Vacation pics

toes in the sand of Coney Island

Coney Island with the kids

Our Columbian playmate who helped entertain the kids during the 3 hour wait for Shakespeare in the Park tickets

Goggle man!

N's first time fishing and he caught a 16" eel! Way to go little man!

Fondue for the Birthday celebration

Reunion with an old friend

The garden at Mt. Vernon

Catching up on the hugs we've been missing

G's baptism

it is such an amazing privilege to be a god-parent. I wasn't sure the vows would actually hit home when we spoke them, but they did. And then the other day I explained the concept of god-parents to a friend who was unfamiliar with the practice and the power of the role of parenting a child into faith became even more real.

The beautiful baby girl!

Proud parents!

Super stoked

I spent the last couple of days at clergy convocation and had a marvelous time. After letting go of resentment last week, I have been feeling great. I see that right now there is no major chaos at my church, my personal life is on the up and up, I've had a recent vacation, I have a plan for the next few months of ministry and am working on extending the plan---life is good! I am so amazed at how wonderfully blessed I feel and how well things are going. On the way home tonight I was reveling in the joy of the present and thought, "maybe this is the calm before the storm", which was promptly followed by, "well, if it is, then I am going to enjoy this before I have to struggle through another storm."

This morning as I caught up with a mentor/friend/pastor he asked how my ministry is and I responded with an unconscious shrug of my shoulders, "really well." His response: "you don't have to be apologetic about it. I know sometimes around here it seems like you do, but really, you should be proud of it and enjoy it!" Amen. It is a really good thing that my ministry is going so well. It is great I have volunteers, it is great we have new ministries underway, it is great we have visitors to youth and to the Latino ministry service...it is all so great! And for that I am thankful!

A little pity...

...can go a long way. Tonight I had my first youth team meeting. Finally, after a year of youth ministry, I have a total of 6 volunteers to help with Bible study, special events, and fundraisers. So tonight we had our first planning meeting. The goal was to plan the next year of ministry for our youth--including Bible study/education, worship, evangelism/outreach, fellowship, fundraising, mission, and conference events. One of the leaders made dinner for us and we talked over dinner and then got to work. We started with scripture and then prayed for our time together and planning. For our check-in, I asked each person to share why she is there and either what she is looking forward to or what she is anxious or concerned about in regard to working with the youth. I found at that 2 of the 4, who later roped in their partners, at the table began helping because they felt sorry for me! They either saw me as over worked or stressed or whatever and decided to lend a hand because they pity me. So, apparently I looked pretty pathetic in my ministry almost a year ago now, but the upside is it won me 4 really great youth workers! So, it wasn't all bad. =)

Message from Kimball Coburn

Reading Kimball's message for the fall, I was pleased to see his words...I thought they were worthy of sharing:

Sometimes I wish I could start my life in ministry now. I say that because I know so much more now than I knew when i was young. But when I was young I had so much more energy and was much hopper and suited to lead the church of "what's happening now."

The Church needs wisdom. The Church needs energy. The Church needs leadership attune to what's going on in the world today. So this is what we expect of our ministers:

We expect our young ministers to be wise.
We expect our old ministers to be hip.

We expect our young ministers to think less outside the box and take care of what's already inside the box. We expect our old ministers to come up with some new ideas.

We expect our young ministers to dream dreams.
We expect our old ministers to see visions.

The Church needs so much and most ministers are finding it hard to fulfill those needs.

I have good news for our young ministers. You can be humble and at the same time assert your leadership. You can respect the elderly and at the same time energize the youth. You can be pastoral and at the same time preach prophetically. You can honor the traditions and at the same time introduce new ways of worship. You can be a daily servant and at the same time see visions. You must work harder but the results can be greater.

I also have good news for you older ministers. Because of what you know and have experienced, your older years can be the most fruitful. Visions are not limited to the young. Now they come with a touch of reality which can make them even more relevant. Physically you have slowed down, but mentally you are on top of your game.

Only laziness will keep you from being a good pastor. Only close-mindedness will keep you from being in touch with society. Only getting too comfortable will dampen your prophetic spirit. You are a storehouse of gifts and graces for ministry. Let them explode onto your church.

Getting over myself

For a couple months now I have been irritated and resentful of someone who has insulted me, belittled my work, and generally has just gotten under my skin. And not only have I been holding onto that resentment, but I also have, by sharing my stories of offense, in a sense, been rallying others to be equally irritated by him. In the meantime, I have refused to have that conversation with him--confronting him about my hurt and frustration, and really have just begun avoiding him in all things serious or significantly important. While I know I need to have that conversation with him, I am not super excited about it, but was basically accepting its necessity. But then yesterday I was talking with some parishioners, one struggling with the aftermath of a sexual assault, and various others who are dealing with domestic violence issues. And then it hit me--why in the world am I investing so much time and energy in being irritated with this person when there are SO many things that are more important? So he offended me--so what?!?! Like that's never happened before?!? Right. I finally saw how ridiculous I was being, not that what he said and did was okay, but just that it isn't worth all that energy. There are real problems in the world, and, for the record, being offended by the arrogance and/or ignorance of another is not actually at the top of the list.

So, yes, I had a nice piece of humble pie yesterday. Time to move on.

Going home

It has been an eternity since I have been home (home home that is....), okay, not that long, but a really long time, over a year, which is a long time for me. I have wanted to visit to see my grandmother after her cancer surgery and haven't made it home yet to see her. So when my best friend from high school was home, my high school English teacher/friend asked for one of our famous lunches, and I had a free day, I jumped at the opportunity. (Though it probably indicates that I have lost my mind since it is a 5 hour drive both ways, I wasn't leaving until 8:30pm and had to be back the following night since I had a youth beach trip the following day....but, whatever. right??). So I hit the road (fortunately my bro decided to tag along, which made the long drive much better and less sleepy).

So, being from a small town, there are certain things that are obligatory. I think I covered most, if not all, of them:

• seeing high school math teacher--check.
• lunch with high school English teacher (now friend)--check.
• breakfast and a walk with h.s. best friend--check.
• staring at the amazing site of the amazingly star-studded sky--check.
• seeing parents of former classmates and hearing how they are doing--check.
  
• seeing h.s. sweetheart--check.
• visiting the world famous bakery--check.
  
• Visiting with family--double check.
• Drinking pure, straight from the tap, well water--check.
  
• Seeing people who never left or came back to town still working there--check.
• taking a package that's been sitting in the car for 3 weeks to UPS at home 5 hours away because somehow it's easier--check.
• seeing pastor--check.
• Soaking in the beauty of the mountains--check.
  
• Struggling with the bittersweet sensations of *going home*--check, and double check.
  

Quote of the Day

(after arriving home from a long day of work)

A: Hi honey. I have dinner ready.
B: Really?!?!?!?
A: Well, there's a lean cuisine in the freezer for you.

Amazing pics

My friend LA just returned from Africa and has some AMAZING pictures. For all intents and purposes, she should get credit for them, I just don't know if she wants her name posted. Here are a just a few:
















I am SO incredibly jealous and ready to get the heck out of dodge right now to get myself to Africa!

Prayer requests for September

As a part of my planning for the Latino Ministry, I created a 6 month plan, which includes preaching themes, outreach programs, evangelism plans, advertising, and prayer focuses. Each month we have a specific focus for our prayers. The following are those prayer concerns. Feel free to send one up for us! But before I share them, as a way of explaining, part of what we have been doing is praying for 5 people. Starting in July, I challenged our folks to choose 5 people to pray for. The people can be known or unknown. I know none of mine, just chose 5 (6 actually) names out of the air. I pray for their jobs, their relationships, and their faith walk. My hope is that a large number of those for whom we are praying will come to the church. If each of our 5 folks came to the church, we'd have some 225 people, that's pretty exciting in my book! So, anyway, basically when I say--"continue praying for our 5" that's who I mean.

1) We pray for the UMW that they would be strengthen in fellowship and the education they receive at their event on the 8th.
2) We pray for the English class.
3) We pray for the children’s ministry.
4) We will begin praying for new small groups, for the leadership—that they might discern their call and get excited about doing God’s work.
5) We continue to pray for our 5 people.
6) We pray for musicians who can lead us in new and different (more contemporary) music.

Inspiration on top of inspiration

My friend Chai, in addition to being a power house of a woman, has been training for a marathon. A few months back I mentioned her fundraising efforts, and continue to encourage you to support her. She has already met her first goal of $5000 and is up'ing her goal in order to provide more for her honored heroes. Today I read her blog and she posted an interview with one of her honored heroes--who also serves as an inspiration with her amazingly beautiful voice and her courageous fight against cancer. In talking with Chai, she told me, "It's so weird to me how people think running this marathon is such an amazing thing. I mean, for me it's just something you do. It's a duty considering all these people have been through."

I am one of those people who stands in awe of Chai's marathon training, in large part because I have trouble motivating myself to do the exercise I need to be in the kind of shape I want, let alone train to run 26.2 miles!! I am inspired by Chai, and I am inspired to do more of my "duty" in supporting those who struggle/fight/win against/& lose against cancer. My sensitivities are heightened especially now as so many in my life have been diagnosed with cancer in the last few months. My prayers are strong for all those who fight this battle, but especially for MC, RS, AS, and CN, and my heart breaks for AP who lost her earthly battle but won her spiritual battle so many years ago and was an amazing woman of faith, an incredible example, compassionate heart, and radiant spirit. May each of these women, and so many others, be blessed, made whole, and cured--spiritually, emotionally, and physically in the coming days, weeks, and months.

Sabbath rest

For the last 2.5 years I have practiced Sabbath. I was convicted about it mid-way through my seminary career. I was listening to a campus minister at Emory talk of her sabbath practices (going to the mall, the movies, getting a pedicure--but NOT working) and decided it was something I needed to add to my routine. The following week or so I decided to start. Being a working seminary student with church obligations, Saturday became the only choice. My first rule was "no work". So I didn't do homework or anything related to my job, church or admissions. That was all well and good but as soon as my friends heard I was taking Saturday "off" they began to sign up to hang out. Now, not that I didn't love my friends, but I found Saturdays booked up in nothing flat and it was not terribly restful for me. So I created a new rule--No committing myself to anyone. It may seem a bit strict, but for me it had to be that way so I could declare clear boundaries. In time, the two rules morphed into one "I don't do anything I have to do." Basically that meant if I said "I need to ____________." It was immediately taken off the list for sabbath day possibilities--that might have meant returning a phone call, doing homework, cleaning the house, or running errands. It also meant I didn't make commitments that I would then have to fulfill on my sabbath day. With time, my friends began to understand my rule and no longer took offense to my rigid rules, which later meant I felt free to call them up on Saturday to see if they wanted to hang out. Because our time together was not pre-scheduled it didn't feel like it was hanging over me or that I was going to let someone down if I decided it didn't quite fit in the rest I needed for the day.

I have continued to be diligent in my sabbath practices, sometimes I feel like a sabbath Nazi. Guru might be a better choice of words but I don't know that I am sage enough to merit such a title...anyway, I have found sabbath to be invaluable. If I have to miss sabbath for whatever reason, I find I am short tempered and exhausted all week. I never realized how much I needed that day free of obligations until I actually instituted it. More and more I am finding myself reminding others to take a sabbath day as well. Even a half day can be restorative.

As I look around at people and the demands of the American culture I am overwhelmed by the need to do something. Early on in my sabbath practice I could hardly figure out what to do with myself on those days, I felt useless and worthless if I didn't do something. I realized that was problematic, that doing didn't make me a more valuable person (which is extremely counter-cultural here in the U.S. of A.) Honoring the sabbath and honoring my person was a legitimate way to spend my day even if I only slept or watched TV for that period of time. Encountering and embracing the value of rest has made me a more whole person--I am less run down, less bitter, and more energized when I do work because I have had a real rest, not just a time where I am too tired to do anything and feel guilty the whole time for not getting more accomplished.

Now that I am in the parish, Saturdays as a sabbath day are a complete joke. There's no way I could take a Saturday, so Mondays are my official day. I turn off my church phone (I have two cells, one for work and one for friends and family), try not to read work related emails, and do my best not to even think of work. I wake up when I want and feel which way the wind blows and what I want to do for the day. I may make a big breakfast, or have coffee on the balcony, sleep, watch a movie, talk on the phone, read a book, paint, create, go hiking...whatever I want really, it is my day to do whatever feeds my soul.

Today, I began reading Sabbath by Wayne Muller. My dad gave it to me a few months back and I have had yet to crack it, but this morning I opened it and was glad I did. One of the first things I read was:

"A 'successful' life has become a violent enterprise. We make war on our own bodies, pushing them beyond their limits; war on our children, because we cannot find enough time to be with them when they are hurt and afraid, and need our company; war on our spirit, because we are too preoccupied to listen to the quiet voices that seek to nourish and refresh us; war on our communities, because we are fearfully protecting what we have, and do not feel safe enough to be kind and generous; war on the earth, because we cannot take the time to place our feet on the ground and allow it to feed us, to taste its blessings and give thanks." --Wayne Muller Sabbath

Muller's words rang loud in my heart. I too believe we do violence to ourselves, our relationships, and our world when we neglect rest. We cannot maintain the fast pace the world tries to demand of us and when we do we get sick, we become burnout or bitter, or we simply invoke violence on others by our neglect of them. We become so greedy for accomplishments that we become eternally myopic. We cannot see 2 feet in front of us. Life becomes an exile of sorts. We focus on the past--past accomplishments, past relationships or recognition, and we become crisis focused, we can only attend to the immediate problem before us. We cannot look with hope or vision to 5 or 10 years in the future. And without such future thinking, we become self destructive. We get stuck in the mire of past failures and present short-comings. We fail to see potential. We become numb to hope and as a result, we slowly injure ourselves and those around us.

So this Labor day, this day where we should all be freed by the national holiday to take a day of rest, I encourage you to think of your practices of sabbath and rest. Whether you realize it or not, you need times of silence, mediation, play, creativity, and rest. You are not less valuable, the world will not collapse because you fail to get some bit of work done, and you will become more whole. That's not my promise, it is God's! The fourth commandment is: thou shalt honor the sabbath and keep it holy. J. Ellsworth Kalas translates that commandment into: The sabbath shall keep you. Keeping sabbath is not about another thing to do....it is about letting God's rest restore us--letting it keep us sane, happy, and healthy. When we honor God's laws, God honors God's promises, so honor the sabbath my friends and keep it holy--free yourself of obligations and let the sabbath keep you.

the pace of things

just as an example of how crazy busy things have been this summer, tonight I went to change my calendar to September and saw that I never even had a chance to change it from July to August....yeah, bit nuts!

Miss Teen South Carolina Calls 911

This farce sums up the prior post quite nicely!

Miss Teen USA 2007 - South Carolina answers a question

This video pains me....it scares me to think that a top finalist
(at least top five) could have such an incomprehensible and ridiculous answer...

Toby Mac - Diverse City

My birthday cd from B has this song on it and I love it. I like the message and the beat. I think if I had to sum up my hope for the church it would be that we would truly be a "Diverse City"

Young Adult Ministries

Young adult ministries is my most neglected area of ministry. I hate to admit it, but I have let the ball drop in this area. The preceeding associate had told me that he had struggled with this ministry, that he had invested a lot of time and energy and not a lot came from it, that if he wasn't running it, then generally it didn't happen, that the folks weren't generally motivated to get things taken care of. So, I came in knowing I would have to organize things and push a bit to make it happen. I did a few activities last summer (game nights and going to local theatre productions namely) and then followed that with Bible studies. We rotated houses for awhile and did a Wesley study of sorts, and then we broke for Christmas and came back in the New Year for a "controversial topics" study. Now, starting last summer I had 4 active young adults (between 18-35) and didn't have a whole lot of other folks to pull from. Well, by Christmas 2 of them had transferred to another church because of worship and leadership opportunities. So, I was left with 2 active young adults, and of those two one read diligently and came prepared with questions and ideas. The other NEVER read and occasionally showed up. So, technically I had 1.5 young adults. Now, one doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that it is hard to get inspired to invest hours of time and energy on a quality Bible study for just 1.5 people. We finished the controversial topics study about the time of Lent and so I encouraged them to come to the Wednesday night Lent studies in lieu of doing an exclusive YA study. Well, then after Easter came and went I didn't get organized enough to do another study. I have found it difficult to be motivated and regret my reluctance, but have had a 100 other things that have managed to keep me occupied and full of excuses. Now, over the summer we have had a few new young adults come to the church and some others return, so now, I could have a base of 6-8 young adults, and that is a much more inspiring number, and one I can't really justify ignoring, I need to get my act together and do something for them. By in large, they like real studies, Bible studies, learning. They don't simply want fluff. So, now the question become what to do for/with them. What study do we do? What resources do I use? Or do I simply make it up, like normal? Any ideas about what would be good for a small group of young adults, ranging in age from 18, just graduated, to 35, married with 2 kids--all women??

I have never been a part of a quality young adult ministry. As a young adult I have mainly been in leadership, so I don't even really know what the best of programs would look like....any words of wisdom or creative ideas would be much appreciated!

I heart my new youth worker

In July/August, I deaned Sr. High summer camp and as part of that, I worked on recruiting counselors. One of those I managed to bring on is a recent college graduate who has just returned home to work. She was super excited to come to camp and was a huge asset. Now that we are off the mountain, she has begun working with our youth. She is inspiring and ambitious and on top of things! Yay for on top of things. (for the record, I was always one of those who disdained group projects because I ended up doing most of the work because the others didn't work up to par or didn't bother to work at all, so working with folks who are reliable and proactive is so much better for me!) She is truly committed, this week she called to see if youth was still on since it is a holiday weekend. I have yet to learn the "no-youth-on-holiday-weekend" rule, so, yes, it is on. She said she has family in town that will still be there Sunday night so she can't come the whole time. I told her I understand and that she doesn't need to come, that she can stay with her family. She said she would come because she had made this commitment and that she could come for half the time, and had me decide which half would be better. I can't tell you how cool that was for me. I mean, I did youth on my own for about 6 months here and then got 2 adult volunteers who come in once and month and have been great, but I still organize everything and am the default for anything (driving, lock-ins, programs, coffee hour, etc), and it is so incredible to have someone who is both willing and able AND truly committed. Yay K!

The super added bonus was I had left a book for her to read while I was gone. It's called "Creating an Authentic Youth Ministry". I think it is a great book and that it gives good perspective on how we do youth ministry, the true foundations, not just great music or cool programs. Now, having been gone for almost 2 weeks, yesterday I couldn't even remember if I had told her I had left the book for her to pick up. But today when she called she said she had started the book and has some ideas! No way! Sweet! I am so excited that she is rearing to go for this ministry. I am so excited I don't have to poke and prod her. I am so excited that I can lean on her to do Bible studies and activities without having to pre-fab everything first! Oh man am I excited!

less than ideal care

Today I had to head to the hospital to visit a parishioner. Being a Saturday there was no volunteer to tell me her room number, nor was there anyone at the admitting desk, so off to the ER I went. The only trouble is that the ER has recently been remodeled and it is a bit of a trick to get there, so I wandered inside and out and finally had to ask for directions, which were poor in and of themselves. Once I did arrive, I stood at the window for someone to help me. No dice. I waited some more until another woman came in having a panic attack, I buzzed the nurses for her and they attended to her (well, as much as one might consider "fill out the form and go sit until we call you" *attending*) and then didn't bother to ask what I needed. I waited a bit longer and behind me a line started to form. There were easily 8 people waiting for help, and really no one to take their intake forms or answer their questions. I finally got someone to give me a room number and I headed upstairs. I visited with my parishioner for a bit and talked with her about the lack of care she was receiving and how slow things were to happen. As I talked with her, I thought she might have had heat stroke (she had yet to see the doctor and receive a diagnosis) and she definitely looked dehydrated, and she failed the skin pinch test. I told her she might want to talk to her doctor about an IV for fluids when she saw him. As I left, the nurse came in, apologizing for forgetting to bring her headache medicine, a request she had received over a half hour prior, a request the patient had made to another nurse over 2 hours before that, while she was there my parishioner asked about dehydration and I mentioned the failed skin test and the nurse said "oh that's normal for old people". She said her chem panel looked normal, but I still had my doubts. I mean, it seems to me that when the temperature has topped 110 over the last few days and you have a patient who is fatigued, light headed, nauseus, and fails the pinch test that fluids might just help the situation, but what do I know?! I realize Hemet doesn't have the worst medical care possible, I have seen much worse, but I do know it is bad, at the very best mediocre. No one I know actually trusts the medical care provided here and the nurses I know generally tend to head out of town for any kind of hospital visit....now that's bad when you won't even go to the hospital where you work because you know how poor the care is. Yikes!

Inspiration and Accountability

A couple of days ago I had the chance to sit and chat with C. She and I have known each other for 7 years now and she has always been an inspiration to me. C is smart and capable and she is a go-getter. She takes on challenges and lives a life worth imitating. As I talked with her, she relayed her mission for her work place: bringing community service into their work. Her passion and efforts reminded me of how much work there is to be done, and hearing her talk about conferences and education projects she has been to or is working on, I was reminded of how limited my own knowledge is--my need for continued training in Domestic Violence and other issues. Hearing of the many things C is doing made me feel like a lazy bum. Her words served as a poker in the bum to recharge me to go above and beyond. C reminded me I can't get too comfortable in my work, that I must constantly push myself to do more and work harder because there is still so much to be done. There are kids sleeping in homeless shelters without school supplies, there are women in shelters without hygiene products or basic clothing supplies, there are soup kitchens lacking volunteers, and there are cancer patients fighting to hold onto life who need treatments and support from as many people as possible. Thanks C for bringing me back to a place of inspiration and accountability. Rock on Sister!