Back in the middle 1980s our church was known as Calvary Chapel and we were worshiping in the brick building located between the Waterloo Elementary School and the Waterloo Library (now owned by Head Start). Our church was small and I served as the Jack-of-all-Trades in the maintenance end of things. This building, constructed in the early 1950s, had overhangs on both sides of the sanctuary which concealed long fluorescent tubes that reflected light off the ceiling.

One day one of those light tubes needed replaced. I got out the stepladder and crawled up there to replace it. While up there I discovered a Welch’s grape juice bottle cap that said, “Howdy’s Favorite Drink”, and a picture of Howdy Doody. Apparently some kid had thrown it up there decades earlier when his/her parents were preparing communion.

I kept that cap in my office as a reminder that our church is always about children. When the Head Start system purchased the old building and renovated it, I was asked to officiate at the official dedication of the new Head Start program. After I had finished speaking, I presented the Howdy Doody bottle cap to the Director of the Head Start program reminding her the building had always been about children. She was delighted.

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve ever found?

Tags: children, communion, Howdy Doody

This weekend we learned some bits of wisdom about God from the shepherds in the Christmas story. Just ordinary workers, these were the people God chose to appear at the birth of God’s Son. Shepherds teach us a lot about how we fit in the Body of Christ. I want to thank each of you who adopted another family for Christmas. This year we partnered with the DeKalb County Christmas Bureau to help needy families. And there sure were a stack of gifts under that tree. What are your comments on the weekend services? What was the best part of the service you attended?

Yesterday I came home for lunch. Anita was running errands, so I was “home alone”. I was walking around the house, eating my sandwich, when I noticed something black emerging from some weeds in the bean field behind me. At first I thought it was a buzzard. But the size caught my eye. As he strolled out into the clear snowy field, I saw was too big for a buzzard. Soon he turned to the side and I noticed it was a full grown turkey.

Soon another strolled out behind him, then another, then another. Soon I counted twelve toms and hens roaming about the field in search of some seeds to eat. Against the new fallen snow, they looked beautiful. I smiled as I watched them, until I remembered I was eating a shaved turkey sandwich. So, I hid my sandwich behind my back.

So, how do I prove this experience if no one else was here to see it with me? I guess this will be my story alone. It was the day I found a wild turkey and made myself a turkey sandwich.

Tags: thanksgiving, turkey

Anita and I have been checking out those new Hi-Definition wide screens for about a year. What we wanted was priced at about $1200 and that was more than we wanted to spend. When WalMart started advertizing free shipping for Christmas, we began checking online, and found the set we wanted at under half price. So we decided to get ourselves a new TV as a Christmas gift to each other.

Setting it up wasn’t bad, either. But moving our old monster TV from upstairs to the downstairs was a major undertaking. First, we had to dispose of our old 1980’s console model, which had been struck by lightning and had no inputs for video or anything. Nathan came out last night and helped me carry that Goliath to the basement. My leg muscles were so sore I could barely make it back up the stairs, but we did it!

The new TV works great, but we’re going to have to call the DISH network guy back to get the old behemoth working property downstairs. Somehow, that is not syncing with the satellite system.

All those different electronic gadgets we hook up to the TV system have to be connected for the system to work. So it is with the church. We all must have vital connections with one another or the church Family just doesn’t work like its intended. Stay connected.

Tags: connections

Evangelist Dwight L. Moody used the following illustration to describe ‘Redemption’:

“Out in the Western country, in the autumn, when men go hunting, and there has not been any rain for months, sometimes the prairie grass catches fire, and there comes up a very strong wind, and the flames just roll along twenty feet high, and travel at the rate of thirty or forty miles an hour, consuming man and beast. When the hunters see it coming, what do they do? They know they cannot run as fast as the fire can run. Not the fleetest horse can escape. They just take a match and light the grass around them, and let the flames sweep, and then they get into the burnt district and stand safe. They hear the flames roar as they come along, they see death coming toward them, but they do not fear, they do not tremble, because the fire has swept over the place where they are, and there is no danger. There is nothing for the fire to burn.

“There is one mountain that the wrath of God has swept over – that is, Mount Calvary; and the fire spent its fury upon the bosom of the Son of God. Take your stand by the cross, and you will be safe for time and eternity.”

Tags: fire, judgment, Moody, redemption, rescue

Franciszek Gajowniczek was a Nazi prisoner in Auschwitz when a fellow inmate escaped. The standard discipline when anyone escaped was to select 10 men at random and place them in a cell where they were left to starve to death. When Gajowniczek heard his name read, he sobbed, “My wife and my children.” At that moment a Franciscan priest and fellow inmate named Koble stepped forward and said, “I will die in his place. I have no wife or children.” The Commandant granted his request.

Since that time Gajowniczek has gone back every year to Auschwitz on August 14 to remember the man who died for him on that date in 1941. And in his yard he has placed a plaque to honor this priest and to remind others of his great sacrifice.

How will you remember the One who died for you?