From Wit’s End

I got an unusual call this morning on my cellphone for Rachel’s Dad, who was visiting Baby Nora for the first time with Rachel’s Mom and little brother Nik. I handed the phone off to my father-in-law with nary a second thought.

A minute later, he was freaking out. Their house burned down last night. That’s the sort of sentence that you can’t help but read at least twice, but it is true. The rest of the morning was spent trying to get as much information from a distance as possible. Rachel’s sister Beka was on the scene fairly quickly, and they also got a good bit of support from their church and neighbors. Over time, we found out that the fire started with some creosote in the chimney, even though they hadn’t had a fire in their wood stove for about three days. Also, both dogs survived and were found, though both are shaken and one got burned on his face pretty badly.

We were thankful that we could love them through the worst of the shock today. We were in the middle of making Rachel’s Family’s traditional Valentine’s day breakfast when the news came in: Peanut butter french toast in the shape of hearts, pineapple rings, bacon, and parfaits made with frosted flakes, cherry pie filling, and vanilla ice cream. Rachel and I roused ourselves from our melancholy after a while and finished preparing these things, and we sat down to “breakfast” at around 11:30am. By the end of the meal, Rachel’s folks were beginning to make wry comments about the situation, and everyone was feeling a little better with food in their stomachs. Rachel’s sister Jennifer took them clothes shopping, and we had dinner at her house this evening with a few mutual friends from church.

All in all, it was a very surreal day but it ended tolerably well. Indeed, the whole situation could have been a lot worse. In their house, the wood stove had been at the foot of the stairs to the second floor, where Rachel’s little brother Nik usually slept. If they had been home when this happened, it would have been highly likely that someone would gotten seriously hurt or even killed. As it is now, we all have a lot to be thankful for. Rachel’s family got many offers for a place to stay from families in their church, and her dad’s work associates will be putting together a collection for them. They’ve often talked about building a house on a more scenic part of their property, and now Rachel’s Mom can get the new kitchen that she wanted but couldn’t do without the old kitchen long enough to get. You never want something like this to happen, but the love that can flow in the aftermath of such a tragedy is truly a wonderful sight to behold.

Jack definitely has a musical talent. If a melody is repeated to him over the course of about a week, he’ll pick it up and hum it himself. If he likes the melody in particular, he will make it his “happy song”: he’ll hum it at the fastest tempo he can when he is in a good mood.

This month, his newest happy song is “Come, Thou Fount of every Blessing“. Next month, we might see if he likes “Immortal, Invisible, God Only-Wise“.

We had lots of fun this evening at the Davis’s house on the lake, along with a fair contingent from our Sunday School class. For the rest of the pictures, click here.

Chaplain Don sees his mission as “Bringing Courage to the Courageous.” An army chaplain currently stationed in Afghanistan, this guy really brings the fight over there to life for us. He keeps us updated on his work while giving an up close look at the lives and challenges of our soldiers over there. We check this blog regularly for fresh encouragement. You should too.

Yep. Thought it wasn’t possible, but here it is: The Junior Heidelberg Catechism.
I am doing my civic duty as a member of the World Wide Web to fill it. Actually, I just did, but stay tuned to find out more.

Usually when we come back from church and we’re not having anyone over, I’m in the habit of getting comfortable by taking off my button-down shirt and shoes and hanging around the house in my t-shirt and socks. This afternoon, when it was almost time to go to evening church, and I was carrying Jack. “Well, Jack, we’re going to have to go to the back of the house so that Daddy can put his shoes and shirt back on, because … heh… ‘No shirt, no shoes, no service!’ “

I got some kind of chest cold last weekend, and it’s been with me all week long. Heartburn, a sore throat, and a wicked cough were on tap for me this week. And it set off my asthma pretty badly, too. So I was “addicted” to Albuterol and Advair all week. And the propellant in the Albuterol gives me headaches when I take it all the time. And I’ve only been getting 6-7 hours of sleep every night.

I went to the Young Men’s Bible Study held at the church by Dr. Ferguson and Duff James on Tuesday morning, and since it was for young men, I brought Jack. They’re going to be skimming through Proverbs, and the first one this past Tuesday was pretty good. It was supposed to end at 7:45, but it went a little long.

So i was running a little late to “Aunt Ellie’s” house to drop off Jack, and I got pulled over and given a ticket for going 38mph in a 25mph zone. She gave me a break and made it out for just a little more than half the maximum (Probably because I had Jack and was trying to get him to Ellie’s) But I was pretty late for work.

Speaking of work, someone from our team is moving on to another job in about a week, and I’m taking over most of his duties after he leaves. So in my aforementioned condition I had to try to absorb a lot of information this week with only limited success.

All this, and Mercy has been relieving herself on the livingroom rug all week, probably out of jealousy of Jack.

So yeah, it has been a hard week. But today is being particularly nice to me to make up for it. I’m feeling a little bit like I’ve turned the corner on my cold — I think the Zinc lozenges I bought on Thursday evening helped in that respect. And it’s raining softly outside, so I don’t have to mow the lawn until later. And Rachel made muffins with blackberry filling and fried eggs for breakfast. And my music is playing, and it looks like I might have time today to buy a new pair of slacks, and/or try the video capture box I bought a few weeks ago, and/or continue to catalog my coin collection.

It may be going crazy out there, and the world may or may not be about to irrevokably change, but there’s a cool breeze blowing outside in the middle of August in South Carolina, and that’s a miracle. And if one miracle can happen, why not another? And if miracles can happen, then Love exists. And if Love exists, then everything is going to be all right eventually.

Just click on a picture to view a larger version of it.

Jack gets a pre-baptism bath the night before.	Jack is contemplating the covenant.	The Happy Family.
Dr. Sinclair Ferguson baptizes Daniel Jackson Wisdom.	Jack-in-a-Bag.
The	Food	Line.

[Note: Written the next morning after I got a good night's sleep. So don't worry, Mom. ]

[Also Note: Pictures are coming soon! Check back on the afternoon of Wednesday the 10th.]

Rachel is back safely from surgery. While she was in the recovery room, I went to the Special Care Nursery to spend time with Jack. It was so nice to just hold him!

At about 8:45pm, I went back to Rachel’s room, and she had just been brought back from recovery. I settled into the recliner and watched some TV, considering going back home to get some rest. The doctor told me that tonight would be the best night to go home and get some rest while the nurses watched Rachel closely while she recovered and slept after her surgery. I figured that I would head back after the show called “The Unit” on CBS was over.

My phone went off, and it was Jennifer (Rachel’s sister). She said, “Eve and Pastor Wilkes are in the hospital looking for you right now.” Just then there was a knock on the door, and the aforementioned walked in. I updated Jennifer on the situation and rang off, and greeted Eve and the Pastor. Apparently neither knew that the other was coming to visit and they had met at the elevator in the lobby. They asked if there was anything they could do for us. I said we were doing okay, and I was thinking of heading back home for some rest. I must have not looked so well, because Eve immediately offered to drive me home. I took her up on the offer, and we headed out. When I got home, I took some Aleve for my poor aching bones, legs and feet, and fell into bed, asleep almost immediately.

He read Romans 8:18-32 and prayed over us. We are really feeling the prayers all around us!

Contractions are about 5 minutes apart, and as I think I said before, she’s already at 3cm as of last night. Nobody has checked her yet this morning that I know of.

Well, after mainly working under the collective radar of the congregation concerning the officer nomination process at my church (posts on these things forthcoming), I made my most urgent concern known to the congregation at large tonight. With my head pounding and a swarm of butterflies in my stomach, I stood up and asked for the floor right before the annual congregational meeting was adjourned. I might have stood up earlier, but the only opportunity given for questions or comments from the members was concerning the presentation of the budget, and I didn’t quite feel like that was the right moment to say anything about an unrelated topic.

The agenda for the meeting was published at each dining table in the fellowship hall, and I saw that I would either get the chance to say my piece at the election of the nominating committee, or if not given a chance then, I would have to stand up right at the end of the meeting. In the end, I did have to make myself heard at the end of the meeting, right before motion was made to adjourn.

I requested that the newly elected Nomination Committee consider the following requests:

• To be more transparent to the congregation as to the procedures they follow and standards that they will adhere to while they deliberate as to who they will nominate.
• When they publish the slate of nominees, ensure that the description of each nominee is more in depth than it has been in the past. Instead of just disclosing where they live, what they do for a living, and what sunday school class they go to, they should endeavor to make known the following:
  1. A brief testimony from each nominee about how and when Christ found them and brought them unto himself,
  2. A short description of their current walk with the Lord. Perhaps their current favorite verse or chapter of the Bible, how often they do personal and family devotions, etc.,
  3. A concise statement about their vision for First Presbyterian Church, and how they see themselves working and serving to achieve that vision.

Over the past six months or so, I haven’t particularly wanted to do or say anything about this issue, and would rather have left it well enough alone. But I believe that Somebody has pressed it upon me that it is my duty to do to speak up. While I wrote my two letters to the Administration Committee of the Session, I got this nauseated/jumpy feeling that was not that was not terribly pleasant. I got the same feeling when I stood up tonight. But I also have felt that if I didn’t say anything, my conscience would continue to bother me until I did say something or do something. Going with my conscience over my feelings, I have resolved to myself and to my Lord to see this issue through as far as he wants me to — to not be silent when it is necessary to speak and to not be still when it is necessary to act.

To that end, I will be publishing in this space all of my past and future words and actions regarding this matter for anyone who is interested. I don’t know how far I will have to carry this, but I will carry it as far as the Lord wishes me to. If you are reading this as a member of 1st Presbyterian Church in Columbia, SC, I hope that you will be patient with me as I follow the convictions of my conscience, and make known what needs to be made known, and work within the system to make it better for God’s glory. Jesus help me.

UPDATE 2/15/06:

Posts about past happenings concerning the First Presbyterian church officer election issue are up:

• October — my first letter to the FPC Admin Committee.
• November — my second letter to the FPC Admin Committee.
• December — Providence down to the last digit
• January — Our meeting with three elders from the Admin Committee.

I am going to continue to document any new developments about this as I have the time.

My parents were here today, and getting caught in the crossfire of the conversation between my dad and my contractor/good friend, I realized that I’m going to need to be less involved in my church. They were talking about the necessity of being able to keep one’s promises, in the following order:

1. to God
2. to your family (spouse first, then children)
3. to your church
4. to your employer
5. to your government

While they were talking, I realized that with my son on the way, my priorities were going to have to shift. But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted them to and the more that I was glad that they were going to shift. Recently, I have been very involved in various activities in and for my church. One week, Rachel noticed that I had something church-related for almost every day of that particular week–

• Sunday: Choir for both morning and evening services
• Monday: Meeting for breakfast with a friend/mentor who is a deacon at my church.
• Tuesday: Small group Bible study in the evening with my wife.
• Wednesday: Choir practice for morning choir
• Thursday: Tutoring of underprivileged children, arranged by the church.
• Friday: Early Morning Men’s Bible Study

Weeks like this one, and the past month of ushering and choiring at the same church service, have been fun and great and glorious and all, but things will be changing, and I think that I want them to. Talking with my folks about it at dinner tonight, I finally put a word to this feeling of being too busy: I’m homesick. I realized that I have likely been confusing priority #1 and priority #3 above, and that needs to be fixed. I want to be at home, darn it, and not go out so darn much, even if it is in service to the church. This is like due to the convergence of at least two things: A nifty new kitchen and den and the novelty thereof, a little one on the way and the nesting instinct therefrom, and the fact that there are a few rooms in my house, both virtual and real, that are disaster areas and desperately need attention.

So yeah, something’s going to give, at least if I have anything to say about it, which I do. Here’s to Home Sweet Home, and the happy operation thereof.

My parents also were staying in town this past weekend, though they stayed on post and then with family friends when they first arrived on Thursday. Rachel’s folks left on Sunday afternoon, and my folks moved into our guest room tonight and will stay until Tuesday morning.

My parents are the fourth straight set of guests here at Wit’s End in the span of about 15 days. It started two weeks ago, with a missionary care specialist from OMS International, and then a week ago, there was a missionary couple dedicated to missionary pastoral care from OM (Operation Mobilization). Then Rachel’s parents, brother & sister for Friday and Saturday nights, and then my folks for Sunday and Monday nights. It has been great fun, but after so much activity, it’s good to have the promise of a quiet house this week.

Doug and Dave and I met with the three elders this evening. It took about a month to find an evening on which all six of us could meet together at the church office building, but it did finally happen. We were to meet at 5:30pm, and all were in attendance around 5:45pm. We actually talked together for almost three hours. I had a list of questions that I worked off of, and Dave and Doug each had some notes that they referred to. In the final stages of the kitchen renovation, the notes that I made for the meeting were misplaced, but if I get a copy of Dave’s or Doug’s notes, I’ll post them on this site.

Over all, the meeting went well. We discussed and asked about many aspects of the officer election process, and the elders were able to answer many of our questions and they took down a number of suggestions that we had for the process. I was particularly pleased when Dave mentioned his idea and all the elders started taking notes about it. The gist of the idea is this: instead of just telling us where they live, what they do for a living, and how many kids they have, why not go more in depth, so that the congregation can make a personal connection to the nominees? In particular, they should tell us about their, past, their present and their future in regards to their spiritual life. When and how Christ called them to himself, how their faith affects their daily life, and what their vision is for First Presbyterian and how they would work towards this vision as a member of the church leadership.

I think there was a general consensus from all at this meeting that this idea was a real low-hanging fruit of all the suggestions put forward this evening. The chairman of last year’s Admin Committee told us that he would pass on our suggestions and concerns to the incoming Chairman of the Admin Committee.

Afterwards, Dave, Doug & I went to Yesterday’s for some dinner and an “after-action report.” We all thought it went well, and we resolved to keep on speaking up to anyone interested in this, in the hopes that we will be able to facilitate positive change to the process from the bottom up. In particular, I am considering speaking up at the congregational meeting, since from what I’ve read, that is the one meeting of the year in which the congregation can affect the government of the church as it wishes.

Up to this point, I really feel that the Lord has been in this process, enabling all of those involved to be civil and charitable in all of our interactions with each other, both officers and concerned members of the congregation. May the Lord continue to bless the working out of these issues, and also continue to bless First Presbyterian Church.

Today being New Year’s Day, I stayed up until midnight the night before. I woke up at 6:30am to get to the church in time to be an usher for the first service from twenty minutes before the service up through the pastor’s welcome. While the pastor welcomed the congregation to the service, I slipped to the back of the church, changed into my choir robe, and ascended into the choir loft for the rest of the service. After the first service, the choir director asked if I could stay for the second service. I reluctantly said yes, and went to Sunday School, despairing of rest on the Sabbath, of all times. I stayed for the whole of Sunday school, as I usually do, instead of leaving early, as those who sing for the second service are encouraged to do. Because I did this, the director said I probably shouldn’t sing after all, because I didn’t get to practice the anthem or warm up before either service. Some part of my brain felt guilty for getting out of additional choir duties, and the other part of my brain was glad for the same reason. I drove home, crashed on my bed, and slept for three hours. There is something wrong about having to deal with so much harried activity and guilt on the Lord’s Day. I will be doing this for the rest of the month — that is, ushering and choiring in the same service — for the rest of the month. I’ll do it, but afterwards, I think something is going to have to give.

Here’s the aforementioned letter from the Chairman of the Admin Committee on the session. It was meant as a reply to my first letter to the Admin Committee, but providentially, it didn’t get to me in time, so I wrote a second letter. The second letter garnered a more direct response.

It’s apparent that he put a lot of consideration into his response to my first letter, and concur in the main with what he states in his letter. From what I’ve heard about the recent history of our church, the trend has indeed been to make the officer nomination and election process more transparent and inclusive. I believe that that trend should continue with all deliberation and humble reliance on the Lord’s guidance. To that end, my friends and I will be, Lord willing, meeting with the Chairman and a few elders from this past year’s Admin committee to ask some questions to understand the officer election process and propose some ideas that may be useful for the incoming Session to further improve the process of officer election at First Presbyterian Church.

Stay tuned.

Oh my. I just heard from the Chairman of the FPC Admin Committee by e-mail. A few weeks after I sent my first letter to the FPC Admin Committee, he actually did write a response, but I didn’t get it. I didn’t get it because he sent it to an address one digit off from my address — an address that didn’t exist. Because I didn’t get his letter in time, I wrote my second letter and got a phone call from the Chairman of the Admin Committee — this was a much more effective method of communication — asking if we could meet to talk about my concerns. I’ll be getting his original letter of reply in a few days, sent to the proper address.

Well, today we packed up the kitchen stuff. Rachel felt sick today, so that I despaired of finishing the packing all by myself. I called around some friends at church, and a Deacon J.N. at our church was kind enough to come over with two of his kids, and even came with a whole lot of boxes to pack things into. They were quite helpful, and Rachel alternated helping out and resting. We wrapped it all up in just a couple hours.

Mrs. N. called later that day and invited us over for lunch the next day after church. We ended up staying for about four hours and hardly even noticed the time go by, we had such a good time talking. God is good to us.

Upon the advice of wiser men, I waited a month for a written reply to my first letter to the Administration Committee of the Session of First Presbyterian Church. After not receiving a reply within a month, I wrote a Second letter. In this letter, I requested a hearing with a designated group of elders with a view to understanding the current officer election process and airing suggestions to improve that process. I referenced a section of First Presbyterian’s by-laws, which is available from the church office upon request, and linked here as a PDF file.

This is my first letter to the Administration Committee of the Session of First Presbyterian Church. In it, I express my concern that no nominations were allowed from the floor during this year’s congregational meeting to elect church officers. Also appended in the file after the letter are the pertinent sections of the ARP denominational constitution, called the Form of Government:

Section G of Chapter III (“CONCERNING A PARTICULAR CONGREGATION OF THE CHURCH”), and
Section C of Chapter IX (“CONCERNING THE ELECTION, ORDINATION AND INSTALLATION OF RULING ELDERS AND DEACONS”).

We’ve been crazy busy lately. Last week we had a missionary from Bolivia at our house all week. He brought us some coffee from Bolivia.

This past Friday, my folks were passing through town, and we had dinner with them and other friends from the old small group Bible study at a very nice restaurant called “Elizabeth’s”

Rachel’s folks came down to stay with us on Saturday. They came down for the Allison Kraus & Union Station concert that was Jennifer’s Christmas present for us all. We had steak at Texas Roadhouse, then zipped to the Township auditorium for lots of sad bluegrass music sprinkled with the occasional happy bluegrass love song.

On Sunday, we had 11 people sit down at the lunch table, including my folks, her folks and little brother, and Andy & Ellie and Jennifer & Tim. Rachel excelled at the preparation of lunch. There was just enough food even though we had three more people then we originally expected.

This week we have a missionary from New Guinea at our house. He brought us a great bounty of grapfruit and oranges fresh-picked from Florida, and news about the intra-denominational struggles within the PCUSA.

Friday we will be having 10 people sit down for dinner from our sunday school class at church.

This is great!! But it will be good to have a quiet spell after all this partying.

My boss took me aside and asked if I might be interested in serving a “Short Term Delegation” of 6-12 months to Germany to support the design of the next revision of their product over there. He said I could let him know tomorrow.

Rachel and I have been in a flurry of brainstorming and question-asking this evening to the point of exhaustion figuring out if this is something we could do. What to do with the house? What to do with the cars? What to do with the dogs? Is there a decent church over there? How will healthcare work over there?

I talked with a German guy who served a short term delegation from Germany to here, and Rachel and I talked to our Missions pastor at First Presbyterian for counsel and to ask if he knew of any churches or missions in the south of Germany.

It sounds intriguing, but we aren’t sure if we could decide absolutely in 24 hours. Well, we’ll see what tomorrow holds…

My wife and I have been in the habit of using Tabletalk during the past few months, since it is offered for free on racks throughout the sunday school building at our church. The first Sunday in June, however, all the copies of the June issue of Tabletalk had been snapped up and the July issues were already out.

We went about a week without any kind of devotionals, and Rachel suggested that I just read passages out of the Bible. While i was growing up, when my dad wasn’t sure what to read, he just read the chapter out of Proverbs corresponding to the day of the month. This works out well, because there are 31 chapters in Proverbs. Though this is a fine approach, I personally was bored with it, so this past Monday, I came up with a variation on this on the fly. It works like this:

• Determine the date of the month,
• Determine what number workday it is. (i.e. Monday = 1, Tuesday = 2, etc.)
• Multiply these two numbers together and read the corresponding chapter in the Psalms.

So the way this system worked out this week was that we read…

• Psalm 14 on Monday
  (14 x 1 = 14),
• Psalm 30 on Tuesday
  (15 x 2 = 30),
• Psalm 48 on Wednesday
  (16 x 3 = 48),
• Psalm 68 on Thursday
  (17 x 4 = 68),
• & Psalm 90 on Friday
  (18 x 5 = 90).

…A nice survey of a diverse set of Psalms without boring anyone to tears with linearity. It works out pretty well, because there are about 30 days in a month, 5 days in a work week, and 150 Psalms, and having no Psalm to read because it’s Friday the 31st happens pretty rarely (The next one is the last day of 2004, and the next one after that is March 2006). A chart of the Psalms covered is shown to the right. Psalms with a chance of repetition are shown in yellow.

As can be seen on the chart, only 92 out of 150 Psalms could be read under this system. Also, there is a chance that any of 39 particular psalms may be repeated within one month. So there’s no one-to-one correspondence as in the monthly Proverbs system. But a convenient thing about this system is that it misses Psalm 119, which is quite a long passage.

Use it if you need it. Don’t forget to feed it.

Well, we had Rachel’s folks stay with us the last weekend in May, and then my folks cam down this past weekend. They hit the road today, and our next guests arrived this evening: a missionary couple who will be leaving for Kenya shortly. They’ve served in Uganda and Liberia, and I think a few other African countries, and they are from Minnesota. Hospitality is fun.