Category: Joy Notes

Posts that intend to inspire

Rose Arbor Project Completed

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date October 24, 2016

When I was a boy there was a white rose arbor in our side lawn. Pictures were often taken there. It marked the entrance to one of the flower gardens on our rural farm property. When my wife was a girl, she often spent summers at her Grandparents’ house. The entrance to the sidewalk was a white rose arbor with a gate. She has always wanted a rose arbor.

The opportunity did not present itself in either of our previous pastorates. Neither property had a spot that was conducive. But when we moved to West Granby, there was a fenced in area with a broken-down gate which needed to be replaced. Being a gardener, I immediately thought, “What a great place for a small garden and a rose arbor!” I no longer want a big garden anyway. I just want to grow a few strawberries and some cucumbers so we can make pickles. And I needed to replace that gate with something that looked better. A rose arbor would be perfect here. A friend said it looks very “New-England.”

First I needed to knock down the poison ivy which you can see growing on the fence in picture two. Fortunately, I am only very mildly allergic, which helps as the ivy keeps coming back and I am not bothered as I fight it. They I began planting roses where I thought the rose arbor would be as I knew it would take a couple years for them to really become established. One was a a transplant from Keely and Mark’s as it was in a place they did not want it. Others I ordered. If you look closely, you can see that I timed it well because by this fall, I had one rose cane growing over the top of the arbor. There are several colors and one white.

I wanted to make the structure durable so it is all made of treated lumber. Some of it is donated re-purposed decking. Eventually I hope to stain it all white and add a gate. The design underwent a few changes as it was being built as JoAnne and I looked at it and decided what looked best. I have worked on it little by little for a couple years, collecting and buying materials and cutting pieces. Then this summer, I knew it needed to come together.

Already it has become a photo spot as you can see from the photo I included. This is us posing in the Victorian costumes we wore to celebrate Copper Hill Church’s 200th Anniversary.

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Tags our move, parsonage, projects, rose arbor

Journal Joy Notes Who Am I

Christmas Village 2015

Each year I try to get in one post about my Christmas village and railroad. Here it is using Sway. Click on the article to see the pictures. You can expand the picture to full screen. Then in the lower right corner are arrow buttons to click to advance the Sway through the pictures and text parts.

Tags Christmas, Christmas trains, Christmas Village, model railroad, model trains

Journal Joy Notes Meditations Wisdom

How is God at Work?

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date January 3, 2016

Download (PDF, 323KB)

Tags hard questions, ministry, works of God

Journal Joy Notes Who Am I Wisdom

Christmas Decorations Can Tell Your Story

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date January 2, 2016
2 Comments on Christmas Decorations Can Tell Your Story

I’ve been working on a Christmas post in a new program called Sway. Here’s my first try. (Looks like you need to scroll to see it all. )

I think you’ll enjoy it.

Tags Christmas, Christmas ornaments, storytelling

Joy Notes Meditations Wisdom

The Vision of Peace is to be Pursued

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date December 13, 2015

“Peace on earth…”

This morning’s message spoke of the dream of peace that began with the angel announcement to the shepherds on that first Christmas night. Often in our warring world, that ideal seems so far away. But it is up to us to put it into action anyway. Here is a comment by famed Catholic writer Henri Nouwen on the same subject.

Henri Nouwen speaks to our time…

The marvelous vision of the peaceable Kingdom, in which all violence has been overcome and all men, women, and children live in loving unity with nature, calls for its realization in our day-to-day lives. Instead of being an escapist dream, it challenges us to anticipate what it promises. Every time we forgive our neighbor, every time we make a child smile, every time we show compassion to a suffering person, every time we arrange a bouquet of flowers, offer care to tame or wild animals, prevent pollution, create beauty in our homes and gardens, and work for peace and justice among peoples and nations we are making the vision come true.

We must remind one another constantly of the vision. Whenever it comes alive in us we will find new energy to live it out, right where we are. Instead of making us escape real life, this beautiful vision gets us involved.

Tags Christmas, fruits of the Spirit, moral issues today, peace

Journal Joy Notes Who Am I Wisdom

The Joy of Singing in the Choir

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date November 26, 2015

Bering Memorial United Methodist Church Choir from Houston sings during morning worship at the denomination's 2004 General Conference in Pittsburgh. Houston will be the host city for the 2008 General Conference. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Photo number GC04247, 5/7/04 — Bering Memorial United Methodist Church Choir from Houston sings during morning worship at the denomination’s 2004 General Conference in Pittsburgh. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose.

Choir singing is not as popular as it once was except perhaps in black churches. But my wife and I have always tried to bring people together to sing as a choir for special holidays and events. JoAnne arranges for and directs the choir while I sing tenor or in later years, bass.

I have always enjoyed singing in choir. I have been reflecting upon why.

1. I simply enjoy harmony. Whether created by multiple vocal parts or multiple instruments in an ensemble, harmony is a pleasure to hear and even more pleasurable to be part of making. If you have the ability to sing harmony, it is very fulfilling to do so.

2. Church choir singing gives the added blessing of filling one’s mind with inspirational songs. I often find myself singing the choir song we practiced in my mind on other days of the week. There aren’t very many time investments that help put a song in your heart like choir singing does.

3. There is a great deal of camaraderie in a choir. Like any other task-oriented small group, it provides a place to belong, some wholesome banter, a growing relationship with fellow group members, and a sense of purpose and identity. In fact, in a small choir, one feels quite close to your section singing partners as you strive together season after season to sing your part.

4. For a church choir, there is the joy of presenting the number we have practiced during church service. Sure, we may be a bit nervous about doing well, but we are most interested that those who hear are inspired by the message we are trying to bring in music. When we receive feedback that our work has inspired and encouraged others, we are blessed by that.

5. Singing in choir uses a gift I have. By contrast, right now I am not using the gift of trombone playing that I have and I feel bad about that. My ability will slowly deteriorate. But on the other hand, when I sing in choir, I use my singing ability, I keep up that skill, so that I am ready for new opportunities to use it. As a Christian, I believe I am accountable for using my gifts for the benefit of others.

6. Singing in choir expands my knowledge of Christian music. Many of the songs we learn are fresh and vibrant expressions of our faith that I have not heard before learning them in choir.

7. Being a part of the choir has been a starting point for invitations to sing in numerous other types of groups. Men’s quartets are a riot. I have sung in a massed choir where choirs from several churches joined together, a great experience. I was asked to sing the solo part for “He’s Alive” on Easter Sunday while the choir provided back-up, an experience I will never forget. One year our choir was videoed and put their Christmas cantata on television. I have sung for live nativities and on “living Christmas trees.” All these experiences and more came to me because I sing in choir.

Tags choir, church choir, singing, using our gifts

Journal Joy Notes Meditations Wisdom

First frost and snow flakes too!

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date October 19, 2015

Flowers rescued from the first frost and arranged in a basket that was my grandmother's — Flowers rescued from the first frost and arranged in a basket that was my grandmother’s

As one who dabbles in gardening, I like to keep track of first frost dates. Here in northern CT, this has been a wonderfully warm fall and we have not even been close to a cold night until the last two nights. There has been frost in each of them. I went out on Saturday to do the things that gardeners do on the last day before frost. I gathered green tomatoes and cut zinnias, marigolds, daisy mums, Shasta daisies, and a few other flowers for a couple last fresh bouquets. Never mind that I hadn’t really picked many until then. It’s the sense that it’s the last time I’ll have that opportunity until next year. More then once I’ve been known to go out with a flashlight to get those last minute items. In fact, I picked the marigolds in the dark this year after arriving home from a church event. The first frost seldom arrives on a convenient night. Like judgment day, or consequences from bad habits, first frost descends into the schedule just when you wish it wouldn’t. Blessed are those who have been listening to the weatherman ahead and those with a little margin in their schedule so they have time to do the last minute things. It reminds me of Jesus’ words concerning his second coming, “It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes” (Luke 12:37 NIV 2011).

Tags first frost, flowers, gardening, readiness

Americana Journal Joy Notes Who Am I Wisdom

Using the berries God provides

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date August 17, 2015

When we moved here 2 years ago, I soon noticed a group of elderberry bushes in bloom just over a stone wall. It was being attacked by marauding vines and overshadowed by maple saplings. But I was determined to pick some elderberries. I remembered picking them as a young man and eating elderberry pie that my mother made.

But I soon discovered that elderberry season is short and there are competitors. The first year when I went to find berries there were none. I had been away on vacation on the key week and either the birds or the bears had finished them off. Same story the second year. So I made a more deliberate attempt to persecute the wild grape vines and clear out some overhanging maple.

This year, I found berries, lots of berries. Our vacation was earlier in the summer or I would not have because the catbirds which are very abundant here were upset when I started picking the crop they had already started to claim. Never fear, there will be plenty left for them. I volunteered to pick the berries off the stems and JoAnne made me a pie. Pictures of the process are below. What a pleasure to finally harvest what God had provided.

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Tags family traditions, good food, harvest, simple pleasures

Journal Joy Notes Meditations Wisdom

Give Thanks to God

Post author By pastorkelvin
Post date August 1, 2015

Praise the Lord, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits
Psalm 103:1-2 NIV84

Today my daughter and her husband and our two grandchildren visited us. What a joy to hug them all. Even though we see them regularly, it is still a special gift to treasure their company.

This week I will be preaching on why Communion is called a means of grace among Methodists. One cannot reflect upon this topic without becoming profoundly grateful for all that God has done for us in Jesus Christ. The seemingly simple gift of this sacrament has become for us a magnificent mystery full of both theological and existential richness. Every time we partake it not only reminds us of the facts of Jesus’ act of initiation of the sacrament, but it becomes for us an acted symbol of our own participation in the greater realities which it represents. We are prompted toward ongoing repentance and faith. It is no wonder that in many Christian traditions, this sacrament is called “The Eucharist.” The word “Eucharist” comes from the Greek meaning gratitude or thanksgiving. How appropriate.

As I was studying for this sermon I noticed an excellent paragraph of encouragement to praise from Spurgeon in one of the devotionals in my Bible program.

The Lord always deserves to be praised for what He is in Himself, for His works of creation and providence, for His goodness towards His creatures, and especially for the transcendent act of redemption, and all the marvelous blessing flowing therefrom. It is always beneficial to praise the Lord; it cheers the day and brightens the night; it lightens toil and softens sorrow; and over earthly gladness it sheds a sanctifying radiance which makes it less liable to blind us with its glare. Have we not something to sing about at this moment? Can we not weave a song out of our present joys, or our past deliverances, or our future hopes? Earth yields her summer fruits: the hay is housed, the golden grain invites the sickle, and the sun tarrying long to shine upon a fruitful earth, shortens the interval of shade that we may lengthen the hours of devout worship. By the love of Jesus, let us be stirred up to close the day with a psalm of sanctified gladness. (Charles Spurgeon – Evening Devotion for July 31)

Tags daily devotions, praise, Thanksgiving, worship

Journal Joy Notes Who Am I

Adirondack Vacation 2015

We canoed on Lake Eaton and walked on the Wild Walk at the Wild Center in Tupper Lake

I like sitting by the campfire late at night. JoAnne likes to read, sometimes even sitting in the car to get away from the bugs or the rain. Both of us love to canoe around the lake. I nearly finished one book this year. JoAnne pulls out her recorder and plays folk songs, gospel choruses and patriotic tunes by ear at the campfire. I roast marshmallows for s’mores.

For us camping is an Rx of sorts. Being a pastor is a very public vocation. So as part of our vacation time JoAnne and I try to get apart in the Adirondack Mountains. Getting alone as a couple like this provides a good antidote to the high level of people time that is normal for pastoral life. It gives time to process, time for extended devotions, and time to read. We always find it a bonding experience too. Whether it’s canoeing as a tandem, setting up camp together, enjoying a meal out at our favorite Italian restaurant in the Village of Tupper Lake, eating ice cream at Hoss’s, or holding hands watching the stars, we find ourselves drawn closer together in the Adirondacks.

This year we camped again at Lake Eaton State Park just Northwest of Long Lake, NY http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/24464.html . Even though we had multiple rainstorms, we still had a great time. I had just finished sealing the tent fly again when the first downpour came. Amazingly, it didn’t rain during campfire times at all and I was able to gather wood at the right stage of dryness so that it would burn in spite of the dampness. But it did rain at suppertime twice. Trying to cook in a rainstorm is the pits so we ate out for supper both evenings; chili dogs and ice-cream at a corner stand one night and Italian at Little Italy the next http://littleitalypizzeriainc.com/Tupper_Lake__NY.html .

Probably the highlight of the vacation was the trip to the Wide Center in Tupper Lake. We highly recommend it http://www.wildcenter.org/ . They have a new section called the Wild Walk that has been a huge success. Thirty-five thousand people have visited the center in the twenty days since the Wild Walk opened. We took the walk and highly recommend it. The people who conceived this place have great imagination and make it so much fun for children. This year the theater inside featured an award winning film about climate change.

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Tags Adirondacks, Quiet spots, summer fun, vacation

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