Get to the Beach!

At least once a summer Bryan and I like to go to a concert in Memorial Park. We went last week. It was so pleasant to sit outside and listen to music. I even joined the conga line for a short time.

This week the church was loaned an organ for the East Room. It is an amazing instrument and a beautiful work of art. It took a few people to carry it into the church and reconstruct it.

Bryan and I got up early on Saturday to get to the beach before everyone else. If you live in Southern California you should get to the beach anytime you have a chance! At least, that is my motto. So we took our new beach chairs and had the most gorgeous view. We were home by noon.

Weekend

Bryan looks forward to his weekends to rest and play. My weekends have never been free time. So I try and scrunch in as much time as I can to be with Bryan. Usually the evenings are my time with Bryan. Friday night we went to dinner in downtown Claremont. Friday nights in the summer are called "Friday Nights Live." While we waited for a table we enjoyed the music of this band, consisting of seven women and one man.

Saturday night we did something we have been talking about for awhile. We went to Hollywood Forever Cemetery and watched the movie "The Jerk" on the mausoleum wall with about 2,500 of our closest friends. We brought down the average age there by a few years. It felt good to be outside and it was outrageous enough to be fun. Besides, I had forgotten how funny the movie "The Jerk" is.

Today I preached on Ehud and King Eglon in a sermon series I am doing called: "Is That Really in the Bible?" Four people joined the church. Then we had a special called Council Meeting to vote on a possible query concerning gender equality in Annual Conference elections. We passed the query on to District Conference without dissent. Then we had conversation about whether or not we are going to continue to send our benevolence money to the Mission and Ministry Board of the denomination or if we are going to hold it in a reserve account until we can have more conversation as a congregation. We eventually decided that we would follow the direction of the Church Board and have conversation and gather more information while we hold our denominational giving in a reserve account...for now. The meeting today pointed out the need for this intentional conversation. As someone said to me afterwards, all the arguments are coming from a commendable place. If we had voted today I think we would have had to choose between honoring people and programs at the denominational level we appreciate and honoring people in our denomination we love and who have been marginalized. I am praying that the chaos on the denominational level does not cause chaos for us as a congregation.

Friday and Saturday

The Program Staff took a few hours on Friday to get away and have a conversation about the future. I appreciate the chance to work with these people. They are thoughtful, authentic and genuine.

On Friday afternoon I was looking for the man in charge of our solar project. It seemed like the only way to find him was to climb onto the roof. I have never been on the Fellowship Hall roof before. As long as I was up there I decided to take a look around. I had a hard time getting down again. As the men on the roof explained, they don't usually allow anyone to climb the stairs to the roof who is wearing flip flops. Oops!

Today I went to the first birthday party of my brother's granddaughter. I had so much fun picking out her birthday presents: a polka dot dress and a pop-up book. She thoroughly enjoyed her cake. It was a pure pleasure to watch her.

She did quite a number on her cake.

Another Day in Kansas

Another day in Kansas and another gorgeous sunset....

...a horse...

...some elk...

...a good game of Scrabble with my favorite sister.

We went to Wichita and stopped at the bank on the way. Did you know that in Kansas you can carry a gun with you most any place? If a business doesn't want a gun on their premises they have to put up a sign in their window. We stopped at my sister's bank and I took a picture of their sign. They asked if I was making fun of them. I wouldn't say I was making fun of them but I am incredibly amazed at the state of Kansas.

Then we went to the Botanica Gardens. My sister's husband and son did some building for the Children's Garden. It was a most amazing place. You enter through the rainbow.

The larger than life bugs were works of art.

The concrete trees had personalities.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar took me back to my children's growing up years.

Dinner was with more of my sister's fabulous family.

I am grateful for family and for a relaxing day of respite.

Western Plains District Conference

I haven't written much on my blog this summer. But it is one my favorite things to do. I am going to try to do more of my favorite things!

I am in Kansas. I traveled here for the Western Plains District Conference. I don't usually go to other District Conferences but the Moderator asked me to bring the Sunday morning message. The theme was Until Christ is Formed in Us. The worship center was a picture of a laughing Jesus. If you looked closely enough you can see that it is made up of over 70 faces. It was incredible.

I left very early Friday morning so that I could land in Wichita by 2 p.m. My goal was to get to McPherson in time to take my father to the Ministers' Dinner. I made it. Then we went to evening worship. A hymn sing before worship was accompanied by accordion and guitar. It was fabulous. The Moderator, Bob Dell preached. He did a good job laying out the theme he had chosen for the weekend.

Saturday I didn't go to the Conference. I spent the evening with my sister and some of her family. I love being with family.

I find the sunsets in Kansas so amazing. I think it is the clouds and the wide open horizons. This picture was taken on my sister's farm.

Today is Sunday and I preached at the McPherson Church of the Brethren on Transformational Kinship. My sermon was inspired by Father Greg Boyle's sermon at ULV Baccalaureate this year. In his book Tattoos on the Heart, Boyle writes: "Serving others is good. It’s a start. But it is just the hallway that leads to the Grand Ballroom. Kinship—not serving the other, but being one with the other." I think the Brethren often get caught in the hallway of service. If we truly understood ourselves as kin we wouldn't have to talk about inclusion because there would be no "them."

After the sermon I found my father and told him I was proud to be his daughter. He said, "I am proud to be your father." Coming from a man that usually can only say the words yes, no and I don't know I felt overwhelmed to hear his words.