Sermon and such things...

First off, before I get into anything else please join me in lifting up a prayer for all those stricken by Hurricane Sandy this week.

Dear Heavenly Father, we lift up to you all those suffering loss in this world. We especially lift up those that have been affected by the recent hurricane and it's aftermath. Lord please place your arm of comfort around these people and grant them strength and resolve as they go about reconstructing their lives and their homes.

We pray for those who have injuries and who have lost loved ones. Lord grant these people strength and please place into their lives people who can help them heal physically, mentally and spiritually.

We place all our prayers, our concerns and our needs into your loving and compassionate hands. Thank you for your care and grace.  We pray this in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Saturday night Gail and I went to a surprise 50th birthday party for my good friend and 'adopted' little brother Jim "Mongo" Weltz.  Jim is one of my favorite people in the world and I'm sorry to admit that it had been about 4 years since we'd seen each other.  It was a great party, I got to visit with a good number of my old Jaycee friends, many of whom I haven't seen for nearly 20 years.  Several were greatly shocked to learn that I'm pursuing the Ministry.  I will admit that especially to this group I certain did not look like a good candidate for such a role.  Again (as I've said so often) I pointed out that this is merely proof that God can (and will) use anyone for his purposes in this world.

We didn't stay too late as I wanted to get home in order to not be tired Sunday morning while preaching.  It was enjoyable seeing the 'old crowd' and hearing what was going on with them these days. I do however need to try and get together with Jim and his wife Jane, perhaps we'll try and set up to meet them for dinner some evening.

On Sunday Gail and I again drove down to Humboldt in order to worship with the members of the Christian Church.  This time the video worked better however we learned that Maddie's camera automatically stops video recording at the 10 minute mark.  Due to this there is a small part of the middle of the sermon and a bit of the closing prayer that didn't get recorded.  I'm not sure if this is something that can be adjusted.  I will have to look at her camera and see if there is an option for longer recordings.

I again was not happy with the sermon.  It's better than I thought it was, but I definitely feel there are some areas that I didn't do a good job of clarifying.  Perhaps part of the problem was at the last minute, I decided to modify some of the beginning of the sermon and some more later on.  These changes threw the sequence of my notes and preparations out of whack and caused me to stumble too much. If you like take a look and leave me any comments you might like.  Just remember to be NICE!  LOL

I again very much enjoyed attending the Church in Humboldt and I do think Howard has a great congregation down there.  It sounds like he and the Youth Group had a great trip to Joplin doing follow up to the aid given after the tornado down there.  Praise God for everything he's doing through Howard and their Youth Group.

After we got home we all went out for a late lunch at Cilantros Mexican Bar and Grill.  http://www.cilantrosomaha.com/  Maddie, Gail and I all loved the place and we agreed to make it a regular for the Karlen family.  The food was excellent, the service top notch and the prices weren't too bad either.  If you're looking for Mexican food I'd strongly suggest giving them a try, you won't regret it!

Sunday night my shoulders were still bothering me and I decided to push my workout to Monday night and so I just stayed home and did some reading and studying.  We discussed going to a movie but opted to just stay home and have a quiet evening.

Monday night I went to the gym after work and had a great workout.  My strength is doing very well in spite of my shoulder forcing me to hold back a bit.  Managed to hit a personal best on Incline Bench Press and match my best on Hammer Strength Hi Rows.  I also upped my reps on several other movements, so all around it was a good workout.  Especially since my shoulder held up throughout.  Tuesday night I trained legs and that was a bit more of a challenge.  For some reason my system was a bit upset and that's not really ideal when training heavy legs.  Somehow I managed to get through the entire workout and did add reps to my Hack Squats so I was happy with that.

The other day I ordered one of the books that I wanted after taking our Pastoral Care class.  The book showed up yesterday and I'm looking forward to taking some time tonight to start reading in it.  "All our Losses, All our Griefs" by Kenneth Mitchell & Herbert Anderson is the book and again I'm anxious to jump into it as I really enjoyed the material from it that Russ used in our last class.

Today I had a great conversation with a couple that have been clients of ours for years.  We spent about an hour talking about the Bible and Christianity and they seemed very excited. They told me to let them know when I find a local pulpit as they would very much like to attend a Bible Study Class with me.  It's really in these one on one or at least smaller groups that I feel the most comfortable and where I think I can have the most impact.  I keep praying for the right opportunity for God to use me in his plans to present itself.  Patience is the word of the day and perhaps that's the hardest and greatest lesson God is trying to teach me.

You all have a very Blessed day and remember to be His Blessing to somebody today!

In his constant and abundant Grace,
Roy

Just posting a photo of the altar in the Humboldt Christian Church.  Maddie didn't get any still photos with me in them so you're all lucky in that regard.  

Have a Blessed Day!

Humboldt Christian Church
Humboldt, NE

Preaching and more apples....

Well this past Sunday we traveled south to visit and preach at the Humboldt Christian Church.  The sermon wasn't in my opinion my best presentation, but everyone seemed to really like the message.  Unfortunately Maddie's camera acted up on her and she didn't get much of it recorded.  She switched over to still photos however and I'll post some of them once she transfers them to my computer.

I really enjoyed my visit to Humboldt, and I'm very much looking forward to going and worshiping with them again this Sunday.  It is always good to be in the company of good Christians and the Humboldt Church is made up of what is best described as just 'Good Folks'.  This is exactly the kind of Church I'd love to Pastor myself someday and I must express a bit of envy for my friend Howard for having such a good congregation to work for.  There were a good number of kids who came forward for the children's sermon and I really loved seeing that.  There is nothing in this world more precious than children and to speak to them about loving our Lord is truly the brightest part of ministry.

As I said we'll be going down again this Sunday and hopefully we'll get the camera issue worked out and be able to record the sermon this time.

We decided to swing through Nebraska City on the way home and stop at Kimmel Orchard.  Before hitting the orchard we stopped and had lunch and I blew my diet for the second time over the weekend by eating a burger and fries.  After lunch we stopped and picked up a bunch of apples both for baking and for eating.  It's pretty hard to get through Kimmel without buying one of everything apple, LOL but we stuck to just apples and avoided the preserves etc.

Kimmel Orchard, Nebraska City, NE

Saturday night was the annual Baked Steak Dinner for Sunset Hills and as always Gail was in charge of the Dinner.  It was as good as ever but that was the first time I blew my diet this weekend.  I stepped on the scale today and I'm cussing myself for my two moments of weakness.

Sunday night I was supposed to workout but I pushed the workout to Monday night as my shoulders were both still really bothering me from my workout on Wednesday night.  I'm a bit concerned because my 'good' shoulder is the one that is bothering me the most.  Last night I just did incline bench press and high rows on the  hammer strength machine.  I could really feel the tightness in the right shoulder and I was afraid to push through my full routine.  Went home and alternated ice from left to right for several hours.  Will hit the motrin hard this week and hopefully I'll be able to do my full routine Thursday night.

Even though my shoulders were bothering me my strength was excellent and otherwise I felt and looked (if I do say so myself LOL) pretty good.  I'm not at all happy with where my body weight is at the moment but I have resolved to be patient.

Thank you all for following along, have a very blessed and joy filled day.

Be the BLESSING!

In his enduring grace and love,
Roy

Here are a couple of cute photos of Maddie and her boyfriend Joe taken when we were all out visiting the Pumpkin Patch the other day.

Preaching

This Sunday and next I will be preaching down in Humboldt, NE doing pulpit fill for my friend Howard from ELM.

Hopefully I'll get both sermons recorded and post them onto the blog.  I've already told Maddie to make sure she has enough battery power and memory on her camera.

Have a blessed day!

I have no idea where this old Church is located but it sure is a neat looking building.  Would love to know more about it.

ELM / Church Visit / Pumpkin Patch / Workout

This Friday and Saturday was the second part of our "Pastoral Care" training sessions for the ELM program.  Once again the class was taught by Dr. Russ Seger and once again I was very impressed with Russ and his presentation.

The majority of the time this weekend was spent on Grief.  Russ gave us an outline of six types of loss.

Loss of Things, physical losses

Loss of Relationships

Functional Losses or Loss of Physical Abilities

The Loss of a Dream

Social Losses such as The Loss of Place, Job, Status, Role, etc.

Systemic Loss or The Loss of a Belief System

It was a great weekend of reviewing our own lives and how grief has affected us throughout our lives and how these past griefs continue to influence our daily lives.  Unresolved grief seems to be at the root of a great many of our struggles in life and relationships.

I found this study to be extremely revealing to me personally and actually helped me to come to a better understanding of some of the reactions I have had in past relationships.  Understanding why I did what I did of course doesn't help reconcile those old wounds but better equips me to deal with others when I see them doing the same thing.

Honestly I now see others anger and frustration entirely differently.  If you boil it down it's almost always over loss or fear of loss.  Very, very revealing and Russ suggested a book to us that I will have to make a point of ordering soon.


"All Our Losses, All Our Griefs: Resources for Pastoral Care"
by: Kenneth R. Mitchell & Herbert Anderson
http://www.amazon.com/All-Our-Losses-Griefs-Resources/dp/0664244939/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

I had several interesting but brief conversations with my friend Dustin Bower over the weekend and I must say Dustin is one of the most introspective people I know.  He like myself spends a great deal of time working out his theological positions in his head and constantly challenging himself and working to grow.  I just can't tell you how impressed I am with Dustin and as I've said before I do so look forward to watching him continue to grow in this faith.  One of these days I need to drive out to Hastings and spend a day in conversation with him as I find that I grow from each discussion that we have together.

Interestingly one of our brief conversations had to do with the 'manifestation of evil'.  This is actually a topic that is of great interest to me and I've been reading through a book lately (jumping around in it a bit because it's organized by the various world religions) called "A History of the Devil" by Gerald Messadie.  I've also recently started reading a book by Elaine Pagels entitled "The Origin of Satan".  Once I finish these books I will have to loan them to Dustin as I'm sure he will find both beneficial to him in his struggles with evil and how it operates in this world.

The book by Elaine Pagels is one I have been eyeing on Amazon for a while and just last weekend in going through a few boxes of Jesse's books I found his copy.  (which I didn't realize he had)  Jesse's library just keeps bringing these books to me as I need them it's incredible.  Definitely God working through my dear friend and his library.

Jesse and I had several conversations concerning the manifestation of evil in this world. I find that for me the more I research and meditate on this topic that I am more and more convinced that Jesse was absolutely correct in his perceptions.

Yesterday morning we decided to attend the 8:15 am service at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Millard.  St. Paul's is affiliated with the ELCA and is the Church that I mentioned a while back in a post.  In that post I had mentioned that 3 of the women members had brought into the Gallery a picture to be reframed.  In visiting with them they asked me if I was interested in teaching any Christian History classes for them.  I told them I would be happy to and to just let me know.  We found ourselves yesterday seated in the Pew directly behind one of the three ladies, and she told me that they were still planning on talking to me about teaching.  I again told her I would be happy to help them out in anyway I could.

Unfortunately we were at St. Paul on a Sunday when the Pastor was out of the pulpit.  The woman insisted that I must come visit them on another Sunday so she could introduce me to the Pastor.  I told her that I would but that I was doing pulpit supply for the next two weeks and so it might be a while.

I was sad that the Minister wasn't preaching yesterday however it did reveal to me a program that the Lutherans are doing in Omaha called "Table Grace Cafe".  It's a cafe located downtown and there are no prices posted folks can just give what they can if anything at all.  Folks unable to pay are encouraged to do some tasks to benefit the cafe in exchange for their meal.  They also provide training to individuals on restaurant skills and give a certificate to the graduates as well as provide assistance in finding employment.

It seems like a marvelous program and I'm really going to have to learn more about it.  I rarely go downtown (it's located on 16th Street downtown) but when I next find myself in their area I intend to stop in and see what they have going on.  Praise to God for what they are doing for the homeless and impoverished in the downtown area.

It was also a blessing in that the director of 'Table Grace Cafe', Matt Weber was there with his wife Simone and they sang several pieces of special music for the congregation.  Simone has a wonderful singing voice and it was a great joy to hear her performance.  Definitely a special couple and very inspiring in what they are accomplishing for the Lord.

We will be back to visit St. Paul again sometime as Gail very much liked the Church and also liked being done with Church by 9:30 in the morning and having the remainder of the day wide open.  I also want to hear their new Pastor preach and visit with him about doing some classes for them.  Teaching for them would be great experience for me personally as well as using what I feel is my strongest talent for the benefit of the Kingdom.  Praise God!

After church we went home did some reading, relaxed, had lunch and then headed out to meet Madeline's boyfriend and his family at Vala's Pumpkin Patch.  What a zoo that was to get there!  Fortunately it wasn't as bad inside and Gail and I had a great time with Joe's parents, Jeff and Suzanne Lepowski.  

Suzanne and Jeff brought their two daughters and a friend for each as well.  The kids all went off on their own ways in their groups of two and the four adults went around and enjoyed the sights together.  Vala's has grown a great deal since we had been there last and it was very interesting.  They offer considerably more variety in food then before and I did violate my diet and have a chicken strip basket with curl cut sweet potato fries.  It was very good but ended up sitting in my stomach like a rock the remainder of the day.

When we got home late in the afternoon I had a small bite and a couple cups of coffee and headed off to the gym.  Unfortunately as I said already the food from the Pumpkin Patch just sat like a bowling ball in my stomach and I was uncomfortable throughout the routine. It was a fair workout but I was disappointed as I've been making good strength gains lately and was hoping for more of the same.  Reality is that things don't keep going up without a brick wall presenting itself somewhere along the line, but I was hopeful.

Next Monday I do another body composition check with Brandon at New Dawn Nutrition and I'm hoping I like this check a great deal more than the last.  I don't believe I'll make it down to where I wanted to be body weight wise but I'm still training to get to the best shape I can by November 22nd.

For the next two Sundays I will be doing pulpit fill for my friend Howard Blecha down in his pulpit in Humboldt, NE.  I'm very much looking forward to Preaching for them and I started working on the sermons last night and need to get off the computer now and do some reading in preparation.

May you all be well and remember to be the blessing to somebody today!

In his Grace and Love,
Roy

It's been a while since I posted a photo of a country church.  Here is a great photo of another Lutheran Church up in my home State of South Dakota.

What a beautiful scene.

I have ELM this weekend so I'll have a report on Sunday.  Working on writing up a wedding ceremony for class, it's been very interesting.

Be the Blessing!

Roy

Abandoned Lutheran Church near Volga South Dakota

A couple of blessings...

Sunday we drove out to Hastings to attend the Installation Service for my friend Dustin Bower as the new Pastor at Hastings First Christian Church.  It was also Youth Sunday and their combined Traditional and Contemporary Service.  So it was a bit of an unusual service but I enjoyed it greatly.  There is so much excitement and energy in the Church that it was just a joy to watch.

Dustin has a great future ahead of him in this congregation and I look forward to watching him and the church as they grow together.  A great blessing upon them all.

I also have an update on Jed Morgan.

Jed and Anna have now moved into a place out in CA and my understanding is he is to be fitted with his new legs today. Praise be to God for all he has done for this young couple.

Many Blessings to you all,
Roy