Our God is an Awesome God

6/15,16 - Long Beach, WA (45 miles)
6/17 - South Bend (38 miles)
6/18 - Hoquiam (42 miles)

Part I -- Our God is awesome on the road
Imagine you are on an old-school rollercoaster that just went way up-up-up and then down-down-down. The bridge into WA was a lot like this except it was not mere "perceived risk" but real. The bridge started w/ a steep climb (imagine that big rollercoaster chain noise - clackity clackity) slow going but filled w/ suspense as you creep towards the crest of the track. Now imagine cars and trucks whizzing by a few feet away. Suddenly, you reach the top and can see for miles but your eyes narrow on the track pointing straight down. This is the thrilling part! ...except that you have a crazy swirling wind and a narrow 3 foot lane to funnel your bike down. If you scootch too far to the left, splat by the big Mac truck; too far to the right, you hit the curb and go flying into the Ocean. The bridge was 3 miles long :)

Part II -- Our God is awesome in town
Well, we were alive and now in Washington! We cruised into Long Beach and discovered that the local Church of the Nazarene was having a free dinner. Yeaa-hah... no shopping, cooking or cleaning. The church minister and his wife, Don and Marlys, sat down next to us as we devoured our delicious burritos and started asking about our trip. They soon discovered that we had not found a place to camp that night and offered their spare apartment (which sounded too good to be true - and it was). We stayed an extra day in our apartment where we caught up on sleep, books, and movies. In the evenings we shared meals w/ our hosts and sang along w/ the gospel videos we enjoyed together. The hymn "Our God is an Awesome God" hit home. Not only did the melody stay w/ us, but the message helped to frame the many things we were discovering on our trip. Don't doubt it, God is really awesome.