Life in April

I missed the second anniversary of my time on blogger. I'm a wee bit bummed by that. It's not as though there's much to celebrate, but still. Anyway, I've enjoyed April. On the 10th I got to visit Menno-Hof in Shipshewana, Indiana. That was a really interesting and inspirational time and involved meeting a TEDS alumnus from before I was born. On the 11th I attended the spring meeting of the Chicago Area Theological Library Association at Calvin Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I also hit some impressive used bookstores in GR on Friday night and Saturday morning, and B.D.'s Mongolian Barbecue. I was muy bummed when the Vernon Hills B.D.'s closed last year. On the 12th I also got to go for nice short hike at the Cowles Bog Nature Area in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. That was a cool rainy Saturday so I had the park to myself except for a couple of people on their way out that I encountered on my way in. It was very peaceful and a beautiful path through the woods and over the dunes to the Lake. Because of the weather the Lake was choppy with a mist blowing in. It was only spoiled by the big steel mill 300 yards away down the beach. Still I enjoyed it very much.

On the 16th I got to teach the youth on James 5:1-6 which is a very challenging passage to meditate on and to teach to suburban American middle school kids. The other youth leaders were encouraging about the message and how it challenged them and one of the parents told me that her daughter had one of the verse references from the message written on her hand when she came home so she could look it up and think about it. That was really encouraging. On the whole I hope I was able to challenge the kids to think about how they use what God has given them without being too condemning. On the 18th-19th we had a lock in at the church that was a lot of fun. Also on the 18th we had a farewell party for my friend Anthony who is moving to Florida to paint cars but who will probably be eaten by alligators. We'll miss him very much. On the 20th we had our annual church meeting where we learned of the elders' plan to form a leadership task force of members who will help our church figure out what sort of leadership structure we need in the wake of all the resignations last year. It's nice to have a plan, even if it's just to develop a plan.

This past week was fairly uneventful although it involved a few fun games of Ticket to Ride and at a game night on Saturday I learned to play Quelf, which is boffo, if bizarre. On Sunday we had a lunch for the college students that was hosted at the home of one of the families from the church. The food and fellowship were both good and the student's seemed to have a good time of respite from the end of the semester crunch. As we were standing around talking after the meal it was mentioned that the Sans' dog Snowflake, a German Shepherd/Samoyed mix, knew the word "squirrel". Linda told Snowflake to go get the squirrel, expecting the dog to go to the window and bark. Instead, Snowflake ran over and sat in front of me and barked. Steve, a.k.a. Hot Barbecue (or, possibly, Willow) is now threatening to nickname me "Squirrel". I find that amusing. Tomorrow, Monday, Hot Barbecue and I are joining our executive pastor and another man from the church and going to see the White Sox play the Orioles. We will be 14 rows back from home plate, using tix that were given to Eric by the singer of the national anthem at one of the Saturday doubleheader games. Woohoo! Go Sox!

In other news, Battlestar Galactica and Dr. Who have started their new seasons, which a friend is being kind enough to record for Hot Barbecue and I until she moves out of her satellite dish. Also I've seen Leatherheads, Forbidden Kingdom, and Expelled, which I may blog about some other time. It was a very interesting movie.

Verse of the day:

"They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings--and with him will be his called, chosen, and faithful followers." Revelation 17:14 (NIV) the theme verse from Eric's sermon this morning, about which I will be blogging anon, the third in a miniseries on spiritual warfare.