Wedding weekend!

12 Apr

My best man duties were put to the test this weekend. Could I :
  1. Get manicures and facials with the groom-to-be?
  2. Organize, set-up and participate in the bachelor party?
  3. Accompany the groom in getting ready/calming nerves before ceremony?
  4. Walk without tripping on my heels?
  5. Be any more excited? [No!]

It was a wonderful weekend and I couldn’t have been more honored and more happy to be with Adam throughout it all. I LOVED being a best man – HIS best man. It was simply an absolute joy to hang out with him. It has been a long while since Adam and I had spent time together so to be with him this weekend was great.
The wedding was perfect. beautiful. all things lovely. Both Kara and Adam looked overjoyed to be walking down the aisle and promising their lives to each other in front of family and friends. I’m so happy for them both and the new joys they will discover in this journey!
[[ Click the play button in the bottom task bar, beneath the photo, to begin a slideshow of more wedding photos! ]]

Easter visitors!

6 Apr
My mom and sister made the trek to Dawson to spend Easter with me … or at least near me/in my apartment while I worked. They arrived Friday afternoon and stayed until Monday morning. It is an eight hour drive from Edgerton to Dawson – phew! – and I certainly hope they feel it was worth the gas and time in a car!
I was excited to play host and to show them around my current “home” for the last seven months. I think it offered my mom some degree of comfort to see my living situation and meet my coworkers, to understand that this is a good place for me and to see that I am really happy with where I am at. My coworkers were (of course) awesome at welcoming and greeting and there were a few congregation members who weren’t shy either. My mom heard over and over, whether from the pew of ladies sitting behind us or other off-the-cuff comments, how she looks like a sister to me rather than a mother. Ego boost!
We did the church thing, shopped in Dawson, met the gnomes, and took the grand tour of the town. We also hung out a lot at my apartment, watched a fair amount of Friends, and all napped at various points. It was pretty much as low-key as you can get for a weekend away but it was enjoyable to have them here. I hope that they agreed that it was enjoyable to be here!

Holy Week.

5 Apr
It was holy week from a new vantage point. Just as the season of Lent opened for me with the bizarre but strangely wonderful experience of the Ash Wednesday worship service, the season closed with a fruitful and exciting series of services of which I was a part in a new and different way than before. And in the midst of a week in which I felt weighed down by the uncertainty of how to preach a funeral sermon, I found great joy and excitement in the planning of Easter services and the writing of my Easter sermon.
Our holy week worship schedule began with a seder meal on Thursday followed by a service of Holy Communion. Thursday was also April Fool’s so I may have been given a raw egg to peel amongst the boiled eggs for the meal. We may have also included a new reading, blessing, and the finding of hidden Easter egg cookies at the end of the seder. (An addition that perhaps would be seen as slightly heretical to the tradition of our Jewish ancestors? Perhaps. We did it most tastefully in the spirit of April 1.)
Friday evening was a Tenebrae service, highlighted with choir anthems, readings from John, and the seven last words of Christ. The service ended in darkness and in silence, the cross and alter having been veiled in black. I had never before been to a Tenebrae service; it was a meaningful first experience. I had little role in the leading of the service – most was done by song/choir and narrators. I read prayers, guided the acolytes in the extinguishing of the candles, and then also played flute with the choir on a piece.
Sunday. Easter. Three services – 7am, 8:30, and 10:30 – all wonderful. The “Sonrise” service was mine to plan and preach with the following two services being identical. Let me sing “Jesus Christ is Risen Today” and “Thine is the Glory” with the organ and I’m a happy camper. Add special music, a beautifully decorated sanctuary and pews full of people and it was a perfect Sunday to find the tomb empty. (Though I realize and am glad that even without those things, the tomb is still empty!)
Might I also add to the list – a rocking children’s sermon. PK and I had a lot of fun with hundreds of slips of colored paper, the sounds of an earthquake, and making the whole congregation participate in sharing the message of the gospel — Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

would you rather –

5 Apr
Last week was a bit on a crazy side. Holy week brought a weekend of five worship services and with the addition of two funerals, time was short and stress was high. But now, as I write this on the Monday of a new week, it’s evident that I survived! woot! I’ll speak more of holy week services in a later post but first, some new “firsts” which led to the following question from my supervisor :
Would you rather eat a hamball or preach a funeral sermon?
My first hamball: In this region of Minnesota, if there is a visitation preceding a funeral the night before, it ends with a prayer service. As the intern, the prayer services are my gig. I led a prayer service this past Tuesday night and then the husband – the same man who has taken to calling me “Pastor Sweet Pea” – invited me over to his house to join his family for lunch. (It was 8pm … “lunch” could mean anything except the noon-day meal.) Unable to say no to pretty much anything, I accepted the offer.
I arrived at his house and immediately was shooed into the lunch line. I grabbed myself a sandwich and a cookie. My host gave up his chair at the dinner table for me, I sat down and then someone behind me grabbed my plate and returned it to the table with an addition – a hamball swimming in chunks of pineapple and a mysterious sauce.
Now, I’m not blaming the cook but rather am simply questioning the ethics of it all. Ground ham in ball form? I ate it but will admit – as I texted my supervisor following the incident – I was “mildly disgusted.” This was something new to me and I’m not so certain I was a fan. Apparently, upon further investigation, I understand that the meat market in town sells the ground ham. As more people find out my general distaste towards the ball of pig, I grow worried that it will show up on my plate more often. Sarcastic threats of hamballs have been many from coworkers since the hamballing episode …
My first funeral sermon: With the planning of holy week services and writing of Easter sermons in addition to two funerals, I had my first opportunity to write and preach a funeral sermon. My supervisor typically preaches at all funerals but with the schedule of this week, it seemed to be a good chance for me to have the experience.
So here is what Lindsay does – Lindsay accepts such challenges with an optimistic mindset and then freaks out days later when she realizes what she needs to do and feels in no way equipped to do it. I felt very ill-equipped to write a funeral sermon; the words came very difficult for me. I knew very little of the woman or her family and that, for me, made it more of a challenge.

But you know what? I did it. I wrote it. I preached it. I received critique and feedback from my supervisor in the days preceding and after preaching, felt fairly confident about the message. Because the funeral took place on the Saturday before Easter, I spoke of Easter lilies and the symbol of hope in the resurrection that they convey. The sanctuary at Grace was decorated with lilies for the next morning and, it turns out, a lily was the flower that the family gave for the funeral. God was at work.
Which would I rather do? As a facebook friend wrote to me – the best of both worlds – “Convince the family to include hamballs in the funeral lunch to eat after preaching the sermon.” Jackpot.

there must be hope.

30 Mar

I’m finding myself in dark places this week; journeying alongside others in their valleys, with families in their grief, and in the approaching darkness of the Friday before Easter. Henri Nouwen says it poignantly –

[[ If the God who revealed life to us, and whose only desire is to bring us to life, loved us so much that he wanted to experience with us the total absurdity of death then – yes, then there must be hope; then there must be something more than death; then there must be a promise that is not fulfilled in our short existence in this world; then leaving behind the ones you love, the flowers, the trees, the mountains and the oceans, the beauty of art and music, and all the exuberant gifts of life cannot be just the destruction and cruel end of all things; then indeed we have to wait for the third day. ]]

an EGG-stravaganza.

29 Mar

Eggs were found.
Scavenger hunt completed.
Palm Sunday song sang.
Skit by confirmation boys acted.
It was EGG-cellent as EGG-spected. (Fake laughs EGG-cepted.)
A few highlights :

a finished quilt for a 100th post.

26 Mar
This is my 100th post on my internship blog!  Woot!  (“woot” has become one of my favorite written interjections of late.  I woot a lot.)  What better subject for this monumental post than to share a finished quilt with you!
In the past five months or so, this nine-patch has been started, then put away for a few weeks.  Pulled out then put away.  It’s been a sporadic journey but the journey is finally complete!
I’m trying to not dwell on the things that aren’t perfect and the lessons I learned in the process of – what I would consider to be – my first “real” quilt.  There are many aspects/steps that I can improve upon in my future quilting adventures.  I consider it my first “real” quilt because the top was much more time-consuming/intense than previous strips of fabric or simple square, and because it’s finished with a real binding.  While mistakes are many, I’m still pretty darn proud of the result!  
I fell in love with the hand-sewing of the binding, the final step in the quilt construction.  I loved being able to cuddle up under the work-in-progress while sewing away with my needle and brown thread.  
I spent a lot of quality time with the quilt yesterday after my coworkers sent me home for the day.  There may have been a minor Lindsay-almost-blacked-out episode in the office and they thought it best for me to rest for the day.  After hours of successful napping, I took the day as my opportunity to rest up while quilting.  I seem to be fine now; cause of episode unknown.  
The one last step to take in this quilt’s beginning is to wash it.  I love washing a quilt for the first time, pulling it out of the dryer, and feeling the difference – how the quilt becomes a quilt.  It’s no longer just three layers sewn together; it feels different.  Like the back, the batting, and the eclectic top have always belonged together.  
To a completed quilt – woot!
To the 100th posting on my blog – woot!

wooden people.

24 Mar

Pastor Lori was ordained last Saturday – ordained as a legit pastor.  Woot!  She can now “legally” wear a stole and preside over communion.  It was a wonderful service and a great honor that Lori asked me to assist at the service.  Lori’s ordaination called for gifts and we at Grace put much time and much effort into these gifts.  The time and effort included Kendall and I shopping at Dueber’s (classic downtown Dawson everything-you-can-imagine store) for theological and ministry-related gifts.   (An angel puzzle, law enforcement kit, bug spray, nail polish for the liturgical season, you know.  The like.)  The time and effort went to the extreme with the making of a mission: impossible-themed video, telling Lori that she would need to come to Grace to receive her gifts and save the Christian church.  Right.  (But if she or any of her IM forces should be caught or killed, the secretary will disavow knowledge of her existence.  Naturally.)

Lori came for lunch today to claim her gifts.  One of the gifts were these wooden people – colored to be the staff at Grace, so that when Lori needed to practice a sermon or bounce ideas off of someone, we would always be there for her in her ministry (and for another reason that would take too long to explain here).
Here we are with Lori and our wooden look-a-likes.  From left to right: Keith, custodian; Chris, choir director/organist; Lori (holding the wooden Jesus and cow); Emily, membership care; Pastor Kendall; Tammy, youth; Pastor Lindsay; Karen, administrative extraordinaire.

Easter approaches.

24 Mar
It’s hard to believe that I preached my last Lenten sermon tonight.  It was our last Lenten dinner and last opportunity to sing Holden Evening Village.  Crazy to think that six weeks have flown by so quickly.  I completely dated myself (in the young way) in my sermon tonight; who knew that choose-your-own-adventure books were a relatively new development to an older congregation?  While I realize we travel towards the joy of Easter and the empty tomb (playdough artwork below by a confirmand), I enjoy lent.  I think I might miss it a little bit; my Wednesday evenings may feel a bit empty.  
C. is a pretty faithful lenten dinner and service attendee with his younger sister and parents.  Tonight, during the beginning of the service when we welcome those around us, C. reached past both his parents to shake my hand.  Then he said, in his darling four year old dialect, “Pastor Lindsay, I have something to show you.”  New shoes.  C. got new shoes.  They’re pretty cool.
As Lent comes to a close and we usher in holy week with Palm Sunday this coming weekend, it’s definitely time for an egg hunt – an egg hunt as part of an EGG-stravaganza.  Today, after confirmation, I bribed a few seventh and eighth graders to stick around with cookies and chips.  They helped me fill and then hide 60 dozen eggs.  Let me do the math for you – 720 eggs.  I think the EGG-citement went to my head when I planned this event for Sunday schoolers; what was I thinking?  There soon was no hiding space for this many eggs so the hallway floors of our three-story education wing are peppered with eggs.  It’s going to be chaotic and EGG-cellent!  
Even Jesus is getting into the egg hunt spirit — 

floody, floody?

19 Mar

God said to Noah, “There’s going to be a floody, floody.”

God said to Noah, “There’s going to be a floody, floody.”
“Get those animals” *clap* “out of the muddy, muddy,”
children of the Lord.
The waters are rising as I encountered my first detour due to the lakes that have appeared in fields and overtaken roads.  I ran across more than a few of these barricades on my way south to Marshall today.  It’s crazy to drive out of Dawson and see the water standing where there never were any lakes or rivers previously.  There are many closed roads and many more places where the water is growing dangerously close to the roads.
There is a river that runs through the south of Dawson and though I have no pictures to share, the river has swelled immensely in the past days.  This is nothing new to Dawson and houses in the dangerous flood plain have since been moved but it seems a few houses/many basements are still threatened.  I’m still not sure that I know what a sump pump is but many conversations have centered around the machine of late.  Hopes are that the chilly day today has perhaps helped slow the growing river.  
Hopefully we can fast forward to the last verse of the song soon –
The sun came out and dried up the landy, landy.
The sun came out and dried up the landy, landy.
Everything was *clap* fine and dandy,
children of the Lord.
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