the church geek

It was my hope that Obama would become our 44th President. And while I didn’t make that hope public from the pulpit, I did not hide it from those who asked or in public comments that I left in various places around the internet.

So of course, I am happy that last Tuesday evening my hope became reality.

Now, there are lots and lots of reasons why I hoped this would come true, and one of them was very selfish and personal. As many of you know, my wife and I are currently in the process of adopting from Ethiopia. It is our hope to adopt 2 children, either twins or a sibling group, who are under the age of 4.

While in many ways it seems like the right thing for us to do, it was never an easy decision. We are well aware of the history of racism in our country. So one of our primary concerns in adopting children from Africa, is taking them from a place where racism (as we know it in our country) is not an issue and bringing them to a country where it is.

As we learned in our ‘pre-adoption’ classes, adopting can be difficult, adopting cross-culturally is even harder, and adopting children who will no-doubt experience racism, in ways we as white parents will never be able to comprehend, is still more difficult.

So for me, the election of Barak Obama as our 44th President is a glimmer of hope that our country is prepared to move passed its racist history, and that it will somehow become just a little bit easier for us to raise our two children who will come from Africa.

Plus, I love the fact that we now have such a prominent role model to point our children too, and that we will be able to say to them, “You can become President too.”

Well, except for that minor thing about our children not being natural born citizens of the US…but we have 40 years or so to work with congress on changing that one…

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The following is a bit of personal news for my “Meaty Monday” post:

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Romans 8:15-16

Did you ever stop to think that adoption is one of the primary images in the scriptures for those who come to faith in Christ? The apostle Paul uses this metaphor to help us understand that when we come to faith, we are invited to become part of a much larger family of faith. We are made part of the family of God.

I’ve been thinking a lot about adoption lately. At the end of last year, Lori and I began giving serious thought and prayer to pursuing adopting a child internationally, as a way of raising our own family. For a variety of reasons we eventually settled on pursuing adoption from Ethiopia, a country located in East Africa.

Adoption is both a lengthy and expensive process. In May, we took part in a two day long pre-adoption seminar to learn more about the various issues and concerns related to adoption and just what exactly the process entails. Over the summer months we have been working with a social worker from our adoption agency to complete a home study.

The good news is that we have been “home study approved.” Part of our home study process, for us, entailed making a decision as to the age and number of children we would be willing to adopt. After a lot of thought and study, we finally settled on being open to adopt a young sibling group, with the possibility of perhaps adopting twins.

We are now beginning to prepare all the necessary documents that need to be submitted to Ethiopia. Following that comes a period of waiting for a referral that may last anywhere from 6 to 9 months, perhaps a bit longer. Once we receive a referral from the country, Lori and I will travel to Ethiopia to accept our new child(ren) into our family.

We are both excited and a little apprehensive about this very big step in our lives. While it is daunting to consider the prospect of parenting as a trans-cultural, trans-racial family, we also anticipate the various challenges, joys, and rewards that come as part of raising any family.

As I think about the process of adoption, I am encouraged by the words Actress Isabella Rosellini, who adopted a son who was part African-American, wrote in her autobiography:

In comparison to having a biological child…adoption carries the added dimension of connection not only to your own tribe but beyond, widening the scope of what constitutes love, ties, and family. It is a larger embrace.

I think that’s partly what the Apostle Paul was trying to say to us as well. When we are adopted by God into the community of faith our connection and identity moves beyond the family we grew up in. The circle of our family is widened to include connections beyond our own tribe, to include the embrace of the much larger and greater family of faith.

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Wednesday’s Roundup will come tomorrow…I was quite busy this morning straightening up around the house after most of the contents of our basement ended upstairs last Thursday following our little basement flood. Then this afternoon I decided to re-install Windows Vista on my laptop, prior to going to GA. Lori comes home soon after three days away, so the Roundup will just have to wait until tomorrow.

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The following was written by my wife, Lori Wunder, and originally posted on her facebook page.

First, thanks to everyone who has asked how my home and church came out in the flood. Here’s an attempt to give everyone the longer version of what happened. And, my fellow Cedar Rapidians can add their own comments/perspectives to the story…

We all knew it had been a wet winter and spring and that the ground was saturated, but I have to admit, I don’t remember worrying that the flood would be this extensive. On Wednesday evening, we had a funeral at the church for a wonderful member who died very suddenly and tragically the week before, so our attention was on that. But then the “500 year flood” talk started and the map began circulating on the internet. First Presbyterian Church is on Fifth St. and Third Ave downtown, so five blocks from the river. On Wednesday, our staff spent time trying to figure out if the mandatory evacuation downtown included us or not, and if we would be able to have the funeral at all. At the same time, our building manager extraordinaire, Eric Stark, was busy moving things onto tables, etc. in our basement and putting sandbags around the doors. The funeral went as planned, although with a lower attendance than we had hoped since roads and bridges throughout the area were already beginning to close.

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My wife and I are very much looking forward to a much needed week of vacation coming up in a few weeks. In some respects it’s hard to believe that this will be our first week of vacation since the last week of August. As we anticipate our time away, we are always somewhat conflicted about how to spend it.

One difficulty is that we have a number of fairly sizeable outdoor and indoor projects that are requiring our attention. It seems that it is hard for us to get those sorts of projects done during our normal routine because we just don’t get a significant enough chunk of time off together on our weekends.

Fridays are our usual day off, but those often turn out to be our cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping sort of days and aren’t really conducive to starting a big project were not sure how long it will take to finish. So when vacation time approaches we think here’s our list of projects, which ones should we try to do? But who really wants to spend their vacation working around the house??

Another difficulty also has to do with the fact that we don’t get weekends. Meaning we don’t get to travel to visit our families or friends when other folks might be able to do that sort of thing over the weekend (especially over an extended weekend like memorial day & labor day which are non-existent for a pastor…) So, we think about the last time we saw so and so and we wonder if its time to hop in the car or get on the plane to go see them. While these are good and important trips for us to take, spending ourselves with people as we do on our jobs can make these types of vacations seem like more work than relaxation.

As pastors we’re also church nerds. So, when we get a Sunday off, we often ask where would we like to go worship? We think about the various churches we know or have heard about or that one of our favorite colleagues serves and we ask should we plan a trip to worship there? (In fact we do have reason to be in the Minneapolis area on this particular vacation and while we are there we are thinking about another trip to Solomon’s Porch.)

There of course have been the occasional Sundays on our vacations where we are so tired of church we decide not to go at all (but please don’t tell that to any of the members of our congregations…if you’re one of them you didn’t just read that…)

I think all of this is to say that while we definitely look forward to our vacations, we just don’t look forward to making all the decisions we need to make in order to plan them. Am I alone in this sort of dilemma?

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As a result of my spiritual retreat last week, I decided that I needed to re-evaluate the place of technology in my life. I came away thinking that the time I’ve spent over the last several years on the computer has had a negative effect on various aspects of my life, and that it’s really time for me to change my relationship with technology.

Granted: Today in ministry more and more things are done on the computer. I do E-mail for just about everything. I blog (which is a visible ministry presence.) I stay connected with colleagues. I do research for sermons. I prepare and type sermons and other worship resources. I subscribe to a couple of on-line sermon/worship/ministry resources. I have a number of resources on CD Rom on the computer. I type minute meetings and agendas.

Put simply a good percentage of my day is spent on the computer and that is unavoidable. But when I am not at work, the computer is right there with me; it’s almost become another appendage.

Here are a few things I’ve noticed about my relationship to the computer:

1.) Some people watch TV - something I generally frown upon and think of as a complete waste of time - but when it comes down right to it I probably waste just as much time at home on the computer as any person who watches TV.

2.) Over the last several months, when I get home and get on the computer in the evening I have noticed that my eyes will begin to get really tired. They start to glaze over and tear up. Maybe its my ripe old age of 38, but maybe it’s also because all that screen time is just not physically good for my eyes.

3.) The amount I read has shriveled substantially over the last year. I have a pile of books on my desk. I have a few at home. I need to read them and want to read them. But I don’t. And it’s partly because I spend way too much time on the computer. The worst? I almost never read anything for fun now.

4.) I have a bit of an obsession with e-mail and some of the social networks. How many times a day do I really need to check my e-mail or everyone else’s ‘facebook’ status? Do I really need to check my e-mail the first thing when I wake up or at night before I go to bed. When I am away with limited access, I am reminded that if I check my e-mail once a day that is enough, so why am I obsessed by it when it’s right there sitting in front of me?

So what am I doing about it?

1.) I’m placing a moratorium on using the computer at home between 9pm and 9am (when I usually get to the office.) Of course this isn’t always going to be possible to strictly adhere too, but more often than not there is no good reason for me to be on the computer between those hours. Do I really need to start off my day at 6:30am by reading my e-mail??

2.) I’ve also declared a technology Sabbath on Sunday afternoon and evening. My computer will not be on during this time and I won’t check my e-mail (although I did go downstairs once yesterday to check the e-mail on the computer down there.)

3.) I’m also trying to discipline myself to close down my computer more often during the day in the office since I’m pretty sure that folks can wait a few hours for me to respond to their e-mail. This I think will give me more time in my day to read, study, and pray, and to make some of those phone calls and visits I generally have a tendency to avoid.

4.) I’m reading again! So hopefully I can get through that big stack of books and magazines on my desk.

What does your relationship to technology like? Have you changed or do you need to change your relationship with technology?

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This week I won’t be posting a “Meaty Monday” nor a “Wednesday Roundup” Instead, assuming that the weather cooperates (we have yet another winter storm headed our way) I’ll be heading up to Sinsinawa Retreat Center for a few days away from the office for a bit of a spiritual retreat.

I don’t have much planned except to sleep, read, and pray. I am taking two books with me to guide my reflections:

The Crucifixion of Ministry by Andrew Purves

Sacred Rhythms by Ruth Haley Barton (thanks Dave Winner for the great suggestion!)

I’m not sure yet what I’ll do if it looks like I can’t make the two hour drive to Dubuque tomorrow. We’ll have to punt and come up with another plan.

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At the end of the last year I asked my session to allow me the privilege of two spiritual retreat/study days a quarter away from the office. I’m more than pleased and grateful to report that they graciously and generously granted my request. So, next week Monday and Tuesday I will be heading over to the Dominican Sisters monastery/retreat center at Sinsinawa.

Perhaps later in the year I will use this time away to do some sermon planning and thinking specifically related to my current ministry within my congregation. This first time around, however, it’s my goal to simply get some rest and to spend some time seeking God in the hopes of being spiritually rejuvenated.

As I think about my two days away, I realize that I have one problem: I’ve never really done this sort of thing before. Now I know some of you out there have (or would like to!) so, how would you recommend I use my two days? What sort of books/resources should I bring?

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Tomorrow I will be driving up to Buffalo, MN for a COM/CPM conference sponsored by our Synod. I will be up there through Thursday morning, so I’ll be taking a break from my new schedule of postings. See you back here on Friday with a picture for Photo Friday!

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Well, not often as that would be stuffing the ballot.

I entered three photos into the Gazette’s (our local paper) fall color photo contest and all three of them made it into the top 25. On Thanksgiving Day the editors will publish their top 5 choices.

However you can vote for one to be the “people’s choice” which will be published on that same day also. If you want to vote, just click here.

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I said, “Oh Happy Day” and my wife responded, “Yeah right!”

It seems that I forgot my truck sputtered and stalled this morning and couldn’t even make it out of the garage when I was ready to head for church. So we had to scramble and come up with alternatives for getting to our respective churches.

We worked it out and were more or less on time, but it’s amazing and sobering to see just how dependent we are on two cars.

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I’ve been frustrated with my inability to keep up with my library books and their various due dates. I think in the past year or so Lori and I have paid close to $50 in late fines at the library. This fine situation is created by two facts:

1.) The books don’t have those little cards in each of their pockets anymore that were stamped with the due date. Instead, now when you check out books you get a receipt with each book listed on it and its due date. I am usually pretty good at keeping track of information but I still haven’t got a system down for keeping track of that little receipt.

2.) The computer system at the library knows when my books are due. I can go on line and check when they are due, but my library computer system has evidently not yet figured out how to send me an e-mail to notify me when they are due.

Now enters libraryelf and the problem is solved! If your library participates you can sign up for an account. Libraryelf will send you an e-mail notification whenever a due date approaches on your books. You will also get notification by e-mail when books you have on hold are available to be picked up. It’s pretty slick, and I say it’s about time!

Of course the downside is that now my library will lose me as a major source of revenue from all my overdue fines.

By the way I found this via Lifehacker. A week doesn’t go by where I don’t find something of use from the world of technology on this site.

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Early on Sunday morning I’ll be driving Lori to the Airport as she’ll be heading down to New Orleans with 20 folks from her church to do recovery work through FPC of NO. How will I spend my time? I have four goals for while she is away:

1.) Update my blog. This will include updating the Word Press software which I’m a little scared to tackle because I somehow managed to crash the site last time I tried to update. I’d also like to install Adam Walker Cleaveland’s cleaker template. One other thing? I’d like to work on updating my book recommendations on the side bar, since I’ve completely neglected that. But then I wonder how many people just get my RSS feed and seldom look at the site?

2.) Select photos for submission to the Iowa State Fair Photo Salon. Over the past month or so I’ve been testing out some of my photos on Flickr in various group forums to see which ones people like best and to get some general critiques of my work. It’s now time for me to get down to business and figure out which ones, if any, are worth submitting to the photo contest at the Iowa State Fair. I don’t imagine I’ll win any prizes, this being my first year of somewhat serious photography, but it sure would be nice to have a few honorable mentions and to see my photos posted during the Fair.

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I’m entering three photos into a photo contest in our local newspaper, the Cedar Rapids Gazette. The contest is “the Colors of Spring.” I’ve never entered a photo contest before and I haven’t even really followed the various contests that have been in our paper; so I don’t know how stiff the competition will be.

There are actually two contests…one is a contest in which the staff of the newspaper will select their favorites. The second is a ‘people’s choice’ vote in which 25 of the best will appear in the paper and online for people to select their favorites. May 14th is the day entries are selected and made known.

I had about six photos I thought were worthy of entering, but I could only enter three. That sure was a hard decision! One of the photos I am entering (White and Rose) appeared 2 days ago here on this blog as a “Photo of the Day.” The two others photos follow:

This was not my favorite photo of the six, but I entered it because it captures our city emblem and one of our industrial giants (Quaker Oats) amidst a blooming tree. I looked long and hard for another more colorful tree that was in exactly the right place but I just couldn’t find one. Oh well.

Wish me luck!

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They’re always looking for Kelly Houser.

For the three and half years that my wife and I have been married, we’ve been getting phone calls from people looking for Kelly Houser.

They come during the day while we’re at work. Sometimes they come in the evening. In fact just this afternoon we got a call.

Sometimes we answer and we get a recorded message asking us to call back. Other times we answer and talking to a human being we inform them that Kelly has never lived with us and doesn’t own this phone number. More often than not we just let it ring.

The calls are from collection agencies evidently trying to collect on her outstanding debts.

Kelly Houser may not have stolen our identity; the only thing she’s appropriated from us is our telephone number. But sometimes that is enough.

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