I pass it on to any homileticians who might wander this way. Jeff was a classmate of mine back in Morningside College in Sioux City IA. For our senior year, we were ready to move out of dorm life so Jeff, Mark Haines, and I rented the basement level of a home occupied by an elderly women who lived on the main level. Part of our rent was to put out her trash, clean a few flower beds, shovel snow, and just be around in case she needed help. I remember that we were able to pull our often failing cars into the garage and work on them in there on winter days rather than out in a school lot or on the street.
When Beth and I got married (20 years ago!) at the Beech Creek UMC in Clay County Kentucky, Jeff was one of the three clergy participating in the ceremony and he was our Eucharistic celebrant. When I was going through the Home Missionary commissioning process through the General Board of Global Ministries, National Division, (Could we United Methodists come up with any longer Department names!) Jeff came over to see me at the Penta Hotel in New York City, and got me back to the airport the next day. At the time he was serving a church, I believe, over in Queens. He is originally from Connecticut and is a Drew seminary grad. He is currently letting his Methodist roots return to their Anglican origins and is active in an Episcopal church in the Chicago area. Anyway,.... a long way of plugging his site!
In other news from around here, while this is not the first snow, it is the first real snow that you could actually get a car stuck in or needed shovels and snow blowers. When I was removing the snow on our driveway I thought of how I used to make a special effort to pile up the snow in ways that would be fun for Nick and Sara to climb on or make forts in, but that has changed. No more kids wanting to play in the front yard snow piles. When did that happen? Although, after the roads were plowed and salted, I trusted Nick to drive himself over to the high school hill for some sliding and sledding with his friends. Maybe some day I will have to find a little kid to make "snowmen" with again.
I
like the snow. I like the way it looks on the trees. I like the brightness of the snow cover. I like the feel of it all. It even changes the smells and sounds of the outdoors. The winter blue jays have been here for awhile and they look better in the snow too. Years ago I enjoyed some winter camping along with the cross country skiing. I have a few winter stories to tell but can't seem to find anyone who really wants, or needs, to hear them!This Sunday the snowfall reduced the worship attendance a bit. Beth's 7:30 AM flight out of Brainerd got canceled so she took a ground shuttle on to Minneapolis, got flights re-scheduled, and was in Boston's Logan airport this afternoon, ready to complete the last leg to her destination in New Hampshire.
On Saturday, Park Church and Light of the Lakes Church had its first Women's Candlelight Evening. The speaker was coming from another part of the state so the weather added some travel concerns but the attendance for that event was still near one hundred percent. We had coat check services, vocal music, piano, flute, violin, cello, fine catered meal, detailed decorations, each table hostess brought her finest china and holiday ware...and of course candle light. It was a ministry of hospitality.
I will try to get this morning's sermon posted to the blog tomorrow.
Park Church below, pre-snow
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