20 Chore Tuesday

Today's To-Do List:

• Attend BAY meeting
• Teach 3 swimming lessons
• prep for catechism tomorrow night
• update project 366 of 2012
• drink 4 camelbacks of water
• email my elf4health
• wrap Christmas presents
• pray the dog doesn't unwrap said gifts
• break down stack of cardboard in the kitchen
• clean kitchen
• write thank you for a gift card
• send thank you for a gift card
• call parks and rec to discuss broomball 
• walk the dog
• work on Family Faith Journey Curriculum for Sunday
• make copies for FFJ for Sunday
• return book to senior pastor
• clean office (it is slightly embarrassing how dusty and gross it has gotten - time to dust and run the vacuum)
• wash sheets and towels
• start working on certificates of completion for swimming lessons
• drop off package at the pots office

Family Faith Journey

Family Faith Journey logo
created by our amazing office manager

It is an honor and a priveledge to walk along side families this year as we explore the Old Testament. I was skeptical but God kept giving me the nudge saying: go ahead, I am with you, go for it, dive in deep. So as a congregation we dove in deep, we took out walls, we bought some tables, (working on getting chairs),the vision was cast, hundreds of conversations were had, and Family Faith Journey began. It isn't Sunday School as the 1960's knew it (not that I remember the 1960s however you get my point). Second-fourth graders gather with their parent(s)/adult figure in their lives come together to learn and grow, to hear the stories, to wrestle with what they mean, to ask the big questions, and wonder what God is calling us to do or who we are called to be.
We gather as families. The Family Faith Journey continues to transform and grow into what the families need it to be. The Family Faith Journey is inviting other families to join us, each week since we began we have been seeing an increaed number of people joining in the journey, coming alongside one another, praying, growing, discovering, being the body of Christ. We proudly celebrate our differnces and our likeness. We rejoice in the way God created all people. We ask the big questions, we pray, we get frustrated, we grow, we learn, and we love.

Play dough Recipe

I had the world's hardest time finding a great play dough recipe for an upcoming Family Faith Journey project and searched all over the internet to find one, and eventually ended up calling my mom for her recipe for play dough (I seriously remember helping her make this when I was a kid) so thought I would post it just in case any one else is looking for an easy easy easy play dough recipe. (& so next time I need it I can find it)

2.5 cups flour
0.5 cup salt
3 tablespoons corn oil
1 tablespoon powdered alum

• Mix ingredients and pour 1 2/3 to 2 cups of boiling water of it.
• Stir till ingredients stick together.
• Kneed till soft and consistent.
• Divide into as many sections as you want and color as you please (you can use food coloring or paste coloring)
• Store in a plastic bag

It was ridiculously easy to make and I tripled the recipe and it still worked out great!!!


I seriously enjoyed making playdoh, I don't know that last time I got to play with it, I find it a bit theraputic.

Anything from your childhood that you still enjoy playing with from time to time?

Change

Change doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't, ever - well usually - every once in  a blue moon it happens but generally it takes a long period of time with lots of work and often times change comes with some pain. Change is hard. Change takes work. Change can be frustrating even if the end result is worth it. Change sometimes just straight up sucks.

As the fall begins I feel like I am a fish swimming upstream in a lot of different areas. I think on some levels - personally and professionally - I am in a season of change - it seems to be happening all around me and in many areas I long for the change.

Personally - I am training again for a few half marathons (and couldn't be more excited) - I have goals, I have desired times I would love to hit, summer was rough in terms of training with being gone so often and traveling for church doesn't always make a run possible. I am back in the saddle and I want to do well and I want to be back to my good long runs - I enjoy them, but building up to them takes time - change is happening - my endurance is growing - it takes patience. I will get there but I want the change to happen over night.

Professionally - we have several changes going on at church - we have the Family Faith Journey coming and a new class of catechism kids (yes this happens every year but it does involve training in a new group of adults) - we have lots going on all over the place (it is exciting and terrifying).

Personally - I am getting married (it hasn't fully sunk in yet) - which is a whole new set of changes around the corner. I get to get use to having someone else in my house come June - which means I need to rearrange the closet - make room for another apartment worth of stuff - I need to be willing to compromise - change is hard and exciting.

Professionally - I am no longer in my first year (Thanks be to God) and certain things make senese and others still confuse the heck out of me. Some things are dying and out of death always comes new life but the dying process can be long and painful and new birth can also be long and painful even when it results in something beautiful.

Personally - I have ten thousand things to be thankful for - and I am.

Professionally - I have ten thousand things to be thankful for - and I am.

In the midst of it all I seem to find myself coming back to one of my favorite prayers found in the Evangelical Lutheran Book of Worship (ELW) Evening Prayer Service [I have had this prayer memorized for years and pray it daily].

"O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Giv eus faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us adn your love supportin gus; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

September.

Where did summer go and how is fall upon us?! It is an exciting time in the church (as well as other places I realize), it is a time of new beginnings and ministries going strong. I feel like I have spent the past month preparing for this month, making photo copies, ensuring I have adult leaders to help where needed, making all the necissarily curriculum, and general long range planning and announcing all that is coming. It is exciting and terrifying.

Excitement in my world in terms of work this summer has been found all over, but one thing in particular that I have been working on for this fall is that we are switching out 2nd-4th graders to Family Faith Journey in terms of Sunday school. What does this mean?! Good question, we named it ourself. We are moving to a whole family Sunday school for our 2nd-4th graders, meaning they get to come with their parent(s) to Sunday school and together learn. The problem with this whole deal is currently there is not any curriculm written for this type of Sunday school unless it is extremely fundamental or not quite where we want to be at theologically so I am writing all my own curriculum. I forget how much time this takes. I am excited to see where this all goes and how it transpires, I know we will have to make adjustmetns as we learn what the year looks like and what this group of people need but I am excited none the less.

I am also jazzed that fall is around the corner. I love fall and look forward to sweatshirt weather, football season, all things pumpkin, runs where I am not over the top sweating when I walk out the door, and a 'normal' (or as normal as things get for me) routine. I am ready to get back in the swing of things as intimidating as it may be, it is exciting.

Personally I am also excited because the training plan that I am using for the Disneyland Tinkerbell half marathon officially kicks off midway through September. I look forward to long runs in the cooler weather. I am not however looking forward to the long runs on the ice or snow or on the dreaded treadmill.September I am going to focus on celebrating the miles I get run, the laps I get swam, and the days I get in a good workout and not focus on beating myself up for the miles I should have run or the laps I should have swim or the weights I should have lifted. I choose to rejoice in the victories that will happen.

I am also excited because I have a really hard time getting motivated to crochet during the summer months, it never seems like time to create things, so I sort of take a break through the summer months and fall always kicks me back into time to crochet things again.

It is crazy to think of everything this year will hold and I couldn't be more excited. There are lots of things happening at church and in June I am getting married. Which I still don't think I have gotten used to that idea fully. Crazy! It should be a wonderful year of planning and at the end of it all I get to get married (one of these days I should start planning).

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.