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Two years ago today, while in Seoul, Korea, we welcomed Ethan into our lives. Two years ago, we “got” Ethan. In some ways, it’s hard to believe it’s *only* been two years — it feels like he’s been part of us so much longer! Ethan began the day with a couple chocolate chip muffins, blowing … Read more
On Super Bowl Sunday at Centre Grove, I focused on the theme, “Finish Strong,” wearing the Saints’ Finish Strong t-shirt from Finish Strong. “Finish Strong” was the motivating theme for the New Orleans Saints this season. But it’s also an important theme for followers of Jesus! Here’s a sampling of sports references from Scripture … … Read more
Shortly after we graduated from seminary in the mid-1990s, while serving in our first church, we found ourselves using the phrase “learning and growing” to describe what we were experiencing at the time. It’s a phrase that has stuck with us ever since! This morning, I was explaining to Ethan why our responses to he … Read more
While singing “Great is Thy Faithfulness” this morning at Centre Grove, for some reason it struck me that we should be right around the 100 day mark since we’ve had Sarah. And sure enough, yesterday was day 100. In Korea, families traditionally celebrate a child’s 100th day (from birth) because the first 100 days were … Read more
At last week’s Bishop’s Retreat, Gilbert Rendle talked about the change that’s taking place in the world and in the church as well as the leadership that’s needed, as a result of the cultural change. At the end of his presentation on Tuesday evening, Rendle challenged attendees to discover the “ten percent” (the amount of … Read more
As you may recall, we are required to complete three visits with our caseworker in the first six months that Sarah is with us (after which we can move toward finalizing the adoption). Since our caseworker (Cindy) is in Carlisle, we made plans to connect on our way home from the Bishop’s Retreat yesterday afternoon. … Read more
We are at the halfway point at the 2010 Bishop’s Retreat of the Central Pennsylvania Conference of The United Methodist Church. We arrived at the retreat, which is taking place at the Willow Valley Resort in Lancaster, PA. Last year, our first time to attend the annual retreat, we came a day early to get … Read more
Yesterday, on our day off, we dropped Sarah off at Grammy and Pappy’s in Williamsburg on our way to Altoona, where we had some things to do. We also thought it would be a good time to spend with Ethan (next week, we plan to drop Ethan off and spend some time with Sarah). After … Read more
A year ago, Centre Grove’s church council began reading Bishop Robert Schnase‘s Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations. I’m blogging the journey and have written several posts tagged Five Practices. It’s been a while since I’ve written about our experience with the Five Practices, partly because we’ve been slowly making our way through Intentional Faith Development … Read more
We got up and left early this morning for a district pastor’s gathering with the Bishop in State College. Shortly after arriving home this afternoon, it was time for the kids’ afternoon naps. Later, we got the kids up in time for a quick dinner before both of us headed off to evening meetings (we … Read more