Realizing it has been nearly three weeks since the last update I put on this site, I made it the first and only order of business for me on our day off. So let me catch you up on the past three weeks.
Rebecca and I left the wolf sanctuary in southern Oregon. The ordeal with the medicine man was not that bad. We simply told our hosts we would prefer to not be included in the healing ceremony, but assured them we would be praying for Charlie's health separately. They were fine with that, and we left the next day on good terms.
Later that day we arrived at the Birds and Bees Community Farm in Oregon City just outside of Portland. We spent a week there harvesting various crops, preparing food bins for the customers, carving foot paths, and learning a lot about sustainable living and farming. The couple we stayed with, Farmer John and his wife, Farmtress Bev, gave us a cozy one roomed cabin to stay in and allowed us a lot of time after work to go into the city and get a taste of Portland, which we immediately fell in love with. The city very much reminded us of Athens. Portland is what you would get if you picked up downtown Athens in one hand and Atlanta in the other, smashed them together, rolled them up into a single ball, then splattered it down on a rocky coastal inlet. The weather we had there, we were told, was unusually wonderful. We figure the good weather that week does not allow us enough information about the area to make the decision to move there. Otherwise, it might be goodbye Georgia, for a very long time.
Our wonderful week in Portland was followed by a weekend spent in Seattle, Washington. There we ran into the rain everyone talks about. However, we enjoyed our time there, saw the sites, drank some beer, and tried to get some sleep. We stayed at a hostel in the middle of downtown. Literally right across the street from the famous Pike's Place Market. The location was indeed outstanding for the price, but the accommodations were about the worst either of us had ever encountered. It was there, in downtown Seattle, lying in a lofted bed at four in the morning, with rain pouring into our room which also held seven other occupied beds, that we almost called it quits and went home. But we fell asleep. Suffice to say, DO NOT STAY AT THE GREEN TURTLE!
The next morning was a Sunday so we gratefully looked up churches in the vicinity and attended the 11:15 service at Mars Hill. It was the first time either Rebecca or I had had a service preached to us, one in a former strip club, or two via satellite. It was awesome. The pastor of the Mars Hill churches is Mark Driscoll, a young reformed minister who has facilitated and encouraged a remarkable movement that has begun in an otherwise dead city and is being referred to as 'The Resurgence'. I highly recommend checking out this ministry through blog, podcast, or visiting an Acts 29 church in your area. Revived by the preaching of the Word of God, we continued on our journey up to Anacortes where we hopped a ferry taking us to the beautiful San Juan Islands.
So that brings us up to where we currently reside on Orcas Island which is one of the San Juan Islands. We are currently as close to British Columbia as to the United states. Kind of a strange thought. Once In A Blue Moon Farms is the vacation destination we are helping to maintain. During the summer months, Shana, the owner and 55 year old mother of three, opens her farm to tours for children, horse riding, and vacationers who could rent one of her many "homestyle" units by the week.
All the tourists have gone home now and the island is visibly winding down to prepare for the winter. Such is our job here, working for Shana. We are basically doing a lot of construction and landscaping that there wasn't time for during the busy season. We are repaid with meals three times a day and a place to lay our heads. When we arrived, the disappointment was difficult to hide when Rebecca and I were shown where we would spent our nights this autumn. An old, small, drafty, broken trailer. It was difficult to be thankful for what we had. It was difficult to recite without scoffing what we taught as children, "Count your 'haves' not your 'have nots'." It was difficult to not be jealous of the other WWOOF volunteer who was getting to stay in the warm ... cozy ... dry vacationer's resort. However, the mercy of the Lord is unending. After only two nights in the trailer, we were upgraded to apartment status. We were overjoyed to move into one of Shana's cozy rentals.
Rebecca and I have pretty well decided this will be the last farm we stay with on this adventure, but are facing the decision of how long to stay out here. Shana has asked offered us the apartment for as long as we want to stay in exchange for work around the farm, since her kids all return to college over the next week or so. We are excited and very much enjoy the beautiful island, but this is not real life we realize, and we don't know how long this can last. But for the time being, as well as thus far, this has been an incredible experience we will remember the rest of our lives.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Of Wolves and Men and Eagles and Ceremonies and Redwoods and Stuff
Having not posted about what Rebecca and I have been doing over the past two weeks leaves a lot of ground for me to cover in this one. I'll be brief.
Another WWOOFer arrived. His name is John. He is 27 year old college grad from Maryland who is nice and helpful. He plans to stay about a month.
Sherri's heart attack was reportedly stress induced. The doctor ordered her to take it easy. Meaning no working, heavy lifting, and especially no baby sitting. She continues to do all three insisting she feels much better. Rebecca, Charlie, and I are not happy with her. We try to do stuff before she is able to so there is not much for her to do.
Charlie got his heart examined during one of Sherri's checkups. His heart is working at a mere 40%. He is scheduled to go in for some tests next week.
A lot of local volunteers have been showing up responding to an add in the paper promising $10 a day for gas there and back. There is a lot of poverty and unemployment here, so the volunteers have been an interesting collage of people. It is kind of a crummy situation since a lot of days three to four people will show up to volunteer but only a handful of patrons will show up to see the wolves. Since the tours cost only $8.00 a pop with discounted rates for seniors and children, Howling Acres has been operating at a loss most days.
One of the volunteers is a 16 year old local girl named Peachy. Peachy just arrived back in Williams, OR after having run away from her mother to Arizona for about two months. Her mother is essentially a retired professional hippie, so now she volunteers at music festivals leaving her daughter alone to be taken care of by a commune of unemployed, back country, hippie folk. Working with the wolves is her life. She is a part of a gang (and didn't know it until I explained to her what a gang is) and works for $10 a day feeding wolves at a job she has to walk nine miles just to get to.
Living in a tent is getting difficult. I thought I'd be getting more used to it, but it's actually starting to really wear on us. However, we bought season 4 of The Office which has helped at least that situation.
Right now we are dealing with how to clearly, tactfully, and righteously refuse being made part of an Eagle Ceremony. Charlie and Sherri "believe the Indian way," and thus turn to local medicine men to pray for them, direct ceremonies, and give advice at certain times in their lives. With the recent heart attack Sherri suffered and the news about Charlie's weakening heart, they are turning now to Willie Whitefeather who plans to come Thursday night to do an Eagle Ceremony, which is a healing ceremony. During our time here, we have become very much aware of the spiritual warfare that is ongoing in this realm of existence. Believe whatever you want about the activity of demons and angels concerning the lives and souls of men, but I believe that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Meaning that there is demonic power in the spiritual beliefs Sherri and Charlie hold, as well as in the ceremony they have scheduled for Thursday and we must take no part in it.
When Willie comes, Rebecca and I will not be on the premises. That much is CERTAIN. However, the way in which we present the matter of our not participating in the ceremony is not clear to me. I suppose the worst that could happen is that Charlie and Sherrie get angry with us, but we are leaving the next day anyway. If any of you reading this have had any experience getting out of an Eagle Ceremony, please feel free to email me or reply to this to post your advice.
On a lighter note Rebecca and I both finished two books in less than 24 hours. Rebecca finished Donald Miller's Searching For God Knows What and John D. MacDonald's A Key to the Suite. I proudly read Dave Harvey's When Sinner's Say I Do and John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men
I almost forgot. Today, we used our day off to check out Oregon Caves National Monument. It was the first time either Rebecca or I had been in a cave. The place was beautiful and incredible. Following our exit from the water carved tunnels we traveled back into California to visit a redwood tree forest. I was blown away by the size of these trees. Though they are no sequoias, they retain a majesty all their own.
Thanks for sticking with us. We will keep you up to date as we move on to the next destination.
Also. Our cell phones have apparently been freaking out while we are out of service up in the mountains, and we have not been able to see the hundreds of missed calls we receive daily...I mean hourly. So please, if you do call, try to leave a message so we know who wanted to get in touch with us.
Another WWOOFer arrived. His name is John. He is 27 year old college grad from Maryland who is nice and helpful. He plans to stay about a month.
Sherri's heart attack was reportedly stress induced. The doctor ordered her to take it easy. Meaning no working, heavy lifting, and especially no baby sitting. She continues to do all three insisting she feels much better. Rebecca, Charlie, and I are not happy with her. We try to do stuff before she is able to so there is not much for her to do.
Charlie got his heart examined during one of Sherri's checkups. His heart is working at a mere 40%. He is scheduled to go in for some tests next week.
A lot of local volunteers have been showing up responding to an add in the paper promising $10 a day for gas there and back. There is a lot of poverty and unemployment here, so the volunteers have been an interesting collage of people. It is kind of a crummy situation since a lot of days three to four people will show up to volunteer but only a handful of patrons will show up to see the wolves. Since the tours cost only $8.00 a pop with discounted rates for seniors and children, Howling Acres has been operating at a loss most days.
One of the volunteers is a 16 year old local girl named Peachy. Peachy just arrived back in Williams, OR after having run away from her mother to Arizona for about two months. Her mother is essentially a retired professional hippie, so now she volunteers at music festivals leaving her daughter alone to be taken care of by a commune of unemployed, back country, hippie folk. Working with the wolves is her life. She is a part of a gang (and didn't know it until I explained to her what a gang is) and works for $10 a day feeding wolves at a job she has to walk nine miles just to get to.
Living in a tent is getting difficult. I thought I'd be getting more used to it, but it's actually starting to really wear on us. However, we bought season 4 of The Office which has helped at least that situation.
Right now we are dealing with how to clearly, tactfully, and righteously refuse being made part of an Eagle Ceremony. Charlie and Sherri "believe the Indian way," and thus turn to local medicine men to pray for them, direct ceremonies, and give advice at certain times in their lives. With the recent heart attack Sherri suffered and the news about Charlie's weakening heart, they are turning now to Willie Whitefeather who plans to come Thursday night to do an Eagle Ceremony, which is a healing ceremony. During our time here, we have become very much aware of the spiritual warfare that is ongoing in this realm of existence. Believe whatever you want about the activity of demons and angels concerning the lives and souls of men, but I believe that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Meaning that there is demonic power in the spiritual beliefs Sherri and Charlie hold, as well as in the ceremony they have scheduled for Thursday and we must take no part in it.
When Willie comes, Rebecca and I will not be on the premises. That much is CERTAIN. However, the way in which we present the matter of our not participating in the ceremony is not clear to me. I suppose the worst that could happen is that Charlie and Sherrie get angry with us, but we are leaving the next day anyway. If any of you reading this have had any experience getting out of an Eagle Ceremony, please feel free to email me or reply to this to post your advice.
On a lighter note Rebecca and I both finished two books in less than 24 hours. Rebecca finished Donald Miller's Searching For God Knows What and John D. MacDonald's A Key to the Suite. I proudly read Dave Harvey's When Sinner's Say I Do and John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men
I almost forgot. Today, we used our day off to check out Oregon Caves National Monument. It was the first time either Rebecca or I had been in a cave. The place was beautiful and incredible. Following our exit from the water carved tunnels we traveled back into California to visit a redwood tree forest. I was blown away by the size of these trees. Though they are no sequoias, they retain a majesty all their own.
Thanks for sticking with us. We will keep you up to date as we move on to the next destination.
Also. Our cell phones have apparently been freaking out while we are out of service up in the mountains, and we have not been able to see the hundreds of missed calls we receive daily...I mean hourly. So please, if you do call, try to leave a message so we know who wanted to get in touch with us.
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