There's an Answer to all that ails us, and the Cure remains the Cure, universally. and forever.

"We've talked about doing that someday, ourselves!" is often the reply when we share our plans to liquidate much of our belongings to live out of a van and see the country for awhile.  Perhaps this podcast will be helpful as we explain some of the things we learned and did physically, relationally, spiritually and mentally, to be ready to live nomadically. 

During the course of our Nomad Quest prep it hit us, “What if we set out to visit 100 churches of Christ!?" What a passion project THAT would be! Think of it!  We could learn so much by watching the unique or ingenious ways these brethren love one another and get God’s beautiful, transformative work done in spirit and in truth within the patterns of the New Testament. We could also interview fascinating people so the world could be inspired by stories that would not have otherwise been heard and we could support the struggling, cheer the valiant and help people connect with people. This podcast explains all the logistics of what we have in mind. 

People have been personality typing since at least Plato.  We've been studying the concept since the early 80's through six different curricula: Interact, Tim LaHaye's "Discovering Your Temperament", Gary Smalley's "Hidden Keys To Loving Relationship's", Meyer's-Briggs Type Indicator, Jordan B. Peterson's "Understanding Myself" and now our FAVORITE for it's complex fluidity: The Enneagram. 

Through personality typing, we've come to love all kinds of people better and serve them in more customized ways because we understand them better. Of course, personality typing is certainly not a "note from your mother" to excuse our vices and is also not about trying to "put people in a box" by creating artificial categories. Personality typing is about discovering what box you are already in and so you can figure out how to break out of your box. It's a fun little tool that can especially help we believers to more quickly reach our full potential and better enjoy our lives. Think it's bogus?  We're cool with that (because we enjoy Enneagram 8's too: The Challengers! :D) Could be bogus. A lot of human thought is. We just know the difference it makes in our own relationships, so we thought we'd share. 

In this episode, we recount the top five reasons we love the Beaverton church of Christ --- and express our appreciation to our beloved church family for these 28 years together. 

Be inspired by the moving story of this brave young woman who through faith, hope and love walks through the valley of the shadow of death (Ps. 23) and arrives victoriously to "the top of the world" with a clarity and wisdom we can all draw from to strengthen our own spirits. 

Our second date in August of 1979 was a motorcycle ride to Silver Creek Falls outside Silverton, Oregon. It was magical. So magical that we started planning our wedding that night, having known each other but 24 hours. A few years after we married we sacrificed that Yamaha 1100 Special to "play it safe" while we raised children. 33 years later, in 2014, to celebrate our empty nest, we purchased a Harley Davidson 2006 Heritage Softail and road it all over the country roads and highways of Oregon, Washington and Idaho. The sensory elements of sights and sounds to and from an event on our motorcycle was often even better than the event itself.  I'd wear sheer little butterfly wings from time to time on those 5 glorious years before we took our bloody slide across the asphalt June, 22, 2019. We learned a lot of valuable lessons that night and in the months that followed and are quite happy to be alive. Here's our story!

I eye-witnessed something when I was 22 that you've just got to hear. I mean, statistically, how can this even happen? Unless...

It's the summer of 1979 and Mark is 20, living fast and forming a plan to dye his hair blonde "like Rod Stewart" and drive across the country on his motorcycle to sleep under the stars. On another planet, Cindy will start her last year of high school and then go to Florida to find her preacher to marry someday in a field of wildflowers. Or not. Our story includes a rolled car, ping-pong, waterfalls, hot dogs, a 180 degree turn, and a handful of life lessons to tie it up in the end.