GroshLink

It looks like crop circles are popping up next to our house, but if all goes well in a few months we'll have corn, beans, and squash, not aliens.

 

 

It's our first go at a Three Sisters Garden, named for the 3 sisters of corn, beans, and squash. The first step was clearing the weeds from a fallow, but former farm field next to our house. Uncle Jay did that on Monday night. The second step happened on Tuesday when Tom roto-tilled the area. The third step came on Wednesday when I (Theresa) sprayed the area with Round Up. If thistles were a cash crop we could retire now. So hopefully the spraying will save us hours of toil. Even after being tilled there were still some buggers standing their ground (pardon the pun). Step four occurred Thursday (today) when I made 20 mounds of earth, approx. 2 feet in diameter and 2 feet apart. Then I planted 6 corn seeds in a circle in the center of each mound. I way underestimated the number of seeds in a seed packet and in addition to the 2 packets I didn't even open I was able to plant 2 additional rows of corn on the garden perimeter. We'll call these the Big Brothers. I watered my mounds and rows and now we wait for God to work His magic. After the corn seedlings are a few inches tall I'll plant the beans, in a circle outside of the corn. I'll also thin the corn to 1-2 stalks per mound. After the beans sprout I'll plant the squash, you guessed it, in a circle outside of the beans! The plan is for the beans to climb the cornstalk and the squash to spread out and shade the soil around the other plants.

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In an on-line discussion group I assembled the below resources to encourage further consideration of our call to care for creation. One item which came out of the various posts was my awareness of the importance for a shared framework and developing forums for face-to-face conversations featuring the likes of and/or the works of the below followers of Christ:

1. Ed Brown, author of Our Father's World:  Mobilizing the Church to Care for Creation and director of of Care of Creation
2. Cal DeWitt, Environmental Studies Professor at U. of Wisconsin, author of Caring for Creation: Responsible Stewardship of God's Handiwork (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), speaker for a number of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship conferences, and lead figure in Ausable (See On-line Resources, More On-Line Resources)
3. Loren Wilkinson, Regent College, Earthkeeping in the Nineties: Stewardship of Creation (rev. ed.)
4. Evangelical Environmental Network's On-line Adult Sunday School Resources, Additional On-Line Resources

PS.  I've found, How about those Southern Baptists [who] Back a Shift on Climate Change a conversation starter ;-)

PPS.  Placing Ben Lowe's new Green Revolution: Coming Together to Care for Creation on the to read pile.

Note:   Emailed to support team members on 5/13.  If you would like to be added to our support team mailings (email and/or snail mail), let us know.

Followers of Jesus struggle with culture.  Sometimes we try to escape the culture and other times we ‘consume’ culture too readily, to use one of Andy’s terms.  To partner with InterVarsity’s Graduate & Faculty Ministry and host Andy Crouch offered our church a unique opportunity to delve deeper into questions about culture.  It also provided a chance to facilitate great discussions between graduate students, informed laypeople and Christian scholars in the area. Thanks to Tom Grosh for making it possible.

-- Steve Lane, Senior Pastor of Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ, InterVarsity - U. of New Hampshire alumnus

Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ,

A brief update to share a praise, a prayer request, and fiscal year end newsletter (Click here). As always, much more to be found at http://www.groshlink.net, and http://blog.emergingscholars.org, e.g., Christianity needs to be unfashionable on campus.

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I've been wondering whether Americans can cook (and encouraging a pastor from our congregation to host a community cooking class/trainer ... which probably would be a good thing for me), now the question is whether Americans can freeze. If you're looking for some tips on using the freezer, click here for a full report from yesterday's New York Times. 

Note:  Theresa doesn't need any help in this area, but feel free to post a few extra pointers for me ;-)

Note:  the below adapted from an email to our support team.  If you desire to receive monthly email updates from us, drop us a line.

The InterVarsity event on April 19th was quite enjoyable due to the fact that it enlightened Christians on how to apply faith in Jesus to our work and allowed people from different fields to learn from each other like a family. -- Sergey, a first year Spanish Major at Millersville University

Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ, A brief update to share a prayer request, a praise, and the May prayer calendar. Please print the calendar for posting in a high traffic area like the refrigerator and/or keeping with your Bible/prayer journal. As always, many additional updates on this blog, e.g., Conversation with two elders from the Church of Latter Day Saints.

Prayer request: Tomorrow Eden has an adenoidectomy along with a replacement of an ear tube.

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Yesterday in the first of this series, I mentioned the painter Makoto Fujimura, but how about John Donne's description of the separation of distance between lovers in travel as Like gold to airy thinness beat? 

Our two souls therefore, which are one,

Though I must go, endure not yet

A breach, but an expansion,

Like gold to airy thinness beat.

-- A Valediction* Forbidding Mourning (1611)

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Last Sunday when preaching at Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ, Andy Crouch mentioned the work of painter Makoto Fujimura.  

The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass. -- for more visit Revelation 21 and http://www.culture-making.com/tag/makoto+fujimura.

When scrolling through Fujimura's various works on-line, Ellen particularly liked A Face Still Forming  

It's hard for me to choose, they're all so rich.  Here's one with the gold!

Fire Mountains (24 x 36 in., gold and mineral pigments on paper), by Makoto Fujimura, from the exhibition Charis, at the Dillon Gallery , New York City, through 2 Aug 2008

As you may remember from the article Donegal School District Referendum 2?, I participated in a Donegal School District consensus making meeting after the failed referendum. To evaluate how well the material was processed and whether there would be the pursuit of wider consensus building, I attended the April 7 Donegal School Board meeting (Note: minutes available here). For the most part, yesterday's Lancaster County newspaper article Residents comment on approaches to 2nd referendum in Donegal* patched together my public comments in an understandable/readable manner.  As you might suspect I had a few more thoughts and illustrations which flowed during my time at the microphone.  But the below quote accurately summarizes my bottom line:

"Without further community understanding, your aren't going to get much with 85 people," he said. "I don't think this information is known, and, without it, I think going ahead you are in big trouble."

This summer marks three years back home and from the landfill to township recycling** to the school district referendum, we find ourselves unable to avoid the call to become re-engaged in the nitty gritty-ness of culture making.  (More)

Now that it's after Easter, time to share my joy in reading Whoopie! Cookie, Pie or Cake, It's Having Its Moment (by Micheline Maynard, NY Times, 3/18/2009).  Whoopie pies are one of my favorite desserts and periodic pumpkin whoopie pies are quite a treat.  How about this assessment of real whoopie pies?

Many of the whoopie pies sold in Maine come sheathed in plastic wrap. Generally sold for less than $2, they can be found stacked next to cash registers, the dry cake growing moister by the hour. “If you peel the Saran off and half the cookie doesn’t come away, it’s not a real whoopie pie,” Ms. Oliver said.

Note:  Check out the accompanying recipe, another on-line recipe at PA Dutch Country Blog.

Looking for Easter materials to follow up to Christine Sine's 2009 Lenten Guide: A Journey Into Wholeness?  Check out Christine Sine's Easter Guide Is Here . ... We'll dive into the new creation/resurrection material next week.  If you have practices, texts, and prayers from this season which you'd recommend for our family and/or our work InterVarsity Christian Fellowship's Gradute & Faculty Ministry, drop us a note.  Thank-you.

The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.  They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, "Hosanna!"  "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"  "Blessed is the King of Israel!"  Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written, "Do not be afraid, O Daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey's colt." -- John 12:12-15 NIV via BibleGateway.com

This evening our family debriefed Palm Sunday (John 12:12-19 & Matthew 21:1-11) and embraced the Holy Week journey through the lens of Christine Sine's Lenten Guide 2009.  The neighborhood Palm Sunday procession sounds like a good idea for next year, in anticipation we might try an extended family demo this year w/Eden's New Bike leading the procession. 

Expanding upon our Who do you trust today (tomorrow, for years to come) series,* we asked the question where do we find our primary identity?  As the Son of Man/Son of God, we too find our primary identity in our countercultural, new creation call from the God the Father and NOT from the fickle crowds/cultural norms by which we're surrounded.  Easier to say than to live.  Looking forward to Andy Crouch's culture making encouragement the first Sunday after Easter!

Although I wrestled with reading Christine's personal reflection upon being a premature infant who spent the first month of her life in hospital,** our children didn't find it difficult to listen to or consider.  Why?  The memory of our first child, Elise Faith is regularly mentioned in our household by Eden.  She loves to celebrate Elise Faith's birthday and share about how her baby sister, who died due to premature birth complications, now waits for us to join her in dancing on the streets that are golden. (Note: For some my reflections visit One more day & Addressing the skeptic).

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Last night I participated in the Donegal School District consensus making meeting.  Overall the gathering went well, i.e., there were no loud, angry confrontations and it seemed that everyone had opportunity to share and common threads among those present were obvious.  But next steps which will lead to a successful referendum are not readily apparent.  AND there does not appear to be relief from the state as the school board reports their conversations with state representatives at their last school board meeting raised little hope of changing Act 1.  Note:  School board minutes posted here and click this link for the Lancaster Sunday News article Money for ... what? Educators await details of stimulus.

Details:

The Donegal Springs Elementary School (DSE) gym was divided in half with the public gathered in 14 round table groups with 8 chairs each and the board sitting at 'a long table' below the stage.  After an overview of the evening, each table group received 1 facilitator for the school board/district.  This filled out most of the tables and even added seating at several.  As such, I'd estimate 110-120 in the room. 

The facilitator walked through the first four questions of a "Community Survey for a Building Project Referendum," which will be made available on the District website (More)

The Journey into the Brokenness of Homelessness is much different living in Central PA than Pittsburgh, PA.  Several years ago, when I biked and walked around Oakland each day, I met a number of homeless people.  In addition, I had the opportunity to connect with various urban ministries, including our local congregation (Allegheny Center C&MA), serving the whole city. 

But in the country and the small villages/towns of Central PA, poverty is not as evident.  Yes, we encounter lower income members of this community.  But they are not on the street.  Yes, we contribute what we can to our local congregation's (Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ) involvement with the clothing bank, food bank, and single mother's ministry. And yes, we have friends/family who are unemployed, but they are cared for by family and area ministries/congregations.

What's poverty? For our family to receive a better exposure to worldwide poverty, we let several World Hunger Programme videos do the talking:

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So how did we do with the Second Week of Lent: Journey into the Brokenness of Hunger?*

Turns out we didn't miss going grocery shopping at all.  And the girls understood the commitment not to eat dessert for the week.  Tom (who has a very strong sweet tooth) extended the no dessert fast into the third week, breaking the fast during a celebration for the labors of three colleagues with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.  He returned to the fast, breaking for a time with extended family on the Sabbath and for a social with support team members last night.  Note:  Tom's fast includes no brown sugar on his daily bowl of breakfast oatmeal.

I'm still not quite sure how one tallies the cost of meals, particularly since we've been blessed with gifts of food from a number of people over the course of the past 2 weeks.  But we'll work on this further while digging into more plain cheerios and tuna.  Lord willing, we'll have the opportunity to watch the World Food Programme Video as a family sometime over the course of the weekend.

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: ... to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter. -- Isaiah 58:6-7  (More)

To keep me up-to-date on the family, Theresa passed the below email.  Good stuff, thought I'd share it w/you. 

Lily has refused her baby cereal all week. I gave her Cheerios this morning and she wolfed them down. Didn't gag once. Thankfully she still eagerly eats her baby yogurt b/c we have 24 containers!

Ellen reluctantly practiced her guitar for 10 min. today and afterward shouted that she loved me! Apparently the practice went better than she anticipated.

This week begins the Journey into the Brokenness of Hunger.* I've decided (wimped out?) that the Mutunga Challenge would be too difficult for our family at the stage of life we're in (small children and nursing mom who is constantly hungry). Although I do try to be conscientious about our food budget on a regular basis, I'm sure we typically exceed $2 per person per day. I've decided not to go grocery shopping this week. If you'd look in our freezer and pantry you'd probably say "Duh!" Where's the sacrifice there? Our shelves are overflowing.

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Dear Friends and Family,

Hayley and I have been going to an after school program called Good News Club (only on Tuesdays). I guess your wondering what we do there?

We memorize Bible verses, we sing /learn sign language. When we come, we get a snack like Rice crispy treats and animal crackers that, we only get once (the leaders give us something new each time). Hope more of my friends can come! Ask me about it, I hope to see you there!

Sincerely,
Ellen H. Grosh

Boom.  Boom.  Boom.

That's the sound of Lily hitting milestones.  And it seems about that fast too.  She made her first forward crawling motion last Monday (2/16) and became a proficient crawler on Saturday (2/21).  The sitting-still stage was so nice while it lasted.  Now nothing is safe, as her sisters are quickly finding out.  She can gobble up a homework paper faster than you can say my baby sister ate my homework. I need to vacuum about every other day because Lily puts everything in her mouth and I'm just not comfortable with her eating leftovers she finds under the dining room table.  During the (literally) one minute that I walked away from her today she knocked over the (thankfully empty) kitchen trash can and was trying to chew on the garbage bag. 

She's also started to babble more -- d's and m's.  I'm so much more aware of the developmental markers with Lily.  With Ellen and Hayley I just took their development for granted.  With Eden I watched her so closely to see when she reached long awaited milestones.  I still do.  Just last week she took her shirt off by herself.  If she was typical for her age I would have reprimanded her because it was not an appropriate situation to remove one's shirt.  But I was just so thrilled to watch her do it I let her go.  Never again will I take typical development for granted.

Lily has mastered the belly-to-sitting maneuver. I get a knot in my stomach just thinking about how few days are left before she's crawling. Yikes. The honeymoon is soon over.

In other news, we had Eden's IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting this past week. It's great to see "officially" the progress she has made this past year. She will continue at STARS preschool at Schreibers two mornings a week. It's a fabulous place. Major goals in each of the areas include: (PT) Walking in a more balanced, controlled manner. (OT) Managing self-care activities such as dressing herself. (Speech) Making the "s" and "f" sounds in conversation. (Classroom) Playing cooperatively with peers. There are many more goals, but that's a sample. Her teacher told me of a funny situation during circle time when Eden stood up in front of everyone and belted out "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" (a Sunday School version). She says there's a video of it so maybe we'll acquire that some day.

If you're unfamiliar w/the Terrible Towel and how it benefits the common good, take a few minutes to read For Terrible Towels, a Wonderful Legacy (NY Times article).  If you have stories to share regarding the Terrible Towel and your family, share them below.  Here are some pictures of our girls during the first half of night's game.

  

PS.  In case you haven't already done such, take a minute to observe Intelligent life from space waves the Terrible Towel (youtube post of communication from the International Space Station.  HT to Joe).

Thank-you to my friend Joe who shared this link to communication from the International Space Station, Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke, a Pittsburgh native, who showed his true colors as he offered encouragement for the Pittsburgh Steelers in a downlink message from the station on Jan. 16, 2009.

As part of the subsequent Facebook conversation regarding the message I stated:

Yes, both intelligent life above (in the space station) and below place a lot of confidence in steel and the "men of steel" ... nothing less than a "new creation" of iron, carbon, and various other elements (including some impurities which are in process of refinement).

Game time approaches and we'll see what's in the Cards when they face 'da Steel Curtain with Big Ben at the offensive helm.  I must confess if Warner pulls this off, he'll have quite the NFL underdog success story (coupled with his run with the Rams).

Quick update: Lily Joy (6/13) continues to be a great joy. She's downing homemade baby food, see Lily's First Meal, and is close to crawling.  Look at that reach!

Last night I came as close as I ever expect to come at being a Jeopardy contestant.  I took the Jeopardy online test which is only given at specific times, i.e. you can't just log on and take it whenever you want to.  It was 50 questions and you have 15 seconds to answer each one.  No going back.

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Still, when we ask ourselves which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand.  The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is the friend who cares. -- Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude, recently posted by cultureisnotoptional (cino).

Amen! We rejoice in God's gift of calling a number of His people to walk with our family.  Furthermore, we pray that the Father may grant us the grace, humility, and opportunity to serve others in a similar manner on campus, in our local assembly, in our family, and to wherever we are called.

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After breakfast, I had a conversation with the twins regarding the inauguration and oath-taking after which we prayed for the new President using a prayer written/posted by Scot McKnight (w/an addition found in the second comment). Thank-you Scot.  Good material.

What's the word about the inauguration around your house, neighborhood, workplace? Any thoughts/comments/prayers to share? Note: Hayley and I Remembered Martin Luther King, Jr. last night by watching/discussing the below video of the I Have a Dream Speech (text here).