In the neighborhood

Coming to an end...

2010-08-18T17:07:00.002-04:00

This Sunday will be my last Sunday at West Side. I can't even begin to describe the emotions I am dealing with. To say the least, it will be a hard day saying goodbye to what has been my life for, in some ways, almost 14 years. But since I have no other job and Mandy has a good one we aren't moving, so we won't have to say goodbye to everything just yet... if ever.

But even as we say goodbye I can hear us already begining to say hello to something else. I'm not exactly sure what it is yet. I just know we are about to begin a new journey in our lives as a family and for me as an individual. Even though I am scared about it and even though I mourn greatly leaving West Side, I am excited about what lays ahead.

Maybe, I'll document the journey here. Maybe, I'll be honest with my thoughts here. Maybe, I'll figure something out here. Maybe.

Ian James Peterson

2008-11-08T07:54:00.002-05:00

Mandy delivered yesterday (11/7/08) morning at 6:22 AM. He weighed 8 lbs 14 ozs and was 21 1/4 inches long. Mom and son are both doing really well. To see pictures go over to Lucy's blog.

Sarah Paline

2008-08-29T16:31:00.002-04:00

Now I'm not saying this is going to influence how I will vote or even if it will cause me to vote. But to see a woman on stage who is running for VP along with her child who has Down Syndrome brings a tear to my eye. In some small way I may have an understanding of how African Americans now feel with Barack Obama so close to the presidency.

Tips...

2008-08-29T16:29:00.001-04:00

I found this on another blog:

Sarah Palin has just joined John McCain as his running mate, and she took the stage in Dayton accompanied by her husband Todd and four of her five children — including youngest son Trig, who was born in April. (Oldest son Track is in the Army, and will deploy to Iraq next month.)

A few minutes before Palin appeared, I heard David Gergen on CNN referring to Trig Palin as “a Down syndrome child.”

Ouch.We can do better than that.

It’s worth remembering that people with Down syndrome are just that — people — and should be referred to as such. Let’s make an extra effort, when discussing Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, to say that Trig “has Down syndrome,” or is a “child with Down syndrome.”Using language that puts the person first sends a strong message that people should not be defined by their disabilities.

Like all Americans, people with disabilities deserve our respect and consideration.And while we’re on the subject, let me offer some guidance on disrespectful language to avoid in discussing the lives of people who have Down syndrome.

Please, people, let’s not say that they “suffer” from Down syndrome, or that they are “afflicted” by Down syndrome. Down syndrome is a chromosomal condition that doesn’t interfere with a person’s ability to lead a happy, satisfying and productive life, and to contribute to their family and community.

Please, don’t refer to Trig as a “Down’s child,” a “Down syndrome child,” or “a Downs.” This is outdated language that demeans in its assumption that a person’s disability is the most important thing about them. And I shouldn’t have to tell you that old-fashioned terms like “mongoloid” and “mongol” are considered insulting by the disability community.

Looking for more information? Here’s a release from the National Down Syndrome Congress and the National Down Syndrome Society.

Presidential Politics

2008-08-29T09:52:00.002-04:00

As most of you know I have been a big Barack Obama fan, at least early on in the primaries. And if the truth is told, I still lean his way today. I like him better than McCain and I love a lot of things about his candidacy - I love what his candidacy represents for our country. But their are plenty of things that I don't like about him. For starters his views on abortion and this line he says about America being the worlds last great hope (my hope lies elsewhere than America). Right now I'm thinking about not voting in the presidential election as a way of saying as a follower of Jesus I can't honestly support either of these candidates who both offers visions for America that go against almost everything I think the Kingdom teaches.

But on a side note I heard this morning that McCain might pick Alaska's governor for his running mate. Which would be so cool because she is a woman and she has a son with down syndrome who was diagnosed prenatally (which means she could have had an abortion which 90% of the people in her situation choose to do). I can't imagine what it would do for the down syndrome community to have someone like the Vice President with a child with DS. That makes my heart sing! Though having McCain as president makes my heart cry.

Live From Boston

2008-07-11T21:18:00.002-04:00

The family and I are at the National down syndrome Congress Convention in Boston. I want to explain everything, but I'm not sure I can. My emotions well up just about every other minute. I see someone with down syndrome everywhere I go, it's the most amazing sight. I love my daughter so very much. I am so proud of her.

They gave an award to this doctor here in Boston who works in their down syndrome clinic. In a video tribute they had a whole bunch of kids with down syndrome saying thank you to him. I couldn't help thinking that their could hardly be any better reward in this life than to have all those kids thanking him. My tears welled up pretty good during that one.

I can't fully explain it, but some days I think I understand God just a bit better because of down syndrome.

Into The Wild

2008-07-04T08:39:00.002-04:00

Just finished reading Into The Wild. I thought it was a great read. It would have been a great read just for the writing style and good story told, but it was so much more than that. I thought I saw some of me in the person the story was about. I thought maybe I had 2% of him in me. I know that is not very much, but I could somehow just understand the itch in his life that he just had to try and find a scratch for and the idealism he had to live for. He wasn't perfect, but there was so much about him that I respect so much.

I wonder about my "in the wild" experience just after college in the West End of Mount Vernon. I wonder how wild I really let it be. I wonder how much I sold out in the midst of it. I wonder how much I've let the idealism from those months fade from my life. I wonder how much of that idealism was good to let go of and how much of it should never have been let go of. I wonder about how risking everything might be the only way of finding everything.

Good book, pick it up and read it if you get the chance. I need to find Travis Bickle some time and have a discussion with him about it.

"My Brother"

2008-05-09T08:19:00.000-04:00

I went to a community pastors meeting yesterday here in Mount Vernon about a controversy that is brewing in our little town. At one point in the meeting I spoke up and basically shared my opinion on the controversy. Let’s just say I won’t be invited to speak in most of the other pastor’s churches any time here soon. But then another pastor from my denomination spoke up to ask a question and referred to me as his brother. Now I’m not exactly sure where this pastor stands on the issues we discussed, but it has never felt so good to be identified as someone’s brother before in my life. In a room where I wasn’t the most popular person it felt so affirming to have someone call me there brother regardless if they agreed with me on this particular issue or not. Thanks Larry, I won’t forget that.

Random thoughts...

2008-04-25T10:18:00.000-04:00

-If we are going to encourage our kids not to go to the military we have to provide a viable alternative for them. I talked to a girl this morning who is going to the Army after she graduates from High School in a few weeks. Honestly, if being in the military didn’t involve killing people or doing other things for our empire that go against the Kingdom it would be a great option for her. What other alternative do I have to offer her?

-Reading books on my front porch is a great way to talk to people. I could sit in my room and read books, but if I do it on my front porch all sorts of people walk by and it just makes room for conversations. Just yesterday I tried it out and had a wonderful conversation with my paper boy. I wonder what other things I can do in my front yard just to make myself more open to my neighbors?

-Just ordered three new kitchen appliances after one of them broke. Am I a slave to the god of consumerism? This one has been really tearing me up inside.

-Served on a jury a few weeks ago. It was a case involving a guy who went to two different doctors and got the same medicine from both (though he went to both for different legitimate reasons and both doctors knew he was seeing the other). He technically broke the law I guess, but in my heart I think he just thought he got lucky. I was ticked off at the prosecutor for even bringing the case. I was the lone juror for 2 hours who said he was not guilty until I was convinced to vote guilty. Not the most pleasant experience in my life.

-Did you know a police officer can look up your prescription history when ever he wants? He can then investigate you and then file charges against you if something looks fishy? I think I might call my state rep about that one and possibly the ACLU.

-Almost done with Shane Claiborne’s “Jesus for President.” GREAT BOOK! Now if I can learn to be a faithful citizen of the Kingdom in the ways I believe Jesus wants me to be. This book has probably influenced all the above thoughts.

you know you love it!

2008-04-10T09:16:00.000-04:00

Presidents and MRDD

2008-03-05T08:32:00.000-05:00

When Obama lost in New Hampshire I said I was more disappointed about that then when on the same night (or a night close to it) Ohio State lost in the National Title game, which is saying a lot since I like the Bucks so much. Last night Obama lost some pretty big states, but does that make me depressed? Well of course I wished he would have won, but how could I be depressed when I got to hear Walter Bruggemann speak at MVNU last night. Hearing someone talk about the Kingdom of God and the other way of life it gives provides so much hope that nothing, especially your favorite political candidate losing, could ever have the possibility of taking that away from you.

Hears to imagining and living the Kingdom life regardless of who lives in the White House!

Also, thanks to all those who supported and/or voted for the MRDD Levy. It only passed by 286 votes here in Knox County, but we’ll take it. Obviously my family has a vested interest in our local board of MRDD, but as I have learned over the last several years we all really have a vested interest in it.

Here’s to people with disabilities showing us the Kingdom of God!

No Singing

2008-02-20T18:32:00.002-05:00

This Sunday for our service we're not going to be doing any singing. The reason being that our normal musicians are out of town and our backup is sick. I normally try to convince people who hate leading music to lead in these situations but I won't do that anymore. Also I've wanted to do this for awhile now anyway to try to expand our view of what corprate worship can be. The reason I post this is to see if any of you out there have any ideas for what we should do besides singing and the normal preaching. I have some ideas, but if you have any please give them to me.

Lucy

2008-02-15T21:02:00.001-05:00

I hurt for my daughter... she's a tough cookie, but I hate that she has to go through all this crap. Check out her blog to see the updates.

MRDD Levy

2008-02-15T20:22:00.001-05:00

The other day I had a conversation with a friend about whether or not he should vote for the local MRDD levy. At first the question for him was not whether he should vote yes or no, but whether or not he should even vote. I have many friends, who I respect greatly, who chose for religious reasons not to participate in our elections. My friend fits this bill, but was wondering if voting for levies for important things such as supporting the local board of MRDD was something completely different than voting for a politician.

He then told me he wondered how he would even vote if he did even chose to vote on the levy. He considers himself more of a libertarian (I think that partially means the less taxes the better) and was wondering if taxing the general public was the best way to help support those who are supported by the board of MRDD. (This guy is a very good guy and would never ever do anything to hurt those with disabilities.) He then wondered allowed if maybe the church should be the one taking care of those with disabilities and not the government.

This gets me to my point (finally!). I’ve heard Christians talk my entire life about how welfare is bad because the Church should be the ones taking care of those needs and that the Church should take back over that role. My question is in God’s dream for His creation does He dream for the Church to take care of the least of these or does He dream for all of humanity, including the church, to do that? Some how I think it makes God happier when an entire city, county, state, or country decides to do something together to help out the cause of the widow, orphan, or alien than if the church just decided to do something.

So what’s wrong with us going to the voting booth on voting day and as a county saying we want to support an organization that helps out people with disabilities? Sure the Church should be helping out as well, but I’m sure God smiles when the rest of humanity gets something right as well. I mean shouldn’t Christians be thrilled when we see the world catching a partial vision of the Kingdom of God and shouldn’t we get involved in those efforts to bring a more holistic perspective to them?

Just some thoughts… hope they made sense.

Prosperity Gospel

2008-02-08T21:00:00.000-05:00

What do you think? And not about Piper in general, but about what he says here.

Birthday Card

2008-01-26T16:45:00.000-05:00

Got this card today:

It made me laugh

Abortion

2008-01-19T12:03:00.000-05:00

Had some interesting conversations about the abortion issue lately, and none specifically about the politics of it. I’ve been a life begins at conception kind of guy for as long as I remember and don’t really believe abortion should ever happen with the possible exception of saving the mother’s life.

Yet I have good Christian friends who disagree with me. Some who think abortion should at least always be legal and others who find it morally acceptable until the egg implants in the uterus. I also have friends whose ideas fall in other places within the debate.

I have been left in a fog after these conversations. I’m confused about my beliefs: where are the source of my beliefs, why do I feel so passionately about them, and do I have any room for change? I’m confused about what role the church should play in these discussions: do we demand a certain belief in practice, do we leave room for honest discussion on the issues, and can we agree to disagree on such a difficult issue? I’m confused about why we even have the discussion: Are we trying to make something morally acceptable that is truly not just because it makes our lives easier by being able to control our ability to reproduce in such a direct way.

Do I try to speak prophetically against abortion from conception even though I know I will be speaking to people who honestly disagree with me? Or do I invite discussion on the issue knowing full well that through the discussion many people may take the opposing viewpoint from mine.

Abortion is such a difficult issue. It is so complex. For many it is so personal. I wish I knew how to handle it.

Where do we place our hope?

2008-01-15T12:57:00.001-05:00

I just finished replying to the second email I received in the past week that tries to make you worry that Barack Obama is possibly a radical Muslim. It talks about the Muslim influence in his life, how he got sworn in using the Koran, and how he doesn’t say the pledge of allegiance. Almost all of the email is completely false including the part that says snopes.com backs it all up.

It isn’t the first time I’ve gotten this kind of email. I remember getting them about Clinton, Gore, and Kerry. What I really hate is how they are most likely created by Christians and are passed around by Christians (to be fair, both people who sent me the email were doing it for research purposes because they know I like Obama and they wanted to know if the stuff was true or not.) The real reasons these emails get created and passed around is that we want them to be discredited so that the candidate we support will be elected.

And we have good reasons why we want our candidate to get elected. We think they are the Christian candidate and can lead our country back to where it should be at. Thus, we gossip and lie (very non-Christian things to do) because we want a Christian to be elected because we think it will help the cause of Christ in this country and around the world to have a Christian (narrowly defined) living in the White House. By acting in ways that betray Christ to get a politician elected we ultimately show where our hope lies and it is not in Christ.

Even though we say we are doing what we are doing for Christ, we indeed show that we don’t really have the trust and faith in Christ that we really want our country to have. As Christians we should support who we think would be the best president for our country, but with a healthy dose of reality that will tell us that they can’t fix America. There is only one King and we should never betray Him, even if we say we are only betraying Him to help Him.

While I’m preaching, though mostly to the choir, I should point out how hard this is for me. I really don’t like Hillary Clinton all that much. I choose not to hear her speak or read articles that I know will cast her in a positive light. Why? When I really think about I think it is because I want my negative views about her reinforced and I don’t want to hear anything good about her because then it will be harder to hate her. Isn’t part of our job as Christians to see the good in people (the image of God) and honor that which of it we see and not to magnify the bad we see in them? We like to make people worse than they are so that it will be easier to do mean things to them.

This is going to be hard for me, but this election year, I am going to try my hardest to see the best in every candidate, and not try to destroy any of them. Does that mean I won’t critique their policies or leadership abilities? No. But it does mean I will value them as the beloved of my Creator and honor them because they are bearers of His image.

Preschool

2008-01-14T21:36:00.000-05:00

Mandy and I started looking at preschools today for Lucy. She'll be three this summer so she could start next fall if we choose. The whole thought of her going to school for 2 1/2 hours day, four days a week makes me want to puke. She's so small and inocent. She's my little girl and I don't know if I could ever let her go to school.

Oh my goodness!

2008-01-10T13:19:00.000-05:00

If you want to read a much better reason to vote for Obama check out this guys blog. He says what I wanted to say in my post a few down.

All aboard the Obama train! Get on now cause it ain't gonna be stopping any time soon!

Paid Pastors?

2008-01-10T07:59:00.000-05:00

In theory I agree with not having a full time paid pastor. I think having someone who is paid to do church keeps others from living out their full potential to be the church. Where I struggle is in the reality that most all of us do work full time jobs and can’t be there to be fulfill the pastor role during the day when someone needs a pastor in our church or in our neighborhood. I think our church is made up of tons of pastors, but none are available throughout the day to meet the needs that may or may not come up while everyone else is at work.

I almost wonder if it is a cultural thing because we are so stinking busy as a culture that we need to pay someone to be pastor while we are unavailable. Parts of me say we need to be prophetic in challenging the culture of busyness, but other parts of me say we need to be contextualizing the Gospel. Then on top of that who are we going to be prophetic to? Cause I’m not sure how we can tell people to stop being busy working two jobs when one job (in our Walmart world) doesn’t pay nearly enough for a family to survive, even without many luxuries.

On the other hand maybe we could find a new way of living together where we share more, work together more, and learn to be less busy together more. Then maybe some of these paid pastor questions would get a little bit clearer.

Why I support Barack Obama

2008-01-09T23:21:00.000-05:00

Let me first say that I don’t put my hope in Obama or our political system. My hope is in God in all things, well at least I try to put my home in God in all things. I just think Obama offers the best hope in a broken system.

Let me then tell you some of my history. My dad was and always will be a politician at heart. He was a State Representative in Ohio for 3 term and held various other local offices while I was growing up in their household. He still helps candidates he believes in get elected to local offices through ingenious grassroots campaigning. My dad knows what he is doing on the local office and I mean that. If you ever want to get elected at the local level you need to give him a call.

Because I was raised in that environment I not only have a deep interest in politics, but also a deep hatred of it. I think my dad was the best politician I ever met and I wouldn’t trade the experiences I had because of it for the world. But I also saw the evil side of it up close. I saw how negative campaigning not only hurts the candidate, but also hurts their kids. Calling a candidate “Tax Man Peterson” becomes really personal to the candidates fifth grade son. Watching your dad lose party support and money, in other words getting abandoned by them, because he votes his conscience on one vote makes one to be very cynical about the whole process. Politics is dirtier than dirt and I saw it first hand.

So why do I like Obama? He seems to be above so much about what I hate. Yes, he is critical of his opponents at times, but more often than naught he talks about what he is for and not what he is against. He is trying hard to speak to all people, not just Democrats. I voted Republican in the last two elections (I’m sorry) so you know some of the hot button issues I believe in. But to be honest he probably doesn’t even agree with me exactly on those issue, but I think he hears me (or people like me) on those issues and will somehow have the ability to bring us together to figure stuff out.

What I hated about the Bill Clinton years (and this is not a slam on Hillary) is that there was always so much divisiveness between the parties when he was president. And then these last eight years with W there has been nothing but divisiveness between the parties. All they do is fight with each other because they represent their power bases on the far extremes and so they never work together and refuse to compromise or even really discuss the issues. They demonize the people on the other side of the aisle and use the power of fear to get things done.

Obama, true enough, sees things more from the left and if you believe some, maybe even the far left. But I don’t care. Heck I wouldn’t care if he saw things from the far right. When I hear him speak and act and by looking at his record he really seems as he wants to listen to all people and work for all people. The last eight years W’s strategy, as lead by Rove, was to play to his power base – the Christian Evangelicals. Even thought that may fit me, that’s not what this country needed. We need someone to play to the entire country as much as possible. Now I know most of you are thinking I’m dreaming when I say this stuff and maybe I am. But I honestly think he has the desire to do this and even a good chance at getting it done.

Obama really seems to be post partisan and post racial. I think if he gets the nomination he’ll win the general in a landslide and be able to have the mandate to actually bring people together across party lines. He is a black man, which I think we would be good for America, but he doesn’t seem to want to be a president just for blacks, but for all of us. That’s because he operates out of a spirit of hope and not guilt.

And of course in all of this I do realize he could be full of hot air, but in all honesty this is the first presidential candidate I have ever been excited about. I’m actually even considering a small, very small, token amount to his campaign. And that’s with having sworn long ago never to give money to a politician.

So am I saying issues don’t matter? No, cause I seem to agree with him more than I disagree with him and I agree with him more than I agree with anyone else. But you know sometimes your style of leadership is truly an issue. From a pastoral point of view you can preach priesthood of all believers all you want but if your church only sees you doing priestly stuff then what are you really communicating? The way you lead truly tells what you believe in your gut.

Miscellaneous things I like about him:
-He turned down a Supreme Court Clerkship (very prestigious and very hard to get) out of law school so they he could go work for the poor in Chicago.
-Only recently did him and his wife get out from under student loans. This guy’s really got to understand my situation!
-I love listening to him speak.
-Martin Luther King’s Dream is starting to be realized in him: He’s not being judged by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character.
-I think He could represent to the world the America I believe we are or at least could be.

And in all things as we get to know more about him I hope I will keep my mind open to change if necessary. But I really like this guy. I really hope he becomes president. He could be a bust, I realize that, but sometimes you see somebody and really believe he could be a different kind of leader and you can’t allow yourself to be cynical forever.

Well those are my rambling reasons why I’m supporting (at least for now) Barack Obama for President of the United State of America. I hope you all do the same, but if not we can all still be friends and work together to make the world we find ourselves in a little bit better.

This is odd...

2008-01-09T08:30:00.001-05:00

I think I'm more upset about Barack Obama coming in second last night to Hillary Clinton than I am about Ohio State losing in the national championship game. I'm not sure what that says about me.

The Starfish and the Spider

2007-12-18T14:19:00.000-05:00

I'm currently reading "The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations" and am enjoying every word of it. It's a leadership book, a genre I usually despise, but this one takes a look at things from such a fresh angle. It's not a "Christian" book (whatever that means), but I'm constantly left dreaming about how their thoughts could or would look in the Church.

The chapter I just finished reading, chapter three, was all about the benefits of decentralized organizations. It talked about things such as craigslist and wikipedia and about a festival in the Neveda desert called Burning Man. Each one of them is user driven, developed, and policed. Because of how they operate they end up giving the user more than a top down profit driven organization could ever give you. Here's a quote from the last paragraph of the chapter, "When you give people freedom, you get chaos, but you also get incredible creativity. Because everyone tries to contribute to the community, you get a great variety of expression."

As I read that I thought about Ben and Sarah who I'm a part of a church with. They are always dreaming about creative things they would like to do in the context of our lives together. This past fall they decided to have a harvest party. I think most of us who got invited thought it was a strange idea when we got invited and may have even made fun of the idea (I apologize). But when we showed up, in somewhat formal attire, for parlor games, old fashioned line dancing, and good food we all had a blast. Sarah even had a short, but profound, devotional about why we celebrate the harvest that I still think about months later.

What if church gave freedom for people to lead, create, and develop in this way. What if we all had the freedom to contribute in this way without having to go through a hiarchical structure first? A friend told me, "But Ben and Sarah are your friends, and friends always act in such a way." Exactly! What if as a church we adopted this for a model for how we lived life together? Where what Ben and Sarah did wasn't the exception, but the norm? Where it was understood that if no one is contributing then no one will receive anything? But this can't happen if the leader (me) expects everything to flow from him. This can only happen if everybody understands that everything flows from the leader (Jesus) who speaks to all, so all must be listened to and given the freedom to do new things.

A good friend once said, "Leadership in our context is someone taking the lead in a given area."

The role of the pastor

2007-12-08T21:12:00.000-05:00

A friend this week wondered out loud in front of me if we have mistaken the call to preach with the call to run an organization (the church).

Myself and the church I am pastor of have been starting to ask similar questions. We are wondering and exploring if we need a full time paid pastor. We are contemplating me getting another job and no longer taking a salary, or at least a greatly reduced one. We are asking what church would look like then and if what it then looked like would be a good thing or not. It's not a question of how to save money or how to be a church the same way just without paying a pastor, but they are questions at the core of what it means for us to be a church and what it means for us to be the people of God in the West End of Mount Vernon. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Why I hate watching sports.

2007-12-02T19:37:00.000-05:00

Actually, the reason I hate watching sports is because I love it so much. I just got finished watching the Browns game that ended, in my opinion, on a terrible call. The call, which was a judgment call, cost the Browns the game. If the right call was made the Browns would have won the game and would have been in great position to make the playoffs, now getting into the playoffs are going to take some work. The reason I hate watching sports in that I got really fired up about that final call. How can a stupid game make me so mad. The official didn't make the wrong call on pupose, but in my mind I ripped him a new one.

And what's the worst injustice that I fight against lately? College footballs refusal to go to a playoff system. Because of money college football won't go to a playoff system that would allow all teams a chance to win it all instead of who the voters think should be in the national title game. I say screw the bowls and let's have a 16 team playoff system in place as soon as possible. I love telling people about it and I get really frustrated that the powers that be are so in love with money that they refuse to give the college football fan what they really want and really deserve. The injustice of it all.

I got issues. Sports shouldn't have that place in my life. They shouldn't be allowed to control my emotions in such a way. They should be fun to watch and should be left on the field. I should care about the true injustices in the world. As I write this I am watching sixty minutes which just had a story about Christians in Iraq, well there's really not many Christians in Iraq anymore. Before the invasion there were over a million, but because of intense persecution most are either dead now or refugees in Syrian ghettos.

I'm not saying I shouldn't watch sports or that I should let every injustice in the world constantly depress me, I just need to keep things in perspective. I got to work on my issues.

Ron's Pizza

2007-11-30T19:18:00.000-05:00

There's this pizza shop in town that has been around for over thirty years. A few months ago they were kicked out of their shop, so that it could be bull dozed and a strip mall could go where it once was. So for the last four months Mt. Vernon has had to go without Ron's Pizza while they converted an old gas station into their new shop. They finally opened again this week and the lines have been out the door. We just ordered a pizza tonight, but we're having to wait 2 hrs and 45 minutes for it and it'll be worth every minute.

New Parents Meeting

2007-11-28T17:26:00.000-05:00

Mandy and I, along with the kids, went to this meeting the other night that is for parent's of kids with down syndrome under three. This is the second time we have gone, but the first time we had time to stay and interact with the other parents and children. I just loved being there. I loved how everyone was so kind to one another and how people shared their joys and struggles and how we were able to be happy with those who were happy and be sad with those who were sad. I love interacting with other children who have down syndrome, I can't explain it but I am just drawn to them. I felt in some way that I was at church while I was there, just that no one mentioned God.

By the way my new favorite number is 47. If 47 chromosomes gave me Lucy, then that has to be the best number in the world. I want to get XLVII (Roman numerals for 47) tattooed on my right bicep. I want it on my bicep because I want it to symbolize a strength not a weakness. I just need to find a cool desing of it first. I somehow want to incorporate Lucy's name into it, her name means bearer of light, doesn't that just fit her. I would really like to get it done on Miami Ink as a way to promote down syndrome awareness. If anybody out there is a good artist, why don't you draw me up a few sketches and send them my way.

Sorry it's been so long...

Father's Day

2007-06-17T16:01:00.000-04:00

So Mandy heard me talking about wanting an old push mower. I think it was one of those things that I like to talk about, but never plan on doing. So she bought me one for Father's Day. And actually it's pretty cool. Not only do I help save the planet, but everybody wanted to talk to me when they saw me cutting the yard with it. The best part is I can stop to talk without turning my mower off and I don't have to worry if it will start again.

Pancake Breakfast

2007-05-08T20:13:00.000-04:00

Some from my church are going to New Orleans this summer on a work trip to help with the rebuilding and we are having a pancake breakfast to raise some funds. Now I know a bunch of you out there in blog land have been looking for a good excuse to come back and visit good ole Mt. Vernon. It's Saturday May 26th from 8 to 11 in the morning at Riverside Park. If you want tickets let me know and I'll tell you where to send a check. Even if you don't want to come you can still send a check made out to "West Side Church of the Nazarene" with New Orleans in the subject line (I ain't too proud to beg). And we might possibly have a spot or two open if someone wants to join us. We're going June 30th through July 8th.

water4christmas

2007-02-23T11:30:00.000-05:00

Some of you have heard this idea from already, but if not, some of us have had the idea of not buying or receiving gifts for Christmas this year and instead giving the money we would have spent on presents to organizations that provide sustainable clean drinking water where there is currently no clean water. Wells can be built in Africa for 1-15 grand depending on the soil and other such stuff according to one websight I found. The dream is to start a group of us who will encourage as many people as possible to join with us in doing this. If we get 500 people to do this we could raise upwards of $100,000 grand. We plan on spreading the word through a websight, emails, blogs, word of mouth, student groups on various college campuses, the Ellen DeGeneres show, and any other way we can figure out. We figure our overhead costs will only be about a hundred dollars (the cost of a good websight for one year).

I plan on this being a positive campaign, which means everything about this will be about how we can raise money to help people in a very basic need of life and not about attacking the consumerism of Christmas, thought this very well may do that indirectly.

If you want to be a part of the team that organizes this, we will be having our first meeting in the Prince Student Union on the campus of MVNU on Saturday March 10th at 10 AM. Feel free to invite others that you know might want to be a part of this.

The end goal is simply to provide sustainable clean drinking water for as many people as we can. To do this we will most likely work through faith based groups and secular groups (I say that upfront so that there are no misunderstandings later). If you are going to come, try to do a bit of research and brings some organizations info with you to the meeting.

If you have any questions email me at peterkevinson@yahoo.com or call me at 740 392 3197.

Out tentative name for everything is water4christmas.

Welcome to Italy

2007-01-30T09:57:00.000-05:00

I can't believe I have another kid! It almost seemed a little bit too easy this time, as Mandy says speak for yourself. I think I really like Italy, though I have grown to like Holland.

feeling loved

2007-01-27T11:07:00.000-05:00

Last night Mandy and I went out for dinner to celebrate my birthday and kind of a last date by ourselves before the new baby comes. I choose the Alcove which is a fancy but very reasonably priced restraunt in downtown Mount Vernon. While we were eating another Nazarene Pastor (hint: think of the biggest Nazarene church in town) and his wife came in to eat, I think they were on a date as well. He came over and said "Hi" and we chated for a second, but they sat on the other side of the resturaunt so we didn't think about them until our check arrived. Actually, our check never arrived because, in the words of our waitress, someone else had already picked it up. We left that night, after thanking them first, feeling so loved. They loved us last night and showed it to us in a very real way. I hope people feel that loved because of my actions.

Link

2007-01-23T16:04:00.000-05:00

Read Lucy's post "Great Article" to see something I am very passionate about.

American Idol

2007-01-20T16:18:00.000-05:00

Has American Idol gone over the top this season with how they bring people who seem to have real disabilities on to their show just to make fun of them?

Petra Rocks!!!

2007-01-19T17:06:00.001-05:00

Mandy got me a two disk Petra greatest hits collection for Christmas. Definitely one of the best presents I’ve gotten in a long time. I’ve been a big Petra fan ever since I saw their Beyond Belief tour when I was a freshman in High School, which was such a great concert. I’m a not the biggest fan of much that came after, but albums such as This Means War, Beyond Belief, Fired Up, and Petra Phonics will always be some of my all time favorites. What’s cool about the CD’s Mandy gave me is that they have songs I don’t know I’ve ever heard before, so I’ve quickly fell in love with Grave Robber and God Gave Rock and Roll to You (I sing it every where I go and everybody’s getting sick of hearing it.)

Then this last week my good friend Dee brought by a record player, so I could listen to her Petra’s Beat the System live album. Lucy and I jammed too it all morning, though I’m not sure she’s a big fan yet.

Did I mention I met Louie Weaver (Petra’s drummer) in an elevator of a hotel I was staying in while I was in Phoenix after my senior year in High School? He didn’t talk much, I think I scared him.

REVOLUTION

2007-01-13T09:06:00.000-05:00

I just read Revolution by Barna, totally inspired me. I need feedback, does anyone have any comments on the book. If you haven't read it yet, read it, and then give me so feedback.

Found on the free book shelf at MVNU library

2006-12-15T11:10:00.000-05:00

"The Late Great Planet Earth" by Hal Lindsey

Is it wrong to read to just ridicule what you are reading?

Dr. Cubie

2006-10-20T13:36:00.000-04:00

So I'm at the MVNU library trying to do some research on Job for some sermons I'm preaching out of the book and I look up and there's Dr. Cubie coming in. He was there to read some NT Wright in preperation for a class he's teaching on Romans. He said he heard a lot about the guy and wanted to hear for himself what he had to say about Romans (New Interpreters Bible Commentary).

So we started talking about my sermon for this Sunday (the last few chapters of Job) and he gave me a heartfelt commentary on the whole book and the chapters I needed. I got more out of that commentary in just a few minutes then the ones I've spent hours reading. I like Dr. Cubie, he's a good guy.

Ouch!

2006-09-11T23:22:00.000-04:00

Just got done playing in our first softball games of the men's fall league here in Mt. Vernon. Let's just say it was ugly, real ugly.

Simple, never easy

2006-08-31T10:14:00.000-04:00

I've been struck lately with Shane Claiborn'e quote "simple, never easy." To reach out and love someone is almost always simple, but rarely easy. What really gets me about it is I'm always trying to figure out how our church is suppossed to love our neighborhood and how we are to be involved in it, in fact I'm always trying to figure out how I'm personally suppossed to love and be involved in our neighborhood. I always lack creative ways, saying it's very complicated in our context to love our neighbors. That's a bunch of BS and I know it. What we need to do is very simple, but I know it is hard, so I make it complicated so I have an excuse not to do it.

Last night three neighborhood teens stopped by while some of our neighbors were celebrating national roast a marshmellow night over a fire in my backyard. They sat down with us and enjoyed the fire for a few minutes. I asked them if they would be interested in hanging out once a week with me, occasionally sharing a meal, and talking about the Bible, God, and life. They all seemed so interested and they all said they would do it. Loving these kids is so simple, yet I know how hard it is. I pray I can simply love them.

Go Bucks!

2006-08-28T10:46:00.000-04:00

Just in case anybody ever has OSU football tickets for a game this season and is not able to go and they can't figure out who to give them to I want to volunteer me and my wife to use them for you. (Hey, it's worth a shot)

being Christian

2006-08-23T09:50:00.000-04:00

I’m so committed to having our church be a church where our number #1 outreach strategy and evangelism strategy is living Christian lives. That sounds pretty and all, but I wonder if it is a cop out to avoid the work necessary to invite others to follow Christ with us. I think it is a balance, I think it involves intentionality, and I think it actually involves planning. I struggle to understand it all. Any thoughts?

Capitalism?

2006-08-16T10:13:00.000-04:00

I'm having a discussion with a friend about capitalism and I need to know what is wrong or right about capitalism from a Christian perspective. Also, who is a good definition of capitalism that is serious and not sarcastic? Any help would be appreciated.

Saw on a Church sign today

2006-07-29T22:43:00.000-04:00

Get R Done For God

Test

2006-07-27T10:01:00.000-04:00

This is only a test...

Old emails...

2006-07-15T16:10:00.000-04:00

I was going through emails from last June and read a bunch that came shortly after Lucy was born... I haven't cried like this in a while. Those were some of the scariest days of my life. I don't think I knew which end was up. Even though I wish my daughter never had to have down's syndrome I can honestly say I love her completely the way she is and I wouldn't want her any different. I know that doesn't make sense, but it does in my mind.

I can't imagine ever loving someone as much as her, which is really weird considering we just found out Mandy is expecting. They say the due date in Feb. 6th. We are really excited, yet a bit scared. They say we have a 1 in a hundred shot of having another child with down's. Our doctor is going to get us a level 2 ultrasound at OSU this fall to help with our nerves, but even if everything is ok I'm sure we'll be scared until we get to hold our new baby in our arms.

God's been so good to us this last year and we have no reason to doubt He won't continue to do so in these next seven months and beyond.

A Sermon

2006-07-09T13:09:00.000-04:00

I never post my sermons here, I guess I just felt like they didn't belong here. Well, I think the one I just preached might belong here for some strange reason. So below is the sermon preached at West Side today.

For the record: Our mission statement is “to be a neighborhood church that works with God to serve our neighborhood, the West Side of Mount Vernon.” The West Side of Mount Vernon is everything West of Sandusky Street to the Kokosing River on the East and South and to Rolls Royce on the North.
I want to start off this morning by reading a verse that has always been very important to me these last seven years I have lived in this neighborhood. It is found in John 1:14 and it says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Who would like to pray for us this morning?
This verse is very important to me because it is where, in large part, where we get the doctrine of the incarnation. I realize “incarnation” is a big word, but in all reality it’s not all that confusing. To incarnate something is to make something a part of something. Like if you are making brownies from a mix you would incarnate eggs into the mix. So incarnation is a big word for a simple idea.
In the verse I read it talks about how Jesus incarnated Himself into this world. Jesus was the Word and He became flesh and blood and He made His dwelling among us. The word dwelling literally means to pitch a tent. So Jesus literally pitched His tent among us. And that is one of the most beautiful images I know of in the Bible outside of the cross. That Jesus would literally leave Heaven, become a man, and pitch His tent in our neighborhood, in the midst of our lives. So when Jesus came to earth 2000 years ago He incarnated Himself and became the incarnate Word of God. Does everybody understand that concept?
It’s important to understand that concept because that is what we want to be about at West Side Church of the Nazarene. As Jesus incarnated Himself to show the love of God to our world 2000 years ago we truly believe that we are to be about incarnational ministry as well. Our church was started here almost three years ago because that is what we believed in. We believed that we needed to be with people we were trying to reach with the love of Christ. We believed we needed to follow the example of Christ and incarnate ourselves in this neighborhood.
I looked through some of my old files that I have saved on those small disks we used to use at what time and I found some interesting quotes relating to this. The first couple quotes come from informational packets I gave to people and families from other churches who thought they might want to be a part of the team that started this church.
A part of that packet included our Core convictions, one of them said, “Our focus is incarnational, meaning that we identify with and live life among the people of the West Side.”
Another part of that packet included our dreams, one of them said, “We desire to be so involved and such a part of the West Side neighborhood that we would be considered their church, or one of their churches, even by those who do not go to any church.” Another one of our dreams said, “We Desire to have every member of Jubilee involved in ministry that reaches out into the neighborhood. Whether it is an official ministry of the church, or not, is unimportant.” And another selected dream statement of the many we had said, “We dream of a neighborhood transformed in every way by the love of Christ working through His people who are in love with Him.”
In that same packet I included our vision statement which was basically an ideal testimony that we would like to hear about five years down the road into our new church. The testimony I wrote came from an imaginary single parent with two kids. So this is basically how we dreamed we would reach and serve people with the love of Christ.
“My life is completely different than it was a year ago at this time. It all started when me and the boys moved into the West Side this past year and we were just dreading another move. We had hardly any help and it was just a really hard time in my life. But just when we started moving in a couple families from down the street came over and offered to help us move in out of the goodness of their heart. Then when we were done moving in another family from nearby brought dinner for us. What started out as a day that I was dreading turned out to be a wonderful day. That was just the start of a very weird month. I had a couple people stop by a few times to offer to pray for us, I thought it couldn’t hurt, so I let them pray for us. I told the people about my oldest boys reading problem and they got me to a tutoring program in the neighborhood community center. Then I would see all the people that had helped me gather once a week at house nearby, they were definitely weird people.
One day one of the families invited me and the boys over for dinner, so while there I asked them about the group that met together. They told me that they were like a Bible study group, but more. They told me that they studied the Bible together and prayed together, but they were also committed to taking care of each other as well as the neighbors that lived around them. Then that group was also apart of a larger church that met just a few blocks away. A few people who belonged to their church had even started the community center and tutoring program that my son goes to.
They asked me to go to church with them, I said “no”, but within a few weeks I was there. I loved it, the worship was wonderful, the people were all so caring and friendly, and the guy who spoke even kept me somewhat interested in what he had to say. If I wasn’t surprised enough that I liked it, go figure, my boys couldn’t wait to go back the next week. Within a month I gave my life to Jesus Christ and my life hasn’t been the same since.
About a month after that I joined the home group that took care of me when I first moved in and let me tell you they have been wonderful. They’ve not only taught me what it means to be a Christian, but they also have been the family to me that I’ve never had. And just last month I’ve started volunteering at the community center that people in the church run, I figured I needed to start giving back. It has been the most wonderful year of my life and I can’t wait for someone new to move in the neighborhood so I can help them move in.”
And then in a letter I wrote to our entire neighborhood introducing our church to the neighborhood written and put on every door about a week before we started I found this paragraph:
“One of the main goals of this church is to be a neighborhood church for the people and community in the West Side neighborhood of Mount Vernon. When we say we want to be a neighborhood church we mean that we want to be a part of this neighborhood in every aspect. Almost everything we do will be focused in and around this neighborhood. Most importantly we want to serve this neighborhood. I realize all of that is easy to say, but my prayer is that we would be able to live up to those goals."
I read all those quotes to make a point. We are here to reach and serve this neighborhood with the love of Christ. We didn’t start this church to be the fourth option for Nazarenes when picking a church to go to on Sunday morning. We didn’t start this church to be the next cool church in town. We started this church to reach and serve this neighborhood with the love of Christ.
And our plan to reach and serve this neighborhood had absolutely nothing to do with ministering from a distance. We wanted to be a part of this neighborhood in every way. To cast our lot with the people who live here. To actually live here and be known by our neighbors and to know our neighbors. To be a visible, tangible, touchable, ever present, representation of the Body of Christ. To be salt and light here in the West End. To be the city on a Hill that cannot be hidden.
To be honest I think we have lost that focus or at least I have. I think I have been more worried about growing a church on Sunday mornings, than a church that lives, breathes, and witnesses here seven days a week. I realized about two weeks ago that I was just content to have a big crowd sitting here on Sunday mornings filling the pews (or chairs?) and filling the offering plates. That would be ok if we thought the way we were going to reach this neighborhood was going to be by a Sunday morning service, but I don’t think we are going to have a chance doing it that way. We thought the only chance we had since before we ever started this church was to incarnate the Body of Christ into this neighborhood.
After Jesus incarnated Himself John tells us that they were able to see His glory and His grace and His truth and also that He was from the father. When we live here together in this neighborhood I wonder if our neighbors will then be able to see God’s glory as His body is present, if they will be able to feel His grace because we freely give it, if they will be able to understand His truth because we live it, and if they will know we belong to the Father because we act like His Children as we live together in His family.
When Mandy and I first toured all the Nazarene Churches recruiting people to come and help us we said we were going to make one of the requirements for membership in our church, whenever we started taking members and we still haven’t, that you either had to live in this neighborhood or be a part of it in a meaningful way at least once a week in addition to Sunday morning. And the emphasis was always supposed to be on moving into the neighborhood and the part about being involved in the neighborhood weekly was added for those people who really couldn’t move here. Those requirements, even though we haven’t taken members yet, has been so watered down by me over the years as I became happy to just have a growing congregation on Sunday mornings. I apologize to you for that. I apologize especially to those who have been coming here for a while now and never heard that we were committed to this way of reaching out and living life together. I apologize for not holding us to the vision I believe God gave us.
But that is who I believed we are called to be as West Side Church of the Nazarene. A church and a people that are incarnated in this neighborhood. And I realize we can all live in this neighborhood and still be as separate and distant as if we all drove forty five minutes to come to church here. We can all be so busy with life that we forget about each other and this neighborhood and just think that Sunday will be good enough. I don’t say that judgingly, because I know I have done that myself. So even if we all move in here we would have to realize that is just the first step.
I realize I am asking a lot when I say things like this because I know how much it can cost us. Nobody grows up dreaming that one day they will be able to live in the West End. We dream of comfort and luxury. But I also know the dreams of the Kingdom of God our so counter every dream this world puts in our head.
I invite you today to consider moving into the West End of Mount Vernon so that together we can reach and serve the people of this neighborhood with the love of Christ.

I haven't seen it yet, but I want to...

2006-06-30T10:31:00.000-04:00

Review: "Who Killed the Electric Car?"by Ed Spivey Jr.SojoMail 6-29-2006
They say you're not paranoid if people are really out to get you. The same can hold true for conspiracy theorists who walk the earth in constant vigil against the dark collusion behind every thwarted effort for human good. Those twitchy bands of nervous nellies - their pockets stuffed with yellowed news clippings on the Kennedy assassination - are no doubt high-fiving the release of "Who Killed the Electric Car?" a documentary that, at least in this one case, proves them 100% correct.
In 1992, after a billion dollars in research, General Motors produced 200 EVs, an all-electric vehicle that would comply with California's mandate that a zero-emissions car comprise up to 10% of the total fleet sold in that state. To those lucky few who were able to lease one, the car quickly became an object of love, smugness, and downright obsession. As promised, the car could travel at highway speeds for up to 100 miles on a single charge, more than enough for the average daily commute. The drivers reported nothing but passionate praise for their new rides, and environmentalists saw this as the first wave of a technology that would dramatically reduce air pollution and dependence on foreign oil.
They were wrong.
The movie is generous in its blame for the unconscionable demise of this miracle car, and aims its first barbs at a fickle driving public suspicious of anything new. It's bona fides for fairness thus established, the filmmakers quickly focus in on the real culprits: GM and the oil companies.
If the film is to be believed (cue conspiracists), GM soon realized the EV would compete against its gas-fueled cars. Additionally, the company worried about dealers losing their primary profit centers - periodic maintenance and replacement parts that electric cars would never need. Servicing the EV meant occasionally rotating the tires and replenishing the windshield washer fluid. A car company that had for decades built planned obsolescence into its vehicles had inadvertently produced a car that owners might never need to replace.
For their part, oil companies financed a multimillion dollar lobbying campaign against California's air quality regulations. Chevron purchased the patents of a superior battery that would have given the EV even more range, and then kept that technology from the marketplace. The pro-oil Bush administration weighed in by promoting hydrogen technology and then pressured a California regulatory agency to kill the zero emissions requirement in favor of this unproven fuel. In hopes of delaying the proven electric technology, other automobile manufacturers - including the now-green Honda and Toyota - hopped on the hydrogen promotional bandwagon despite the fact that production and infrastructure is decades away, if not a complete pipe dream.
Eventually, GM recalled all 200 of its electric cars and crushed them, sometimes within view of their heartbroken owners, many of whom were arrested for attempting to block the action. An aerial view of dozens of flattened EVs in a desert storage area bears mute condemnation of the corporations that purposely kept an innovative and environmentally conscientious technology from reaching the public.
"Who Killed the Electric Car" ends on a hopeful note of grassroots activism and ingenuity, and portends that green technology will eventually win out. But this feel-good finale does little for the melancholy the viewer feels after watching this eloquent and sad eulogy to the little car that could have.

My two favorite girls!

2006-06-20T16:34:00.000-04:00

Another post

2006-06-08T15:39:00.000-04:00

Done with seminary, graduated last Saturday. Today's is Mandy's last day of teaching, she's only teaching half time next year. I just read something written about me by someone who doesn't know me very well. People have to be careful doing stuff like that cause my head got so big it almost burst. I had to remember what our graduation speaker told us, "don't believe what people say about you." I think that is some good advice. I leave for Florida on Sunday for a week of vacation. When I come back I look forward to being something like a full time pastor. I really appreciated hof's post on focusing on bringing justice on the micro level and letting the macro level flow out of that. It was pretty interesting considering I just called Rep. Ney's office and asked him to vote for more money for Darfur. Hof said most people interested in social justice don't even know what the justice issues are in their own communities. At first I didn't even think I knew of any in my little town, but then I was able to think of a few. I hope I have the courage to fight for justice and not sell out. After reading Irresistable Revolution I really wanted to get arrested for some kind of social justice issue, but Mandy reminded me that is just a form of urban pride (but we live in rural america). I'm still thinking about joining the Christian Peacemaking Teams (www.cpt.org). Maybe a group of us could join together? I'm currently reading Resident Aliens (by Hauerwas and Willimon) right now, good stuff so far. I just can't help but thinking if we would actually realize we our only resident aliens it would help us live so much more faithfully. There's a bunch of sorta scattered, random thoughts for you.

Irresistable Revolution

2006-05-27T23:08:00.000-04:00

I just finished Irrisistable Revolution by Shane Claiborne. Honestly one of the best books I have ever read. I've realized why I liked it so much today while I wrote my sermon for tomorrow. It gives the ability to imagine a new way of living life. We are so caught up with passages in Scripture about selling all you own, about believers considering none of their possessions their own, about turning the other cheek, and so many others that seem to only play with our minds. They play with our minds so much because they seem to be on to something so great, but they are so opposite the way our society teaches us to live. We can't even imagine living those passages out in 2006 America. But Shane and his friends in Philly seem to have really taken Jesus words seriously and have found a way to live out what they heard Jesus talking about. I'm not saying we all have to do it just like Shane, he would even say we don't. But after they read those hard passages they imagined another way so opposite our culture and they actually had the balls to live it out.

I've just started imagining a new way for us to follow Christ in the West End of Mount Vernon. Hopefully we'll have the balls to keep on imagining and dreaming together and to then see if our dreams can become reality.

Hospitality

2006-05-23T09:39:00.000-04:00

The thing I like most about hospitality is when a guest in your house is in the shower of your only bathroom and you really got to urinate. What do I like about that you ask? Well, it gives me an excuse to go urinate outside under the stars.

I'm so happy!!!

2006-05-22T20:07:00.000-04:00

I just walked out of my last class in seminary. I am done! Three long years are all done! Thank you God!

Update on my life...

2006-05-18T12:56:00.000-04:00

-My last class at seminary is this Monday night, then I'm done. I can't tell you all how excited I am to be done.
-Mandy bought me a new gas grill as a graduation present. We fired it up last night and had a big cookout. I like cookouts.
-I'm reading irresistable revolution by Shane Claiborne of the Simple Way in Philly. It's making me think really hard and evaluate really hard right now. I think I'm gonna have our whole church read it so we can think really hard and evaluate really hard together, which will hopefully lead us to change the way we live together. I absolutely love the book, not because he has any new thoughts, but because he calls us prophetically to live the way we believe. And yes, I've already read Blue Like Jazz and loved it, but this book takes the discussion to a whole nother level.
-I am absolutely amazed by my daughter and so are her doctors and therapists. She shouldn't be doing as well as she is. I love her more every day. Her b-day in June 12th, but were celebrating it on June 4th, you are all invited to come. I'll post the party info on her blog within the next week.
-I've almost lost thirty bounds, this morning I weighed in at 223. If I can get down to 200 and keep it off for at least three months then Mandy and decided I could get a tatoo on my left forarm.

Seperated at Birth? (Thanks Ben)

2006-05-04T13:07:00.000-04:00

Mark Palmer

2006-04-04T20:53:00.000-04:00

Mark Palmer passed away last week. He was a church planter in Columbus, one in whom I had a deep respect for. The house he lived in was like a community house where three to four other people besides his family lived in and where their church gathered on a regular basis to be church. Their house is known as 64 King, it got that name from its address . I guess the best thing I can say about Mark is that I hope and have been hoping that when Lucy grows up she will be able to live in 64 King or a house like it. I see her being accepted there, being able to thrive there, being able to serve and be served there, seeing and experiencing the Kingdom there, and learning how to be a disciple there.

All you Landing Place people out there in blog land know that we will continue to hold you all up in prayer and we will stay in touch. Also know that we appreciate so much the love you have for our daughter. Who knows what the future holds, but maybe someday Lucy will join you all down there.

live from Israel

2006-03-20T00:38:00.000-05:00

well i've ridden a camel, ate at mcdonalds, been in lots of caves, seen lots of tells, floated in the dead sea, walked on the sea of Galilee... make that rode in a boat on the sea of Galilee, saw the valley of Armegedan, saw an ancient fort that was amazing, prayed at the Western Wall, been on part of the via del a rosa, been to the Mount of Olives, been on Mount Carmel, seen where the Dead Sea scrolls were found, saw a shirt that said Super Jew, and have had a good, but very tiring time so far. Though I miss my wife and daughter terribly right now. If any of you see my wife or daughter tell her I love her and miss her very much.

Ugh!

2006-03-01T22:03:00.000-05:00

Why is it that 12 hours after I decide to give up cookies and ice cream for lent the girl scout cookies I ordered over a month ago show up on my door step?

I leave for Israel in 12 days... James, sorry I haven't called you back yet.

House

2006-02-13T08:27:00.000-05:00

Our church just looked at a house to buy. We would have a couple live in the upstairs and then use the downstairs for ministry/church/whatever space. It has a huge yard and that excites me. It's a big decision, but I think the church is leaning towards doing it.

Peace

2006-02-11T09:33:00.000-05:00

As I sit in my peace class I am struck by how easy it is to hold a Christian pacifist position. It doesn’t cost me a thing. If my country goes to war and I am against the war shouldn’t I be required to somehow actively try to be a peacemaker? Shouldn’t I be required to do more than tell a few friends I’m against the war and occasionally say a prayer for peace? Shouldn’t I possibly join a Christian Peace Making Team and go to Iraq and work for peace in nonviolent ways? Oh hold on a second Kevin, you have a wife, a child, and a church. Yeah, but so do a lot of the soldiers fighting in Iraq? They believe in what they are doing enough that they will give years away from their families to go to Iraq. Do I really believe that nonviolence can bring peace or do I just believe that nonviolence is a fun, cool, and even trendy position to hold?

thoughts

2006-01-26T22:24:00.000-05:00

Last week I preached on 1 Cor 7:29-31 which says in part, "those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not...For this world in its present form is passing away. " I said lots of things about this, probably even some pretty good stuff, but not what tugs at my heart when I read that.

I think about Lucy some nights and I cry. I really hurt for her. Yet when I read that passage I'm reminded that downs is only for this life, in heaven all our tears will be wiped away. Some times I think about Lucy and get real excited. I dream about her winning Little Miss Knox County at the Fair, about her lighting up our neighborhood with her smile, and about her dancing and singing on Broadway. Yet I know when I read this passage that even if all that takes place that is not where our hope lies and all that is nothing compared to our inheritance in heaven.

I try to keep this life in perspective. It's tough sometimes.

I might write a book

2006-01-18T15:52:00.000-05:00

Today, as I was holding Lucy, a book idea came to my mind. Like an idea for me to write a book. Nothing huge, just a small book of theology for the average person. It would address how one should properly look at down syndrome and other birth defects (I'm not even sure if downs is technically a birth defect), specifically how do we see and understand God in the midst of having a child with downs.

I wouldn't want it to be a "our journey" type of book, though it would doubtless have some of that in there, but a book that really helps people understand God, especially in the midst of having a child with downs. One of the first chapters would be on the fall and how that plays a role in downs, and one of the last would be on heaven and everything being made new.

It won't get started on it tell I'm done with seminary this June, and for that matter it might not ever get started. I just want to tell the world what I think is a correct theology, and a correct theology is a lot better than this pop theology (God only gives angels like her to great parents like you) that sounds good at first, but causes a lot more problems latter on.

Question

2006-01-14T11:39:00.000-05:00

Someone in my class said today, "All the beatitudes are impractical." He wasn't saying they aren't what we are supposed to do, just that they are impractical. I'm left wondering... Especially in light of my last post.

by the way I think I'm a pacifist.

Be successful and carry your cross?

2006-01-14T09:22:00.000-05:00

We are so pragmatic. We want to do things to be successful. So we do things to help us be successful without much thought to what we should be doing. The cross wasn’t very pragmatic. Why do we do church in such a way that is only geared to being successful. Why can’t we do it in such a way that is geared towards being faithful?

We hear all this stuff about numbers, why not more about the marginalized. We hear all this stuff about numbers, why not more about justice. We hear all this stuff about numbers, why not more about loving your neighbor. If we care about the marginalized, fighting for justice, and loving our neighbor we might find ourselves on a cross and not in a large growing church. Yet we are people of the Resurrection and the gift of Pentecost; I wonder where that leads us?

Almost done...

2006-01-13T17:54:00.000-05:00

I walked out of my house tonight to go to my weekend class at Ashland and I'm just tired. I want to go cause it's the class I've looked forward to the most at seminary (history and thought of the Christian Peace Position), but I'm just pooped. I want to be done with seminary, though at the same time I love it. I just keep thinking get through March and life will slow down a bit, well at least in my dream world it will...

Oh by the way, I go to Israel in March for one of my last classes. Ten day study tour with Dr. Byron and a bunch of good friends. Only bad thing is that I have to leave behind Mandy and Lucy. Not sure how I'm gonna handle that one just yet...

2006-01-12T10:01:00.000-05:00

Well I went to see the monster trucks and I guess the bes t way you could describe it is to say it is a cross between the county fair (rough truck, demolition derby... kind of stuff) and a clean WWE. My little brother loved it, so it was worth it for me.

I went over to the MVNU gym today to walk with Lucy. I realized yesterday I never got beyond our front porch and that I had to get some exercise. I put Lucy in one of those carrying things that straps her to me and went walking. To be honest I felt a little weird as people probably wondered about me, but I really didn't care in the end. I didn't care so much I bought a chocolate muffin before I left at that little cafe thing they had there. I eat terrible and need to fix something quick. E Stetler you need to come up here and fix me with your healthy ways.

I love my daughter. I'm so proud of her and I find out more and more that I forget about here chromosones. I even catch myself dreaming big dreams for her future just like any parent would for their kid. Their probably a tad bit unrealistic, but then again, aren't most parents? I dream she'll sing and dance on Broadway someday. I thank God for her everyday.

I think God has healed her. Not in that she doesn't have downs anymore or that she won't have any problems associated with it, I just believe God has healed her. I can't even describe what I mean when I say that I just believe God has healed her. Thank you Father!

Basement

2006-01-05T20:35:00.000-05:00

I locked myself in my basement today. I had to take the door off the hinges to get out.

Strange Request

2006-01-05T10:43:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow night (Friday 1/6) I'm taking my little brother from Big Brothers/Big Sisters to go see the Monster Trucks at Nationwide Arena. Now I'm not sure if anybody who reads this blog has any connections at Nationwide or in the Monster Truck Circuit, but it anybody does could you pull some strings for me and get us pit passes for tomorrow night? I could really care less about getting close to the big trucks, but I know my little would love it. I know that they have an open pit on Saturday afternoon, but we can't go that day. Any help would be appreciated. Call me 740 392 3197 or email me peterkevinson@yahoo.com with an info or help.

Another thing that confuses me...

2005-12-18T21:12:00.000-05:00

It is very easy to idealize ministry in other places. Especially other places where the needs are so much greater (the inner city and Africa for example). We get frustrated with the people around us and want to go where the people really need us and somehow deserve our help unlike these ungreatful sinners all around us in our current location (anybody's current location and I'm not specifically talking about anybody in Mount Vernon).

Well, I read an article in last weeks Newsweek called "The Lessons Tulia Teaches." (December 19th, pg.44) Tulia is a town in Texas that had a big scandal because the local sherriff wrongly arrested 47 African Americans on drug charges and they all went to jail. Luckily people stood up for justice and the people were released from prison. One of the people who stood up for justice was a local pastor and it cost him his job. Listen to what he had to say "'I had always believed the truth shall set you free,' said Bean. 'In the end...it took a misrepresentation of the facts to get these people justice.' By that, he means that in order to fuel the crusade, he and his allies had to make the victims appear more innocent than they were an the town more eveil than it actually is."

I know the people I live with in the West End arefar from innocent. They have done plenty of stuff to get them in the messes they are in. That's why I want to go to Africa or the inner city where it's not there fault and the people deserve help. What I realize is that whever I go (and I don't want to leave Mount Vernon) I'm not going to find people who are innocent, who really deserve my help.

I heard a lot about that guy in California who just got executed. He was made out to be a saint. Even if he wasn't guilty of the specific murders he was charged with, the gang he started was responsible for hundreds, if not thousands of murders. He was far from innocent.

So what's my point in all of this? We are not called to help the innocent, cause there are none. We are called to get involved in people's lives who are messy and really don't deserve our help. We are called to stand up for the guy on death row, not because he is innocent, but because he was made in the image of God and though the image is distorted, we want to see it redeemed. We are called to love our neighbor who is grumpy and hates us, not because he deserves it, but because God loves him as much as he loves us. We are called to get involved in lives that are so completely messy by their own creation, not because they deserve it either, but because that is the way of the Word who became flesh.

When it comes down to it, I'm not innocent and I don't deserve God grace. Who am I to be the one who keeps God's grace from another. We need to stop looking for the innocent or the deserving to help. We just need to help those who need help.

Church

2005-12-18T20:57:00.000-05:00

So today in our church service we had 19 people. The fewest amount of people we've had in a long time, but we knew it would be that small with the holidays and such. But everyone there was like family, all committed Christ followers. I didn't care we were so small, instead we adapted and did things that we can't do when we have a large crowd. I felt like we worshiped this morning. I felt like we were who we were suppossed to be as the people of God in the West End of Mount Vernon.

Yet on Sundays when we have lots of people (lots for us is 50-60) and non Christ followers present we do things different. We're not so bold to do things that the people of God do. For enstance today we gathered in a circle with held hands and people prayed as they felt led. If we had visitors there I would have felt reluctant to do some of that or other simular stuff at the risk of making them feel uncomfortable.

So my point in all of this is that I worry that I let visitors, especially the non Christian ones, dictate how we practice being the people of God. It causes me so much confusion because we all have such a strong desire to reach out into the lost world, but in doing that we have this tendency to lose sight of who we are to be as the people of God. Another example: a few weeks ago a neighbor came to church with us and during my "pastoral prayer" I was tempted to not be so radical or bold so I wouldn't make her think we were too radical in our faith. I shook off the temptation and prayed the way I needed to, but still the temptation was there. Reaching out to the world around us in part of what we need to be as the people of God, but it is not supposed to form who we are as the people of God. I'm confused.

Persecuted Church

2005-11-10T11:14:00.000-05:00

I'm preaching on the Persecuted Church this Sunday. I got to spend about an hour working on it at the library this morning, but then I had to go home to watch Lucy. When Mandy got to school after I started watching her she called to say her Parent/Teacher conferences were starting an hour later than she thought so I could bring Lucy to her at school and I could spend more time at the library.

So when I made it back to the library I saw a student there who I knew spent the last two summers in an undiscosed country being a missionary. So I went and asked him about the persecuted church in the country he went to and he told me a ton, enough to make you cry on one hand and enough to make you beam with pride for our brothers and sisters in Christ
who are being faithful witnesses in very tough, to say the least, times.

As he was telling me his stories, I heard this guy talking behind me, and I thought that couldn't be Fletcher Tink. I turned around and sure enough it was. He's one of the top guys in the Nazarene church when it comes to Compassionate ministries. I introduced myself and told him what we are going to do Sunday and asked me if he could talk to me about the persecuted church and boy did he ever and I was left with the same impression I got from the student.

I say all of this not to point out how cool it was that God made things work in such a way that I got to hear two first hand accounts of the persecuted church. I say all of that because I think God wants us praying for the persecuted church. God didn't say I think I'll do something really cool for Kevin today, I think He said, "His brothers and sisters are being persecuted and he needs to hear about it so at the very least He can battle with them in prayer." Pray for the persecuted church today in these ways:
1. In the persecution they may hold firm.
2. Pray for the families left behind
3. When leaders are martyred, that Godly leaders will rise in their place.

Traditional church

2005-10-26T22:04:00.000-04:00

With all of the talk of how bad the traditional church is (and a lot of it is justified) by a lot of my friends in the blog world I thought I needed to post something.
I went to my district office yesterday to drop some stuff off. When I pulled up the District Superintendents wife saw me and ran outside. She said you go in and take care of business while I sit in the car with Lucy. It was raining and cold and she didn't want me to have to take her out in that weather. She is so kind.
I go inside and my DS was there and he came out of his office to talk to me. He was so encouraging to me and our church. He kept telling me it is going to take all kinds of different churches doing all different kinds of things. He believes in me and our church.
Granted we aren't a radicaly different church than most, we probably look more traditional than I would like to admit at times, but he is encouraging us to be who we need to be, who God is calling us to be.
I like my DS a lot. Mandy and I call him P Dubya (that's short for Pastor Wilson). Sure he sees the church through different lenses than I do, but he allows me to keep using my lenses. On top of that Him and his wife love me and my family.

Some more thoughts

2005-10-23T16:08:00.000-04:00

-I'm getting really good at praying out loud during church. I think today's was one of my best. I feel like Jesus words in the Sermon on the Mount about praying out loud were directed towards me. I don't know how to fix it. Maybe pray more in my closet at home would be a start.
-I just read "Blue Like Jazz." Great book!
-My wife and my mom both read "Wild at Heart" and told me to read it, so I read the first three chapters and they asked what I thought and I told them i wanted a beer. I have the same thoughts after reading Blue Like Jazz. I don't drink, never had a beer before, yet these so called Christian books are corupting me. Don't worry, I have no plans to put down a cold one.
-So we had a guest speaker in church today. He asked us to open our Bibles with him and I realized I left mine on stage. I felt like a bad pastor at that moment, but then I looked behind me and saw Joe Noonen didn't have his and I looked in front of me and saw Alex Varughese didn't have his. But this little girl who has only been to church like three times had hers. She gave me a bit of hope today and not just because she had a Bible.
-Our church is having a Halloween outreach that I'm pumped about. These girls moved into our neighborhood for their senior year to be more involved in the neighborhood (cool enough in itself) and they are turning their back yard into the coolest Halloween stop in the neighborhood: smores, dunking for apples, lots of candy, games and other stuff. They are going to be light on a dark night. Though Halloween is already one of my favorite holidays of the year. What other holiday gets the whole neighborhood out of their houses doing something together? I wish we had halloween every month.
-Our church got Mandy and I a gift certificate to the Buxton Inn in Grandville. I love our church. Our church is a little unorganized and weird at times (it takes after me), but I love it so much. I wouldn't trade that group of people for anything.
-Blue Like Jazz has this story about a confessional booth that is so wonderful, that one story is worth the price of the book in my opinion.
-I hope I'm not trying to be trendy.

weird emotions

2005-10-22T22:39:00.000-04:00

Well i found out yesterday that the building we were looking at buying for our church sold to someone else. Then I read about a church building a coffee shop and how my friend wasn't very happy about it. Then I read about the earthquake in Pakistan.

It makes me glad we didn't buy the building. But are we doing anything about the people in Pakistan now that we have funds to spare? I'm a little sick to my stomach and at the same time I'm ready to go my warm bed and go to sleep and forget about everything. Guilt is stupid, it just makes you send in a check and then forget all about it. I want a different lifestyle where guilt isn't a factor cause I'm living different. I can't even describe it right now. Cause you know next week there will be a another disaster and another check to write to avoid the guilt, but I want to live differently, to love differently, to already be living with empty pockets. At least I think I do. Guide us Father.

Some sorta random thoughts...

2005-10-14T17:56:00.000-04:00

-Screw you down syndrome. You will not steal our joy.
-I read a study yesterday that said 80% of parents who found out their child had downs during their pregnancy had an abortion during the 1990’s at a certain hospital in Boston. That makes me cry.
-I realized this past weekend I won’t be able to beat up everybody who causes Lucy problems in life. For starters I’m nearly a pacifist, but the real reason is that I live in another Kingdom and I have to show that Kingdom to Lucy.
-I’m not really worried that much about what people will do to Lucy, I’m more worried about what they won’t do (i.e. invite her to sleepovers, giver her a chance, be her friend).
-Who is Iron and Wine?
-Lucy’s eyes penetrate my soul.
-I cry the most when I read articles or books that tell the story of parents finding out their child has downs shortly after birth. It just brings back so many emotions.
-Lucy means “bearer of light,” we couldn’t have picked a more perfect name for her.
-Can you believe Mike Redcay got married? I’m so happy for him, I like him so much!
-We live in reality and we are well aware of reality. Yet we live in hope and are full of hope.
-God is good.
-Sometimes I forget that Lucy has downs.
-downs does not define Lucy, nor does it define our family. (yet that seems to be all that I talk about.)
-When I dreams about Lucy’s future I dream that she becomes a dancer.
-Screw you down syndrome. You will not steal our joy.

Emergent?

2005-10-10T20:09:00.000-04:00

I’m not a big fan of labels anymore. I used to be a big fan of the word emergent, as in the emergent church. But this weekend I went to a conference and I asked this church planter who was leading a seminar what he thought about the emergent church and he responded by talking about Willow Creek and Saddleback. Then my professor in class tonight was talking about a church she visited that billed itself as emergent all over it’s website, but in all reality it was a contemporary church that just happened to use art in its services.

I used to want to take our church down the road of the emergent church, not any more. I think there is something much deeper and radical we are called to.

Almost boy

2005-09-30T15:31:00.000-04:00

So I just opened my back door to let my dog out. As he goes out he sees a squirrel who wasn’t paying too much attention to anything sitting on our back patio. So Hank, my dog, proceeds to chasing the squirrel. The squirrel jumps on to our chain link fence and runs along the top of it as Hank chases along side of it trying to grab him as they both run. The squirrel fell to Hanks side of the fence though not falling off the fence and Hank nearly got him, but then the squirrel got to the top again and kept running. As the squirrel ran along the top again it fell to the other side of the fence, but instead of just jumping to the ground and safety it jumps to the top of the fence and then verily jumps over Hank, who was jumping as well, to a large tree. It then went high into the tree to safety. Better luck next time Hank, it was a valiant effort!

Good Stuff

2005-09-28T12:11:00.000-04:00

Jen Leonard wrote this on her blog:
God’s love is a mystery. It is spoken of in scripture as unfathomable, too wide and deep for us to understand. In Sunday School and Sunday Sermons, I was taught all about the richness of the love of God. About a creator God who made a covenant with His people, about a man named Jesus, the Son of God, who died on the cross for the sins of the world, the sins of His people. I was taught that His love was all I ever would need. That His love would change my life. It all seemed very cut and dry to me. God loved me so much and unconditionally that He sent His only Son to die for me. And that was the ultimate definition of love. But it does not seem all that simple to me anymore. Not so cut and dry. God’s love has become this unfathomable mystery to me.
But as of late this mystery has been being revealed to me in the beauty of community. A covenant love expressed in togetherness. In the last year of life I have experienced the love God expressed . . .
In the beauty of community.In following Jesus together in this life.In the acceptance of who we are as individuals.In the encouragement to be who we are in the body.In the freedom to broken . . . to be vulnerable . . . to simply be.In the knowledge that we create a safe place for each other.In the faith found in the hopelessness.In the perseverance in the midst of doubt and confusion and hurt.In the prayers we offer on each others behalf.In the laying of hands and the faith behind it.In the breaking of bread and passing of the cup.In the shared meals and laughter.In simply being present with each other.In the building of a history together.In the conversations and discussions that move us forward.In the moments where truth is spoken.In the family that has been formed by the blood.
Community has become one of God’s greatest expressions of His love to me. God’s love is present to me in the midst of my life because His community is present to me. God’s love is present and real to us, because we are real and present to each other.
A covenant love expressed in togetherness.

...in bed.

2005-09-21T20:29:00.000-04:00

Me and Johnny Bravo went out to lunch today. We went to Hunan Garden and it was a most wonderful time, I think John's the best. Well when the fortune cookies came we said we'd say "in bed" directly after the end of the fortune. Here were the fortune's and you can add "in bed" for yourself at the end of each one.
-There are 365 days in a year, may all 365 of your dreams come true...
-To love what you do and feel that it matters, how could anything be more fun...

Good day...

2005-09-17T19:07:00.000-04:00

-Ran in a 5k and did it under my goal. I ran it in about 31:20 (set your goals low enough...)
-Rode an escalator with a 13 year old boy today who had never ridden an escalator before.
-Ate lunch with that same boy at the Hard Rock Cafe in Cleveland and had a wonderful experience. While we were sitting waiting for our food the manager brought out someone else's food, but I thought it was ours and told the boy that so we both turned to look. The manager saw us look and she acted like it was ours and basically said just kidding and walked on by. When she came back again the boy I was with, in a joking manner, said "where's our food?" I was suprised he said it cause he is shy, but I think the managers good attitude opened him up to it. She looked at him and said, "come on" and took him back to the kitchen where she told him to tell the chef "to hurry up with my food or your fired!" He ended up being able to see the whole kitchen and help finish our meals. He then got to help bring them out to the table. What an unexpected joy he got today and what a one did I get watching him get it. The blessings of life!!!

Two Good Movies...

2005-09-11T17:19:00.000-04:00

Mandy went out and rented us some movies to watch this weekend and I wasn't impressed with the titles she brought home: Because of Winn Dixie and Finding Neverland. I thought couldn't she get an action flick or possibly a commedy, but no, she brings home those two. But they turned out to be wonderful movies with beautiful stories that just warm your heart and make you want to dream and then live out your dreams.

The Kingdom of God

2005-09-10T14:44:00.000-04:00

Is it now? Is it not yet? Is it both? This Kingdom of God thing intrigues me and leaves me hungering for what it may be both in the future, but also now in my present and in the world all around me.

In what is now my favorite blog, Chris Marshall talks an awful lot about it in ways that make me hunger to see it now, to participate in it now, and to invite others to join me in it.

I think in my preaching I'll be focusing on the Kingdom for a while, who knows? Two passages that have been on my mind this last day our Luke 10:8-9 ("When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.'") and Luke 17:20-21 (Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, 'Her it is,' or 'There it is,' because the kingdom of God is within you.")

Any thoughts on the Kingdom of God in general or as found in those passages in specific?

The hurricane

2005-09-02T18:16:00.000-04:00

Just a guess, but I think what we are seeing in New Orleans right now might change the way America sees and treats our inner cities for years to come. On one hand we might see what is going on and build the wall between suburbia and inner city even higher. On the other hand we might realize that we need to do something about the conditions of our inner cities that breed things like we see on CNN. I don't expect the later to take place, but we're Kingdom people who live with hope and pray "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, in our inner cities as it is in Heaven."

a long year ahead

2005-08-31T15:36:00.000-04:00

I need to preface this by saying how lucky I am to be a stay at home dad, a church planter, husband of a beautiful wife, and a seminary student on a full ride scholarship. I am blessed beyond what I can imagine with all that in my life. Actually I was going to complain about how I don't know how I'll be able to do any of that well with while having to do all of it. But I'm not going to complain cause I have absolutely no room, I am truly blessed.

But if you think about it say a prayer for me sometime. Thanks!

2005-07-21T15:17:00.000-04:00

This is me and Joe Noonen before the ordination service. After the GS ordains you, you get to select a mentor to pray a prayer of blessing for you. I chose Joe.

Standing Ovation

2005-07-21T14:53:00.000-04:00

Well Monday night went better than expected in some ways, worse in others, and wonderful overall. I practiced a ton for my song cause I was so nervous but when I got up there it was if I never practiced. I was off pitch, tune, tempo, and everything else I could be off on, but everyone was dying laughing. When I finished everyone gave me an instantaneous standing ovation for my pastor's report. Here's a written copy:

In the spirit of John and Charles Wesley, who wrote hymns to the tunes of the popular songs of their day, I rewrote a popular song of our day for my pastor’s report. And in the spirit of many a men who have no singing ability, I now sing for you my pastor’s report.

We got preachers; we got teachers;
Some singers and hand wavers
An’ we got leaders; we got servers
An’ we got, friendly hand shakers
And the college kids prayer walk our neighborhood
Mm, mm, mmm… I love our church

We got saints; we got seekers
Creative types and dreamers
An’ we got front row sitters, and plenty in the back
Encouragers and those who comfort
And we all talk about how God’s been good
Mm, mm, mmm… I love our church

I love our church
It’s my kind of place
Just walk in through the front door,
Puts a big smile on my face.
It ain’t too far, we come as we are
Mm mm mmm I love our church

Seriously now, it has been a good year for us. As you can tell from the song I really felt in this last year we have come into our own as a church and it has been great to see God continually work in our midst. God has been more than good to us and we praise His Holy name!

Now all I have to live with is everybody giving me complements, well most people tell me how awful it was in a way that I think is suppossed to be a compliment. It was really fun and I'm glad I did it. You only get to live once, so you might as well have fun living it. And I and I think most others there that night had a lot of fun.

Soon to be Ordained

2005-07-17T16:04:00.000-04:00

I get ordained this Tuesday night. In all of the events of the past month I more or less forgot about this coming up and the significance of the event. But it is finally here and my favorite GS, Jerry Porter, will be ordaining me.

The ordination service is in the midst of this thing we Nazarenes like to call district assembly. It's not as bad as it sounds. One of the things that goes on during district assembly, besides the ordination service, is the pastor's reports. Each lead pastor of a church has to give a 2 min. or less report to the assembly on how your church did in the last year. My report was scheduled to be given Wednesday morning, read after I'm ordained, so I decided to be creative for my report and write a song for it.

Well we had to turn in a copy of our reports in a few weeks ago to the district superintendent who for some reason really liked all the new start pastors reports (five of us including me) and asked us all to give our reports during the opening service of assembly Monday night, read before I'm ordained. This is a big service mind you and I'm going to sing my report and I don't sing good at all. Gulp! I'm so nervous.

For those of you who want to know, I rewrote Toby Keith's "I love this bar" and renamed it "I love our church." It should be an interesting couple of nights this week to say the least.

anticlimatic

2005-07-07T16:50:00.000-04:00

The genetic doctor visit today was very anticlimatic. I guess we were hopping for them to tell us how serious or how not serious her case was and things like what her IQ will be. But they didn't tell us much of anything, in fact they hardly looked at her. But it was still a good experience, they were all real nice and very helpful. The only hard part was when they showed us a picture of her chromosones and we saw three of them on the 21st set. I think it made it kind of real right then or something cause I wanted to cry when I saw them. Thanks for all your prayers today!

Poor Theology and our theology

2005-06-25T14:41:00.000-04:00

One of the interesting things that comes with having a child born with down syndrome is all of the poor theology that you hear from people as they comfort you. The best being a form of "God only gives kids with down syndrome to parents He can trust." I'm not saying I mind hearing it and I appreciate the affirmation we have received from so many people in that form, but deep down inside I know it's not true. For starters I'm sure there are plenty of people ahead of me that I would trust with Lucy (not that I would let anyone else have her, she's our's and no one can have her!). But in all reality plenty of bad parents have had kids with down syndrome and the kids have suffered for it. So I don't buy into that theology, though I still appreciate what I know people mean when they say it (so if you have said that to us and our reading this, don't worry about it, we know what you meant and thank you for it). People have been very kind to us in word and deed over these past two weeks and we are so greatful to them all.

Lucy's down syndrome isn't a result of God. It is a result of the fall and of sin. We live in a broken world and bad things happen. God didn't give us a child with down syndrome. God gave us a child who happens to have suffered some of the effects of the fall. When her cells first started to divide they made some mistakes that left her with an extra chromosone on her twenty first set. Thus she has down syndrome: not from God, but because the fall has affected every part of us, even down to how our cells divide at conseption.

So where is the hope? Our God works all things for the good for those who love and serve Him! That's the theology Mandy and I are resting in today. Not in a God who gives us a child with down syndrome, but in a God who will work wonders we can't even imagine or even ask for in a child who suffers, in a more visible way than most, from the fall. And He already has! He is a good God and we praise Him for His faithfullness to our family!

We see the eye and hearts doctors this week, please pray for her eyes and hearts. That her eyes may be 20/20 (or whatever new born eyes need to be) and that she may see with the eyes of God as she lives. That her heart may be perfectly healthy and that she would have the heart of God for the world around her.

P. Dubya

2005-06-21T08:15:00.000-04:00

My DS and his wife stopped by yesterday. I call him Pastor Wilson and Mandy has shortened it to P. Dubya. He said he felt like he had a word of the Lord for us that he received last Wednesday during our district monthly day of prayer. He said he felt like God gave him three promises for us (this being before Lucy was even diagnosed though he told us after):

1. Lucy will be a big blessing to us and others.
2. Lucy will be a big benefit to our ministry.
3. Mandy and I will understand and experience God's faithfulness like few others do because of Lucy.

I think we'll hold on to those right now. Thanks P. Dubya! But more importantly thank you Jesus!

Welcome to blogging...

2005-06-19T12:49:00.000-04:00

To see Lucy's blog go to www.beautifullucy.blogspot.com That is where daddy will place most of the updates about her, as well as a bunch of pictures. We get the genetic tests back Monday or Tuesday, we need some people to hold our arms up in prayer for us these next two days. We went to church today and everyone gathered around us in prayer. Jamie Parry led the prayer and it was beautiful as I cried the entire time.

2005-06-18T15:13:00.000-04:00

I don't like baths!

Update

2005-06-16T22:30:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow, Mandy and I will take Lucy to a Children's hospital branch in Westerville for blood work to determine genetic stuff that might tell us if she has downs or not. We'll probably get a call Monday with preliminary results. Pray for us.

I think today at our doctor visit we were both hoping that the doctor would tell us that she didn't know what the other doctor was talking about, that Lucy didn't have any signs of anything, but she said Lucy did. But some of the stuff she said were signs the previous doctor said weren't. We don't think anybody knows anything right now except that she is our wonderful precious baby. It shows me how much this guy named Chris Marshall knows, check out his blog here that he posted on Tuesday. I think he knows what he's talking about.

The present is a wonderful gift. Thank you Jesus!

2005-06-15T15:09:00.000-04:00

Isn't she beautiful?

2005-06-15T12:09:00.000-04:00

one happy family!

You know what?

2005-06-13T22:25:00.000-04:00

I'm pumped. Mandy and I have gotten to hold Lucy all day to day. She is a gift from God! I haven't cried since I've been able to hold her on a regular basis. When she was in that awful incubator all I could think about was her future and I cried and cried. But now when I hold her I live in the present with her and I am so greatful. I honestly have a completely different attitude than I had in the early morning hours today. I'm not sad and I am not really even scared anymore. I haven't forced myself to be like this, I just think God has gifted me with the right perspective for right now just like he has gifted us with the most wonderful little girl. There God goes giving us immeasurable more than all we could ask or even imagine.

Update on Lucy Kay

2005-06-13T13:21:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends and Family,
Well the doctor came in this morning and said he couldn’t confirm a diagnosis of downs syndrome. She has some of the symptoms, but not nearly all of them. What they said seemed like a sure thing last night now isn’t. He still thinks she might have some kind of syndrome, possibly even a mild form of down syndrome, but only genetic testing will be able to tell for sure what kind it is.
The real good news is that both she and Mandy are healthy. The doctors said both should be able to come home Tuesday. We will need to eventually take her to Children’s in Columbus, but the doctor said there is no real rush. Thank you for your prayers, they are making a difference. We’ll keep you all updated…
Amazed at the wonderful gifts God gives,
Kevin, Mandy, and Lucy

Lucy Kay Peterson

2005-06-13T04:09:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends and Family,
Mandy and I would like to announce the arrival of Lucy Kay Peterson. She came at 11:04 PM on Sunday June 12th. She weighs 7lbs. 3 ounces and is 20 inches long. Labor was quick but tough. She had her cord wrapped around her neck and they had to use the forceps to get her out quickly. We are thrilled with the precious gift God has given us and the world.
We do have a prayer request. They are 99% sure that she has down syndrome. To be honest we are very scared right now. Would you all please take a moment and say a prayer for our beautiful daughter and for her parents. Thank you! We will keep you all updated…
Blessings,
Kevin, Mandy, and Lucy

our last meal

2005-06-08T14:04:00.000-04:00

Mandy and I went to Mansfield for our last "date" before the arrival of Lucy. We had a nice meal, then ice cream, then a relaxing ride home through Loudonvile. It's hard to belive that sometime in the next two weeks our lives will change forever. That doesn't mean we won't continue to go on dates, but things will be different.