It is finished

Done, Kaputt. I have just finished my final final. My second career at Hesson College is completed. I don't plan to come back for a third. But then again, 13 years ago I didn't plan to come back for a second time. I am eagerly anticipating this weekend:
-commissioning service
-lots of family
-maybe some golfing
-lots of friends
-reading for fun and personal growth
-continuing the transition that has started
How about you?

Swartz's are here

They arrived at 6am this morning.  Right now there is a lot of "noise":)  IT's beautiful.  It is good to see them and for the children to interact with each other again.

Last night was a little late, for me.  The Ministry Assistants got together for a celebration party.  We went to Druber's at 11:30 and got home at 1:30 or so.  I studied until I was tired and went to bed.  One more test at 10am and then I'm done for a while.  Maybe a long while.

Plan B was great

Courtney and I just got back from Exploration place in Wichita.  The people we were going to ride to the zoo with wanted to hang with us.  It was a good time with Corine (sp?) and her dad, Derek Yoder.  We played hard and finished the day off with Braum's Ice Cream.  I was curious what Capp stood for in Courtney's Capp Chocolate Ice Cream.  That would be Cappuccino!  No wonder the lady looked at me funny when I gave it to my 5 year old:)

Now it's time to print and turn in a project, pick up Emberlynn and Alyssa at a friends house, and then go to supper with Suzanne at the college Cafeteria.  Emberlynn was looking forward to going to a friends house by herself today.  She doesn't often get to do that.

Update on the zoo

Well... they canceled the zoo trip:(  We are going to have to make it another day.  We (Courtney and I) are very sad.  I am sure the animals are sad too.  They were going to have a great group of children visiting them.  Sad sad day.  Well, we are going to have to come up with a remedial schedule now.  

Looking forward to seeing family from Ohio (Merv, Ruby, Carlin, Sandy, Sherri, Dan, Brianna, Brandon), and friends from Shickley this weekend.  Both our sets of parents are coming together and staying at our house.  My Sister and her family are staying at some of my brother-in-law's relatives.  Speaking of zoo's, this weekend will be a happy one:)

I choose the zoo

Today is reading day at the college.  It is also Courtney's preschool zoo day.  Should I read or go to the zoo?  Silly question.  I am going to the zoo with Courtney!

It is going to be a great day.  Just the two of us... and a bunch of her friends.  These are times that must be cherished.

Last night it rained, alot.  We were eating pizza with some friends, and the restaurant we were at sent us home early.  They were concerned about the storm that was happening outside.  It rained so much that the black pipe and it's cement squares disappeard under the water in the ditch behind our yard.  We watched debris and logs tumble down the "river".  The water actually was deep enough that it was touching the bottom of the bridges on Weaver and Main.  We were concerned that they would cancel the zoo trip if it was raining today.  So far so good.

I am becoming a pastor

For those of you who didn't read the last two posts or who I haven't talked to in awhile, read those posts and then read on. The candidating weekend went really well. I felt real good about the sermon and many of the conversations that I had. Salem Mennonite Church of Shickley, Nebraska.
Salem voted on Sunday morning and I got a call soon after noon. It was a positive vote and they invited me to become their pastor. I accepted. I am thrilled, excited, elated. And just a tiny bit scared. That will probably increase as the time approaches, and on quiet days as I reflect. But I am becoming a pastor.
It has been a great experience to learn and grow in the Pastoral Ministry of Hesston College, Clinical Pastoral Education at Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, KS, and Supervised Ministry with John Murray at Hesston Mennonite Church. All three of those experiences I would not trade, and I would highly recommend to anyone that has an inclination.
God is working in and through a person that is willing and called. I am becoming a pastor.

I got a phone call a couple minutes ago

We are moving to Nebraska!

More later.

Big Weekend

We are heading to our first candidating weekend on this Friday evening.  It is about a 3 hour drive straight North.  We will be staying with a member of the search committee.

Saturday involves an open house from 10-noon.  This will provide a time to meet and be met by the people from the church.  Later in the afternoon we will meet with the Elders of the church to talk business and religion, I am assuming.  Then, once we come to an agreement, we can go out to supper.  I hope our combined hunger will make us all agreeable:)

Sunday involves me preaching during the worship service.  This is followed by a carry-in meal.  Followed by a question and answer time.

The following Wednesday with be a church meeting, and the following Sunday will be time for the church vote.

We are excited!  I am looking forward to meeting more people of the church and progressing in discernment.  Please pray with us that God will lead in the discussions and in the quiet.

Post Lent

As you may recall from my earlier posts about lent, I had forsaken the use of non-school and non-candidating internet access on Mondays through Saturdays during the 40 days of lent.  Well we celebrated Easter yesterday!  He is Risen!  He is Risen Indeed!

This has been a good learning/growing experience.  My intention for lent was to reduce the amount of time and energy that I was spending doing less important things, so that I could spend that time and energy doing more important things.  Was I successful in resisting the temptation to use internet?  Was I successful in becoming a spiritual giant?  The answers are no and no.

But I was successful in reorienting my priorities and connecting with God.  It goes like this:  spend less time on the computer, get my school work done earlier, spend more time with my family, feel more connected with people and less rushed, drawn to reflect on my relationship with God, talk to God about that = success.  Isn't that the whole point?  To connect with God!  Plus there were all the side benefits of relationships with people and being less stressed and disconnected with myself.  Finally, I have realized how less important it is to know what is going on in the internet.  This has been a good discipline, but it isn't complete.  It is a continuous process of refinement.  Just like our relationships with God.  It isn't a one time prayer or commitment.  It is all about everyday, moment by moment, being transformed into the image of Christ.

Do you have conficker worm?

I decided this might be the easiest way to disseminate information, partly because if you are infected, then the worm keeps you from getting to security sites that can help you out. Hopefully everyone is clean.
Here is an explanation of what we are talking about.

Here is a test to see if you are infected:

McAfee detection tool, you may have to use another computer to download it.

According to some reading I did, AVG should detect it and remove it.  Some other antivirus should do that as well.  However, if you're antivirus is out of date, then you probably can't update it if you are infected.  So back to using the test at the link above entitled, "here is a test to see if you are infected."

Microsoft site has the patch that would have kept you from being infected, the tool to remove it, and instructions on how to manually remove it.  However, once again if you are infected, you probably can't go there.

Additionally, James (in the comments) added a link to the Sophos detection and removal tool.