three things.

20 Jun
First. I decorated my gnome. Not sure if he’s winning material but he suits my bit abstract, bright color aesthetic. He is a happy gnome decorated with solely happy tape. ( … love my japanese masking tape.)
Second. A congregation member shook my hand before church today and said he put a container of fresh picked strawberries in my car. Fresh picked as in that morning before church. SO delicious and so much better than store-bought. Made up my mind. I am willing to drive 1.5 hours to a pick-your-own-strawberry farm to obtain massive amounts of such deliciousness. (The tragedy is that there isn’t one closer; southwestern MN seems void of the pick-your-own variety. I’m taking my business to South Dakota.)
Third. I used Pinky and the Brain as a sermon illustration this morning. I began, “Who remembers Pinky and the Brain?” One person raised her hand. Thank you, Sabrina. Pick-your-own-adventure, Pinky and the Brain … if it weren’t for you, I’d be nearly zero and zero for pop-culture references in sermons (like every confirmation class I had this past year).

Quilt accomplishment.

18 Jun

Another quilt behind me – a tshirt quilt for my sister that I have been working on since she delivered a bag of tshirts to me at Easter. I just kind of made it up as I went along, knowing that Emma wasn’t too particularly attached to the tshirts but thought a quilt for all of them would be cool. Pink sheets for the back and the sashing. Bright polka dots for the binding – yummy. I sent the quilt home with Ben and Emma received it today. I hope it keeps her warm.

ordination affairs.

17 Jun
I crashed an ordination last Friday night. The former intern at Grace – the intern before last year’s Lori (whose ordination I attended and participated in earlier this year) – was being ordained in Hector, MN. I’d never met Dale before, our paths hadn’t crossed on campus so I was a crasher. I was up for a road trip and social time so Keith, Gail and Karen picked me up and we were off on our 1.5 hour journey east. We met up with Tammy and Jon at the church and took over a pew; Kendall was there too but participating in the service.
I left the ordination with two main thoughts:
One. That will be me soon! The service was two hours long but you would have never glanced at your watch because it was so wonderful. The music was splendid and the entire service so engaging. It made me begin to wonder who will preach at my ordination. Who will I ask to participate? What kind of high-quality paper/font will I use for the bulletins? It’s hard to believe that after this long journey through seminary, as of next May, the scholastic portion will be complete. Then the first-call process. Whoa.
Two. I love my coworkers. Now, I knew this before but this night it was just super reinforced. A mini road trip with coworkers was a fun Friday night; I’m so glad I went. I loved sitting in a pew with them, enjoying the service together. Coffee and cake afterwards was a riot. I loved hearing them dream of the road trip they will take to my ordination (which I would guess will be at East in Cambridge). It’s an eight hour trip and I will expect none of them to make the journey … but will wholeheartedly love it if they make it. Maybe I can bribe them with cake pops.

A day late but no money short.

17 Jun
My apologies to my devoted nightly readers – shout-out to Mary O. – as I let you down last night. *head hanging* I realize that you were probably on the edge of your seat. Did they raise enough money for a cow? Was the craft an absolute disaster or success? How many hot dogs does it take to serve a crowd of 65 children?
I promise I had a good excuse. My younger brother came into town! Ben, who was home in WI for only a matter of days after his month-long national park-hopping experience out west, decided to take a short Minnesota tour. He rolled into Dawson around 5, ate dinner (“Supper” in western MN – I’ve been corrected many times.) with the pastors and VBSers, and then took, oh, just a forty mile bike ride while I did the VBS thing for the last evening. He was a dear and helped us clean up from the chaos at church and then we hung out at my apartment. This morning we both slept in, ate oatmeal and drank coffee. We were going to play a round of golf (To which every one of my co-workers responded with, “You play golf?” No. I don’t but I was willing to hit a few balls and drive his cart.) but it was quite windy this morning so we 86’d that plan. He was Cities-bound by noon to make it to Minneapolis for an evening canoe derby with a few cousins of ours. Anyways, I had a visitor. Hence, no blog post. Apologies.
I feel a tiny bit empty inside. A little lost. My gears need to be changed to a post-VBS world. VBS is over. Last night was a great final evening. In crafts we donned our tie-dye t-shirts and decorated picture frames. (We’ll mail each camper a group picture next week to put in their frames!) We did our normal rotation and then ended with a program in the sanctuary with parents, grandparents, and friends in attendance.

As part of our closing program, we did our “show us a cow!” ditty. There were 26 cows on the screen as of earlier that evening; we were nine cows short of purchasing our dairy cow. (That’s $90 in non-VBS speak that had to have been put in the pool earlier that night. Our kitchen crew was wonderful to count the change so we’d have the results.) We put our chart up on the screen, explained the process to the new people present, and started yelling. And yelling. “Show us a cow! Show us a cow! Show us a cow!”
You should have heard the cheers when we saw our final cow on the screen! (My brother was in the church parking lot, returning from his bike ride, and he said he heard them outside!) The campers went crazy! Yelling, screaming, clapping! They were so excited that we had brought in enough coins to buy our dairy cow through Lutheran World Relief. It made me positively giddy to see how excited these kids were about giving their quarters away to help a family they don’t even know and will never meet. Easily the highlight of the week for me.

VeeBeeS #3

15 Jun
Tonight was wonderful, less chaotic, and just plain fun. The campers are into the routine now so things go much more smoothly and they continue to have lots of fun as they hear about parables, craft things, play games (I had some major sweaty third grade boys tonight after wild games of kickball in the church parking lot.), sing songs with lots of wild actions, and be herded about by their shepherd leaders.

It was a rainstick-making paradise on second floor for crafts tonight. Many of the kids were extremely dedicated to their work, decorating their packing tubes with ribbon, paint, and sequins, and filling them with rice, cotton balls, and magic beans. There were looks of intense concentration and even a few smiles; I think they’re having fun.
The highlight of the night for me was our opening time all together in the sanctuary. As I mentioned last night, we are collecting coins to buy a dairy cow through Lutheran World Relief – three hundred and fifty dollars worth of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. The kids were so excited to throw their coins into the wishing pond and anticipated the revealing of the amount of money we made last night. We projected a chart on the screen – one “coin” on the chart was equal to $10 so there were a total of 35 “coins” on the chart. Everyone yelled, “Show us a cow!” and a cow would appear on top of each coin for the money that was raised. (Confused? I’m having a hard time explaining it. If you’ve given up understanding, just know that it was AWESOME.) We yelled, “Show us a cow!” FOURTEEN times. That’s right – there was $140 in our wishing pond just last night alone!
I was absolutely blown away by the amount of money the campers brought in last night and I’m certain there was just as much in the wishing pond tonight. (Tammy will take tonight’s money to the bank to be counted early tomorrow morning.) We are well on our way to buying ourselves a dairy cow for a family who will use it for milk and to make a living. The campers are super pumped about making our goal so here’s to hoping tomorrow will bring in the rest that we need!

vbs day dos

14 Jun

Because I love it so much [proof seen above], you get the daily play-by-play. Day two is done and behind us. We sang more rainforest songs, introduced the parable of the lost sheep with a super-engaging skit, played games, tie-dyed tshirts, and survived the rain (which was only to be expected in the rainforest). The VBS goers are also bringing in all their coins to throw into our wishing pond for our coin quest; we’re trying to raise $350 to buy a dairy cow through Lutheran World Relief! We’re going to try our hardest … but may end up with only enough pennies, dimes and quarters for a few hens and chicks. (Which is still great!)
Tomorrow: Another night together for dinner, songs, and chaos. And the craft? Rainsticks! We will be giving the children hammers and nails … watch out!
The first and second graders had the privilege of eating in the rainforest tent tonight.

The pre-k and kindergarten group was the best at squirting their shirts with dye! (They also get points for being the cutest!) Karen, the tie-dye expert, explains how the process works.

get ready, get set … VBS!

13 Jun
I love VBS. I could eat it up. Tonight was the first night of VBS which runs from 5:30 to 8pm. The night begins in Grace Hall with dinner, a gathering in our jungle of a sanctuary, and then breaks off into crafts, music, games, and story. Love it. Three more nights to go … we’re tie-dying in crafts tomorrow. Should be wonderfully chaotic.

another post about a hearse.

13 Jun
I led a funeral on Saturday morning. By myself. I’ve had the experience of assisting at many a funeral under the leadership of Kendall; at least a good ten funerals in my time here. But this time I was on my own. Eek.
I survived. It was a nice service, a wonderful way to remember and celebrate the life of a grandma, mother, and dear friend. Family members and friends shared memories and stories during the service and I found myself wishing I had known the deceased better. She seemed like the best, most giving, spunky woman. After the service, the immediate family headed to the cemetery for the committal service. It was raining outside so the service was short.
I rode to the cemetery in a hearse. Before the service, I was talking to Kevin, the funeral director, about the details, especially in regards to the committal/getting to the cemetery and he said, “Oh, you can ride with me.” Okay.
In the hearse. And it was kinda cool. Years ago, I think it would have creeped me out incredibly but now it was okay. I rode in the front seat, not the back, and also had a return trip from the cemetery. A ride where I remain at the cemetery and there is no return trip would not be quite so cool.

Meet the gnomes!

10 Jun
A Twin Cities news channel did a story on the magical creatures!
Visit and watch here!

control issues.

10 Jun
June is a busy month at Grace. Someone once told me that things would slow down after Easter. That person lied.
As I tend to do with my overly confident and zealous ambition, I think I bit off more than I can chew. Crafts at VBS? Great, I would love to lead those! Opening of VBS? Sure, I’d love to be in charge of the skits. Co-captain a summer of stewardship preaching series and other activities? Sounds like fun!
But then there is also the unexpected. A funeral/prayer service to lead in my supervisor’s out-of-town absence. A needed trip to Willmar for more VBS supplies. Projects taking longer than planned. Making brown paper vines to hang in the rainforest with a cordless drill and masking paper that spans the length of the hallway. (Okay, that was not unexpected but totally necessary.)
Today, as my preparation and role in the funeral/prayer service was made known, I started to stress. I was ready to curl up on the floor, rock back and forth, and cry. I don’t think I hid my hyperventilating very well; Kendall offered to switch Sundays so I would not have to preach this Sunday. I denied that I needed to do that. Tammy offered to have our Christian Education board help me set up for crafts. I said, eh, well, I would do it myself.
“Lindsay’s having a hard time giving up control,” Kendall surmised.
Oh my. So true. It was like a CPE revelation.
I have a hard time giving up control.
Something to work on. Sharing control. Not maintaining control of things that I don’t need to control.
I ended up accepting Kendall’s help. Giving up control of Sunday’s sermon in exchange for control of next week’s. A trade but a step in the right direction. One that helps muchisimo for the current stress level. I will, however, continue to use the cordless drill to make vines for the rainforest. Very necessary.
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