Category Archives: Religion

Basketball, Formal Portrait, Iowa State, Photo Journal, WPC - Reminder, Youth Group

A Photo Journal – Henry Carroll – Page 88

December 21, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 1 Comment

My favorite church service of the year is undeniably the Candlelight Service on Christmas Eve.

The last 4 weeks at Youth Group we have been having our own Advent Candle series.

It culminated on Wednesday when we lit the Love Candle and then the Christ Candle and then had our own Candlelight Service.

It was the perfect time to take Page 88 of THE PHOTO JOURNAL PROJECT:

Page 88 – Take a picture inspired by your favorite poem

I took this picture in the worst way possible. I put the DSLR on a little tripod in the front of the room and controlled it with my smart phone, while running the ceremony. The results were less than spectacular, but they are what they are. I’ll set up for success next time.

Here are a few of the other photos:

The poem that is my inspiration for these photos is “Our Deepest Fear” by Marianne Williamson.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness
That most frightens us.

We ask ourselves
Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small
Does not serve the world.
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking
So that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine,
As children do.
We were born to make manifest
The glory of God that is within us.

It’s not just in some of us;
It’s in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we’re liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

I first came across the poem in the movie AKEELAH AND THE BEE. If you haven’t seen that movie, I highly recommend it!

+++++++

Here is your weekly reminder that the theme for this week’s WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE is PHOTOJOURNALISM:

PHOTOJOURNALISM

A PHOTOJOURNALISM photo is any photo that can be used to tell the story. It doesn’t have to be the kind of story that the “New York Times” would report. A small company newsletter would still count as PHOTOJOURNALISM.

The editor of the “Boone News Republican” is a subscriber to this blog. You never know, you could catch his eye and you could be launched on a PHOTOJOURNALISM career.

Reminder that Monday is Christmas Eve. Plan your submitting accordingly.

Happy photo harvesting!

Boone FUMC, Event, Jodie, Youth Group

Boone FUMC Soup Supper & Christmas Pageant

December 19, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

A couple Sundays back the Boone First United Methodist Church had our annual Christmas Pageant.

Before the Christmas Pageant was a Soup Supper that was a fundraiser for the Youth Group’s Mission Trip to Rapid City next June.

Here are some pictures from the night:

Worried you didn’t get a chance to help support the Rapid City Mission Trip? Don’t worry. There are at least 2 more fundraisers for you to support.

Stay tuned for more information.

Boone FUMC, Holidays, Jodie Cue, Kio, Mom, Night, Street Photography, Teresa

That’s Life

December 5, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

If you’re not in the parade, you watch the parade. That’s life.
-Mike Ditka

Last Thursday was the annual lighted parade in Boone. I’m sure it has a proper name, but I don’t know what it is.

As a member of the Outreach Committee, I was part of the team that put together the “float” for the lighted parade. Unfortunately, we didn’t garner very many volunteers and I had to call a couple people last minuted just to borderline half fill our “people carrier”.

Although most people would not consider it a failure, I sorta do. That is okay. We learn more from our failures than we do from our successes. That means at the 2019 lighted parade, we will be back with a vengeance!

Here are some pictures from the event:

Santa was infatuated with my beard. He really wanted me to join the Santa union or something. Told me I could make $100 an hour as a “real beard Santa”. Maybe sometime, but I’m not ready for the Santa gig yet.

Boone FUMC, Event, Holidays, Kio, Panorama

2 Corinthians 9:11

December 4, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 3 Comments

For the last, oh, 15 or so years, my church has hosted a free Thanksgiving dinner.

It is open to anybody and it is 100% free. We don’t ask for an “at will donation”. We don’t put out baskets for donations. It is 100% free.

I went down there for the first shift to take some photographs to submit to the newspaper.

Here are a few pictures from the day:

Boone First United Methodist Church's Free Thanksgiving

You can check out more pictures from the event by clicking on the link below:

Boone First United Methodist Thanksgiving

If you are looking for a church where you can serve and worship and awesome God, I attend Boone First United Methodist Church.

We have 2 worship services on Sundays.

A Traditional Service at 9 AM.
A Contemporary Service at 11 AM.

We also have a variety of Youth Groups on Wednesdays. The night begins with a meal at 6 PM and ends at varying times, depending on the age of the youth.

Come check us out!

9 Emotions Project, Alexis, Anders, Andy, Animals, Baby Got Rack, Baier, Bethany, Black & White, Boone FUMC, Brandon, Carla, Colleen, Derrick, Elainie, Flat Earth Joe, Iowa State, Jay, Jesse, Johnathan, Jorge, Laura, Logan, Michelle, Micky, Mom, Nader, Naima, Nate, Nora, Russell, Sara, Shannon, State Fair, Tenderloining, Teresa, Tim, Willy

Blessings – 2018

November 22, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 4 Comments

I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving! It is the time of year where we are supposed to count our blessings.

I thought I would share a few of my current blessings:

I am blessed with a great family!

I have plenty of friends that share my love for the Cyclones!

I have a job I don’t hate going to, where I work with several people I don’t want to punch in the face.

I have an amazing church family!

I have an amazing friends family!

I’m blessed to share my life with Naima!

This is really just a handful of the blessings in my life! But I’m already getting this out late, so I’ll cut if off here. I’ll just end with a passage from a Rob Bell NOOMA video that really spoke to me:

“So the verse in First Timothy, it says command those that are rich to not put their hope in wealth… and then it goes on and it continues… and it says, but to put their hope in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

That phrase, a God that richly provides us with everything. All that we have is a gift.

Food. It is a gift.

Clothes. Gift.

Roof. Gift.

That breath you just took. It’s a gift.

Now there are some that will say: No, you don’t understand. I’ve worked for what I have. I deserve it. It is mine. But like it says in the book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 8: You may say to yourself, my power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me. But remember the Lord your God, because it is God that gives you the ability to produce wealth.”

I thank God for the embarrassment of riches in my life!

Art, Baseball/Softball, Black & White, Christianity, Flowers, Jay, Movies, Road Trip, Willy

06-11-08

November 17, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures from the folder 06-11-08 are from a road trip I took with Willy and Jay to Dyersville. The point of the road trip was to see The Field of Dreams. Jay actually suggested this road trip, even though he doesn’t like baseball. I agreed to go, even though I don’t like the movie FIELD OF DREAMS.

Also on the trip, we stopped at the Basilica of Dyersville. I’m not 100% sure of what Basilica is, but I believe it is a really fancy Catholic church where the Pope can hang out if he ever get kicked out of Rome.

Here are some pictures from the road trip:

By adding these images to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory:

Field of Dreams

St. Francis Xavier Basilica

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will involve a trip to the Iowa State Fair!

Animals, Art, Christianity, Ernie, Flowers, Still Life, Teresa, Travel, Vacation

08-03-08

October 27, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folder 08-03-08 is from the third day of my vacation in Kentucky with Teresa.

On that day, we went to a Southern Baptist Church service. We spent 3 hours at the church service, before we snuck out the back. I’m not sure how much long it went on. There were some positives about the church service. The music was amazing. The people were friendly. The story of the church was fascinating. It was started by a former prisoner. When he got out of prison he started the church with a mission of helping other convicts of surviving outside of prison and not falling back into the actions that got them in prison the first time.

The negative was it was the only time I’ve heard hate preached from a pulpit. At least hate on a certain group of people. The weird part of it was the pastor wasn’t even talking about the group of people he hated. He just threw a couple of bombs at them for no apparent reason. It was kind of sad.

After the 3+ hour church service, we also went to the lake and watch birds. Then we went to Ernie’s pond and fed his catfish.

Here are some pictures from the day:

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entry to its original glory:

KENTUCKY – DAY 3

Next week’s walk down memory lane will involve driving home from Kentucky and a look at some Abraham Lincoln history!

Art, Christianity, Road Trip, Teresa, Travel, Vacation

08-01-08

October 13, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

The pictures in the folder 08-01-08 are from a trip I made to Kentucky with Teresa to visit Ernie.

On the way down we stopped in Metropolis. Visited an illegal immigrant friend of mine. He’s a good chap. Maybe you’ve heard of him:

I highly endorse going to Metropolis. It is pretty cool!

By adding these images to The Photography 139 Gallery I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” blog to its original glory:

The South – Day 1

Next Saturday’s walk down memory lane will continue to revolve around this 2008 trip to Kentucky.

Black & White, Boone FUMC, Jeff Daniel, Jim, Mission Trip, Ruins, Travel, Vacation, Yin

07-20-07

October 6, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

The images from the folder 07-20-07 run the gamut from pictures from the first mission trip I ever went on to pictures from the Miller Farm to pictures from a RAGBRAI stop in Ames.

The mission trip photos are from Cedar Rapids. I went with an adult group from my church.

The Miller Farm pictures were taken before June and Dean moved off the farm and into town.

The mission trip to Cedar Rapids was after a flood. After working the second day, you drove home. One the second day we worked in a house where they had to pull a Youth Group out of because they found pornography.

I still can’t describe how bad that house smelled. The family had left their cat behind. It survived the initial flood. Then it came back to the house. Then it crapped all over the house. Well, mostly behind the couch. The food was still in the fridge. You could stand on the other side of the street and still smell the house.

By adding these pictures to the Photography 139 Photography Gallery, I was able to restore the following historic “An Artist’s Notebook” entries to their original glory: