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Friday night was “date night,” and we went to see the movie Meet the Robinsons. After having seen the previews we decided that we wanted to watch this one. We especially loved the woman with the caffeine patches (which you may have seen in the commercials/previews). No side effects there! We enjoyed the movie, although … Read more
On Monday, our district had its annual "day apart with the Bishop." Bishop Jane Allen Middleton talked about the recent results of a leadership tool that all the pastors in the conference completed last fall (including five "observers" for each of us, three people from our congregations, a colleague, and our district superintendent). I may … Read more
We made a lot of progress on the required paperwork for the adoption process today. The top priority, at this point, is a pre-application to Americans for International Aid & Adoption (AIAA), which basically puts us on a waiting list for a formal application (after a screening process). AIAA is the agency that we have … Read more
We spent Friday evening and most of the day Saturday at the Renovare conference in Camp Hill, PA. Renovare is the ministry of Richard Foster, best known for his book, Celebration of Discipline, which we both were required to read in seminary in the early 1990s. The word "renovare" comes from the Latin translation of … Read more
Previously, we wrote about our first dissertation-related deadline. We had a little work remaining after the weekend, and we also wanted to read/edit each other’s work before mailing them, so it took a little longer than we had anticipated. It was intense, but it was also a very good first step in the process. But, … Read more
This morning, we completed another big step in the adoption process. Our home visit is now behind us. A social worker from our adoption agency visited us this morning and spent a few hours talking about our backgrounds, life experiences, and our hopes/plans for the future. We also talked about which country we will adopt … Read more
March is a big month for college basketball fans. Locally, the madness will include playing for a great cause. On Saturday (3/31), area youth in grades 6-12 will join together for an evening of sports activity in order to raise money for Nothing But Nets. The event will take place at the Juniata Valley High … Read more
It’s now "crunch time" as we near our first big deadline for our dissertation projects — Friday, 16 March 2007. T-minus 7 days! We had hoped to be further along than we are but we think we’re still within range of meeting this deadline. 3/16 isn’t actually a hard and fast deadline; it’s more of … Read more
Each year, the Juniata Valley Ministerium conducts weekly Community Lenten services from Ash Wednesday to Maundy Thursday. Each week, we gather in a different church so that most pastors get to host one service and speak in one service (outside their own church). Tonight, I spoke at the Water Street Evangelical Church. This year we … Read more
Yesterday I received my copy of the March/April 2007 issue of Interpreter Magazine (a publication of the United Methodist Church) in the mail. The cover story caught my attention: "Changing Communities, Changing Churches." There are some great stories about United Methodist churches that, faced with the challenge of changing communities, chose to make the changes … Read more