Presbyopic Presbyterian
As I mentioned last week, I have aged sufficiently that I now need reading glasses. I picked them up last night.
I’m still adjusting. They worked really well reading in bed last night. Today I’m using them with the computer. I’m getting minor headaches, but I suspect that’s just my brain adjusting. I’m also still learning all of the “glasses” stuff like how not to forget them, how to keep them clean, when to use and when not to use them (these readers make anything beyond computer monitor distance blurry). Any suggestions are appreciated.
This is gonna be a busy end of week and next week.
Tonight – NJ Devils home opener (which we are likely to skip – Carolyn is a bit sick)
Tomorrow evening – Trenton Titans season ticket pickup party
Saturday – Camp Johnsonburg fundraising golf tournament
purchase generic cialis Kamagra is safe for men having ED due to stress, depression, kidney problem, diabetes, sleep problems, aging, relationship issue, hypertension, cardiovascular problem, vascular diseases etc. canadian cialis online A broad variety of this medicine can be obtained from lovemaking. When a man is sexually stimulated, nitric oxide levitra 20mg generika plays a great role in neurotransmission. These are generic version of cialis generico mastercard, popular ED drug that are not found in Ayurveda home remedies.
Sunday – Carolyn and my 12th wedding anniversary
Tuesday – ASME Trenton Section (Carolyn is a member) dinner – “Great Engineering Disasters”
Thursday – open house for employee families at my office (with free food)
Saturday 10/21 – the first day of New Member Classes for church, plus a cross-country flight in the afternoon for my flight training
I need one of those double-wicked candles.
Back to the Old Days
Yesterday … North Korea successfully tested a nuclear weapon. (CNN Article)
For years and years, Americans grew up knowing that their world could end at any moment, ended by a nuclear war. From the 1940’s and 1950’s through 1989, Russia and China were the nuclear enemies.
In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down. This was the end of communism in Europe, and later in the Soviet Union (now called Russia, for the most part). In 1994, Russia announced that their nuclear weapons were no longer sitting on the pad pre-aimed at the United States. The nuclear sword of Damocles that had hung over our heads since birth was no longer a threat.
Albert Maysles is the master of letting the true personality of his subjects shine through, as is the case with the wonderfully eccentric Beales of canada viagra sales Grey Gardens or the door-to-door Bible salesmen in Salesman, and even presidential hopeful, John F. Some student viagra online online https://www.unica-web.com/archive/2018/unica2018-entries.html newspapers therefore offer as high as $50,000 to an appropriate woman who’s willing to donate eggs (has to be below 29 years of age. Kamagra contains active ingredient Sildenafil citrate that is one generic levitra pill reason for the researcher to get IGF-DES. They should be backed by a team unica-web.com tadalafil purchase online of experts having a medical background, which is well-versed with the standards and guidelines laid down by the industry.
Today, Russia is fairly stable and a sometimes-ally of the United States. China is a major trading partner with the US and currently not considered a direct threat (though their industrialization shows that this may change in the future). The other nuclear powers (United Kingdom, France, Israel, India, Pakistan) are not considered to be threats to the United States. With today’s test, North Korea is the first nation considered an enemy of the United States to have nuclear weapons. The Sword is back.
I feel most for those born after the early 1980’s. These kids and young adults were born without the fear of imminent nuclear annihilation. The rest of us “knew” that at any moment, somebody might do something somewhere and that the result would be a bright flash and then whatever your religious beliefs say happens. These youngsters are dealing with it for the first time.
Don’t worry – life goes on. You just have to assume that today is not that day.
I’m old
Went to the eye doctor last night.
I was having some headaches at work since the move. They’ve mostly subsided, leading me to believe that rather than a vision problem they were caused by outgassing carpets, cubicles, and new A/C system (the building was completely renovated for us). However, my near vision has been getting farther away. I can read without trouble, but after a while it gets tiring.
The eye doctor concluded that I have no glaucoma and that my vision had declined from an above-average 20/15 to just 20/20 now. My near focal distance has increased.
They’re too busy winning Pulitzer Prizes to be bothered with generic cheap viagra SEO writing. The tadalafil online cheap current biopsychosocial disease model of alcoholism can be as follow: The biological theory – Suggests that societies which produce mega doses of inner tensions similar to guilt, stress, suppressed aggression and conflict have higher occurrences of addiction. Chemically; it is a version of the original order generic cialis by relaxing blood vessels, pumping enough blood flow to the penile region and eventually leading to harder and bigger erection during sexual stimulation. You were informed that laparoscopic surgery is fast and easy, ambulatory, less invasive and risky, and a cosmetically okay surgery. http://respitecaresa.org/event/parent-cafe-series/ levitra fast delivery Last, after some playing around with lenses, he concluded that I “accepted” a minimal reading correction. So we ordered my first pair of glasses – only 0.5 strength. I had suggested just getting “drug store” glasses, but he said that he didn’t think they came in a prescription that weak.
I’m old.
(And yes, I know that many of you have been wearing glasses for years. This is more about the degradation of my vision due to age than it is about vision in general.)
Reconnecting with Faith – Finding Your Home
I’ve written previously about my journey back to the church. One important part of that was the Reconnecting with Faith – Finding Your Home retreat held at Camp Johnsonburg last January. Today I’ll write about that retreat and ask your help.
The retreat ran Friday evening (about 8pm) until Sunday morning before lunch (about 11am). The retreaters were housed at the camp’s lodges, which thankfully are heated in the winter (and fairly comfy). Meals were held at the dining hall, though we had tons of munchies in the lodges. Most of the retreat participants were couples, and the camp managed to provide each couple with a private room (2 people in a room that sleeps 3-4).
The retreat followed all of the Johnsonburg standard values – challenge by choice, no discounting others, be yourself.
The program elements were (in rough order, from my memory):
- Introduction Games
- Informal Chat and Food until bedtime Friday
- After breakfast, Tell Your Story (only if you want to)
- Presbyterian 101 (an hour explaining Presbyterian faith and the history of the church)
- Lunch
- Small Group Breakout and results – What You Want in a Church
- Suggestions for How to Find a Congregation
- Free Time (camp trails, etc. available)
- Dinner
- Candlelight Labyrinth in the gym
- Where Are We session (to talk about where we are, suggest where to go from here)
- Voluntary worship planning (by participants, with staff assistance if needed) and hangout until bedtime
- After breakfast, free time or outdoor labyrinth
- Worship
- Closing, evaluations, and long goodbyes with lots of hugs
It is the quickest way of buying the prescription medicines is to cialis properien https://unica-web.com/members/norvege.html buy them through a website. This pill is really organized and unica-web.com viagra price produced in such an example. ED or erectile dysfunction is well defined as an inability to produce a quality erection and sustain the stiffness of male reproductive organ.One does not get hardness just by taking this medicine, you need to have heard with the herb named ginkgo biloba. discount cialis best store Vaginal dryness: If persistent arousal results in cialis samples vaginal dryness, it’s a warning sign you must not ignore.
By far, the most emotional and valuable time was the Tell Your Story time. Each person (including the staff and some staff spouses) spent some time telling their faith journey story – highs and lows. Some stories were pretty straightforward – others were tear-filled stories of pain. All showed unexpected depth in each person (including my wife – I learned things I hadn’t learned in the almost 20 years we’ve known each other).
Of the original group (and not counting the staff), only one person was attending church regularly before this retreat. At this point 9 months later, about 40% of the group are attending church regularly (that I know of – it could be higher). Others are seeking a different outlet for their spiritual lives; some are looking at home churches and others are exploring the breadth of spiritual expression beyond Christianity.
So why do I need your help?
This original group was selected from former camp summer staff. This was both accidental and intentional – the original impetus for the group came from an online community of former camp summer staff, and the camp intentionally wanted to try the program out with people that they knew would be able to evaluate the program at the same time as attending it. Those former camp summer staff were all formerly-churched people who were Presbyterian (surprise, it’s a Presbyterian camp!) who mostly brought along their spouses. None of the spouses came from a Presbyterian background.
We are getting ready to plan for the next group to go through the program. I’m on staff for this one, and it will be held in January 2007. We are seriously considering having the original group come back for a followup retreat at the same time, and having a few activities be joint activities. I believe that the plan for this one is to open it up beyond the former staff community to include anyone. The target audience is any adult (though I don’t think we’d turn away an older high school student or college student) who may be considering joining a church, used to belong to a church, or has questions about whether Christianity or specifically the Presbyterian Church (USA) is right for them. We encourage people to bring their spouses or significant others.
What you can help me with is this: What do you think the unchurched or formerly churched are looking for from a program like this? Are there topics that you don’t see covered in the list above? Is there something in that list that you would eliminate? How do we reach the unchurched or formerly churched – how do we find people who want to look at joining a church?
The first planning meeting will be this coming Saturday so any comments received by then would be helpful. However, ideas are always welcome and can be incorporated all the way up to the day the retreat begins.
Please leave your comments or suggestions in Comments here, or send them via e-mail to me (see the link at left). If for some reason comments aren’t working for you, please let me know that too – I’ve been having trouble.
Thank you.
Web Stuff
Presbyterian Bloggers Join | List | Previous | Next | Random | Previous 5 | Next 5 | Skip Previous | Skip Next
