Half Way

Well, my month in Alaska is halfway done. I guess I could look at it on the positive side... I have half of my trip still left! Today, I got some time alone and went on a bike ride along Anchorage's Coastal Trail. The trail runs about 10 miles along the coast. It took me through woods, along the Cook Inlet where I had a great view of the mountains, by a lagoon, and spat me out in downtown Anchorage. It was a beautiful ride. I feel like I got to see all that the city has to offer. I also had some time to enjoy God and His creation.

Tonight, the Richardsons and I are going to sleep out on a tarp on some rock that jettisons out overlooking an inlet where Beluga Whales spawn. Tomorrow, we all are going to take a Tram up a mountain and have a picnic at the top. I am quite looking forward to the next couple days. They will be the climax of the adventurey stuff I do here, as the Off The Wall team comes up on Sunday and our mission trip begins.

These past two weeks have been so refrshing for me. Spiritually and physically in particular. It's been a breath of fresh air to get away from the noise of life and enjoy relationships with people that I love. I have been asking the Lord to restore the joy of my salvation, and He has been starting to.

That was a short one, but that is all I got for now.


JN

Wednesdays with Mr. Black

Seth, Dennis and I met with Mr. Black again today. Something happens to me whenever I go to a retirement home. I get very quiet and reflective.

My grandmother lived in a retirement home in Atlanta for about 7 years. I remember every summer my family would spend a week there. Sunrise at Huntcliff Summit. That was it's name. That was about ten years ago, but I can still remember almost everything about it.

When I was fourteen, she moved to Massachusetts to be close to my dad and us. The retirement home she stayed at was real nice. It was much smaller than Huntcliff. It had a cozy feeling about it. Brighten Gardens was its name. I got a job as a waiter there when I was seventeen. The residents had three meals a day. My grandmother sat at table A1. A1 was right by the entrance to the kitchen. She sat with three other lovley women. They were a quiet bunch. Much quieter than other tables. But that is what I liked about them. Whenever I walked by my grandmother with a platter in my hand she looked up at me and smiled. Sometimes I wonder if she was seeing her son instead of me. My dad and I share quite a resemblance. I am six foot one, have a scruffy beard, and lanky build. So does my dad, except he has a mustache. But most of the time i think my grandmother knew it was me, her grandson that walked by. I worked there for about ten months, from February of 2008 to December. Those were some of the most memorable moments of my life. I got to know my grandmother in a way I never expected. She was an incredible woman of God, who loved her Savior and her family until her last breath.

Today at Mr. Blacks, in Anchorage, Alaska, I was reminded of the last few months I had with my grandmother. I can recollect one particular memory that will remain in my mind forever. It was a warm June night. I had just finished up cleaning the dinning area. I was locking up that evening. After I turned the lights off, I looked at the empty dining room. It was so still. I decided to go up to my grandmother room to check in on her. If I remember right, she lived on 247. It was about 8:30 by then. As I peaked through the door I found my grandmother asleep on her bed. sun was setting through her window and trees were gently blowing outside. I pulled up a seat next to her bed and just sat there. As I watched her sleep, I thought. I thought about her life. How as a 19 year old Mormon, her alcoholic husband left her to move to L.A. How a few months later, he met a few street Evangelists who led him to Jesus. How they wrote a letter attesting to a change in his character as he went back to Utah to reconcile things with my grandmother. How she then started following the Lord and they were united again in marriage. How my grandfather was a self taught pastor for 40 years. How The Lord has had His hand in my family's life, years and years before I was born.

As I was thinking, my grandmother opened her eyes and smiled at me. She recognized me. I prayed for her. After I was done, her eyes were still closed. In a few soft words, she said "Lord, bless Joshua's ministry. Thank you for him. Bless his ministry." I was not in ministry at the time. I think the Lord revealed something to her that night about my future.

My grandmother went home to be with the Lord about a month later. Now, as i sit here and think back on all this, I realize how brief life is. I will never relive those moments with my grandmother again. And I will never relive this moment. Life happens moment by moment. If we are to experience all that The Lord has for us, we must live fully in the moment He has given us. Because we will never get it back.

I eagerly await the day when I will see my grandparents in heaven. I will never be able to thank The Lord enough for saving us, and giving us a purpose to live for. His purpose. Thank you so much Father. We don't deserve it.



JN

life is great. Jesus is better!

So I am sitting on Seths couch. It is about 8:45 in the morning. Today we are going to leave for Denali National Park to camp. I am going to see my mountain, the tallest peak in North America.

Seth is just sitting here reading his bible as "More Than Life" by Hillsong is playing on the ihome. I just had a thought run through my head. More of a realization. Compared to knowing Jesus, I could care less about that mountain. If God told me to sit here on this couch forever or if I knew Jesus was going to come back, I would not think once about that mountain. The thing is, this place of contentment has taken me 3 years to get to. But it didn't come as i expected. There was no emotional moment. Adrenaline didn't run through my body as I realized I love Jesus more than mountains. It was just like "yeah, i don't really care about that mountain like I used to."

The line of the chorus of that song is "And I love you more than life." They sing it about 20 times.

It comes out of Psalm 63:3, in which David declares in the wilderness of Judah "Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will glorify you."


Its crazy when I think about it. I used to dream of moving to Colorado and living in a trailer by the mountains, or living in a log cabin in Alaska or the Canadian Rockies. In fact, I believe I wrote a blog about it on my other blog describing what I most longed for. But now, I really don't care if that never happens. I think it will someday, but if it doesn't that is more than okay. Jesus is better than life, and I can confidently say that I am beginning to love Him more than the desires of my heart. Not all of them by any means. He will get me there. But this particular one, yes.


So, yeah. I guess that is that. Off to McKinley for a few days. No big deal in the grand scheme of the universe. After all, it is just a bunch of rocks. :)



JN

2 for 1

Well, today I am going to put yesterday and today into one blog.

Yesterday, Seth and I helped Dennis build a roof on Seth's hut. It took about 6 hours. I was beat by the time it was done and ready to take a nap. But Dennis loves to work. I am pretty sure he stayed out there another 5 hours.

Last night there was a high school bible study in the Richardson basement. About 15 people showed up. It was a great night. Seth has been leading the study the last few weeks. We had worship for about a half hour, and then a graduate of Seth's old high school shared some things the Lord had been doing in his life. Check my other blog if you want to hear about it and what I was processing through as he talked. After the study, we drank tea, watched Mulan, and had a jam session on the guitar, harmonica, and chairs. Seth doesn't have any percussion instruments, so we made use of things lying around his basement. Chairs happened to be one of them.


Today is Sunday... the best day of the week. It actually was the best day of the week so far. I seem to have said that before in these blogs. I guess that means that God is good and is giving me an awesome time up here. Today, all the kids from church came over to the Richardson house after church. There were about 15 of us total. Seth and I were the oldest at 20, and the youngest was probably 6. We all went to Kincaid park. Kincaid is right by the Cook Inlet (part the pacific ocean) and has trail that lead down to the beach. It was low tide and extremely muddy. So we all had a gigantic mud fight. It was awesome. We planned it, so we were prepared for the mess. I haven't felt like a little kid like that in a long time. There is something about an 8 year old chasing you with no shirt and mud in his hands. You just have to take it and smile. Jesus really was right when he talked about the Kingdom being that of people with child like faith. Their innocence is so humbling.


Seth and I leave for Denali National Park tomorrow morning. We are spending one night. I am ridiculously uber decided. I have the privilege of camping at the foot of the tallest mountain in North America. Mount McKinley is a whopping 20,320 feet. For all you non Americans reading this (there might be a few Northern Irisher's) that is 6,194 meters. Don't worry I didn't do that math in my head. I looked it up on Wikipedia.

Well, the night is coming to a close. I am gonna say goodbye for now.

God bless from Anchorage.


JN

Its Friday! (Sorry, but I had to)

Well, Seth and I just helped Dennis build a roof for Seths porch on his hippe-one-room-shed/hut-bedroom-thing. I am beat after 6 hours of that. I will write about that more tomorrow.

Yesterday Seth worked all of the afternoon until 7. I forget what I did in the morning. I have a horrendously awful short term memory. So this blog thing is really good for me. Yesterday afternoon I spent at Kaladi Brothers Coffee. They definitely not as good as Steam Dot.

Last night a few of Seths friends came over and we had a fire.

The best part of yesterday was after they left. Seth and I played some hymns on the guitar and just worshiped till about 1 am. It was heavenly.

Yesterday was one of those uneventful days that was really, really good. I haven't had one of those in a long time. Jesus is just getting me to slow down right now. He is telling me to stop thinking so much and enjoy the simplicity of life. Its so good. Sometimes I really don't life myself for analyzing so much. What I appreciate about Seth is, he almost always seems to just enjoy life. I have always wanted that simple ability. I guess I just have to ask God, and He will give it to me. :). I am gonna go do that.


hasta la vista.





baby.

Today

So I am posting tonight instead of tomorrow morning for a change.

I finally slept in to about 8:15. I think my body is finally adjusted to the four hour difference. I bought a puzzle at a thrift shop a couple days ago. it is a thousand piece sketched map of Anchorage. Sara and Celesta (Seths mom) love puzzles. So we will be working on it.

Seth and I hiked our first mountain of the year. It was a cloudy day. Flat Top Mountain is on the east side of Anchorage. There is a path up, but naturally, Seth made his own way through the bush. It was a beautiful hike. We got to the top and it was still cloudy. Then something amazing happened.

Recently, I have been asking the Lord to increase my faith. I have felt many times in my life, I live with a lack of faith. The bible says to walk by faith and not by sight. I do a lot of sight walking. So when I saw the clouds, I just sorta started to talk to God. I asked Him to move the clouds so I could see the view. About 30 seconds later, the wind picked up and the clouds blew away. The view of the valley was clear as well as the adjacent mountains. Yeah... it happened just like that. I asked Seth "Do you pray for stuff like that a lot?" He told me he does all the time.
I gotta start doing that more.

We ran down most of the mountain. I love running down mountains. It is one of the most exhilarating experiences I have ever had. I was thinking my theological thought of the day as I was running down. I think God created humans to be able to fly, but we lost that privilege because of sin and the fall. I think we will be able to fly again in the new heaven and new earth.

When we came home, Seths good friend Michael came over. Michael, Seth myself, and Seth's sisters had a tea party and watched Pride and Prejudice. I forgot how great a movie it is. It is right up there with the Notebook for best love stories ever. Elizabeth made some pretty awesome scones. Michael brought a ginormosly fantastical cinnamon roll. We all fought over the middle. Elisabeth was selfish and ate it.

Well, it is about that time. The clock says 12:18. Today was a great day. God is so good. Even when we don't deserve it. He is showing me how I don't deserve anything, yet His grace is abundant. Thank you Jesus.


Goodnight (and good morning to the lower 48)



JN

First Day of June

I awoke to the June rain. Time is moving rather quickly. The last year has gone buy much faster than most. But its good.

Yesterday was one of those rainy days. Most of the day I had to myself and I really enjoyed it. I think there are times in life where we need those days. Life has slowed down quite a bit since I have been up here. The Richardson's live differently than most people. They live as if time doesn't have a hold on them. Their relationships are of the utmost importance and they are placed far above all tasks. I think life is meant to be lived that way.

Yesterday morning Seths dad Dennis told us to get in the car. He didn't tell us where we were going. So as we were driving, i was wondering where we would end up. When we pulled up to Chester Park Senior Living in east Anchorage, I was struck with nostalgia. When I was 17, I got a job at a assisted living home where my grandmother had been living for about 2 years. That was a wonderful time in my life. There are times when I get lost in those memories, and wish that life could be that simple again. I was a waiter, and we always had the oldies playing... Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Duke Ellington. It was almost as if my grandmothers home was remnant of the 1940's.

Chester Park reminded me so much of Brighten Gardens. It was about 9 o'clock when we got there. The residents had just finished breakfast. We took the elevator to the third floor. Door number 321 had the name Bob Black embroidered on it. I smiled, because I realized that visitation was probably apart Pastor Dennis's job.

Bob Black was sitting on his recliner, smiling when we walked in. We took a seat across from him on the couch. Bob struck me as a quiet man, but Dennis has a way of brining out the inner child of almost everyone he meets. Bob was no different.

Bob told us of his life. How he met his wife later in his years. How she passed not to long ago, but how the Lord was good to give them twenty years together when they only expected ten.

I mostly watched Bob. Bob spoke they way Alaskan pine's sway in the wind, slow and steady. His used words only that were necessary. There was a quiet joy about Bob. His bible was lying next to him with a high lighter. I was amazed to see a man in his late 80's still spending time with the Lord in the mornings. I hope my eyes are good and I love Him that much when I am in my final years.

Dennis asked Bob why he hadn't got a wheel chair yet. Bob said because he didn't need one. Then Dennis told Bob that if he had one, he would probably get a motorized wheelchair and chase all the women at Chester Park. Bob grinned and said "I probably would."

While Bob was talking, I was struck with a thought, Bob is seventy years older than me. He has 4 periods of twenty years to remember. I have one.

As we drove home I drifted off as the rainy mountains peered back at me through my window. I dreamt of the times with my grandmother before she went home to be with The Lord. They were quiet and full of life, just like those few moments with Bob.

God has a way of speaking to us in the stillness. Sometimes we need to walk to the rhythm of a summer rain to hear Him. Bob walks to that rhythm.


Today is another day in Alaska. I don't know what I will do.

"But I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living."



JN

The last day of May

So there were a few highlights of yesterday as the calender flipped into the summer month of June.

The first was Seth, Sara, myself, and Mr. Richardson go to haul a load of junk to the Anchorage dump. I love the dump. We went last summer when we were remodeling the inside of the Richardsons new house. The best thing about the dump is you get to throw stuff, all sorts of stuff, as hard as you possibly can on top of a bunch of other stuff. If you really wanted to, you could play "hit the guy in the bobcat with junk as he piles it into a compresser". He would probably get angry but nothing would happen. When we got to the dump, the lady asked us if we had any hazardous waste, because hazerdous waste was illegal. We told her no, but then realize we had just been given a breading ground for making some funnies. So we started.

"Um, yeah, I got a disassembeled nuclear bomb back here. where should i put it"
"There is an arc reactor for NASAs space program. is that hazerdous?"
"i got ten pounds of radiation"


but there was one in particular that gave us the snickers for a good five minutes. i believe seth takes the crown with "a couldren of leaky batteries" for hazardous waste.

Later in the day, we went to Mountain View Churchs kids program, kids club for Christ. I saw the same faces as i did last year. There is a group of 6 or 7 mung brothers that consistently shows up. Starting from the oldest, you have Jim, Jerry (who wants to be called Mike), Billy, Brian, Ping, and Vi-Chi. Jim rmemembered me from last year. I shared the story of Jesus with Zacheous with them during the bible time.

Yesterday was capped off with me, Sara, and Elizabeth running for about 40 minutes. Sara almost died. But we made sure she finished. We ran through Earthquake park, a park with trail rich on the beach. The airport's take off strip is right by the beach, so we got to see huge jets take off as well. It was beautiful, and still light out at 10 pm when we finishished.
My body felt good after 40 minutes. That is two days in a row. I am totally gonna be running 7 miles by the time i get home.

well, that was it for yesterday. June has started now. Time keeps moving. Another month of life awaits.


JN