09 August 2007
A Quiet Day...
...after all the craziness, we had a quiet day today. I slept in, but Cindi was up at the crack of dawn, saying goodbye to our guests, throwing in laundry, vacuuming both the pool and the carpet, and cleaning and getting the house in order. I got up and made breakfast for us and then we leisurely read blogs and sipped coffee and tea for a while. The Maytag repairman came before noon and worked on our dishwasher - all up to snuff, Deo gratias! - and then after lunch, we spent some time in the pool. This afternoon we read a bit, and then Cindi made us some salsa chicken for dinner. Dave joined us (since Jo was on her road trip down Route 66 with Aunt Sandy). David was off to play practice and Bekah to clarinet lessons. Dave, Cindi and I enjoyed some games of sevens and then when Bekah got home we did a round of liverpool. All told it was a very restful day - just what was needed following the busy time with the wedding and visiting with family.
Did I understand it right that one of your brood will be at Concordia Seward down the road this Fall?
ReplyDeleteIf so, maybe he will run into Pastor Reek, who the last I knew was on the theology faculty there -- but some years back was at Beautiful Saviour here in Omaha and was the pastor who officiated at our wedding.
My discussions with Lutheran pastors were a little different then than now! What a joy it was to run into him a couple three years ago in Lincoln and let him know "the rest of the story" -- I've got think you pastors like to hear that once in a while the seeds you plant acutally grow!
Small world. Pastor Reek was an intentional interim pastor at a parish just to our north and I got to meet him then. Then he landed out at Seward and Lauren and Dean know him from there. He and his wife were invited to the wedding, but unable to attend. They sent a very kind note, though. And he's the pastor that married you and your dear wife! Amazing.
ReplyDeleteAmazing indeed. Posting late again -- it's Friday night, plus I had to mix it up over on Schuetz's blog some more. Maybe he's my EWTN. Gott hilf mir!
ReplyDeleteNancy and I each knew Pastor Reek personally, and she of course grew up LCMS. I at the time had no Christian belief, but was a Gentile believer in the God of Israel -- a Righteous of the Nations. That's a tough role, because where do you go to get married -- a civil wedding just didn't seem right when you do believe in a particular God.
We were at first going to be married by an Orthodox Rabbi (there being no other kind IMHO) in a non Jewish ceremony, but then he got booted for insisting on strict kashrut and left town. So Dirk agreed to do the wedding, but according to the current LCMS rite and with preparatory sessions.
Those sessions were incredible. He nailed both of us on ways we were talking past each other, and really improved our communication -- not to mention opening each of us to how we were unsuspectedly coming off to the other without even knowing it. I was impressed indeed by his level of insight.
But it also was my first conversation with a confessional pastor about Lutheranism, which at the time I thought was really admirable in trying to be authentically Catholic but, alas, not Catholic, though neither was "Catholic" anymore so there you are left a Righteous of the Nations. Sometime after he went on to other things after the parish here and we had no contact for some years until a chance meeting at an event in Lincoln. I'm sure he never thought I would "convert" let alone teach Sunday adult class and be an elder! Well, neither did I!
I will always be grateful to him for the positive impact he had, both on our marriage and on my faith.