Like Carrots?

So the church we share a building with gets unsold/leftover/old food from Trader Joe's each week, which they give to their members and/or folks in need. Whatever they do not give away (on Saturday) is left for us on Sunday. Our folks can take what they want and then the rest we deliver to a Laundromat owned by one of my members, and the folks there (often low income) can take whatever they want. Some weeks we get more, some less. Sometimes what we get is quite interesting. Like this past Sunday, Christmas Day, this is one of the items waiting for us . . .

Yup, Carrots! Lots of 'em! If you zoom in on the picture, you can see that there are 50 pounds of carrots! Now, if we only had a horse or two . . .  :-)

Merry Christmas!

 A Blessed and Merry Christmas from me and my family to you.

Different Views on Faith

I was reading something recently which talked of different views of faith. It goes something like this:

Evangelical Churches: Faith is such a great work that we are saved by faith. Faith is what we do.

Roman Churches: Faith is not a good enough work; it must be supplemented by good works.

Lutheran Churches: Faith is not our work, but the work of God in us by which we receive the gifts of God.

So, how do you know you are saved?

Evangelical Churches: Because I believe! (My work, my decision, my choice)

Roman Churches: Because my faith is completed by my love and good works.

Lutheran Church: Because Jesus saved me and has given me the gift of eternal life.

Interesting, no? Different views of faith can lead to other very different theologies . . .

(Note: I am painting with a very broad brush here, and I am NOT trying to say who is saved and who is not! But different churches (confessions) do think differently about things . . . )

Mmmm, yum!

I don't know who the Stan of "Stan's Donuts" is, but he makes a mighty tasty donut! These were an early birthday present for me before we leave for the wedding we're going to tomorrow. I've never had a Chocolate Peppermint Bark donut before (never even heard of such a thing), but I recommend them highly. And I consider myself somewhat of a donut connoisseur, since donuts are my favorite kind of bread!

 

Two Observations

So on my drive home tonight, two things occurred to me . . .

#1 - On the radio I heard the Christmas song Do You Hear What I Hear? (Never one of my favorites.) But as I listened to the words, I heard: "A Child, a Child shivers in the cold, Let us bring him silver and gold." Hmmm. What I think he would really appreciate more is a blanket! ;-)

#2 - A local non-denominational church has a very large banner which emphasizes the CHRIST in Christmas. Fair enough. But tonight it occurred to me: They've taken the MASS out of Christmas! (i.e., the Lord's Supper, which they do not believe is really the Body and Blood of Christ) But they don't seem to mind that.

Hmmm . . .

I enjoyed solving cryptogram puzzles in my free time. I came across one recently that said this: Did you ever notice that when you put together "THE" and "IRS" it spells "THEIRS"? 

"Ableism"

"Ableism" is a new word I learned from the past election. It was used with regard to a senate candidate from Pennsylvania who had suffered a stroke. Those who questioned his ability to serve because the stroke damaged his cognitive abilities were derided for "ableism" - a bias against those who may be disabled in some way.

Hmmm. OK. Let's extend and expand their point of view a little . . . Right now, many babies are being aborted because (unreliable) pre-natal testing says they may have some sort of disability. So, it is said, better to abort them than bring them into the world like that. Isn't that "ableism?" 

Hmmm.

Post-Election Day Thoughts

So how did Election Day go for you? Did your candidates win? Lose? Are you optimistic about the future? Pessimistic? Packing your bags for Canada? :-)  [Note: Canada may not want you!]

Elections are important and have great meaning for our country. As Christian citizens, it is our responsibility to vote and choose the best leaders we can. But for the church, the election changes nothing. We will continue to proclaim the Word of God in its truth and purity. We will continue to administer the sacraments as Christ instituted them. We will continue to call to repentance, and we will continue to absolve those who repent of their sins. We will continue to reach out to those who do not know their Saviour with the good news of all that He has done. That is who we are are must continue to be. Perhaps that might become less popular, or even outlawed, called hate speech. If so, so be it. Jesus said persecution would come, and it very well might. We should be ready for it. But the Church cannot stop being the Church. The salvation of souls is just too important.

And we know that the one ultimately in control of all things is not any elected politician, but our Lord. Leaders, nations, kingdoms, countries, rise and fall, come and go, but the Lord remains. He is ruling all things for the good of His Church and His Christians, even if we cannot figure out how that can be! The Scriptures are filled with examples of that. So we can be confident, no matter what the next few years or decades bring. 

So if your candidates won, do not put your trust in them. If your candidates lost, do not despair or lose hope! Instead, take to heart in the words of Psalm 121:

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
    From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot be moved;
    he who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold, he who keeps Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper;
    the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day,
    nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all evil;
    he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep
    your going out and your coming in
    from this time forth and forevermore.

Election Day

Just got back from my polling place. Went right around 1 pm, end of lunch time. Can you spell G-H-O-S-T-T-O-W-N? Don't know what other places look like, but low, low, low turnout in my area. Only one race to vote for, and that is our Congressman. There was virtually no campaigning for this seat. I guess everyone figures our incumbent is going to win easily. Probably so. I think he's an embarrassment every time I see him on TV. Well, I voted anyway. Maybe we'll get lucky.

French Spam!

Well this is a new one . . . I just got some spam emails in French! Which, honestly, have a better chance of me clicking on them than English ones. :-)  Don't worry - I didn't click! That statement was not a comment on the clickability of this spam, but a commentary on how dumb the spam I usually get is.

UPDATE: Since I posted this, I have also received Italian and Russian spam as well!

How 'bout Them Phillies!

 Oh yeah!

Yes, I'm Alive!

Well, I see I haven't posted in about 5 weeks. I was 0 for September. Had quite the busy month, including trips to Montreal, Saint Louis, and a bike ride in DC. So, I'll try to catch up and just post a potpourri of pictures and stuff here today! ;-)

On vacation we went through Cincinnati and stopped by the William Howard Taft National Historic Site. Here's me and Billy, the only man to serve as both President of the United States and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

We visited both the Creation Museum and the Ark. The ark . . . it was BIG!

The cow stole my ice cream.  :-(

On the home front, when we got home from vacation, we had a bumper crop of tomatoes! Here's just some of them!

In September, my family and I went on the DC Bike Ride, a 20 mile ride through DC with the streets closed to traffic. It was a nice ride. Next year we plan on going up to Philadelphia and doing the Philly Ride back through our old stomping grounds. :-)

Because the past five weeks have been quite busy, I've slipped on my bike riding. Hopefully I can get back in the routine soon. I still have a lot on my plate, with a couple trips and presentations coming up, but hopefully I'll manage my time okay and be able to fit everything in. We'll see.

Bears!

So on our hikes in the Smoky Mountains we got to see some bears! Twenty years ago while there we didn't see any, but this time we must have seen bears some 5-6 times, including around our hotel! We saw some adults, juveniles, and a few cubs, too. Some pictures:

Here's one looking right at the camera.

(If you click on the picture and zoom in, you'll see it better.)

A cub climbing a tree. We looked but didn't see mama around anywhere.

Here's the one who prowled around our hotel one evening. Pretty big!

Not all the trash cans were bear proof!

Finally, here's a video of two cubs walking across a log. (Click on the full screen option for the best view.) We actually saw mama bear first and were watching her when the cubs came along! Even though you can't see mama in the video, she's in the foreground, under the plants. When watched for a while, but once mama decided enough was enough and started walking towards us, we decided enough was enough and continued on our hike!

But all in all, not only good hiking, but what good fortune to see so many bears, too!

Hiking

One of the things we did on vacation was hike. Always good to get outdoors in the fresh air and see the wonders of creation and nature. We spent a fews days in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and then at our newest National Park, New River Gorge. Some pics . . .

We hiked to some waterfalls . . .

Even got to go behind one.

We hiked into crevasses.

At our nation's newest National Park in West Virginia.

The view from the top . . .

and the view from the bottom!

Yes, we hiked all the way to the bottom! That was the easy part. It was going back up that was tough! Here's how it look on the "Map My Walk" app:

Tomorrow: Bears!

Back in the Saddle . . . Kind of

I'm back from vacation and now the task of catching up with everything from the past two weeks as well as jumping into the normal schedule! I'll post on our vacation over the next week or so (he said hopefully!), but in the meantime, one picture to get you going . . .

What shall I preach this Sunday? :-)

A Little R&R

I'm leaving for some R&R today - much needed! I know I left you hanging with my last post . . . I promise I'll get that up when I get back! I just didn't have time for the blog trying to get everything done before leaving. I've got other stuff to post, too. So see you in a bit!

Higher Things, Day 5 - The End, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The last day, as most of you know, is a half-day, a travel day. We say a lot of goodbyes and then start the journey home. Our plan was to load the van after lunch and before the closing service, then get out pretty quickly. 

Nope.

When I got to our van, it was dead. Completely. Didn't even try to start. :-(  I saw someone in the parking lot and tried to jump it, but couldn't really get a good connection on her battery, so it didn't work. Not even close. So we left our stuff in our dorm rooms and went to the Closing Service and would deal with the van after that. The Closing Service is one of the highlights, IMHO. I snuck out after communion to call AAA. Sadly, they basically said that someone would be there up to 1.5 hours from then. We would just have to wait and see how long it took. Sigh.

So after watching most folks leave, another friend offered to try again to jump - this time with a better battery connection. Thankfully, that worked, but the battery wouldn't hold a charge, wouldn't restart by itself. So it was off to the auto parts store for a new one. The first place wouldn't install it for us, but the second would, and did. All-in-all, not too bad, but it did hold us up leaving, which meant we get to our hotel later in the night. We were hoping to leave by 3 CT, 4 ET, but ending up leaving after 5 ET. (This was the "Bad" of the title.)

But before talking about that, some pictures . . .

Pastor Stan Temme, Evansville, IN, and his son Simon. Stan is the one who finally got our van started and followed us to the auto parts store to make sure we got taken care of. Thanks Stan! (Part of the "Good," along with the last parts of the conference.)

Pastor and Headmaster Steve Kieser of Plano, TX.

Almost 1,000 youth in attendance.

The final standings of the "tetramorph challenge" - the different teams the youth were divided into. Our team, Leo, was victorious!

The theme of next year's conferences, with an apologetics focus.

So, the trip home . . . went smoothly, at first. Stopped for a quick dinner in Fort Wayne, then wound our way through rural Ohio to our hotel outside of Pittsburgh. The fun always starts after dark when we begin to get silly remembering all that happened during the week and laugh a lot. We also started a new "Higher Things after Dark" tradition this year . . . but you'll have to wait for that until the next post!

But what about the "Ugly" in the title? Well, that happened around midnight when we were in eastern Ohio, trying to get onto a highway . . .  we got to the on ramp Google led us to, which was closed for construction! So after pulling over and figuring out how to get to the next on ramp, we started down the road when we were stopped by a freight train! TWICE! By the same train! It went across our street, stopped, a man pivoted a switch in the track, and then it backed up across our street onto the new track! Fortunately, it wasn't an ultra long train - only about 40 cars, but still another hold up, causing us not to get to the hotel, checked in, and to our rooms until after 2 AM!

So now, after a couple hours of sleep, we'll be off again soon for the last leg. Got to get home and get ready for church tomorrow! But check back - I'll try to get a post up later today about our new tradition. Trust me, you won't want to miss that!

Higher Things, Day 4 - Second Full Day

The schedule for Thursday is much like the schedule for Wednesday, and by now everyone knows the drill and things tend to run smoothly. All the youth seem to be having a good time and it sounds like good learning, too. One difference was that last night there are some fire pits to sit around and chat about . . . anything on your mind. I was one of the pastors "assigned" to a fire pit to talk with the youth (and some adults) that came. It was an enjoyable time to talk with them. During the day, with the panel Q&A, there were some really hard questions asked! I did not get any doozies, but still good chats. They had announced that they were not providing S'mores this year, so my daughter and I walked over to the Dollar Store across the street from Valpo and bought the ingredients ourselves - so whoever came to our fire pit got some! ;-)

Some more pictures for you . . .

Jocelyn Benson, Head Teacher at Wittenberg Academy, my daughter's school. This picture should come in handy one day, don't you think?

Kathy Berg, wife of Pastor John Berg of Sheboygan, WI. I sang with Kathy in the Schola Kantorum at the Seminary when her husband and I overlapped there.

This is the room I taught in - a recital hall! The video screen was ginormous! I had to take a picture of it! I taught again today, and while I had fewer in attendance, the presentation went a bit better. 

I previously posted a picture of the inside of the chapel - here's what the chancel area looks like from the outside. Pretty impressive.

Pastor Larry Feldt (I think I'm spelling that right!) of Denver, IA (the mile WIDE city!). Larry and I overlapped at Seminary.

The Douthwaites all together before the start of one of the plenary sessions.

And finally, last but certainly not least . . .

What is this monstrosity, you ask? The air conditioning system for the chapel! Who's the genius engineer who design that rat's nest of hoses!

Anyway, one more day (a half-day) and then the long trek home. But that's for tomorrow's post.

Higher Things, Day 3 - First Full Day

Today got started with a bang as I met my old friend, mentor, and sign language teacher Dave Bush in the lobby of the student center. He looks exactly the same as 27 years ago!

Some other friends (and relatives!) - old and new - that I ran into today . . .

My nephew Adam (the "other Pastor Douthwaite" in attendance!)

Adam's wife Sarah, also a deaconess. Their church is in Dallas, TX.

Tom Olson, from NC.

Grace Martin!

The Martin family were members of our mission congregation before they moved to Texas.

Dr. Dan Brege, Indiana District President (for a few more weeks). His daughter Heidi attends my church.

So this is how the day went: breakfast, Matins, plenary session, Lunch, vespers, breakout class, panel discussion, another breakout class, dinner, evening prayer, a third breakout class, free time, compline to close out the night. There is some time between each of these to do some other things as well - to chat, do some pastoral duties, etc.

I taught my first breakout this afternoon. As some of you know, my topic this year is: A Small Catechism on Predestination. A meaty subject! But one that I think is important to have a conversation on with the youth. Lots of misunderstanding and bad theology on this out there. I felt like I did just okay. The room dynamic was quite different than I am used to. It was a large recital hall and I was up on a stage, so a bit separated from the folks. I think that made it hard for me to get feedback as I was presenting. But I received some good comments afterward and good questions at the end from the youth, so I guess that's a good sign. I get to do it again tomorrow, so that should be a little better.

Finally, here's our group photo:

Tomorrow: The Second Full Day

Higher Things, Day 2 - Getting Started

The conference began today. We ate a good brunch (since dinner is the first meal provided here) and drove the final two hours. We arrived around Noon, checked in, found our rooms, unpacked, made the beds, and then it was time to head to the chapel for the opening Divine Service. I'm not sure how many are in attendance, but we seem to have filled the chapel pretty good. Here's a picture of the inside:

To get an idea of the size of this chapel (and it is rather large!), check out the pulpit on the wall under the chandelier on the right. We were sitting about 1/3 of the way back, I think. The only bad thing about the chapel is that the sound system really isn't very good. ;-(

After the service we went to another building for the welcome and the first Plenary session. The speaker had a lot of energy and kept the kids engaged. Then it was time for dinner - a pretty good selection of food, and met and talked with some pastor friends. As always, I got some pictures . . . Some of these pastors you've seen before from previous Higher Things pictures. :-)

Dave Mumme, Minnesota South 1st VP

Jim Leistico, serving in Canada, eh!

Nathan Neugebauer, serving in South Dakota, did his vicarage in my circuit in the SELC.

Joe Murphy, Parker, Colorado, and classmate at Seminary

Chris Sifferlein, Littitz, PA, vicared close by when I was in NY.

My nephew Adam is also here with a group, along with his wife Sarah. I got to talk with them a little but didn't get a picture yet. I still have a couple of days . . .

Soon it will be time to pray Compline and head off to bed. I should sleep good tonight!