Advent Advent
Ein Lichtlein brennt
Erst ein, dann zwei, dann drei, dann vier
Dann steht das Christkind vor der Tür.

Directly translated this means:

Advent Advent
A little light burns
First one, then two, then three, then four,
Then stands the Christ Child at the door.
In Germany, the Christ Child brings the presents on Christmas Eve. Their version of Santa Claus is actually St. Nicholas whose day is celebrated December 6. He also leaves gifts for children but in their shoes, not under a tree. Fruit, candy, toys, and goodies if kids have been good, and switches if they have been bad. (Or both if they have been good and bad.)

I remember Advent wreaths everywhere in Germany, not just churches, but also in public places. Everyone had advent calendars, each day containing chocolate and/or pictures, and these provided a daily reminder of this special time of year.

Most towns in Germany have Christmas markets during Advent: “Weihnachtsmarkt” in some parts of Germany and “Christkindlmarkt” in Catholic parts of Germany (literally “Christ Child Market”). It was always freezing and sometimes snowing, but everyone, people of all ages would manage to find their way to these markets to enjoy shopping, food, and “Glühwein”, a hot sweet spiced red wine. This feeling of community and festivity during the Christmas season is one of my fondest memories of Germany

Her birthday in September was coming up and we were told an old friend and we were told an old friend would be in Tucson for business that week and be sure to stay in town. The doorbell rang early in the afternoon on her birthday and a good friend of her daughter Farrah said: “Come see what I have for you in the car.” There was Gavin, all smiles, and parent Ivan and Farrah in for a week as a special gift for Terry’s birthday. (The “old friend” never showed, of course — it was ruse to keep us home).

What a week it was! Gavin took many steps to grandma. Family pictures were made, shopping so grandma could outfit mom (expecting her second child), and meals made by culinary expert Ivan. It was indeed the most precious of gifts Terry could have received — and filled with precious memories that will last forever.

Yes, unexpected prayers are answered — to take us on the rest of life’s bumpy road.

My Grandma made a huge different in my life and continues even though gone from this earth. My Grandfather died before I was born, so she would come and stay with us for months at a time. My teens were rough years and during the time I was a strayed from my mother, my grandma remained in her unconditional love for me.

I know she is the reason I went to work as a nurse in a nursing home for twenty-three years, loving the older and making many older friends in our church and community. She gave me an example of the love that Christ asks us to give in the 1st and 2nd greatest commandments, Love God and Love others. She knew the Lord and practiced this kind of love and I am ever grateful for her example to me. The greatest gift and of us can receive is God’s love through his son and the love of others.

As I think about you and your families I send only love and blessings. May you find the strength and courage to face whatever challenges you are in. Happy New Year! May we all be a little kinder and more generous in the holiday
season and in the New Year.

Daddy was a widower, left with 2 little children ages two and five. A cement finisher by trade, he was a rough, burly man who after a hard days work on his knee, trawling concrete, picked us up from a sitter, bather, fed and clothed us. He curled my straight stringy hair with a curling iron heated on the gas stove every morning so I’d be “pretty”. In those first months after mom died, we would go to bed with him one each cuddled along side of him. He would listen to the news on the radio with a string tied to the bedpost and the radio plug that he could pull with his toes to turn the radio off so he wouldn’t disturb us after we went to sleep.

He was a good dad, a caring gift from God, who loved us and taught us that gifts were not important. What is important is love and caring for one another. He was the best gift ever.

Gifts take many forms.  Some come in brightly wrapped boxes, while others are intangible and touch our hearts for a lifetime.  This year our Advent devotionals feature writers from our congregation who will offer stories of gifts.

Some devotionals will be long, some might be short. So may be quotes, some songs, some poems, and others stories. You will see the date of each day in Advent followed by the daily devotional. I hope that you will spend time each day reading and reflecting on these devotionals.

We often speak of Christ as the gift of Christmas.  The gift of the incarnation, God with us, shapes our understanding of how God loves us and how we are to live our faith in God.  I hope that you will spend time thinking about gifts so that we may open ourselves up and listen to the voice of God and experience the power of gift in our lives.

Peace,
Heather

If you would like to gets these online, please subscribe to our blog and you will be emailed the devotional daily.

This summer several of us went to the General Assembly for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). I have to say that I am always amazed and moved by the amount of people that are at this event. For the first night of worship, it was great to see that there were actually not enough chairs. When do you ever get the chance to see more than 6,000 Disciples in one place?

I can remember my first Assembly in the summer of 1997. We were in Denver, and as a Senior in high school I was awestruck at what was before me. I think it is similar to the feeling people, young or old get, when they too attend their first Assembly. First you meet wonderful Disciples from all over the nation. You have the opportunity in the business sessions to speak your mind, to speak on behalf of your congregation, to speak up for the Disciples of Christ.

You are also gifted the opportunity to see many amazing things that are going on in the denomination. Like this year there was Blue Jesus and the Greenworks booths. There are so many innovative things to bring back to your church. There is also the opportunity to hear from speakers and attend workshops and hear amazing preaching that might just change your life.

As Disciples of Christ, we are all charged with being the one body of Christ. The priesthood of all believers makes each of us leaders called into a specific ministry. What better place to connect than at Assembly? In two years, we will be meeting for another Assembly. This time, we will gather in Nashville, TN. It is time to mark your calendars. It is time to start putting your pennies in the penny jar. It is time to start planning. It is time to talk church. It is time for us to talk about, “being a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world.” Won’t you join me?

How great is it to be with more than 160 people at camp this year. About 30 staff members and 130 campers have gathered here in Pine Summit, Arizona to be part of this God filled week! This year it is particularly neat to be here this year because there are so many new faces. There are new staff members some of whom have never even been to camp before. There are lots of new campers who are bringing new things to our experience and challenging us to be better servants of Christ.

I hope that even if you have never been to camp before or even if you have been to camp all your life, I hope that you will find a way to be part of this experience. Do you have a week to give to be with our youth at camp? Can you help support the camp programs with money? Can you pray for the campers and staff who are spending a week away from home or their jobs here? Can you help build up the one Body of Christ through this generation of youthful people?

Think about it!

JR and I sat there watching the movie arguing about how it ended. The truth is, neither of us could remember. Gattaca is just not one of those memorable movies. But as we sat there watching this movie, Vincent the lead character said something that truly resonated with me: “You want to know how I did it? This is how I did it, Anton: I never saved anything for the swim back.”

I never saved anything for the swim back! What an amazing statement. Could you imagine if we all leaped into our faith with the same gusto that Vincent did. This idea of not saving anything for the swim back means that we are confident in our decisions. It means that we can step out in faith, and it means that we can trust in the Lord and in ourselves.

Vincent didn’t worry about making a wrong step or having to turn around and go back. Vincent lived confidently in the direction that he was going. When I heard Vincent say this I started to wonder. What would it look like if we had the faith to live in the work and ministry that God was calling us to, and to do this without hesitation or fear. What would this world look like if each and everyone of us embrace the call from God with no fear, no hesitation? Could we change the world?

You know I spent five days this past week wondering where that name came from. For Saguaro Christian Church VBS was really far from a vacation. We had over 54 participants and more than 30 volunteers who made this week possible. In addition to all that we had adult participants and parents who went through the week with their kids. What an amazing time it was.

And it truly is great to see all these people come together to make this program what it is. Our participants studied the early church and had such a great time learning about early Christians and the early church. Everyone really got into character and made this week so amazing.

And while the name of the week is Vacation Bible School everyone, including the participants, worked hard. I know that everyone had more fun than we could have imagined, and so I want to thank all of you. All who volunteered! All who participated! Everyone who made VBS come to life this year! I can’t wait to see where we will go next year!

“Yes,” I reply.

“Where do you work?”

“Oh, I work at Saguaro Christian Church. Just down the road.”

“Really!? What do you do there?”

“I am one of the ministers”

“Really? Hmmmmm. It’s Monday though. Is this, like, I a fulltime thing? I didn’t realize that ministers worked on days other than Sunday.”

The conversation always varies after this point. Sometimes they want to know about being a female minister, sometimes they tell me I don’t look like a minister (please someone let me know what a minister “looks like”), sometimes they just want to know what it is us minister people do; but it never fails that each and every time my coffee shop hires someone new, I have this conversation.

I got to thinking though. I have this conversation often enough and in a variety of places that I think people really don’t know what an average day or week might look like for a minister. So what is it that us minister folk do when we aren’t all dressed up in robes on a Sunday morning?

Let’s see…I usually get to the office between 7:30 and 8:00 which is just in time to have to struggle to find a parking spot between all the Jazzercise cars in the parking lot. I try really hard to make it into the locked office without spilling my coffee which works about 75% of the time! The very first thing I do every single morning is plop down in my chair and listen to my messages. I never have very many, in fact most mornings I don’t have any at all.

On Monday morning I spend the hour after that writing notes to people in the congregation. Throughout the pervious week I try to get to know people I don’t know as well or see the places where people are using their spiritual gifts. This has become a great spiritual discipline for me. A Tuesday morning is filled with meetings until noon, and Wednesday afternoons are filled with meetings until 4:00pm. I try to take a day off here or there, and in a good week I can take either a Thursday or Friday off. Saturdays vary with lots of meetings or work days or whatever special event is going on in the church.

So this leaves a couple afternoons for hospital visitation and other congregational visits. Oh, and the evening meetings, usually only 2-3 nights a week! I think any preacher will tell you that it takes about 15- 20 hours to prepare a sermon for the week. I try to squeeze at least 8 hours of prayer and other spiritual disciplines in during the week, and also drop in about 4 hours of reading for continuing education. Sometimes you can find me doing those things in the office and sometimes you will find me at the park outside or at San Xavier Mission doing those things.

So much happens in the office, but so much happens outside the office like visitations, errands for the trash bags or office supplies that didn’t get ordered. All the pastor meetings and youth meetings and women’s ministry meetings that happen in Casa Grande keep us clergy people out of the office. In the event that no one dies, calls with a crisis, or comes in off the street looking for something, this may be an ideal week or day in a clergy person’s life. Barring that nothing crazy goes on or takes us away from the things we try to do regularly and not to mention all those usual office tasks that have to get done each and every week, we might be able to do all these things! We just don’t have enough room on the page to get into everything. All the while trying to balance a family and not neglecting them or trying to start a family or trying really hard to work only 60 hours a week not 80 hours.

And so all this brings us to Sunday. The day in which we get to connect to the most people. The day that leads us to that inevitable question, “Ministers work more than just Sunday morning?”