A big thank-you to Amanda and Kyle for hosting me last night.
A and K are a young couple who'll be moving into a new house soon; they've got two happy dogs, Jack and Elle (Jack spent a good part of yesterday evening licking the salt off my right forearm*), and many stories to tell.
I think I was an overly talkative guest, though: we went on for about four hours, covering topics ranging from abortion to homosexuality to racism to jobs to teaching abroad (Amanda has taught in both China and Georgia [the country]) to differences between Assembly of God, PCUSA (my denomination), various types of Buddhism, etc.
One side effect of all the religion-speak was that at least one dog fell asleep. I, on the other hand, had a great time listening to the sound of my own voice. What a blowhard. A and K have interesting religious backgrounds; Kyle is a former Assembly of God member; if I'm not mistaken, he and Amanda are now Seventh Day Adventist (or am I still mixing you guys up with Becky in Walla Walla? this might be an idée fixe).
I didn't get to see Kyle's mother, who is apparently interested in meeting me, but we might all be getting together at some point along the way to Walla Walla.
My thanks, once again, to A and K for their hospitality, and also for their patience with the fact that, for a long time, I couldn't give them definite arrival dates. I hope we all keep in touch.
*Man... talk about a sentence that can be taken out of context.
_
4 comments:
You're welcome. I don't know what Seventh Day Adventist is other than I think they do stuff on Saturdays, so it must be Becky. I don't know what you'd call Kyle and myself. If you go by our facebook profiles, Kyle labels himself as "non-cannibal Christian (rare)" and I label myself as "Jesus lover, people lover, trying not to be a self lover." We attend two different home churches - one in LaGrande (that we hope you get to experience) and one at Chuck and Lori's. Big church and titles and whatnot aren't for us, but as far as grouping us into something for the sake of ease, "first century church-ettes" seems to work, I suppose. Matt (our friend and the "pastor" of the home church in LaGrande) could offer much more cohesive picture of this "first century church" idea.
Aren't Kyle and Amanda great!!
Jack and Elle are pretty awesome too. Did she have them do tricks for you?
Hope you're having a great walk today. See you this afternoon.
P.S. You're right...you have the SDA thing confused.
Oh, and one more thing. I worked as a counselor/TA at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia - as part of my cross country (United States) road trip this summer. I guess that wasn't very clear last night. :)
On Seventh-Day Adventists:
Yes, they observe the Sabbath on Saturday, and they're vegetarians. Originally a milleniallist cult, they seem to have survived and prospered even after the date of the prophesied End of the World, which was sometime in the 19th Century, came and passed without event. The Branch Davidians, of Fighting Waco Jesus fame, were a splinter branch of the SDAs.
On Georgia and Georgia:
Another example of how the post-Cold-War world has become more challenging and complex. When I was a kid in Georgia (the state), the Other Place was swallowed up inside the Soviet Union, so you didn't hear about it nearly so often, and confusion was rare. In fact, one sometimes had to explain to one's less-informed peers what that line in "Back in the USSR" was all about. But look at the confusion that reigns now.
A historical connection: the infant who would one day be Kevin's Walk Central entered the world in Emory University Hospital, on a date that was after the Adventist End of the World, but before the collapse of the Iron Curtain.
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