The Adventure Begins

Sorry about not posting for a while. Well not too sorry. I have a good excuse.

It all begins about 6 weeks ago. Sarah was up at the Nehemiah house for the weekend and we went over to the downtown public library because I had a paper to write for my church planting class. This paper had to be on a historical missions movement, not necessarily Christian, the goal was to just evaulate historical missions methods. So I did some digging around and found out that the library had a copy of Noticias De Californias a collection of old letters and writings of some of the early padres that founded the first missions in Baja California. While searching through this book I came across a copy of this letter:

Now, I dont read Spanish but I did notice that it was written in 1755. This peaked Sarah and my's interest so I made a photocopy of it to have someone translate it for me. After about a week I got it back from a friend with this translation:

(this manuscript was found wedged in the binding of the original document, but was not included in the final facsimile as it is unclear whether Venegas intended it to be in the final document. In addition, it’s authenticity is greatly in question both by scholars and Venegas himself. We include it here as an insert however for research purposes)

Andres Marcos Burriel, holy father and humble chronicler of the work of our Lord and holy mother through the labor of the apostles of the most honorable Society of Jesus in New Spain, on the seventh day of the month of December, the year of our Lord 1755:

With much prayer and troubled spirit I have decided to include this testimony copied in my own hand, of Father Jaime Bravo, honorable founder of Misión de Nuestra Señora del Pilar de La Paz and director of finances for the California missions 1730-1744. My hesitation comes from the absence of knowledge concerning whether this testimony is indeed written by Father Bravo himself, for his holy soul has passed on to be with our exalted Lord Jesus and Sacred Mother. In addition, the worthy father Miguel Venegas, original compiler of these accounts, has himself passed into eternal communion with the holy saints. Without these vital sources, it is impossible to authenticate this testimony. My only source is he who brought this letter to my possession, Joel Sanchez, brother assistant to Father Bravo during the Indian Revolt. He assures me of it’s validity, claiming even to have assisted Father Bravo in the endeavor. I leave the decision to include this in the final compliation in your hands, Father Pedro Altamirano, admirable Procurator General for the Society of Jesus in New Spain.

In the Service of our Lord,

Father Andres Marcos Burriel

October 17, The year of our Lord, 1734.

The rebellion of the savages continues, threatening to plunge the light back into darkness. The missions of Santiago, San Jose del Cabo, Santa Rosa de Todos Santos and the beloved Pilar de La Paz have all suffered heavy attacks from the murderous gentile Indians. As Chief Financier of all Missions in California, I have decided to take action to secure the relics and treasury housed in the Mission of Our Lady of Loreto Concho from the seemingly imminent assault. With the assistance of J. Sanchez, I have concealed the sacred artifacts on the island of Coronado, over the shoulder of the southern oyster of the black pearl. This information will be entrusted to my superiors, Juan Bautista Escalante of Nacosari, brother assistant Joel Sanchez, and myself. May God defend the righteous.

I attest to the truth and accuracy of this testimony, before our Holy Mother and glorious Christ

Father Jaime Bravo, Director of Fincances for the California Missions of the Society of Jesus at Loreto.

Needless to say, Sarah and I both were intrigued about this letter so we began researching it. I was pretty busy with school and ministry so Sarah kind of took over the research. She found that Jaime Bravo was a real person, there was an Indian rebellion at that time, and other interesting details that seemed to support the veracity of the letter. In the meantime, a group of 8 of us were planning a spring break camping trip to Utah. When that fell through, Sarah suggested that we drive to Loreto in Baja California Sur, which apparently was beautiful and try to pick up on the trail of the letter. After some convincing all 8 of us agreed to go and preparations were made. Everyone drove down to my parents house on monday night and we loaded up the supplies. After a delicious Italian meal cooked by Mama Freiberg, and a little screening of Indiana Jones to get us in the mood, Sarah gave a short presentation on where we were going and all about the letter.

So Tuesday mornings we packed into two cars and began our 16 hour drive south. Other than the beautiful flora and fauna (I've always wanted to use that in a sentence) the drive was fairly uneventful, except for one of the girls driving the car off the road and getting stuck in the sand, if it wasnt for the help of about 10 mexicans we would have been stuck for a long time.

It got dark before we could get to Loreto so we found a beach near Mulege and woke up to this:

Once everyone was up, we got back in the cars and headed into Loreto. After some breakfast we split up into two teams: one to find the mission and one to try and secure a boat to take us out to the island of Coronado.

After circling the coast, we settled at a beautiful beach. We hung out here the rest of the day, snorkeling, swimming, finding dead things on the beach (moray eels and severed shark heads), reading, sleeping, doing a photo shoot, and having a time of Bible study and worship.

After a night lit by the brightest full moon I've ever seen, we woke up and decided to hike south along the coast to see if we could find anything oyster-like. After about 30 minutes of hiking Sarah spotted a small cave about half way up a cliff face (she totally missed the oyster like rock on the coast below it). I got up to it first with Sarah close behind. In the dim flashlight I could see what seemed to be a small rope of some sort coming from a pile of rocks. I was too big to crawl back into the whole however so I waited for Sarah to get up there. She shimmied into the hole and pulled on the string. To our amazement a burlap bundle was attached to it. Trying not to freak out we brought the package down from the cliff. We cut through the old rope, began to unwrap the burlap, found another cloth, unwrapped it and found a beautiful wooden box, inlaid with the emblem of a violin. With wide eyes we opened the lid...and music started, both figurativly and literally. It was a music box and inside it contained only one item. A ring. I took the ring, got on my knees and looked Sarah in the eyes. "Sarah, there are so many reasons why I love you, but the most important reason is that we are both in love with the same person, our Lord Jesus Christ. Will you marry me?" After a few, very long seconds of silence, she blurted out, "are you serious!?" After assuring her I was she burst into tears and said yes.

As you probably have guessed by now, the whole treasure hunt thing was made up. I totally surprised her.

Special thanks to Brad, Juliet, Kornut, Marybeth, Derek, and Jeanet for being such a huge part of our adventure!

and so the adventure begins. Sarah and I hope that our commitment to following, worshiping, loving, and serving the Lord will be only strenghtened and further enabled by our union. Our love for each other will depend on our love for our Lord, which thankfully depends on our Lord's love for us.

The wedding is July 22nd. Let me know if you want an invitation

by God's grace, for God's glory,
jrf

Thoughts from sub-surface Tokyo

Hurtling through the innards of Tokyo’s underground in the speeding flesh capsule that is Japan’s subway system, I have this thought: Traveling is not so much about finding answers as it is asking questions. And hopefully those questions will lead to answers, but the key is you have to be willing to ask them. Here on this train, everybody retreats into the recesses of their minds, sort of a hibernation mode, partially to ignore the fact that if they looked up they would have their nose in the crotch of some Japanese salaryman who is about to implode from the pressure of thousands of pounds of human flesh pressing in on him from every angle. (If you havent caught on yet the Japanes subways are very crowded). So I took the opportunity to think about how traveling effects my life and what experiences seem to be common no matter where in the world I am. I identified a common cycle that seems to occur when I travel.

Phase 1: Wonder at new undiscovered beauty, struggle to understand on more than a surface level, stretching of my faith due to new questions and perspectives I never considered, lots of questions

Phase 2: Sadness for the lost, Sadness for my lack of faith, Sadness at my ignorance and predjudice, in a word: conviction

Phase 3: more clarity, appreciation and grattitude for my faith, confidence in the sufficiency of Scripture in any culture.

Phase 4: an almost overwhelming desire to share the Gospel with the lost

Phase 5 (I hate this one): return home, often become apathetic,

Thankfully Phase 5 doesnt have to be a given.

I don't know if this post has benefitted anyone but myself, but it felt good to sit down and think through these things. Anyone else have any thoughts about traveling?

By His grace, for His glory

jrf

devos in the shade of the great Buddha

Ahh. Finally a day to myself, away from the city, the responsibilities of school, and the well intentioned (and greatly appreciated) but sometimes too focused attention of my parents. For my great escape, I've chosen Kamakura, the former capital of Japan during the Tokugawa shogunate, and also the center of Zen Buddhism in Japan. You'd think this might be a nice place to calm my thoughts and have a nice relaxing day.

So here I find my self sitting in the shade of a 40 foot, 800 year old bronze Buddha statue feeling anything but inner peace. I don’t quite know how to feel when at a Buddhist temple (or Shinto shrine for that matter) in Japan. They sure know how to create a relaxing environment around here. Surrounded by beautiful trees, fresh mountain air, running streams and a symphony of wild birds makes it easy to want to clear your head and find inner enlightenment. It’s also easy to forget that this site is a focal point for a worldview that sends thousands of people to hell each year. How can I feel peaceful in a place so dark? Am I that spiritually insensitive? When Paul saw the idolatry of Athens he was sick to his stomach (Act 17:16). Or maybe I’m not insensitive. Maybe today the beauty of God’s general revelation far outshines the darkness of Satan’s special revelation. Maybe it’s not wrong to enjoy this peacefulness.

Nevertheless, life is not about finding inner peace just for the sake of finding it, or pleasure for the sake of pleasure. Today isn’t about having “me” time. It’s not about recharging my batteries so I can do more things for myself. It’s about “God” time. It’s about meditating on Him, not myself. I won’t find the answer within, just more confusion. It’s about recharging my batteries today so I’m ready for what He has for me tomorrow. I just wonder if its counter productive to do my devotionals at a Buddhist temple.

hmm.

sionara

jrf

Thoughts from the international departure lounge

Well I got in to Tokyo last night safe and sound.

but let's start from the beginning.

Disclaimer: The next few weeks of posts arent necessarily meant to be a play by play account of my trip merely a selective sharing of thoughts, reflections, journal entries, and basically whatever I feel like sharing and/or feel could edify those who want to read.

Journal entry #1 December 20, 2005

I start tonight another journey, or rather another turn in the bend of a journey I have barely begun. With the start of this journey comes the start of another journal which forces me to ask, why do I journal when I travel? Why don't I journal every day? What makes traveling more important than my everyday routine? Does journal signify worth, as if my non-traveling life is worth less or insignificant? Or is it that only traveling affords me the time to journal and reflect, thus being one of the reasons I love to travel and wander so much? Is there any way or benefit to forcing myself to reflect and journal whilst (great word huh?) in the midst of the routine?

hmmm....

Sayonara

jrf

musings from the Southwest...

Last weekend I had the opportunity to accompany my girlfriend and her family to Arizona to celebrate her grandparents' renewal of wedding vows. Seeking to make the most out of the weekend, Sarah and I noticed that the Grand Canyon was only about an inch away on the map from where we were in Arizona. So on our way back to LA we swung by. Once we were on our way back from the GC I had the great idea to swing by Las Vegas and hit a cheap buffet (again only and inch off course). Instead of arriving in Los Angeles on Sunday evening we got in at 530 Monday morning, just intime for Sarah to drive down to San Diego and work and for me to hit the books. Needless to say we learned a lot about cartography and scale this weekend. But thankfully those werent the only lessons learned:

1. The heavens are telling of the glory of God;
And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
Day to day pours forth speech,
And night to night reveals knowledge.
Ps 19:2

Living in the inner city surrounded by man's creations, it is easy for me to become overwhelmed with the beauty of God's creation. Whether it's drving through miles and miles of flower speckled plains, becoming lost in a foreboding thundercloud, or peering over a very "Grand" canyon, nature is the setting that I often find it most easy to become enthralled with my Creator. One of the more hilarious and saddening things I heard this weekend was a little girl ask her daddy how the Grand Canyon was formed only to get "it was formed by the river slowly wearing it away over millions and millions of years" for an answer. Do you have eyes Daddy!? Are they connected to your brain!? I'm no geology expert but just by looking at the Grand Canyon it seems to me inconcievable to suggest that a slow and steady river over millions of year could have made it. It's just too #(*&)$! BIG! The river would have to be over a mile wide. And why did it just carve out a canyon here and not along the other few thousand miles of it's route? Now I'm sure scientists have thought about these questions and played logical gymnastics to offer some type of explanation, but it seems to me that it could be much easier to explain by some kind of natural catastrophe, say a universal flood. But that's just me. And God (a little more authoritative)

2. So we have the prophetic word made more sure, to which you do well to pay attention as to
a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.
2 Peter 1:19-20

As I continued in my state of entrancement at the wonders of God's general revelation, I realized that I should be even more enthralled with God's special revelation. I have access to the very Word's of the Creator of the Universe! Not just impotent myths, but powerful, living, life-shattering Words. I don't need to go to the Grand Canyon to become overwhelmed with God. All I have to do is open His Word and let it invade my heart.

3. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!
Ps 133:1

Being an only child and a Navy brat, I have not had the opportunity to be around large groups of family members very frequently. In addition somewhere along the way I picked up the TV and movie influenced idea that distant relatives and reunions and in-laws were not much more than a necessary evil. However, being an observer to my girlfriend's family's celebration of their parents' marriage this weekend taught me a lot about the power of the family. Sure, they are not perfect, and every family has painful seasons in their history, but for that one night, everyone there found it so easy to love each other. It was a blessing to be able to witness that. It makes me all the more motivated to love my family, both earthly and heavenly.

4. What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?
Ps 8:4

In the eyes of the world, Vegas is probably on most top ten lists as far as luxury and excitment goes. Many probably see it as the summit of human achievement and expression. How puny compared to the greatness of God! Seeing both Vegas and the Grand Canyon in the same day made it very easy to compare God's creation with man's. And God spoke the universe into being in six days. It took man over 50 years to build it's testimony to perversion. And they're still not done. Yet I still believe that God can shine His light there through His greatest creation, human beings. Don't forget to lift our brothers and sisters who minister in Vegas up in prayer. They need it.

by His grace, for His glory,
jrf