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If anyone ever asks, tell them that you know that it is a long drive from North Dakota to Texas (I watched the trip odometer reset itself in Wichita, Kansas). I’ll be able to tell you in a couple of days how long of a drive it is from Tyler, Texas to northwestern Wyoming. Why am I in Texas when most of the rest of the team is in a state where they pronounce their capital, Pierre (sounds like it should be French) ‘pier’ and also has a big rock with some faces carved into it (if you’ve guessed South Dakota then you win the prize!)? It just so happens that a couple of our team members had to get to Texas during this week - one to fly out of Dallas to Australia for a family emergency and another for a very important appointment in Dallas tomorrow. I’m helping Derek with the drive, it’s just not good to have one driver for this distance (I didn’t mention that the other passenger is a one year old girl, so her Mom is not an option to drive). Another couple of good things about my coming down here was my being able to get online and catch up on The Wave website and write this post and also to be able to just learn a lot more by the time my little group has spent together.

North Dakota is a sight to see. I’ve never seen so much empty land, never seen so many cows, never seen so much corn (until Iowa on the drive to Texas) and never seen so many buffalo as in this state. I’ve also never seen a state with such bad cell phone reception and no places to get online with my laptop as this state (well until driving through South Dakota). It was a good place though, the people are great. Most of what we did was infiltrate the tri-county fair talking to everyone about Jesus. We even went as far as 7 of our group working there for a day, giving them the ability to build relationships with some of the other workers. That really is a different bunch, carnival workers. They need a lot of prayer and uplifting.

One of the funniest things this year was when Derek, Joey and myself went to town in Napoleon to a local dive (the local dive) to get a snack. While eating cheesy bread and wings one of the staff came over and asked where we are from (this is a very small town where they all know each other). When Joey answered “Alaska”, Derek answered “Hawaii” and I answered “Virginia” then an explanation of what we are doing she asked if the paper knew we were there. Of course they didn’t so she promptly went to the back and called the paper. Five, count them five, minutes later a reporter was there asking us a bunch of questions and took our picture. We are in their paper! A copy of the paper should be going to my parents’ house, I can’t wait to see it. Maybe we made front page next to the special on them getting finished with re-paving highway 3 early. Well at least all of the people there will see www.thewaveusa.com and know a little about our faith in this country so hopefully that’ll lift them up. It’s got to do some good besides making Joey almost pee himself laughing.

Where I’m staying right now (’til morning) is a really cool place. The YWAM Woodcrest base is where I’m at. It’s about a twenty minute drive from Tyler, Texas and is near Mercy Ship International’s headquarters (no we are not near water) and a bunch of other ministry/missions activity centers. It’s really a hotspot for this stuff. This base focuses a lot on media, mostly writing and video. Very cool vibe - I’d like to come back in the future sometime when the guys are back in the office (as opposed to traveling the country with The Wave). I really like Texas - mid 90s doesn’t really bother me ’cause that’s how it feels at home in Virginia anyway.

Well I should get back to finishing my updates on the wave website that accumulated while I wasn’t able to get online and while I refused to take my laptop out of the bag while at a campground. I’m also working on the steps of fundraising to fuel the three remaining tours and hopefully to get me to Vancouver on my week off that’s coming up July 30. Life was sometimes so much easier when I got a paycheck the 5th and 20th of every month. I can’t complain though - it really is a privilege doing what I am doing. I’ve come to hate hearing about people “surrendering” themselves to ministry… If you are surrendering then that means that you are giving up something good for something less good. Did I surrender? No way. I’d be surrendering if I gave up on doing what God told me to do and went back to my old ways of living for me.

Ciao…