Okay I'm a little behind blogging... 2 weekends worth in 1

Sorry I'm behind folks.... please forgive me.

On the 11th I went to Lincoln to attend a workshop on Suicide Prevention.  This program was aimed at members of the Clergy and was very informative.  There were about 20 of us at the workshop.  It would have been great if more Clergy would have made the time to attend, in the city of Lincoln alone there should have been 5 times that number in attendance.  Many of the attendees were actually from one congregation, so it was even more under attended than the numbers would indicate.  

The program they were promoting is called "QPR" for question, persuade & refer. One of the things they told us was that many suicides are actually senior citizens who are weary of life or who are afraid of being a burden to their families.  This is just as awful as the loss of teens, and I have to wonder if the number of senior suicides remain under reported due to stigma and not wanting to upset the family.  I saw today an article online that stated that more people are dying right now in the USA from suicide than from automobile accidents.  Just tragic...

On Friday and Saturday of last week (Sept 14 & 15) we had our monthly ELM training.  The classes this month and in October are over Pastoral Care.  It's a subject that one can barely begin to scratch the surface of in the short amount of time that we have available.  Our instructor Russ Seger has been a Pastor, College Professor and Therapist.  His specialty is grief and he has had a very interesting career.  For a number of years he was a part of the FEMA crew and was rushed into situations where great tragedy had occurred.  One of his stories had to do with the Oklahoma City bombing, what a horrific event to be called to assist with.

It was a great class and I'm looking forward to the October class and learning more from Russ.  He is a very likable man and an effective teacher.

I've agreed to do pulpit fill for my friend Howard Blecha who is the Pastor for the Humboldt Christian Church in Humboldt Nebraska.  I will be filling in for Howard on both Oct 21st and Oct 28th.  It's great to have two Sundays in a row and I'm still working on what I want to preach on for those two Sundays.  I'll also be doing the Children's Story both weeks and I'm as always happy to have a chance to share with the young ones.  I still believe that many times even the adults get more out of the Children's Story than the full sermon.  Howard is a great man and I'm excited to go down south and spend some time with his flock.

Humboldt Christian Church, Humboldt, NE

On Sunday we all loaded up and went to Nebraska City for the Apple Jack Festival.  Creath was home from school and it was great to have a family outing with all four of us.  I had hoped to attend church down there however I was unable to convince the rest of the brood that we should wake up extremely early in order to be in Nebraska City in time for church.

Nebraska City is just a zoo during the Festival and both Gail and I agreed that it was our last time going to Nebraska City for the actual Festival.  For the last couple of years we've gone down on a weekend after the Festival.  Perhaps next weekend we'll swing over to Nebraska City on our way back from Hastings.  We definitely still need to work on our apple fix for 2012.  LOL

During this past week I was contacted by the Associate Executive Minister for the Minnesota & Iowa American Baptist.  She asked me if I would like to have my name placed on the rolls over there for possible pulpit opportunities and I told her absolutely. (the State Office here in Nebraska had forwarded my information to them) So I'm excited about this as well but I do not know exactly which churches or how many over there are currently searching, it may be a long time if ever before I will hear anything more from them.

This weekend we had our monthly Men's breakfast at Church and as always it was a great meal and a great time of fellowship and sharing.  

Today Gail and I attended the worship service at Benson Baptist.  Pastor Paul Marine gave a great sermon.  He has a very good delivery and I found the sermon genuinely edifying as well as enjoyable.  The order and content of Benson's service is almost exactly like our worship services at Sunset Hills.  They have a large worship team with a large number of musicians and singers upfront.  My only critique might be that they actually have too many folks upfront, during much of the service the Altar was completely blocked.  But then again participation is a wonderful thing and we shouldn't get uptight about the consequences of having to include more people in any worship team.  Praise God!

Benson Baptist Church, Omaha, NE

After church Gail and I went for a drive through some of the neighborhoods in the Benson area admiring some of the older homes in the area. This afternoon I've spent working on my assignments for the October ELM Class and I'm nearly done with the first assignment.  For dinner tonight we decided to go out and try a fast food mexican restaurant nearby.  It's called "Lina's" and it is definitely low brow, the meal came on a styrofoam plate and the utensils provided were plastic.  But, it was cheap and actually very good.  As we were standing in line to order we had folks speaking spanish ahead of us and a group speaking russian behind us.  I felt very international... LOL, even though I was in what should be best considered a dive.  I'll definitely go back again sometime however as the food was good and it was very inexpensive.

Next Sunday we will be going to Hastings to attend the installation service for my friend Dustin Bower.  Dustin is a classmate from ELM and he has accepted a call to serve as Pastor at the Disciples of Christ Church in Hastings.  I'm very proud of Dustin he is a great Christian and I will look forward to watching and hopefully assisting this fine young man as he goes through his career as a Minister for Christ.  Congratulations to you Dustin!  As I stated earlier perhaps Gail and I will make a side trip over to Nebraska City on our way back and visit the orchards.

This week I'm going to change up my workouts.  I've decided to switch to a heavy/light routine with working every body part twice a week and working out on set dates each week.  I'll elaborate on this more in another post, that is all for tonight.

Well I hope you all have a great week and remember to be "A Blessing to Somebody TODAY".

In his Grace and Glory,
Roy

Well that didn't go as planned....

Well this weekend didn't go along exactly as planned.  

Friday night I suddenly started feeling ill.  I had such nasty abdominal pain that I almost couldn't stand it.  No matter what position I sat or laid in there was no finding any comfort.  Unfortunately the symptoms didn't begin to diminish until about 6pm on Saturday.  Finally by about 9pm I was able to finally eat and actually drink something.  From Friday morning to Saturday night I lost exactly five pounds no doubt mostly being dehydrated but still not good.

Saturday I was so sick that it caused me to have to miss work (something that I have not done in years) and that meant not being able to work on the large painting that I have to have ready to install by Wednesday morning.  Obviously losing a day put me a bit behind the eight ball.

This morning I woke up early and rushed into the shop to put some final texture on the back panel for the painting.  I needed to get that done so it would have time to dry so I could paint it later on today.

After finishing that I drove back home to pick up Madeline and then we both drove to Papillion to pick up her boyfriend Joe.  We then proceeded downtown to attend services at First Baptist Church.  This weekend Pastor Ron has started a new Sunday School class for adults and Doug and I decided to take a break from teaching our class in order to allow the individuals who regularly attend our classes to take the class from Ron.  While this class is going on I've decided to take advantage of the opportunity to go and visit some other congregations in order to observe and take notes on how others are organizing their worship services.  Since American Baptists can and do worship in a number of different ways I feel it is to my benefit to experience a few other church's worship services.

Today First Baptist was having a joint service with their Karen congregation so the service was different in a couple regards.  But minus the Karen doing some special music and the Karen Pastor giving the sermon in Karen (which his daughter translated into English) the only major difference from First Baptist's and our services at Sunset Hills was that all their songs were from the hymnals and we tend to do more praise music.

Next Sunday we are planning on going to Nebraska City for the Apple Festival down there and I'm trying to talk everyone into going to the UCC Church in Nebraska City.  We'll see as this will mean waking up pretty early and my girls aren't too excited about the idea.  I need to pull out all my charms to convince them I suppose. LOL

After getting home from the services at First Baptist I had a protein shake and a cup of coffee.  Then after sitting for a bit I headed to the gym to get in a Chest/Back/Shoulder workout.

So less than 18 hours from being so sick that I couldn't even keep 7-up down I was in the gym getting ready to workout.  A wise and prudent person would likely have decided to go with a light workout, but wise and prudent aren't terms often used to describe me in the weight room.  LOL.  Instead knowing myself and realizing fully well that my undernourished and dehydrated body would mean that my endurance would be far more compromised than my strength, I went heavy.  By going as heavy as I could handle today for reps of doubles or triples on my first few sets on each body part, I was able to stimulate as much muscle as I could but I was also employing an old "jedi-weightlifter" trick.  Going heavy meant that I was smacking my muscles with a ball peen hammer but it also meant that I was slapping my central nervous system up along side the head.  Now that my central nervous system was wide awake and ramped up for heavy weights I was able to drop back on the weight and actually complete more repetitions on my last sets and my supplement movements than I could have if I'd have just gone to the same weights straight away.  This trick will work in a normal workout but was doubly advantageous in my depleted condition.  So by no small amount of determination, experience and a bit of guile I was able to pull off a good workout in spite of being under the weather.

After the workout I ran home had a quick bite to eat and went back to the shop and spent the rest of the day working on the painting.  Fortunately, I was able to make up for most of the time I lost yesterday to being home sick in bed.  I have a little more work to do on the back panels and then it will just be a matter of assembling all of the pieces.  

Tomorrow I'll line up a truck for Wednesday morning to haul the painting out to the house and the project will be finished and the painting will be part of the Street of Dreams.  Hopefully the couple that are purchasing the house where the painting is hanging will like it and purchase it from me.  I'm also hoping that it will bring in a few more commissioned pieces.

Tuesday morning I'm planning on going down to Lincoln and taking in a program on Suicide Prevention.  It's only an hour and a half long but I'm told it's well worth taking in.  Next Friday and Saturday are also our monthly ELM training and I still have a little bit to read before then so it's going to be a busy week.

You all have a blessed week and remember to be a blessing to somebody as well.

In His grace,
Roy

Labor Day Weekend

Saturday I drove Madeline and her boyfriend Joe up to the "Lifelight" festival up in South Dakota.  If you're unfamiliar with Lifelight they put on free Christian Concerts around the nation but they are headquartered out of South Dakota and their biggest concert each year is out in the country just a bit south of Sioux Falls.

It was interesting as always but I'll admit the music is mostly for younger folks.  I spent most of my time just reading and sort of listening.  Though there was one group that played a blend of folk and rock music, they had the lead singer playing a dobro guitar, a fellow with an electric banjo and a young woman playing an accordion (as well as a bassist and keyboard player).  Some of their songs were pretty cool and I went to their booth to get a cd only to find that they only had t-shirts for sale in their booth.  So I went and picked up a cd and another t-shirt from a group that I saw there last year and really liked.  They're a Native American group called "Broken Walls".  Much of their music reminds me of going to the Pow-Wows when I was younger.

When we got back to Omaha we met up with Gail and Creath and we all had dinner at Pizza Hut.  It was getting late and the restaurant was pretty empty which was fine as Joe, Maddie and Creath were having a good time poking fun at each other.  Of course Gail with her bone dry humor threw in a few good jabs herself.

Sunday Maddie went to Church with Joe's family so after our time at worship Gail and I ran to the Farmers Market and bought a bushel of roma tomatoes among other things.  So part of the afternoon was spent making up and canning salsa.  We must have about 30 or more quarts of salsa now, which should get us through the year until tomatoes are back next summer.  I also spent part of the afternoon working on the large painting for the Street of Dreams.

Monday morning bright and early Creath left and went back to school.  He had hoped to be back on campus earlier in the week but the college was doing some work in the dorm and wouldn't let him move in early even though they do let seniors come on campus early.  I spent much of my time working on the large painting and I made great progress with it and honestly I'm pretty much happy with it.  I just need to now break it back down and texture the two back pieces and paint them black.  Then I'll varnish the whole thing (tons of varnish there) and partially re-assemble the painting.  The finally assembly won't happen until I've got it onsite.  The install date for the art is the 10th and that shouldn't be a problem barring any unforeseen difficulties.

In the afternoon I took a break from painting and ran to the gym to get in a quick workout.  I decided to mix it up a bit and did mostly movements that I haven't done for a while.  On one I decided to try and hit a weight that at my best on the movement I've hit 5 reps.  I was shooting for 2 maybe 3 reps but I was shocked when I ripped off 5 reps with it, I was pleased.  It was a good workout even though I did have to move pretty fast in order to get back and work on the painting.

As soon as I have the painting installed I'll get a photo and put it online.  I just hope I still like the painting when I go down and look at it tonight.  It's happened before where I'm either happy or unhappy with something and then walk away and come back the next day and I either now hate or love it.

Yesterday we learned that in the afternoon the husband of one of Gail's high school friends passed away.  He apparently sat down to take a quick nap and simply never woke up.  We all need to bear in mind that we never know what will become of our loved ones or ourselves from day to day and we need to remember to tell others that we love them every chance we get.  Prayers for her and her family as I'm sure they were not expecting anything like this to happen at this stage of life.

Please be the Blessing!
Roy

ELM / Painting / Training

Well yesterday I received in the mail the book for our next ELM class.  The book is "Care Of The Soul" by Thomas Moore.  I'm only into Chapter One so far but it promises to be a very interesting book.    Our next class is September 14 and 15, so I've got to get to work on this book though it looks to me like it will be a pretty fast read.

I've also started work on a piece of art to be displayed at this years "Street of Dreams".  It's a large piece measuring 51 x 120 inches.  It's broken up into 10 panels, 8 of which run vertically and two of which are horizontal.

This piece is going to suck up a great deal of my time over the next two weeks as I have to have it installed before the 13th of September.  I've built the panels and today I will mark them as to how they will assemble and pre-drill holes in the two horizontal support panels (which are masonite and wood) then I will be stretching the canvas on the other eight.

Once I'm done I'll post a photo of the piece installed in the home, it's going in a stairwell and it should be pretty impressive on the wall.

I'm still wanting to Blog about the session with Brain McLaren that Gail and I took in last Sunday.  But, I had hoped to re-watch the broadcast and even re-read his book "A New Kind of Christianity" before I commented farther.  Unfortunately, with all that is on my plate right now I'm not going to have time to do that for a while.

I am not a fan of McLaren's, I agree with much of what he says but I very much dislike the way he says it.  He seems to have a major chip on his shoulder when it comes to those that are politically conservative and he shows this over and over and over again in his dialogue.  I highly doubt that he genuinely wants a convergence of the many strands of Christianity, what he actually wants is a conversion of the conservative (more so the conservative politically) to become liberal.  Now I will profess my own frustration with some of my conservative theologically brothers and sisters (as well as my frustration with my liberal politically brothers and sisters) but I will defend to the grave their right to believe and worship as they wish. 

Besides if McLaren is looking for a truly blended church culturally, methodologically, theologically and politically he need look no farther than the "American Baptist Churches".  In my eyes he's simply trying to reinvent the wheel.  Though honestly he's not as he ultimately wants a church cleansed of the conservative stain that he in my opinion carries a great deal of personal baggage towards.

I certainly hope I am misjudging the man but I think he could learn from his disciple Rob Bell who can deliver much the same message and in my eyes doesn't insult or belittle.  I very much enjoy reading and listening to Bell and as I stated they really are delivering the same message.

Once again on a whole other track, this week I went over to visit my friend Brandon over at New Dawn Nutrition.  Brandon has a very sophisticated 'sci-fi' machine to measure your body composition.  So now armed with this information and a bit of consulting with Brandon I have calculated out the target weight I need to hit in order to be at the body composition that I desire before my 53rd birthday.  Eerily the number is one that is very, very familiar to me but one that I have not seen for a good number of years.  The calculation come out that I need to be at a weight right around 162 to 163 lbs.  This is my old competition weight from my powerlifting days, I lifted in the 165 lb weight class but I almost always ended up weighing in on meet days at 162 or 163.  I believe in my last meet I was at 162 1/2 lbs, which is basically where I need to be by November.

I'm confident that I can get to that weight, and honestly my goal is to be there before the 14th of November just in case I discover that I need to drop a couple more pounds.  I really don't want to go too much lower though as I would hate to break into the 150's.  That just sounds horrifyingly light to me.  LOL

I plan to go see Brandon once a month to chart my progress and if you are looking for a good source of nutritional supplements Brandon is the man to see.  He's a truly great person and always friendly and enjoyable to converse with.  Here is a link to his store's two facebook pages:
https://www.facebook.com/NewDawnNutraceuticals
https://www.facebook.com/NewDawnNutrition

Creath is getting ready to go back to college next week so the house will be a bit more empty.  Maddie is off and running most of the time with her large circle of friends, her boyfriend and her job so for us we're already starting to feel a bit like empty nesters.  It's kind of nice to be honest.  LOL

I hope you're all having a very blessed day and remember to be a blessing in someway to somebody today.

In his Abounding Grace,
Roy

Forgotten Audio Recording of Martin Luther King Jr. found...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10828617

I sure wish Jesse was here to learn about this new discovery.  I'd love to hear the audio but I'm sure it will be a while before we can actually listen to it.

Stephon Tull was looking through dusty old boxes in his father's attic in Chattanooga a few months ago when he stumbled onto something startling: an audio reel labeled, "Dr. King interview, Dec. 21, 1960."

He wasn't sure what he had until he borrowed a friend's reel-to-reel player and listened to the recording of his father interviewing Martin Luther King Jr. for a book project that never came to fruition. In clear audio, King discusses the importance of the civil rights movement, his definition of nonviolence and how a recent trip of his to Africa informed his views. Tull said the recording had been in the attic for years, and he wasn't sure who other than his father may have heard it.

"No words can describe. I couldn't believe it," he told The Associated Press this week in a phone interview from his home in Chattanooga. "I found ... a lost part of history."

Many recordings of King are known to exist among hundreds of thousands of documents related to his life that have been catalogued and archived. But one historian said the newly discovered interview is unusual because there's little audio of King discussing his activities in Africa, while two of King's contemporaries said it's exciting to hear a little-known recording of their friend for the first time.

ELM Class - American Baptist History and Polity

This Thursday/Friday/Saturday we had our class concerning the History and Polity of the American Baptist Churches.  When we have our History & Polity Classes we shift our normal class format from 2 days each for 2 months to a one time 3 day class.  The classes are held annually at the Saint Benedict Catholic Retreat near Schuyler, Nebraska.

http://www.stbenedictcenter.com/

Saint Benedict is a wonderfully serene environment.  I was able over the weekend to spend some time alone in their Adoration Chapel and I have to say I haven't felt so near to the Almighty in a very long time.  This was my second trip to Saint Benedict for an ELM Class, and I think one of these days I will have to take a personal retreat there and just spend some time in prayer and meditation.

Our Baptist class was co-taught by Tom Wiles (Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church of North Platte) and David Lundholm (Retired Associate Pastor for the American Baptist of Nebraska).  I thoroughly enjoyed the class, Tom and Dave do a good job of working together in the presentation of their material.  On Friday night I had the good fortune and opportunity to spend some time visiting with both Tom and Dave away from the rest of the retreatants.  I greatly appreciated the insight and advice that I received from both of them that evening.  I am certain I will have the opportunity to pick both of their brains again in the future.  If either of you gentlemen are reading this, I do thank you both for taking the time to visit with me, again it was greatly appreciated.

As far as my reading has been going, I of course had to finish up reading the two books required for the ELM class.  In addition I am reading on the Kindle "The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture" by Bart Ehrman, as well as re-reading for the third (and now reading again for the fourth time) time "Love Wins" by Rob Bell.  I absolutely love Rob Bell's book and I would greatly urge everyone to read it.  As for Bart Ehrman's book, this is not one I would recommend to any but the more serious layperson or a member of the clergy.  This book is a great book do not be mistaken, however it is not nearly as readable as Ehrman's book "Misquoting Jesus".  If anyone is interested in reading some of Ehrman's work I suggest "Misquoting Jesus" or "Lost Christianities" before reading "The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture".

Today on our way home from Church, Gail and I stopped at 'Half Price Books' to just look around.  Of course it's impossible for either of us to go into a bookstore and not walk out with a book.  Gail found two books she wanted and I found a book that I think I may well find valuable to me in my future in ministry.  It's called "Hating God, the untold story of misotheism" by Bernard Schweizer .  This very well may be a disturbing book to read, but I have little doubt that learning the stories of those who have come to confess a belief in God but who also profess hatred of God will be helpful in dealing with individuals who have come to this same conclusion.  I may well have to dig through Jesse's books and try to find something very uplifting to read after reading this book however as I'm sure it will not be a happy nor fast read.

On another note, when I got home yesterday I went to the gym to get in a workout. My training for my 53rd birthday is going along very well.  In this workout and the one prior my strength has been simply "off the hook".  In this workout I moved up in either weight, reps or both on every movement save one.  That exercise was 'reverse barbell shrugs' and I had made big moves on two other back exercises prior to doing the 'reverse shrugs', so I wasn't disappointed at all.  Lately my back has been responding very well and it's a genuine rush training back anymore.  I've let my body weight inch up a bit lately and of course this is helpful strength wise as well as for endurance.  I'll have to get serious on my diet this week however as I'd like to be about 15lbs lighter than I am right now come November.  I don't want to cut too fast and lose muscle mass so unfortunately I can't wait too much longer before I start limiting my carbohydrate intake and doing some more cardio.

As always thank you all for reading and please remember to "BE THE BLESSING".

God's Love and Grace to you all,
Roy

I love these guys...

This weekend I will be going off to attend our American Baptist History and Polity Class.  I'll be back to report on that once I'm back but in the meanwhile here are some videos from a group I stumbled onto the other day.  I just love this music!!  She has such a soulful voice I just love it!

Please enjoy!

Roy