ALMOST MISSING IT
Last Friday evening Caleb (our 6 year old son) and I made a loop to visit several of the places where Hispanics live in the area to touch base with them about the Encuentro (Gathering) that was held Saturday.
We stopped at Hyacinth and visited with Salvador, Jose and Abraham. Then we drove into Callao and visited with Felipe and several of his friends who were gathered around, after running into Carlos as he was pulling out of the parking lot. Then we drove to Lottsburg and visited with Cecilia, who got back from Mexico week before last and had a terrible time in Atlanta's airport.
As we were leaving Cecilia's, I realized I'd left the calling card that Cecilio, one of the guys at White Stone, had asked me to pick up for him. We drove back to the house and I ran over to the other car, grabbed the card, and climbed back into the van and we headed down Rt 3. We got to White Stone, and saw Mundo and Cecilio and Oscar and Gumaro and Lazaro ... had a good though short visit with them.
As we pulled away from the plant, we'd gotten a little ways down the road when Caleb, who was sitting in the seat directly behind me (on his booster seat), said "Daddy, I want to be just like you when I grow up."
I swallowed. Hard.
"Thanks, Caleb, but what do you mean?"
"Well, like, your hair and your skin ... well ... not your skin, 'cause that's different from me and you, but ... the way you are ... the things you do ... the way you are with people ... just stuff like that."
"Thanks Caleb, that means a lot to me. That was very kind of you to say."
If you've never heard "Lord, I Want To Be Just Like You", by Phillips, Craig & Dean, find it and listen to it.
However you feel about God, it gets to you when your child says 'I want to be just like you' ...
On some level, it is frightening. He is watching me. I am modeling for him (and his brother and sister) what it means to be ... a father, a husband, a brother, a son ... above all, a Christ-follower ... so I don't do this alone. I can't.
Grace & Peace
Monday, April 26, 2004
Saturday, April 24, 2004
Corrottoman Encuentro
we had an awesome encuentro today.
let me back up.
first we had a really neat, small, sweet wedding. my second. (i mean to perform) got to wear my robe for this one.
all told there were maybe 20 people in the sanctuary. brian and ellen are expecting. they've been engaged for 18 months. i was happy to affirm the committment that they've already made. 'make it official'.
then the gathering. the pastor asked me on thursday night if it would be appropriate to ask the folks to begin the devotional time by reciting the "Hail Mary" ... i said it would be entirely appropriate. his welcome was very much in the liturgical tradition, and once the recitation was over, we proceeded with the singing and the devotional and prayers like we usually do. at the end, frank asked that we share the Lord's Prayer together, and after that he gave the benediction and made the sign of the cross over the congregants.
the weather was perfect, the food was good, the games were fun, the laughter was genuine. we had 4 guys that will be leaving before the next gathering (actually, next saturday) so at the end of the devotional time we prayed over them, that God would keep them safe, return them to their families safely.
all in all, an awesome day.
now i need to write my sermon for tomorrow!!!!
let me back up.
first we had a really neat, small, sweet wedding. my second. (i mean to perform) got to wear my robe for this one.
all told there were maybe 20 people in the sanctuary. brian and ellen are expecting. they've been engaged for 18 months. i was happy to affirm the committment that they've already made. 'make it official'.
then the gathering. the pastor asked me on thursday night if it would be appropriate to ask the folks to begin the devotional time by reciting the "Hail Mary" ... i said it would be entirely appropriate. his welcome was very much in the liturgical tradition, and once the recitation was over, we proceeded with the singing and the devotional and prayers like we usually do. at the end, frank asked that we share the Lord's Prayer together, and after that he gave the benediction and made the sign of the cross over the congregants.
the weather was perfect, the food was good, the games were fun, the laughter was genuine. we had 4 guys that will be leaving before the next gathering (actually, next saturday) so at the end of the devotional time we prayed over them, that God would keep them safe, return them to their families safely.
all in all, an awesome day.
now i need to write my sermon for tomorrow!!!!
Monday, April 19, 2004
Countdown Week
Tonight was the last night for Covenant Group. I'd not seen anyone since the 26th of March, at our Spring Retreat. Didn't get the paper done (started it, but didn't get it finished) in time to deliver it. Will be working on it and the others and get them delivered via email or by hand next week, at the last session of Old Testament.
Yesterday went ... well ... I think. The delivery I felt went well ... (read: people HEARD me) ... but I'm afraid something was off kilter ... hopefully Leslie can tell me later in the week.
G&P
Tonight was the last night for Covenant Group. I'd not seen anyone since the 26th of March, at our Spring Retreat. Didn't get the paper done (started it, but didn't get it finished) in time to deliver it. Will be working on it and the others and get them delivered via email or by hand next week, at the last session of Old Testament.
Yesterday went ... well ... I think. The delivery I felt went well ... (read: people HEARD me) ... but I'm afraid something was off kilter ... hopefully Leslie can tell me later in the week.
G&P
Friday, April 16, 2004
Easter Aftermath
It's hard to believe it is already Friday after Easter. The week has been an odd one. Monday and Tuesday were just ... gone. Holy Week was NOT as full as it could have been, but in some ways it was anyway ... Though community Lenten services were being held, including Maundy Thursday services (and I suspect I could have found a tenebrae service on Friday if I'd tried) ... There were other things to be tended to. Irene Hinson, a lifelong member of JBC, passed away on Tuesday morning. The funeral was on Thursday. Irene was the woman I had just visited last June when I was hit with my own personal realization that this (pastoring) is what I was born to do. Her passing somehow leaves a space. Visiting her each week gave me a touchstone. Her illness made it hard to communicate freely with her ... Correction-- made it hard for HER to communicate freely (she had Parkinson, and was not able to speak very much) ... But despite that trouble, our visits were still meaningful. Her mind was intact, and never missed a thing. She would rate my sermon each week (she got tapes), and she always threatened to steal me away from Leslie. :-)
There was a real sense of ... anxiousness ... facing Easter Sunday. Worrying about 'getting it right' ... or more appropriately, making sure I didn't FLUB it. As it turned out, we held a sunrise service, but because it was rainy, we had to do it indoors, in the sanctuary, rather than in the park next to Totuskey Creek. Maybe next year. Morning service was full. The children's choir had their Easter cantata ... and did a WONDERFUL job - in a simple, straightforward telling of the Easter story, they got the message across better than I ever could have.
The first part of the service is what we played with. Right after the welcome, and giving everyone a chance to greet each other and visit for a minute, I had the children's sermon. From that, we went right into the responsive reading and wove it into the serving of communion. Rather than having the usual arrangement, we shuffled things around a bit, some seating was different for the Deacons, and the order of service was a little off kilter. So there was a little fumbling, a little hesitation, a few looks of 'what comes next?' ...
That was the whole point.
Easter catches us off guard. Things that die are supposed to stay dead, not rise again. God catches us by surprise if we really think about Easter. So we are a little uncomfortable with it. That's a good thing. We NEED to be less smooth ... less polished, more spontaneous, more extemporaneous. We need to take the notion to heart that we really don't know what's coming next, in the grander scheme of things. So facing it on a smaller scale will hopefully help us to deal with the 'grander scheme' better.
For the afternoon, we hosted a 'flipped' Encuentro. Flipped in the sense that we flipped the order of activities. Generally, we've had the first hour and a half dedicated to simply having fun - board games, outdoor games, checkers, dominos, things like that, followed by the meal and then the devotional time. Sunday I asked to do the Worship time first. We didn't start until 2:45, an hour and forty five minutes later than intended. But that was okay.
We got to share communion. I prefaced the serving by comenting that, regardless of what Christian tradition you come from (most if not all were from a Catholic background), the sharing of the Lord's supper was a central part of the faith - a central statement and proclamation of what it is we believe and we practice as followers of Christ. I served it by intinction. And was able to call most of them by name, and say 'the body of Christ and the blood of Christ.' As the line was coming through, at one point I was looking down at the bread and the cup, and when I looked up, Jimmy, my brother, was there. He had tears in his eyes.
Talk about a Holy moment!
Grace & Peace.
It's hard to believe it is already Friday after Easter. The week has been an odd one. Monday and Tuesday were just ... gone. Holy Week was NOT as full as it could have been, but in some ways it was anyway ... Though community Lenten services were being held, including Maundy Thursday services (and I suspect I could have found a tenebrae service on Friday if I'd tried) ... There were other things to be tended to. Irene Hinson, a lifelong member of JBC, passed away on Tuesday morning. The funeral was on Thursday. Irene was the woman I had just visited last June when I was hit with my own personal realization that this (pastoring) is what I was born to do. Her passing somehow leaves a space. Visiting her each week gave me a touchstone. Her illness made it hard to communicate freely with her ... Correction-- made it hard for HER to communicate freely (she had Parkinson, and was not able to speak very much) ... But despite that trouble, our visits were still meaningful. Her mind was intact, and never missed a thing. She would rate my sermon each week (she got tapes), and she always threatened to steal me away from Leslie. :-)
There was a real sense of ... anxiousness ... facing Easter Sunday. Worrying about 'getting it right' ... or more appropriately, making sure I didn't FLUB it. As it turned out, we held a sunrise service, but because it was rainy, we had to do it indoors, in the sanctuary, rather than in the park next to Totuskey Creek. Maybe next year. Morning service was full. The children's choir had their Easter cantata ... and did a WONDERFUL job - in a simple, straightforward telling of the Easter story, they got the message across better than I ever could have.
The first part of the service is what we played with. Right after the welcome, and giving everyone a chance to greet each other and visit for a minute, I had the children's sermon. From that, we went right into the responsive reading and wove it into the serving of communion. Rather than having the usual arrangement, we shuffled things around a bit, some seating was different for the Deacons, and the order of service was a little off kilter. So there was a little fumbling, a little hesitation, a few looks of 'what comes next?' ...
That was the whole point.
Easter catches us off guard. Things that die are supposed to stay dead, not rise again. God catches us by surprise if we really think about Easter. So we are a little uncomfortable with it. That's a good thing. We NEED to be less smooth ... less polished, more spontaneous, more extemporaneous. We need to take the notion to heart that we really don't know what's coming next, in the grander scheme of things. So facing it on a smaller scale will hopefully help us to deal with the 'grander scheme' better.
For the afternoon, we hosted a 'flipped' Encuentro. Flipped in the sense that we flipped the order of activities. Generally, we've had the first hour and a half dedicated to simply having fun - board games, outdoor games, checkers, dominos, things like that, followed by the meal and then the devotional time. Sunday I asked to do the Worship time first. We didn't start until 2:45, an hour and forty five minutes later than intended. But that was okay.
We got to share communion. I prefaced the serving by comenting that, regardless of what Christian tradition you come from (most if not all were from a Catholic background), the sharing of the Lord's supper was a central part of the faith - a central statement and proclamation of what it is we believe and we practice as followers of Christ. I served it by intinction. And was able to call most of them by name, and say 'the body of Christ and the blood of Christ.' As the line was coming through, at one point I was looking down at the bread and the cup, and when I looked up, Jimmy, my brother, was there. He had tears in his eyes.
Talk about a Holy moment!
Grace & Peace.
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