Slammin’ Salmon

It was about a 10 mile ride to church when Sunday rolled around. The roads were nice a straight and flat and the scenery was beautiful. Church started out with one worship song and then stopped for announcements. After that there were several more songs. The band was pretty good, and they played many different styles of music, mostly country. Throughout the songs, four different members of the band took turns leading the vocals so there was a little bit of something for everybody.

After worship, Pastor Hagen came up to lead us in prayer and deliver his teaching. Hagen is 28 years old and the lead Pastor for this church. I was very impressed by his understanding and delivery of the Word. He spent his hour teaching on 1 Corinthians 8. He was very thorough in his analysis of the chapter and had some profound insights into it’s meaning. He broke it down into very simple pieces and I was just overall very drawn into his teaching. He dressed very casually, and even cracked some jokes about it. His style was confident, wise, and charismatic… that of someone far beyond his years.

After the service I introduced myself to him and gave him a quick explanation of my situation and mission. Our meeting was fairly brief, but he invited me to come join him at his office this week to chat. He said specifically he would be available tomorrow morning after 10 if I would like to come by.

The next day I got up and was greeted with some new issues with my black tank. The water was starting to bubble up really bad when I went to flush that, to me, indicated a venting issue. I began trying to diagnose the problem and didn’t get to town until several hours later. I pulled up to the church around noon and, alas, Hagen was not there. Feeling a little defeated, I headed back to camp and decided to get Danny out to play for a bit. 

While playing, the fellow in my neighboring campsite came out and introduced himself. His name is Lyle and he’s from Spencer Idaho. He’s a nice fellow. We spoke about Calvary Chapel and shared our experiences from the day before. It was a nice conversation. About the time Danny started getting worn down it started to rain so Lyle and I shook hands and parted ways back into the shelter of our rigs.

The next day I took Danny outside to play some more frizbee and while I was was out playing with him a friend of Lyle’s showed up and he called me over to introduce me. His friend’s name is Marlon and he goes to Calvary Chapel as well. We chatted a bit about the church and my mission and Marlon invited me to join him at the Bible study tomorrow night. It was pretty cool, it’s always nice to know someone when you go to a church service. He also knows Hagen pretty well so this may be the opportunity I need to get to know Hagen better. Very cool.

I entered the church and looked around for Marlon. The church was almost as full as it had been for Sunday service, but there was no Marlon to be found. I grabbed a seat by myself near the front just as announcements and worship began. It was nice to see the church does a worship service on their Bible study day, that’s a new one for me. 

After worship there was a break for fellowship intended for people to chat with each other. I didn’t know anyone so I just kind of sat quietly for a few minutes until a young man came to introduce himself and welcome me. His name was Jordan and he is the one who gave the announcements. He asked me how I came to be there and I gave him a quick version of my story. He seemed very interested in my journey and, after a short exchange, mentioned that he and Hagen do a podcast together on Thursday mornings and would be interested in having me come join them and share my story. I couldn’t believe it… God did it again. He never fails to lead me to the most amazing things. He led me to this church and now He has presented me an opportunity to share my story in a way that many others may be helped by it. I am just so excited and thankful! And to think, if Marlon had shown up I may never have been extended this opportunity. 

I got to the church about 10 minutes early and was the first one there. Around 5 minutes later a guy named Billy showed up. He is a journalist that Hagen had driven to McCall to pick up. He works with the Calvary Chapel quarterly magazine and is in town to do a story on Hagen and his phenomenal work with the church since taking over 5 years ago. Billy is a nice fellow, early 50’s I’d say, with a surfer attitude and a really great outlook on life. He is suffering from cancer and a bad back, but it doesn’t keep him from going all over the world in his work and he still works out nearly every day. He’s a great guy with a great outlook and a deep love of the Lord.

Hagen and Jordan showed up soon after. They had been at a local old folks home doing some service for them. Jordan and I hopped in his car and drove down the street where Calvary Chapel owns several other buildings which act as little schools. We entered a little house that appears to have been the previous location of their elementary school which now looked to operate as a sort of office. In the basement was a room with a pretty basic studio setup. There was a large kitchen table and three Shure microphones on tabletop booms with two cameras aimed at the table and a big studio light in the center. The four of us filed in and took our places at the table while Jordan worked on setting the equipment up for the recording.

The recording went pretty well I think. They had an intro and short chat and then introduced me and asked me a few questions. The majority of the podcast was me telling my story. I felt a little weird being the only one talking for so long, and several times I would let the story hang for a moment to give them a chance to enter the conversation but for the most part they seemed content to have me keep talking. The words of the story flowed out of me in what felt like a pretty coherent and smooth fashion. I feel like I delivered the meat of my testimony pretty clearly and completely without too much stumbling. God was with me there today comforting me and cheering me on. It was a really great experience and I hope they enjoyed that time as much as I did.

After the podcast they invited me to join them for lunch at a local restaurant called The Bistro. When we got out front of the house there was a lemonade stand going that was being run by the church with cold drinks and cookies by donation. I put in a small donation and had a cookie and a cup of horchata which was absolutely delicious. We hung out at the lemonade stand for a bit chatting while Billy snapped pictures of us… it was so amazing to be hanging out with these great people. Lunch was delicious and we all shared a slice of chocolate cheesecake for dessert. It was just a  really beautiful day and I am so thankful. 

The next few days were spent mostly catching up with friends and family. I had texted out a link to the podcast to everyone in my contact list, so there was a lot of catching up to do. On Sunday I headed back to Calvary Chapel for service. Church service was awesome today. I got there and started looking around for Jordan to thank him and give him a copy of Wild at Heart. While I was looking a man called out to me “Hurless!” and flagged me down. His name was Greg, he had worked with my family members in Clayton in the mines years ago and had seen me on the podcast. He complimented me for my story and used a bit about his past experiences with my relatives. It was really cool to speak with someone who had seen my testimony and was moved by it. It felt good.

A few minutes later I found Jordan, thanked him, and gave him a copy of Wild at Heart. He was pleased and thankful and told me they had already had many positive responses to the podcast episode we did together. After service I stopped by and chatted with Hagen as well to thank him, exchange numbers, and give him a copy of Wild at Heart as well. He asked me where I was heading next and I told him Hamilton Montana, and asked him if he knew anyone I should look up while I’m there. He gave me a church to check out and we shook hands and agreed to keep in touch.

That evening as I planned my next move up towards Hamilton I got a text from James at Living Waters, seems he is moving to Knoxville Tennessee next week to work with some folks at a college out there bringing Jesus to the students. Seems kind of sudden to me, but when God calls all you can do is obey. I immediately began to worry about Living Waters. James and Anthony are really the bulk of the workforce in that place, not to mention James’ wife and daughter being the cleaning crew for the rooms. How was Living Waters going to handle this kind of a setback?

I sent off a text to Christopher but received no response. Pastor Wayne got back to me about an hour later and said he would catch me up on things when I came back through town a month or so later. “Do you guys need help?” I asked, “Pray on it.” he replied. 

This put me in a bit of a dilemma… but in retrospect, not so much so. The thing that I wanted to do was to continue the adventure into Montana and beyond, but it seemed clear that God had other plans for me. You have to keep in mind, this is all new to me. I don’t know what I’m doing out here, and I have a pretty loose plan of how this is all supposed to work. Do I prioritize moving around and forming as many relationships as possible, or do I focus on trying to find places to be of service?

What would Jesus do in this situation? He would go help his friends. 

So that’s what I’m going to do. Tomorrow I will head back south to Living Waters in Challis and do my best to fill in for James until they can find a more permanent solution. After all, this is what this journey is really all about… being in the service of God and those who love Him. If I have learned anything in the past year and a half, its to go in what ever direction God is pointing me in. He never steers me wrong. Just look at how He orchestrated this whole podcast thing with Marlon inviting me to Bible study and then standing me up… He has ways of working far beyond our comprehension.