Kontakion

As I posted yesterday I am sick, I should say I'm still sick. This is the first Sunday I have had to miss because I was sick so I pray that everything went well this morning. So I spent time watching Wall-e with Olvia and working on the service for next week, which is somthing I normally do on Sunday afternoons. Olivia is still very sick, if I had to say for myself I'm on the up swing already. I think I caught it soon enough with medicine, my biggest problem right now is I'm very sore as my body continues to fight this sickness. I spent time this morning and early afternoon reading some of the recent books I got with my business expense account. One is "Sabbath in the City" by Bryan P. Stone and Claire E. Wolfteich. I'll post more on this when I'm done reading it but right now I can say that I am strongly identifying with what is being written about urban ministries. A few posts ago I wrote that I was going on a retreat for the Provisioners, and only...

Well I hope all has gone well for most people on thanksgiving. Me I watched Olivia get sick on Wed, watched Katie succumb to it on Friday before I became its victim today. So all three of us are home sick, I have just enough energy to put a post up that's it. Of course I had to make some phone calls and will not be preaching or leading worship tomorrow, which I am very disappointed about since its the first Sunday in Advent. However I'm hoping that one Sunday down will be enough to bounce me back so I can it the ground running on Monday.

Well last night was my first Charge conference on my own. Next year I'm definitely calling it a Church conference in hopes of more participation, but over all it went well. We got the business done and were able to see the positive possibilities here at Emmanuel. Now I'm getting prepared to go on an overnight provisioners retreat for the conference. Its been a busy week with no signs of slowing down, but now that I've got Charge Conference done I feel a lot more relaxed and ready to roll. Its not that I was worried about what was going to be said, it was more that I had so much work to do preparing for the conference. Thank God next week should slow down a little bit.

Well this seems kind of epic, this is the first time in probably a year and a half that I am posting twice in one week. Well I'm just up late and trying to figure out a bunch of different things, the problem is this week has been so busy and hectic that I don't feel like I can just stop quite yet. The good news is I've started a walking regime with the dog every day. We walk up to the near by park and I let her off the leash for a bit and just walk. I'm still working with her on staying near by which is a little frustrating, but she is a puppy still as well as a scent dog. So far in walking with her I have found that if I am away from houses and more in the "woods" (about as much in the "woods" as you can be in Allentown) she is less likely to get to far ahead of me. One of my hopes is that I'll be able to take her camping with me as her and I develop an outdoor relationship. One of the best things about it has been the fact that we go out...

The last several months have been extremely hectic around here. I've been devoting time to reworking my committees, working on a stewardship campaign, and general church revitalization as well as learning about this congregation in general. This past week there was a fire that destroyed 4 homes and damaged 2 others. The Red Cross brought the people here to the church where we were able to work with the Red Cross and provide food, clothing, and comfort to those in need. This was a very positive experience for me, and I pray something I can build on with the church. We were interviewed by the local news station and I actually ended up on the 5 o'clock news, so I've had my 30 seconds of fame. Needless to say this event threw my entire week into confusion but I am thankful for the opportunity we had to minister to these people in need. Apparently we did such a good job that the Red Cross said they would make sure to use us again.