As many of you probably know, I love children. I love the things that children say and do. Often I think I will remember these little things, but I do not have enough memory space. So, maybe if I blog about it I will remember it.
Last Sunday during worship I was distributing bread during communion. Since I have only helped with communion twice, I am still trying to figure out which kids take communion and which ones do not. This little girl came forward with her arms crossed across her body signaling to me that she did not take communion. I gave her a blessing saying, "May the Lord bless and keep you each and every day of your life. Amen." She wrapped her little arms around my legs and gave me a hug. She was so thankful for the words of blessing that had been spoken to her.
In Matthew 18:3-4, Jesus says, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven." May we all be as thankful as children!
8.20.2010
8.16.2010
Sunday!
This Sunday was my first time preaching at St. Paul's. Overall, I think it went really well and I heard a lot of great feedback from the congregation. If you would like to read my sermon, feel free to check it out at Preaching Bytes.
After church I headed to pick up Elizabeth and then we headed to Haymarket, VA. Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church meets in the firehouse in Haymarket, VA. Today was a very special day for this congregation as they welcomed Pastor Mark as their new pastor. It was a great day to celebrate with Mark and some of the seminary community.
Then Elizabeth and I headed out for supper. We stopped at Anita's, which serves "New Mexico Style" Mexican food. It was very tasty and a wonderful time to catch up with a great friend.
I headed home only to be lead on a scenic route that I was certain would take me much longer than the roads I had taken on my way to VA. However, it was quicker and had much less traffic and I only took about three wrong turns. The GPS is on my good side at the end of this day!
I was pretty exhausted when I got home and as I was coming into the house I accidentally pressed the "panic" button on my home security system. I frantically called the number to report a false alarm. After identifying myself and providing them with my password they told me they would cancel the alarm. Thinking that this meant that it was all taken care of I put my pajamas on and called my mom to chat about the day. As I was doing that I saw bright flashing lights out my window. It was a DC police officer. So, I left the house to go talk to him. He asked for my drivers license to prove that I lived there. I brought him my ID and his response was, "You are from South Dakota! How do I know you live here?" I had no idea how to prove that I lived here. Then I remember that I had a paycheck from the church with my address. Hooray! I proved that I lived there and then another police officer arrived. Holy Buckets! They sat outside my house for another fifteen minutes or so, which made me a bit nervous. The moral of this story is that I feel safe and secure with my home security system. I can barely prove that I live in my house, so no one else should be able to!
Here's to an exciting and exhausting Sunday!
After church I headed to pick up Elizabeth and then we headed to Haymarket, VA. Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church meets in the firehouse in Haymarket, VA. Today was a very special day for this congregation as they welcomed Pastor Mark as their new pastor. It was a great day to celebrate with Mark and some of the seminary community.
Then Elizabeth and I headed out for supper. We stopped at Anita's, which serves "New Mexico Style" Mexican food. It was very tasty and a wonderful time to catch up with a great friend.
I headed home only to be lead on a scenic route that I was certain would take me much longer than the roads I had taken on my way to VA. However, it was quicker and had much less traffic and I only took about three wrong turns. The GPS is on my good side at the end of this day!
I was pretty exhausted when I got home and as I was coming into the house I accidentally pressed the "panic" button on my home security system. I frantically called the number to report a false alarm. After identifying myself and providing them with my password they told me they would cancel the alarm. Thinking that this meant that it was all taken care of I put my pajamas on and called my mom to chat about the day. As I was doing that I saw bright flashing lights out my window. It was a DC police officer. So, I left the house to go talk to him. He asked for my drivers license to prove that I lived there. I brought him my ID and his response was, "You are from South Dakota! How do I know you live here?" I had no idea how to prove that I lived here. Then I remember that I had a paycheck from the church with my address. Hooray! I proved that I lived there and then another police officer arrived. Holy Buckets! They sat outside my house for another fifteen minutes or so, which made me a bit nervous. The moral of this story is that I feel safe and secure with my home security system. I can barely prove that I live in my house, so no one else should be able to!
Here's to an exciting and exhausting Sunday!
8.10.2010
My 1st Week!
So I now have my first full week of internship under my belt and I have a few updates for y'all!
1. I don't feel like I live in Washington, DC. I feel more like I live in a suburb, because there is nothing in my area that screams DC.
2.I find myself looking up a lot. As I walk around this city my eyes are always drawn upward. I think it is because I cannot see the horizon, so I scope out the large buildings that prevent me from seeing the horizon.
3. I am dependent on the Internet. I still do not have Internet at my house, so I am only able to use it at work. It is almost as if I get bored at home, because of the lack of Internet in my life. I have resorted to watching movies. Hopefully the Internet will be working by next week.
4. Hairspray has the ability to aid in killing a wasp. This bugger was in my house last week and I didn't know how to kill him. My mom graciously searched the Internet for a solution. Sorry, little wasp. RIP.
5. I wore my clerical collar to church on Sunday. This is my third time ever wearing it and my first time wearing it in DC.
6. I ate at Comet Ping Pong on Sunday. They have great pizza and ping pong tables for entertainment. It was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.
All in all, I think the first week went well. Now, back to working on my sermon for this Sunday.
1. I don't feel like I live in Washington, DC. I feel more like I live in a suburb, because there is nothing in my area that screams DC.2.I find myself looking up a lot. As I walk around this city my eyes are always drawn upward. I think it is because I cannot see the horizon, so I scope out the large buildings that prevent me from seeing the horizon.
3. I am dependent on the Internet. I still do not have Internet at my house, so I am only able to use it at work. It is almost as if I get bored at home, because of the lack of Internet in my life. I have resorted to watching movies. Hopefully the Internet will be working by next week.
4. Hairspray has the ability to aid in killing a wasp. This bugger was in my house last week and I didn't know how to kill him. My mom graciously searched the Internet for a solution. Sorry, little wasp. RIP.
5. I wore my clerical collar to church on Sunday. This is my third time ever wearing it and my first time wearing it in DC.6. I ate at Comet Ping Pong on Sunday. They have great pizza and ping pong tables for entertainment. It was featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.
All in all, I think the first week went well. Now, back to working on my sermon for this Sunday.
8.04.2010
Welcome to DC!
Well, I made it here safely on July 23rd. My mom made the trek across the country with me and helped me get settled into my new house. While we were traveling we played a game to find a license plate from every state. We found all but 5 states: Hawaii; New Hampshire; Alabama; Wyoming, and Rhode Island. In DC my mom and I went to Target, Safeway, CVS, Politics and Prose, Bread and Chocolate, Chipotle, The Cheesecake Factory, and to Lucky Nails (for my mom's first pedicure).
Mom headed out on Wednesday, July 28th and I started working at the church. I am mostly settled into my office and my house, but it is all taking some getting used to. It is crazy to have a 3 bedroom 2.5 bathroom house in Washington, DC all to myself. At the church my office is kind of off the beaten path, but that means it is pretty quiet. I even have my own bathroom in my office!
After being at the church for two days I took off with part of the youth for a retreat in Deep Creek Lake, MD. It was a fantastic trip with some really wonderful young people. We spent time on the lake and the youth even talked me into going tubing, which made every muscle in my body hurt for several days. I also got a nice sunburn to go along with the body aches. On the way home, the girls in my vehicle wanted to stop at a gas station. So, I took them to Sheetz for their very first Sheetz experience. It was really funny to watch them be so excited over a gas station, but all I could do was remember my first time at Sheetz!
My hope is to keep this blog going throughout the year to keep y'all informed of my adventures. So, more to come...
1.08.2010
Waiting
Those of you that know me well know that I hate waiting. I am a planner and an organizer and I love to know what is coming next. So, here I am waiting to find out where I will be placed next year for internship. I have applied for a program called Horizons. This program helps churches that cannot afford interns, afford them. I was interested in four sites: Seattle, WA; Los Angeles, CA; Syracuse, NY; and Bethlehem, PA. Today was the conference call that discussed which students are best for each site. Soon, the waiting should end and I should know if I was placed at one of these sites. If I was not placed at one of these sites then I will have internship matching with all of my classmates in February and continue the waiting process. Until then, I continue waiting and praying for God's will to be revealed to me.
1.06.2010
Epiphany
So I have decided that I might start this blog back up again. I started it when I moved to Gettysburg, PA, but as you can see it didn't last very long. I am currently in a Preaching and Technology course which required me to start up a blog for my sermons. You can check it out at Preaching Bytes. Since today is Epiphany, when the wise men or magi followed the star to a manger in Bethlehem to find Jesus, I thought it would be an appropriate day to start this blog back up. After all, there was a star in the east and they rose up and followed it. There was a star in the east that I followed, which led me to LTSG. There is also a star named Jesus, who has called me to the vocation of ministry. May I continue to rise up and follow!
9.08.2008
The Road to Gettysburg...
So, I made it to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I have been here for almost four weeks. I have finished and passed summer Greek. It was a two week intensive class that covered the coursework of an entire semester. So, it was intense!
I have a love/hate relationship with this place. I love the people and I love being in a new place. It is amazing to know that I was able to pack up and travel almost 1,500 miles and still find wonderful people. I am so excited to see where the next four years will lead. For the most part I think classes will be interesting and challenging. I guess this is where the hate part of the relationship comes into play. Challenging. This whole experience has been challenging. I am sure you are thinking...I could have told you that. Not only do I feel like I am a million miles away from home, friends, and the things I know, I feel completely out of my element. I worship differently than the east coast. As a result, I am completely empty. Almost every worship I have attended is so much of a learning experience that it is not filling me back up. I don't feel connected in these high church environments. Some people here do not understand the worship tradition that I enjoy and it seems as if they don't want to even understand. I am the minority and it is a challenge.
I guess it can be said that a challenge will only make me stronger. My mind can state that right now, but my heart just cannot believe it. So, here's to surviving the challenge...hopefully.
I have a love/hate relationship with this place. I love the people and I love being in a new place. It is amazing to know that I was able to pack up and travel almost 1,500 miles and still find wonderful people. I am so excited to see where the next four years will lead. For the most part I think classes will be interesting and challenging. I guess this is where the hate part of the relationship comes into play. Challenging. This whole experience has been challenging. I am sure you are thinking...I could have told you that. Not only do I feel like I am a million miles away from home, friends, and the things I know, I feel completely out of my element. I worship differently than the east coast. As a result, I am completely empty. Almost every worship I have attended is so much of a learning experience that it is not filling me back up. I don't feel connected in these high church environments. Some people here do not understand the worship tradition that I enjoy and it seems as if they don't want to even understand. I am the minority and it is a challenge.
I guess it can be said that a challenge will only make me stronger. My mind can state that right now, but my heart just cannot believe it. So, here's to surviving the challenge...hopefully.
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