Life of Adventure

2012-01-24T16:40:00.000-08:00

China Day 2:(I must start today's blogpost with an update. I wrote that the first thing I thought when we arrived at the Great Wall was; "man you can see this from space." So today I looked on the Internet for a photo of the Wall from space and it turns out that is a popular myth. You can't actually see it from space...I know I was bummed too. But it is an impressive site nonetheless.)We woke up fairly early in Beijing and flew to Chengdu today. The flight is about 2.5hrs and everything went smoothly. As we flew into Chengdu I looked out the window and remember thinking "this is the China I came to see." It was green and lush and not as densely populated as Beijing. Pr. John Yu met us at the airport with a van and a driver. We were whisked off to the hotel before dinner. We met some of the pastors and seminary professors in Chengdu and had dinner wit them. They all used western names for our convenience. So the names you'll be reading are not really their given names. James is a pastor and church leader, Joshua is a seminary professor at the Sichuan seminary, and is a seminary educated leader awaiting ordination. Joshua spoke decent English and between him and Peter we were able to get to know our hosts a bit better. Pastor Wei joined us that evening for dinner as well. He is the chair of the Sichuan Christian Council and a terrific church leader. He holds an office in both the church and provincial government. Pastor Wei was able to join us for the remainder of our trip. We really spent the evening getting to know each other a bit better and spent a lot of time talking to Joshua about what the seminary was like. He teaches systematics and English language. There is a strong emphasis on practice and vocation rather than a strictly academic environment in the training of pastors. It sounds like they work to maintain a balance between academics and actual ministry time in the formation of their leaders. The night we met was the last day of class for the seminary and he was excited to tell us about all the homework he'd loaded the students up with before they left. For our group, I think our heads were still spinning to be in China. We were still in the midst of culture shock getting around and knowing what to do. Luckily we had Peter Chen with us and he was a wise and faithful shepherd for us. We ate at a terrific restaurant in called the Prince Kitchen. It was a lot of fun to meet some of the leaders of the Chinese Christian church. We went to a few tourist-shopping areas and called it a night. This is a picture from my first afternoon in Chengdu from the window in my hotel room. You can see the dense urban population and the city goes on as far as you can see.

We called it a night and went for some sleep. The time zone is a big one to get around so sleep was difficult at times. The next day we went to the Panda Research Center and had a great time. The animals were active and playing with each other. I've got some great Panda photos. Here is statue at the entrance

I didn't know they came in red. Smaller than Giant Pandas. Look for tomorrow's post. You'll see more pictures of Pandas and we start seeing some ministry sites!

My Journey to China Day 1

2012-01-23T03:02:00.000-08:00

This January I had the privilege to travel to China with some great people and visit some amazing ministries. I hope to use this forum as a way to share my stories and pictures with all of you.

Day one: We traveled from Seattle to San Francisco and then to Beijing. The flights were all smooth and everything worked just right. We had a terrific guide in Pastor Peter Chen from Issaquah. It was really exciting to arrive in Beijing and look forward to traveling in China. But the time difference is very disorienting and the evening we arrived we all immediately went to bed.

Our real first day in China was a tourist day in Beijing. We had a guide and a diver who shuttled us around in a small van. Driving in Beijing was insane. Traffic was crazy and the rules of the road are a bit different from what we're used to. I was grateful for someone to drive us around. We did a whirlwind tour of Beijing and you're going to think this sounds crazy--at least we did. In the morning we went off to see the Great Wall, then to Tiananmen Square, and finally the Forbidden City before dinner.

This photo is taken from the car. The building is built to look like a dragon. This is very close to the Olympic Center with the bird's nest stadium and the swimming facility but my camera was not ready to get those pictures...

We drove out to the section of the Great Wall and I was immediately impressed by the sense of history. The wall is huge and impressive. But the thing that first came to mind was, "man you can see this from space!" Also I realize it's a pretty tremendous historical site. The section we walked/hiked was very steep.

The view from the Wall was beautiful. We had a great day, it was chilly but once you started moving up those stairs you warmed up right away.

You can see the section we hiked up behind me in the distance.

Some beautiful views from the wall:

This was only the beginning of signs that are probably helpful but poorly translated.

Tiananmen Square

Entrance to the Forbidden City

It was amazing to think that for the majority of the Forbidden City's history we would not have been able to walk right on in. Like the Great Wall there is a tremendous sense of history here.

Walking into the city you go through gate after gate. Between each gate is a large courtyard. It's a huge facility and very ornate.

I tried to capture the juxtaposition between ancient and modern in this photo. You can see the inner court of the Forbidden City with the modern skyline of Beijing in the back ground. In some ways this is what our China experience felt like. The country is steeped in ancient tradition but since the cultural revolution everything has been modernized/westernized. I'm not an expert in Chinese history but there seems to be a bit of a struggle right now with their national identity. There is a tension between their long and rich history and post revolution modern society.

Huge court yards and very ornate details.

It was neat to see soldiers march around in lock step.

So that was day one--I'm tired even thinking about all we did that day. It was a tourist day and while it was great to see the sights we were all looking forward to seeing the ministry sites. Our next day we went to Chengdu and did a bit more tourism and then started to meet some church leaders and get a glimpse of the church in China.

I'm not sure how I felt about finding a Starbucks in Beijing but it sure was nice to have a latte...

See you tomorrow

That is a brilliant chicken coop

2010-04-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos of the most recent evolution of the chicken coop. They're doing great in their mobile coop, they love a fresh spot of grass every day. So far it's been easy to clean and move around and I'm happy with the design. This last weekend I made a few additions. I decided to add a water catchment system that fed into a storage bucket, that kept a constant waterer full. Basically the coop catches rain and delivers water to the chickens as needed. After a few glitches, and a few trips to the hardware store I got it to work. For those of you following the fire truck saga, this is the next best thing for now...

So here you can see the bucket that catches the water from the gutter and delivers it to the constant waterer.

This is the back of the coop and you can see the gutter that catches rain off the roof--plenty of rain here so far this spring.

This is the bowl that stays at a constant level so they always have water. So far it's worked out great.

They just got their big feeder installed too. I think I'm more excited about it than they are. I don't have to check their food as often and they won't make such a mess with this one. But they're chickens, they'll make a mess somehow.

Growing

2010-04-26T15:45:00.001-07:00

Just a quick update on the garden. We had a beautiful blessing service for the community garden and planted some seeds. And now they're growing!! We have radishes bursting out of the ground. Soon we'll be taking fresh veggies over to the food bank!

Garden Update

2010-04-22T09:57:00.001-07:00

The construction of the garden is done and it looks great! It was a long day to get all that fencing up but with a lot of help and some hard workers we got it done!
We had a beautiful blessing service for the garden after each service on Sunday. People walked though the raised beds and had the opportunity to plant a seed in the food bank section. Before we know it we will be harvesting vegetables.

The chickens go outside

2010-04-14T12:27:00.000-07:00

We decided to let the chicks have their first outdoor experience. We moved the coop from the garage to the yard and let them touch down in the grass. They are very curious little creatures. They're back in the garage for now, they need to get a little bigger before they live outside permanently.

The Chickens are Here

2010-04-12T17:44:00.000-07:00

I picked up the chickens this afternoon. Three week Rhode Island Reds. They are about 4 or 5 weeks old. They seem right at home in their new coop. Here are some pictures of the girls.

Before they arrive

Putting them in the coop.

Nora gets to meet them too!

Curious little dog...

Community Garden

2010-04-01T07:58:00.000-07:00

The Mt. Si Community Garden project has officially begun! It was an exciting day yesterday as we started to dig out where the raised beds will go. This Saturday at 12:00pm we will have a work party to put together the raised bed boxes and fill them with dirt. There is a beautiful parallel between our garden project and Holy Week. On good friday these beds will just be empty boxes of dirt; reminding us of the death on the cross and the tomb. But the story doesn't end there! After Easter we will find Jesus risen to new life. Our garden will reflect the resurrection, the new life, and abundance we have in God.

Several people stopped by to see what we were doing as we painted lines on the yard. Here is a photo of laying out the garden

Here is what it looked like when we called it a day, well almost, we did clean it up a bit and put the corner posts for the fence in too.

This garden will be a place for people to grow vegetables for their families with the expectation that they donate at least 10% of their harvest to the local food bank. In addition to what people grow and donate several beds will be solely dedicated to growing food for the food bank. This will be an amazing way to connect local hungry families to fresh and local produce.

We live in a world where we are constantly called to discern what it means to be a follower of Christ. I haven't always found this to be an easy task. There are lots of issues and situations we face every day that demand us to reflect on who we are as people of faith and how our faith informs our actions. Given the enormity of the task of discipleship, I find tremendous solace in this community garden project. It doesn't let us off the hook by any means but it is a very simple way for us to put our faith in action. There are hungry people in our community, people who need healthy and nourishing food, we can grow it and give it to them. We can grow vegetables and empower them to grow their own, and in a small way break into the cycle of poverty in our community.

A garden is more than just dirt in the ground. It is also an intimate connection we have to the environment around us. This small patch of dirt yields food that will nourish us, our families, and our community. We are reminded of the charge we have been given to care for creation and live in a balance that ensures sustainability for all. I think we sometimes forget that we are connected to the land. Our food comes carefully cleaned and wrapped from the grocery store and sometimes we forget that it came from the ground--ground we need to protect and care for. A garden project like ours can help us remember where our food comes from, remember why we need to protect and care for creation.

I am excited about this garden project and the life it will bring to our community. For those of you who live in the Snoqualmie Valley region I hope you'll find a way to be involved!

Lenten Practice

2010-03-02T19:57:00.000-08:00

Each year millions of people say they're giving something up for Lent. Usually most of the things they're giving up are things of relatively little consequence. I mean that on a relative scale of say global hunger. When you put it like that, giving up cheeseburgers for forty days seems to diminish in significance. Going without chocolate for a season seems to measure on a smaller scale. And yet we keep doing it, over and over again. It seems there is something to this that draws us in each year. If it were truly meaningless we'd have left it behind years ago as a quaint tradition. I wonder what it is about the season of Lent that draws us in and has us give up a token, "something", in order to participate in the larger drama of it all. Even though our sacrifices seem to fairly meager, there is something that keeps pulling us in and giving up milkshakes or potato chips for forty days.

An alternate tradition for Lent has been around for a while now. Rather than give something up, one would take something new on for the season of Lent. Usually this is in the form of a spiritual practice, adding something healthy to a normal routine, etc...

This year I wanted to share with you my Lenten practice. It's really twofold. One I'm giving up bad handwriting and two I'm taking up handwriting practice. Now I really don't have atrocious handwriting but it's not nice to look at or always easily legible. Maybe in your mind that indeed makes it atrocious? I do like to write things out by hand, and feel like I think better with a pen in my hand than with a keyboard. So I found a handwriting guide and have taken on the challenge of improving my handwriting. I feel like I've time warped back to the 2nd grade. I've been tracing letters, using those funny lined sheets of paper drawing meaningless squiggles endlessly all in hopes of improving my written word.

It has, in its own way, become a spiritual practice. It is meditative and contemplative to write the same thing over and over again focusing on form and technique. As I work on my written word I hope to be open to the word that is from God in this form of prayer.
It may be yet another silly and trite Lenten practice but there is something to this story of Lent that keeps drawing us in, over and over again.

Chicken Tractor

2010-02-25T08:11:00.001-08:00

So far this year I have been a terrible blogger. Life has been busy with work, and company, and some more work. Now in this season of Lent, I'm able to take a breath and catch up on some long neglected projects. I haven't been blogging recently but that's not to say life has not been adventurous. Every chance we get we are exploring this new community of North Bend and the greater Snoqualmie Valley.

We've been wanting to do this for a while, but being transient students, and then living in a neighborhood that prevented such activities, now finally it will work. We're getting chickens!

This is a picture of the newly assembled "chicken tractor" I was going to build my own but found this one on craigslist. It is brand new and came flat packed so we just had to put it together. The price was right and while I still live with a little guilt not building my own, this coop will be great. Since this picture was taken there have been some additions, or should I say improvements, to this tractor. Now it has wheels and looks MUCH faster. There are also handles on the front to make moving it around the yard a breeze. I think a racing stripe will finish it off perfectly.

I'm also planning on a water catchment system so it will be a self watering unit. But really it won't be an official chicken tractor until we get chickens...we have to wait until after Easter for that. They need a lot of maintenance before they are six weeks old. So we have to wait until I will be in town for six weeks in a row.

Getting Ready for Winter

2009-11-12T07:37:00.000-08:00

Summer is gone, and winter hasn't arrived yet. It's wet and cold outside but not quite cold enough to snow. But we're getting close. Right behind our house is Mt. Si. I watch the snow appear on the mountaintop and then disappear with the slightest hint of warmer weather. Each time it lingers a little longer, comes down a little more, and soon I have a feeling it will stick for good.

A few weeks ago Heather and I went up to Snoqualmie Pass to check out the ski areas. Above is a photo of Alpental, it's about 30min from the house. With any luck we'll be skiing in no time!

Let Justice Roll

2009-10-10T06:55:00.000-07:00

Every year there is a program for high school youth in the pacific northwest called "Let Justice Roll". It is hosted at Holden Village on the northern end of Lake Chelan. It's not especially easy to get to, but it's worth it.
The "Let Justice Roll" weekend if for high school youth that are emerging leaders in their congregations and who are interested in issues of peace, justice, environmental stewardship, and advocacy. Each year there is a different theme, and this year we were grateful to have the Rev. Dr. George Johnson with us to talk about the communities we serve in a biblical context.
At the "Let Justice Roll" weekends we deal with serious issues and topics and strive to empower our young people to be involved and be agents of change. We tackle serious stuff, but we have a lot of fun too!
One of the activities we did this year was egg decorating. That's right, it's not even close to Easter, and here we are decorating eggs. This isn't your average Easter egg food color dip though. One of the members of the planning team is an internationally recognized egg art expert. Her field of mastery is, "Pysanky". Here is a picture of the pysanky studio we set up.

As you can see it involves flame and wax and a special tool to draw a design on the egg. You have to keep the kistka (the wax stylus) hot and full of bees wax--which is no easy task and in our case ended in general hilarity. Our leader guided us through the process of Pysanky egg decorating with great care and we all ended up with a fairly decent finished product. There is more to the art form than simply laying wax on an egg (although we would be remiss to call that simple) it has a whole host of meaning and symbolism behind every action and shape. It is a prayerful and meditative art that calls us to consider our faith, our actions, and our work in the world.

As our weekend unfolded we talked about the hurts in the world and how we might bring light to those places.

We had a full moon in the village, here is a picture of the moon setting in the morning.

Our group this year!

2009-09-29T08:18:00.000-07:00

On Sunday evening Heather and I attended a joint worship service between the United Methodist Church and The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It was a beautiful service and a deeply moving experience. Bishops from each denomination began the service by pouring water together into a large font; marking the beginning of our journey together in the confluence of the waters.
The service began at a Woodland Park United Methodist Church and we processed together to Phinney Ridge Lutheran Church--both in downtown Seattle.
The service was thoughtfully crafted taking advantage of some of the best musical offerings from each tradition. The choirs that sang added lively and wonderful voices to our assembly.
Not only was it a beautiful worship service, marking the beginning of a powerful relationship between two denominations, it was great for me to be able to simply attend a service. So often I am leading the services it is a nice change to be able to sit in the pew and simply be there.
As we gathered together in the waning sunlight it felt like a thin place, where the distance between us and God was not so great. Like those mountain tops we treasure, seeking the places where God can be found.

2009-09-23T07:36:00.000-07:00

Well the move went just fine. Heather and I are trying to get settled into our new house, new community, new congregation. We've been having a lot of fun exploring a new area. We took the advice of a wise person, who told us the boxes would be there to unpack when it stated raining so go have fun while the sun is out. So we've been out hiking in the beautiful weather while it lasts! This is Heather overlooking Twin Falls near North Bend.

A few people have asked for photos of the house and here is a picture of our living room so far. There are a lot of boxes still to be unpacked. Right now the most organized room in the house is the gear loft! I'll get some more pictures up soon.

Here is the kitchen. On the stove is my new brew kettle and you can see the jars of hops from my vines in Shelton. This is my first batch in a while, but I wanted to make sure to use my hops while they were still fresh. Should be in the bottles in a few weeks.

We're still getting this place figured out--look for more about this new North Bend adventure soon!

Transitions

2009-08-10T10:15:00.000-07:00

This is a copy of the letter I mailed to the Faith Lutheran Church congregation last week. I thought I'd post it here for those of you who follow my blog or did not get the letter by mail. Look here soon for more information on our move to Mt. Si Lutheran Church in North Bend, WA.

From Pr. Mark Griffith

To the Faith Lutheran Church Family:
As we have grown together these past two years I have shared with many of you that I believe life is an adventure. With joy and faith I take one step at a time following where God would lead. The time has come for me to take the next step in my adventure to a new place. Heather has been accepted to the University of Washington Law School and together we decided to explore ministry options for me that would be closer to the University. That led us to consider an opportunity for me to be the pastor at Mt. Si Lutheran Church in North Bend. They have issued me a Letter of Call and I have accepted it. For me personally it is a difficult mixture of excitement and sadness to announce I will be leaving Faith Lutheran Church in Shelton.
I heard a bishop say that your first call should be the one that “warms the rest of your ministry.” The first congregation you serve should be the one that helps form you as a leader and prepares you for whatever challenges and opportunities come in the future. Faith Lutheran Church has certainly been that for me, I will always draw on my experience here and all of the people I serve in the future will be indebted to your faithfulness and compassion. The people of this congregation have “warmed” the rest of my ministry and for that I am forever grateful.
I am excited for what the future holds for all of us, for the new futures the Holy Spirit is calling us to, but also sad to leave such a wonderful and loving community. It has been a blessing to be your leader, to work here at the church with Pr. Steve and a wonderful staff.
My last Sunday with you at Faith Lutheran Church will be September 6th, 2009.
I humbly ask that you keep the family of Faith Lutheran Church and Heather and me in your prayers as we make this transition. I know and trust that God’s hand is leading and guiding us and will continue to call us on to new adventures.
Peace,

Pr. Mark Griffith

skating boarding

2009-04-03T11:53:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure this needs much explanation...

worst case scenario

2009-03-06T08:20:00.000-08:00

A good friend of mine and I, always ask the question, "what's the worst thing that could happen?"

Many of you know I brew my own beer, to be enjoyed in moderation of course. I collect bottles that can be recapped, sort of a in house recycling program. And it saves me from having to buy bottles. There are people that I know, that save them for me, and the result is, I have a lot of bottles. This collection needed to be organized so I thought putting them up on a high shelf in the garage would be a good spot for them, out of the way.
If find yourself precariously balancing a lot of bottles on a high shelf over a concrete garage floor, and ask yourself, "Hmm....what's the worst thing that could happen here?" I have the answer.

After neatly stacking all the bottles near the celling of the garage, I walked away and admired my organizational skill, and noticed on bottle wiggle a little... then it fell....then the rest of the boxes of bottles cascaded in a stunning waterfall of glass off the shelf and onto the floor.

Here is, the worst case scenario.

This post is also a tribute to the resiliency of beer bottles, only 12-15 bottles were broken in this whole debacle. But it took about an hour to carefully sweep up all the broken glass. Fun.

getting grown up

2009-03-06T08:06:00.001-08:00

Heather and I made the leap from dorm furniture to "real" furniture. Quite a step for us. No longer are my clothes organized in rubbermaid tubs...

Here is before

And after!

six word stories

2009-02-14T07:30:00.000-08:00

I've heard of these before but for some reason the idea of six word stories caught my attention recently. Rumor has it that this notion of writing a story in just six words goes back to some of the great writers of the west. Hemingway's shockingly powerful six word story is said to be: "For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn." I think it would take far more than six words to fully unpack the potential of meaning in those six words.
It combines the abstraction and beauty of poetry and the storied world of narrative in a quirky six word offering.

In the last few days I've been giving it a try. Most of them are unoriginal and lame but when I find one I like I'll share it.
Give it a try and share them with me, either email me or leave them as comments on this post.

Simply Lent

2009-02-11T18:37:00.001-08:00

I've been thinking a lot about the season of Lent as it quickly approaches. On one hand it allows me to rocket launch off into my natural existential angst, which I do so love. On the other hand I wonder if that's a good thing?
But more than that I've been thinking about a particularly Lutheran understanding of Lent this year. Lent really allows us to dwell in the midst of the brokenness of the human condition. In Lent we read about Jesus' journey to Jerusalem and we prepare for the inevitable pain and suffering he will face there. In some ways it reminds us of our own journey in life, the pain and brokenness we all face in our daily lives. In other ways it calls to mind the brokenness that is in us that really sent Jesus on that journey to begin with.
From a Lutheran perspective Lent can be both a time when we allow ourselves to live fully into the human condition and recognize the garbage we live with. But, also Lent is a time when we allow ourselves to look beyond that and hope for the new life that is in the resurrection. I think being Lutheran allows me to see the tension in the season and appreciate the ambiguity. It's not an easy task, dwelling in the ambiguity but for me it feels like the only authentic way to go. We must realize the reality of the human condition that we live in and also must allow for the joy of the resurrection. We must know Good Friday to really know Easter morning.
I like that--it allows me to deal with the life that I experience and allows me to hope for the new life that is to come through Christ.

ask me what's so cool about my socks!

2009-01-13T07:41:00.001-08:00

Fondue'in it

2009-01-07T16:13:00.000-08:00

Sort of on a whim Heather and I bought a Foundue pot at Costco, perhaps in a moment of consumerism weakness. Anyway we tried a recipe that has been in high demand ever since its mention on facebook. I'll post it here so you can give it a try and let me know what you think.
3/4 cup salsa
3/4 lb sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
3/4 lb monterey Jack Cheese, shredded
3TBL cornstarch
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 clove garlic cut in half
2 12oz bottle Mexican beer, such as Corona, at room temperature
3TBL tequila
veges, corn chips, or bread cubes

The directions say to strain the salsa but that sounded like way too much work for us, so it got skipped, that's right we used plain unstrained salsa. Toss the cheese and the cornstarch in a large bowl so it's coated. Then you're supposed to "rub the cuisinart fondue pot with cut garlic halves" yeah right, just chuck 'em in. Rub the fondue pot with garlic cloves....(said in low grumble)
Add 2 1/4 cups of the beer ( which may be two bottles? just to be sure just dump both of them in I guess) to the fondue pot--we used Alaskan Pale Ale. Turns out you can take the alasksan and the beer out of alaska, but not the other way around? hmm...Think on that.
When the beer begins to boil add the cheese gradually and whisk while it melts. When the cheese is melted add the tequila and Salsa.

All in all it was delicious and an impulse buy, that in my book, was worth it.

Slowly Melting

2008-12-30T11:48:00.000-08:00

We finally got Heather's car out of the driveway. The snow is slowly starting to turn to slush and turn from tons of fun to a general nuisance.

I hope you're all enjoying this Holiday time, I'm looking forward to Epiphany. It's a both a nice season and a fun word to say!

2008-12-25T11:05:00.000-08:00

We've been enjoying a snowy christmas, I want you to know I prayed long and hard for all this snow. Sorry if you're stuck in your driveway...

Two Snow Angels

The Griffith Ski Chalet

Out back a few days ago, it's even deeper now!

2008-12-25T11:04:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Out of Rhythm

2008-12-18T12:46:00.000-08:00

I've discovered once you get out of the rhythm of doing something it can be difficult to get back into it. Blogging for example...
I am finding this season of Advent to be a blessed and enriching time. The last few days have been pretty slow around the church and I've found time to think, read, and study without this disruption of the phone or other distractions. I think the rhythm of Advent calls us to think outside the normal everyday life we all so hurriedly lead, and allow ourselves to be immersed in the blessedness of God's presence with us. In church we're hearing a lot from the prophets about the restoration and wholeness God will bring to our lands and the season of Advent is all about preparing for the arrival of the promised one who will change everything. The prophets cry out for God to tear open the heavens and come down to bring deliverance. God responds by sending the spirit to Mary, to conceive a child, who will bring salvation to all. God answers the cry of the prophets with a baby. Our human story is brought into the fullness of God in this child. This all seems unlikely, why would God answer the cries of the people by sending a baby, how is that going to work? That has been my advent journey this year, finding the rhythm of God in unlikely and unexpected places.

from my latest church newsletter article.

2008-10-27T10:15:00.000-07:00

It's been too long since I've made an entry here, my camera is still broken and for some reason I just don't think to blog if I don't have a picture to go with it. I'm going to get that issue fixed soon. If anyone still reads this blog, I promise it will be better soon.

It feels like fall is really here. I hope you’ve been enjoying these wonderful crisp days as we begin to make the plunge into winter. The fall colors this year have been spectacular, yellows and oranges, bright and golden, even the dirty brown alder leaves that clutter my yard, beautiful. It’s here in this intermediary time you can feel warm rays of the sun, reminiscent of summer days, and the cool almost sharply cold wind with a hint of winter in its wings. There is something powerful in watching the season change, especially now as the land around us prepares for its winter slumber.
In the church year we look forward to the season of Advent. A time of longing and preparing for the coming of the promised one, Jesus Christ, for the very presence of God in the flesh among us. Advent is one of those special times in the church year when we suspend our knowing, and enter the drama or the story of waiting for God to break into the world in a powerful and mighty way in the person of Jesus. Yes, we know the Christmas story, there is little need for a “spoiler alert”. Yet, we put that aside and allow ourselves to be caught up in it all, allow ourselves to look inside and to the world around to find where God’s Word is working. We enter the longing for healing and wholeness, for God’s very presence in our lives.

sunburn update

2008-09-02T15:33:00.000-07:00

So last week I posted about the great time I had out kayaking and that I should have put on sunscreen. Turns out I got a really bad sunburn. I had an allergic reaction to the aloe vera gel lotion that I used and my entire face swelled up--serioulsy I'm fit for a star trek convention. The doctor, yes that's right I had to go to the doctor, said it should clear up soon and gave me a perscription for an antibiotic. Yikes.
As I journey through my life of adventure I'll be sure to pass along the wise words of wisdom that I pick up along the way. So be sure to wear sunscreen even if it seems a little cloudy outside. I know, who would have guessed that one!

Plan and Paddle

2008-08-27T14:31:00.000-07:00

I went out for a meeting yesterday and we decided the do some planning while out in the kayaks. One of the many reasons I love living in the northwest. We actually got quite a bit of work done and had a great time on the water. I should have put on some sunscreen but for some reason I'm amazing at forgetting that magical lotion...ouch...

Back in action

2008-08-23T16:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long--I broke my camera and that threw off the whole blogging thing for me. Here are some photos of my latest adventures.
First off here is a picture of the S/V Perfect Fit it's the Hulme's boat and it's a beauty. Ethan, Erin, Heather and I spent almost a week together on the boat cruising around in Canada.

We didn't go fast or far but we were always anchored in time to fly the happy hour flag!

Here we are enjoying a beautiful sunset!

Heather's sister came up to see us and we went backpacking up in the Olympic national park. It was beautiful. I've never seen the alpine bloom so spectacularly.

Summer...sort of...

2008-07-07T08:47:00.001-07:00

If felt like summer took forever to arrive and then it did all the sudden. Summer showed up with a vengence! Then suddenly left for a few days and we were back in the 50's and now today looks as though summer might be back? My garden is seriously confused.
You might guess that my lacking of blogging recently might suggest that I've got nothing going on and therefore nothing to report. Not true, it's been a crazy busy couple of weeks.
It's been a lot of working hard and playing hard. Heather and I are excited to head up to Canada for a week long sailing trip soon! You may remember we had a similar adventure last summer. Which was great fun, so we expect the same to be true this year.

I hate replacing things

2008-05-12T09:07:00.000-07:00

So I try to fix things. I bought the cheapest dvd player imaginable and was thoroughly surprised when it broke. The little door/tray thing stopped opening and that was the end. So I fixed it with a vengeance. Anything that I didn't know what it was, or didn't know how it worked I took out. (thanks to a physics degree at PLU I sort of knew about quite a lot of what's going on in a dvd player) However there were parts that I felt were superfluous--out they went. Now the dvd player doesn't quite work the way it did the day I took it home from the store--there are some noises that are strange, and I broke off a lot of the plastic parts, but what do you know I got it to work again.
Now instead of pushing a button to open the plastic tray (which is no longer with us...) You have to open the casing--the entire outer shell and physically place the dvd over the laser. A little inconvenient for sure, but it works!
I'm not sure what the moral of the story is but sure was a fun project.

Holden Trip

2008-05-07T10:18:00.000-07:00

Good times at Holden Village last weekend. I took a few of the high school students up there for the May Youth Weekend. A few of us got up early every morning to go hiking before the program started. What a beautiful place.

Grass is growing!

2008-04-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

The front yard is starting to look more like a real yard! I'm pretty exctied.
Also I wanted to put up a picture of my rain barrel system. It's pretty sweet.

Spring is here

2008-04-29T08:48:00.000-07:00

Ok, I'm trying not to be too excited but it seems like winter lingered here forever! I think, I hope, trying not to jinx it--spring is here. It's warmer and we're getting those nice spring soaking rains. Not that freezing cold slushy rain. For those of you not familiar with the northwest we have a billion ways to say it's raining.
The arrival of spring has been a good thing for our garden. The strawberries are doing great, I need to start training the beans to climb, and the spinach and radishes are shooting right up.
I get so excited to see this whole garden thing actually work! I mean I put small brown seeds in the dark earth and a little while later they actually grow--and with any luck will produce some tasty edibles. Amazing.
We've been working on a project here at church call the "Live Simply" seminar series. It's a series of four wed. evening seminars that will cover four topics:
1) Global interconnectedness--who's my neighbor and how do I love them
2) Responsible consumerism--how our dollars work in the world
3) Food--what's the deal with local/organic/vegetarian/responsible meat?
4) Going Green--Reducing our carbon footprints together as individuals and congregations.

I'm getting excited about this as the date draws nearer. They will be here at church from 6-7:30pm each Wednesday in May. If you're in the area please join us--it's open to the entire community. There will even be door prizes (good stuff I promise)--can't beat that!

All of the planning for the event prompted me to think about water use. I live in an area where we pay a flat user fee for water, we're not metered. So financially I have little incentive to save or conserve water. Plus it rains all the time here and I live on a lake--water is abundant right? Well it turns out things get pretty dry here in the summer. I can just turn on the hose and water plants, and essentials--we've never planned on watering the lawn. But, what if I could utilize some of the rain water? I did some investigation...I found some rain barrels at our local civic center for $20, barrels that normally cost $100. Awesome. I set it out on my deck to dutifully collect the abundance of rain. No such luck. It takes forever to fill up a rain barrel that way. Then I thought about the gutters on my house. There's a lot of water that goes that way. What if I could hook that up some how? Turns out there are a plethora of inventions to accomplish just that, all available on the Internet. I bought one, http://www.gardeners.com/Downspout%20Diverter/Watering_RainBarrels,33-991,default,cp.html, check it out. I hooked it all up to the side of my house and was a bit skeptical. Last Sunday afternoon it rained a bit and on Monday morning I checked the level of the rain barrel. Chock full, holy smokes. I got 55gallons of water in no time, in what seemed like very little rain. Now I'm going to hook up some more barrels in the system and collect even more.
It's a fun project and I feel like I'm even more off the grid. Next project--a power generator on the stream next to my house!

The funny thing about all this is years ago this rain barrel, gardening, stuff was normal. I'm not inventing anything new, I feel like I'm re-discovering a part of our past that we abandoned for the myth of convenience. The real tragedy is: this is not inconvenient at all, in fact it's a fun, simple, and rewarding project.

Finally, other exciting news, I got some hops plants--that's right I'm taking the next step in off the grid beer brewing. I hear they're going to grow like crazy. I'll post some pictures later.

outcry!

2008-03-25T13:53:00.000-07:00

There was some general outcry because of my last blog entry. Apparently I looked miserable doing yard work in front of my house. It was a lot of work, don't get me wrong but I wasn't really that miserable. We've come a long way in the front of the house. That big pile of dirt is spread out and "settling" now, I haven't seeded it yet but will soon. Hopefully we'll have a lawn in no time. We also got a raised garden bed built, and have planted rhubarb, strawberries, radishes, carrots, spinach and peas. These, we were assured, are all early season plants. none have appeared out of the ground yet...but I'm hopeful.
We've got our other native plants in the ground as well. I'm particularly excited about nootka roses ( they are a native rose species) that are starting to bud like crazy. They'll be beauties.
Nothing but fun at the Griffith house.

This last week has been busy, of course, but the entire Holy Week experience was great. We hosted a wonderful Thursday night meal and service, the choir performed a beautiful cantata for the Good Friday service, and Easter morning was full and bright with as many alleluias as we could fit in. Now that it's Tuesday my week will slow down quite a bit and I'll get some rest.

Dirt

2008-03-05T09:14:00.000-08:00

Heather and I have been doing some landscaping. Turns out it's a lot of work...

We've been having fun though. This beautiful self-portrait shows the great big pile of dirt that we had delivered. 15cubic yards of topsoil. It's beautiful stuff, but sure is a lot of work to move around. I've been slowly moving it, one shovel full at a time.

Something theological about working in the dirt, especially in lent. God said to Adam,
"cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
Last Sunday our gospel story was the story about Jesus spitting in the dirt and making mud to heal a blind man. I think there is a powerful and creative connection between all this dirt. First God scooped up the clay and made humans, and being mortal creatures we will return to the dirt, finally Jesus uses that same dirt to bring healing and restoration, dare we say new life, to the blind man.

Our Lenten journey continues, the days are getting brighter and we are getting closer to Easter, but we still have good Friday, the cross, and the waiting.

Several readers emailed me commenting on my last post, I'd still love to hear what sort of conversations that article generated or perhaps what moved in you. Thanks for keeping in touch.

Lent

2008-02-26T10:46:00.000-08:00

Right now I've got so many things going on I shouldn't even be taking time to write a blog entry. This Lent thing has me pretty busy. I wanted to share my newsletter article for this month, see if anyone has any thoughts. I've been thinking a lot about the invitation to silence, finding time for solitude as just another "thing" I've got to add to my already over full schedule.

This Lenten season we’ve been using the theme “Listen to Lent”. The idea is that we can all take some time and listen deeply to what’s going on in us and what’s going on in the world around us. As I’ve tried to practice this myself I’ve noticed just how difficult it is to find a quiet moment. We live in a very noisy world. It seems there is always something to distract me, pulling my attention away from deep thinking. The funny thing is a lot of the “noise” in my life is my fault. I can’t complain too much about the noisy world with out looking at myself. I turn on the TV or the radio and bring a lot of these distractions into my world. Sometimes, when I’m home alone, I turn on the TV, not even intending to watch it, but just to have some noise in the background because a silent house seems strange to me. Maybe that is a symptom of living in a noisy world; it makes the quiet times seem strange.
I would guess I’m not alone in this. I’ve heard other people say that finding quiet time is hard. But I think it’s more than that. I think we can find those quiet times out there. But we’ve been so conditioned to noise and being busy that even when we have time for quiet we resist it. There are plenty of ways to avoid time for quiet, time to listen to yourself, time to listen to the world.
So this begs the question, “why listen?” Why should I put down the distractions and the business of my life and find time for quiet? What’s wrong with being busy and living a multitasked life? Really, I don’t know. It seems to me there are plenty of happy busy people out there that live their lives task to task, chore to chore, job to job. I suspect, though, eventually this wears a person out.

Ruth Haley Barton writes,
“When I am dangerously tired I can be very, very busy and look very, very important but be unable to hear the quiet, sure voice of the One who calls me the beloved. When that happens I lose touch with that place in the center of my being where I know who I am in God, where I know what I am called to do, and where I am responsive to God’s voice above all others. When that happens I am at the mercy of all manner of external forces, tossed and turned by other’s expectations and my own compulsions. These inner lacks then become the source of my frenetic activity, keeping me forever spiraling into deeper levels of exhaustion.”

I resonate with Barton’s words, for me they are an accurate articulation of what I suspect to be true. It calls to mind a passage of scripture from Ephesians 4, “We must no longer be children tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” When we reach those levels of deep and dangerous exhaustion we are susceptible to people’s trickery, craftiness, we are more likely to be tossed to and fro by the gusty winds. Further, it is more difficult to hear the quiet voice of God calling us the beloved, calling us to act in love in the world.
Ironically, finding solitude and quiet can become one more thing in our already busy schedules that we have to do. But clearing a space for ourselves is a refreshing and recharging time, a time when we can listen for our deep joys, and hear the needs of a hungry world.
We’re all in this together, and I’d love to hear how you find time for quiet, how you listen.

This is a funny picture of Ethan I found, I thought it fit.

Here we go

2008-02-04T16:07:00.000-08:00

Heather had a few pictures of Telluride that we emailed to her while we were still there. These are from Quail Mountain, which is new terrain just opened up this season. It's high altitude and steep, pretty great stuff.

Here I am taking a break during a hike up to the new runs. The air is thin up there.

This is the three us of Nick, Ethan and Me! You can see behind us the mountian range!

We had a great trip, I'll post more photos when I get them

Still waiting

2008-02-04T12:01:00.001-08:00

Here's the problem. I have a bigger size camera. It takes awesome pictures but it is nearly impossible to take it along while snowboarding, or a similar potentially impactful sport. Ethan has a great little digital camera that takes pictures that are just fine and he took some pictures of us while we were out and about on the slopes of Telluride. I'd love to post some of those pictures but he hasn't emailed them to me yet. I hope to see them soon...

Heather and I were able to get away on Friday and go cross country skiing. We went to a place near Mt. Rainier. I have never seen so much snow on this particular trail before. We had a great time. The snow was good for skiing, not too fast but good snow none the less. We skied about 11 miles that day and were plenty tired when we got back to the truck. Our little Lab.,Nora, was one tired puppy. She curled up behind the seats and that was the last we heard from her until we got home.

I'm going to the Youth Workers Extravaganza in Anaheim, CA later this week. I feel like I've been out of town quite a bit lately but this is the last trip for a while. This should be a fun conference.

Before I get out of town I preach on Ash Wednesday. I've been wresting with the texts for just two days now and there is a lot going on. In the gospel reading Jesus is talking with the disciples about prayer, and fasting, and storing up your treasures... See! There is a lot going on in this story and a lot of different ways to go with a sermon. I need to narrow it down to just one; I've found it's best to preach one sermon at a time.

Some Pictures of the last journey

2008-01-31T11:32:00.000-08:00

So here's a story for you. A little while ago I was down in IL for my friend Tom's ordination. I rented a car in Chicago and drove to Dubuque spent a few days with Pastor Shane Koepke near Dubuque and then drove to IL for the service. I gave another friend of mine, Pastor Shannon a ride to IL. She left her coffee mug in my rental car and I did not have one inch of room in my carry on ( it was a quick trip,all I had was a carry on). So I washed it out and got a cup of coffee at the air port. Now it sits in my house in Washington. I thougth it would be funny if before I mail this thing back to her if I took pictures of people with the mug in various places along the way. When we went to Cannon beach a few weeks ago I thought it would be a good photo opp. for the mug. So Shannon there it is, your mug is safe and sound enjoying a day at the beach.

Cannon Beach is a beautiful place, these giant rocks stick right out of the sand.

You've got to read the display board for this one. This is a picture of Ethan at the Navajo Code talkers display in AZ. You won't believe this, the display/memorial for the men and woman who worked for the U.S. Army during WWII as code talkers is in a Burger King in a random town on the Reservation. Funny way of saying thanks...

Did you know it is possible to awkwardly squat in four states at once, turns out...it is. Amazing.

Here's Ethan going for some sort of a sweet spiderman move.

So here's what you have to look forward too, pictures of the trip to Telluride skiing etc...
They'll be up soon. As soon as my hobo friend Ethan emails me the pictures.

finally home

2008-01-28T08:30:00.000-08:00

I feel like I've been gone forever. Really, it's only been two weeks. I was in Cannon Beach two weeks ago for a preaching conference. Douglas John Hall was the presenter and putting it mildly he was amazing. I'm still trying to think about and unpack what he said during those few days.
Our friend Tracey came up all the way from San Antonio to go to the conference and see us. We had a great week together.
And if that wasn't enough fun, the following week I went to Telluride, CO. My friend Nick is a ski instructor for the resort there. Ethan and I stayed with Nick all last week and had a great time skiing and snowboarding. The weather was great, clear and cold for most of the time.

I'll put up some pictures and fill in some stories of my travels tomorrow so check back.

Drying out

2007-12-13T08:18:00.001-08:00

We're getting there. The flood waters have receded and we're getting things back into shape. One of the families in our congregation woke up to this!

Their house was filled with mud when the "tiny" stream behind their house over filled its banks and the hill side let loose. You can see how much debris was shoved against the garage. The house was full of mud and water.
Faith Lutheran Church has made an incredible response. We've sent work crews up there a few times now to help dig out, dry out, and clean up. It will take some more time yet, but things are headed the right direction.
I've been helping to organize the disaster clean up efforts and have earned the title (hopefully temporarily) "pastor of disaster". You can take that a few ways...hmmmm......

Snow, Floods, and more Fun

2007-12-06T08:53:00.000-08:00

So this was the house on Sunday afternoon, see the kayaker paddling in the snow!

This is Monday afternoon! During the flooding. It's been crazy out here on the Olympic Peninsula

Downtown Shelton was a giant puddle!!

We stayed dry and warm at our house. The power went out for a few hours but nothing major. We feel pretty lucky all things considered. We've got a lot of trees around the house and they all stayed upright!

Cross Country Ski Trip and Other Stuff...

2007-11-29T10:16:00.000-08:00

Heather and I took off yesterday for the wilds of Mt. Rainier. We had a great afternoon cross country skiing! The snow was really deep and powdery so it wasn't fast skiing but it was fun.

I have some picts to post but, of course, I don't have them with me right now. I'll put them up soon.

I'm preaching on Sunday, which is the beginning of Advent. The gospel reading for this Sunday, Matt. 24: 36-44 is on of the primary stories for the "Left Behind" book series. It is about the necessity for watchfulness. "two will be in the field, one will be taken and one will be left."
One way to interpret that is to say that the one who was left was an "unbeliever" and the one taken was a "believer" saved from the rapture. Interestingly, earlier in the story Jesus draws a parallel between this "left behind event" and the story of Noah and the flood.

He says, "For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away..."

If we take that parallel seriously we notice that it was Noah and his family who were essentially "left behind" in the flood, it was all the "wicked" ones who were taken away.
There is also no reason given for one being taken and one being left behind. Jesus doesn't say that one believed and the other did not.

This apocalyptic text is truly ambiguous, but does have a life giving voice to us today. If we suspend the rapture theology conversation momentarily, we can read this story as a story of being aware of God's action in our world. Each day we have is a gift from God, and we are commended to live each day to the fullest. What would you do if you knew the world was going to end tomorrow? Martin Luther is quoted as saying something like this, "I'd plant a tree."

In the end times, or the now times we have to trust in God's ongoing, creative, and life giving power. We really don't know what the last days will look like, and truly it doesn't matter. Living each day in faith, trusting in the good news is really all we've got. A friend of mine used to joke, "when people ask me if I'm a Pre-Trib or Post-Trib kinda guy I always respond, 'I'm a pan-trib guy, I figure it will all pan out in the end.'"

Hot springs

2007-11-13T10:24:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago Ethan, Heather and I hiked out to the Olympic Hot Springs. It sounded like a great way to spend a rainy and gloomy afternoon. The trail up to the hot springs is an old paved road that had been abandoned, or allowed to be "reclaimed". Needless to say the trail is not that strenuous. We did have a great time up there once we got passed the naked hippies, the naked Asians, and the angry eastern Europeans. There are several hot spring options once one arrives in the general area. We found one with a few very nice South Korean men, who were clothed appropriately. The water was not that hot, which was nice because it enabled us to stay up there for a long time with out cooking ourselves. Now I have become sort of a hot spring connoisseur and this rates just ok on my official scale. The one to beat so far is a beautiful place in the Yukon.

It was a great day trip and worth the effort to get out there. I was thinking it might be a fun youth group trip but with the general lack of clothing I'm re-thinking that plan...

About time

2007-11-07T10:45:00.000-08:00

It's been a little long since my last update. I've got the same story, I'm just plain busy.
We've got a lot of great stuff going on at the church and it's exciting to be a part of this ministry.

A few weeks ago I preached at a funeral and used psalm 46 for a portion of my sermon. I really like the part at the end, "be still and know I am God." In the midst of chaos and crazy lives, I think about that, "Be still and know I am God."

I get so wound up in being busy sometimes I forget to just take a deep breath and remember the bigger perspective. There is more to my life than the next meeting I have to go to, or the next bulletin I'm putting together. The last phrase from Psalm 46 helps me to remember that perspective.

Most mornings I get up and first thing I do a simple yoga routine. That helps me as well, to remember to take a moment and be still. For me the ritual action helps, something that is repetitive everyday. That way it becomes a habit.

Remember your baptism

2007-10-30T10:05:00.000-07:00

(The above drawing is from Daniel Erlander, danielerlander.com)

I've been teaching a class on being a Lutheran here at church the last few weeks. One evening our topic was baptism. We talked about baptism in general and also what is particular about the way Lutherans think about baptism. One of the foundations of Lutheran thinking on baptism is there is no such thing as a uniquely Lutheran baptism. For example if you were baptized in a Baptist, Catholic, or any other Christian church we believe that your baptism is effective and there is no need to re-baptize. One thing that Lutherans do talk about however is remembering your baptism, and living out your baptismal identity. I like that. I like to think about what my baptismal identity is. I am a husband, a pastor, a friend, a son, a brother etc...but primarily I am a baptized child of God. When everything in my life is going great, I am a baptized child of God or when everything in my life seems to be falling apart, I am a baptized child of God.

It's also strange to think about living in a baptismal identity, or remembering my baptism when, for me, it is a day I don't remember. I was baptized as a young child and have no memory of that event. Yet, that is not what is important. The water of baptism might dry off, but the cross that each of us are marked with never wears out. Dan Erlander writes that when we are baptized we are baptized into "storied waters". He writes, "To be baptized is to be plunged into the greatest story-the entire Biblical story especially the story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ." So as we remember our baptism, we also remember that we are baptized into the life, death and resurrection of Christ. We are also baptized into the entire family of faith--and all of those stories!

St. David's Community Dinner

2007-10-25T11:01:00.001-07:00

The Faith Lutheran Church Youth Group has been invited to help serve a community meal at St. David's Episcopal Church in downtown Shelton. We have been invited to work with the youth group from First Baptist Church. Let me know if you are interested.

Tom's Ordination

2007-10-23T15:38:00.000-07:00

I was able to get away for a QUICK trip to the mid-west. My good friend Tom was ordained in Earlvile,IL. Great little town...
It was great to see friends from Seminary, and this was the first time the back row guys were all together as clergy. The church is in good hands folks, honest!

This is a picture from the big day, most of these people are recent Wartburg grads. Tom and the Bishop from St. Paul, MN are in the center.

Here are some picts of holden!!

2007-10-22T09:04:00.001-07:00

Holden Village is nestled in some incredible mountains, the pictures hardly do any justice to the real thing. Hopefully you get the idea...

The village started as a mining camp and was donated to the Lutheran Church to be used as a retreat/camp setting. The buildings are older log structures and the staff keeps them clean and comfortable. We stayed in a dorm style facility that was very comfortable. The place depends heavliy on volunteers who stay at the village in return for room and board. They do a great job.

Part of the deal for our "Let Justice Roll" program was that we had to do a service project for the village. We had a great time stacking fire wood to help get ready for a snowy winter. This is a picture of my work team.

We were able to sneak away during some free time to enjoy the mountains around Holden. We hiked up to Holden lake which was five miles, 10 round trip, we really had to move to make it back to the village before evening vespers! It was rainy and cold, even some snow, and we had a great time!

It really is an incredible place. Hopefully I'll be able to make it back up there soon.

Life has gotten in the way of my blogging career

2007-10-18T08:39:00.000-07:00

Sorry about that, if anyone is still keeping track of this blog. I will post pictures of my latest adventures soon. I was at Holden Village for a weekend and then the next weekend I was in Iowa/Illinois. Besides all my travels the church has been a busy place with all of our classes, services, funerals, and regular meetings. Yikes. But check back soon, maybe tonight, and I'll have some great photos of Holden and my Friend Tom's ordination. As soon as life gets back to something that resembles normal, I'll be back in action.

Holden

2007-10-09T17:14:00.000-07:00

Wonderful, what a place. The bus pulled up to the loading dock and I felt like I was home. There is something special in the air at Holden village. Maybe it's the absolute remoteness, the woods, the mountains, or the chemicals in the mine tailings...
I have some great pictures of my time there and I will post them tomorrow, so check back and you'll see and hear more about my trip.

Headed to Holden

2007-10-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

I'm finally headed to Holden village. There is a conference there this weekend for high school students and I'm taking a group from church. People always tell me, "oh you'd love Holden."
Holden Village is a small Lutheran village off in the mountains by Lake Chelan, WA. From what I understand they practice a very simple way of life, and focus on care for creation and spirituality. I think this will be an amazing time. I'll post pictures and tell you all about it when I get home, sometime on Tue...
Take care all,
Mark

Not much to report

2007-09-27T08:41:00.000-07:00

So life is good. I've been keeping pretty busy at church but not too bad, it's a comfortable busy.

I'm thinking about becoming and amateur boat builder...Sounds good right? Some of the people in my congregation went to a wooden boat show in Port Townsend, WA and brought me back some flyers. One of them was from a company called Chesapeake light craft. They make wooden boat kits and mail them to you. I thumbed through their catalogue and found a boat that would be perfect. It takes 100 hours to build and the end result is beautiful, assuming you have the skill and patience to do it correctly. Well that got me thinking, and I did some looking on the Internet. Have you noticed that most "good" ideas have got their start somewhere on the Internet? There are these people out there in Internet land that build boats from plywood in their garage, and there is a sub-culture of "those people" that build boats from one sheet of plywood. They're called OSS, one sheet skiffs, now we're cookin. There are all sorts of plans and challenges on the Internet around building these little boats. And as luck would have it I live on a small lake that would be the perfect OSS proving ground. You can only imagine how excited Heather is about this project!!
Here's what you do, Google "one sheet skiffs" and you'll see what I'm talking about... pretty sweet eh?

I'm thinking this is a church activity in the making, think about all the cool stuff we could do with the Biblical stories about water and boats. Sky's the limit, so to speak?

2007-09-17T17:03:00.000-07:00

A quick update on some major home owner victories:
The fruit fly problem is solved by some carnivorous plants!! I'm not kidding--I found a Sundew and a Pitcher plant to eat the small flying bugs in my house. So far so good, I hope they're hungry.

And I felt pretty darn cool after I finished this project. This is a little bit of paradise and it's my back yard! We still have a ways to go as far as landscaping and all that but at least I can procrastinate in style.
We had rain this morning in Shelton but we are having a great afternoon, the sun is up and drying things out and I ejoyed the hammock for a few before I had to get back to church.

Keep it real.

Rest and Relaxation

2007-09-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

It seems so long ago... Heather and I went camping last weekend and it was beautiful. We hiked to a high alpine lake in the Olympic Mountain Range and spent the night. Nora, the dog, got to come too! She has her own pack and gets to carry her own stuff. It was a wonderful and relaxing trip. Now that I'm back at work mu life is back to busy. Which is fun, but I'm glad we had some time to get away.
Here are some pictures of the lake and our campsite.

Stay tuned everyone, I've been doing a lot of yard work--more pictures to follow.

2007-09-06T13:54:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd take a moment and update my sort of neglected blog here. Heather and I have been moving along getting settled into our house and we're really enjoying it. It's fun to have our own place where we feel like we'll be for a while. We are starting to hang things on the wall and feel like it's a permanent place. Exciting times.
We went up to Seattle last night to visit the University of Washington Library Science program. They had a little open house to talk to perspective students about the program and application process. It was interesting to learn more about it and I think Heather is getting more excited about starting school in the next year.
For members of the congregation who are reading this I want to plug a few up coming events:
Sunday Sept. 23rd Youth event at Pastor Mark's house! We'll meet at my house at 12:30 for lunch and some fun stuff. This event for for Middle School through High School youth.

Saturday Sept.29th Family Hike. Meet at the church at 10am. Remember we're not worried about fast or far, but having a good time.

Every Wed. in Oct. at 6pm The Lutheran Handbook course. Let's learn about what it means to be Lutheran in our world today. This course is fun for life long Lutherans, brand new Lutherans and everyone in between. Even if you don't consider yourself Lutheran this class will have something for you.

Seattle in the afternoon

2007-08-28T13:44:00.000-07:00

Heather and I have been so busy lately we didn't feel like we really got to see each other this weekend. It was a beautiful afternoon so after I was done at the office we took off for the Seattle waterfront. We took Nora, our chocolate lab, and just cruised around for the afternoon. From Shelton we drive for about an hour to Bremmerton, then it's an hour ferry to Seattle. It makes for a great afternoon. It's not too far from here but downtown Seattle feels like a world away.

Also, I wanted to post some pictures of the hike I went on with a few of the young adults from Faith Lutheran. We had a good time, don't they look thoughtful!

2007-08-27T08:37:00.000-07:00

It's been a little too long since my last post, sorry Justin. I've been pretty busy lately. This congregation has a lot going on, and they keep my calendar full. I did my first wedding on Saturday, which was fun. It was an outdoor wedding and the day looked to be fairly nice, but about 5 min. after I started the service it started to sprinkle, and that turned into a good steady soaking for a few minutes. Some pages of my sermon got stuck together, so the sermon was almost really short. The rain didn't last long though. In fact the sun came right back out and it got really hot.
Yesterday after church, which was plesantly uneventful, a couple from the congregation invited all the young people out to their house. They live on a lake and have a dock, ski boat, and all the fun water toys. Hard to resist. I wake boarded one time about 5 years ago on Lake Powell, AZ. I got up right away and was moving the board around and trying to get a feel for it and slam. I really don't even remember falling it happend that fast. I leaned a little bit too far forward and dug the front of the board into the wake. Ouch. Everyone on the boat agreed they hadn't seen a crash that hard in a while. I got back up though and kept going, good times.
I feel like it's time to get back to school, I think it will take some time to get used to the idea that I get to live here for a while. I can actually hang things on my walls and settle down for a bit. Werid. I hope everyone is doing well, keep in touch.

Ok, I'm that pastor

2007-08-13T15:03:00.000-07:00

Another first for me today, it turned out to be a beautiful day here in Shelton and there were a few people I wanted to go see this afternoon. They were not that far away and I had my skateboard in my truck so...I made my first pastoral visit via skateboard. It worked like a champion, much faster than walking and oh so fun. Anyway, I'll post a picture. Keep it real.

Filled with firsts

2007-08-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

As you would imagine there have been a lot of firsts this week. This last Sunday I preached my first sermon in this church. I was asked to share my faith story for my first sermon. I had a good time with it and was glad to share some of my story. If you'd like a copy of what I said, email me. I'd be glad to share it.

After church I was able to tag along with the high school youth to downtown Seattle and hang out on the water front. We had a good time, and I couldn't be more excited to start doing stuff with these young adults.

So here I go, starting another week. I wonder what is in store for me this time. Take care all.

First Week at Faith Lutheran Church

2007-08-08T15:29:00.000-07:00

Today I have finished my first week at church. One week ago today I began my day with VBS, then assisted in a funeral--and it's been busier since. I've been out visiting some wonderful people from this congregation, planning worship, and I preach for the first time here the comming Sunday. Life is busy but I'm loving it.
Heather and I have been working on moving into our new house. It's exciting but a lot of work...I can't wait until we can just live there and have it be a home. Right now it's still a giant project.
Well I'll post more as the adventure continues. Take care everyone!

The Motherload

2007-07-28T13:43:00.000-07:00

Here are a bunch of pictures--everything from our new house to our various Alaskan adventures.

To start let's look at the house. Here is a picture of our backyard/wetland project. We're going to keep some of that as natural wetland looking out onto the lake, and landscape some.

Here is our front door, the photo is sideways--the door is normal, I promise.

Here is the front of the house, it's 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms 2 car garage and huge front yard. Heather and I are very excited to move in!! You can be sure that will make it on my blog when we do.

This is our good friend Ethan and my beautiful wife Heather in the front yard (or where the front yard will go).

Heather and I went sailing with Ethan and his family on their new boat in British Columbia. Let me just say life could have been better but none of us were sure how, it was spectacular.

Here is a picture of Ethan and I in our new folbot folding kayaks. You might remember from previous posts, such as "it floats!" when I got this amazing feat of engineering. It really does paddle very nicely and our suspicions were confirmed they are perfect for a sailboat. You can store them in their bags on the boat or put themtogether (we did manage to put them together onboard) and keep them on the bow! I seriously could have sold a million of these things, at least three or four. If Phil from Folbot reads this blog ever you should think about a dealership out here in the Northwest. Or at least send me a free hat.

Ok, many of you know that Heather and I are vegetarians. And you may see this picture and wonder is that Mark in a slowly sinking dingy with a hatchet chopping a crab? If you have asked yourself this question--yep, that's me. We fell of the strict vegetarian diet for the sake of delicious fresh crab. Awesome.

Who could turn down a dinner that looks this good! Fresh crab and champanage!

This is the sailboat, a beautiful boat with plenty of room for 6!

Now we're in AK, this is Ethan and Shane on the Mendenhall Glacier--way to go guys.

This is the inside of a huge ice cave we found. I really couldn't believe the blue color in their, it was incredible. We were actually under the glacier. Crazy.

Here is a picture from my ordination service. It was a beautiful service, and I really appreciate all the help I had putting it together.

After my ordination service, Heather and I were off to camp. We spent almost a week at Rainbow Glacier Bible Camp in Haines, AK. Once a year the Lutheran Church in Alaska rents this camp and hosts youth from all over Southeast AK. I was one of the camp pastors and Heather was a cabin counselor for the 8th 9th grade girls. We both had a great time. I did my first communion as an ordained minister at camp. I though it was fitting for me to do my first communion in rubber boots and work pants. It was a beautiful experience.

Back in action

2007-07-24T14:24:00.001-07:00

Heather and I made it back from our wonderful trip to Alaska. I was ordained at Resurrection Lutheran Church in Juneau, AK on July 15th. The service was beautiful. A big thanks to all who helped make it all come together. I will post pictures of the service soon. I forgot the CD that has the pictures on it when I came into town today. I also have pictures of our time in Juneau and at camp in Haines. So stay tuned, I'll get those online asap. Hopefully the pictures from my last post have been fixed. Let me know if they are working for you or not. Thanks to all of you who have kept in touch, I hope this blog helps that endeavor.

Life in Shelton

2007-06-29T12:50:00.000-07:00

Heather and I stayed with some wonderful people along the way. This is our is our good friend in MT, she just finished her PhD in physics and we're very excited for her.

We also saw my Dad and Dolores in Denver and another new good friend in Eastern, WA.

We had a farily uneventful drive out here. Our trailer did get a flat somewhere between Omaha and Lincoln but the Budget folks sent help our way and we were back on the road in about 2 hours. Not too bad. The truck was a beast to drive, especially with the trailer carrying a truck and a motorcycle.

After several long days on the road we made it to home sweet home. Here it is!

It's not big or fancy, but it's a very clean comfortable place that we are very grateful to be able to stay. It's on 10 acres on Harstine Island. Nora is loving the space to run around and has a new friend, Bell.

Finally some more exciting news, Heather and I bought a house!!!! It happened much faster than we thought but we found a deal we couldn't pass up. It's a beautiful new home that is on 65' of lake front, too beautiful to let go, so we made a offer and were pleasantly surprised to hear they accepted it. I'm going to take some pictures today and post them when I get back to the internet again. So stay tuned.

Hello to all our friends and family that are keeping in touch, please leave a comment and let us know what's going on out there!

MADE IT!!!!

2007-06-21T21:44:00.000-07:00

Oh man that was a long drive. But we made it!!!! Our little house is great, and we're going to be just fine living there until we get a house of our own. We don't have internet access at our place so we drive around and find free wi-fi here and there. I'll post more later.

Saying goodbye to Dubuque.

2007-06-15T20:53:00.000-07:00

We are having to say goodbye to Dubuque, to the Wartburg community and to a lot of good friends. Yes, it is sad but I have a feeling we'll see each other again. Right now I'm so busy moving and packing I don't have much time to think about how different my life will be starting tomorrow. Also, easing the blow of this transition is the excitement of moving to the Northwest, and joining the ministry and Faith Lutheran Church! I feel really positive about how I will fit in there and find my way as a brand new pastor in an exciting church community.

I had this great idea to post a before and after picture of my garage and the Budget truck...guess what, I'm really tired and I'm not doing it. So here's what you do, look at the picture of the garage and look at the picture of the truck and now close your eyes. Imagine all that stuff in the garage and the house in the truck...fun.

Finally and exciting update. Remember a few postings ago I wrote about those unsightly bare spots in my yard? The only tool I had available was my mountaineering boots and crampons to tear up my yard. Well anyway the grass looks great and I think will just continue to get better!

We hit the road tomorrow morning and head for Denver. We'll get back to the midwest sometime, we have so many good friends to come back and visit. But for now, goodbye to Dubuque.

Ordination!!

2007-06-14T14:40:00.000-07:00

My friend Tracey posted her ordination announcement on her blog, and I thought it was a great idea. So here it is:

By the grace of God and
the call of the Church

G. Mark Griffith

will be ordained
to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in
Christ’s one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church

Sunday, the fifteenth of July
in the year of our Lord two thousand seven
at four o’clock in the afternoon

Resurrection Lutheran Church
740 West 10th Street
Juneau, AK

the Reverend Robert D. Hofstad
Bishop of the Southwestern Washington Synod
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, presiding

Your prayers and presence are requested.
All ordained, consecrated, and commissioned
ministers are invited to process.
The color of the day is red.

Kayaks, Weddings, and more!!!

2007-06-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

Here are some photos from our trip to the Apostle Islands. We arrived in Bayfield and the weather was less than spectacular. We camped out in a very nice city campground just outside the city limits and woke up to a thick blanket of fog everywhere. I wasn't too excited about paddeling off into the wilds of lake superior not being able to see anything. So we checked in at the ranger station in Bayfield and talked to them about the weather for a while. It was not looking good for the rest of the day or the rest of the week. The people at the ranger station were very helpful and friendly, they suggested that if we didn't go out on the water we take advantage of free ferry day. That sounded like a good idea and how is one supposed to pass up free ferry day? The ferry goes out to Madeline Island, one of the Apostle Islands. In fact it is the only one that has any sort of population on it. If you have ever been out to Vashon Island in the Seattle area you might have an idea of what Madeline is like. Very nice, little island town with just a touch of a hippie feel. Anyway, we had lunch on the island and as we were walking around the fog started to lift and the sun came out. We decided to take advantage of this break in the weather and went back to our kayaks. We put in at Bayfield and kayaked out to Basswood Island. It's not too far off the coast but it is about a 4 mile paddle to island from Bayfield. It didn't take too long before we were unloading at the dock.

We stayed on Basswood for two nights and did some day trips hiking and kayaking off the island. A lot of our time was spent in our beautiful new tent, waiting out the rain. It did a great job keeping us dry, but is not the most exciting place to be for extended periods of time. We had a great time out there, but did get tired of waiting out the rain and trying to dry out all the time. The weather was not looking to get any better and when we called in for a weather report we found that it was only to get worse.

(We did find time to do some yoga on the dock!)
We thought about it for a moment and decided it would not be fun to be stuck on the island or try to paddle in a thunder storm. And we were a little tired of all the rain. So we cut our camping two nights short and went back into bayfield while the weather was fairly nice. We had a great time just wandering around in town and taking in the sights on the lake.
(This photo is a little Holga-esque, I modified a lens from a Holga camera and mounted it on my Nikon D50. It captures some of those wonderfully terrible holga effects.)
After our day in Bayfield we decided to go up to Grand Maraie in Northern Minnesota. We discovered this little town on our honeymoon last year and really had a great time there. We had the time, so why not. It was fun to go back up there and spend the day in town and just cruise around. After our day there, we went back to Wisconson to Scott and Stef's wedding! It was great to see everyone again and have some time to be with really good friends for a while. The service was very nice, everyone said "I do" and all went well.

Three of the greatest friends a guy could have.
And isn't that a great looking group of pastors! That's right folks, the church is in good hands...

Our famous dog (sort of)

2007-05-29T06:43:00.000-07:00

We took a break from our rigorous packing schedule to have some fun this weekend. Heather, Nora and I went to the Galena River on Sunday for a short paddle. Nora is sporting her new life jacket! She did pretty good back there, it's her third time out and she is getting better at it each time. She did jump out twice and it is no easy task getting her back in while we are under way.
Usually the river in Galena is a quiet place to be, I only rarely see people out there. This being a big three day weekend there were lots of people hanging out in Galena and a lot of people by the river. People really enjoyed seeing our silly dog in the back of a kayak. She was quite the photo opportunity.

We had a busy Memorial Day weekend. We have been getting ready to move to Washington State. So that means a lot of packing, organizing, and sorting. Three things that I really don't enjoy, but it does feel good to get this done. I keep thinking we have abundant time to get ready to move. As it turns out our moving date is rapidly approaching. We pick up the truck on June 15th, and start driving on the 16th!

Heather's last day of work is June 1st and the next day we are going kayaking in the Apostle Islands for a few days. On the way back to Dubuque we are going to Scott and Stef's wedding on June 9th. All said and done we won't be back until the 10th. All that said, my packing time is even more limited than the calendar suggests.

Not too bad

2007-05-25T08:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went golfing for the very first time! My good friends Tom and Shane took me out to Timberland golf course and we played nine holes. Admittedly, I had some bias against golf going in to it. Everyone knows the stereotypes of golfers, stodgy and pretentious with bad pants. However, with the right crowd it was actually a great time. I still am not sure how one would take this game too seriously though. I see that there is skill and talent involved, but really at the end of the day you are hitting a little ball around a big yard with an assortment of sticks.

All in all it was really fun and I’m glad I did it. I would even do it again should the opportunity arise. I’m not sure it would ever be something I would really get into, but it’s not too bad.

Use what you got

2007-05-22T08:50:00.001-07:00

I have some unsightly grassless spots in the front yard of my fine seminary house. I found some stuff that is made of grass seed, recycled paper, and other stuff that is supposed to patch these spots in my yard. The instructions say to use a rake to stir up the areas before you apply this stuff. Well I don't have a rake and in the logical progression of my mind the next best thing to use was my crampons. As I was digging them out of my basement I was wondering how often crampons get used in Iowa?

They work surprisingly well. They are made for walking around on glaciers and they did a fine job of tearing up my yard. I'm pretty sure all my neighbors thought I was crazy.

We're getting ready for the big move, secured the rental truck this morning and I'll spend the rest of the day packing ( or most likely get distracted by something and be busy doing something else).

Another Graduation

2007-05-22T08:38:00.001-07:00

My cousin Marley graduated from high school this last weekend and Heather and I were there. We drove down to the Ozarks and spent a few days seeing family and friends. It was fun to be there for the big graduation day.

It was funny to think back to when I graduated from high school. I remember feeling like I had arrived, the real world was mine. Now two degrees later I have a job. Now that it has almost ten years ago, I realize how little I really have figured out. I'm sure in ten years I'll look back at graduation from seminary and be just as amazed at how much I have yet to experience.

Anyway, congratulations Marley!

2007-05-18T08:56:00.000-07:00

Excitement has reached fever pitch this morning at the Griffith house. I mailed off a few letters to esteemed members of the U.S. Senate. I really have no idea if it does any good, or if anyone actually reads them but it really does feel good. I even used the word “pejorative”, which I think is really cool. I can only hope that we have a government that listens to the people it is supposed to serve? Now that's a radical idea isn't it!

Also, I would like to offer a pre-emptive "you're welcome" to Folbot for thanking me for being such a good salesperson. I would like to take credit for a person who recently purchased a red Cooper in AZ. I’ll do my best to keep selling boats; I think a free hat would be nice.

Now that I’ve graduated my next task it to pack for the big move out to Washington State. I’ve officially accepted a call at Faith Lutheran Church in Shelton, WA. I will be moving out there June 15th. Once I move out there I’ll head up to Juneau, AK where I will be ordained at Resurrection Lutheran Church on July 15th at 4pm. I begin my pastoral duties on August 1st.

This afternoon, Heather and I will drive to Kansas City, MO to see Grandma and go to my cousin’s high school graduation. I figure since I’m leaving the mid-west it might be good to take advantage of being able to see family before I move west.

2007-05-16T18:10:00.000-07:00

It FLOATS!! I had a bit of time this afternoon so I took the new kayak out. My exotic adventure destination: Galena, IL. There is a great boat ramp there and I was happy to discover a nice grassy place to put together this contraption. I put it together in about 15min, much faster than last time.

So I know you are all dying to know, 'how does it paddle?' It's strange at first. It kinda feels like you are sitting in a waterbed. The skin moves with the water a little bit and you can feel the water right next to you. Other than that little oddity it paddles fine, it feels solid and moves around great. I didn't roll it today but that will happen soon. I'm told it is one of only a few folding kayaks that can actually do that so we'll see...

New Avenue for Adventure!

2007-05-14T13:55:00.000-07:00

A new avenue for adventure! After several months of research I finally purchased a Folbot Cooper. It is a folding kayak that has a frame made of shock corded aluminum poles that gets slipped into a big rubbery skin. It arrived this afternoon at about 1pm in a big box.

I unpacked the big black bag it came in and pulled out all the alien looking parts, wondering how this was all going to eventually float.

I started this construction project in my living room and soon realized that I didn't have enough room. Down to the basement. I got to step two on the instruction sheet and had to call in for help. When I called Folbot they answered right away and the person who answered transfered me to someone who could help me. Phil was able to answer my question right away and I figured out how to put together a rather nifty little joint in the bow. The owner of Folbot is named Phil, so it might have been the owner of Folbot himself who helped me with my question.

After about an hour of leisurely reading the directions and staring at parts I got the frame together!

And, I was only bleeding a little bit! Amazing so far!

Once you get ther frame together there is only one way to skin a folbot. Ha ha... sorry...

It is really pretty easy to get the frame inside the skin, and then there is a tension wheel that makes it nice and snug. It all went pretty slow the first time but I think I'll get much faster as time goes on.

There is one little problem, to get it out of my basement I have to take it apart again. It is sort of like the proverbial ship in a bottle at the moment.

Graduation

2007-05-14T13:34:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's pretty exciting. GraduationI!! The last four years have gone by so quickly. I have mixed feelings about this graduation thing. On one hand I'm ready to move on and start a life of ministry in the parish, on the other hand I will really miss this place. I think I'm at a good place, ready to move on but glad I'm still here. In that way the timing was just perfect. I don't feel like I've been here too long and I don't feel like I need to stay. I walked across the stage and checked to see if there really was a diploma in the folder and sure enough there was. It is quite the sense of accomplishment to have finally achieved a M.Div.

So the family all came in for graduation and we had a nice day. Baccalaureate was at 10am in the Wartburg chapel and graduation was at 3pm at St. Joseph the Worker. Both services were carefully planned and went smoothly. The best selling author, Jim Wallis, was our speaker and he did a fine job. His challenge for us was to connect our faith and our action in daily life. Also, we need to stop waiting for someone to come around to fix things, "we are the people we've been waiting for."

The next step now is ordination. That will be July 15th at Resurrection Lutheran Church, Juneau, AK at 4pm. Announcemets are to be mailed soon, or just show up--that would be fine too! I think that will be an incredible service. There will be people from the church that has called me to be a pastor there with the people who helped prepare me to be a pastor. Of course, family and friends will be there too and we will have a great time!

2007-05-11T14:53:00.001-07:00

Well really not too exciting yet. I'll do my best to make it better soon.