Teresa and I took part in an Advent Study at church on the 4 Tuesdays of Advent. At the end of one of the studies, the one that Teresa skipped, George Eckstein came across the room and sat on my couch. He handed me a bag and said that he… Read More »Advent Study Gift
I began this Saturday morning (12-20-2008) by rising out of bed around 5:45 in the morning. I often don’t sleep that well, but on this night I purposely slept on the couch so that I wouldn’t sleep well and I would get up in time. I was getting up at… Read More »Matthew 25:40
I started Thanksgiving by helping serve the free Thanksgiving dinner with my Mom, Teresa and Logan. I was given the extremely important duty of collecting trays. After my shift concluded I talked dogs with Karma’s former vet Jordan and his family. Even though I know when I get a dog… Read More »Thanksgiving
As I look at the year that is rapidly approaching, it turns out that 2009 is going to be the Year of the Meeting. For starters, I will be the Marketing VP for the Ames Jaycees in 2009. That means two board meetings a month in addition to 2 membership… Read More »Mr. Meeting
Here are some pictures from the suffrage march on Saturday. My favorite sign is from the march is the sign about “Idiots” having the right to vote, but not women. For some reason that sign reminds me of Buck vs. Bell. The 1927 Supreme Court where The Supreme Court concluded… Read More »Suffrage March
About 3 Sundays ago while I was leaving the sanctuary, Andrea told me that she was thinking about me when she wrote her section for the October Bulletin. That made me a bit nervous. Was there some particular message that I in particular needed to hear? This Sunday the new… Read More »Done Waiting
Lowell has signed on to teach Sunday School for Middle Schoolers. He was recently give a stack of potential books to use as curriculum. One of these books was trying way too hard to be “young” and “hip”. Not only did they try to make the guy on the cover… Read More »But I love gatherings. Isn’t it ironic?
On the second day of the trip we headed to a house that hadn’t been touched or mucked. I can’t even describe how this house smelled. Once you opened opened the front door, you could stand across the street and still smell the house, with your mask on. The strange… Read More »Cedar Rapids Trip Day 2
I went over to Cedar Rapids with a group from my church to do a little flood relief. All I can really say is that it was 100 times worse than I imagined. 5,038 houses were effected by the flooding in Cedar Rapids. It will take 4 years of continuous… Read More »Cedar Rapids Trip Day 1
I believe an important part of being an Iowan is having an opinion on what is the “right color tractor”. I don’t wish to get into this debate. I bring this point up because on Tuesday morning Lowell and I served breakfast with the Meth Men (as Lowell and I… Read More »The Right Color Tractor
I managed to make it through this Sunday’s Sermon/Interview. I don’t think that I embarrassed myself too much and I think at least a few people were touched or were able to relate to my message. I don’t want to re-hash the experience, but I would like to thank Jesse,… Read More »Sunday
My church, the First United Methodist Church of Boone, is doing a series of sermons this summer where the Pastors interview a member of the congregation. This Sunday is the second sermon of this kind. The lucky person being interviewed is me. I’m not really sure how or why I… Read More »Sunday, Sunday, Sunday
Sunday was an interesting day for me. I started the day as a greeter for church. There were a couple unique events at church on Sunday. 4 of the churches in the area combined choirs and toured their churches. One of the other 4 churches is the Central Christian Church,… Read More »Sundaze
I have been looking forward to today for quite some time. After church Lowell and I attended a Methodist Men board meeting. I learned a lot about our future activities. We are serving the food at the Mother-Daughter Banquet this coming Saturday. We are serving Fellowship in the month of… Read More »False Snake Hype
I went to the church on Wednesday to take a group photo of the stitching group that Teresa started in Olivia’s name. Here is the result. This picture is going to go in the church bulletin, so in the end it will end up looking something like this: I took… Read More »Olivia’s Stitching Time
I’ve had some strange encounters with members of the Class of 1993. My home loan officer is from that legendary class. I ran into a member from the class at a nursing home. Then I met a member of the class during Fellowship at church. Interesting.
I’ve been an usher at church the last two weeks. I usher again this coming Sunday. At first I was a little bit leery about being an usher. The main problem is that our traditional worship service begins at 8:55. That means to begin fulfilling the many usher duties (handing… Read More »Usher Observations
Lowell and I discussed putting together a Relay for Life team for 2008 shortly after the 2007 Relay for Life event ended. Then we did nothing. A couple of Sundays ago they announced in church the need for members for our 2 Relay for Life teams. Lowell quickly signed us… Read More »Relay for Life
Today Logan and I concluded our Confirmation mentoring journey. It took 10 weeks, but now he possesses some of my wisdom and that could make him a very dangerous teenager. We celebrated the conclusion of the mentoring program by dining at Hu Hot. Then we had our picture taken. The… Read More »Mentoration
Perhaps I shouldn’t judge or rate the sermon’s given in my church, but there are definitely some that speak to me a quite a bit more than others. During Phil’s sermon on Sunday he gave a sermon that spoke to me. During the sermon he gave a list of people… Read More »God Wants to Use Us!
I ran into and old friend by the name of Sean Clubine at Best Buy yesterday. For some strange reason we began recounting horror stories about our time spent at Wesley Woods. Then he asked if I went to Mexico for confirmation. I didn’t. He asked because he wanted to… Read More »Somebody Bet on the Bay