Higher Things Day 3

Today was our second full day of the conference, which meant Matins, Plenary speaker, Vespers, Breakways, Evening Prayer, Free Time, Compline, and much more! These are full and busy days, but good, as we receive the gifts of God, learn, grow, have fun, and make new friends. Always a few hiccups, but not too many. :-)

Some pictures . . .

Petting Zoo

Pool was a favorite free time activity

I was asked to lead the fireside chat Thursday night - a time to gather around the fire and fire questions at the pastor! That's frightening, but good. :-)  Lots of good questions and conversation.

And, of course, some old (and new!) friends:

Rev. Joe Murphy, classmate at seminary.

Rev. Jonathan Baker, the new campus pastor at Concordia-Wisconsin.

Rev. John Henry, formerly in the SELC District - we miss him!

Rev. Noah Rogness, formerly of Immanuel, Alexandria, now up in Tomah, Wisconsin. He and his family came down for the day. He has some former-members-but-still-Athanasians at his congregation there!

Since I led the fireside chat (all 2.5 hours of it!), I didn't get to go around to all the free time activities this night that were going on. The last night is always lots of fun. So that's kind of a bummer, but I'm glad to help out, and our youth ask really good questions! This conference is for them, anyway. We'll be sad to leave tomorrow, as always. Look for that update!

Higher Things Day 2

Today was an absolutely beautiful day here on the shores of Lake Michigan. After the sun went down it actually got cold last night! Quite a change from our temps back home. 

Conference-wise, two excellent sermons, the plenary speaker, Flame, really held the youth's attention while he spoke and not only told his story of his journey to the church and then later, Lutheranism, but also helped them understand the difference between the denominations and why it matters. There was a panel discussion with lots of good questions asked by the youth. Two breakaway sessions, too - I taught my second one. It went much better this time with one already under my belt. Lots and lots for the youth to do during free time - you can't get bored! Oh, and I've impressed some youth with both my ping pong and pool playing abilities (they forget I was young once!). 

Anyway, some pictures for you . . .

Youth waiting to get INTO church!

A look inside the Chapel of the Resurrection.

Flame presenting to the youth.

Chaplain Brian Hamer - Kantorei and trumpet playing buddy.

Seminarian James Chester - one of my summer vicars last year at Higher Things San Antonio.

Rev. Nathan Neugebauer - a couple of years ago he challenged me to get a picture on the Jackalope at Wall Drug - and I did!

Chaplain Craig Mueller, head of the chaplains for the LCMS.

Rev. Peter Ill, Worship Executive for Higher Things.

Rev. Joel Shaltanis, one of my newer pastor friends.

Rev. Randy Sturzenbecher, President of the Board of Higher Things.

Our group photo for this year!

Higher Things Days 0 and 1

Yes, it's Higher Things week again! We're in Wisconsin at Concordia University, right on Lake Michigan. How is it here? Well, it was hot yesterday! But we're settling in and getting going . . .

Monday was the big travel day, picking everyone up, and then heading west. The drive was mostly uneventful. Just long. We pulled into the Ft. Wayne Seminary around 7 pm. The ever-so-gracious and patient and newly-elected president Jon Bruss gave our group a quick tour before dinner. How great is that! We also saw lots of friends at dinner - the Broaddus, Hoverson, and Hall families, and the Nus children. So we had a full room to eat pizza an unwind after the drive. Sadly, it was such a long day and things were so hectic, I didn't even think to take pictures. UGH!

Sleepy head

Here's a truck were we behind in Chicago . . . Why am I showing you this? Here's why:

Who hangs a baby on the back of their truck?

So Monday morning back on the road early to finish our drive. Had some torrential rain in western Indiana, then a lot of traffic through Chicago (of course, and in the picture above), but got to campus to check in around 12:45. After a couple of hiccups, we got everyone to their rooms and settled in, then over to the chapel for the 2:00 Opening Service. 

The chapel was jam packed! Which is nice to see, except we were on the later side of getting there, so very little seating left. So we didn't get the greatest seats and couldn't all sit together. The service was good, though! As always.

I taught my first breakaway at 7 pm, which was just meh. I can do better. Hopefully I will today on my second go 'round.

For now, a few more pictures until tomorrow, many, as usual, of friends I see and get to catch up with . . .

Pastor John Berg

This is what happens in the foam bubble pit!

Pastor Joel Fritsche, former missionary in the Dominican Republic and now at Concordia, Seminary, St, Louis. We were supposed to be together in the Dominican Republic next week for Higher Things Abroad, but sadly, that had to be cancelled.

Cool Picture

This morning, as we were arriving back at Reagan National and coming up the Potomac, my daughter took this cool picture out the window of the shadow of our airplane in the water. :-)

Guess Who?

So, flew back to Milwaukee yesterday for an orientation/welcome session at Concordia University-Wisconsin with my youngest, and guess who was at the airport with us?

Yup, that's his plane (was he on it?) sitting right behind ours and blocking the way! So, we were a bit late taking off. Not sure it was all his fault or not, but we weren't in a hurry so it was all good.

But that's not the end of the story . . . (well, it is of the Trump story!) When we got to our hotel where we had reserved a room, the hotel wasn't there! I mean, the building was, but it was now owned by a different company. Fortunately they still had our reservation and we got a very nice room (though I found out this morning the bike is the exercise room only half works :-(.

Now it's off to breakfast and the campus. Beautiful day for it here - sunny and high around 70 degrees!

Blueberry Pie!

We have three blueberry plants in our backyard and if we can keep the birds and critters out, we actually harvest a good amount of berries. Today we got a bunch and my wife made a blueberry pie for us! Very yummy indeed. (And how blessed I am to have a wife who is such a good cook!)

Wisconsin Pictures

Some pictures from our trip to Wisconsin last weekend for the wedding of two of our members. We were able to have a couple of days for some family time . . .

Yes, we stopped at what is billed as "Wisconsin's biggest tourist trap" the Mars Cheese Castle in Kenosha. :-)  It might be a tourist trap, but it was fun and they had amazing fried cheese curds!

We also stopped at this museum, which had a lot of interesting stuff in it, along with a special exhibition of water color paintings. (Watercolors are my favorite!) And they were simply amazing, what these artists were able to do!

Another place we stopped, though I did not take any pictures, was St. Josaphat Basilica in Milwaukee. It was simply amazing! If you ever go to Milwaukee, stop there. You won't be disappointed. Also make sure you go downstairs in the chapel and see their relic collection - pretty amazing. I think they had something from 6 of the 12 apostles! ;-0

And finally, the three of us who did the wedding:

Pastor Nuckols (far left) was the liturgist and celebrant. Pastor Fabrizius (center) was the preacher. And your truly was the officiant - I did the actual marrying!

A quick, but fun trip overall. (The hotel we stayed in was kind of dumpy, though.) We did get to eat at Culvers one night and got some frozen custard. We also had dinner one night at Macs - a specialty mac and cheese restaurant only in Wisconsin.

Next weekend, my daughter and I go back to Wisconsin for an orientation at Concordia-Wisconsin. It's also the weekend of Polishfest, so we might go. No telling what good food they might have there!