A Fun Day Visit to the Pumpkin Patch

Last Saturday Amy, who works with me at the doctors office, with her son, Hunter, and some friends went to the Pumpkin Patch in Mount Airy owned by A.J. and Lisa Nuckols. It is ten miles east of Gretna on Route 40. If you need directions or GPS coordinates check the previous blog:

http://mountairyjournal.blogspot.com/2009/10/pumpkin-patch-2009.html

This is Lisa Nuckols demonstrating the use of a machine that removes the corn kernels from the cob. Amy's friend, Regina is lifting Hunter up to see the kernels fly.It may be fun for the kids to do and watch, but it must of been backbreaking when you had bushels of corn to do.

This is Hunter and his buddy, Wyatt, playing a game of corn darts. You take an ear of corn with the husk pulled back, take aim, and try to throw it just like a large dart through the vine hoop hanging off the ground. Amy said Hunter got his through the hoop on his first try. Did you notice that nothing is electrical or explodes.

The boys enjoyed the hay castle, made from 87 bales of hay, 3 levels high. All you have to do is find your way to the top and lean back to take in the scenery. This time of year the colors of the leaves are changing and it is quite a view from the top.

Six acres of corn maze, not for the faint of heart or directionally challenged. It's a lot of fun though, you just have to exercise your patience and stamina.

The boys took the hay ride and did a pumpkin hunt. The adults even took part in the late afternoon hunt. Check out Hunter with the straw hanging out of his mouth.

Its been a long day, so Hunter and Wyatt take some time to sit on a pumpkin, catch their breath, and reflect on a day of fun.

After a long day of fun, its nice to sit in front of a warm fire on a cool evening and listen to some live music. A good end to a good day.

The Pumpkin Patch 2009

Well, its Pumpkin Patch time! A.J. and Lisa Nuckols, the owners of White Fall Farm in Mount Airy near Gretna in Pittsylvania County of Virginia http://whitefallfarm.com/ , have again set up a wonderful pumpkin patch. They have literally acres of pumpkins of all sorts and sizes.

They have a variety of farm animals for the kids to see, along with farm equipment that they will be more than happy to tell you about.

Every year I am amazed at all that they do. This year when I drove up I was blown away. They had built a hay bale castle, 3 levels high.

But its also a maze, where you have to find the entrance and stairs to the next level. Fortunately I had A.J. as a guide to tell me which way to turn.

This is a look at level 2. The bales are fitted together and stacked atop one another.

This is the view from the third level, looking back at the entrance. That's the hay bale maze on the right and the picnic tables on the left under the trees.

This is the "King of the Mountain" hay pile. I think they had planned it for the small kids, but it looks like the bigger kids like it, too.

This is the picnic area where you can eat or just rest with a soft drink.

This is looking up the hill towards the castle, with the hay maze on the left. The tractor is for hay rides and takes folks out to the pumpkins to make their choices. Now, I didn't make the walk back to the corn maze, you'll have to see it later. But, it covers several acres all by itself. On Saturdays and Sundays they have pumpkin hunts and then bonfires after the sun goes down.

On Saturdays, Saint Andrews UMC sells hotdogs, chips, and drinks. So if you think you might get hungry, drive on down on a Saturday. Joanne and I will be working the stand on October the 17th, stop by and say hello. The hours are 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Saturdays and 3:00 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Sundays. They also do age appropriate group visits during the week by appointment. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, on Saturdays when the sun goes down and the bonfire blazes, the live music starts at the Pumpkin Patch. So, don't plan on running home when it gets dark, it isn't over until late, stick around. They have several performers scheduled:
Oct 17th - Matt Marstin and Lance Meadows & maybe others!
Oct 24th - Pier 19 (Josh Crew and band)!
Oct 31st - Bridget Rowles, the current "Miss Gretna"!

This my third year of being able to enjoy the pumpkin patch. I honestly look forward to it all year. If you're looking for something fun to do and not only for the little kids, you need to come on down. You take route 29 South or North to Gretna, then take Route 40 East for ten miles. The Pumpkin Patch is then 1/4 mile South on Route 640. If you have a GPS, just plug these directions in; 6001 Riceville Road, Gretna, Virginia 24557. When you get there tell A.J. that you saw it on the blog and that Charlie sent you. Come on down and enjoy the day.

World Communion Sunday

This Sunday, the first Sunday of October, is recognized as World Communion Sunday by the United Methodist Church and other denominations

Now think on this for a minute. Christians all over the world are celebrating the Eucharist. For 24 hours, in every time zone around the globe, churches are joining in Communion. Congregations in different countries, speaking different languages, with different cultures, in different kinds of church structures, worshipping in different styles; all partaking in the Lord's Supper. With all the things that make us different, with all the things that could separate us, this bonds us together. Pretty cool, huh? Oh, yeah!

Republican Grove UMC Homecoming 2009

Yesterday, Sunday the 27th of October, Republican Grove UMC had their annual Homecoming Sunday. It had rained all day on Saturday and it wasn't looking too favorable on Sunday morning. But, by the time we were going to start the service the sun started peaking out and it turned out to be a beautiful day. It was nice, having been here 3 years, to recognize the folks that I only see at Homecoming or for special occasions, because they live too far away or attend a different church.

The other two churches of the Mount Airy Charge, Providence UMC and Saint Andrews UMC, joined Republican Grove in celebrating their Homecoming Sunday. It is something special to see all three of the churches coming together to fellowship and worship.
This year for Homecoming Sunday I was asked to speak. I told them that I was unaccustomed to being in the pulpit at Republican Grove. Usually, everyone sits on the piano side of the church and I use a podium on the floor level. It feels less like preaching and more like having a Bible study. I used the Book of Ruth for my scripture passage (no I didn't read the entire book), family photos I've been scanning (parents and grandparents when they were younger), an excerpt from the movie "Field of Dreams", and lyrics from a song by 70's rock group Blind Faith in the sermon. Somehow, to my surprise and the congregation's, it all came together. Isn't God amazing?
Brian Daniels, from Providence UMC, sang "You Lift Me Up" for us. The members of Republican Grove asked specifically for Brian to sing for their Homecoming after hearing him sing when they had joined Providence UMC for their Homecoming two weeks earlier. Brian has an excellent singing voice and I think that in the future Providence will be having to share Brian's talents more often.

After the service concluded everyone went out front of the church to enjoy the warm sun, while the final preparations were made for lunch. It was well worth the short wait.

As always, the food was abundant and delicious. I would try and give you a run down of all the food that was there, but I'd still probably forget half of it. No one had to leave still hungry. Homecoming meals are an excellent case for fasting the next day or two.Everyone enjoyed the meal and the fellowship. It was a good time for remembering, catching up on each others lives, and renewing friendships.

Looks at all these desserts! It is a diabetic's nightmare or, if you're a sugar junky like me, a really sweet dream. I made sure that the first thing on my plate was Doots Abbott's peach cobbler and there was still room for just a tiny bit of everything else.

It always seems that when I sit down with a full plate of desserts, someone comes around the corner with a camera. It never happens if I have a plate of salad. I tried to slide the plate out of view with my little finger, but I wasn't fast enough.

It was a great day. Thanks to all who worked to make it that way. Food, Family, Friends, and Fellowship; it doesn't get much better. See you all next year!

District Stewardship Workshop

I went to a stewardship workshop yesterday at Court Street UMC, titled "Strengthening Stewardship in Challenging Economic Times". There were maybe about 60 to 75 people there. Some pastors but more financial or treasurer types, at least it seemed that way to me. I guess there a some people that already know this stuff, but its new to me. I've made it a special point of not getting involved with the money side of the churches. My policy had been that if bills, Conference and District apportionments, and ministry needs are all met, why add the finance concerns to my plate.


The speaker was from an organization that helps churches with their annual stewardship campaigns and capital campaigns for major projects. I've learned to listen closely at the beginning of these workshops to find out whether I need to try to get it all down or glean from the information what would be helpful. The speaker started off by saying that they primary work with large churches with annual budgets in the multi-millions of dollars; first sign to glean. But, he added, they also work with smaller churches of 100 to 150 members. Well, it was gleaning time, find the real stuff that my churches might be able to use and disregard the rest.


The workshop covered topics like; Pre-Campaign Planning, Readiness Assessment, Campaign Leaders (This was another part that made me laugh. They had enough leaders that the leaders would up half of 2 of my congregations), Spiritual Emphasis Committee (There goes the other half of the congregation.), Campaign Materials, and the Personal Visit. I will admit that I did get some good information out of the workshop, but I also left a lot behind.


It wasn't a wasted morning though. They had some really delicious BBQ for lunch. I got to sit and talk to Tim Earnhardt, who was the pastor at Fairview UMC when I was the youth pastor there. We sat a talked for over an hour. We were the last ones to leave, they were cleaning off the tables while we were still talking. Tim will be our guest speaker at St. Andrews' Homecoming Sunday in October. All in all, a good morning.

St. Andrews UMC's First Bilingual Service

Back in July after an outdoor service at St. Andrews UMC, some of us were sitting outside the church under the big tree talking about ministry opportunities for our church in rural Pittsylvania County of Virginia. There were numerous things that were brought up and one of them was to have a Sunday service and invite some of the migrant workers from Mexico, who work at the area farms, to church and have a cookout after the service. We finally got it all together now that it is September. We ran into one potential problem, the harvest had come earlier this year and many of the workers in the area had left for home. After 4 months away from family who could blame them for hitting the road to home. Nonetheless, we decided to plan as if they would be there and do the service as we had planned. If nothing else, it would be good practice. This was going to be a new thing for all of us. One thing we all knew was that none of us spoke Spanish. We would need an interpreter for the service. Minnie May, works with me at the doctor's office and knows Spanish. She agreed to help us with the interpretation. Since she had never done this before, we worked together on the sermon. We wrote the entire sermon out in manuscript form and after each English sentence we placed a Spanish sentence. We would go back and forth through the sermon. I would have to keep my impromptu speaking under control. Joanne did an entire bulletin in Spanish, with the Call to Worship, Apostles Creed, Doxology, hymn titles, and other information all in Spanish. She also did inserts for the bulletins with the words to the hymns in English and Spanish.


When I was leaving my first church,Republican Grove UMC, heading to my second Sunday morning service at Providence UMC, I saw that I had a message on the cell phone. It was Bill Wyatt, he was calling to tell me that they had thought there might be only one guest for our first bilingual service, but things had changed. I have to admit that my heart sank just a bit as I waited for him to say that we would have no one joining us. Then he said that there would be FIVE more coming and he hoped that wouldn't be a problem. I was literally shouting praises to God as I drove the back roads to my next church.


While we had a few glitches during the service it came off wonderfully. For some reason the tape player, that I had played tapes on two hours earlier, refused to work for us. Minnie and I had forgotten to talk about translating the prayers, but she did great. Our guests said they could hear, understood and follow the sermon.

We cooked hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill and then moved inside to enjoy a good meal and fellowship. I brought my specialty, chips and salsa. We made sure that our guests went through the serving line first. There was an abundance of everything.

It was a very good day. This is the first time that we have done a bilingual service. I pray it will not be the last. I believe that it was a blessing to our church and hope it was a blessing to our guests. Next year we will have to start earlier, do it more often, and find where God would have us to go from there.

Shiloh UMC Homecoming 2009

Well, I got abandoned this Sunday. Joanne decided to send me off on my own while she attended the Homecoming Sunday at Shiloh UMC, her home church where she grew up and we were married. They must have felt as if the prodigal daughter had come home. Joanne got back on the piano and accompanied her cousin Sharlene, who played the organ. The pastor at Shiloh is Rev. Bob Merkle, who has been a good friend and a lot of help to me when I have questions about Methodism.

Joanne always have family at Shiloh. Above are her cousins Chelsea and Cody on the phone. Below are her cousins Katie and Emily.

This is Joanne with her cousins Laurie, Mary Beth, and Sharlene.

Forget what they say, You can go home, even if its only for a visit, its still going home.

P.S. Joanne brought me home a big plate of food; fried chicken, ham, deviled eggs, ham biscuit, baked apples, potato salad, and some really good baked beans. I guess it pays well to have your wife take an occasional Sunday off.

Lynchburg District Charge Conference 2009

The Lynchburg District Charge Conference was held at Court Street UMC. The Lynchburg District represents 18,442 members in 91 churches with 66 pastors. Three of those churches I have been blessed to pastor. The District Charge Conference is essentially our corporate business meeting along with a nice time of worship. We review the reports from the past year and elect delegates to the United Methodist Annual Conference.

During the message, Larry Davies, the District Superintendent, said: "The Lynchburg District is not meant to be a church. We are meant to support the church. So, what should be the most important overall purpose of the Lynchburg District? We are to offer support and resources to enable our churches to better serve the mission given to us by Jesus Christ."

After the meeting we had representatives from area ministries and agencies who had set up displays to let us know about themselves. There were displays from Marriage Alliance, Multicultural Ministries, the Virginia United Methodist Assembly Center at Blackstone, Organ Donation, Parkview Missions, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and Heart Haven.

Providence UMC Homecoming 2009

Providence UMC had their annual Homecoming last Sunday, September 13th. The three churches of the Mount Airy Charge decided that this year that all three churches would come together for each other's Homecoming Sunday. So, the members from Republican Grove UMC and Saint Andrews UMC came to Providence UMC to fellowship and worship together.

Our guest speaker for Homecoming was Rev. Roger Wilburn. He had been the pastor of the Mount Airy Charge some 10 years ago. It was nice having all three churches there to see him again. Mark Adams was our guest pianist. Joanne accompanied Brian Daniels on one song and played and sang with him on another.

As always the food was abundant and delicious. There was turkey, ham, BBQ, chicken, and roast beef just to name a few of the meats. I can't list everything on the table, but there was no way to try it all. Though a good effort could be made.

There were enough desserts to send a diabetic into shock. But, there were quite a few prepared for those who couldn't have the sugar. I tried several of them (just as a research comparison of course) and I couldn't tell any difference.

Rev. Roger Wilburn

It was a nice time of fellowship, while we enjoyed the meal. It was good to see the folks from the different churches talking and laughing. One gentleman came up to tell me that my idea to have all three churches together was brilliant. He said he and his wife had been talking to someone they didn't know. It turned out that they had gone to the same school. He said it was like a class reunion. I had to explain to him that it wasn't my idea though. The churches had had the idea and they had chosen to do it. But, I did agree with him, it was brilliant.

It was an excellent day. A bright, sunny day, but not too hot. A good word from the pulpit, good music and singing, and a full house. An abundance of food to be shared and enjoyed. Fine fellowship with old and new friends. Why would you want to be anywhere else?