Retraction

mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa

I apologize. I was wrong.

I wrote a rather snarky post yesterday about a news article on the doors at the new Museum of the Bible. The journalist wrote that they were "the first 80 lines of Genesis written in Latin in reverse," which I thought was an absurd thing to say. I thought a better explanation was that they were probably Hebrew, the original language of Genesis, which does read "in reverse," or right-to-left.

But they ARE, in fact, Latin written in reverse. They are supposed to be replicas of the printing plates  of the Gutenberg Bible.

So it turns out I am the stupid one.
I am the one who should have spent a little more time checking.
I am the one indicted.

I have deleted my snarky post and herewith take my shame. Hopefully I have learned something and will do better in the future.

And my apology to that journalist.

Oh, the Joys . . .

. . . of not having your own building continue! This weekend is our annual Good Shepherd Seminar. We fly in a professor from our Ft. Wayne Seminary who holds forth on a topic for us on Saturday, and then leads Bible Class and preaches for us on Sunday. Every year we've held this at the same hotel, for eleven years now. We never had any trouble. Never. Ever.

Until this year.

At about 8:30 last night, we arrive at the hotel and they know nothing about us. Zilch. Nada. No reservations at all. The meeting room had been rented to another group. We have no place to have our seminar. We call to other area hotels, but they either have no meeting space, have already committed it, or want to charge something spectacularly high since we're over a barrel. And at that time of night, it's most difficult to get a hold of the hotel managers anyway.

We had our contract with them, but the sales manager who made it no longer works there and apparently didn't enter it into their system - or however they do it. Sigh. Fortunately, they still had a guest room for our professor, so we got that. But now we'll have to meet at local members house. It'll be a bit cramped, but we'll make do. But what a headache last night! And trying to communicate to everyone coming today for the seminar to go to a new location. We'll have a sign up at the hotel and information there - hopefully everyone will get to the new location okay.

The professor was very good and good natured about it all. And, lesson learned. Check. Double check. Confirm. Triple confirm. But this I know, too: it will be a good seminar today, despite the circumstances. :-)

Update

Well, time for a school update . . .

As I've posted before, I've been finished with my Ph.D. classwork for some time now and had my exams to take. I'd taken a leave of absence to deal with family issues, but the time had come to fish or cut bait, as they say. My congregation graciously allowed me to cut back on a few things this January - March, so that I could take my exams in April. As the year began, I registered and began studying.

Then my father went into the hospital . . . and went again . . . and went again. Again, as I've written before, this is tough because my wife and I need to be there with him because of his dementia. When he is sick, he is prone to agitation and upset when he doesn't have someone he knows there. So, my studying took a hit. Its just very hard to get much done in the hospital.

But I tried. In the beginning of March I had one exam to pass so that I could move onto my big, three-day, comprehensive exams. Well, I didn't do well. In fact, I was pretty sure I had not passed - 95% percent or more sure. So I was pretty bummed. At the same time I got slammed with an issue in the district that sucked up a lot of time, so for three week I didn't check my school email and I didn't continue studying. (For why study for exams I won't get to take anyway?)

Well, after about three weeks I decided to log onto my school email and just get the bad news over with. Except . . . I passed. As I told my advisor, I didn't know any human being had that much grace in them! But now I was in a pickle - for my exams were to come up in a couple of weeks and I was not prepared! Both because I got set back with my father's hospitalizations, and because I had stopped studying for a few weeks. But I also don't want to keep having these things hanging over my head, and my congregation had been so gracious. So I called my advisor to see how to move forward.

Turns out my advisor never got the email I sent him to register for my exams! I don't know what

happened, if the fault was on my end, his end, or somewhere in between, but no paperwork, no necessary signatures, nothing had been done! And this is all supposed to be in place 30 days before the exams which were now two weeks away. My advisor said he would see what he could do. Originally, if all had gone according to plan, I was to take them April 10-12 which, for those of you liturgically astute, is Holy Week! Yes, the first three days of Holy Week. My advisor realized these probably weren't the best days for a pastor to be taking them, but we'll see.

So he asks for permission for special days for me, which is sometimes done. I thought maybe the first week in May, since that was finals week. Kinda makes sense. These are like my finals. Administration says no. The logistics wouldn't work out; people wouldn't be in place. They counter with some alternate dates: what about April 17, 19, 20? Well that doesn't make sense, since the days aren't consecutive (which they're supposed to be), the 17th classes aren't in session and so the logistical and personnel would be a problem that day too, and the day after Easter is still not an optimal day for a pastor! So, we counter with April 24-26. Accepted.

That gives me one week after Easter to cram for the exams. So cram I did. The days for the exams came. I woke up each morning super early to study and get my notes together, reviewed them on the Metro, and then took them. Now I must say, in my opinion the exams were quite fair - no outlandish questions, no unreasonable minutiae. And I think I did as well as I could expect. My answers fairly reflect what I know. Now the question is: is that enough? I really have no idea. Just have to wait for the results.

But, as if all that isn't enough, one more heart-stopping thing happened. On Thursday, the day after all the exams were done and I was feeling quite a sense of relief, I get a call from the Associate Director of Graduate Studies . . . there was a problem with my exams. Oh no. They didn't have one of them. You see, each day I would go to an office with a computer they had ready for me, write my answers, and then email the test to the Associate Director. Except the third day, I emailed the wrong test. So she had two copies of the second day and did not get the third. Oh no! Was it still on the computer? In the trash? I really didn't want to go back and do it again! So I gave her my account logon information and waited while she went and checked it out. I think that was the longest 30 minutes or so of my life! Then she calls me back: she found it. It was there. All was in order.

Heart, you can start beating again . . .

So that's the story right now. I am waiting for the result. What will I do then? I don't know. If I pass, the school can give me candidate status, meaning I am full steam ahead to write my dissertation. But do I want to commit to that? That means several more years of intense research and writing, including a boat load of translating that I would need to do. And will I be able? Will my father go back in the hospital and need me to be there? Will I be able to travel for sources and research? Did I have the energy to devote to such an endeavor? I don't know. I am leaning toward no right now, though many are encouraging me to keep going. If I stop (assuming I pass) I can receive a Master of Philosophy - not a small accomplishment. So we'll see.

Now, I'm trying to catch up on all the stuff I put off to study!

The Rack

Remember that Medieval torture device called the rack?

That's what I feel like these days! No, I'm not being tortured, but I do feel like I'm being pulled in four different directions: family, church, school, and district. All need my time right now. You see, my father is back in the hospital again. He was only home for a week or so before needing to return, and hasn't bounced back so far. I also should be studying for my school exams, and with everything else going on am falling behind. Problems in my district need my attention - more attention than I have been giving them. And then my church responsibilities - both the ongoing, regular ones, but also the special ones that crop up, like now having to help organize and fund raise for Bishop Omolo's trip from Kenya in May and June. So with those four things, I feel like each limb is being pulled in a different direction. Two limbs is great. Three I can deal with. Four is tough.

But I have a great family. My youngest is so understanding at all the upset with grandpa in the hospital and my wife and I being there so much. My sister came down to help last night, and that's a big help! My wife is amazing at all she does. My church has been incredibly understanding and has allowed my some reduction in my schedule to study for school. But the busyness, coupled with the emotional, creates a weariness . . .

One day at a time.

Ain't It The Way

So last week while I was at Higher Things, the air conditioner in our home decided to stop working. Repairman cannot come until Friday. So this week? Yup - the hottest days of the year so far, every day in the 90s with high humidity. :-(

No!

No!

No, no, no!

Funerals are not about you. They're about Jesus.

They're not about what you have done, they're about what Jesus has done for you.

When you die, if I do your funeral, I will say what a horrible sinner you were, and that will not be a lie, and nothing you can do can change that.

But then I will also say that Jesus came to die for sinners, that He died for you, and that you are therefore His child, unworthy as you are, and an heir of everlasting life. And that will be the truth.

So I say let's make a t-shirt that says this: Jesus died and rose for you so the preacher won't have to lie at your funeral.

That's better.

And the truth.

Pet Peeves

Pet peeves on my mind today . . .

+ Warm winters - it's supposed to be cold! (We're actually cold today and tomorrow, but Christmas Eve at 70 degrees? Gimme a break!)

+ People who hit your car in the parking lot and drive away without leaving you a note, leaving you either with a repair bill or (probably) increased insurance cost.

+ Web pages which jump around with ads while loading, causing you to click on ads you don't want, which gives the page their revenue from the ad click but causing you to go places you don't want to go!

Got any you want to share?  :-)

The Sunday Transformation

I will post a final Higher Things post soon, maybe tomorrow. For today, just wanted to show you our sanctuary from this morning. The Adventists from whom we rent space for church have their Vacation Bible School this week, starting tonight. They always decorate quite heavily for this, as many churches do. But for them it includes the sanctuary, which is the space we also need. So, each year there is one Sunday (at least) where we have lots of less-than-worshipful-and-sacred things in the church. This year, it is Mt. Kilimanjaro! Here are the before and after pictures:

Here is the chancel when I arrived.

Here is the "Lutheranized" chancel!

We hung curtains in front of all their decorations and placed our altar, pulpit, and candles in from of the curtains. Nothing we could do about the things on the side walls, but at least our view forward wasn't bad. :-)

The Adventists are usually pretty good at taking their stuff down after their VBS is over, so hopefully next Sunday it will all be back to normal. 

Strange Noise . . .

Ok, so I get up this morning and make my way down to my study in the basement. To do so I walk past the laundry room and hear the water running. Strange. Sounds like the washing machine, but it's early so no one up but me. The water noise is coming from the sump pump hole.

Oh no.

For those of you who do not have sump pumps, let me tell you this: there is no good scenario for what is happening at this point. None. Nada. This is bad no matter how you slice it.

So I gently move the cover to the sump hole and water starts squirting out. Okay, it just got worse. Images of my basement flooding are running through my head. So I unplug the pump and remove the cover . . . and thankfully, the water is not running out of the hole. This is probably the best case scenario! One of the couplings connecting the pump output to the output pipe had come loose and the water was squirting out of there. But what caused it to all of a sudden come loose?

I grab some buckets and bail the water out of the hole. It is as warm as bath water! Our pump must have been running quite some time. My guess is that with all of our extremely cold weather, the line has frozen somewhere and the pump just kept running and running, trying to push out the water until the coupling came apart under the pressure. Then the pump kept pumping but the water never left the hole, i.e. infinite loop.

So, I'll keep an eye on it for now and see what happens. Reminds me of another story when I heard water running in the middle of the night . . . but that's a story for another day. :-)

UPDATE: Confirmed line was clogged (and assumed frozen), so ran a new, temporary line to the waste sink in the laundry room. So now the water can get pumped out until the spring thaw, when I'll remove the temporary line and reattach the permanent one. (My wife will just have to watch her step until then!) And now I'll have the emergency line ready for it this ever happens again.

I Hate Misinformation

I hate misinformation. I hate it when a web site tells you one price, but when you try to purchase that, you get a different price. The latest example is Staples, whose web site tells you that you can get 501 color copies for 0.34 per copy. However, when you try to upload a file and actually place such an order, the price is 0.44 per copy - a 33% difference. If you go to the store, the price is even higher. If you ask the personnel at the store, they will tell you the web site will give you the discount. NO, NO IT WON'T! But they won't believe a poor schlub like me. What do I know anyway? Argh! I don't want to pay more, so they lost my business and I can't get what I want done. Very frustrating.

Thanks for listening to me vent!  :-)

Web. Site. Gone.

We lost our church web site rather unexpectedly yesterday. If you were looking for it, hopefully it will be mostly up and functional soon. Part of it (the sermon archive) I think we will have to rebuild. I was worried that this day was coming (I won't go into the reasons) and had some folks at church looking into it, but it came sooner and more suddenly than expected. Thankfully I have good guys who got right on it and so the downtime should not be long.  :-)