Easter Setup @ Qwest Field

Uploaded after the Easter event...

On Friday April 22nd, I got to the stadium at 8am and joined up with team "Ops-Elite". (Say it out loud several times fast and you'll see why we changed the name to the "Blackhawks") My team was composed of 8 "trusted" Mars Hill interns who had to be able to operate independent of central control and direction.

We started by setting up all 5 Connect Desks for the Event. These desks were places where visitors could go and ask any questions, get free Bibles, get the Mars Hill Annual Report, and get one of these amazing handouts:

We were treated fantastically by Mars Hill. As an Mars Hill intern, I am unpaid and have given months to God's work with no expectation of any blessing. Yet we were lavished with food at Qwest. We had like 7 meals all provided. For those of you who don't know my love language is food. ("love language" is a reference to this book that Dr. Gary Chapman wrote a while ago that says that men and women feel loved in one of 5 ways: acts of service, quality time, physical touch, gifts, and words of affirmation)

After completing the first tier of prep work, I jumped teams to the lighting team. I have worked for ERM a Seattle area event staffing service as a lighting tech/stage hand. So I knew how to do this job well. Here is what the stage looked like with our fancy lights up:

Here are some additional shots from Saturday as the work progressed:

(In the foreground you can see one of the 20 baptismals dwarfed by one of the two huge Led Jumbo-trons)

(Here are the faithful volunteers who put in thousands of hours to make this happen)

(From the 300 level North: On the top and bottom we see the Baptism tents. The far left tent is the men's changing tent, the center tent is the women's changing tent and the right tent is the prayer tent where people who want to get dunked will be prayed with and interviewed to see if they understand who Jesus is. The stage is flanked by two 35 foot jumbo-trons and a 40 foot stage where Pastor Mark will preach)

(From the Southwest 300 level of Qwest Field: Here you can see the 20 Baptismals that are pipping hot 100 deg F)

A funny story: Back in January when the Executive Elders of Mars Hill decided to do a massive Easter service they called up the people who organize events for Luis Palau (an evangelist), Greg Laurie (an evangelist), and others to see how to do baptisms in a mass-meeting like this (a perennial tradition at all Easter Services for Mars Hill). EVERY single organization said "Don't do baptisms!" its too crazy, you can't cope with the masses of people, keep things organized, and logistically keep up. They do them out in the parking lots all afternoon. Well guess what we are planning for...500 Baptisms in 40 minutes... That means that each Baptismal must accommodate 25 people in 40 minutes. That means 25 baptisms every 1.6 minutes must be completed for us to not run over time. Fou n'est-ce pas?

(Here is the Choir getting set for sound check on Saturday. Since the theme for the event is a happy sunny country fair the choir in their fancy robes act as the golden backdrop for the sermon)

Page-Rank and Page

Miles Run:122.9

Miles Biked:103.39

Miles Hiked:8.70
Total Miles:234.99
Stadium Stairs Run*:2244
Steep Steps Run*:1340
Days to Rainier:104
Summit Team:8
Aspirin Tablets:42

I'm over my sickness, feeling better.

I have started reading The Google Story by Vise and Malseed about the first six years of Google Inc. The company was begun by two Stanford grad students who sought to create a better way to gather information from the seemingly endless Internet. Their system used popularity as expressed by total number of links made to a given website and also a ranking of the importance of a website determined by the total number of links made to that website. Existing search engines were good at collecting keyword associations and reporting them to users. Google's usefulness came from it automatic ability to place the most relevant search results at the top of what is reported to a user. Now what is required to properly rank every single website on the entire World Wide Web? Two things, continuous automatic web crawling of every website on the internet and multiple complete backups of the entire Internet. The Entire Internet!

Google maintains these records.

So Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the Google Founders, focused single-mindedly on creating this search engine and refining it. They brew through tens of millions of venture capital dollars with minimal focus on monetizing their amazing technology. Their first step to make Google profitable was to license their search to other big Internet companies. They had marginal success, but then the world of advertising opened to Google's consciousness. Their simple text only target ads that directly relate to the search results reported to the searcher. This shift in focus and specific verifiable ads allowed advertisers to spend money to garner attention to a product/service that lead to sales and also made Google madly profitable.

Soon afterward, Larry and Sergey became billionaires and shifted Google from a privately held company to the biggest IPO in Silicon Valley's history. That's as far as I gotten. It's a good read, check it out.

Last night I went on a little hike on a dark and rainy night...and 9 other people came with me. So what does that say about them...Or me? It was cold and everyone got soaked, but they seemed to have fun which was the whole point. I got another 4 bricks up to Tiger Mt. It was really fun.

Sickness = Reading

Miles Run:122.9

Miles Biked:85.99
Total Miles:208.89
Stadium Stairs Run*:2244
Steep Steps Run*:1340
Days to Rainier:108
Summit Team:8
Aspirin Tablets:42

Woke feeling like crap today, called in sick to work. So I read all of Steinbeck's The Pearl and 1/3 of Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America while trying not to think of throwing up. After recovering, I ran 7.07 miles.

Blog Outline:

I. Preparing to Build

II. Wedding

III. Night Hike

IV. Steven's Pass

V. The Pearl

VI. Democracy in America

VII. Super Awesome Good News

I. Week before last I was assigned the fun task of reading a book and summarizing it as part of my internship. The title was Preparing to Build. So I got to learn about how a church can first perform a successful feasibility study, set specific building goals, identify a specific vision, communicate this vision to the church body, raise funds, and then search for the land, designer, and builder for the new building. The non-disclosure forms I happily signed before beginning my internship deny me the pride-inducing revelation of why this book needed to be "cliff-noted" for the elders, but it's pretty sweet. I really appreciated learning and being honored to prepare this doc.

II. Two of my friends got married week before last, so I shaved off my beard and threw on my tux and shades. When I showed up to the wedding, only those who have spent a lot of time with me knew me (mainly just my community group). The rest who had just seen me around or briefly conversed with me didn't recognize me. I introduced myself to everyone as "Tony." I was amazed how many people bought the jesting false identity.

III. Two weeks ago I held my first group hike of 2011. I took 10 people up to the top of Tiger Mountain #2 and then on to #3. We gained and lost 2272 feet on our 4.56 mile round-trip. One of our hikers had some problems with her calf cramping up. But other than that we has great weather and even enjoyed 6 inches of wet snow on top of Tiger #2. The night started in dense fog, but we hiked above the clouds and saw out to a 25 mile horizon across the Kent valley to Federal Way from Tiger #2 and across Issaquah to Bellevue from Tiger #3. Check out the elevation profile:

(Kinda looks like a face...)

IV. Ronda in my community group invited the entire group up to her ex-husband's cabin in the mountains off highway 2. I got to meet him. You know how when you hear someone's story about how much a jerk someone else is, you think, "yeah, yeah everyone seems right until the other side is heard." We'll Ronda's side of the story was right. The cabin was amazing with a sweet pool table and being placed right on a river was blessed with a smooth continuous stream of conscious interrogatives from acqua pura punctuated rarely by the roar and whistle of a passing Northern Pacific train. I even got to ski! I really enjoy skiing; it is my favorite winter activity. The top of Steven's Pass Ski Resort is 5584ft. By weak-minded, stubborn, milquetoast blindness, I followed Lisa, Mackenzie, and David up to the peak which has only diamond and double diamond ski-runs to allow escape from such an alpine penitentiary. I crashed, slipped, and careened all morning until lunch with the CG, after which I gained more confidence and started cutting a decent rug on the snow-laced dance runs. A great weekend.

V. The Pearl by John Steinbeck is a masterpiece of a parable with apparent subtle hints of Marxian economics. However when you look deeper, Steinbeck's heart is dreadfully wounded by the plight of the poor in all times and in all places. He spent months in Baja California and made numerous friends with the poor locals of Mexico whose families had lived under subjugation for generations. For those who have read The Jungle, a fictional narrative starring Jurgis Rudkus, (blatantly false yet powerfully moving) written by Upton Sinclair, we all resonate with the passion to rise up and defend those who are taken advantage of and oppressed economically. I would argue that this sense of objective justice come from Jesus, God, who set THE knowledge of righteousness in every man's heart (though many intentionally pervert it). The Story of Kino, his wife Juana, and their infant Coyotito revolves around a poor family stricken by circumstance who are blessed with the gift of a singularly amazing pearl. They dream of all the innocent improvements that the money from the sale of the pearl will bring, little Coyotito can be the first one in the family to be educated; he can find out what is really in those books that the wealthy men speak of. They are plagued by thieves and cruel men intent on cheating them of this gift. Kino kills four men and looses his son all due to the greed the pearl inspires, the ending is very anti-climactic and left me facing my own greedy, wanton, fleshly desires to yearn for the precious. During the same time, J.R.R. Tolkien was writing his Lord of the Rings saga. These two stories show the all-too-twisted human nature that will go to any length to acquire the promise of a changed life...changed not on God's terms but rather on the self's terms. I guess I am confessing that I am a bit like the pearl dealers, Smeagol, and even Kino. Buy what is my great Pearl? Maybe it's my self-sufficiency or my desire for control over my life or my pursuit of comfort.

VI. I just brushed the surface of A. de Tocquville's political treatise on America in the 1830s, so I can't really comment on it, but I like his pursuit of objectivity in addressing the topic of what makes America tick.

VII. Oh what is the Great Super Awesome News? Well I am finally a master!!!!

No, I can't move objects using the mythical Force, shoot blue lightening from my fingertips, and fight impossible enemies with a light sabre, but I can crunch numbers faster than an African Swallow can carry a coconut to England so Monty Python can make weird little jokes about it.

In short I have just graduated from the University of Washington with a Master's Degree in Economics.

yeah!

Neurons and Necrobiosis

Miles Run:80.82

Miles Biked:85.99
Total Miles:166.81
Stadium Stairs Run*:2244
Steep Steps Run*:1340
Days to Rainier:131
Summit Team:9.55
Aspirin Tablets:42

Some philosophers have speculated that heaven is only the brains oxygen-deprived neurons firing and the mass release of serotonin resulting in euphoria and random visual free-associations allowing the soon-to-be deceased to accept the end of days. That's of course retarded[1]. But perhaps these scholars are partially right. Perhaps when the brain is dying it fires everything it's got, throws the rum and gunpowder and cannons and the livestock and the 2nd lieutenant[2] all overboard and runs the sails to the braces.

To me running is dying, at least it feels like that. Could be why I hate running... I have had an occasion or two in my life where death was certain yet failed to materialize and running brings those to mind.

So I just got back from my longest run yet (8.77 miles) and it came 40 hours after my previous longest run ever (8.61 miles). By sheer force of God, I managed one leg of continuous running that spanned 4.71 miles.

So in light of nearly two hours of an oh-so-lovely semi-hypoxic brain (where philosophers speculate our heaven-halucinations are manufactured), what did my 2.9 pound lump of spongy mush spit out?

• "The enemy's gate is down"
• "Will the real John Galt please stand up, please stand up, please stand up..."
• "Bonfire...with friends...that dude rocks...cheers mate, enjoy your beer"
• "I wonder if I could kick Benjamin Franklin's butt in a chess match?"
• "I always voted at my party's call, and I never thought of thinking for myself at all, I thought so little they rewarded me, by making me the ruler of the Queen's Navy!"
• "Where did Fermat's logic break down in his correct yet blind assertion that (a^n)+(b^n)=c^n for all integers greater than 2?"
• "If an arrogant man is humiliated in the forest, does someone somewhere laugh at him?"
• "Whatever doesn't kill you only makes you weaker, so the next thing can"
• "Is there a file on me with the USSS over that little Romney 22lr incident?"

Ain't neuron necrobiosis grand?

________

1 - Please forgive my crude insult to men educated beyond their own intelligence. They are making a blatant mistake by relying on blind faith that they own collection of neurons is a trustworthy tool for proper perception and analysis. It ain't.

2 - Often seen as the least desirable military officer by the enlisted, the 2nd Lieutenants know enough tactics to get their men into trouble, but haven't had the same level of field training as the average grunt. As such, they tend to be outcasts from both the enlisted and higher ranked officers.

Progress or Death

Miles Run:72.05

Miles Biked:85.99
Total Miles:158.04
Stadium Stairs Run*:2244
Steep Steps Run*:1340
Days to Rainier:132
Summit Team:9.55
Aspirin Tablets:42

This week I had a conversation on the topic of organizational effectiveness, missional relevance, and what death looks like in an human institution. David provided some great insight and helped me to flesh out my own version of the Theory of the Firm.
During my time at Hillsdale College, I explored the strict Austrian view of Industrial Organization. They relied on the assumptions of human self-interest and the predictability of the natural desires for personal advancement. These desires in a properly architected organization can theoretically lead to the organization's benefit, the individual's benefit, and an expansion in overall production in the broader economy. Now how does this apply to the Security Team at the West Seattle Campus of Mars Hill Church?
I am blessed with the chance to serve with amazing folks in West Seattle who sacrifice their time to serve coffee, assist people's parking, and image Jesus.
So in an organization like Mars, what does a well-crafted system look like?
My conclusions, which have been heavily influenced by a bit of reading in this field, is that there are three phases in any organization: innovation, management, and death. In the innovation stage, the organization is infused with a vision of what can be done and pursues it. In the management phase the mission is accomplished, the passion is depleted, and the third phase is irrevocably imminent. When I say death, I mean that the organization still exists, but no progress is possible with current systems, the size will continue to dwindle, and though it may take 40 years (until all the people die off) there is only futile, stubborn mediocrity leading to closure.
Let's do a case study! The U.S. Postal Service. Back before letter carriers (calling them mail-men is not politically correct) decided to shoot people at random (40 people have been shot by on-duty USPS employees in the last 28 years), this organization was founded with enthusiasm to serve America in a noble profession. Benjamin Franklin[1] started a small-scale postal service in Philadelphia, 1775. After incorporation into the government under the newly ratified Constitution, the Post Office Department was created in 1792. So where has the institution come since some bright-eyed young men started delivering grandmother's birthday cards to young Philadelphia school children?

Well, as reported in the 2009 historical table from President Obama's Executive Office (Page 61) [2] the Postal Service will lose another $4.5 Billion this year and over $5 billion by next year. I find it humorous that USPS brags about its self-sufficiency...except for the little $4+ billion a year it has to borrow from the goventment because it is an obese organization. A brief survey of future initiatives laid down by Patrick R. Donahoe (the current PMG) shows management is the current phase of the organization. Their is no vision for the future, no innovation. The organization exists to continue its own existence. Basically, the organization is bound to slowly die over generations because it has no purpose, no passion.

Look around your neighborhoods (if you live in Seattle), there are a ten managerial/dying churches for every one innovative church[3]. So what does this look like in WS? Well, every team at Mars is designed to be a missional entity looking to share the gospel. We are totally flexible in the way to organize the teams; when a better idea comes along we adapt. Each leader under my oversight is free to direct their team as they desire (providing they still respect the aforementioned timeless truths. When a new leader is raised up, the first thing I tell them is, "Look for your replacement" because leading is not about getting a comfy role and then stagnating; it's about passionately pouring into others so they become better disciples of Jesus. If there is a highly-talented person on any team, we grab them, pour into them, and raise them up to lead as their abilities and gifts enable them. We look for new ideas to contextualize the message to our neighborhoods; we have a stated goal for a church campus of 2,000 people. (BTW that would put our little campus of Mars Hill into the top 400 churches nation-wide) I believe if we reach 2,000 folks and say, "Sweet, we have arrived, let's take a breather", then we have failed. We cannot give up progress and die. We must continually innovate even though it will certainly be uncomfortable, hard, unpopular, and exhausting.

Speaking of exhausting, my awesome cousin Tanya is running her second Marathon tomorrow. It is the 33rd Annual Napa Vally Marathon. She is amazing.

My training this week is a mere spark compared to the bonfire of a marathon, but I managed 21.31 miles in three runs including my longest run to date covering more than eight-and-a-half miles. I found out that the ringing in my ears is likely due to aspirin. So my fun pill statistic may be soon sacked. My internship is fun and challenging and I got a chance to work with the newest census data just released this week. Very cool. Oh...and now I have footnotes!

_______________________

1 - He was the biggest name is chess in Colonial America. Very Cool. I highly recommend his autobiography

2 - http://www.gpoaccess.gov/usbudget/fy09/pdf/hist.pdf

3 - innovative is intended to convey a forward-looking passionate goal setting that is based on timeless truths in scripture, not a whoring (Jesus' words not mine) church who is trying to draw a crowd but doesn't care about truth.

Ruth's True Grit

No Stats!
So the movie True Grit...It is the latest Coen Brother's film (I have enjoyed their Oh Brother Where Art Thou?). I saw Grit last week with Greg (can believe I haven't seen that guy in 7 months! Dang, time just slips away sometimes. I need to warn you, I watched the movie with an empty stomach, so my recollections could be completely fallacious. My typically jarring and disonant style will be even more cacophonous than normal due to the distance between my viewing of the film and this review.

"This review"...now that's funny. This is not a review; this is a string of vaguely related memories and incongruent references to other movies, places, and books, so without further mumblings, I give you TRUE GRIT:
The movie opens with this quote "The wicked flee when none pursueth."-Proverbs 28:1. This can be taken two ways, either the pursuers are of no consequence or there are no good people in the movie and all are fleeing from nothing.
The story is of a little (in years but not in guts and common sense) girl whose father is murdered by a field hand who has a long history of murder and theft. She goes to town to see to her father's affairs. We are introduced to Mattie Ross when she goes to see the man who her father had just bought some ponies from. She negotiates through tortious-threat and continual appeals to his self-interest and totally dominates the negotiations getting an amazing deal for the loss of her father's horse stolen by Chaney, her father's killer. It is obvious that she is tough and very intelligent from this point (she reminds me of two people who have crossed my road, that blend of steel and love is rare). She nets $300 which enables her to hire Rooster Cogburn a man who she says has "True Grit". He is an alcoholic marshall for hire who over the course of his colorful career admitted to killing 24 men bound by law. He is a man lacking any ruth. Which coincidentally is a book I just read. Are their subtle literary and socio-political parallels between this ancient text and the post-modern telling of a 1870 tale of justice? Well...Um...since you are the one who asked...Now remember you are at fault for asking...Not me...I have no blame in this, but here goes:
In Ruth, there is a man named Boaz. He dares to redeem the widow Ruth who is a foreigner who was converted to the Hebrew faith, loyally served her destitute mother-in-law Naomi, and traveled a long distance to a strange new land in hopes of fresh opportunity. The whole story is one of the faithfulness of God and the redemption of a desperate woman from tragedy into the most important family line in history. You see she is the great great...great grand mother of Jesus the Christ. The whole book is a slow progression starting with the sad death of Naomi's two sons and the resulting poverty. Through several unlikely and providential events Boaz enters the scene and serves and defends the women until at the very end (right when you ask, "Okay that was a nice story but what is the point?") the curtain is pulled back and we see that this Ruth is the grandmother of King David.
In True Grit, this young "Ruth" faces a horrible tragedy with stolid determination. Her father's money is stolen, her provider and protector is gone. She travels from the family's distant homestead to town in hopes of setting things to right. The whole system is against her, the sheriff says the criminal is long gone into the winderness of the indian lands and is unlikely to be brought to justice. She doggedly pursues justice and finds an unlikely "Boaz" in the one-eyed marshall. She hires him and by pure courage joins him in the pursuit of justice for her father. A Texas ranger, who is also in the hunt for Chaney the murderer, crosses their path (played by Matt Damon a drawling caricature of the Lone Star's gunslingers). They work to track the evil doer and serve justice at the point of a six-gun. Through purely providential means they find Chaney and his gang. The first of the movie's three climaxes shows the marshall facing down four armed men alone in an open field. Up to this point, the stories he has told Mattie seem like braggadocious hubris. But we see the true grit of this man when he charges all four outlaws on horse back with reigns in his teeth and a big iron in each fist. He kills three and the fourth shoots his horse down pinning the lawman. The shot-up ranger sights in his "Sharp's Carbine...a weapon of uncanny power and precision" and shoots the last outlaw from 300 yards. Mattie finds herself confronting her father's killer and delivers a first-class ticket to God's judgement courtesy of Sharp's carbine.
The second climax of the film comes when Rooster runs a horse to death at knife-point to save Mattie's life (the audience's reaction to the "animal cruelty" was odd, either the horse dies or Mattie dies, why did everyone gasp when the horse is run to death to save her life?)
In the end, Mattie's pursuit of justice is satisfied, Marshall Cogburn saves her life, and the underlying metaphor of redemption is hammered again and again.
The cinematography was okay; the hard feel of the film was reinforced by the cold and desolate landscapes used for a back drop. The best part of the film was the dialog, it was clipped and verbose (yes they are antonyms) yet deeply cynical and darkly hilarious. This movie is not the Coen's best but entertaining.

Inception

So today I had the privilege of spending time with some great folks from the West Seattle Campus of Mars Hill. We all went out to the U. District Campus to enjoy the Movie Inception and Cinemagogue's theological take on this fine piece of cinematic philosophy. The metanarrative master's (Pastor Harleman) discussion of subjective reality explored the very curious yet blatantly obvious fact that the question "Did the top stop spinning?" is totally irrelevant. Here are some of my subjective recollections of Harleman's main points:

(1)Viewed from another perspective, one can see that Saito was actually breaking into Cobb's mind. Notice how Saito just happens to appear in Madras with the rescuing car, he has seemingly unlimited power to but an airline in the middle of a conversation, and he is the cause of Cobb's catharsis with both his children and his dead wife.

(2)Without an external and infallible person who knows all, there can by definition be no truly objective reality. Christopher Nolan (the director) focuses all his films on this premise. There is no objective reality, or at least no one can access it. In Memento, Guy Pierce's character has no short-term memory, so he relies on tattoos and photographs to interpret his perceived reality through. The story shows how fallible even relying on hard facts can be. Inception takes that idea and goes 10 steps further. What if you were able to enter someone's dreams and interact with them? What if you did such a good job of this that true life outside of the dream (we'll call this "reality") became hard to discern? What if you lost track of what was real and what was a dream? In many ways that gray area is precisely where we live everyday. What is objectively true? Does you spouse really truly love you? Or are you making a best guess based on your experience and what they have told you? Are even your memories of life trustworthy? These sorts of questions build a healthy paranoia don't they?


(3)In the Prestige (another Nolan Film), Michael Caine's character (Cutter) says, "Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called "The Pledge". The magician shows you something ordinary...Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn". The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it, because of course you're not really looking. You don't really want to know. You want to be fooled." This reaction in each of our minds pulls us toward an idealized (or perhaps more palatable) reality where "truth" is forgotten. We all yearn for a subjective reality...Christian's call this original sin. We all want to live in a world where we can be our own god; where we have monopoly on what is real and what is not. For me, that is why I love to dream. As an amateur lucid dreamer, I have enjoyed the subjective reality of my own semi-conscious mind and the seeming omnipotence it offers.

(4)Cypher in the Matrix decided that whatever feels real is real. "If I have to choose between [reality] and the Matrix, I choose the Matrix." Some folks recognize that objective reality depends on an external hero but say that subjective reality is more than enough to live a full life. Cypher agrees.

There were many other intriguing insights from P. Harleman but you guys should have attended if you wanted to hear them. Too bad for you.
One final note before I try to sleep. A friend of mine who you can read about HERE recently renewed a debate I have had within my mind regarding a grand unified theory of everything. (No not quite the GUT) rather a consistent view of my own life, economic theory, and a more general sociological theory of mankind. She pointed me to a man by the name of John Robbins. He launches a fair-minded attack on my favorite economist Ludwig von Mises (coincidentally I have spent dozens of hours in Mises personal library whilst at Hillsdale College). Robbins points out the difficulty acknowledged by Misses, "Those divines [Theologians] who saw that nothing but revelation could provide man with perfect certainty were right. Human scientific inquiry cannot proceed beyond the limits drawn by the insufficiency of man's senses and narrowness of his mind." (He then goes on to explain causal indeterminance and all the annoying things in economics which have caused me to slam my head against my keyboard through the long nights of grad school.) The admission that those folks with a red line to the man upstairs seem to own objective truth seems hollow. I mean in mathematics there are such things as a limiting argument where a function never reaches a given threshold. Couldn't humanity be similar under a purely subjective world view, each day getting closer to objective truth but never reaching it? I appreciate Robbins views but dang guy. Maybe I have been to well indoctrinated by my Austrian professors. I want to be both a Christian and an rationalist economist.

Oh and Read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead y'all. She is a fascinating story telling and straight-up Austrian (maybe).

New Developments and Old Recollections

I haven't posted here in a long time and I honestly can't give a reason why. I had many more adventures after my time at the Wolf Ski Resort yet I have not put the proverbial pen to paper.
Just to get myself going, I'll recount all the events since my triumphant return to Seattle.

1. I resumed serving at Mars Hill Church both on Sunday and during the week. As of right now I am responsible for leading a 16 member team that serves communion to about 900 people every Sunday during the 7:15pm service in Ballard. I am also responsible for running the Thursday night Campus Cleanup where I lead a variable size team (as few as 8 and occasionally as many as 20) in the task of cleaning a 50,000 sqft building, so that it is all ready for weekly events. These two tasks are immensely stretching for me. I am a quiet and self-absorbed anti-social guy who is totally at home in the corner of a coffee shop. Instead God has called me to lead people in a way that glorifies Christ. I feel like I don't do this very well (or as well as I should), but for whatever reason both those teams are doing rather well. I also serve on Security at the West Seattle Campus of Mars (I dig a church that has bouncers...so that all the little kids are safe and the body is protected).

2. I built a deck and now am finishing up by laying the decking material and railings. The project passed inspection so an underpaid overworked city of Seattle building inspector thinks I did a decent job (for whatever that's worth).

3. I house sat for my grand parents and enjoyed the resumption of my road trip's near constant isolation for a mere 7 days.

4. I have been training in earnest for an upcoming Mt. Rainier Hike and a Mt. Adams Summit. 20 mile sprints in the saddle out to Alki and back (420ft to 0ft and back up). Man I remember Dave's sweet bike and am filled with an envy as I chugg along with my 21 speed mountain bike. Calisthenics have help too and I'm in great shape as I look forward to summer.

5. I have geared up by buying an ice axe, new mountaineering boots, and gaiters.

6. I have played tour guide to some Mars Hillians from Albuquerque and my Buddy Andy from Portland.

7. I have read by the pound: Anathem by Neal Stephenson, Adventures with Charley by Steinbeck, Thinking Beyond Stage One by Thomas Sowell, Doctrine by Mark Driscoll, Luke (4 times) by Luke, On the Road by Kerouac, and the 9-part series by Orson Scott Card (Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Giant, Ender in Exile, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind)

So I have been busy, but I feel idle. That makes me feel uneasy. I can't rest. Sabbath is not my normal state.

Ok now I've shaken off the hesitation in writing so now I'll write about what happened after the Wolf. Excuse me let me turn on Mogwai, so my mind is clear...