Dear Confirmands, A Letter as You Write

Dear 2013 Confirmands,

I know you are frantic and in a panic about writing your faith statements.  Don't worry.  You'll get it done.  750 words will come forth from your pens and finger tips.  I have confidence in you that your faith is in  you to be written, articulated, shared, read, and even spoken.

You are prayed for today as you re-write, erase and edit.  Our Prayer Warriors remembered you by name at 10:30 am this morning.  I have been praying for you each by name this week too. Your church family loves you.

Most of all, God loves you the most, the best, and the deepest!  God's love is the best love!

Pray for yourselves as you write.. ask God to enter your hearts and minds!  Invite God's Spirit to give life to your words and thoughts (clarity and logic are good requests too).  You have knowledge (some of it new and some of it old) about our common faith in Jesus.  You also have new experiences (again some new and some old) of what a faith-filled life looks like (giving, sharing, listening, healing, doing and being).

Most of all trust that you have something amazing to share- a testimony or witness for how God has moved in your life, already, in middle school!

I cannot wait to read your thoughts!  Proud of you, already!

Love you and praying for you,

Your servant-pastor-friend Michelle

Brackets!

Brackets are everywhere!

Even the United States' President does brackets.  Although he is cheering for Indiana to win the Big Dance! (I knew there was some thing I didn't like about the guy!   :) )

Our senior pastor's office wall is now decorated with twelve sets of brackets for the men's NCAA basketball tournament. March Madness, baby!

Wonder if our Bishop does brackets?!  I should ask him, but I already know two of his alma maters didn't make the tournament (Purdue and Drew).

Bracket time... so little work will get done tomorrow, Friday and the weekend because folks will be watching as much basketball as they can!  Ah- bring on the fun!

The Broken

Well, our kidlet has her first broken bone... and her father and I had a premonition this would happen as soon as we dropped her off at the Flip Zone in Plainfield Saturday night.  (A lovely place with squishy mats and all sorts of gymnastic equipment!)

She found the process of x-rays and wheelchairs to be fascinating!  But she does not like her walking boot - especially the walking part of it! 

Anyway, this means no dance class for four weeks and a huge adjustment in our daily routine (no school bus for awhile as crutches make that tricky). 

Sometime soon we need to go Easter dress shopping... and I haven't a clue to what we can coordinate with a black velcro boot!  It will be the most expensive shoe she will have as a kid, though.  Not that it is stylin'.

Thank goodness, the Good Lord, built us to heal! 

Hello Pope Francis!

Hello Pope Francis I- whether you are named for Francis of Assisi (depicted above) or for Francis Xavier... welcome to the world stage as a symbol of Christ and His Church! 

Already, you have created a stir among your faithful within Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, and Protestant Christianity around the world.  The first non-European, the first Jesuit, the first in so many ways... We are honored by your humility, simplicity, prayerfulness, and the fact that you personally paid your hotel bill before putting on your holy outfit!  :)

Way to go, Holy Spirit! 

Mr. Wesley Meets Our Confirmands!

 

 

I am such a geek for moments like this... but we had to take a photo op with Mr. John Wesley (aka Reverend Bert Kite, our District Superintendent) and our 2013 Confirmation class this morning!  I mean how many confirmation classes get a visit from the one and only John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement?!?!?!

 

Not enough or too many depending on who you ask!  ha ha!

 

There you have it: 18 new members of the Body of Christ hanging out with the John Wesley who challenged them on making the decision for faith as being the biggest decision they will ever make; invited them to live lives of personal and social holiness; and told them amazing stories about his life and field preaching. 

 

It was awesome!!!! 

 

At least to me (it was awesome) but then I am a complete goober when it comes to church history, Methodism and who we are today and United Methodists.  Yes, it was my bright idea to invite our District Superintendent (who by the way has been doing this impersonation preaching/teaching ministry for the past 20 years) to teach our confirmands and then also to stay and preach for the morning. 

What warmed my heart even more was the joy of sharing this with previous confirmands (our 7th through 12th graders) who joined us for class this morning!  Here are our older students in a photo op with John Wesley! 

 

Hey- I'll do anything to change up the experience of confirmation and make it better! Or at least different!  :)

 

 

 

 

 

Problem Kids

Every Monday morning I spend about two and a half hours volunteering at my daughter's elementary school. I am nothing more than a glorified secretary-photo-copy lady- bulletin board designer- and red pen grading designee.  In other words, I do the stuff the teacher needs done so that she can do her teaching with the students.  Whew- and she has a lot that needs to be done!

Yesterday I noticed that two of the male students had the desks off in sections of the room by themselves.  Alone.  Within a group.  And facing the wall.

Now, I am familiar with these boys and their antics.  My daughter also gives me detail reports on who got in trouble and how much trouble they got into.

But my heart sank as I saw these guys were now islands onto themselves. (I have no doubt that their behavior got them there.) I do not have a guess about their family life, if they have a faith background or who has custody of who.  But I do know a bit about how they are performing on their school work.  One struggles more than the other, but they both are having huge behavior problems.  And they are on a tight leash, if you know what I mean.

So, when the teacher took the class to the library, I stopped at each desk to return their graded math tests and once there I prayed for students especially the "boy islands".  I prayed for their emotional and spiritual well being. I prayed for loving, strong adults to have a positive impact on their lives.  I prayed that each of these boys would respond to loving, firm kindness and make better choices now so that their futures can continue to be bright.  I usually pray for the students and teachers every time I visit the school, but my prayers were a lot more focused yesterday on those two.

I found it curious that later that morning one of the young men (who has both the hardest time academically as well as behaviorally) initiated a conversation with me.  We had a wonderful visit about superheros and how much I look like my daughter (he thinks that it is funny how much I look like her).  Ha ha!  Little does he know that usually I hear how much she looks like me!

Even today I am praying for all the "problem- trouble-making" kids...

Bye Bye Pope, Hello March Madness!

As Pope Benedict takes off his red shoes and flies into the sunset of his ministry (on a helicopter), so the month of February finally comes to a close.

Tomorrow begins March!  A Conclave of Catholic bishops will lock themselves into a room for prayer and discernment while the rest of North America glues their eyes on ESPN and FOX Sports so that we can discern our NCAA brackets!

In honor of the occasion I will give you a visual aid on one of the teams that I will be choosing as a top seed in the men's and women's tournament play.

 For the past three years our Calvary UMC staff have had our own March Madness bracket competition.  (No there is no gambling involved... we are against that.  But we do have a trophy for the winner.  A basketball that the winner signs and then has in her/his office for the next year.)

Two out of the three years I have won.  So, I better start doing my homework so that my reputation is not diminished.  (Although the staff are very basketball savvy (especially the IU fans) and I was almost beat by our bookkeeper last year.)

Bring on the madness of discernment... and basketball!