Yes for now we are living in the ‘burbs however my thirst for adventure is never far away. One can respond to it 2 ways… become disillusioned by being in the ‘burbs (don’t get me wrong, i am very thankful for a roof over my head) or you can respond and go find adventure.

Last night i got to ‘feed my worm’ or satisfy that penchant for adventure. Yes even here in suburban Raleigh. As previously mentioned there is a large State Park (SP) nearby. In fact i can ride there in about 20mins. On the other side of this said SP there is a patch of woods i recently discovered packed full of sweet MTB trails!!! My discovery of them was a few weeks back while on foo,t running. While that experience lead to me “getting lost”… well not really i knew i would eventually find the end i was running for about 2hrs more than i needed to that day. Yvon Chouinard once said “True adventure doesn’t begin until things start going wrong”.

Anyways… i rode over there last night in the dark, snuck through the SP which is supposed to be closed by 6pm at this time of year and hit these new found trails for some night mountain biking on some even sweeter trails. First let me say this whole thing about eh SP being closed, i saw at least 4 other people biking and 3-4 more running whilst i rode through. Then once i got to the trails it was lit up like a Christmas tree… well thats an exaggeration but needless to say i was not alone biking. There were lots of other folks out riding the trails with various handlebar & helmet/headlamp lights. I prefer both. A supper bright 700 lumens light for my handle bars and a headlamp on my helmet which gives me the freedom to look around and not just the direction of my wheels from the bike mounted light.

Rode back and got my fix for adventure in the cool night air of Raleigh. However more importantly kept my life interesting and full of adventure. This experience will be participated in again. This SP has become a real asset to me, so much so that i’m probably there 6-7 times a week. I know Robin enjoys running there too and when we take Cora on a real run, this is her place of choice. Off the leash, bush-whacking through the woods with me. I know i will be back there this afternoon but really looking forward to Sunday when there is another orienteering even there, this once is more advanced so will be even more fun.

This afternoon i got to participate in a past time i haven’t been able to do since racing World AR Champs in France this past September… orienteering. Of course this was on a lot smaller scale and involved being on foot and nothing else.

What was more exciting was that Robin came and raced with me. The event was nearby at the local state park (where i have spent a lot of time recently). We drove down there after coming home from church and hastily eating sme lunch. Our goal for the event was to spend some time in the woods together. Not racing, but brushing up on my navigation skills and teaching Robin about it and allowing her to navigate.

We decided on the 4.2km course and set out on ad adventure. Robin did great, quickly adapting to the uneven terrain and the decision for us to not use trails or roads, only to cross them. Soon she was leading us from point to point oreinting the map, determining the right heading, following it, and interpreting the landforms and topography around us… Needless to say i am very proud. It was a great day to outside, even warming up into the 70’s.

We almost lost track of time, i’m guessing because our goal was to spend time in the woods… When i did look at my watch i realized we only had 20mins left before the course cut off and we still had 2 points to get. At that point after a quick discussion our comptetitive sides kicked up and we turned it up a notch because neither of us wanted a DNF.

We made it with 7mins to spare and got ALL the checkpoints, had a fun day in the woods, brushed up on nav skills and spent some quality time together.

Short answer, YOU CAN’T!!! Try it, you will fail.

last week i read and heard a story about one of the actors on the TV Show ‘Two & A Half Men’ essentially ripping all aspects of the show, from its plot, its content and everything in-between. Referring to the show as ‘filth’. I do not want to speak for anyone so here you can read it for yourself.

http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/26/angus-t-jones-of-two-and-a-half-men-my-show-is-filth/

WOW, quite a barrage of words from one who appears to be ‘biting the hand that feeds him.’ But wait… About 24hrs later  this appeared.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/27/showbiz/angus-jones-two-and-a-half-men/index.html

What does all this say, or as i see it. The responses & comments posted by people following the article are mostly directed towards what constitutes a cult etc. However i see more than this. Here is an example of a YA or youth challenged by verbal communication. A hastily spoken comment or point of view, that just happened to ‘go viral’ as they say and then followed quickly with some big back-peddling. I wonder  if the same ‘covering his @ss’ comments would have happened if it didn’t go viral?

As i said above i see more than the debate over what is a cult etc but an increasingly common occurrence amongst YA’s. Verbal communication is increasingly a challenge. Sure we all know how to talk, I’m not suggesting it’s about that or that bad. Or to disappear from our whole existence but there appears to be an increasing absence of the tact and sensitivity that goes hand in hand with it verbal communication. Don’t get me wrong, i get being blunt, and to the point. However something is changing or an old framework that worked for centuries is disappearing,  a skill that existed for a long time has been attacked by the text happy world we live in. Those rules don’t apply in the text happy world and when the opportunity to verbally communicate occurs the toothpaste principle often applies.

Reminds me of the movie Wal-E…  where we as humans stopped using our legs and therefore exercise and became really obese.  But the humans in the movie adapted and created floating machines so walking was no longer necessary.

You could argue that we should adapt… human/social evolution etc. We don’t use tape cassettes now, or we know that certain medicine back in the day once thought of as good, is now. Or women can vote, we try to refer to people with disabilities as ‘person 1st, disability 2nd.’ Therefore why can’t we adapt to use verbal communication less and begin to remove it from our existence. Why because its fundamental to our existence and don’t see it becoming “…soooo 2000-&-late…” as the Black Eyed Peas  song refers to (i partly wrote this to not take myself too seriously). Written word, doesnt express the nuance that spoken does, & this story is a really good example of a YA who hasn’t had enough opportunities to verbally express not only words but words that convey nuance, and themes, trends, metaphors etc. Then when he had the opportunity and platform look what happened.

Why write about this… verbal communication increasingly a challenge to YA’s and younger. I do not have evidence to support this. It’s all culture watching and anecdotal. However if nothing else this speaks to me that as we meet each other in the middle with ministry and more. Listening and taking time to be patient with one another is becoming more and more important.  Hand in hand with verbal communication and listening on the way out. Someone once took the time to listen to you, and me and we. Therefore what a great opportunity we have to respond in another way, through only listening but also reinvigorating the beauty of verbal communicaton.

Why is it…?

Tomorrow the movers come to pick up our stuff!!! YIKES- there is no backing out now, we are all in as they say. So tonight is the night before…

We say good-bye to many of our clothes.

I say goodbye to many of my kayaks & surf ski (sob sob)

Robin says goodbye to many of her crosses in her collection

I say goodbye to many of my bikes… well that’s not entirely true, i am taking all of them. The only 1 that’s staying has already rightly so been left at Calvin Center. We left there over a month ago and appropriately left it in the woods. This was my ‘camp bike’ my ‘beater bike’. But it’s there hidden for you to find if you so wish. Hopefully adding to the other legends and stories at Calvin Center that include The Secret Tree, & ‘Will’s bike’ also hidden in the woods somewhere (i know where), or the ‘4th Tree’, mysteriously shaped like the # 4.

Anyways, lots of goodbyes to stuff for a few months. They say it will take about 60 days to get to NZ. Leaving from Charleston SC, down the coast, through the Panama Canal, across the Pacific Ocean to NZ. We aren’t taking everything, because it’s REALLY expensive to do this. However lots of items for adventure and exploring. Because ultimately that’s what Robin & I are doing… we are going on an adventure.

On another note, i have often found many parallels between Adventure Racing (AR) and Life, and Faith. This process in the past few days has been one of them.

The reality is that moving, packing, boxing up, taping up stuff, padding things for safety (You should see how much bubble wrap is around my surf ski!!!) takes a long time and it is very over-whelming at times. Sounds like AR. Often when you start a section in an AR race you have no idea how long it will take (personally i like to either over-estimate, so i can be pleasantly surprised or know not to ask whoever is navigating so i don’t flip out when i here “… oh about 18hours” or “…take enough food for 36hrs”. Preparing the boxes etc is the same. You have no idea how long it will take, and don’t want to ask or over-estimate so that you will be surprised if you get done early.

You just have to keep going, and moving forward. Packing and AR, similar in many ways… who would have thought.

In the past 29hrs we made a very quick trip to Charleston SC. We drove down thursday morning, after waking up at a B&B that we stayed at Wednesday night as my gift to Robin for her birthday.

We went to Charleston because Robins Aunt Garnette has bought her beloved Honda Element and so we had to deliver it…. very brief road trip. The trip down was lame b/c we had to drive separate vehicles of course, but the trip back today was together in the only vehicle we own now… my truck. We had a great time with Garnette & Brian and Caitlin.

Now there was another opportunity to this whole trip to Charleston also. Charletson is near the ocean, & ocean mean fun, and fun means take the surf ski. So we did. We got there early enough yesterday that i paddled last night right around sun set and this morning. Woo-hoo. Finally got to take my ski out on the ocean. It was a blast, out in the wave, playing. Water wasn’t too cold either. cold enough for a wetsuit and paddle jacket though.

Back in Raleigh now. Tomorrow driving about an hour to do a 14mile trail run race. Ouch, this might hurt. Then need to really start condensing things down as we pack and hopefully decide what company to use to ship our stuff, which could be gone as early as next wednesday for the many day journey across the world to NZ.

Photos below are from our B&B joint and the beach… of course.

As i prepare to leave the USA and move home for a while i cannot help but reflect on living with Americans for slightly over a decade. I’m sure that people back home will ask me that in conversation. Reality is, that’s a very difficult question to answer.

That said the other day in church i was tapping away on my phone lots of ideas i hope to put here someday. It’s not that the sermon was boring either.

Where we lived in Georgia there was a major road about 4 miles from camp. Commonly known as 1941. When it really is HWY 19/41, or should i say HWY 19 & 41, or should i say HWY 19 & 41 & 3, or should i say HWY 19 & 41 & 3 & Tara Blvd. But wait go a few minutes down this road and it becomes HWY 19 & 41 & 3 & Bear Creek Blvd. It changed names, i don’t remember making a turn onto another road. This is the same piece of road i was on about 30 seconds ago. Did i miss something? We are on the same piece of road aren’t we?

Why is it that the same piece of road has at least 4 names, only to have one of them change to something else, then if you wait 5 minutes it will change again. I get that the numbering has something to do with county, state & federal roads and the different numbering systems they use. Which in turn at times relates to who pays for the up-keep and reconstruction. But come on, 4 names. Trying to explain all these road names and titles to someone can be exhausting. Probably why HWY 19 & 41 & 3 & Tara Blvd is commonly referred to as ‘1941’. Good job Hwy 3 doesn’t have feelings because it always seems to be left out. I bet if people started saying “it’s over on HWY 3” or “its over on 3” you would be met with blank stares and looks of, where on earth is that?

Recently i worshipped at a church and viewed that they had a 9.30 contemporary worship service called ‘Epic’. I immediately thought of what epic means to me. And i understand that we all have a different comprehension of words. For example a long easy enjoyable run for me, might seem like complete misery to someone else.

That said my mind quickly moved onto this. What is the focus of this worship service. But more importantly what is the reason behind the name. I suspect its to attract a younger population. Why do we in the church have to slap names on things , or attach a title to a new program or event, or label a new initiative. What do we hope to achieve with that? Will it make it more attractive to a Young Adult (YA)? more enticing to go because of a hip, hardcore name. i wonder. Does using the title Epic mean a bunch of dirt-bag snow boarders going to start showing up. Or more importantly what would happen if they did.

IMO as humans we are all looking for a few things in life (& i know I’m getting way deep here). However besides Maslow’s accurate little triangle, we are looking for someone to listen to us, and for our voice to be heard. Not to provide answers, solutions, but listen. For  many of us its difficult to do that… Listen, because we want to fix, repair, make right, and move on to the next problem. Someone once said we have 2 ears & 1 mouth so we should listen twice as much as we speak. or put another way “The person who listens two times more than they speak should be listened to twice as  much.”

It appears to me that just listening is difficult for all of us, because it doesn’t fulfill our desire to fix, repair etc. We want it to be black or white, not grey. Or as i read recently in my good friends’ Stephen Ingram’s book “Hollow Faith: How Andy Griffith, Facebook & the American Dream Neutered the Gospel”. “So often we avoid the complexity of the grey for the safe refuge of black and white.”

By slapping a name on it allows us to dictate terms, the rules. Why on earth would the church want to do that when it already has an image problem with YA’s. “The church is the only organization that shoots its wounded.” Furthermore substitute the word organization for institution and now you are really talking about YA’s and they almost allergic reaction to something. Without  putting them in a pigeonhole YA’s are notoriously known for their mistrust of institutions, & who can blame them. Church, government, marriage, banks… all have failed them or people close to them. Unfortunately we have repackaged these institutions with fancy new names like Epic & … when really its result has been similar to the expression “… rearranging chairs on the Titanic!”

What should we be focussing on then? a fancy name? What should we be creating instead? Opportunities for them to be heard. However therein lies an opportunity for us to live in the grey and be comfortable with it. We want to reach out, and do ministry and evangelism (& I somewhat type that word cautiously) but its on our terms, When often we need re-educating too.

And guess what. Going to a workshop on how to reach YA wont help either. Training is not required. The only training required is to become a good listener. The almost forgotten art form, in a world of written/text/posting comment communication & talking over and interrupting one another listening has been relegated to the backseat of communication sitting right next to hand written letters. Of course i’m speaking to myself here, as i too daily strive to be a better listener. Being labelled a great listener is IMO the highest compliment one could be paid.

As for responding & reaching out to YA’s, no answer required or requested just listen to them. However a word to you YA’s too. This doesn’t mean you get to rant on about the rampant narcissism that is associated with your generation either. As we listen first we get to push back too.

Often we hear that our faith is a journey and we are called to live comfortably within the mystery of that. Or “make friends with mystery” as Robin has said over and over. If the journey metaphor is true then why of earth hasn’t this same concept reach YA ministry yet. Seemingly all we can do is respond with starting something that we control and dictate terms on, oh & slap a cool, hip name to it. Fix it and move on to the next challenge.

When really no fancy names are required. Otherwise its the same old institution doing the same old stuff. What’s that definition of insanity. “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different or better results.”  Or… “Hey, lets start this ministry for YA’s, we will use the same old model that worked for Christian Education, worship, etc 20 -30-40 years ago & we will add a cool name, but essentially its the same.”

Forget the fancy name or multiple names like appear on roads, hwy’s, blvds etc. No training required. Just listen.

Why is it…

If you ever move overseas, start early and often on ALL the things that have to be done. Right now its more than a fulltime job. That said many things on that very list have not been able to be started until now. On our radar screen right now are the following…

• Moving stuff… we aren’t taking everything in fact we are taking very little, partly because of cost. This week we are having various companies come to the house to look over our stuff and then prepare a quote. Here’s what we know. Door to door is about 25-35 days. Our stuff will most probably leave from Charleston SC. We hope begin this process by the end of next week. Which means even more sorting of STUFF.
• Booking flights. We still havent done this partly because we haven’t had immigration approval. But now that is completed we can book. And what’s even better we only need to book one-way tickets. Don’t freak out, we do plan on coming back. but coming back is so far our, you cannot book that far. And flying around Christmas is REALLY expensive, therefore it might cost us about the same as a round trip ticket.
• Selling Robin’s car. We have finally found a buyer. Funnily enough there were right under our noses. Robins aunt. Who lives in Charletson SC. So we are driving down there this Thursday to make the hand off. I’m especially becuase i’m going to take my surf ski and go for a paddle in the ocean. The 1st time it would have been in the ocean. We will return on Friday, to then go and run a 14mile trail run race on saturday. We are both looking forward to racing again after a few weeks off. Believe it or not the racing helps with the sanity.
• Robins birthday is wednesday, working on several surprises for her. Of which all she knows now is that this years birthday will be more sentimental. Of which she is totally ok with.
• Our Dog Cora (who is resting up against my body now as i type this) who is coming to NZ too continues to be our biggest challenge right now. arrrgghhhhh. getting some mis-information from the company we are using to get her there. Although today things may have taken a turn for the better after… well all i can say is thank goodness for the power of the second opinion.

Despite all this we are having good times here in Raleigh. My even help out with a YMCA tutoring group that uses Robins childhood church. We are making good use of our time as you can see from the photos below. Paddling this morning in the cold fresh morning air and then this afternoon at a nearby state park.

Yesterday we drove out to the country with Robins parents, brother, aunt & uncle visiting for Thanksgiving to literally spend the day working. We cleaned & repaired gutters. Cleaned windows, pruned shrubs, the list goes on.

It was great to be out on what was perhaps the nicest day of the week. Robins family or McClenny family home (now empty) is located about 1hour east of Raleigh in a little tiny town. the homestead is still in good repair, thanks to the on-going up keep by Robins dad-Bill. The house is surrounded on almost all sides by farmland, which is rented out to local famers to use for crops.

At this time of year the ground in bare with crops or whats left from corn that was harvested now weeks ago. It was good to be out there in the fields and around the home yesterday. Robins has many happy memories of being here as a child and visiting, staying with her grandmother. We had Cora with us also, which meant she got to run and go crazy also.

A good day…

As i read the newspaper (BTW… something i don’t normall do & haven’t in some time. Only participate in this ritual when i’m at Robins parents house)  this morning with my coffee & toast i spent various amounts of time reading stories ranging from the local county district school board considering letting kids out early on wednesday’s. Through to the Egyptian President Morsi facing new protests from the very people that helped elect him. Now accusing him of being Mubarak-like in his leadership and new found uncheck power…as they see it. Also spent a few minutes reading how the NC mens basketball team sneaked past what should have been a easy win against a lesser opponent in UNC-Asheville.

As i read the various stories including the pending fiscal cliff i thought about other more recent “BIG” stories like Syria or the Bengazi Embassy attack, or what happened to that story about…or wasn’t there…

What happended to these stories, i’m sure people are still dying in Syria, or the fiscal cliff gets closer by the day, oh and isn’t there terrible amounts of violence in the Congo. Who decides what happens to these stories? when does it get bumped fromt he front page, or the first 5mins of a news broadcast, or in today’s world no longer becomes a urgent tweet that a media outlet has to push on us. Why is it…?

This may sound twisted but i wonder if President Assad in Syria is breathing a sigh of relief becuase Israel and Palestine are going at it, or Egypt appears to be having ‘issues’. For now all eyes are off Syria and focussing on his middle east neigbhors.

Why is it that those stories have slipped? i know there’s only so many hours in a day, and we can only read so many tweets or click on so many stories, or to be completely old-school turn the page and read so many stories on a newspaper page.

Why is it that media outlets get to decide for me? Or do they, did i decide by not paying enough attention to that story, and you know they can measure what stories you click on and how long you spend on that page. That isn’t even amazing technology nowadays. I think Google Analytics can allow you todo that.

Maybe its not the mainstream media that decides, maybe its us. Maybe they are only responding to what we are finding interesting.

Why is it…?

Today we really started looking for a company to get our stuff to NZ. the joke for woman & I is all we are taking are clothes, Robins books & collection of crosses. AND… my toys… kayaks & bikes.

Anyways we found this great website that you submit your information to & then they send it to various international moving companies and they compete for your business. Almost as soon as i sent the email my phone started ringing.

Talked with various people for whom customer “no service” appeared to be their goal in life. I did have to laugh as one sales person (who was trying hard to make a sale) was chatting with me and i was telling him the back story… moving home… my wife took a job at a church… excited to go… blah blah blah. Then out of the blue the salesperson asks. “Great your wife is a minister… is she a Catholic Priest?”

Insert Crickets Chirping here… Chirp Chirp… Chirp Chirp.

Not trying to be mean, if anything a reflection of society especially young adults.