This past summer I was able to play music through the summer as a part of a band. We recorded some fun music, played some fun gigs, had many great times together. If you didn’t get a chance to hear us live, you can find links to our canned sound at http://RootSideUp.micahjohn.com or at http://www.facebook.com/RootSideUp

Also, very significantly, I now have a girlfriend. While we’ve only been dating five weeks, I’ve known Tracey Kipe for over ten years. It is thrilling to find myself paired up with someone who knows and loves my family, who herself comes from a neat family, who loves Jesus, who loves people (whether they’re old, or young, or somewhere in between), who is full of life, who is loved and respected by those who know her, who likes stories, who . . . wow!

This brings me to another newsworthy note: After talking with a number of trusted mentor-like folks in my life, I made the decision to see if I could find work out here on the East Coast. I decided that if I could find work that paid well, I would put off pursuing my master’s degree for a year so as to save money for school and be better able to continue to pursue my relationship with Tracey. If work was not to be found, I intended to continue with the previous plan of starting school the end of September. I asked others to join me in asking the Lord to open and close doors to direct my steps as God would will.

Two weeks ago I contacted my old employer and asked about working. A week and a half ago, I had a breakfast with a mentor friend and was mentioning this to him, and he asked If I’d be interested in working for him. The result of these two contacts were two interviews this past Thursday. The result of these two interviews, were two generous job offers.

At the beginning of the summer I spent months looking for work. It was really neat to see God provide work for me at this time with so little effort on my own part.

Not all the details are finalized, but at this time it looks like I am going to be staying in Grantham with friends, and working in Camp Hill for a year. Further schooling is still on the horizon, it is just a year further distant. I look forward to seeing how the Father of Lights continues to shower down unlooked for gifts.

Grace and Peace to you all

Micah

We made good time along 24, stopping for a late lunch of ลาบ and ต้มปลา. After lunch we continued to move along. About the time we might have considered stopping for the day, Ubon was tantalizingly close (40km). We couldn’t stop.

My hands were quite tired of gripping the handle bars so I was riding without holding them when a large truck went by close and fast. The wind rocked me and I went for the handle bars and the brakes. I locked up my front wheel and despite all the extra weight of my bag on the back wheel I became aware of being a good deal higher than my handle bars. Before I could correct anything I was on the ground with my bike behind me. I’m not entirely sure of all the details. I do know by the time I went down I had slowed down considerably so there was very little sliding and scraping. Just a jarring of the wrists and a skinning up of the palms. Far less serious than it could have been. After a minute or two of settling we were back on the road, I with a pair of Mark’s clean socks between my hands and the handlebars.

As darkness was settling we pulled into the Warin Big C. We consumed a medium pizza, a pan of baked rice, fries, and wings. Refreshed we finished the journey in the dark (with both head and tail lights).

The extra push at the end put blisters on my seat and a tingling in my hands. Hopefully they’ll clear up quickly.