Sasquatch Outpost

The work on renovating and re-creating the Bailey Country Store has begun!  We spent most of the last two days removing the garbage and junk left by previous tenants so we can gain a better idea of what needs to be done.  Yesterday Steve and I started investigating the state of the floor in the store more thoroughly, and we decided that we had to climb down into the 2-foot crawlspace under the floor to look at the floor joists from underneath.  Steve couldn't fit through the trap-door opening, so guess who had to crawl down into that dark, dank, 130-year-old space?  I had previously set off about five bug bombs under the floor, knowing that "someone" would have to go down there.  The fact that we killed an enormous black widow spider on the front of the building the day before was no comfort to me at all.  But hey, the Just Shall Live By Faith, right?  So down I went.  I couldn't squeeze more than a few yards in any direction, but the thought occurred to me while I was down there that I should have brought a metal detector with me; who knows what cool stuff might be hiding in that dirt?  Anyway, there was no way to see the problem from underneath, so we attacked it from above.  We picked a particularly bad spot in the middle of the store, and we went through two layers of linoleum, a layer of plywood, a layer of tiles, then some kind of concrete before we finally reached the original hardwood flooring.  It is all full of moisture (oh boy, more work!), and we will clearly have to rip up the entire floor and rebuild it on top of the existing joists.  The problem is that we have seven fridge/freezers to move - some of which date from the 1950's and weigh upwards of a ton.  This should be interesting.  As we were working we must have had a dozen people stop by the ask what we're doing, and one woman volunteered to come and help us with our work-day on Saturday.  That's exactly what we are hoping for... curiosity that will lead to community involvement.

No Way

Last Wednesday evening we held our first "official" church service in the upstairs apartment of the Country Store.  I was expecting more than our usual 15, but to my surprise 29 people showed up - four of whom have not been to any church in years.  After the meeting one of them - a guy in his early 30's - came up to me and said that he's decided to leave Bailey and start his life over.  I found out later from a mutual friend that he's been through a hellish time the past few weeks.  Anyway, he asked if we might have any use for some tools he needs to get rid of, like a table saw and a few other power tools.  I told him that we could certainly make use of anything that he is willing to donate.  He called me yesterday morning to see when we would be at the store, because he was bringing a trailer-load of stuff (??) to drop off.  When he arrived an hour later my jaw literally dropped: he'd FILLED a 15 foot trailer with power tools and equipment, all of which he wanted to donate to help us renovate the country store.  I was honestly speechless as he carried a table saw, a drill press, a band saw, drills, nail guns, planers... I don't even know what all he gave.  I then remembered that Michael had given me a box of his books to give away, so I grabbed a signed copy and handed it to him - explaining that it's the story of how our church came to be.    "Well, I'm not much of a Christian, " he said.  "That's fine," I replied, "I think you'll enjoy reading it anyway."   "Well,"  he continued, "I'm actually an athiest".  Say what?  Something dramatic had apparently taken place in his heart the previous night at our meeting.  And here's the best part:  he called me about an hour later and said that he only wanted one thing in exchange for all that he'd given to our church.  "You name it" I replied.  He said that he's moving to Florida to get training to become a commercial pilot, and all he wanted from us was that we pray that he makes it.  Wow - God never ceases to amaze me!  I challenge our fledgling church to believe God for miracles...  and the next day an ATHIEST donates every tool we could possibly need, and only wants prayer in return.  Booyah!

The Just Shall Live By Faith

Here We Go!

Last Thursday I met with the owners of the historic Bailey Country Store to negotiate an agreement to lease the building.  I went to the meeting wearing my guns on the outside (figuratively speaking, of course) because I didn't know them, nor could I predict how difficult the meeting might become.  Within the first five minutes I realized once again that God has been behind this project from the get go, because the owners are both strong Christians who are very excited about the Journey Church being the new occupants of the store.  We sealed the deal within 30 minutes, and spent the next hour-and-a-half talking about the Lord, and what He's doing in Bailey, and how this project could help to revitalize the whole town.  It was an amazing conversation, and God's handwriting is everywhere we look.  Since reaching a verbal agreement on the Country Store, I've been busy connecting with local business owners to begin building a friendship and to tell them about our plans to re-open the grocery store.  Across the board their enthusiasm is contagious.

Bailey Bigfoot
On a side note, near the end of our conversation the wife mentioned (I don't remember why, actually) that Bailey has gotten some media attention recently due to several significant sightings of Bigfoot - yes, I said it - Bigfoot.  At the end of May two women were out walking in the forest on the outskirts of town at dusk, and a cracking branch drew their attention to one side.  They both watched in disbelief as an enormous, hairy (somewhere around 7 ft tall)  bi-pedal figure ran down the hillside about 100 yds from them at superhuman speed, and disappeared into the trees.  They could both clearly see it, and they can even describe the color of the hair.  I am planning to meet one of the women later this week to hear her story for myself, but when Lynn shared this with me last week I laughed out-loud; God really has a sense of humor, knowing that I am an avid Bigfoot enthusiast too.  I'd been trying to figure out what we could do to to make out coffee shop unique - something that would draw people into the store - and now I think I have it.  I spent last night with my brother John in Breckenridge, and this morning we played around with Photoshop and came up with the idea below.  I think it's hilarious, but that's just me.  We'll see if our launch team will buy it!

Mount Sherman & Bailey Church update

Jim and Duke at the summit of Mount Sherman

A solitary mine shaft on the climb up

It's always encouraging to see how far you've come!

  

On Monday I climbed Mount Sherman with a
 new friend named Richard.  I chose Sherman because it's fairly close to Conifer (a little over an hour's drive) and is supposedly one of the easier peaks to climb.  I chose Richard as my companion because he's retired and has the time, and because he's climbed over 70 14ers and 13ers.  We headed out at 5 am because I wanted to pick up a load of firewood down in Denver that afternoon (hardwood. Burns MUCH longer than pinewood, so I mix the two together).  We got to the parking point at around 6:30 and headed up.  The day was overcast and cool.  Richard has had skin cancer in the past, so I was grateful for his sake that we weren't going to be exposed to the sun on this hike.  We made it up and back by 9:30 - a fact which amazed me, since I felt like I was stopping every 30 feet to catch my breath.  As we climbed the ridge to the summit we could see the dark clouds of an approaching storm to the east, and while I wasn't too worried for myself since I carry rain gear, I was concerned for Duke.   The temperature dropped consistently as we climbed, and when you added the windchill it was probably in the upper 30's by the time we reached the top.  Getting soaked by rain at that temperature could easily give Duke hypothermia, so I was watching the storm closely as we climbed.  Richard felt like we had plenty of time, and I trusted his experience and judgment.  As it turned out, it started to rain when we were 3/4 of the way down.  Others we'd passed on the way down were way up near the summit by that time, and it must have been absolutely freezing.  It was a great morning, and another fourteener (my second) I can add to my short list of accomplishments.

Duke, the intrepid climber

Bailey Church Update

Full Steam Ahead for the launch of the Bailey Campus of the Journey Church.  Daphne and I will meet again tonight with our launch team, which has now grown to almost 20 people.  I am hoping and praying that I'll have some good news to share with them this evening. 

For the past couple of weeks we've been in negotiations with the current owner  of

Rusted boiler that ran the steam engines for the mine

the Bailey Country Store - an historic building that dates back to 1878 - so it was one of the original buildings in the town of Bailey.  The store has been closed for three years, leaving no other grocery store in town.  It is in deplorable condition and in desperate need of a serious facelift, but my heart is to make use of the manpower army we have at the Journey Church to help us with the labor - a new roof, a new floor, a new paint job.  This building is a Bailey icon, and it would be a perfect way for our church to help revitalize the small downtown area of Bailey.  I also feel strongly that our launch team needs to see that our God is great, that He still answers prayer, and that we can trust Him for great things.  Renovating the Country Store would give us a project that we can all sink our hands and hearts into - just like Nehemiah rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem.  The Jewish people at that time desperately needed something and someone to give them hope and to help restore their sense of dignity and self-confidence.  My sense is that re-opening the Bailey Country Store would do the same for this community. 

It's in God's hands now.

Bailey Launch

 Well, Journey Church isn't exactly moving to Bailey, but we ARE going to launch a new satellite church there.  This expansion has been in the works for years, but we're finally ready to take the plunge.  God has already prompted six couples to be a part of this new church plant, and others are seriously considering it.  Daphne and I are leading the move into Bailey, which is a small mountain town about 30 miles Southwest of the Denver suburbs.  Bailey is often called the poor, redneck cousin of Conifer and Evergreen, the two other towns in our part of the front range.  This is an unfair depiction of the good people of Bailey, but there's no doubt that, economically-speaking, Bailey is sucking wind and has been for years.  Only a few viable businesses remain in "downtown" Bailey, and most  residents drive North to Conifer and Denver for groceries and entertainment.  What Bailey DOES have, however, is a real sense of community - and that's what we want to tap into.  What we need is some kind of community "anchor",  a 7-day-a-week venue that will give us proximity to the people of Bailey - particularly those who would not darken the door of any church. We need a place that will provide a real service to the people of Bailey, and that could potentially help revitalize this small, struggling town.

On that note, there's an historic building in Bailey (that shall for the moment remain secret) that has been vacant for years and that's in desperate need of serious elbow grease and love - kind of like the town of Bailey.  It's the perfect location for us to create a small business that could potentially draw people even from the neighboring towns.  We've entered into negotiations with the owner to lease the property, but this will require a miracle from God as we have almost no money to work with, and we've made him an offer that he can absolutely refuse.  But I see the tracing of God's finger in so many ways already that I believe He will provide us with the place that we need - whether this building or something else. Bailey doesn't need another church building, but maybe we can help this little mountain community, and somewhere along the way spread the love and hope that we've found in Jesus. 

As the Chronicles of Narnia say, "Aslan is on the move".

Stay tuned...

Sas-squash wars

I am a believer in Bigfoot.  Call me crazy or eccentric, but I believe they exist.  There is simply too much physical evidence and eyewitness sightings to conclude otherwise.  My friends and teammates rib me to no end regarding my unorthodox Bigfoot "religion".  We went camping last week, and my stated intention (tongue in cheek) was to bring back "definitive proof" that Bigfoot exists.  Well, due to the torrential downpours every evening, my Sasquatch adventures were dampened.  When I returned I received an email from my friend Phil, and the ensuing email exchange is funny enough to include here in my blog.  The original picture that Phil doctored was of me kneeling next to my bear after I'd shot it.



Hey Papa Jim,

I heard your camping trip was a success!!!  Congratulations on gaining 100% proof that SashSquash exists!  I plan on continuing your field research this weekend out at Taylor Park!



Tractor on,
Phil

Phil, you must have somehow gotten  hold of a fake photo.  What you sent is clearly doctored and photo-shopped.  I am herewith sending the CORRECT, GENUINE photograph for your viewing pleasure.  It was a little hard to shoot the big guy, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Jim

Papa Jim,

Sorry for the confusion .. I retrieved the actual image from Soviet Satellite Archives ...
I'm headed out to Taylor Park (West of Buena Vista) for some field research myself this weekend .. I'll keep you abreast of any significant findings.

Tractor on,
Milky