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scouts and sign language

well, since i have been so lazy posting these last few weeks i thought i would take some time to let you know about a couple of things that has taken place since then. my son and i joined the cub scouts (well. my son joined and since i am his dad then in effect i have "joined" also). he is in 1st grade, so he is a Tiger Cub. at our first "real" meeting we found out what den we were in and who our den leader was. we found out that we are in den #12, cool! after all of the den's had gone back to there rooms to meet our group and another group were just sitting there waiting on instructions. one of the "higher ups" in the cub scout organization came over and said, "the reason you guys did not go back is because you do not have a leader... we had LOTS of boys sign up for scouts but not enough leaders." so, she said that we could take turns being leaders for one month if nobody wanted/could be the den leader all the time. i looked at all of the guys there and i said, "hey, let's take turns being a leader and then none of us have to do this but a couple month's out of the year!" well, that was the wrong thing to do, because i spoke up and took the initiative to get this party started, then all of the men there looked at me for leadership. i did not want to be a leader, my son had asked me twice to be the den leader and i told him that i couldn't. after 30 minutes of all of us sitting there looking stupid and everybody saying, "i can't be the leader", i finally get tired of everybody not having any balls and volunteering. so, i say, "i will be the den leader" and the rest is history. after getting to know some of the cubs in my den, i find out that one of them has a hearing impairment. well, about a month ago i had started trying to teach myself some sign language just because i have always wanted to learn it. at first i am excited because that means i might have somebody practice my sign language on and then the mother tells me that they don't use sign language. she says that his speech teacher uses it, but at home they don't use it. at home he lip reads and can hear a little out of one ear. i have to confess that it kind of pisses me off that this family doesn't use ASL with him at home. basically he has to lip read and they have to talk really loud. as a result of this hearing impairment he is having to repeat the first grade. knowing this made me even more upset that the parents haven't taken the time to learn/use sign language. i feel sorry for this boy, i hate that he is suffering because of the laziness of his parents. my heart hurts for him. self-teaching myself sign language has been quite successful! i already known the entire alphabet, i can sign the "happy birthday song", i know about 50 different signs and several phrases. i found a great dvd from netflix that we rented and there are more on our list that will come as we return the others. i don't know if it is becuase i am a very visual person, but i am finding sign easy to learn. i tried teaching myself spanish for many years and never made this kind of progress even though i spent more time trying to learn spanish. so, now i am a den leader in the cub scouts and so far i have really enjoyed it... mostly because i get to spend time with my son. he loves spending time with me and thanks to my wife the meeting have been a snap (because she prepares the meeting for me and all i have to do is show up and lead it). she is wonderful. wish me luck with my ASL learning and if you know of a good way to self teach let me know. if you know of some good sign language web-sites let me know that also.

friday's feast

Appetizer
When was the last time you visited a hospital?

around august 8th, see this post for commentary about visiting the hospital (and other stuff).

Soup
On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being highest, how ambitious are you?

only about a 5, only more if i really, really, really, really want it.

Salad
Make a sentence using the letters of a body part. (Example: (mouth) My other ukelele tings healthily.)

eat alaskan roaches!

Main Course
If you were to start a club, what would the subject matter be, and what would you name it?

hmmmmm... the club would be a philosophy/theology club and we would talk about theology and ponder the deeper meanings of life. i would call it TAWB (Think About What you Believe). i know it's corny, but i am kind of corny.

Dessert
What color is the carpet/flooring in your home?

greyish light bluish.

i'm still here, here, here, here... (*echoing sound here*)

please don't give up on this blog and me. i know that i haven't posted anything for about 30 days, but things have been hectic. sermon writing has been a little difficult lately and i have been struggling with my prayer life (keeping it consistent). i also have had a lot of stuff that has come up at the church at the spur of the moment that has taken time away from sermon/bible study (people needing money for bills, counseling, etc...). i will write very, very soon about some stuff that is going on. talk to you all soon.

friday's feast

Appetizer
Who is the easiest person for you to talk to?

well, if you make me stick to a human being it would be my wife. if you don't limit it to that i would say it was God.

Soup

If you could live in any ancient city during the height of the quality of its society and culture, which one would you choose?

it would have to be spain.

Salad
What is the most exciting event you’ve ever witnessed?

the birth of both of our children.

Main Course
If you were a celebrity, what would you do for a publicity stunt?

i would shave my head and fast to raise money to help feed the people in the world who go hungry every day.

Dessert
What do you consider the ideal age to have a first child?

ideal age... to me it is more about how long to be married before you have kids. i would say that you need to be married at least 5 years before having kids. that way you can travel and do stuff that you can't do after you have kids.

time carried away, now lost

the other day i was driving to the church and i was thinking about my kids. ginafish and i have 2 children, “E” (boy) who will be seven in september and “S” (girl) who will be 5 in december.

i know that over the years i have improved as a father, but i am far from perfect. i was thinking about time lost.

when E was about 4 i was very, very involved with another church (not the one we are at now), i was serving as an elder, youth committee chair and “youth pastor”… (i put that in quotes because this congregation did not have a youth pastor and i thought i could be one and work a 40 hour a week job on top of all of that.)

well, i thought right… i was able to work 40 hours and attend youth meetings every two weeks, teach on sunday nights, and attend/chaperone every single youth event that we had. the only reason that i was able to do all of these things was not because God supernaturally filled me with the Grace to get it all done. it was because i ignored my family. E was at that age where daddy is the greatest person in the world, daddy is the coolest and no matter what me and daddy do together we always have a good time. the problem was: i missed it. i didn’t know that was happening because I was so damn “busy” doing church work… not the Lord’s work, the church’s work… there is a difference.

and now i try hard (i could try harder i admit) to make it up to E, but i can’t. no matter what. i can’t do enough to make up for that. i love my children so much, and i have learned an important lesson from that and will not make the exact same mistake again. i know that God has forgiven me for not being there… he knows i have asked many times… i know that E has forgiven me, i know my wife has forgiven me, but now it is me who won’t forgive, myself that is.

maybe some day E and S will read this blog to see how my life was and to learn more about me and if they do i want to say:

i love you E and i love you S. forgive me for not being the dad i could have been… maybe if you have kids of your own you will understand and not make the same mistake i did.

one good post, from back in the day

i just want to link to something that "real live preacher" wrote back in 2005. i have been reading his blog since about 2004. this is by far one of my favorite blog entries ever... after you read the specific post that i am referring to then i invite you to read some of his other stuff... enjoy:

this is the link to the specific post called, "martin luther, diet coke and canned soup" (read this first).

this is the link to his main page

but, i would love for you to read the "martin luther" post and leave a comment on how you liked it or if you just want to comment on something else from his blog.

remove your shoes, please

there are some ups and some downs to being a pastor, or said another way, some good, some bad.

as a brand new pastor, only having been serving a congregation for like 3 weeks and getting a call at 6:00 a.m. from a parishioner who says that their 40 something year old daughter just died and they would like you to do the funeral... that is good, you feel honored, but that is bad in the sense that it was your first funeral and you don't know their daughter at all... that can be stressful. also, getting a call at 5:30 p.m. by another parishioner saying that her husband has gone into diabetic shock and the paramedics are there now trying to revive him! yikes! you feel good that they called you right after the paramedics so you can come and be with them, but that is bad when the person who went into shock really needs to go to the hospital, but they are a grown human being and you can't make them do what they should do and you spend all night worrying if they will live through the night.

there are ups and downs.

sometimes though, what you get to do as a pastor is very, very special. you get to be there with them for surgeries, weddings, for honest conversations about very private things, for new babies and stuff like that.

sometimes you perform your call and you walk away glad that you could be there, but sometimes you walk away with a blessing that you never thought you would find in that private talk, hospital room, or home visit.

sometimes when you go to them and it is just you and them, one on one... they talk to you and say things they wouldn't say in front of their spouse, family, friends, or co-workers... they let you glimpse a very private part of their lives that maybe nobody has ever seen before, and you get to see it and talk with them about it. when it is happening you are aware of it and you feel like the ground beneath your feet is holy and you have a sense in which you think you should remove your shoes because this is truly holy ground. the air around you seems to change and your eyes are locked into their eyes and you can meet their gaze because The Spirit gives you the power to be sensitive at that very moment. it gives you the power to know that right at that moment it is all about them, and not about you or anybody else. if you are smart and listen to The Spirit you keep your mouth shut and just listen, i mean really listen.

when a miracle, and i believe it is a miracle, like that happens you just want to say let's stop and take off our shoes, because right now this moment is so holy that it almost seems disrespectful not to.

i'm back

i'm back after a couple of days of down time. our anniversary weekend was GREAT! we had lot's of fun. we went to the clinton library, the old statehouse, we went to see the 3rd in the series of the "bourne" movies (which was freakin' awesome!), we ate at great restaurants, and we even did a little shopping. since this was in celebration of our 10 year anniversary i bought regina a ring that wraps around her engagement ring... i don't even know what you call that... i just told regina that she could spend a certain amount and i let her pick it out and stuff.

anyway...

i am kind of a "bible collector", i like to have several different translations of the bible, plus i also like to have the same bible translation in different bindings ( hardcover, softcover, leather, paperback, big, small... you get the idea).

so, as an anniversary gift to me regina bought me a new copy of "the message". even though i already have one that i use for sermon preparation i was hoping to get another one to be my own "personal" use... you know one i could carry with me, write in, make notes in, etc... and then i could keep the one for sermon prep at my office. it is the perfect size, it is 1 x 4-1/4 x 6-1/8". it is small enough to carry without it being to bulky and the font is a good readable size! this is what it look's like:

i love my new copy of the message, thank you baby.

out o' pocket

i will be out of pocket until sunday afternoon... going out of town for me and my wife's 10 year anniversary! two and a half days with no kids, no cooking, no housework, no responsibilities, no preaching, no pastoring, nada, zilch, zero! if you read this queen bee, i love you and i hope we have 60 more together. talk to you all on sunday afternoon/evening! maybe i will post some pics and commentary on our mini-vacation. adios.

finish what you started!

-i don't know about you but i have a hard time finishing stuff that i start. now obviously when i start a sermon for sunday i have to finish it because i am the preacher! what i am specifically referring to is personal devotions. now if you are a christian you know that word and what it means. to those who might not have any contact with the christian faith it is just something that you read/listen to... usually pertaining to some scripture from the bible or somebody writing/talking about some scripture from the bible and how it applies to you in everyday life.

well, i have started probably like a hundred devotionals of some sort in my journey with christ... and usually i get bored with them in a week or two. so, that means i have tried a lot of devotionals but have not finished any of them.

the reason i am writing this piece is to proclaim that recently i finished two (that's right count em', two!) devotionals all the way through from start to finish! wooohooo!

the first one i finished (which i went back and did it all the way through once more!) was the "practice of the presence of god" by a monk called brother lawrence.

here is a link where you can download the "practice of the presence of god" in pdf format (don't worry, it's free!)

i highly recommend this book, even if you are not roman catholic, i still recommend it... there is much to learn from this humble monk who spent most his life cooking and washing dishes for the brothers in his order. i learned a lot from this monk and you might also. it is a collection of letters, so they are all short and easy to read... hence that is why it makes a great devotional. short and sweet.

-alright, the other thing i have been reading is the collection of writings in the bible known as "proverbs"... even if you are not a christian you probably at least knew that there was a part of the bible called "proverbs". i have been reading them in a translation (depending on your opinion you might call this a paraphrase) called "the message" by eugene h. peterson. most people read proverbs because there are 31 of them and it makes for a convenient "one-a-day" reading. after reading all of these i found a lot that i liked and inspired me, but the one that inspired me the most was this one, it is from proverbs 30:

"...And then he [the believer] prayed, "God, I'm asking for two things
before I die; don't refuse me—
Banish lies from my lips
and liars from my presence.
Give me enough food to live on,
neither too much nor too little.
If I'm too full, I might get independent,
saying, 'God? Who needs him?'
If I'm poor, I might steal
and dishonor the name of my God."

The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson

i am not exactly sure why i like it so much, but i do know that the prayers found in this text is something that would be a good thing to pray no matter what faith tradition you come from and the principles from brother lawrence wouldn't hurt anyone either.

book stand

when i write my sermons it requires a lot of reading and so i might read for 6-8 hours at a time... so i asked my friend TJ, who is a woodworker, if he could make me a book stand so i could read without having to crane my head down while reading (this can hurt after 3 hours or so). he said he would and i finally forgot about it and that is when he made it and gave it to me as a surprise!

so i wanted to show it off and show off his craftsmanship. his name is TJ and here is the link to the page where it has pictures and details on how he made it. i have already told him thanks, but thanks again tj... i love you not just as a friend but as a brother.

standard first post...

this is of course a standard first post of a blog that i hope that i keep updated often enough to make it worth my time to write and your time to read.

i am a pastor of a presbytertian church in arkansas. i also work part-time as a marketing director for a real estate company.

come back and read what i talk about... who knows it might be about politics, religion, pants, food... who knows.