I've had several friends encourage, cajole, and maybe even threaten me a little about writing the book. You know the one, it's the one that resides in everyone's mind, the life story, the account of great--or maybe not so great--things he or she may have accomplished.
After listening to many, and having read a couple books by good friends in my profession, I guess it's really time to do that. The final thrust came as I finished one such book just today, often laughing so hard I had tears running down my face.
Much of it will come from the Game Warden Files posts, and that will be the working title of the book. I'm putting a deadline on myself of having a working manuscript ready the time Peggy and I head for Maine--probably the latter part of June.
Stay tuned and keep me encouraged. Off on the new adventure.
Friday, January 16, 2015
Saturday, January 10, 2015
A Long Hiatus, Yet Again
When someone on a forum asked for any of us who had blogs to post the links, I went "Um...will my link still work?" Yeah, it's been months again, and though I probably could have made some posts, I just have not made it a priority. Maybe I can explain how hectic life has been.
In January and February I had opportunities to preach in a couple churches. One is pastored by a good friend who would be on vacation. The other was the church I'd grown up in, down in East Chatham about 80 miles away while its pastor was doing some work in Africa.
I had a great time with both groups, preaching twice in each church. My wife got to join me for one of the Sundays in E. Chatham and we spent the rest of the afternoon with some old friends...oops, make that friends of long standing...in the area.
A couple weeks later, I had a mid-afternoon phone call on a Saturday asking "How are you at short notice?" Seems a local pastor had left a church suddenly and their scheduled pulpit supply for that next day had developed a conflict. One thing led to another and before long I wan't just the preacher, I was the interim pastor.
Preaching is really pretty easy. If you put the prayer and preparation into the message, the presentation is usually not that difficult. That said, when done with a 20 minute message, I'm most often drenched with sweat and my hands are generally ice cold--yeah, sort of an odd combination, but that's the way I am. It's fun; but it is work. Trying to grasp the dynamics of an organization such as a church, and tread the ever-present minefield of relationships (present in all churches, by the way) is challenging. They surely didn't teach me that stuff in the police academy! We've started a couple new programs and the church seems to be moving along well. Thankfully, this is a church filled with servants. Though small, the congregation works to keep it running pretty smoothly, and most everyone pitches in to get what must be done, done. God is indeed good.
In other news, I'm now officially old in that I've filed for my Social Security. My first check hits the bank the end of next month. That means that I have to really watch my monthly income from the church, my two police jobs, our little Christmas tree farm, and whatever else I might dabble in. So, as much as I've loved teaching the DARE program, I'll wrap it up in May or June and hand it over to another Deputy that I pretty much hand picked. She'll do a great job, I'm sure. I'll be staying with both the agencies, though limiting my work to a couple court details, a few village patrol days every month and firearms training.
Since I mentioned trees, we had a great year in our Christmas tree farm, selling more trees than before and giving more away, with those going to the Baptist Church of Northville--still our home church, and the Sacandaga Bible Conference. Some of most beautiful trees went to the Bible Conference this year and were gorgeous for the Christmas program.
In the middle of all this, we've kept up our traveling, even taking our 14 year old grand girl with us on a trip to Maine late in the summer. We also made our annual pilgrimage to Beaverdam in Tennessee for the encampment of the Christian Game Warden Support Group. At the moment, we're really looking for someplace warm for our end of winter trip. Stay tuned....I might even get around to posting that.
In January and February I had opportunities to preach in a couple churches. One is pastored by a good friend who would be on vacation. The other was the church I'd grown up in, down in East Chatham about 80 miles away while its pastor was doing some work in Africa.
I had a great time with both groups, preaching twice in each church. My wife got to join me for one of the Sundays in E. Chatham and we spent the rest of the afternoon with some old friends...oops, make that friends of long standing...in the area.
A couple weeks later, I had a mid-afternoon phone call on a Saturday asking "How are you at short notice?" Seems a local pastor had left a church suddenly and their scheduled pulpit supply for that next day had developed a conflict. One thing led to another and before long I wan't just the preacher, I was the interim pastor.
Preaching is really pretty easy. If you put the prayer and preparation into the message, the presentation is usually not that difficult. That said, when done with a 20 minute message, I'm most often drenched with sweat and my hands are generally ice cold--yeah, sort of an odd combination, but that's the way I am. It's fun; but it is work. Trying to grasp the dynamics of an organization such as a church, and tread the ever-present minefield of relationships (present in all churches, by the way) is challenging. They surely didn't teach me that stuff in the police academy! We've started a couple new programs and the church seems to be moving along well. Thankfully, this is a church filled with servants. Though small, the congregation works to keep it running pretty smoothly, and most everyone pitches in to get what must be done, done. God is indeed good.
In other news, I'm now officially old in that I've filed for my Social Security. My first check hits the bank the end of next month. That means that I have to really watch my monthly income from the church, my two police jobs, our little Christmas tree farm, and whatever else I might dabble in. So, as much as I've loved teaching the DARE program, I'll wrap it up in May or June and hand it over to another Deputy that I pretty much hand picked. She'll do a great job, I'm sure. I'll be staying with both the agencies, though limiting my work to a couple court details, a few village patrol days every month and firearms training.
Since I mentioned trees, we had a great year in our Christmas tree farm, selling more trees than before and giving more away, with those going to the Baptist Church of Northville--still our home church, and the Sacandaga Bible Conference. Some of most beautiful trees went to the Bible Conference this year and were gorgeous for the Christmas program.
In the middle of all this, we've kept up our traveling, even taking our 14 year old grand girl with us on a trip to Maine late in the summer. We also made our annual pilgrimage to Beaverdam in Tennessee for the encampment of the Christian Game Warden Support Group. At the moment, we're really looking for someplace warm for our end of winter trip. Stay tuned....I might even get around to posting that.
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