From game 2 of the NLDS- thanks to my sister I was able to go!!

Well the thing is I do not feel the least bit of disappointment after my team lost the World Series in 6 games last night.  Maybe that’s because of all the years with no play-offs, no World Series wins or even in the World Series, no legitimate chance at the play-offs from, oh I don’t know, late May.  But over the past few years, Phillies fans have feasted on fun.  But even that isn’t why I do not feel the least disappointment after losing this year’s World Series.  For me, I don’t feel disappointed today because of one simple fact about baseball.  Baseball is a game of hope.  More than any other major sport I know, baseball is a game of hope.  And I for one am a big fan of the phenomenon of hope!

Here’s what I mean.  In football or soccer or basketball, when a team runs out of the necessary time on the clock to score enough points to win the game, all hope is lost.  In baseball, there is no lack of hope.  Until the actual end of the game, hope is never lost in baseball.

Last night when Shane Victorino, the “flyin’ hawaiian”, was up to bat in the ninth inning, with 2 outs already and 2 strikes on him and the Yankees ahead by what would soon become the final score of 7 to 3, there was still hope.  The game was not necessarily about to end.  As I watched my favorite Phillie extend his last at-bat by hitting foul balls and hanging on to his at-bat, I thought to myself: “Enjoy this, it might be the last at-bat of the whole 2009 baseball season.  But it might not be too.”  Right up until the last out of the game, the Phillies had a real (if not very likely) chance to win the game, extend the series, and even to win the series.  Realistically the odds of that happening were slim and highly un-likely, but it could have happened.  And things like that do happen a lot in baseball.  They happen at least several times in every season.

For me, baseball is a great game because baseball is a game of hope.  Until the end finally comes, there is still hope for more.  The only better game is life itself.  As a person of faith, even when the end comes, there is still more.  Much more.  Now that’s what I call hope.

After being away for most of October, winter is already settling in here in Homer.  yesterday, people were already walking on Baluga lake’s still deepening ice.  For the past week we have had bright, cloud-less skies while every day there has been less time with the sun above the horizon.  November is a busy time in the life of the church.  We get into full speed on everything from music programs and Sunday morning classes, to annual commitment programs and the annual all-church Conference.

Since returning from Jon and Sherry’s wedding I’ve been trying to continue to walk outside but these 16 degree mornings sort of have their effect on my motivation!  Gradually I will switch to waiting until mid-day for my walk.  I do that just to soak up whatever sunlight is available.

On our trip to Pennsylvania and Ohio for Jon and Sherry’s wedding, there were many highlights.  In order of occurence here are the ones I can think of: unplanned over-night in Minnesota due to late flight arrival (that was kind of fun); barely making it to game 2 of the NLDS (I went to the game immediately from the airport- super great time with my sister!); nice visits with family in PA; good experience at my home church is sharing about life and ministry in Alaska; uneventful flight to Ohio; nice visit at Charles’ house and a fun time working on a project there; fun visit with Sherry’s family at a luncheon on the day before the wedding (everyone just mixed in great and had a good time- Sherry has a wonderful family and they are easy to get to know and to like); I’ll include a photo and say something about the wedding below; Another project- this time at Jon and Sherry’s home (I really enjoy doing projects with the boys- first with Charles at his house and then with David and Jon and Sherry’s); lonnnnnng flight back to Alaska; 3 days of meetings in Anchorage before driving the 5 hours home to Homer.

So that was quite a journey.  It felt like I was gone for 2 months but it was really only 2 weeks.  The Alaska conference meetings continue to delight.  This conference is something special.  The only negative is that our Bishop is a fan of L.A. baseball.  I was ready for him though with various Phillies attire.  When he wasn’t looking I hid a Fighten Phils rally towel in his papers.  I keep inviting him to convert, be re-born, and join in as a Phillies fan.  So far his heart is hardened.

Jon and Sherry’s wedding.  If anyone reads Karen or David or Sarah’s blogs, you already know how the wedding turned out.  It’s hard for me to find words to describe how much I enjoyed the experience and how happy I am that these two found each other and are becoming their own family together.  It was a very rich experience for me on several levels.  But I guess the thing that was most of all going on inside of me was watching my adult son at this important moment in his life, and thinking of so many memories of moments over the years watching him grow up.  Very poignant and a good evening.  I guess I would have to say I didn’t really feel nostalgic or that I was sad about good times from the past being in the past… just a really nice time of feeling thankful and peaceful.  It was really wonderful to have my brothers and sister and sister-in-law at the wedding too.  Karen’s mother was too weak from being ill recently to make it to the wedding.  So we kept her involved as best as we could with photos and all.

David made a funny video of his and my attempt at installing Jon & Sherry’s new dishwasher (their wedding present from me & Karen, Charles, Sarah and David): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nFWECQbPPs

Here are a few photos from the wedding and our trip:

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Couldn't help it... this is my favorite photo from the wedding!

Truly a happy day

My brothers, sister, sisters-in-law, me & Karen

3 happy, beautiful women!

David, Sarah, Charles III, Elizabeth, Sherry, Jonathan

Charles & Elizabeth - Wedding in April 2010!!

This was quite a hike for me.  The trail leaves the Sterling Highway at about mile 61.  It is near the town of Sterling on the Kenai (pronounced Kee-neye, as in eye) peninsula.  It took about 11 hours and had a total elevation gain of 6,000 feet.  The highest point of the hike was just over 3500 feet, but the 8 or so miles along the “ridge” included many ups and downs that added up to the total elevation.  The weather was really great, just perfect.  And the Alaska autumn colors appeared at their peak.  This is the second generally challenging hike I have been on with David.  He is starting to get in really good condition.  I have a way to go, but I was in good enough shape to make this hike while carrying maybe 20 pounds of emergency supplies and water to drink.  I’ve been doing a lot of exercising over the past month or so.  I feel like my legs have gotten pretty strong and this hike felt like a chance to take them out for a spin and see how they do.  One thing I noticed was that I could go up hill with no difficulty but descending really wore me out.  I guess different muscles are involved.

We saw some wildlife too.  One black bear a very long way off.  And several herds of sheep.  Plus there was one sheep who kept walking just ahead of us on the ridgeline trail.  At one point we were only 50 yards behind her.  We also saw a nice eagle and some grouse.  But I would have to say that the lakes and the leaves were the most beautiful things on this hike.

When I think about how well David is doing and the many healthy changes in his life over the past 18 months, I feel very thankful for a day like yesterday.  Here are some photos we took along the way.

That nasty Redoubt volcano who caused so much trouble last winter.

Here's that sheep who walked just ahead of us. It was a ewe that only had one horn.

After climbing about 3,000 feet to the first summit at an elevation of 3,400 feet, we followed the trail along an alpine ridge with many severe ups and downs.

Here's David at the highest elevation of the hike (3524 feet). The views along the alpine ridge were great.

See? 3524 feet. It says so right on my gps.

This is Lower Fuller Lake which we hiked along on the way out after making the traverse. Mountain lakes are really something special.

Here’s something about Homer that is gradually becoming more known.  Various towns where I live have done something similar to this but this is kind of unique.  I have not yet attended one of these.  It sounds like a pretty neat event.  http://www.adn.com/life/arts/story/932737.html.

How will we observe such a day?

The events of September 11, 2001 represent a mixture of several of the most heinous, well-organized crimes in recorded history as well as also some of the most miraculous acts of heroism many of us have ever witnessed. These years later emotions are also a mixture of fear and anger, gratitude and uncertainty, hope and despair, love and hate.

Looking to the Bible, what are the highest words from scripture for the Christian at such a time? Here are some of the things Jesus is quoted as saying, which may provide us with more challenge than comfort, but perhaps are also our best hope for true healing.

From Matthew 5
43 ”You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven;

From Matthew 6
9 ”Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. F47 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And do not bring us to the time of trial, F48 but rescue us from the evil one. F49 14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; 15 but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

From John 8
7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”

From Luke 6
27 ”But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. 32 ”If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.  Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. 37 ”Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven;

From Luke 23
33 When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus F189 there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34 [Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing."]

Among the most challenging things about the Christian faith is that it really is meant to bring radical change to the world. And the movement of Jesus is not dependent on the goodness of those we are called to love. Including even those who commit the most heinous of crimes. If we don’t agree, we should at least admit to ourselves what it is Jesus calls us to, and that in the case of something like the 9/11 attacks, we choose something else.

One of the great things about being a pastor is the stories I hear when I spend time with people.  Sometimes I’m surprised by what comes up.  The other day a couple from this church told me about their experience during the 1964 earthquake that ravaged Alaska.  It is still the largest earthquake in U.S. recorded history.  And one of the largest ever in the whole world.  What made this story so memorable were the little details that are so often left out of historical records.  Things like this may rarely become known expect through eye witness accounts.  The quake struck at early evening on a Friday (the Friday before Palm Sunday that year).  The folks I was visiting had several milk cows and some beef cattle.  The milk cows were in the milk house when the quake struck.  The earth shook for about 5 minutes.  Eventually the cows ran out of the milk house and the farmer said it took them over a month to coax the cows back into the milk house after the experience.  He also told me that he had a large order of hay to be delivered from the Alaska Matanuska Valley.  But after the big quake most of the bridges were out for weeks or longer.  Remember there is only one main road from the Matanuska Valley region all the way to Homer (a distance of a few hundred miles).  It was late winter and feed supplies were critically low.  Finally most of his beef herd had to be shot due to lack of food.  They couldn’t fly the hay into Homer because obviously there were higher delivery priorities than hay deliveries.  I also heard about how out on a “Homestead” with only a radio as contact with the outside world it was a day or so before some folks even knew for sure what happened when the earthquake struck.  After more than a day, the family I visited with finally found a Seattle, Washington radio station they could receive which reported that there had been a major earthquake that “detroyed Alaska”.  All the local stations were out of action for some time.

The Great Alaska Earthquake of 1964 is a matter of much historical record.  But these and other stories I have been privileged to hear, really fill in some of the real-life, human details of the event.  I cherish the experiences I’ve shared with people from many walks of life over the years, and who have trusted me with some of their stories.

I notice (as have, I suspect, many of you) that I write less in the summer than I do in the winter.  This has been a beautiful summer with lots of sunshine and comfortable weather.  Its hard to feel motivated to write in a blog when trying to use as much energy as possible to do fun things out of doors.  Plus I am using Facebook to stay in touch with the Alaska conference United Methodist Clergy.  It is really helping me to feel like I am getting to know my new colleagues.  No small feat when you consider that thousands of miles separate our local parishes from one another!  This is not your daddy’s annual conference, okay?

Karen and I enjoyed a great get-away in celebration of 30 wonderful years of marriage… or more honestly, we celebrated being married for 30 years with almost all of it a wonderful experience!  Which in my opinion isn’t half bad either.  Some of you might remember that last winter we bought a 30th anniversary gift for each other in the form of an 18 foot skiff to use in the beautiful Kachemak bay.  We’ve been fishing and sight-seeing with our little boat and are gradually learning more about boating in this potentially dangerous bay.  The tides in this bay (see the section on boating safety) are particularly severe, and therefore pretty challenging in a small boat.  To celebrate our anniversary, we boated over to Kachemak Bay State Park and camped at Eldrige Passage.  The weather was fantastic and the sunset was perfect.  Really a nice time.  Check out the whole story on Karen’s blog.  It was pretty cool that we climbed up to Sadie Knob.

Ministry continues to go well with really neat special opportunities and experiences.  Last week a Ph.d. Astrophysicist did an astronomy lecture that has rekindled my interest in astro observing and photography.  More on that later.  It was presented by a “son of the church” who was home to visit his parents.  I couldn’t resist having us sing as one of our hymns at church last Sunday: “Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies”.  I might have been only one of a few who knew it, but I for one liked singing it in that context.

This Sunday our new Conference Director of Connectional Ministries will be with us and spend some time in conversation with the church.  This will be part of our visioning and planning process- something I believe is greatly needed here as we transition from finishing a huge building project to focusing on people ministry more and more.  Not that such a focus has been lacking, but I think it is time to go deeper into that.

I love living in Homer.  And I feel a real assurance that this is an important ministry and one to which I am authentically called.  This is not a perfect church or a perfect community.  But I think this is a very meaningful place to serve and a place where I feel much fulfillment in ministry.  I’ll conclude this post for now and add a photo below of me on Sadie Knob during yesterday’s hike.  It was really glorious.  “Glorious” is a word I find myself using a lot around here when I look off in the distance and appreciate what I am seeing.  How can anyone help but to thank God for such gifts!

Karen took this of me as I made my way to the summit. I'm the little white, tiny, figure in the center.

Alaska (the word literally means something like “great land”) is a land that is great at changing.  A couple weeks ago, over night, there was a significant geological event just up the road from us.  Now when I say “just up the road” realize that there really is only one “road” into and out of the town of Homer.  Okay, here is a link to a Homer News article that describes what the experts believe happened.  After being here only for one year so far, with two volcanic ash fallouts, several shakes from earthquakes, and a brush fire that necessitated the emergency evacuation of several families, hopefully we won’t be adding a massive landslide, tsunami, or other such phenomenon to the list.

In a world that is in fact always changing, what does it mean to hope in our God whose love never changes, but whose love does not keep change from happening in the world?  And what does it mean to hope for God to keep changing me?

Our latest hike was on the Crossman Ridge trail… or at least somewhere near it.  We missed the trailhead and wandered around for a couple of hours on  some of the roads and 4 wheeler trails in the general area of the trail we intended to walk on.  Once we were pretty good and wet from the tall grasses that were heavy with morning dew, we bagged it with the intention of returning in the future, and went home.

But we didn’t leave before a run-in with an enraged Tympanuchus phasianellus, commonly known as the sharp tailed grouse.  It was protecting a little one from its nest and was so stirrred up by our close-by approach that it flew first at Karen… and then… at me!  With the fury of a Boeing 747 at take-off.  If Karen were not about to faint from the shock, she might have snapped a photo of the crazed bird flapping its wings around me wildly.  Naturally I kept my cool and tried to befriend the critter.  After it counted coup on me several times, it landed a little ahead along the trail and walked a few steps, then looked back at us to make sure we were continuing on, away from its little one.  That is apparently a defense to preserve their young.  When it finally got tired of this behavior it flew back to where its baby was still peeping to keep in touch.  Really weird.

I wasn’t scared at all, but I pretended to be so that Karen didn’t feel too embarrassed.  But I will say this:  a man could get impaled by one of those sharp tails this critter is named after.  Yikes!

So far we have only been attacked by a man-eating grouse.  No bear attacks worth mentioning to this point.

I met with the Alaska U.S. Coast Guard Chaplain yesterday.  He was in Homer for the transfer of Command on The Hickory.  The other Coast Guard vessel stationed at Homer Harbor is the Roanoke Island.  I am going to be the new Volunteer Chaplain to the Coast Guard Unit located at Homer.  I’m really excited about this for several reasons.  I began thinking about why I feel good about trying to serve in this way.  Here’s what I came up with- support to service people who are far from home; new connections to a part of the Homer community that can be isolated to themselves; new opportunities to share faith with people; possibly this role would be a bridge to Coast Gaurd service people who have a United Methodist background to connect to a church family during their service here; possibilities for service from my church to the Coast Gaurd unit; etc.  My father and youngest brother were submariners in the Navy and my other brother is still a Marine Reserve officer.  I think those parts of my family relations have been a factor in my own long time considering how I could connect my ministry as a United Methodist clergy with families who are living in and living with military service.  I hope I can help.

In other news…  Summer this year has been as bright and pleasant as last summer’s weather was gray and chilly.  Karen and I went on a great hike last week to a new trail (new for us) called Alpine Meadow Trail.  Great flowers with the beautiful Kenai mountains in the background.  Check this out:

2 colors of lupine flowers and some other flowers...

On Sunday early evening we walked on the Homestead Trail again.  We sat on the Reuben Call memorial bench for a while and just kind of soaked in the beauty.  This is the 3rd or 4th time we have walked around on the Homestead and adjoining trails in that beautiful area.  Really wonderful.

No new fish reports!  I’ll try some more later.