A few weeks ago, I prepared a list of prayer points, at Centre Grove’s request, to help guide people in praying for us during this time of transition. I’ve updated the prayer points for this post and invite you to be in prayer for us as well as Centre Grove and West Side as we get started.
Ask God to strengthen us as we continue to get settled in Clearfield.
Ask God to grant us favor at Centre Grove and West Side and with the people of Clearfield. May God give us a renewed sense of vision and passion, as well as courage to lead others as God leads us.
Ask God to bless Ethan who’s making his second major move in less than 5 months (of course, this time, he gets to keep the same parents, culture, language, etc. ). We plan to say more about how he’s handling the transition sometime later.
Ask God to give us wisdom (knowing what’s right) and courage (doing what’s right, even when it’s hard).
Ask God to bless our walks with God, including our daily time with God. May God give us listening hearts so that we may discern God’s yearning for ourselves, our family, and for the communities God calls us to lead.
Sometimes “tomorrow” is a bad word — “Instead of doing (fill-in-the-blank) today, I’ll do it tomorrow!” (i.e., procrastination).
But, other times, tomorrow is an inspiring word. Tomorrow gives us the opportunity to dream, envision, and plan for the future. Tomorrow is an opportunity to take what we’ve learned yesterday and today and apply it on the next leg of our journey.
Scripture cautions about how we view tomorrow, though. James wrote …
How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone. What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.” Otherwise you are boasting about your own plans, and all such boasting is evil. (James 4.14-16)
And, Jesus said …
So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. (Matthew 6.34)
However, Jesus also talked about the importance of looking ahead in counting the cost of being his disciple, saying:
… don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford to finish it!’ (Luke 14.28-30)
I think one lesson is that we need to entrust our tomorrows to God — don’t take them for granted, don’t worry about what may or may not happen — but be prepared to pay the price of following Jesus and helping others follow Jesus, too, for the transformation of the world!
So tonight, June 30, 2008, we look ahead to tomorrow when we (officially) begin the next leg of our journey in Clearfield. We look forward, with great anticipation, to all that God will do in and through us as we seek to serve God faithfully!
Picking up where I left off in The Move 1.0, we arrived in Clearfield just before 6:30 am, Thursday, and the movers showed up a few minutes later.
West Side Parsonage
Unloading in Clearfield
Overall, it was a pretty smooth day of unloading.
But the big news of the day here in Clearfield took place at Trinity UMC, where a shooting occurred in Trinity’s basement (at about the time we arrived in Clearfield, ourselves).
The incident is being covered by several media outlets, including: The Progress, The Altoona Mirror, and WTAJ TV. According to these reports, the latest news (as of this post) is the shooting victim has died and the shooter later shot himself (after a confrontation with police) and is listed in critical condition.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the friends and families of those involved as well as everyone in the community who’s been touched by this tragic occurrence!
Aside from the news of the day, we are glad to have the move behind us. While we have a lot of work to do, unpacking and getting settled, we do not expect to have to put in any more all-nighters!
We are grateful for everyone who has made (and are making) this transition as smooth as possible. Some people the Manor Hill Charge (as well as Joleen’s mom) watched Ethan while we packed over the course of the past week or so. Without them, we’d *still* be packing!
And here in Clearfield, members from West Side and Centre Grove are providing evening meals Thursday/Friday and Monday/Tuesday, respectively. They’re also setting up baby sitting for Ethan on Monday and Tuesday so that we can get as far as we can in the process of getting settled!
Thanks to all who are helping with our transition!
I wanted to write this post yesterday but as you’ll soon discover that wasn’t much of an option!
On Tuesday (the day before our loading day), we got up around 6:30 am to finish packing. We knew we had a good day’s work ahead of us, but we didn’t know we had *that* much work left to do!
We had planned to finish packing, then spend the night at Joleen’s mom’s house in Williamsburg (35 minutes away). Toward late afternoon, it became painfully clear that we were going to be up late. Around 7:30 pm, Joleen dropped Ethan off and her mom’s house, then returned home to continue packing.
As it turned out, we were indeed up late, so late, in fact, that we *never* got to sleep — we worked all night. Ironically, we did one final walkthrough shortly after 6:00 am. We arrived back down stairs at 6:32 am, just as the movers were getting out of their vehicle.
Needless to day, it was a challenging night. But, of course, our work wasn’t done at 6:30. For most of the day, we supervised, answered questions, and after the movers left, we had some final work to do. All in all, we were up for 34 to 36 hours (I can’t remember for sure! ), working virtually non-stop.
When we arrived in Williamsburg (late afternoon), we joined Ethan, whose nap was already in progress, and got about an hour of sleep, ourselves.
After 7 hours or so of sleep overnight, we got up at 4:30 am to drive to meet the movers in Clearfield for the unloading.
Less than 3 weeks ago, I wrote It’s Time to Pack. While packing has progressed fairly slowly, we have made some real headway in the last few days.
On Tuesday, Mary Ayers came to the house and spent the day entertaining and caring for Ethan while we packed. It was a cool day so we spent a lot of time going through boxes and stuff in the attic (which can be a pretty hot place sometimes). And, after dinner with Ethan, Joann McCrum took Ethan for a walk while we did some more packing before EBT (our acronym for “Ethan’s Bed Time,” which we usually use when talking about what things we need to get done after Ethan goes to bed). Anyway, Tuesday was a very productive day.
Ethan spent Thursday at his grandmother’s house in Williamsburg, so, after spending the morning preparing for Sunday, we were able to get some more packing done in the afternoon.
We have Friday through Tuesday to complete our packing. And, to get it done, we’ll have to work around several activities — a Juniata Valley Ministerium farewell picnic for us, a 70th wedding anniversary for Joleen’s great uncle/aunt, a graduation party for Joleen’s step-nephew, and some visits with people before we complete our ministries here. On top of all that, this Sunday will be our last one here. It looks to be a pretty intense several days!
We’ve got a long way to go, but, fortunately …
Our house is filling up with packed boxes
We are donating a lot of items that we no longer use to ES Ministries Thrift Store, a ministry that grew out of Joleen’s charge which operates in one of Faith UMC’s buildings (the one in Mooresville)
We are throwing away a lot of other stuff that isn’t worth donating
We will drop off a bunch of cardboard boxes (mostly shipping boxes that we’ve collected over the last several years that are too small to be used for packing) at the recycling drop-off spot in Pine Grove Mills (where we regularly drop off plastics, metal cans, glass bottles, and cardboard)
Several larger items are sitting in our front yard with “for sale” signs on them (desk and chair, grill, coffee and end tables, and an exercise bike) with all proceeds going to E.S. Ministries
Just a couple quick observations (things that you probably already know!) …
It’s amazing how much stuff we hang onto that we never use (and probably never will)!
It’s amazing how hard it is to throw some stuff away, even stuff that we never use (and probably never will)!
Ethan was baptized Sunday (we’ll say more about that in another post). We intended to include a slideshow presentation at the beginning of the service, showing photos from the last 4 months. Unfortunately, I was not able to get it to work.
I’m not exactly sure what was wrong. My Apple PowerBook detected the projector, but apparently the projector didn’t get the message (I used this projector last fall at “community day,” but with a different cable). I should have conducted a trial run the day before and/or allowed more time beforehand (time was short due to Sunday morning activities and having family from Tennessee with us).
Anyway, we were extremely disappointed that it didn’t work; it would have been a good segue into Ethan’s baptism service. We invested a good bit of time on the presentation (on the slideshow plus shopping at Best Buy stores in Altoona AND in State College to get the necessary cables to connect the projector to Faith’s sound system so that the accompanying soundtrack could be played through the system).
A number of people got to see the slideshow during the fellowship time after the service on my laptop. And thanks to the latest version of Keynote, an Apple presentation application that I used to create the slideshow, I was able to send the slideshow to YouTube and then post it here.
I love the slide transitions available in Keynote (you’ll see a few of them in this slideshow). My favorite transition, and the single most biggest reason we were disappointed that it didn’t work Sunday, is the final photo and subsequent “droplet” transition (water ripple effect), which was intended to be a good lead-in to the baptism service.
BTW, I left the soundtrack out of the slideshow on YouTube (due to copyright), but you can preview or buy/download the song here at Amazon.com (see lyrics below).
“You’ve Given Life to Me”
(The Praise Baby Collection)
You are my hope, you are my light.
You are the way, the truth, and the life.
You have created all I can see and
You’ve given life to me. You’ve given life to me.
Though you are God, you became man
Walked here beside us so we’d understand.
All you created, all we can be
Lord, you have set us free. Lord, you have set us free.
And we praise you. And we praise you.
And we love you. And we love you.
So, without further adieu, here’s the nearly-5-minute slideshow; just click on the image. Please be aware that we have NO control over any of the other video/content/links from YouTube!
We celebrated Ethan’s birthday at Grandma’s house along with family and friends. The highlight of the day was watching Ethan dig into his first birthday cake (see photos below)!
This is a good time to remember the gift Ethan is to us — how God guided our steps throughout our inquiry into the possibility of adoption and the decision-making process, the choice between domestic or international adoption, the selection of an adoption agency, the application process, choosing a country from which to adopt, to name part of the process.
Beyond all of the decisions that we had to make, God’s hand has clearly been upon this entire journey. God worked out all the details according to his timetable — granting us a referral at the time of our dissertation proposal hearings, reaching the final step in the process at the time we completed the first draft of our last two chapters of our dissertations which cleared the way for us to make travel plans to Korea to welcome Ethan into our family, and still leaving us just enough time to complete our revisions and defenses in order to graduate in May 2008.
What an adventure this has been and, with God’s help, will continue to be!
That’s an odd way to begin a post called “Re-energized!” But while annual conference is physically tiring (and not just annual conference, but annual conference with a baby for the first time), it is still very energizing, spiritually and missionally!
Of course, while spending hours together with a community of Christ-followers in worship and worshipful work is always impacting and re-energizing, it is also a time to refocus on the mission — the main thing, why we do what we do.
Everyone, including leaders, need these kinds of times renewal and refocusing. Leading on the front lines of the mission is challenging. In every organization, including churches, there are strong forces at work to simply maintain the status quo (or go back to the way things were at some point in the past), to take the easy road, or to seek the comfortable way.
The temptation for leaders is to grow weary of the journey of leading people in mission and to allow these forces to inhibit them from fulfilling their God-given task. Leadership *always* involves challenging the process (to use the language of Kouzes and Posner in their landmark book, The Leadership Challenge). It’s certainly not for the fainthearted!
But we all get tired. We all battle doubt and despair, at times. We must regularly find ways to fan the flames, to stir the passion, and to keep moving forward. For us, annual conference is one of the ways that keeps us focused, encouraging us to stay the course, and to lead with courage.
These times of renewal serve as reminders that this is ultimately God’s work. God always gives us the equipment we need for us to complete the work he’s given us. The journey is never easy, but because of God’s power and presence, it is always do-able!
BTW, Ethan did well today, his third/final day of annual conference. He was obviously tired, though. We are grateful for Jean, our district superintendent’s (Dave Norris) wife, who cared for Ethan during the closing ordination service in the afternoon. And, Ethan finally got a much-needed nice long nap during that time!
The big story this weekend is Ethan’s endurance. Ethan continues to grow as he experiences new things.
In the recent past, highly social activities seemed to have (emotionally) taxed and drained Ethan. But no social event that we’ve participated in so far is anything like annual conference. For two entire days, we’ve been immersed in a sea of people. I’m pretty sure we’ve interacted with more people this year than in the previous 9 years combined.
Early this morning, a little sleep deprived, Ethan was a bit clingy (but not too bad, really). We were a little concerned about dropping him off at child care, but once again, he did very well.
While Ethan was at child care, Joleen and I both wrote for the Daily Link (our articles from today’s edition are currently published on the main page, but you may have to scroll down for previous articles after tomorrow’s edition is added). The articles are a goods way to find out what’s taking place at annual conference. (Someday, I suspect worship services at annual conference will be streamed live over the internet. It’s probably not a question of if, but when.)
At lunchtime, I fed Ethan baby food while Joleen went through the lunch line to get her food and some food for Ethan. But just about the time she got through the line, I had to take him out of his high chair because he was falling asleep! We put him in his stroller, where he slept for the next hour (actually, yesterday, he didn’t even get to eat anything — he fell asleep by the time we reached the cafeteria — he hasn’t been napping during child care).
We spent the afternoon and evening together. In the midst of the “worshipful work,” we heard two great sermons — one by Rev. Dr. Ron Parks, pastor of Calvary United Methodist Church in Harrisburg, and the other by Bishop Sally Dyck, bishop of the Minnesota Area of the United Methodist Church. (Perhaps we’ll say more about these messages later, maybe even after we receive them on DVDs.)
The worship has also been great this year. Mark Miller (who led worship here in 2005 and 2006) returned this year along with Marcia McFee. Mark and Marcia teamed up to lead worship at last month’s 2008 General Conference.
But again, the big story for us this weekend is Ethan’s endurance. Through two long days, he continues to do well. We still have a long day ahead of us, but we will head home Saturday evening.
But who knows, Ethan may end of sleeping much of next week!
Wednesday morning, we drove to Camp Hill, PA where we met with Cindy, our caseworker from Adoption Horizons, for our second (of three) post-placement visits. Basically, it was an opportunity for us to talk about Ethan’s progress. It went very well.
That leaves only one more post-placement visit. Sometime in the fall, we will go to court to finalize our adoption of Ethan.
Later Wednesday afternoon, we checked into our room at Messiah College. We are assigned to a dorm room with a living room, kitchen, private bath, and a bedroom with 3 twin beds (2 of the them are stacked). The room also includes a pack-n-play, which Ethan is sleeping in (it’s the first time we’ve travelled away from home that he is able to sleep in his own bed!).
Annual conference started this morning at 9:30 and ended a little more than 12 hours later. The big test today was leaving Ethan with total strangers for the first time when we dropped him off at child care for the morning session. We didn’t know how Ethan would handle it, but he handled it very well!
We kept him with us for the afternoon worship service. Then, while Joleen wrote for the Daily Link during the afternoon’s “worshipful work” session, I wheeled Ethan around in his stroller while he slept for well over an hour (mainly in the hallway where I was able to catch most of what was happening in the main auditorium).
After dinner, it was my turn to write for the Daily Link while Joleen hung out with Ethan for the rest of the evening.
Ethan has certainly changed the dynamic of annual conference for us. Simply put, Ethan is a huge attention getter. As Cindy (our caseworker) told Ethan yesterday, “You’re going to be a big hit at conference.” Indeed, he has been!
We’ll try to take some photos tomorrow — today, being the first day at annual conference with Ethan, and having a lot of extra stuff to carry with us, we just didn’t want to bother with the camera. But we should be ready tomorrow.
For now, here are some photos of yesterday’s arrival in our dorm room …
). We plan to say more about how he’s handling the transition sometime later.
