:Welcome to community

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Ok some roughly formulated thoughts not too ‘churched up’ as reuben would say: I’ve been thinking a lot lately what it means for the Village to be accessible and inclusive even as we grow. For years, many Village parties or events included a church wide invite. Baby showers were often co-Ed and an opportunity to have everyone come together. Not everything was all inclusive, but many things were. Lately,…

Books of the Bible Song

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Almost a year ago, I crafted a video to go along with the Books of the Bible song that Susan Cepin recorded. As new Villagers, Eric asked me to create a video for the kid vespers. This is the first video that I made for the Village. I started to put this video together at my first art night at the Village and then I continued to finish it…

The Saddest Story

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What once was verdant green turns fiery orange, crimson red, then slowly browns to death, unties from living bonds, lets go sustaining branches drifts softly to the ground, lies quiet in the darkened mud among those gone before.  All is lost in crumpled mire.  Blades and veins and midribs disappear amid the roots, degrade, decline, decay.  Soon they are no more, just dirt returning to the dirt.   No…

A tribute to a teacher…

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He wasn’t my favorite teacher. He was intimidating and a tough grader. For a teenager with the kind of learning disabilities that make it difficult to get assignments done, he was more an arch nemesis than a friend. I was also rather lazy and preferred basketball to conjugating verbs.  I’d heard crazy stories about him from my older sister. She told of how he prowled the aisles between the…

Invisible

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Sometimes it’s easy to be invisible. To do work behind the scenes and leave no trace for others to discover your mistakes or imperfections. I was part of a leadership team at a very large church for several years. I successfully hid flaws, fears, sin, and secrets behind a façade of servitude and performance. I think that the most crowded places are the easiest to operate in invisibility… and…

Can we talk?

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I love the village. I love how we come together as a community who supports and loves and cares for one another. I love how we ask each other about our lives; the good the bad, the hard....it’s so refreshing still after 14 years to be apart of this kind of authenticity. It’s so rich, so scary and I’m so grateful. As our family enters into a season of…

The King is Born

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Micah 5:2 . . . But you, Bethlehem of Ephrathah, little among the clans of Judah-from you shall come forth the one who is to rule in Israel. When Jesus was born, Augustus had been in power for 25 years. He was, in that moment in time, King of kings - he ruled from Gibraltar to Jerusalem and from Britain to the Black Sea. He brought peace to the…

Flying with The Avengers

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I am going to try to not spoil anything here... Last week I was in Michigan on a family trip. It was a great time. My kids got time with their grandpa who was kind and affectionate and generous, they got time in the cool Michigan air, the cold lake water, the warm sand. But you know that feeling of "being on vacation" and then "needing a vacation from…

Beloved Bonita

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It's not my norm to have conversations with call center folk (unlike some of us Villagers -- Rod, Emily L...). Today however when I called to get through the red tape to get my new arthritis medication, I asked how her day was going. She said it was busy but good and I mused that it would be as long as people weren't mean to her. She responded with…

I Had a Big Idea

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Earlier this year I had the big idea that it was time to do another backpacking trip in the White Mountain wilderness of Northern Arizona. I’ve been taking kids of various age ranges to these mountains for a couple of decades, mostly in conjunction with the developmental stages of my own kids. This time, though, had to be special. I had promised the community’s younger kids a wilderness excursion…

Undertow

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Earlier this Summer, my family took a trip to San Diego. As I sat there on the beach, I was revisited by childhood memories of swimming in the ocean. The sun would barely be coming up, when my mom would cover my brothers and I in layers of sunscreen before we’d go out into the water. One particular trip, I was dragged in an undertow, seconds felt like minutes as…

Opening the Church to Next Generations

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I attended a seminar at Calvin College this summer called “Ministry to and with The Next Generations: How Millennials and Gen Z Are Changing the Church.” I thought I would share some of my observations and take-aways. Some of my observations are more for other churches that I’m working with for the CRC in my position as Discipleship Coordinator. I’m very open to sharing more information with anyone interested.…

Narratives in my head…

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Many years ago I remember telling my friend, Wayne, that he ought not attribute motives to another person. I assured him he couldn’t possibly know what was rattling around in someone else’s head. He acknowledged my rebuke and was repentant. A short while later he confronted me about the comments I had made about someone else’s motives saying, “Aren’t you the one who told me to never attribute motives?”…

How do you know?

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I recently came to a crossroad, the choice between continuing on my path or taking a sharp left. I don't know about you, but in situations like these, I tend to set up camp and talk myself in and out of every possibility for taking either direction (enter memories of debates on a Robert Frost poem - there is no road!). Both choices seemed promising, so I built my…

The Blue Cookie

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For Christmas my daughter got a set of wooden cookies from her aunt and uncle. They have cookie bases with frosting tops that connect with Velcro. The cookies came with a cookie sheet, an oven mitt, a knife, and a spatula. All together it was a wonderful gift for a two-year-old girl who loves to help her mama bake. I’m not sure when I first heard about the Blue…

On grief…

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Grief comes spewing out when you least expect it. A word here. A taste there. A smell. A song. A question. Insignificant, random moments that are suddenly thrust on you and tears flow and your heart is pierced and all the loss comes falling out in a heap in the middle of God knows where. It’s not arrangeable or scheduled. It can’t be forced. It just happens.  I was…