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Family fun
As Dan said, I spent last weekend up in Kansas for Grandma & Grandpa Thengvall’s 65th wedding anniversary celebration. We had quite the crowd, and I’m sure it made for great jokes at the hotel desk having so many Thengvall’s around. 6 of 7 kids, 7 of 16 grandkids, and 9 of 14 great-grandkids showed up for a great weekend. We ate, talked, shopped, talked while we ate, and ate some more!
The dinner on Saturday evening was in a beautiful little home that has become a gift shop and cafe. The upstairs was literally packed with Christmas decorations - even the bathtub had a rack of things for sale. We had a wonderful dinner, a time of singing Grandma & Grandpa’s favorite hymns (during which I cried terribly) and a trivia game with all sorts of questions from the growing up years (during which we all laughed a lot!) Apparently, once when Grandpa was candidating for a new pastorate, he was asked how many children he had. He answered, “one and a half dozen.” Think about it….
All in all, it was a fantastic time. I told Dan it was probably good that he wasn’t there, as I was completely spoiled by my uncles and Grandpa. I didn’t pay for a single meal or need for a ride anywhere, and left with multiple invitations back to Kansas. Thank you for your love and generosity!! It was so good to see everyone. God be with you ’til we meet again.
Big Words
I’ve been learning a lot of big words since I came to Seminary. After all, why use a 2 syllable word when you can use one with 5? Here’s my favorite so far:
Home Alone, and other stuff
I’ve got the house to myself this weekend- Sarah has flown to Kansas City to celebrate her grandparents’ 65th wedding anniversary. (Which is amazing to me. Congrats on this milestone!)
It’s been a busy week with Sarah changing her schedule a bit for both the trip and additional responsibilities at DBU as accompanist for a senior recial Thursday night. It was great to hear some good music. I’ve been settling in to my new schedule, balancing classes and responsbilities at the church. Thursday I went to Prestonwood Baptist to check out some new music coming out for churches in 2009. This church is one of the largest in the nation, with some 26,000 people attending on a weekly basis. What suprised me about the church is that not two blocks away from this mammoth place, there’s another church, with several thousand members as well! Dallas certainly likes its megachurches. For Sarah and I, PBC is a good size - around 500 on a Sunday morning is close to what I grew up with. It all depends on your perspective, though - I’d imagine 500 is a large church for some people.
So anyway, I’ll be entertaining myself this weekend. I’ll probably scour youtube for some stupidly funny videos - if you know of any good ones let me know. This one made me laugh…
Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are
New Job, New Car, New President
Over the past five months, I’ve been in contact with a church near Dallas, seeing if I might come on staff with them as a pastor of worship and music. Last week we finished the process and the congregation of Plano Bible Chapel voted, and I got the job! I started to settle into my office today. Sarah and I are looking forward to getting to know our new church family and ministering alongside them.
Because of the distance to the church and Sarah’s multiple jobs, we took the plunge and bought a new car. I really liked not needing a car in China. Too much hassle, too much money. Anyway, we’re now driving around a bright red Ford focus. It’s a fun car – I’ll take a picture and put it up here.
I’m watching the polls close right now, and it’s looking like Senator Obama is soon to be President Obama. I can’t get Bailey to care about it, though; when I told him, he just kept on working on his bone. I don’t know. Maybe he has the right idea. We voted early this morning and enjoyed our free coffees from Starbuck’s. I loved the idea of free coffee, though apparently giving something to people who voted is too much like a bribe and is therefore illegal. So Starbuck’s decided to give a tall coffee to anyone who asked. (What about the “I voted” stickers? Aren’t those bribes? I didn’t get one, by the way. I’m disappointed.)
UPDATE: I jut watched the reaction at an African-American church in Atlanta - Martin Luther King Jr.’s former church. I can’t imagine what they are feeling what now. Good for them. Regardless of one’s views, such an amazing milestone has been reached tonight.
Books
They make me read lots of books at Seminary. I mean, lots. But I still want to keep up with reading outside of classwork, as much as possible. I thought I would recommend two books for your consideration. (Full disclosure: whenever I put links to amazon.com on this blog and you purchase the item, I get a commission from the sale. So buy if you’re interested, or if you just want to help fund this blog. J)
I’m a big VeggieTales nut, so I really enjoyed reading this book. It’s a first-hand look at the creative mind behind VeggieTales and what happened to eventually lead to the company’s bankruptcy. It also touches on the constant tension between running a Christian business and the desire to do ministry, something I believe all Christians in business must consider.
This book, Annie Dillard’s For the Time Being, is a little more serious. Dillard probes into life’s big questions, and provides answers from many different worldview perceptions. I had already enjoyed other works by Dillard (especially Pilgrim At Tinker Creek), but this continued the tradition of thoughtful writing. You won’t agree with everything this book says (it’s impossible to do so), but this book will enlarge your view of the world.
Enjoy! (Oh, if you live near us in Dallas and are interested in reading these books, just ask me to borrow one. There’s no sense in them just sitting on the shelf.)
Trip Home to NY
I made a trip home this past weekend to attend my friend Jeff’s memorial service. It was a sweet time of remembrance. It’s a shame you have to wait for weddings and funerals for everyone you never see to come out of the woodwork…
Being home reminded me how much I love upstate New York, especially in the fall. The trees are brilliant colors right now – taking off Sunday afternoon on a clear day allowed me the most amazing sight of color. It was beautiful. The hills are great too. In Dallas, everything is flat and leaves have two colors: green and brown. Not too exciting. I also got to see my niece, who is approaching 1 year old! Here’s a cute pic:
Whether I want to or not, these days I find my thoughts drawn to the election and the future of America. My sister-in-law took this quote from someone else, so I decided to take it from her – this quote from Lincoln sums up how I feel pretty well:
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves.
- Abraham Lincoln
Whether or not this is held to by our next President and congress, we shall see…
Jeff
A childhood friend of mine died last night. He was 26; he had been married to his wife Alaine for six months. They were married after his first bout with cancer, but the growth returned shortly after and the second time proved too strong for Jeff’s body to fight off.
I was going to write some theologically profound statement here, but nothing seems to fit right now. I praise God for the hope that is an anchor for my soul.
Worldview, Pirates, Starbucks, and Marriage
It was a good weekend. Sarah and I got to rest and enjoy some time together - something that is more and more rare for us these days with our competing schedules. We also watched Drillbit Taylor. It was okay, but not great. There was a bully that I couldn’t empathize with at all.
Last week in my intro to Theology class we spent two days talking about worldview. It reminded me of all the fun I had teaching the 11th grade course. Sarah and I still have our moments where we really miss our time in Chengdu. Anyway, we talked about this topic for two days (using an excellent book as a framework for our discussion) and have now moved on. We don’t stay on one topic for very long. On a similar vein, Kerby Anderson, president of Probe Ministries, spoke in chapel on Friday. He is a thougtful commentator on the day’s issues. I would love to do what he does.
By the way, one of my favorite non-holiday holidays was last Friday: Talk Like a Pirate Day! Make sure to put September 19th on your calendar for next year so you don’t miss it…
Working at UPS gives me insight into what’s going on in the world. For instance, last night I learned that Starbucks will be putting up new fall signage into their stores on September 29th. Just thought you should know.
California has an important piece of legislation heading to the people to be voted on this November. Here’s a liberal view that, in non-religious terms, explains my view very well.
…marriage is a gift that society bestows on its next generation. Marriage (and only marriage) unites the three core dimensions of parenthood — biological, social and legal — into one pro-child form: the married couple. Marriage says to a child: The man and the woman whose sexual union made you will also be there to love and raise you. Marriage says to society as a whole: For every child born, there is a recognized mother and a father, accountable to the child and to each other.
Check out the whole opinion piece at the LA Times website. It’s a worthwhile read.
OK, this entry is a bit eclectic. I had lots of things to write about… Have a great day!