Forgive us our Christmases...

I heard a story the other day about a family that was stressing out over Christmas. There was this party and that party. Gifts to buy. People gave gifts, so they were upset that they HAD to return the gesture. The little 4 year old daughter knelt by her bed to say her prayers that night and said...."Jesus, forgive us our Christmases as we forgive others who Christmas against us". That statement really got to me. In this season most of all, especially with my job as a mail carrier, it's too easy to forget the real reason for Christmas. I'm so happy to be delivering Christmas packages to all of my customers and seeing their smiles AT FIRST. By the time the day actually gets here, I'm worn out by weather, stress, last minute details and all of the extra stuff that I put on myself at this time of year. We do Christmas big around here. I don't mean fancy, but I do mean big. So this year, in spite of all of the hustle and bustle of Christmas, I am determined to get things done early and keep CHRIST in Christmas. I am determined to remember the reason for the season and not let circumstances bog me down. I am going to strive to do as much as I can as early as I can, so that my family can enjoy their holiday and hopefully remember the reason that we do the Warrens Community Christmas meal, and also our own Christmas Eve open house. Christmas is about Jesus. He came to earth just for me (ok and for you too). My point is. I could feed people peanut butter sandwiches on Christmas Eve and we would still be together. We could have no gifts under the tree, but do we need them to have Christmas? No, the truth is Jesus is the only gift we need in this world. He came, was born in a stable, lived and loved and then died a horrible death. Knowing the whole while that it was me and my sin that put Him there and He still did it. He still came. What a wonder. I stand amazed at His love for me (and you) and truthfully that's all I need. Thank you Jesus for Your gift that night so long ago. and....forgive me my Christmases as I forgive those who Christmas against me.

Why I moved back to Warrens

Knowing how much I love my friends in Wakulla county Florida, it was hard at the time to explain why I wanted to move back to Warrens Wisconsin, my home town. I told them that I wanted the small town atmosphere. Back then it was the heat for the most part. I cannot stand heat and humidity. There are only so many clothes a person can take off and not get arrested. I love to be outside and when it's 100 degrees out, that's not fun. I was a major factor. Most of the Wisconsin summer it is under 90 degrees and since I'm a mail carrier...that's a good thing. Nothing like driving around in a jeep letting the sun bake you through all of the windows. As it is I have a mail carrier's tan. Just my right arm and leg. My friend who is a truck driver only has a left arm tan. We look pretty goofy comparing tans. I digress. After we moved back, I became involved in the Warrens Cranberry Festival. It is a huge undertaking put on by mostly a few people (up until the actual festival which requires 100+ people). This festival is a non profit that is designed for the sole purpose of bettering the village of Warrens. Over the years we have donated over 2 million dollars back into the local community. Just this year alone, we donated over $94,000.00. This goes to local youth, civic groups, organizations, the village for street and gutter etc, we built a major portion of the community building, the ball park, the local hockey rink and almost the entire Wisconsin Cranberry Discovery Center from Cranfest funds and hard work. I am now President of the festival board of directors and find it a hugely rewarding position. I love making people happy. Onto my next endeavor. Times are tough all over, but especially here in Warrens. A couple of years ago the local resort went bankrupt due to mismanagement. Without warning 200 people in the area were without jobs. Warrens only has 360 people on a good day. You can see how this would cause a huge impact. People had spent hard earned money building vacation villas for the resort and suddenly any income at all for those villas was impossible. Many people lost their life savings all in a couple of weeks. It divided the community. Those that had been against the resort expansion were very vocal. Those that had lost everything were too. It was a royal mess, but the interesting thing is that through it all the community started coming back together. When I was little and growing up here. If I was naughty, it wouldn't have been odd to get in trouble with any person in town. They all knew me. I knew them. That was Gramma's house or Aunt's house. We were all family. It's starting to feel like that again slowly and in my opinion, one of the reasons is our Community Dinners. A few of us were talking one day a last year and thought that a free community dinner would help out people who are economically challenged, but also would get people together to talk and spend time with each other (something that used to happen often when I was young). We approached it from a youth group point of view and decided to start it as a youth project learning service to others. I started asking for donations. One of the local churches added their support, the local gas station/convenience store added in the milk to serve, Cranfest added supplies and we were off. The first year was a little odd. It was tough getting the word out so the first one only had 40 or so people. Slowly it grew and by the spring we had 90+. We stopped having them over the summer because folks are so busy. This year people could not wait for them to start. We have had over 70 each night and for the Thanksgiving meal, we served over 150 meals. Not bad in a town of 360. Now we are planning our Christmas meal on the 12th. It's going to be BIG. We are doing it the old fashioned way. Lots of food, cookies and singing. I am looking forward to it. So many people have stepped forward to donate and are hoping it makes a huge impact on the local people. I'm hoping it gives them a taste for what Warrens used to be. The community of Warrens may not be huge. It may not have much to do with the way things go in the scheme of things, but what it does have is heart. We are a community that in 5 years will celebrate it's 150th birthday. I moved back because I wanted to raise my kids in a place that they could ride their bike to a friend's house and we didn't have to worry. I want them to know their neighbors. I want them to be able to see that effort on your part to help out your neighbor is so worth it. I want them to see that working together for a common good is what the founding fathers based this country on and it's working here in Warrens. I want my children to see the best of America and I think a lot of it is here in Warrens. All of us working together to form a common bond as Americans.

Where did the time go?

I cannot believe how long it's been since I last blogged. That just goes to show you how busy life has been around here. The Warrens Cranberry Festival is over and gone for 2012. What a blast! It was our 40th anniversary and boy did we have a party. I loved each and every minute of it. The weather was wonderful and the crowds were HUGE. They estimate attendance at over 140,000. I love the chance to see that many people smiling and happy. Things around here have been busy too. Jake is now almost 20 and working at the company his Dad works at. It's a temporary job, but it's a great learning experience for him and gets him a steady paycheck. He's looking into some classes at the local college too for the winter. He really seems to want to do something mechanical, like welding etc. We'll see where he ends up. He loves cars and motorcycles. Jessalyn is in 10th grade now and is very musical. She is in choir at school, which reminds me...I need to check on her next concert date. She is also in the Worship team at church and enjoys learning the harmony that goes with that. She's always singing or humming. Will is still working at the same place. I am so proud of him. He has had perfect attendance for almost every one of the 20 years that he has worked there. He is a real trooper. It is a very physical job and for our 48 year old bodies, that is a hard thing. He does a wonderful job and is a great example for his kids of being committed to your job and doing it to the best of your abilities. Jake says that he has more respect for him now after seeing how hard he works. We have started having the Warrens Community Meals again this year. So far attendance has been growing. We served over 70 meals the first night and almost 150 this last one. Of course, it was the Thanksgiving meal and it was quite the feed. Tomorrow night is another one and I don't know what the crowd will be like, but we are having breakfast for supper....pancakes, eggs, sausage, biscuits and gravy and banana stuffed french toast with banana caramel cream sauce. It should be lots of fun. Time to head back to daily life.....until next time.... God bless.

Don't worry about tomorrow... (part I)

We've all read the Bible verse that says (Deanna version)...don't worry about tomorrow because today has enough worries of it's own. I am taking that verse to heart lately. I thought things were crazy around here before, well they are insane now....I feel like I'm a tv with someone else running the remote and boy are they channel surfing!!!! Jacob finally graduated after being made completely miserable by the weirdness of his teacher (note to self finish the announcements and talk to the school superintendent). We are very proud of him. That last couple of months were an emotional drain and I'm very sure that it was hard for him to persevere and not get discouraged and quit. About 2 months ago, he up and called a cranberry marsh for a job and got one. He loved it, but knew it was seasonal. Well, since weather wise we are way far ahead of schedule, they finished all of the summer season work they had for him, so he got laid off. He took it in stride and now starts work at Cardinal tomorrow, working the same shift as his Dad. This is seasonal too with the possibility of continuing on in the fall if he works out. With Cardinal you are either good at it, or not. Who knows what will happen tomorrow, but for now he's working and I'm proud of him. So many kids just quit when it gets tough. He's keeping on... This year has been a struggle for Jessalyn. She hates school. Now for me to still be saying those words is shocking. My daughter, up until this year, loved school. She's finally getting the hang of it, although she still hates it. The only problem is that now schools almost over. I'm praying that next year will be wonderful for her. I don't want the light to go out of her eyes when she talks about learning. She has such a wonderful mind. I don't want her to give up. That being said, she has now joined the Worship Team at our church and is doing great things musically. We are so proud of her. This last weekend was the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. I'm the coordinator here in the Tomah area. It was a blast and I had lots of help from my friends which was such a blessing. It's great knowing that I can depend on my friends no matter what. In our local area we collected 7300 pounds of food to go to our local food bank. Let me tell you that's a lot of lifting. Not made any easier by the stupid things happen to Deanna rule. First thing that morning, I jammed my pinky on my left hand. Then I almost fell out of the truck because without thinking I tried to use that hand to balance myself. Thank you God that you take care of me, even in my stupidity. It's now 135 days until the 40th annual Warrens Cranberry Festival. Since I am now President, my duties during meetings have changed, but during the festival itself, it just means that I am "chief gopher". I love this festival. I love making 150,000 people smile. I love my Farm Market and it's vendors. They are such a fun group of people to see each year. Things are now starting to pick up as far as the process of putting this big puzzle together. It's one of those hurry up and wait things. You wait until this day and then you hurry and do what needs to be done and then you wait for it to be time to take the next step. I love it. Work has been really busy, which is good since I work for the Post Office. Being a rural carrier I never know what each day will hold. The other day I must have been stuck behind at least 4 tractors waiting for them to make their way to the next field. Then I got stuck waiting for 3 different military convoys. More hurry up and wait. The youth group is still going, although we are more of a young adult group now. Such an age difference, but God still has me there plugging on. They are typical kids..one night interested in learning and the next interested in anything but learning. It makes it difficult to know where to go next. The motor cycle potluck is coming up on June 3rd. I'm really looking forward to seeing all of our friends from Minnesota. They are a great bunch and we have a blast! Will's parents are going to be coming soon from Florida. Mom is not feeling too great right now, so they are waiting for her to feel better before making the trip. Hope she gets better soon. It's always fun when they are around. Will has been working on tilling the garden and I am hoping that gets done soon. I am so ready to get planting. I want to try a combination of vertical and lasagna gardening this year. Hoping to have less in the weed category that way. Also hoping it will make it easier if I don't have to crawl around so much. Planting all the climbing things on trellises and teepee type things. The tomatoes even get staked differently. Time to go to work again....part II soon.

From Will:

I've been trying to get Deanna to take over this thing but she's even busier than ever with Youth Group at church, community dinners and now being President, Board of Directors for the Warrens Cranberry Festival. It looks like posts on this blog might just become a quarterly kind of thing; more or less.

Easter is on it's way around again and as a right-wing, conservative Christian who has openly, willingly proved that I don't mind being "a fool for Christ", I am very excited to celebrate it. Yet, I'm a little uh, er, well...dreading it too. I don't mind traditions, depending on what they are and some things definitely need to be remembered. Some people certainly need to be reminded. Some of us don't.

Some very dear friends of ours have invited us to go see a "Passion Play" in Minnesota. I want to make this very clear: I WANT to go. I love my friends and families and us spending good "Christian" time together is very uplifting for me. I WANT to see THIS passion play to support the friends involved. I believe my family NEEDS to see this passion play. Now that I've made that clear, I er, well, kind of, (this is so embarrassing) don't like passion plays. I really, really, really don't like them. Let me explain.

I love Jesus. He IS my Savior and I have a daily, moment to moment relationship with Him. I try to "pray without ceasing" and I treasure that relationship. I was raised in a Christian home and myself, in my mind have been "saved" all my life, but officially since I was seven years of age. I am acutely aware of the life story of Jesus. I've read the whole Bible more than a few times and each Gospel specifically probably dozens of times. I've probably seen so many recitations, plays, musicals, movies etc. that I have lost count. I know how the story ends; but that's not my problem either.

Jesus, the Son of God left the wonders of Heaven to live in a barbaric time for 30+ years. That is bad enough but he then allowed Himself to be betrayed by the very people He loved to be tortured brutally and then to suffer a horrible death because we are too weak to follow two simple rules: Love the Lord Your God... and Love your Neighbor as Yourself.

See, for me it is personal. I know I'm no better than Adam, Eve or the disciples. I'm no better than Pontius Pilot or Judas or the soldier who hit Him in the face. Jesus died for them too. Just like He died for me; it's my fault, I put Him there. The worst of it: I didn't do it just once but almost every day I put Him back on that Cross because I'm too weak and too selfish. I am acutely aware of it. I don't ever forget it. I also don't really enjoy being reminded of it, especially in public. I understand some people do need that reminder; I don't.

Yes, I know the ending. I know the Victory. How the Son of God made the perfect sacrifice. So much so that His one Death and Resurrection was sacrifice enough for everyone. All my sins, yesterday, today and tomorrow are covered by His Sacrifice. I do celebrate that victory and not just at Easter but everyday. Someone once suggested that the Revelations verse about "...all things will be made new..." meant that we will forget this life. I SO hope that isn't true because I don't ever want to forget everything that Jesus has done for me; back then as well as now. It's important to me that I don't ever forget all the victories in my life because of Him. I just don't need to be publicly reminded of the horrors perpetrated on someone I love so deeply because of something I did. Some people do need to be reminded but not me; I remember every single day.

This time I will be surrounded by family and friends and I'm sure it's going to be great so I'm looking forward to it...mostly.

May you all be reminded daily of what Jesus did for you, because of you.

Pray without ceasing.
Will.