Two stories

At church I'm in charge of entering the week's contributions into our computer system. Any checks that are not for the general fund have something written in the memo line that tell me where that money goes. This week at church a brief presentation was given by a pastor from a Kenyan church with whom our church has been partnering for years. The church in Kenya runs an orphanage called the Shangalia Orphanage, but the church has a different name that I can't remember. They meet in a shack on land that they do not own, and they're trying to raise support so that they can purchase the land and the building where they meet. So this week I got a lot of checks labeled "Kenya church project," "Kenya land project," or just "Kenya Church." My favorite was from someone, apparently a bit confused, who wrote, "Shangalia Land." I laughed because it sounds like a fictional fantasy world you'd find in a video game, or near HonnaLee.
(That's the end of this story)

The other night Elizabeth and I went to a Rockies-Giants game at Coors Field. We had free tickets, and we debated skipping out on the game because it was supposed to rain all night long. We decided to go anyway, and fortunately for us the rain stopped right as the game started, and not another drop fell all night long.

The game lasted 5 hours and went 14 innings. The Giants had scored a run in the first inning. The Rockies tied it in the 5th. Then no one scored... for a long time. It was still 1-1 heading into the 14th inning, and by now most of the fans had disappeared from the stadium. After the Giants scored 3 runs in the top half of the inning, another mass exodus of fans left the place pretty sparsely populated. With a 4-1 deficit to overcome, the Rockies loaded the bases. Their pitcher (the 5th or 6th of the night) came to the plate. This guy hadn't had an at-bat all year (and for all I know, never in his professional career). The Giants pitcher walked him on 5 pitches. A run scored. Now the Rockies are down 4-2. Rockies outfielder Ryan Spilborghs was up. He hit a grand slam.

We made fun of all the people that had left the game early.
(That's the end of that story)

Something worth reading

A WONDERFUL blog post from Kevin DeYoung (who has two books out that I desperately want to read).

Things My Teenager Will Not Do on Sunday Mornings:

1. Wear a t-shirt to church that reads, "Most of the people who drive me nuts are in my family."
2. (If I have a girl) Wear shorts that are so short that not even a public school's dress code would allow them.
3. Wear anything grungier than what they wear to school.
4. Skip the service to hang out with friends in the foyer (or anywhere else).
5. Have a cell phone at church.
6. Have an iPod at church.

This list was inspired by some observations I made at church yesterday.

Something to check out

A few weeks ago I blogged about my take on reading Brian McLaren's A Generous Orthodoxy. Well, the jist of what I was trying to say regarding not just McLaren's, but many "emergent" or "progressive" evangelical's theology was explained very well in THIS post by Greg Gilbert of the 9 Marks Church Matters blog. It's a bit lengthier than what I said, but it's interesting, true, and well-worth the read!

Some vacation pictures

These pictures are in a somewhat random order, but they're from our recent vacation.

This is Elizabeth with her friend, Jill, who she's known since the third grade. Jill was kind enough to host us while we were in the Twin Cities.

My friend Mike and I at the wedding. I don't think I knew this kiss was coming.

All of the Central College grads who attended the wedding!

The groom and I! Congratulations to Justin, but let's be honest, I look slightly better in a tux than he does.

The head table at the reception.

For some reason, while we were at the QC River Bandits game Gabriel wanted to share his straw with me. So I let him.

Gabriel got to take a ride on the "tractor!" with Elizabeth's dad.

I'm not sure Gabriel knew what to think about laying on a floating bed.

An open letter to Whitey's Ice Cream

Dear Whitey's,

I don't know how you do it, but your ice cream is simply better than any other brand I've ever tasted. For the first twenty-two years of my life I lived in close proximity to a few of your locations and I was able to get it whenever I wanted. Sadly, over time I began to take it for granted. For the last three years I've lived in areas completely devoid of the sweet, tasty, creamy goodness that only you can provide. Not only am I unable to partake, but none of the people who live in my city even know what Whitey's ice cream is! This fact has been terribly difficult to cope with.

On a recent vacation to eastern Iowa I made it clear to my travel partners that one of the things I just HAD to do while I was in town was stop by a Whitey's location for a double-scoop cone of the world's greatest sweet treat (since I'm sure you're wondering, Moose Tracks is the flavor I simply can't live without). My cone was every bit as delicious as I remembered, which only served to deepen the sadness I felt that I cannot get it at home. Please consider the deprived tastebuds of millions of Americans and expand your service to all areas of the country. If you've been looking to expand and you just can't find the right place, let me suggest Denver, Colorado as a great place to start. The people are friendly, and good ice cream is hard to come by.

With all sincerity and hope,

Jake Rohde

Vacation: What a blast.

For the last week and a half Elizabeth and I have been on a fantastic tour of Iowa and southern Minnesota. We first drove to eastern Iowa (very eastern, as in the very last Iowa exit before you cross the Mississippi and are in Illinois) to spend a few days with Elizabeth's parents and some of her extended family. Over those days we were also able to hook up with my brother and sis-in-law and their two little boys (almost two years old, and not quite 3 months). We had an absolutely fabulous time. Other than the scary car accident that my brother and his family were in (don't worry, everyone's okay), everything went swimmingly - including us (we swam one day)! We got to eat out and take some pictures with Elizabeth's family, visit her aunt's garden to pick some home-grown peppers, zucchini, and green beans, go to the zoo, attend a local single-A baseball game, take a swim, eat some Iowa staples (brats, sweet corn), and spend all-too little time with family.

The next leg of our trip took us up to the Twin Cities for a friend's wedding. Elizabeth got to spend time with an old high school friend of hers while I hung out with some old college friends at Justin's bachelor party on Wednesday. Thursday was a somewhat busy day spent picking up tuxes, trying to find our way around the cities, and attending the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Friday was WEDDING DAY! The wedding was absolutely beautiful (one of my favorites, if you're allowed to have favorite weddings?). It included the groom surprising his bride with his own guitar performance of Matthew West's The Day Before You (a song which I happen to LOVE). AND, it included the couple walking up the aisle at the end of the ceremony to the theme song to The West Wing (which makes a surprisingly good wedding walk-out song, in addition to being from the greatest television series of all time). I also got to see and catch up with a good group of college friends whom I already miss!

On the way home we decided to split up our trip a little bit, so we stayed at a cute little hotel in Lincoln, NE on Saturday night and slept in on Sunday morning before finishing up our trip!

Visiting Iowa always makes me remember how much I loved growing up there, and how great of a place I think it is. Some of the special things that we experienced on our trip that we don't get here are listed below.

Whitey's ice cream
Azteca [taco] salad shells

Family

Sweet Corn

Neighborly people (not that Coloradans aren't neighborly, but when my brother and his wife and kids were in a car accident by the side of a country road, no fewer than two dozen passers-by over the next 30 minutes either stopped or slowed to make sure no one was hurt and that help was on the way -- just the kind of thing that I suspect I wouldn't see here in quite the same way)

Lightning bugs

Other things we got to experience on our vacation that were WONDERFUL (except the second thing):

Homemade ice cream

I-80 road construction (it's not fun, but it's inevitable)

Fantastic wedding & seeing friends (including Justin's surprise song, and all of the West Wing thrown in)

A wonderful hostess for us (A friend of Elizabeth's from school growing up provided us with a place to stay in St. Paul and she treated us wonderfully, giving up her bed for us while she slept on the couch, cooking us food, and sending us off on our return journey with a bag packed with travel snacks. Thanks, Jill!)

Not sleeping in the same bed two consecutive nights for a week

So there you have it. Our vacation in a nutshell. Pictures will definitely be forthcoming. We got some good ones!