Graduation!

Here is our newest graduate- fresh from receiving his MBA (focus in Accounting) from Indiana Wesleyan University on Saturday December 13, 2014!

After two and a half years of going to to school straight through; he is finished!

We are so proud of my husband!

Not only did he achieve a 4.0, but he also graduated debt free.
He accomplished all of this while working one full time job as well as two part time gigs on the side.

Besides that he completed his higher education while he mother was in hospice and saw her through to her eternal home during his toughest class, Economics!

Eric met many new friends and wonderful professors!  He is thrilled with his achievement and so are we!

He is a fantastic role model of diligence, patience, and hard work!  I am so glad he has modeled for our daughter the gifts and blessings of education.

Now, time to celebrate and catch up on rest!

Congratulations!

Female Lead Pastors of Large UM Churches

Recently while reading items in the news feed of my Facebook account, one of my clergy colleagues shared this blog entry from Reverend Jeremy Smith (blog is entitled Hacking Christianity).  he does an excellent job of working through the myths and issues surrounding the lack of female lead pastors within large churches in United Methodism.

I wish you happy reading, and then for all of us, within the United Methodist community to lift up, coach, encourage and empower leaders (female and male) for the vital ministries God calls them toward.

http://hackingchristianity.net/2014/12/why-do-the-largest-umcs-not-have-female-pastors.html

Advent

Advent, 'the coming', as a church season is here and I could not be more eager to relish and soak in the significance.

Waiting on God to end hunger, pain, sorrow, injustice, illness, disease, mental illness, despair, violence, sin, war, brain tumor's, breast cancer, ALS, etc.  I have a whole long list; my list grows every Advent, of all the things I am eagerly waiting on God to end, heal and redeem.

Thank God for God and Advent.  A special time for waiting... resting... reflecting on what is and what is nto yet to be...

I talked with Calvary's children about how Advent is like an adventure a faith journey into the past to remember Jesus birth, and also a journey into the future to celebrate Jesus will come again in fullness, glory and splendor.  And we do this journey NOW!  In the midst of the have-done, almost-accomplished, yet-to be of the world.

What a relief Advent is that I do not do a thing.  But God does.  What a joy Advent reminds me that God is moving, and working and I can trust in my waiting on God.

Advent, come on!  And Come!

What I am Thankful for...

I am grateful for..

a forgiving, loving, amazing God in Christ Jesus

my handsome, supportive, brilliant husband

my talented, witty, smart, affectionate daughter

my parents who gave me life

my mother who gave me Jesus

my father who grows me as a person of compassion

my Gram for loving me brilliantly

my Grandpa for his tangible signs of affection and faith

my aunt who loves as I am

my uncle who listens

my in-laws who give me family such great love

my cousins who keep me sane

my friends who laugh at my weirdness and appreciate my mind

my warm, safe, clean home

my dog who is a steady presence of affection

my health

my intellect

my wacky humor

my Bishop, DS, and clergy colleagues who make ministry more fun by doing it together

my congregation who show forgiveness in how they put up with me

I could go on and on and on and on....

So very, very much to be grateful for.

I am living my Thanksgiving in how I give my life back to Jesus!

So Many Reasons to Like Thanksgiving- Lincoln is One of Them

Thanksgiving is my favorite non-liturgical holiday!  Yet, it is almost a holy day as we are blessed by a generous God, an unwavering woman named Sarah Hale, and one of my favorite historic US Presidents!

Proclamation of Thanksgiving

Sarah Josepha Hale, a 74-year-old magazine editor, wrote a letter to Lincoln on September 28, 1863, urging him to have the "day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival." She explained, "You may have observed that, for some years past, there has been an increasing interest felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on the same day, in all the States; it now needs National recognition and authoritive fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and institution."

Prior to this, each state scheduled its own Thanksgiving holiday at different times, mainly in New England and other Northern states. President Lincoln responded to Mrs. Hale's request immediately, unlike several of his predecessors, who ignored her petitions altogether. In her letter to Lincoln she mentioned that she had been advocating a national thanksgiving date for 15 years as the editor of Godey's Lady's Book. George Washington was the first president to proclaim a day of thanksgiving, issuing his request on October 3, 1789, exactly 74 years before Lincoln's.

The document below sets apart the last Thursday of November "as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise." According to an April 1, 1864, letter from John Nicolay, one of President Lincoln's secretaries, this document was written by Secretary of State William Seward, and the original was in his handwriting. On October 3, 1863, fellow Cabinet member Gideon Welles recorded in his diary how he complimented Seward on his work. A year later the manuscript was sold to benefit Union troops.

Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. 

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. 

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln


William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

Another Saint

All Saints Sunday is one of my favorite liturgical Sundays during the church calendar year because we celebrate our loved ones, the gift of resurrection, the communion of saints, and the the wonder it is to be in the Body of Christ.

Since our last All Saint Sunday, my step-grandfather died. Gene was married to my maternal grandmother.

He had many quirks, hearing issues, and foibles, but he was very good to my grandmother and made sure she traveled around the world a bit.  Gene delighted in making young kiddos giggle especially my Diana.  He served our nation well during World War II and I am grateful for his service.  Gene was uncertain about things of faith, Bible and theology, yet he was at least willing to listen and allow others their beliefs.  He was an avid golfer, shrewd business man who enjoyed driving fast!

I know he was very despondent after my grandmother's death. So now since his passing in October of this year, I am grateful that he no longer struggles with health issues and moreover, I am glad that he is re-united with his first wife, second wife, and children who preceded him in death.

I celebrate that he was a part of our family's life for several decades and ensured great joy for my grandmother.  I thank you God, for the gift of Gene's life and his presence in mine.

Dream Come True

Last Saturday night here at Calvary UMC I was able to have a dream come true.

When I was a young girl in my early 'tweens' I was enthralled with Anne Frank and her famous Diary.

Ever since that time I have wanted to meet a survivor of the Jewish (Nazi) Holocaust during World War II.

You cannot imagine my inner thrill when that dream came true on Saturday not only for myself, but also for my daughter!  I was speechless.

Wow- what a spunky, inspiring, intelligent lady!  I was so thrilled to meet her and listen to stories... and then to share her with our Brownsburg community!  WOW!

Eva is my new hero. If you don't know her story- find out!

www.candlesholocaustmuseum.org

"Forgive and heal."