Saturday, June 28, 2008

Vacation Bible School Post 2




OK, so some of you know by now. I couldn't stay away from VBS completely. I dropped in to sing and talk to the kids several times and came to the picnic at the end of the week. Our leaders Kelly Bloomer and Lynn McCandless did a fantastic job of coordinating the million tasks of a successful VBS. All the teachers, leaders, teens and parents who helped made it work well. I thank each of you.

We invite any of you who don't now have a church home to Sunday morning worship at 8:30 or 11:00.

Here are three photos that were sent to me from the last day. Vicar Barb and I are wearing our usual Sunday morning attire. She had a lot of fun smashing the pie in my face. Also pictured is my long time friend Suzanne who is here visiting for the weekend.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Vacation Bible School 2008


Larry is enjoying Vacation Bible School as always. He built this tree for the Rain Forest Adventure. The children can walk through it and so can any adult willing to bend over.

As the end of the sabbatical draws very close, I am looking forward to one more visit. My childhood friend who lives outside of Chicago is coming to spend the weekend. On Tuesday morning I will be back in the office, ready to resume ministry with all of you.

This sabbatical has been all that I had hoped it would be. Now the time has come to go back to work and I am ready.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Father's Day June 2008

The East Coast Hilbert males on Father's Day - Larry, Luther, Lewis, and Munson.

Great news - Laura and Marc are expecting a baby in early December and all of us are excited about being grandparents and uncles.

We have four granddogs - three in Denver and one in Chapel Hill and now we will have a grandbaby. Thanks be to God.

Two more weeks of this wonderful sabbatical - Tomorrow I go to Florida to visit my sister and next week to Georgia to visit a seminary classmate, and finally for the last four days of my sabbatical - a childhood friend is coming to visit.

After that, I will come back to work and be glad to see my St. James family.

Pastor Louise

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Pastor Marsha Anderson's Ordination



I took a brief sabbatical from my sabbatical on Friday night, June 6, to present our own Marsha Anderson to Bishop Bolick and the North Carolina Assembly in Hickory and said,

"I present for ordination to the holy ministry of Word and Sacrament Marsha Kate Anderson, who has been prepared, examined, and approved for this ministry and who has been called by the Church to the office of pastor."

The assembly responded with a loud, "Thanks be to God." And we in Marsha's home congregation respond as well, "Thanks be to God" for Marsha's hearing and responding to the call of God to serve God's people. Pastor Marsha will be doing a two year residency at Trinity Lutheran Church in Morehead, MN.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Vicar for 2008-2009, Meg Gross

Yesterday I went to Columbia to meet our vicar for next year at St. James. Meg Gross is from Pennsylvania and is a member of St. John's Lutheran Church, where one of my seminary classmates is the pastor. She is married to Steve who was at work so I didn't get to meet him. They have a black lab as well in the family. Meg and Steve will be in Fayetteville to visit on a Sunday in July to see where they will be living and doing ministry next year.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Working on my boat



Many of you have asked to see my boat. I made it in October 2006 with some other Lutheran and Methodist pastors in the mountains of North Carolina. As I have talked to some of them since that week, we have all agreed we haven't had time to finish them. Now I am in the process of sanding, scraping, painting, and fiberglassing (not in that order)so that I can put my boat in the water.

Our trip across the country was wonderful and we are glad to be home again.
More photos to come as we get back in the groove.

Pastor Louise & Larry

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Double Decker Decks in Denver



Larry and Marc have spent the week working on a deck for downstairs and then decided to go ahead and build one for an upstairs bedroom. The flooring is down, but the railings come tomorrow. They have worked long days doing this. Laura and I have been cooks, cleaners, organizers, scrap and garbage collectors, and generally do-ers of whatever needed doing.

Tonight we take the night off and have a birthday party for her. Today is also Marc and Laura's 5th wedding anniversary, so we are having a potluck Denver style. Lots of Mexican food, some Southern fare and who knows what else.

I visited a church today where no one spoke to me before the service and only two people did after it. Interesting how a stranger is received. I picked this church by their webpage welcome, but didn't find it to be so welcoming. I don't think anyone could get in the door at St. James without speaking to a handful of people. I certainly hope not.

We will be back in town at the end of the week, ready to see our own house and stuff. This has been an incredible trip and I have much to tell you about it.

Pastor Louise & Larry

Friday, May 23, 2008

Denver Week




North Presbyaterian Church called itself radically hospitable on the web so I decided to drop by on a weekday morning. The pastor was on vacation, but the sexton and jack of all trades was there. We had a wonderful visit as he told me about their ministries in the community. I hope to talk to the pastor before we leave, but if not, Joseph was a wonderful witness to a church that tries to live out Jesus command to love one another.

This mural is outside their church, painted by a friend of the congregation.

Look closely at the painting depicting in modern images the reality of loving your neighbor. You can see symbols of agents of hatred, but the love is overcoming all of that.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Yellowstone photos






Here are some shots from Yellowstone National Park which give you an idea of what we have seen the last two days.

Bison rule the roads in Yellowstone.

Old Faithful still goes off on schedule.

Bears entertain.

Mountain trees and valleys in the Park.

Oh, yeah, snow is good when it is 60' at the same time.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Dinosaur Fossils



Yesterday we saw the dinosaur museum in Dickinson, North Dakota. I discovered too late that I could have gone on a dinosaur dig for only $100. Larry was not interested and we will just have to come back someday.

Here are two photos from the museum. In one you see that mosquitoes have been around forever and in the other you see the actual skull of a dinosaur found in North Dakota.

Miles and Miles of Big Sky


Today we continued to drive through Big Sky country - North Dakota, Montana and finally arrived at our destination outside Yellowstone Park. We had a detour to the town of Miles City when our water pump died and took out a belt driving everything in the car. Fortunately we have AAA and we had just left a town only 8 miles back. It had both a tow truck and a repair shop, so after four hours in this very friendly Montana town, we were on the road again.

We got our first glimpse of the Rockies as we drove into Livingston, MT tonight to get ready for our adventure tomorrow.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Wide Open Spaces




This is what we have seen for two days from the car windows - wide open spaces in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana. Very different from North Carolina.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Great News from the Kuhlmanns

Larry and I called Elaine Kuhlmann while we were driving through Wisconsin today and discovered that we were 30 minutes away from the hospital where Ron was doing very well 48 hours after a liver transplant. We met them at the hospital and went up to see Ron. He is alert and talks about the miracle that occurred just when he needed it. We all prayed together giving thanks to God for this gift of life. Ron appreciates all your prayers and asks that you continue because he still needs them.

We are now in Minnesota, about 100 miles from where our own Marsha Anderson will be a pastor on staff in her first call at Trinity Lutheran, Moorhead. We also saw a sign to the Lake Wobegon Trail, but didn't get off the interstate to see where it led.

Dinosaur fossils tomorrow - yeah!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

New York Tourists

We toured the Statue of Liberty, saw Ground Zero, Times Square, and tried to see the Empire State Building but the rain made the visibility zero, so we stayed on the ground.

With all the languages spoken on the streets in NYC, we thought we might have gone to the Day of Pentecost except that we only understood English.

If you want to see the wonderful diversity of the human family, this is the place to go.

Miles Dostert and Pastor Manisha


Pastor Manisha who was our associate pastor five years ago and her son, Miles age 3 1/2 with Larry in their apartment in Bloomfield Hills, outside of Detroit. Miles' daddy, Troy, was at work with his students. Pastor Manisha is a pastor on staff at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in nearby Troy, Michigan. She sends her love to all the people at St. James.

New York City Sights



This is the Cathedral where the Bishop of the Episcopal Church in New York City worships. We heard a high school choir sing there and toured the building which is being rebuilt after a fire destroyed much of it in 2001.

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Family Time



For the past four days we have been with Larry's mother in Boyertown, PA. During that time we visited Longwood Gardens (see the photos) went to a Reading Phillies baseball game, fixed misc things in his mother's house, ate, slept, and enjoyed our time together.

Tomorrow we go to the Big Apple to visit with Trinity Lutheran Church of Manhattan. We will be staying at Union Seminary guest housing and hope to get some sight-seeing in as well.

After celebrating Pentecost with Pastor Heidi Neumark, we will begin our westward journey to see Pastor Manisha Dostert, Frank Lloyd Wright's house, Falling Waters, and then go west even further to see dinosaur fossils, Yellowstone Park, and end in Denver to visit our daughter Laura and son-in-law Marc and three granddogs. We will keep you posted.

Monday, May 5, 2008




Here is the chancel of The Church of the Redeemer (Episcopal) in Morristown, New Jersey where we worshiped. On Sunday I celebrated Holy Communion sharing a teaching moment for this congregation since Lutherans and Episcopalians are in full communion with each other. There were 24 worship assistants involved with worship leadership. I look forward to sharing with you all that we have learned from them and from the other places we have visited.

Redeemer supports a school and Sister Jane who runs it in Africa.

The AIDS walk gathered at Redeemer on the Sunday we were there and the money raised is used to support the Eric Johnson House where 7 persons with HIVAIDS live and receive care and counseling.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Episcopal and Lutheran Sisters and Brothers


We are in Morristown, New Jersey for the weekend. This morning I attended a confirmation service for confirmands from six churches in this district of the diocese. That is like a conference in our synod. In the Episcopal Church the bishop is the one to confirm and receive adults into the Episcopal communion. In the Lutheran Church pastors in the parish confirm and receive members.

Our services are very much alike and I was right at home. Tomorrow I will help celebrate communion at Redeemer and we will try to have some pictures. I am including a picture of the cathedral where we worshipped and a link to Redeemer so you can learn about the church we are visiting.

Sunday, April 27, 2008

A Week in the North Carolina Mountains



Larry and I enjoyed our week in the mountains, just sleeping until we woke up and reading, walking, and cooking for the fun of it. We attended St. Andrew's Lutheran Church where George Simmons is pastor. His daughter and our daughter were classmates at Lenior Rhyne.

We also worked on editing video from our visit to St. John's Atlanta for our DVD. From seven hours of conversation we have edited it to 30 minutes. We will be adding to it next weekend when we visit The Church of the Redeemer (Episcopal) in Morristown, NJ. We expect to have internet access from now on and so we can add to the blog more frequently.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Atlanta and Agape

Life is good. Sabbatical is good. Since the first blog many things have happened. Larry and I spent four days in Atlanta visiting St. John's Lutheran Church and learning what radical hospitality means to them. Each day we visited with folks who wanted to tell us their stories. St. John's describes its life using this mission statement, "A congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) that invites freely, loves unconditionally, and serves with joy."

I went to Emory with Pastor Brad Schmeling who teaches classes on liturgy for divinity school students as addition to being St. John's pastor. Larry and I went to a first for us, a mandolin orchestra concert, sponsored by Lutherans Concerned. We ate breakfast with Team Lutheran, a gathering of Atlanta Lutherans from all the Lutheran Churches in the metro area. Much of my time was spent interviewing 14 people, while Larry videotaped the conversations. We will be editing our interviews to share with you.

After a very busy four days, we came back to Fayetteville to rest. Monday afternoon, I began my quiet week at Agape. The carrot dangling on the stick that kept me going during the busy seasons of Advent/Christmas and Lent/Holy Week was these days apart and in quiet. IT WAS WONDERFUL! As much as I love people, I needed a chance to hear silence.

Now we are home for a few days preparing to go to the mountains for a week. Each day I look at the prayer weaving (in a photo when we are not here), I see who is praying for us and I give thanks to God for the people of St. James who have made this sabbatical possible. You are very dear to us. Thank you all.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

What a great send-off!


It's finally April 1 and we are officially on sabbatical. Sunday we were sent off in worship with a Godspeed and Farewell Blessing and lots of hugs. At the luncheon after church we received the most amazing gift - a prayer weaving with 200 prayers from folks in the congregation, from tiny children in the nursery to respected elders and from former interns. In addition we were given a print copy of all the prayers so we don't have to take apart the weaving to read them.

I hope all of you know how much you are loved by the two of us and how special the day was for us.

On Thursday we will meet last year's intern, Matt O'Rear for lunch on our way to Atlanta where we will spend four days visiting with a radically hospitable church, St. John's Lutheran. We will be sharing what we learn as we go along.

I am learning how to blog, so stick with me.

Pastor Louise