Storms Are Coming

You may have noticed that posts have been appearing here less frequently.  Well, I've been taking care of sick family members for two weeks, and making trips back and forth to the hospital to visit my mom the week before.  So I've not been writing much.

But I have been taking pictures.  The other day, I stepped outside the house and the rainbow above me took my breath away.  There wasn't really any rain reaching the ground - just a few drops - but our first real storm of the season is expected to arrive tomorrow.

Guide to Middle School

So, while last week my oldest son started high school, this week my youngest son started middle school.  All summer long his big brother had been telling him his favorite horror stories about how bad middle school is, and how his younger brother wouldn't survive.

Turns out this was just his way of showing brotherly love.

On Tuesday, the night before classes began, I saw this "survival guide" written out by my oldest son for his younger brother.  It says:

Bob Lucky's Guide to Hughes Middle School
[Bob Lucky is an alias my older son likes to use for himself]

Backpacks:  Five folders or one folder with five dividers.  Do not use a roller.

Locker Room:  Don't play or mess around.  Get in, change, get out.

Passing Period:  Five min. is enough tiime if you don't stand around.  Go to class.  You even have enough time to use the restroom.

Restrooms: They are clean but if you have to go number 2, go during class.

Seating:  Don't wait for others to sit first.  Sit first and let people sit by you, not you sit by them.

Bullies:  Avoid them.  Have a friend.  If a bully is following or chasing you, go to the library or a classroom.

Crushes/girls:  good luck.

Teachers:  Mr. Dekrai and Mrs. Bowley are cool.  They know luckies.

Lunch:  Eat with (a) friend(s).

Other:  Chaske can help.

Haircut

School began this week for Ethan.  He's now a freshman in high school.  The school he is attending is a private Christian school, which we enrolled him in because of its small size and good drama program. 

(The city of Long Beach has some excellent high schools, but all but one have several thousand students in them, and we couldn't get him in to that one.)

A few weeks ago we attended new student orientation.  At one point the office secretary pulled me aside and said that Ethan would need a haircut in order to comply with the school dress code. 

Personally, I've always thought Ethan looked good with long hair, as long as he took care of it.  It was a conditional approval.  The conditions were rarely met.  So I had no qualms about telling him that the hair needed to be cut.

"So when do you want to go get it cut?" I asked. 
"I want you to do it."
So I did.  The night before school started.

Shoes

It's a week of Vacation Bible School at my church, and it's keeping me busy.  I know, most pastors leave VBS for others to run, but I can't let them have all the fun, can I?  I've been running one of the "stations" as well as taking pictures that will be made into a slide show at the end of the week....The past few days have been long, but now my focus is shifting, to taking care of my wife who is scheduled to have surgery this morning.... Is it strange that, of all the pictures of cute kids and smiling faces I've taken this week, I'm drawn to this one?  Is it because of the simplicity of it, in contrast to the hectic complexity of the week?  Or maybe it's just that it's different from all the much more action-oriented photos I've snapped these past few days....

Nashville

It's been an eventful week for me. I hosted (at my church) a community meeting concerning city council redistricting, which is a highly controversial issue in this neighborhood right now. I thought about writing about that this week, but the truth is that I'm busy preparing for my trip to Nashville. The pieces have fallen into place, and our plane departs tomorrow morning.

Most likely I will not be blogging from Nashville. I will return to blogging in a week or two.

In other news, it appears something funky is going on with my blog's layout.  Something else for me to work on. When I get back.

Cheesy Party Crasher (Special Wednesday post)

This past weekend, my family crashed a party hosted by some folks from Tillamook cheese; but we were invited, so it was OK.

The invitation came on Saturday when we went to visit the folks from Tillamook who were giving out free samples in front of a local grocery store as part of their "Loaf Love" tour.  As soon as we walked up, and they saw my son's "Loaf Love" t-shirt, they got all excited.  (The shirt he won when he submitted a photo taken of himself the last time the tour came to town, and won a photo contest.)

My son, you see, loves cheese.  And for some reason, he has a strong preference for Tillamook.  When the folks at the tour saw what a big fan he is, they invited us to a party the following day, which the Loaf Love Tour folks were hosting for some "mom bloggers" in Orange County. 

So we stopped by.  They fed us some yummy grilled cheese sandwiches, and I promised that even though I'm not a "mom blogger," that I'd mention them here at FieldofDandelions.com. 

FTC-Mandated Disclosure: As of December 2009, bloggers are required by the Federal Trade Commission to disclose payments and freebies. Danny Bradfield did receive a free grilled cheese sandwich from Tillamook. 

Update

Hello, world!

Some short work weeks (in which I must cram the same amount of work into fewer days), combined with the need to get a new computer, have kept me from blogging as much as I normally do.  Essays from me will probably not appear here again until the first week of March.  I will, however, continue to post occasional pictures.  Thanks for sticking with me!

Dominguez Gap wetlands, 2.11.11

Taking the Train

Starting today, I'll be in San Diego for a 3-day clergy conference.  I'll be taking the train to get there, passing through Dana Point, where my family went camping with friends last spring.

The Next Two Weeks

Next week, my church is hosting Vacation Bible School. I will be heavily involved, leading one of the "stations" through which children will rotate throughout the morning.

I will spend the following week counseling middle schoolers at our church camp in the San Bernardino mountains.

I believe it is important for a pastor to be involved in his/her congregation's ministry to youth, even if the congregation is fortunate enough to have a youth director or minister.  There are a number of reasons for this:

• Unless a pastor is specifically designated as a youth pastor or a pastor to seniors or some other demographic group, he or she is the pastor to the whole congregation.  That includes youth.  I've heard pastors say "I don't work with youth."  Well, you might as well say, "I don't work with soccer moms," or "I don't work with middle-aged men." 
• Youth need to be connected to their pastor, especially if there is no youth pastor.  A lay youth director is a wonderful person, but there still needs to be some connection to a pastor. 
• Pastors can learn a lot from youth.  It's so easy to sit at our desks, pondering deep theological things, or attend the many adult functions that are often formal and polite.  But youth, more so than adults, tend to "say it like it is."  They can help a pastor learn how to be "real," and how to make all those "deep theological things" real as well.
• Youth have a passion and energy that is so desperately needed in the church today.  Fortunately, much of that passion and energy is contagious.
• Many youth are dealing with extremely difficult issues or are in tough situations, and our society provides very little moral or spiritual guidance to young people. 

So, I'll be pretty busy the next two weeks.  I may miss a post or two on this blog.  If so, I'll be back in a couple of weeks.

Difficult Decisions

Will J. Reid Scout Camp is located right in the middle of Long Beach, and is a place that, at times, has seemed like a second home to me and many in scouting families.  I've been there for cub scout events, boy scout events, adult leader training, and we've even had our annual church picnic there.

Well, the Long Beach Area Council now wants to sell the camp. Like many non-profits, the scouts are hurting for money. Will J. Reid, covering some 11 acres, is worth quite a lot of money, but it also costs quite a bit to maintain, and the council believes that it could make better use of its money.

This is disappointing to many in the Long Beach scouting community. However, as one who has been the pastor of several smaller churches, I can't criticize. I know that the decision (has it already been made? I'm not sure) won't be easy. And I know from experience that it's too tempting to place too high a priority on things like buildings and property. At a former church of mine, when struggling with finances, I had one cantankerous church member say to me that if finances forced him to choose between a building and a pastor, he'd choose the building. I looked right at him and said, "Well, then, when you face a spiritual crisis in your life, or when you find yourself in intensive care, I'll be sure to rip up one of the floorboards and mail it to you."

OK, I didn't really say that. At least not out loud.

I think of the difficult decisions that the Long Beach School Board has had to make regarding layoffs and furloughs. Surely, making those decisions couldn't have been easy. I'm glad I'm not the one who had to make those decisions.

I heard on NPR this morning that the economy is turning around. Well, that sounds like good news, but I know that for many of us, we will still be faced with difficult decisions for some time to come. I don't know if selling Will J. Reid is the right thing to do. But I have compassion and understanding for those who have to make the decision.

Photo:  Tristan at last fall's "Cub-o-ree" event at Will J. Reid Scout Camp

Seven Things I'm Thinking About Today

1. Not everything that happens in life (or even in my mind) happens in essay-able formats.  Sometimes they come in little bites.  And since I've seen other bloggers use formats similar to this one, I decided to go for it.
2. Of course, one could assume that I simply didn't have an essay in me this week.  And they'd be correct.
3. This morning at the coffee shop, I saw a young girl in a stroller.  Her mom called her Bella.  She brought a smile to everyone in the room.
4. A few minutes later, another toddler arrived.  When she saw Bella, she ran across the room, arms up in the air, gleefully exclaiming, "You're here! You're here!  You're here!"  That brought an even bigger smile to everyone in the room.  It's nice to experience joy in the morning.
5. It's especially nice to experience joy when other areas of life are marked with sadness.  Last week, the father of two scouts in Ethan's boy scout troop died unexpectedly.  This week, the mother of two children who attend our church had a stroke, and is in the hospital.
6. I'm trying hard to not get too caught up in the Glenn Beck/social justice kerfluffle.  (Is "kerflufle" a word?)  And I wouldn't, except I know that a lot of people actually take him seriously, and therefore have a grossly distorted understanding of the gospel.
7. I continue to try, day by day, to remove the distortions in my own understanding.

Newspaper Update

The church I pastor is doing fairly well these days, but still, it hasn't escaped the effects of the recession. The result is salary cuts.

The other day, after some figuring, I proudly announced to my wife that we could save $60 a month by getting rid of our land phone line (which we hardly ever use anyway) and cutting back on some hardly-used features of our cell phone calling plan. She then informed me that she, too, had found a way for us to save money: she cancelled the more expensive Sunday paper we'd been getting and signed us up for a special deal with the Press-Telegram.

"You did what!?" I said. If you've read this blog over the past year, you know the trouble I've had with the Press-Telegram. (If you haven't, click on the "press-telegram" link in the topic list to the right ... or just do a google search for "press-telegram sucks." Yep, my blog will show up there.) Anyway, she said someone from the paper called and said something to the effect of, "I see you've had some problems with us. I'd like to make it good by offering you the paper on Sundays for a ridiculously low price."

Is the Press-Telegram really trying to atone for its past mistakes and shoddy customer service? And if so, will they be successful? I guess we'll find out.

Today I asked my wife, "So when will the delivery start?"

"Today," she said.

"Well, we didn't get a paper. I'll let you call and find out why."

Scarcity vs. Abundance

Do you know what tomorrow is? It's the 5-year anniversary of Field of Dandelions! Hopefully tomorrow will be as relaxing a day as that Christmas five years ago. Today, however, there is much to do. So instead of writing something new, I thought I'd share what I wrote this month for my church's newsletter. A number of people have found it meaningful, and I hope you do too.

---

There are many frameworks through which the world is viewed; many paradigms that color how people see things. One is a paradigm of scarcity. People who see the world this way see a world of limitations and roadblocks. It’s a “glass half-empty” way of viewing the world.

Then there is the paradigm of abundance. Viewed this way, the world is boundless, the possibilities limitless. This is a “glass half-full” way of viewing the world.

The disciples had a hard time seeing the world as a world of abundance. “There’s only five loaves and two fish, what is that among so many?” But as the gospels show over and over again, the work of Jesus involved opening people’s eyes to a new world, a world of abundance and new possibilities—and baskets full of leftovers!

Perhaps that’s not what we might expect from one who was born with practically nothing, to parents of limited means, in a stable among animals. One who came from a background like that, it would seem, would have little to offer the world. How easy it would have been for a young Jesus to lament his low position in life, his lack of resources with which he could make his mark in the world. And yet, where others might see scarcity, limitations, and roadblocks, Jesus saw abundance and limitless possibilities.

When you look at your life, do you see only the limitations and the scarcity, or do you see the abundance with which you have been blessed? When you look at your church, do you lament a lack of resources, or do you consider with joy all that is possible?

All of us, including yours truly, fall into the old paradigm from time to time. We see only the limitations caused by finances and lack of resources. We are tempted to downsize our work and our ministry to fall in line with the scarcity we see.

May Jesus—who started out with so little in life and yet did so much—open our eyes to the abundance that is around us and within us.

Merry Christmas!

Updates

1. Yesterday, I got a call from the Press-Telegram. They wanted me to subscribe. I explained (politely, because I know what it's like to be a telemarketer) about my ongoing problem with the newspaper (which I've chronicled here, here, here, and here). I was told that my balance would be waived if I subscribe. I replied by insisting that I don't want to subscribe. It was then suggested to me that I call customer service "one more time." How many times does it take?

2. The plastic bag is still stuck in the tree behind my house, despite this week's strong winds.

Press-Telegram Sucks

There, I did it. I stopped thinking about using that as a title for a post, and actually did it.

Last week, a friend of mine told me that, despite her repeated attempts to have the Press-Telegram stop delivering the paper to her house, the paper was still coming. She refused to pay for a paper she didn't want, and was then sent a collections notice.

I figured that I had won my own battle (chronicled here, here, and here), since we had stopped receiving the paper. However, today our own collections notice came.

It would be easy to just pay the $22 and be done with it. However, I can't seem to let this rest. According to the notice, I have thirty days to dispute this notice in writing.

You'd think that a newspaper that is struggling as it is would treat its customers better. Friendly service might even have persuaded me to resubscribe, at least on the weekends, if not daily. But I will certainly not give money to a company that has such poor customer service. (Are you listening, Press-Telegram? That's some free advice for you, from me.)

If you have a similar story, please comment. (If you are reading this as a facebook note, go to www.fieldofdandelions.com to comment.)

Newspaper Update

1. Someone last week viewed my blog after doing a search for "Press-Telegram Sucks." FieldofDandelions.com is the #1 return for such searches.

2. We received the paper again this past Sunday.

To know what this is all about, read this post and this one.

Stranger Danger

Which of the following are you (or the parents you know) most worried about?

1. My child getting struck by lightning.
2. My child encountering a rattlesnake.
3. My child being involved in a train wreck.
4. My child being abducted by a stranger while walking to or from school.

Last week, my youngest child brought home a paper from school encouraging parents to talk to their children about how to act around strangers. This was prompted by an incident involving what the paper said was an "attempted abduction" somewhere in this city of half a million residents. Of course, being a good parent, I did talk to my son about how to react around strangers.

As I thought about it, however, I wondered if frightening my child in this way, and allowing this little bit of paranoia to enter my house, is worth it. Consider the list above. I have had relatives or close friends who have experienced numbers 1, 2, and 3. But no one I know--not a friend or a relative or a passing acquaintance or even a friend of a friend of a friend--has experienced number 4. The closest I've come to #4 is seeing an amber alert posted on an electronic freeway sign. I think I've seen this three times, in this state of over 30 million people, which, by my way of reckoning, means the chance that my child would be abducted is maybe one in ten million. When you consider that most abduction cases involve someone that the child knows and that they are usually related to custody issues, the chance that a child will be abducted by a stranger on the way to or from school seems to be even lower.

But this is what we worry about in our society. We fear, and we teach our children to fear. Is it worth it?

By the way, here's some tips on preparing your child for #1, 2, or 3:

1. Don't hike on top of Mt. Waterman during a thunderstorm
2. Wear good hiking shoes and stay on the trail.
3. Keep riding. It's probably still safer than travelling by car (and nearly everyone knows someone who's been in a car wreck).

Aquarium

Time for some pictures. These were taken on a recent trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific.

There's more than one way to get to the aquarium....

Flight From Chicago

The speakers at the conference were amazing. Sharon Watkins, our General Minister and President, didn't preach, but she did speak to us about the new Disciples of Christ identity statement, and the current mission alignment process. (Read about mission alignment at disciples.org.) The other main speakers/preachers were Floyd Flake and Will Willimon, both of whom were outstanding.

On Tuesday evening, there was a dinner for "young clergy." "Young" was defined as "under 40," and even though I was skeptical as to how much of the conversation would pertain to me, I went. I've been a pastor for 11 years, have a kid in middle school, and am starting to realize that advertisements are no longer directed at me, as I'm no longer in their key age demographic ... although, now that I think about it, that's not entirely a bad thing. Anyway, I'm not sure my slightly older friends with whom I had dinner on Monday night appreciated me saying to them, "Sorry, can't join you tonight, I'm going to the young clergy dinner." But because I could still say that, I went.

In a similar vein, I'm not sure all those midwestern Disciples appreciated it when I got all excited by the rain on Monday, looking out the windows of the hotel conference center and dancing up and down the hallways singing, "Wow, I've not seen rain in four months!" Ah, to be from California.

The conference ended Wednesday afternoon. At the airport terminal, I watched a man got all worked up over the "ridiculous" boarding procedure. I thought they were going to haul him away, but he calmed himself down. All I could think was, "I feel sorry for whoever is seated next to him." Some time later, when I was finally able to walk down the aisle of the plane to my seat, I noticed that it was taken by a young woman. "You wouldn't want to sit by the window, would you?"

I had specifically requested this aisle seat, so I said to her, "Not really." I should of stopped there, but then I added, "Are you flying with the person next to you?" When she said yes, I gave in. "All right," I said.

She pointed me to my new seat, one row back and across the aisle--right next to the guy who threw the fit in the terminal.

I took my seat and turned on the reading light. It worked. The guy next to me, in the middle, ordered two cokes & rum, then spent half the flight complaining that he was overcharged. The guy next to him--the guy on the aisle--turned on his reading light. It flickered on and off, and continued to do so clear across the continent.

Flight to Chicago

I sat in the airport waiting room, waiting for my flight. I pulled out a book I had brought to read. I made sure to have a book with me, because waiting in airports and sitting on an airplane is so incredibly boring without something to read.

I opened the book. It began with an old man in a nursing home, desperate for any kind of excitement. Visitors. Something "real" to eat. Something exciting to see out the window. I began to ponder the similarities between nursing homes and airports.

I have decided that US Airways is the worst-managed airline. Their boarding procedure is so unhelpful that it takes a full 30 minutes to get everyone on the plane. They charge you for even one checked bag, so obviously, there is not enough space on the plane for all the carry-ons.

The plane was due to depart just after sunset. I found my seat and pressed the button to turn on my reading light. Nothing. I pressed it again. Nothing.

Nooooo!

The plane landed at O'Hare right at midnight, right on time. I took a taxi to my hotel and went to bed. The Pastors' Conference would begin the next day....

To be continued.