Parents, for you about today's tragedy...

As I sit and watch this tragedy unfold and how my own children are at school, I wanted to give you some things that I am thinking about that deal with how Kiera and I will handle this with Madison and Wilson.

• As soon as our kids get home we will turn off our TV.  Continuing news coverage of developing stories such as today's shooting will only create more fear and unnecessary worry for our children.
  
  
• But, on the other hand, please don't ignore your children's questions.  Below are some ways that Kiera and I plan on talking with our children should they have questions.
  
  
• We will talk as a family about how sin affects the world we live in.  We will be sure to reiterate that this tragedy was not God's will, but instead what happened today in Connecticut was a result of the sinful world in which we live.
  
  
• Undoubtedly as we process this horror one question that will arise will be "How could God allow something like this to happen?"  Reassure your children (and yourself) that God did not stop this from happening but is working and will continue to work to redeem what has happened.  It's OK to let your kids know that God's heart is breaking too.
  
  
• We will assure our children, as much as possible, that they are safe.  It's important for kids to know that danger exists in our world, but it's more important for your kids to know that you as their parents will do everything in your power to keep them safe.
  
  
• We will pray as a family for the following:
• Pray for the families of the children who were lost.  That God's peace that goes beyond all understanding will surround them during this unbelievable and indescribable time.
• Pray for the surviving students and staff who have just begun a long road of healing.  Pray for God to help fill the minds of those who witnessed this horror with images of comfort and peace.
• Pray for the shooter's family as they come to grips with what their loved one has done.
• Pray for the churches and God's people in and around Connecticut that God's love and comforting Spirit will permeate that town.
  
  
• We will admit to Madison and Wilson that we simply don't know all the answers.  But we DO know that God WILL work to redeem this situation, that His heart grieves for those that are lost, and that God will continue to reign as He has always done.

Hug your kids.  Tell them that you love them.  And help them to understand that God loves them more.

On this sometimes difficult journey with you,

Pastor Beau

Family Dinner Friday

It's Family Dinner Friday time...

Today we are meeting the Rush family.

photo by Betsey Walton Photography

Robert and Rayna are active in the Family Ministry at our church, Redding First.
Robert is a leader with the 1st-5th grade kids on Wednesday nights, and helps about once a month on Sunday mornings.  He was also the group leader for the 5th grade kids last year during our VBS program.
Rayna has served on the MOPS steering team at our church for the past 3 years, volunteers in our church nursery &/or Sunday School classrooms once a month (that was until their most recent baby boy was born 7 weeks ago!).  She also served as our VBS coordinator last year, 2011, and is helping with this years new VBS program.

sweet baby Carter at 5 days old...photo by Betsey Walton Photography

Question:  How many people are in your family and the ages of the kids?  

     There are 4 people in our family, us and our two boys, Lincoln age 4 1/2 and Carter 7 weeks


Q: How many times a week do you eat dinner as a family?

     Almost every night. It is rare that we don't eat as a family, even if that means taking shifts to eat while one of us is holding Carter.


Q: Do you have picky eaters in your family?

      No, we have always made food a non-issue, so Lincoln tries everything (within reason) at least 3 time and then if he doesn't like it then he doesn't have to eat it. We haven't found much food that he doesn't like even if it means fibbing a bit and telling him shrimp on his plate is just chicken.

Q:  Do you have any weekly activities that make dinner together hard?

     No, but I am sure that day is coming. 

Q:  Do you ever feel like NOT making dinner?
     Haha, YES I feel like this almost every night, well maybe not the making of the dinner, but the deciding what to have is the hard part for me. 

Q:  What is something you think is important about eating together?

     That if we make dinner together a priority now then when life gets really crazy with activities and school and friends family dinner will just be the norm for our family and will also help us stay connected with our boys.

Q:  Do you have any major dinner time rules?

     No electronics at the table and unless its an emergency we don't answer the phone. We have an answering machine and we can call people back. 

Q:  Where do you grocery shop?  And who does the grocery shopping in your family?

     We shop at Winco (have to contribute to our retirement) and I do most of the shopping, but since Robert works there, there are times that he brings food home.

Q:  It's summer time right now, do you change your menu/cooking habits based on the seasons?

        I would say we do more grilling and less baking. The less we can turn on the oven during the summer the better. 

Q: And what is one of your favorite throw-down meals (a meal that doesn't take much time to throw together/down)?

       I have a few, apple chicken salad (one of Roberts favorites), beef stroganoff, and taco salad. 

The meal/recipe that the Rush family is sharing with us today is actually one that our family shared with them earlier this week.

Grilled Pizza

*pre made dough of your choice (we used thin crust Boboli for the adults and then full pita bread rounds for the kids)

*sauce of your choice (kids had a red sauce and adults had a pre-made white sauce from WinCo deli)

*Grated Cheese of your choice (we used mozzarella)

*Toppings of your choice, we used the following

     'adult pizza': grilled chopped chicken, fresh spinach, sun dried tomatoes in oil & drained and chopped, canned artichoke hearts drained and chopped, and sliced mozzarella cheese to top

     'kids personal pizzas': cheese...that's all they wanted...

pre grill

Preheat your grill.

Cover your 'dough' with sauce, cheese & other toppings

For the 'adult' pizza we turned the grill to low, placed the pizza on and closed it up for about 5-7 minutes until the cheese was melted.

The 'kids' pizzas got a little over-grilled this way, so round 2 for them we turned the grill off and placed the pizzas onto the still hot grill, closed it up and about 5 minutes later the cheese was melted to perfection.

all pizza's on the grill

the 'adult' pizza, so very yummy!

Thanks Rayna for sharing your family's dinner time with us.  And thanks for the yummy easier summer meal!

On this journey with you,

Pastor Beau

Family Dinner Friday

It's time for a Friday Family Dinner...this week our 'cook' is Pastor Kirk the associate pastor at Redding First.

Pastor Kirk with his beautiful wife, Maria

Now some Q&A with Pastor Kirk

Question:  How many people are in your family and the ages of the kids?  
4 people in family Ben is 11 Carson is 9


Q: How many times a week do you eat dinner as a family?
4-5


Q: Do you have picky eaters in your family?
Not so much


Q:  Do you have any weekly activities that make dinner together hard?
Many - Exercise schedule, evening meetings and commitments as a result we don't always eat at the same time every night


Q:  Do you ever feel like NOT making dinner?
At least 4 times a week. So Maria and I share the responsibilty. That way no one get to burt out. 


Q:  What is something you think is important about eating together?
Family conection. It is priceless to have a regular event that everyone attends. We talk about the day and mostly simple stuff but it reinforces our connection. I can't image life without this time. 


Q:  Do you have any major dinner time rules?
No games or books at the table. No one can begin eating until everyone is at the table and we pray. Wash hands before dinner. Use good table manors. Eat what is in front of you until you are full, but you don't have to clear your plate. 


Q:  Where do you grocery shop?  And who does the grocery shopping in your family?
Winco. Safeway, TJ


Q: And what is one of your favorite throw-down meals (a meal that doesn't take much time to throw together/down)?
Actually many of our meals fall into this category. I do a lot of stir fry because it is fast and you can put any vegetable in it. I will often use up little bits and parts of stuff from the week, throw it in a walk and add sauce. We also like tacos and salads and spaghetti all of which can be made in around 30 minutes. 

And the meal/recipe that Pastor Kirk is sharing with us today is a great throw down meal and creative to boot...Tuesday Night Throw Down Dinner : 

Spaghetti with a twist

Ingredients (only 3!)

Whole Wheat Spaghetti Pasta

One Jar of Spaghetti Sauce (what ever brand is on sale that is not high in sugar or salt)

Sausage

Step one:  Cut Sausage into 1 inch pieces and insert dry spaghetti into the pieces (check out picture below)

Step two:  Cook spaghetti (w/ sausage pieces) according to directions on package.

 Step three:  Drain and serve with pasta sauce of your choosing!

Sides: Spinach Salad with croutons


Thanks Kirk!

Do you have regular meals as a family?

Do you have family meal traditions?

Do you  have a favorite family throw down meal that you'd like to share on Family Dinner Friday?  Just leave a message and I'll get in contact with you!

Your Easter Questions... Answered!

Here are a summary of the questions posed by people from our community this past Sunday.  Hope you enjoy processing them as much as we did!

Why do we participate in Lent, a man-made season, and not Passover, a God-made season?
It’s true that Lent is a man-made season that was first begun around the fourth century as a way for the community of faith to identify with the new believers as they were going through their season of preparation for their baptisms into the faith on Easter Sunday (see this article for good background material on Lent: http://www.cresourcei.org/cylent.html). Passover was established by God as a way for the people of Israel to commemorate the Exodus from Egypt.  The reason we celebrate Lent and not traditional Passover is because we are a part of the Western Church who believed that Christ’s coming to our world was the fulfillment of Passover, and therefore represents our true deliverance not just from a physical Egypt, but from all of the “Egypts” of our lives. 

Why do we celebrate Easter? What is the real meaning of Easter? When did they first start celebrating Easter or start the services we know?
Easter is the day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.  In the life of the early church, they began meeting together and celebrating the resurrection on a weekly basis (see Acts 20:7) as a way of routinely praising God for that great day.  So their gatherings on the first day of the week were regular celebrations of the resurrection (which is why the Sundays are not counted as “official days” in the season of Lent).  However, it was during the year 325 AD that Easter was established as an official day of celebration of the resurrection.  This article (http://www.cresourcei.org/cyeaster.html) has great information about all of this history.

Why the bunny?

The idea of an Easter Bunny was first mentioned in a book by Georg Franck von Frankenau in 1682.  It came from the tradition of an Easter Hare bringing Easter Eggs to children. However, the hare was a popular subject in medieval church art, and may have helped to contribute to the idea of a bunny being a symbol of good will and new life coming in the spring.

Why did God wait to raise Jesus? If He died on a Friday and was raised on a Sunday, that isn’t really 3 days, right?

I heard a comedian say one time that God waited to raise Jesus from the grave because if it had happened right away, no one would have believed that He was really dead, only sick.  That same comedian also said that He waited until Sunday so He could just show up in church because He knew that’s where everyone would be!  Of course, we know that neither one of those ideas hold much merit, but they do make us laugh! 
Jesus declared that he would be raised “on the third day,” not after 3 days (see Matthew 16:21 as one example).  There is wild speculation about why he waited, but most good theories are connected to two primary ideas:
1 - The number 3 in scripture has always been a symbol of completeness.  By waiting until the 3rd day, God is making a declaration about the work being perfectly complete.
2 - One of the unfortunate things that happened pretty regularly during that time was actually burying people alive.  Because they didn’t have very good advances in medicine, it wasn’t uncommon to bury someone before they were actually dead.  But once someone was in the grave three days, there was no chance that they may have actually survived.  Everyone would have known that Jesus really was dead and therefore in order for him to be alive, it had to be an act of God to bring him back to life.

Does the Saturday in between Good Friday and Easter Sunday have a name?
Yes.  It actually has two names: Silent Saturday, or Holy Saturday.  It is the time we believe Jesus was in hell (as it states in the Apostle’s Creed - see next question) and God was silent in His response to the crucifixion.

Why does Jesus say, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
The early church taught and believed (as does the modern church), that when Christ died he took the sins of the world on himself (see 2 Corinthians 5:14-21 as an example).   Since God and sin cannot exist together, that leads to an understanding that when Christ descended into hell (see above question) he was separated from God and therefore God’s presence left him.  Now that raises more questions, because we also believe that Jesus was fully God himself, so how could he leave himself?!?  This is a great question and actually highlights that two of the most difficult tenets of the faith for us to understand, are the Trinity (Father, Son & Holy Spirit - one God but three expressions) and the incarnation (Jesus being both fully God & fully Man all at the same time), both of which are at work in the death and resurrection of Christ.  Therefore, this is one of those times when we must actually live in the place of faith without full comprehension or understanding.  Very hard to do at times!

Thanks for asking all of these great questions!  Feel free to email back if more get generated from these answers.


On the journey with you,


Pastor Beau