on my way home

starting to move…

We're watching an episode of Freaks and Geeks. Yes, we embrace our inner and outer freak and geek.

My friend, Nina is here helping me move.  She’s helping me remember things and pack boxes.  Most importantly, she’s helping me laugh.  She’s really good at that.

Yesterday, I left the house to head to church wearing a skirt, a nice shirt, and my pink slippers.  Nina watched out the window, wondering if I would notice.  I did.  I laughed.  I turned around and went back inside where Nina was laughing.

Moving and saying goodbye is overwhelming.  I’m glad Nina is here to help me laugh through it.

a picture is worth…

This post is dedicated to all my Idaho friends.

Last month I traveled to Palmyra, New York to watch a pageant put on by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I present this story of my experience to you in pictures, some moving, some not.

Sept. 1823, near Palmyra, NY, the ancient prophet Moroni, as an angel, visits a young man named Joseph Smith. 4 years later, on the Hill Cumorah, Moroni delivers the metal plates to him. In 1830, the Book of Mormon is published in in Palmyra.

Even the guys helping us to park our vehicles wore white shirts and ties! If only they had bike helmets...

Hmmm, what is this? "What Mormons don't tell you.com" was a group that greeted me at the entrance to the pageant. I eagerly took their literature and they very meaningfully handed it to me, with extra long handshakes and intense eye contact.

If you listen carefully, you can hear a Mormon assure me that there is official literature for me to receive on the pageant grounds. I had just taken a handful of information from the group that is YELLING in the background.  I can’t believe I had my video camera on – perfect!

Over 800 cast and crew members are involved in this impressive production. I met the guy who played Joseph Smith (he had a pretty small roll, ironically) and he offered me his Book of Mormon when I asked him for a program. I should have taken it!

I felt like I was at Disney Land when the pageant started.  They spare no expense when it comes to production.  There were thunder storms complete with rain and lightening; an erupting volcano; and a few impressively choreographed battle scenes with explosions and people falling.

I can't remember but I think this might be when Jesus came to America. Seems like I snapped a picture during that part. Wouldn't you?

I think this is how it ended.  Then it was time to go, and the group “what mormons don’t tell you.com” were still there in full force:

Truthfully, I was disappointed that their argument was concerning salvation. Luckily, one of the pamphlets I took home is entitled "How To make Sure You Have Eternal Life." I'm golden.

I didn't see the height requirement until I was leaving - I'm glad they didn't spot me or I would have missed out on a great evening!

Whatever your thoughts are on Mormons or “What Mormons don’t tell you.com” – it was a great experience to see this pageant.  I wish I would have gotten their earlier – it was so fun to listen to all the conversations going on around me.  I heard a mother peppering her children with historical questions about Joseph Smith and I saw a teenager sitting in front of me texting throughout the pageant.

I also could have gone to a booth and gotten a free print of Jesus.  Shoot.

Once upon a time…

Once again I realized just how difficult it is to tell the Christian story to kids without any kind of framework about God or about church.  Here are just a few comments tonight (Vacation Bible School) that were so genuine in their wonder:

“Jesus didn’t die!  He didn’t!”

“So God killed all the babies?”

“He died and then he came back to life?”

“We eat him?”

“Can we play in the tomb?”

Teaching largely from the Old Testament this week reminds me how hard it is to start here with people who don’t know the rest of the story.  It’s hard enough to teach from the Old Testament with people who do know the rest of the story, isn’t it?

investment

It’s hard to want to put new energy into potentially new relationships when the countdown to the end of internship gets close to the finish line.

Yet, there’s all these new kids coming to Vacation Bible School (VBS) that I can see coming to our Wednesday Night Church program.  (If you’re unfamiliar with this, read about 90% of the posts on this blog.)  There’s a girl who I think would be a great mentor  and a bunch of young kids and parents are showing up to see the beginning and end of things.  There is just so much dang potential.

So I’ll give them what I can give this week and then cry and smile when it’s all in my rearviewmirror.

kid power

We started Vacation Church School tonight and I hung out in the parking lot and yard of the church for about 1/2 hour before it all started.  A bunch of kids from the apartments next door were hanging out at the playground, waiting for it to start.  I haven’t seen a few of these kids since May, so it was a fun reunion of hugs and shy smiles.  A few just clung to me – it feels so good to be hugged so well.

A few of the kids were new faces to me.  One little girl absolutely hung on me saying “Can I come?  I want to come!  What’s it going to be like?  Is there food?  Can you save me some food?” I told her of course she could come, but from the conversation her and her sister were having, they were off to grandma’s house for the night.  I assured her she could come the rest of the week, no problem.

She continued hanging on me saying “That’s my house over there – you see it – it’s right there.  You come and ask my mom if I can come, ok?  Come to my house, it’s right there, you can ask my mom if I can come.  My house is right there!” In my mind I’m thinking well, they’re going to their grandma’s house so she can’t really come anyway, and it’s going to start soon so I should really get back inside.

And then I remembered that I wasn’t running the actual program – I was not in charge.  So I walked over with the girl and had a very nice conversation with her mom and I should see this girl’s smiling, excited face on Tuesday night.

sermon prep

I’ve developed a method to preparing to preach this year.  This method comes with its habits, both good and bad, but I think I’ve found what works for me:

1. Pray. Read the text. (always a good place to start)
2. Let it stir, simmer, and marinate.  (this can take days – most good marinades do.)
3. Read it again.
4. Read up on the text – greek, hebrew, commentary.
5. Write down whatever theme has seemed to bubble to the top.  Try to get it to a short sentence or phrase.
6. Write, trying to focus on that theme.  (This does not always happen)

A few weeks ago a friend and I exchanged sermons and I found his sermon prep attached to his sermon.  It was refreshing to read another person’s sermon and thought process, especially on the same text that I had studied.

This brings me to the photos I posted below.  The Presbyterian pastor I work with, Beth, is an incredible preacher and a smart theologian.  Kind of that scary smart I admire and fear.  The photos are of her notes and this is what she preaches from each and every week.  There are color-coded pens involved.  While I lay down a carefully typed and spaced manuscript to guide me through the sermon, she looks at this:

Isn’t this great?  I think my favorite part of the sermon was when Beth’s 10-year-old daughter came up and searched Beth’s pant pockets while she was preaching.  She didn’t miss a beat.

boundaries

I’ve been singing with the pre-school kids and the school-age kids on Tuesdays.  It’s been a hoot.  I’ve begun to play some games with the older kids after we sing a bit.  Playing games with inner-city kids is not like playing games with other kids.  Oh sure, in a lot of ways, it’s the same.  They love it.  They laugh a lot.  They fall down.  They run and run and run.

But there is something really different in playing with these kids.  They don’t get rules.  They don’t understand boundaries.  You know the traffic cones?  So they have playground cones to help mark off an area for play.  These kids looked at them as if they were aliens.  What?  We’re playing over where?  What?

Of course it makes sense.  A lot of these kids come from homes where there are few if any boundaries in their lives at all.  So what sense does it make to have physical boundaries and rules for the way a game is played?  One of the teachers (who was not playing, I might add) would intermittently SCREAM at a kid for whatever rule she thought the kid was breaking.  She, too, had an odd grasp on what qualified as a rule or a BIG HAIRY DEAL.

I think we’ll play “duck, duck, goose” next time.  I won’t even try to introduce “duck, duck, grey duck.”

lee-dership

together again - laughing

Just thought I’d do one more post that is camp-related.  It was really Lee (he’s the director at LCLC, where I just spent a week) who planted the seed that I should be in full-time, year-round outdoor ministry.  Back in the day when he was the director at Camp Minne-Wa-Kan where I was on summer staff, Lee and I sat on the dock on Lake Andrusia and he said “you’d be good at this.  You should do it.”  I remember laughing at him, out loud.  It only took about a year and 1/2 for that seed to find the light of day, and 10 years later, well, there I was.

So really, Lee is now one of the people I openly thank/blame for my going to seminary.  That list is long, but Lee’s got a good spot on the list.

exhaustion

How was I ever in camp ministry for as long as I was?  I am exhausted!

That being said, it is amazing to me what happens at camp.  From the day-by-day growth of a community to all the discernment going on with staff members and campers.  Camp continues to fuel the church with strong leaders in countless “official” positions within the church.  But more importantly, it asks campers and staff alike to consider their calls in the context of the world.  Who will I be as a Child of God in the world?

Thank God for camp.