Category Archives: Boone FUMC

Methodist Men Steak Fry

This Sunday is the Methodist Men Steak Fry. What makes this year special is that the entertainment will be Jesse speaking about his trip to Uganda.

The Methodist Men Steak Fry is open to men, women, Methodists and non-Methodists.


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What: Methodist Men Steak Fry
Where: Boone First United Methodist Church
What: Edible Food and Jesse Howard Level Entertainment
Date: Sunday, October 11, 2009
Time: 6 PM
Cost: $6.00

You can pay at the door. But let me know if you are coming, so I can get your name on the list.

Charlotte Bennett (Mom)

My mom doesn’t own a computer or even know how to use one, so I had to bring her over to the Honest Abe office to have her look over the pictures for her to pick one.


2009 - Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest Nominee
“Pardon and Sanctify Me”

I actually thought that she would pick this one. It is a picture of the cross on the top of our church. It actually looks much nicer than that now as it has been recently painted during the tuckpointing process. It is prettier now, but perhaps not as photogenic.

There were a couple of other images that she also considered.


2009 - Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest Nominee

2009 - Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest Nominee

The truth is that she doesn’t like the picture of Logan’s eye at all, but she thought it was artistic. I don’t think any of my weirder images got much love, but at least this one got mentioned.

Compassion

Last Sunday in church Phil quoted from Henri Nouwen’s book Wounded Healer. The quote struck me as being somewhat profound, so I thought I would share it because it is something that I have been thinking about all week.

Compassion is not pity. Pity lets us stay at a distance. It is condescending.

Compassion is not sympathy. Sympathy is for superiors over inferiors.

Compassion is not charity. Charity is for the rich to continue in their status over the poor.

Compassion is born of God. It means entering into the other person’s problems. It means standing in the other person’s shoes. It is the opposite of professionalism. It is the humanizing way to deal with people. Just as bread without love can bring war instead of peace, professionalism without compassion will turn forgiveness into a gimmick.

Henri Nouwen is a Catholic Priest who fought severe depression and found great comfort in serving God, and by seeking to understand others in the midst of their “stuff”.

I have not read Wounded Healer, but it will be the next book I look into.

Jesus Christ Pose

Last night was Good Friday. At the conclusion of our church service the congregation walks by a simulation of the crucifixion.

I’m not going to pretend that this is one of my favorite things that my church does, but I took a few pictures since Logan played Christ.


Good Friday - 2009

Good Friday - 2009
I guess you will have to pretend that Jeff was a roman centurion, that invented glasses.

Good Friday - 2009

Good Friday - 2009

Good Friday - 2009
Putting on garbage bags for the ride home.

I think they got a bit carried away with the fake blood. At least I know that Logan would be able to get a job on the special effects crew of the next Rob Zombie film if need be.

Advent Study Gift

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 had a gift more me and Teresa.

I thought this was a little bit strange, but I opened the bag up. What was inside was a very pleasant surprise.


Slice of Life Postcard

George had come across and old postcard that my dad had made for my dad’s postcard company, “Slice of Life”. He scanned and printed a couple copies and framed them. It was an awesome present.

Matthew 25:40

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 this awful time of day because I had to be at the Senior Citizen’s Center in Ames by 6:30 to participate in the Jaycee project known as Holiday Food Baskets.

Despite my body’s best effort to stop me from getting up, I did manage to fall out off the couch and stumble to the basement and take a shower. I hit the road and made it to Ames at nearly the right time.

The process of Holiday Food Baskets isn’t really worth mentioning, but there are aspects of the day that are worth noting.

But before getting to those aspects I should make a confession. Deflation and the rapid falling of gas prices has put more coin in this guy’s bank account. I have often noted that deflation is great, if you still have a job.

It is a poor joke and I do have more than a basic understanding of economics to know that deflation and hard economic times for other people could eventually lead to my not having a job. I do work in what is essentially a luxury industry. Nobody’s job is safe, especially people that work’s for a company thats services are hardly essential.

The Pastors at my church have made doing something about the homeless situation in Boone a priority for our church. As hard is it may seem to believe, Boone County has the 5th highest rate of homelessness in the state of Iowa. What makes the situation worse is that Boone does not have a homeless shelter.

There was one briefly, but the finances were mismanaged and it is no longer in existence. Now the best that Boone has to help its homeless is the Boone Biblical College, but they only take men.

I write these things because these are things that I think about lately and it can really happen to almost anybody.

The need in Story County for Holiday Food Baskets tripled from 2007 to 2008.

Andrea told us a story about a family that seemed financially secure. In 2007 they were teaching their children to buy presents for other children through the Angel Tree program. In 2008, their children were on the Angel Tree.

The first 2-3 hours of Holiday Food Baskets is basically grunt work. It is essential, but hardly rewarding. You do a lot of moving food from place A to place B to place C. After everything is organized, then people start coming in to pick up their Food Baskets.

This is the part of the project that is rewarding and I think it is slightly unfortunate that only a handful of us that participated got to take part in this one aspect of the project.

This aspect was carrying the basket of food from the Senior Center to the person’s car. It is important to put a bag or rolls or some apples in a cardboard box, but I don’t think you get a sense of what all of this really means or amounts to and why it is important unless you get a chance to interact with the people that are getting the food.

It can also break your heart.

While I was carrying a cardboard box of food across a street to an SUV for a young woman she told me that this box of food was really going to help her family. They had 8 people living in the same house.

It made me feel completely inadequate and helpless at the same time. I couldn’t help but look into the cardboard box. Just a few moments ago it seemed like a lot of food.

A handful of apples and oranges.
A bag of celery.
A bag of potatoes.
A bag of carrots.
A ham.
2 cans of something.
A bag of rolls.

All of a sudden I felt that I should have run in and gotten them a second box. I should have gotten them a third box. The ham was nothing to sniff at, but I would be lying if I didn’t say that the ham that we had on our Christmas table that fed 9 people was at least 4 times larger than the ham we gave out. I didn’t do this though. The bureaucracy of such things precluded that people had to sign in with MICA and people were designated so much food.

I just wished the young woman a “Merry Christmas” and walked back inside. It is my regret that I didn’t just go grab another box for this family. It was a regret that would be doubled and then doubled again.

We had made up 200 Holiday Food Baskets. At the end of the event around 50 remained. Here is where my regret doubled the first time.

We loaded up the excess food and took it to MICA. As it turns out, MICA doesn’t really have that much capacity for storing frozen hams. Their freezer was already full and they needed to make room. To do this they gave each of us a turkey.

My regret doubled again.

So now I have this turkey weighing on my conscience, but I throw it in the trunk of my car and drive off.

My first stop is Becky’s. I’m supposed to stop at her place to pick up some Christmas gifts. Some for me and some for Teresa. What I learn on this stop is that Becky thinks I’m going to end up in a ditch some time in the near future.

I know she has had this fear for quite some time. When Shannon and I went up to Cedar Falls she gave me an extensive quiz on what kind of safety equipment I had in the car in case we went in a ditch. It basically boiled down to a thermos of hot chocolate. This didn’t seem to satisfy her.

She packed a gift bag full of food. Every time I would pull a new tin of food out she would tell me to “keep that in my car in case you go in a ditch.”

I do not discount the possibility that I might someday go in a ditch, but the closest I’ve ever come to going into a ditch was in the middle of the summer and the reason why is because I was reading the newspaper while I was driving to work.*

If the weather is bad, I don’t read the newspaper.

After I left Becky’s I stopped at Shannon’s to watch her make Christmas candy. She also bound my calendars for me.

Somewhere in between the “pink stuff” and the experimental caramel (which involved the use of a candy thermometer – who invented the candy thermometer??) the lack of quality sleep on the couch began to catch up to me in a massive way.

I bid my adieu since I was going to Des Moines for supper with Jeff and Yin and I was hoping to get a nap of Wentworthian proportions in before I hit the road.

Then on Sunday morning in church, Phil announced that a new family in Boone was homeless.

And I still have this turkey on my conscience.

*Not counting the skunk story.

Thanksgiving

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 again it will be a Golden Retriever, I was told by one of Jordan’s daughters to look into Bulgarian Mountain Dogs.

I really had no intention of doing this, but I was told (incorrectly) that I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t do such a thing.

So enjoy this little tidbit from Wikipedia about Bulgarian Mountain Dogs (AKA Caucasian Shepherd Dog):

Powerful and massive, the Caucasian Ovcharka can be a difficult breed for an inexperienced owner, because it respects and obeys only those that it deems superior to itself. They are good with children, but will not see them as their masters. The dog develops a strong bond with its owner but will rarely be submissive; this is truly a thinking dog which relies on its own instincts, sometimes even disregarding its master’s directions. A breed with a very quick reaction time and fast protection reflexes, it has even been unfairly described by some as somewhat of a “loose cannon”. With proper care, handling and training, this is a well-behaved and obedient family companion.

I have no doubt that such a dog would see me as being superior, but Golden Retrievers are where it is at.

I concluded my Thanksgiving by eating a wonderful dinner and dominating my family in Rack Rummy.

Here are some pictures from the day.


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If you break it down, I had 6 Thanksgivings to attend this week. That is a lot of good and unhealthy eating.

Mr. Meeting

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 meetings a month.

I will also be on the Board of Trustees at the church. I don’t know exactly what the Board of Trustees does, but apparently it involves staring at water damage to the ceiling and then voting on it. I vote “yes” that is water damage. I’m not sure how many meetings that will entail, but I’m hoping that it isn’t too many.

It also seems like I might end up on the Board of the Methodist Men. I’m not sure if this is a done deal, but I think that they meet twice a month in between church services.

That should be enough meetings for me, I might have to abstain from all meetings in 2010.

As it is, my years working for the Evil Clown Empire conditioned me to hate meetings. We only really had 2 Store Manager Meetings and we rotated through them.

The first meeting I will call the Boat Captain Meeting. The old man that owned the company would give a stirring story about how managers were doing to much work. My favorite was when he compared managers to boat captains.

If you were a captain of a boat and you saw that you were going to slam into something ahead, would a good captain run down into the boiler room and start shoveling coal or would they grab the wheel and steer the ship out of danger?

The point of the meeting was that he wanted more staff added to every shift so that managers could manage rather than shoveling coal.

The next manager meeting would always be about how labor was too high and we needed to cut labor.

This of course would be followed by the Boat Captain Meeting. It was an endless cycle.

Suffrage March

Here are some pictures from the suffrage march on Saturday.


Women's Suffrage March Re-enactment

Women's Suffrage March Re-enactment

Women's Suffrage March Re-enactment

Women's Suffrage March Re-enactment

Women's Suffrage March Re-enactment

Women's Suffrage March Re-enactment

Women's Suffrage March Re-enactment

Women's Suffrage March Re-enactment

Women's Suffrage March Re-enactment

Women's Suffrage March Re-enactment

Women's Suffrage March Re-enactment

Women's Suffrage March Re-enactment

Women's Suffrage March Re-enactment

Women's Suffrage March Re-enactment

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 it was okay for the state to sterilize a woman because her mother and her daughter were “feeble-minded” and “promiscuous”.*

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wrote the following in his decision:

We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, in order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes.

Three generations of imbeciles are enough.

I wonder if the idiots on the sign were related to the imbeciles in the Supreme Court decision.

*Every time I discuss this case, I have to confirm to at least one person that this really happened in this country. Yes! This really happened in this country. Just more than 80 years ago.

Done Waiting

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 Bulletin came out. I read Andrea’s section with more than my usual amount of anticipation.

A Note from Pastor Andrea

October Blessings!!

I have been doing a lot of reflecting this past month on ways in which we can as a church grow as one community. I have been thinking about ways in which we can get involved not only by our giving but also through our talents.

So, I thought that for the month of October we as a church could reflect on the “God Moments” in our lives. First, find a photo from this summer or fall that shows you “God Moment”. It could be a scenery picture, it could be a family photo, a child’s photo, any type of picture that you have taken of something you did or saw. Secondly, I would like for you to write a short blurb explaining your special “God moment”. Bring your photo and blurb to the office and we will display them around the church as a way for us to share with one another not only our talents in photography but also to share the way that we have seen God in our everyday lives!! The question I want you to answer is, “How have I seen God working in my life?”

I think those of you that attended my Sermon Interview a few months back will know why she was thinking about me when she wrote this section of her Note.

As it turns out, it was nothing to worry about. I’ve even offered to help out with this project. I think it is a brilliant idea. I hope people choose to participate.