Then there was seven...

I just back from a two day unintentional vacation in Seattle. I would love to say it was all part of a genius plan that Jeni, Sue Ann, Linsay, and I invented, but it was all part of a mistake that turned into a blessing...which makes it all the more impressive, I would suppose.

We headed out to Seattle to send off Jeni and Sue Ann the next morning. We were staying at Agnus and Ross Hailes home for the night. We had planned to wake up at 4:00am and so they could catch there planes which left at 6:15 and 6:05. We woke up at 6:00. So we did an emergency evac. from the Hailes residence and headed to the airport in an attempt to...I don't really know if we thought they would then make the flight but we were definetly in a rush to get there. So we arrived in record time of twenty-five minutes (it usuallay takes more than thirty minutes), parked the car, and started walking to the check-in desks, praying for favor the whole way. Jeni was able to get a stand by ticket for the next flight which left in forty-five minutes. Halleluyahweh!!! Sue Ann was not as fortunate though. The next few flights were already over booked by twelve and twenty people (why an airline would do that I still haven't figured out). So rather than waiting at the airport for possibly an entire day she got a ticket to be booked on the flight that left at the same time the next day. We called Agnus to let her know of our perdicament and she said she was more than happy to let us stay another night. So we said good-bye to Jeni and hugged and cried (not me...I don't cry) and watched Jeni run off into the sunset..uh...security check. The rest of us stayed another day in Seattle doing a bunch of nothing. We helped out with the dishes and a puzzle and some laundry but other than that we did a lot of lounging. We broke a mental sweat (well I did) by playing a game of Scrabble but that was as active as we got. We weren't really lazy we just didn't know what we could do for free or really cheap. So we woke up the next morning at 4:00 (I voted for sleeping late agian, but Sue Ann was not a fan of the idea), took Sue Ann to the airport, said good-bye, and drove back to Vancouver. I realzed during that trip that the War Van gets really good MPG. The number here is slowly dwindling (we have the perfect seven left) as the Martyrs are heading off to our appointed assignments and taking some time off before The Holy Terror arrives. I am very excited to see what the Holy Spirit will be doing with this session, I almsot can't wait, though I won't see much since I will be heading to my own appointed place. I know I will probably be having just as much break through there as they are here. It's excititng. Fun Fun Fun!!! I think I'll end this blog with a Quote from Richard Collier's "William Booth The General Next To God" "Make your will, pack your box, kiss your girl, be ready in a week." Sounds good to me.

MY HAIR!!!!!!!

This is very important. If anyone has seen my hair can you please call me and tell me where it is. I miss it very much, and I want it back...it's about five inches long, a beard should be with it, it's brown, ans looks like it belongs to Keith Green. Ha ha ha ha. I cut my hair, no I didn't...but seriously I did. I actually shaved my beard and mustache off about ten minutes befor I went to the graduation ceremony, and two days later I cut my hair...all of it. It's all gone and I miss it a bit. Now instead of worrying about eating my hair with my food I have to worry about my head getting a sunburn. I didn't just get it cut to make it look presentable; I went the whole nine yards; it's all gone. Aurora did the initial cut so it was real short then I took the clippers and a razor and took it all off. I wish I knew how to put pictures on my blog so you guys could see me. I like it. A good number of other Martyrs, who haven't left yet, like it as well. I actually realized I missed a few patches in the back so I need to fix those soon. I do actually feel cooler, but that could be because I'm sitting in front of a fan. I miss being able to shake my head when it's wet and have water fly everywhere, that was fun. But apparently I was the only person who enjoyed that. No one enjoyed it when Jono and I did that after Street Combat when it was raining. We thought it was hilarious,and we were all alone int that thought process. I think everyone was jusr jealous of our curly locks...bot they were most likely just really annoyed. Now everybody in the Martyr session has cut his or her hair at least once through out the year. It's almost like it's the end of an era; it's very sad in a way...oh man, I think i'm having withdrawls, that's not good. Anyway, I will keep everyone posted on how the grow back process is playing out. As a fore warning if anyone calls me baldy or baldhead I will open up a can of Elisha on you. If you didn't understand that at all pull out your Bible and read 2 Kings 2:23-24. I got to go shave again.

Graduation...as we go on we remember...

Celebrate good times come on!!! Ba da da da da da da dah woo hoo!!! Yes I know that song is older than I am and it’s weird that I’m typing in the horn parts on my blog but I have reason to celebrate. For those of you who don’t know yet The Martyrs graduated yesterday. The ceremony was held at a restaurant called One. There was an open bar and everyone could get as many free drinks as we wanted. I got to have a Tequila Sunrise and a Pina Colada and some other special drink that the bartender concocted right in front of me. Of course none of these drinks had alcohol since I am a Salvationist, and if they did have alcohol I would have been breaking my covenant and that would be a sin. I didn’t realize that all a Tequila Sunrise contained was orange juice, Tequila and some red stuff. I had a glass of Orange juice with red stuff swirled in it. That was pretty boring. The drinks were not important though. What is important is that we all graduated. Colonel Don Coppell presented us with our certificates and then we had to give a seventy-five second testimony. I think Beracah was the only one who filled up all Seventy-five seconds. We got our certificates and Colonel Coppell had a word from the Lord for each of us which was really cool. There was a presentation of some Scholarships earned by the students. We then sat around talking and mingling then they brought on the food. We had our choice of pizza, a sirloin burger, chicken and prawn fettuccini, and some veggie filo thing. The chicken and prawns were exquisite. It was good times.

After our ceremony we all changed out of our uniforms for the celebration part of our graduation. We headed to the Command Center wearing our brand new Martyr shirts. We danced and sang and praised God for a good three hours and then Jonathan Evans did the preach and pitch. Then Stephen and Danielle anointed our feet with oil and gave each of us anther word from the Lord and we walked out of the Command Center as a prophetic act of being sent out into the world; then we came back in…that part wasn’t prophetic. We stayed and worshiped some more and when it was over the cleaning began, but that didn’t take long at all. Everything was done by Eleven o’clock and we all hung out in the Command Center for a while eating pizza and talking and some people were crying because they were leaving. It was one of those Michael W. Smith moments. Friends a friend forever if the Lord is Lord of them, and a friend will not say never...you get the idea. Most of us were to tired to do anything else it was weird. I figured since it was our last to be together he time wouldn’t have mattered and we would want to spend as much time with each other as we could…well, that’s what I felt, but I guess for everyone else 1:30am was too late to hang out. So now I’m sitting here watching people leave; knowing that soon there will be only a few people left with me, and then I get to leave woo hoo!! I can’t wait. I graduated!!!!! How cool is that??!!

I'm Baaaaaaaaack in Van again

I have a lot of catching up to do so here it goes.

I’m still happy, saved, and free, back in Vancouver. It was an awkward plane trip back. Some how Alaska air changed an eight hour trip into a five and a half hour trip. I stayed at the Vancouver airport longer than I wanted to because Darren misread my e-mail so I had to make some phone calls to get his number and get a ride to the Empress. I could have spent the night at the airport but that would have been weird…for more people than just my self. I’m happy to announce this was the first time I have flown into Vancouver and it hasn’t been raining. Every other time it’s been raining when I have come in but this was my first dry flight into Van. We started classes yesterday and I’ve been hearing the tales of triumph from the other Martyrs. I don’t get to entertain the martyrs with my legend until next Monday. Almost everyone is here. Jono is the only one who hasn’t returned (slacker). It’s okay though no hard feelings. No pressure. It’s okay that we don’t have our full community yet because we’re waiting for you. There’s grace, but seriously hurry up and get here.

I am very excited because Ultimate Frisbee has been put into our schedule. It’s a genius idea I don’t know why we didn’t do it earlier. I love Ultimate Frisbee (I think I said that like a million time already). I played Ultimate Frisbee yesterday and I had a blast. It was the longest game I have ever played in my life but it was fun. I learned that usually height beats numbers. I was the second tallest person on our team and we lost. Stephen Bell was the tallest. Our team had to guard Stephen Court, Aaron White Jeni Parsons, and Regan Lipsett. We are not taller than nay of them (Josh Ivany, Phil Marriot, Danielle Strickland, Stephen Bell, and myself, there were more people but not as many people would read this blog because it would look way too long ). It was like David versus Goliath but David didn’t do so hot this time. We tried so hard, and put up a good fight; we started out strong and had the lead most of the game, but in the end height prevailed. 28-26 we were so close. I wish this had been done earlier in the year it was awesome. I can’t wait till next week. Most of us are really sore right now but that’s a good thing. Some of our muscles needed to be worked. We get to play Soccer tomorrow night. That’s exciting. I’m not real good at Soccer because I’m American, but I can hold my own ground.

I just want to let all of my adoring fans know that I my blogs may not be as frequent as they have been because I won’t always have the time or computer availability here. So don’t think I died or stopped blogging. It just may take longer than usual. It’s cell time so I’ll see you guys later.

See you later Bangor

So this is my last day in Bangor. I really don’t want to go. I have had a blast here in Bangor and I really could stay here longer and not have a problem with it at all. If I did that Steve would be furious and so would everyone else in TWC. I must say that I’m excited about going back and taking shower in a nasty mildew filled tub. It’s fun. I’m also looking forward walking down Hastings Street and having people offer me rock every fifteen feet. I had fun here in Bangor but all good things must end…does anyone know whose quote that is? It really hit me that I was leaving soon when I was saying good-bye to Al, Matt, and Jessica after our Powerhouse trip. So now it’s really happening. In just a few hours I will be heading to Boston with Doug and Tara. Then a few hours after that I will be on a plane heading to Seattle and it may be a long time before I see anyone here again. I will comeback eventually. So this is just a warning to all M&M manufacturers to be prepared for my return. I just don’t know when or for how long. I do have a plan in my head but God has been really good at giving me a better plan and then I have to listen and throw my plan out the window. Everything always turns out great though. I should just stop making plans all together. It would save me a lot of time and frustration. I think I mat start doing that. I’m going to go through life winging it until I get the plan form God. Sounds fun anyone want to join in with me. Anyway I just wan to leave the Bangor Corps with this one prayer…I don’t know why I’m posting it on my blog but I am doing it. I pray for you “to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ”. See ya Bangor I love you all.

Monday-Wednesday

I know I haven’t blogged in a few days so I guess that means I’m a terrible blogger, or my life is really boring. No…that can’t be it. I have the most exciting life in the world, and I always have a bloggable topic going on in my beard as well. So here a quick update from the last few days.
Monday: I saw Bad News Bears it was a very funny movie. I enjoyed the movie. Anything with Billy Bob Thornton is good though. That was the most exciting part of my day.

Tuesday: It was my last day to work at the Family Store. I'm going to miss that truck. We had an awesome cell on Tuesday. I made vegan spaghetti. I just used fake meat with the sauce. It turned out really good but I cook ed way too much. We still had half a pot of spaghetti left over when we we’re done. I got out of cleaning the dishes afterwards it was cool. I just stalled until it was time for me to take Charlie home and then I was like, “oh darn I forgot to clean the pots and pans and dishes” So Aurora said it was okay and she cleaned it. Two points for me. But that wasn’t the best part. The best part was our cell talk. Charlie was in charge and this was his first time leading a cell discussion. We talked about sex. The first question was what is sex. Maybe not the best way to start off a conversation but it was okay. There wasn’t really any specific direction on where to go form him so we really just got around to every aspect from setting personal boundaries to talking about if the Bible states anywhere that sex outside of marriage is wrong. We got all the bases covered. Ha ha ha bases covered that’s funny. The only definite answer we reached was that we set our boundaries according to our conviction. That was really the only question that we were able to answer. So since we ended with more questions than when we started I guess it was a really good cell.

Wednesday/today: I was at a birthday party earlier today. It was like any other party games, food, cake (food and cake are not the same thing) and presents. One of the more exciting games played at the party was “pin the goatee on Travis”. There was a picture of my face drawn and taped to the wall and everybody was blindfolded and had to try to tape a goatee n my face. Fun!! Unfortunately, I didn’t win. I also didn’t win the Air Hockey tournament. I thought that I would be sure sot to win that, unfortunately Charlie Liu is a much better Air Hockey player than I thought he would be. I lost 5-2 for the championship. I beat everyone but him. I am ashamed. The party was fun and after the party we had a water balloon fight and tossed a couple of Frisbees around. I accidentally landed a Frisbee an the roof. But it’s okay I found out how to go up to the roof to et the Frisbee. I could see all the way across the street form up there. I like the view from the Empress roof better. Then it was off to the bus station for Aurora. A twenty four-ish hour bus ride form Bangor to Toronto. Tara Doug and I then went to the Burrs house for dinner. After a while I decide to start packing at 9:30 at night. I got a vacuum sealed bag from Deb and began to fill it with my clothes. I packed it as full as it would go then I tried to seal it with the zipper/zip-loc thing attached to the bag…IT BROKE!!! A classic Travis moment. After all the work of getting the clothes in the bag and overcoming the static cling the zipper broke. It was fixable. I sealed it up and sucked the air out through a straw…actually I used a vacuum cleaner. But vacuum sealing a bag through a straw would be hilarious to see someone try. So now by bag is packed and I’m tired and going to bed. I have just succesfully wasted ten minutes of your lives with a really boring blog. I win.