Thursday, May 24, 2012

2012-2013 Calendar

AHHHH my colleague and I just set our 2012-2013 calendar for church, it is crazy exciting and crazy overwhelming. We have tons going on and lots of new things happening all of which I am super jazzed about but when I see everything that needs to get done it makes my head spin!

Excitement for 2012-2013 at Bethlehem -- we are going to try Family Faith Journey Sunday School for our 2-4th graders and their parents - parents and youth in Sunday school together! I am jazzed about this prospect because all the research shows that kids learning alongside their parents is the most effective means of ministry. I am excited to see where this leads us. This is a daunting task to me as it means I need to write a years worth of curriculum. We are going to try a 3 year rotation focusing one year on the old testament, one year on the new testament, and one year on lutheran basics. We are opting for a very non-traditional Sunday school type model for our 2-4th graders with the potential to expand it to more grades after we try it for a year or two to see how it goes.

The way I understand my role as pastor is that there are three key aspects to passing on the faith to youth/kids - one is the role of the parents, one is the role of the church (pastors included), and one is the role of other adults - together we all get to share the faith and help kids and youth to grow in the faith.

Our Family Faith Journey will have several aspects: serving in worship (ushering, greeting, reading, leading the Lord's Prayer and the Apostle's Creed, and communion serving), learning the faith (learning the stories and the Lutheran basics - grace, law, gospel, saint, sinner, trinity), community (community building activities - fellowship), and service (reaching out to the world). Through the course of the three years we will also be focusing on faith practices such as prayer.

I am excited to see how the Holy Spirit moves in and through our learning and growing as families. I pray that this will help to take away from the parents dropping their kids off for Sunday School and leaving to go grocery shopping or whatever and will help them to learn and grow alongside their kids.

Come Holy Spirit, Come.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Fargo Half Marathon Review

2012 Fargo Half Marathon Finishers Medal
IT IS FINISHED, more importantly I FINISHED!

This past weekend (Saturday) I ran the Fargo half marathon and I finished with my fasted time for a half marathon. It wasn't quite the time that I was hoping for but it was faster than I have ever run a half, with plenty of room to improve. I hate to admit it but I have sort of fallen in love with race day and the feeling I have afterwards even if my legs are exhausted. [2 days later my quads are still sore] There is a crew from Wartburg Theological Seminary who have claimed the name "Running Reformers" and have sort of made it a tradition to meet in Fargo every May and October to participate in the race weekends. I love this group of running folk and am proud to be a part of the Running Reformers, we were down a few members this time due to injury, hopefully in October we'll have our full group back together.

This is my second Fargo Half Marathon and it seems to me that they are very well organized for the 10k, half marathon, and full marathon. I didn't run the 5k Friday night but watched a few friends run it, and after seeing the chaos of it all I am kind of glad I didn't, there was a TON of people and it was ridiculously hot.

The course for the half marathon is great, there are plenty of water and gatorade stations throughout the course (I would guess about every mile), and there were bands scattered all throughout with nearly every type of music (Elvis impersonators, bagpipes, country, rock, high school pep bands, garage bands, etc), and there were people all along the trail cheering. The course was very well labeled and staffed and there really are not that many hills (REJOICE).

I did run with my ipod because I wanted to have my music the whole time. The funny moment was as I was coming toward the dome on my ipod shuffle came the song "People are crazy" by Billy Currington. While it really isn't a quick beat or an amazing running song it was funny to be ending a half marathon with the lyrics "God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy." Seemed all too appropriate.

Notes to self:

  • keep running you love it and it is good for you
  • as soon as the pain in your quads goes away get back at it - the October half will come much faster than you anticipate
  • find some 5ks and 10ks between now and October. Register for them.
  • update your ipod shuffle your music on there got boring and some is way too slow
  • you will never come in first and never last you race only yourself - be proud you finished with a personal best
  • keep eating healthy and taking care of yourself - your body is a gift and it is your job to take care of it  

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Kitchen Chaos

I am currently remodeling my kitchen by myself (or really with the help of any family and friends who get suckered into helping me out - basically meaning I am only hiring people to do things like the electrical - which I am legally required to do since I know nothing about electrical work) but the rest is getting done without professional help. This has been a long process and my kitchen is literally driving me NUTS! I haven't had a kitchen sink or any running water for that matter in my kitchen since Sunday. I was half tempted to post a picture of the nasty but thank God not many people come over at the moment because it is far too messy to post a picture. My kitchen table has turned into a mountain of crazy.

I will draw you a mental picture: my fridge is about five feet away from the wall and pulled out, my stove sits about three feet from my fridge also pulled out from it's home, my kitchen table as previously mentioned is a mountain of mess, my kitchen chairs are currently home to a 5 gallon pale of mud, primer, a toolbox, and being used as a stool to reach high places, not to mention the countertops are pulled off and covered by black plastic bags in order to avoid getting mud and paint on the contents of the drawers, and it is dusty as all get out due to sanding down the mud and what not. It is nasty. Yes, I know it will get better and there is hope that when I get this all finished it will be beautiful.

My goal is to get the countertops back on this Sunday night when my brother is in town so I have some help. I also hope we can figure out how to install the food disposal and and hook up the faucet. Thank God for youtube and people who have time to make instructional videos on youtube for people like me who have no clue how to do some of this stuff. Thank God for family and friends who help me when I am way over my head. Thank God for pb&j sandwiches that don't require much cooking or clean up.

In a completely random kitchen related success: I made a 4 layer cake for a church potluck last night and I hear it was tasty, it was gone before I got through the line.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Long time no blog

Excitement in my world right now:

  • I am actually getting somewhere with remodeling the kitchen - the countertops are off and I think I have the sheet rocking done, now to finish taping and mudding and get it all sanded down and what not so I can paint and get the new countertops back into my kitchen (LONG OVERDUE)
  • There is a high likelihood that I will get to play a role in helping to run a camp in the area (more on this when it becomes official)
  • Dakota is amazing as always
  • Work life is coming along fabulously - now I just need to nail down all the little details about the trips & summer ministries for the summer and I'll be good to go
  • My brother's dog is moving in with me this weekend (excitement... not certain it is good, but his dog is CRAZY so I am certain you all will hear about the crazy dog, who I have grown to love)
  • I bought a KAYAK!!! SUPER excited about this. It is a wilderness systems pungo 120 and it is lime green.
  • This weekend I get to see lots of friends in Fargo as we all run various races Friday/Saturday - I am running the half marathon which I feel quite unprepared for but... it is what it is...
  • I have a to-do list that feels like it is about 7,000 miles long that is slowly but surely getting chipped away at
  • I have tried a ton of new crochet patterns lately and am loving them
  • I realized this week that I have successfully taken a picture every day this year so far, I am compiling them into a shutterfly album and am loving it, I update it about once a week, so it doesn't become too overwhelming and I don't have to try to figure out what pictures are from what
  • I'M NOT MOVING! - okay, if you know me this is very exciting as it is the first year since high school that I haven't had to move every year - I am jazzed about this
  • Sunday nights are becoming a beautiful tradition between a group of friends and I and we are constantly getting new people: we pack up our canoes, kayaks, dogs, whatever else we want and head to a camp here in town and spend the day playing - currently we all bring our own dinner but we are moving to pot lucking it every week - the photo below is from last night


Dakota and Luther swimming in Whipple Lake