Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Been a while!
Wow! It's been over a month since I last posted! It's been a very crazy month, to say the least. What's new?!?!?! Since the post from Greensboro I've been to Fort Worth, St. Louis, Spokane, Dallas and finally, back in San Antonio. Not too bad for a month. Ellie and Sarah and I are glad to be back at home, at least for a little bit! This weekend I'm a clergy leader on a Walk to Emmaus, which will be interesting. In the mean time, I'm trying to prepare for the fall and all that will be coming! I'll post more soon, I hope!
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Time to call it!
Well, it's 1:30 in the morning and the posts keep getting worse! I was taking a break from some work but now I think it's time to call it a night! May God grant you all a peaceful day tomorrow and deep rest tonight!
Wow, not the guy I thought I'd be in high school!
You know, ministry is a great privelage and a wonderful calling, but every now and then, certain moments are jarring. I expereinced this recently when I put on the collar for an "official clerical visit" and the sight of it was cause for much commentary.
Processing at a wedding!
Several weeks ago I had the opportunity to co-officiate a wedding of a friend of mine. Here's a picture of the processional!
Greetings from the Road!
Grace and peace to you from St. Louis! I write to you today (early Thursday morning) from my hotel room at the Millinuem Hotel in St. Louis, on the Mississippi River just 3-wood away from the arch. I'm in St. Louis for this week's 2007 National Convocation of The Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts (better known as FUMMWA). It's been a great convocation this year, we've had lots of wonderful worship opportunities from jazz in a cathedral to an outstanding organ recital in the St. Louis basillica with organist Felix Hell. (Yes, you read the name right. As it turns out, 'Hell' in German means "bright light" sort of like the sun, he says.) I even got to play in a worship service this time around! I played in a little soprano sax in a small combo. The prelude music was done by Mark Hayes. The preaching has been good and there's been some really great clinicians. This week has been a blessing so far!
Monday, July 9, 2007
A busy summer continues
Whoa, what a summer so far! July looks to finish with a full travel schedule for me! On Thursday, I leave to catch up with the Travis Park Youth at SPLAT 2007 in Greensboro, NC, where I will return late Sunday night in order for church. The following Monday I head out to St. Louis to attend/work/play the sax at the 207 FUMMWA convention which will be great! From there I will head to Dallas for a day and a half before heading out TCU to teach a class on youth choir for the 2007 ADM convention and then I will head to Norther Idaho for two and a half days off!
Sweet!
Sweet!
A sweet picture of Ellie
Sorry about not titling the last post, it's a beautiful picture of Ellie, my daughter! I think she's the coolest!
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
The Evan Jones Invitational Golf Tournament
Today the seond annual Evan Jones Invitational Golf Tournament was held, and what a tournament it was! This year's event was held at The Quarry Golf Club in San Antonio, Texas. Perhaps the most hyped course in San Antonio (the course has its own billboards around town and in the airport) the Quarry lived up to the hype! The course was beautiful and was in excellent condition. The Quarry is tough but fair. The front nine is a links layout while the back nine is set within an abanondend rock quarry.
Mr. Jones was an outstanding host: all of the arrangements taken care of (carts with names on them, range balls, free gifts and prizes) in style! What a gentleman!
I look forward to next year's tournament.
Mr. Jones was an outstanding host: all of the arrangements taken care of (carts with names on them, range balls, free gifts and prizes) in style! What a gentleman!
I look forward to next year's tournament.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
The National Urban Academy
TPUMC is gearing up to host The National Urban Academy of The United Methodist Church. The Academy is a two year program desinged to help urban churches revitalize themselves through a seven-point plan known as The Holy Boldness Project. I am excited about the possibilities the Academy can offer to TPUMC and the urban churches of The Southwest Texas Conference.
Welcome to the Rev. Fred Kandeler
Travis Park UMC is blessed to welcome our interim pastor, the Rev. Fred Kandeler! Fred has served in the Texas, Southwest Texas, North Texas and Centeral Texas Conferences of The United Methodist Church. He spent the majority of his time in ministry in the North Texas Conference where he served on the staff at Highland Park UMC, served as the senior pastor of University Park UMC, and founded Christ UMC in Plano. My wife, Sarah, grew up at Christ Church and that is where we were married! Fred is on the advisory board of the group The Methodist Federation for Social Action. He was also one of the leading opponents of the drive to put the Bush Library at SMU.
Fred's first day was today and was amazing! I am very excited about learning from him and I know the church will be blessed by his excellent leadership.
Fred's first day was today and was amazing! I am very excited about learning from him and I know the church will be blessed by his excellent leadership.
Monday, June 25, 2007
It's hard to get ready to say goodbye...
My friend and colleauge, Evan Jones, announced to the church yesterday that he has accepted a position at another church. Evan serves as our minister to youth, program director, and media guru. The youth naturally took it very hard. I am working through the grieving process myself. Evan and his wife Jana, and I and my wife Sarah have become very good friends. While we are excited for their new opportunity, we are sad to see them go. The opportunity that he has is really exceptional, however. He is headed to Suncreek UMC, where the pastor is the amazing Rev. Kathleen Baskin-Ball. You can check out the church at www.suncreekumc.org
Godspeed, bruh!
Godspeed, bruh!
Choir Tour 2007
Well, it's all over! Choir Tour 2007 is in the books. We had our final home shows this Sunday in worship and were wonderfully well recieved by the congregation! The youth did an awesome job: they were simply incredible! Soon, we'll be gearing up for the fall!
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
What a Wednesday!
Whew...todays' the tough day during the tour, the "hump" day, if you will! The morning started off nicely with an excellent breakfast at the hotel: waffles, cereal, fruit, bagels, eggs, etc.! We then loaded the bus and headed to Conyers, GA, where we performed for 36 people!!!! My bruh Ryan came through in a big way! We had all the pizza, salad, and watermelon we could handle for lunch and then hit the road to Savannah!
When we arrived at Richmond Hills (a bedroom community of Savannah that was started by Henry Ford) it naturally started to rain....:) The good folks at Richmond Hills fed us a great dinner of hotdogs and hamburgers with fresh fruit, coleslaw and ice cream! Hotdogs have become a ubiquitous meal for us on this tour. Nearly every stop has featured hotdogs in some capacity!
After dinner we performed for the church and had over 80 people in the congregation! The kids sounded great but you could tell that they were tired. Tonight we are going to get at least eight hours of sleep, which is great! The TPUMC group is currently mixing with the youth of Richmond Hills, who are quite boisterous! :)
All in all, we are tired but doing well.
Tomorrow, we load at 8:00 and drive north to Savannah, where we will have an excellent breakfast, have a devotional in Wesley's square (where the Wesley's actually preached and where the first Sunday School class in America was held). Following the devotional we will briefly check out Savannah, grab some lunch and head to St. Simmon's Island, where we will tour the Wesley museum, chill at the beach on the Atlantic and then we've got a gig that night. It's going to be a great day!
Take care and keep us in prayer!
Joe
When we arrived at Richmond Hills (a bedroom community of Savannah that was started by Henry Ford) it naturally started to rain....:) The good folks at Richmond Hills fed us a great dinner of hotdogs and hamburgers with fresh fruit, coleslaw and ice cream! Hotdogs have become a ubiquitous meal for us on this tour. Nearly every stop has featured hotdogs in some capacity!
After dinner we performed for the church and had over 80 people in the congregation! The kids sounded great but you could tell that they were tired. Tonight we are going to get at least eight hours of sleep, which is great! The TPUMC group is currently mixing with the youth of Richmond Hills, who are quite boisterous! :)
All in all, we are tired but doing well.
Tomorrow, we load at 8:00 and drive north to Savannah, where we will have an excellent breakfast, have a devotional in Wesley's square (where the Wesley's actually preached and where the first Sunday School class in America was held). Following the devotional we will briefly check out Savannah, grab some lunch and head to St. Simmon's Island, where we will tour the Wesley museum, chill at the beach on the Atlantic and then we've got a gig that night. It's going to be a great day!
Take care and keep us in prayer!
Joe
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
A Monster Choir Tour Post!!!!
Hey Everybody!
Well, the wireless has been hit and miss so I've been writing posts and saving them till we get to a place where we can connect! Below you will find several postings from the trip! All is well! Keep praying for us!
Musings from the Bus…
We are on day two of tour and have just entered the state of Mississippi. (Still have to sing it to spell it, what a sad story…) This morning we had beniegts at Café du Monde in the Quarter, walked through Jackson Square to St. Louis Cathedral. We went inside the Cathedral, which is incredibly beautiful and then some of us went to the gift shops and I took the youth who weren’t interested in taking that route to see the Mississippi River. (Dang it, I had to sing again!)
Following that, we met up with Cruz, our excellent driver and then drove through the Upper Ninth Ward. Seeing the “X’s” on the doors of the homes where they had posted body counts is pretty incredible. We were hoping to meet up with a former TPUMC Youth, Jacob Steubing, who now works in NOLA but he had to go to a conference for work in Baltimore, MD. Long story short, we couldn’t find the Lower Ninth Ward. Several of the kids were disappointed, even though I told them that the Lower Ninth at this moment is basically a big, grassy field. To see how tightly packed the Upper Ninth is with houses and then to see the Lower Ninth in all of it’s desolation is overwhelming. As we headed east out of the city the youth saw all of the abandoned apartment buildings, just miles and miles and miles of abandoned apartments. It’s incredible.
As we are headed out of the city I find myself thinking (even after my second trip to NOLA post-Katrina) “is this possible?” THIS IS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!!!!!!! (I haven’t shared this with the youth.) But, really, it is just unbelievable. Perhaps the best course of action for the rest of the country to take is to write hand-written letters to their representatives demanding action in the gulf coast region, continue to send money to the people working here for good, like Catholic Charities, keep coming to the city and take lots of mission trips there.
Right now we are headed up I-59 towards Selma, Alabama so we are off I-10. We will be coming back on our way home on I-10 pretty much the whole way so it will be interesting to see the rest of the gulf coast.
I’m hopeful that we’ll have time to find the Lower Ninth Ward on our way back through New Orleans.
Man, I love that city! All of the culture, the great food, the incredible music, and the people are just great. What’s happening to NOLA right now is truly a sin.
Later today we are going to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, which should be a pretty amazing experience. The kid’s tour book has an article about the bridge and “Bloody Sunday” and it’s importance in American history. I hope they find it meaningful.
Well, I’m going to shut this thing down and try to get some sleep before our next big turn off, only 161 miles to go to I-20!!!!
A Morning in Montgomery…
Last night was an excellent example of the importance of faith! When we arrived at our host church in Montgomery, AL, we were informed that we would not be giving our performance that night: huge bummer! But, our church was very friendly and cooked some excellent hotdogs for dinner. We used our newfound night off to play Frisbee, soccer, and basketball (where I once again was reminded of the fact that I’m not 18 anymore). Some of the ladies created awesome art on the sidewalk with chalk. (I especially remember a very lovely bird from Emily Curry!) Following our free time and dinner, we tweaked the show up a bit and made some decisions about what we were going to do as a choir: more on that later!
Right now we are all waking up, brushing teeth, looking for coffee, etc. Our host church is bringing us donuts in a few minutes and then we’ll load the bus up at 8:00 and hit the road! This morning we are headed to the MLK National Park in Atlanta, then to lunch at The Varsity, the World of Coca-Cola, check in at our hotel (thank you Mike Bandor!!!!!) and then to the Braves v. Red Sox game!!!!!!
Yet One More Example of How Good God Is…
So, we roll into Montgomery and we find out our gig is cancelled. Everyone is more than a little disappointed…. (Several hours later) All right! We are on the bus headed to Atlanta and things just keep getting better! We are going to see MLK’s National Park this morning, then have lunch at the ATL establishment “The Varsity” and then we’re going to World of Coca-Cola, then the hotel and then the Braves game (we’ll trudge on, even though there’s a 60% chance of storms, figures…) So, back to the many examples of how amazing God is! Our gig last night was cancelled and there was a surprising amount of weeping and nashing of teeth (not literally, of course). This is where my (essentially) brother Ryan Baer comes in. Ryan and I met in middle school in the band and we also went to church together. We have developed an incredible friendship that has spanned four degrees, three states and different family situations and careers. Ryan is now a Presbyterian pastor in Conyers, GA. When we were in the initial stages of planning the tour, Ryan and I tried to figure out how the choir could sing at his church. We just could never find a way to make it work with all that we wanted to do in the ATL. Once our gig was cancelled I called Ryan to tell him what was up. As it turns out, he teaches a Wednesday morning Bible study class in Conyers (which is a suburb of the ATL.) He graciously invited us to come and play for his Bible study and then he even offered to feed us lunch! (Pizza and salad!!!) We put it up for a vote and the kids unanimously voted to do the gig!!! Their vote was a big deal because it meant we had to give up doing one of our fun activities. The choir voted to check out the MLK stuff instead of CNN and to do the gig. What an amazing thing! This choir is truly a special group of youth. We might not be big but our spirit certainly is! So, we’ve added a gig and a free lunch (singing for our supper, I suppose?) at one of the churches we originally wanted to sing at! Then, to make it all even cooler, our gig on Thursday got changed from 1:00 in the afternoon to 7:30 at night in the chapel at the retreat center, which will probably give us a much bigger crowd! The esprit de corp is doing very well right now!
Post-Braves Game…Let the rain continue!
We’re all back at the hotel in Buckhead (thanks, Mike)! As it turns out, the meteorologists in Atlanta are quite good. It rained all afternoon until about 7. We got about six innings of the game in (of which we saw three, the traffic in the ATL is terrible!) and then the rain came again! Fortunately, the youth got to witness one of the great miracles of sport at the moment: a homerun by the phenomenal David Ortiz!
Bottom line: Sox 4, Braves 0. We finally made it back to the bus in the rain, and barring one minor incident, we got back to the hotel, where we are all now headed to sleep. Be sure to ask your youth about Cruz and the traffic cone…
We are going to have a great day tomorrow but now it’s time to go to sleep!
God bless you and I hope to have more tomorrow!
In Christ,
Joe
Well, the wireless has been hit and miss so I've been writing posts and saving them till we get to a place where we can connect! Below you will find several postings from the trip! All is well! Keep praying for us!
Musings from the Bus…
We are on day two of tour and have just entered the state of Mississippi. (Still have to sing it to spell it, what a sad story…) This morning we had beniegts at Café du Monde in the Quarter, walked through Jackson Square to St. Louis Cathedral. We went inside the Cathedral, which is incredibly beautiful and then some of us went to the gift shops and I took the youth who weren’t interested in taking that route to see the Mississippi River. (Dang it, I had to sing again!)
Following that, we met up with Cruz, our excellent driver and then drove through the Upper Ninth Ward. Seeing the “X’s” on the doors of the homes where they had posted body counts is pretty incredible. We were hoping to meet up with a former TPUMC Youth, Jacob Steubing, who now works in NOLA but he had to go to a conference for work in Baltimore, MD. Long story short, we couldn’t find the Lower Ninth Ward. Several of the kids were disappointed, even though I told them that the Lower Ninth at this moment is basically a big, grassy field. To see how tightly packed the Upper Ninth is with houses and then to see the Lower Ninth in all of it’s desolation is overwhelming. As we headed east out of the city the youth saw all of the abandoned apartment buildings, just miles and miles and miles of abandoned apartments. It’s incredible.
As we are headed out of the city I find myself thinking (even after my second trip to NOLA post-Katrina) “is this possible?” THIS IS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!!!!!!! (I haven’t shared this with the youth.) But, really, it is just unbelievable. Perhaps the best course of action for the rest of the country to take is to write hand-written letters to their representatives demanding action in the gulf coast region, continue to send money to the people working here for good, like Catholic Charities, keep coming to the city and take lots of mission trips there.
Right now we are headed up I-59 towards Selma, Alabama so we are off I-10. We will be coming back on our way home on I-10 pretty much the whole way so it will be interesting to see the rest of the gulf coast.
I’m hopeful that we’ll have time to find the Lower Ninth Ward on our way back through New Orleans.
Man, I love that city! All of the culture, the great food, the incredible music, and the people are just great. What’s happening to NOLA right now is truly a sin.
Later today we are going to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, which should be a pretty amazing experience. The kid’s tour book has an article about the bridge and “Bloody Sunday” and it’s importance in American history. I hope they find it meaningful.
Well, I’m going to shut this thing down and try to get some sleep before our next big turn off, only 161 miles to go to I-20!!!!
A Morning in Montgomery…
Last night was an excellent example of the importance of faith! When we arrived at our host church in Montgomery, AL, we were informed that we would not be giving our performance that night: huge bummer! But, our church was very friendly and cooked some excellent hotdogs for dinner. We used our newfound night off to play Frisbee, soccer, and basketball (where I once again was reminded of the fact that I’m not 18 anymore). Some of the ladies created awesome art on the sidewalk with chalk. (I especially remember a very lovely bird from Emily Curry!) Following our free time and dinner, we tweaked the show up a bit and made some decisions about what we were going to do as a choir: more on that later!
Right now we are all waking up, brushing teeth, looking for coffee, etc. Our host church is bringing us donuts in a few minutes and then we’ll load the bus up at 8:00 and hit the road! This morning we are headed to the MLK National Park in Atlanta, then to lunch at The Varsity, the World of Coca-Cola, check in at our hotel (thank you Mike Bandor!!!!!) and then to the Braves v. Red Sox game!!!!!!
Yet One More Example of How Good God Is…
So, we roll into Montgomery and we find out our gig is cancelled. Everyone is more than a little disappointed…. (Several hours later) All right! We are on the bus headed to Atlanta and things just keep getting better! We are going to see MLK’s National Park this morning, then have lunch at the ATL establishment “The Varsity” and then we’re going to World of Coca-Cola, then the hotel and then the Braves game (we’ll trudge on, even though there’s a 60% chance of storms, figures…) So, back to the many examples of how amazing God is! Our gig last night was cancelled and there was a surprising amount of weeping and nashing of teeth (not literally, of course). This is where my (essentially) brother Ryan Baer comes in. Ryan and I met in middle school in the band and we also went to church together. We have developed an incredible friendship that has spanned four degrees, three states and different family situations and careers. Ryan is now a Presbyterian pastor in Conyers, GA. When we were in the initial stages of planning the tour, Ryan and I tried to figure out how the choir could sing at his church. We just could never find a way to make it work with all that we wanted to do in the ATL. Once our gig was cancelled I called Ryan to tell him what was up. As it turns out, he teaches a Wednesday morning Bible study class in Conyers (which is a suburb of the ATL.) He graciously invited us to come and play for his Bible study and then he even offered to feed us lunch! (Pizza and salad!!!) We put it up for a vote and the kids unanimously voted to do the gig!!! Their vote was a big deal because it meant we had to give up doing one of our fun activities. The choir voted to check out the MLK stuff instead of CNN and to do the gig. What an amazing thing! This choir is truly a special group of youth. We might not be big but our spirit certainly is! So, we’ve added a gig and a free lunch (singing for our supper, I suppose?) at one of the churches we originally wanted to sing at! Then, to make it all even cooler, our gig on Thursday got changed from 1:00 in the afternoon to 7:30 at night in the chapel at the retreat center, which will probably give us a much bigger crowd! The esprit de corp is doing very well right now!
Post-Braves Game…Let the rain continue!
We’re all back at the hotel in Buckhead (thanks, Mike)! As it turns out, the meteorologists in Atlanta are quite good. It rained all afternoon until about 7. We got about six innings of the game in (of which we saw three, the traffic in the ATL is terrible!) and then the rain came again! Fortunately, the youth got to witness one of the great miracles of sport at the moment: a homerun by the phenomenal David Ortiz!
Bottom line: Sox 4, Braves 0. We finally made it back to the bus in the rain, and barring one minor incident, we got back to the hotel, where we are all now headed to sleep. Be sure to ask your youth about Cruz and the traffic cone…
We are going to have a great day tomorrow but now it’s time to go to sleep!
God bless you and I hope to have more tomorrow!
In Christ,
Joe
Monday, June 18, 2007
Day Number 1
Well, it's technically day number two (in the morning) but we've made it through day number one just fine! We got stuck in Houston traffic (which was very, very lame) for nearly an hour and a half so that through us off our game plan pretty badly. We ended up having to continue driving through our scheduled dinner break (because the driver was nearly over his legal time to drive) bu we pulled in to NOLA at just the right time, rehearsed for a bit and then had dinner. The youth were real troopers, I am very proud of their ability to be flexible and to roll with the changes that Houston traffic caused us!
Today we are getting ready to head out to Cafe du Monde for breakfast, a little bit of time in the quarter, driving through the upper and lower ninth wards, Selma, AL, and Montgomery, AL.
It's going to be a great day today!!!!!
No pictures to upload yet but they will be on the way.
Minot Pratt says hi!
Today we are getting ready to head out to Cafe du Monde for breakfast, a little bit of time in the quarter, driving through the upper and lower ninth wards, Selma, AL, and Montgomery, AL.
It's going to be a great day today!!!!!
No pictures to upload yet but they will be on the way.
Minot Pratt says hi!
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Choir Tour is nearly here!
Man, I love this time of year! Tomorrow morning I leave with the Emmaus Youth Choir on tour! We meet at 9:30 tomorrow and the bus rolls out at 10:00 on the way to New Orleans, LA! Sweet! Monday, we'll be eating beniegts, checking out the quarter as well as the upper and lower ninth wards. Then, we'll head out to Selma, AL, and then Montgomry AL, to do a show. On Tuesday we head to the ATL for a little CNN, World of Coke, and a Braves game against my beloved Red Sox. On Wednesday we head to Savannah, GA, to check out some Wesley stuff and a gig in Savannah. Thursday we are on the Georgia coast at St. Simon's Island and then we begin to head back, stoping in Mobile for a show and then headed to Baton Rouge. All in all, we'll be back on Saturday night for two shows SUnday morning. I would love to figure out how many miles we'll be rolling this week.
The kids are great, the sound is good, the look is good, and we are ready to hit the road!
The kids are great, the sound is good, the look is good, and we are ready to hit the road!
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