I led Chapel this morning at Trinity Lutheran School in West Seneca–one of First Trinity’s sister congregations (an aside: having grown up with two brothers, I’m always looking for ways to say I have a sister!). I get to lead Chapel there once a year and I love it–the kids in the school really participate well and get into worship.

There are lots of Trinity connections…

• Years ago, I think First Trinity planted Trinity West Seneca (now you’re beginning to understand why we’re called “First”…although I’ve never liked that part of our name. Seems a little snooty or something).
• Pat Hartman, one of the teachers at Trinity is a daughter of First Trinity. Her mom is Norma Hartman.
• Sue Brese, our new Traditional Worship coordinator (starting sometime in early June), has been the organist and choir director at Trinity for 34 years.
• First Trinity member Sandra Rice, taught at Trinity for several years (she’s also Sue Brese’s daughter)
• Brian Makey, the principal at Trinity is a son of First Trinity. His parents (Carl and Deloris) and his sister (Diane Will) still attend here.

Trinity has some cool construction going on (see above) that will help them have more community and fellowship experiences and increase handicapped accessibility. Their Pastor, Ron Habedank told me today that is an exciting time for Trinity. God’s Spirit is moving.

You go, Sister!

from www.youtube.com posted with vodpod

I love it when this happens:

• I woke up clear headed this morning, and before the alarm went off–some mornings, I’m foggy and dragging, but not today.
• I woke up hearing “Love the Lord”…the opening worship song from the 11:15 worship service on Sunday. It wasn’t on my ipod–it was in my head. You can listen to it, above, sung by Lincoln Brewster. It’s still rattling around there…in a quiet moment it comes back again and lives on…a lovely soundtrack to my day.

I’m convinced that one of the reasons God asks us to worship Him is that the times we worship in a formal way carry on to the daily grind of our lives. Music follows us and lives in us, so God can continue to speak to our hearts. Many hymns and worship songs have lyrics that come directly from Scripture–like “Love the Lord”–Jesus said these words Himself, and they are recorded in Mark 12:30! So now, it’s gone from catchy melody, nice lyrics, to Jesus Himself in my head over and over all day. LOVE THAT.

So a big thanks to Eric Fesmire and our worship bands…and to Doreen Sutherland in the traditional services (she has been ROCKIN’ the organ!!)…for bringing God’s Word to life in our hearts and in our minds and in our everyday lives. God has given you a powerful tool. Thanks for using it to His glory!

The “famous” Nora Leon posted a comment on the blog today! Check out the link below and scroll down to the comments…

Click HERE!

• I love Mother’s Day at church. Lots of families that might not otherwise come to church come because they know the mom in the their life would love it. Moms are generally beaming.I would love to see them come next week, too.
• Had tons of fun being Large Group leader at Kingdom Quest today. We had a panel of moms (see the picture above). They shared:

• Something they do to serve their kids that brings them joy
• A complaint they hear from their kids that wears them out or discourages them
• How their relationship with Jesus helps them be a mo

And then the kids had the chance to ask questions. I thought it was powerful to have the kids hear some of the things they hear THEIR moms say, from other moms.

• Two C.W.M.s today. That’s Church Walking Mysteries. Very common in churches. Something is there one week and just disappeared the next–walked right off. Today: the boom box that the Everyday Faith folks have been using in Mercy and (most mysterious) Gerdy, the puppet. She was in her box in the Kingdom Quest storage area last week and today she wasn’t there. Our guest puppeteer had to use Cassidy , at the last minute–great job coming up with a new voice at the last minute, Carolyn!
• The kids responses in the 11:15 children’s messages were particularly hilarious. When asked what moms need, Emma P. said, “Children who don’t have a meltdown.” Ain’t it the truth?!?
• It was absolutely surreal watching the America’s Favorite Mom special tonight and seeing our Nora Leon win in the “adopting moms” category. They surprised her with an onstage appearance by her husband Leon, who they flew in from Haiti. I remember when they got engaged…the first First Trinity mission trip in 2005. Nora did not win the whole thing, but it was great to see ministry in Haiti up front in America, for tonight. THANKS TO ALL WHO VOTED!!!
• Feel really behind on so many things…hoping to get my bearings this week.
• Thought a lot about my mom today: Neva Rose Stewart Steege. One cool woman. I miss her.

Check out today’s Buffalo News, front page! There’s a great story about Dawn and Sheila Guetti, from First Trinity.  Sheila was adopted by the Guetti family, from Haiti. The reporter also interivewed Pastor Chuck and there was some stuff about the Joshua’s Men Life Group and  it’s just a great story!

I’m in the Detroit airport, on my way home from a KINDLE Program Team meeting in Indianapolis. We were actually meeting at Carmel Lutheran Church in Carmel, IN (a suburb). I wrote about Carmel Lutheran yesterday.

The Program Team meeting was awesome–we got a lot accomplished and I think God will continue to show Himself in KINDLE’s work and mission. Especially a treat to mix it up with the great minds around the table. Things I missed about home, this trip:

• Didn’t get to see Nora Leon on the Today Show (yet). Can’t wait to see my tape of it tonight!
• Some beautiful days (pretty rainy in Carmel)
• My regular Weight Watchers meeting on Wednesday
• Lots of work to do, which will need to get done after hours, now

One thing you notice, driving around in Carmel is all the roundabouts (see the picture above). My friend Melissa said there are around 40 roundabouts in Carmel (the mayor really likes them–I even found a powerpoint presentation by him about roundabouts when I Googled “roundabout”…you can look at it here). For my friends in Western New York, this would be like having 40 roundabouts in, say, Amherst or Orchard Park.  A roundabout is NOT the same thing as a traffic circle (surprise to me), but it sure has the same feel to me.

The idea is you get into the roundabout and you don’t have to stop–the flow of traffic keeps moving and you get out of the roundabout on the other side…smooth as silk.

I guess the Detroit airport is my roundabout today–I’m sliding in here will spin around a bit and spit myself back out in Buffalo. While I’ve been here, I’ve been following up on some things from the KINDLE meeting, also doing some FT work (spoke with a VBS parent, answered some office email, made some FT phone calls, etc.). Down one avenue of ministry, around the circle and out to the other. Smooth as silk.

Friends-

Today’s the day to vote for Nora Leon as America’s Favorite Mom. For the whole story, see this blog post.

If you already know the story or don’t care about the story, and want to get straight to voting, click the link below and vote between 9am and 9pm today (up to 10 times). Works in Internet Explorer or Safari, but not Firefox.

www.nbc.com/Americas_Favorite_Mom/vote/

PS If you get this before 9am, Nora will be on NBC’s Today Show (in Buffalo: Channel 2) during the 9am hour today!

Greetings from Indianapolis!

I am meeting with the KINDLE Program team at Carmel Lutheran Church where my friend and colleague Melissa Christian Luepke is a DCE. It’s a beautiful facility–much larger than First Trinity. When Melissa was giving me the tour today, I had to laugh…so many things that our church’s have in common:

• The struggle to find people to set up for coffee hour (they finally went to automatic coffee pots with no set-up or clean-up needed)
• A thriving Preschool
• Confirmation on the first Sunday in May and they also do it in a regular worship service (they had 40-some kids confirm their faith this year)
• Great staff relationships…lots of laughter and camaraderie
• Jesus Painter paintings on the wall.
• Contemporary and Traditional worship services

God’s Word is alive and it’s fun to know that some things are common to faith communities. Whenever I am at a different church, I always reflect on how much I love First Trinity…God is good!

Jason and I both wrote about Sunday’s confirmation service and today Pastor Chuck, Jason and I worked on ideas for next year (Eric will chime in, too). It was fun to talk about–so many things that we want to do again, so many great stories from families, God making Himself known all over the place.  Some tweaks to make. I was, once again, grateful for teammates who are honest with each other and only want things to get better!

It was different for me…the first Confirmation service in 23 years that I didn’t take part in the actual Confirmation part of the service. People even wondered if I felt left out. It was different, but I thought it was great! I do not have direct responsibility for Cornerstone ministry. More like a coach-cheerleader-encourager for Cornerstone ministry. I LOVE having the small group leaders (this year: Heide Mathien and Paul Zimberg) part of the blessing. Next year, I’ll get to participate as a small group leader. The last thing I want is to be involved just because I’ve always been involved. God is doing so much with so many kids in Cornerstone. I was excited to have a front row seat.

Different, but good.

Nora Leon, the American missionary that we work with in Les Cayes, Haiti, is one of 15 semi-finalists for the NBC America’s Favorite mom. If you were at the Women’s Retreat last Fall, you met Nora, as she was there as our guest. She was also at worship last Fall and taught our Kingdom Quest kids a song in Creole. The picture above was taken in January 2008 on the island of Ile A Vache, where she was interviewing the mother of a very very sick child, who later died before proper medical care could be found.

She has been nominated in the “Non-Mom” category, for her work with the children of Haiti.

Here’s how it will work and how you can help:

• Each day this week, there are three moms on the Today Show (Monday: Military Moms, Tuesday: Working Moms, Wednesday: Single Moms, Thursday: Non-Mom Moms, Friday: COE Moms).
• Nora will be on the Today Show (Channel 2 in Buffalo) on Thursday morning–most likely the 9am hour
• ANYTIME DURING THE DAY ON THURSDAY, PLEASE GO TO THE LINK BELOW AND VOTE FOR HER! The voting is open between 9am and 9pm and you can vote up to 10 times.
• The five finalists (one from each category) will be flown to Los Angeles for a live Mother’s Day Show this Sunday night, May 11th, with Donny and Marie Osmond (in Buffalo, Channel 2 at 7pm).

Here’s the link:

www.nbc.com/Americas_Favorite_Mom/vote/

ONE NOTE: The voting doesn’t seem to show up in a Firefox Browser. If you use Internet Explorer or Safari, it is easy to see your voting choices. They do ask for your name, etc.

You can help by voting–you can vote up to ten times. You can also help by asking others to vote!!

Here’s why this matters:

• It is an opportunity to support and encourage Nora, whose work and mission we know firsthand
• It is an opportunity to get the news out about the plight of children in Haiti and especially about God’s work there

Thank you so much!