Pastor's Page - February Newsletter, Doniphan/Rosedale UMCs

I am a calendar geek. Yea, I’m THAT guy. Obsessive is just the tip of the ice-berg when it comes to describing me and my calendar. There’s something about nailing down the dates and times of where I’m supposed to be that settles my nerves, calms my soul; makes the unknown future a little more decided.

For the past three years, I’ve kept my calendar on my Blackberry cell phone. After years of carrying my Palm Pilot on one hip and my cell phone on the other, having it all on one small mobile device was refreshing. I liked having my phone, calendar, mileage, and, survival e-mail all in one device.

Now, after being the owner of the oldest phone in my family for a long time, I finally made the leap to an IPhone in mid-January. The youngster at Best Buy who sold me my phone was shocked to transfer 1,100 contacts over from my old phone to my new one. I had to explain that in the modern cell phone age, I’ve been a pastor in Ainsworth, Johnstown, Seward, Beaver Crossing, Beatrice and now Doniphan. And I had a hard time deleting contacts, cause you never know when you’re going to need that number!

For the longest time I designed and printed out calendars for my entire family. They had everybody's’ birthdays and the scripture readings for each Sunday (useful things for a family of ministers). Then we started to cross over into the digital world.

Now, after a day to day search of my Blackberry calendar I’ve pretty much got all those regular church meetings down in my new IPhone calendar. So if somebody asks about a funeral next week or a wedding a year from now, I can check to see if that date is clear. And the best part is if I’m driving all I have to do is ask Siri (my IPhone assistant) to check my calendar and she’ll tell me if that date is clear. She’ll even just put an event in my calendar when I ask her . No typing on little letters with big fingers.

So as of February 1st, I’m feeling good that my calendar is up to date. Now all I’ve got to do is look at it.

May God help us all keep our calendars up to date. And God be with us when life interferes with previously scheduled events.

Grace & Peace,