For 17 years, I was a pastor. Reformed theology persuasion. During that time, I taught Bible and English in a Christian school for a little over two years. Although I loved teaching and preaching, I hated Sundays. It seemed to me that everyone wanted to step into the ring and go a few rounds after one of my inimitable sermons. After pounding on the pulpit, I would hear people at the door on their exit from the house of God say anything from "I like you because you are so simple," to "That was the worst sermon I have ever heard in my life."
So one day I got my parole and walked through the prison door into the world of development. That's another word for fundraising. Every day for twenty years I loved it. It never seemed like I worked a minute. I met thousands of characters, most of whom learned that they could't keep their money unless they gave it away. I traversed the United States from coast to coast and border to border by car and motorcycle for one organization for about 750,000 miles. One Man. One Car. One Phone. One Computer. The perfect vocation. Five organizations endured me.
While doing that, I filled hundreds of pulpits on Sundays, led Renewal Conferences in a few Midwest churches, taught Sunday School classes, and led Bible studies for seniors. I may have hated some Sundays, but I still had to do it.
Then came 2008. I was laid off with a phone call. Giving his final word - "As a full-time companion, I won't be back" - work left the house that day, and the rumble of calamity in the form of foreclosures and financial loss slowly pressed against the door like a river of lava and eventually took the bulk of everything. "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away." So be it. I had preached on Job 1 many times. It was part of me.
When the landslide ended and we climbed from under the rubble, we looked up and only retirement funds were left. At age 65, no less. Now what? We weaved in and out of the part-time employment line like everybody else. All kinds of stuff. Driving people back and forth to the airport. Seasonal work in recreation areas like Yellowstone and Lake Tahoe. Stalking scores of Goodwills in Los Angeles looking for stuff to sell on eBay. Taking my life into my own hands as a licensed California driving instructor by prayerfully climbing into a car with a bottle of holy water and a teenager. Chaplain work at a horse race track. And an Activity Director with Linda at a large 55+ RV Resort in Tucson, Arizona. Then we moved to Oregon. No sales tax and a lot of other advantages. I obtained a CDL to drive charter buses for sports teams, haul cars on a trailer, take people on wine tours, and drive school buses. I added a tanker endorsement so I could work wild fires in Oregon and assist with hurricane relief back East. We stayed primarily in OR, CA, AZ, NM, and NV.
To stop draining the retirement funds with rent, we bought a house with tires in 2012 and became full-time RVers in a 5th wheel for 5 years with our feet firmly planted on quicksand. Those walls closed in on us. With money saved and more invasion of retirement funds, we bought a manufactured home in Medford, Oregon, in 2017.
Today I amuse myself and others with the things you will read here. Anecdotes. Travel and feature stories. Caricatures of people I have known. Bible and theological studies. The unexpected is what I do.
I am the VagabondRiderWriter.
So one day I got my parole and walked through the prison door into the world of development. That's another word for fundraising. Every day for twenty years I loved it. It never seemed like I worked a minute. I met thousands of characters, most of whom learned that they could't keep their money unless they gave it away. I traversed the United States from coast to coast and border to border by car and motorcycle for one organization for about 750,000 miles. One Man. One Car. One Phone. One Computer. The perfect vocation. Five organizations endured me.
While doing that, I filled hundreds of pulpits on Sundays, led Renewal Conferences in a few Midwest churches, taught Sunday School classes, and led Bible studies for seniors. I may have hated some Sundays, but I still had to do it.
Then came 2008. I was laid off with a phone call. Giving his final word - "As a full-time companion, I won't be back" - work left the house that day, and the rumble of calamity in the form of foreclosures and financial loss slowly pressed against the door like a river of lava and eventually took the bulk of everything. "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away." So be it. I had preached on Job 1 many times. It was part of me.
When the landslide ended and we climbed from under the rubble, we looked up and only retirement funds were left. At age 65, no less. Now what? We weaved in and out of the part-time employment line like everybody else. All kinds of stuff. Driving people back and forth to the airport. Seasonal work in recreation areas like Yellowstone and Lake Tahoe. Stalking scores of Goodwills in Los Angeles looking for stuff to sell on eBay. Taking my life into my own hands as a licensed California driving instructor by prayerfully climbing into a car with a bottle of holy water and a teenager. Chaplain work at a horse race track. And an Activity Director with Linda at a large 55+ RV Resort in Tucson, Arizona. Then we moved to Oregon. No sales tax and a lot of other advantages. I obtained a CDL to drive charter buses for sports teams, haul cars on a trailer, take people on wine tours, and drive school buses. I added a tanker endorsement so I could work wild fires in Oregon and assist with hurricane relief back East. We stayed primarily in OR, CA, AZ, NM, and NV.
To stop draining the retirement funds with rent, we bought a house with tires in 2012 and became full-time RVers in a 5th wheel for 5 years with our feet firmly planted on quicksand. Those walls closed in on us. With money saved and more invasion of retirement funds, we bought a manufactured home in Medford, Oregon, in 2017.
Today I amuse myself and others with the things you will read here. Anecdotes. Travel and feature stories. Caricatures of people I have known. Bible and theological studies. The unexpected is what I do.
I am the VagabondRiderWriter.