Journeys
8-27-06:
Today we begin introducing our new part-time Youth Director/Kids Kamp Coordinator, Mrs. Janine Harvey.
Janine and her husband Michael moved to Beatrice this past year for Mike’s job in administration at the Beatrice Community Hospital. Janine has three children; a son, Micah, who is two, and two daughters, Janelle - 16 and Jacyln - 15, who are finishing up their High School years in Kansas.
Our Staff Parish Relations Committee was especially impressed with her past experience in church work as a Christian Education Director and Church Program Director in United Methodist Churches in Bonner Springs and Shawnee Mission Kansas.
After the interview and approval process, Janine began her work with us last week. She has hit the ground running, meeting with Gail Butler and past Kids Kamp parents, and meeting with Cindy and me to discuss Middle School and High School Work Mission options for this coming year.
Mrs. Harvey will be providing the programming and coordinating volunteers for the Middle School Youth Program, “Faith Factor,” and coordinating work missions for the Middle School and High School and the fund raisers for those trips. She will also be providing over-all administration the volunteers for Kids Kamp. The Middle School and High School Youth and Parents are invited to meet Janine at a Wed., Sept. 6th gathering to talk about this coming year’s program. We will consecrate her on Sunday, Sept. 10th at the 9:00 o’clock and 11 o’clock worship services.
We are extremely excited to have Janine sharing her gifts with our church. Please take the opportunity to introduce ourselves as we start acclimating Mrs. Harvey to our congregation.
Grace & Peace,
Friday, August 25, 2006
Journeys 8-20-06
Back to School
We’ve handed our children back. They are no longer just ours. Now, the biggest part of their days, they belong to Mrs. Woodward, and Mr. Sutter. Their Beatrice Public School keepers communicate with us via copied colored paper with messages about school lunches, parking passes and eye exams. Its time to clear a spot on the refrigerator for this year’s magnet messages.
The deregulation of their summer sleep patterns has come to a halt. We tried to begin bending their bedtimes back to reality these past two weeks. They fought it all the way. Now, just being tired from the day at school will finally force their heads down on their pillows at a decent time once again. Starting Monday, the high-schoolers will report to band practice at 7:30 a.m. each day. Our grade-schooler can walk out our door at 8:15 a.m. and be at the fifth grade door by 8:20 a.m. no problem. Everyone gets done with school at 3:30 p.m.
Fortunately, they break us in gradually. The full force of the fall schedule builds for a while here. Dance doesn’t start for a couple weeks. Wednesday night church stuff (Kids Kamp, Youth Bells, Godparent Groups) doesn’t begin ‘til after Labor Day.
This year the Karges family has the additional pressure of having a Senior in the house. All the “lasts” have begun with the “last first day of school.” We’re already grieving her leaving and she’s still here for at least 11 months.
School forces us to fold our lives into its calendar. There is an additional layer of structure to bump up against.
Now is the time to get involved with that Bible study your friends have been bugging you about. Singing in the choir, or playing in the Gracenotes band might be just how God wants you to share your gifts this year. Do my Sunday School class in the fellowship hall that discusses the scripture for that day in worship, or dive into the Sunday Night DVD discussion group. Now may be the time to deepen your faith. Pray about it – then take the plunge. School isn’t the only institution to fold your life into this fall. Bump up against the church calendar and see where you fit in.
Grace & Peace,
We’ve handed our children back. They are no longer just ours. Now, the biggest part of their days, they belong to Mrs. Woodward, and Mr. Sutter. Their Beatrice Public School keepers communicate with us via copied colored paper with messages about school lunches, parking passes and eye exams. Its time to clear a spot on the refrigerator for this year’s magnet messages.
The deregulation of their summer sleep patterns has come to a halt. We tried to begin bending their bedtimes back to reality these past two weeks. They fought it all the way. Now, just being tired from the day at school will finally force their heads down on their pillows at a decent time once again. Starting Monday, the high-schoolers will report to band practice at 7:30 a.m. each day. Our grade-schooler can walk out our door at 8:15 a.m. and be at the fifth grade door by 8:20 a.m. no problem. Everyone gets done with school at 3:30 p.m.
Fortunately, they break us in gradually. The full force of the fall schedule builds for a while here. Dance doesn’t start for a couple weeks. Wednesday night church stuff (Kids Kamp, Youth Bells, Godparent Groups) doesn’t begin ‘til after Labor Day.
This year the Karges family has the additional pressure of having a Senior in the house. All the “lasts” have begun with the “last first day of school.” We’re already grieving her leaving and she’s still here for at least 11 months.
School forces us to fold our lives into its calendar. There is an additional layer of structure to bump up against.
Now is the time to get involved with that Bible study your friends have been bugging you about. Singing in the choir, or playing in the Gracenotes band might be just how God wants you to share your gifts this year. Do my Sunday School class in the fellowship hall that discusses the scripture for that day in worship, or dive into the Sunday Night DVD discussion group. Now may be the time to deepen your faith. Pray about it – then take the plunge. School isn’t the only institution to fold your life into this fall. Bump up against the church calendar and see where you fit in.
Grace & Peace,
Friday, August 11, 2006
Journeys 8-13-06
Journeys 8-13-06
As a kid, I loved shopping for school supplies. It may explain why my favorite stores are now Office Max and Office Depot. Of course my 17 year old confirms my history when she looks at the matching hip holsters for my Palm Pilot and cell phone and says, “Daddy, you are such a nerd!” And I say, “Yea, I know, always have been. Wait ‘til you see the new belt clip I got for my IPod!”
I got my first brief case when I was 12. In Jr. High, I was biking to school with an old green army back-pack before backpacks were “in.” Of course, my bike had the matching wire baskets on back. I didn’t want to get home and need a book I didn’t have. It has always been important to have what I need on my person at all times.
Now, my kids get their list from the school. We check off the items one by one. Items not on the list have to be negotiated. Its better that Cindy does the school shopping. I’m more inclined to say, “You sure that back-pack’s big enough? How about this one?” Emily will say, “But Daddy, that doesn’t match.” And I say, “What do you mean? Match what?”
On Sunday, Sept. 10th (the Sunday after Labor Day) we will have the annual “Blessing of the Backpacks.” You are invited to bring your backpacks and briefcases up to the altar as we bless them for this coming school year. In doing so, we’ll recognize that God is a part of all our lives. In asking God’s blessings on the tools of our lives, we invite God into our work, our productivity.
If anybody needs me to go along to Walmart or Office Max to school shop, just let me know.
Grace & Peace,
As a kid, I loved shopping for school supplies. It may explain why my favorite stores are now Office Max and Office Depot. Of course my 17 year old confirms my history when she looks at the matching hip holsters for my Palm Pilot and cell phone and says, “Daddy, you are such a nerd!” And I say, “Yea, I know, always have been. Wait ‘til you see the new belt clip I got for my IPod!”
I got my first brief case when I was 12. In Jr. High, I was biking to school with an old green army back-pack before backpacks were “in.” Of course, my bike had the matching wire baskets on back. I didn’t want to get home and need a book I didn’t have. It has always been important to have what I need on my person at all times.
Now, my kids get their list from the school. We check off the items one by one. Items not on the list have to be negotiated. Its better that Cindy does the school shopping. I’m more inclined to say, “You sure that back-pack’s big enough? How about this one?” Emily will say, “But Daddy, that doesn’t match.” And I say, “What do you mean? Match what?”
On Sunday, Sept. 10th (the Sunday after Labor Day) we will have the annual “Blessing of the Backpacks.” You are invited to bring your backpacks and briefcases up to the altar as we bless them for this coming school year. In doing so, we’ll recognize that God is a part of all our lives. In asking God’s blessings on the tools of our lives, we invite God into our work, our productivity.
If anybody needs me to go along to Walmart or Office Max to school shop, just let me know.
Grace & Peace,
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Journeys 8-6-06
I was doing O.K. on this death thing until I did a funeral this last week. It was nothing earth shattering; an 87 year old man who’d lived in a nursing home his last few years. He was a relative of a church member. I’ve done hundreds of funerals. At one time I figured I’d done at least 20 a year for my 22 years of full time ministry. I have no fear about life after death. I trust God’s influence to extend way beyond what’s here on earth.
It’s more personal than that. Seeing those pictures of the U-Haul truck I was driving on May 10th, with the area where I was sitting crushed like a coke can, makes me consider death as a current personal reality. Up until now it’s been about responding to other people’s deaths; my grandparents, my aunt, my uncles, my cousin, my child, my parishoners. Just coping with the grief has at times been overwhelming. Living without them, living with loss, living with this hole in my soul I know as grief. It’s been about how to keep my head above water as I swim through the dark waters of grief.
This is not about my grief. It’s about beginnings and endings. This is about being 47 years old before I have to really think about my own end. Up to now, I’ve been living my life as if it would never end. Since May 10th, I’m thinking about living my life backwards.
How about knowing, with every part of my heart and mind that my life on earth will not go on forever, and going backwards from there? It might make me less likely to just skate through life, just trying to dodge the bumps and holes along the way. It might make me more likely to make each day count.
So today, do my children know I love them? Do they know I think they’re beautiful and smart and great to be around? Does my wife know I adore her and love to see her smile? Do my parents know how much I appreciate them? Do my brothers know how much they mean to me? Do my friends know what a blessing they are to me?
See, at that funeral, more than ever before, I wanted them to know this thing about death; I wanted them to know, that you just never know. Your last conscious moment could be a call on your cell phone as you drive onto an interstate highway in the rain. You just never know.
What I do know now, is that there is an end.
“God, help me be who you made me to be in the time I have left on this earth.”
Grace & Peace,
It’s more personal than that. Seeing those pictures of the U-Haul truck I was driving on May 10th, with the area where I was sitting crushed like a coke can, makes me consider death as a current personal reality. Up until now it’s been about responding to other people’s deaths; my grandparents, my aunt, my uncles, my cousin, my child, my parishoners. Just coping with the grief has at times been overwhelming. Living without them, living with loss, living with this hole in my soul I know as grief. It’s been about how to keep my head above water as I swim through the dark waters of grief.
This is not about my grief. It’s about beginnings and endings. This is about being 47 years old before I have to really think about my own end. Up to now, I’ve been living my life as if it would never end. Since May 10th, I’m thinking about living my life backwards.
How about knowing, with every part of my heart and mind that my life on earth will not go on forever, and going backwards from there? It might make me less likely to just skate through life, just trying to dodge the bumps and holes along the way. It might make me more likely to make each day count.
So today, do my children know I love them? Do they know I think they’re beautiful and smart and great to be around? Does my wife know I adore her and love to see her smile? Do my parents know how much I appreciate them? Do my brothers know how much they mean to me? Do my friends know what a blessing they are to me?
See, at that funeral, more than ever before, I wanted them to know this thing about death; I wanted them to know, that you just never know. Your last conscious moment could be a call on your cell phone as you drive onto an interstate highway in the rain. You just never know.
What I do know now, is that there is an end.
“God, help me be who you made me to be in the time I have left on this earth.”
Grace & Peace,
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)