Radical Sabbatical: Week 3

Monday Jan 21 - Friday Jan 25

Yes the span between updates is getting longer, but this past week has been a fairly full one!

Monday was a low-key chill day to rest and do some laundry, and get ready for our trip to Santa Catalina Island.  Our ferry was boarding at Long Beach at 10 am, which meant we needed to be pulling into Long Beach at 9 am, which meant we needed to leave Valencia at 5:15 am.  Ugh. The funny thing about LA traffic is that you have to leave at 5 am  in order to arrive at 7 am , but if you left at 6 am you won't arrive until 10 am. Gotta love it.  But at least we were on time for the Catalina Express.

Catalina is only 22 miles off the coast of California, but it seems like another world.  The island is about 32 miles long, and 8 miles wide at its widest point.  There are only 4,000 permanent residents on the island, and 90% of them live in Avalon, the main city.  The ride over is nice, as you get a great view of the mainland, as well as the island. Once we arrived we were pleasantly surprised to be met at the landing by Seth Holt and Andrew Quintana.  Seth is the oldest son of one of our ministry partners, Dennis and Korine Holt, who operate a YWAM DTS base in the Republic of Georgia (the country located near the Black Sea, not the state). Andrew and his wife Catalin served at the DTS when my daughter Carmen and I visited several years ago.

Our first order of business after checking into our room was to walk around and see the town.  That takes about 30 minutes because the entire town is only 5-6 city blocks long, all situated along Avalon Bay! It's a beautiful, yet quaint town, filled with shops, hotels, and restaurants.  It also has quite a history, it was first developed in the late 1887 by George Shatto, who built the first hotel, and set up camping spots for people to come and camp along the beach.  Mr Shatto fell on hard times in 1891, and sold the island to the Banning brothers. The Banning brothers fulfilled Shatto's dream of making Avalon a resort community. They built a dance pavilion in the center of town, made additions to the Hotel Metropole and steamer-wharf, built an aquarium, created the Pilgrim Club (a gambling club for men only), improved the standard of Avalon's beach by erecting a sea-wall and adding covered benches or "spoonholders", building a bath house, adding new steamships to the run, and setting up close to one hundred tents throughout Avalon's canyon (often called "tent cities"). As the Bannings anticipated construction of the new Hotel Saint Catherine, their efforts were set back on November 29, 1915, when a fire burned half of Avalon's buildings, including six hotels and several clubs.

The Banning brother intended to rebuild from the fire, but financially were not able to recover, and they subsequently sold the Catalina Resort Company off in shares, the majority stakeholder being William Wrigley Jr (yes the gum magnate), who loved Catalina so much he purchased the entire island!  After Wrigley died, his son founded a conservatory and donated 80% of the Island to the conservatory so that Catalina could remain in its natural state.

On Wednesday Seth and Andrew took us on a tour of the island.  Most of the island is off limits unless you live there, but as Andrew is a resident he possesses one of the "golden cards" that gets you into the interior.  So, we were able so see places that tourists normally cannot access. I truly felt as if we were back in Georgia, as the roads are pretty rough, most of them dirt, and they wind up and around the mountains like a goat path! Your prayer life is greatly enhanced when driving around Catalina.

You can see from the pictures that we were pretty high up, and the natural beauty of the island is breathtaking. We visited the grand vista, the Airport in the sky, and Sharks Cove. I even got to take a picture of an American Bison, which were brought to the island in the 1920's. Perhaps the most exhilarating part was the ride back down the mountain back to Avalon.  Picture this:  An big, old, heavy Dodge 15 passenger van, going down a steep and twisty mountain road (a trail really), no guard rails... one wrong turn and you're going off a 500 foot cliff!  Sweet.  That night we celebrated our survival at the El Galleon restaurant, where you can sit outside with a view of the bay, and you can see the lights of LA in the distance. It was a great finish to a great few days at Catalina Island.

Thursday morning we packed up again, and caught the ferry back to Long Beach, jumped into the Kia, and headed east to our next destination: The Grand Canyon. Seven hours later we checked into the Days Inn at Williams AZ, which thankfully had a lot tub to relax our stiff muscles, and called it a night.

Friday morning, we grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel, and clicked off the one hour drive to the Grand Canyon.  We made good use of that hour by praying for the many people in our lives, and the ministries that God has called us to.

When we first arrived at the canyon, it was very cloudy, and we were afraid we wouldn't be able to see well.  This was not good, as the Grand Canyon was one of the "have to see" things on Tammy's trip bucket list. So, we prayed!  Tammy has a saying, "if it matters to you, it matters to God." I know some might think that God has more important things to do than burn off the haze so Tammy and I could see the canyon, but after all, He IS God, He can handle it, and He did! Within an hour the haze burned off and we were treated to some majestic views of the canyon.  It's hard to describe the feeling you have when looking out over the vastness and beauty of this place.  Is truly humbling. Tammy was thinking of the words to the song "Indescribable."  To stand at the edge of the canyon, taking in the vastness and beauty, and to think that our God hand-crafted this to declare His glory. It made me think of a verse from Amos:

For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth- the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name! Amos 4:13

We burned up most of the day at the Grand Canyon, but it was well worth the time spent there.  So as of now we are back on road, continuing our slow trek eastward back to the place we love: Wilmington!  I know it's time to start heading back, because Tammy is getting "mommy pangs" and missing her boys.

We love you all, we miss you, we are praying for you, and we look forward to eyeing you soon!

Pastor Clay & Tammy

Radical Sabbatical - Day 18

Friday Jan 18 – Sunday Jan 20, 2013

On Friday we said goodbye to Vegas and headed west into California.  Our destination was to be the home of our good friends the Rohde’s, but some extenuating circumstances intervened in their life (Ashe’s dad was admitted to the hospital, and she had to fly back to Alabama), and so while on the road we called our friends Carlo and Ricarda, “can we come visit you, like, today?”   A new address set into Google maps, re-routing… and we are now headed to Valencia, CA.  Blessed are the flexible.

It was great seeing Carlo and Ricarda, and their sweet daughters Talia and Azaria!  They are so awesome!  We pulled into Valencia, chowed down on some awesome “Mex-Fresh” food, and barged in.

On Saturday Carlo was in the hospital with his dad all day (pray for Gerry Perez, he’s having serious liver problems), so Tammy and I decided to head to the coast.  Carlo recommended El Matador Beach in Malibu, so we headed across the canyon and to the coast.  The drive through Malibu Canyon is spectacular.  I’d forgotten how beautiful southern Cal is.

El Matador is such a beautiful beach.  From the high cliff, you walk down a trail and several staircases to a small cove nestled along the rocky Malibu coast.  There are rock outcroppings that go out into the water, creating private sandy beach areas.  We brought a light lunch, some books to read, and settled in for a quite day on the beach.  

We decided to stay until sunset, as it’s been a while since I’ve seen a west coast sunset, and we weren’t disappointed.

Sunday we decided to check out a church called Reality LA.  I heard about RLA several years ago, when I read an article in Christianity Today that talked about a church in LA that was seen as an enigma:  A church that is very conservative it’s doctrine, solid bible teaching, spirit filled, and not afraid to confront the sensitive issues of our day, such as homosexuality and abortion.  While this might describe a typical Baptist church, this church was attracting young people like crazy.  After reading the article I Google’ed the church, and subscribed to pastor Tim Chaddick’s podcast (click here).  Apparently there are a lot of twenty-something’s looking for truth and transparency over hype and showmanship.  We arrived at Helen Burnstein High School in Hollywood, took our seats in the auditorium, and watched the place fill up.  The worship was simple, not showy at all, but sweet and from the heart.  Pastor Tim came up and shared a powerful message about grace and the church, and then closed out the message with an invitation to take communion and enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ.  One thing that was unique, the worship team came back up and led the congregation in another thirty minutes of worship AFTER the message.  Wasn’t expecting that, but it was powerful.  It allowed the message and conviction and conviction of the Spirit to really settle into people’s hearts.  People kept coming up for prayer, even up to the end.  The power of God, and the move of the Spirit, were in that place.

After church Ricarda took us to her favorite restaurant, Chin Chin, on Sunset Avenue.  Ricarda used to work with her dad as a talent scout right up the street, and Chin Chin was her fav place to go.  The food was excellent, and we were blessed to get to know her new friend Kelly, who had joined us for church along with her two girls.  Kelly shared her “God story” about how she moved from Texas, met her husband, and how God had done amazing things in her life and her family.  I always love hearing people’s God story!

After lunch we drove up into Hollywood hills, up to where the famous Hollywood sign is located. There is a trail you can follow to the sign, but the girls didn't feel like walking, especially after one of the locals informed us that there are coyote's and bobcats that live in the area.  From the lookout though, you can see all across the LA basin.  A beautiful site!  (I shot the photo below using AutoStitch, an app that will stitch together several pictures).

Well that’s it for today, tomorrow we are hoping to check off another item on Tammy’s bucket list: the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

Love you all!


Pastor Clay & Tammy

Radical Sabbatical - Day 14

Monday, Jan 13 – Wednesday Jan 16, 2013

After the awesome, but cold, experience in Denver, we headed west on I70 towards Vegas.  Colorado and Utah are incredibly beautiful states, but I’d have to think long and hard before deciding to live there; it never got above 9 degrees the entire time we were in these two states!

I did learn a valuable travel tip:  When driving into an area that is below freezing, be sure and replace the windshield washer fluid with the non-freeze type BEFORE it gets below freezing.  Vehicles on snowy roads kick up milky-white grimy stuff, which sticks to your windshield.  If your washer fluid is frozen, then you’re stuck having to pull over every half hour and clean your windshield by hand.  Not fun.  It finally thawed out after a few hours and I picked up a gallon of the good stuff (I was wondering why every gas station had 20 cases of it sitting by the doors!) and regained windshield cleaning capability.

So west we headed on I70, driving through the Rocky Mountains; now I know how John Denver felt (OK that dated me a but, you young peeps will just have to Google him), because the Rocky’s are amazingly beautiful.  We stopped for lunch in Glenwood Springs, a small town nestled into a valley. It was pretty cool to sit in a Qdoba Mexican grill and have the Rocky’s as your backdrop!  On we trekked, going through Vail and Beckenridge.  Vail has a half-pipe situated right beside the interstate, so you can watch the snowboarders grab air as you drive by.  I almost wrecked.  Mental note:  don't watch the skiers when your on the interstate.

Onward to Utah… and it got COLDER.  Like -3 degrees colder.  In Utah the mountains change a bit from Colorado, but they are still beautiful.  One thing I learned about Utah, the state is mostly uninhabited!  We drove for hours and hours, with only a few exits, most of them have no services, so you better fill up with gas every time you see a station. No cell service either, so it would be wise to not run out of gas, or you could be sitting in a cold vehicle for a long time. If you want to live in isolation, Utah is the place for you.  We made it to a Richfield UT, got a room, grabbed some dinner at Steve’s Steakhouse, and got some much needed sleep.

Oh, another handy winter travel tip: Don’t leave your bottled water in the car overnight, because they will FREEZE SOLID.

Tuesday we launched out again to get through Utah, and made it to the Nevada state line by about 11.  The terrain changes significantly as you cross the state lines. Its almost as if the borders were set based on the topography of the land.  By 2 pm we were within site of Las Vegas, our next destination.

I know, “sin city,” what in the world is a pastor doing in sin city!  Granted there is a lot of sin in Vegas, but there are also some really cool things to see as well.  Just stay out of the casino areas, and don't take any of the flyers that people try to hand you on the street.  Being off-season were able to get a great deal on a deluxe king room in the MGM Grand hotel, less than we paid for some roadside hotel rooms! And, MGM threw in a free buffet dinner with the reservation – SCORE!  Tuesday night just happened to be the seafood buffet, so Tammy was able to cross off one of her “trip bucket list” items:  Eat crab legs.  I am ashamed to say that I did sin, I believe gluttony is on the list, and ate waaayyyy too many crab legs and steamed shrimp.  But before we retired to the room, we stopped by the show counter and were able to get tickets to the Wednesday night KA show – Cirque du Soleil.

Wednesday was “walk around Vegas” day.  If you step away from the gambling tables, Vegas is truly a magnificent place.  We walked through the Monte Carlo, with its roman style columns and façade, and took the free tram over the Bellagio.  The ride itself was very cool, as it takes you by the Aria resort, a modern architectural wonder with its glass and chrome outer panels and angled design.  Enter the Bellagio.  When you walk into the Bellagio, you feel like you are walking into the palace of a king.  It is HUGE, and the opulence is simply over the top.  There are gardens, an art gallery, and every inch of the place is spotless clean.  Not one piece of trash, or smudge on any window.

Next we walked over to the Forums at Caesar’s Palace, a shopping mall on steroids.  The Forums at Caesar’s is unbelievable.  Not only is there every super-high-end store you could thing of (Hermes, Coach, Gucci, Louis Vuitton), but the décor is nothing short of stunning.  Half of the people in the mall are taking pictures, it’s just that beautiful.

Next we headed back to the hotel for dinner.  While there are some pricy places to eat at the MGM (Wolfgang Puck has a restaurant there), you can also find reasonably prices food as well.  We ate at the Grand Wok, where the prices were similar to going to one of the Asian places in Wilmington, but the food was incredible.  We had a bowl of Vietnamese Pho, and the Aloha Sushi roll.  It could have been the oxygen enriched air that casino’s supposedly pump into the building, but that was some of the best food that has ever entered my mouth.

After dinner we walked around a bit, then headed to the KA Theater for our show.  I’ve never considered myself to be much of a show person, but I was won over by Cirque du Soleil.  I’m not even sure how to describe it.  It was performance acting, a play, gymnastics, aerial acrobatics, music, and a circus, all rolled into one event.  Of all the events/shows I’ve seen, I’d have to put Cirque du Soleil at #1.

Today (Thursday) is going to be a chill day, as the weather is nice so I think we’ll sit by the pool, do some reading, and rest up for the next leg of our trip.

We’ve met some really nice people in Vegas; Servers, hotel reservation desk folks, people that we’ve had a chance to talk to and learn about.  For all the opulence and grandeur, Las Vegas is just another town full of people that are trying to do life.  Ronny, our reservations specialist, helped us get a really good deal on our room.  Ronny has a dream to start a foundation that will help Hispanic kids who can’t afford the expensive soccer leagues in Vegas.  He wants to help them develop their skills, so they can have a shot at playing college soccer, with the goal of lifting them out of poverty and to an education and hopefully a better life.  I’m going to be praying for Ronnie.

Yes, some people get caught up in the sin and allure of the world.  As you walk down the street there are people handing out “Hot girls, direct to you!” flyers.  Please know I’m not being racist when I say this, but most of them are Hispanic, and it seems they may have just crossed the border.  In my humble opinion, they’re just people doing whatever they can to earn a few dollars.  And what about all those girls?  Where did they come from? How did they end up as Vegas call girls?  If you thing about it, each one of them is someone’s daughter, or someone’s sister. God loves each and every one of these people, and I know our Father would love nothing more than to break them free from the chains they are in.

While driving we started listening to Frances Chan’s “Erasing Hell” audio book.  Frances not only deals with the reality that scripture clearly teaches that hell is a literal place, but that we as Christians have a calling:  To tell people about Jesus Christ, so that they don't end up in this place.  We need to realize that we are surrounded by people who, if they do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ, will end up in hell. It's a hard thing to consider, but it’s also important enough that we shouldn't ignore it.  It's the “inconvenient truth” of our time.

On Friday we’ll be heading to Templeton CA, where our good friends Dan & Ashleigh Rhode live.  Dan & Ash used to live in Wilmington, but moved back to CA to operate an olive farm.  They are such an awesome family; we can’t wait to see them!

We really miss our Wilmington friends and CCW family, and we’re praying for you all daily.  God is really ministering to Tammy and I during this trip in so many ways, and we are so grateful for His love!

Love you all!


Pastor Clay & Tammy

Radical Sabbatical - Days 8-10

Jan 10-12, 2013

On Wednesday we hit the road again and headed northeast for St Louis MO.  Neither Tammy nor I have ever been there, and its on our way to Denver, so it was our next target.  Rolled into town at about 4 pm and started looking for a room. I just gotta say it, the iPhone is the greatest travel companion ever!  Within a few minutes Tammy found us a hotel downtown, just a few blocks from the Missouri River and the arch.


The hotel, the Roberts Mayfare, first opened in 1925, and I tell you the hotel still has the feel of that bygone era (if you're interested in such things, click here).  We felt like we were walking onto the Titanic!  The rooms have been updated with modern amenities, but they still have that 1920’s feel.  I don't usually write a paragraph about our hotel, but this one was an exception. One HUGE complaint though, the heating system is apparently still “old school,” so we had no control over the temperature in our room.  It must have been 80 degrees in the room, which did NOT make for a good sleep.

The next morning we visited the St Louis Arch. I didn't expect much, but I was pleasantly surprised to find it a top-notch park.  The Arch is a monument to the voyage of Louis and Clark, and is considered the gateway of the westward expansion of America. Of course we rode the tram up to the top, where you can see for thirty miles in each direction, but they also had a great museum area that chronicled the westward expansion.  It was a bit heart-breaking to hear how many US agents, and the government, basically steam-rolled over the native Americans in our quest to expand and grow.  Initially the Indian tribes were willing to share the land with the white man, but as is usually the case, western people want more than they currently have.  Little by little we relocated, renegotiated, and even forcibly moved the Indians onto land that wasn't deemed valuable. Oh, and we killed off all of their food sources, namely the buffalo.

Tammy and I both came away a bit torn:  one the one hand, expansion, growth, and new technology are all forces that have greatly benefitted all of our lives.  American drive and ingenuity has not only improved our quality of life, but has done more to help the world than any other nation.  Health, medicine, food production, transportation, freedom of all people regardless of race, freedom of religion; our world would be a very different place were it not for the birth and expansion of the US. But there are some dark stains on our past, and our treatment of the Native American Indians is one of those stains.  Lord, forgive us as a nation for how we have treated others.

After the arch we hit the road again, this time for a LONG STRETCH, as we needed to be in Denver CO by noon on Saturday, because… we scored tickets to the Bronco’s – Raven’s playoff game!  Total score! So on Thursday we drove for eleven hours and made it to Colby KS, about 200 miles east of Denver.  We learned something; the temperature drops quite a bit between St Loius MO and Colby KS, like all the way to thirteen degrees!  We got up early Friday, and hit it again, and the farther we drove, the colder it got, and the icier the roads became.  By the time we got to Denver, it was nine degrees.  But we had tickets to the playoff game, so we layered up, bundled up, and along with 70,000 other people, headed into Mile High Stadium.

Mile High is a great stadium; its clean, well designed, has lots of bathrooms and food vendors, and you can actually see the game!  Even from our top-of-the-stadium-nose-bleed section, we had a great view of the field.  And man, do the Denver fans LOVE their Broncos!  The energy was amazing, and I learned about the “Denver Thunder.”  Each time the team lined up for a play, the entire stadium started stomping their feet on the metal floors, which made the entire stadium shake like thunder.  The Broncos lost in OT by a field goal, but overall it was a great game.  Once the frostbite on my toes and fingers thaws, I should be able to use them again. ☺

Even though we are getting to see some cool places, I think the best time of the trip is when we are driving and praying.  Long hours in the car provide ample time to pray for all the people, and all the things, that due to our busy schedule don't make our prayer list.  So if you are involved in our life in any way, we’ve probably been praying for you!  If you serve the Lord in ministry at CCW or another church, we’ve probably been praying for you!  And if we missed you, I am sure we’ll get to you, as tomorrow we have another long day in the car!

So today (Sunday) is worship, do some laundry, get reorganized, and be ready to head for the Grand Canyon tomorrow.  Oh, and I think we’re gonna go see Zero Dark Thirty tonight.

PS if you want to see the pics from our tours, check it out here

Love you all!


Pastor Clay & Tammy

Radical Sabatical - Days 5-6

Tuesday, Jan 8, 2013

So yes I’m skipping a few days, as Sunday & Monday were pretty light days.  We made a valiant effort to make church on Sunday, I had wanted to attend National Community Church, but obviously the evil “prince of the lost tourist” was more powerful than Google Maps. Sad.  On the way out of town we drove right by the Air & Space Museum, so we stopped in for a quick look.  Pretty amazing.

Monday we drove.  And drove.  And got to Nashville, checked into a great low-price hotel that has free food and a hot tub.  Major score!

Tuesday was our “do Nashville” day, and it was a great day.  We dropped onto Broadway St, the main drag, and our first stop was lunch at Piranha’s Bar & Grill, where I ate the most amazing sandwich I’ve ever put in my mouth.  Fresh Italian bread, piled high with meat, cheese, fresh-cut fries, slaw, then more bread.  Its called “Piranha way” and you pretty much cant get the sandwich any other way.  Their motto is “our way is the best way, so we probably won’t do it your way.”  They’re right.

After Piranha’s we dropped in to Gruhn’s Guitars, the most awesome guitar shop in the universe.  Racks of 1960’s & 70’s Gibson’s, Fenders, 1930’s Dobro’s, if you're a connoisseur of fine instruments, Gruhn’s has you covered, that is, if you have a spare $2,500 - $10,000 lying around for a guitar purchase.  My budget?  I got a shirt.  It is a cool shirt.

Then we took the tour of Ryman Auditorium.  At first I was a bit sketchy on touring an auditorium, I mean its just seats and a stage, right?  Wrong.  Ryman Auditorium is rich with history.  It was built in the 1880’s by Thomas G. Ryman. Ryman was a riverboat captain and bar owner who attended a tent revival of evangelist Sam Jones.  Jones preached against the sins of the city (which Ryman made his living from), and Ryman intended to confront the preacher and heckle him.  Instead of heckling Jones, Ryman got saved, and then made it his life mission to build and an auditorium where Jones could preach.  I’ll spare the entire history, but the Ryman became the home to the Grand Old Opry, from 1943 – 1974 the Opry performed every Saturday night, and many country music stars got their start by performing at the Opry. Its an incredible venue, and the acoustics are amazing.  Tammy and I were standing at the top of the balcony, and we could clearly hear a couple standing on the stage.

Next?  Ok, Nashville is honkey-tonk central, so we had to step into a honky-tonk and hear some music.  What better place than Honky-Tonk Central?  Broadway is lined with establishments that have live music all day and night, and HTC was no exception.  I have no idea of who the band was, matter of fact I later learned that the band members had only met each other that day.  A thrown together group of musicians, that played song after song, and were TIGHT!  Nashville is full of awesome musicians, ready to play, hoping to “make it,” but most will squeeze out a meager existence playing in honky-tonks.

Tuesday night we struck gold. On a whim I booked a table for the 9 PM show at the Bluebird Café, a place billed as the “one of the world’s preeminent listening rooms.”  I had no idea what I was getting us into.  We pulled into the parking lot at 8 pm, and there was already a line at the door. Luckily we had a reservation, so we got in.  The lineup was Jeff Cohen, Kristian Bush, JT Harding, and Jon Nite, who were seated in a circle in the middle of the café.  I’ve never heard of any of these guys, but as they started playing it dawned on me that “I’ve heard these songs.” So I started Google’ing  the lyrics; Big and Rich, Sugarland, Keith Urban, it quickly became apparent:  These guys write the songs that people hear on the radio! Jon Nite’s songs have been placed on One Tree Hill, CSI, and Vampire Diaries.  If that weren’t cool enough, the MC started calling up people from the audience, and up steps Scotty Davis, who performed “What Faith Can Do” (a song he wrote, you've heard it on K-Love, Kutless cut the tune).  Ha, the next night Vince Gill and Amy Grant are scheduled to play.  If you ever go to Nashville, do not leave without going to the Bluebird Café.  I promise, you wont be disappointed.

Today was a chill day, getting ready for the next drive - tomorrow we head for St. Louis MO.

Pastor Clay & Tammy

Radical Sabbatical - Day 3

Saturday, Jan 5, 2013

Saturday was our day to “wander all over downtown DC” day.  Our first stop was the US Holocaust Museum.  My son Chandler and I had visited the Dachau concentration camp several years ago, but this was my first visit to one of the several museums.  It was a sobering experience.  The tour took us through pre-war Germany, the conditions that ushered Hitler into power, and then stepped us through the sequence of events that led up to the “final solution.”  Tammy and I took away several things from the experience.

First was an eerie parallel to the times we are in today.  Economic hardship, a dysfunctional government, general disillusionment of the people, which led to an opportunity for a leader, namely Hitler, to set up a “straw man” enemy, someone that the Germans could blame their problems on; the Jews. (sound familiar?).  The parties of the Parliament weren’t able to find consensus on any matter, so Hindenburg had to rule by presidential decree. All of this created a situation where the people longed for a leader that would be able to get things done, even if it cost them a little freedom.

Second was the cold hard fact that mankind is capable of committing terrible evil, and I’m not just referring to Hitler and his top commanders.  There were thousands of people who joined in with the Nazi regime to kill not only Jews, but anyone they deemed “unfit.”  The Nazi’s organized “mobile killing squads” that roamed the towns of the newly conquered countries, rounded up people by the thousands, led them outside of the towns, then killed them. These mass killings required great manpower to gather people, corral them, shoot them, and then dispose of the bodies.  I had to stop and wonder, how was it that regular everyday people could take part in such things?

The third takeaway was the response of the church.  Churches throughout Europe were mostly silent while Jews were persecuted, deported and murdered. In Nazi Germany in September 1935, there were a few Christians in the Protestant Confessing Church who demanded that their Church take a public stand in defense of the Jews. Their efforts, however, were overruled by church leaders who wanted to avoid any conflict with the Nazi regime.  I think this quote from Rev. Martin Niemoller sums it up well:

"First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me."

- Rev. Martin Niemoller in 1946

The most riveting exhibit in the entire museum was the collection of the victims shoes.  I suppose when you murder millions of people, you end up with millions of articles of clothing, glasses, and other personal belongings.  What to do with all those shoes?  When the death camps were liberated, the Allied forces discovered huge piles of shoes, millions of shoes.  Shoes packed in rail cars, shoes piled in warehouses. Some of these shoes have been placed into the Holocaust Museum.  It was hard to look down at those shoes, and consider that each pair of shoes belonged to someone who was put to death simply because they didn't fit the mold of the Nazi society.

At the end of the tour Tammy and sat and prayed for God to forgive us as a race for the horrible things we have done.

Oh, one last observation:  For the entire four hours we spend in the museum, no one uttered a single word.  Not one word.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” - Edmund Burke 

Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. – James 4:17

Pastor Clay & Tammy

Radical Sabbatical - Day 2

Yesterday was a pretty chill day, we slept in, had some devo and prayer time.  Our word was from 2 Peter 3:

…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. – 2 Peter 3:18

I’ve always loved that verse, because to me the most powerful thing we can do as Christians is to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior.  When we know His grace, we’ll give His grace.  When we know Him, we are on the path to becoming more like him.  Spurgeon had a phrase that hit me “the man that does not grow, refuses to be blessed.” In other words, when a person refuses to grow (meaning, refuses to study their bible, pray, commune with the Lord), that person is in effect saying “Don’t bless me God.”  For me, I’d rather be more like Jacob, who said “I will not let you go unless you bless me” (Gen 32:26).

So we headed out - the weather was beautiful, the traffic was light coming into DC, and we listened to a good bit of “Killing Kennedy” on the stereo.  Whether or not you appreciate Bill O’Reilly’s show on Fox News or not, the man is an incredible writer, and a gifted orator.   We listened to Killing Lincoln on a trip last year, and were so impressed with the non-biased, historical, and informative aspect of that work, we had to get Killing Kennedy.  So far we’re not disappointed (next up on the list, “Erasing Hell” by Frances Chan).

We got checked into our hotel (so blessed a friend hooked us up at the Sheraton Four Points, which is downtown and so everything you would want to do is within walking distance.)

To be honest I’m still finding it hard to untether,  have this underlying urge to check email, etc.  Don’t worry, my wonderful mate Tammy is doing a great job of assisting me in this effort – “Clay, put the phone down…”  - “…but I was just going to take a picture!!!”  I think it’ll take a week or so to really let go.

We capped the night off with a walk to Chinatown, which is about ten blocks from our hotel.  Tammy & I LOVE Asian food, I think we might end up as missionaries to Thailand one day!

Today we are going to do one my favorite things: wander around aimlessly and go into whatever museum or monument we find.  There are two we have to see:  The Holocaust Museum, and he Air & Space Museum.

We’ll be praying for you all today, we miss you already, and we love you!

PC & Tammy

Radical Sabbatical – Day 1

The last two weeks have been an absolute blur, with Christmas, family, trip preparations, ministry calls; I’m not really sure how we were even able to pack! But pack we did, load up we did, and we rolled out of Wilmington at 12:36 pm. So it begins!

The first leg of our trip involved a visit to a family friend who is serving time at the Federal Penitentiary in Hopewell VA.  Through a series of personal tragedies, and poor choices, our friend lost his way.

There is a scripture in Numbers 32:

…be sure your sin will find you out.  – Num 32:23

I used to think of this verse in the context of “if you sin, God’s going find out, and get you good!”  But now I have a different perspective:  Sin isn’t bad because its sin, sin is sin because it’s bad (you have to think about that one). If in fact sin is bad for us, and the end result is that we’ll end up becoming imprisoned by it, then it must be true that God loves us enough that He won’t allow us to stay in that prison.  Our Heavenly Father wants to set us free, and the first step in setting us free is to often to expose the sin.  Sometimes that step is painful, it could even land a man in prison.  But it is necessary in order to bring about redemption.

I don't know how things will turn out for our friend. He’ll do his time, and one day he will walk out of that prison.  The question is who will he be: a man free on the outside, but still imprisoned on the inside?  Or will he experience the freedom that comes from a head-on collision with the cross of Christ?  Because we know, when the Son sets you free, you are free indeed!

That’s why we want to be there for our friend, because everyone needs redemption.  Perhaps through our love and encouragement we can be a part of his “God Story,” helping him find his way back from the prison cell of sin, to walk in the freedom and grace of God.

Then we checked into our hotel, and grabbed dinner at a place right next door called “The Tilted Kilt.”  It was an interesting experience.  On Friday we head for DC, for a few days wandering and checking out the sights.

In Love, Clay & Tammy

Resolute

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is. – C. S. Lewis

So here we are, at the beginning of a new year, 2013.  Facebook is abuzz with resolution posts, Twitter is trending.  Thing is, I’m not a big resolution guy, as I don’t find them particularly useful.  According to one study. “Less than a quarter of those asked had managed to stick to their resolutions. Of those who failed, many had followed the spurious advice of self-help gurus – which almost guarantees disaster, apparently.”  That study went on to state “making resolutions is a near pointless exercise, psychologists say. We break them, become dispirited in the process and finally more despondent than we were before.”  Well, that's not very encouraging!

Instead of something that I might want to do, or not do, I think I’ll focus on what I want to be: Resolute.  Resolute means you are purposeful, determined, and unwavering. It means you are determined, firm, decided, resolved, and decisive.  Resolute doesn't deal with what I want to try and do, but rather addresses how I am going to live. A resolution is a not-yet-fulfilled promise - being resolute is a state of being.

One of the pastors in our town recently wrote a book titled “My One Word,” because in their church they encourage the congregation to pick a single word, and focus on it all year.  I think resolute would be a good “one word.”

You see, each day you wake up, you are given a gift: one full day of life, and the sum of your life will be the sum of those days.  The question I would ask you is this:  How will you spend the hours, the minutes, the seconds, of your day? I think the Apostle Paul had some good advise:

See then that you walk circumspectly [careful, mindful], not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. - Eph 5:15-17

I particularly like the NLT translation:

So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. – Eph 5:15-17 NLT

I like it:  Understand what God wants me to do, be resolute in my pursuit of that calling, and make the most of every moment, because I've been given a limited amount of time to get it done.

Pastor Clay

A letter from Pastor Clay to the church at CCW

Dear Calvary Chapel of Wilmington,

As most of you probably have heard, my wife Tammy and I will be taking a one month sabbatical from our role at Calvary Chapel, beginning this week. Tammy and I are both so thankful to be part of a church family that has a deepl commitment to the long-term spiritual health of its pastor and wife, and would be so gracious as to allow us this time to rest and renew.  Though I greatly enjoy teaching the bible, helping people grow in their relationship with God, and I am enthusiastic about the future of CCW, there's an undeniable sense of weightiness and a spiritual battle that simply goes with the territory.  It is for this reason that pastor's are encourged to take a sbbatical from time to time, so that they can strengthen their relationship with Christ, with family, and to then return to ministry refreshed, recharged and renewed.  I hope you'll join me in asking the Lord to make this valuable for both my family and our church.  (click below to read the entire letter)