"der Leib Christi"

¹⁴When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him. ¹⁵He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; ¹⁶for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” ¹⁷Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves; ¹⁸for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” ¹⁹Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ²⁰And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:14-20)

52 Straight Weeks. Oops.

So I checked in at the church building on Foursquare the other day and this happened:

52 straight weeks I've checked in at the church where I work.  That's not good.

Friday Five: Take Five!

Whoosh! My calendar is packed. And June is almost gone! There's the old saying, "Bad luck comes in threes" but I've decided that "Busy-ness comes in fives!" So this week we'll take things five-at-a-time. Tell me:

Friday Five: On the Road

These pictures of the Sisters were taken on our way to Nebraska last summer.

1. When was your last, or will be your next, out of town travel?

My last trip out of town was our wonderful Campus Ministry trip to Holden Village in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. It was an incredible trip marred only by the fact that Beloved and the Sisters couldn’t be with us.

As to the next trip, well, it can’t come soon enough. As of right now it will be my cousin’s wedding in early June, but we’re trying to find some time to get out of town before that trip. Beloved and I both need to get away for a while and just be with good friends and family.

2. Long car trips: love or loathe?

Depends on the company. By myself, I could drive all day and never feel the worse for it. Being one of those “introverts in an extrovert job” types, an empty automobile and a good audiobook is one picture of heaven for me. But I do enjoy road trips with friends as well. (yes, M, K, and C, that trip to Webstah back in 2000 was enjoyable for me, even though I was an ass on the way home. I hadn’t figured out how much I need “alone time” at that point. Again, sorry for those last two days.)

Travelling with the Sisters? Well, that’s different. Sometimes it’s wonderful, sometimes it’s excruciating. Kinda like everything about parenting toddlers, only compressed into a small metal box moving 80 miles an hour across the Midwest.

3. Do you prefer to be driver or passenger?

Driver, driver, driver. I am a TERRIBLE passenger. The only form of transportation I’ve ever found enjoyable as a passenger is Amtrak, frankly – air travel is too hectic and cramped, cars make me motion-sick if I’m not behind the wheel, and tour buses are the same as airplanes, only slower. If I had to take Amtrak to hell, at least I’d enjoy the ride.

4. If passenger, would you rather pass the time with handwork, conversing, reading, listening to music, or ???

Reading, mostly, when I’m not motion sick. I bring my iPod when I travel, but often it winds up being background noise these days.

5. Are you going, or have you ever gone, on a RevGals BE? Happiest memories of the former, and/or most anticipated pleasures of the latter?

I haven’t been to a BE, and probably never will, given that it’s for Gals far more than Pals, but I did meet several RGBPs at the Festival of Homiletics in Minneapolis two years ago, and that was just frickin’ awesome. You all are some pretty cool chicks. And pals of chicks, of course.

6. Bonus: a favorite piece of road trip music.

I'm in a Rich Mullins mood today, so here are three of my favorites:

Friday Five: VACATION!

I should be on my way home at the moment, but I haven't done a Friday Five in a while, so I'll just be a teensy bit late while I think fondly of trips and non-trips of years past.

1) What did your family do for vacations when you were a child? Or did you have stay-cations at home?
We did take vacations, but almost always with family in mind. I remember several trips to Des Moines to see family on my Mom's side, and trips to Omaha for family on my Dad's side. We went to Chicago when my Uncle K & Aunt A lived there, and also to Denver to see Mom's sister L, her husband G and their son J, who is just a year older than me. The longest trip together by far was the year we drove to Seattle to see my Dad's sister P and my cousin K. We drove through South Dakota and saw Mount Rushmore, drove through Yellowstone and saw Old Faithful, stayed with my Mom's Aunt E and Uncle D in Wyoming, then stayed for a week in Seattle before flying back to NE (my grandparents flew out and drove our car back). It was a great trip.

2) Tell us about your favorite vacation ever:
While the one mentioned above was wonderful, my favorite by far was our honeymoon in Germany. Kristin's family hosted an exchange student who is now a professional basketball player in Europe, and he was married three months after our own wedding, so we decided to go for the ceremony and then do some traveling. Using Rick Steves' tour guide (thanks to my sister-in-law and her husband, who'd done the same trip two years earlier), we drove around Germany for a week by ourselves, with stops in Rothenburg ob det Tauber, Nurnberg, Munchen, Hohenschwangau and Wurzburg before flying home. Great beer, incredible sights, a really fun rental car, great beer, good food, great beer and, of course, the wonderful company of my wife made it a trip that'll be hard to beat. Did I mention the great beer?

3) What do you do for a one-day or afternoon getaway...is there a place nearby that you escape to on a Saturday afternoon/other day off?
We haven't found it just yet. There's a really nice state park not too far from here that everyone suggests, but travel with our girls to anywhere like that is really tough. As they grow older, though, we'll do lots of camping and hiking and outdoors-y things with them. I'd love to spend a day or two riding along some of the great trails in the area once we get a bike trailer, or maybe spend the day at the Iowa State Fair with the whole family when they're older. For now, though, one day get-aways are for me, not for the family. :-)

4) What's your best recommendation for a full-on vacation near you...what would you suggest to someone coming to your area? (Near - may be defined any way you wish!)
Amana Colonies. You just can't do anything else in this part of the country, really. There is a neat wine trail that the local wineries have put togther, so oenophiles could certainly do that, but for most folks, this part of Iowa means Amana Colonies and perhaps Dyersville, the "Field of Dreams" field. I know others who live here would disagree, but chalk it up to my ignorance of Iowa and let me say I hope to discover more to enjoy the longer we live here (and we want to stay a good long time).

5) What's your DREAM VACATION?
A month in Ireland with Kristin, followed by another month in Germany. Could also be done in a cabin on the north shore of Lake Superior, much like the picture here. Unlimited money for Guinness and pub food. My guitar with me and a solid grasp of a goodly number of reels and jigs so I can sit in on sessions in local pubs. Time in the morning to drink good coffee and read good books. Afternoon visits to museums, castles, landmarks, what have you. Most of all, to fit into the local culture and not be so easily identified as American tourists - always a goal for me wherever I go.

Bonus: Any particularly awful (edited to add: or hilarious) vacation stories that you just have to tell? ("We'll laugh about this later..." maybe that time is now!)
When we got to Germany for our honeymoon, we thought we had good directions from the airport in Frankfurt to Bamberg, a drive of approximately 160K. What we didn't realize is that in Germany roads often cross and re-cross one another, so it's best to get directions by city, not by road numbers. For example, to get to Bamberg you go through Town A, then Town B, etc., not the A5 to A29 S to ... You get the picture. So, we got lost. Then, when we realized we were off track, we tried to get back on track, which is difficult with a dyslexic navigator and a driver who's not sure exactly where he's going. About two hours after we landed, when we should have been arriving in Bamberg, we were off the map in some hills southeast of Frankfurt, calling for help on what we soon realized was a phone only used for accidents or car trouble. As we sat in the car, frantically trying to figure out where we were, arguing with each other about how we'd gotten into that mess, windows down because of the heat and not wanting to run the engine for fear of running out of gas, a moth attracted by the dome light flew into the car and we wound up screaming, flapping our hands at it and finally opening both doors and shooing it into the night. Then Kristin was crying, but 30 seconds later we were both laughing our asses off. It was just so absolutely ridiculous. Pretty soon we got back into the car and just started driving until we found a road on the map, and eventually we found our way to Bamberg. The really funny thing? We were never lost again on that trip. Not once. And now we do indeed laugh about it.

The pictures, from top to bottom:
- On the shore of Lake Superior, north of Duluth, summer 2004
- Sharing a drink at this cute cafe near the Kaiserburg in Nurnberg, summer 2004
-"Our" cabin at Cascade River Lodge, north shore of Lake Superior, summer 2006
- The Panorama Trail Overlook at Yosemite National Park, summer 2004
-Hanging out with friends in Lincoln, NE, summer 2006 (and soon to be together again, which is the best reason for traveling these days.)

Sucky Internet + Tanzanian Visitor = Bad Blogger

The title pretty much covers the status of things at Chez Johnson. Here's possibly more information about our time with Pastor Luhwa than you'd like to know. I plan to return to regular blogging once I figure out what the starts-with-h-rhymes-with-bell is wrong with our modem.

We had the privilege of hosting Pastor Luhwa from Tanzania in our house Wednesday-Sunday of last week. Hosting a visitor whose primary language is not English can be a wonderful yet exhausting experience; spending so much time making sure you're understanding each other and trying to be a gracious host without being obsequious about it takes a lot out the most outgoing of folks like my Beloved, to say nothing of what it does to an introvert like myself. We have made a wonderful new friend in PL, however, and I'm so very thankful to have met him and learned so much from him; we would do it again in a heartbeat, and we're thinking and planning how to get to Tanzania sometime in the next few years to see this experience from the other side.

Pastor Luhwa arrived Wednesday night around 6:00, and we met Clement, one of PL's parish members, while we were greeting Pastor Luhwa. We gave Pastor Luhwa a completely American experience right away: we rushed through supper so we could get back to work quickly! Kristin and Pastor Luhwa headed off to Confirmation at St. Andrew's while our babysitter watched the girls so I could clean the kitchen. Then I left for the Lutheran Center and didn't see anyone awake until Thursday morning, since I usually arrive home at 11:00 or later Wednesday nights.

Thursday morning we had time for a good breakfast and some conversation with Pastor Luhwa. Ainsley and Alanna were a bit taken aback at our visitor, but they quickly grew comfortable with him. After Pastor Luhwa left for his day at the Iowa State Veterinary Medical Center, we went about our usual Thursday business. Thursday night was the Lutheran Center Choir Dinner at Dublin Bay, so I took our Tanzanian visitor to eat with our white midwestern kids at an Irish restaurant - a real cross cultural experience! He had the chicken sandwich, but found our discussion about Guinness and its merits fascinating. In the course of the meal Pastor Luhwa discovered that friends of his had visited Camp Ewalu and met one of our students, which delighted him to no end. He told me on our way home that he enjoyed the night very much. He also noted that my Volkswagen is a very nice car, and it took me a good while to explain that while it is a nice car, I probably shouldn't have bought it and the payments are more than I'd like to be paying. It was an interesting discussion at the very least.

Friday began with another breakfast and conversation and then Pastor Luhwa went to the doctor with Kristin and Alanna for Alanna's 9 month shots. After that they came over to the Lutheran Center and we all walked down to the Union for lunch. Pastor Luhwa had another chicken sandwich, and when I asked if he'd like to try some of my Panda Express, he told me that rice is what everyone eats in Tanzania and he'd rather stick with his chicken. He was interested that I was eating with chopsticks - I think he said he'd never seen someone do it in person before.

At noon Pastor Luhwa joined the "Theology for Lunch" crowd at the Center. He was obviously growing tired, but he did seem to be following our animated discussion, and he took notes several times. One of our gifts to him was the book we're currently studying, On Being a Theologian of the Cross by Gerhard Forde, and I hope he gets the chance to read it when he returns to Tanzania. At 1:00 eight of our students came to have coffee with Pastor Luhwa, which was a great turnout considering it was Friday of finals week and most of the University crowd were leaving town as quickly as they could. We had an hour of conversation about life at Iowa State and why campus ministry is important to our students.

After that conversation we came home and Pastor Luhwa took a nap while I read. Friday night we were joined for burgers and brats by our nanny, Lacey, her boyfriend , and Pastor Jesse Larson of Collegiate Presbyterian in Ames, who is a good friend of ours and an experienced traveler in Africa. The meal was a wonderful sharing of food and friendship, but the aftermath was even better. Jesse and I and Pastor Luhwa talked about politics African and American for at least an hour, ranging over many subjects and learning much in the process. We had a GREAT time with each other.

Saturday began with another big breakfast, at which time Pastor Luhwa mentioned how much he enjoys our "heavy" breakfasts. I didn't have the heart to tell him that most days we grab a bowl of cold cereal on our way from the shower to the door! Then we spent a leisurely morning puttering around the house before a shopping trip to Lowe's, where we bought potting soil and a few odds and ends I needed for yardwork. Then we had grilled chicken for lunch before entrusting Pastor Luhwa to another church family for an afternoon boat excursion near Des Moines.

Sunday morning we ended our time together with a final "heavy" breakfast and more conversation. Kristin and I both learned a lot about Pastor Luhwa's ministry over the week and consider ourselves very blessed to have had him as a guest in our house. As a matter of fact, our time with him will be the illustration I'll use for our campus ministry summer newsletter: just as we tried to provide kind hospitality in a strange land for Pastor Luhwa, so campus ministry seeks to provide kind, gracious hospitality and ministry to students in a new environment. We learned so much from him, and enjoyed his company tremendously. It was a great few days and I can't wait to join the AARLA meeting Thursday morning and see PL once again.

So, that's the story of our Tanzanian visitor. I'll close this with one of the few Tanzanian phrases I know: asante sana, Pastor, for blessing our lives last week!

Grace & peace,
Scott

Friday Five: You Can't Take It ALL With You

From Singing Owl over at RevGals:

We will be at a chaplain's convention when you all are answering the
Friday Five Questions. I'll look forward to reading your answers next week when
I get home. At the moment we are trying to get the car loaded so we can hit the
road, so this will be a simple F.F. This running around madly in order to leave
has me wondering: what are the five things you simply must have when you are
away from home? And why? Any history or goofy things, or stories?

We're home from the hospital with our newborn - YAY! Of course, that means we're not likely to go very far for the next few days. In two weeks, however, we're going back to my hometown, Wakefield, Nebraska, for the 125th Anniversary Celebration at my home church, Salem Lutheran. So, maybe some of these items will make the list at that point.

1. iPod. Frankly, I don't leave the house without it anymore. LOVE that little gadget. Great music, audiobooks without the requisite 84 CDs, several hours of battery life without carting along a big recharging cradle or filling landfills with dead batteries - what's not to love?

2. Running shoes & clothes. I can't always guarantee I'll use them, but I always pack at least enough shorts & shirts for a run every other day. Unfortunately, I don't sleep well in strange beds, so sometimes my runs go lacking in favor of more sleep. But there is truly no better way to get a feel for a new place than to go on a run and investigate it.

3. A good book. Like the iPod, I rarely leave the house without reading material.

4. Cell phone. Okay, so this is rapidly becoming a "stuff I SHOULD take with me" list. Yes, in an ideal world I'd never leave the cell behind, especially now that I've gotten my PDA phone. But I don't live in an ideal world, do I?

5. Coffee. Never, ever leave home without good coffee. 'Nuff said.

Friday Five at the Beach

In honor of summer, please share your own beachy memories, plans, and
dreams with a "Beach Trip" Friday Five.

1. Ocean rocks, lake limps? Vice versa? Or "it's all beautiful in its own way"?

I’ll admit that I love both, but living in Minnesota for eight years, four and a half of which were on the lake, created a love for lakes that is hard to shake. (It’s hard to believe it was that long, even though it seems like we’ve been here in Ames quite a while) Last weekend I drove into Storm Lake, Iowa for the Western Iowa Synod Assembly and thought, “Did I turn right accidentally and wind up in Minnesota?” It felt good to be driving in a town on a lake again.

2. Year round beach living: Heaven...or the Other Place?

It could be both, actually. For me, environment is not nearly as important as the company with whom I’m sharing it. But, all things being equal? Yeah, beach living would be really, really cool.

3. Any beach plans for this summer?

The only beach plans for us this summer are next Saturday, when I’ll be running along the shore of Lake Superior for 26.2 miles before enjoying a post-marathon afternoon with friends in Duluth’s Canal Park.

4. Best beach memory ever?

You know, for a Nebraska farmer’s kid I have a lot of beach memories – isn’t that odd? I remember walking on the beach in York, Maine with my ex-wife while we vacationed with her brother and his wife, spending the day at South Beach every New Year’s for three years while in the Nebraska Marching Band, and the Cliffs of Moher (which isn’t really a beach memory, but it is the ocean and it is SO VERY COOL to remember - see the beautiful pic above). But a really, really good one is from the honeymoon Kris and I took after we were married. We were in Grand Marais, MN, and we just walked on the beach and enjoyed an afternoon in the sun, with some poetry and a really good meal at a shoreline restaurant before heading back to our cabin for the night. Just a great afternoon.

5. Fantasy beach trip?

I’d love to go back to Titusville, FL, where I did my internship in 2001-2002, and while there, stay for a few nights along Cocoa Beach. I have some wonderful memories of some really great times at Cocoa Beach, and it would be really nice to catch up with my friends at Trinity Lutheran in Titusville. This is a trip I actually hope to make sometime in the next few years, after the kids are old enough to remember it (and the almost-required addition of a few days at DisneyWorld, of course).

Bonus: Share a piece of music/poetry/film/book that expresses something about what the beach means to you.

Well, to be honest the beach doesn’t mean nearly as much to me as the sea (again, how does a farmer’s kid know these things?), but the novels Bag of Bones and Duma Key, both by Stephen King, are beach novels, and I enjoy them both tremendously. Ooooh, wait, now that I think of it, Waking Ned Devine is a great beach movie – especially the scene of the old men skinny dipping and then racing off to beat the lottery man to Ned’s house. Funny stuff, that.

Off to Nashville

I'll be at the ELCA Campus Ministers' Gathering in Nashville until late Sunday night. May or may not have wireless access, so you may or may not hear from me this weekend. Blessings, all!

Peace,
Scott

Friday Five: Procrastination Edition

I mean, PREPARATION Edition! *sigh* Didn't fool anyone, did I?

From Sally at RGBP:

This has been a difficult week for me, the death of a little six year old has overshadowed our advent preparations, and made many of us here in Downham Market look differently at Christmas. With that in mind I ask whether you are the kind of person that likes everything prepared well in advance, are you a last minute crammer, or a bit of a mixture.....

Here then is this week's Friday 5:

1. You have a busy week, pushing out all time for preparing worship/ Sunday School lessons/ being ready for an important meeting ( or whatever equivalent your profession demands)- how do you cope? Ummm, that's different from my normal week how? Actually, as a pastor this happens quite often. Sometimes it means a late night at the office. In these days of laptops and the internet, it often means a night on the computer at home finishing up the stuff that needed finishing. I've also learned to prepare WAY in advance for the stuff that can be done WAY in advance. I do worship planning at least two months out, and I'm trying to get myself in the habit of always working at least two months ahead on the calendar for stuff that can be done early.

2. You have unexpected visitors, and need to provide them with a meal- what do you do? Hope they like frozen pizza? At this point in our lives we don't have many unexpected visitors: with the baby folks generally understand we need advance notice for just about everything.

Three discussion topics:

3. Thinking along the lines of this weeks advent theme; repentance is an important but often neglected aspect of advent preparations..... Oh heavens, yes. I've wondered sometimes if the massive shopocalypse is our way of avoiding the harder work of repentance. I know I've tried to shop my way into feeling better in the past - and I can also tell you it doesn't work.

4. Some of the best experiences in life occur when you simply go with the flow..... You mean like my sermons? :-) True at times, but not always. Generally true when you're dealing with children and less so with adults - going with the flow with an attractive young lady would definitely NOT be one of the best experiences of this married father's life.

5. Details are everything, attention to the small things enables a plan to roll forward smoothly... Again, true at times. Making sure the bulletin notes what "WOV" and "LBW" and "ELW" mean are details that do allow a worship service to roll forward smoothly. Having a category 5 snit over the location of the flag or the font style in the bulletin or who says what in the Christmas program are details that have crossed from "helpful" to "problematic."

Bonus if you dare- how well prepared are you for Christmas this year? Ummm, as much as any year, which is to say, worship is set, I know where the candles for the candlelight service are, my soup is ready for next week's Advent supper, and I haven't bought one present for Beloved, Ainsley or my name from the family hat yet. Typical.

Let me also say that this will be one of those busy weeks, due to the death of a beloved member of our community. While it means more work, this is work that is the great privilege of every pastor to carry out. I told the family this morning that I was honored to still be here to preside over C's funeral, and I meant it. Even in this Advent season, as we anticipate the coming of Christ, we know that we ourselves are dying - and in Christ alone do we hope.

The picture is the Schlosskirche or "Castle Church" in Lutherstadt-Wittenberg, Germany. I took this picture in January 2003 when I was in Wittenberg, the city in which Martin Luther lived and preached for most of his life. One of the great regrets of my life is that I'll never get to spend Advent or Christmas in Germany, due to the job requirements I have here in the U.S. in that season. It would be grand to tour the Christmas markets and drink gluhwein every night.

Fat Man Running!

Yesterday was the Siouxland Half-Marathon in Sioux City, IA. I ran at the invitation of our friends Jessi and Jared, who live in nearby Elk Point, SD; they invited a bunch of their friends to run with them, and we thought it sounded like a good chance to get home for a couple of days with my folks as well. All in all, it was a GREAT weekend - we got to see some of my family and friends, I got to watch my high school football team extend their winning streak to 20 games (defending Nebraska Class C-2 State Champs!) and I hit both of my goals for the run, even with precious little training. So, here's the weekend report.

We begin our coverage with a cute baby picture:


I'm happy to report she is not falling down the stairs...often.

Anyway, on Friday, we ate lunch with my mom at the hospital where she works, then drove over to see my Grandma Janke at her senior living community. We had a very nice visit: even Ainsley enjoyed the chance to see her great-grandma.


Friday night was the big Wakefield - Laurel football game. Wakefield was undefeated and ranked #1 in the state in most polls, while Laurel was also undefeated and ranked #6 in at least one poll. The game was every bit as good as it was supposed to be. My dad and I watched most of it from the north end zone, with my youngest brother and his girlfriend for the second half, and we saw most of the scoring for the evening up close. Wakefield prevailed 14-6, preserving a win streak that dates back to the start of the 2006 football season. Go Trojans! I will say this: it's a tough year to be a Husker fan, but getting this close to a high school football game reminded me what competition, heart and guts looks like. Boy, was I impressed with the kids on both teams for the way they sold out time and time again in pursuit of victory. You wonder sometimes how the game can look so different at the next level, and also what the difference is like at field level - would I see the game the same way if I could be that close in Lincoln? Hard to say. Anyway, if you need a boost of excitement, get thee to a good high school football game - it'll cure what ails ya.

I would be remiss if I didn't note that the only reason I got to watch said football game was because a certain someone who is short and has only two teeth was being a bit of a pill on Friday (no, Cletus, I don't mean Great-aunt Gladys). Our beautiful little one woke up five times Thursday night-Friday morning, wouldn't go down for her morning nap and basically scared us into cancelling a much-anticipated dinner date with LutheranHusker and his family. I'll admit that I was happy to be going to the football game as an alternative, but it would have been doubly nice to see friends instead. *sigh* Maybe over Thanksgiving, guys?

Saturday morning was the big race. I got up early, had some breakfast and left for Sioux City. The marathoners were divided into sub-4 and 4-hour+ groups. I pulled into the parking lot just as the 4-hour+ marathon group was toeing the starting line. This was one part of the race that I thought was just not well-planned. I realize that it's tough to run a marathon, but putting us slowbies at the starting line before the sun comes up? Come on, folks, give the runners the respect they deserve for trying to do this and start everyone at the same time.

Beloved and my dad headed for Sioux City later, and caught up with me at about mile five or so. Here's some pictures they took while waiting for us to get to them.


That's my girl, waiting for poppa!



Beloved, Ainsley and my dad at their post, waiting for us to get to them.

The half marathoners started at about mile 13 on the marathon course and ran to the same finish line. After a fairly flat first mile, we turned into Big Stone State Park for miles 2-4. By the time we got through the park I thought we had actually CLIMBED the "big stone:" those hills were KILLER and we were only getting started! I can't imagine what the marathoners did when they hit those half-mile, 6-10 degree hills at mile 17-19. Talk about hitting the wall. Anyway, Beloved and Dad had to wait for us on the other side of the park since they shut down the roads, so we got to them on our way downhill.


I was running with our friends Nora (l) and Jessi (r) when we got there. Beloved couldn't quite get the digital camera to shoot motion shots, so I got cut out of this one. But you can see in the picture below that we jogged right on by and kept movin' right along (I'm the widebody on the right).


Beloved did get a couple of nice shots as they zoomed past in our car on the way to the finish line. At this point we were still doing great and having fun with our 9:00/mile pace.



Somewhere around mile 9 we went into this bizarre grass alley that took us from an asphalt highway onto a concrete sidewalk, a loop around a park and back toward downtown Sioux City on a concrete road. Then we moved onto a concrete running path for a good portion of the last few miles. All that concrete really wears on your feet and joints, and I found myself really laboring to keep the pace going. But here's a first for me: I ran through two stitches by focusing and managing my breathing. Before yesterday, I never would have tried to keep up my pace, but I wanted to stay with my friends and I managed to do it. That was pretty awesome.

Of course, it was also pretty hard. To make matters worse, most of the last two miles traveled down a rather ugly stretch of 2nd Street that just seemed to last forever. It was the worst closing stretch of any race I've done so far - really miserable, as you can tell from the picture below, taken when Beloved shouted, "You're almost there!" about 400 yards from the finish:


We did finish strong, though, and wonder of wonders, the idiot boy calling out finishers actually got all three of our names right (who the bloody hell hires a high school kid to announce finishers for a marathon?). Here we are, coming down the chute and crossing the finish line.



AND even though I hadn't trained particularly well, I managed to break two hours:


Congrats from the Jessi the Ironlady, who could have run much faster but chose to stay with her friends (cause she's awesome):


Jessi's husband Jared finishing - Mr. Incredible crosses the finish line!


Daddy getting Ainsley all sweaty and not caring a bit!


Nora, Jessi, Daddy & Ainsley celebrating another fun run:



And, the whole gang: Ross, Dawn, Jessie, Jared, Jessi, yours truly, and Nora, all finishers. We rock!


And now, public pronouncement of the next goal: Grandma's Marathon, Duluth, MN, 21 June 2008, sub-4 hours or bust!

Friday Five: Post-pilgrimage edition

reverendmother from RevGalBlogPals has the Friday Five this week:

Hello friends, I am just back from a lovely time of pilgrimage in the isle of Iona, "cradle of Scottish Christianity." It has provided much food for thought, to say the least, and so, to keep the pilgrim mojo going:

1. Have you ever been on a pilgrimage? (however you choose to define the term) Share a bit about it. If not, what's your reaction to the idea of pilgrimage?

I think my trip to Wittenberg, Germany would definitely qualify as a pilgrimage, though of course dear Martin would cringe at the thought. In January 2003 I and four fellow students from Luther Seminary joined several students and a professor from Wartburg Seminary in Iowa for three weeks in Wittenberg and Berlin, with a few overnights to Eisenach, Erfurt and Eisleben. We saw more than I can tell here, but a few memories are very dear to my heart:

A. Worship in the areas of Germany where Martin Luther lived. Time spent in the Schlosskirche (Castle Church) and the Stadtkirche (City Church) of Wittenberg, where Luther preached and taught for most of his life (Luther and Melanchthon are entombed beneath the pulpit and lectern of the Schlosskirche);
B. Our stay in the Haus Heinstein, a hotel in Eisenach with a view of the Wartburg Castle on the hill above us;

C. The city of Erfurt, with its bridges and majestic Marktplatz and our stay at the Augustiner Kloster, where Martin was first a monk and priest - I especially remember our worship service in the sanctuary, where it was so cold we could see our breath as we sang;

D. Buchenwald Concentration Camp, which is not a dear memory but rather seared into my soul - I've never felt the palpable power of evil as I did on that frozen ground;

E. the friendship of the group with whom I traveled - we really did have an incredible cross-cultural experience. Not to mention a LOT of kostliche dunkel Bier. If you're ever in Wittenberg, the dunkel beer at the Kartoffelhaus is divine.

2. Share a place you've always wanted to visit on pilgrimage.

Well, Iona will do as well as anything, I suppose! I would like to travel to Jerusalem someday, but I know that a)travel in the Holy Land is dangerous and b)I would really struggle with the commercialization and tourist-ization of the places where our faith story was first written. Scotland would be wonderful, especially Edinburgh and the highlands and St. Andrews (a pilgrimage of a whole other kind). In my home country, Holden Village in Washington state has always been a goal for a long-term stay.

3. What would you make sure to pack in your suitcase or backpack to make the pilgrimage more meaningful? Or does "stuff" just distract from the experience?
1. camera
2. journal
3. Bible
4. clean underwear ;-)

4. If you could make a pilgrimage with someone (living, dead or fictional) as your guide, who would it be? (I'm about this close to saying "Besides Jesus." Yes, we all know he was indispensable to those chaps heading to Emmaus, but it's too easy an answer)
I'd love to see Cologne and the surrounding countryside with my great-great-great-grandfather, August Spengler, who was born and raised there. Ditto for Smaland in Sweden on the Johnson side. How about Dublin and Belfast with Michael Collins? Of course, I'd give just about anything to see Wittenberg with Katie & Martin.

5. Eventually the pilgrim must return home, but can you suggest any strategies for keeping that deep "mountaintop" perspective in the midst of everyday life? (don't mind me, I'll be over here taking notes)
Hard to say. Jesus himself struggled to 'keep the feeling' when he descended following the Transfiguration, and Luke tells us that Jesus often left to go away and pray. Could it be argued that mountaintop experiences are transformative rather than strengthening experiences? That is, our outlook on the rest of the world should change as a result of a pilgrimage, but it shouldn't be an escape - God hasn't intended the world to be a place from which we escape! Luther thought that holiness is found in everyday life; changing diapers, brewing beer, teaching, preaching the Word, forgiving sinners. If a pilgrimage shows us the rest of the world in a different light, maybe that was the point all along.

Pictures (all from my trip in January 2003):
1. The Schlosskirche in Lutherstadt Wittenberg, as seen from the Town Square.
2. The Schlosskirche pulpit, and the tomb of Martin Luther below it.
3. Luther's tomb up close.
4. That's me in front of the Thesentur (Theses door) of the Schlosskirche. The actual door burned during the Thirty Years War; this replacement was a copy of the 95 Theses cast in bronze.

Friday Five: Getaway Island Edition

As always, from the RevGals:

We snitched a bit of time on an quiet island nearby this week. It was a last minute plan, escaping with a minimal amount of preparation. One must have essentials that make it a relaxing time. Perhaps you have had this opportunity to escape, or maybe it's only been a thought to get away. However, suppose you were told to pack some essentials for a trip to get away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

Describe your location, in general or specific terms and....

1) What book(s) will you bring?
2) What music accompanies you?
3) What essentials of everyday living must you take (as in the health and beauty aids aisle variety)?
4) What technological gadgets if any, will you take with you or do you leave it all behind?
5) What culinary delights will you partake in while there?

As a bonus question, what makes for a perfect day on vacation for you?

1. Ahhh, what books to bring? Shall I challenge myself with thick tomes such as A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man or Les Miserables? Nope - too heavy. I'll be bringing smaller, much less exotic fare: perhaps my current book, The Children of Hurin, or paperbacks I've picked up on the way, something like John Grisham or John Sandford. Maybe even some Stephen King, though weight does sometimes become problematic. What I really like to do is find a local bookstore when we arrive at our destination and see if I can find something new and exciting while I'm there - in Duluth on our honeymoon I picked up Good Poems, a collection of poetry edited by Garrison Keillor. Wonderful reading and good memories to boot.

2. Can I say that my iPod is like carrying around my own personal radio station? I love it! Though I'm chagrined to admit I was wrong about one thing: the 8GB Nano was not the iPod I needed. It's already full, and I only have about 2/3 of our CD collection burned and copied into it. I should have gone for the 10 or 20G iPod, even though they are bigger and more expensive. Oh, well - now I just need to be a bit more judicious about my music.
Anyway, here are some artists I'd bring on CD if the iPod were on the fritz:
Neil Young - Storyhill - Peter Mayer - Justin Roth - KT Tunstall - The Wailin' Jennys - The Wild Clover Band - The Statler Brothers - Rich Mullins - Stevie Ray Vaughan - Jars of Clay - PFR. There; that should do for starters

3. Toothbrush & toothpaste, contact lens stuff, shampoo & soap, deodorant. If it's more than two days or if there's a nice dinner involved, shaving cream & a razor (though I do keep a toiletries bag fully stocked for my trips to the gym each week, so it's really just a matter of moving it from gym bag to travel bag).

4. I will bring my cell phone, Palm Pilot and iPod along, but only the latter will be used. By the time I return, the first two will be deader than Lazarus on the third day.

5. I will try to sample the local cuisine and look for non-chain restaurants if possible. On the north shore of Lake Superior, for example, there's a great little gas station/restaurant/arts & crafts store that makes the worlds biggest & best sourdough pancakes; we discovered it thanks to a friend's recommendation. That's the kind of cuisine I like if I can get it - and I always do.

A perfect day on vacation begins with a sleeping wife & child in a cabin somewhere in the woods. I wake up at 6:00 a.m., make the coffee and sit down with my book or newspaper and read for at least an hour in uninterrupted silence. We have breakfast at some comfortable hour and then Beloved plays with the Child while I continue reading, and we quietly enjoy a morning together in the sunlight, with birds singing outside the window. In the afternoon we go for a hike together, then we come home and shower before heading into town for dinner with friends or maybe just some window shopping at the local artists district - pottery, crafts, antiques, that sort of thing. After a good dinner, we go back to the cabin for a movie after Ainsley falls asleep. After the movie I open a beer and read until I feel like falling asleep. Thus ends my perfect day of vacation.

Things

We had a great vacation. After three days of leaving work behind (yes, it does take that long sometimes) I was able to really relax and enjoy spending lots of time with Beloved, Ainsley and some of our best friends. I'd like to post some pics from our trip out east. But that post will take a while to put together, and between AinsleyCare, practice for Inherit the Wind and this weekend's Synod Assembly (for which yours truly is the chair of the worship committee), it's not likely to happen soon. Here's at least one for you: eating lunch outside Fanueil Hall in downtown Boston.


But I may have time to do it while I'm AT the Synod Assembly. Beloved is going to bring her work computer along, and if wireless is available in the assembly hall (which I think it is), I'll blog during the big Lutheran meet-up in Moorhead. The Bishop's term is up this year, so it's a three day assembly due to the election, my first. Should be interesting.

I LOVE the part I've been given for Inherit the Wind. I'm playing E.K. Hornbeck, the Baltimore Herald journalist based on H.L. Mencken. How often does a Lutheran pastor get to call someone a "Barnum-bunkum, Bible-beating Bastard!"? My only concerns are that a) we have lots of people missing lots of rehearsals, b) we have even more people that have one or two lines and STILL aren't off book, c) and there are some rather abrasive personalities rubbing against each other right now (seriously, someone came offstage last night to question why I had exited the scene, when my stage directions clearly said that I was supposed to exit. And she was not. Get your shit together, people!). It will be interesting to see if we can pull this off by the 22nd; I think we can, but it will take a lot of work.

And now, a moment of silence for my running blog, Go Big Rev:





Why keep two blogs when you could easily do just the one? I'm not sure, but no one's reading it and frankly I'm not that interested in doing any more that what I've done here previously. Anyway, running posts will be back here soon as I start running again (today, I swear). I'm planning to run the North Country Marathon in Walker, MN in September, so training will start today.

Just saw an iPhone commercial on ESPN. covetcovetcovetcovetcovetcovetcovet...

There are days when I wish that this was an anonymous blog, because I'd talk about stuff far more openly. But this isn't the place to discuss what's got me really disheartened this week. I would, however, ask for your prayers. Some stuff is happening that just ain't right.

But we're back home - until we leave again. Such is our life right now. Yay!

Okay, Okay - Posting the Damned Pics! :-)

Since both Beloved and LH's Sweetie have commented on the fact that I haven't posted our pics from our trip to NE last weekend, I suppose it is, indeed, time to do so. (But the weather has been so nice - please forgive me for wanting to play outside!)

We drove to NE on Thursday the 3rd to celebrate my brother's completion of a Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction. After a fairly uneventful day Friday, Brian, his wife and their son Zach arrived Friday night. Zach was very excited to play with his new doll...err, cousin:



So finally Uncle Butt had to get in on the action:

Saturday morning we all had breakfast together and a few minutes for more pictures:


It was so very dark in the auditorium at the college that none of our pictures really looked decent at all. Here are some shots from after the ceremony. First, the graduate & his proud son:


Our good friends LutheranHusker, Sweetie & Kiddo were in attendance as well, and they were very excited to meet Ainsley for the first time:



Ainsley discovered her hand on this trip, as you might have already seen. I'm sure she'll soon be sucking her thumb like Daddy did!


After the graduation ceremony (and after a good soaking in the torrential downpour that followed) we all repaired to the Johnson farm for lunch and cake. My Grandma Janke got to meet her twelfth great-grandchild for the first time (I think it's twelve - there's so many of us it's hard to remember); that was fun to see. The picture here is my Mom, Beloved, Ainsley and Grandma Janke - the four generations of women in my family.


Saturday afternoon we drove down to Lincoln to stay with LH and family before the Lincoln Half-Marathon on Sunday. I ran with Gene & Bobby, two of my college roommates, and had a good day in spite of the weather. I posted about this run here, but here are some pics of the race:







After the race we joined my family for brunch at a restaurant not to be named here, because the place has really gone downhill since we were in college. I hate to say that, but my food was nearly cold and the service was SLOW. Next time we're going somewhere else - like maybe the hotel where Gene & Bobby and I warmed up before the race. Coming back through the open air lobby/restaurant on our way to the van was not easy, as they still were serving brunch. Yum.


Around 4:00 that afternoon some old friends gathered to celebrate the run and the 33rd birthday of LH and yours truly (we are six days apart in age). The coolest thing about the day for me was catching up with Carol Meyer, an old friend I haven't seen since her husband Larry's funeral two years ago. Actually, we realized after the fact that our celebration Sunday was the two-year anniversary of Larry's funeral. I like to think that Larry was there with us, tipping back a beer and enjoying the company and conversation.





Did I mention that it rained a lot that weekend? It did - and we discovered how much late Saturday afternoon. LH went downstairs to get something and discovered the plastic cover of their sump pit floating - the pit was full of water. Apparently they've not installed a pump in said pit because it's never been a problem, but then again, they've never gotten almost 10 inches of rain in three days before. So, being the group of college-educated, willing workers that we are, we set about fixing the problem. First, run a garden hose from the sump pit, through the basement, up the stairs, out the door, through the garage and down to the driveway, where said hose runs into a wet/dry vac and is sealed by hand to provide suction.


Whaddya mean, that didn't work? Well, if at first you don't succeed, add alcohol:


Finally, just bail out enough of the water that you're not so worried about flooding your basement anymore. Call your neighbor who works for RotoRooter and have him go get a portable sump pump that fits a garden hose (on a Sunday, no less), and continue drinking. Gather for a group picture later with all the necessary props:


Then get your wives (who are laughing, but not all that much), friends and family together for a group photo:


Finish the weekend on a more innocent note by posing your cute children together one last time. Then remind everyone how we need to do this more often. Rinse. Repeat.


Thanks for a great weekend in Nebraska, guys - it was so much fun!