I forgot to share with you all the funniest thing that has happened to me so far here in Berthoud. I came in on September 1st, my first day, and (of course) there was a lot of unopened mail addressed to "pastor" waiting for me. Volunteers here at the church had graciously divided it into three files: Important, Bills, and Junk. I made it through the first two piles before noon...the last pile I saved for the end of the day. I opened up the file and there, on top, was a letter to "PASTOR" from Rev. Jeffrey Bullock, PhD.
I opened the letter to discover that I am now a "Colleague in Ministry" and can "help UDTS reduce student debt" by "asking my congregation to give directly out of its Mission budget." We've got about 86 cents, if he wants it...and I'm absolutely sure that it will go to "reduce student debt."
I thought about sending a check out of my own pocket and specifying that it go "to fix up the old Losey place so that a family won't sink into oblivion" or for the "Phillips Memorial Waste Water Treatment Facility," but have thought the better of it.
Best to save my personal contributions to buy a brick in the "Angels in the Outfield" wing of the Dr. Anthony "Tony" Danza Center for the Performing Arts and Wrestling. That, brothers and sisters, is a piece of history.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Monday, September 18, 2006
Tennessee
I realized the other day that I haven't actually written a post on here for at least a month. You might not even remember me...if you don't then don't read this, I guess. :)
Anyway, a lot has happened since the last time I was on this. So here is my feeble attempt at an update:
I took a call to Madisonville Presbyterian Church, and we moved down here at the end of July after my family and I partook of the Johnsons' goodness and stayed at their place for about a month.
We drove down here in two days, stopping just outside of Cincinnatti. We got here to the church - to find no one here. I could have sworn the PNC said they'd have somebody there all day...so I go check the doors - which are unlocked. I go in and call someone, and after a few minutes Linda Trout shows up to escort us to the place where we are to be staying. Now, I hadn't candidated yet, so I wasn't "supposed" to even be here. So we drove 15 minutes up the mountain to a cabin to stay in.
Ahh, the cabin. It's a two bedroom little place, infested with bugs, and the nearest tree is at least a football field away. Well, maybe a little less than that. No phone. No computer. No cell phone reception. No nothing. For a month.
After a couple of weeks, I meet with COM, who approves me to work in the field until October when I can preach before Presbytery and get approved. Then I candidate - the vote is a lot to three. Turns out three people don't want a full time pastor. Oh well. So I accept - which is a good thing.
Then we go looking for houses. We find one - and go to see a banker to get the mortgage. No problem - except the banker wants the money that the church is putting up written down as a gift. Well - the church is charging us 4% interest on $46,000 - it's not a gift! Two weeks of this goes by, with the church treasurer and the banker arguing and both of them assuring me that they'll "work this out" and we'll be in the house before we knew it. Finally, after two weeks, we went to a local bank that makes its own decisions about loans (and whose CEO is a lifelong presbyterian, and whose loan officer happens to be someone's first cousin...) - and we close the next Saturday. Ugh.
So now we're in our house - I don't have any nice pictures; my camera won't download photos on to our home computer 'cause it's too old and I haven't put the software on my work computer... It's nice; one floor, three bedrooms and an office for Jennifer to do homeschool with Robbie. Fenced in back yard, air conditioning (which is VERY nice in the South!), 3 years old. If you're interested, I can tell you more about it some other time.
I've been at work for a month two days ago. At least officially. Unofficially, I came in the Monday before that to find a woman sitting waiting. She hid from me at first. Eventually I got her to talk to me - she's terrified that her son is being maltreated at school. He's autistic, and her ex-boyfriend (and father of the boy) is apparently just being horrible to him. So I spend several hours talking with her, finally walking down to the elementary school to check on her son. I got a card from her a day or so ago - need to call her and check up to see what's going on with her.
Other than that it's been pretty standard new pastor stuff. Although a lot of the hospitality we expected is coming in different ways. They "pounded" us last night - we won't have to buy laundry detergent for at least a year! They're still getting used to a full-time pastor, and I guess I'm still getting used to a full-time congregation. It's a learning curve. But it finally did work out. We're in our house, and now all I need to worry about is whether or not Presbytery votes me in...and creating a youth group, and new members' class, and bible studies, and a host of other stuff.
I miss all of you. It's strange, sitting in the office all day long planning out classes and things. I keep looking up, expecting Jewett to meow like a cat, or Scott to curse like a pirate, or Ron Church to tell me that he can't tell me that story without more beer, or Kim Wilson scratching...something. But...it's just someone coming in asking for money. Keep in touch. I'll work at doing a better job of it on my end.
Anyway, a lot has happened since the last time I was on this. So here is my feeble attempt at an update:
I took a call to Madisonville Presbyterian Church, and we moved down here at the end of July after my family and I partook of the Johnsons' goodness and stayed at their place for about a month.
We drove down here in two days, stopping just outside of Cincinnatti. We got here to the church - to find no one here. I could have sworn the PNC said they'd have somebody there all day...so I go check the doors - which are unlocked. I go in and call someone, and after a few minutes Linda Trout shows up to escort us to the place where we are to be staying. Now, I hadn't candidated yet, so I wasn't "supposed" to even be here. So we drove 15 minutes up the mountain to a cabin to stay in.
Ahh, the cabin. It's a two bedroom little place, infested with bugs, and the nearest tree is at least a football field away. Well, maybe a little less than that. No phone. No computer. No cell phone reception. No nothing. For a month.
After a couple of weeks, I meet with COM, who approves me to work in the field until October when I can preach before Presbytery and get approved. Then I candidate - the vote is a lot to three. Turns out three people don't want a full time pastor. Oh well. So I accept - which is a good thing.
Then we go looking for houses. We find one - and go to see a banker to get the mortgage. No problem - except the banker wants the money that the church is putting up written down as a gift. Well - the church is charging us 4% interest on $46,000 - it's not a gift! Two weeks of this goes by, with the church treasurer and the banker arguing and both of them assuring me that they'll "work this out" and we'll be in the house before we knew it. Finally, after two weeks, we went to a local bank that makes its own decisions about loans (and whose CEO is a lifelong presbyterian, and whose loan officer happens to be someone's first cousin...) - and we close the next Saturday. Ugh.
So now we're in our house - I don't have any nice pictures; my camera won't download photos on to our home computer 'cause it's too old and I haven't put the software on my work computer... It's nice; one floor, three bedrooms and an office for Jennifer to do homeschool with Robbie. Fenced in back yard, air conditioning (which is VERY nice in the South!), 3 years old. If you're interested, I can tell you more about it some other time.
I've been at work for a month two days ago. At least officially. Unofficially, I came in the Monday before that to find a woman sitting waiting. She hid from me at first. Eventually I got her to talk to me - she's terrified that her son is being maltreated at school. He's autistic, and her ex-boyfriend (and father of the boy) is apparently just being horrible to him. So I spend several hours talking with her, finally walking down to the elementary school to check on her son. I got a card from her a day or so ago - need to call her and check up to see what's going on with her.
Other than that it's been pretty standard new pastor stuff. Although a lot of the hospitality we expected is coming in different ways. They "pounded" us last night - we won't have to buy laundry detergent for at least a year! They're still getting used to a full-time pastor, and I guess I'm still getting used to a full-time congregation. It's a learning curve. But it finally did work out. We're in our house, and now all I need to worry about is whether or not Presbytery votes me in...and creating a youth group, and new members' class, and bible studies, and a host of other stuff.
I miss all of you. It's strange, sitting in the office all day long planning out classes and things. I keep looking up, expecting Jewett to meow like a cat, or Scott to curse like a pirate, or Ron Church to tell me that he can't tell me that story without more beer, or Kim Wilson scratching...something. But...it's just someone coming in asking for money. Keep in touch. I'll work at doing a better job of it on my end.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)