Irondale Church News
Irondale Church is a place of promise to grow and belong
The Long and Winding Road , Part 3
In 2017 I wrote parts 1
and 2 of The Long and
• Pray always Winding Road. I wasn’t
sure if there would be a
• Pastor David and part 3, but here we are.
Parts 1 and 2 were about
Colleen
all the various jobs I have
• Community Soup
had and part 3 will be
about all the places we
• Our outreach and
have lived. To start the
story I want to go back in
witness to our
time a long way.
community
My 6th Great-
Grandfather George Hodg-
• Busy Hands
son (the Scottish accent
doesn’t pronounce the “s”)
• People struggling
was born on 1701 in Don-
with illness caster, South Yorkshire,
England. He died in August
• Young families and of 1774 in Greensboro,
single parent fami- North Carolina of Colonial
lies America. His son Joseph,
my 5th great-grandfather,
• Those struggling was born in 1740 and died
with addiction in 1826 having lived his life
in the Greensboro area.
• Schools: students, His son Joseph Jr. (first to
staff, administra- spell his name Hodgins)
tors was born in 1760 in
Greensboro and died in
• Missionaries 1840 25 miles south in Ran-
dolph County NC. His old-
• Homeless, helpless, est son Martin, my 3rd great
hopeless, hungry -grandfather, was born in
Randolph County in 1805
• Local, state, national and died in Macon County
and world leaders NC in 1860. During his life
he moved 260 miles west.
My 2nd great-grandfather
Marion was born in 1846
and died in 1929. He spent
his life in Macon County
August, 2018
NC. My great-grandfather
William Martin Hodgin (first
ancestor to drop the “s”) was
born in 1880 and died in 1923
and like his father spent his
life in Macon County NC.
Next was my grandfather,
Charles, born in Macon Coun-
ty NC 1904. Married at 18
and a father at 22 in the midst
of the Great Depression he
heard there was work about
as far from home as he could
go, so in 1932 he moved his
family 2800 miles to Hamilton
WA. He died in 1985. Then
there is my Dad. He moved
the 2800 miles with his family
to a house in Hamilton. Later
they moved 4 blocks to an-
other house, then after mar-
rying my Mom, he moved
across the street and lived
there until he passed away in
2011.
So that leads to me.
Raised in a single house in
Hamilton WA until 1974 when
Colleen and I married and
moved to 429 ½ Puget Street
in Sedro-Woolley. You know
the house is small when the
address includes a “½.” But
newlyweds don’t need much
space, they just need to be
together. A few months later
we purchased a lovely home
on West State St in Sedro-
Woolley. Colleen and I lived
there until I joined the Army
when I moved to Fort Polk LA.
Then we moved to an apart-
ment we recall as West
Meadows Drive near Colora-
do Springs CO. Six months
there, then off to West Ger-
many for six months. While
in Germany I celebrated my
19th birthday. Then back to
Colorado Springs to a 2 bed-
room four-plex on Bonnie
Court. A few months later
Colleen’s younger brother
came to live with us and we
needed one more bedroom
so we started looking again.
We had no idea we were
about to enter one of our
most difficult times.
We found a nice 3 bed-
room in the smaller town of
Fountain CO. and made
plans to move in. Our land-
lord on Bonnie Court re-
leased us from our lease
and we were excited to
have a yard. The day before
we moved in we met the
new landlord at the house.
We had seen it before it was
cleaned and it was nasty
with two large dogs living in
the house. Now it was clean
and we were preparing to
take possession. Colleen
mentioned a black line of
filth, about a ½ inch wide all
along the baseboard
throughout the house. Next
thing we knew the landlord
was going off about how
picky we were and how he
didn’t have to rent to us and
we found ourselves back in
Continued p.2
 Page 2
The Long and Winding Road, part 3, continued
the car with no place to
move. Our Bonnie Court
landlord had already rented
out our four-plex so we
loaded the U-haul and put
everything in storage. We
moved into the Fort Carson
lodge, the “Rainbow Motel,”
for a maximum of 30 days.
We searched every day
for a place to move to, but
with an income of about
$600 a month we couldn’t
afford much. With the near-
by military base, low rent
was very difficult to find.
Finally we decided to sell
our house back in Sedro-
Woolley and buy something
there. We met with a local
realtor, Jim Snead. We had
seen a house he listed and
thought we could afford it.
At that meeting we found
out that the house had sold,
but Jim was willing to rent
out a singlewide we could
afford. It would not be
ready for another month.
My stomach fell. How could
we find a place for one
month? I went to the office
at the Rainbow Motel to see
if there was any way we
could stay another month. I
had my long speech all pre-
pared in my mind, if just
Colleen and the kids could
Treasurer Report
stay I would sleep in the car
7/26/2018 that way they wouldn’t be
General Operations: renting to me but my family.
To my shock the guy at the
Income: $52,863.46 desk said, “Oh you can stay
Expenses: $52,089.48 another month. 60 days is
the limit, I just tell people
Annual Budget: $164.554.00
30 so they’ll plan to get
Budget YTD: $53,796.50 out.” Whew! I was so re-
lieved.
We moved into the
singlewide and were there
a couple of months when
Jim came by to tell us he
wanted to sell it, but not
to us, to his mother-in-
law. However he had
good news, the people
who had bought the prop-
erty we were interested in
had decided to rent it, and
he had told them about us
and they wanted to meet
us. At the meeting we hit
it off well…all except one
thing…the house wasn’t
ready yet, they needed
another 30 days to get the
boiler up and running.
After some more failed
searching for another
rental, I went back and
asked if we could move in.
The landlord thought I was
crazy, it was winter in Col-
orado and there was no
heat in the house. I plead-
ed, there was a cone fire-
place and I could get fire-
wood and we could all
sleep in the living room, it
would be cold but we
could do it. He agreed as
long as we didn’t move
anything beyond necessi-
ties into the house. I hail
from Washington, The
Evergreen State, where
there are trees every-
where; a place where if
you need firewood you
just buy it. The high prai-
ries of Colorado are not
like that. Firewood was
nearly impossible to get.
All that was available was
the little armloads at the
grocery store and we
were broke. I went to a
nearby secondhand store
to see if I could find a
chainsaw. The merchant
told me chainsaws were
scarce, but he did have an
old one man buck saw. I
bought it with plans of
cutting my own wood. As
“luck” would have it the
railroad came through
and replaced the ties near
our house. I gathered
every creosoted hunk that
would fit in the fireplace
and used it for a couple
weeks until it was gone. I
found a pile of limbs and
cut and burned those.
We scrounged and made
do until finally the land-
lord repaired the boiler. It
was so nice to have heat
and a whole house. After
almost 6 months of uncer-
tainty and struggles we
were set. We stayed
there until I ended my
enlistment, 709 East Iowa
Street turned from a
struggle to a blessed
memory in our past.
We returned to Sedro
-Woolley and the house
we owned, I got a job at
the local sawmill and
things were looking good.
We desired to have room
for a couple horses so we
sold our Sedro-Woolley
place and moved to a
place in Hamilton. After
two months and the on
again, off again life in the
milling industry we moved
Continued p. 3

The Long and Winding Road, part 3, conti
The Long and Winding Road, part 3, continued
to Montana.
By moving to the Missoula
area we were near Colleen’s
family. We planned to rent
until we could find the perfect
place. Guess what? We
couldn’t find a rental we could
afford. So after a month of
living with family and a month
in our tent trailer, we decided
to buy something…anything.
We found a single wide on 10
acres outside Frenchtown MT.
We moved in just before win-
ter hit and wouldn’t you know
it, it was the coldest winter
anyone could remember, -20
degrees for almost 2 months.
Our household plumbing froze
and we employed a man who
brought out a gas powered
welder, hooking one lead to a
pipe on the back of the house
and one on a pipe in the front
of the house, he started the
welder and the electrical cur-
rent flowing through the pipes
thawed the ice and we had
water again. After that we
left every faucet, hot and cold,
running a nearly penciled
sized dribble of water for the
entire winter to keep it from
refreezing.
One morning some
friends called and wanted to
take us to breakfast at a local
café. We met for an hour or
so and at breakfast we decid-
ed to drive up to our house
for something. When we
turned off highway 93 the
wind had blown our road full
of snow. I mean full, as in ten
plus feet of snow over the
road, it was unbelievable. We
stayed with those friends for
for about 10 days while the
County opened our road and a
few others. During our stay I
would walk to the house every
other day to check on our ani-
mals and house. Of all the
times to run out of propane. I
went to our local propane
store they loaned me a 100lbs
tank, all I had to do was get it
to the house. I found a friend
of a friend with a snowmobile
and trailer. He was able to get
all but the last 200 yards and
the snowmobile started
getting stuck. I pushed the
trailer and we made another
50 yards, then we had to
physically lift the stuck snow-
mobile out of a rut and dis-
connect the trailer so he could
pack a trail so we could get
the rest of the way. While he
was packing in a path I pulled
and push the trailer to get it
unstuck from the rut. Once he
returned we made it to the
house and hooked up the gas
lines. Everything seemed to
be hooked up, but I couldn’t
get the furnace to light, prob-
ably because it was zero de-
grees in the house. The snow-
mobile had to return home
before dark so he left. I even-
tually got the furnace lit
(before the water froze again),
phoned Colleen who picked
me up at the bottom of the
hill after a 2 mile walk through
the snow.
Eventually the County
plowed everything and we got
home. The propane co.
brought more propane and
we survived the winter. In the
spring we decided to move
Page 3 Page 3
back to Washington. We
found a small house to rent
on a local beef ranch. We
lived there for about 3 ½
years and saved money for
a down payment on our
next place. We found that
place about 2 miles east of
Hamilton WA and lived
there for a couple years.
It was then that God
called us to a missionary
camp with Youth With A
Mission. We sold every-
thing except what we could
put in a 12’ U-haul trailer
and left for Colorado. There
in the high mountains our
family of 4 moved into a
400 sqft aged log cabin. I’ll
spare you the details and
just say things didn’t work
out and we returned to
Hamilton after just 3
months. After a fashion we
managed to buy a nice ram-
bler out of foreclosure and
with a lot of elbow grease,
water pipe repair and free
furniture we had a house
again.
We lived there until
1989 when on December 26
we loaded up a U-haul and
moved to Alberta Canada to
attend Bible College. We
moved into a two story
house in Three Hills AB. The
house was so unlevel that
to test it I laid a quart jar on
the kitchen floor and when I
released it, it rolled away.
The jar started rolling so
fast I thought it was going
to shatter when it hit the
wall, so I jumped and
stopped it. In 6 months we
Continued p. 4
Page 4

The Long and Winding Road, part 3, continued

moved to a house on cam-
pus and spent 2 years there.
After I graduated we
moved back to Hamilton
and bought 3 acres of bare
ground, installed all the util-
ities and put a doublewide
on it. We lived there until
1998 when we were called
to pastor the Mazama Com-
munity Church near Win-
throp WA. We lived in Win-
throp until we moved to the
parsonage behind Irondale
Church in 2000 and finally
the house on West Valley
Road in 2003.
When I say “The Long
and Winding Road” it is
heavy on the winding, I
count 25 moves. My grand-
fathers were bold men who
traveled and moved as they
needed to, maybe a little of
that rubbed off on me.
None of us were famous for
our travels but we seemed
to manage to feed our fami-
lies and do what needed
done. This life is not for the
faint hearted, but for the
courageous. Moving so
often creates a certain
separation from any geo-
graphical place to call
home and creates a con-
nectedness to spiritual
places. Moving makes the
following passages seem
all the more encouraging
and fills our hearts with
hope for a home to come.
Hebrews 13:14, For
here we have no lasting
city, but we seek the city
that is to come.
1 Peter 2:11, Beloved,
I urge you as sojourners
and exiles to abstain from
the passions of the flesh,
which wage war against
your soul.
2 Corinthians 4:18, As
we look not to the things
that are seen but to the
things that are unseen.
For the things that are
seen are transient, but the
things that are unseen are
eternal.
Hebrews 11:10, For he
was looking forward to
the city that has founda-
tions, whose designer and
builder is God.
And the most reward-
ing passage for those who
wander is, John 14:1–3,
“Let not your hearts be
troubled. Believe in God;
believe also in me. In my
Father's house are many
rooms. If it were not so,
would I have told you that
I go to prepare a place for
you? And if I go and pre-
pare a place for you, I will
come again and will take
you to myself, that where
I am you may be also.
(ESV)
It takes some people
a long time to figure out
where they are supposed
to be; because some peo-
ple really do have a home
somewhere else. 2 Corin-
thians 5:1, For we know
that if the tent that is our
earthly home is de-
stroyed, we have a build-
ing from God, a house not
made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. (ESV)
God bless you and
enjoy the rest of summer,
-Pastor David

August Birthdays and Anniversaries

15. Yako Gilbertson
1. Shirley Gadbaw
Wayne Shirts
Kim Wilcox
20. Micah Conklin
3. Su Tipton
Audrey Mackey
7. Leroy Inman
22. Kathleen Horner
Chad Crandall
24. Bill Croft
12. Colleen Hodgin
29. Fritz Gordon
Jodi Hallinan
13. Morgan Headley
Belinda Price
Sherry Boyd