I love Italy - Their Food Sings

Sooner or later somebody (Cheryl, pictures?) will post on the Grand Ordination of The Rev. James Kosko (a 3 hour extravaganza and truely a great love-a-thon) and the debrief in the bar afterwards but in the meantime:

I found this on another blog (on cheese making, natch) and fell in love....

Time for a little "Oneness" in the Body

I finally got all signed up and back on the Blog (Thank you Anitra!)
In light of all the split/leaving talk in the PC(USA) I thought we might all appreciate a little "Good News"
I haven't checked out all the particulars yet but this looks like a good thing to me.

http://www.christianchurchestogether.org/news/070209.html

Looking forward to seeing some of you on Sunday at James ordination!

Jepsen Update

Hello friends -

Lars and I are slogging through winter. It is finally warming up (38!) and most of the snow has melted. Our back yard was nothing but weeds when we bought the place so now it is a big mud patch. I go out to walk the dog and I fall out of my clogs. We need to look into some grass. Either way we are both eager for the arrival of Spring. We planted lots of bulbs when we got here and I can not wait to see their happy faces.

Lars finally got a job. He is working as a cook at "The Homestead". It is one of our restaurants - the only one that doesn't specialize in burgers. He is making steaks and pizzas and seems to be enjoying himself.

We are busy inside the house while we wait for Spring. We ripped up our bedroom carpet yesterday to finally get down to our hardwood floor. God only knows why there were so many staples but Lars and I finally got everything cleared. It looks awesome.

Church is going OK. Some of you saw my short lived post on an issue with parishoners. We had a run in about the authority of Scripture. Much to my surprise they are still attending. The session has voted to no longer be a Confessing Church so that is good. Admist the division talk I am glad that they heard my call for working together. This job is difficult and I am constantly lamenting how unprepared I am from my time in seminary. There is just such a disconnect from the way we are trained to be pastors and what the work actually requires of us. Oh well - "I will, with God's help"

Hope you all are well. Thanks for your care and concern. I miss you - and Anitra - what I wouldn't give for a Mount Tam Pale Ale and some Onion Rings - thanks for the picture.

- Heather

Upgrades, Ordinations, & Podcasts

We are officially upgraded to the new blog. If y'all want to post, you'll encounter the update process. Please let me know if you have any problems!!!!

James Kosko's ordination is coming up this sunday in Kenwood. (Which is in between Santa Rosa and Sonoma if you didn't know this...) At last count there should be about eight or nine of us in attendance. There are plans to go out afterwards in search of appropriate beverage and food.

I've taught myself how to do podcasts and how have two podcasts on Itunes - and also available for mp3 downloads. Please come visit the Covenant Network site for the mp3 version and do a search in Itunes on Covenant Network for the full flavor w pictures version. There are two presentations - one is an interview of Margaret Towner, the first woman ordained to the ministry in the Presbyterian Church(USA) and the more I listen to it the more in awe I am of how this has taken place. Read it in text or listen to it - I think its important to know how this came to take place. The other podcast is a really great sermon from Lisa Larges, the regional director of That All May Freely Serve. She does a very nice job of laying out a tough message with humor and compassion. Please come visit - and if you blog or have friends who blog, please suggest that they too come visit these presentations.

If you are following the New Wineskins - they have met, they have asked a sister denomination Evangelical Presbyterians to open a non-continoues Presbytery for congregations wishing to leave the PCUSA, and will meet again in a few months or so. Leslie Scanlon has some good coverage at Presbyterian Outlook (free, but registration required). You might also be interested in visiting the Presbyterians for Renewal website, and the Network of Presbyterian Women in Leadership. Or you might just go get another cup of coffee.

God Bless Cliff Kirkpatrick

Hi again, folks -

The stated clerk and executive director of the GAC of the PCUSA sent out this letter to all congregations in response to the potential defection of churches in coming weeks.

http://www.pcusa.org/oga/newsstories/christs-unity.htm

It is so odd to be spending all my time studying the unity of the global church, all the while my own denomination is potentially splitting once again.

Transitions

I'm preaching on The Transfiguration of the Lord Sunday in about two weeks...hm... the same day as the ordination of James... I wonder, will his face glow after the laying on of hands? Should we be offering to build booths in the sanctuary?

I have never quite "got" why either the Transfiguration passage was significant nor why it rates its own Sunday in the lectionary till I started digging into it all this morning. I think I may suffer from way too many sermons on Peter's alleged point of view, "Wow, cool, let's hang out here, what do you mean go back down the mountain?" You may remember James Noel's riff on the passage during graduation weekend.

In the lectionary, it will always be preached because it closes out Epiphany. Depending on the whole Easter moon calendar calculation Epiphay can run up to eight weeks, but not always. Transfiguration Sunday is the override passage, the tip-down passage. Its like when I've been flying for a very long time and then there is this subtle shift in the alignment of the airplane. Subtle and unmistakable - I call it the tip down moment and its the signal that not only have we started to approach the airport, its a good time to make that last run for the bathroom before those seatbelt lights are turned on overhead...

Bill and I took the weekend off and rented a room in a hotel in the financial district of San Francisco. We walked all over the city - we enjoy walking and looking at neighborhoods. We had a nice view - we looked toward North Beach and Telegraph Hill. We saw the twin spires of Saints Peter and Paul highlighted against the sky. They have an open design - they are translucent even as they point toward heaven. They glowed in the twilight of dawn and dusk and were the first to emerge and the last to disappear into the darkness.

So clearly, I am rehersing/exploring themes for the sermon yet to be written - but thus is the nature perhaps of blogging or writing or streams of thoughts at any rate. What I really want to do in this blog entry is to tell you that we took the ferry over and back out of Larkspur and - of course - stopped for lunch at the brewpub.

We sat outside in the late winter sunlight - ordered up beer and burgers off the same menu that we have all used for years and I remembered all the meals with all of you I have enjoyed in that place. I ate too much and became bloated with beer, onion rings, and pastrame sandwiches. Then we got in the car and drove back home to Santa Rosa.

Is it possible to go back? Or to stay too long? Or is it good to transition in stages? Even though none of you were there with me in person, you were there with me in translucent memory. Did I shine with a strange new light or just glow with the mild sunburn I had picked up from the three days of city hiking and ferry riding we'd just completed. Santa Rosa is certainly not the hills of Calvary - but I found that I can't eat at the brewpub like I used to. My body is starting to rebel at the presence of all that meat and fat. Or perhaps its not a rebellion but an awakening to a needed change.

What can we take with us? What must we leave behind? What awaits us? The Gospel speaks with the Law and the Prophets, the Grand Plan is put into place - and Peter just tries to figure out how to be a good disciple.

Peace - I miss you all very much.

Anitra

ps - I'm going to add a note to the end of the entry on switching to the New and Improved Blogger so if you are wondering where we are with that conversation, check back to there.

Should we go with the update?

Hi fellow blogging team members. Apparently - there is an upgrade to the blog interface that we can take advantage of. And - while they don't say so now - we may need to go do eventually in any case. However, there seems to be a warning that we'll have to resign in with our "google accounts". If you don't have one, they will helpfully create one.

This sounds like a pain and if we do it, I think everyone has to do it.

So I figure our options are:

1) stay with what we have for as long as possible or
2) figure out a date by which everyone should try to pick up a google account and then switch or
3) switch which then makes everyone pick up a google account if they want to keep posting...

I donno. I'm not thrilled with being forced into The Google Machine but hey, this blog is free (cash wise) so it is hard to complain. Well, not for me. I actually find it quite easy to complain, no matter the circumstance. I'm more than a little concerned that I could easily end up in heaven and find myself compeled to make a few suggestions to God on how to organize the place a little better. Well, at least I'm hoping for heaven. I'm pretty sure I'll get there... Unless Calvin was wrong. In which case... hmm... I'll probably have a few simple suggestions for who ever is running the alternative as well.

So - post your vote; what do you want to do?

Anitra the spiritual australian sheep dog....

Check out the 1/18/06 comic:
http://www.rhymeswithorange.com/

TV Civics Lessons

My brother sent me this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CvoC551i2E

You Are Invited!

The Golden Gate Association
of the Northern California Nevada Conference
of the United Church of Christ
invites you to the
ordination of
James Kosko, M Div 2006
into the Ministry of Jesus Christ,
February 18, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Kenwood Community Church, UCC ~ Kenwood, CA

James is called to serve as Pastor at Elk Grove Congregational Church, UCC in Elk Grove, CA

Hermeneutics

So here's a perfect example of why Presbyterians still can't agree on how to interpret and apply Scripture: did anyone else notice that New Wineskins is using our baccalaureate verse from Isaiah 43 as their mantra?

Check it out (and if you're Presbyterian and don't know what New Wineskins is, you need to find out):

http://www.newwineconvo.com/

Sliding in an Icy Land

I thought I would write to tell you all about the winter weather that has hit the middle of the country, and ask for prayers. Here in Hominy we are lucky, only 6 inches of sleet is on the ground and we have electricity currently. However, the rest of the eastern and southern parts of Oklahoma and the Southwestern part of Missouri aren't so lucky.


Over 500,000 people are without power and the high temperature will be about 25 the next few days with the low hitting 0 degrees. My Aunt lives in Springfield, MO and only about 5% of the town has power. She said the place looks like a war zone. Their land was full of trees and they have lost most of them due to the weight of the ice. An historic park in Muskogee, OK is completely destroyed. Basically, it's really bad here and your prayers would be greatly appreciated by all the folks around here.

What's really crazy is that most if not all of the churches were shut down today. Although, some churches have gained generators and are opening up as shelters for those without power. The expectation is that power won't be anywhere near coming back online until late this week, but the temp won't be above freezing until Thursday.




Thanks for all of your prayers! My mom and I are staying in and keeping warm and dad has been going to work, but it takes him about 30 minutes to go 3 miles. Basically, it's crazy weather! I hear there was snow in Southern Cal., anybody out there experience that?

Take care, stay warm and don't slide away!

Love, Jenn :)

Making Feta

One of the things I have started to make is cheese. Mostly soft cheeses like chevre and feta although I have a test brie aging at the moment.

Making cheese turns out to be easier than bread. Yesterday I got stuff out to make a fresh batch of feta. You see here - two liters of goat milk (I usually use four); a pot, two basket molds and a drain tray, my collection of cheese molds (little packets) and two coagulants - vegitable rennet and Calciam chloride, and a thermometer.


First I heat the milk to about 96 degrees so its nice and cozy for the bacteria - which is what is in that blue spoon.

Goat milk comes from Trader Joes. Even though I'm surrounded by goats from here to Bodega Bay I can't get any fresh goat milk unless I suddenly become best friends with a goat herder. Fortunantly TJoe's sees fit to sell regular pasturized goat milk. Ultrapasterized milk won't work, it doesn't coagulate and form curds.




After the bacteria has a chance to spread out and enjoy itself, I added the two coagulants which very swiftly resulted in a nice firm curd here. The knife is holding back a wall which means we're ready to finish cutting and then transfer to the basket molds.


Here they are when I first put them in - and here they are about four hours later. Much smaller. But very yummy.


I keep them in a brine in my refrigerator.


A much better set of directions can be found at the Fias Farm website.

If you want to make your own - there are places to order stuff from if no one is selling local. The Beverage People, which is local to Santa Rosa and does wine, apple cider and beer, is starting to do cheese stuff and perhaps sausage. I make sausage too. Right now I'm trying to figure out how to build a cold smoker for the cheese and a hot smoker for the sausage...

Across the country and back again

Hello from Atlanta!

We have both been awfully slack about posting, in fact even joining this blog since we left California. I guess it only makes sense that as we are now moving back across the country we should join the blog. That is correct, we are moving to Portland, Oregon as soon as we get jobs or our lease runs out, whichever comes first. After our holiday visit to Heather's family in Portland we decided it was a good idea to be around her family for the next couple of years. Heather's mother isn't getting any better, her grandmother and grandfather aren't getting any younger, and did you know you can't see a single large body of water in Atlanta? Really we had no idea, otherwise Heather never would have moved. (note sarcasm) Except for a river with a funny name, and it's dirty. So if anyone knows anyone hiring for anything in the Portland area, please talk us up to them and them give me their phone number.
Roux is excited about the move, I have promised her that I would take up snowshoeing so that she can play in the snow. She also enjoys destroying the duck she got for Christmas. That seems to be all of our news.

Alexis

A holy kiss?

I'm back in Geneva after a whirlwind Christmas break in Portland, and today (being the first of the month) was communion day at the Church of Scotland. For some odd reason, the only time the C of S passes the peace is when there's communion, and I've missed some previous communion Sundays...so I was interested to discover today that many people at the C of S use the standard Geneva greeting when passing the peace: three kisses on the cheeks. So, if you greet five people, that's 15 kisses. It becomes a bit ridiculous after a while - especially as with each new face you have that moment of deliberation when you're trying to figure out if this will be a handshake or the kissing ritual, if kissing, which cheek to head for first, and whether or not there will be lip-to-cheek contact or just the "mwah!" sound in the air.

I don't think we covered this in our sexual harassment seminar; in any case, my usual trick for avoiding unwanted hugs - clasping both hands of the incoming parishioner - doesn't work in this scenario, as people come in for the kiss anyway.

I'm not sure this is quite what Paul had in mind when he told the churches of Rome and Corinth to greet one another with a holy kiss...

Another Ordination

Good News!


From the Cascades Presbytery Website:

Ashton A. "Skip" Roberts will be ordained on Sunday, January 14, at 3:00 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, Newport, OR.

He is a chaplain at Veteran's Affairs Medical Center, Portland.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! On this special day, you all, the members of my seminary family, are especially present in my thoughts and prayers. I hope that your respective Christmases are full of blessings.

There is a chance of a white Christmas here, so that is exciting :)

Take care and Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!!

Love, Jenn :)

Blizzard!!!

The snow has started falling here in Eastern Colorado. We are hoping that we can get out Christmas Day as we head to Spokane.
If you go to this web site http://www.goyuma.com/ then find the Yuma Cam link you can see a current picture of Yuma. If you click on the recent link you will see pictures from the last 24 hours.

Since the whole state of Colorado is shut down we took a few pictures from out in the front of our home.

Armstrong's Christmas Open House

Our first Christmas in Yuma!

We took our Christmas Card picture before we headed out to school & jobs one morning, and as small towns go I had at least two people tell me they saw us taking the picture that morning!

However our Church family and the town in general have been super welcoming, and supportive of Harold in his role, of the boys as individuals, and of Megan as her own person! In fact many times Megan has been introduced only as Megan Armstrong...and then they ask if she was recently married to one of the "Armstrong boy's"(large family of Armstrong's in town). To cut down on confusion, Megan has since started introducing herself as "Megan Armstrong, wife of Pastor Harold at the Presbyterian Church"!

Here is Josiah and Silas helping making goodies for the open house. Josiah is still proudly wearing his Steelers gear even though we are deep in Bronco country!

Megan as usual made a bagillion cookies, and we increased our turkey count this year for the party from two to three! Here is a picture of one the beauties! And old trusty turkey fryer luckily didn't get lost in the move.

Here are some pictures of our open house spread! We had more room to work with! We missed seeing you all, but we did have a familiar face! Matt Gearke joined us from Denver! We wish you all the best this Advent season as we prepare for the Hope of Christmas Day!

Beer IS theology

Time to open the brew


This has been sitting around in the family room in bottles for the last week or two.


Apparently one adds a bit of sugar for a final finish from the yeast which leads to carbonation before bottling.


There is a certain level of anticipation at this moment. Its about 4 pm on a busy Saturday spent running Christmas errands.

We went to a tree farm this morning and then split up - the boys to brave Santa Rosa Ave where all the big box stores are zoned and I to Trader Joes (on a Saturday afternoon no less!) The local TJ near the house is not as busy as the Marin location and people are nicer to each other with the carts in the aisle thing. None the less...

We're ready for this beer.


First, Bill takes a sip













Beer is good.

Beer is absolutely one of the signs that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Home made beer is a sign that God loves us a lot.







Time for some more theology.



Amy Moiso sent a link to a great website:

http://www.calvinus.ch/

Behold I am Doing a New Thing

Behold I am Doing a New Thing

Well it's my last day here -- feels very weird to say the very least!
Here's how you can find us next:

Stephanie & Jim Croom
2795 Riley Ridge Road
Holland MI 49424

Western Theological Seminary
101 E. 13th Street
Holland MI 49423
stephanie@westernsem.edu

Love to you all
Merry Christmas
Happy Everything!

Bless your hearts!
steph