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