Thank You, Pastor Ed

A NOTE FROM RON: The following post was written in appreciation of the music minister at my church. It's very similar to a post I wrote on Monday, June 29, the day after he presented his resignation to the church. Both were written from the heart and just reconfirm how much both Paula and I love Pastor Ed and Dianne as church members and appreciate what they've done in their service to God and our church during their time there.

Today was the last day the music minister at my church, would serve in that position. I'll tell you more about the reason why he's leaving later.

I believe Pastor Ed served as leader of the music ministry at my church for about 4 years. He improved it in ways which are too many to write about in this post. Right now I just want to let you know what his ministry and his friendship have meant to Paula and me.

It was under Pastor Ed’s ministry that Paula became excited about and more involved in the church music ministry; especially the church choir. This was significant in a couple of ways. Perhaps most importantly it gave her an identity in church ministry other than being “Mr. Ron’s wife.”

She felt encouraged enough to start singing solos again. Her creative passion and the support she received from Pastor Ed quickly led her to move from choosing traditional hymns to more contemporary Christian songs for her solos. This was something that didn't just bless the congregation. I truly believe that God helped to grow Paula spiritually through the experience of learning and preparing to sing those solos. Most recently she joined the praise team, which leads the worship singing on Sunday mornings, and several all woman trios and quartets.

Yes, over the past 4 years or so my wife has really become involved in being a minister of music at church. Pastor Ed had a large part in the growth in her ministry. Thank you, Pastor Ed.

He was also a big encouragement to me in many ways as well. It was July of 06 that I began my ventriloquism ministry at my church. From the beginning Pastor Ed was a supporter. Because he was in charge of keeping the morning worship service flowing in an effective and worshipful manner he always made sure I had the set up to do what I was doing that morning.

Whether it was ventriloquism at the start of the service or the children’s sermon in the middle; Pastor Ed always looked after what I needed and helped me with the transitions. He also laughed at my jokes too; well, most of them.

Over the last couple of years Pastor Ed encouraged me to sing solos as well. He always asked me if I had something ready when he needed someone to sing. I can’t recall exactly how many solos I’ve done over these last couple of years but I do remember 2 of them specifically. I have written posts about each of them so I won’t go into great detail about them.

Singing the songs “My Tribute” and “Statue Of Liberty” in a morning worship service on two separate occasions gave me a pair of spiritual blessings I will always remember. For more details on these blessings read my posts from November 24, 2008 and July 5, 2009. When I sang “Statue of Liberty”, on the Sunday before I went in for my weight loss surgery, I didn’t just sing a song. I sang my testimony.

Because of Pastor Ed’s leadership and faith in me I was able to receive those blessings. Thank You, Pastor Ed.

I couldn’t acknowledge the blessing that the ministry of Pastor Ed has been with mentioning his wife, Dianne. She is truly the woman behind the man but a blessing in and of herself. Her involvement with Operation Christmas Child each year has helped children all over the country. Her accomplishment of running the Walt Disney World marathon race last year was an inspiration as well.

Together as a couple Pastor Ed and Dianne not only were a blessing to our church choir but in 2007 & 2008 they opened their home for a canasta tournament. On Kentucky Derby day church members and along with some of their family members gathered in Pastor Ed’s and Dianne’s living and dining rooms for an afternoon/evening of card playing sandwiched around a wonderful pot luck dinner. It was one of the most fun events of the year. I especially enjoyed it because I won a prize both years.

The reason Pastor Ed is resigning as music minister is because he and Dianne will be moving to Florida to be close to family. We all hate to see them go. But we are thankful that God has allowed them to minister to and with us for as long as they have. They are special people and special friends. They even loaned us their treadmill to use after we had surgery.

For me one of the bright sides of Pastor Ed and Dianne moving is that they will be living near Orlando. They have made Paula and I promise that we will come visit them some day. While we're there I can’t see any reason not to go visit Mickey and friends in Disney World. Just another reason in the future to say “Thank You, Pastor Ed.”

Keeping Tapes Is A Matter of Pride

I recently finished reading a book entitled “Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World.” It’s a series of essays by a variety of pastors compiled by C.J. Mahaney. It deals with the subject of “the often subtle presence” of worldliness in the heart of a Christian.

There’s discussion about and biblical resolution for the influence the world has on a believer through the media, music, and possessions. There’s also chapter on materialism. This deals with two issues: the sinful obsession with accumulating possessions and allowing those possessions to displace God as the object of worship in your life.

“Worldliness” explores how Christians are to live lives worthy of the gospel and engage a fallen world, without being conformed and ultimately seduced by the system of this world.

The book didn’t have a lot theology that was new to me but it did help me revisit some of the lessons I had learned while taking the Crown Financial course last year.

The idea of “want versus need” was something that I had kind of drifted away from but the book brought me back to. Also I needed to be reminded about the danger of displacing God in my life by putting too much value in my possessions and the achievements linked to them. Here’s an area in my life where I had to apply that principle.

For over a year now I have been transferring some programs I taped over a period of 10 years called “Rock & Roll Rewind.” These are programs that review the artists and pop music I have in my CD collection. Each program featured music on a specific subject, from a certain period of time, or recorded were by specific artists. I researched the music history, put together the song lists, wrote the scripts and produced the tapes. I put a lot of time and emotion into them; especially the programs featuring Christmas music.

The shows were my creative outlet for nearly a decade. I even continued to record them after I moved to Kentucky. They are personal time capsules for me. I made 36 programs in all. The last ones were recorded in 2001.

Unfortunately they were all recorded on cassette tapes which have not withstood the test of time. The tapes started to deteriorate a couple of years ago. Which is why I decided to start converting them over to CD. I didn’t want to lose these recordings. I consider them part of my creative legacy.

So now I’m at a place where I have all but 5 shows converted. This brings me to the issue of placing too much value in one of my possessions.

After I read the chapter on materialism in “Worldliness” it brought to my mind the fact that despite having converted some of them to CD nearly a year ago I still continued to hold on to the original Rewind tapes. I asked myself “why?” Why didn’t I just throw them away after the CD was completed? After some soul searching and prayer I realized it was because of personal pride.

I am very proud of the Rewind programs. They haven’t impressed a whole lot of people over the years (some have liked them but not many) but they mean a lot to me. In my mind if I discarded the “master tapes” and something happened to the only copy I had (the CD) my work would be lost forever. Essentially I want my Rewind work to last “forever” or as long as I can make it last.

This is a form of trying to play “God” for myself. The Bible tells us that only those treasures we store up in heaven will last forever. Nothing in this world is going to survive. All of it will eventually be destroyed. Some of it sooner than later but it will all go away.

Holding on to my Rewind master tapes is a denial of this Biblical principal and truth. It would be different if the tapes were my only copy. I mean there’s nothing wrong to want the recordings as part of my personal memories. But keeping the master tapes in effort to create a false sense of eternally securing the existence of my work is a sin; a sin that falls under the broad category of pride.

I don’t want to put my hope or my assurance of “eternal security” into anything other than God and the saving grave of His son, Jesus Christ. The gospel is my legacy.

I decided I’m going to “dematerialize”. I’m going to start discarding things that I’ve been holding onto for prideful reasons. So today before I left for work I gathered the Rewind master tapes that I already have on CD and I threw them in the trash can.

This may seem like it’s a bit extreme to some of you. But I must tell you the concept of depending on nothing but God for the preservation of who I am as a person is extremely biblical. If you’re intrigued by what I’ve written or at all interested in what I’ve learned about materialism I suggest you pick up a copy of “Worldliness” by C.J. Mahaney at your local Christian book store. Read it and I promise you that you’ll see your possessions differently… from God’s point of view.

Weight Loss is Laced With Little Moments

To step on the scale and see that you have lost nearly 60 pounds in 7 ½ weeks is a big moment for anyone trying to lose weight. Since my surgery I’ve had several big moments but they don’t happen every day.

The thing that really encourages me is the continuous parade of “little moments” that collectively motivates me to keep working at what I need to do to get closer to my goal.

I’m talking about being able to walk twice around the contoured ½ mile road through our cemetery without stopping to rest on the bench halfway around.

Walking up the stairs to get to the call center where I work and not be out of breath. Being able to walk with someone to the break room and be able to carry on a conversation without gasping for air.

Finding one of my favorite T-shirts in the back of my closet and discovering that I can wear it for the first time in 3 years.

But the best “little moment” I had this week was when I bought a new pair of walking shoes. For years (so long I can’t remember) I’ve had to buy sneakers with Velcro on them because I couldn’t bend over to tighten or tie laces. This time I decided that I would try to buy a pair with laces.

I was a little apprehensive when looking for just the right pair but I finally found one that laced partially up the ankle. I need the support. In the very public forum of the store called “The Shoe Carnival” I began what I feared would be a contortionist act of trying to tie shoes on my feet for the first time in a long time.

Much to my surprise I was able to get them tight and secure with little or no difficulty. It was a big little moment for me. I was so proud to take those shoes with laces to the front counter and pay for them. No one in the store other than my wife, who was with me, had the slightest idea that this pair of New Balance walking shoes was different from any other pair I had purchased in at least 10 years.

The next day I got those shoes out of the box, laced them up and took my dogs for a walk. The shoes gripped my feet so comfortably that, as I mentioned before, I was able to make it all the way around the cemetery, twice, without stopping.

So there you have just the latest of the many differences losing weight and getting back into shape (at least better shape than I was) is making in my life.

I thank God that He has sent me these little encouragements and continues to give me the strength to improve my health so I can do what I need to do for Him.

Another Wedding In October

A lot has happened in my life over the last year. My new job; our son James coming home from Iraq, buying a house, and moving out; both my wife and I having had gastric by pass surgery are just 3 of the major events. This year has been a lot different than last year.

Yet part of it is exactly the same. On September 7, 2008 I wrote a post about getting ready for some big events for my family in the month of October. Two of those same type events are happening the first weekend of this October.

On October 3 my son, James and his fiancée, Brandi, are getting married. My family from Pennsylvania is coming down for the wedding as part of their vacation; just like last year.

The family will be arriving on Wednesday to visit us here in our little town for a couple of days. Then we travel as a group on Friday to Gatlinburg, Tennessee for the wedding on Saturday. We will be spending Friday night and all day Saturday together in a 24 person cabin in the Smokey Mountains.

This is all very exciting and has been something I’ve looked forward to for most of the year. However it wasn’t until the other night when Paula and I were discussing the plans for the wedding weekend that I realized we only have 5 weeks to go.

While Paula’s going to be helping Brandi with all the wedding plans as well as the small reception afterward. I am going to be in charge of making sure things go smoothly with my PA family. I’ll be doing my best to see that they enjoy their visit with us here at home and at the cabin in Gatlinburg.

I’ll write more about the event as it gets closer and after it happens. For now I must make the most of the time I have to prepare for these events.

Here at home it means sprucing up each and every room of the house so it’s presentable to company. I know my family will say that I don’t have to fuss for them but there are things I’ve been putting off doing that need to be done before they arrive. This includes reorganizing and rearranging things in several rooms.

I only have about 10 days off of work (2 each week for the next 5 weeks) to get this done so it looks as though, just like last year, I’ll be suspending my Rewind restoration project. Those afternoon hours on my days off can be better spent doing things around the house.

So it looks like the next 5 weeks are going to be very busy for both Paula and me as its déjà vu all over again with a wedding and a family visit. I can’t wait until the first weekend of October.

My Melodica

For years now I have wanted to learn how to play an instrument. Well actually, I already know how to play the harmonica. The one I have doesn't let me play sharp and flat notes. So I am limited on the songs I can play.

I tried to learn the guitar last year but had some difficulty with holding it and with my fingers reaching to play the chords. I decided to learning put it off until later. I really want to learn to play the Ukulele too.

I bought a recorder in October of last year but only picked it up a couple of times and never did learn how to play anything.

While watching some music videos by Julia Nunes, on You Tube ( I recommend you do a search and watch and listen to some of her music) I saw an instrument that I've always been fascinated with. I didn't know the name of it but thought it would be cool to have one. I did a little research on the internet and found out that it's called a "Melodica"

With my birthday coming up in a couple of weeks (2 weeks from tomorrow all you potential gift buyers) I decided that I would get a student model of a melodica. It came today by UPS. I am so pleased with it.

I am excited to start learning how to play worship songs that I can play in church some time in the future. I am also planning on making it part of my ventriloquist show as well. Kind of an entertaining segue between puppets or sketches. Haven't developed anything specific yet but I will.

So now I that I have a melodica I have to decide that I'm going to practice and learn the songs I am so anxious to play. I guess I'd better become committed to practicing my ventriloquism too so I can combine them for my shows.

Please pray for me and my commitment. I'm going to need it.

A New Post Surgery Low

Good News! After a week of being at odds with my scale this morning it finally told me something I was happy to hear. Yes I said “it told me”. My scale is one with an electronically tells you your weight. It told me a number lower than any other I’ve heard in the past 8 weeks. This is very encouraging to me given the fact that these last 7 days have been my slowest week for weight loss since surgery.

A majority of that time I have been frustrated with my lack progress. But now that I have reached a new low number and a new high in pounds lost I am encouraged. God is faithful and has helped me be disciplined in sticking to what I need to do to be successful.

Now I’m looking forward to stepping on the scale again with faith that I’m back on track and will keep hearing numbers I like.

Quoits?

Quoits (pronounced "kwaits") is a game I've known of since I was a preschooler. It was very popular in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania, just across the Delaware River from New Jersey, where I grew up.

Over the past couple of years I've discovered that hardly anyone in the south knows about quiots. With the recent growth in popularity of the corn hole game(a southern version of the common bean bag tossing game) I've been mentioning it to people I know and no one is familiar with the game.

According to Wikapedia, quoits is an old traditional lawn game that originated in England. It was brought to America in the 18th century. Today it's most popular in the Slate Belt region of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The quiot boards are usually crafted out of slate (see picture above), are 24 inches square and weigh about 50 pounds each. The quoits are disks made of a hard but pliable rubber, are 8 inches in diameter with a 4 inch hole in the center.

The game is played in a manner similar to horseshoes. The players stand on either side of the board and throw the quoits at the other board 18 ft away. The goal is to toss the quoit onto the hub in the center of the board. That's called "a ringer" and is worth 3 points. If no ringers are thrown the quoit closest to the hub, measured by the concentric circles on the board, scores a point. The game goes to 21.

It's a very enjoyable and social game. In Pennsylvania there are even organized leagues and tournaments. There's hardly a summer picnic or gathering where some one doesn't bring a set of quoit boards.

For quite some time now, based on the popularity of the corn hole game, I've been thinking of trying to introduce the game of quoits to the area. However because of their size and weight shipping them from the Lehigh Valley companies who make them is expensive; up to $100 for a set.

Still I'm extremely curious to see what the cultural response would be. Would quoits catch on as a game in Kentucky? If so how popular would it become? Would it be the next "corn hole"?

To find out the answer to these questions I'm going to have to be pretty committed simply because of the cost. To get a set of boards, made of composite material lighter than slate, shipped here from the Easton company who makes them will cost close to $310. I could have my family bring set with them when they come to visit in October but that would still cost me about $250.

It's an experiment that I can't quite afford right now. Perhaps one day in the future might be able to introduce my friends here in Kentucky to a game that was part of the culture where I grew up: Quoits.