As Mike and I traveled from Delaware to Ohio, we spent Friday night with Mark and Cathy. They surprised us by giving us a FlipVideo (thank you!), so I shot random footage during our drive the next day. Here’s my first little video, capturing a sight I’ve never seen before:
I didn’t know they could make trucks THIS long… I thought the “double” trailer was trouble, but the “triple”?
I shot this with my FlipVideo Mino (thanks Mark & Cathy!) on a highway in either PA or OH on Saturday 14 August 2010.
Welcome to The Evers’ Caffeinated US Roadshow 2010! Our full-time job right now is to raise support for our permanent move to NYC. We’re really excited about God’s call on our lives, and excited to invite people to join as financial and prayer ministry partners.
But we’re a bit nomadic right now. We left our home in Orlando in early June. After our summer missions trip in NYC, we spent several days in the Delaware area connecting with friends and current ministry partners, and now we’re heading to Ohio for an Evers Family celebration and to connect with friends and ministry partners there. As we travel from Delaware to Ohio, we’re dropping in on people along the PA Turnpike. We hope to visit people in Central PA, the State College, PA area and Lancaster, PA area in September. I don’t know when we’ll end up back in our home in Orlando. At some point we have to be there to pack up for the move!
Right now I’m sitting in a coffee shop with free wi-fi in Bedford, PA. It’s a cute place called HeBrews Coffee Company. It’s a great place with high-top tables, couches, arm chairs and a collection of regular-height tables. We’ve been here for a few hours and are so grateful for the cozy environment and the coffee!
A collection of unique people have paraded through the coffee shop while we’ve been here, and the staff have served each customer with patience, dignity and gentleness. From the tourists from “the Springs” (Bedford Springs?) to the elderly couple who had a car accident outside the windows, to the blind gentleman who seems to be a loyal customer calling people by name, to the mentally challenged woman who enjoyed “coffee with room for cream,” it seems like this is the gathering spot for people from all walks of life. I’m glad we found it!
God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. An then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the ed, gloriously completing what he had begun.
I love the part about God calling people by name (emphasis MINE). Another part of Romans talks about how God calls us by name, and that we aren’t just a number to God. (I’m sure I’ll quote that another day!) Personal, intimate, real. Luke 12.7 tells us that God has numbered the hairs on our heads – He knows us that well! I love it.
With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-there-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death….
…Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored….
…So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There’s nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on this your new life. God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!
This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It’s adventurously expectant, greating God with a child-like “What’s next Papa?” ….
I’m cheering as I read these words! And sometimes I get goose-bumps! Hooray! Amen!
So… what’s “sticking” to me as I read and reread Romans? Here’s something “sticky” from Romans 1.18-23, 28-32:
But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand….
Since they didn’t bother to acknowledge God, God quit bother them and let them run loose. And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. They ditch their parents when they get in the way. Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. And it’s not as if they don’t know better. They know perfectly well they’re spitting in God’s face. And they don’t care – worse, they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best!
Yup. Seems like an accurate description of our world today. Of our popular media. And this was written more than 2000 years ago. Guess nothing is really all that new under the sun.
Romans is one of my favorite books of the Bible. It’s full of theology AND practical application, so it’s rather dense and meaty to get through. But I love the word choice, the rhythm, and the exhortations. I’ve been reading Romans for almost two weeks now, and though I don’t get through the whole book each day, overall, I’m reading longer chunks of the Bible than I normally do.
I carry around a copy of Romans from The Message, which my sister printed from BibleGateway.com for me. I usually read from the New International Version or the English Standard Version, so using The Message puts a fresh spin on the words. While I prefer to sit down and read it in one long sitting, I’ll keep it in my bag to read when I’m waiting for someone, or at a coffee shop, while sitting outside, or riding in the car. Whenever I have a few minutes, I read a few paragraphs or pages.
Each day something different “sticks” to me from my reading in Romans. A lot of it has been from Chapters 1, 8 and 9.
Our Montauk neighbor gave us 2 dozen live clams the other day. He said they’d keep for up to a week in the fridge. Thankful for the recipe ideas from friends after sending out a plea for help on facebook, I decided that I’d do something with those clams.
Dad and Gramps would know exactly what to do. They’d make Clams Casino. It’s a classic and their version is legend. But that required too many ingredients I didn’t already have. So I settled on steamed clams in a white wine sauce with pasta. We didn’t have white wine in the kitchen, but I found a bottle of white zinfandel. Close enough, right?
I don’t know if I made them “right”. I read so many different recipes online that I think I probably combined them all. I scrubbed the clams after soaking them in salt water. I steamed them in the white zinfandel. I cooked up some pasta in another pot and on a third burner I sauteed chopped onions and garlic in butter with a dash of tabasco. When the clams opened up, I took each one out, sliced out the clam, tossed the meat in the butter mixture, and tossed the empty shells in a bag. After adding the pasta, I poured the steamed clam “juice” through a paper towel (to catch any sand) into the mixture. It was a long, arduous process. If anyone ever makes live/fresh clams for you, know that it is a labor of love.
The pasta was great! How can you go wrong with a sauce of butter, garlic and onions?! But the clams…? Here’s what I discovered:
I don’t like clams. It’s a texture thing.
Clams are a LOT of work
Please see #1.
Maybe I’ll try Dad & Gramps’ Clams Casino recipe if someone ever gives me clams again.
(Oh! Knowing it would probably take a while to make this feast, I whipped up an appetizer to tide us over: it was the BEST guacamole I’ve ever made. WOW – I could’ve eaten that all night!)
Vacation. It’s a great word. A great concept. A great practice. Mike and I are on vacation right now. Though I’m tempted to write about the end of the summer missions project, the art exhibition, and sending the students home, I’m successfully resisting. I can let those words pour out in a few days. But right now, I’m chillin’ out.
We left NYC on Thursday and headed out to Montauk, a small beach town at the end of Long Island’s south fork. I grew up coming out here with my family, and we have a small get-away (a mobile home) on the beach. It’s our family’s slice of paradise. Our little community has been in the news recently. Check out this article from the NY Daily News.
One of the great things about this community is that it sits right on the beach. On one side is the East Deck Motel at Ditch Plains, a surfer’s paradise, and on the left are private homes, but only one is visible. That means we have an expanse of relatively private, undiscovered beach. It’s delightful. Some years we have a sandy beach (last year!), while other years its a rocky beach (this year).
Mike at Montauk 2010
We’re having a wonderful vacation out here. After a few household errands in the morning, I spent the afternoon on the beach. It was wonderfully empty on a weekday. I had my umbrella, chair, a good book and a diet coke. When I tired of sitting in the chair in the shade, I’d move to the bed sheet that I secured on the sand with stones so it wouldn’t blow away. After a quick nap, I’d return to my novel. I spent *hours* on the beach. (Yes, I wore sunscreen: SPF 30.) Mike joined me later in the afternoon before sunset. The two of us, in our chairs, with our books. Warm in the sun. sigh. What a perfect day.
I read a few more chapters in my novel while Mike went back to shower and start the grill. By the time I packed up the remnants of my perfect afternoon, he had set the table on deck for dinner, the turkey burgers were ready for the flames, and Beethoven quietly serenaded us! I quickly showered and then we enjoyed his feast. He’s so good on the grill!
Yesterday our neighbor gave us 2 dozen clams. Guess I’ll learn how to do something with clams tomorrow!
Mike wanted to go. But I didn’t. Nothing within me thought it would be a “fun” memory. Turns out, I was wrong.
M&S, just before the Fireworks on the Hudson River. 2010.
But first, I was concerned. Maybe I have a genetic predisposition towards a phobia of crowds and traffic. Or maybe I inherited that personality quirk from my dad. Regardless of the source, that phobia of crowds and traffic is powerful. It’s not a traditional phobia, as in, a paralyzing fear, but rather a sense of angst, and frustration: my goals are blocked and I feel powerless to maneuver myself through a mob of pedestrians or a traffic jam.
But Mike wanted to go see the Macy’s Fireworks. And not from our rooftop. No, he wanted to go to the Hudson River. And he wanted to go early so we could stake out our spot.
Oh, I think I forgot to mention how much I don’t enjoy being hot. And we just started a heat wave here in New York City. It was at least 10 degrees hotter in NYC today than it was in Orlando. What is happening in this crazy world?
So, it’s hot. And it’s crowded. And we’re not exactly sure where we ought to go. We rode the subway, then walked a long time. We finally made it to 47th Street and 12th Avenue. The avenue was closed to cars and trucks so the people spread out blankets and chairs. Some people had picnics, many were hiding under umbrellas to protect themselves from the hot sun (even at 6pm it was hot!). We had our beach towels, a bottle of water each, and a few hard pretzel sticks.
I grew restless. No books. No magazines. Hot, strong sun. No sunglasses (major oversight!). The concrete road we were sitting on was so hot I had to fold over my towel several times for a little more insulation. Eventually (ok, maybe 20 minutes later) I was so restless I left in search of better seats or a deck of cards. Which ever I discovered first.
Though our fireworks adventure started out on the “not-so-great-for-Sarah” side, Mike was delighted. And my attitude turned around once we started playing card games. (Mike won most of them and I was a good sport, not a sore loser.) When the crowds rushed the barricades for good viewing position, we were ready to dash forward and won coveted spots along the metal railings. To have a better view than we had, you would’ve had to buy a ticket for the INTREPID, the aircraft carrier turned museum docked in front of us.
It was a spectacular view and a spectacular evening. Wanna see a bit of the show? I shot a bit of the finale with my point and shoot camera. Enjoy. It was wonderful!
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