Preaching is like...

"A sermon is like last Thursday's dinner: you can't remember what it was, but it did the job at the time." I learned this and other interesting things in my Expositional Preaching class. Actually, I'm not really in the class per se, but the professor is letting me attend in case somebody drops out of the class.

Why preach? While preaching isn't the only important job in a church, it is what most people remember about visiting a church. When you say, "Honey, what did you think about that church we visited?" your spouse will think first of the sermon, then the worship and other ministries.

Why preach? Another reason is that it is cost-effective; you can influence more people at once for God's kingdom. Also, there are some things that can be said in the anonymity of a service that people may not accept when you say it to their face.

Why preach? Because, like it or not, good preaching is the daily food that feeds the congregation. They may not remember it next week, but it "fed" them. Bad preaching could be compared to mac-and-cheese or TV dinners, I suppose...

That is why preaching is important and should take up a large portion of a pastor's time. When I've prepared sermons in the past (I've only preached twice, although I've prepared several more sermons), I have spent no more than 15 hours on a 30-minute message. My professor suggests that anything less is doing a disservice to the congregation as well as the Word of God; he thinks good sermon preparation will take closer to 20 hours.

I'll be preparing two sermons this semester... I sure hope I get better (I'm confident I will) because of this class. even if I don't get course credit for it, I think the time will be worth it.

I did ask how important preaching is to the health of a congregation. In a large congregation, in the absense of a pastor, good preaching is critical to maintaining church health. In a small body, if there is a strong sense of community, good preaching will certainly help, but its absense will not kill thebody. A small congregation without a strong idenitity will disolve quickly without good preaching.

New Orleans Satellite Maps

Google has an updated New Orleans satellite view via Google Maps Katrina. It is interesting to compare the damage to the hybrid map view.

While much of the attention has been focused on New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina also badly damaged Biloxi and other parts of the Gulf Coast. Here's some "before and after" satellite images.

Beeping at Three in the Morning

It's 3 in the morning, and I'm hearing a beeping sound... it keeps going on, like a smoke alarm or something. Finally I get out of bed and discover that that the neighbor's dumpster, at the end of the alley, is pile full of junk and construction trash. This pile of trash was beeping.

It's a little dark out, and I stood there staring at the beeping pile of junk, struggling to comprehend the situation in a state of incomplete consciousness. Finally, I decided I wasn't going to climb through junk at three in the morning, so I called the Orange Country Sheriffs. Within 15 minutes they were out there and the beeping stopped shortly thereafter.

While Cathy and I lay in the darkness discussing the excellent response time of the sheriffs and the crazy nature of people dumping trash in the wee hours of the morning, I decided on a new explitive that I shall being using. Instead of "darning" things or saying "gosh darn it!" I will henceforth say, with deep emotion and great conviction, "Begadkephat!"

Hurrican Katrina and a New Orleans Survivor Blog

I had previously mentioned places you can donate to help with Hurricane Katrina relief. Just so you know, Samaritan Purse is already on location and on the job.

If you want to see how things are in downtown New Orleans, try reading this blog. It's a tech who works at an ISP, and is trapped in the building. There's a link to a web cam on the page as well as photos, if you are so inclined.

The Red Cross is still staging equipment, but if you want to donate to the Red Cross, Lowes Home Improvement is matching donations dollar-for-dollar up to $1 million; locate a Lowes store here.

While this may seem unimportant to some, if I were in New Orleans, I would hope that somebody would rescue my pets, so don't forget about the Humane Society.

More Remodeling (Ugh) and Katrina

It does't seem to end, does it? I started out the day by painting the two smaller bedrooms. I have to admit: they do look better painted. Cathy then got a call from Ashley, who is avilable to help tomorrow. So, instead of painting the master bedroom, I finished priming the living room and the hallway. That'll give Ashley two large rooms, the hallway and the dining room to paint. And there's still closets, too...

All the time I was painting, I listened to something. I listened to my Hebrew class from Monday once, then I listened to Skillet's worship album (a real steal at $10). I tried listening to KWVE's sermons for a while, but I turned it off after 20 minutes when a pastor started quoting Greek. Then I recited the Hebrew alphabet for a while.

I am so glad that Ashley can come help. I don't know how much she'll get done, but everything will help. Whew... I looking forward to going to the office tomorrow, just to relax a little!

I read about the devastation that hurrican Katrina is wreaking... I hope my brother Ted is doing O.K.... if you want to help, try Samaritan Purse or CRC World Relief or the Red Cross.

Hebrew "Vowels"

Hebrew Vowels are confusing, but I'm learning them anyway... I learned some Hebrew vowels today... our Hebrew grammar is using a five-vowel system instead of the three-vowel system my teacher prefers.

At first glance, 17 vowels sounds bad, but there's a pattern emerging for me. For example, all the "a" vowels have a horizonal line, either a Patach or a Qamet, while all the "e" vowels have two horizontal dots plus something, like the Tsere or the Seghol.

Yeah, it is about as complicated as it sounds, although it does begin to make sense after a few hours. Just chapter one had me scared with phrases like "Begadkephat". Fortunately, there are only 23 consonants and only six actual vowels with variations, from what I can tell.

Sigh... I'll have to know them all by Labor Day.

Hebrew Gibberish

I took my first Hebrew class last night... it turns out I missed the first class session, so I did pretty poorly on the alphabet quiz as I was quietly panicing in my chair.

I came home last night and started reading the first chapter (since I'm catching up, I'll need to read two chapters in the next two days). As I was preparing my supplies, I had the interesting experience of looking at Hebrew and thinking to myself, "This looks like gibberish to me. Yet, in two months, that bunch of squigglies will read 'man' and 'woman' to me."

The inability to recognize language is not something you can capture on film, thus it is a moment I am unable to preserve; what a shame. I don't know how long it will take me, but eventually I will be able to read this:

Event-Filled Sunday

Elder Jeff preached today out of the Book of Daniel; it was very good. After church, Cathy felt good enough that we went to the church potluck and had some excellent ribs and baked beans; there was plenty of other food, but that is what really stuck in my memory!

While we were at the potluck I mentioned needing to get home and paint. It turns out that Ashley likes to paint, and has some time on Tuesday! Cathy hired her on the spot as she has seen Ashley's room (and Cathy approves!).

So I spent the rest of the afternoon until 10 P.M. preparing the aparment for paint. There was still drywall to be repaired, and the gas pipe had to be finished before the drywall. So I finished the gas plumbing and tested for leaks; none, thank God! Cathy worked for about 15 minutes and showed me how to connect the drywall. The walls are now all patched, although some sanding and another layer will be necessary. I reapplied primer to the "dark" room, so hopefully that is sufficient.

While resting at home, Cathy did more reading, some puzzles, and took my job's entrance exam. Yes, my job has an entrance exam! I'll have to speak more on it when I get Cathy's results back. She is not applying for a job; rather, she is just curious about it as so many people are not making it past the first interview at my office.

Ugh... I'm tired, though. Gotta sleep...

A Saturday of Remodeling

I spent the entire day preparing to paint. Our former tenant in apartment one was a smoker, so I am using oil-based primer to prepare the walls; it takes care of any smoke damage from over the years.

I had threaded the black iron pipe for the gas line this morning, but the rest will have to wait until I finish the drywall. Cathy felt well enough to help out and patch a little dryway, and even a little paint. But she got worn out very quickly and had to go back to the house. When I came home about three hours later, she had just woken up. She is unhappy about being unable to help out more, but I feel confident that God will work things out.

What is strange about painting is that it is not difficult work, or at least it is not difficult when done in stages. However, painting is time-consuming. Since I have to wait two hours between the primer and the paint, it would take me almost five hours to do a single room. I decided to apply primer to all three bedrooms today; tomorrow I plan on applying paint to the three bedrooms.

Ugh! One of the bedrooms was painted dark grey! I'm not sure one coat of primer is going to take care of that! We'll have to see; perhaps someone's teenager went through a gothic phase?

Cathy seems worn out and gets too hot easily; other than that, I think she is doing O.K. We're going to try going to chruch tomorrow, so we'll see how she holds up. As for me, I'm so glad to be off my feet that I am very, very content.

Cathy's Treatment and Disability

Cathy's treatment is affecting her health poorly. She get nauseated easily, gets dizzy frequently, has weird pains, tires easily and generally feeling poorly.

She gives herself a shot of peginterferon alpha-2b on Fridays, and every morning and evening she takes a pill of ribavirin with food. After her shot kicks in, she gets feverish and feel sick. It wears off, but tends to get worse after she takes on the pills. So, she feel sick all weekend and feel poor all week.

Cathy has been unable to drive for most of this last week. After staying home for two days, she decided to look into going on disability. That process is now almost completed, and Cathy has been staying home all of this week. Financially, we'll be able to float this for a while. For the first month or so, we won't really feel the decrease in our income.

Surprisingly, Cathy has not been bored out of her skull from staying home. I think she feels too cruddy to be bored. Fortunately, we purchased a computer jigsaw program a couple of weeks ago. Cathy can do jigsaws for hours on end; it will keep her from going mad staying home! The cute cats help calm Cathy's nerves, too.

This is a difficult time for her. I'm holding up O.K., I believe.

We'll keep you updated. I've been rather busy with the changes around the house, so my posts are not the amusing tidbits I had become accustomed to posting. I'll try to rekindle the spark!