Gifts of Joy

As I have mentioned a few times, my congregation is AWESOME!!  I'm always amazed at how caring they are towards me and this Christmas is no exception.

My parents decided to come up for Christmas this year and multiple people have invited myself and my parents over to join with their family Christmas celebrations.  And even more shocking and wonderful is they had just small gifts for each of us so that we would not be the only ones without.  So on Christmas Eve at midnight I participate in a Brazilian feast and on Christmas Day I played nerf gun wars with some of other parishioner's grandkids*

I also received some gifts and I have to share the irreverent ones with you.

A little stuffed church, Holy Toast and a Jesus pen that came in a box that says "Join the Religious Write".  I also received two really cute heart shaped stockings with my dogs names on them and they are filled with dog treats.  (I need to take a picture of those).

But probably the best present was my congregation members making sure that Bob was able to be here for Christmas.  No they didn't chip in for a plane ticket for him and somehow get around all the visa rules he has right now,  instead he was sitting in his normal pew:

He is wearing a french beret and a scarf (not academic robes or dressed up like Martian Luther).  I first spotted "The Bob" (as I have dubbed him) while walking down the aisle while lighting candles during Silent Night (we do it early in the service during the 5pm worship) and of course started cracking up.  Silent Night is has laughter in it right?

So like I said: My Congregation is AWESOME!!!

*Side story that I have to share: the grandkids are from England and during the nerf gun wars would say over and over again in the politest of British accents "Becca, I'm going to kill you."  I think Doctor Who should make an episode where aliens invade young children's bodies and they say over and over again "Doctor I'm going to kill you."

I've Survived October!

I was going to write on Saturday about surviving my crazy October but instead decided that there were a few days left of the month so I wrote my week away.  And it is a good thing I waited to talk about surviving the month.

At the end of September I wrote about how crazy my October was going to be. I had a 10 day trip to Minnesota for a continuing ed preaching conference followed by some vacation time with family and friends.  Then a weekend trip to Rhinebeck for the New York Sheep & Wool festival with my Stitch and Bitch ladies.  Following that with a dessert/bon voyage party for Bob and finishing up with bishop's convocation.  Well just when I thought I had survived and actually enjoyed the craziness that October brought, it ended with a snow storm.

Now being from Minnesota I'm use to snow in October, but flurries and maybe even some sweep-able snow, but not anything measurable in inches or even feet.  A few years before my family moved up north, there was the Halloween Blizzard of '91 that lasted 4 days and piled a foot and a half to two feet of snow in many places.

But this was different.  It was snow, but it was the heavy icy snow.  And being Connecticut, many of the leaves were still on the trees.  Maybe it was just because I was gone for most of the month but I had yet to be driven crazy by the sound of leaf blowers this year.  So between the ice clinging to the leaves many of the limbs, branches and trees that did not fall over or break off during Hurricane Irene just two month ago came down.  And with the limbs they brought down the power lines.

We were for the second time in 2 months left without power for multiple days.  And this time, being without electricity also meant no heat.  Fortunately with candles, many blankets, long underwear and two compact heats I refer to as our dogs Daisy and Koko, we kept warm.

Worship was cancelled on Sunday, we spent much of Monday at a local library, took showers at the Y, ate out more than normal and about 67 hours later our power was restored.

But we are the lucky ones.  Many people are still without power and will be for over a week by the time everything is restored.

The local schools have been cancelled all week meaning they already have 10 "snow" days and it isn't even Thanksgiving yet.

But life moves on.  Bob is still hear for now, but we are headed to New York City tomorrow so Bob can apply for his student visa at the French Embassy.  Afterwards he will book his flight and will probably be off to Paris before Thanksgiving.

And I'll be home alone in Connecticut hoping that there won't be any more long term power outages because they are much more bearable when we lay in the bed piled with blankets and surround by candles playing cards.

Hope you all are staying warm!

Changes in October

I have been pretty quite on my blog lately, well other than sermons and Monday Morning Church updates.  But things are going to change soon because things are changing in my personal life as well.

October has been a scary month on my calendar for awhile now, one that I have looked at starting in August and wondered how I was going to survive until then and how I will survive through October.  And now as we have neared closer to that elusive month, October means even more things me.

For the last few years, my Stitch and Bitch friends have talked about the fun and excitement that is Rhinebeck, aka the New York Sheep and Wool Festival.  This year I decided that even though I'm not a knitter I'm going to go.  It has been a long time since I've had a girls weekend and I'm looking forward to hanging out with my friends for a full weekend with stitching, wine, fiber and our sexy hats (pictures will be kept a secret until Rhinebeck). So I've taken that weekend (October 14-16) off of work.  Well for me since a lot of my work Monday through Friday leads to stuff on Saturday and Sunday, if I'm not going to be there on the weekend I might as well take the whole week off, plus I had an extra week of vacation so I might as well use it.  Woo-hooo vacation week!  Nothing scary about that.

Also Bishop's Convocation, our synod's annual gathering of pastors and rostered leaders is always the last full week of October.  So Monday through Wednesday, October 24-26, I will be on Cape Cod enjoying the company of my colleague in ministry and listening to our awesome keynote speaker, Nadia Bolz,-Weber who is probably the most predominant Lutheran emerging church voice. Okay that seems do-able a week off and another 3 days away at a conference.

Back in July I realized that I still had half of my continuing education budget to use so I started looking at conferences to attend.  Well the Celebration of Biblical Preaching stuck out at me as something I wanted to attend.  It had many more pros that cons.  Pro: Interested in the topic. Pro: Really enjoy some of the presenters work and want to hear more from them. Pro: Stuff I will actually use in ministry.  Pro: Also going over the lectionary for the next year - very helpful. Pro: It is in Minnesota so I'll get to see family and friends.  Con: it is also in October (the 3rd - 6th to be exact) Pro: I have the week off afterwards with nothing really planned in Connecticut, so I can take a few extra days.  Sweet I'm going.

But now you see my October has been scary since August.  It basically means I'll have about a week and a half in the office/at home all month long.

And now the changes in my personal life:

In July Bob heard about a PhD fellowship opportunity and applied in August.  And he got it!!!  Bob will be researching ancient Assyrian mathematics at the University of Paris Diderot (as in France!) and he starts:

November 2!

When he applied we thought the fellowship started at the beginning of October, so I thought if by some chance he got it, it would be a good thing that I would be so busy in October so I wouldn't miss him as much.  Ha!  Now instead of just being busy for that month, and only home for 1 1/2 weeks I also have only 1 1/2 weeks left with Bob really before he leaves for Paris for a few months, though he might sneak up to Bishop's Convocation with me (shhh....don't tell the bishop or really don't tell the hotel staff)

So yes things are going to be busy, and things are going to be changing.

Hopefully I will get back into the habit of adding some non-sermon or MMC posts on a regular basis.  And you will get to hear about me adjusting to living alone.  Stuff like Bob and I figuring out skype dates with the time difference, and me buying Lean Cuisines and other meals for one, or me learning to go to the library or coffee hours on a regular basis just so my 1 minute interaction with the librarian or barista can be my one face to face interaction for the day.

I am really super excited for Bob, he has worked so hard for this and unfortunately has dealt with a lot of rejection thus far in the process.  But I know this is his calling, and this is where God wants him to be.  We have spent time apart before - most of the time we were dating we were in different states or different countries - and last year he spent a few days a week on the other side of Connecticut.  But I also know it will be hard to adjust to not seeing him on a regular basis, not being able to talk to him to brainstorm a sermon or to rant about something that is bugging me.  Or not being able to give him a hug and a kiss good bye in the morning.  But thus far I have yet to mourn me missing him yet, because I'm still trying to survive till the end of October.

SHAT!

One of the things that I love about Bethlehem is just how low key it is.  Every week during worship it seems like something happens that goes slightly off, and yet we keep going and no one seems to care.  And occasionally we have Sundays like this past one were all sorts of things go odd.

It all started with the prelude, when the organ, yet again mysteriously decided to cut out.  This has been a common problem over the last few years and though the organ repair guy has been out multiple times he can never seem to find the cause.  Lyudmila just paused, looked at the organ frustrated and started right back up again.

The second thing was during announcement.  Mark the worship assistant was asking for names for the prayers of  concerns.  Bob, my husband, said my name should be one the list because I'm headed to Baby Pastor School this week and the food is terrible.  After a little give and take, Mark then responded "Are there any real names for the prayer list?"   This of course got a few gasps, snickers and a look of shock and hurt from me as apparently my name is not a real name.

There was also the cousin of the child being baptized who screamed pretty much through the entire sermon and hymn of the day and baptism, and though her father took her downstairs the shrieks could still be heard throughout the church.  Oh well, she was just jealous her cousin was getting all the attention, her baptism is in two weeks then she will be the center of attention.

There was also the moment at the end of the service when Mark thought we were only are the 2nd stanza of the hymn instead of the 3rd and final stanza and was waiting for us to finish before he said "Go in peace, serve the Lord."  And when he made a brief comment about this, Lyudmila thought her counting of verses was off and so she played the 3rd verse for a second time.

While these were the much more obvious bloopers of the day, they were not my favorite, nor the most memorable, at least to me.  It was during the gospel as I was saying the verse "The people who have sat in darkness have seen a great light and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned."  The second part of this verse I kept stumbling on as I was memorizing it.  And I had a bit of dry mouth.  And I could make up a bunch of other excuses. But what came out of my mouth, what was heard by quite a few people in the congregation and what I'm positive that I said was "for those who SHAT in the region and shadow of death light has dawned."

Yes I said shat during worship.

Yes I said shat during the gospel.

And for those few of you who do not know what shat means I will defer you to Bob's definition:

 Shat: Past tense of "to shit." Used in such phrases as: "I shat som'in' nasty!" and "You're dog just shat on my lawn!" Note possible confusion with 'sat,' past tense of 'to sit.'

 At least it was the I-am-not-swearing-version-of-a-swear-word.

At least I didn't draw attention to it by then correcting myself.

At least the giggles were kinda subdue.

At least I'm at Bethlehem where I know the congregation will just laugh about it and move on.

Living Without the Interwebs

I knew that I was reliant on the internet, and I would even admit to times being addicted to the internet, but I did not realize just how much the internet effected a large majority of my life until earlier this week.

On Sunday mornings, I get up and head over to the church by 8:30, (I normally try for earlier but 8:30 is about the earliest I tend to make it).  Bob meanwhile takes his time and comes over at 9am for bible study.  After worship and coffee hour, I normally have a meeting have some office work to do, or stick around and chat with people.  Bob normally sticks around for coffee hour and heads home and studies or works until I get back to the house.

This past Sunday Bob bible study was sort of canceled since we were the only two that showed up and I didn't have much time to prepare due to the pasta dinner this past Saturday.  So Bob went back to the house to study.  (It is very convenient that we live only 50 yards from the church).  When he came back for worship, a little earlier than normal he said something about the internet not working (not entirely a new thing for us) and played with the modem which in my office.

After worship and coffee hour he went home and came back a little while later again saying that the internet wasn't working.  He looked up AT&T's phone number in church's file but when he tried the church's phone there wasn't a dial tone.  So he got on his cell phone and 20 minutes later proclaimed that the autobot told him that the internet will be fixed by Tuesday!  What 3 days without the internet!

A few phone calls later to talk be able to talk a real person, we were told that there was a major malfunction and crews were working on it but it would be out till Tuesday.

Okay I can live without the internet for a few days, it is no big deal.

But Saturday I made a mint cheesecake for Luther House at Yale were I was bringing dinner to that evening.  I still needed to make the topping but the recipe is on the internet.  So I called my parents and after a failed Google search for the recipe, I was able to give my dad the web address for the recipe and make sure I had the right amount of ingredients (good thing I had made the the cheesecake a few times before).

After making the cheesecake and taking a nap, I really just wanted to take an hour or so and veg watching while watching tv before going to Luther House and then theology pub.  But we don't have cable and we do not get any reception here in the hills of Connecticut so we watch all of our tv online, mainly on Hulu.  Okay so no tv watching for me.

I decided to read instead, but I have a hard time reading in silence and often have pandora.com on while I read or I listen to npr.org while typing.  Because like the tv reception we get about 3 radio stations fairly spotty in our house. And this is how little traditional radio we listen to, I had to go find a radio and plug it in.

After Theology Pub, I checked my email on my phone (YAY phone technology) and also checked my calendar for the upcoming week since it too is on the internet.  Luckily there was nothing that I forgot about.

Bob works from home on Monday, normally writing and coordinating volunteers for later in the week, via email.  I spend a good part of my Monday sending emails about upcoming events or coordinating with people, getting and reading commentaries on the upcoming Sunday's lectionary text via the internet, sending out my Monday Morning Church email, posting it on this blog, etc.

So we decided to work from the library on Monday (gratefully they do not use AT&T and therefore had internet).  But we didn't know the library hours since normally we would look that up on the internet or their phone number (again needing the internet) so we ended up showing up an half hour before they officially opened an hung out in the lobby until the rest of the building opened.

We ended up renting movies from the library for our evening entertainment, and luckily by the time we were done watching them the internet was back up so I didn't have to figure out what else to do with myself.

Ohh internet, how you have seeped into just about every aspect of our lives.  Please do not leave me again soon.

Hammo Love

The other week, the confirmation kids, Bob and I went up to Hammonasset State Park in Connecticut for the New England Synod youth gathering.  

I went to Teen Encounter Christ as a youth and attended the National Youth Gathering in New Orleans in 1997 so I know how awesome youth gatherings can be.  And while on internship I brought some youth from that congregation to the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod youth gathering, so I know that they can be a little worrisome for newbies.  But with much encouragement, I got our confirmation students to go and conned Bob into being the male adult.  

When we arrived on Friday, my youth were a little tentative, not getting into the band too much since all the music was new to them.  But by Saturday afternoon they were talking about next year and how they want to come back and bring friends, they were also talking about wanting to go to camp this summer too :-).  

For me the highlight of the weekend was during some congregational time.  I had planned on talking to them about planning their confirmation service, coming up on reformation day.  We talked a little bit about music on the way up in the car, but as we went through the service and what baptismal promises they were affirming, it was so heart-warming to see that they got it.  These two youth really know what it means to love God.  They can identify when faith has been important in their lives.  They can talk about Jesus like a friend.  It was a moment of "yeah this is what it is about!"  

This moment worked in so well with the overall conversation of Hammonasset.  The theme for the weekend was "Loved to Love" and our speaker talked about God love for us enables us to love others.  But the unofficial theme was "Free Hugs" as many people wore t-shirts that said such, God's love allowing them to show a sign of love to others.  I hope you all get a free hug today for we are Loved to Love.  

Love for the Neighborhood

The street we live on is about a mile long and pretty self contained, as in there is only one road that leads to other road, and that road is at one end.  Starting at the south end of the street, the road curves around a man-made lake and spits out at a train station.  The street is our neighborhood.  

The church and our home is located near the south end, with one house, two preschools, a post office, vet and a factory south of us.  In the other direction is a 3/4 of a mile of homes and one synagogue before coming to the train station; this is are normal path for walking the dogs.  In fact last school year, most days Daisy (the chocolate lab) and I would walk Bob to the train station where he would pick up his train to school, and then Daisy and I would walk back home.  Since I would drop Bob off shortly before one of the buses came through the neighborhood, I especially got to know some of the kids and moms as they waited at the bus stops.  Over the course of the last year, I have gotten to know many of the neighbors, some by name, even more by face.  

As I have walked to and from the train station or the post office, I have watched the synagogue's new addition come to a completion.  I have seen one house get a much needed new roof, and now I'm currently keeping update on a massive renovation project going on at another.  I have seen new landscaping projects, people move out and new neighbors move in.  I have met many people, their kids and their dogs.  

But this summer has been fairly quiet.  Due to Bob's and mine more relaxed schedule, we haven't taken the dogs on as many walks.  And due to the heat this summer, one of the hottest on record, when we have gone out to walk the dogs, we often have seen fewer people outside.  

Well this morning was the second day of the school year and the dogs and I went on a walk as the middle school kids were waiting for the bus. It was amazing how much I missed this simple neighborhood walk in the morning.  How I missed seeing people waiting outside.  It was great asking some of the kids that I know how their first day went, and quiet a few people I saw remarked at how big Koko has gotten since many of them have not seen her since June.  

I'm glad that the school year has started again, that the weather will soon be cooling off some (it was in the 90's yesterday), and I look forward to my morning walks through the neighborhood, though it might be a little harder to be motivate to go since I'm no longer dropping Bob off to catch his train.  And I'm especially grateful to live in a neighborhood with some wonderful neighbors.  

A Day in Rhode Island

This past Saturday I woke up WWWWAAAAAAAYYYYY too early for a Saturday, 5:45am to be exact.  Faith, the pastor of the local Covenant church, invited me to join her for a worship conference that a Covenant Church in Rhode Island was hosting.  Fortunately, Faith's husband Dan, who was also attending the conference, has his pilot's license and had his plane in Danbury.  So instead of having to leave at 5am we were able to leave a bit later and fly up.

The flight was gorgeous!  The sun was barely up when we left, there were a few clouds and the amount of trees in Connecticut was astounding.  It was amazing looking down from the sky at this fairly populated area, in many ways you would never know how many people lived there.  

The conference was on worship, especially using blended worship techniques and the arts and it consisted of three workshop sessions and an opening and closing worship.  I normally do not get to worship in a "contemporary" manner, and I enjoyed singing along with a band and learning new songs.  But the worships were blended, we sang Blessed Assurance to guitar, some songs were played on piano, they were wonderful worship services.

The Covenant church is much more based in scripture and word and less sacrament than the Lutheran Church (which I find interesting because most Lutheran churches read more scripture during worship than the average Covenant congregation, but basically the sermons are longer and communion not as frequent).  So there is a larger emphasis on music with multiple songs/hymns being played in a row with maybe a verse of the psalms being disbursed between songs.  

The three workshops I attended were on worship leadership, blended worship and the arts in worship.  I feel like the first two workshops just started the conversation for me in many ways.  I have been a worship leader for years now and have gone through worship wars, but one of the presenters put this conversation in a new light for me.  He basically said that worship is about finding ways to speak God's word to as many people as possible, and when you visit a 90 year old in the hospital you will bring with you a different set of prayers and music to comfort her than if you were visiting a 16 year old.  In worship, we need to find ways to help the 90 year old and the 16 year old better understand and speak to God.  

The last workshop on the arts was very inspirational about how to use art in worship to set the theme for worship.  It also made me realize that things that Bethlehem does, from decorating for Christmas and Easter to the origami doves on Pentecost is art and not just crafts and decorations.  I already have ideas about what to do for some festivals coming up this fall and winter.  

But my day in Rhode Island did not end there.  At the end of the conference, Bob met me at the church and we went to Newport for Newport Winefest.  Bob had won tickets when he entered a contest (though he didn't realize that he entered) by registering for The Day a newspaper in New London.  Unfortunately the tickets were for a Saturday night and I'm a little busy on Sunday mornings, so we were not able to enjoy everything at Winefest.  But we did enjoy some of the many wine, beer, liqueur, cheese, hummus, chips and other samples that were offered.  We also enjoyed walking around Newport for awhile before we drove home.  On our previous trip to Newport we spent more time near the big houses and not much in the more commercial area where Winefest was at.  

All in all, it was a very wonderful day in Rhode Island, but it was also and extremely LONG day.  I think I'm still recovering from the lack of sleep.  

Home Alone

This last week my husband, Bob, was in Philly for Americorp VISTA program training Tuesday through Friday.

This was the first time in our four years of marriage that he has left me home alone for a few nights, normally it is the other way around. A few months after we were married I left for an overnight trip for a junior high youth gathering. A few weeks later I was gone for a bishop’s convocation. Since then I have been gone for at two synod assemblies, three trips to visit friends, one senior high youth gathering, two trips to the ELCA Youth Ministry Network extravaganza, one other bishop’s convocation, Baby pastor school and a trip to Calumet. If you are keeping track that is at least 13 trips (I may have forgotten one or two). Most of which were at least two nights, a few were a bit longer.

In all these trips, I try to be good and give Bob a call at some point in the evening when I know he will be heading for bed, and then again in the morning when I'm getting ready for the day.  But that doesn't always happen.  Being the social person that I am, I often get wrapped in hanging out with people and next thing you know it is 1am and therefore as a result the next morning I wake up late and then I'm rushed to get moving (plus I have been known to forget my phone charger rendering me less able to call him). Granted he will call me when he is going to bed and I walk away from the group for a few minutes, but often it is too loud to talk for very long.

Well this time it was the other way around.  Bob was left to call me while I was at home going stir crazy for lack of having someone to talk to, other than the dogs (but I'm not the type of person who will carry on a full conversation with the dogs).  And when I called him, he was out at bars socializing not really able to talk for long.

When I picked Bob up at the train station on Friday he said something that I completely agreed with:  It was good to be on the other foot.  We both now have better idea about what it means to be the one at home or the one away.  Bob realized about 3 hours into  his orientation that the best thing his is going to get out of the conference was networking, the stuff presented he could have read in a book.  So he went outside his normal comfort-zone and spent evenings hanging out with the other VISTA workers and got to know them.  Meanwhile I now know what it is like to sit at home and wait around and how stir crazy it can get.

And on Saturday, the first day post-conference, I normally want to stay at home and relax and Bob wants to do something since he has been home all week....well this time it again was reversed.

Four years ago today...

nothing super important happened in the world.  Look it up!  I googled, wikipedia and nytimes searched June 17, 2006 and very little came up, most of it non-news: tensioned increase in Sir Lanka, GE came out with a fancy new line of appliances.  But four years ago today Bob and I were officially married.

I say officially because in both of our minds, we already loved and were committed to one another, we just made it official via state approved documents and by standing up in a church and promising to love, honor and care for one another for the rest of our lives.

Happy Anniversary Bob!  I love you very much!

Birthday Weekend

This last weekend was my birthday.  Bob and I spent most of the long weekend celebrating (though I did work on my actual birthday on Sunday). 

Friday, I ended up working a bit since last week I was gone a lot.  That afternoon we ran some errands and then had dinner and a Dr. Who marathon with some friends.

Saturday we went to Gillette Castle with the dogs. On the way there we drove through Chester which was having a town-wide tag sale.  So we stopped and walked around and had lunch.  After a few other stops at various small stores we made it to the castle. 

I could not get over the view. 

Other than a few mishaps at the beginning of the trip, the dogs did very well in the car. 

Sunday was worship, lunch with one of the church family's and then sitting outside reading and enjoying the beautiful weather.

Monday we went to the Memorial Day parade in Wilton which is the quintessential small town parade. I think just about every kid in town marched with one group or another.  We also took down one of the bushes next to the house. 

Sorry this is only the before shot.  The tall bush is gone using the pruner and saw that Bob got me for my birthday.  Yes I am that weird that I wanted tools for my birthday.  Now only 25 more bushes to go (but those will wait till fall). 

Monday afternoon/evening we went to a friend's house for a graduation/memorial day celebration.

Overall it was a wonderful relaxing weekend.  Now onto my next adventure: synod assembly. 

He's got the diploma in his hands!

It has been one busy week here, full of adventures.  Bob graduated on Monday! In-laws and parents came in Saturday, Sunday was convocation, Monday was commencement and the diploma ceremony, Tuesday was touring some parts of greater CT and Wednesday everyone went home yesterday.  I'm just now starting to get my mind wrapped around what I need to get done for this coming Sunday (no rest for the weary). 

I'll post my sermon from this last Sunday, as well as some updates on how Pentecost went with all the doves and ribbons and streamers later but first I have to play proud spouse! Bob graduated with his Master of Arts degree from Yale's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilization Department in the field of Assyeriology.  And if that isn't a mouthful enough to make someone impressed, he also graduated with a 4.0!

We were blessed with a beautiful weekend/week to celebrate other than a few sprinkles Monday morning it was a gorgous on Yale's campus.  And we had a beautiful time under the trees of old campus for commencement. 

 

 Two hard years of work and now diploma in hand (written in Latin)

Graduation was wonderful, but you can tell Yale has done this a time or 308 times before.  Everything was very organized and actually went quite quickly for the amount of students who were graduating. 

On Sunday, we attended the Graduate School convocation.  The speaker was one of the first females to graduated with a PhD in the sciences from Harvard.  Her speech was about having a love for learning, being accepting of all people to learn and that some of the greatest discoveries in scholarship happen by chance.  And being aware of the number of people and time, award winners were announced at commencement, but only those present were actually announced and just their names were said, not their thesis/dissertation titles.

On Monday, at commencement, they had students stand by school and the dean of that school ask the provost to confer their degrees.   I really think it took longer to announce the 8 honorary doctorates than it did to award the few thousand bachelors, masters, MD and PhD degrees.  After the large commencement, we then broke up by school to receive diplomas, and at the Graduated School's diploma ceremony they announce the degree, and the names of those present who walked across the stage to receive their diploma. I'm glad they did things so quickly since we were in a large un-air conditioned building whose windows did not open.  Afterward, the grad school hosted a lunch of sandwiches, chips, veggies, fruit, etc.  It was a good thing too, since everyone was starving and the New Haven restaurants would have been overrun with people otherwise. 

For our greater CT adventures on Tuesday we took our parents on a winery tour.  The first winery, Haight-Brown, was closed :-( but it did have an interesting sculpture - Bob thought it looked like sperm.

At the second vineyard, Hopkins Vineyard, we ate lunch overlooking this beautiful view: 

And at the third, DiGrazia Vineyard, I fell in love with this porch:

I'm so proud of Bob and we've had a wonderful week with family but I'm also so glad to be able to sit and not worry about where to take family or when we have to be somewhere.  I'm also glad that Bob achieved such a great accomplishment. 

Church-y Craftiness

This coming Sunday is Pentecost, when the church celebrates the Holy Spirit coming to the disciples.  It is also the birthday of the church universal as it is often seen as the day the followers of Jesus moved from being a small group to a movement. 

Pentecost is celebrated in many ways, the most basic way is with people wearing red, the color of the day and having bright red paraments (the cloth covering the altar and the pulpit and the stole (aka scarf) the pastor wears).  Often the readings or a portion of them are read in a variety of languages since the Holy Spirit gave the disciples the ability to speak in other languages. 

Bethlehem will do these things but also the church will be DECORATED!  A bunch of geraniums are ordered to go behind the altar, around the pulpit and in the window sills.  Balloons will float at the end of the pews and outside the doors.  And two new things are happening, hence my church-y craftiness. 

The first is ribbon poles.  During the procession of the cross, two of our youth will follow the cross, waving poles of red ribbons.  A member of the congregation and myself saw this at another church when we went to the Book of Faith Festival the other week.  My internship congregation discussed making these while I was there (though I cannot remember them being used).  So here is what I did.  I got to 1/2 inch pvc pipe, some white spray paint for plastic, some binder clips (can be found at any office supply store) and a bunch of red ribbons (satin mainly since it flows well) of varying widths and shades.

I went with 7 foot pipes since Bethlehem's ceiling is sort of low and chandeliers hang in the aisle (both the processional cross and the cross that we used on Good Friday have been hit on a chandelier before).  My first step was to drill a small hole about a 1/2 inch down from the top of the pipe.  I then went to town spray painting the pipes. 

Next I used my sewing machine and just a needle and thread to sew the top 1/4 to 1/2 inch of fabric over to make little loops in the ribbons.  The ribbons were between 4 and 6 feet in length.  And then I threaded the loops through the binder clip. And then attached the binder clip to the pole through the hole that I drilled in it. 

The finished product:  

They don't look like much now, but waving in the sanctuary they will look beautiful! 

The other project I enlisted the help of the Sunday School kids.  This last Sunday I taught a brief lesson on the Holy Spirit and we made origami doves made from dollies.  (Click here to find out how to make them)   The dove is one of the symbols of the Holy Spirit.  At Jesus' baptism the Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove.  All total they kids made 60 of them.  So yesterday I spent a good portion of the day putting thread through them so we can hang them from the chandeliers or other parts of the ceiling.  Right now I have a flock of origami doves in my dining room. 

I'm decorating the sanctuary on Saturday morning with some parishioners.  I'm excited to see how great the place will look on Sunday with flowers, balloons, doves, and streamers.  But I'm more excited for Sunday worship when people will read John 3:16 in Swedish, Russian, Spanish, French, German, Akkadian, Sumerian, Ukrainian, Japanese, and Polish.

Oh and did I mention yet that both my parents and in-laws will be there?  Bob is graduating this weekend, convocation on Sunday and commencement and degree ceremony on Monday.  He has translated John 3:16 into both Akkadian and Sumerian and I think it is appropriate and exciting that he gets to use both on his graduation day in front of his parents.  More about graduation weekend coming soon.

A Road Trip, a Wedding and Flat Tire

I'm technically on vacation right now but for the rest of the week we are doing a "staycation." However we just got back yesterday from a short road trip.

On Sunday after worship, Bob and I went to a parishioner's home who was having a good luck party for their son who is being sent to Afghanistan in March. We left there around 2:30 to head to Philly - the first leg of our trip. Now there really is no good way to drive from Georgetown to Philly. Either you have to go through New York Traffic or you have to drive way out of your way to avoid it. Being it was a Sunday afternoon we drove through NYC and oddly enough that was the easy part of our journey. It was the New Jersey Turnpike that was slow and go pretty much the entire way. It also didn't help that we were getting on the turnpike which is near the Meadowlands shortly after the Giants game ended. Errr Anyway we made it to Philly met up with our friends Becca and Gary (yes her name is also Becca, I am not typing about myself in the third person) had dinner and went to bed. We also stayed at the seminary I went to which reminded me how much I do not miss living there. The rooms are never bright enough during the day nor dark enough at night.

The next morning we got up WAY too early and hit the road in order to avoid traffic. Bob, Becca, Gary and I got on the road by 6:15 and headed towards Roanoke. We made it there by around 1 had some lunch hung out got ready and went to the church.

The entire reason for this trip was that two seminary friends, Ben and Marissa, were getting married. The wedding ceremony was beautiful, but some kids made it memorable.

I have this theory that at every wedding there is something that happens that make it memorable and it is something that you can never predict. Sometimes it is something that goes wrong or a prank that the groomsmen pulled on the couple, but for Ben and Marissa's wedding it was the kids. During a solo a friends almost three year old daughter sitting behind us said in a ever so cutesy voice "that's beautiful" and then about a minute later announced in that same voice "opps I farted." Now granted she didn't say this loud enough for that many people to hear but it was quite memorable.

However the real show stopper was the first reader. The girl who read was around 8 years old and she read a children's story version of Daniel 3. She was a great reader other than she read so fast most people could not understand what she was saying other than Nebuchadnezzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, which actually she pronounced better than many adults I have heard read the same story. But what does an 8 year old do when you get to the end of the story while reading in public? Well it wasn't "Word of God, Word of Life" or "Here ends the reading." Instead she said paused looked up and said quite loudly and proudly "That's it!" to which everyone responded with applause and laughter.

The reception was wonderful, some great memories (some of which I can't share so that they may be used as blackmail at a later date), lots of friends and plenty of dancing (my legs still hurt). Thank you Ben and Marissa! I had a wonderful time and I pray that your marriage may be blessed and fulfilling.

On Tuesday morning we headed out for a long day of driving. We were going to Becca's parents house in Albany by way of Philly to drop Gary off. Things were going well, until we got to Pennsylvania. We stopped to eat lunch at a Wendy's in a small town just north of the Maryland border. Now something you must know about the state of Pennsylvania, it really is a land of two city states and not a whole lot in between. There is Philadelphia on the east side, Pittsburgh on the west and in the middle is a land better known as Pennsyltucky and we had lunch in Pennsyltucky. We also stopped to get gas and switch drivers, and Bob went to the back to get some stuff to work on since he was no longer going to drive and four beer bottles that we had left over from the night before came spilling out of the car and broke on the ground at this gas station. We picked up the gas, the station attendant came out and swept the area for the small pieces and we were on our way.

However bad karma must have followed us. Probably just as someone else got a flat from a small piece of glass that wasn't picked up, I hit something and our front drivers side tire popped. I'm not talking about any old flat but a loud pop that sounded more like gun shot. Luckily no one was near me and I was able to pull over quickly and Bob was able to put on the spare without much problems. We were also near the western suburbs of Philly at the time and was able to find a tire place easily, but had to go to three places to find one that could helps us since the first was too busy, the second could only fix a leak and not a replacement. So 2 1/2 hours and $250 (for two tires and an alignment adjustment) later we were back on the road and made it to Philly and Albany safely but much later than we wanted.

After a night and most of yesterday in Albany with Becca's family, we made it back to Georgetown safely and now I'm watching the snow fall silently and thinking what a great year it has been and what 2010 will bring. But I think those thoughts will be saved for tomorrow.

Christmas Celebrating

This Christmas was one that will be memorable and luckily not because anything chaotic when on. I received some great gifts, spend time with some wonderful people but most importantly (at least what makes it the most memorable for me) is that it was my first Christmas as a pastor.

Christmas Eve I woke up early unable to sleep any longer. I was like a little kid on Christmas morning. After breakfast I went over to the church and did some random stuff to prepare for worship while Bob sanded the parking lot and did a mail run. After a few hours, we had a Middeke traditional Christmas Eve dinner of a Hickory Farms gift box (yes this really is a tradition in my family). As the day went on I went back to church to prepare, the choir came to practice, the luminaries went outside and the church filled with worshipers. I did have one stress-filled moment around 4:30 when the Sunday school kids were there to practice, the choir wasn't done practicing yet and I had other things to do before 5 when worship began but I bowed out hopefully I didn't insult anyone.






Worship went really well. The choir sang beautifully, us bell players pulled it off, the kids lead Away in the Manger wonderfully and hopefully my sermon was meaningful to those who heard it. And of course candlelight Silent Night was the highlight of the worship service for me.

After worship, Bob and I went back to our home and he fixed us dinner and we opened our gifts to each other and a few others we received. I have to share what Bob commissioned his brother to draw for me. He basically did a collage of pictures from my ordination weekend. (We went to the Peabody Museum in New Haven that weekend hence the triceratops.)

At 10:45 as we are watching Miracle on 34th St we hear a knock on our door and who does it happen to be? The Hottensteins from My First Wedding fame. They thought there was an 11pm service but wanted to stop by and say hello. It is always so nice to see them, especially because they live in New Jersey and are therefore not in CT that often.

On Christmas morning we slept in, took Daisy for a walk and then went to the Grunsell's for Christmas dinner. I love holidays because they are the only days it is considered normal to eat at 3 in the afternoon. Ellen as always put on a fantastic spread of food and the company was wonderful.

We then came home so that we could open the presents from my family while we talked to them on speaker phone. We would have done it via webcam but we do not have a working webcam and we didn't think about that until we were on the phone with them. My family opens presents one at a time and we give gifts to everyone so it takes quiet awhile, but even via speaker phone we had a great time laughing together and both admiring the gifts we received and making fun of them as well.

It was a wonderful Christmas and I hope you all had a wonderful time in worship, with family and friends as you celebrate the birth of our Lord.

Happy Birthday Bob!

Today is my husband's birthday and I can't help but look back on how much our lives have changed over the last year. I don't remember exactly what we did last year to celebrate Bob's birthday but I'm pretty sure we spent at least part of the day packing. Since then we have moved, Bob started grad school, I started a temp position, we dealt with assignment issues, Bob was offered a book editing offer, I was hired full time, we dealt with more assignment issues, Bob finished his first year in grad school, I was called as Bethlehem's pastor and now we are preparing to move again (but not quiet to the packing stage yet).

I feel so blessed to have Bob in my life. He has been such a support for me over the last 7 plus years we have been together and I only hope that I have been as much of a support to him as he has been to me. I hope and pray that Bob has another blessed year ahead, full of learning, laughter, and fun and I can't wait to see how much will change within the next year.

Happy Birthday Bob! I love you!