I am a meteorologist and a former youth leader at church…I have a lot to say on both subjects…and then some
As I type this, we are travelling to Pittsburgh for the National
Youth Workers Convention. Mary and I are in the truck and Paul and
Lisa are in their car. We left this morning about 1130 am. A little
later than we wanted to, but we are underway. It has been a pretty
good day of travel as we have FRS radios to talk to each other. We
realized that we have tomorrow off, so we can sleep in, before the
convention starts.
I always look forward to these conventions, besides listening to the
seminars about youth ministry, this is a time for me to take a rest
before the wnter season at work. Mary and I were looking forward to
this before we got married anyway, but now we are married, so this is
kind of like another mini-honeymoon.
The one thing about the convention I like is the contemplative prayer
services that are available (I know John Wesley meditated, but I
think at times I am a closet Quaker). This has always been a great
time to get recentered.
I will be blogging about this as the weekend goes on this weekend, so
stay tuned for details….
Jeff Lutz
KC8CWI
https://www.geocities.com/jeff_s_lutz
Ive finally gotten a chance to type about the wedding! Im not sure
how much detail Ill go into, but I will refer you to Dads blog for
his take on it. As a couple of previous posts that I have put up,
there are pictures. Just as an aside, as I type, we are speeding
along the Ohio Turnpike to the National Youth Workers convention this
year in PIttsburgh.
Okay, so people kept asking whether I was nervous. I was nervous only
in the respect that we were trying to pull together all of the things
we were planning. Also, at the same time, the Emmaus community that
Mary and I belong to, was putting on the Mens Walk that weekend in
Alpena. Im one of the two housing coordinators, and second one just
came on the board of directors a couple weeks before. So I was trying
to plan two things at once.
Thursday night, was the rehearsal. That went well with Pastor naile
and Pastor Hawkins guiding us through the ceremony. Mom, Dad, Amy,
Bren and the boys all came in during the afternoon and were there.
This was great fun, although, my nerves, began to get the better of
me, taking my appetite.
Friday, Paul Block and I and Lisa Block and Mary all went out and
finished the last minute things. By the time I got home, it was 400
pm I tried to relax, but had to turn around and head off to the
church around 530 pm to be there by 600 pm to begin the process. When
I got to the church I realized that I had no undershirt. I called M&D
to bring one. I was the last one of the wedding party to get dressed.
The time came for us to get into position. Mike Cooper (my best man),
Paul Block, and I were put into the sachristy to wait for Mary and
her bridesmaids (both of them her dauthers) to get into their
postion. The time came and Rev. John came into the room and lead us
out. We moved out and stood in postion. Only 9am and Joanna Bozin
were playing beautifully, as first Karlie and then Trisha walked up
the aisle and into place. Then Joanna and Dan played the wedding
march and in came Mary and Kaleb. My heart leapt as I saw here in her
dress and realized that this was all of God.
Kaleb gave away his mother by saying that our family does. How true.
The kids have allowed me into their lives and have approved of their
mothers choice of husbands.
The rest of the wedding, wasnt a blur, but it would sound kind of
robotic, saying next we resited the vows, then we lit the unity
candle. Needlless to say, that we are now hitched. It was a beautiful
service. The next 2 hours were a blur as we talked to family and
friends, before heading to Marsh Ridge resort for the night.
The next morning, we drove back to the house and saw both sides of
the famly and had brunch. Then slowly, people began to leave and
suddenly the two of us were left. We then packed up again and drove
to Alpena.
Now dont think that we were there to help with the walk for our
honeymoon. Rather, we went to the Emmaus candlelight service and
celebrated the place that we first met. Yes two years ago when the
walk was held in Alpena Mary and I first met. We didnt start courting
until a year later, but we both gave it up to God, that if we were to
get together He would make it happen. Of course, I say that knowing
that we barely talked two years ago and neither expressed that we
found each other cute.
So that was the wedding and now we start the rest of our lives.
Jeff Lutz
KC8CWI
https://www.geocities.com/jeff_s_lutz
While I was working, Mary uploaded the pictures to Flickr. So take a look!
Here are some initial pictures from the wedding. Many were taken by my 4 year old nephew, Truman. I’m still hoping to get our pictures up on Flickr soon. Enjoy!
Whew! The last two weeks have been busy! I’ll have a post of the wedding hopefully soon. We got our pictures back from our photographer, so I’ll hopefully have them posted on Flickr soon as well.
We also had an Emmaus Walk(well two if you seperate out the two weekends for the men’s and women’s walks) squeezed in there as well.
We are currently getting the house merged and getting it set up for the Kids to have their own rooms by this weekend.
Like I said busy!
Happy Birthday yesterday DAD!
I have been in choir now off and on for the past 35 years or so. It started as a 5 year old in a kids choir at the Audubon United Methodist Church just outside of Camden, NJ. It continued until I was 18 at Fennville UMC. The next few years were spotty as college, and a job with odd hours deterred me from continuing with something that I have always loved doing. I finally was able to get into a choir regularly in 1998 when I moved to Jackson, KY. There at the First United Methodist Church, God “spoke” to me and I served Him with my voice.
Then next year (1999), I moved to Gaylord, MI and joined the choir at the First UMC of Gaylord. I was floored when the first year that I was in the choir they asked me to sing a duet in the Christmas cantata. Things have moved well since. However, this year will be different. With me getting married, and with that kids, I am now seeing that I will have to take a hiatus. In a way God “spoke” to me again and said that its time to retool and put my energy into the youth groups and my new family.
I once heard an interview with Amy Grant about one of her albums that was made up of hymns. She remarked that it was the hymns that taught her theology. Well, in a way, it has been the same with me. The words of the songs that I have sung over the years are in my heart and has helped me get to where I am today. So this hasn’t been an easy decision, but after much prayer, I have come to a peaceful decision. Now I have to tell the choir later today. Those of the choir that know this is coming have been supportive. However, being a somewhat sentimental person, it is a little hard to let go, but God is always here, and I know that while I won’t be singing now, I will be back in the future.
I was listening to the most emailed stories podcast by NPR during the afternoon and one of the articles caught my attention. Brian Unger asks when is the best time for blame. I posted earlier about getting tired of the blame and to just begin to help and heal those who need it. I agree with him in that those officials that caused the bottleneck in supplies getting to the region should be held accountable.
My biggest problem over the past week was that it seemed to be only the Feds that screwed up (however, if you listen to the timeline that NPR (part 1 and part 2) put together you will realize that it was at all levels) and that was all we were hearing. There are times, and now is one of those times, when I’m glad I don’t have my satellite TV service anymore. The 24 hour news networks hammer things over and over in a droning mantra, no wonder people get depressed with the what goes on in the world. I’m content to hear periodic news summaries and see the news from time to time at work, not to mention, that’s about all I have time for.
Thanks to John, who pointed me to the place on Blogger where I can keep the comments active without the comment spam. For those of you (Dad this is for you) who don’t how to do this, contact me and I’ll show you in the settings tab where to check. The one thing that it does make you do, is verify a word that is in a graphic so comment spammers, can’t use automated systems to leave the spam. Happy days are here again!!
By the way, only 10 days 20 hours and 28 minutes until Mary are wedded!
Well, it has finally happened to me. As my dad pointed out on his blog he was turning off his comments due to comment spam. I got some the other day, after 10+ months. So I am restricting the comments, for the time being, to people who are members of Blogger. I really wanted a conversation with people from all over the world, but alas, I don’t have the time to delete the comments when spam happens. So a few have ruined my hope to create a conversation with the world.
I was reading Donald Sensing’s blog which pointed me to this at Instapundit. I’m not surprised. Working in the meteorology field, I’ve run into this through the years. In fact, one of the criticims of FEMA since 9/11 was that they have been so focused on terrorism, not that they shouldn’t be, that they have ignored the natural disasters. This too I have seen that on the local level. The EMAs over the last 7+ years have regeared to homeland security, when more than likely, a natural disaster will “do in” a region. That is what my concern is. Of course, I know of a few EM’s in the region that take the natural disaster seriously, and have found ways to balance out what they need.
