Tubal Cain - Spring Adventures Part 2

Mt. Buckhorn and Tubal Cain Mine - Olympic Peninsula, WA

Waiting for the Ferry to Port Townsend

My good friend Haley came up for a visit the weekend after my finals. Naturally, we headed into the mountains.  This was my first time exploring the Olympic Peninsula. This place is a seriously awesome playground for backpackers! 

Our first adventure was camping overnight in a parking lot because we missed the last Ferry on Friday. In the morning we made crappy camp coffee and ate grapefruits and waited.
I really like ferries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found a mine!

Next adventure was finding our trail. We may have gotten lost on some dirt roads going in the wrong direction before we made a route correction and got to the Tubal Cain trail head.

The name is from an abandoned copper mine. Yes, we looked for a shaft. And yes, we found it! Too bad neither of us packed headlamps.

In too deep. We decided to come back with headlights.

We agreed to explore it the next morning. We went as far as Haley's dying phone battery and a desire to keep our feet dry would safely allow.


Haley did a little research and found that the mine had been abandoned due to its remote location and the diminishing hope of finding gold somewhere in its dark recesses. It goes back about 450 meters into the mountain, and there is a bunch of old equipment lying around in the surrounding area.

Also, if you're ever exploring here, there is the wreck of a B17 further up in the canyon. We didn't get to that this time around.

The trail to the pass and a view of Mt. Buckhorn

Back on the trail we headed for the mountain pass. Since we had gotten a late start we weren't feeling too ambitious.

However, I've found that many grand adventures begin with, "Let's just see how far we can go."
In this case, the answer was, 'all the way to the top.'


Look at that lovely mountain. Don't you just want to stand on top of it? 

Sure. Why not?

We took our time, hiked at our leisure and still had daylight to spare. The weather was beautiful. The trails were fantastic, and this first look at the mountains on the peninsula left its mark.

Up and Up!

 Kudos to Haley. She hates snow traverses and is afraid of heights but she muscles through it because she loves mountains.
She wrestles with her fears and inhibitions, and she comes out victorious and stronger than ever.
Haley inspires and encourages me, and I am so glad to have her as an adventure buddy and friend.

View from the top!

Mt. Buckhorn is 6,988 ft tall. The climb is easy and very rewarding.
Look at all those mountains to climb!
By the time we got back to the mine shaft, we'd completed 17 miles. Not bad for a late start and unambitious beginnings.

This is definitely an area I would come back to. What a great hike! I am thankful for a God who delights to delight us, and for friends to go adventuring with.

Prepare for Snow - Spring Adventures Part 1

Golden Ears - BC, Canada

Early in the spring semester, Ben and I hiked up Golden Ears, our goal was to see how far we could get.

This lovely little 5,600 ft. peak stares me in the face every day as I drive to school. How could I resist the invitation?

Cascades from the side of Golden Ears

I'm not sure why some humans are born with the desire to stand on top of things and some are not.

We set out early in the morning, prepared for Canadian style trails and snow (Just FYI Canadians do not believe in switchbacks. I may have mentioned that already).



It was a beautiful day, overcast but relatively warm. The hike is 15.5 miles round trip, a long approach through forests along a beautiful river. We had a lot of fun and did indeed find snow! :)

A view of the summit.

Ultimately we turned back from the summit, due to the icy conditions. We learn!

In all reality, I think we are both more cautious on the others behalf than we are for ourselves. Fortunately, when we hike together this has the effect of keeping both of us from doing stupid things... ish.


  

Not today.

 We'll be back for this one in the summer.

Overall, a great little hike. Long enough to stretch your legs, cover some country, and feel good and tired at the end of the day.

Also, we have decided that ice axes would be a good investment.

Life Update

We are well. Mary just finished her third semester at CanIL (two more to go). We are debt free, thanks to Benjamin's hard work, the immense hospitality of the Mock family, and the gifts and prayers of so many dear friends. In short: God is taking good care of us.
We are coming up on our first Anniversary (May 4th)! It has been a painful and grace-filled year. Please pray for our relationships with people here in Lynden, WA, especially with our generous hosts.
Mary will be in school through the summer. Ben will continue to work for POSX until his contract runs out at the end of May, and then we'll see if they want to keep him or not.
Please pray for the good people at Sunrise Baptist Church and Auburn Household of Faith who have embraced us in prayer and community.
We believe that God is directing us to go to Papua New Guinea. So far, we don't know what the process or structure of getting there is going to look like. We don't have sending organization yet, but both of us have a lot of peace right now, knowing that God will direct us in His own time.
God is good and we are filled and poured out, broken and remade according to His good purpose.
Thank you for your love and prayers.

Ben and Mary Grimm

Hope

You know that feeling when you get woken up out of a deep, deep sleep? It's as if you are being pulled bodily out of a very dark, very comfortable place. It is unpleasant, uncomfortable, and you can't help being a little irritated even before you actually surface. This happened to me recently, and the raw discomfort of that sensation has been lingering with me.

Last night a friend was talking with me about hope.
She said, "Hope is suffering."
My mind immediately went to that waking sensation.

Hope is not the same thing as optimism.
Hope is like that uncomfortable transition rising up out of a deep sleep.
"The evidence of things not seen."
The evidence of a woken world. Something far more tangible, vibrant, and breathtaking than the soft dream world I cling to.

People often say that our lives are only a moment, a breath before the span of eternity. If this is true, than the analogy is even more potent. That transition, truly only takes a moment.

This year has been one of suffering. Hope.
Painful changing, painful communicating, painful working towards better things that we hope for but do not yet experience. Hope is what keeps a soul, a relationship, a marriage, a world alive. Or rather, it is the evidence that soon we will truly be AWAKE!

Ben and I have been so blessed in this first year of our marriage (anniversary coming up May 4th!).
We are learning to hope. We are learning how painful that can be.
It feels like this invisible barrier that keeps me from throwing up my hands and saying, "Enough!" It compels me to work through things when I would rather sulk or stew. It gives him the patience to weather my 'righteous anger'. God promised us, and we promised God, to love, to cherish, to hope. Now we are in the thick of it and finding that easy answers are few and far between.

This life is breathtaking.
As in, you just fell off the swing and got the wind knocked out of you, breath taking.
Or you hiked to the top of a rise and discovered Middle Earth spread out in glory before you, breath taking.
This God. He's a little nuts by all the standards in the book. He loves asymmetry, complex math, and these human creatures that seem to have a knack for screwing up just about anything. He laughs a lot, and He also cries a lot. He is deeply passionate about everything. And He is GOOD, like we've never even seen. His woken world... I can't begin to imagine. I just know that coming awake from sleep is uncomfortable. Hope is uncomfortable.

It's okay to be skeptical. Anyone who would willingly choose to be in a constant state of change and discomfort is a weirdo. I confess to this wholeheartedly.
Serving God isn't a side hobby, and the payoff in this world is sketchy at best. One minute we've got every good thing, the next we're wandering in the wilderness babbling about faith and water.
But, that's also true to how the rest of creation lives. I mean, any religion that promises eternal spring or perfect equilibrium, must not have been paying attention anytime during the last 12 months. It's a nice thought, but it sure isn't real.

Anyway. All this to say, life is uncomfortable. God is too. Pain happens. So does Joy. Ultimately, although none of us want to go through extreme discomfort, I'm pretty sure no mother would wish her baby to simply remain in the womb forever, and most sleepers do not wish to remain comatose.
So may God speak over your Life.
May He speak words that pull us out of deep slumber into waking.

May He speak words that make us hope.



MaryG

New Every Morning

We started this blog as a way for us to keep track of God's many blessings and for keeping all of our dear friends and family up to date with our wanderings and adventures. But God has been running so far ahead of us, there is no way to keep up with what He's been doing.
It never ceases to amaze me what an adventure life is when you live in obedience to Him. It is also beyond me to translate into words some of the things He has done in us and for us.
We are so thankful to the family that has hosted us for the last eight months. Their generosity and hospitality have made it possible to stay out of debt while I finish my Masters. We are continually blessed by their prayerful decision to host us and the grace and kindness they show us each day. Talk about living what you believe!
We are thankful for Ben's new job. He is now working days (a huge answer to prayer, for him).
We are thankful for the community of believers in this area. God has been working in my life to heal some of the hurt and resentment I had built up towards the Church. God's vision for unity and truth within the Body of believers is very much alive! In the short time that we have been up here, I have seen some things I had told myself could never happen in today's Church. I repent for being a self-righteous cynic. God is good, and His Body is very much alive and active. I am humbled and blessed to be a part of it.
We are thankful for the generosity of so many in our community. I started this year with anxiety about our financial situation. Ben told me it was a great opportunity for God to show off. He was right! God has provided for us abundantly through our dear family in Christ. At every turn, He meets us with another surprise, another display of His grace and goodness. He is indeed "showing off" proving to us beyond a shadow of a doubt that our lives are in His great and powerful hands. Nothing comes to us that is not from Him, and nothing is taken from us that He does not release.
To this last point, some of you know that this year has held pain for us as well as joy. Even in grief, especially in grief, we have found God to be all sufficient. He is the giver and the taker, and what He does is good. He comforts those who mourn. He lifts up those who rely on Him for strength.

Please pray for God's continued provision and guidance.
Right now it looks like we may be in Papua New Guinea as soon as this time next year! We are praying about partnership and accountability with the many Church communities that have encouraged us and built us up through discipleship and prayer. We are continually blessed by God's provision and direction so far.
We are thankful for this time in our lives, for the adventure God has given us to live, and for the work He is doing in and through His people.

Love and Blessings,
Mary (and Ben)

Of Hand and Foot and Torso

"The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,'"

For many years I have struggled with the whole concept of organized Church. Line up a few bad experiences as a kid, a life of perpetual transition from one place to the next, a negative gut reaction to authority, and a tendency to get a little self-righteous or just bored around sleepy communities full of good people and you have a snapshot of my bad attitude with all the excuses needed to justify it.
The problem is...

Well the problem is God.
He has this thing about the Church. He loves it like His own flesh and blood. Or... like a groom loves his bride. He writes poetry about it. He brags about it.
In short. It's really hard to talk to God and not have the Church come up.

I've tried all the usual - being deeply connected with a small group of Christian friends and saying that is Church, ministering alongside other Christians and saying that is Church, reading the Bible a lot and doing my best to live it and saying that is Church, basically doing all the 'Faith' things that are personally fulfilling and saying that is Church.
But God doesn't let me get away with anything. He's patient. But He's not stupid, and I'm not fooling Him with any of my excuses or my attempts to substitute parts for the whole.

Some parts of the body are not as beautiful as others.
Your palms will never be as lithe as your fingers; your belly button could never compete with your eyes. But you can't pick and choose, only keeping the beautiful or interesting parts. God calls the Church His body. If I am in Him, I'm in the Church. It would never do for the fingers to be cut off form the torso. It will never do for me to isolate myself from the larger body of believers.

So.
Here I am 'going to Church.' Or more appropriately, joining the Church in meeting together for fellowship. It's still a struggle for me. A discipline in hope and faith - to believe that God's big story of redemption, making the messed up stuff whole and beautiful, is not only possible for me but also for the larger Church.

Ben does not seem to struggle with this like I do. I bring apprehension; he brings anticipation. He seems to think that every believer is excited about what the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives and in the world. He walks up to people like it's natural to ask them about prayer needs and then actually pray with them. I am hyper aware of barriers, both real and imagined. Ben is barrier blind. So, while I have been creeping around the edges of our new community, Ben has gone jostling right into the center.

A typical conversation on the way to Church:

"I just don't feel connected. No one's invited us to dinner. No one even notices if we aren't there... Rawr, Rawr, Rawr, Rawr."


"Well, let's pray about it... God, please help us to find ways to connect to and serve this community!"

"Mow."


Ben is good for me. God is good. 

(to be continued)

Molly Pitcher Dinner, a formal military ball, put on by my Guard unit Dec2013

God truly answers prayer

Not obliquely, not vaguely, not on a ridiculously long timeline. This is God touching our lives.
So here are the exact words of our prayer requests from 29Dec:

1. What kind of education Ben should pursue (he is a personal trainer)

   I have been introduced to a set of leadership courses for ministry put on by my church. There is also a school in the Sepik region of Papua New Guinea(PNG) which has medical training; something I have been looking into.

2. Whether we should attempt to secure visas without Ben having a degree

    PNG is one of the few countries which does not require immigrants to have a bachelors degree.

3. Financial provision for the coming semester, this will be the largest hurdle yet!

    Ongoing, but we have made it through the first month and I have been hired at a job which both pays more and suits my abilities much better. Also, we have had commitments for support made by friends and family that are helping already.

4. Wisdom for Ben in communicating better and to be the husband God wants

    I have learned my place better as the one who needs to have a plan; to have vision. Also, I am learning to identify the bad habits I have been using that cause tension between us. It is easing the friction between us and helping us to love each other better.

5. Patience and wisdom for Mary in being a good helpmate for Ben

    Mary has become better at letting me lead and being persistent and patient in helping me to overcome my many character flaws while trusting more and worrying less.

6. We are currently looking at a laptop for her; please pray God will provide what we need to facilitate her education

   Our friend just GAVE us a laptop. GAVE. I am blown away. 

Every prayer request. Every one has received special, tender attention from Abba. I have no words to describe the absolute sense of contentment in where we are. Whether the bank balance showed .76 or 1,700.00 we have been cared for every step of the way. 

I declare without reservation that our blessings stem directly from our obedience. 

When we received instruction, we followed regardless of what circumstances dictated. No money? Don't care. Not legal? It just happened. They always say 'no'? YES. Several times more expense than income? Try zero debt. 

Blessing after blessing after blessing. There has been a cascade of opportunities to trust; to have faith in the Provider. Tough situations, real tear-jerkers and anxiety wrenchers.  They keep getting more adventurous too. We have been in an every increasing spiral of craziness ever since we started dating and despite the insanity of saying so we are eager for more. No matter how impossible the hurdle, we have been carried over every one in ways we could not have imagined. 

If you are not stirred to your core by this I urge you to ask yourself: Why not?  Don't be afraid to be uncomfortable, to step outside the familiarity of your routine. That is where God works. In His plan. He doesn't need you: He wants you. We are extras in this play and He loves us so much He is giving us a spot on stage when He could just make everything from nothing. Wouldn't you like to see the adventure he has planned for you today?

In His grace,

Ben and Mary Grimm