Captain Zero Found

"Where have a seen you before," this dude well into his fifties asked me yesterday as Norman and I walked to Barrett and Amy's house.

"I've been here a couple of times," I said. "I'm a friend of Barrett."

The man introduced himself as Patrick. Norman and I spoke with him about our relationship with Barrett and Barrett's relationship with our church. And then Patrick, his eyes flashing, started to rant about the church and money and his love and respect for all religions. He spoke of Buddhism and that moved the conversation onto the topic of Vietnam. At that point, I made the attempt to establish some kind of commonality by asking when he was in Vietnam--my dad was in Vietnam, too.

"'67 through '68," was his answer.

"My dad served in the Marines in Vietnam those years," was my reply.

"I'm Captain Zero," was his answer to my reply.

"I was just getting ready to ask you that," I said.

I really was. Captain Zero is a surf cult figure. There's a book out called Looking for Captain Zero by Allan Weisbecker. Old school surfers know of the book.

Patrick lives in a tent in the woods not far from Barrett and Amy's house. He came down to Costa Rica for a three week surf expedition and never went home. He's originally from New York. He's a drop out. Not a high school drop out (as far as I know), a life drop out. He's indulged that fantasy people have to just run away and disappear. He's Barrett's neighbor. He lives in a tent in the woods. His proposal for ending the world's problems is the government nuking the world with a giant E-bomb. The "E" stands for the drug "ecstasy."

Barrett get's to share Jesus with this man and many like him that come here to drop out; disappear.

God has used Barrett's life as school to prepare him for ministry here in Costa Rica. Barrett grew up as a missionary kid. He fell in love with surfing. He became good at it. Barrett makes friends easily. He served in the Navy. He became a passionate follower of Jesus Christ. He and his family served in their home church. He became a leader in his church. He loves to surf. He loves to see people come to faith in Christ. What should he do? Is it possible to live a life where his passion to be a dad, to see people come to Christ, teaching God's principles for living, surfing, and making friends all intersect? Would God want someone to live such a life?

Absolutely. So figure out how God wants to do that with you. Then do it.