Family Father's Day

 For lunch on Father's Day, Mom and Dad, Karen, Jeremiah and Kate with baby Jeremiah, Joanne and I went to Sundae Grill for lunch. They had a special that all fathers could eat for free. I have never seen any other restaraunt do that before. I had thought that, with free food, the line would be out the door, but we only had a 30 minute wait for seats. Even with that short of a wait, the owner kept apologizing for the delay. The food and service were great, but what really got me was how the owner told us how much he appreciated our coming to his restaraunt. He was blessing fathers and he appreciated us. Oh, we'll be back.

Another thing special about Sundae Grill, if you come to eat on a Sunday or Wednesday, and if you bring a copy of your church bulletin, they will send a check to your church equal to 10% of what you paid for your meal. Now think about that for a minute, a restaraunt is tithing what you paid back to your church. I love this place.

Jeremiah Luther Johnson, with his father Jeremiah Levi Johnson, with his father Charlie Johnson Jr., with his father Charlie Johnson Sr. A Very Happy Father Day, indeed.

Father's Day at Shiloh UMC 2012

Well, it was Father's Day at Shiloh UMC and we had gifts for select fathers. Joe Irvine won for being the oldest father at church, he's a very healthy 92 years old.

I swear I didn't plan it this way, but I ended up being the youngest grandfather. I've been a grandfather for almost 15 years. Think of all the prizes I've missed.

Jeremiah Johnson, our son, won for being the youngest father. I know I look younger, but I don't want to hurt his feelings.

As Joanne and I have become accustomed to do, we give gifts to all the men at church. We recognize them as "Men of Faith". We realize that whether you have natural children or not, at some point you have been a father figure or spiritual father to someone; providing guidance, mentoring, or simply keeping someone out of harms way.

Each gift was a pack of goldfish crackers with a note thanking them for being Fishers of Men.

During the service I used our new grandson, Jeremiah Luther Johnson, to demonstrate differences in how men and women carry babies.

It was a good day.

41st Anniversary Weekend in Williamsburg Virginia 2012

Our 41st anniversary was June the 11th, which was also a Monday. So we decided to wait until the weekend to celebrate. On Friday after Joanne got off work we left for Williamsbug VA. We had dinner reservations at the Kings Arms Tavern in Colonial Williamsburg.

Part of the entertaiment during dinner was a lady playing a celtic harp.

Joanne had "chicken breast pan-fried and served with apple-cornbread stuffing, scuppernong-raisin sauce, herb-mashed potatoes, and fresh vegetables".

I had "maple and whiskey-brined pork chop with grain-mustard glaze, herb-roasted mashed potatoes, and red cabbage braised with applewood bacon".

Joanne had a pecan pie included with her dinner, which she gave to me. She had decided that she wanted the "Thomas Jefferson's brandy spiked bread pudding with a warm vanilla bean sauce". Good food, good music, and better company.

Saturday morning we started our day with breakfast at the Old Chickahominy House restaraunt. It is our favorite place for breakfast in Williamsburg.

 After breakfast we went to the Williamsburg Pottery Factory. If they hadn't had the sign out front, I would never have recognized the place. They have totally redone the Pottery. New buildings, its clean, its air conditioned, and the variety of selections is great. One of the managers told us that they have over 15,000 food items in stock. It was like Salsa Heaven. The next time we go to Williamsburg for an extended stay, we're doing our grocery shopping there.

 We then made an obligatory stop at the Yankee Candle Outlet. Joanne said we were just going to look around, but I kept loosing her. This place is an aromatice den of temptation.

 Finally, we made it back over to Colonial Williamsburg. We didn't buy any tickets, so we just walked around, checking out the scenery and gardens.

 It was a beautiful day, with the temperatures in the low 80's and the humidity low. It was a perfect day to wander, hold hands, sip some cold apple cider, and just not be in a rush.

We headed home around 4:00 in the evening. We weren't there long, just long enough. It was nice simply to get away to ourselves.

New Appointment

I am currently serving as Interim Pastor at Shiloh UMC, through the end of June.

 http://mountairyjournal.blogspot.com/2012/05/first-sunday-at-shiloh-umc.html

The first of July is when all new appointments take place for United Methodist pastors. That will be when I start my new appointment as pastor for Shiloh UMC. It seems that once again, my time of service to Timberlake UMC is limited to one year. While we leave Timberlake UMC and Timberlake UMC East with a degree of sadnees, we move to our next new adventure with expectation of what is in store.

Memorial Day Sunday 2012 at Shiloh UMC

 On Memorial Day Sunday, the congregation of Shiloh UMC concluded their morning service by going into the cemetery to place American flags on the graves of the veterans buried there.

 We found 26 veterans buried in the Shiloh UMC cemetery. There are veterans spanning from the Civil War through the Korean War. We have confirmed two veterans that fought for the Confederacy.

 One member of Shiloh commented that he had attended church there for 60 years and this was the first time that they had recognized the veterans in this way.

 We don't have complete records; branch of service, rank, conflict, dates, etc; on all the veterans. There are probably other veterans that we haven't realized as of yet. But this was our start.

 Our plan is to do this every May for Memorial Day and again every November for Veterans Day. That way the flags will be replaced every 6 months. The old flags will taken to the local Veterans of Foreign Wars or American Legion for proper disposal.

 We concluded our morning service gathered in the shade of the big oak tree in the cemtery. We talked about the importance of what we had just done and how we need to teach this to future generations, so that they will remember.

I know that there are some that feel that we should not combine the spiritual and the secular. That the church is not the place to recognize National days like Memorial Day. For me, this is a Holy day and it is our intention to continue to remember those who stood in the gap made the sacrifice that we might gather and worship in freedom.

Pentecost Sunday at Shiloh UMC

 Have you ever wondered what the flames or tongues of fire looked like on the disciples heads that first Pentecost? Well, I have. I mean, there are puppy tongues, human tongues, cow tongues, and so on. I placed a battery operated tea light on my head to show what most people think it was like. A small, cute, cozy little flame, nothing too extreme. Then I asked Codey Toms to join me.

I had asked Codey if he would dye his mohawk like a flame and he agreed. He went to a lot of trouble to do this for me. It took him at least two attempts to make it work. He ran late getting to church and into the choir because of proplems with it Sunday morning, but he got it perfect. That is how I imagine the tongues of fire on that first Pentecost appeared to those disciples in that upper room. 

 The question to the congregation was "What does your flame look like? Is it comfortable and unassuming or is it extreme and in your face? Do people look at you because of the flame of Holy Spirit passion that you demonstrate in your life?"

Mother's Day at Shiloh UMC 2012

This was out first Mother's Day at Shiloh UMC.

We actually had enough young people for a improvised Children's Message, even if one of them was over 6 ft tall. I first asked them about special things that their mothers did for them. Most of those answers revolved around illness. Then I asked what they were going to do special for their mothers. These responses were a bit more varied, "I'm going to give her a card I made", "I'll smile at her", and my fav, "I'm going to leave her alone all day".

We had plants for the "Youngest Mother", "Youngest Grandmother", and "Newest Mother". Kate's mother, Kackie Allen, won the "Youngest Grandmother" and Kate won "Newest Mother". Kate's sister, Jane, almost won "Youngest Mother", got beat out by a year.

We then recognized all the ladies attending as "Godly Women" and had a special gift for them. We realized all time ago that everyone serves a mothering role to someone, at some time and so often it doesn't get recognized. They teach, mentor, comfort, and so many other acts of mothering, its a shame to leave anyone out.

I did ask them not to eat the Hershey bars during service.

Kackie, Leah, Eli, Jeremiah Luther, Kate, Jeremiah, Jane, and Thomas

Joanne and me with Eli, Jeremiah Luther, Leah, Kate and Jeremiah.

Joanne holding Jeremiah, Kate holding Leah, Kackie and Eli.

Jeremiah