Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Last week Bill & I rented a cabin at the Zephyr Point Retreat Center on Lake Tahoe for a personal vacation. Its about the most perfect way I can imagine to experience Tahoe as its very low on the "Spend Money" scale.

Bill likes to get out and hike and see stuff. I prefer to sit on the porch and look at the water.

Last year I went to Zephyr point for the first time for a Interim Training conference which turned out to be a bit irritating as the conference leadership actually expected all of us to stay inside and pay attention to what they were lecturing on. So this year, it was unexpectedly disconcerting to arrive on a Friday with about three or four other Presbyterian groups and NOT dutifully walk down the hill to join in the kick off worship/lectures that were going on around the campus.

At any rate, it was a great week - with lots of little adventures (Fallen Leaf Lake is an amazing place!) but for one little thing.

On Sunday night, after everyone had cleared the campground, I was standing on the porch looking down toward Talac Lodge when I noticed something moving in the corner of my eye. This became one of those moments where the speed of thought becomes amazingly quick.

Second 0.1 - Hmmm, there is something moving down there
0.2 - hmm, its brown, and its bent over like its walking on four legs and...it is rather large. Larger than a cat. Larger then a dog. Wait...
0.3 - ITS A BEAR!
0.31 - ITS A BEAR AND THIS ISN'T A ZOO
0.32 - ITS A BEAR AND THIS ISN'T A ZOO WHICH MEANS THERE ARE NO BARS OR MOATS OR ANYTHING BETWEEN ME AND THAT BEAR EXCEPT THE DOOR OF MY CABIN
0.33 - ITS A BEAR AND BEARS HAVE CLAWS AND TEETH AND THEY ARE BIG AND THEY ARE HUNGRY AND THEY LIKE TO EAT AND I HAVE FOOD
0.34 - THE FRONT DOOR OF THE CABIN IS STANDING OPEN WITH JUST A SCREEN ON THE LATCH.
0.345 - move about twenty feet and close & lock the front door
0.4 - Run all over the cabin evaluating all possible entrances. Regret that we have Verizan phone service where apparently the guy in the geeky gray jacket and his thundering hoard got caught at the casinos in Stateline cuz there's no hearing me now at the retreat center.

That was the only time I saw the bear although we were pretty jumpy the rest of that night. There is an orphaned young one roaming the Zephyer Point grounds and the development next door to the south. It seems uninterested in human contact although some of the Tahoe Bears are now breaking into cabins and houses around the lake, through closed doors, to feat upon the refrigerator WHILE PEOPLE ARE INSIDE which is one of those things I wished I didn't know about while I was there.

All in all, bear sighting included, it was a great personal retreat week - and no silly songs with hand motions to endure just to earn it. Here is a sunset photo for your enjoyment:

Recommended

Since I have some time on my hands - I've been reading. And since I'm such a sharing person I wanted to add a Recommended List to the blog with links to the books I think were good plus we can link to movies, games, videos, video games, etc. In other words - please feel free to add more.

I start with three books:

Lamb; The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.

Okay, perhaps most of you have already read this. Hattle recommended it to me a couple of years ago but it wasn't until Audrey, my daughter, did her major high school integrated learning paper on it, that I got serious about reading it. Its funny. very funny. And it makes the cultural setting of roman occupation very real. And I got back in touch with just how devistating the cruxification must have been to the followers of Christ at the time. Did I mention funny?

Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times; Being Calm and Courageous No Matter What

Steinke works with congregations (and pastoral leadership) in crisis. His view of church is a bit focused on the bad times and behaviors that can take off in the church but I thought the book worth reading not only as I see some friends in the middle of some huge crap at the moment but also good for anticipating and thinking through how to manage crap before it gets anywhere near the fan. Easy read, fast. Good framework to use to get out of panic mode.

The Practice of Pastoral Care; A Postmodern Approach

An encouraging and supportive framework for short term, focused pastoral care in the congregational setting. Builds on Christie Cozad Neuger's book Counseling Women: A Narrative, Pastoral Approach.

More Ordination News

Put another pin in the map! Word on the street has it congratulations are in order for Nick Valadez! He has received a call to Parker Heights Presbyterian Church in Wapato Washington. (Does this put him in your Presbytery Heather?)

Here's what Nick had to say about his new adventure:

"It is a solo pastor of a small congregation (30-40) on Sunday. I have a lot to do. It is a great place to be and lots of peaches, apples, pears, cherries, etc... Lots of the people in the congregation own an orchard, so hopefully free fruit!!! I am looking forward to it. "

He will be ordained on Oct 21st at his home church in Texas. Congratulations to Nick!

Pastor Heather?

Hello friends -

Things are going well in Wilbur. Lars and I are keeping busy. We adopted two new puppies this weekend which has been a bit of a handful. We had planned on one but got carried away. They are both dachshunds and so we now have our own herd.

I am preparing to preach at the Presbytery meeting on Saturday so that is a big deal on the work front. I am planning a Heather style smack down because I am so disgusted with the way things are going there. And to think, this will be the one year anniversary since they chewed me up at my trials of ordination. Watch out world! : )

If you are wondering why my name changed to Pastor Heather it is because I have started a blog for our church. I am going to post sermons and newspaper articles on the site for my parishioners. You can check it out at wilburchurch.blogspot.com or just click on my name and it will take you there.

Hope all are well. Pictures will be on the way as soon as I have time to post from home instead of from work like I'm doing now.

Settling in :)

Hello Friends! It has taken me a long time to post because I have hit the ground running here in Wray, CO. Not to mention I didn't get Internet access until this Wednesday, which was difficult for me to say the least :)

However, things are going really well. The people are great and I went to the big football game on Friday night which made me very happy. There are things that I really love about small towns and high school football is one of them!

I will have some pictures of the new place up as soon as I get a chance. After being here for about a week, I have my first funeral and that is taking up a lot of time. This death was unexpected and was a young man of 30. Finding words of comfort is hard because there are no words. I would appreciate you prayers.

Take care and I will be e-mailing my new address to you all later on this evening! I figured the blog isn't the best place to do that :) Take care and God Bless!

Love, Rev. Jenn :)

Ordination News

Pam Lupfer, she graduated several years ago, sent this out earlier today.

Service of Ordination of the Presbytery of the Pacific
For Pamela J. Lupfer
As Minister of Word and Sacrament
Sunday, September 16, 2007
At 4:00 in the Afternoon
at St. Luke’s Presbyterian Church
26825 Rolling Hills Road
Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274
310-377-2825

Well, it has finally happened. At long last, I will be ordained to the ministry of word and sacrament in the Presbyterian Church on Sunday, September 16th at 4:00pm at St. Luke's Presbyterian Church (provided the church and presbytery votes affirmatively). My new church is located in Haverstraw, New York, about an hour north of New York City in the Hudson River valley. I will be their part-time designated pastor and will remain part-time at Stony Point Conference Center. The church is small, but mighty in spirit and has a beautiful old brick building with Tiffany windows. ..

Aye, get ready for Talk Like a Pirate Day Gar.

September 19th is Talk Like A Pirate Day.

In honor of this approaching event I have found some resources for us to use as we prepare:

A Language Video - A song - An Order of Worship - And a pirate speak translator too!

AAAARRR!

News about Dan

Hey all -- some of you may have gotten this word but I thought this the best venue to make sure everyone heard this news (note that went out from Jana):

From: Jana Childers Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2007 11:53 AMTo:
Community Announcement
Subject: Prayers requested

Dear Friends,

As many of you know, Professor Dan Hoggatt has had a difficult year dealing with several perplexing health issues. Last week he saw a doctor who was able to put various pieces together and formulate a diagnosis: Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. Dan will appreciate our prayers and support, I know, during this time as he works with his doctors to improve his health and build strength. With rest and care, it is hoped that Dan will be able to maintain his work and commitments well into the future. Some people with CLL live into their nineties, the doctors say, and those of us who are praying for Dan have that target clearly in mind.

Dan will continue to meet his classes. There will be no disruption of either the worship or music program. However, there are always plenty of small things that need doing in the worship program and I am sure the worship team (Charles, Dan and the chaplain’s assistants) will appreciate offers of help as you see needs you can fill.

Though Dan is not averse to talking about his situation, it might make the most sense for us to express our concerns in prayers, notes and cards and try to avoid overwhelming Dan with personal conversations.

Thank you for your concern.
Jana Childers
Dean

The Newest Rev.

Only got a minute left on my lunch but wanted to get at least this picture posted so you could all see the newly ordained Reverend Jennifer Grantham!

The service of ordination was wonderful, Jen's gift for putting together a worship service (and her love of hymns and music) was clearly visible in this celebration. I wish you could have all been there. I'll let Jen post the rest of the details when she gets a minute (which might be a while since she's already busy on the job in Wrey)

All that left to say is: "Jen you so rock!"

One More Thing

This is a video I was tipped off to by the filmmakers. It is due to come out this fall I believe. It is - at least this segment - filmed in D'Iberville. For all of us who went down - and I know many of us have gone - it is good to see the other side.

If you can't watch it here, try this link

Two years

Noting that two years has passed since the big storm - not that the media was going to let us forget - I killed some time trying to figure out how D'Iberville has progressed. Cheryl, Charles Marks, Scott Schaefer, Sharon LaTour and I spent five days or so helping to pick up the pieces around a small town just a few miles inland from Biloxi and the casinos in January of 2006.

I found some good news.

Ed Cake and Irene McIntosh are still involved in leading the efforts and are getting recognized for their work. Youtube has a video of Irene receiving an award from the AMHCA.

The Volunteer Village continues. It is still located at the baseball field we stayed at but I think folks have moved out of the plastic tents which PDA has relocated over to Ocean Beach and into the old army tents that had been housing folks without land. Volunteers now eat in the big tent - or at least did so until a big storm came along a few months ago. Here is another video highlighting the damage done.

There is now a website for the Volunteer Foundation itself where we can catch up on projects completed and still underway.

There are more videos and some stories and photos out there if one googles or youtubes D'Iberville. It isn't over - and help can still be put to work but I just want to leave y'all with this image taken at the other sports complex where the volunteer effort used to be headquartered.

Click Here

Cha-cha-changes

I am no longer working for Covenant Network of Presbyterians. This is, for the most part, okay with me except for 1)income and 2)identity.

The income is not life or shelter threatening - but will be missed and needs to be replaced both for the good of the household and my own self-esteem. I've got plans however....

The identity shift is more in play. For a long time I've had a great front row seat on some major theological/polity struggles in this denomination. Now I don't. Nor do I have anything solid to replace it with - ie "Pastor Anitra" or "Executive Director Anitra." The closest I have, while I wait for the next thing is "Writer Anitra."

So, this morning's first task is to clear my desk of the past and then open up the MS Word screen to see what might be in the future.

How are you all doing? Who is going where for Labor Day? We'll be doing the last gasp summer campout up in the Redwoods. (oh boy, sleeping on the ground, I can hardly wait!)

Peace

And....

Stephanie has promised to post photos and things - I'll let her catch y'all up (she sounds very happy) but I am adding a link to Jim's interim congregation in Kalamzoo. This is a photo of the staff. Jim is in this photo of the staff....Can you find him?

Jim was also profiled in the local paper: Former opera singer brings passion to priesthood

Good Times

Yikes! So much news and so few pictures.

It was kind of Kristin and Deris to get married to so we could hold a reunion on Saturday afternoon. They were smart enough to actually PLAN on using Stewart for the service with a lovely dinner reception down at Alexander Hall. It was old times for a number of us with Dan Hoggart on the keyboard, Charles Marx co-celebrating with a pastor from Kristin's church and a number of the professors and sfts staff in the congregation. Aimee sang wonderfully. Cheryl ran the video camera. Pastor Heather helped to pass the communion and lots of friends were in the congregation: (I feel like I'm writing a society article for a small town newspaper!) It really was a great wedding and best of all good things to Kirsten and Deris. Beautiful dress, handsome tuxedos, and a wind that lifted and gave wing to the white netting draped above us in the chapel.

Random news:

Dan Hoggart is feeling better but he is without a doubt slower than he used to be. Carol Robb is on sabbatical, finishing up a book. Jennifer's sister Heather, is starting this fall at SFTS and has just moved into Bell. Jonathan Edwards and his wife are settled in North Carolina and expecting!! Polly and Bob Coote have bought a house in Berkeley and are contemplating the move. A few of us ran into Alexis from the GTU Bookstore when it was at SFTS. She is running a bead shop in Windsor and looks great.

In other news: Robert Hattle's father passed away two days ago, joining Robert's mother who had passed about a year ago. Please hold Robert and his family in your prayers this month.

One more thing - Cheesemaking links:

Its easy to make fresh cheese and here are some links to get you started if you are interested:

1) http://fiascofarm.com/dairy/feta.html
2) New England Cheese Company - best beginner's site: http://www.cheesemaking.com/
3) http://www.leeners.com/cheeseprocess.html

In about a month or so, Horizon's Magazine will print an article I wrote on cheesemaking with recipes so keep an eye out if you are interested.

Interim Ministry Week One

Hi, All,
I spent last week at Palisades Retreat Center at Federal Way, WA, in Week One of Interim Ministry Training. I know several folks took week one at Zephyr Point last year(?). It was an intense week, but very worth while. We spent a lot of time on family systems theory and conflict management, and there was a very good session on negotiating contracts and searching for an interim position.
Palisades Retreat Center is located on a bluff overlooking Puget Sound. It's run by the Archdiocese of Seattle, so the grounds have several paths, nooks, grottoes, etc. for private meditation. It's a much smaller facility than Zephyr Point, so our group was very compact: in week one we had 13 people; in week 2, which met at the same time, there were 5. Scott Schaefer was in my week one group--he's now living in Sequim, WA. Even though the group was small, it was diverse. There were folks from as far away as Auburn, NY, and Beaumont, TX, along with a CLP from Fairbanks, AK, and a pastor from Larkspur.
I enjoyed the week, learned a lot, and met some good people. PCUSA is a tiny world, and we'll see each other again. If you have the opportunity to take IM training, it's worth doing, even if you're in an installed position or other ministry. The skills they teach would be valuable anywhere.

some minor remodeling

Hey y'all

Updated the template for the blog which should make it easier to add links, dates of interests, etc.

Also goofy things like Survey Questions!!! Got one? Avoiding sermon writing? Feel free to add stuff.

Click on Templates while posting or perhaps on the little tool symbol by the thing you want to change. Add another question or change it or send me your idea. We can have lots of options to each question.

I'm becoming bored by the color scheme. I may play with that too. Or not.

A Post from the (East) Coast

Greetings all -

Here is your post from Heather on the East Coast. I am in Washington DC at the National Cathedral attending a conference at The Cathedral College of Preachers. (Continuing Ed anyone?) It is 101 degrees in DC today and the humidity is outrageous. How do you southern/eastern folks deal with this. Get me back to hot and dry!!!!

So far it has been an interesting conference. It is a conference for young clergy women. Everyone here is ordained and serving in churches although most are associates. I have met some women like me though, who are out in the world doing it on their own. Anna Carter Florence is the featured speaker and she is mostly presenting material from her new book "Preaching as Testimony". I highly recommend it, if only for the sermon starter ideas in the back. She really encourages you to be creative with the text. The whole idea is basically that you can get into the text and find your own meaning and your own sermon without having to dig into the greek, various translations, and all the commentary ever written. Its surprisingly freeing.

I have really enjoyed meeting other young women in ministry. There are Episcopals, PCUSA, Disciples, Baptists, Lutherans, and Methodists but pretty much we are all in the same boat. Its easy to feel isolated in ministry and it has been exciting to meet so many people. Most everyone is liberal as well which is such a breath of fresh air for me.

It has been neat to just hang out at the Cathedral. We have worship in one of the small lower chapels which is cool. Today I spent a few hours walking around and taking the audio tour which I really enjoyed. It was like my own private devotional time.

So, it has been a good visit. They are talking about more conferences like this so there should be opportunities for others later on. Also, there is a lot going on at the college of preachers so check it out. It is a fun way to do continuing ed.

That's all for now - blessings!

The west side of the pond

Hello everyone! I'm back in the Pacific time zone once again, having completed (and passed the defense of) my thesis with the faculty of the University of Geneva, cleared customs at Heathrow, and recovered from some serious jet lag. June was a crazy last month in Switzerland - I successfully preached in Calvin's auditorium, as previously trailed; spent a week in Italy relaxing in Florence and Siena; and stopped in London to see friends on my way home (hauling my incredibly heavy luggage through the crowded tube stations!). Overall, I had a mixed year in Switzerland - great in some ways, disappointing in others - and I'm glad to be home.

For the time being, I'm at my dad's house in Portland, beginning the slow process of job hunting and finishing up odds and ends from my Swiss adventure. Returning to the States in the summer - having left last summer - makes the whole year a bit surreal, as if I just had a long, strange dream and then woke up in Portland again.

Shouts out to everyone, and particular greetings to:

- Jenn - congrats!!! Can't wait to hear all about the new call...
- Heather and Alexis - I think I saw you at the Portland airport about 10 days ago, but you were too far away for me to catch up...
- Heather and Lars - lovely garden, and wanted to let you know I also waited for my British version of HP - did you order the children or adult version?
- Steph - saw the stage version of Wicked in London, having read the book previously, and I liked the nuances of the book better than the more straightforward musical...what did you think?

Looking forward to catching up with you all soon...
Best from your no-longer-in-Swiss-exile classmate,
Aimee

How to get into Hogworths

With a special tip of the hat to PureChristianIThink & everyone else who sometimes wonder if we went to the wrong seminary

(if you can't see the video on the screen, try this link:

back to work

Heather and I just returned from vacation, although I've decided it doesn't count as a vacation if it includes your in-laws and 5 nieces and nephews waking you up at 7 am every morning. But the start of our vacation was stressful but ultimately celebratory because Heather took and passed her worship exam in Portland. Now all she has to do is preach, write her PIF, and find a job in a Presbyterian Church-wait that sounds like a lot. One of the graders, who is a grader of the written tests, (Heather took her test orally) told Heather that she had a very strong pastoral presence, was very good at what she does, and was extremely pastoral and she said that Heather's actual gifts probably would not have come across in a written exam. Go figure..

I went to the Chase family reunion in St. Helen's Oregon for the first time. I had the pleasure of meeting 44 members of Heather's extended family, almost all of which were really nice to me. Of course who doesn't have the crazy family members that no one likes? I know I do, and Heather will never meet them.
We then flew to Florida to be with my family, and the 5 children under 7 years old who thought we were their personal entertainment units. We biked, swam, canoed, ran around, and had a good time hanging out with the family. We also got to celebrate my father's 65th birthday as a family, which was a big deal. We also got to spend the week with the brand new addition to the family, our niece Kai, who is now almost 2 months old, she is of course perfect. Our 7 year old niece already has the hip jut, hands on hips, eye roll thing down, where in the world do they learn that stuff? It was a good time, we are both exhausted. Now back to work. Heather is gearing up for Sunday school and Bible study to start again and I'm currently sitting at my desk trying to juggle water bottles, I'm a model employee.
Hope all is well. Here in Atlanta it's 95 degrees outside by 8 am and we are looking forward to fall.