Month: March 2010

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tenebrae – 4.2.2010

tenebrae-facebook

for the second year in a row tapestry will be having a tenebrae worship gathering. here’s how i sum up the tenebrae in the bulletin this week.

The Tenebrae is an ancient CHRISTian worship service that helps worshipers reflect deeply on the sufferings and death of Christ for us and our salvation. "Tenebrae" means "darkness" or "shadow." Tenebrae uses candles, scripture, singing, and darkness to help us prepare for Easter.

basically it is a worship gathering that is composed of 7 candles, a lot of scripture, a few songs, and darkness. it was very moving last year. actually last year’s tenebrae was when people involved in tapestry started being called “threads.”here’s the facebook event page if you want to say you are coming.

the thing i am most excited about this year is that we will be doing it in the garage at emy j’s. those of you who know me understand that i love emy j’s. it’s an important place to me and to tapestry. most of the very important conversations that have been a part of tapestry coming about took place in emy j’s. the uwsp encore room was awesome last year. i think this year could be even better.

btw, i’m looking for people to read scripture during the tenebrae so if you are interested contact me.

SIDE NOTE – i’ve recently realized that i will most likely never again be a part of a church that has an easter pageant and i am thrilled about that. i have some friends that i love who think pageants are the great thing ever. i don’t necessarily think there is anything wrong with pageants. it’s just that they have never been something i enjoyed or felt passionate about. thankfully i can’t really ever see tapestry feeling comfortable with doing a pageant.

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random thoughts at 11:11 on a tuesday night

  • integrity insurance/granger insurance, the insurance company of the man who hit my car last week, has decided to total my car and after their calculations they think it is generous to offer me a grand total of $1,042 for my car or $700 if i keep it. this seems like a complete cheat to me (and the others i have discussed this with). now i have to determine how i respond to them and what i do next. i think i’ll begin by saying that i will most definitely never be a client of integrity/granger. i’m quite unimpressed with them and wouldn’t want them as my insurance company. i hope none of you use them or are ever hit by one of their clients.
  • i sent my xbox 360 in for repairs today. it developed 3 red lights and then started freezing. it’s past the machine’s warranty but it appears that 3 red lights usually equals a free repair. we’ll see. anyhow on a lark i’m buying a used original xbox from a friend who sells vintage game consoles and i am considering running xbmc on it. i’ve never run xbmc so if anyone has any experience with installing it on an xbox i’m all ears.
  • pam and i just watched 3/23’s episode of “lost” – interesting. i’ve been a little disappointed with this season until this episode. like i said … interesting.
  • i also just caught up on this season’s “24” – c.t.u. must purposefully go out and recruit traitors. it seems like every season there is another person inside the agency working for the bad guys. how many times can this happen? thus far it has happened around 9 times. i would have ditched the show a long time ago except for jack bauer killing everything in sight. every now and then  i feel like i get a little closer to being a pacifist but somehow  i still enjoy watching jack do his thing – but i sure do hope we don’t have any agents like him.
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island of misfit toys

islandofmisfittoys

this week i’ve heard a couple of different people say things about tapestry that have made me smile. one of these was meant as a compliment (though some wouldn’t think so) and the other wasn’t really meant as a compliment but i’m taking it that way because it thrilled me. the only one i’m going to talk about is the one that was meant as a compliment.

a person who has been a part of tapestry for a few months made the following statement, “we’re a church of misfits.” i love this statement. i know some people would not want their church described as a bunch of misfits but i think it is great.

i’ve recently been thinking of the church as similar to the island of misfit toys. if you remember the rudolph the reindeer tv special then you know that the island of misfit toys is an island that defective and unwanted toys went to. it’s where the “rejects” went to develop a community. again i know this sounds a little negative but it’s not.

King_Moonracer you see i believe that the scripture teaches that we are all a little screwed up. we’ve messed up, we’ve done stupid things, and pretty much not gotten it right. we’re not the perfect ones. we are not the ones who have it all together. instead we are the ones who recognize that we are desperately in need of someONE to claim us and call us HIS own. yep we’re a church that is made up of a bunch of misfits but i’m thrilled to be a part of a group of misfits because the LION OF JUDAH loves to claim professed misfits. HE chooses the ones that admit they are misfits, alone, and in need. it’s what HE does.

i actually feel sorry for the churches that are not made up of misfits.

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the week in tweets – 2010-03-21

  • happy pi day! i hope we have pie at tapestry tonight but i'm not in charge of that so i have no say in the matter. still pie would be nice. #
  • every time i try to kiss pam a kid gets in the way. this is getting old! #
  • @joecausey i agree with @meganckelly on you off days. of course, that probably doesn't make it any better for you. #
  • @dhaltom7 – WOOHOO!!!! in reply to dhaltom7 #
  • @theboy1der-oh! painting with mid schoolers is great for the 1st day and maybe the 2nd. past that i want to kill them 🙂 anything but paint. in reply to theboy1der #
  • Standing in line at Belt's to bring ice cream home to the fam. I hope they appreciate it. #
  • @adkinsoncpa – i gladly would in reply to adkinsoncpa #
  • my car was hit by a drunk driver tonight while i was driving home. i'm fine, he's healthy but arrested, and my car is mediocre. #
  • @allisonrichmond – thanks allison in reply to allisonrichmond #
  • 1st contact with WI state troopers concerning the wreck monday and they were quickly helpful. thus far i'm very impressed with WI patrol. #
  • i just got the accident report and it turns out the guy who hit me wasn't just a little buzzed. BAC of .14 almost twice the legal limit. #
  • my bracket is pretty much over now. how could kansas and villanova both lose? #
  • UWSP wins 3rd division iii basketball championship in 7 years.! WOOHOO! #

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i want to watch this

my undergraduate schooling is in business management and psychology. i remember reading the study the above “show” was based on while studying at the great school of the university of south alabama (go jaguars!!). it’s pretty famous. it’s called the milgram experiment and was meant to study how far people would follow authority when crossing the lines of their conscience. this isn’t really a show but a documentary study. too bad it’s in france. hopefully it will show up on youtube.

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just courage

just courage yesterday i finished listening to just courage: GOD’s great expedition for the restless CHRISTian by gary haugen. i’ve been listening to it on my daily runs for the past few days and it was so interesting that i found myself running a little longer each day just to hear more of the book. i have loved the international justice mission for years and thus was familiar with haugen already. i’ve heard him speak several times and thus i knew that he could tell a good and meaningful story but i didn’t know how he was as a writer. turns out he’s a pretty good author.

“just courage” is full of rationale and inspiration for those who wish to walk in the way of JESUS. if you want to understand the need for social justice in the world in regards to practical and real slavery in the world then read this book. haugen tells the stories of many who were stuck in the sex trade and indentured servitude. he also tell the stories of many who have been involved in helping this inidviduals reach freedom. finally haugen gives a ton of suggestions on how anyone can get involved in freeing those who are enslaved.

an added benefit to this audiobook for me was that it was one of CHRISTianaudio.com’s free books a few months ago. WOOHOO!

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1st wisconsin accident would have to involve a owi

IMG_2049

the above photo is the result of my ride home from the tapestry small group study meeting i’m a part of at emy j’s on monday nights. after the study i stopped by belt’s to bring home some ice cream flurries for the family and then hit the road for the 6 mile journey home. about 2 miles from my house the guy driving slightly ahead of me in the left lane (i was in the right) turned on his blinker to turn left, slowed down, missed his turn and suddenly swerved into the right lane with me. it really wasn’t much of an accident and i felt pretty good about the whole thing because he was saying it was his fault and his girlfriend who he was driving to pick up and had been standing there saw the whole thing, and also freely admitted that the whole thing was his fault. so we both made sure everyone was okay, called the cops, and waited for the plover police to show up. a state trooper was there in about 2 minutes (not sure why a trooper showed up for a plover accident) and he quickly got us both to filling out the needed paperwork. i finished mine and started to walk over to the officer and exchange insurance and such with the other driver. when i got over there the trooper was giving the guy a field sobriety test and asked me to head back over to my car.

i’ve never seen an owi accident handled before but apparently it is very different from a normal accident. once i handed my form to the officer he told me i wouldn’t have a citation from the accident (i.e. it was the other guy’s fault) and that he would not be able to stay and help me change my tire because he was having to take the other driver into custody. the trooper told me that all the information i needed, including their insurance, would be on the accident report in a day or two but that he needed to take the gentleman in now. i don’t have his name, insurance or anything. it all felt pretty weird to me but when i called our insurance company they said it was all good.

the thing is i ended up trying to make the girlfriend (a lady probably 10 years older than me) feel better about the situation. it was all pretty rough on her. i know the guy was above the legal limit only because he was arrested and i know and believe that he shouldn’t have been driving while above the limit. still i didn’t think he was driving that bad before he made that sudden swerve (which obviously would be classified as a poor decision and therefore is why you shouldn’t drive when you’ve been drinking). according to the girlfriend the guy had gone for a ride on his bike (because we’ve had gorgeous weather), had a few drinks, and then got an unexpected call from the girlfriend saying she had finished work earlier than planned and needed him to pick her up. he had not planned on driving. he should have said he couldn’t pick her up because of the drinks. yet i’m sure he thought he was close to being under the legal limit and therefore thought he could chance it. what harm would come from it?

it was a small choice and i feel real sorry for the guy who hit me tonight. more than anything else i’m real thankful that neither one of us was hurt.

apparently wisconsin has more owi’s than any other state in the nation. you know something is up when one happens on a monday night at 8:30 p.m.

anyway i’m apparently carless for a few days. even though the damage is slight (look at the above photo) when i went to change the flat tire i discovered that thanks to the accident my flat tire was now stuck on the braking mechanism. therefore, i’m not able to remove the tire from the wheelbase in order to put the spare on. i’ll have to wait for the insurance company to find out what else is wrong with it.