2010 February 21, Lord's Day
Elwha Campground > Port Angeles > Elwha Campground
Distance Biked: 22 miles
My watch alarm sounded at 6:30 AM. Aversion to the cold was overcome by a warming desire to attend worship with God's people in Port Angeles. Quickly as possible I was into my clothes, fed, and mounted on the bicycle. Sub-freezing air set my fingers into exquisite burning. The pain was shortened, thankfully, when, to my astonishment, I had covered all ten hilly miles in just over an hour. Being earlier than expected, I rode to Starbucks and checked email.
The OPC met just around the corner, renting Scandia Hall, a Sons of Norway lodge. Besides the lovely little congregation of neatly dressed and gregarious brethren, I found the room to be occuppied with a Nordic array of horned helmets, Viking barks, and mounted deer heads. Over the moveable pulpit was a gilded fabric cross. To each side hung carigeen curtains overtopped with floral embellishments.
The arrangement of liturgy and selection of hymns, sermon content, and all else was, to me, wonderfully Christ-and-Gospel centered. Several times throughout the message I felt warmed by the Spirit's comfort through the clear preaching of Christ's cross and imputed righteousness.
Port Angeles OPC - A Mighty Fortress is Our God [.mp3]
Download .mp3
Port Angeles OPC - Holy, Holy, Holy [.mp3]
Download .mp3
Port Angeles OPC - Jesus, Master Whose I Am [.mp3]
Download .mp3
Pastor Elam invited me to his home for lunch. After being acquainted with his wife, their three children, and a friend from the church, I was sated richly with a fantastic meal of pasta and salad, superb coffee and a deluxe selection of ice cream. Between stories and bouts of Elam's jolly laughter, I was offered thoughtful advice regarding seminary and vocational ministry, which I greatly appreciated.
Taking leave of these friends, I returned to Starbucks to update blogs and edit photos. From there I visited the grocery store and made the mistake of purchasing twenty pounds of food for the next few weeks at Elwha. This was bad mainly because I would be carrying it home on my back rather than by trailer. The discomfort of ten miles steep riding with a now thirty pound burden had not occurred to me. Before setting off, I paid another visit to Jack in the Box, for cheap grease tacos. I prefer to think of them as "calorie bars", which, given my strenuous exercise, is more justifiable.
Sometime near midnight, with an awfully sore spine and shoulders, and relieved to have evaded the seedy night walkers of Port Angeles, I arrived home, as it were, in site 15. Into my tent I crawled, not to wake until my fractured body said so.
Elwha Campground > Port Angeles > Elwha Campground
Distance Biked: 22 miles
My watch alarm sounded at 6:30 AM. Aversion to the cold was overcome by a warming desire to attend worship with God's people in Port Angeles. Quickly as possible I was into my clothes, fed, and mounted on the bicycle. Sub-freezing air set my fingers into exquisite burning. The pain was shortened, thankfully, when, to my astonishment, I had covered all ten hilly miles in just over an hour. Being earlier than expected, I rode to Starbucks and checked email.
The OPC met just around the corner, renting Scandia Hall, a Sons of Norway lodge. Besides the lovely little congregation of neatly dressed and gregarious brethren, I found the room to be occuppied with a Nordic array of horned helmets, Viking barks, and mounted deer heads. Over the moveable pulpit was a gilded fabric cross. To each side hung carigeen curtains overtopped with floral embellishments.
The arrangement of liturgy and selection of hymns, sermon content, and all else was, to me, wonderfully Christ-and-Gospel centered. Several times throughout the message I felt warmed by the Spirit's comfort through the clear preaching of Christ's cross and imputed righteousness.
Port Angeles OPC - A Mighty Fortress is Our God [.mp3]
Download .mp3
Port Angeles OPC - Holy, Holy, Holy [.mp3]
Download .mp3
Port Angeles OPC - Jesus, Master Whose I Am [.mp3]
Download .mp3
Pastor Elam invited me to his home for lunch. After being acquainted with his wife, their three children, and a friend from the church, I was sated richly with a fantastic meal of pasta and salad, superb coffee and a deluxe selection of ice cream. Between stories and bouts of Elam's jolly laughter, I was offered thoughtful advice regarding seminary and vocational ministry, which I greatly appreciated.
Taking leave of these friends, I returned to Starbucks to update blogs and edit photos. From there I visited the grocery store and made the mistake of purchasing twenty pounds of food for the next few weeks at Elwha. This was bad mainly because I would be carrying it home on my back rather than by trailer. The discomfort of ten miles steep riding with a now thirty pound burden had not occurred to me. Before setting off, I paid another visit to Jack in the Box, for cheap grease tacos. I prefer to think of them as "calorie bars", which, given my strenuous exercise, is more justifiable.
Sometime near midnight, with an awfully sore spine and shoulders, and relieved to have evaded the seedy night walkers of Port Angeles, I arrived home, as it were, in site 15. Into my tent I crawled, not to wake until my fractured body said so.
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