Monday, October 17, 2005 

stuck

e recently reflected a bit on the changing of seasons, and the newness that fall often represents in life and the world. if you have not read it, i suggest you do- very good stuff! i too have been thinking of life-changes, and the passing of old things and the coming of new things. lately i have found myself concentrating hard on the new-yet-to-be type of things. specifically this has been advent- and all that must be done to birth this new congregation. yet...life continues to happen, and old things continue to pass- often times without much notice on my part. however, yesterday life threw me a curve-ball that brought me back to the here and now.

my aunt called me yesterday to inform me that my grandmother (my mom's mom) had been taken to the hospital because she was confused, disoriented, etc on saturday morning. they suspected this was due to a slight stroke or something along those lines. after further testing and a cat-scan they found a tumor on her brain. one that her doctor suspects is pretty fast growing, and most likely terminal. today she travels from madison, sd to sioux falls, sd for further testing and to see a specialist. this is one of those times that being so far away in michigan really sucks- yet at the same time there is only so much one could do if i was present. i spoke with my brother who is in arizona and like he said, we all had one good time together at my ordination. the way it sounds, she is pretty out-of-sorts now already, and is not herself. still, there is a longing to be there and a reality that i am stuck here. the hardest part of this is thinking about my mom- i know this will impact her the hardest, and pray that god will hold her tight as she walks through this. to make things worse, my grandma's sisterdied from a brain tumor about 8 years ago.

even amidst this toubled time, i do rejoice as e pointed out that a new thing will happen to my grandmother during this time and in her death. to god be the glory forever and ever.

10:18 AM | |

Thursday, October 13, 2005 

range of everything

it has been a long time since i have last blogged anything of substance. during this time however i have enjoyed reading and commenting on the blogs of many of my good friends and colleagues. i am so thankful that we have this cyber-community, where we can journey together with one-another through many highs and lows. the past week has been an interesting week for me. last week i found myself in a pretty deep funk- and i was not able to identify why i was feeling that way, or how i could get out of it. basically, last wednesday just sucked to put it bluntly. i was not motivated to really do anything, and felt like just being blah. i almost kind of panicked at this feeling of emptiness but the encouragement of my wife that it was okay made a big difference. thankfully this feeling did not last very long, but did last long enough for me to learn some things. on thursday i had my monthly meeting with my mission director- the assistant to the bishop. i expressed to him the way i was "funkish" and he assured me this was normal and that he had learned to truly embrace these feelings. i knew that, but still hated the feeling. i did cling more to the promise of god in psalm 46 that indeed god is god- and we ought be still and know this. i am indeed feeling much better now, but still cannot finger exactly what sent me into the funk. i could attribute it to many things-perhaps loneliness, missing friends, uncertainty of what lies ahead for advent, the reality that this church is to start worship in a matter of weeks, not months anymore. but...the mystery continues....okay enough on that reflection.

things now have picked up again in very positive ways. i continue to meet new people who are interested in advent- many of them have no church experience at all and are very open to something new. it seems that we are aiming to begin worship during the season of advent- probably a week or two before Christmas. this is both exciting and daunting to think about. the trick is trying to find the right time to begin worship- when there is enough people to sustain a good weekly attendance without waiting to long that those interested during the early stages of development get restless. we have several options as far as locations- and are aiming to lease the old firehouse in lake ann for a dollar a year- half of it is being turned into the township library and the other half is empty. we would need to replace the furnace and do some hardcore drywalling, and other construction- but the space will be ours, and there would be no need to set up and tear down each week. we also would be able to have an office space which would be very nice. also on the development front- i have identified our outreach staff person- so now there are two of us on the mission development team. her position is very limited at this point, but still there is someone to bounce som ideas off of. i am meeting next week with a potential music/worship leader. i pray god's guidance as i try to discern who these people should be.

i was blessed to preside and preach last week at Bethlehem again- it amazes me how much this feeds me and grounds me. the partnership with BLC has indeed been a blessing. i am so eager to be worshipping every week at Advent.

cheers

8:02 PM | |

Monday, October 03, 2005 

plea for help!

anyone have suggestions on this week's gospel??? just curious as i begin to wrestle with the text....maybe it is a philippians week!!!!-- Matthew 22:1-14

10:27 AM | |