Tallhassee

After that brief morning visit, I headed on for Tallahassee UCC where I would present my first scheduled performance of my Biblical stories. I would be staying with my longtime friend and Army buddy, Dee “Chris” Christensen.
Chris and I were stationed Germany as army lieutenants in the 1/39th Mechanized Infantry Battalion (“Anything, Anytime, Anywhere Bar None”). We even traveled to Israel on leave during a more peaceful era, shortly after Sadat of Egypt and Begin of Israel established a treaty of peace – which has continued to this day.
Tallahassee UCC welcomed me with a spaghetti dinner. About 30 people from the church were there. It was the first time this congregation had ever had a church supper – and it was good! The Rev Sandy Hulse is their pastor, recently called to this church. She had served churches in NJ and CA and we had communicated by e-mail prior to her arrival. She was very excited about my project and my presentation was warmly received.

I prepared three sets of stories: “The Prologue” includes selections from each of the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) which describe the origins of Jesus’ ministry as wonderworker, healer, and teacher. “The Sabbath” comes from Mark 2-5 and is a day in the life of Jesus that is filled with spiritual adventures. “The Love-song” is about Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, Mary Magdalene, and Samaritans – good and bad. For Tallahassee and most of my stops, I planned to tell only The Prologue and The Sabbath. This made for a 45 minute presentation with time enough for people to talk about what they heard afterwards. I am finding that my audiences are enjoying the contemporary expressions I worked into my ‘translation/paraphrases’ of these old stories,
allowing people to hear them in new ways.

Back at Chris Christensen’s, we watched the video, “Kingdom of Heaven”
in which one of the main characters describes 12th Century multi-ethnic/ religious crusader society as “a kingdom of consciousness. Would you have believed that that would lie at the end of crusade?” A kingdom of consciousness, justice, and peace – a beloved community is what I hope for at the end of my crusade, my pilgrimage.

June 12, 2007

Tuesday was a travel day and I had to beat tropical storms sweeping down through Georgia. I was caught in torrential downpours until I arrived at Florence, SC – which had been a planned stop my dad would make for us on our trips to Florida. I stayed at a KOA and opted for a cabin instead of tent camping. Within 20 min of my arrival, thunder and lightning and more rain followed. Good call! Just the same it was a pleasant stay and I was well rested before pushing off the next day for VA and The Mays!