hello

sure has been a while, eh?

went disc golfing with a friend from church, Rich, Sunday night (had to go out and do something worthwhile after watching the Lions get trounced), and we took our sons along. Rich had never gone dic golfing before, so it was fun teaching him. he picked it up like a natural, and shot par on the last two holes. beautiful evening - the course was packed. Colin and Conner (Rich's son) had a great time caddying for us (which mainly involved swinging fallen branches at each other and the ground).

meeting with some of the other clergy in Milan tomorrow morning...looking forward to seeing them after a long summer break.

flying & vacation

Arnie (one of the pilots in our church) rented out a piper warrior, and took me flying thursday evening. a spectacularly beautiful evening for flying. sky dotted with small clouds, sun setting, humidity haze hanging on the horizon. we flew from KARB (the ann arbor airport) to KJXN (the jackson airport). Arnie has a lot of experience as a flight instructor, and let me do basically everything except set the radios and talk to the control towers. i started up the plane, taxied to the runway, did the run-up tests, took off, flew to jackson and landed, taxied to parking, and turned off the engine. it wasn't the smoothest landing (i flared a little too much and we floated before coming down with a slight bump), but no harm done. we grabbed some boston cream pie and ice teas at the jackson airport restaurant, and Arnie gave me some pointers to implement on the way back. we flew back to the ann arbor area, where we flew over the church and our neighborhood. here's a pic i snapped from maybe 1000 ft above the ground:




















Ronni heard the plane overhead, got Colin out of bed, and they stood in our back yard waving at us...I snapped some pictures, but they were a little too blurry to post.

if you've never been up in a small plane, this short video i took might give you a sense of it... (you'll need the quicktime plugin from apple to see it, i think):















we're leaving in the morning for our family vacation - up to long lake with Mom, Dad, Grace, Amy, Ben, and Nick, then to Mackinaw Island for a couple of days, and then to the Washington, D.C. area. we'll be back before the first weekend in august. if i come across some internet cafes, i'll see about doing a litte blogging while we're away.

it's funny, as much as i'm looking forward to being on vacation, i'm sure going to miss being at church. i met with Al, Cathy, and Steve (the people who are speaking the weekends we're away) yesterday, and they've got some awesome messages in the cooker. at least i'll be able to catch them on CD when i get back. then Ronni showed me the songs the worship team learned at rehearsal this week, songs that Manny and the team will be leading over the next couple of weeks. great tunes! can't wait to hear them. plus, compassion ministry is approaching 1 million lbs given away since it's inception 8 years ago, and preparations are in full swing for a celebration to give thanks to God for his faithfulness and allowing us to play. hopefully, i'll be able to be back before the actual milestone hits.

driving range

Colin and i went to the driving range last night. for the first time, he had the patience to learn how to properly hold the club, line up his feet, keep his head down, rotate his hips, etc. he sure is a natural...you can see the video by clicking on the picture below - i think it will play right within your browser (my first attempt at uploading a video from my cameraphone; we'll see how it goes):

wonder, part 11

Ronni and i were married 11 years ago today, in rockwood, mi. my dad performed the ceremony, and in his nervousness (which is funny, come to think of it, because i don't ever recall seeing him nervous before or since) forgot the whole "you may now kiss the bride part" and tried to send us off for the recessional. as the music began to play and people began to cheer, i turned around to him and asked, "don't i get to kiss her?" we all had a good laugh, Dad delivered the forgotten lines, and the rest is becoming history...

in honor of our 11th anniversary, and in light of the previous post, here's a poem i wrote for my bride a couple of years ago. it's entitled wonder. doesn't do her justice, not even close. nonetheless, here it is.

wonder
like a harvest moon
hanging in the heavens
filling my view

or a bright sunrise
(politely)
interrupting the clouds
dancing on the rain

you’re more than anyone expects
most of all me

wonder

watched the Milan fireworks from the backyard tonight...Elle got too tired to stay at the Livingstons where Ronni and Colin watched with the Brennans, the Grays, Amy Lozen, Brett and his kids, and of course the Livingstons. so while Elle slept, i watched and listened. it was cool to hear the whole city cheering when it was over...joy and approval in surround sound, most of it concentrated in the south, towards the river, but claps and whistles from every direction, rising up to the heavens. a beautiful night, too, the moon hanging majestically, serenely looking on. could have sworn i caught a hint of a smile on it's face.

when i came inside, i found this video. breathtaking, for me. then again, i'm a sucker for wonder.

one of those lists

currently reading:
simply christian, by N.T. Wright
a generous orthodoxy, by Brian McLaren
masters of chaos: a secret history of the special forces, by Linda Robinson
good to great, by Jim Collins
ephesians, by Paul

magazines in my bathroom:
wired
rollingstone
flying
leadership

most recent albums:
saeglopur, by Sigur Ros
dusk and summer, by Dashboard Confessional
everything glorious, by the Passion Worship Band
time without consequence, by Alexi Murdoch
walking it out, by Matt McCoy
under the iron sea, by Keane
this new day, by Embrace
all from you, by Vineyard UK
surprise, by Paul Simon

recent theater films:
superman returns
x3

on my shelf from intelliflix:
the exorcism of emily rose

recreation:
soccer
basketball
fifa world cup '06 (360)
table tennis (360)
foosball

devotional:
one year bible (NIV)
the divine hours: prayers for summertime (compiled by Phyllis Tickle)
paul for everyone, by Tom Wright

homepage:
http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm

poem:

the dove descending breaks the air
with flame of incandescent terror
of which the tongues declare
the one discharge from sin and error.
the only hope, or else despair
lies in the choice of pyre or pyre -
to be redeemed from fire by fire.

who then devised the torment? love.
love is the unfamiliar Name
behind the hands that wove
the intolerable shirt of flame
which human power cannot remove.
we only live, only suspire
consumed by either fire or fire.

T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding, IV

4th of July

technically, it's the 4th as i begin this post, but functionally it's still the 3rd for me, here at 12:58 a.m. big lightning storm going on outside, mixed with various local fireworks displays. strange combination, in that you have to wait for thunder (or the lack thereof) before you can tell what caused the curtains to glow.

played some foosball with Colin this morning, and then taught him to play the table tennis game on the xbox360. he was actually pretty decent at the table tennis; still a little too short to be very effective at foosball, though. then he and i went to IKEA to get a bookshelf and some lights. unbelieveably busy out there today, but we had a great time together listening to Bill Cosby CD's in the van as we drove. he loves helping me build stuff, so he handed me dowels and shelves and we assembled it this afternoon before my chiropractic appointment.

played some soccer out at the church fields with Ross, Mark, and Robert - mainly just practiced penalty kicks since there were only the 4 of us. then we came back to our house and played a little FIFA World Cup on the 360 before calling it a night.

in an interesting coincidence, Steve Yzerman (heart and soul of Detroit's professional hockey team, the Red Wings) announced his retirement today and Ben Wallace (heart and soul of Detroit's professional basketball team, the Pistons) announced he's leaving the Pistons and signing with the Bulls. Yzerman's glory won't fade in the city, that's for sure. but Big Ben's? hard to tell. too bad. remarkable how much boils down to finishing well. sure hope i do. by the grace of God.

anzubetvergnügen, frappucinovergnügen, foosballvergnügen

the title of this post, loosely constructed in German, loosely tranlated: the joy of worship, the joy of frappucinos and the joy of foosball (remember Volkswagon's fahrvergnügen ad campaign, meaning the joy of driving?)

the worship team was kickin' it today at church - feel so lucky to get to go to church with great musicians. Ronni took the chorus of the opening song, "come, now is the time to worship" and spliced it into the end of the opening set - "come, just as you are... come, just as you are..." over and over, transforming a lyric that in the original context is an exhortation for us to come to God's presence just as we are, into an invitation to God to dwell among us just as he is (not that he'd ever come any other way). beautiful.

after church i watched the kids (they were napping most of the time, so don't give me too much credit) while Ronni went and hung out at Starbucks for a while. she returned with a carmel frappucino for me, and a ping pong game for the 360. what a deal, eh? beautiful.

this evening, my dad came over, along with a cool guy named D. (short for Devonathon) who'd needed a place to stay for the weekend (which worked out well at my parents this weekend, since my mom and Grace are in Virginia Beech). D. and my dad helped me build the foosball table Ronni and the kids got me for father's day a couple of weeks ago. we did everything wrong, twice, and it took three times as long as it should have, but we miraculously remained in good spirits throughout the ordeal, and ended up being able to get a few games in before calling it a night. just a couple of less consequential pieces are missing, so i'll call the manufacturer tomorrow, and hopefully they'll ship them out to me.

looking forward to playing with some of my friends (and Colin as he grows) in the days and weeks to come. maybe someday i'll get good enough to beat my Uncle Kit. in my 35 years of life, i've never beat him singlehandedly, and almost never 2 on 1. even if i don't get substantially better, i'm figuring his reflexes will have to slow down when he hits 100 or so, and then i'll have a chance. not that my 85 year old reflexes will be much better than his at that point. gives me something to shoot for, though.

this past week, part 2

picking up from the previous post...

wednesday was filled with meetings, and i had my first workout at the rec center in at least a month. that felt good, for sure. went to my sister Grace's ballet recital in the evening, with Ronni, Colin, and Elle. she was awesome, as usual. didn't get to catch her afterwards, as she had to jet (literally) to Virginia Beach for the Nationals Field Hockey tournament. my mom sent this picture from her match today (Grace is the one slicing up the middle of the field, leaving frustrated defenders in her wake):





















more meetings at church on thursday, followed by some study of Ephesians for the summer of love message series at church. thursday evening we went over to the Brennan's for dinner, where we hung out with Rich, Andrea, Conner, and Haylie, and we met Vladimir, Sarah, and their daughter Dasha (sp?). Vladimir is from Khazakstan, so it was fascinating talking with him about his homeland and his experiences here. we had a great time, and left Colin there for a sleepover with Conner. it was strange to be at home with only Ronni and Elle. Ronni and I realized some portion of every day will be like that come next fall, when Colin starts kindergarden.

friday worked on writing the sermon for the sunday, and went to see Superman Returns in IMAX 3D with Phil, Don, and John. thoroughly enjoyable film, especially the 3d parts. sometimes i think to myself, how lucky am i to be alive in 2006? speaking of 2006, Phil and I played two epic FIFA World Cup 2006 matches between China and Germany after the movie over xbox live. both went into penalty kicks, one won by me, one by Phil. what a great piece of software that is.

saturday, finished up the semon and put the multimedia together in the morning. installed some motion sensor porch lights in the early afternoon, and went to Phil's birthday party in the evening, where we had much fun socializing, watching world cup soccer, and playing more FIFA World Cup. Set everything up at church for the morning, and now here i am typing...

this past week, part 1

just got home from Phil's birthday party, where Mark threatened to take me off his blogroll if i didn't post soon. point taken. posting in process...

really enjoyed the celebration last sunday. as Bono might have said, God walked through the room. had a working session with the church board in the afternoon; encouraged about the direction Jesus seems to be leading us re: leadership development, discipleship infrastructure, etc. after coming home and hanging out with Ronni and the kids for a bit, Blue drove by with an invite to twightlight golf at Huron Hills, on the banks of the river. much fun had with Blue, Matt, and Jimbo. Matt and i won the two man scramble (in a playoff chipoff), and were treated to Coldstone Creamery for our efforts.

monday (day off) took a trip out to the new Canton IKEA with Don, Julie, Eve, Ronni, Colin, and Elle. IKEA's like the Mecca or Jerusalem of inexpensive contemporary furnishings. crazy cool, and crazy cheap, relatively speaking. they've mastered the family shopping experience, with a huge childcare / play area for kids, cafe, great layout, fast checkout, the whole nine yards. had a ton of fun hanging out with Don and Julie and Eve, especially since we hadn't seen them in a while. played soccer in the evening at church with a bunch of guys (and a few girls, too). Mark Morsfield jr. dominated, effortlessly, it seemed to me.

spent most of tuesday in Lansing, meeting early in the morning with the crew that went to Russia this spring for a mission's partnership meeting, and then with the east michigan area vineyard pastors. Steve drove me there and back, and we had a great time talking, observing stuff God's up to in the church and in our lives, even a little blueskying. homegroup was really rich tuesday evening. Phil and Amy shared the story of their lives and relationships with each other and with Jesus, and then we prayed for them afterwards.

...wed. to sat. in the next post...

vineyard great lakes regional conference audio

thought this post on my friend Donnell's blog nicely articulated the following news (cut and pasted directly, in italics):

Each year Vineyard hosts either a national leader conference, or a regional conference. This year's regional conference theme was A New Christianity: Rediscovering the Center. It's a time of ferment across the church landscape in North America as an ancient faith struggles to find fresh expression. You know the buzzwords: emerging church, post-modernity, and the like. It's time now to flesh it out. Vineyard churches are positioned to do just that. We believe the New Christianity involves a rediscovery, a new convergence toward the center, drawing from the treasures of the whole church. The conference addressed some major themes, such as contemplative prayer, social justice, and Spirit empowered and outward focused ministry. I believe this is core content for the emerging Christianity of the 21st Century. It is also central to Vineyard's contribution to the emergent church conference will be aimed at leaders at all levels in local vineyard churches, but it is wide open to anyone who wishes to attend.

Some of the audio from the conference is available online and is also available as a Podcast .

by the way, the conference deeply affirmed for me so many of the reasons i feel privileged to be part of a church in the community of churches called the Vineyard.

while you're at it (visiting Donnell's blog, that is), check out his link on an interview with Brian McLaren re: the DaVinci code - expresses eloquently what i've felt on a gut level but never thought about with enough focus to put into words.

notes from Cincy

the conference has been awesome so far. extraordinary teaching, excellent worship, great fellowship. add to that a couple of encounters with Jesus that have caused me to lose all my cool and a fair amount of snot, too, and it's been a definite winner.

i'm rooming with my friend Donnell, a pastor at the Ann Arbor Vineyard. he's finishing up prep for his message tomorrow. his talk will be the final session of the conference - i'm really looking forward to it. looking forward to the talk, i should say, not the end.

also looking forward to seeing Ronni, Colin, and Elle soon. Ronni tells me whenever she mentions my name on the phone, Elle looks around inquiringly, "Da-dy? Da-dy?" as if i might just appear around the corner. breaks one's heart, don't you know?

regional conference

heading down to cincinnati for the vineyard great lakes regional conference tomorrow. really looking forward to it.

experimented with motion backgrounds behind the song lyrics during worship at church yesterday. curious to see if it helped people worship, or if it was experienced as distracting/showy. it sure was easy to experience God's presence during worship, but i don't know if had anything to do with the multimedia, since the worship team was really in a groove. rarely get feedback on anything, so i'm not optimistic anyone will actually say anything voluntarily. i'll have to do a little investigating, i suppose.

also, going to see a chiropractor today; see if maybe some relief for head pain is available. should be interesting.

had batting practice for softball yesterday. while pitching, took one to the radius. can still see the stictches imprinted on my forearm. should leave a nice bruise, but nothing lasting, i'm sure.

russia trip recap

Bob has been writing a day by day recap of our trip to Russia, and it's fantastic (complete with photos). rather than try to duplicate it, i'll just direct you to his blog here.

Steve and I are looking forward to sharing about our experiences at church tomorrow morning...

home

arrived home yesterday and slept from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. but still feeling really groggy today. trying to stay awake through home group tonight, so i thought blogging might help. difficult to concentrate enough to write, though. we'll see how it goes...

how about a quick recap of Sunday and Monday?

Sunday, 8:00 a.m (GMT +3): wake, shower, pack, eat breakfast of toast, cheese, and yogurt in hotel cafe.

Sunday, 10:00 a.m.: walk to Nizhny Novgorod Vineyard with Bob & Steve. Kevin is already there, warming up with Kathy and rest of worship team. Emily is coming with Dave & Stephanie (Dave & Kathy's 15 year old daughter)

Sunday, 11:30 a.m.: worship starts, about 1/2 hour late. no one seems concerned, just seems to be the way things work here in Russia sometimes. worship is awesome - familiar songs in Russian language. Sasha from Vineyard in Siberia is helping lead. Sergei from another Vineyard in western Russia preaches on servant leadership. great stuff - remarkable guy, the only indigeonous pastor of a Vineyard church in western Russia.

Sunday, 1:00 p.m.: eat lunch at Papa Potato (they kind of ran out of food - there's no "after church" brunch crowd in Russia since there are so few churches). our team meets with Dave & Kathy to share some ways we're planning to support them and the church.

Sunday, 3:00 p.m.: walk back to church for conclusion of leadership conference. worship, teaching, ministry time. Holy Spirit present in cool ways to bless people. seems to show up regardless of whether a translator is present to interpret or not. lots of heartfelt goodbyes to people we've felt a deep bond with in a short period of time. receive tons of encouragment about our time here; seems like God's favor has been with us.

Sunday, 8:00 p.m.: pack up van and taxi with luggage, drive to airport outside NN. take Siberian Air to Moscow. it takes off late because of a VIP arriving after everyone else has boarded. somebody with bodyguards, etc.

Monday, 12:30 a.m.: arrive in Moscow, where we are picked up by Sergei from the Moscow Christian Center. Sergei takes us across the city to a hotel near the international airport.

Monday, 2:00 a.m.: check into hotel. eat some dinner and take a shower. call the Harvest Ridge home group to say hi, since it's 7:00 p.m. Sunday in Michigan. finally, Steve and I take a 45 minute nap til our wake up call at 4:30 a.m.

Monday, 5:00 a.m.: arrive at airport, go through security, passport control, etc. get searched, go through 3 metal detectors. meet a guy from Texas at the gate and talk with him for a while. he's cool - an engineer for a gas company who has adopted 2 Russian children, serves as a deacon at his church.

Monday, 7:15 a.m.: take off and fly to Paris. arrive and get searched a couple more times, go through 4 more metal detectors.

Monday, time unknown: fly from Charles De Gaulle to Detroit Metro. some enjoyable turbelence. fight to stay awake so i can sleep at night.

Monday, 2:00 p.m. (GMT- 5): arrive at DTW, go through customs and meet Curt, who drives us home.

Monday, 3:00 p.m.: hug and kiss Ronni, Colin, and Elle. Elle remembers me, thankfully :) give gifts, show pictures, share stories. it's been about 39 hours since i've had any real sleep. watch some tv shows Ronni recorded while i was away. hoping to stay up until 9:00, but can't quite make it...

Russia

leaving in about an hour for Russia with Steve. flying from Detroit to Paris, and then Paris to Moscow. got up at 4:00 this morning in hopes of being tired enough to sleep on the flight over to Paris. feeling pretty tuckered right now, but i know the adreneline is likely to kick in once we're at the airport.

can't wait, really. meeting up in Moscow with Bob and Emily from the Ann Arbor Vineyard, and Kevin from the Capital City Vineyard. our 10 day mission adventure should take us from Moscow to Nizhny (sometimes Niznij - formerly called Gorki in the Soviet Union days) Novgorod and back again. planes, trains, and automobiles, at least, not to mention a fair amount of walking, i'm sure. most of our time will be spent with a Vineyard in Nizhny pastored by the Wolfs, scouting out how we can support their church, building relationships, and helping lead a leadership conference (how meta-, eh?).

i'm expecting to teach on "leading with a Jesus lean" and "leading from the 2nd row (the example of Jonathon)" can't remember ever teaching through a translator before - kind of curious to see how it all works. strange to realize in prepation how many of my usual illustrations and even figures of speech are culturally dependent. (sports, television, politics, movies, heck anything having to do with western history may be totally meaningless for all i know at this point). had to toss them all for the moment, and wait til i'm there to get a sense for what might be effective and what might not. at least the bible ought to be common ground.

Roger came by last night with a Russian / English phrase cheat sheet for me, and prayed for me too. very cool. also dropped off an authentic Sergei Federov hockey jersey from some team in the U.S.S.R from back in the day. wild. wonder if anyone will remember him in Russia?

off to finish packing and shower up. we'll see if there's any internet connectivity there. if so, i'll update as soon as i get the chance.

missing Ronni, Colin, and Elle already.

controlled falling

For Immediate Release. Milan, Michigan. Elle Veronica Wilson took her first independently ambulatory steps today, in what can only be described as "walking." Followed, of course, by much hooting, hollering, clapping and various other activites described by witnesses as "carrying on." On the part of her parents and older brother, that is.

Ms. Wilson declined all interviews afterwards, but seems to be taking all the fuss in stride. Not that she's not very proud of herself, of course.

words well spoken

my dad just called me to alert me to a replay of the prayer breakfast on CNN this evening. Bono (lead singer for the band U2) spoke at it this morning. preached, really. God walked in the room, it seems to me. very moving. maybe it was just me. i sure hope not, though. read, or watch (note: the video doesn't seem to load in mozilla firefox...works fine with internet explorer, though.)

just a taste, in case you're hesitant to click the link (or maybe just too short on time)...

Love was on the move.

Mercy was on the move.

God was on the move...

...God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives… God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. “If you remove the yolk from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places”

words well written

reading Gilead, these most recent moments between Christmas and now, has been like eating fine Belgian milk chocolate. writing to be held between two fingers, carefully broken off and savored, swallowed, the taste and texture lingering on tongue and tooth. a melting, flowing, expanding, gentle kind of pleasure. tempted to gorge on it, inhale it, except that i know it and i would be diminished somehow, if i did.

a Whitman's sampler from my reading this afternoon, perhaps to whet your appetite (the book is written in the voice of aging/dying man (a retiring small town pastor) who has a younger wife, and an especially young son, to whom this epistle/memoir of sorts is written; a letter to be read when he has passed, when his son is a grown man):

"You and Tobias are hopping around in the sprinkler. The sprinkler is a magnificent invention because it exposes raindrops to sunshine. That does occur in nature, but it is rare...Well, but you two are dancing around in your iridescent little downpour, whooping and stomping as sane people ought to do when they encounter a thing so miraculous as water."
............................................................................

"Each morning I'm like Adam waking up in Eden, amazed at the cleverness of my hands and at the briliance pouring into my mind through my eyes--old hands, old eyes, old mind, a very diminished Adam altogether, and still it is just remarkable. What of me will I still have? Well, this old body has been a pretty good companion. Like Balaam's ass, it's seen the angel I haven't seen yet, and it's lying down in the path."
...........................................................................

"If you remember me at all, you may find me explained a little by what I am telling you...As you read this, I hope you will understand that when I speak of the long night that preceeded these days of my hapiness, I do not remember grief and loneliness so much as I do peace and comfort--grief, but never without comfort; loneliness, but never without peace. Almost never. "
...........................................................................

"I have said at least once a week my whole adult life that there is an absolute disjunction between our Father's love and our deserving. Still, when I see this same disjunction between human parents and children, it always irritates me a little. (I know you will be and I hope you are an excellent man, and I will love you absolutely if you are not.)"

finger lickin' good, to use an entirely unworthy expression.

first and second (updated...)

first basketball game of the season for our church league team later this morning. we finished third in the "warm up" fall season (no playoffs in the fall season, so i think of it as a warm up for the "real" season that is the winter/spring season). still have lingering injuries to my left knee and right ankle, but nothing severe enough to keep me off the court (i hope!). in my more rational moments, i'm thinking maybe "lingering" is just par for the course for any aches and pains at this stage of my athletics life...but i keep hope alive that with enough conditioning and time without further injuries, i'll be playing like a 22 year old again any day now. our team is hoping that we'll play better this season too, now that we've had some time to gel with the new players that joined last season.

*update* nice effort today - we won by 15 or 20, in a pretty physical contest. sure is a fun group of guys to play with, and lots of support from our families. not that any of our "fans" actually watch the game, but they sure seem to have a good time together.

second saturday outreach this afternoon. we'd been thinking about shoveling snow for driveways in need, but the snowfall looks pretty spotty, so it'll probably be bathrooms getting the love today.

*update* tacobell, kfc, citgo, arby's, and mickey d's were our targets today, and all graciously allowed us to tackle their toilets. Rich, Connor, Arnie, and David (all restroom rookies, i think) did the Master proud, serving with good humor and enthusiasm. funny, the employees at the places with the grungiest bathrooms (don't worry, we won't name names) had the biggest smiles on their faces when we were done. reminded me of Jesus' famous mission statement: "it's not the righteous who need a doctor, but the sick..."