my oldest son showed me this puppet show of harry potter characters. it’s quite funny and sadly a little catchy.
minneapolis
yesterday was my whirlwind trip to minneapolis. the purpose was to buy the dinner table from ikea that pam has been wanting since our last trip over there. since i was going i thought i could visit a couple of churches that i was familiar with but had never really experienced. i went with the purpose of visiting hope community church and solomon’s porch but some where along the day i found out that i also had the opportunity to visit another church, jacob’s well, whose website looked interesting, and was only two blocks away from solomon’s porch (apparently there are several different churches in minneapolis named “jacob’s well”). it was a wonderful day of very diverse and yet very similar worship of our CREATOR.
so here are my thoughts on the churches:
hope community church
- tons of college students which hopefully will be similar to what the make up of tapestry will be. it was a wonderful vibe.
- there was a real excitement in the room – people were glad to be there.
- the music was incredible – i felt very connected to the group when we were singing
- the church was about more than a service – things the church was doing were brought up many times within the service (not in a marketing manner but in a “let’s be a part of the kingdom” type of thing) – i particularly loved the “older” members wanting to take care of the college students during their study time before finals.
- lots of involvement from the community of faith – i already knew steve, the lead pastor, from my assessment, so i knew that he’s a guy who doesn’t have to be the center of attention. still i was impressed when i didn’t see him “in front” of the church at all until the sermon came about. everything else was done by different people. i didn’t count how many people acted as leaders during the service but i know it was over five different people. it was definitely a service that came from the community of hope.
solomon’s porch
- tons of art that i am assuming came from the community of solomon’s porch – it was all good stuff but it didn’t feel like they had just randomly brought in people to do art for art’s sake. instead, all the art felt as though it was people from within the community trying to express their faith. there was a 7′ to 8′ model goose hanging from the ceiling – i’m not sure what it was expressing but i thought it best not to sit under it just in case it was equiped with the ability to “bomb” those beneath it.
- no announcements – the only thing i would have considered even close to an announcement was young lady at the end of the service who told the gathering of CHRISTmas lights being made by prison labor in china and our need to no support that with our finances – not really anything like an announcement. it was really nice to worship without being interrupted by what is usually just marketing. the announcements were in other forms throughout the building.
- i loved the couches that filled the room – the whole thing felt like a living room.
- it was stranger friendly – i wasn’t raised in church and therefore i get a little picky about churches doing “churchy things” and not even attempting to explain what’s going on. solomon’s porch explained everything. it was great.
- there are a lot of “power structures” set up within normal church buildings (pulpits separate the speaker from the people, microphones make one voice louder, etc.)- solomon’s porch didn’t have any of these and seemed to enjoy doing the opposite of what these power structures demand (for example, there were apparently two members of the community who are the “pronounce guys” for difficult words who would tell doug pagitt how he should pronounce those words – i don’t know many pastors that would be cool with that). it ws awesome.
jacob’s well
- i went to an evening service that they had apparently just begun and i missed the first 20 minutes of the service. i think i caught them on a bad night and so i won’t say anything other than the leadership team seemed to really love each other and i think that’s important.
there are actually many more wonderful things that i could say about hope community & solomon’s porch but i’m pretty tired from putting pam’s table together and therefore i am stopping for the night.
money
for the last few weeks i’ve been posting emails that i am sending to some young friends of mine for whom i am officiating their wedding ceremony. they are getting premarital counseling from a great guy who is geographically closer than i am but i still felt like i would be remiss if i didn’t make sure a few things were covered. i’m actually 99% sure that the counselor will cover this stuff but i would rather send a useless email than not have some things covered.
anyhow, here’s the fourth email.
hello again guys. i write this to you from a warm coffee shop with 10″ of snow outside the door. wow, life is tough! i hope things are going great for both of you and that the ceremony plans are going well but aren’t completely taking over the your holiday season. just think next year you will celebrate our SAVIOR’s birth as a new family.
anyway thus far i have emailed you concerning what i view as the purpose of marriage, relational defaults, and how to fight. now let’s talk about money.
according to many marriage counselors and studies money is reason numero uno for divorce. it’s a big deal and therefore, as a soon to be married young couple you really need to deal with it. i’m going to just hit on a couple of issues (the first being the most important) and encourage you to read some books on personal finance for more in depth advice. there are some excellent sources out there. just like my belief that the couple that works hard at their marriage will have a successful marriage, i also believe that the individual/couple who works at controlling their finances will be successful at it.
1. you should determine your lifestyle rather than your money determining it
the majority of people live the way they do because of the amount of income they have. that’s why there is not a great deal of difference between the savings rate of the highest and lowest earners in america. in my opinion it’s pretty easy to determine who your god is if your lifestyle is determined by how much much you make. i.e. you should control your money rather than it controlling you. what this means is that you should determine how much it will cost you to live (i.e. a budget – insurance, school, food, transportation, clothing, housing, entertainment, etc.) and then live off that rather than just spending based however much you have in your checking account. if you control your money you will soon find that you will have saved money that you can then use to do whatever GOD directs you to do. this is actually why i believe the tithe is so important – not because GOD needs our money, because HE doesn’t – rather it is because it helps us to always determine who we put our trust in – the amount of money we have or the LORD WHO longs for us to acknowledge HIS LORDship.2. know how each other operates monetarily
it is exceptionally important that you both sit down and talk about each of your attitudes toward money, spending, debt, and savings. the chances that you will both naturally agree on everything is basically nil. you have both gone through families that had their own unique views and understandings of money. you are both coming into your marriage with those views (either ones that you saw in your parents and decided you liked or ones that you saw in your parents and you decided you wanted to avoid). having different views is actually a good thing because it will help to balance out your marriage rather than allowing it to swing to one side or the other (hoarding and gluttony are both things that a CHRISTian should avoid). you need to understand where each of you is coming from. the worst thing that can happen is that you don’t talk about these things and then assume that the other person agrees. one of you may have a tendency to penny and dime money away much more than the other. one of you may have an inherent fear of debt while the other has no problem with it. one of you may prefer generic items while the other has a psychological need for brands (and this could just be on certain items). know each other and then correct what you both believe needs to be corrected and understand the rest. communication is key here. talk it all out.3. begin saving now
i’ll mention retirement in a moment. what i’m talking about right now is just developing the habit of regularly saving money. this doesn’t necessarily mean money that you never touch (consider that retirement money). rather, what i mean is consistently placing money aside for when needs arise (and they will) or opportunities arise (i believe you will be more open to seeing the needs around that GOD wants you to met when you have been consistently saying “no” to random luxuries and wastes within your own life). establish a savings account and start placing money from every check into this account. this will be your first option when an emergency arises.4. credit is not evil – but it’s close.
credit is a very easy way to get the things that your parents spent years gathering (i.e. matching furniture, etc). it is also an easy way to get into a great deal of trouble. i’m sure as college students you have already experienced how easy it is to get credit. that’s not necessarily a bad thing. credit has it’s place, but please approach the use of it with fear and trembling. the credit card companies are not out to help you. if anything they want to reduce you to the status of indentured servants. use credit as a very last resort and use “i don’t need that” as your first resort if at all possible. don’t believe the “same as cash” and “no interest” statements because these are merely lures and we all know what happens to a fish when it bites at a passing “lure.” if you are entering your marriage with debt (on either side) bring it out into the open and establish a plan now for getting rid of that debt.5. start retirement as early as you possibly can.
at your age compounding interest is your friend. if at all possible you both should start setting aside a little money for retirement. if you do this at your age you will be amazed at how quickly it will grow. the reason for this is compounding interest. it will make a huge difference if you start early and very little difference if you start late. so start early.it’s homework time! since we have just spent time talking about controlling money within our lives (actually i’m the only one talking but we can pretend) i’m going to recommend brown bagging it this time. make a meal (almost always much cheaper than buying one). make it a good meal (still usually cheaper) and go some where scenic and talk about how you each approach money.
- talk about what fears and assumptions you have concerning money and how you approach it.
- talk about what expenses and income you will have.
- together develop a budget. you won’t really know if you can live on this budget until you’ve tracked expenses for a couple of money but start off with it anyway. then when you’ve been married for a couple of months, and you’ve tracked your expenses, redo your budget and really look into how you are spending the income you have.
my run for the day
- distance – 3.0 miles
time – 27:43
pace – 9:15/mile
weather – 18°/snow
this morning
this was the temperature this morning. oh yeah -8°. that was at our house at 8:25 a.m.
yaktrax
when it started snowing last week i stopped running. it has been slick enough on the roads and sidewalks when i was just walking my dogs and i was not real excited about the thought of actually running on that stuff. so i stopped. it seemed like a reasonable solution to me. of course, we’re probably going to have a pretty good amount of snow around here and i really want to be ready when jim and jill come up here to run the green bay marathon (my brother-n-law and his wife are, to quote my 13 year old, “beast mood” and therefore i need to be in shape when they get up here). this means that i need to train and training means that i need to run.
i mentioned my problem to one of the guys that i play basketball with and he immediately sent me after yaktrax. these thing a combination of rubber bands and metal springs. i guess they work pretty much like tire chains for your feet. all i know is that they work. i’ve run 6 miles in them now and have felt safe during ever stride.
icicle?
have you ever wondered what an icicle falling through your window sounds like? well it apparently sounds exactly like a cat pushing a one liter glass jar half full of lose change off a 5′ tall chest of drawers at 5 a.m. while you are asleep.
actually, i have no idea what an icicle falling through your window sounds like but i know exactly what the cat pushing the jar of change off the 5′ tall chest at 5 a.m. sounds like and i know that when we were jarred (no pun intended) awake by that sound pam and i both thought that an icicle had just busted through one of our windows.
i hate cats.
my run for the day
- distance – 3.0 miles
time – 28:04
pace – 9:22/mile
weather – 10°/snow
terror ice
mailboxes are not supposed to be scary. that’s pretty much a rule. if you look up the operating code of the us postal service i would bet money that one of the rules you will find within the volumes of bureaucratic red tape is one saying “mailboxes are not supposed to be scary.” i’m sure of it.
of course, no one told my mailbox this rule.
last night while i was shoveling out a place in the snow for my trash can to sit in (yes friends in baton rouge that’s what you have to do when you have a 3 foot berm of snow where your garbage can is supposed to sit) i noticed that there was about 10″ of snow on top of our mailbox. since i had a snow shovel in my hand and i like to be kind to postal workers i decided that i would remove the snow from the top of the mail box. that way when the postman (or woman) went to put letters into the terrell family box he (or she) would be pleased to not have any shaken snow fall unto his (or her) hand. i personally think it’s always a smart idea to be nice to your postal worker. that way when they end up “going postal” they will have pleasant thoughts of you and at the very least give you a running start.
anyway, i tried to move it with my gloved hand but it turns out that the snow had melted a little and had snowed from 10″ of snow to 10″ of ice block. so i decided to use the shovel to push the ice/snow off the mailbox. that’s when the shovel hit the latch and accidentally opened the the door of the mailbox.
i really had no idea that huge vampire bats like to hang out in mailboxes. did you?
when the door of the mail box opened up a HUGE vampire bat came flying out right at my face. i know it was huge because i wouldn’t have been scared of a small bat … and i was scared. i was also able to discern that it was a vampire bat because it went for my neck, obviously to attack me and get a free meal. thanks to my “matrix“-like moves i was able to dodge the bat’s attack. since i still had the snow shovel in my hand i quickly went into my own attack mood. this bat was going to pay. vengeance is mine saith the robert!
apparently the bat sensed my mad skills with the snow shovel because it had already flown off by the time i started swinging and thereby escaped harm. lucky for the bat. my mailbox on the other hand wasn’t able to fly away and i promise you it will never be the same. i hit it enough to make sure that it knows whom it serves. my mailbox will never betray me and host a killer vampire bat again.
my run for the day
- distance – 3.0 miles
time – 28:19
pace – 9:27/mile
weather – 19°/snow
december prayer email
white CHRISTmas
yes the terrell family had it’s norman rockwell day today. last night it snowed 10″. since we haven’t been around snow in seven years the dogs, the kids, and pam and i went outside and had a snow ball fight. it was a blast. i think some of the most fun was watching the basset hounds go from hating the snow to loving the snow in a matter of 15 minutes. after an afternoon of playing in the snow we drove about 20 minutes to a CHRISTmas tree farm in the area. the farm was a “cut your own” farm that had a guy in a santa costume, hot chocolate, a hayride, lots of CHRISTmas music and the view of the farm was from the other side of a frozen lake – very cool. since we have a valuted ceiling in our living room we were able to get the largest CHRISTmas tree that pam and i have ever had. it’s at least 10′ tall. the tree is huge. an added benefit was that every tree over 5′ at this farm is only $25. woohoo.
frostbite
today was the 2007 frostbite race. it’s a 5 & 10 mile race through the wintry streets of stevens point. i haven’t run over three milers since injuring my calf. therefore, i thought this was as good of a way to begin training for a marathon again as any. of course, when i signed up i didn’t know the race would take place during the first winter storm of the season. the guys and girls running the 10 mile race had ice beards by the time they got back in. it was immensely cool (or cold depending upon how you think of it).
my run for the day
- distance – 5 miles
time – 58:11
pace – 11:39/mile