A Great Weekend

It was great to get away for a weekend.  Getting to see Debbie and Danielle and my best friend and his wife were the best.  Sam didn't get to come, but it would have been great to see her also.  You really feel how much you miss someone or some someones when you finally get to see them again.  It was a chill out weekend which worked well for me.  I hope it worked well for everyone else.  Coming back well stocked with Stella wasn't bad either.  We had a great evening Friday night as we went out for pizza.  Great pizza and the company made it even better.  One of those evenings you can't plan, they just happen.  Then Saturday we went down to St. Augustine walked around, had some lunch and did the snacky thing for dinner with shrimp, steak pieces, dry salami, pepperoni, crackers, pita chips, and margaritas.  It was a great day to turn 50.

On Sunday I got to meet a new friend, Pastor Vicki Hamilton in urban Jacksonville.  We have been introduced through a mutual friend from my experience in Atlanta and the Urban Plunge in January.  She is a neat lady and I imagine we have some interesting conversations to ahead of us.

Now, back to school and focus.  If I can stay focused for 3 weeks this semester will be over and I can put a check mark on the first year.  Wow has this flown by.  Talk to you all later.  God bless each of you.  Steve

You would think it is winding down around here as we get towards the end of the semester.  Quite the contrary.  We are all hunkered down trying to finish.  The work left to do seems disproportionate to the time left.  Papers are one concern.  Finals are the other.  Somehow it will get done.  We just don't know how at this point.  Weekend with Debbie is coming up.  Finally!  We have only seen each other for three days since January 9th.  That is not enough and next year will have to be different.  I know that there are other people, especially with those loved ones in the military that go much longer than this between visits.  I don't know how they do it other than they just do.  Just like how does a family handle triplets?  They just do.  You call on your friends and family and make it work.  I am thankful for the friends that Deb has had back home to lean on during this time.  Thank you!  Now, back to studying.  God bless each of you.

One test back in amazing time.  79 on the Greek test.  That is passing and I will run from class with it!  The scores of everyone that I have talked to so far are heading down with each test.  Only one more left to pass the course!  And if that isn't enough fun, passing Greek means I get to look forward to Hebrew next year.  I am having a hard time containing my excitement.  I am sure you can understand.  God bless each of you, have a great rest of the week.  Steve

Sorry to be inattentive to this.  We have a Greek test tonight, History of Christianity test tomorrow and Confessions Book of Concord review session where we all have responsibility for one or two topics to review and determine all the places they are listed in the Book of Concord on Thursday.  Think Holy Spirit week.  I will be back with more later.  God bless you and help you through any trials you are facing at this time, as I expect it will help me.  Steve

Happy Easter

I delivered the first load of food for the homeless Friday morning as pictured. We were able to get 878 items to hand out for the $218 we spent as a class. We hope that lasts the ministry about a week. Now the challenge is how to do this a second time. Columbia has a winter shelter that is opened in November and closes on March 31. The shelter closed this week. They housed about 240 people every night. That means that 240 additional chronically homeless people are on the streets until November. They are hungry every day and they need a place to sleep every day. In trying to help I came to the realization that what we are doing is only a small thing compared to the need that is continuing, ongoing every day of the year. At first that made me think "why do it at all?  It won't make a difference"However, I think the appropriate way to think about this is we all do a little bit and it comes together through God’s plan to be this huge supply of food and clothes and the things these people need to survive on the streets. If we think that the little we do won’t make a difference to this huge need then we are over thinking God’s plan. Many hands make light and non-burdensome work. That allows people to continue to be involved in this type of ministry. As a person I highly respect used to ask me “how do eat an elephant?” The answer is “one bite at a time.” Many people doing their small part is how this huge work is orchestrated and these people and people in every city in this country and around the world get fed and clothed and survive each day on this earth. At this point, I am very open to how God might be leading me and our class, or the few that want to be involved, to do this a second time, which will lead to the third time and so on. My goal, I think through God, is to be able to bring food like this every week. Breakfast is the one meal here in Columbia that is only supplied on a spotty basis. Every Sunday, some Saturdays, and when the shelter is closed not on the weekdays in an organized way. This coffee ministry just serves coffee and whatever someone or some company might donate. When there are donations, there is food. When there are no donations, there is coffee. And there is always praising of our Lord, sometimes it starts spontaneously through the homeless. It is very cool thing to see the Holy Spirit working.


Not getting to come home this week has been kind of a downer. Deb and I have a weekend scheduled the end of April to meet about half way and celebrate my best friend’s birthday. That has helped to mitigate some of the down feelings. We just maintain our focus on that positive event and not so much on the negative of not getting to come home for a few days this week. That has helped along with how busy I have been this week.


This week, Holy Week has by far been the busiest of my very short seminary career. We are on break this week and the goal was to get my three papers and two sermons and Greek study and about 200 pages of reading out of the way. I guess I didn’t realize what an aggressive goal that was. As of today two papers and two sermons are done and I have been working harder this week than normal. The Greek and the reading have not been touched. I have been on the committee that is interviewing for a replacement organist since ours is leaving and we have had two interviews and of course the services for Holy Week. We have a service at 10:00pm tonight here at the seminary chapel that should last until after midnight and then we have Easter Sunrise service tomorrow and a 10:00 service. I can see why taking the week after Easter off is a popular thing for pastors. Of course, it isn’t just this week but the combination of Advent leading into Lent culminating with Easter that wears them down. My really short term goal has been modified to get done what I can today as I have to give a sermon in preaching class on Tuesday and take tomorrow off so that I get at least one day in this break to relax and get some energy back to finish up the last five weeks of class.

For the first time last night, standing at the lectern for Good Friday service, I felt like a pastor. I have gotten much closer to my field congregation this semester as I have purposely been more involved in the church. I figure this is my time to learn and there are things I need to learn about being in the church also. So, I have tried to balance my studies with being in the church a little more this semester. It has made a big difference in my relationship with the congregation. This is my second semester there, which helps, but I think they see the effort I put into being there. Pastor mentioned this week my work ethic, which he says isn’t always the case. I see that on this end also. This is puzzling to me.

I pray that you have a great Easter celebration. This has become my best celebration of the year. Christmas has become so commercialized that I have lost most of my interest in it. I hate to admit that but it is true. Easter is our biggest celebration in the church for sure. It has become commercialized also, and is ever increasing as the big companies put their marketing money behind making us think we have to have or give something that they sell to celebrate this day properly. I think the proper way to celebrate it is with your faith family. I hope you get to do this.

I ask you to contemplate a question: did Jesus come to this Earth, minister to the people, die on the cross and rise on the third day for only some of us? If He did, how do you justify that you think you are one of those people He came to save vs. anyone else on this earth? Have you been able to keep the Laws? Of course not, none of us have. We are all sinners. Does God grade sins? I don’t think it would matter, aren’t we all guilty of being a sinner? Guilty! Since I am a sinner, how can I justify standing up in the crowd of all of humanity from all time and say, I deserve to be saved over anyone else. I am a child of God. We are all children of God. God tells us through the Prodigal Son that He waits for us to come home. Will we all come home? I hope so.

"11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look* into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ 14When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ 16Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew,* ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ’ 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her." John 20:11-18 He Is Risen Indeed!!!