200th Post! Help Me Name the Cat...

Hi all-

This past weekend I found myself at a veterinarian hospital, run/walking a 5K at 8am on Saturday, trying some sorghum for the first time, worshiping with Wewoka and in attempt to keep my mind off some things, seeing High School Musical 3 at the local 2 screen movie theater.

Exciting huh?

To begin, I have a cat I guess. I say this because this little girl has decided she is going to live with me and I am finding it hard to refuse her. But this little kitten (she's about 7-8 months old the vet thinks) was a little sick when she came meowing at my door- so I wound up taking her to the vets to get treated, she had roundworm or something like that. She has been taking care of and is on antibiotics. She is also very, very lovable, cuddly, follows me around the entire house and thinks EVERYTHING is a toy, including wires, my fingers, paper, chapstick, my thumbdrive, to name a few... Since she seems to be staying around (unless any of you out there want an adorable little girl kitten???) I need to give her a name, and none seem to be sticking, so... what do you think? Here are a couple of photos of her....

Saturday was Wewoka'a annual Sorhum Days festival which included a 5K fun run at the start of the day. A group from the church wanted to do the run in honor/memory of John Lively, their pastor who died in August, so I joined them for the morning.

After that I stuck around for the parade and to see what the festival was all about. I tried sorghum for the first time, warmed and on fried bread- which is an Indian version of a pancake sort of- I don't know- the bread was good, the sorghum, not so much. It was a nice little festival with demonstrations of frontier living and Native American heritage. I am glad to have been a part of it, despite being sore the rest of the day. Yesterday church went well and in the evening I decided to go see a movie- and since I saw Max Pane last week, my other choice was HSM3. It was cute, cheesy, very well choreographed- those kids can dance- and very Disney, not a bad way to spend a Sunday night I guess....

Well that's it for now. More to come soon I am sure.

Grace and Peace-
C

Another day of softball defeat...

Hi all-

Just getting settled in after another glorious stomping in softball- in the last game I got walked... which was the only time I actually made it on base tonight. Oh well- it's good fun usually.

Let's see... So there is this kitten that has decided that I am to take care of it, and that weekend I was in Louisville, the church folks here had a two day yard sale and well, they encouraged this kitten being here, so now, for the time being, it looks as if I have a cat. I think though I have found it a more permanent home, which would be good, although she really has a very sweet and playful demeanor, loves to cuddle...

On Saturday I needed to go to Oklahoma City to take care of a few errands and decided to tour the Museum that honors/remembers the OKC bombing incident in 95 that killed 168 people and destroyed the Murrah Federal building. It was a moving experience, really well done I think, powerful. You are not allowed to take pictures inside the museum but you can of all the outdoor memorial stuff- so here are a few pix from that experience...

Top picture is the reflecting pool that used to be a road by the federal building. The second are individually cast bronze chairs that stand for the people who died, in the place where the building once stood. And finally, a beautiful statue of Jesus weeping across the street.

Anyways, hope you are doing well.

Take care,
C

Louisville

Ok,

so here is my sum up of the Company of New Pastors National Gathering in Louisville, KY: (which is why I was in KY if I didn't already mention that)...

It was great to get away and catch up with some of my friends at the conference- which was the big draw for me to go, that and to see the PC(USA) headquarters. It worked out that our group all arrived at the Louisville airport at roughly the same time so we were all able to take the shuttle to the hotel together. Since we had a few hours before the actual event started most of us decided to walk about the city and go exploring a bit. Some how we wound up on 4th Street at their touristy bar district and so we wound up having a pint at The Pub. After a while we meandered back to the hotel and got ready to walk down to the Presbyterian Center. There, they divided us all up and we "mingled" over dinner with various other folks- at my table there were students from Columbia, Union, Fuller and Pittsburgh- and the Stated Clerk of the General Assembly- or- as it turns out- the top dog apparently of this church... I think... he's full-time where as Bruce and Byron still have their churches, so I think Grady is it.... anyways... after that there were some speeches and introductory stuff followed by evening prayer. Then we were free to go for the night. So,... we wound up back on 4th St and caught up with two recent graduates of APTS, the Kemp-Pappans, and hung out with them for a bit.

(This is exciting stuff, I know)... The next day we met again for plenaries, worship, prayers, meals and workshops with a few hours in the afternoon off for down time. Melissa and I used this time to explore downtown a little further and walked on the riverfront, went into this crazy fancy hotel and somehow wound up at an Indian Festival. We topped off our "International" tour with a stop at a Mexican restaurant for sopipias and drinks. On Sunday we gathered once more for group processing and worship (with Communion!!!). then- back to the hotel, pack, and leave. A couple of us had earlier flights than the others and we went to the airport ridiculously early because the receptionist said that it was going to be busy... it wasn't. So we watched football at the airport until it was time to board.

Anyways, here are some pictures...

so I added a feed thingy

I am not entirely sure what a feed is but it is now added to the site... on the left hand side by the other connectivity stuff (subscribe to atom thing)... I think it works to let you all know when I post something new so you don't have to keep checking randomly.

Also- we played softball again tonight- the second game in the rain. The first one we lost by 30 runs... We did better in the rain. Only lost by 6 then. Rainy and messy and a lot more fun.

Tomorrow I will put up a couple of pix from Louisville...

pics of Wewoka

Hi all-

As I said I would earlier, here are some pix of Wewoka, one of the churches I am currently serving... (tomorrow I will update on Kentucky and what not)...

little things...

Hi all-
So... what's been going on since the last post? Well... church, softball, and dvds... First off, church (and all things related): We had another Bible study tonight- I think it's going well- it's hard to tell sometimes- but then what we are doing is a little uncomfortable I think, (examining our prayer lives and therefore who God is and who we are in relationship to God). Last night we had a marathon session meeting at Wewoka which had lots of interesting dynamics to it, none of which I will go into, sufficient to say that the church is beginning the process of calling a pastor. I preached at Cheyarha this past Sunday and then had lunch with some of the members- lectionary text (Matthew) I think that also went well. Other than that, just trying to show up to the things that matter to the members (which meant going to the Sorghum pageant where one of the teenagers from Wewoka was crowned Miss Sorghum!)
Softball--- Well, since I moved the Bible study to Thursday nights- I am now able to join the Presbyterians (that's the name of our team- formed by Wewoka) for the games on Tuesday nights. Which meant I found myself playing third base this past Tuesday thinking most of the time what in the hell am I doing? It has been 19 years since I played softball- and let me tell you 12 and 13 year old girls are a lot less intimidating then grown men who could be line backers stepping up to the plate and running towards the bag you are covering... I'm just saying...
But it went all right I guess. In the first game I struck out first time up at bat- chasing the ball- I knew better but couldn't stop myself. Our team lost... badly... 15 to 2 was the final score. However in our 8:30 game we did a lot better... I even got on base once or twice. We wound up winning the second game 22-12. Yay. (and apparently we lost to the second team the week before). So, we ended on a good note.
Thirdly- so two DVDs came out recently that I have been jonesing for, Iron Man and How I Met Your Mother Season 3- so I have acquired them recently as well as a few others- stupid video store had to be having one of those buy two get two free sales that I seem to find too hard to resist... which means that when I am not doing church stuff, playing (or practicing) softball or reading a book (which I have also been doing a lot of) I have been watching DVDs...
That's life in Seminole.
Tomorrow I get to head up to Louisville for Company of New Pastors conference of which I am super psyched about- get to see my seminary friends (well some of them) and be in a different place for a little while... It's going to be legend-dairy... Yeah.
I do have some pix of the other church (Wewoka) that I am serving this fall- I will add them after the trip.
Hope you are all well.
C