How About A Photo Album?

Happy Thanksgiving (a little belated) and Happy Advent (today is the first Sunday thereof). Joyce and I drove to JoAnn's in Stayton for our dinner. Joyce cooked the turkey, we put it in a cooler (I guess, warmer, in this case) and it was great. She only lives about 40 minutes away. We left there early and drove to Betty's (my niece) in Creswell -- just south of Eugene. My sisters were there plus my nephew and wife. We visited for awhile, eat pie, and left for home.

It seems this was a busy week but we really didn't do much. I preached today because Trevor and Shanette were gone all week visiting family. But the Christmas season is here and I'm glad. I love it.

Oh, one other note of information. The Oregon Conference has rented the Allen Creek Church building to the Church of the Nazarene. In addition, the Rogue Valley Christian Deaf Fellowship is using it. 'Nough said on that subject.

Enjoy the pictures.

On the Girls Day Out in Redmond last fall -- Beth, JoAnn, Joyce

Last fall we had a bonfire and roasted hot dogs. Yes, the fire was hot!

The day I preached about taking off the access baggage so we can better run the race of life

My sister, Beth, feeding the ducks behind our house. They still come up looking for her.

Some of the people we packed into our house for the "Old Friends" potluck the last time we were in Grants Pass.

My two sisters and myself on Thanksgiving -- Doris and Beth

Our church Thanksgiving Tree. Written on the leaves are notes of things our people are thankful for. The tree is baren as I write this but tune in again the end of December to see what it will look like.

Rather Hum-drum

Honestly, I don't feel like blogging. This has been a good week but not much of interest to write about. Tuesday we -- the we being Trevor, Shanette, Joyce, and I -- spent all day at a pastor's conference in Salem. It was okay. We had our staff meeting on Thursday. We are trying to call it a Team Meeting but sometimes I forget. The last few weeks we have met in the Lebanon Coffee House. It is in the middle of downtown Lebanon -- the old part of town. It is actually an old hotel the owners are renovating and setting up for meeting rooms, etc. We are meeting there to try to have a more visible presence in the community. The picture above is taken there last Thursday. I don't think I have posted a picture of Trevor and Shanette so I thought I better take the opportunity to do it. This who we work with. They are great -- and a lot of fun.

The reason I don't feel like blogging is that the closing of the Grants Pass church is bothering me. I'll be okay but it is still hard to internalize. If I had left a small, dysfunctional church that would be different. But it wasn't. It was strong, financially stable, lots of good people, and ready to go to the next level. Not the zero level! Anyway, I'll be okay but it will take awhile and it is hard to keep upbeat.

I preached this morning. I love preaching and the people at this church, so it was easy to put all this other stuff aside and forget it for awhile. My sermon was on being grateful -- and as often happens, the preacher preaches to himself.

So have a good week. I intend to. Happy Thanksgiving.

Lots of Good Things; One Bad

This has been a fun week. So many blessings. So many good things. But I suppose we just as well begin with the bad. Let's get it out of the way and conclude with the good stuff. The bad: today was the last Sunday for Allen Creek Church! Their numbers had dwindled; their finances disappeared; so a couple weeks ago they voted to disband. Bummer. Well, worse than that but I don't use that kind of language. How do I feel about this? I am hurt, angry, and troubled. And we better leave it at that. However, on the positive side, there is a plan to replant the church. Time will tell if that really happens. There is also a possibility of keeping the church open with the remnant that is left plus others that will come back. I know a man who will go in and be the pastor. But there are a lot of details to work out and this might not be a realistic possibility. I know a lot of people who read this blog believe in prayer. Please pray.

Now let's focus on the good stuff. Wednesday we drove to Grants Pass stopping at the hospital in Eugene to visit a former Allen Creek lady who was having surgery. In Grants Pass we cleaned up the yard and took a trailer load of garden and yard debris to Jo-Gro. Friday evening we had a potluck dinner party with the "old gang" from Allen Creek. We crammed 18 people into our house. It was crowded but lots of fun. Many of us (them) had not seen one another for several years. The love flowed freely. Such good friends. We shared a lot through the years. Everyone wanted to get together again so maybe we'll meet in the spring. We returned to Lebanon Saturday.

Last night we set up the worship area with the tables for the Thanksgiving Dinner. Twelve round tables with 7 chairs each. Of course this meant that for worship this morning everyone sat around the tables. There were a lot of comments that we are pushing them out of their comfort zones (we are) but no one really complained. In fact a few people liked it. We noticed there was a lot more visiting before worship began.

Tonight was the potluck Thanksgiving Dinner. Great decorations with candles. Great food. We thought we had a good count on how many people were coming -- but they kept coming, and coming. We were set up for 84 and could crowd a few more chairs in. Well, we kept setting up more and more tables; card tables, old beat up tables, tables from I-don't-know-where. The final tally was 112 -- give or take a few. We did two things for entertainment or "program." One was to have each table find the best Thanksgiving story and then one person share that with the entire group. That was pretty good but a lot of people don't like to speak publicly. The other thing was loads of fun. We found a short play on the internet and did it. It was real simple; very few props. Funny. Basically, people were calling in to the radio program, "The Testimony Show." Except their "testimonies" were tales of illness and calamity. The host wept and hammed it up and had a hard time handling it. Finally someone called in and told what a real testimony was (that was me). It was simple and fun. The lady who played the host was really good -- really, really good.

So we came home a little while ago tired and worn out and happy (except for the ACNC thing). And so it goes.

We're Okay

I had a really good nap this afternoon. Probably won't sleep well tonight but the nap was great. This morning at church we had Katie Bartlett as our speaker. If you remember back 11 months, I mentioned one of our missionaries was killed in an auto accident in Malawi, Africa. Katie, his wife, has gone through a year of grief, soul searching, and wondering about the future. In the last couple months it has been confirmed to her that she should return to Malawi as a missionary. She will have a special ministry to wives. So we invited her to come to our church to tell what has been happening and what will happen. And to raise support. Really excellent presentation. You should meet her.

Tuesday evening was a special time. Ron in our church, invited me to go with him to a dinner and program for veterans presented by the 5th graders at a local school. It is a study project whereby the students interview local veterans, research the meaning of words, study subjects such as our flag, constitution, honor, citizenship, etc. Then they presented these things in a fast-paced program and dinner. The students take orders for drinks, serve the dinner, and in general wait on the veterans. It was a great evening but you could see how valuable it was as a teaching project. I'm sure the kids learned a lot.

The two big things this week were the funeral I mentioned in the last blog and a Conference board retreat. The funeral was Tuesday. It was big but very positive. In that respect, it was an easy service but a long day. The lady was a long-time member of this church and, in her younger years, a hard worker here.

The board retreat was Friday evening and Saturday morning. We had never before done anything like this. The Board of Ministerial Education and Guidance, the Ministry Resource Team, and the Leadership Council met together with the Bishop as our facilitator. It was a good chance for our three boards to interact, pray together, and listen to the bishop give us some direction to make our work more effective.

It rained yesterday -- it rained hard! Sort of rained on the UofO's big parade before the nation, too. It seems they are so good at doing well, getting the attention of the nation, getting a good BCS ranking, then blowing it the next week. If you like football, you know what I'm taking abut. If you don't, ignore this.

But be careful who you ignore. Recently I've heard of numerous situations where people felt they were ignored (i.e. not welcomed) in church, in a group setting, or with those who should have been friends. It doesn't take much effort to smile and say "hi."

:) Hi!

I'm Tired

Whew! I'm tired and the week is just about to begin. We have been hammered with funerals. The Lord has decided to take his people home. Four weeks ago was Jim's graveside service. He died suddenly after having open heart surgery. Last Thursday we had Phil's memorial at the church. This coming Tuesday we will have Erma's memorial. I haven't been in charge of all of these but it has entailed visiting with the families and being at the service. In fact, a former pastor officiated at Phil's service but I was there and it involved the entire day -- getting things set up, visiting people, the service itself, the committal in the cemetery, the luncheon afterward, and finally cleaning up. Joyce and went home and crashed!! Trevor and I are conducting Erma's service Tuesday and I'll meet with the family tomorrow and then do the preparation.

Each of these, plus a service a couple months ago, have involved our people preparing food for either the luncheon or for the family while the person was ill -- or both. I think our ladies just automatically prepare an extra dish when they go into the kitchen to prepare a meal.

I'm not complaining. This is all part of pastoral ministry. But I'm still tired. Usually this many deaths are spread out over several months -- or years. I think I had about 1 funeral a year in Grants Pass. I do have to add, these last two folks who died had been in poor health for several weeks or longer. And we have one more lady who is not expected to live very long. Oh, well.

Friday we went into Salem and looked at lots -- building lots, that is -- as in pieces of property to build a house on. We found one really nice, large one in a not-so-good neighborhood and another nice one but at a pretty high price. We'll keep looking. In the evening we had dinner with Ginger and two of her friends, Debbie & Steve, at the Macedonian Restaurant in Salem. It's really nice with a Greek theme -- of course.

Well, it's easy to see what has taken up most my time. Joyce is right in there with me on most of this. Thursday she helped in the kitchen for 6 hours and did a craft for the Family Night kids party. Today I preached then had a Board meeting after the worship. And so it goes... and goes... and goes... goes.