Pray where you are

In the submarines and tanks
In the S and Ls and banks
In the cancer wards, the prisons and the bars
On the earth and on the moon
In the closet, in your room
In the flop houses, the think tanks and the farms
To the salesman forever trying to sell
To the faithful daughter walking to the well

CHORUS
Oh, pray where you are
Pray where you are
In the fields and in the factories
There's no limits, rules or boundaries
At work or school or driving in your car
Pray where you are

In the strip joints, in the church
On a desperate lost child search
On the airplanes and the backroads and the rails
On the blacktops, on the beach
Down a sewer and up a creek
In the penthouses, the gulags and the jails
To the criminal with no one left to con
To the movie star whose day has come and gone

CHORUS

To the junky with his back against the wall
To the lawman as he breaks another law
In the desert, off the shore
In peacetime and in war
In the pentagon, the court rooms and the malls
In the tents and in the caves
At the truckstops, by the graves
In our hopes and fears and struggles great and small
To the corner bum that no one seems to hear
To the president who prays for four more years

Pray where you are. . .


(Terry Taylor and Lost Dogs)

Jesus People!

Well, Gus and I finally arrived in JPUSA! It was just about five blocks away from our friends apartment in Chicago, so it wasn't too much trouble to find it. I had been here once before for a week, about four years ago back when I did Josiah Project (a summer Christian leadership developement school), and I'm loving my second trip here. It's been a crazy time here so far--it's kind of like living in a church and a college dorm at the same time. The community of approximately 500 JPUSA people live in an old hotel with 9 floors. Every morning, Gus and I wake up around 7:30 in order to wash dishes and sweep the dining room floors, as part of the "home crew"--what most people are put on who first come to the community. The first night Gus couldn't sleep because our two roommates had trouble with snoring and flatulence! (even with earplugs in, he could hear both!)
One of my favorite things about our time here (we've only been here since Sunday) has been the variety of cool people we've met. Just tonight I was talking with a guy from South Africa, who has lived here for the past eight years, and shortly plans on going hiking the Appalachian Trail, then perhaps going to seminary, then perhaps feeding animals with a circus for six months (he admitted this was a little weird, but he wanted to do it anyways), then going back to the orphanage he had worked and taught at in South Africa. The two women who run the orphanage actually adopt the kids, so the goverment can't take them away, so the whole place is run like a large family. He said when he first got there, it was a mess--they had a room full of donations (most of which were junk--why do Christians give their old, used stuff to help others out!!!!!arrgghh). So, though he had never built computers before, he was able to build six computers for them out of the mess of computer parts that had been donated. He said his family had come to visit the orphanage, but they just cried, and didn't help much. If only we could learn how to move beyond sympathy and towards com-passion ("to suffer with", according to the roots). He mentioned his brother, who is a pastor who lives a very wealthy life and who actually preaches the health and wealth gospel. Meanwhile, he has a Zulu maid who lives in a slum and works for him for less than what is the general going rate given to maids and who goes home every night praying the marauders in her township won't kill her and take her money, or perhaps that her drunk husband won't find the money that she's hidden in her house, and use it for booze instead of for food. The world is crying out, and the church is sleeping.
"Don't close your eyes
Don't pretend the jobs done"

And Jesus still calls out to us--us ragamuffin, lost followers--he calls to us, singing us a love song--calling us home--away from the "mess" of following the world---
"Come away, come away, come away with Me my love,
Come away, from this mess, come away with Me, my love."
(lyrics from Keith Green's song "Asleep in the Light")

Let's do it! Let's join in Jesus' army of followers who will follow him to all the abandoned places where His light shines brightest! What have we to lose!? Our lives? Oh, yeah--we're supposed to be dead anyways, so what does that matter!?
Let's go--there can be no better life! Into the foolish maelstrom of Love.

Chicago!

Well, Gus and I finally arrived in Chicago, after trying to get a ride before on Craig's list, spending a day and a half hitchhiking (or attempting it) and finally we arrived on an Amtrack train. We met this guy on the train who was interested in talking to Gus and I about politics, and then about God stuff--his views were that Jesus was cool (someone who attained a sort of enlightenment), and that everyone is a part of God--kind of a panthiestic viewpoint. I don't think he'd met other Christians like us who preferred to refer to ourselves as "followers of Jesus" rather than "Christian" (which has so much baggage that people attach to it). So it was refreshing to let him know that there are believers out there who do not believe President Bush is God's gift to the world and who don't look with condemnation on everyone who doesn't believe exactly as they do. We also talked about how Jesus wasn't all about the rich and powerful, but about relating to people who realized they have problems, like us! I hope that he comes to a deeper knowledge of Jesus in his search for truth. I've realized that one of my favorite parts of travelling is the wonderful conversations you can have with people that otherwise you would never meet. And you never know how your faith is gonna grow and be challenged by the wierd, yet beautiful people all around.

Train!

Gus and I will be heading out tomorrow (hopefully) on the Amtrack--en route to Chicago, where we will be visiting friends and staying for a couple weeks at Jesus People USA, a Christian community that has had some controversy attached to it. I love controversy. I'm going.

Stupid movie

Last night Gus and I went to Road Warriors, the homeless youth drop in center I've mentioned earlier. They were showing this movie called Slither, and I watched it!!! Aaarggh. I can't believe I did. I hate horror movies (I would have refused to watch it if it was demonic, which it wasn't), but I nevertheless sat down, and gave in to watching perhaps the stupidest and grossest movie I've ever seen. (Gus tells me that Slither ranks up there with Snakes on a Plane if you like very bad movies) I don't know why I did it, except that sometimes I do what I do not want to do.

Great night

Last night, after Gus and I got back from the misery of Troutdale and the two truckstops that were opposed to our purposes in getting a ride, we hit the streets with signs. I had a sign saying: Ninjas killed my family, need money for kung fu lessons, and Gus' sign said Ignore me for $1, Will take verbal abuse for $2. His sign worked very well, getting him about a hundred bucks, and mine got about fifty. Many people laughed as they walked by, and we were stationed right outside an ale festival, so it helped that people were kind of drunk. Gus and I counted the many dollar bills in our sleeping bags, and were surprised that it came out to a hundred and fifty five bucks!!! Each of our greyhound tickets cost about 150 bucks each, so we are well on our way to Chicago.

Arrrrrrrrggghhh :)

Well, after spending from 11 am yesterday till 4 pm today trying to hitch a ride out of Troutdale (about twenty miles east of Portland) Gus and I decided to come back to Portland in order to "spange" enough money to get Greyhound tickets out to Chicago.
Faced with the disappointment of my idealization of hitchhiking breaking down (at least at one stop :)--I'm sure it still works, though), I am still thankful that God has everything under control and that really I have nothing to be worried about. Really, why worry at all? I have no bills to pay, no reason to think that I won't have enough food to survive on and enough warmth to live on! And besides that, I have still faced very little suffering in my short life--there are more lessons to learn, more sufferings to undergo, and much more to be lived--why should I live it in the frustrations of a couple days?
And along the way, I've learned a few lessons--Don't try to hitch out of a truckstop on the weekend (especially Saturday!! all the truckers are sleeping or waiting till Monday).
Yesterday was especially hard, because after about an hour, one of the truckers at the stop said he might be able to take us (he was going all the way to Michigan!!--past Chicago--on our route!!!) He went into the store and we waited and waited, and he never came out!!! We waited for two hours, and then started asking other truckers if they were headed east. One of them mentioned that he was going to Arkansas, and was taking the I80, so we told him that we were waiting on the other trucker, but if he never came out, we would go with trucker B. But neither of them came out! And we were bummed. We tried going in to see whether they were there, but no luck. After that, we were kicked off the property by a "nice" employee, so we tryed the other truck stop, a Flying J, but we were also kicked off that property after about 2 more hours. So we decided to bed for the night under the freeway bridge, which was kinda noisy, but after the earplugs, not to bad, except for the shaking that occurred every time a truck drove past.
Well, it was a disapointment, but I'm sure everything will be fine, and we'll be in Chicago eventually.
:)