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.

A (Retired) Pastor's Week

I guess this was a typical pastor's week. Since I am also the secretary one or two days each week, I did that kind of stuff -- making a new attendance roster, checking email, making an insert for the worship folder, talking with a lot of people who stopped by, answering the phone, etc. Wednesday we were waiting for Trevor so we could start our team meeting when we learned that a man in the church had died. He had terminal cancer but it was expected that he would live another 5 or 6 months so this came as a shock. Shanette and I went over to the house and spent time with the family. Our team meeting was later and shorter!

Wednesday evening was our Family Nite and I spent considerable time getting an old TV to play a VHS tape so the kids could sing to music. We have a new TV but I couldn't get it to work with the VCR. I was successful, but the old system leaves a lot to be desired. That kind of summarizes our whole technological system. Some of what we have is very good and some is rather archaic and the two don't get along well together. I'm referring to our sound and projection system. Trevor is slowly getting it whipped into shape.

One aspect of Family Nite is making sure all the kids get home safely. Some of our kids come from apartments down the street. Three little girls and their baby sister discovered mom wasn't home and the door was locked. We took them back to the church and waited for mom. Pretty soon she called. There was some kind of misunderstanding but everyone was safe.

I like to watch football on TV -- which I did Saturday. Did anyone notice that Oregon beat Washington? I only got in a little football Sunday, as you will read next. And tonight football was just "okay." Unless, of course, you are a Philly fan. But it wasn't much of a game.

Sunday they had a potluck for Pastor's Appreciation day. The food was great. So was the appreciation. It is always nice to be appreciated but I feel a little self-conscious or awkward about people saying all those nice things. The people really do appreciate Trevor and Shanette which is really good. Sunday evening Joyce and I drove to Springfield to attend the church where her nephew is the pastor. He started the same day we did last July but we haven't had the chance to go visit. We got of meet his wife for the first time -- who is expecting their first baby in December. They got married about 3 years ago in South Dakota (her home) and then went to seminary in Mississippi. This is his first full-time appointment and he is pastoring the church he grew up in. His mom and dad also attend the church. Kind of neat, huh?

And so it goes. Lots of work but time for fun. God is good.

Anybody Want To Eat Out?

Well... you, dear readers, are a wonderful tribe. All one needs to do for a little TLC is throw a bit of a pity party and there you are, saying nice things. I'm encouraged.

This has been a fun week. I know... I say that about a lot of weeks. Well, they are. Life is just plain ole fun. Lots of work, but still fun. My sister, Beth, has been with us for the past week. She is the one you don't recognize in this made-just-for-the-blog photo. We have done things with her, and at other times we left her at home and went on our own. Friday we took most of the day for a small tour of the area. We drove through Sodaville to Brownsville and snooped through some old shops, second hand stores, and the museum. Then on through Sweet Home and back to Lebanon. Fun day. Last week I mentioned a graveside service I officiated at. An interesting side note to that: I found out Beth's in-laws are buried at the same cemetery so we drove over there and found their graves.

We're not suffering for food either. Monday we ate out at a Chinese Restaurant, Tuesday afternoon we went to the Seniors Retreat at Aldersgate so we ate dinner there. Wednesday was Family Night with dinner there. Thursday Joyce and I were invited out to eat at a Mongolian Grill. Friday we ate lunch in at a nice little cafe in Brownsville. Alas, Saturday we had to eat at home. Tonight Joyce and I just returned from an invitation to eat out -- again!

Tuesday morning we went house hunting. We are considering moving to Salem and getting a duplex so Ginger can live in the other end. We got a list of possibilities from a Realtor, I laid out a grid, and we drove all over Salem looking at duplexes. Not the inside, just looking at the outside and considering the neighborhood -- if we wanted to pursue it further. There are some we are going to try to see closer but nothing we are really excited about. We have discovered some problems with what we want to do: 1) most duplexes are in a concentration of duplexes, i.e. rentals, with all the problems a group of rentals brings; 2) newer duplexes are nicer but the building lots are smaller, hence real close neighbors and no place to put the RV; 3) many of them are townhouses and we are not thrilled with the idea of steps. So we'll see how this progresses. We are in no hurry.

We are having fabulously beautiful fall weather. A little rain but then it turns nice, the sun shines, and temps are not too bad. It is really nice. The Friday trip was in gorgeous weather. Yesterday it rained. Today was beautiful. I preached this morning and Trevor did his first baby dedication. Ginger came Friday evening and went home after church today. And Beth goes home tomorrow -- after we eat lunch at a Mexican Restaurant just down the street!!!

And that is about it. Oh yes, the church. Of course, the church. That's why we are here, isn't it? Or is it to try all the local restaurants? Actually we don't have that many but Corvallis and Albany are nearby. That opens up a whole world of possibilities. Anyway, the church is going well. Lots of planning and visiting, planning and visiting. It's good. We're good. I hope you're good.

(Sorry about the big, long paragraph. After putting in a pictue, my blog won't recognize paragraphs -- many times. Any suggestions?)

2 Weeks Worth

I'm back. I didn't blog last week because I didn't feel like it! I decided that since I'm retired (well, supposed to be) that I didn't always have to blog if I didn't want to. Besides, who cares? I didn't think anyone would even notice. Who reads it anyway? Only 3 people checked anything on the poll (I'm the 4th one). So I had a pity party and kicked back and watched football. So there!

(I just lost a big paragraph of blog. I don't even know how it happened and I'm not happy again. Anybody know a better way to blog than to use blogspot? I've thought of getting a web page but I think that is more work and has more limitations for what this really is.) Okay. I'll try again but I always hate to redo something. There were a few times back in history when I would lose my sermon on the computer (a lockup or something). Then I would have to start over and I hated that. I think God gave me those times to see if I was really committed to developing the best sermon I could.

I think I'll work backwards. Today Trevor preached. We are beginning a sermon series on the Bible book of Philippians and he gave the background. My sister, Beth is here visiting us for about 10 days. We also had visitors from Grants Pass -- Mike, Joann, Ken and Ruth. Plus four other people from the Salem area (plus their kids). Our regular attendance was down but with the visitors, it didn't look too bad. We were also missing our pianist which meant singing a'capella. Actually we do that pretty well.

We made a quick trip to Grants Pass this week. We left Wednesday immediately after a funeral I officiated at (it was a simple graveside). Part of the funeral process is teaching Trevor and Shanette what to do so I had them involved with visiting with the family and Trevor prayed a closing prayer. At home -- GP home -- we had two doctors appointments EACH on Thursday (all is well -- too well, in fact. I am eating too well!). We stripped the garden and got the remnants ready to take to Jo-Gro on our November visit. We also winterized the RV and covered it for winter. Then headed back to Lebanon on Friday. Oh, I also turned on the heat in the house. Note: this is my new heating system that I have only been able to personally enjoy for two days! Maybe the house will enjoy it. Hope it works.

Joyce and Shanette painted the outer office a few days ago -- then put furniture and so on in there to make it more like a reception area. It looks nice. We have been invited out to eat and always eat too much. These people can sure cook! I've been working too hard. This is supposed to be part-time -- about 30 hours a week. Some weeks I'm getting over 40 and have averaged about 35. Oh well. I'm having fun. Last Sunday I preached. The previous two Sundays Trevor preached using his life testimony as a basis; then Shanette did the same thing. So I decided to do that also. That is the first time I have done that. I've shared my testimony before but never in that way. It was hard deciding what to talk about and what to leave out -- and then work all that into a sermon so it was more than just a "story about me." I think it turned out okay and it was fun.

And with that note of "fun" I'll end this blog. Be sure to have fun this week.