travel

GENERAL COUNCIL AND NATIONAL YOUTH CONVENTION DAYS 4&5

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This post was started over a week ago when I was still in Florida. Coming back to Massachusetts and a rather unusual work schedule has made it hard to write.

One of the things I was most concerned with when I went to Florida for National Youth Convention/ Fine Arts was that I would lose the rhythm of the sacred office I practice. Honestly, I did not run into any trouble keeping the office until I came back. I expected coming back would be a piece of cake. I thought I would simply resume my old schedule which was pretty well established before I left. That did not happen. I will have to meditate on that and write more about it in the future.

For now, I am just looking back with fondness on those days in Florida in which keeping my sacred rhythm was surprisingly easy. I finished THE HIDING PLACE, by Corrie TenBoom and started this book by Joseph Castleberry on Wednesday and Thursday.

Amanda and I had an opportunity for an early lunch on Wednesday while Sadie and James went to the lazy river at our resort. We had fun taking pictures with Amanda scowling all week long. I will post this photo series we entitled “MURDERY ‘MANDA” at a later date. It started because I got a candid shot of her waiting in a long registration line at Fine Arts festival at the beginning of the week, and so we decided to make a series out of it.

Here is Sadie doing her best impression of Pennywise. Of course she had no idea who Pennywise was, this is just her looking “friendly”.

On Thursday we took the kids to Universal Studios.

While they road rides and shopped.I took some time to cool off in a shaded area of a cafe and pray the twelve o’clock prayer.

PERU AND THE HOME FRONT

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My daughter, Amanda, is currently in Cusco Peru with a missions team of other pastors from our network of churches.

She just finished the first cycle of her latest cancer treatment regimen on Friday. She was good up until this last week when a reaction to the treatment caused her to develop a lung infection. Her doctors placed her on antibiotics and told her that if she was not better by Saturday she could not go on the trip. We called our prayer circles and by Saturday she was feeling well enough to go. Sunday she took the five hour drive down to JFK International airport to catch her flight to South America.

Here are some pictures and a testimony from her that arrived today.

“Made it to Cusco:)”

“Praise report! I’m still sick but I have the best O2 of the entire group and am one of the only ones who don’t need oxygen this morning!”

Because of the location of Cusco, high in the Andes Mountains elevation sickness is a real concern and so Amanda had to take a medication beforehand along with her antibiotics to contend with it. Praise God! It worked!

While she is busy doing missions work, I am holding down the fort here at the Vicarage. This morning I walked and fed the dogs, fed the chickens and spent some time with Amanda’s cat Bacari who is greatly confused by the change in routine around here.

Our indoor garden is springing to life. The peppers are sprouting, and the broccoli is up. Melanie, James and I are going to try the broccoli and a few other early veggies in covered beds.

Amanda will be home on March 26th. For those of you keeping track that is the same day that Brenda and her dog Daisy arrive.

THE REGION CELEBRATES

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The holidays are upon us, and with the holidays comes holiday preparations and celebrations! Our region is becoming more and more like a Hallmark movie every year.

Gardner is hosting a special Thanksgiving market this coming Saturday. I think I shall have to go and take a peek.

Meanwhile Winchendon is hosting its annual Festival of Lights on December 7th. Here is a list of all the events happening.

Don’t Miss The Festival of Lights: Saturday 12/7! 🎄✨🌟

🎅 Kick off your holiday season with a day full of family fun and festive cheer! Here’s what we have planned for you:

📸 Pictures with Santa by Rustic Lens Photography:

⏰ 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM & 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

🍳 Breakfast with Santa:

⏰ 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM

💰 Suggested donation: $8 per person

🖼 Holiday Craft Fair:

⏰️ 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM

💰Come support local vendors

🍪 Gingerbread Man Decorating:

⏰ 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM

💰 $8 per kit

GNOME PAINTING

⏰ 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM

💰 $8 per gnome

📜 Letters to Santa:

⏰ 12:00 PM – 4:00 PM

💰 $10 per kit

🎄 Tree Lighting at Grout Park:

⏰ 5:00 PM

📍 (The park with the big metal bicycle near the bike path!)

🎅 Mr. & Mrs. Claus Appearance:

⏰ 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM

📖 “The Night Before Christmas” Reading:

⏰ 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM

📍 Old Murdock Senior Center

🎤 Caroling at Grout Park:

⏰ With Mr. & Mrs. Claus

Also on December 7th is……..

Yippeee! I love the cookie crawl.

WHAT FUN THINGS DOES YOUR TOWN DO FOR CHRISTMAS?

SABBATICAL DAY 19: A DAY AWAY IN A NEW PLACE

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I have not done much in the way of entertainment during this sabbatical. Well ….that is not really true I have been enjoying some good reading,

and I finished this year’s season of The Rings Of Power.

I did write last week about going to the Fall Fest, but today I did something new in a new place and it was also entertaining!

My son and his wife invited me along on their excursion out to Hollis Hills Farm, In Fitchburg MA. They had never been and neither had I, but it came highly recommended.

I guess this is as good a time as any to talk about the transition coming up at the end of the month. Joe and Kristine put in an offer on a condo here in Winchendon and it was accepted. They are supposed to sign paperwork on Oct. 31st my last day of sabbatical. This means their move in date will probably be the weekend of Nov. 1st-3rd, my first weekend back at church.

I think I have been unconsciously preparing for the change all this month, practicing the quiet, and wondering what it will look like as far as a new rhythm of life at The Vicarage.

But today was all about the farm and enjoying the presence of my family.

We had lunch and ice cream in the park while listening to a cover band. I had hummus and vegetables and the kids had barbecue.

Then Sevy had to go see the cows and play on the tractors.

It was a great day. The kids finished up with ice cream and I had a blueberry soda.

SHARE MY WORLD 6-3-2024

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THIS POST IS WRITTEN IN RESPONSE TO PENSITIVITY’S SHARE MY WORLD CHALLENGE.

1.  Have you ever wanted to be famous?

I suppose everyone has had their moment of seeking fame and glory. When I was young and immature I think I wanted fame out of a lack of my own self worth. As I have grown more comfortable in my own skin, I have realized I don’t need the recognition of other men to validate who I am. At least most times that is true.

2.  Have you met any celebrities?

Hmmm. I suppose if you count….No. No I haven’t.

3.  Has anyone ever asked you for your autograph?

Only in a year book or in a high school play bill.

4.  Is there a celebrity you wish to have met/meet?

Not really. I enjoy meeting people as people not as their mythology. If I were to meet someone famous I would hope I would be more concerned about their personhood than I would be about any notoriety I might gain from being in their presence.

MY WEEKLY GRATITUDE… Is that I got to go dinner with my cousins Karen and Mike yesterday.

Developing

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My motto for this year is SHIFT YOUR FOCUS TO WONDER. In sharing that with my artist’s group back in January one of our artists wondered what God meant by wonder… that is, was I supposed to shift my focus towards looking at awe-inspiring things? Or was I supposed to shift my focus to ponder things more?

Now that I am in my third month of “SHIFTING”, I think God meant a little of both. On January 13th my sister and I embarked on a 10 day journey to The Philippines to attend my son’s marriage to Kristine Bernadette Causing Barrameda.

Those 10 days filled me with awe for sure.

I was awestruck by the fact that I was being privileged to witness such a sacred moment in the life of someone I had actually helped bring into the world.

I could not be prouder of the man he has become. I could not be more honored that a family a world away has entrusted us with the care of their beautiful daughter. I am awestruck that God has chosen to add another godly young woman full of talent and power to our family.

During that time I was often struck dumb by the overwhelming beauty of my daughter-in-law’s homeland. And I was floored by the total otherness of this place called The Philippines. Kristine said in the wedding video that she and Joe were from different worlds and she was completely truthful when she said it.

But during those 10 days in the developing nation that is The Philippines I was more than awestruck. I was left to ponder what God was and is DEVELOPING in me. Honestly, to my way of thinking what is transpiring inside of me is as foreign to my knowing as The Philippines was to my experience.

I am daily aware of the fact that my current spiritual reality is new ground for me. I have no memory of this place and precious little context to explain it.

I have often said to my boss that what God is going to do in our church may leave us looking somewhat unchurchy. If that is so for our congregation, it means that as individuals we are going to experience things that take us out of our understandings of who and what we have been. That is certainly something that might require some wondering.

I am mindful that historically, most powerful moves of God leave the people involved scratching their heads. As those moves DEVELOP people are left to fall back on the only thing that doesn’t change in the midst of life-altering change. That would be the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Well I am wondering at what God is doing in my life this year and I am wondering what to do about it. In all the wondering I am securing myself to God who is showing me through prayer, through the solid ground of His Word, the Bible and through the fellowship of believers. In that security I am DEVELOPING into the new thing that God wants me to be, in order to do the new thing that He expects from me as a part of Cornerstone Church.

Now what has God shown me in the midst of all this wondering……