What happened; why do people dislike Christians so much? I think that in the process of making salvation easy we expected everyone to jump on board - “see it’s easy, you can do it too.”  When not everyone jumped on board we came to the conclusion that there was something wrong with them and we needed to force them to see why they should jump on board - “I’ll beat the gospel into you.”  The problem is not that there is something wrong with people that aren’t evangelical Christians, it’s that as evangelicals we haven’t made a compelling case for why they should be Christians.  As Gandhi said, “I like their Christ, I don’t like their Christians.”  I’m pretty conservative on most things, but at some point we have to stop and realize that being a hard ass isn’t the only, or best, way of getting things done.

What would happen if we actually spoke the truth in love, rather than in spite saying that it’s in love?  What would happen if we actually started living with the courage of conviction that Jesus requires of us?    What would happen if we started to live out that conviction in our churches?  Strip away the prettiness of church culture, the continual talk of blessing and the Christian-ese.  We would be more real, with much less fakeness.  Our problems would be more visible, but I think there would be less of them because we would be more accountable to each other.  I think it would be distinctly different if people hated us for doing so much good in the world, for loving even when it hurts. I doubt we would be seen as heartless or hypocritical.

Our theology must always embody an ethic. That ethic must live in our lives for it to be relevant and right now it doesn’t feel like that ethic is present in our lives. It all comes down to felt expectations – if we don’t feel like we’re expected to do anything more than say a prayer and walk down an isle then that’s what we’ll do.  On the other hand if we feel there are greater expectations that come along with being a Christian, then that’s what we’ll do.

2. Make an ordered list of what you want and don’t want
Finding the church that is best for you is, more often than not, not a matter of luck, but rather the result of an ordered search.  In order to make an ordered search for the proper church you need to know what it is that you’re looking for in a church.  Make two lists, one of what you want in a church and one of what you don’t want and be specific.  Make sure to order both of these in order of what is most important.  It doesn’t matter how you do this, simply that you do it.  On the list of what you want, order it by what is most important to you to whatever is least important.  Do the same with the other list - what you most don’t want followed by things that are less and less important.  You’ll probably need to make some sacrifices, which is why ordering the list is important.

After you visit a church take some time to compare your lists to the church and see how it matches up.  Remember that you want things to match up on the list of things you want and you don’t want things to match up on the things you don’t want.

3. Visit a lot of churches
It is possible that the first church you visit feels great and you don’t see the need to try other churches.  Even if this happens you should still try several more churches.  This is a terrific opportunity for you to experience lots of different traditions and churches.  Even if you don’t end up going to any of the other churches you visit, you will gain valuable experience and knowledge of the churches in your area.  It’s also distinctly possible that you find another church that you like more.  The more churches you visit the better your chances of finding the church that fits you best.

4. Don’t take too much stock in gossip about a church
People talk.  Church people talk a lot.  There are lots of things that are said about churches and pastors that are the result of only partial information.  Even though you may have heard some bad things about a particular church or pastor you should still try that church.  It is possible that the things you have heard are correct, but it by far more likely that they are incorrect or only partially true.  Because of the high likelihood that there is no truth to the rumors, this is your opportunity to find out the truth about what you have heard as well as try on a church and see how it fits you.  In the worst case, the rumors are true and you don’t go back again.  In the best case the rumors are completely false and it’s a great church.

5. Visit the churches you like more than once
Once you have done all of these things, pick out the two or three church that you like the best - that match up to your lists best - and visit them again.  It’s possible that some of the stuff you disliked the first time were only flukes of that first Sunday you visited.  The first couple of times my wife and I visited the church we currently attend the worship leader was not to our liking.  It actually gave us some concern about attending the church, but we liked everything else about the church, so we gave it another try.  It turns out that the worship leader we didn’t like only leads worship once every couple of months.  The regular worship leaders are actually quite to our liking.  If we had not gone back a third time we would have never found that out.  A very similar thing could happen with you.  Perhaps the regular preaching pastor or worship leader is on vacation.  Perhaps you go on a week when something special is happening.  Attending two, three or even four times will help you to get a good feel for how that church works.  This will help you to make the best, most educated choice about your new church.

6. Pray a lot
Lastly, pray about every church you attend.  Pray before you go, pray afterwards, pray when you’re going over your lists, pray while you’re at the church.  God’s plan for the church you are going to attend may not match up with anything you think you want.  Trust God’s guidance as you go through this process.

7. Be patient
Don’t rush the process.  Lots of times people try to rush the process and simply decide to stick with the first church they try.  While this isn’t always a bad thing, it can keep you from finding the right church for you.  By being patient, working the process and listening to God you will find the church that is right for you.  Don’t be afraid of it taking several months to find the right church, because if you take the time you will find a church that you can stick with for years and years.

We are hopefully going to be keeping you posted through this blog on both how this weekend works out and how the rest of the process works.

The end of the summer brought a change in the form of a new job for Sean at Tacoma Weekly newspaper. He was hired to do graphic design and page layout, but as they quickly found out he was able to do web design and photography they started utilizing all his skills. Having this new full-time job made it possible for Sean to end his job at Enterprise as well as cut back his hours at Fircrest Church as youth director. Jen celebrated her five-year anniversary working in the Missions department at Chapel Hill Church and is still loving what she does. Every day is different and full of surprises and occasionally stresses, but it is well worth it to be able to help people serve the poor and hurting in God’s world. Sean decided to fully resign at the church by the end of the year and had his last day there on December 31. It was difficult to leave, especially to say goodbye to the youth group kids, but it was a needed and good change. So, for the first time in our marriage, Sean has only one job and we have only one church to attend. A nice feeling!

We’ve just finished the last of our holidays with our annual New Year’s Eve party. Another great reminder of the wonderful friends we have here, both new and old. Both Thanksgiving and Christmas were spent in Lincoln City, OR this year with Jen’s family. The nieces are getting older and two year old Lily had a great time with the new baby doll that Boppy and Nonna (Jen’s parents) got her for Christmas and six year old Maya continues to beat us all at Match card games.

Even with all this, we’re not quite settled yet. Sean continues to apply to doctroate programs (Duke and Harvard this year) and we await their responses in March. Many plans for our future depend on these decisions so we are trying to patiently enjoy life as it is right now and make plans once we know more. So, again, we’re still a little up in the air, but we’re having fun and look forward to all that will happen in 2007. There could be lots of changes, or not many at all, but we’re ready for anything. God continues to bless our lives with good times with friends and family and with each other and with good jobs that we enjoy. We trust that there are more good things in store. Perhaps not safe, but good.

About 3 hours after we had started we arrived in Yellowstone. A major fire consumed much of Yellowstone several years ago and the effects are still evident. The trees are still pretty thin and there are a lot of charred tree stumps - this was pretty much a constant for most of the trip. On both this trip and the trip through Grand Tetons there was remarkably little wildlife to be seen - this was a disappointment to me, but it’s understandable since we were going through in the middle of the day. In Yellowstone we saw a good number of Bison, a few Bald Eagles and 4 Elk, though we could only see the elk antlers because they were laying in the grass - it was kind of neat looking. We stopped to see some paintpots - areas where underground steam had burst up to make soft clay thus resulting in bubbling clay. There are many areas like this within Yellowstone, but we only stopped to see one set - once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.

We made the required stop to see Old Faithful. We we got there it started to rain - the normal afternoon thunderstorm - unfortunately we had forgotten to bring sweatshirts or raincoats. Fortunately enough < he said sarcastically > Yellowstone has plenty of souvenir shops, so we ran into the one at Old Faithful. Jen didn’t really want to buy a poncho that we’d only use once, so we bought a sweatshirt for me and a rain jacket for her and headed out to see Old Faithful. We had bad timing for to see it, because it went off just before we had arrived, and since Old Faithful is faithfully going off every 90 minutes, we had a 90 minute wait to see the old girl go off. There has been a lot of stuff built up around Old Faithful, which is understandable considering it is the most popular attraction at the park. One of the most spectacular of the man made attractions is the Old Faithful Inn, which is a 4 or 5 story log building. Every floor has an open balcony that you can see from the foyer. There is a huge stone chimney that has a big clock attached to it and it has a huge fireplace that it services. Our 90 minutes past and we got to see Old Faithful erupt, which was quite spectacular. It was kind of funny at the start. The rangers give an estimated time of eruption - in this case it was 10 minutes before or after 6:42 - so people gather in the viewing area starting about ten minutes before. About 6:35 the steam starts to get a bit thicker then a little bit of water shoots up and all of a sudden everyone with a camera, including me, starts taking pictures, then the water goes down and it’s just steaming again. There were two or three of these false starts and every time it got the crowd into a tizzy. Finally at right about 6:40, the real thing happened and it was great. Being that it was now 7:00 we stopped in at the Old Faithful Lodge and had some dinner, then we headed home.

We drove south through the south entrance/exit straight through Grand Teton National Park - since it’s due south of Yellowstone and was the quickest route back home. We saw a pack of elk or caribou in Grand Tetons - unfortunately it was too dark to get a good photo even when I set my camera to 1600 ISO. I got a couple, but they’re kind of blurry. Nonetheless we continued to drive and made it home about 11 p.m. and our tour of two major national parks was complete.

I’ve known for some time that there are some distinctly beautiful places in this country - heck the Puget Sound region that I live in is one of them. I’m glad that I got to see these areas. Grand Tetons was an awe inspiring place, never have I been so in awe of an in animate object as I was standing in the shadow of these mountains. I haven’t seen so much wild open spaces as there was in Yellowstone. It was nice to see so much wild. Being a suburbanite, even one in a granola area like Seattle, the amount of wild that is readily available is limited. A reminder of how this land once looked - even with the paved roads winding through it - was nice. It was indeed a good trip, even though I didn’t get any great epiphanies, which would have been nice, it was relaxing and enjoyable - exactly what a vacation is supposed to be.

It’s about 5 miles between Jackson and the entrance to the park and along the way there are lots of shops and the gas prices spike. One of the more comical places, at least in concept - I don’t know since we didn’t stop in - is the National Museum of Wildlife Art. Now I know that some people reading this are thinking why is that comical. I don’t know exactly, but I do find it somewhat funny that we can create a museum that is completely wildlife art - even more comical is that the current show is the wildlife art of Jackson Pollack.

Nonetheless, as you drive the road to GTNP it’s a pretty bland ordinary mountain road with green mountains on either side of you - it’s pretty, but nothing special. Then you go around a corner and over a hill and the Grand Tetons emerge and you’re struck in awe. Seriously, when I first saw them I couldn’t take my eyes off of them - they’re really that spectacular. We entered the park and had a picnic lunch by a river in the shadow of the Tetons. Then we headed for the Jenny Lake area. When we got there we rented a two person kayak and headed out on the lake to relax and get some really great pictures of the Tetons. The thing about kayaks is that unless your paddle is set up correctly and you’re very good at paddling, you’re going to end up wet - at least some part of you. We got done our little jaunt in the kayak to discover that one half of our shorts were soaked while the other half was completely dry, which made for an interesting sensation, but it was fine.

After that we drove some more - saw a single deer which was the total of our wildlife sightings at the park. We took a few more pictures then headed back home. We stopped off at a place called Bubba’s BBQ. It’s a typical western BBQ place with picnic tables for tables and a limited menu - basically ribs or chicken with some sides, though they do offer a few other things for those not so inclined to eat with their hands. I ordered a combo plate of spare ribs and chicken and Jen got a chicken plate - that was actually half a chicken it was pretty cool. It was good eatin’, if you’re into ribs or BBQ chicken and you find yourself in Jackson you should definitely stop in at Bubba’s. With full stomachs we headed home, back over the pass, to enjoy a restful evening.

Jen’s grandmother (94) and grandfather (92) still live on the family farm that they purchase when they moved Pingree in 1952 from Italy. Not only do they live on the farm, they still work it. Nono (the grandfather) was up every morning tending to the chickens, cows and sheep. Not to mention mending fences and working the small vegetable garden. The farm is about 150 acres and all but about 2 acres of that is hay fields, which a local guy rents out and does the work on. Still Nona (the grandmother) and Nono can be found out working those parts that haven’t been rented out. It’s quite possible that the very reason they’ve managed to live so long is that they’ve stayed active on the farm.

Being that they are pure Italians, the cooking is 100% italian. From homemade spaghetti (yes even the noodles are homemade) to gnocchi (also homemade) to the sausage, all the food is made in an italian way. Not only is it made in an italian way, but there is plenty of it. Our first night there it was spaghetti and meatballs. For lunch the next day it was gnocchi and sausage. Our last day was the leftovers from the previous two days. An interesting thing about the way italians eat is that the salad course is always last before dessert. For most Americans the salad is seen as an appetizer, while in Italy the salad is used to cleanse the pallet after a large meal.

Jen’s uncle Marion lives next door to Nona and Nono. He used to be a professor at Western Oregon University, but when he retired both he and his wife moved to Pingree to be closer to his family. He seems to help his parents a lot, which is nice. It’s not something we see very often in this day in age, people moving closer to their parents to take care of them. More often then not the parents are put in an elder care facility to be taken care of by someone else until they die. Fortunately for Jen’s grandparents, Marion isn’t one of those kinds of people.

I grew up in a semi-rural part of Maine, and there were sections of town where everybody knew your name and would come over just to pass the time. My grandparents are more in this grove then my parents are. It was neat to see the same thing happening in Pingree. People just stopping in to have a coffee and chat about what’s been happening around town and the farm. It’s a very cool thing, something I miss living in a town where you have to lock the door of your house even when you’re in it. Yes, the city is great but there are definitely things I miss about living in the country.

Monday morning came around and we packed up our stuff, said our goodbyes and headed for Victor, Idaho. I am glad that I got to meet Jen’s grandparents and to experience the Pingree that she knew growing up. It’s sad to leave, but the journey must continue.

We really needed to get out of the house and on the road by 6 p.m., but I had to work until 6 and Jen had to work until 5.  Jen managed to get all of her work done just a short time before 5, so she managed to leave early.  I asked my manager if I could get out early, but it looked like a grim prospect since we’re short-handed at the moment. My manager allowed me to leave shortly after 5 when I had finished enough work that they wouldn’t be left in the lurch.  So, I headed home - things were looking up for us to get out by 6.  On my way home I picked up some dinner - chicken strips and jo-jos (potato wedges) and rushed home.  Fortunately there wasn’t any bridge traffic so I made pretty good time getting home.  On the way Jen called to let me know that her mom really wanted us to print out 5 or 6 of these family tree type things that I made for her family.  Anybody that has tried to print high quality color prints with a 6 year old printer knows that it takes a while to get one page out, never mind 6.  So, I told Jen how to start the process on the phone on my way home.  I get home only to find out the the printer has gimped (grrr) and didn’t print right, so I had to fix it and make it work.  So the prints are coming, final packing is happening, we’re eating dinner.  5:45 we’re doing good.  Packing is done, dinner is done, prints are coming…6:00 prints are coming…6:15 one more print to go…6:30 done, let’s go!

So, we’re on the road, fill the car with gas, get on the freeway…ugh, rush hour(s) traffic.  We push through the traffic and finally get to the open road.  3.5 hours later we arrive in Hermiston, OR.  Along the way we crossed the Cascade mountains which are beautiful in the day nevermind crossing them at sunset, which puts the beauty of God’s creation on full display.  Then we drove east south east into the Yakima valley - where a large portion of the Apples in the US are grown among other things.  The Yakima valley is known by some as the Palm Springs of Washington.  It’s a rather dry area and it’s surrounded by reddish brown hills with mountains in the distance.  At dusk they change colors depending on the angle of the sun (I now understand where the term purple mountains majesty comes from) - it is again quite beautiful.  If you’ve ever been through Washington state you know that west of the Cascade mountains is technically a rain forest - now largely cities, but still a significant amount of forest.  On the east side of the mountains is rather arid and dry.  So it’s like you go from Maine to Arizona in a matter of an hour.  Also, in Washington (and the west in general) we have long sunsets, it doesn’t actually get dark until between 9:45 and 10, so you have the beauty of the sunset for an extended period of time - it’s a great benefit for photographers.  On the other hand the sun rises very early - like 4:30 - so photographers wanting to get a sunrise have to get up really early.

Anywho…today we drive from Hermiston to Pingree, ID to visit with my wife’s grandparents.  I’m looking forward to this visit since it is my first time.  Jen tells me that it’s like they transplanted a little bit of Italy into podunk Idaho.  Much of the town is bilingual and doesn’t use English unless they have to.  It should be interesting to visit and see what it’s like.  I’m looking forward to watching tomorrow’s world cup final (Italy vs. France) with a bunch of native Italians - it should be a fun time.  

I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to get on the internet while I’m there, but I will check back the next time I can get on.  I will be posting pictures on my Flickr account then. Until then…good day. 

Our wedding was a wonderful day of joy, laughter and memories. We don’t know of a single thing that could’ve gone better—and if you can think of something, don’t tell us! It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to have so many friends and family in one place. The Europeans probably have the right idea when they make weddings a weeklong event. We would’ve loved to spend more time with all of you—but alas, we had a honeymoon to run off to.

Our honeymoon in Victoria, B.C. was so much fun and a great start to our marriage. Victoria is the type of place where there is enough to do, but not so much to do that you feel like you’re wasting time if you’re not doing something every minute. We had plenty of times of just walking around and watching the Tour de France on TV—and definitely enough time to try plenty of restaurants and ice cream shops. We returned from Victoria feeling refreshed and ready to face the world as newlyweds. We opened a few presents, moved around some furniture and headed back to work and school

In August, Sean took a summer school class at Fuller Seminary and continued his work at Fircrest United Methodist Church as a youth director. Jennifer came back as Assistant Missions Director at Chapel Hill Church.
Our lease was up in August, so we took the opportunity to move into a bigger apartment. But we didn’t have too far to go, as we just moved within the same complex and had a day of carrying mattresses across the parking lot. We are still perfecting the color schemes, furniture layout, and storage even to this day. A few trips to Ikea and we feel pretty at home here.

Sean started his last year at Fuller in September where he was able to focus more of his studies on historical theology (his favorite area of study). He was chosen to go to a conference in Michigan on Faith and History and present a paper. This was quite an honor for him and a great experience. In fact, he became such a pro, that he presented another paper at a conference in Seattle in the spring.

Though we attempted to spend one holiday with each set of parents, the cost of going to Maine on a holiday to see Sean’s family exceeded our budget. So, we decided to split the holidays and travel to Maine at the beginning of December. We spent both Thanksgiving and Christmas with Jennifer’s family and spent five days in Maine. We saw the first snow there, ate lobster (of course!) and got to see most of Sean’s family. Jen got to go to her first professional hockey game to see the Portland Pirates and Sean got to practice his snow driving again.

In our first months of marriage, we decided to be adventurous and actually respond to telemarketers that call and say “You’ve won a free trip—and all you have to do is attend one of our seminars about timeshares.” By doing this twice and making a couple of salesmen a bit angry with us because we wouldn’t buy anything, we received trips to Vancouver B.C. and Las Vegas. This was, of course, after paying taxes and fees to upgrade our hotel so we weren’t next door to the airport. Free doesn’t really mean free—don’t let them fool you!

Anyway, we took both of our trips in the Spring and they both proved to be great fun for us. In Vancouver, our goal was to see every animal in that darn city—so we visited the zoo, the aquarium, the park, and the lake and went to an IMAX movie that took us on an African safari.

In Vegas, a first for both of us, we stayed at Circus Circus and supposedly got to see the “family-friendly” side of Las Vegas. Though we did enjoy the miniature golf course and complete amusement park that was inside our hotel, the rest of Las Vegas seemed to be much more of an “adult” paradise. We walked miles and miles every day, amongst the 105 degrees, trying to see some of the sights like the white tigers and the Eiffel Towers. We came back to our hotel every evening, past our bedtime, exhausted and over-stimulated and barely able to move. Las Vegas is like no other place we’ve ever been—and probably not a place we will return to. Once was enough for us.

In June, Sean graduated from seminary and we had a fun celebration with his family and Jen’s. Sean’s parents stayed with us for four nights and we enjoyed having them here. Jen’s parents came for two nights and though the two sets of parents had only met at the wedding, they chatted like old friends. What a blessing to have parents that get along so well.

In celebration of our first anniversary, we decided to go white water rafting in Central Washington. Many have asked us if this is a sign and symbol of our first year of marriage—rocky waters, unexpected turns, etc. Actually, we just thought it would be fun, no sign or symbol intended. And it was fun! We rafted on the White Salmon River and went over a 10-foot waterfall (by choice!). This fabulous rafting trip began our weekend of “you’ve got to be kidding!” Our bed and breakfast turned out to be a 1970s barn/house that no longer served breakfast, so really it was just a “bed.” The burger joint that we went to for dinner was out of burgers, vanilla ice cream, Sprite, just about everything we asked for. After a not-so-restful night on a weird mattress and an uncomfortable wake-up call by the owner barging into our room after forgetting we were still in there, we headed to Hood River, Oregon for breakfast (because, remember, our bed and breakfast did not serve breakfast). The place we ended up at for breakfast was actually a bar, though it didn’t look like that from the outside. They were understaffed and, again, out of things like coffee cups, so we drank our coffee out of water glasses. From there we decided to go on an adventure. We pulled out the map and came up with a route to get home that did not include I-5. We stopped at Multnomah Falls near Portland, then drove for several hours around the east side of Mt. St. Helens. It was great fun and we’ve found that we really like road tripping together. One of our goals for a future road trip is to only stop to eat at places with big signs that say “EAT” or “FOOD.” So, on our anniversary day we ate dinner at a place that said, “EAT,” somewhere in Washington. Our weekend was definitely a hilarious adventure and a great way to spend our first anniversary.

Sean recently got a second part-time job with Enterprise Rent-a-Car. He is a driver and detailer so he drives the cars and picks people up, as well as washes/vacuums the cars when they come back from customers. He likes this new job that is low-stress and keeps him active during the day.

And that brings us pretty much to today. So, what did we think of our first year? We can’t believe it’s already been a year. For all the books we’ve read and people we’ve talked to that say the first year of marriage is one of the hardest, we’ve been thinking, really? If this is one of the hardest years, we can’t wait for the rest! We’ve had a wonderful, fun year that has solidified all the reasons that we got married in the first place. We have so much fun together and the Lord has blessed each of us with a great partner. We hope to see some of you this year, maybe even more than once. Take care everyone!