Gardening

This is beginning of our garden. We created this over a couple of days. What you cannot see if a red bud tree. It has now gotten leaves. It is just a baby. Next year it will have more and perhaps even have some red flowers on it. It is sunny right now, oh how that lifts my spirits.

Gettysburg

This last April, Don and I had the opportunity to visit Gettysburg.  We had been wanting to since we moved to the state of Pennsylvania.  There is so much history here, and it just seems there is never enough time for us to be able to get away, especially now that we have a kitty that has to have medication twice a day.  We have our challenges, but we make the best of what we can.  Anyway, we decided for a quick get away, especially before the gas got too expensive to drive around.   

We stayed the night at Gettysburg Seminary, which overlooks one of the battlefields.  We have the movie Gettysburg, and always in the beginning it shows Seminary Ridge where the seminary stands.  It was so exciting for me to see this.  I love history, especially the Civil War.  

That first day we visited the museum.  It was so impressive, it took most of all day to tour it.  We were pretty saturated with history by the time we finished our tour.   My main interest was to see where the 20th Maine fought their battle on Little Round Top. The reason for my interest is that my great-great-grandfather, Don Carlos Sinclair, fought in the Civil War.  Thank goodness not in Gettysburg.  He fought in Petersburg, in Virginia, another bloody battle that lasted almost a year.  He started out with the Maine 19th infantry before transferring to First Artillery while in Petersburg.  I was in awe walking some of the Civil War battlefields and seeing the ground the South had to cross.  The following are a collection of pictures, not all of them, just a smattering what there is.  All along both battlefields, North and South, are monuments put up by the regiments and states to honor the fallen. 

This farmhouse was used as a hospital.  There were so many thousands of men wounded, they had to find a place to treat them all, so the army took over many farmhouses and turned them into makeshift hospitals.  Gettysburg Seminary was also used as a hospital, that is until school started and they needed the seminary back to begin classes.

Reflections

We have lived in Butler, Pennsylvania for almost a year now.  The time has passed quickly.  This year has been full of wonder, joy, sadness, loneliness, anticipation, love, patience, and acceptance.  Wow, what a plethora of emotions. Part of the emotions stem from what has happened in the ELCA in the last couple of years. 

I am a Christian first and a Lutheran second.  Our church split this year due to a decision that the ELCA made in 2009.  In making this decision, our church split.  There is now the NALC and the ELCA.  The split came because of a vote to allow gay and lesbian pastors be in committed relationships.  I will be honest, I am not sure how I feel about that.  I am not sure how I feel about using the bible as a book of condemnation either.  That is not what God is about.  God is about bringing people together.  He is about love and forgiveness.  His children are not always as accepting or forgiving.   

Luke 6:27, 30, and 31.  I say to you listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, "bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.  Give to everyone who begs from you.  Do to others as you would have them do to you. 

Luke 6:35.  Love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.  Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most high; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.  Be merciful, just as your father is merciful.

Luke 6:37:  Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.  Forgive and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. 

I like these verses, they speak to me, especially for today.  There is much fear, anger, and hopeless in our world.  Fear of the unknown, anger because of the fear and a loss of control, hopeless over wondering where our world is going and what will happen to us.  Many are without jobs, homes, even family.  How can we as Christians stop the tide?  Do we look to ourselves or do we look to God our Father?  What do you suppose God is trying to convey to us?  He certainly is not a vengeful God as so many people try to make him out to be.  He is our Father, a loving and forgiving God who only wants the best for us.

One of my favorite psalms if Psalm 23, which is appropriate for this Sunday as it is about the Good Shepherd.  John 10:1-8.

Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit.  The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.  the gatekeeper opens the gate for him and the sheep hear his voice.  He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.

According to the Lutheran thinking, this means that Jesus' own are able to recognize his voice.  The man born blind responds to Jesus' voice and is healed.  Lazarus was dead four days, but responded to Jesus' voice when he heard him and raised from the dead.  Mary Magdalene heard Jesus call her name as she was mourning his death, and recognized his voice.  "Are we as Christians able to recognize Jesus' voice in our lives?"

The Good Shepherd lends itself back to Psalm 23.  The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want.  He makes me to lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.  He leads me in the right paths for his name sake.

I think I do hear God's voice in my everyday life.  Sometimes it is hard to always do what he wants of me, but I listen and I hear.  I hear God in the birds.  I hear and see God in my church community.  I see God in the children in my neighborhood.  And even though I am not close to my family, I see God there at work.  When life gets tough and there are many worries, I look to God and give him back those things that I cannot do anything about.  By giving to God everyday my worries and fears, I live my life that much more joyously.  God is great and let us all rejoice! 

As far as the issue of allowing people to be in committed relationships who are not straight, I will not judge.  God is judge.  I will not think for God and pretend to know what he is thinking or why he does things.  I will not use the bible as a weapon either to prove or disprove. I will not use the bible to say one religion is wrong and another right.  We ultimately all believe in the same God.  God is in charge.  We are all his children, all of us, not just a segment of us, not just Christians, but everyone period.  Thanks be to God! 
Written by Anna

This and that

We just had Thanksgiving yesterday.  It was a lazy day, no pictures to prove it, but take my word, the only thing we did yesterday was feed ourselves, which meant we both cooked and we both cleaned up.  We took naps, talked, and watched 2 movies.  What a wonderful day!  


I will let Don speak for himself as to what he has been up to, which has been a lot, but I can only speak for myself.   I find myself leading a bible study, chairing a committee, volunteering at the food cupboard in town, and a few other odd things to keep me occupied.  I am also learning to knit on the loom, as well as make a shawl and a few more scarves for the winter.  

I now find myself nursemaid to my one little kitty, Rosie, who has been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, and need to give her medication twice a day, which is hard enough for me to remember myself, but Rosie is doing better, although she has a growth on her tummy which needs to come off at the end of December.  It does not seem to bother her much, so I am hopeful iit is nothing too serious.  


Now onto the house.  This is a picture of our front room, dining room, and entry way.

We resurrected the old dresser/bed for storage and using it for dish towels, table cloths, etc.  I am loving this green color we chose for the walls. It is the color of green kelp and reminds me of the water. 

Don and I sanded the old church pew and refinished it.  It is so beautiful now.  I love the color.  We placed it at the bottom of our stairs.  It is a good place to sit and take off and put on one's shoes, although now that we have a back porch that is usable, we tend to go in that way, but for company, the front door is still as welcoming as ever. 

Ah well, Rosie is settling down for her afternoon siesta, and I must get back to other pending activities.  

Adventurous Summer

I know it has been a long time since I have posted anything on my blog, so if you want to do a little happy dance for this new post that is just fine with me.  I have been INSANELY busy for the past few months!  First of all, I graduated from Luther Seminary (YAY!)  As my seminary career was winding down my career as a pastor was cranking up!  Perhaps I should explain a bit.  See, way back in February I was assigned to the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  Then I was given a congregational profile for Grace @ Calvary Lutheran Church in Butler, Pennsylvania.  The church looks like this:

It is a very large church that has lots of room and lots of enthusiastic and friendly people in it.  The inside is even more beautiful than the outside.  With the architecture of the building I affectionately call it "the castle."  The church voted to call me as their pastor on the weekend of the 26th and 27th  of June, and my start date was scheduled for July 1st.  With travel from Pennsylvania to Minnesota and back to Pennsylvania, it turned out that I was not able to start until July 2nd, but that does not seem to have affected the relationship of the congregation and me at all.

It is summer so there are not many people in worship regularly, but the average attendance hovers at about 140 in worship.  I really like the building, the people and the town, so I am prayerful that this call will be one that will last a very long time.  I also hope that Anna comes to love Butler as well.

Since the church does not have a parsonage we looked briefly at the possibility of renting a house or apartment in town, but there really isn't anything worth renting that would suffice for our needs, so we bought a house.  The address is 123 East Patterson Avenue, Butler, Pennsylvania 16001 and the house looks like this:

                                                             

It is a three-bedroom, one bath house in a nice, fairly well-kept working class neighborhood.  It needs a new roof, but the seller may pay for at least part of that, so we are not concerned about it.  We really like the layout of the house, and the kitchen is very nice, with all new appliances and cabinets, and plenty of counter space.  There is a nice dining room with plenty of space for all we need, and there are three bedrooms, so that we can accommodate visitors (hint-hint).  It also has a very large back yard and once we get that fenced the cats can play outside as often as they like!  It has a one-car detached garage that is pretty small, so it may become a potting shed in the future after I build a bigger, two-car garage.  I am looking forward to adding special features to this house to make it home, such as a wood shop in the basement and making a craft room for Anna upstairs. 

Right now I am in Butler by myself because the purchase of the house will not close until the 29th of July, so Anna is still in Saint Paul with the cats while I am renting the previous pastor's house.  He has it for sale, but it is too big for what Anna and I need, so we are more satisfied with the house we bought.  We will be loading a U-Haul truck on the 26th of July to make the big move, so if you would like to help out there is plenty to do!  In the meantime I work at the church in Butler and Anna works at the dining hall at Luther and packs boxes of our stuff.  I know it will all work out well in the end.  Happy Independence day andGod's peace be with you!  Blogged by Don

I dumped Facebook

So now I will probably be the only guy in America without a Facebook account.  I think I was on it for about a year and in that time I found it to be more and more annoying.  It got to the point where I no longer wanted to look at it because rather than telling me what my friends were up to, I would see little updates about all of the stupid Facebook games and suggestions to add people as friends that I don't even know.  Then the new format came and I couldn't even find a way to look at my whole friends list unless they were online.  No, the whole thing got to be too stupid for me, so I dumped it.  I know there are those who will say it was too harsh of a reaction, but let's face it, I'm just not that interesting that I need to be on Facebook, and it seems that most of you fill up your Facebook time with games, so I don't really see the point.  I will be concentrating on my studies this semester and finishing my MDiv. degree, anticipating a call somewhere in the ELCA by the middle of this summer.  Have fun on Facebook, and if you get curious about what I'm up to, call me or email me and we can get caught up that way.  In the meantime I'll be reading about the newest efforts toward effective evangelism.  Blogged by Don.

Here we go again

Anna and I have this nasty habit of telling ourselves that we won't buy anything we have to move because we are only living here in Saint Paul temporarily until I graduate from seminary.  The problem is we keep coming across stuff that is just kind of fun to have around!  For instance last weekend Anna was on a women's retreat with the women from Eden Prairie United Methodist Church where Kathy and John are members.  It was only a weekend away but I found myself missing her terribly!  All I did all weekend was wish she was home with me; that and fix the vacuum cleaner. 

The vacuum cleaner had broken its belt so I needed to go to the hardware store and get another one, and on the way to the hardware store I drove by the Goodwill Thrift Store.  I just thought, "Ah, what the heck; Anna is away on retreat and I've got some time to kill, might as well go inside and see if they have anything interesting."  So I stopped in to browse and found these sherbet bowls.  They are similar to the sherbet bowls I bought at Goodwill about two years ago, and there were plenty of them.  I got to thinking that they would make great tea-light candle holders because the pattern in the glass would reflect the light nicely as the candles burn in them.  The other sherbet bowls are packed away in storage because Anna and I wanted to unpack only the essentials since it is my last year of school, so they are not easily accessible, besides this is a different pattern that I have seen many times and I was curious about it already.  So I bought four, took them home (after I finished my mission to the hardware store and got the vacuum cleaner belt) and cleaned them up, put the tea-lights in them and got them set up for when Anna came home.  Then I fixed the vacuum cleaner and tested it to make sure it works by cleaning the living room. 

As I mentioned, I was already curious about these patterned sherbet bowls because they are similar to the Anchor Hocking Wexford ones that I had purchased previously, but the pattern in the glass is different.  I have seen plenty of these sherbet bowls before in thrift stores and antique stores, and since Anna and I have been collecting Wexford I have sort of ignored these.  But the price at Goodwill was really cheap; much less than I had seen them priced in the antique stores, so I figured I may as well pick them up and see what happens.  It also seems to me that I'm not sure if the old sherbet bowls we had when I was a child were the Wexford pattern or this one.  This prompted me to do a little research. 

What I found out is that these sherbet bowls are actually peanut butter jars.  They were sold as the peanut butter jars for the "Big-Top" peanut butter brand, and people were encouraged to keep the jars as dishes when  the peanut butter was gone, and of course to buy more peanut butter so that you could build a whole set of dishes.  Replacements Ltd, even lists these sherbet bowls with "Big-Top" as the manufacturer and Peanut Butter as the pattern, but that isn't really the whole story.  Since "Big-Top" is a brand of peanut butter they had the jars/dishes made by the Hazel-Atlas glass company in Wheeling, Virginia.  These bowls were made for "Big-Top" in what Hazel-Atlas called the "Gothic" pattern, but if you look on the Replacements, Ltd. web site you will discover that they have no entry called "Gothic" under the Hazel-Atlas brand name, so the pattern apparently was never released elsewhere. 

The pattern was discontinued in 1957 when Hazel-Atlas was taken over by the Continental Canning Company.  Why would Continental Can want Hazel-Atlas?  Well, you are probably familiar with Atlas canning jars, and Hazel-Atlas was the manufacturer of those.  Unfortunately, the Hazel-Atlas company didn't survive this takeover and the company went out of business in 1964.  Atlas brand canning jars are now produced by the Jarden corporation in New York.

Will we now collect the "Big-Top" peanut butter pattern?  I don't think so, we have too much Wexford as it is, but it is kind of fun to know the history of these things.  The more I think about it, the more I think we DID have these sherbet bowls when I was a kid in New Jersey, but I wonder if they came from my grandmother's house, because the pattern was discontinued in 1957 and I was born in 1958, and I don't think my parents stock-piled peanut butter just to get the dishes.  It is possible that they bought enough peanut butter to make a set, though, since they were married in 1955, they would have had two years to eat enough peanut butter to collect a set of dishes.  Did we have BOTH patterns, the Wexford and the Peanut Butter?  Anything is possible; maybe my parents collected the peanut butter glasses and the Wexford came from grandma's house.  I don't remember.  As far as these sherbet bowls go, Anna was delighted with them and enjoyed seeing the tea-lights sparkle in them just as much as I hoped she would.  After the tea-lights had burned out she turned to me and said, "I hope you don't mind, but I'll probably go ahead and use those as sherbet bowls."  Ah, sherbet; how romantic!  Blogged by Don