A lot of churches

Saying for the Day: Real education is not always in the school.

Well back to the archive box and here we find a map of Illinois with places marked.

When I started my last year of seminary everything changed.
I was married, so I had someone to complain too.
I had earned my Master’s Degree in Mathematics over the summer.
My wife worked so I didn’t have to.
And every weekend I went to a different church to preach.
Life was great.

The map marks all the places they gave me preaching assignments.
Each church was different and I learned a great deal about the variety that exists in the Lutheran Church.

One Sunday I went to and old German Church.
I gave them my best effort.
I thought it was a good sermon.
There was no response.
Nobody smiled, nobody got upset, in fact nobody displayed any emotion at all.
When we were a few miles down the road I told my wife that I was never coming back to that congregation .
I felt like they hated me.
The following Tuesday I was called into the Dean’s office.
He asked me if I knew that we weren’t supposed to try to become the regular preacher at any church.
I said I knew that.
Then he said the people from Sunday’s church had asked if I could come all the time.
I started to laugh and told him what I had told my wife.
They had liked my preaching but they just didn’t show it.
Lutherans can be very cold and hard to read.
Still I never went back.

Betty had her own experiences.
She is very small and always looked very young.
At one church I left her standing in the narthex while I looked for the sacristy.
A nice lady came up and asked her if she wanted to know where the youth bible study was.
Here she is the preacher’s wife being sent to the high school class not as the teacher but as one of the kids.

From all these preaching sessions I learned that congregations like people have personalities.
I learned that being Lutheran doesn’t mean the same in every church.
I learned that some congregations love to sing but some don’t.
I can remember so many little things I learned on those Sundays.

I can’t remember much of what I learned in class.
I always felt that Seminary was trying to create professors not pastors.

Next week-the examining committee –my last hurdle.

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News from Pigeon Falls– the little town in my backyard where the trains still run– Last night was the first night of the big variety show. Eino and Toivo did a couple of Abbot and Costello routines. Tommy did his tap dance. Vicky East sang several songs about rabbits and dragons that she wrote herself. They won’t make the hit parade but the town loved them.
Five first graders from Last Lutheran sang Bible School songs. There was a violin solo and a violin and piano number. All in all it was a great start and in the next two nights it will only get better.
Eino called out to the Hermit’s house. He got no answer. Tom Withers said he brought the lady in with her suitcases this morning and she left on the milk train. So Eino, Robert, and the constable went back out to the house. The door was locked but that was no problem for the constable. On entering they discovered all the books and papers were gone, vanished. There was nothing left to tie the stone statue and the ruined machinery to the Chicago company. She had taken everything that could identify anything.
Eino called the company in Chicago and was told the phone had been disconnected. The constable had a friend in Chicago check on the license number of her Illinois license. It turned out to be fake. Now they have a house that belongs to a company they can’t contact with a stone man in it. It is all very confusing.
Tonight the Queen candidates will be presented at the variety show. These were selected from twenty applicants. The committee considered scholarship and beauty. Its odd that in the many years of picking Queens there have been a number of dumb but beautiful candidates but no ugly but smart candidates. Beauty must count more than scholarship.
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Today's link: A Day in the Life of the Real Me- Remeber to put the words Dr. John in the comment to get those tasty JCPOINTS. Check your total HERE.
Now on to our drawing. Yesterday we drew Peter. If we draw Peter again today he gets what's in the prize box and Brea will be happy. And the name we drew is Chana. Sorry Peter ( sorry Brea). If we draw Chana tomorrow she gets what's in the Prize Box.
Well I went to the medical building and had blood drawn this morning. I think their vampire was very thirsty because she too four vials. We spent the rest of the day pricing things for our big rummage sale on Fridat-Saturday. We still have boxes and boxes to price. In opening a box that we brought from the other house that hadn't been opened since we moved here we found a horrible broiler pan that should have been thrown away years ago. The things we hold one to.
Well I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA