Brace Face

Friends - Here are pictures of my now strange face. I have clear braces on top and metal on the bottom both with blue rubberband thingys. You can also see the torture device that has been installed on the roof of my mouth. I now speak like I have a mouth full of marbles. I sound awful - which will be a joy as I try to preach on Sunday. The trip to the ortho did not go well as they could not get the expander in - the glue had begun to dry. I was crying in the chair from the pain of them forcing it on my teeth. My surgery is now scheduled for Thursday. I will turn my expander two times a day for 12 days and a total of 24 turns. We are going for a 8-10mm expansion. When I finally get back to work in March I will have a large space between my two front teeth. Oh the adventures . . . no wonder most pastors quit after the first year : ) Just kidding - so far my congregation has been great - though we'll see how patient they are after tomorrow's super slow sermon.

Brace Yourself for Valentines Day

Friends - Tomorrow I go in and get all my gear put on. I am getting a palatal expander on the roof of my mouth which looks something like this . . .

Then I am getting cermaic braces on the top and bottom teeth which looks something like this . . .

I will post pictures when I am able. On Tuesday next week I have my surgery to cut open my upper palate so it can move with the expander . . .

Please continue to keep me in prayer.

Confession

I like ants.

I think they are very cool and they do interesting things both individually and as a group. I think they are important little clean up critters in this world and I like having them around. As long as "around" is outside. Not in my house. Especially not in my kitchen.

Which is where they tend to show up after a long rain or it turns cold outside. And who can blame them? Its warm, there's food, and its not flooding the nest.

At first I tended to squeal a little bit and then squish as many as possible with a paper towel but there seemed to quite a few more thousand. I tried talking to them but human-ant interspecies conversation doesn't seem to work well.

So I looked on line and read my organic pest books and decided that pretty much my only option was to set out the puddle of death. Its a high viscosity slow acting ant poison. Its sweet so once an ant discover its yummy lethal goodness, pretty much several thousand of its brothers show up to lick it up and take it back to the next to share with the others.

I hate putting it out. I really don't want to kill them. I just want them out in the yard. Not pets. Yet, this is our second invasion in the upstairs bathroom and we've seen two waves this year in the kitchen so far. I noticed a couple wandering around the living room a few days ago but they apparently decided it wasn't worth calling in the gang. You can see how this could go.

So - the night before last when I was reluctantly picking up the bottle of death goo to spread out the banquet of doom, I screamed like a girly girl when I discovered the ants were already sucking on the pour spout. For some reason it makes me think of cars lined up in the McDonalds drive through lane....

Last night, the population was starting to drop. I could see some of the ants carting off the bodies of their brothers back toward where ever it was they came from.

Today there are no ants. Just the placid, still glistening puddle of death gently reflecting the morning light.

Why can't they just stay outside?

Time on your hands? Wanna go to Geneva?

In honor of Calvin's 500th birthday in 2009, a host of groups and churches have put together all kinds of seminars and events - and a Calvin-centered-hymn-writing competition. Winners get travel and accommodations paid to Geneva for the celebration. Details are here:

http://www.calvin09.ch/media/pdf/interaktiv/Liedwettbewerb_E.pdf

And more info on the celebrations are here:

http://www.calvin09.ch/EN/home/home2.html

I can see it now...

"His theology comes with some gravity,
That's the way of total depravity..."

Snow daze

Well, here we are! Winter has definitely arrived and it shore is purty! This is a photo of Hope College Dimnant Chapel -- inside reminds me a whole lot of Stewart Chapel but about three times as large -- really beautiful.

It has been snowing most of today...and snowing...and snowing...outside my office window, the icy branches have tiny red berries still clinging on for all they're worth! The seminary was actually closed due to weather this past Wednesday for the first time in 15 years!

Life is good. I have been appointed by Dean VanDyk as an adjunct faculty for next academic year to co-teach a class for seniors "Launching Your Ministry." How cool is that??? And yesterday I submitted my application for the DMin program (what am I thinking???). Having a great time -- love what I'm doing here, love the people who put up with me, love our home and love you all for being so supportive when all this started. I've been here one year and 30 days. Can you believe it?

Jim started a "seminary singers" group with yours truly as accomplice -- however the students have suggested another name: Creme de la Croom! We sang in Chapel this morning -- not up to SFTS standards as far as numbers go but the majority of folks here seem to read music so it makes for fun rehearsals.

Almost time to trundle out and scrape the windscreen! So TTFN and loads of love to you all!

Ordination photos

Hi everyone! I'm getting my feet underneath me at Santa Clara, and also have already had my first vistors: friends who were in town for a wedding - and who also brought ordination photos...



Here's a slightly blurry one where Cheryl is about to give me my robe...



...and here's one of my dad and me looking very serious as we serve communion.

Theological Pop Quizzes

I have two stepsons who are loosely Unitarian in their upbringing. They are also very bright and interested in the world around them. Living with them is something like a never ending Trivia Pursuit game. I might be walking out of the bathroom and bam, there's a question like, "how many presidents earned over $250,000 per year?" or "What do you think of Obama's electablity against Gulliani?" Sometimes I can answer the question, sometimes I tell them to go look it up on-line. Mostly I enjoy watching their curiosity and their thought paths at play.

Sometimes though, its tough.

The other night - I had about 15 minutes to eat my dinner & find my shoes/socks/stuff and get out the door for choir practice when my younger step son (age 13) asks, "So, what do you Presbyterians believe about heaven?"

yikes!

So we had a conversation that touched on life after death, the new heaven and earth, Revelations, the holes in Jesus' hands, A God that is always creating, and meanwhile my elder step son is throwing in questions like, "So, explain atonement for me..."

I made it to choir practice on time, with shoes and socks on my feet but I had to postpone atonement for another time alongside of explaining why apocalyptic writings are a mis-reading of Revelations and an overall review of Eschatology & Christology.

I'm going to be sooo ready for a floor examination should that day ever come to pass.

mmmmmm

This is my first effort at making bacon. Real bacon. It has just come out of the oven where I slow roasted it after brining in a simple salt/sugur/pink salt brine. It tastes very good. Seriously.

It has a twin in the refrigerator, still in brine stage. That one I want to smoke. I just need 3 hours w/o rain. Or a tarp.... hmmmmmm

In the Mail

Two years from first thinking that not only had the time come, I actually could do this...
Seven years from first dreaming that someday I might do this...
There it is in the mailbox - the book proposal.
Now its up to someone else.
And yes, in all probability, quite a few more someone elses

But there it is: a dream now out and loose in the world.

Peace!

Update

Hello. An update on Heather and I. I have started a new job. I am now the Development associate at The Samaritan House, samhouse.org. I am mostly going to be writing grants and doing research. The Samaritan House, founded in 1986, transforms lives by helping homeless men and women achieve self-sufficiency through personalized employment readiness and life stabilization programs. If you can't tell, I've written that sentence this week many times. I get to sit in my office and write and be creative and I don't have to talk to other people, I love my job.
Heather, of course, is a complete rock star at her job. She got the church through Christmas with flying colors and with everyone's heads still attached. Apparently that hasn't happened in recent memory so everyone is falling all over themselves to tell her how awesome she is, something we all already knew. Her programs are growing and the kids follow her around like little ducklings, she is so good at her job. The presbytery of the Cascades is a whole other story, but keep Heather and all of them in your prayers as they figure out what to do next. I have decided to hate them all for a little while, I'll get over it I'm sure, currently just sending them my spite. (If you want details, ask Heather, not my story to share).

Our marathon is in a month, yes we are running a real 26.2 marathon on February 18th. We ran 18 miles this past Saturday, will run 20 next weekend and training is going well. Our next goal is a triathalon, training for a marathon takes up too much time. After a year we have decided we really like Atlanta, who knew? We don't think we will be here forever, Portland can wait for a couple years for us though.
Peace and light

Update on Heather

Friends - Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers. I have survived the gum graft. For a while there I was really swollen and black and blue. I was calling myself "Big League Chew" since only half my face was doubled in size. There was no way I could do church on Sunday so Lars filled in reading my sermon and leading worship. He was a big hit and is now in demand, which is good because I have more sick days coming up. Right now I am still tender on the roof of my mouth and I look like Frankenstein at the graft site but its not too bad. I got my stitches out yesterday which was a big improvement. There is a bit of an issue with an area where I have lost feeling at the graft site and I need to go back and have it taken care of, but not until I recover from my big surgery. Next week I start the braces preparation, its like a never ending nightmare for this girl who hates the dentist chair. Thanks for your prayers.

Wind Gusts to 55 mph or so

We used to have a fence.

We still do I guess, only its kinda done with being a fence. Or at least with being a good fence. Right now its a tired fence. A laying down fence. A broken fence, rotted out at the base and no longer able to separate, delineate, set the boundary. Our neighbor's yard is open to us and our yard is open to him.

Which is okay with us as neither of us have dogs and our kids are big and his kids never ever go outside. Seriously, I practically never see them. He is Vietnamese-American and from L.A. He owns an auto repair shop a few blocks from here and it looks like he and his family really all live at the shop in that "Gonna make the American Dream" way.

This weekend Bill & Kevin will sort out the wood and try to find a better place to store the now-retired fence pieces and make some sort of agreement about its replacement. It will be interesting to see how that conversation will go. Kevin is very pragmatic about things like yards (lowest maintenance possible) and fences (cement blocks ok?). Of all my neighbors here, I like them the best even though they are practically invisible (they never open their windows or their blinds) because they aren't trying to put their stuff on other folks.

Up till now we've lived next door to each other in that suburban live-and-let-live way. Now I'm starting to thumb through some Vietnamese recipes. I think eating together is very important when considering fences.

Prayer Request

Friends - This is a simple prayer request for myself. Tomorrow I am headed in for a gum graft. They will take tissue of the roof of my mouth and then attach it to my upper gums right side. I am hoping to be healed by Sunday, but I am planning to train Lars as a back up. I am mostly asking for prayers of peace. This is the first venture in what will be two hard months for me. Surgery this week, then near the end of January I begin braces preparation. On Valentines day I will be fitted with upper and lower braces along with a palatial expander which is a big peace of metal on the roof of my mouth. Then on February 19th I will have my big surgery which involves sawing in my jaw in several places so that my upper palate will become mobile. Needless to say all this planned messing with my mouth is causing me anxiety. Tomorrow it begins and in a few months it will just be living with braces - but right now I am having a hard time focusing on my congregation as my head swims with my own needs and fears. So . . . keep me in your prayers. And in February I will post pictures of my brace face! - Heather

To All A Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2007
Dear Family and Friends,



I hope this Christmas Season brings you all of the wonderment and joy you all are so deserving of. I’m going to do some myth busting. Even if you are a little naughty, no fat guy will come down your chimney and put coal in your shoes. Fact: I was naughty one year (not telling which one) and it didn’t happen. Then to test it again I was naughty the next year and it still didn’t happen, no coal. After that, I heard rumors that perhaps the whole white bearded fat guy thing was a hoax. Not wanting to push my luck, I have been good ever since. If any of you have been bad this year I would like to hear back and see how it went. Personally, I think its bunk but just in case, I bought some cookies and Coca-Cola.



Oh, how we miss those magical Christmases of our youth. I find that as the years go by I am starting to look increasingly like this Santa Claus character who has morphed a bit. Santa Claus started out as skinny St. Nicholas, a 4th century martyred Bishop from Turkey. He was noted to be the patron saint of the poor, pawnbrokers and prostitutes and most noted for his generosity toward poor children. A tradition of winter gift giving passing though most European cultures, incorporating pagan and folkloric effects, becoming SinterKlaas for the Dutch; gaining weight in the 19 century and becoming the American icon of conspicuous consumption. A simple satchel of sweets for children has now become over burdened with marketing ploys, usury, corporate greed and materialism. Culturally new, images of Santa Clause now prevail in Iraq and Afghanistan, since the onset of our military occupation. The jolly old man has become a symbol of empire.



In the last 14 months, experiencing the passing of both my parents, a favorite aunt and now a brother, I have come to know even truer, the greatest gift is to love and be loved. I wish for all of you this great gift. As a Christian, I know a story of a child who was born in a simple manger and hailed by night workers in a field. This innocent child of Bethlehem became known as the Prince of Peace for a new kingdom. Perhaps too, morphed through time and culture but also known to be the friend of prostitutes the poor and children.



I am fortunate that nearly all of my friends and family are without serious need. I have decided to make my gift giving this year to Heifer International. One of my internship churches here in California introduced me to this organization. The Heifer Project gives animals to poor families, teaches animal husbandry and does community development as ways to relieve poverty. I appeal to each of you to find out more about this amazing organization. In memory of my passed love ones, you, and the other beloved ones receiving this note, I have sponsored a water buffalo, a goat and bees. I will leave it your imagination to figure which of you remind me of a water buffalo, an old goat or being as sweet as honey.



Please be good, and may you know the Goodness of this season…

Pastor, Friend, Papa, Brother, Uncle, Robert (Bob) Hattle

Ordination and move details

Hi again, everyone -

Here are the details about my ordination, as promised.

Aimee's Ordination
Sunday, December 30, 2007
3:00 p.m.
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Portland
1624 NE Hancock St.
(reception following)

I'm still in the process of putting together the service, and if anyone has run across any great elements for an ordination service, I'd love to know...is it just me, or are resources scarce...?

For those of you not able to come but still hanging out in the Bay area, I'll see you soon enough in any case! We're planning to drive a U-Haul down to the South Bay after New Year's (I should have just left all my crap in Marin) and arrive January 3. I start at Santa Clara (officially) the following Monday.

On an unrelated note, does anyone know whether a Seminary Singers CD was ever produced? I heard rumors but never saw the real deal...

Another Loss

Robert Hattle is in Chicago this morning, about to head over to Ohio with his younger brother to attend to the death of his eldest brother. This is the third death in the Hattle family in the last 18 months, his mother and father having passed away not very long ago. If you want to drop a note, Robert' s address is 2067 Tina Court, Arcada, CA 95521.

Lessons and Carols and being where we are

Last night Cheryl, Harold, James K & Mary R, Michelle Walker and her daughter Sarah, Leslie Veen, Heather Grantham & two first year students who's names I didn't catch gathered at the re-born Teds (now called Eats with a much better cook and great music) after Lessons & Carols.
Twas a nice time to catch up with each other.

Lessons and Carols was again beautiful with new and old songs. Heather Granthem had a very strong alto voice in the lead solo for Prepare Ye (First came the prophet crying in the wilderness...). O Magnum Mysterium flowed in rich waves of pure wonder and Sleeps Judea Fair once again lifted to the rafters deep praise that gentle floated back to the soft, holy lullaby ending. O Holy Night was - well O Holy Night. Ethel Mermen moment and all! Sir Christemas which is a very robust French Carol was added back to the rotation and a new song, The Lute Song by Mary Elizabeth Caldwell, reminded me of the song we sang with Heather and her harp.

The choir remained downstairs for the concert with an orchestra (featuring Bob Coote front and center) seated in front. The readings went well, Dr. Butin was brief and Charles simply glowed. This year's decoration featured two gigantic nets of white christmas lights that formed valley and hill over our heads and a six foot wide advent wreath with candles suspended over the the front of the sanctuary.

Okay - this may sound like a bit hoky "review" - but I'm trying to find a way for folks who can't make it this year to come visit it in their mind's eye tonight. So, I press on...

At the end, just before the last anthem, Dr. Danial Hoggat turns to the audience and invites alumni to come forward and join in on Chill of the Nightfall. I miss singing with a large group of voices. I miss singing with Dan - his energy, his skill in highlighting our next entrance, the words on his lips so that we need hardly glance at the music... I rejoice that I was able to once again stand next to Cheryl, know that James was up and round the corner that Mary and Michelle were just back there... I rejoice that again Dan stands up and again raises his arms and again, we are transformed into a brief glimpse, a taste, a shadow of the Holy Choirs of Cherabums and Saraphams singing praise...

Glory of daybreak! Sorrows and shadows,
suddenly they break forth into morn;
sing out and tell now all shall be well now,
for in the stable Jesus is born!

Inbetween

If we are in between the last Sunday of the previous Liturgical year and the first Sunday of the coming Liturgical year then what is this time?

A time of no Time?

A deep intake of breath before we burst back out again into the frenetic activity of Advent/Christmas? (and why does Advent and Christmas need to be frenetic?)

Often Thanksgiving day falls during this week but this year it came early enough to fall on Audrey's birthday. So there is a whole week inbetween this year. A week plus of days where its still November and not December. It seems like - well - a Great Pause in the time-stream.

Although we put up the Christmas lights on the house, it seems premature. Although I watched again, with great deep child pleasure, the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, it wasn't yet the right moment.

Maybe its the weather - blue sky and mid-sixties does not winter make for this native-born Oregonian.

Or maybe its because its still in-between and isn't that a gift too?

Wait, how did this happen?

I am preaching this coming Sunday, one of the High Holy Days of the Associate and Pulpit Supply preachers: "Thanksgiving Weekend Sunday." The other High Holy Days are "First Sunday after Christmas Eve" and "First Sunday after Easter." The Lesser Holy Days are of course "The Sundays that occur during Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day Weekend."

Because of the way the secular and the sacred calenders meander, Thanksgiving Weekend Sunday can sometimes also be the First Sunday in Advent or Christ the King Sunday. For reasons that escape me (and for which I really don't care enough to google), the Liturgical Year starts with the First Sunday in Advent which is difficult enough to explain to not-a-worship-geek folks but also dredges up the best of the doom and gloom passages of Scripture. Okay, I know why the lectionary goes with death, suffering, and fear, it was obviously built before the Macy's Advertising Agency got their department staffed and running but again, explaining that is a tough stroke against the current for a number of normal American Christians. "I don't want to sing these gloomy songs during Christmas," one choir member said to me a few weeks ago. "I don't come here to be depressed. What will visitors think?" and she has a point. Lately I have started to wonder that if the Early Church leadership could figure out a way to co-op Solstice then maybe we should join the marketing frenzy and hope folks stick around in January for the really good stuff. But that's another day's bitter post. Today, I'm writing to vent on Christ the King Sunday. Which I'm preaching on. This Sunday. Maybe.

I get that the Lectionary is an ancient and honorable spiritual discipline. I get that it keeps us honest and in touch with the parts of the Bible we'd prefer to skip over. Even in the festival of the frantic consumer - I mean Advent...But Christ the King Sunday is a latecomer in a big way.

In 1925, Pope Pius XI, concerned about the rise of secularism and communism in the world, established the Feast of Christ the King (originally the last Sunday in October). The Rt. Rev. Msg. Rudolph G. Bandas writes, "The Feast of Christ the King was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 as an antidote to secularism, a way of life which leaves God out of man's thinking and living and organizes his life as if God did not exist. The feast is intended to proclaim in a striking and effective manner Christ's royalty over individuals, families, society, governments, and nations." (Catholic Culture: Living the Catholic Life)

Well...okay. Certainly there is plenty of material in Scripture that actively claims the metaphor of Christ as King and proclaims the Kingdom of God and certainly there is much in our theology, including Calvin, that emphasis the Trinitarian God as the source of faith and salvation in our life and world but how did we end up with the last Sunday of the liturgical year on such a triumphal note? Why not Christ sending out the Disciples? Why not the empty tomb and the instructions to the women, "What are you doing here? Jesus is over there in Galilee where he said he was going to be?" Why not Pentecost? If the intent of the Liturgical Calender is to walk with Jesus and the Disciples through the course of his recorded ministry, why do we not end up with the same place that the disciples end up? Being sent back out again? And what about the self-emptying God? The one that sets aside all that God is and becomes human?

And why do we - a reformed, protestant church - include a 1925 Catholic Festival day, born out of anxiety, in our liturgical calender? Nothing against Catholics but 1925 isn't exactly an ancient and shared spiritual tradition.

Well - I guess there is some potential goodness out of all of this... The website, Catholic Culture, tells us that "A partial indulgence is granted to the faithful, who piously recite the Act of Dedication of the Human Race to Jesus Christ King. A plenary indulgence is granted, if it is recited publicly on the feast of our Lord Jesus Christ King."

Maybe I'll include in the Order of Worship this Sunday.

Pics from Wray

This is the front of the 1st Presbyterian Church of Wray, CO where my congregation has been for over 100 years.

This is the inside of the Sanctuary of said congregation :)

This is the front of my house that is much too small for Knox and myself...Just kidding, it has 4 beds and two baths so there is ample room for growth in the family :) But for now Knox and I enjoy all the space to ourselves.

This is the Cherry tree in my backyard that I am told yields marvelous fruit for making pies. I can't wait!