During our corporate fast this summer, our big goal was to set aside normal patterns and habits to really hear the voice of the Spirit. One of the ways I did that was to ask God about my process for preparing messages. Many weeks in the fast and since, I’ve not felt liberty to write out the message ahead of time. Sometimes I had nothing written, sometimes I had outlines, sometimes I had notes to myself. I didn’t think it was helpful to post those on the blog.

So, as I move forward, I imagine there will be times when I script what I say ahead of time (always, of course, being sensitive and responsive to the Spirit’s leading when I speak…I often change or add or subtract to what I’ve prepared), and times when I don’t. When I have something that seems appropriate to post, I will do so.

Last week, we had people read and dramatize virtually the entire book of Esther. It was great! And this is what I shared.

My bride has her first day with students at her new job, as an educational aide at the alternative high school.

Aubrey starts 1st grade, going all day for the first time.

Hayley starts middle school, switching classes for the first time.

And Talli begins the high school journey.

I’m sure I’m biased, but aren’t they beautiful?

My chin has gone grey. Just four years ago, the last time I grew it out, things looked quite a bit different:

Thought I’d post it for posterity because I just shaved it off. Can’t handle the sweat, heat, and itchiness.

This trip we just took was no exception. I’ll remember tons, but the first I’ll write about is the crisis.

We spent a day in Jackson, Wyoming after our time in the Grand Tetons. Elaine suggested we visit Craters of the Moon National Monument on our long way home. We drove almost four non-stop hours, the last hour and a half through the high, sparse Idaho desert with a fierce headwind. It was blowing so hard that for the first time on the whole trip, the RV kept downshifting in order to keep its highway speed up.

After 45 miles without a town, we came to the thriving metropolis of Arco, Idaho; population 1026. We’d been talking about chocolate; Talli and Elaine love dark chocolate, of which we had plenty–Hayley and I were craving milk chocolate, which we were out of. All through the tiny town, we were debating whether we should stop and buy some milk chocolate. At the last possible mini-mart, I made the decision, and pulled over. It was the last chance for another 45 miles.

I got out of the RV, walked around to the passenger side…and behind the rear wheel well, flames, literal flames, were licking the edge of our RV. OUR VEHICLE WAS ON FIRE. I am not exaggerating. Actual fire. I was idiotic enough to kneel down and try and blow them out, and smart enough to tell Elaine to turn off the propane. The guy filling his car with gas said, “If you’ve got a fire extinguisher, you better use it, because that will go quick. ” Fire extinguisher! Duh. I pulled it out and emptied it on the flames. The wind was still blowing so hard that the embers kept glowing, so I got our water bottles and kept dousing it and pulling charred pieces out until I was sure it was out.

Then I totally wigged out thinking about what could have been.

We had no idea it was on fire, and could have easily just kept driving. That would likely have meant losing the whole thing to fire in the middle of nowhere. Imagine 60 miles an hour, trying to stop, getting the family out…

I choose to think God was taking care of us in huge ways, and I realized that even as I kneeled down by the wheel well at the mini-mart in Arco, Idaho. But we saw God’s care in more and more ways as time went on. We were 500 feet from an RV park, which ended up being the cheapest one (outside of campsites in the national parks) we stayed at for the whole trip: $24.30. They even had free horseshoes and minigolf!

We actually had a really good family evening.

What started the fire, you’re wondering? Somewhere along the way, the last 18 inches of our exhaust pipe fell off.

Those four hours of hot exhaust from the hardworking engine in the wind got the coach so hot, it caught on fire, leaving this:

So on the recommendation of the lady at the mini-mart, I found myself the next morning at Smitty’s auto body, expecting to be held hostage by a mechanic who had me over the barrel. He told me on the phone he could probably figure something out, but when I arrived at the shop, I found the door wide open, three cars in bays in the shop, radio and fans blaring…and not a single person in sight. Smitty showed up after 20 minutes, and Welder Mike showed up after another half hour. In about 15 minutes, Welder Mike had spot welded a new piece of three inch muffler pipe onto our exhaust.

“Get it done, Mike?” Smitty said as we walked in the office. Then he turned to me: “Knowing Mike, he welded that thing on there so good you could tow somebody out of ditch with the rope tied to the exhaust pipe.” I heard the story of why he had so much three inch pipe sitting in his shop; how he got scammed into a four year, expensive contract for his credit card machine; how he tries to deal locally, you know, to help the economy, but Lordy it’s hard in a small town. Then he had to call somebody to figure out how much the pipe cost, because it had sat in his shop for so long. I was sure I was a going to feel the pain. He pulled out the invoice, griping about how much the custom printed forms had cost him, pulled out his calculator to “make sure we give Uncle Sam his due”, and told me the total.

$31.95. I could have kissed him.

I felt Jesus smiling with me.

A funny thing happened on this trip, and it was the reason for my radio silence. We only had internet access a few times, and our older two daughters absolutely hogged the computer: e-mails, chats, Skype…they had people to stay connected with, by gum. By the time I’d get my turn, it was usually 11 at night, and I wasn’t up to blogging our adventures.

So, tonight and tomorrow I’ll be uploading pictures to my Flickr account. Feel free to take a peek, and hopefully I’ll blog some soon. And I’ve got another non-vacation, old style, real blog post brewing in the noggin, too, so stay tuned for further developments.

Glacier was unbelievable! By the numbers, rapidly:

7 cutthroat trout at Old Man Lake
6 mile hike (one way) to get to Old Man Lake with Talli and Hayley
5 rested Koskelas
4 days camping in Glacier (1 at Fish Creek Campground, and 3 at Two Medicine Lake)
3 species of trout caught
2 happy adults
1 brook trout caught by Aubrey, and 1 rainbow trout by me (16 inches on a grasshopper imitation)

And hikes…and stunning beauty…and lots of wind. Don’t know when I’ll get to write again, but trust me, we’re having a great time.

Our destination was Osburn, Idaho, about an hour east of Spokane, Washington. Considering our late start AND that we literally, actually ran out of gas on the highway, pulling into our campground at 10:15 pm was quite the achievement. (Hey, and I got to ride in the nice police officer’s back seat like a criminal to go get a can of gas!)

Got up this morning and had a little 1/2 hour drive to the Hiawatha Bike Trail. We first heard about this from my brother and sister-in-law, but Elaine’s the one that figured out this would be perfect as a stop on the way to Glacier. They’ve converted an old train line to a mountain biking path. Fortunately, you can drive in to the TOP and go DOWN, and then lazy people like us pay to take the shuttle bus back up. Here’s Aubs at the start of the day:

The day had tunnels (the first pitch black, over a mile and a half, cold, very wet and muddy, and of course we all came out massively splattered because we let catorce girl lead the pack at much too fast a pace), riding, and beautiful scenery. What else is there to blog about? Aubrey followed me on a tagalong bike (Thanks, Muthiahs!), we all had a great time.

Drove another 45 minutes to an RV park Elaine found. Heaven!!! Beautiful view near St. Regis, Montana:

Even got to swim in the pool:

I’m so enjoying myself, I’m almost giddy. Well, I wasn’t giddy when I went running trails with Ms. High School all-American. She said I did pretty good. On that one mile. That was downhill. After I’d rested while she ran ahead.

I’m heading to bed. And I’m going to sleep well!

Daughter numero uno hit catorce a few days ago. Remembering that my dad first let me drive a car when I was 14 (I got to move it in the parking lot at Carver when we were fishing on the Clackamas River), my birthday present to her was teaching her how to drive a stick. She did great!

Two summers ago, we looked into adding on another bedroom to our house. Verdict? Too expensive. So we bought a used RV to serve as a guest house, and began dreaming of a big trip together. The previous owners had a problem with the roof; everything was replaced, a new roof was put on, and things looked good. However, I didn’t know the seams on the roof had to be caulked every year. Long story short, the bed area over the cab had a lot of water leakage and was smelling quite mildewy. We could have had someone do it right for $4,000 to $6,000. Yeah right. So, for the last couple months, I’ve been ripping it out and rebuilding it. I spent about $300, and it turned out ok. But it’s made the last several weeks a tad on the stressful side.

But now? Now it’s all worth it. We’re on an almost three week excursion to Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, and interesting spots in between. As we have wifi spots, I’ll update you on our progress.

Each year every fifth grader from every public school in Newberg heads to the high school for a track and field day. Hayley wasn’t too excited about it ahead of time; she didn’t want to come in last. But she decided to run the 100 meters and do the long jump. She asked her mom to coach her on the long jump, out in our sand pit that will become our pool (if it ever decides to get over 60 degrees around here).

At the meet, her first two jumps were in the 9 foot range, and she was leading the pack. Elaine was excited for her (I couldn’t get away from work), but then watched some other girl jump 11 feet, one inch- a huge lead. Hayley took off for her last jump:

It looked good, but when she landed, she fell back a little bit:

“Oh well,” Elaine thought. “That was a great jump! If she just could have fallen forward, she might have gotten first.” But when they measured, the tape came up 11 feet, 3 inches…Hayley got the blue ribbon!

But she’s not a one-dimensional girl, let me tell you. Today, we got a call from the school that we might want to show up at the awards assembly; sure enough, Hayley got recognized with a President’s Award for Educational Excellence!

I’m always glad when others realize and recognize Hayley’s accomplishments. What I wish even more is that everyone got the chance to see the Hayley I know: a loyal girl with an impish sense of humor, infinitely creative and experimental, with a mind that has an incredible ability to discover and problem solve.

Since I’ve proclaimed this Hayley day (always present tense, as in, if you’re reading this, it’s Hayley day ), you may have something you’ve noticed about Hayley that you’d like to tell her directly!

Mike Comfort and his daughter Alison gave us a great gift by creating a HUGE banner for our sanctuary. He posted about it on his blog, so go take a look!