News from the Hughes

Update

2009-03-14T14:02:00.000-07:00

We love Flagstaff. Imagine a mountain town where the air is crystal clear, the sun almost always shines, the water is tasteless and cold, and the air is filled with the smell of warming pine trees - it's really that good. We live on a hill (Cherry Hill) which is within walking distance of downtown Flagstaff. The town is similar to Bend, OR with lots to do both indoors and out. Although Flagstaff is fairly large, it has the feel of a small town. We have a fox visit our back yard on occasion, and can hear our neighbor, a great horned owl across the street every morning.

We found a church! Its called Christ's Church of Flagstaff, and is full of people who have a vision to reach this city for the Lord. The church building is rather small, so to accommodate their many members, the church has 4 services each weekend. Sara and I are going to work with the children's ministry. This seems to be a primary focus for CCOF, and one close to our hearts.

I've finished my MBA degree, and Sara has decided to train to be a CNA, possibly a first step to her becoming a RN (nurse). We found a program here which will pay for her to receive training. How we found this program, and how she can attend is a series of crazy events too complicated for us to have thought through ourselves - it seems to be clearly led from the Lord. If you don't know, Sara comes from a long line of nurses. Her mom, 2 aunts, grandma and brother have taken this path, so she has a lot of wisdom to pull from. I (mike) think it fits her personality rather well.

We'll, that's all for now. We miss everyone back in Portland. Please keep us updated.

The Hughes 5

Arizona

2009-01-10T17:15:00.001-08:00

Arizona is a beautiful, unique state. The picture to the left was taken during one of my flights over Sedona, and you can see the wonderful colors God placed into the earth when he made it (click on the picture for more detail). Flagstaff is very similar to Bend, OR and will be a great place for us to live.

Training is progressing quickly, I should be done by this Saturday, and Sara is quickly getting things done in Portland with the help of many friends. We are still looking for a place to live in Flagstaff, but that will come in God's timing. Thanks for all your support!

How to Move?

2009-01-01T15:19:00.000-08:00

When we first started down this road (2 months ago), the plan was to rent a U-Haul truck, pack everything, and spend a couple of days driving down to Flagstaff, AZ. With the recent snow experience, and reliving memories from our many winter drives to Ontario, OR and up from Fresno, CA, we have changed plans and will be hiring a mover. Finding the right mover is also proving to be a stressful event, as we read many horror stories concerning most movers on the web, and recover after getting the expensive bids from those we think will be honest. This is probably our largest hurdle to date, the next will be finding a place to live in our meager budget, in a resort town. Again, your prayers are greatly appreciated.

Enough Already!

2008-12-26T06:54:00.000-08:00

We'll, after many years (15) of hoping, our family has finally experienced what a white Christmas in Portland is like - horrible! Just so all of you can relate, we have made a short video of me (Mike) hard at work shoveling snow... so I could get to work.
Really, it has been fun. We had somewhere around 24 inches in the last two weeks. There is still about a foot in our yard, a foot of slush on our neighborhood roads. This will be a great memory for us as we leave this beautiful city behind, at least for the short-term.

When are we moving?

2008-12-26T06:39:00.001-08:00

Finally received a call from work informing me that I (mike) will be starting training on Jan. 5th. I should be in Burbank, CA for one week, then shipped over to Phoenix, AZ for two weeks. Once training is complete, work is giving me a week off to move the family down to Flagstaff. This means I will have about 2 weeks to find a place for us to live, train, and keep up with school - whew! Please pray for us as there are many details we just have no idea about. God has taken us through this before, we just need to relax and trust.

"This is Dangerous!"

2008-08-14T14:34:00.000-07:00

While on vacation in Eastern Oregon, my family and I decided to take a canoe ride down the Deschutes river. After putting on life vests, and getting a brief set of instructions about the trip, we shoved off into the slow, smooth water and headed downstream behind a host of other canoers.

I did not realize how tippy a canoe can be until I started rocking the boat for fun, which immediately freaked out my entire family. My three year old son was in the front with my wife, and although I thought he would get the most fun out of the trip (he's crazy!), he ended up being the most frightened, and declared with unwavering confidence, "This is Dangerous!"

As the trip progressed, my son's fear gradually moved into the uncontrollable world of panic, evidenced by his shrieks of fear and screams of "No, No, NO" every time the boat rocked from the unstoppable side affects of paddling. At one point we were going through a beautiful canyon with shear cliffs on one side of the river and grass choked beaches on the other. Ahead of us we could see two canoes, one occupied by an elderly couple, and the other by what appeared to be their grown children. I felt sorry for them because although the scenery was breathtaking, and promised peace, the noises coming from my boat, and which were ricocheting off the cliffs sounded more like the sound track from "The Shinning." I'm surprised the local police were not waiting for us we climbed out of the canoe with our whimpering 3 year old son.

By the way my son had screamed, you would have thought that he was traumatized for life. His soul was surely permanently seared by the rocking of the boat, and his dreams would forever be haunted by the sound of lapping water and the feeling of a rocking boat, but as soon as his feet touched land, he was a changed little boy. The screaming stopped immediately, and by the time we were on the bus headed home, he was talking as if nothing had happened. I think he was a little embarrassed over the whole thing. In an effort to forget the incident (something I will never do) my son looked up into my face, smiled a wonderfully sweet smile, and said, "That was fun."

A Father

2008-05-14T13:04:00.001-07:00

Last night my youngest son woke me at around 3:30 a.m., he had to go to the bathroom...again. He's in the midst of learning how to use the toilet, and he had an accident, his whole bed was soaked, pillow, comforter, sheets, everything. I have not been sleeping well lately, but last night, I was sleeping better than I had in a long time. I did not want to get up.

My son usually wakes me at around 3:30 a.m., he needs help going to the bathroom still. His nightly entrance consists of turning the hallway light on, slamming my bedroom door open, and shouting,"Dad, I have to go." Sometimes I get up, and sometimes my wife gets up, but last night I knew it would be me.

As I lumbered out of bed and stomped to the bathroom, I tried to suppress my frustration. When would this end? When would I be able to sleep through the night without interruption? It felt like never, and the eternal task of cleaning up fed my distaste for the moment. After ripping the soaked sheets off the bed, and grabbing new jammies, I met my son in the bathroom. "I hate this," I thought to myself as I pulled his little shirt off.

It was then, in the midst of my sleepy frustration, halfway through redressing my small son that the words penetrated my thoughts as if they were whispered by unseen lips directly into my ears, "Whatever you do unto the least of these..."

Immediately, in an instant, I felt my selfish wants and desires leave as new energy and compassion filled me, filled me so completely that I saw, more clearly than ever before the implications of my action on my son, and on how my son would see his God; his Spiritual Father.

As his earthly father, I am the most powerful being my son knows. I am in essence, an image of God to my son, and what I do every day, what I would do in that situation would help to form how he looked at his spiritual Father. Would I represent a God who loved the fact that he came to me for help in the midst of a small meaningless mistake, or would I represent a god who resented the interruption, a god who would have preferred that he lay silently in his urine until morning?

This time...I chose the former; to represent the God who was glad to see this little man in the middle of the night, happy at the chance to spend time with him, delighted that he chose to seek my help rather than trying to fix his problem alone.

Friends

2008-05-05T13:20:00.001-07:00

Our church was pretty empty yesterday because a lot of the women were away at retreat (see previous post). I came into our meeting area and sat near the front...alone. Soon, others began to wander in, no one seemed concerned about starting on time, it was a good feeling.

One of my friends saw me sitting alone, and joined me, then another, and another. Soon there were four of us on the same row, sitting next too each other. I looked at them, thought about their friendship, how we all had spent considerable time together over the last several years. "These are good men," I thought to myself. "Men anyone would be proud to call friends."

As our row filled, the joy of community overwhelmed me. Even though few words were said beyond a quick greeting, we all knew each other pretty well, and just begin near these guys was somehow uplifting.

It's good to have friends...

Retreat

2008-05-04T07:05:00.000-07:00

Sara is on retreat, and I'm in purgatory....a temporary holding place for me to be "purified" by the ever demanding cleansing power of three young children.
I knew it was going to be tough, but even with a plethora of junk food, lots of videos and a detailed schedule, I'm still exhausted, and quickly loosing any sense of purpose. Last night was the worst as my energy for dealing with petty differences just simply ran out - I sent my wife a text message expressing my frustration, and her simple response came back several hours later, lol (laugh out loud)...

After the kids were finally in bed, but still continually calling to me for various items (water, candy, light adjustment, music adjustment etc.), I went out on the back porch, sat in a chair and just stared at the clouds, visible as the city lights reflected off their water molecules. I found satisfaction in their quick march across the sky, "At least they were able to accomplish something." I was only on the porch for about 5 minutes, but it was enough for my own thoughts to realize they could peek out from behind their hiding places, and resume their normal positions. Sanity crept back into the center of my soul, and I took a deep breath...life is good.

Playing

2007-12-02T13:47:00.000-08:00

I took a walk in Burns, Oregon the other afternoon. It was cold, about 28 degrees F., too cold to stay out long. I walked down the street, around the corner towards a baseball field. The baseball field showed signs of winter, the trees around it were bare, the grass stiff and light. In the field I saw 5 deer, not an unusual sight in Burns. What was unusual about these deer however, was what they were doing. The deer were playing.

I've seen a lot of deer in my lifetime having grown up in the country. Most of the deer I have seen have been along the side of the road, waiting for my car to rush by. Some have been silently eating in our family's field, coming out in the cover of darkness. All the deer I have seen in the past have had one thing in common, they were scared. Scared of my presence, scared of what I might do. These deer, the deer playing in the baseball field were not scared. They were having a blast. One of them would pretend to charge at another, then they would jump around, heads low, a distinctive spring in every step. I just broke out in laughter watching them, I could not help myself. I think the deers actions were unusual for the inhabitants of Burns also because the cars which had been rushing by began slowing down, some pulling into the parking lot to watch the scene. It was great...

Soon, the deer tired of playing in the field and one took off, the others following, like they were playing a game of tag. They came right at me, and then, seeing me for probably the first time, they took off into the hills behind the field. I felt guilty for breaking up their fun, fun I had never seen before, and would never forget. There was something about the simple play I witnessed. Something innocent and pure, something that has slowly leaked out of my life.

My wife has been trying to get me to do something just for fun lately. It's been hard to figure out what I could do. I mean, if I go snowboarding, I might break a leg, and then there's the expense. I don't have a lot of time while at home, so I hate taking any of it to do something just for me. And yet, the absence of play is taking its toll. I can feel it. When life is spent on nothing but productive pursuits, it quickly becomes bland, stale, old. So seeing those deer play really made me yearn for fun. I remembered being a kid, running around with abandone. Maybe it's not possible to completely recapture those younger days, but I think I need to be a little more "deer like" in life; jump around, ignoring the possible dangers, rushing at the enemy...every once in awhile.

"Because I Am"

2007-11-28T15:29:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving this year, my wife and I decided to just spend the time as a small family. Usually we go to my parents house, or they come to ours, but this year we wanted things to be different. It was really hard coming to this decision, I kind of felt guilty for not including others on this day of looking back, but we decided to try it out.

The day was calm, quiet, peaceful, and full of fun. About mid-day we decided to go to the local park. The wind was perfect for flying kites, and having found one recently at our local thrift store, we took it along. The park was full of people. There was about 20 young men having a before lunch game of tackle foot-ball; it looked like a lot of fun. The wind was perfect for kite flying. We let the string out slightly and the kite took to the skies like it missed the experience.

The sun was out, but it was still cold. We were all well bundled for the experience, but as little boys will, they soon had most of their outer garments off. My youngest son found a mud puddle, and managed to soak his entire lower half within 5 minutes of our arrival - luckily we had a second set of clothes for him and he was soon off and running again.

I was taking pictures and videos of the family. In one of them my youngest son is featured and he's complaining about how cold he is. "I'm cold" he says. "Why are you cold?" I ask. "Because I am." he says, looking at me like I'm kind of stupid. No further explanation is needed or offered.

I liked his simplicity. I liked it because I'm always making things more complicated than they have to be and it makes life exhausting. Like the decision to just be a family on Thanksgiving. Why did I feel like I needed a good excuse to not run around like a turkey with my head cut-off (pun intended)? It's enough to want to, that's it, no further explanation is needed or offered.

When Jesus died for me he simply said, "It is finished." He could have given a sermon, or made us all feel guilty about his death, but that is not what he did. "It is finished." Nothing else needs to be done. It's completed. A good reason for Thanksgiving...

Couds

2007-11-27T16:28:00.000-08:00

Off white, they float across my path.

The darker ones I try to miss - they can hurt.

In I go, I feel like I'm jumping off a cliff, what will happen inside?

I'm only suprised by the smoothness, everything else is expected.

CFI for Life

2007-11-18T08:26:00.000-08:00

Just read the article in AOPA Training magazine (December 2007) about a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) who has been instructing for a long time. I admire this guy who has made a commitment to doing the same thing for a long time, a rare condition in today's world of fast change. It seems he had another career, then during his retirement took up instructing full time.

When I was instructing (for four years) there were very few instructors who had instructed as long as I had. I think the average for the schools I worked in was about 12 months. When I left, the most senior instructor had about 300 hours of instructing experience.

When I started instructing, I really thought that I might choose instructing for a career. I enjoyed the challenge of teaching people how to fly airplanes, and found great satisfaction in the profession. But soon, I started encountering the frustrations of the job including exceedingly low pay, high risk/stress, lack of reliable income, aging equipment, reduction in training finance options, increasing insurance costs, hostile public and a political environment seemingly bent on killing general aviation. I could see that the future of general aviation was headed downhill as fewer and fewer people could afford the training.

Possibly, when I've spent my productive years earning required resources, I might be able to pick up the profession again. I hope that there will still be a market for flight instructing (outside of the airlines) in the future, and that people will be able to afford this awesome opportunity, but I have my doubts. I applaud those who are willing to stick it out in a faltering industry.

Making Room for Life

2007-11-18T08:01:00.000-08:00

I was flying over Eastern Oregon last week, looking at the multiple water reservoirs, and the streams that usually feed them. The streams have dried up from summer, but the scars they left on the earth are still easily seen from 10,000 ft. I could see the man made dams created to hold water in a particular location, keeping it from running on its way to the next low spot. The purpose of the dams is to store water during times of plenty, for the hot summer when Eastern Oregon's rain shadow keeps the land dry. The dams usually hold enough for the sparse populations and their agricultural pursuits to get through the summer.

I thought about how life is similar to a stream of water, constantly running, passing us buy. Sometimes it seems that life is full to the banks, even gushing over and touching others. Sometimes life is just barely evident as we trudge through long, hot days. I thought about how I could build "dams" during times of blessing and rest to help get me through the tough spots. I think this means purposefully stopping and taking inventory of the many things I have to be thankful for, recording them in some fashion so when the discontent comes, I can pull from my time of plenty, my "dams". More thought needed here to flush this out further.

Another thought; when the streams dry up, and the only water left is in the dams, the scars on the earth from where the streams were are very evident. I think the parallel here is that when life is full, it takes it's toll on us, washing away spots of life which will never return. We don't see this erosion until the streams dry up and we can look at life a little closer. When we start to see the apparent damage, it can put us into a depression. Life is meant to be spent however, we only have so much time. It's how we spend our time that will determine our legacy.

Blind Cat

2007-11-14T14:54:00.000-08:00

My cat, who is twelve years old, started acting weird the other night. He normally gets us up at around 5:00 a.m. every morning to go outside, but on this occasion he was up all night. We took him to the vet and were told that he might have lost his eyesight, or suddenly lost part of it due to a thyroid problem. The vet is not sure, but took a blood test and determined that the thyroid "might" be the problem, we are putting him on thyroid pills to see if they help.

I can't imagine waking up and not being able to see. I really felt sorry for the little guy, he was probably scared and was trying to let us know something was wrong. Sometimes I wish animals could talk and tell you what they were thinking.

Learning to Walk

2007-11-11T14:24:00.000-08:00

I will never forget the first steps made by my children. They each started at a different time, when they were ready. My oldest took the longest time to start walking. She did not walk until she was around 18 months old, preferring to scoot along on her bottom, pulling her little body along the floor with her legs. She refused to crawl, ever, because she could not carry things in her hands while crawling, so she just scooted along through life, doing just fine.

When they began to experiment with walking, my wife and I were right there, watching every step, ready to help as needed. We would hold their hands and encourage them along, "You're doing great, keep going!", Smiling at them and doing everything possible short of taking their steps. Yet, in spite of all our efforts, they would often fall. Every parent knows that falling is part of learning to walk. When your child is taking those faltering steps, you're ready to keep them from really getting hurt, but they must fall, its part of the process. My wife was probably a little more concerned for the kids than I was through this process. I'm more logical..I mean, their only 2 feet tall, how far can they fall? Now if I were to fall, from my six feet, that would be an entirely different story...

I've seen pictures of adults learning to walk again after a serious injury. It's not something I want to experience. What is a rather natural and simple process as a child, is hugely inconvenient and uncomfortable as an adult. It's much better to learn when you are young. Along the same lines, I think it's easier to learn the hard lessons in life early, if you can. Take the big risks early, explore, live life fully while you can still recover with little effort, because once your bones stop growing...its a whole lot harder to recover from a fall.

Dying in Community

2007-11-11T13:42:00.000-08:00

How do you die well? I mean, when its my time to die, how am I going to let everyone know (If I have the option of course). Will I just slowly slip away, or will I be open about it and bring my family into the process with me? I think it's an important question, as dying can be one of the most impacting things we will do. Impacting in that those left behind will remember vividly the moment, be it good or bad.

One of my two grandma's died last week. I found out just before taking off on my run. Dad left a message telling me she died the night before. There was no funeral, just a family get together to remember her life. I was not surprised by the news.

About a month ago, grandma was told she would be dying soon by her doctor. She had a tumor that was quite large and would not be removed (would cause more harm than good). Grandma wanted to see the whole family one last time before she died, so my parents (whom she was living with) called everyone and asked them to assemble. I think everyone came gladly, unfortunately, we need an excuse to all get together, and this was a good one. It was a great time together, grandma was really excited to have everyone there, just for her, and you would never have known that her days were literally numbered. She was happy, laughing, talking nonstop and really "alive". That is how I will remember her, in the middle of a lively conversation, in the center of her family.

The same group assembled yesterday, to just be together and remember grandma's life. There were a few tears, mostly laughter as we recounted story after story from grandma's life, and our own. We found that a story about grandma (from the past) would inevitably be linked to a story about another life (in the present). We were of course sad that her physical body was not there with us, but happy in the fact that we had known her, loved her, and been touched by her life.
As she had lived in community with us, so had she died, and provided a example for the rest of us to follow when our time comes.

So, although I'm still not sure how I will handle the transition of this life to the next, I do have one more example of how to die well. I'm sure it will affect my final actions, and the way I interact with those around me when I die - Thanks Grandma.

Obsession?

2007-11-09T11:34:00.000-08:00

My wife called the other day to tell me that my 3 year old son could think of nothing but the Christmas candy (chocolate!) she had recently purchased. He could not eat, sleep or play, but was following her around, continually asking when he could have some of the candy. While we were talking, I could hear him in the background saying, "Can I have some now?" We had a good laugh over it, poor little guy.

I got to thinking about that experience on my flight home that night, about how my son was basically obsessed with the Christmas candy. I began wondering why people have the capacity to obsess over things. I mean, why would God make us that way, knowing that we often obsess over unimportant things (like chocolate)? What possible good could come from this human trait?

My thoughts then went to when I fell in love with my wife. I was basically obsessed with her for a time, all I could think of was her, and everything in life changed. There was a period of time when I ate less, slept less and basically followed her around all day, just wanting to be with her. It was this time together which basically laid the foundation for our relationship. We got to know each other more in six months than I know any other person on earth, and it was my obsession for her that motivated me to know her. Now, the obsession was short lived, it would be abnormal for it to continue forever, and I should not feel guilty for this, or try to recreate that time in our relationship. It was a stage in the normal progression of relationships. We still love each other very much, and our thoughts revolve around each other, but that all consuming nature of that first obsession has gone.

The same thing happened to me when I first met God. He was all I could think about for a short time. I could not put down the Bible, and my thoughts were consumed with who God was, and what that meant for my life. I've tried to re-create that time of life, that closeness, but I just can't, and I'm thinking that I shouldn't try anymore. I mean, its not that I'm giving up on God, rather, I feel like I need to start putting into practice what He has taught me, looking to other people rather than just trying to get closer to God. Our relationship has advanced past the obsession phase, just like the relationship with my wife.

Thinking through this has made some sense out of our tendency to obsess. Although it can be bad (like an addition to drugs) it has purpose in life. How would we fall in love without obsession?