Category: Journal

My journey

Lenten/Easter Series Planned

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date February 15, 2012

This mild winter is passing quickly. A week from today is Ash Wednesday. This coming Sunday begins our 50 day emphasis leading up to Easter. This year, Pastor Eric and I have chosen to focus on the life of our Lord using passages from the Gospel of John. Each week we will show a DVD interpretation with words taken directly from the Good News Bible translation of the American Bible Society, an excellent contemporary translation. It’s hard to believe that it has been 5 years already since the last such series from John. Each time we cover it I find new insights to emphasize.

Jesus’ Life Can Change Our Lives
Date	Title	Scripture	DVD Section	A Suggested Hymn
Feb 19	Called to Follow	John 1:29-50	DVD 1 section 2	Follow On (440)
Feb 26	Challenged to Believe	John 5:15-47;6:1	DVD 1 section 7	All Hail the Power (240)
Mar 4	Comforted by Forgiveness	John 7:53- 8:11	DVD 1 section 11	Amazing Grace (293)
Mar 11	Charged to Know the Truth	John 8:31	DVD 1 section 12	In Christ Alone
Mar 18	Cared for by the Shepherd	John 10:1-21	DVD 1 section 15	Shepherd of Love (448)
Mar 25	Cherished by the Shepherd	John 17	DVD 2 section 8	Jesus, I Am Resting (325)
Apr 1	Confronted in our Selfishness	John 13:1-20	DVD 2 section 3	Hosanna, Loud Hosanna (211)
Apr 6 Good Friday	Cleared, Cleaned and Claimed because of Him		DVD 2 section 9, 10, 11	When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (224)
Apr 8 8 AM	Celebrating Resurrection Power (Lazarus)	John 11:25	DVD 1 section 18	Because He Lives (238)
Apr 8 10 AM	Carrying Good News	John 20:1-18 esp. v. 17,18	DVD 2 section 12	Crown Him with Many Crowns (243)

Tags Easter, Gospel of John, Lent, sermon series

Journal Joy Notes

Puzzle fun again

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date February 11, 2012

This guy reminds me of my dog Plato who was likely half Aussy Shepherd.

Tags dogs, jigsaw puzzles

Journal Joy Notes Who Am I

Our first grandchild, Samuel Glenn Stater, is born

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date February 10, 2012
5 Comments on Our first grandchild, Samuel Glenn Stater, is born

What a wonderful event! We have been visiting our daughter and son-in-law this week in anticipation of this event. Our son-in-law awakened us about 4 am yesterday telling us it was time to head to the big Hartford hospital. We learned that 4000 babies per year are born there. Keely was smiling and dressed, ready to go. The hospital has birthing rooms where the family could stay for as long as the Mom wanted. We stayed through the early stages of labor to encourage but then moved about 9:25 am to the waiting room. I napped (and munched). Samuel entered this world with a hearty wail, we were told, about 11:30 am. Samuel is my middle name and my maternal grandfather’s name. Glenn is Mark’s paternal grandfather’s name. Keely did very well with just coaching and support. Labor was 11 1/2 hours, exactly the same span as for JoAnne when Keely was born. Samuel has big blue eyes and is charming everyone. Soon after he was born, I went to Logan airport in Boston to pick up Mark’s parents who are also overjoyed to be here for this occasion. I’m starting a first gallery for Sam, of course. There was no time yesterday to put things up so I’m working on it this morning.

$celebrating Sam\'s birth$

$He\'s a quiet baby$

$Sam resting on Mom\'s chest$

[Show as slideshow]

Tags family, grandson Sam

Journal Joy Notes

Burmese Bible School Class Completed

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date January 30, 2012

What a joy once again to participate as a teacher at Burmese Bible School in Syracuse. I was the professor for the class, Church Leadership and Management.
For the last three weekends, the class met from roughly from 5 PM to 9 PM on Friday evening and again on Saturday from 9 AM to 4 PM with an hour for lunch. It’s a lot of concentrated class time, even with breaks for Burmese tea (I tried three kinds, one of which I liked quite well). I also taught the class two years ago, but it was a four Saturday format at that time, so I needed to reorganize my material. I also supplemented it where needed and from books I have read in the interim. Everything is translated so that the school can serve the immigrant community whose English is not yet good enough to handle classes in English alone. Pastor Than from Lyncourt translated most of the time, with Dr. Khai, head of the school, translating one Saturday. I notice in the three years I have been involved that the English level of the students is constantly improving. It keeps me extremely busy. I will only attempt it in January when the church schedule is not quite as heavy as in some months.

Tags Burmese Bible School, leadership, teaching

Journal

Fighting spam

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date January 20, 2012

Fighting spam is part of blogging today, I guess, unless one does away with comments. Askimet at least relegates most to the spam file. But why do I have to see it at all? Why do I have to take time nearly every day to delete spam? So I am changing my anti-spam strategy and adding a captcha to the comments. my hope is that this will keep machines away. I am sorry for the inconvenience to commenters.

Tags blogging, spam

Journal Who Am I

A winter pastime

In Central New York, one needs a winter pastime. JoAnne and I do jigsaw puzzles with the help of whoever happens to visit. As I mentioned, I now am doing them online occasionally too. Here’s a cut I had not seen before.

Tags jigsaw puzzles, winter pastime

Church Leadership Forward Look Journal

January message series sets tone for the New Year

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date January 4, 2012
3 Comments on January message series sets tone for the New Year

As we begin the New Year, most of us are making plans of some sort. Some of us (like me) are making plans to lose weight (again); others are making plans for major changes in their lives, a marriage, a move, or a job change. But as the New Year begins, it is also important for us to think about the spiritual plans that we should be making for the New Year, plans that can help us to grow and advance in our Christian lives.

That is the purpose of our new series of sermons that began last Sunday. Each week we will take up a new topic that represents a key area of our spiritual life. In some areas we will find the message simply affirming habits that we already have in place. In other areas, we will find ourselves deeply challenged to strengthen our walk with God, our witness, and our service.

I invite you to join us for this insightful and inspiring series. It will carry into February and be followed by our 50 Day Lenten Emphasis which will start February 19.

Spiritual Plans for a New Year
Date	Topic	Text	Speaker
Jan. 1	Preventing a Famine of Hearing God’s Word	Amos 8:1-12	Ben Mackey
Jan. 8	Partners In the Gospel	Philippians 1	Pastor Kelvin
Jan. 15	God’s Plan for Financial Stewardship	Gen. 14:17-20; Lev. 27:30-32; Mal. 3:6-12; Matt. 23:23,24	Pastor Kelvin
Jan 22	The Power of Testimony	Revelation 12	Pastor Kelvin
Jan 29	Bring the Sacrifice of Praise	Hebrews 13:1-21	Pastor Kelvin
Feb 5	Using Our Abilities for God	Matt. 25:14-30	Pastor Eric
Feb 12	(Preschool Sunday –family emphasis)

Tags New Year, Planning, sermon series, spiritual enrichment

Journal Joy Notes Wisdom

The happiest people

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date January 3, 2012

I read a great quote this evening that is worth posting. It helps provide prospective for the New Year too. I’m enjoying the book very much.

“The happiest people are those who have invested their time in others. The unhappiest people are those who wonder how the world is going to make them happy.” (John C. Maxwell in Be a People Person, 2007, p. 20)

Tags happiness, love others

Journal

In the Word in a New Year

As a new year begins, I always take time to deliberately pray about and plan for my personal devotional life in the coming year. I use the New Year as a time for revamping it so that personal time alone with God does not get stale. Intentional change keeps it fresh and meaningful. Sometimes gifts that I receive are helpful hints. This year I received a book of weekly devotionals called Living by Faith written by a friend from college, David Venable. David was principal of a large Christian school in the Philippines for many years. We have kept in touch through Christmas letters. I plan to read it as part of my devotions this year. I’m looking forward to it.

This year I also believe it is time for me to return to sequential Bible reading—that is reading straight through books or sections of Scripture. I think everyone should do this some years. If you can average 3-4 chapters per day you can read the Bible through in one year. Those not familiar with the timeline of the Bible either need a Bible handbook to help them place the books in history or they might try reading a chronological Bible—a Bible with the texts arranged in historical order. This past year I read Scriptures associated with the devotional book I was using. They were chosen topically. But the key thing is to have a plan for being in Scripture each day. The Holy Spirit works through Scripture to shape our Christian lives.

I find it meaningful to mark in my Bible too. I use children’s color pencils for highlighting and I use pens to make notes as well. I love Bibles with wide margins so I have a place to write. I have noted dates I have prayed through a Scripture for a family member; Scriptures I received as promises on particular occasions; outlines from Bible studies or from sermons I heard; and scribbled notes on a Greek word I looked up, to name a few kinds of notations. It adds immeasurably to my future studies of those same passages.

As I look into 2012 devotions, I think I also need to do more with planning my prayer time.

Tags Bible reading, daily devotions, prayer

Journal Joy Notes Who Am I

Try something new to spark creativity

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date December 30, 2011
1 Comment on Try something new to spark creativity

Sometimes its good to distract oneself with a game or a puzzle. It gives the mind a rest from the normal concerns, forces it to use rusty corners and actually sparks creativity. It’s also a healthy habit to try something new once in a while too. E. Stanley Jones had a motto to break up one old habit each day just for the sake of keeping flexible. Tonight I did both. I found a jigsaw site online and tried a puzzle cut in tretris shapes. I was a little slow getting started but soon was getting the hang of it and had it all together.

Tags creativity, games, jigsaw puzzles, puzzles

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