Brother in Christ

I found out today that a friend and classmate from Mayer Lutheran has died. Matt was indeed, from all that I saw, a true man of God. While only God can see into a man's heart, I believe that I will one day get to see him. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends as they continue to deal with the flood of emotions that are surrounding them at this time.

I happened to find a Prayer of Courage. It comes from the Lutheran Book of Worship.

Lord God,
you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Mill-e-wah-que...

Which is Algonquin for "the good land."

This past weekend we went to Milwaukee to see a bunch of friends that we haven't seen in forever! It was a blast getting to catch up on what's been happening in everyone's life. Seeing how people and places continue to change and grow even when you're not there. All in all, it was a great weekend. You never seem to truly realize how important it is to see your friends, until you haven't seen them for years.

We have been struggling over going to Texas for Thanksgiving. We thought we were going to be able to go, and then we ended up being short on funds. I know that Elsa really stuggled with this because she has a real close connection to Chad and Erin, and we've never seen Maddie yet (in person that is - keep posting the pics guys). And then there's Josh and Sarah (I always forget if it's with or without an "h"). I haven't seen them since before I was married I think. After last year's trip to Texas we really wanted to make it an annual thing, but it doesn't look like we'll make it, at least at Thanksgiving.

I'm hoping to have some pictures of our trip up by the end of the week. We'll see how much energy I have to actually do that as the week rolls on. Time to get back to the grindstone. Adios!

Interesting Reading

I've been visiting various websites that have been making me think. These mainly have to do with various politics going on in the Lutheran church. Some of them have some good points, some of them actually make me sad and afraid to see what the future of the church may be. Either way, its good to see people talking about such issues and hopefully we can make some headway in this world. Here are a few of the sites:

http://thecrownedones.blogspot.com/

http://talkingdonkey.worldmagblog.com/talkingdonkey/

http://concordblog.blogspot.com/

http://cranach.worldmagblog.com/cranach/

http://www.crisisinthelcms.org/

http://allwashedup.blogspot.com/

http://www.jesusfirst.net/

http://whatyoudodoquickly.blogspot.com/

My future?

So I happened to read my horoscope from The Onion. Here's what it says:

Pisces February 19 - March 20

You always knew you'd be sent straight to Hell when your time came, but you never thought they'd make you go there in a tacky white Hummer limousine.

Gotta love those guys. Where do they continue to come up with all this stuff? And then there's this:

Reeses Peanut Butter Cups

Very popular, one of you is not enough.

What Kind of Candy Are You?

Thank God for the internet...

And for friends everywhere. Below are pics of Mr. Sommermeyer. One pic even has him actually working! I know this may be a shock to some, but I swear I didn't alter the pic at all. As far as I can tell, it's actually him doing something. j/k Josh. You know we love ya.

Joshua part 2

Joshua part 1

Beer... and other stuff

So last Friday a bunch of us decided to Granite City Food & Brewery. All I can say is WOW! I love this place. The food comes in huge portions, and of course they have A-Mazing beer! They only offer about 4-5 different beers, but it is so good. They even have this deal called the Mug Club. It's $20 for a lifetime membership, but then you get a 25 oz. beer free, 10% all food everytime you come in, and all other 25 oz. beers are only $3. For life! I've been a member since last Friday :)

We've been looking for a new washer and dryer ever since we moved into the townhouse. The set that came with the place are total junk. If you don't stop the washer at certain points then it will never drain, or move to the next cycle. You'd be lucky to get a load of laundry dry in 1 try with the dryer. We finally found a great deal on a new washer and dryer on Saturday. They delivered everything yesterday and now we have no more laundry troubles. It even means that I can do laundry without shrinking all of Elsa's clothes.

Sunday there was a special voters meeting at church. There was a screwup with the staff checks awhile back. The error was found right away and things were made right, but it made the budget a little screwy. So they had a meeting to try and correct things. Overall the meeting went better than I was expecting. No one's perfect and we all make mistakes sometimes, and in the end it all worked out.

Jon's Rant of the Day
I truly wish that some people would open their eyes to see how much Satan is attacking the church. He doesn't need to worry about anyone who doesn't believe in Christ. Instead he attacks those who are working to further the kingdom of God. The Lutheran Church (like many denominations) is dying. I have said on many occasions that the politics in government are far better than that of the church, and the past several months have continued to prove that to me. The infighting that happens is horrible to see. Especially when this fighting comes at the expense of tearing down the workers and volunteers of the church. Here are people who are pouring out their time and energy in service to Christ. I know that many of these workers (in a lot of congregations) agonize over what to do everyday. They create special lessons plans so that they can meet the kids/adults where they're at. They look at each child/adult as an individual and figure out the best way to reflect Christ's love to them. This is what Satan is afraid of! He doesn't want us to further the kingdom of God. Why do you think he's working so hard on us!


I just needed to get that off my chest. Time to get back to the grindstone. Adios!

Life

It's been an amazing 24 hours.

Last night Elsa and I met with our Financial Advisor (hi Dave) and we talked about what to do with our life insurance and other things. I then opened my email this morning to find out that the grandfather of a good friend had passed away. If thoughts of death were not already surrounding me, I found out that another friend from CSP passed away. Melissa Theel was a wonderful young woman who always had a smile on her face. It seems that her health was ok, and she passed away in her sleep, so I truly hope and pray that she didn't suffer. It just really happens to make you realize how you should indeed live each day as it was your last.

On another note, I found an interesting Irish lullaby that really hit me. Here's part of it:

I would give the world today
If I could hear that song of hers again".
So laments an Irish lullaby of a life passed
Like a leaf on the wind.
Innocently it yields to the winds call.
The leaf and wind, then, soar together as one,
With no thought, as the journey is begun,
That when it lands the journey is done.

Adios.

October already

Man... time has been going by pretty quick. Here its the beginning of October already. It doesn't even seem possible. Not too much going on here the past few weeks. We've been keeping everyone in our thoughts and prayers for all those affected by the hurricanes.

We went bowling with Jill and Jay awhile back. They asked us to fill in on a league? We reminded them of how much we suck at bowling, but they said they didn't care. It was actually a lot of fun. I only got a 129 my first game, but then something kicked in and I bowled a 178 and a 180! I'm not quite sure how the hell that happened, but I'll take it.

This past Saturday morning was another golf day for Jay and I. Needless to say he beat me by 3 strokes (I got a 49). But I'm still really pleased with how my game is coming. For this being my first real year of playing I think I'm going pretty well. We went out for lunch afterwards at Granite City Brewery. I had the Bedda Chedda Bacon Burger. Two words - damn good! I took a short nap in the afternoon and then went to a movie with some friends from CSP. We saw Serenity. Only the best movie I've seen in many years! I could take up way too much of my time to go into details about it, but if you're looking for a good action movie that is well written, filled with comedy, suspense, and even a tiny bit of romance - then this is the movie for you.

We found out yesterday that Seth and Emily are now officially engaged! Congratulations to the both of them. I did indeed welcome Seth into the Whip Men's Club. Tomorrow we should be buying our tickets for Thanksgiving. Once again we have decided to embark on a great adventure to the land known as Texas. This time we will be flying instead of driving. This should save us much of the sanity that we lost on last year's trip. That's about it for now. Adios!