puttting the hump back in humpday

my story in 3 parts: as in the days that have led me to the hump.

part one: monday.
my day off. a gathering with my clergy colleagues on the occasion of christian unity prayer week-month-decade....something of that nature. we did potluck lunch at the Catholic church. i took canned biscuits, steamed broccoli & lima beans--because in fact i can boil water.
it was a most interesting conversation: two baptist men, one methodist woman, one catholic man, one a very bright disciple. in an unrelated story, i met a friend for happy hour at our local mexican place...in the next town over. thanks be to God for single friends who can gather at the spur of the moment for much needed margaritas, laughs and commiserating.
part two: tuesday.
i should have left town. i have not been to the city in weeks due to the calendar and weather. i need it badly. however, when the phone rang at 6:30 a.m. i had the notion to say "yes" -- yes to subbing at the local high school. in a nut shell: we have some serious problems in mayberry.
these kids are rude, obnoxious, and headed for a rude awakening out in the real world. i have never been so insulted by senior girls in all my life. yes the boys have their moments, but they are mostly silly, goofy, clown-esque. we are not at kirkwood high school anymore!
and i then realized why i put so much time into our ecumenical youth group. they are great kids and need a place of positive interaction, growth and modeling in their lives! somehow they will be spared from becoming what many of our kids here have become. it is a most grave situation. each time i sub, at any grade level, i cannot begin to give enough credit to our teachers for all that they put up with.
part two/b: we had a WINTER RIVER FESTIVAL, of which i serve as chairperson, meeting in the early evening--3 days prior to said festival--to do the usual tieing up of loose ends...
to find out that a major venue, a local nightclub--which was for our daytime wine tasting, evening karaoke contest--decided not to host. what the heck. now what are we supposed to do for a large building, with setups, liquor license etc....ahhhhhh....these people drive me nuts!
we reconfigured.
part three: wednesday---the hump day.
o early 7 a.m. the youth groupers gathered for breakfast at the parsonage. all boys today. they are hilarious in the morning....semi-comatose, interesting hair, etc. some flipping between sponge-bob and CMT videos and others finishing chemistry homework.
then after some morning church work, lunch at the senior center... picking in fact tuna casserole day. ugh. following lunch, i convened a board meeting at said center and found yet a few more difficult people. i am in fact wearing thin.
i have led or been a part of 4 meetings this week that have all been tedious. wearing thin i say, wearing thin.
after a pick me up piece of apple pie, with a church lady, i was off to prep for the 2 people who showed for bible study. what has often been 10 people, has been 2 the last two weeks. again, wearing thin. but it was all everyone else's loss....it is amazing to me how bible study works in people's life, when they commence to doing it.
then after a quick clothes change, youth group commenced. 10 youth tonight. one girl...and a brave one at that! what a good group.

and finally, can i say i am tired of the cold weather. wearing thin. ...or have a said that before?

and now, by writing this LONG blog i have successfully put off the funeral that needs to be written for tomorrow, when at last i will be over the hump.

a sunday of snow and pbs

It snowed 6-8 inches in the night.
We had 20 people in church today.
I requested they all sit up front in the first two rows.
We had to send a 4x4 for the organist.
A potluck was served. The 5 dishes fed us all.
I survived yet another Board meeting.

(If Jesus' dealings with the scribes and pharisees was anything like a church board meeting...
well I don't know what to say but that, but that the boy didn't get enough credit.)

It was then time for apple pie. I then went over to one of my dearest church ladies...98 yrs old...sharp & spry. She could not attend today, so it was a shame for her apple pie to go to waste. We had a nice visit.

The day ended with great PBS watching. Masterpiece Theater was 2 hours, the first part of "Jane Eyre" then followed by a humorous detective show from England. Both were great. I am so glad for a low key Sunday night of great television. Truely a rarity.

I just stepped outsided to set the trash cans out, and found that someone with a big plow has plowed the gravel side of my driveway. My goodness what a blessing. I wonder who it was, and why I didn't hear a plow out front. hummm....
Ironic that I just a few hours ago shoveled the pavement side.

Come on Spring!

...and we'll pretend that he is Parson Brown...

I would like to settle down for a long winter's nap, however, I am searching for the luster of mid-day on the new fallen snow. It has been snowing to beat the band since 8:00 p.m. It is now after 11 and upon noticing Dude and Sarah Jane (see earlier post) were still up around 11pm I called to find out if they were up for a late night snow ball fight over the fence. The Dude suggested perhaps snow angels. We settled on a possible gathering later tomorrow night over the meat loaf that Sarah J. had made for tomorrow's church potluck.

Yes, this bloomin snow is going to mess with my potluck plans. My church folks do potlucks very well. We had all been looking forward to the first one of the year tomorrow since it has been since Thanksgiving that we gathered with our covered-dishes.

Since the whole town canceled church last Sunday I think we will be reluctant to do so tomorrow. So, this parson will be up early in the am, in his pre-church sweats, having to go down and scope out the situation...setting up for the snowy Christians that will gather.

Should they come out? no.
Will they come out despite the 6-10 inches? yes.

So, we shall go and sing and be warm together and share in a meal and be glad.
Oh bugger, I just remembered my 80 year old organist lives in the country and will surely not be in...which means no music. ugh.

This now means I will have to pick 3 hymns we can do a capella. I am thinking Amazing Grace, Pass it On, and This is the Day. Perhaps a little Let Us Break Bread Together.

I will think we should be singing "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" or even more appropriately, the hit of old, "I Will Survive."

On another note, I moved our Rotary exchange student between host families today. Since family #2 lives in a rural setting, and that their hilly lane is all ice, and that the Caddy is not 4WD, we walked in packing the Thai student's stuff literally over the river and through the wood to his new family's front door. They helped of course, but what a site to behold. Five people with suitcases, golf bag, Christmas gift bags, clothes on hangers and a bunch of fools this close to biting it on the ice. We took pictures so his family in Thailand could have a good laugh.

It was a full day but the rest of the story will have to wait... at least till I have had that nap.

May your weather be bright however deep the snow,
jes.4

ad boy hits the road...

It is a glorious Friday here in America's Hometown. (I have claimed that name for us, you know.) The sun is out to give the bitter cold a run for its money. The day began at o'early hour with some radio time. Every now and then I pop in on our local country radio station's live morning show. Good friends are the radio personalities...so we laugh about life here and random stuff. (They are linked on this blog.)

Today we talked about the Winter River Festival that is coming up next weekend. How I got myself into the chairpersonship I have no idea. But for today that means a last ditch effort of promotion....radio, Quincy/Hannibal TV spot at noon, flyers in certain places throughout the county....which means me driving to said places and posting them. But again it is a beautiful winter day......and I have been in town now for two weeks so some busting out is in order.
So I am headed out to Bowling Green, then Hannibal, then to Quincy. Not to mention I have brand new touring tires on the Cadillac that have yet to be roadtested--most excited about this.

The festival will be great. A 5K Run, Polar Plunge, Missouri Wine Tasting, Missouri Artisans, Antique Appraising, Karoke Contest... to name a few. Not to mention watching the bald eagles along the river.

I might also add that the Mississippi River was calm and bright with sunshine reflection early this morning.......a reminder to me that I do live in a pretty place.
I will post pictures of the river soon......well, as soon as I can get some scanned.

Here's to the weekend!

(and the impending snow storm that is coming on Saturday night.....ahhhh!!!!!!!!!!)

looking back at the dome

Well it is 12:45 a.m. and I am up way to late. The youth group is coming at o'early 7:00 a.m. to my house for our weekly-wednesday-breakfast. I should be in bed! But no, I am online and for some reason found myself about an hour ago linking to my last church's website. FCC Tulsa. I had not looked at it in a long while.

Interesting. Interesting how time changes some things, but yet preserves so many others.
Interesting to see that the website, youth group, rooms at the church, and practically the entire staff have all changed. It was neat to see a few of my old Chi-Rho'ers who are now like 16-17 years old. And to link to their 'myspace'es... and see what they are up to. Wow. Time flies for them. They are so old. Of course lots of thoughts and memories come to mind...

I also was able to link into the 'myspace'es of a few of my least favorite sr. highers during those years... finding that not much has changed at all...even now as they are 23 years old. I suspect it is the same story but a different day.

I find myself hopeful that the kids who really were invested back then... the ones who apparently are still around FCC-T... are doing well. I hope that our days at Chi-Rho camp and the adventures we had set them up to be great youth groupers and college bound kids.

As I sometimes have a chance to reflect on the times gone by... ie: previous youth leading... I wonder if I was a dork. If I was, then I wonder if it was to prepare me for now -- that I could be a non-dork...if that makes sense.

These days I lead an ecumenical youth group of about 15-25 kids. Doing youth group here really is great. I think it has something to do with the volunteer nature on all our parts. And, that the kids come with no expecations. I look forward to the 10-12 who will get up extra early tomorrow and come for breakfast and then show back up at church in the evening for some craziness...and who 3 years ago said "yea, I could go on a mission trip." Which led to another and another. Each better than the last.

And so I come full circle. Thanks blogger for that.

...now if only I could recoup the last 2 hours of sleep.

hanging out with the DUDE

My parsonage is in a great neighborhood. I am the only neighbor under 50, and most are over 70. My backyard is rather large with a white rail fence surrounding it. The fence then has spawned over the last 40 years more white fence in every direction. Tonight I went over the fence for a fun evening with Dude and Sarah Jane.
Dude and Sarah Jane are my most hilarious-church member-back yard-neighbors. Yes, his name is Dude... and has the wit & personality to match. He often leaves messages "Preacher Man, this is the Dude..." ...not to mention their Ultra Sporty Honda Acccord license plate is DUDE. And then there is Sarah Jane. She is just lovely. Always hip and styish, and can play the piano like no other. She always makes our choir shine!

Tonight we had cocktails, conversations, laughs, a great dinner, songs at the baby grand, and then a little Bailey's after dinner drink. They entertained me and I them with stories of our town and all the funny people within it from back in the day and just yesterday. I am so very lucky to have such friends. When faced with living in a parsonage and having older church members as neighbors, one could become rather fearful. However, I lucked out. We not only share a fence but a love of life and laughter. They are stylish, graceful, hilarious and always hospitable. From this I have learned so much, and for this I am always glad.

oh my gosh what have i gotten myself into

okay so now the pressure is on. to blog the next day...

it was a quiet weekend here in lake wobegon....aka louisiana. the ice storm commenced on friday and has been with us for some 3 days. a little thaw, a little rain, more ice, more cold...etc.

frankly, it is freaking cold. like between 10-20 degrees. ice is everywhere. people are trapped.

but we shall maintain!
the weekend consisted of me visiting folk and hanging out. what a great reason to hangout with folks when the snow comes.... good meals, card games, cocktails....
my senior adult church member fun cool as hell neighbors haven't been out yet.....so a pastoral visit around happy hour tonight is in store. we shall become warm!

i believe the church office was hovering around 55 degrees. geez that building is cold.
new offices are on the way with new ways of heating and cooling this vicar. thanks be to God.
i could only work in the afternoon....luckily my cords, smart looking sweater and cool scarf kept the frost bite at bay.

okay, so blog #2 was about as thrilling as watching ice melt....so thanks for reading. i hope to gain some more wit in the coming days.

and that is the news from louisiana, where all the men, women, and children are just about frozen. :)

thus, i concede.

so thus, i concede to creating a blog.

in recent months i have been blessed by the blogs of friends and strangers both and feel as though i must join in sharing the news of this joy filled life.

in exodus 17, when moses is leading GOD's people, he needs help holding his arms up.
a metaphor for my life? perhaps.
a metaphor for my ministry? perhaps.
a randomness that yields itself to blogworthyness? absolutely.

thanks for playing.