If you have a low tolerance for hearing about pain, or perhaps happen to be eating lunch, please stop reading.  I’ve learned that some people were grossed out by my discussion of blended meat products a couple of weeks ago. If you thought that crossed a line, from this post you will not be able to look back and see the line.

You’re still reading? You’ve been warned.

A few weeks ago I wrote about focusing this little corner of the interwebs a bit more. As you might guess, my focus lately has been on 1) transitioning out of Ithaca well, 2) getting our family settled in Ireland, and 3) my surgery.

Since the surgery on my upper and lower jaw is scheduled for this Friday, I thought I’d share a little bit of my history with my teeth (we go back along time together.)

This is actually my second round of braces.  When I was around twelve my parents took me to an orthodontist in Fredonia, NY who shall remain nameless. (But if you write, and guess at his name, I will tell you if you are right.) While he performed a number of various torture methods on me, and took my parent’s money, in the end, he was upset that my doctor would not let him remove my tonsils and adenoids, so he removed my braces, stuck me in a retainer and with in 6 months, my teeth we back to their original state.  Rather than try and describe my orthodontist, I thought I’d share a video that every time I see it reminds me of him.

Now, I have a pretty high pain tolerance. When I was a kid, I read somewhere that Novocain improperly injected could go to your brain and paralyze you, so for the next several years I had all of my cavities filled sans Novocain. Around the age of 16 I got over that, however since then I think I’ve had only one small cavity. (And not only am I a 4 wisdom tooth guy, I went to work the next day.) So I don’t think I’m a wimp when it comes to oral pain.

The major purpose of the surgery I’m getting on Friday is to widen my upper jaw so that I can bite properly, breath properly, and prevent my teeth from falling out. That was also an issue when I was a kid (see, I don’t have a big mouth…all of my doctors agree). Now the way they attempted to address the issue when I was younger was by installing a Palatal Expander to my upper teeth. Each night my parents would need to take a small piece of metal, insert it in the center of the Palatal Expander, and turn. Some nights you could even hear the roof of my mouth crack (good times). I have no idea how they never lost that thing, or worse, dropped it down my throat.

While that was in the roof of my mouth, my orthodontist decided the reason for my small upper jaw was that my tongue didn’t work properly, so he inserted a

tongue spur in the bottom of my mouth. As you can see from the picture, it was designed to prick your tongue whenever it got near your bottom teeth.

(Believe it or not, the only time I cried throughout the whole process was when they put in the spacers for the Palatal Expander. My mom picked me that day and the other person in the car that day was the girl I’d eventually take to the senior prom…I think she only went with me because she still felt sorry for me all those years later…My mom also felt sorry for me and the next morning while driving me to school, she gave me a Rolo, which I proceeded to choke on.  She actually, pulled over the car, got me out of my seat and gave me the Heimlich…thanks mom.  For saving my life…not for the Rolo.)

This morning I had surgical hooks placed on my braces in preparation for Friday’s surgery.  And although they are slightly annoying and make it a bit of a challenge to speak, they are not as bad as I was anticipating.

I guess I do owe my old orthodontist a thank you for making the first round of orthodontia so horrible, that having my jaw dissected and replaced seems easy compared to a visit to your office.  (Did I mention that he filed down two of my teeth with no pain killer because he thought they were too pointy.) I’m still getting over that I guess…it’d be easier if he gave my parents their money back.

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I mentioned during yesterdays message that I’d throw the names of some good books on the topic of healing prayer up here. Picking up any of these would be a great place to start as you dig into the topic.

If you think of a good one I’ve forgotten, let me know.

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As we have mentioned over the past few weeks, our summer kinship semester is going to be starting up on the week of June 20.  If you have ever thought about leading a group (now or in the future), or perhaps finding more about what the process looks like, I’d like to share a couple items that will help with that process.

The first item is a fact sheet that talks about what the process of becoming a Kinship Group Leader looks like, what the requirements are, and what commitments we ask you to make as a Kinship Group Leader. The second item is an online application for becoming a Kinship Group Leader.  Even if you are thinking that leading a group might be something you’d think about down the road, the application wil give you a good idea of some of the things we are looking for when we select group leaders.

In addition, if you would like to perhaps host a kinship group at your home, or serve as a Kinship Group Worship Leader, please let me know.

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Over the past few months we’ve been doing something a little be different with our kinships.  We’ve been meeting as a large group here in Ithaca (with a satellite group in Cortland) and talking about various items that are core to who we are as a church.

While this has been a great experience, it has been difficult

Well, our time is almost over.  In fact, we’ll have only 3 more meetings before this semester comes to a close. The schedule looks like this:
April 14 – Regular Class
April 21 – Off for Easter Week
April 28 – Regular Class
May 5 – Last Regular Class
May 12 – End of semester Celebration (more details to come!)

Our summer kinship semester will be starting up the week of June 20th, and sign ups will begin on Sunday, June 5th.

Now between the end of the spring semester, and the start of the summer semester, we are going to be holding a 4-week training class.  If you are interested in becoming a kinship leader, or a kinship coordinator, please contact me. If you are interested in hosting a kinship this semester, I’d love to hear from you too!

Summer is always a bit hit or miss due to vacations and such.  But we are planning on having some options this summer, that even if you’re gone a bit will work for you.

We’ll be sharing more info over the next few weeks!

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Many of you have already heard the news and Liz and I wanted to say thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers.

This morning around 1:00 Liz and I got to Cayuga Medical Center. Liz was immediately scheduled for an emergency c-section and Méabh Siobhán was born @ 2:50 am.

Liz is doing great and may be discharged on Wednesday!

Méabh is also doing well but has been in the NICU since birth. After a couple of x-rays, she was diagnosed with pneumothorax, which basically means there was damage to one lung and air has gotten into her chest cavity. That means her lung cannot fully expand and there are a number of dominoes after that.

Normally the doctor would put a tube in her chest to release the air. However, all of Méabh’s numbers have been so good…& the size of the air pocket, which was rather large, has shrunk dramatically. So rather than do an invasive procedure, the doctor it hoping it will resolve itself.

So that means Méabh will stay in the NICU overnight receiving oxygen & and they’ll take new x-rays and reexamine her tomorrow morning.

Please be praying that: a) the pneumothorax will resolve tomorrow and they won’t have to tube her, and b) that she will be able to leave the hospital with Liz!

Thanks again.

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I’ve said it before, but the cafe is still my favorite part of the building.  We already hosted a few dinners there, a super bowl party and even a wedding reception!

Plus finally having a place to put our awesome oak tables and chairs is a great plus.

Now, while the cafe has been a great place for people to hang out and connect after church, we have a lot of other things we’d like to see happening here as well.

Now, the area in the picture above still needs a bit of work.  The main issue is that we are looking for a large bar to put up here, and once we have that, the rest of this area will take shape.  We actually have some money set aside to work on this section of the building, and we’ve been looking around for a bar that we could purchase and bring in over here.  We thought we finally had one a couple weeks ago, but turns out it was actually cemented into the floor.

Also, it looks like we will be getting out new coffee maker next weeks thanks to a generous donation recently!  This new one will have water running directly into it. Currently we have to pour the water in, & wait for it to heat up, which means it take the cafe team a lot longer to make coffee.  With this new machine we’ll always have plenty of coffee!

Now, those of you who know me know that if it was all about me, we could stop right there!  However, there are a few other things we are looking to do in the building as well.

Family Room
Our big goal for the cafe is to begin using it as a family room during our Sunday worship.  As a church with a lot of young kids, we recognize that often it is difficult for parents to relax and fully participate in the service.  The kids are having a tough time sitting still, or maybe they’re crying.  We want to have the cafe set up so that parents who wish to can sit out there, let the kids play, talk, cry, whatever, and still be able to see & hear everything that is going on.

In order to do this, it means having a tv screen, or a projector & screen in the cafe as well as some type of sound system.  It will also mean we’ll need to get some type of video camera & other equipment so that we can run the video feed to the cafe.

Having had little kids at one point, I remember Liz or I having to take them in and out of the service, and end up missing much of everything that went on.  We think this will be a great service to families with young kids!

Tomorrow Morning: The rest of the space.

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Yesterday I wrote a bit about the next phase of our building project.  However, clearly it’s one thing to say, “we are trying to raise $60,000.”  It is another to say, “Here is what we are trying to do, & why we think this matters.”

So today and tomorrow, I wanted to share some of the specific things we are hoping to accomplish in the building over the next 6 months.

*Quick Note: There are many parts of the building that look great…the purpose of the pictures I’ve included here is to show the areas where we still have work to do.

“Wow?”
Look at the picture above…Imagine being a kid and mom & dad are bringing you to church for the first time.  You likely don’t know any of the kids…You don’t know what to expect.  You get to the check in table, and are then led to a room, where the door is opened, you see this.  Doesn’t that just scream, “FUN!” Okay, not likely.

One of the great things we have going for our church is an amazing bunch of teachers, workers and leaders in the Vineyard Kids’ ministry.  I think this group is really some of the heroes of our church!

All that to say, the number one goal for this next phase in the building project is getting our kid’s ministry transformed into a place where the facilities are such that as soon as a kid walks in their eyes light up!  We believe that if the kids are excited to be there, not only will that help the kids be able to get more out of the class, but it will lower mom & dad’s apprehension about leaving the kids in a strange place, which means they will be far more free to participate in the worship service.

So, we want to get some kid appropriate furniture, as well as other stuff that will make the kids area the place to be (I’ve heard there might even be a wii…of course that means it might be harder to actually get the dads into the worship area)…There likely will be more kid-friendly colors.

Kid’s Check-in

The other upgrade we want to make in the kids area is the check-in.  We are planning to upgrade the check-in system, as well as the check-in area, with the goal of making it more efficient, but even more importantly, making it as safe as possible.  While we currently have strict requirements for anyone working with our children (every person who works with Vineyard Kids, as well as ever leader at the Vineyard submits to a criminal background check) we are upgrading to a system that will allow us to increase the level of safety even more!

Next Up…the Cafe…

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So after a great weekend in Ithaca with Steven Hamilton from the Vineyard USA Justice Task Force, I’m officially on my sabbatical.

So although my Twitter account and blog have been pretty slow as of late, they will be totally dark for the next 4 weeks.

I look forward to reconnecting with you all in Mid-May!

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As you may know, on Saturday April 10, we will be hosting a seminar looking at the topic of Human Trafficking.  A lot of people hear about stuff like that, & think this happens in 3rd world countries on the other side of the world, but it is happening here as well.  An article was published in the Long Island Press looking at some of what is happening there.  (You can read that article here.)

If you are new to this topic, this article will give you a good picture of why this matters.

Our speaker for this event on April 10th will be Steven Hamilton.  Steven is a member of the pastoral and leadership team at the Central Maryland Vineyard, a member of the Justice Response national leadership team with VineyardUSA and a founding member of the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force.  Formerly with the Department of Homeland Security, he has been involved in fighting against human trafficking through outreach, education and advocacy for the past nine years.

[the seminar will take place from 9am to 3pm on the 10th.  lunch will be on your own]

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I have two big trips coming up this year.  Next month Liz & I head to Idaho for 12 days, and in July, the whole family heads to Ireland for an extended vacation/sabbatical.

All that to say that this short little 2-day trip to Santo Domingo has kind of snuck up on me.  Earlier this week I set Liz an email about an open house for us to look at and she asked how this would work with our trip on Sunday.  I had no idea what she was talking about.

Anyways, tomorrow afternoon, Liz & I are flying down to the DR after church to meet up with a bunch of US & DR Vineyard pastors. The main goal is for everyone to get to meet each other, and to come up with some plans/goals for the next 5 years.

In 2001 a few Vineyard pastors from NY went down for a week, to meet some people and begin praying about planting churches in the DR.  In the past 9 years, we have made some great connections and are excited about where God leads things from here.

Please be praying for our trip, that God would do some amazing things over the next 3 days.

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After yesterday’s post, people were asking where they could see the video we showed this past Sunday…well, here it is!  Enjoy.

The Vineyard – The Story We Find Ourselves In from Vineyard Church of Ithaca on Vimeo.

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Brenna has been playing on the TGHA (Tompkins Girls Hockey Association) this year.  One of the things that TGHA does is work closely with the Cornell Women’s Hockey Team.

So last week during the second intermission of the girls game, Brenna got to be the Cornell Little Bear.  Which meant she got to skate on the ice & “ham it up” for a few minutes.  As you can see, she had a great time!

Brenna the Cornell Little Bear on Vimeo.

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As you may have noticed if you follow me on this blog or Twitter, I’ve been a bit out of the loop as of late. We’ve been working on a couple of things lately that have taken a good deal of our time & energy.

In the next week or two we’ll be sharing some of what we’re working on here.  So in the mean time, we might be a bit less active here than normal.

We appreciate your prayers in the meantime!

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One of the things we do regularly here at the Vineyard is talk at end of our Sunday messages about next steps people could take based on what they have heard.  Part of the reason for doing this is because it helps us to ensure that our messages are practical and relevant rather than simply theoretical.  If at the end of a message you as the speaker cannot say clearly what people should do based on what you have just said, how is anyone else supposed to figure it out?

At the same time we have next steps because, unless you are planning on dying in the next day or so, there are next steps for each of us to take in your walk with God.  If all scripture is God-breathed & suitable for rebuke, teaching, etc., then it should be the rare occasion where we come to a passage in the bible and don’t see a potential next step that we should take.

This Sunday we’ll be in week 2 of our Great Sexpectations series, and we’ll talk about some next steps on a path that none of us want to be traveling on.  But getting off of that path, if we are on it, will involve a choice…keep walking in the direction I’m walking (taking next steps in the wrong direction), or turn around, and start taking steps in another direction.

So how about you?  Based on where you are right now in your walk with Jesus, what is your next step?  What is that item that seems to keep coming up for you…That thought that keeps “popping” into your head.  What is it for you that you could say, “this is the next step for me.”

If you know what that next step is, what do you need to do to get started?  Is there a book you need to read, a conversation you need to have, a discipline you need to practice?  And what’s stopping you from starting today?

If you’re not sure what that next step is, why not take sometime this weekend and pray about it…think about it.  Maybe ask your spouse or a close friend. Do that, & you’ll probably have someone right off the bat who’ll be praying for you as you take the next step on your journey.

Some of them, might be a bit too personal to post here, but I’d love to hear what your next step is.

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I’m spending all of today writing out this Sunday’s Great Sexpectations message on Lies Married Couples Believe. Through out this series, we are dealing with the impact that bad expectations have on our relationships (you can find week 1 here if you’d like to hear what we’re talking about).

Sadly, you can’t get too far into a series like this, without recognizing the impact pornography has on people.  I saw this poster a couple of weeks ago & wanted to share it here:

Source: Online Education

If pornography is a struggle for you, first, please don’t think you’re alone.   Second, talk to someone and begin dealing with this.  Keeping it to yourself is the best way to ensure you keep struggling.  You are not going to be able to do it alone.

If you’re looking for some practical steps to take, I’d encourage you to spend some time over @ xxxchurch.com today.

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I grew up in a house with no computer.  Well actually I got a Tandy when I was a teenager, but had no idea what to do with it, since I had not “computer geek friends,” and oh yeah, my school didn’t even have any computers.

Not only did my school have no computers, my guidance counselor (who really provided neither guidance, or counsel…discuss) encouraged me to go to college as a computer science major.  So I did.  I went to SUNY Oswego in the fall of 1984 as a CS major & guess what…freshman CS majors did not get to actually touch computers…we used punch cards.  If you have no idea what punch cards are…be thankful.

After a week in a Cobalt class at Oswego, I realized I was the only person who had no computer background & switched it to Basic.  After a week in Basic, I found a sophomore CS major who kind of  liked me and had her write all my projects.  I got a good grade, but by the end of my first semester, I was no longer a CS major.  And after one year I was no longer at Oswego.

Flash forward to 1994, & I finally get my first computer…a Mac TV (just like the picture above).  It was pretty cool looking, and you could hook your cable tv up to it & take pictures of shows, but it was tremendously slow.

In 1999, (yes, I worked on a Mac Tv, with a 32 MHz processor, 5 MB of RAM, a 160 MB hard drive for 5 years), when we first started the Vineyard, we were given $5,000 dollars to get started.  we bought a large capacity coffee maker (you need priorities), a lapel mic, since I hate holding mics, and a refurbished Apple Powerbook.  That computer bit the dust when Hannah came in to the office & knocked the coffee off my desk.  I had a choice to let the cup of coffee hit her, or knock it towards my laptop.

When we were looking at getting a new computer, the two other key leaders both said I needed to get a PC since they couldn’t read my files.  I did.  A Dell, running windows with Office 2000.  They were using Office 1998.  They couldn’t read my files.

Over the next 3 years we went through a number of desktop & laptop PCs…which was a pretty frustrating experience & one day, I decided, from now on, our church was switching back to Mac.  James & I each got G4 laptops, & haven’t looked back.  They were great machines.

About 4 years ago, right around the time Apple was switching to Intel processors, we were putting everything away after one of our Sunday services, someone (we never learned who) knocked my laptop on the floor & broke the screen.  Which meant I needed a new one & decided to try one of the new Intel MacBook Pros.  While I love working on this laptop, I wish  could have waited until Apple worked out some of the bugs.  I received it with a damaged DVD drive.  The hard drive failed in 2007 (& since I was good about backing up at that point, I lost nearly all of my 2007 messages & other documents).  I have had the motherboard replaced & the screen as well since it also had a malfunction. (on the positive, all of those repairs were covered by the extended warranted.)  Not to mention the new battery we’ve had to replace every year.

If you follow me on Twitter, you heard me whining last week about the back ups on my Time Capsule not working.  Well, turns out the Time Capsule was working fine…one of the processors on my laptop (which was replaced with the motherboard two years ago) decided to quit.

So, it appears that we are at that point again, and I’ll be updating my computer.  While I definitely be sticking with a Mac…I’m hoping that this next one will be a bit more like my G4 than my current  machine.  We’ll see.

So, what’s the worst computer you’ve ever had…And in my mind, having to use punch card counts as a horrible computer experience.

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I had hoped to have a post up yesterday dealing with another question we occasionally get asked here at the Vineyard.  However, my laptop had other ideas.  Not only did it crash & make me lose everything on the hard drive, when I went to back up from the Time Capsule, the file was corrupted.  Supposedly it can be fixed, but it isn’t yet.  Thankfully, we also have a Time Capsule @ home & although the most recent back up is a month old, things are looking a bit better than they were yesterday afternoon!  We’ll know for sure in 12 hours or so.

Anyway…I wanted to write and give everyone a heads up about the new message series we are kicking off ths Sunday, Great Sexpectations.  And you don’t need a lot of imagination to guess what the topic of the messages will be.  (so we’re moving from 4 weeks of what the Bible says about money, to 4 weeks of what the Bible says abou sex…I’m not sure where you go from there!)

I wanted to write this post for the sake of parents with young teens/tweens.  The topics we’ll discuss would probably carry a PG-13 rating if they were in the the theater.  While we have no intention of being provocative for shock value, we believe that sexuality is really at the core of who we are as humans and to avoid these subjects in church is to do a disservice to all of us.

If you’re like Liz & me, when you get into some of these conversations with your kids, they are simply exposed to a lot more than we ever were as kids…and I grew up with HBO piped into my house.  And the fact is, if your kids watch any tv or movies, or have friends at school, there will probably not be anything we’ll talk about that they haven’t already heard.

However, our goal will be to come at this from a biblical perspective, which will add a healthy piece to the conversation.  And if you’re wondering, we’re encouraging each of our kids (15, 13 & 11) to be in the service, & I”m a pretty protective dad!

If you simply don’t want your kids to be sitting through this, we understand that as well.  So what we’ll do over the next 4 Sundays is allow kids older than the normal range to sit in with the Vineyard Kids class.  If you’d like to do this, please simply stop by the sign in table in the lobby when you come in on Sunday.

Please be praying for this series, let’s believe God to bring a lot of healing & freedom to people’s lives!

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The following is the first guest post we’ve had here…and who better to do it than James Cherian!

Teaching on Sundays really isn’t one of my favorite things.  Even though I only do it once in a while, I usually start getting nervous about it three weeks in advance.

By the Thursday before I teach, I have usually done three things:

1) Prayed “Please help me, God” without ceasing.
2) Written my resignation email to Bob (I have yet to actually hit the ‘send’ button).
3) Curled up on the floor and cried.

Needless to say, preparing a message for Sunday is very stressful for me.  I don’t know why.  It has gotten better lately, and I feel much more comfortable speaking up there than I used to.

Most of the time, after I preach I usually think of all the things I could have done better.  Whether it was explaining things a bit more clearer, emphasizing God’s grace more, or simply just being less boring.

Those things I am usually able to work on getting better the next time around.

However, this past Sunday I said something that I wanted to clarify right away, and not just work on it for next time. I wasn’t sure if it was that big of a deal at first, but the more I thought and prayed about it this week, the more it became obvious that the point needed to be clarified.

After we read through 1 Timothy 6:17-19, which is Paul’s encouragement to Timothy to teach the rich people in his church to be generous, I said something like, “If you’re thinking you’re not rich, so this passage doesn’t apply to you, think again- because about 90% of the rest of the world would view each of us sitting here as rich- so this passage is for each of us sitting here.”

I still agree with that statement, and especially how as followers of Jesus, we are all to grow in generosity- but I feel I did a disservice to those who really do struggle financially.  Whether it’s not being able to find a job, or not being able to put food on the table even if you have a job, to paying enormous medical bills and all the concerns that go with having a low income, being poor, or even uninsured in our country- by no means did I want to invalidate that.

On the contrary Psalm 113 says this:

7 He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap;

8 he seats them with princes,
with the princes of his people.

9 He settles the childless woman in her home
as a happy mother of children.
Praise the LORD.

We see God’s heart here for those who are poor, those who are needy, those who are in distress- we see a God who provides, delivers, and comforts.  It’s not just the 90% of the rest of the world that can pray this- it’s all of us who are in need, whether it be financially and materially, or simply in the acknowledgement that we have nothing aside from God’s grace.

Not too many people may know this, but aside from the different projects we do to serve those in need in our community (i.e. sharing coats, back to school supplies, etc), 2% of all general tithes and offerings that come in each Sunday we put in our Benevolence Fund.  This fund is used to help those in our church and outside the church as different needs arise- whether it’s purchasing groceries, paying rent or bills, or with any financial need we can help with.

It’s one way we hope to partner with God in being a blessing to everyone.

I hope that clarified things a bit more, and at the least gave you some insight into how we as a church try to meet the needs of both those who currently attend the Vineyard and those in the Ithaca community.

What do you think about all this?

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So, here’s a question.  bob.wilson.blog is, let’s face it is a pretty lame. Having a name like Bob Wilson means you can almost never get your user name on things like Twitter (which is why there are 2 underscores in my twitter name) or Facebook (although I almost had bobwilson, but made a stupid mistake).  And bobwilson.com…so person is out there holding onto it and likely wants more money than I could ever come up with.  It’s be cool to have a name like James Cherian.

Sorry, I rambled for a minute…Anyways…while we are in the process of upgrading the overall theme of the website, we are also wanting to come up with a name that doesn’t stink.

If you could post some ideas in the comment section below, that would be a great help…If I end up using it, I’ll take you to lunch @ my favorite Thai place down on the commons.

(note to those who read this on Facebook…please comment directly on the blog, & not on Facebook, I only check Facebook a couple times a week.  But, if you do post a suggestion on Facebook & I use it, then I’ll get you a piece of pizza instead of lunch @ Taste of Thai).

So what are your ideas?

Photo Credit: Green Question Mark

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