Halloween

Every Halloween - with a possible exception of a Halloween he was at his father's - Vincent has trick-or-treated from our house - even last year. But this year - hours after the Danes left - he went with friends (including one friend who he later started dating) and small children from where his former Danish host had stayed in October. But we saw none of this (and we had only two trick-or-treaters on Halloween night). Most of what I saw of Halloween was during the day - at work! A couple of years before I started working at the Center Center staff put pictures on the Web site of the Center's then more elaborate Halloween activities - with kids coming, decorated candy stations in every department, groups of Center employees and some of their kids traipsing through the whole Center, and then costume competitions for Center employees and their kids. Some Presbyterians were offended - either that we were doing on this on work time and/or that we were celebrating Halloween at all. And that was the origin of our Intranet (so that we could share some things - like those photos - more just internally). I traipsed through the building with some of my colleagues my first couple of years at the Center, but this time just took pictures of some of them (plus watched a little of the costume competition). Pictured above is my colleague Joelle. Below is Hilary, Becki, and Jonathan.


Below is Susan.

And all four of them - in a blurry picture . . .

And my former turtle-sitter, Ida, putting the finishing touches to the decorations around our department's candy station.

Here's Christy - who put together most of that candy station - as Spiderman's mother.

Below is our former colleague, Jamie, with two of her daughters, plus her Mom, Linda, who still works at the Center (families abound at the Center).

Below, Ida and Jamie share a laugh.

-- Perry

Ice storm

Already in the third day of our snow emergency more Kentuckiana folks have lost electric power than did during Hurricane Ike in September (see "Ike aftermath"), what with ice gathering on and knocking down trees, electric power lines, telephone lines, and cable TV lines down. All four of the administrative assistants in my office have lost power, whole parts of our suburb of St. Matthews have lost power, and a few of our neighbors have lost power. Big differences are that it's in the 20s, instead of the 70s, and it's hard to get around town - with all of the ice and snow - unlike in September. Even some employers with power - like mine on Tuesday and Wednesday - were shut (if no one could get to work). We also took the usual kinds of disaster tourism walks with our dog. Above is our neighbor's tree, in her front yard - which ice has started to knock down (and get in our shared driveway's personal space). The largest tree in our front yard still stands tall.



I went out to shovel and walk the dog out Wednesday morning before much traffic had gone by and so the snow was relatively undisturbed.

Here's the first tree to go down in one of our neighbor's front yard - near the place where a big tree went down and blocked St. Matthews Avenue for nearly a week during and after Ike.

I think that's Frisco running to catch up with me on Kennison Avenue.

Below is St. Matthews Avenue - a block further up - lined by the icy trees.

Below is cool picture of the sun with one of neighbor's snow-bound cars in their front yard.

And a snow-bound (and partially blocked off) Massie Avenue.

And a neighbor whose shared tree had dropped into one of their roofs.

And - below - down the street a few hourses - a tree that had split in half.

Stephanie and Frisco got ahead of me on our Wednesday lunchtime walk.

This is a neighbor - across Chenoweth Lane - that already had a big tree go down during Ike.

And kitty-corner across Colonial and Massie from his house . . .

Less than a block from where we took that famous picture of the tree through the stationwagon on Staebler - after Ike - is a tree through a pick-up truck - on Colonial.

And - from a different angle . . .

And tree limbs everywhere . . .

Snow-covered trees also abound . . .

Heine Brothers - a staple throughout Ike - has been open again throughout (and I stopped and got Guatemalan coffee for Stephanie and Vincent there tonight - may be first time I've ever bought coffee).

Stephanie and Frisco start to catch up with me from the walk.

I waited to take this picture almost too late.

The picture below is from this morning (Thursday) at about 7:30 a.m. - (I got to go in a couple of hours late - after not working for two days.)

Below is a picture as I drove through the downtown - on Main Street - to work.

Here's the Peace Seeker horse statue - with ice - in front of the Presbyterian Center - this afternoon.

-- Perry

Stewardship Minute

At the same worship service in which Stephanie was blessed in advance of her Guatemala trip and Isabel Rose was baptised, I gave the following Minute for Stewardship presentation:

I should start out by mentioning that my Mother grew up in Ohio. Our ancestors on her side of the family going way back are English and Irish.

For many years, my Mother’s parents – my Ohio grandparents – supported something called the Oriental Missionary Society. The Oriental Missionary Society was an organization dedicated to the spread of the Gospel in East Asia.

Every year Grandma and Grandpa went to a fund-raising banquet put together by the Columbus, Ohio affiliate of the Oriental Missionary Society. There they joined with others in praying for the liberation of China, North Korea, and North Vietnam from Communist rule. They also prayed for the Oriental Missionary Society mission workers in different parts of East Asia. And they prayed for the people of East Asia, that they might hear the Good News of Jesus Christ and feel a connection with that message.

They also got to hear from a couple of Oriental Missionary Society mission workers visiting from East Asia. And they got to write a check to the Oriental Missionary Society.

My grandparents were very generous. But my Grandpa was also a very cautious man. My grandparents had lived through two world wars and a Great Depression. They lived very simply and very frugally. The tell-tale signs of my Grandpa’s do-it-yourself approach to home improvement were evident throughout their house: lots of duct tape. My Grandma never met a serving of food in the refrigerator that she thought should be thrown away. Food was meant to be eaten, not thrown away. I always thought that my Grandpa took so well to recycling when I came to their town in the late ‘80s because it harkened back to the scrap metal drives of the war period.

When it came to writing that check, I’m sure that Grandpa wrote a check big enough that it hurt . . . somewhat. But only somewhat. Grandpa trusted God to provide. But he also figured God expected him to look after not only the church but also himself and his family.

God never did choose to liberate the people of China and North Korea, at least not exactly as Grandpa and Grandma had imagined. God did answer one of their prayers in a particularly creative way. You see – in the days before Skype, the Discovery Channel, mission trips, and the new immigration to the United States – my grandparents also prayed that they might meet and get to know someone from East Asia and they might see of the fruit of the labor of Christian mission workers in that part of the world. So, God sent them a Christian young man from northern Korea, whose family had been directly touched by the work of Christian mission workers there – in fact, by Presbyterian mission workers. They got to know this young man and they accepted him as their son-in-law. For a middle American family, 11 years before Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, this was more than a little daring. They also got to know some members of this young man’s extended family, including his father, who soon was enrolled in seminary in the neighboring state of Kentucky.

In the involvement of my grandparents with the Oriental Missionary Society, I see some of the hallmarks of mission involvement here at Crescent Hill church. I see local and international involvement. I see long-term commitments. I see support for international mission workers. I see attention to structural change. I see building personal relationships. I see answered prayer. I see sacrificial giving. I see personal stewardship, including stewardship of self.

Through prayer and volunteer work, many of you are already involved in the mission enterprises that Crescent Hill church supports. Those enterprises include: the possible Guatemala K’ekchi Estoreño Izabal Presbytery Partnership. They include the Environmental Justice Committee. They include the Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church Pre-School and Sustainable Agriculture of Louisville and its summertime Garden Camp. They include United Crescent Hill Ministries, Presbyterian Community Center, and Habitat for Humanity. They include Mid-Kentucky Presbytery, the whole Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Presbyterian seminaries, and the half a dozen Presbyterian international mission workers who are part of our congregation.

On November 9, by pledging for the first time to make regular financial contributions to Crescent Hill church or by matching or even increasing this past year’s pledge, you will not only help the church continue to support these and other mission enterprises but you will also help shift us towards a goal of making mission a bigger part of the annual church budget.

In all of this – as in many other things – we could do worse than following the example of my Grandpa – who – in two months – God willing – will celebrate his 95th birthday. Happy birthday, Grandpa!

-- Perry

Congrats - Ian, Kate, and Isabel Rose!

We've gotten to know Ian and Kate through the Guatemala mission trip, youth group at church, Children's Fellowship, and even though our family meeting with Vincent. So it was fun that we played roles in the worship service at which their daughter, Isabel Rose (who started institutional child care just this Monday), was baptised.

-- Perry

Missing pictures

We failed to include in "Fall Children's Fellowship pictures" the pictures of the shoes that the Children's Fellowship kids and we put into the shape of the cross a la the final worship at the Guatemala Mission Network gathering (see "Amatitlan, Guatemala").

-- Perry

Two meetings and a test

In October I gave a presentation at the annual Religious Research Association meeting - which this year happened to be in Louisville - and participated in a monthly meeting of our church's board - called the session - with two guests from our presbytery (mid-KY) and took Vincent which what will no doubt turn out to be his final high school era standardized testing. Above - at the RRA meeting - at Louisville's historic Seelbach Hotel - is the presenter who preceded me and Marty - a peer from the Lutheran research office. Below are people listening into this presentation.

I talked about research that myi colleague Ida and I had worked on showing that the Presbyterian congregations most likely to have female pastors were those that had had female pastors five years earlier, those that had turned over pastors in the previous years, and those with smaller memberships. Other theories about which congregations might be more likely to have female pastors - rural congregations, liberal congregations, etc. - did not pan out. Picgtured below is a presentation that followed ours.

Our session usually meets in the wonderful Fireside Room of our church's Fellowship Hall building. Below is - left to right - our pastor, Jane; Evelyn, who I've worked with who is on the Mid-KY Presbytery Committee on Ministry who praises for our church every day; and Jeff, who chaired the Outreach Council that I'm also part of for the past two years.

Pictured below are session members Laura, anita, Rachel, Ben, Elaine, and Ted (plus student pastor Carlos (to Ted's left)

Unlike FL, KY is an ACT state. Vincent did well on the mandatory ACT testing the KY paid for the spring of his junior year (with a 27). You might recall that he took the SAT on his fourth day in Denmark and - jet-lagged and confused about the instructions - did not so great. His teachers and de facto we pushed her to review, and his math score ended up going up by just 1 point - but two other section scores declined and he wound up with a 26. (He had correctly predicted that his score would not improve.) Vincent - who had trouble getting up after that South End party (see "Friday night out") - actually complained subsequently that I had not signed him up for the ACT plus writing. His 27 would have been good enough - with decent grades - to get him in the Honors College of the college he supposedly wants to go to - Western KY University. But he seems unlikely to graduate from high school at this point - so that score won't help him much unless he graduates later. With a score like that, with whatever grades no matter how bad - he could have gotten into a school like Western if he just would have graudated. Vincent took the test at the nearby Catholic boys' school, Trinity, whose $5 million football stadium ends just two blocks from our house. He lingered long enough outside that I was afraid he wasn't going to go in. Friends from church - Rachel and Luke (both from the Guatemala trip) - arrived to take the ACT with writing.

Frisco and I walk past Trinity on one of our walk circuits and we frequently cut through the Trinity campus - right by the pictured area, in fact - as a way to cut through from Shelbyville Road to Westport Road - when the lights earlier on don't go our way.

Finally figuring Vincent was headed in (this is back when i was still trying to keep an eye on him) in to take the test, Frisco and I walked some more, then headed ack home. And then it was on to the Guatemala Heine Brothers meeting (see "Ready, set, go!").

-- Perry

Fall Toastmasters pictures

Four years ago this month I helped get a Toastmasters public speaking and leadership development club started at my work - having been directed to a Toastmasters club in MN during my first year at St. Thomas. For all of the past four years - although I'm hoping to wrap this up this spring - I've served in the same office I served for a few months at the William Mitchell (law school) Community Toastmasters club in St. Paul (vice president for education). We meet twice a month - on the first and third Wednesdays from 1 to 2 p.m. - and also have officers' meetings (well, sometimes). Like my club in MN, we've struggled with membership and activity level. Club members are - ideally - supposed to complete the basic public speaking program by giving 10 speeches in one year. This is too much - but we've lagged far behind this - with guest speakers, videotaped speeches (including this year - by Governor Palin!), and programs that I've sometimes led - filling things in. I finished the basic program two years ago - and this has helped my speaking at work, at church, and elsewhere - both exptemporaneous speaking and prepared speaking - Besides members giving 4-10 minute prepared speeches, we also participate in impromptu "Table Topics" speaking in which we speak for 1-2 minutes on a topic we get seconds before. Pictured above is our third president, Susan, who's had health kept her away all fall. Standing below - at an August meeting (Susan's last?) is the person who replaced Susan as our fourth president, Glenn.

Below is Glenn after being selected.

At a meeting in September we had a big crowd, and relative newcomer Eric gave a great speech with tips about buying guitars. (A couple of years ago we made it possible for people who do not work at the Presbyterian Center to join - Eric works downtown, and Glenn in fact works in Middletown.)

Here's a West Side pastor who was a guest and participated in Table Topics.

We even had three homeschooled kids at this September meeting.

My Research Services colleague, Becki, gave one of her three speeches this year in October.

On a beautiful Sunday in late October half a dozen of us did something Vincent has done with the Crescent Hill church youth group the previous three year - walk in the Community Hunger Walk to help raise money for local food assistance programs. Three things went wrong - I brought Frisco and Eva brought her dog. Since Frisco doesn't usually get along with other dogs, I walked without them (more on my bad dog later). Also - my shoe fell apart (the first of two times that month a shoe fell apart) and I had to walk almost a mile like that.

There's Glenn and his wife and Eva and her dog (I think Buddy is the dog's name) crossing the 2nd Street bridge (one of only three bridges across the Ohio River - the lone non-freeway bridge - the one that runs right next to my building - the one Stephanie crosses almost every day on the way to work - and then back again (sometimes she takes the I-65 Kennedy Bridge if it's not too slow)- essentially, in front of me (I'm still walking towards IN).

While I was trying to take the picture below (which turned out nice), I momentarily took my eyes off of Frisco. Soon there was a commotion and yell in front of me. There were only four dogs total in this entire walk - we'd already avoided one (Buddy), and we'd had an unfortunate run-in with one of the other dogs. A year before a man who happened to be blind was appointed as a judge. We saw Judge Holton at a Hilary Clinton event in May. But by the fall he was running to keep his position against the very well financed and attractive daughter of the Democratic Metro Council president (and enjoyed some support from local Republicans - The enemy of my enemy . . . ?) Well, when I looked up from taking a picture, I realized that Frisco had attacked Judge Holton's guide dog. Judge Holton passed it off as nothing, but the woman who was with him was angry. I realized why the difference - He hadn't seen Frisco attack his dog. I felt terrible - and rushed away - without really apologizing, however - but felt even rose when - after the two ran very close all election night - Katie King pulled ahead of Judge Holton to displace him.

We had another good meeting in November, with Becki and Glenn.

Ada participated in Table Topics.

So did Susan, another new community member, the pastor of a downtown congregation.

Glenn helped preside over a much smaller all-Table Topics meeting later in the month.

New member Patricia and Eva also partiicpated.

In December we had just one meeting and - as we often do - had a potluck.

Betsy - like Eva and me, a charter member - from back in January 2005 - joined us for the potluck and December meeting.

One guest joined us for this meeting, held - somewhat unusually- in the 5th floor conference room.

This summer club officers agonized about possibly folding the club and we decided not to do so. Like my club in MN, however, we continue to struggle. I've taken on a decent amount of responsibility for the club over the years, and - partly after my health scare in December - I'm trying to phase out - from my VP for Education role and in general. Whether new leadership will emerge remains to be seen. Ironically, Toastmasters is one of two self-help/self-improvement organizations that my father participated in when - as a first-generation immigrant - he was trying to climb his way into the ranks of academia and then the world of LA accounting. Of course, I'm in two self-help/self-improvement groups - Weight Watchers, too. We toyed with adding Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University - which seems patterned off of Weight Watchers too - we'll see what the new year is going to bring in terms of Toastmasters. It's been quite a ride - going back to our first two presidents, Brunhilda and Debra. I been to two regional Toastmasters events (one in Indianapolis, one in Louisville). For more info on our club, see http://peacespeakers.blogspot.com/

For more on Toastmasters in general, see http://www.toastmasters.org/

-- Perry