the making of a Princess

the bow

the hull

a shell of a Princess

ready to launch

christening the Princess

(I wish we knew who the woman is)

dragon scales and other tales

It's later than I'd like it to be.  I'm awake.  The wind is fiercely howling outside.  I can't sleep.  There are many lovely and some trivial things on my mind this late blustery evening.

Today I had a 4 hour coffee date with a friend I've known and loved for over 20 years.  Katy and I went grew up together from 5th grade on.  We played volleyball together, went to Malibu together, we both became teachers.  She is one of my dearest and oldest friends.  Katy knew me before I knew Christ and has known me and walked with me these last 12 years since I bowed my knee and heart to our Lord.

Katy is lovely and deeply loves Jesus.  9 months ago Katy lost her fiancee 2 months before their wedding.  He passed onto glory in his sleep on his 29th birthday.  These last 9 months I have wept for and with my dear friend.  She is strong, she is real and she is clinging to Christ.

Today we spoke of Malibu and my adventures in life.  We recalled being campers together and then being YL leaders together @ WFR one summer (her with urban Seattle kids, me with rural farm kids).  We caught up on family and friend updates.  We spoke of Aaron and how good he was to her.  We cried.  We marveled at God's goodness, sovereignty, and care for us.   The Lord has been so present and tender with Katy during this time of grief and growth.  Life is hard, Jesus is good.  Always.

In the pursuit of my master's degree, I am currently taking a counseling class that is reaffirming a lot of things in my mind and heart.  For the last 10 years I have been discipled by a woman who in addition to being a loving friend, also happens to be a counselor.  Kim asks great questions.  Kim challenges me to get to the root of things.  Kim has guided me along the path of emotional health and shown me how vital it is to being whole and balanced in Christ.  The books I'm reading for class speak to the inseparability of emotional and spiritual growth.  Of this, I could write forever (good thing because I have 3 papers to compose on the topic).  It reminds me of one of my favorite passages from the Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  Katy and I talked about the beauty and pain that Lewis paints in the following passage.

{The impossible Eustace's selfishness has caused him to transform into a dragon.  Life becomes quite miserable, lonely and painful as a dragon.  What follows is his encounter with Aslan}

"The water was as clear as anything and I thought if I could get in there and bathe it would ease the pain in my leg. but the lion told me I must undress first. Mind you, I don't know if he said any words out loud or not.

I was just going to say that I couldn't undress because I hadn't any clothes on when I suddenly thought that dragons are snaky sort of things and snakes can cast their skins. Oh, of course, thought I, that's what the lion means. So I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and , instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bathe.

But just as I was going to put my feet into the water I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they had been before. Oh, that's all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I'll have to get out of it too. So I scratched and tore again and this underskin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bathe.

Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got off a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good.

The the lion said - but I don't know if it spoke - 'You will have to let me undress you.' I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.

The very first tear he made was do deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know - if you've ever picked the scab of a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away.

Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off - just as I thought I'd done it myself the other three times, only they hadn't hurt - and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been. And there was I as smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me - I didn't like that much for I was very tender underneath now that I'd no skin on - and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I'd turned into a boy again. You'd think me simply phoney if I told you how I felt about my own arms. I know they've no muscle and are pretty mouldy compared with Caspian's, but I was so glad to see them.

After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me - (with his paws?) - Well, I don't exactly remember that bit. But he did somehow or other: in new clothes - the same I've got on now, as a matter of fact. and then suddenly I was back here. Which is what makes me think it must have been a dream."

What a brilliant depiction of being stripped of the things that hinder us from knowing God and others fully (Hebrew 12:1).  The pain of peeling away those hurts and flaws are nothing compared to the freedom in Christ that will follow.

Malibu caught on video...

Here are 2 videos for you of Malibu.

This first one was made by one of my interns.  It highlights some things that are done by staff on days off-not camper activities, but adventures we had this summer-natural water slides, Secret Cove and other amazing things.

Here is another that was made to highlight Malibu for school season guest groups looking for a place to hold a retreat or event.

http://vimeo.com/24323202

I work in a coffee shop

But I'm not a barista.  During the fall and winter months, when I'm not at Malibu, I can do my work from wherever I have internet and phone access.  Some days I work at home.  Some days I work in my office @ the Bellingham YL office.  Most days I end up in a coffee shop.  There are 2 reasons for this last location, the first being...well...coffee.  The second reason is people.  When I work form home or even from the YL office, I often can go hours or even days without interacting with a single soul.  So to avoid feeling like (or becoming) a recluse, I head to one of the many coffee shops in Bellingham to get things done.

When you sit in a coffee shop for hours on end, you have the privilege of observing many strange and lovely things.  Below are some of my favorite coffee shop observations:

• A large bearded, flannel-wearing man walks in, grabs a cup of coffee, sits in a leather chair in the corner and proceeds to pull out yarn and knitting needles.  Unexpected.
• A man walks into a coffee shop (which is nowhere near the bay or any body of water) wearing a fleece, sandals and a full wet suit.  Peculiar but not surprising.
• A young family leaves the grocery store across the parking lot, arrives at their car with groceries and a large bouquet of balloons.  While loading the car with kids and groceries, the balloons are forgotten, let go of and drift away.  Beautifully tragic.
• A woman whose motorized wheel chair boasts a sign indicating that a drunk driver caused her injuries, rode off the curb, tipped her chair over and fell to the ground.  Two kind gentlemen rushed to her, righted her chair and helped her back into it.  Caring, kind humanity.
• A young guy walks in with a single red rose in his hand.  He proceeds to a table where he sits and waits nervously.  Blind date I infer.  He and I both wonder at each woman who walks through the door.  She arrives, spots the rose, offers a hug and sits down. Sweet and awkward.

People watching provides great entertainment and encouragement as I witness people being interesting, unique and caring.  Bellingham is a beautifully unusual city and I love the months that I get to spend here.

the Kiwis have taken over

This winter we have some international guests staying @ Malibu.  2 are Candians, 3 are Brits and 17 are New Zealanders (henceforth referred to as Kiwis).  They are mountain bike trail builders working for NZ Trail Solutions out of New Zealand.  They are building mountain bike trails on 1,700 acres of land down the inlet from Malibu.  The land is owned by a private investor group with 2 goals in mind: land conservation and extreme mountain biking.


The boys are staying with us for somewhere between 12 and 14 months.  They've already been living @ Malibu for 2 months.  They work 6 days a week and rest on Sundays.  They eat breakfast @ 7am and then head up the inlet to the work site and return "home" around 4:30pm.  Sharon & Stacie serve dinner @ 6pm and then the rest of the evening is theirs to watch TV, rock climb (when I'm in camp), play basketball, email home or play Settler's of Catan.


A few weeks ago, we taught them how to play hockey...Harold was proud of them, as they did quite well and caught on to the important notion of passing.

We're learning a lot of great Kiwi vocab words like jandals, heaps, keen and mate.


As you think about Malibu, would you pray for our Kiwi friends?  Pray for their safety, as they are working in a very remote place doing very physical work.