Gregg and Renee Naslund are another couple that are part of the Fellowship of Pirates.  A couple of their daughters and our sons are good friends.  We have come to know them pretty well over the last couple of years.  Gregg is who we turn to for landscaping questions and they both are real good bird identifiers.  They are very gracious and allow our group to invade their home twice a month for a potluck and a great time of fellowship.  These are two very special people who are great friends.

A Fellowship of Pirates started as a mens’ group that Jim Weisenburg started with two or three other guys.  We first went through The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.  Several men have come and gone, then we added a couple more when we went through some book that most of us didn’t like.   At some we wanted to meet with our wives part of the time and over the years it has become a couples group.  Jim and Marilyn are the parents of four great kids, two grand kids and about to have two more grandchildren.  One of their sons was a casualty of war in 2004, losing his life to an IED in Iraq.  I worked with both Jim and Marilyn on youth staff at CBF and Trinity.  Jim is a straight shooter who tells it like it is and Marilyn is one of the most gracious women I have ever met.  The two of them make a great couple and are great friends.

Chris and Libby are two of the smartest, quickest and funniest people I know.  Both of them are pretty quiet most of the time but when they speak it is to say something very insightful or very funny.  Chris is a speech pathologist who works for Portland Public Schools and Libby helps and volunteers wherever she can.  As a matter of fact she used to volunteer for me at The Title Wave.  Chris is a transplanted Englishman who is a huge fan of the Chelsea and Portland football clubs and has been known to lead the crowd in cheers and song.  Chris and Libby are part of our small group of couples, A Fellowship of Pirates.  We are honored to have them as friends.

We have been in a small group for several years, around 7 or 8, with 5 other couples.  One of these couples is Peter and Leslie Gould.  We are also in a book group with Peter and Leslie.  The group is fun because we always have dinner, based on the book, before we even discuss the book.  Leslie is the daughter of an author, her Dad, wrote a book  called G Companys’ War about his experience in WWII.  Leslie is also a author who has written several books.  A couple of which have made me cry, cause the characters are so real.  Peter is a nurse at a local hospital and also a Major in the Army reserves, who is currently in Alaska working on an inter service earthquake drill.  Peter is also a major fan of the Chelsea football team and the Portland Timbers.  Peter and Leslie have four kids, the older two boys are spending lots of time with our son David.  They also have two girls who are really good athletes.

Last weekend Ruth Ann and I shared a house in Arch Cape with 5 other couples.  The weather was beautiful on Friday and Sunday and it rained sideways on Saturday.  But we didn’t mind too much because one of the purposes of the weekend was to share our stories with one another.  It was a time of drawing closer together as we got to know each other even better.  The group has been together for almost 10 years, but we found out things about one another that we hadn’t known.  It was a very good time and very emotional time.  These are my friends, they shoot straight and we are there for one another no matter what.  As Chris said we have just scratched the surface, but it is a deeper scratch than most people ever get.  Unfortunately we didn’t manage to get all six of us in the picture as one couple had to go home early.

Jason Weisenburg

Jason Weisenburg has been away from home for the last 15 months.  He has not been on vacation, he has been serving with the 41st Brigade of the Oregon National Guard in Iraq.  This is Jasons’ 2nd tour in Iraq, he was there with the Marines in 2003 for Operation Iraqi Freedom.  I have known Jason for almost 20 years and he is one of the coolest people I have ever known.  I know that his wife Cindy, his parents, Jim and Marilyn, his brother, Daniel and sister, Liz are all anxiously awaiting his arrival.  Hopefully all 2,700 members of the 41st Brigade will arrive home safely in the next week or so.  See ya in a while,dude!

I was just thinking today about some people who were friends during my High School years, people who were influential in the way I lived during those years.  During high school I was active in three Christian organizations, two were with other kids from school and the other was with kids from other schools.  The two at South Eugene were Campus Life and Young Life, which were non denominational Christian groups, which were about using fun activities to introduce us to the Christian Message.  The Campus Life leaders that I really remember are Bart Brewer and Diane Hoisington. Bart was a very funny man who was a good comedic actor, who often would do skits as Herkymeyer, the something.  He cared a lot about the kids that he was befriended and would often attend events that we were participating in.  I remember once when he loaded four of us in his 240 Z to go to a track meet.  A guy and a gal in the passenger seat and Tim Losaco and I laying in the back with our legs hanging out and holding onto the hatchback.  Diane Hoisington was striking and very, very nice.  The thing I remember about her other than her concern for us was the white patch she had in the front of her hair.  She told us that when she was very young, her black hair started to turn white and someone prayed for her and it stopped.  The Young Life leaders who influenced my later decision to work with Young Life were Mickey Elfers and Charlie Marshall.  They were only at SEHS  for one year, my senior year, I didn’t get to know them very well.  Thank you all for your influence.

While I was in high school in Eugene, one of my best friends was Pat Vann.  We were in the same youth group but went to different high schools.  We seemed to be really good friends, then at some point he moved, to Reno I think.  That was the last I saw of him, but there are very few days I don’t think of him.

While I was in the Navy and living in Oakland, CA I attended Lakeside Baptist Church.  I made a great friend there named Rick Lindholm, he was attending Cal State Hayward.  After I moved back to Portland, we stayed in touch for a while.  We were going to be the best man at each others weddings, but when those dates rolled around neither of us could afford the trip.  March 4 is Ricks’ birthday and I remember it each year.  That was a great trip we made to Canada, and when I roll through yellow lights, I think of Rick.

I would love to reconnect with both of these friends, so what we have here is a six degrees of separation experiment.

Isaiah, Nathan, Johnathan, Andrew, Josh Rowlett

Last week I shared our friendship with Greg and Leanne Rowlett, this week I would like to talk about their sons.  They have no daughters, but two daughter in laws, this picture was taken at Andrews’ wedding to Heather.  Each of these men have a distinct personality, none of them are remotely alike.  Isaiah is the youngest at 17, Nate is 18, John and Andrew are 25 and Josh is the oldest at 28.  The are all friends of mine and they are all friends in different styles. They have all played football at Portland Christian High School and all of them have participated in the track program there.  Josh, is a cowboy who owns a couple of dogs and a horse, he drives truck for a lumber company.  Andrew is going to school and being an awesome husband to Heather, and he works for a physical fitness equipment manufacturer.  John is a combat corpsman in the Naval Reserve, works for a warehouse company and being a good husband to Allie and dad to Malachi.  Nate is a football player and student at Western Oregon.  Isaiah is a junior at Portland Christian and a chess state champion.   I know that I could count on any of them at any time, they are truly true friends.  I really like all of these guys.

These are two of our very best friends, Greg and Leanne Rowlett.  We have all worked for Leanne at one time or another, at Pumpkin Patch, selling Christmas trees or at Farmers’ Market.  Greg has been  our mechanic for several cars.  We have sons that are the same age as our sons who have grown up together.  We have spent lots of time doing things with Greg and Leanne as couples and as families.  We have gone on vacation with them and will be going on vacation with them soon.  Greg can be quiet most of the time but get him going and he is one of the funniest guys around.   We know that if we ever need help Greg and Leanne will be there for us and we will be there will for them.  We always look forward to spending with Greg and Leanne.