Fourth of July Weekend

I appologise for the slowness in updating the Blog, but I fear that this will be a fairly common problem. I only have internet access when I have stopped somewhere that feels like letting me borrow a computer. So that begs the question, who's computer am I on now? Well I am actually in the greater Atlanta area for the weekend with my Uncle. My old shoes have decided that a week and a half on the road is long enough to start breaking down and they have developed some holes in the back inside of the heal by my achilies tendon. This means a whole new set of blisters, but it also means that my shoes have a pretty limited time till they dissentigrate. Uncle Dan decided that this was not OK and swung to the rescue. Here I will pause this part of the story for a minute. Wednesday I got to Fort Valley, Ga and found a church to try and stop at. The church had a daycare that met during the day, so I found some shade down the street a ways and came back at six when they were supossed to meet. It turns out that that perticular night was the pastors 20th wedding aniversary and he was not at the church. I ate some great lasagna with the folks at the church and hung out for a little while. My reception was what I would call very kind but nervous. When I got ready to head out and find a place to camp for the night one of the men told me to "come on" and that "he had a place for me" that night they put me in a hotel and gave me some money to help me out on my trip. I really slept great. The next morning I woke up and called the number that they had told me was the pastors cell phone. I explained to him what it was that I was doing and told him that if it was possible I would love to hang around a few more days and help the church with the paiting project that they were in the middle of. I also told him that if it was not going to be something that would work out I could head on down the road, but that I wanted to know what he thought. He told me that he needed to talk to one of the other women of the church about the painting project and that he should call me back in about a half an hour or so. That phone call never came. I understand the nervousness in the churches recepton of me, and they really took care of me the best way they knew how. They fed me and gave me leftovers and a bed to sleep in. However, I was really dissapointed that the way the pastor asked me to move on was to never call me back. It made me sad that the worst responce I got at the whole place was from their leader. Well that brings me to how I am in ATL for the weekend. Right now at the begining of the trip the stopping at the churches is a pretty critical recovery time for my body, especialy the blisters on my feet. When Uncle Dan offered to bring me back with him for the weekend, I was excited for the respite and time with the family.

I guess I should also fill everybody in on the rest of the happenings since the last real update. After I left Crawford, I spent the weekend at a friends house. It was a pretty neat story how I ended up there. While I was at Crawford I met Jacob, their youth minister. He had just graduated form AU and recognised me as "the guy I saw on campus wearing the kilt." While we were talking he decided that I would probably now a freind of his named Nathan. There are about 24000 students at Auburn, I know allot of people but one random freind out of 24000 is a pretty slim shot. Well as it turns out this freind of his and I have know each other for quite a few years in Auburn. We had never really hung out together, but we would always say hey and such when we ran into each other. The incredible part is that I had run into Nathan at a concert in Atlanta a week and a half before I started walking. While we were catching up a little bit I told him about the idea for the walk. He had expressed intrest in following along through my blog and so when Jacob called him to tell him about the crazy wanderer at his church he knew exactly who Jacob was talking about, and relayed a message back to me to give him a call when I left. Nathan lives about ten or so miles from the churchin the direction I was heading, so I figured that I would be able to swing by and hang out for a bit on my way through. I ended up staying the whole weekend instead. His family is really incredible, two days before I got there they had been asked by the foster care system to take a little "medically fragile" girl named Za'kira. Nathans oldest brother and his family were also coming into town for the weekend. Once you add all of us to the three foster kids that were already living at the house and the rest of the family it was a pretty full house for the weekend but I was welcomed instantly. Thankfully Nathans two younger brothers were at a confernce for the weekend and there were plenty places for everybody to sleep. We had a great time. We went to the little market in Columbus, cooked some monstrous burgers, discused theology and philosophy till all hours of the morning, jerry-rigged the vacume cleaner you know... the usual. Nathan's mom is an incredibly amazing lady as well. I did not ask allot of questions, but she has a medical condition that makes her very week. It was really neat talking to her about her faith in God through such tough times. She is a very inspirational person, but I know she could use any of your prayers as well. I struck out Monday morning and walked across Columbus and up the 22 spur. When I got to were the 22 spur meets the main branch of 22-80 I stopped for a while at a gas station. I was asking a guy named Greg at he gas station about the availibility of water for the next stretch and found out that there would be no more water for the next ten miles till I got to Box Springs. Greg told me that he lived in Box Springs and that if i wanted to hang out for a while he would give me a ride there. Since ten miles is a bit of a stretch for my water range even after having added an extra half gallon of storage I accepted the ride. I ended up staying at Greg's place monday night and we had some great talks about the nature of the change in the American church and culture in the last century. The next to days were allot of walking and thinking, reading and camping; that is until wednesday afternoon. At about two on wednesday a tractor trailor stopped next to me and the driver leaned out and introduced said hey to me. I shook his extended had and took the ten that he palmed me as he asked me why I was out walking. I told him about my plan to walk and stop at churches allong the way and how I was in some ways trying to find my way in the American corporate church. At that point Otis offered me a ride as far as he was going, which as it turned out was to Savanah. I had already walked about twelve of my 14 or so miles for the day and was begining to worry about my blisters, so I hoped in and and planning on just riding the few miles left to Butler. As we rode Otis told me that he was also a man of God, and that it was such a blessing to run into me on the road today. He had seen me walking that morning when he was heading over to AL, he had passed me on his way back to home and "something" told him he had to turn around and check in on me. He went on to tell me that he had just broken things off with his girlfriend that he had been sleeping with as a part of an effort to get back right with God. He said that he had had something like five flat tires that day and was considering caller his her back up that night, but that running into me was like a message from God to stay the course, because he was on the right path. All I could do was laugh because here I am sitting in the AC with miles passing by and someone to talk to and he says I am the one blessing him. God has such funny ways of using us to help each other. I ended up riding and talking with Otis all the way down the road to Fort Valley before I told him it was probably time for me to hop out and try to find a church to stop at for a while. At Fort Valley I hoped out at a gas station and went inside to ask the locals about the area. That is how I ended up at the Lighthouse church wednesday. I am still waiting on that phonecall.

I guess you all can see that God is continuing to present me with allot of really neet opportunites and chance incounters allong the way. He is also taking great care of me and showing me some really neat things already. Thank you all for your prayers and encouragement. I will get another post up as soon as i have some more stories and internet access.