Is not always an option.
No, I don't want to leave Iowa, if that's what you're thinking. This afternoon I did want to leave the church though. It was earlier than normal and a good thing too! I had started working an hour or so earlier today with breakfast and I was planning to leave about 40 minutes earlier than normal to be at home a bit before heading to the Iowa Mennonite Relief Sale. Except that my car wouldn't start. Duk (named for it's DUK license plate) refused to get going. Any other day I would have been left there all alone, but Theresa was leaving just about the time I was. She, with her 2 year old son Jesse, offered to give me a ride home. I was so thankful!
8 minutes later, as we turned onto my road I said "shoot." Immediately, she asked if I had my key. Oops. My only way to get into the house that I'm living at is the garage door opener and of course I would leave that in my car. Garage door openers are extremely useful in cars, except when you don't have another key or the car. So she agreed to take me back to the church. Double thankful! She is too kind to me! But, so that she could still make it to her daughter Meredith's tee ball game, we would have to swing by Theresa's house to pick up the tee ball stuff and then we'd have to go to Theresa's mother's house to pick up Meredith. Not a problem. I'm thankful that she's willing to drive me anywhere at all!
So as Jesse sang "Old MacDonald" in the back seat, I waited for the tee ball player and tee ball equipment. Then we swung by the church to pick up the garage door opener. Just in case, I tried starting Duk once more. No luck. 8 minutes later and a full hour after I had wanted to leave the church, I was finally at home and able to get in. All thanks to Theresa.
So I set my stuff down and tried to figure out what to do. I called Dave, the pastor, and, surprise, he already knew! Those pastors are so smart! No, actually, he had just gotten off the phone with Theresa. Dave told me two things: one, he's going to pick me up and take me back to the church to try a few things; and two, if Duk doesn't start he'll give me his car. Wow, thanks again!
6 minutes later I'm heading back to the church with Dave and his wife. We talk about cars and Hondas on our way there and I prove my automotive ignorance. Dave has owned Hondas in the past and says he might know what the problem is. Yay! I gave Duk a few more tries and it's definitely not what Dave thought it might be. Bummer. But he hops in and tried his luck with it. Turning the steering wheel, changing the gears, giving it a little gas, he tried a few times. Nope. Duk is dead.
Now what? We talk a bit and he again offers his car to me. I guess I'll be relying on his generosity for a while. Before he climbed out he tried the ignition one more time. Duk started right up. Weird. I asked him what he did and he looked at me slightly surprised. He did nothing. Turns out, Duk likes attention. Maybe it had a little itch in the ignition and Dave finally got it. I don't know, but I drove Duk home.
And tonight Duk got me to and from the Relief Sale just fine. But I will not be taking the ability to leave for granted again! Turns out it's not always an option!
Friday, May 29, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Feeling at home in Iowa
Iowa! For ten more weeks I will be calling this home! Specifically, my home is with Wilbur and Helen Yoder in Wellman, Iowa. Strangely enough though, they are in DC until the beginning of June. That means I’ve been living on my own and will continue to live on my own for another week! It means in the evening I’m usually bored and lonely. It also means that I have plenty of time to practice playing guitar without caring about sounding awful or being too loud! It’s all good!
I think everyone who would read this knows that I’m interning at West Union Mennonite Church through the Ministry Inquiry Program until the first week of August. What exactly that means I will be doing is something that I don’t even know yet, but I do know some things. For one, I will be mentored by Dave Boshart, the head pastor here. Everyone who knows him says he will be great and I have absolutely no reason to think otherwise! I’m very excited to see what all I can glean from him!
In June I have a lot of things going on. I’ll be making trips to both Minneapolis and Freeman, South Dakota. Minneapolis is a meeting about possibly starting a new Mennonite church up there. My impression is that there won’t be much for me to do, but Dave was invited and he thought it would be good if I went along. The trip to Freeman is for the Central Plains Conference meeting, so that’s a more standard thing that a pastor might do. I will also spend two days at Crooked Creek Christian Camp as the speaker. Then at the very end of the month I will be going to Columbus for Convention.
In my first week, I’ve visited a retirement home, attended an elders meeting, read parts of a few books, and written a paper for Dave, as well as various other smaller things. I’ve been to several people’s homes to see how they are ministering to the community or displaying their faith through art work. There are a lot of people to meet and get to know, but I think I’m off to a decent start.
On Saturday, I didn’t go in to work and instead took a trip in to Iowa City and Coralville. I was all excited for the adventure, but it ended up being pretty lame. For one, the weather was poor. The rain made walking around the Pedestrian Mall difficult. Plus, exploring alone is a lot less fun than I had anticipated. Still, it wasn’t a total waste of a day!
Today was my first Sunday at West Union and Dave had me up in front already reading the scripture passage for his sermon. The church is about 200 people—quite a bit bigger than I’m used to! But I sat up front with Martha Yoder, the associate pastor, so it didn’t even seem like a bigger congregation. After the service I met a few people and then went to the Middler classroom. They’ve been really excited about me coming and have been raising money to help pay for the scholarship that MIP provides. I’m looking forward to working with these kids! Then I went to the Sunday school class with other college age young adults.
I’ll end with two notes involving food. First, even though I’m on my own here at home, I’ve only had to cook for myself once. I’ve had multiple meals with Dave and his wife Shana and multiple meals with Martha and her husband Darvin. Today I was invited over for lunch by another family. Second, I’ve had ice cream five times already. It would seem to me that Iowans really like there ice cream! I don’t mind!
I think everyone who would read this knows that I’m interning at West Union Mennonite Church through the Ministry Inquiry Program until the first week of August. What exactly that means I will be doing is something that I don’t even know yet, but I do know some things. For one, I will be mentored by Dave Boshart, the head pastor here. Everyone who knows him says he will be great and I have absolutely no reason to think otherwise! I’m very excited to see what all I can glean from him!
In June I have a lot of things going on. I’ll be making trips to both Minneapolis and Freeman, South Dakota. Minneapolis is a meeting about possibly starting a new Mennonite church up there. My impression is that there won’t be much for me to do, but Dave was invited and he thought it would be good if I went along. The trip to Freeman is for the Central Plains Conference meeting, so that’s a more standard thing that a pastor might do. I will also spend two days at Crooked Creek Christian Camp as the speaker. Then at the very end of the month I will be going to Columbus for Convention.
In my first week, I’ve visited a retirement home, attended an elders meeting, read parts of a few books, and written a paper for Dave, as well as various other smaller things. I’ve been to several people’s homes to see how they are ministering to the community or displaying their faith through art work. There are a lot of people to meet and get to know, but I think I’m off to a decent start.
On Saturday, I didn’t go in to work and instead took a trip in to Iowa City and Coralville. I was all excited for the adventure, but it ended up being pretty lame. For one, the weather was poor. The rain made walking around the Pedestrian Mall difficult. Plus, exploring alone is a lot less fun than I had anticipated. Still, it wasn’t a total waste of a day!
Today was my first Sunday at West Union and Dave had me up in front already reading the scripture passage for his sermon. The church is about 200 people—quite a bit bigger than I’m used to! But I sat up front with Martha Yoder, the associate pastor, so it didn’t even seem like a bigger congregation. After the service I met a few people and then went to the Middler classroom. They’ve been really excited about me coming and have been raising money to help pay for the scholarship that MIP provides. I’m looking forward to working with these kids! Then I went to the Sunday school class with other college age young adults.
I’ll end with two notes involving food. First, even though I’m on my own here at home, I’ve only had to cook for myself once. I’ve had multiple meals with Dave and his wife Shana and multiple meals with Martha and her husband Darvin. Today I was invited over for lunch by another family. Second, I’ve had ice cream five times already. It would seem to me that Iowans really like there ice cream! I don’t mind!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
I drove on a road that doesn't form perfect squares today
I'm sitting here in West Union Mennonite Church in south east Iowa at my own desk in my own office. I was contemplating stopping for lunch and decided to write up a tiny little blog post of things I've been reading/thinking about:
- Michael Quoist, Prayers for Life: “I like [children] because they are still growing, they are still improving. They are on the road, they are on their way. But with grown-ups there is nothing to expect any more. They will no longer grow, no longer improve. They have come to a full stop. It is disastrous—grown-ups think they have arrived.”
- only a fool would choose a profession in the church if the goal were to become rich
- become socially insignificant to care for the socially neglected
- in his later years, John Wesley developed the habit and inner clock to pause for the first five minutes of each hour to examine the hour past
One thing seems certain, I will not ever have a justifiable reason to say that I am bored this summer. I do, though, have plenty of reason to say that I miss people and camp and real hills and trees and roads that aren't squared.
- Michael Quoist, Prayers for Life: “I like [children] because they are still growing, they are still improving. They are on the road, they are on their way. But with grown-ups there is nothing to expect any more. They will no longer grow, no longer improve. They have come to a full stop. It is disastrous—grown-ups think they have arrived.”
- only a fool would choose a profession in the church if the goal were to become rich
- become socially insignificant to care for the socially neglected
- in his later years, John Wesley developed the habit and inner clock to pause for the first five minutes of each hour to examine the hour past
One thing seems certain, I will not ever have a justifiable reason to say that I am bored this summer. I do, though, have plenty of reason to say that I miss people and camp and real hills and trees and roads that aren't squared.