Babies everywhere.

The above picture is me with my sister's child, Kai, at her baptism this past August. She's super fun. I'm surrounded by babies.


This is our new niece, Sophia Caroline Myers. She was born this past Monday. She is my brother's 4th child. She is a ringer for her brother's and sister.


Besides all of the babies, not much else going on. Heather is preaching in front of the Presbytery in January so that she can start looking for a job. Keep your fingers crossed that unless something drastic happens she will get through. We are going to start applying to jobs all over the country and Canada after January, we shall see what happens. I am eagerly anticipating trick or treaters. I have never had them before. When you grow up in the country you have to drive to a neighborhood to go trick or treating. And as I've grown up I've lived in apartments. This will be my first time, it's very exciting.
Last night was our first frost, and it came with no warning, which has made some of our outdoor plants angry at me for not protecting them. Our marathon training is going well, we have 7 miles to run tonight after work, should be a good time.

A Garden Movie

I really can't explain this other then I went out this afternoon to inspect the garden and two hours later I had this:



If you can't watch it, let me know and I'll try another trick or two...

enjoy
anitra

Wilburtown

Hey friends -

Finally . . . here are some photos from Wilbur.

First, our new dogs. Milo is the big one and he is about a year old. Pokey is in the middle and Scout is on the outside. We have had the puppies for about a month. They sure keep us busy and they are so cute they get away with everything!

Of course we still have Ernie and Simon!

Finally, here is a photo of me getting ready for Halloween.

BOO!

Now Here's a New Thing!

Dear SFTS Community,
Philip Wickeri has forwarded to us this great news about the uniting of two branches of the Reformed family.
The union of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) creates one of the largest Protestant communions in the world.
Something to celebrate!
Jana Childers
Dean
*****
World Alliance of Reformed Churches
News Release
22 October 2007

WARC Executive Committee: Trinidad and Tobago , 18-28 October 2007

New Reformed body to be formed

The World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) today agreed to unite with the Reformed Ecumenical Council (REC) to create a new global Reformed body representing more than 80 million Reformed Christians worldwide.

The historic decision took place at WARC’s Executive Committee meeting being held in Trinidad and Tobago , following two days of detailed discussions on many of the aspects of the proposed merger.

“This is a truly, truly important moment,” said WARC president Clifton Kirkpatrick after the vote was taken at midday. He invited the participants in the meeting to join together in the singing of the doxology.

“It’s a great moment,” added REC president Douwe Visser. “I hope we can combine the efforts of these two organizations and have an even broader outreach than WARC and REC have at the moment.”

“I have a feeling this new body will be the voice of the Reformed world.”

WARC general secretary Setri Nyomi said, “This is a historic moment. The Reformed family has demonstrated that we have the ability to engage together in a united fellowship and overcome divisions – and for this we are thankful to God.”

Added Richard van Houten, REC’s general secretary , “I’m delighted. I get the feeling the WARC Executive Committee really wrestled hard with some serious issues and in doing so, are now solidly behind the effort.”

In March, REC’s Executive Committee approved in principle of a new Reformed body tentatively called the World Reformed Communion. However WARC today asked for more time to consider an alternative proposal for the name of the new group.

WARC is a worldwide fellowship of 75 million Reformed Christians in 214 churches in 107 countries. A survey of WARC’s member churches found that 41 churches supported the merger, while six churches raised some questions. No WARC churches opposed the move.

REC represents 12 million Reformed Christians in 39 churches in
25 countries. Of its 39 member churches, 27 are also members of WARC.

A proposed basis for the union reads:

“The basis of the (name) shall be the Word of the triune God, incarnated in Jesus Christ, found in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments and witnessed to in the church. This
(name) embodies Reformed identity articulated in historic Reformed confessions and continued in the life and witness of the Reformed community.”

The new Reformed body will be open to all members of WARC and REC who are not under suspension, as well as other Reformed, Presbyterian, Congregational, Waldensian, First Reformation, United and Uniting traditions who affirm the basis of the new entity.

The new Reformed body will also invite movements, agencies and theological institutions of the Reformed movement into active affiliation with it.

The key callings of the new Reformed body will be:

- to foster Reformed confessional identity and communion among Reformed churches, and unity in the whole church;
- to promote justice in the economy and the earth, and all of God’s creation, and to work for peace and reconciliation in the world;
- to encourage the renewal of Reformed worship and spiritual life as a global family of God’s people;
- to strengthen leadership development and the nurture of the covenant community;
- to promote the full participation of women and youth in all aspects of the church’s life;
- to renew a passion among Reformed Christians for God’s mission, both witness and service, in a spirit of partnership and unity;
- to interpret Reformed theology for contemporary witness and for the unity of the church.

While the new Reformed body had been tentatively called the World Reformed Communion, WARC’s Executive Committee is still exploring options and will try to come up with an alterna tive name during this meeting.

Delegates are also still debeing a loose-knit alliance towards a more mutually accountable body or communion.

While discussions have centred on holding a uniting General Council in 2010, WARC’s Executive Committee has asked for input on this from its Finance and Fundraising Network before making a decision.

The timing and financing of the uniting General Council are critical as WARC will also want to take part in an expanded General Assembly under the auspices of the World Council of Churches (WCC), likely in 2013.

Doug Chial of the member relations office of WCC told the WARC meeting, “The commitment is to raise the participation of the Christian world communions in the next General Assembly. That will mean more space and deeper involvement.”


***


The World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) brings together 75 million Reformed Christians in 214 churches in 107 countries - united in their commitment to making a difference in a troubled world. The WARC general secretary is Rev. Dr. Setri Nyomi of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana . WARC's secretariat is based in Geneva , Switzerland .


Contact:
John P. Asling
Executive Secretary, Communications
World Alliance of Reformed Churches
150 Route de Ferney
P.O. Box 2100
1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
tel. +41.22 791 6243
fax: +41.22 791 6505
web: www.warc.ch

Every Time - the coolest thing

This is a fava bean sprouting.

First it sends out a root into the soil and then raises its head/seed covering till the covering falls off. Next comes the first leaves which almost always look the same for all plants. Then comes the rest of the things that make a fava plant a fava plant.

I recently pulled the rest of the tomatoes out of the garden and sent the still greens to ripen in the garage. Now, it is time to let the soil recover so I spread out what is called a green manue mix. This includes fava beans, green peas, and vetch all of which are nitrogeon fixing plants. In other words, they grab nitrogen from the air and places it in the soil which crop plants use for growing their green parts. Nitrogen tends to wash out of the soil with water so there needs to be some plan of replacement when gardening/farming. This is also why we have so much of it in our rivers, lakes and oceans. Its been washing off the large scale farms for decades.

Come Late January or February, I'm going to turn the crop over back into the ex-sandbox. This will add to the water retention ability of the sand (we're moving it toward dirt without compacting it) and continue to put nitrogen in the soil naturally.

The whole thing is amazing to me.

Over an over again, seemingly inert little pebble-like things change up when placed in dirt and become huge bushes of red ripe tomatoes or gigantic vines of peas.

At first it all looks dead and then....

little green first leaves

Roots

Earlier in the summer, part of our backyard used to look like this (on the right). The previous owners had planted two redwood trees in a very small space where three yards (and houses) come together.

The redwoods were beautiful and majestic as they always are. They were very tall too. And their branches sometimes broke off in the wind. Other redwood trees in neighborhood yards have blown over, smashing the gutters off of one house... and the roots were starting to push up our neighbor's yards.

So reluctantly (and I mean very reluctantly) we made the decision to go ahead and take them down.





Its pretty obvious why the previous owners wanted to put something there.


After spending a month or two living with the empty space and thinking about what comes next, we went out and bought a lemon tree.

I have never bought and planted a tree before.

Its such a spiritual thing - to accept care for something that I may not see the end of. Someone else will be harvesting lemons from this little stick of a thing maybe 20 years from now. (if global warming doesn't mess it all up)

Its beautiful. The person who helped us pick out the tree wanted to know what we were going to name it. (I'm thinking Zoe) It has that kind of life energy about it. I'm happy and I'm in awe when I look at it.


Since we had the shovels out - I took another big step and planted the rose bush and the geranium that I had in pots when I lived in San Anselmo. (they are both in the center of the photo - I'd highlight them but I don't have the software to muck around with that at the moment)

One day a few years ago I was restless for a rose bush. I used to have several back in the old live before the big change. Maybe the big concrete Bell parking lot was getting to me. Maybe part of my restoration was claiming a rose bush - in a container ready to be a vagabond while the time of just-passing-through lasted - but still a living thing that prefers to put down roots in soil rather than journey off over the horizon. As the years went by, the poor rose bush did its best to put on leaves and flowers but it was clearly growing more and more distressed in its bound up condition.

So, it went into the front garden along with the geraniums I inherited from Catharine Cory. Now their future is bound up with the soil and the weather and the bugs of this particular place. The day will come when I will leave them behind but its not going to be for a few years yet. I don't think of them as things I own so much as I consider them my companions of the past few years.

I've hit the end of the line in obviously ordainable prospects. I either leave the area or wait or do something else or find a non-obvious ordainable path. Its not such a bad life here. I am still free to try and pull together a book proposal and I am free to cook and plant and tend and think and sing. But I am worried. How do I face my CPM? When do I have to say, "stop messing with me, I'm just waiting all our time here?"

The lemon tree came with green lemons. Its one of the ways we know its healthy when we buy it. They will slowly turn yellow and be harvestable sometime in early spring. There is still a blossom on the tree. It smells very nice - and its small and its beautiful. It may be out of time to become a fruit, but still it is there. We need to keep the tree and its fruit safe from cold snaps. Our tree guide recommended using a string of Christmas tree lights because it generates just enough heat in the darkness to keep the lemons-to-be warm in the dark winter months. What a perfect metaphor for Advent, for the coming season in our lives, for this season in my life.

Update on Saw Than Win

I received an email from Saw Than today. He and his family are safe and OK, but his school has temporarily closed. He tells me that they have limited access to email. Please keep Saw Than and his family in your prayers, and pass this on to any congregation or prayer chain that you have access to.

Bob has a call

Hi, All,
They asked. I said yes.
Last Sunday (9/30) I preached for the PNC of 1st Church Boonville, NY. After lunch, the committee met for what seemed like an awfully long time. When they called me back in, they invited me to become their Designated Pastor. I said yes.
In my mind, I'm saying YAHOO!
It's a 200 year old church of 121 members. The village of Boonville is about 35 or 40 miles NW of Utica, NY, about 25 miles NE of Rome, NY and about 3000 miles east of the Pacific Ocean. Boonville is a village of Victorian and older houses and buildings, surrounded by farms and hardwood forests, sitting in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains. I'm told they have serious winter there.
Assuming trials and candidating go well, my ordination service will be on November 18 at Westminster PC in Portland. You're all invited--the more the merrier. Dates and places for trials are still being discussed between Utica and Cascades Presbyteries, but in any event will be the second week in November.
Stay tuned for more info about moving dates, start dates, etc.

While I'm celebrating, though, I have a deep concern for my friend Saw Than Win, my roomate in Oxtoby my last year at school. He is a pastor and seminary professor in Myanmar. As a result of the recent civil unrest, the ruling junta has pulled the plug on internet access for the whole country, so there's no way to contact him to find out if he's OK. I ask for your prayers for Saw Than and his family.
Peace and Blessings,
Bob

distracted

My in-laws are here. I was showing them somethings on my other blog which I was setting up for the vonseg's to keep track of each other and accidentally messed up this one which made us lose the quizzes. I'll get back to them next week.

In the meantime I give you: LOL Cats

the poll of all polls

click here

more news

Hattle called this afternoon to say he has been officially certified as a Candidate for Ministry of the Word and Sacrament! Pif to be posted very soon.

Bits of this & that

More on Doug Adam's Memorial Service (which should prove to be something magnificent)

John Bell (composer, wild goose, iona community, etc) will be leading worship at SFTS on Monday - 10/15

The Mother Ship has a new website (did they pay for the design? looks sharp) with a page listing job opportunities.

The Rev. Dr. Don McCullough, formerly President of SFTS among other things, has been called to Mendocino Presbyterian Church. He also has a couple of books out, most recently The Consolations of Imperfection: Learning to Appreciate Lifes Limitations.

Yea Alexis

Who sent over the latest quiz suggestion. She also did one earlier on beer.

Homesick

It rained here at my house on Saturday. It rained with rain clouds and sustained wetness, not just a passing bit of spritz. It wasn't a heavy rain nor an all day rain but it was rain.

Another Good Book

Clergy Burnout: Recovering from the 70-Hour Work Week...And Other Self-Defeating Practices

Fred Lehr


Lehr is a Lutheren Pastor, formerly involved with congregations and now with a Renewal Ministries LLC - another church conflict management consulting firm. Which begs the question: Why is Church Conflict Intervention such a growth industry?

Lehr offers up a clear definition of what it means to be co-dependent; how co-dependent hurts the clergy, their family and their congregation; and what are good and healthy boundaries for ministry. Lehr does a good job defining the issues but the recommended solutions are weaker. None-the-less, this is a good book for all in ministry, especially those who are starting out when all of it is overwhelming. A tad under 145 pages, it is an easy and quickly absorbed read.

Don't wait till you are burned out - consider reading this book sooner rather than later.

Tomorrow, t' 19th, be Talk Like a Pirate Day

My pirate name is:

Captain Anne Flint

Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

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.