All Saint's Day

Grace and greetings.

This is a day of celebration and remembrance as we look to those who have passed on before us. In my 2 and half years here in Barrow, I have officiated over 90 funerals, including the one that I will be officiating tomorrow and one later this week. Both funeral were unexpected. The one tomorrow is for a full term baby that died in his mother's womb three days before being born. The other is for a man that we do not know how or why he died. I saw him at the post office on Tuesday, and he died Friday morning.

The following is my meditation for tonight's service.

For some reason, neither the cut and paste, or the copy and paste are working, so I will try later to edit this and update it.

Until then, Peace and blessings.

Halloween 2009

Grace and greetings.

It was a rude awakening here this past week weather wise; for the last couple of weeks we have had relatively warm temperatures, but Tuesday the cloud cover moved away and the temperatures dropped 20 degrees. Then last night an ice fog came through, leaving ice crystals on all metal, it is kind of cool...

But this is Halloween, the week where Sam and I go around and around on how he should focus on life. For him, the only reason to slog through the other 364 days of the year in to live for this night. All week he plans on how he is going to dress up, for school, after school, the Halloween dance, the haunted house, and then of course, tonight. All else takes a back seat to this week, including the script for the two movies he has been working on for the last month. It goes without saying that his homework is somehow non-existence for the past week as well.

Well, it is time to go review tomorrow's two sermons, or at least one sermon and one meditation--a short sermon--

Peace and blessings.

October Saturday Afternoon

Grace and greetings.

Again, I am late in letting you know what is going on here at the "Top of the World", (at least as far as the United States is concerned.)

I survived the Presbytery meeting, sort of. The Saturday of the meeting, I ended up throwing up all day, and sick Sunday as well. As it turned out, the group from Taiwan and our Presbytery executive filled in for me at both services, so I guess it was okay. The meeting it self had a few moments of concern, but otherwise went well.

We had some disappointing news from Sam's teachers this past week; even if he passes all his classes this semester, and at this moment is in doubt, he will still be half a credit short in math, so he will be sticking around until the May 2010 graduation. Other than that, he is acting out as most teenagers, defying his parents, already knows everything, and trying to go his own way, (as long as the parents pay of course). He is still looking at film school for after high school, but we will see where he ends up.

I got to speak with my daughter this afternoon. She is now stationed at Fort Gordon, Georgia; but the good news is that she is in school for computer work rather than in Haz Met. I feel much better now that she is safe around computers than the dangerous materials. Her family is still in Birmingham, only four hours away, but she does not have gas money to get there. She is planning to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with her family though. Yes, I wish that she were stationed at Fort Richardson outside Anchorage, but feeling good that her training will take her in a different direction.

Last month, Kim ended up with swollen feet, ankles, and legs. We ended up taking the next plane out so she could see a cardiologist and her pulmonologist. After she was given some diuretics, she ended up losing 25 pounds of water weight. Though she is still swelling, it is not as bad as before, she is suppose to see her pulmonologist in November. Both she and Sam are fighting sinus infections, so we will see how the health of the family lasts.

Winter has finally arrived in Barrow, we think. The last several days have been snowy and blizzards, today is just overcast with dark clouds off the coast. The air temperature has been in the twenties and thirties, but the wind chill has been down around zero.

The Angels and Yankees have been rained out for today, but I ask for you to continue to believe, as the Angels will take the next two games in New York and go on to the World Series.

Peace and blessings.

Presbytery of Yukon

Grace and greetings.

For the next several days, we will be hosting the Presbytery of Yukon. In the Presbyterian Church system, we are set up much like the United States government. Starting at the local level we have the individual congregation; then we have a geographical level called the presbytery, which there are 177 presbyteries in the Presbyterian Church (USA), [PC USA]; then presbyteries are grouped into another geographical organization called Synods, there are 16 synods in the PC USA; then there is the denomination known as Presbyterian Church (USA).

The Presbytery of Yukon is made up of 23 congregations from Anchorage on north, and everything west of the United States/Canadian Border. We meet twice a year, rotating to different places each meeting. This time the meeting is here in Barrow. We will have close to 100 people participating in the three day event. Today is mostly different committee meetings and registration for people coming in. Friday and Saturday will be the actual meeting dates with a worship service Friday evening celebrating communion (also known as the Lord's Supper).

This meeting and worship service is going to be special, as we have a group from the Taiwan Presbyterian Church to sign an agreement between the indigenous people there and here in the North Slope and Western Alaska. The agreement will be signed in five languages; Tiawan, English, Inupiat, Yupik and Korean. The agreement is that the different groups will learn from each other; the Alaskans will share their political knoweldge; while Taiwan will share their success in reclaiming native languages and values.

We are hoping this will be a spirit-filled meeting and that you will join us, physically, mentally or spiritually.

Peace and blessings.

More tragedy in the midst of celebration

Grace and greetings.

It has been a long time since I have posted anything here. It has been a wild a crazy summer, I will try and fill in the past in the next few post. Part of my own personal problem is that I write my post in my mind, but want to post with pictures. But I do not have the pictures I want, so I put off writing the post. So I am back to writing the post and worry about pictures later.

The spring whale harvest was very poor this year, so the fall whaling season was looking for better results. The spring season is usually the big hunt, but this year only four whales were caught. So when the fall whaling started last Saturday, the first three days caught ten whales, and lost one of the twelve possible strikes. (The whalers are allowed 26 "strikes" each year for the eight villages here in the North Slope. A strike is one shot; it would be like having only 26 arrows, if one misses, you lose). So people were feeling pretty good with the whale hunts...

Last Monday, on the way to school, two four year old girls fell through the ice while walking across the lagoon. Once they were discovered, they were not able to revive them, even though they tried all the way to Anchorage.

With the families traveling to Anchorage, and me sick all last week, I was still not sure who the families were, or who was going to officiate the funerals. Part of my problem, was that nobody ever contacted me. As it turns out, the aunt of one of the two girls, contacted her pastor, rather than me, who probably should have been contacted. As it turns out, the mothers' are cousins, so the two girls grew up together.

I met with the families the night before the funeral. Though I was still not sure, I recognized the parents, but not sure of their relationship to the church. We planned the service with the pastor that was first contacted preaching and me officiating the service.

During the visitation, one of the uncles came up to me to comment that the wedding that I officiated only five weeks ago, one of the girls was the flower girl that I carried down the isle at the end of the wedding service. So I probably had met both girls...

Like in life, the two girls were buried in the same grave site together, in different caskets, to remain forever side by side.

Peace and blessings.

Turning our lives around

Grace and greetings.

It has been several weeks since I wrote anything here or on Facebook. I hope to fill you in on our lives here in the North Slope; but tonight I am going to get back in the swing with my meditation from this evening.

“Turning Our Lives Around”
Ephesians 4.25-5.2

This is a continuation of the reading from last week, reminding us that we are one in Christ; One faith, one baptism, one Lord and Father of All. As we hear the writer from the Letter to the Ephesians, how we are to deal with each other. It sounds so easy, but like many other simple ideas and concepts, they are hard to keep up and follow.

As we follow the reading, we are told that it is okay to become angry, and we do. But that we are not to hold on to our anger, especially over night. If we need to speak to somebody about our anger, speak in a way that will build up the Body of Christ, not to tear it down. We each think that when we “speak our peace,” we do so meaning to encourage one another. But in reality, all we do is continue to anger and frustration rather than bringing about true peace.

We hold onto our anger and grief; our resentment and bitterness. I can speak to my own holding on to my hurts and frustrations throughout my twenty plus years of ministry. Soon it becomes too much for me, and I will speak words that I do not mean to speak, and they will come out at the wrong person at the wrong time. We are reminded to be imitators of God. God can be angry with us, but God forgives us, and welcomes us back.

What would the world look like if we were able to live this simple statement? Would the world be a different place if we did not hold onto resentment, bitterness, wrath and anger? Let us start in small places where we have the ability to make those decisions, starting one day at a time, one moment at a time.

What would our lives look like if we looked at each other as Christ sees us, with love? How would that change our responses to each other? This is not something that is going to happen all at once, but we can try. We can try one moment at a time. If we stumble, holding onto our anger and resentment; give it to God, let God hold onto it for you. Let God wash the situation; let God wash your resentment and wash the other person with love. See where that takes us. Then build up on it, one moment at a time, once here, once there, and see how our lives can be turned around by God’s love that works through each and every one of us. “Forgive each other as God has forgiven you. Be imitators of God as beloved children. Live in love, as Christ loves us.” Amen

Peace and blessings

Bright Thursday morning

Grace and greetings.

We have made it to Anchorage on our two week whorl wind tour.  We spent the Fourth of July with my brother and his family in Portland; enjoying the time with them; the fireworks and the excitement of the neighborhood fireworks setting the neighbors lawn on fire that was quickly put out.

We spent a week in Seattle shopping, seeing old friends and being able to spend time with my sister and her partner.  We looked at schools for Sam, and the winner so far is the Art Institute of Seattle.  They have several Bachelor of Arts programs.  The two tracks that Sam is interested in is "Animation" and "Digital Film."  He is leaning towards the film making but we will see what happens over the next year or so.  One of the pluses for the Art Institute of Seattle, is that it is a three year program, but goes throughout the year, which means one can not spend the summer making money to pay for the next year.

Tuesday Kim finally had her court date with the Social Security Disability judge which was held via video teleconference.  The judge had two witnesses: a psychiatrist and a vocational expert.  Our attorney was impressed that the judge had done her homework and reading Kim's file.  Because of that, after Kim's testimony and the one of the other experts, the judge ruled that Kim fit the definition of disability without all the other testimony we were ready for, including me.  That is a big relief for us.  Now Kim needs to figure out who she is now that she has been declared "disabled." 

The rest of the week here is going to be spent doing the normal vacation type events: catching up on movies, shopping, doctor appointments and seeing a tour of some of the glaciers tomorrow.  Since there is no movie theater in Barrow, Kim and Sam came down with a list of movies in mind.  The movies we have seen so far: Star Trek, (with my brother and his family), Wolverine, Angels and Demons, Transformers, Night of at the Museum, and Harry Potter.  For me, the best was between Harry Potter and Star Trek; for Kim it is those two and Angels and Demons; for Sam it is Wolverine.

Well, it is time to get some breakfast.  I will try and post our time with the glaciers later, after I can up load the pictures on our own computer.

Peace and blessings.