Guess what? Hello & Goodbye from Santa Cruz Monday Nov 8, 2010

Hey everybody!

Wellllllllllll, I didn't leave Santa Cruz yesterday like I said I was going to!  Early in the morning it started raining, and quite heavily at times.  I got up, booked another night, put on my rainclothes, and walked to church.  It is a church called Vintage Faith.  I found it on the internet and it looked interesting- it was!  I was happy that I picked that one.  It is a large church with lots of people, and with three services every Sunday.  Sometimes I get the opportunity to speak, but with my short notice and unpredictable schedule, I can't always get something set up.

I have had a few interviews on the phone with a local paper and radio station.  However, the best way to share the Walk and the need to help the Coder kids seems to remain the internet.  Those who are touched will do what the spirit moves them to, and they will also help spread the word.

I am getting ready to eat breakfast, then leave.  This morning it is bright and sunny!  Just the opposite of yesterday- it was quite dark and cold and wet (not good walking weather if you can help it!).  I am headed down the coast again to a State Park campground.  The time change will shift things a bit for me.  The number of daylight hours is the same, it's just been shifted to an earlier time slot!  So everything I do now is earlier.  I spent some time in the last two days trying to figure out my schedule- where and when I am going to be somewhere (where is it anyway?!?)  After a while my eyes start to cross and I start to fidget.  I confess that I worry.  I find it hard for me not to.  I know that many of you will say, "Don't worry."  And you are right.  But when you are "out there" it is different.  I do know that God provides, and I do know that it will be okay.  Walking like I am doing puts one right back to the basics- food, water, and shelter.  Those three things are things we can take for granted rather easily.  As I walk along, I feel like a homeless guy- I suppose because, in a way, I am.  I see the people who "have" and I see the people who "don't have."  It is very obvious.  It it the most basic and immediate way that we judge one another.  I feel it.  I also do it myself.  One could say that worrying is the same as thinking about "what if".  I suppose that may be true, but thinking about "what if" is a tool.  A tool that puts your imagination to work.  What if I lost all my possessions; what if I lost my job; what if I became one of "them" and was no longer one of "us"?  Do you see what I am saying?  What we have in terms of material things, and what our social status is, overwhelmingly defines who we are in our culture.  Of course we know that that shouldn't be true, but it is.  We figure that we work, that we believe, that we are..........but what if?  Can we use our imagination to put ourselves in that place?  We may not want to do it literally, but can we think about it?  Where would our faith be then?  Our faith would be critical then, wouldn't it?  I am finding that it is a continuous challenge to have faith.  It is much easier, I think, to believe when I am comfortable.  When I am not comfortable, I need to believe, and it does not come to me all that easily.  I want to thank Him for driving, then say, "I've got it now", then take back the steering wheel.  I think we know that He is supposed to drive all the time, but easier said than done.

Well, I am off soon.  God provided yesterday, He provides today, and He will provide tomorrow.


Good-bye,
Thanks for listening,
God bless,
Craig