The Llama is Angry Again

I've taken quite a long hiatus from my blog!  The main reason is that we've been working flat-out to re-open the Angry Llama Diner, and we're finally there!  We (Journey Church) completely renovated the Conifer Crossings building, adding the "new and improved" Llama Diner, new space for our Mountain Roads Driving School, a gym, a beautiful new meeting room that can hold up to 200, and office space for our church staff.  All the work was done by our church team and an army of volunteers over a period of about five weeks.  I would come home most evenings, have a bite to eat and crash by 8:30.  In my mind I'm still able to work just as hard as I did in my 20's, but at 50 my body says to me every day, "You want me to do WHAT?!?"  They say you're as young as you feel, which would mean I'm about 97 right now. 


One of the cool things about the new Angry Llama is that we've made all the furniture and decorations out of old wooden pallets.  You can see in the pictures on the right that the light fixtures are just pallets hung from the ceiling with a bucket attached as a lamp shade, the tables are made of pallet wood and covered in resin, and all the decorations on the walls are pallet products.

Starting next week we'll head to Bailey to finish all the work on the Bailey Country Store to get it up and running.  Daph and I stopped in at one of the restaurants in Bailey to grab a bite last night, and the waitress said, "I know you - you're the one trying to open the Country Store, right?"  When I told her I was, she replied, "Well hurry up!  We're all getting impatient!"  I've probably heard the same thing from a dozen people in the last month; nice to know the folks in Bailey are behind what we're doing.

Marriage Part 2

We're expecting somewhere between 3 and 15 inches in the next 24 hours.  How is it possible that one web site predicts "light snow" and another up to 15 inches??  Go figure.  Don't they all have the same computers using the same weather models to predict precipitation?  I don't get it. 

Anyway, thought of a couple more marriage principles that we've gleaned over the past few years:

5.  The first one to be humble wins.  It only takes one of you to humble yourself and admit where you're wrong - sincerely - for healing to begin.  Unfortunately, most of the time both parties believe they're right in their own eyes and in the end everyone loses.  It's very sad to watch.  It just takes one, because it's almost impossible to remain hard-hearted in the face of true humility and confession.

6.  The power of prayer.  I'm amazed how rare it is to meet a couple today who ever pray together.  Maybe it's a reflection of how far our culture has removed God from the picture.  I'm not talking about non-Christians here, but couples who've been in the church for many years but who have never actually prayed with their spouse.  There is great power available to us when we come to God in agreement, together, to ask Him to heal whatever is broken in our marriage. 

Odds and Ends about Marriage

Daphne and I have done a bit of marriage counseling over the years, and we've learned some interesting truths about life and relationships in the process.  Here's a sampling:

1.  We can't want your marriage to work more than you do.  Sometimes in seems like we're the ones doing all the cheer-leading while the couple sitting across from us have given up and don't even want to try.  Doesn't work that way.  If you don't want to work at this relationship, let's not waste all of our valuable time pretending.  We've even said to some couples, "Well, it's clear that you've got fighting down to a fine art.  Maybe you should write a book on how to have a good fight in your marriage."  Doesn't really help them, but it makes me feel better.  I think it's pretty funny, actually.

2.  The only person you can change is yourself.  "If he'll just change, everything will be great!".  Sorry, doesn't work that way.  You gotta deal with your own "stuff", and we've all got plenty of issues to choose from.  Nobody needs a Junior Holy Spirit getting on their case, and God has his work cut out just changing you, just like He does with your spouse.  So get out of the way.  Your nagging gives you some sick sense of control, but all you're doing is driving your spouse out the door and into someone else's arms. 

3.  The goal isn't peace, but understanding.  It's fine to slam the door and go outside for a smoke, or take a drive, or whatever you do to calm down.  But when you get home nothing's resolved, even though you've got an unspoken cease-fire.  Your disagreement is still there, hanging in the middle of the room for you both to knock your heads on and start another fight.  If you can't figure out what happened and why you keep reacting to each other, you'll never get back the intimacy you've lost.

4.  He needs respect, and she needs love.  You can re-package it anyway you like, or pretend that liberated women need respect as much as men, or that modern men just need a hug.  Doesn't change the way God designed us.  When she's loved, she feels respected.  When he's respected, he feels loved.  And here's the other side of the coin: when she doesn't feel loved, she'll act totally disrespectful, and when he feels disrespected he'll become an unloving brute.  Works that way every time.  

Finishing feels good

We finally finished building the floor in the Bailey Country Store, and it feels good!  Neither Brian (teammate) nor I had ever laid a floor before, so not a bad day's work for a couple of rookies (who had the help of a couple of experts, to be fair).  I can finally see some light at the end of the hallway that leads to the staircase that leads to the corridor that leads to the end of the tunnel.  We had to raise the floor so much (15 inches) that I feel like an NBA player when I stand in there now (except I'm not black and I can't jump worth a darn).  Now we just need to tackle the plumbing, the walls, the broken windows, insulation ...


Last night we watched the episode of Finding Bigfoot that was filmed in Bailey last September.  A friend of mine took several screen shots as proof positive that Gwyn and I do exist, and that we were present at the town hall meeting.  They even had a shot of my Sasquatch cut-out holding a sign that said, "I do not believe the evidence supports the existence of humans."
Of course, several guys from church texted me about Unicorns and fairies and such nonsense.  Skeptics can be so immature.  You'd almost think I believe in some mythical, hairy, 8 foot beast that roams the woods around Bailey.  Now THAT would be crazy.

Believe it or not, there is a recent report that an adult male Bigfoot was shot late last year while a British film crew was making a documentary about Bigfoot.  Apparently, they'd set a bait trap high on a tree and a Bigfoot came to investigate.  The crew's guide woke up, saw the bigfoot, jumped out of his tent in his underwear and shot it in the back of the head.  The film crew wrestled the gun away from him, but too late. According to the article (see the link below), the Bigfoot measured 7'8" tall and weighed 490 pounds.  I would be highly skeptical myself except for the fact that the film company - Minnow Films - is well known and has made a number of excellent, award-winning documentaries.  They claim that they're keeping the carcass until the film comes out in April.  We'll see.  Here's the article I read on this project - the film is tentatively going to be called, "Of Monsters and Men".

http://robertlindsay.wordpress.com/2012/12/12/bigfoot-news-december-12-2012/


They apparently filmed several seconds of the Squatch eating the bait from inside their tent before it was shot. Below is a clip of that video; judge for yourself.

Bigfoot news

For all my Bigfoot skeptic friends, this blog entry should be amusing.  A few days ago, a friend of mine who lives in Bailey sent me an email that she'd found some "interesting" tracks on her property.  I went over to investigate the next day, and took a few photos.  Unfortunately, we had a light snow after the tracks were made, so the definition was poor.  What was clear, however, is that something walked across her property with 7 foot strides, in a straight line, and the prints were 16-18 inches long.  One of the prints - see below with my boot next to it - still shows what might be the imprint of toes and a mid-tarsal break (believed to be a sasquatch characteristic). 

Of course, my skeptic friends - I'm talking about you Brian - say that it is clearly a hoax.  OK, let's go down that road for a minute:  the prints are located in a remote part of the property, and had to have been made during the night in sub-zero temperatures, on stilts (7 foot stride), without making one mis-step in the process.  I'm not saying the tracks definitely WERE made by a Sasquatch, but to believe this is a hoax is an insult to my intelligence.

Speaking of Bigfoot:  Apparently, the episode of "Finding Bigfoot" (Animal Planet channel) that was filmed in Bailey will be airing this Sunday evening.  I'm hoping that Gwyn and I will show up in our bright, green Sasquatch Outpost T-shirts on the front row of the town hall meeting, and that they'll show my Life-Size Sasquatch cutout as well.   Maybe this is the beginning of something really big... (no pun intended)...

New Floor

We made huge progress on the new floor in the country store yesterday, thanks to all the Journey staff guys who came down to lend a hand.  Basically, we're raising the whole floor up 14 inches over the original floor.  You can see the new joists in the pictures on the left - the floor will go down on top of those joists.  We have some technical issues to overcome - namely how best to raise the front door up to match the floor, and then we'll need to build a handicap deck and ramp out front.  Still, it feels good to get so much work done in one day!  The old girls still needs a huge amount of work, like repainting, fixing the walls, fixing many broken windows, adding shelving and counters... and the list goes on and on.  However, we're still shooting to open at some level by the first of February. Q This continues to be a faith adventure, as we do not have the funds to finish the renovation work and we're trusting that God will provide what we need, when we need it.  He already provided the resources to build the floor, so we keep trusting Him for the rest.

Quote from Steve Brown's book, "A Scandalous Freedom":
     (regarding the common viewpoint that Christians should always be "nice")  "Christians can be dangerous!  No, not those.  The real ones.  The weenies aren't dangerous.  They are irrelevant.  But those Christians who have discovered they don't have anything to protect and nothing to lose, who have learned that Jesus is Lord and that it doesn't matter what others think a bout them or do to them - they are dangerous... really dangerous."
     "Why are we so bound and so imprisoned that we feel afraid to speak up, stand up, and be Christ's witnesses in the church and in the world?  In other words, if we're free, why don't we use our freedom to be bold?"
     

Back to Blogging

After a hiatus of several weeks due to my computer being on the fritz (AND I fixed it all my byself) I'm back to blogging.  Duke (my yellow lab) is snoring on the floor next to me as we both try to stay warm by the fire.  Speaking of Duke,  I finally bit the bullet and bought an invisible fence to keep him contained on our property after getting at least 10 calls from neighbors... "Um, I have your dog here at my house; what should I do with him??"  I've never used one of these devices before, but even when I turn the collar up to the maximum setting Duke just strolls right across the wire without so much as a flinch.  I've thought about putting the collar on myself to test the shock, but in the end I'm just too chicken.  I've watched the YouTube videos and that's enough proof for me.  got to think on that some more.

The town of Bailey and the Bailey Country Store still take up most of my time now.  In the last 30 days we initiated a Christmas decorating contest among the businesses in Bailey, for which I created a "fitting" trophy made of a deer antler strung with battery-operated Christmas lights; I was elected to the board of the Platte Canyon Area Chamber of Commerce (think Mayberry);  and I wrote an article for one of the local mountain newspapers about "new beginnings" and the country store.  I was particularly happy about the article and several people commented on it last Sunday at church (I'd forgotten all about it by the time it was published).  The article describes well what the Lord has put on my heart for this little town and this forgotten country store.  So here it is:

She’s 130 years old, built when Bailey was young and steam trains still rolled past along the Platte River.  One of the first buildings constructed in the town (1878) the Bailey Country Store has always been there – providing not only groceries, but also a sense of history and stability to this little mountain community.   The past few years have not been kind to this old girl, however.  When the store was closed in late 2009, Bailey lost not only a town icon but the only functioning grocery store as well.  She’s sat quiet, dark and cold for almost three years – the paint peeling from the walls and the sign that once proudly announced her presence vandalized by bored teenagers.   Tourists would occasionally stop by for a few staples on their way to go camping, but the locked door and butcher paper covering the windows left no doubt that it was either back to Conifer or on to Fairplay to buy their marshmallows, graham crackers and Hershey’s chocolate. 

Until now.  Three months ago we ( The Journey Community Church) leased the building from its new owners with the goal of re-opening the Country Store to provide a much-needed and sorely missed service to the town of Bailey.  If you drive to the bottom of Crow Hill today and look to your right you’ll notice that the store has a new paint job and a brand new sign… and a life-size Sasquatch holding a cup of coffee.  The new Bailey Country Store and Sasquatch Outpost Coffee House are on-target to open their doors in early February.  The exterior looks great now, but inside there’s still lots of work to do.  The original floor is rotten and unsafe so a whole new floor must be built above it for the old girl to be useful once again – not to mention painting, repairing pipes, fixing the heating… and the list goes on.  It’s a time of new beginnings, not just for this old store but also for a community that’s been hit hard in recent years by tragedy and recession.  Bailey folks need a fresh infusion of hope: hope that better days are ahead and that their lives – like the old country store – still have value.  We can all start over again if we just have a little faith in God and in ourselves.

I believe in Bailey, and it’s time for this community to stand up tall and declare: “We are strong.  We are resilient.  We are community.  We are Bailey!”

checking back in

It's time to check back in after a hiatus of several weeks.  After losing two friends in quick succession, life became rather hectic when we launched our first Saturday evening service for the Journey Church Bailey Campus.  We held our second service last night, and though our learning curve is rather steep we're all excited about what lies ahead.  Daphne, Gwyn and I are still the only full-time staff for the Bailey campus.  We need God to raise up a worship leader and a youth pastor soon, as most of our volunteers are my age or older (ie, wise, mature, and "seasoned").  We are passionate to reach the youth in Bailey, but we need an influx of young blood.  God knows.

After almost four weeks of waiting and (unsuccessfully, in my case) learning to be patient, we are about to get the permit to rebuild the floor in the country store.  God has provided much of the lumber and materials we'll need to build it - which is in itself ironic; the donations only came a week ago, so even if we'd had the permit to build we would not have been able to do the work.  The Lord knew all this, and while every impatient bone in my body has popped out of joint over the past 30 days, He was working behind the scenes to provide what we need.

After preaching the past two Saturdays I am gaining a new appreciation for the challenge that Michael faces every single week to come up with a new sermon from a fresh perspective.  I find it very difficult to set aside even a few focused hours to think, pray and write... and I have only a fraction of the responsibilities that he does.  I can only imagine how much harder this will be once we start working on the remodel of the store!  I'm already A.D.D on my best days, so throw in a very enticing and long-awaited building project and ... yikes.  I still have one gainormous problem:  I depended completely on Mark's know-how and passion for this project, and now he's gone.  The Lord must have someone else waiting in the wings to fill Mark's very big shoes.  I wonder who it is?

A Grief Observed

They were both dear friends.  I'd known Bud for a little over two years.  Mark, for only two months.  Bud was 80, and his death was not unexpected given the extent of his cancer.  Mark was only 56, and none of us were ready for him to die.

I met Bud and his wife Bev after Bev's single car accident on hwy 285.  She had apparently blacked out on the road and ended up in a drainage ditch - disoriented and unaware of how close she'd come to death herself that day.  I drove her home, met Bud (who I immediately liked) and decided that this "chance" encounter was arranged from above.  For the past two years I've visited them on their 40 acre spread every other week or so to fill up their firewood shed, fix a tractor tire, unclog the fish pond drain - whatever needed doing.  Or we would just sit and chat over a bottle of Coors (Bud had been a career Coors employee).  Bud was in poor health when I met him - multiple cancers, knees that had long since given out after 30+ years of climbing on and off of Coors trains... a shadow of the larger-than-life man he'd once been.  After several weeks of emergency room visits and hospital stays, Bud seemed to just give up.  I was with him on the Friday that the hospice staff arrived.  On Monday morning the hospice nurse went in to check on him and her eyes were drawn to the window by a pre-dawn shooting star streaking across the sky.  When she turned back to Bud, he was gone.  Bev wants the service to be held at the Kingdom Hall, since she is a devout Jehovah's witness.  The only date the elder could give her was this coming Saturday-  three weeks after Bud's death, and while I am out of the country for a crisis management training.  No family members allowed to speak, no music, no slideshow.  I offered the daughters the use of the country store to hold their own service for family and close friends, and to plan it the way they wanted.  They agreed, and we arranged it for yesterday (Sunday) afternoon. 
___________________________

Mark and Jaime started coming to our weekly meetings down in Bailey two months ago.  Their daughter Missy invited them, and even though they live here in Conifer they came to our Wednesday evening service with her... and just kept coming back.  Mark has been my right-hand man in planning the new floor in the store.  He drew the floor plans up himself,  and on his own contacted Home Depot to challenge them to help us with donated lumber and materials.  We worked, and painted, and fixed stuff together - and all this while they're in the middle of building an addition on their own home!   In a very short time I grew to love both Mark and Jaime; it doesn't take long to build a friendship when you share a common heart and the same vision.
___________________________

Yesterday I was on my way to church the phone call came:  Mark, my new friend, had died during the night.  What??  That's not possible!  He wasn't even sick!  There must be some mistake!  I turned around and raced to their house.  Jamie and the kids were all in a state of shock.  Oh my God - this can't be happening!  We had so much to do together, and Mark was such an integral part of everything.  What in the world will I do without him?  What will Jaime and Missy and her brothers do without him?  In one night their entire lives are turned upside down - and with no time to prepare for life without Husband, and Dad, and Grandpa.  We wept, and wept, and wept.  What words can a pastor possibly give at such a time as this?  My own grief after losing a second, dear friend left me emotionally numb.

Sometime in the blur of yesterday morning I remembered that I had a memorial service to do for Bud at 2 pm.  I left Jaime and the family and drove back to Bailey, and with the help of two wonderful friends got the room cleaned up and ready just about the time Bud's family started arriving.  Only then did it hit me that I hadn't prepared ANYTHING to say, and I'm supposed to lead the service.  I prayed a quick SOS prayer, got up in front and totally winged it.  God must have somehow made sense of the nonsense that came out of my mouth, because they all said it was wonderful. 

Now, this morning, the reality of yesterday's events is beginning to hit me.  Daph and I are heading back over to visit with Jaime and Missy and the family, then she'll drive me to the airport for my flight to Frankfurt.  This is going to be an interesting week.

Makeup on a Redneck Woman

Before

During 

We're moving ahead with our plans for the Bailey Country Store and Sasquatch Outpost Coffee House.  We have almost all our paperwork ready to submit for our remodel permit, and then (by faith) we'll be off.  I managed to convince the building inspector to allow us to paint the exterior of the building (he wasn't going to allow us to do anything on the building at all until we have our remodel permit) because we wanted to give the high school kids a community service project to do for Kindness Day.  20 kids showed up, and we painted the whole lower part of the outside of the building... and what a difference a coat of paint makes!  A couple of other men and I finished up the upstairs paint job a few days later, but the old lady kinda looks good!  I told the guys when we were painting the upper part that it felt like putting makeup on a Redneck woman.. but hey, when you need it, use it!  The final effect
is pretty impressive.  We've already had people come by to shop, thinking that we're open.

This whole adventure of starting a country store and coffee house has proven to be one of the biggest faith challenges I've ever faced.  I thought we were living by faith the whole time we were serving overseas, but now that I look back on those years I realize we weren't really living by faith at all.  We had a team of very faithful supporters, and for 20 years we honestly never lacked a thing.  Fund raising was always a challenge, but God was

Painting the letters for the new store sign

faithful and our staff account was never in deficit even once during all those years.  Those days of relative financial security are long gone however, and we find ourselves trusting God on a daily basis to provide not only for our own financial needs, but for the funding to complete the renovation of the store, stock it with groceries, pay the bills etc.  There's a principle here that I am only now beginning to understand: as long as we had a healthy bank balance and plenty of financial support,  I never really gave much thought to trusting God.  Now we're forced to trust Him on a daily basis, and this reality has pushed us far beyond the edge of our comfort zone.  But out here in the "trust zone" we're learning that God is always faithful and always has our back.  As Christians we will always pray things like, "Lord, help me to trust you more" - not realizing, of course, that He will do just that!  So my prayer has changed to, "Lord, help me to REST in your promises today no matter what may happen because you are always trustworthy." 

The final effect.  We only need to add the sign for the Sasquatch Outpost coffee house