DTS Week 3

We added some pictures to our picasa site.
This week a missionary from China was here speaking on the Fear of God. It was very challenging. Everyone here is a little worn out now from the intensity of the week, but we are also very excited at what God is doing in our lives. The fear of God is essentially 2 things: 1. to hate sin like God does and 2. to respect and recognize God as God in every area of our life.

The highlight of the week was when we all were asked to confess our sins to each other in our small groups, believing that confessing them to God in front of people would bring them into light and release us from any shame or guilt. It was a little scary, but it did have a very freeing feeling. It brought each small group closer together. It is a good feeling to know that you can share your darkest secrets with friends and that their opinion of you is not lessened. It was painful, but it allowed a healing and purifying process to take place that was very good. God was faithful to give each of us a renewed sense of forgiveness, and also worked in us to point out some different areas in our lives that we need Him to renew our minds.

We have finalized plans for going on our outreach trip to China now. We will fly to Kunming in southern China on Nov. 4-Nov.18. Then we will split into 2 groups. Some will stay in Kunming and some will go to a different city by bus. We’ll get more details this week.

We finished the smell less pig pen finally. It was hard to communicate with everyone when there was 7 different people in charge and everyone spoke a different language. But, it was fun to build anyway. The pig is named Tinkerbell, and right now it is small and strong. We built the wall of the pen about 2’ high at first, and the pig climbed out of there pretty easily. Today, after an engineering analysis of how many bamboo “dowels” to use, we built the wall 8” higher. We just need to get the pig fat so that he can’t jump any more.

Another highlight was watching the movie Mr. Bean in Thai. It seems that they dubbed the words over into thai, and then translated the thai back into English for the subtitles. The translated subtitles had so many mistakes. “Go he to popcorn ate”, was what it would say for He went to eat popcorn.

DTS, Week 2

The first week was a little long and intense, but now we are used to the schedule and the people and are enjoying it here. This week, a Hmong pastor from Northern Thailand spoke all week about Salvation. It was very good. He has a phenomenal memory. He had no notes and often nearly quoted chapters of the Bible, showing us how many things in the Old Testament point toward Jesus coming as Savior, and how Jesus life, death, and resurection fulfilled all the requirements for our sins to be forgiven and to be seen as holy and blameless before God. All this, to anyone who believes in Him and follows His teaching. He was very interesting because of his humility, humor, and his stories of christian friends in SE Asia and how they have responded to the persecution they have faced.
Also, a missionary couple from the Burma border visited us. They led Bible study and also taught us how to build a smellless pig pen. Jonathan, Kob, and a few other guys work hard about 2 hours per day, digging a 6'x6' x 33" deep pit, filling it with rice husk, salt, and a mixture designed to eat bacteria, building a 2' high block wall, and building a little roof to cover it all. It is actually fun. We should finish by wednesday. The goal is to breed pigs, either to sell (about $20/baby pig), or to grow to eat.
Kob
Kob is jonathan's new friend. He speaks about as much english as we speak thai, so they spend a lot of time pointing at things and repeating the name of it in both languages. It is working well, they are both learning how to communicate and learning each others language. Kob is a hard working man, who amazes everyone with how he can fix things and build things. Kob even took Jonathan hunting, for ciccadas (big grasshopper looking things). At night, they crawl out of there hole and make a loud noise, so we walked around with a flashlight and a hoe and crushed there hole before they could jump back in it. then we'd catch the bug with our hands and put it in a coke can. Kob fried them up later, and we ate them as a snack today. They kinda taste like chicken, seriously. I'm excited to go catch more.
Waterfall
Today, they loaded us all into a sawngthaew (a big truck with seats in the back) and took us to a waterfall. It was cool. It was a creek that runs down the steep hillside, depositing this white mineral that turns in to rock. The rock was very grippy, so you could run up teh waterfall and not be afraid of falling. From top to bottom, it was maybe 300 vertical feet. It was fun. We should be able to steal some pictures from our friends and post them next weekend.
Running
The weather has cooled off lately, and we've gone for several runs. It is pretty out here. This morning we ran up a long hill to a temple, and had a good view of the countryside and the surrounding mountains. Ashley's actually convinced a group of girls to go running tomorrow.
Ping Pong
We have a ping pong table, and we've been having a great time playing each other on it.

We started DTS!!!!!

Sunday, Sept. 7, Chiang Rai
The Bus
We decided to try out the ordinary night bus for the ride to Bangkok because it’s a little cheaper. It all turned out to be $38 for both of us. We got on at 7pm, and everyone quickly fell asleep to the sound of Thai music videos that were playing at the front. The bus was pretty nice at first. It was pretty similar to a greyhound bus in the USA, except the seats are a little skinnier and shorter. After a while though, we realized that something wasn’t quite right with the seats. No matter how we tried to rest our heads to sleep, it wouldn’t work, and would leave us with a stiff neck. After about 10 hours of trying to figure out how to look as comfortable as everyone else looked, we decided it was because we were Big Fat Americans, and the seats weren’t made for us. The bus stopped 3 times at little plazas to let everyone out to use the bathroom and buy some snacks. The trip went pretty well, so we decided to try another bus to Chiang Rai. This bus was supposed to only be 10 hours. We got tickets for the next bus, waited for around 2 hours, and then left expecting to arrive around 9:30pm. Around 1:00 am, we finally arrived in Chiang Rai and were happily greeted by Art and his friend ZhuFong, whom we are staying with.

Chiang Rai
This week we are visiting our Thai missionary friend, Art. We have just told him of the financial support that many of you have offered to help him start the teenage dormitory for Akha village boys. He is very excited and is now able to take firm steps to make his vision/dream happen! We are spending some time this week to develop those plans and the budget with him. We have added some info to his website, www.akhadorm.blogspot.com.

Sunday night Sept. 2 we went to the International Church and met some wonderful people and heard Nancy, the woman who runs the Akha Outreach Orphanage, speak about sacrifices. She spoke from her heart about her own recent loss. One of the kids named Manoon at the orphanage was hit by a car on his way to school and after about 2 weeks of battling, he passed away. It was hard to fight the tears as she described the boys determined character and that during this hard time God brought peace and compassion to Manoon’s family and guidance to the orphanage staff. Nancy said that because of their attitudes the medical staff continued working to save Manoon past when they would normally give up. She also mentioned how the bible students at the orphanage had been able to reach out to many people while they were visiting Manoon at the hospital and even in his village during his funeral. Nancy said that she never thought she would have to sacrifice one of her own kids but that God used Manoon in life and even through is passing to bring many people to God.

Here are a few good quotes from Art in Thaienglish:
1. “I have to use the bathroom, but, if I scratch my calf muscle, it helps me hold it. I can hold it for up to an hour”. I tried this, and it didn’t work. Let me know if it works for you.
2. “It is sprinkling outside. I don’t want to go outside. Everyone get sick when they go outside when it is sprinkling. I would rather it be raining hard”
3. “The egg can do many thing, you can grill, fry, skewer, boil, bake. Many thing”


Chiang Mai DTS, Sept. 10-15

We made it through our first week at DTS. There are 23 students and 9 staff. The students are from Thailand (9), Australia, US (10), Ireland, Phillipines, and Canada and range in age from 18-39. We include missionary kids, Bible School Graduates, computer programmers, new Christians, and former drug and alcohol addicts. It is a good mix of people, and we are having a good time getting to know everyone.
We’re not having too much fun, though. Here is our schedule for Monday – Friday.
6:30-7:00 Exercise
7:00-8:00 Shower, Breakfast, clean dishes
8:00-8:45 Individual Quiet Time
8:45-9:45 Worship or Group Intercessory Prayer
9:45-12:45 Lecture
1:00-2:00 Lunch
2:00-3:30 Work Duties (Jonathan helped make a few benches, moved piles of wood, sharpen knives and machetes. Ashley helped prepare dinner and clean bamboo curtains)
3:30-5:30 Free Time (we spend most of this showering, reading books, and washing clothes, but we also went for two runs).
5:30-6:30 Bible Study
6:30-7:30 Dinner
7:30-9:30 Lecture or Small Group Time
10:30 Lights Out

In addition to all this, we have several books to read and write book reports on. Also, we must keep a journal and turn it in each week. This week, Tom Hallas from Australia spoke to us on the Character of God. It was good. He went over lots of things, but the main topics were God’s description of himself in Exodus 34:6-7, and His great plan for our adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. He often went over his allotted time, once lecturing for 3:30 straight hours with only 15 minutes of break time. Because of that, we only had a 30 minute lunch!!!

Being the only married couple on base, the staff has gone above and beyond to give us some privacy. Instead of dorm style bunk beds with 6 people per room, we were given a little 10x15 room with cute lime-green homemade curtains, a double bed with a broken mattress, a dresser that we’ve cleaned up and most importantly…a fan! The bathrooms are Thai style, which means you wear the bathroom slippers, have no hot water, you don’t put the toilet paper in the toilet, instead you dump water into the toilet to flush it. It’s not bad once you get used to it.

New Experiences:
-Hand washing all of our clothes, then running to the clothes line when it rains
-No air conditioning, internet, tv
-Hitchhiking to town (in a large group…don’t worry mom)


We are very excited about our time here. Keep us in your prayers.

Deep Sea Soloing!!!

We had an eventful few days at Ton Sai on the Railay Peninsula. We went deep water soloing on Tuesday with our 8 newly acquired friends. We all climbed aboard a longtail boat and drove out to an island about 20 minutes away, anchored the boat 50 feet from a huge overhanging wall with lots of holds, and then 2 by 2 they put us in a kayak and paddled us to the base. There was a little rope to help us get on the cliff. I traversed right and then climbed up to a big stalagtite, climbed onto it and then realized I was 30 feet above the water, so I jumped in. There was lots of routes to climb, all overhanging with big holds. They took us to another cliff where 3 of us ended up climbing about 5.10a up to 40 feet high, traversing 15 feet to a ledge, and then (after a lot of thought & encouragement) jumped off. I didn’t quite land right, and ended up having a sore neck the next day. We all climbed around 4 routes, then took the boat to a little secluded beach for lunch and to do some steep bouldering and snorkeling. It was quite an experience, especially for about $15/each.
The next day, we all decided to rent sea kayaks and explore the deep sea soloing nearby. We didn’t realize how hard it is to kayak, and also that the first storm in a week was about to start. The waves got big (3 feet tall) right as we got out to the island, and it was almost impossible to paddle back against the wind. We found a calm spot of water sheltered from the wind by the island, and waited for about 20 minutes for the storm to pass by holding onto the cliff. It was a little scary, but the storm passed and we found a big stalagtite hanging about 4 feet above the water with a rope hanging from it. The hardest move was from the kayak to the stalagtite, and then to get your feet onto it. Once you did that, you could climb as high as you wanted, even circling the stalagtite, and then jump off. We found a few other spots as well, but we mainly enjoyed kayaking around and fighting the wind and the waves. We realized how powerful the ocean is, even in the calm waters at Ton Sai.
We took it easy that night and ate and talked with our friends. They are from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and luckily they all speak some form of English. It was very interesting hearing all their stories. We even got to share a little what Christianity really is. Their view was really tainted by the Roman Catholic Church. They sounded really excited at the idea of a church like Flatirons and the gift of love and grace that Jesus gives us.
Today, we took a boat and then a bus back to Phuket (Nai Yang Beach), picked up Ashley’s bag (it showed up!!!) and will stay here tonight. In true ashley style, we now lost the camera so, no pictures for a while. Tomorrow we will take the bus to Bangkok (13 hour trip). We decided we’d try it since we have time and it’s a lot cheaper. We can take a plane from there or, if we like the bus, we can take another 10 hour bus to Chiang Rai.
Another good experience we didn’t mention yet was my foot. I sliced my pinky toe on some coral. We tried to clean it, but it was deep. By the next day it was swollen and red and my foot started getting red as well and I even started to feel pain in weird places on my leg. The cut was obviously infected, & I’d never had anything like this. We found a pharmacy and the girl spoke good English and said, “you take this pill 4 time a day for 5 day, clean the cut 2 time a day with betadine, and, don’t worry, it get better. I have seen this many time”. And, it worked. The antibiotic pills, bandaids, antibiotic cream, betadine, and ibuprofen cost $18. That’s a good deal.

Tonsai at Railay Thailand

Here we aer, at the ton sai bungalow resort just a 30 second walk from the beach, climbing, & restaurants. The climbing here is good and fun and steep and also very humid. It is fun to climb completely on a stalagtite or tufa, very different than the US. From our porch we can watch the waves crash, climbers climb, & monkeys fight in teh trees. Ton Sai is very relaxing and laid back. Very different from where we came, at Koh Phi Phi Don.
We arrived at the Phuket airport after 2 day of travelling, but our bags didn't make it. So, we stayed at Nai Yang beach near the airport for 2 days to wait for our bags. We watched kitesurfers, rented a motorbike for 6$ and rode all over teh place. We got our first ticket because we didn't know you neeeded a helmet. It cost $15 and a 6km ride to the police station. We also picked up some helmets. We met a man at dinner that night who just became a christian this week, and he told us his tsunami excperience. It was his day off from work at Khao Lak beach, but everyone he worked with died that day. Now, you don't see many effects of the tsunami, but I'm sure there are many stories like his.
Finally our bags showed up, well, almost, all but ashley's clothes, so we took off for the island of Kho Phi Phi Don, the most densely populated area we've ever been too. We climbed a little, sweated a lot, and played b. volleyball with Joy (a Thai "girl" who hit and jumped like a man) and some other thais. They were good. Even though the island was destroyed by the the tsunami it has been completely rebuilt with little shacks, waiting for the next wave. The busyness there encouraged us to move on to Ton Sai, a paradise for climbers.
We'll stay here in Ton Sai a few more days, hopefully climb and deep sea solo, and then head back to phuket to get our last bag and fly to Chiang Mai. Hope y'all are well. The computer here is kinda slow, so that's why there are some spelling mishtakes.

Missouri & Thailand

We've spent the last 2 weeks in Colorado, Kansas City, and mostly Missouri. We should have some cool pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/jowallac/ that would explain the story. We went to Justin & Krista's wedding, said our final goodbyes to all our friends, gave away the Silver Bullet (Jonathan's Car), then spent some time in Missouri with Ashley's family. We bouldered some in Kansas City at Swope Park with Ashley's Sister Katie (bouldering is fun in 100 degree heat), Floated down the Meramec River with Ashley's Mom, went to a Grape Stomping festival and a Reggae Festival at 2 different wineries, and ate lots of good food with lots of good friends and family. Jonathan even caught 7 fish, 1 was big enough to filet and eat for breakfast.

Now we're in Chicago, where we are not supposed to be. We're supposed to be in the air on the way to Tokyo, but, as fate would have it we're staying in the Westin Hotel tonight and we should make it to Phuket Thailand about 14hours late. That's not too bad. It could be worse. Here we have free internet, a pool, weights, TV, and $34 in vouchers for food from United Airlines. And, it's not like we have any appointments in Thailand that we're gonna miss. Really, Ashley's mad cause her Thai massage is getting delayed.

We're excited to be on our way to Thailand. We're very grateful to so many of you who have encouraged us and helped us in so many ways. The YWAM Discipleship Training School starts on Sept. 10 in Chiang Mai, and we hope you will keep us in your prayers. Also, please email us. We'd love to hear what is going on in your neck of the woods. It'll help keep us from getting too homesick.

We Climbed the Grand!!!!!

We’ve done a lot since we last blogged. We went hiking with Andy near Eureka, Montana and then drove to the Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and climbed the Grand Teton. We also added some pictures to our Picasa photo album. If you don’t like to read, you can go straight there http://picasaweb.google.com/jowallac/NorthWestRoadTrip

A Day in the Life of a Fastpacker
Ashley’s friend Andy Skurka is in the middle of hiking “The Great Western Loop”. He started this April in the Grand Canyon, hiked the Pacific Crest Trail through California, Oregon, Washington, then linked up with the Pacific Northwest Trail from Washington toward Glacier National Park. He hopes to finish by hiking through Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and back to Arizona.
He showed up in Eureka at about 9:30pm after hiking 38 miles that day in 90 degree heat. His first order of business was to eat as much as possible, which included 2 big pieces of pizza and 3&1/4 PINTS OF BEN & JERRY’S ICE CREAM. It is his self proclaimed “Half Gallon Challenge”. He was disappointed that he failed, and I was happy to eat his unfinished ice cream. But, he did wake up in the morning and buy another quart and finish it quickly. After his ice cream, he also ate 2 pints of yogurt, a huge omelette, hash browns, and a bagel while at the post office resupplying with new maps and food.
We had camped next to a fun group of 6, 40ish year old friends who met annually to bike ride a section of the Great Divide Trail. They seemed to have a great time and said that it was crutial for them to have good beer at the end of each day so they carried a collapsable cooler with them. We hope that we’re able to continue enjoying the outdoors with our friends like this group!

We set off for our hike with Andy at about 10:45am. He felt rushed because he typically starts hiking around 6:30am. We hiked through town and then down a long road for about 6 miles before turning off onto a old logging road. The logging road was so overgrown that you could not tell where it went, so we got out the map & compass and bushwhacked uphill for about 2.5 miles until we finally hit a real road that led us to a real trail. We then hiked steadily uphill for another 5 miles when we finally made it to a nice stream. This is where we took our first break, after 13 miles of continuous hiking. We filled up our water bottles, took a few pictures and said goodbye to Andy. We had a good time talking with him and hearing about how he has hiked an average of 37 miles a day for the last 3½ months with only 1 rest day over the most rugged terrain in the U.S. It was also good for Ashley to smell someone much worse than Jonathan. His smell was unique, and we named it “FishBait”. After bushwhacking with him through the weeds we kind of smelled like FishBait as well.
We turned around at that creek 3:45, and made it our goal to make it to the famous milkshake shop before they closed at 7pm. We ran through all the sunny areas, bushwhacked through the woods, and ran down the road through 90+ heat into town to complete our marathon day just in time for the best huckleberry shake ever. It was a rough day for us, and we woke up sore everywhere the following morning. For Andy, that would have been a very easy day.


Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone is mostly known for it’s geysers and sulphur springs, but it’s also known for having a lot of wildlife. While driving to our campsite, we saw bison roaming everywhere. They were even walking down the road. We stopped at one pullout and watched a grizzly bear far off in the valley below. We borrowed people’s binoculars and watched him roll around in the sagebrush. A few minutes later, we stopped and watched a black bear cross the road right in front of the car in front of us. We also watched a coyote swim through a river. It was amazing the amount of wildlife that was roaming around. We camped 1 night in the park, went for a slow run in the morning (we were still recovering from the hike) and then drove to the Grand Teton National Park.

Grand Teton National Park
The Grand Teton’s are very inspiring to anybody that goes nearby. As we got closer, our aspirations went from going for a few short hikes and climbs to climbing the Grand Teton. We showed up on Saturday and went straight to the Ranger Station and got a permit to camp at the base of the Grand Teton on Sunday night.

Sunday
We packed our bags with camping gear and climbing gear and drove to the Trailhead. The elevation at the trailhead is 6,600’, more than 7,000’ below the summit of the Grand Teton (13,770’). We hiked 6 miles up to our base camp at the Moraine Campground at 10,500’. Ashley hiked so fast up some of the hills that it left Jonathan behind and hallucinating. We ate some food, set up camp, drank water straight from the melting glacier, and went to sleep (or tried to) at 8:30 pm.

Monday
We woke up and started hiking in the moonlight at 4:45am. The moon was so bright you almost didn’t need a headlamp. There was many other groups of climbers ahead of us.
5:15am We reach the Lower Saddle (11,500’), the sun starts to light the sky. The route gets steeper from here, but we still stay unroped and scramble up a gully.
6:30am We reach the Upper Saddle (12,800’). This is where Jonathan turned around 5 years ago because of a hail and lightning storm. We put our harness and climbing shoes on and rope up to climb the Owen-Spaulding route. This route is only 5.4 and most people climb it in 2 pitches and scramble unroped for the last 700’.
8:45am We reach the SUMMIT. At this elevation, each step takes your breath away. The view from the top is amazing. We can see the parking lot way down below. The summit is a 20’x20’ platform of small boulders. The weather is great as well, with not one cloud in the sky. It’s exciting to be on top, but also daunting to look way down at the parking lot and know that we are hiking there today. We started scrambling down the same way we came up. We did 2 rappels over the steep climbing sections.
11:45am We finally reach our base camp after scrambling and hiking downhill forever.
We eat some lunch, drink some water, and hide in the shade. We immediately start talking about celebrating with a burger & fries in town, which motivates us to pack up and start hiking. We eventually made it to the car at 3:30pm after 11 straight hours of hiking and climbing.
4:30pm Engulf 1 large pizza and then drive to a motel (our second of the trip). After not showering for more days than Ashley cares to think about, any private bath and bed would feel pretty classy. However, since we got the last available room which was the only one that hadn’t been remodeled so we got a 20% discount!!!

Banff National Park, Canada

Revelstoke
Wow, it feels like so much has happened since last time we wrote! We drove from Squamish through the rain to Revelstoke, a small little town near Revelstoke National Park. It is well known (or so they say) for it's great heli-skiing, with the most vertical drop in BC. It's also well known for Mt. Biking. We celebrated Jonathan's birthday by staying in a little motel in Revelstoke. It was a good relief from the constant rain.

We woke up early and rode some trails. First, we rode a loop together, trying not to slide on the wet roots. The trail was fun. Then, Ashley dropped me off at the top of a popular downhill trail that winds down the mountain through the forest. This was the steepest trail I'd ever ridden. It constantly had dropoffs that I even had trouble walking down. It was made a little harder because of the rain, but I still have trouble imagining ever riding down this stuff. Several spots I tried to make myself ride, but couldn't. I'd look at it, convince myself to do it, back up and ride to the edge of it, and then.... step off my bike in fear. Even though I was cautious, I still managed to do 2 endo's (front flips), because it was so steep. There was also several log crossings, where I rode on a log with a 6" wide platform for 20'. There was several crazy jumps and platforms built as well, that I rode around. I was finding cuts and bruises on myself for days afterwards, but it was well worthit.

Then we drove to nearby Glacier National Park, and went for a hike. There was a huge glacier that we hiked up to. It was 3500' vertical in 3 miles. It was beautiful, even though we were engulfed in clouds and rain as soon as we got up above treeline. We were gonna camp nearby, but because of the rain decided to keep driving to Banff Nat'l Park.


Banff National Park

is pretty cool. Huge peaks all around it and a nice big clear river running through the valley. We relaxed one morning and walked around the town of Banff, and then did a few sport climbs nearby. Sunday we went to a little presbyterian church in Banff. It was a cool group of people, mostly from out of town, but all excited to be around other believers.

We went for another bike ride on a recommended trail by the river. This trail was the last straw for my bike. 5 miles from the trailhead I broke my rear derailler and then my seat. Here's the list of broken parts (items that need to be replaced) on my bike: Front Shock, Seat cushion, bottom bracket, chain, pedals, derailler, cassettes, chainrings. Basically everything except the frame and wheels.

Monday and Tuesday we climbed. We found some really unique limestone sport climbing in Canmore called Grassi Lakes. Tuesday we climbed some trad and sport climbs at Lake Louise. The climbing at both these places was great, and the views were spectacular. We met more climbers from Boulder than from any other place.

Then we drove to some Natural Hot Springs on the edge of a river. It was fun running back and forth from the hot pools to the freezing icemelt water. We also had a few long interesting conversations with some canadians.

Squamish, Canada

We just left Squamish Canada, the outdoor capital of Canada. It was beautiful. The place is known mostly for it’s climbing, but also has great mountain biking, kayaking, cliff jumping, hiking, and camping. Sounds great for us, right. Well, Squamish also gets about 80 inches of rain per year, and even though july is supposed to be pretty dry, Squamish was covered in clouds and mist and rain the entire time we were there. The sun came up long enough for us to boulder a little and then climb 1 route. It was a little disappointing to look at all the big cliffs and soaked bike trails and not be able to use them.
We did happen to bump into Dave, a friend of Jonathan’s from Boulder. Dave now lives in Durango and got to Squamish the same night we got there with his friend Timmy. Dave and Timmy are a unique combination, which provided us with non-stop entertainment. They were constantly changing into ridiculous costumes, making fun of each other, throwing coffee grinds at each other, and anything else that they thought might pass the time.
After hearing that the forecast called for 5 more days of rain, we decided to pack up and leave and head towards Banff National Park. We added a few more pictures to the Picasa site again.

Clash Alert

Jonathan is pushing the limit of the maximum allowed different blue shades in one outfit, consistantly! See our photos for evidence....

Car Update
Our power steering fluid is still leaking. It got a little better once we got out of the heat of Idaho, but it’s still leaking. We took our car to a repair shop in squamish and found out that our racks & pinions were leaking, and that it would cost $1100 dollars and would be a week before they got the part. So, off we went, with a few more bottles of power steering fluid.

The Budget
Many discussions were had about our budget for this road trip, especially among our Colorado friends. Well, the budget has worked pretty well as a guideline. We did even better than our budget while back East, thanks to the hospitality of a lot of family and friends. The budget has worked well the last few weeks while camping as well. Campsites have been cheaper than expected, and, of course, we’ve spent more money at gas stations than hoped.

Seattle, Scum, Nelson, & Pictures

We added more pictures to our Picasa Album. You should check it out at http://picasaweb.google.com/jowallac/NorthWestRoadTrip.

We met up with Nelson at Mt. Rainier and camped and hiked. It's a huge mountain, 14,411 feet tall, and lots of people were hiking up it to attempt to climb it. There were lines of people with huge backpacks, skis, snowboards, crampons, axes, ropes, plastic boots, and everything else all hiking up towards Camp Muir, the base camp for most summit attempts. It was fun watching these people struggle with each step up while we ran up & down the trail.

We then followed Nelson back to Seattle to his 8'x8' room he shares with another guy. Nelson showed us their plans of building a loft in the room, so that they can open the door without moving his bed. He then took us to his church, Scum of the Earth http://www.scumchurch.com/. It was cool, and the exact opposite of the church we went to in Tennessee. The name comes from I Corinthians 4:11-13. They served us dinner (tortilla soup, salad, and raspberry banana pudding), and then had church in a small room. About 30 of us sat on couches and the floor. The preacher is a former bank robber and was very open and honest about his shortcomings and how God's grace has gotten him where he is. He spoke about living a life of integrity, and that doesn't mean that you are perfect but that you are honest about who you really are. Afterwards we met Zach and Alex, who grew up in Chiang Rai Thailand and whose parents are good friends with Aje and Nancy (the couple who run the orphanage that we support). They have a friend who will be in the DTS with us this september. It was fun and encouraging to talk to them about our next steps. It was crazy how God arranged our meeting and conversation.

Now, we're heading north to Squamish, Canada to camp.