"How did he do that?"
"It was a voice, he called on me to preach the gospel. Jesus Christ, the Lord spoke to me. He told me that I need to give away everything I own and do God's good work. So in the next couple weeks, I explained to my family that we would give away everything and sell the house."
"So, are you a pastor?"
"Well, I've been evangelizing since 1981, but I was recently ordained on the web. When the Lord spoke to me again, he said that I was a good man, and that I obeyed him, and you know what he told me? He said that I am fit to evangelize in his name, the Lord our Father. And with this," he said, after pausing for effect,"I leave you to your thoughts."
"So, is this your family?," I asked. "Some of them. Those are my granddaughters, good girls, and the others are our Indian guides."
This didn't make sense, since I didn't see any Indian guides, so I asked him some more questions about Methodists and his family, to which he responded, "Well, I bet you're in a hurry to get off now."
I left the man to sort out his breakfast and followed winding tributaries of the Sandy River a few miles out, to the far base of the Enchanted Rocks. Because of the pink texture of the rocks, the sand wash I am following is also pink. The woody base is dark at this time of morning; mossy and wet with ferns and the brown of a Central Texas winter. I decided to cross the Enchanted Rocks, along the polished bald faces interrupted only by vernal pools. These are pool pockets of erosion in the rock. Colorful infestations of moss, algae, tiny ferns, freshwater shrimp and small trees.
Palmetto and flooded creek
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