absent, but we had a wonderful time seeing the growing Jacobsen clan and beginning to understand why Wayne (and Sara in a quieter way) is so excited with their delightful toddler granddaughter, Amy.

It was also good to meet Brad Cummings and his family. Brad we had met through listening to 'The God Journey' the podcast that is presented by Wayne and he each week on the web. The 'God Journey' has listeners around the world. Brad is a vibrant bloke and reminded us of Ian Graham in Lancefield (for those who know him!) Brad with his wife Kelly. have two sons and a daughter. Val and I had our first real experience of American Baseball when we spent an afternoon watching their twelve year old son playing in (and winning) a Baseball championship.

The excitement, vibrancy and life that is often experienced when listening to the podcasts is evident when Wayne and Brad get together. They are 'mad' enough to make us feel at home! You can check out "the God Journey" at www.thegodjourney.com . While we were there Kevin joined in a podcast session. One of the two sessions has been released and the feedback is immediate. Wayne emailed us some encouraging comments. Here's just a couple:

• Oh this is a wonderful topic, and listening to Wayne's longtime friend Kevin Smith's journey is such a delight, and such an encouragement. It has all of the characteristics of God's love, care and adventure.

• Kevin lives about an hour away from me, and I've been trying to get up there and meet him and Val for the last few years but it keeps falling through for some reason - hopefully soon I'll be able to hook up with them and have a chat.

Wayne has spent lots of time over the last months (and years perhaps) helping publish a new book written by William Young, a man who grew up in West New Guinea. Entitled 'The Shack', the book is fiction and traces the encounter of a man with his God. It is not the usual 'Christian Fiction' but seen by many as a literary delight and a compelling story expressing the love of God. Perhaps the endorsement on the cover of the book by Eugene Peterson (of 'The Message' fame.) echoes this when it says:

• "This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress did for his. It's that good!"

We have sent home a box of "The Shack" so they will be available in Aus soon!

She's lost the key of the door...

If you have ever lost an important key you will know the awful sick-in-the-tummy feel that Val experienced this week.

Yes, it was pretty bad - I still don't know if I actually lost my passport or weather it was stolen. I went to such lengths to have it in a pouch on my person the whole way and when I arrived at the Rubins place I seem to remember saying I can take it off now - but that is vague - it may well have been dropped or stolen at the airport - the pouch with the passport and itinerary all disappeared mysteriously.

The poor things they had us turning their entire apartment upside down and inside out and we emptied every bag three times etc., etc., and finally we had to contact the Australian Consulate who were very helpful.

In brief, we had to re-apply for a new one, have lots of documents faxed to their office to prove who I was and that I was married to Kevin - it certainly caused me great stress and Kev many hours of skyping and phone calls scanning documents in Wayne's office, Wayne printing screeds for us, Wayne driving us to downtown LA to the Consulate etc. - all took several days. I am happy to say that we had a call from the Consulate last night (30th) to say all was well and it would be forwarded to our address in Massechussetts in time to reach us before we leave the country.

What we would have done without the back-up team of Sarah-Jane, Linda and Rach at home I do not know. The exclamation " You waaarrrt.....you laaaaast your paaasssport" from folks here with incredulous expressions on their faces leaves me a bit shaken to say the least!

The Longest Day!

as at May Friday 25th...

We were driven to Jacobsen's home today and met by Wayne and Sheeba and Sierra (their two lovely dogs or as Val puts it, two small horses).

But that's getting ahead of ourselves. The flight from NZ was long and we arrived in LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) tired but delighted to be met by David and Jackie Rubin, a couple whom we had met quite a few years ago now.

It was just after noon on Tuesday 22nd, LA time but when we considered that we had left Aus around the same time on the same day we recognised that we had been going for nearly 25 hours and in order to be able to see a dear friend we agreed to go to a restaurant for an afternoon lunch. It was wonderful to see Sandy Solomon again as a result we found second wind. We went back to David and Jackie's home and eventually went to bed around 11 pm which was 36 hours since we fell out of bed in Lancefield!

We had two delightful days of discussion and reminiscing which along with a tour of the Mandalay marina just across the street from where they live made a wonderful start to our journey - and to Val's delight there was a real caffe latte available close by. We listenend to their story of their adventure as they stepped out in unusual ways at the call of Father. A small group of them have the sense that they should go to Las Vegas to share God's love and good news.

David said as we left that he felt that the Holy Spirit's presence had been with us clearly whilst we had visited together.

Up, up and away...

As at 23rd May...

We took off from Melbourne Airport just after noon yesterday. All the urgent 'must do' things that we needed to complete and Rachel drove us to the airport. Arriving early to try to obtain a seat in the exit row of the airplane was to no avail. Air New Zealand staff in Melbourne had no authority to allocate these seats they said/ The fact that that included the Auckland to Los Angeles 12 hour segment made Kevin somewhat sad and a little sore at the thought.

The 3 hour trip to NZ seemed to slip by quickly probably because Val listened to her new MP3 player and Kevin talked the time away with a man seated next to him. Val found the button earphones did not cut out the noise of the aircraft and was loaned Bose 'noise reducing' headphones that the man next to Kevin had planned to use himself but having entered a long discussion had no more need of for the flight! (Val was so impressed she purchased a set of an inferior brand at a New Zealand Duty Free shop.)

Kevin's new friend shared how he was going to San Fransisco to help a family who have a child who was born with a brain injury. The family were following a treatment my friend has prescribed which entailed taking the child through exercises which 'teach' the brain to reset and allow the child to have a normal life. He said in his work he saw again and again the miracle kids being given a whole life. He said he was not a believer though raised an a church family he often said thank you to God or the power behind the miracles he saw.

Kevin wasnt happy with his seat as there was no leg room or room to read if the person in the seat in front reclined his seat and made up his mind to be first off the aircraft to try and obtain a better seat for the long haul.

The kind, kind people at Air New Zealand did change Kevin's seat allowing him to sit next to the galley while Val sat behind him in the next row.

Departure gets closer and closer!

It is just under three weeks ubtil we depart on this tour. To be honest we have been rather busy doing things around the house that need to be left in good condition so we haven't had time to notice the days go by. But now we are getting a bit more organised and Val told me yesterday that she was going to do a 'practice pack'. I found that hard to appreciate as I have never practiced packing to go away! I usually (because of her loving care) see what is in my case after I have arrived at my destination!

We have been asking God and pondering where we should spend our time and asking what we need to be prepared for. It has been wonderful to have phone or email contact with some of the folk we will meet and some who will host our stay. It seems, as you would expect of our Father, that everything seems to be falling into place.