Articles tagged under united states Home

Blessings, Baptists, and Bantam Chef

January 15, 2009 | posted by Jon under united states, updates | Comments (14)

Yes, I do have internet again this morning (at a hotel!), and the story behind it is rather incredible (at least to Lars and I), so we thought we’d share it with you. We got into Union, SC last night around 5. As usual, we went to the local public library to check email, update this site, and figure out our next steps. As we were leaving, we asked the librarians which churches they thought would be willing to let us stay in their building for the night. They told us to check out Tabernacle Baptist Church, saying “that’s probably your best bet.”

Boy was it ever. We entered the church right as Choir practice was starting and the Wed. evening sermon was concluding. After talking to a couple of people, our reputation soon preceeded us, and a number of church members were working on setting us up with accomodations . After tossing around the idea of sleeping in the church’s gym, which would have been more than fine with us, they decided to get us a hotel room, saying, “We’re going to do something better for y’all.”

That seemed to be the theme for the evening. As we were getting directions to the hotel and trying to thank the people of Tabernacle Baptist as best we could, a lady handed us each $5, saying that we could go get something to eat across the street at the Bantam Chef, a Southern fast food chain that has now become my favorite restaurant in the genre.

So we took her advice and headed over to the Bantam Chef, which apparently was owned by a member of Tabernacle Baptist Church. Upon learning who we were, the owner told the wonderful ladies at the front counter to “take care of us.” That manifested itself in the form of two huge cheeseburgers “with everything” (chili, tomatoes, lettuce, mayo, mustard, and ketchup), as well as generous servings of cole slaw, fries, and soda.

After delightfully devouring this meal, we sat in the booth of Bantam Chef, stuffed and satisfied. It was just then that we recieved a phone call from Steve, a reporter with the local radio station. I talked to him for a couple of minutes on the phone, fielding theological questions such as, “What do you ”Mehonites” believe?”, “Do y’all believe in heaven and hell?”, “Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and our Lord and Savior?”

Steve showed up in the next 15 minutes, and a brief interview (complete with stuttering soundbyte supplied by Lars and I) was conducted, but what was really interesting to me was the discussion of theology that ensued in that local fast food joint. We spoke with Steve for a while about who the Mennonites are, how they differ from the Baptists, and what commonalities all religions share. It was clear that he was personally interested in our trip, and it was good to fellowship with him.

Full of food and good conversation, Lars and I gleefully rode to the hotel room provided for us at the Days Inn (which, we were told, was “just about the nicest hotel we have.”), told the clerk our names, and he handed us the keys to a heated, dry room complete with a hot shower and two wonderful beds. We sat there, still in our bike clothes, shaking our heads at what had just taken place that evening. I am still processing it further, but suffice it to say that God is good, and sometimes more than good, for reasons we don’t yet understand.

The $1 donation

January 14, 2009 | posted by Lars under reflections, united states | Comments (4)

I wrote this in my journal on Sunday about our time at Rutba House, but am only now getting to post it because of a combination of our internet access and schedule. For a bit of context, though names have been changed, Jamaal is a child at Rutba House, Zane is a lifetime Walltown resident, and Rutba One is one of two houses Rutba folks live in. More will come about our current affairs - and there is much to share! - soon.

I have to tell the story about Zane, and with it the story of Claire. This evening, after supper, Jeff walked into Rutba One, as he had several times before throughout the weekend. Zane is a slave - to alcohol - and his master makes him shoplift and steal things like Super Soakers to give to Jamaal. This time, he came bearing no such gifts, but he was drunk; and this time, the conversation turned to the guests - us - and our journey, which was incredible for Zane to comprehend. He kept asking, “‘ey… ‘ey… how you gettin’ there?” and whether it’s farther than Colombia, and warning us that there’re a lot of crazy people out there. At one point, though, when the concept connected with him, he said, “‘ey… man…” as he dug around his pockets to pull out three crumpled ones. “I ain’ rich,” he said, “but take this,” as he offered me one of them. “You’ll need it.” I took the dollar and thanked him for it, trying to fathom this gift. Not two days earlier, Jon & I had played the receiving end of a similar situation with our host Claire, who handed us each a sum of cash, insisting, “you might need to get a hotel room… you know, with his leg and all.” Accepting these gifts are humbling reminders of the economics of providence, which have supported us both serendipitously and lavishly already, less than a week into our journey. We are provided for - and that, well - and we are reminded of Christ’s words, “freely you have received, now freely give.” May such abundance always flow through our lives.

How to ride pain free…

January 14, 2009 | posted by Jon under united states, updates | Comments (5)

Unfortunately, I don’t really know the answer to that subject quite yet. It has been a frustrating process dealing with one thing or another since Day 2 of our trip, but I can say things are on the upswing and I’m learning an incredible amount about bike biomechanics.

I hitch-hiked into Durham last Friday with some pretty bad pain in both of my Achilles tendons. I spent Saturday morning trying to find bike shops that knew what they were talking about fit-wise, and luckily I found one. The Bicycle Chain of Durham, NC gave me a free bike fitting complete with all kinds of gadgets, but it really just lowered my seatpost.

While at Rutba House I also did a fair amount of icing and Aleve-eating to help myself out. On Sunday, Lars, Rutba House members, and I went to a church service at St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church in Durham. During the service, both Lars and I were called up unexpectedly and prayed over by the pastor and others for healing and safety. We have yet to find out if the pastor knew about our trip….

Leaving Rutba on Monday made me quite nervous, but I was able to ride the 80 miles to Asheboro without any tendon pain. However, both of my knees started acting up during the ride due to a seatpost that was too low. So now I am back to the process of adjusting my seatpost, taking Aleve, and rubbing Flexall on both of my knees to be able to ride relatively pain free. The pain comes and goes, and it hasn’t gotten much worse or subsided, so I’m just waiting it out. I’d appreciate your prayers and thank you for the concern many of you have shown thus far. I’m hopeful about the situation, because I know that it takes a while to get used to the rigors of bike touring, and because we have built in a number of rest days. Lastly, I guess semi-hopefully, I have 8,000 more miles to figure out a comfortable riding position…..I just hope I find one before I get to Paraguay.

Rutba House

January 13, 2009 | posted by Lars under united states, updates | Comments (8)

God is good! Last night, we rolled into Asheboro, NC looking for a place to set up our tent, but after a stop at the library, we were being hosted by a doctor and his wife just outside of town! We’re glad to be keeping up the no-tent record, given that night temperatures are dipping into the 20s.

Anyway, it’s been the better part of a week now since our last substantive update, but we’ve been off the bikes for much of that time, at Rutba House in Durham, NC. Rutba House is a Christian intentional community in Durham committed to “a new way of life in community.” Rutba was formed almost six years ago in response to the hospitality several of the members received in Iraq when a vehicle in their CPT delegation convoy wrecked on a piece of shrapnel in the desert, near the town of Rutba. Even though the U.S. had bombed the hospital there just three days earlier, a local doctor treated their injured and refusing payment, asked only that they tell the story of what happened in Rutba.

So this small community in North Carolina has committed themselves to sharing this hospitality and becoming part of the community in the Walltown neighborhood of Durham. They recognize that this will take time, so they’ve given their lives to it, and mean to live their whole lives out in that community.

Now, everything we learn about progress assumes upward social mobility - that people should work for higher social class, marked by more opportunities in terms of employment and lifestyle - but folks at Rutba are turning this on its head, saying we don’t need the world at our doorstep if we have neighbors there, and Christ as our center. This is radical, I think, but most fully in the true sense, of getting back to the root of “community.” This “downward mobility” is in effect a statement of submission to the community, “You’re more important than my personal fulfillment. In fact, you are integral to my fulfillment in Christ.”

This commitment aside, Rutba is a pretty “normal” when it comes to intentional communities. You don’t have to be a hippy or a tree hugger to live there - in fact, as one of the members, Susan, said, “anyone could live here and it would feel normal.” With two married couples and three under five years old, the community is growing fast; Taize songs are punctuated with bowls of Kix cereal, and the running commentary of the four year-old keeps everything from fasting to long church services in perspective.

More to come on Jon’s health and on generosity, hopefully tonight. We need to get on the road to Charlotte.

In the news…

January 9, 2009 | posted by Jon under press, united states | Comments (2)

The Mennonite Weekly Review Article:

http://www.mennoweekly.org/2009/1/12/humble-way-travel/

The Intelligencer Journal Article:

http://blogs.lancasteronline.com/potholes/2009/01/07/local-cyclist-departs-for-paraguay/

The EMU article by Jim Bishop:

www.emu.edu/news/index.php/1827

Short Notice Guests

January 8, 2009 | posted by Jon under united states, updates | Comments (12)

Yup, since heading out on Tuesday, that’s what we’ve become. It has been both strange and exciting to leave the circle of support that showed up to see us off in the cold rain Tuesday morning. Strange that you can so quickly leave that feeling of support and community, but exciting in that you can find it again in the most unexpected places. So far such support has come through very well for us. Tuesday night we slept in the now-retired day care center in the basement of the Scott’s household from Charlottesville, and yesterday night we slept in the Warren’s RV on a beautiful 35 acre farm near Farmville, VA. Mr. Warren actually drove 20 min or so to pick us up at the gas station (which is where we got caught in the dark) and took us back to the family farm (much thanks to Aaron Trimble for that contact). Tonight we plan to stay in the farm house of a lady I actually just met about 20 min ago here at the Clarksville Library. We’ll let you know how that goes :). All of these people have no reason to host us, no reason to completely open their homes and hearts to us, but they do, and for that we are grateful, and give thanks to God for keeping us safe and looking out for us on our journey.

Besides incredible hospitality, the ride has been mostly good. The first two days we rode into some cold rain, but we kept our heads up, and it made us appreciate the sun we had today. Additionally, I’d like to ask for your prayers for my Achille’s tendons, which are acting up again. It is a recurring problem that I had when biking across the US, and right now they are over-stressed from a newly heavy load and the rigors of bike touring. So I will try to get them some rest in the next couple of days, and then see how I’m doing. It is a hard thing to accept this early in the trip, especially when considering what all we have left to ride through, but I’m trying to stay positive and get some rest.

Well, there you have it, update one of many-with a small insight into my all too literal Achille’s heel….

P.S. Lars is doing just fine….he’s a beast

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