Bubba and the Blog

Back in April, I got a comment submitted to my blog (look in the archives if you want to see it), from a woman named Jennifer, a flight attendant from Florida who expressed interest in our church, particularly our developing singles’ ministry (now known as The Indie Society), and more specifically in me. She indicated at the time a mild, though I thought harmless interest in meeting me, and that we might hit it off.

Because I didn’t set up this blog as a means by which I could meet women, I responded cautiously. I didn’t want to entertain her infatuation, but I did want to direct her to Indie Society outings and subsequently our Sunday worship services. We developed an e-mail relationship whereby I learned bits and pieces about her, her family, and her plans to get together with me. She e-mailed me some candid snapshots of herself (followed by the question of whether she was my type) and her brothers Bubba, Butch, and Bobby and her “Momma.” I was able to determine that this family was not like many of the people in Florida. My parents live in Florida, like many transplanted Yankees, but there’s a distinct difference between people who move to Florida and those who are from Florida. She also mentioned early on that she would work more shifts in order to fly her family up to New York in late June.

There were considerable gaps between our e-mails and each of them contained more indications of her growing interest in me. Again, I was careful not to lead her in that direction, continuing to invite her to our worship services and other events. I even brought her up as a prayer request in at least one of my home Bible study groups.

Some weeks ago I received an e-mail from her brother Bubba thanking me for being Jennifer’s friend and how pleased he was that she’d met a religious guy who was good in his book as well as the “Good Book.” He asked me to keep an eye on his sister while he kept one on me.

Last week, Bubba e-mailed me informing me of the planned visit and expressing to me the difficulty Jennifer was having finding a place for her family to sleep and their tight budget. He asked if he could stay with me appealing to my compulsion toward hospitality as a man of God. I told him I thought I could put him up for two nights but would have to adjust my schedule somewhat.

He followed up my reply with a list of items I should stock in my refrigerator. He included cheese wiz, Wonder Bread, pork rinds, beef jerky and Bud. I informed him that I would try to provide some snack food but would likely have trouble with some of the items he suggested. I was amused at how much of a stereotype this man was becoming and shared my amusement with Michael and some other people. Having spent three years in Mississippi, I was well aware of what kind of person this was and I even shared this story with friends of mine in the Deep South who I was certain would find this entertaining.

Over the course of the next several e-mails, Bubba developed into a beer-drinking, brawling, “Good ‘ol Boy,” who drove a pick up truck and ditched his plans to fly up so he could bring his hunting gear. He expressed plans to hunt in city parks like Forest Park and Flushing Meadow in Queens and even Central Park in Manhattan. In spite of my urgent requests that he not consider New York City a hunting destination, he explained how he would be able to hunt at night and how he could bribe the police if there were any problems. His use of spelling and grammar was amazingly poor, and seemed to get worse with each e-mail. Once again, this caricature was developing to ridiculous proportions. He also implied a longer stay with me and added brothers Butch and Bobby into the mix as guests in my apartment. By Friday and Saturday, I fully expected to be significantly inconvenienced by my guests who, it seemed, were certain to dominate my schedule during the week.

As I pieced the story together, I began to suspect that this couldn’t possibly be true because it was so over the top. Friends in church expressed the same sentiment. Jennifer had designated a meeting place for everyone at a small café in Forest Hills scheduled for this past Monday night. As I headed over there, I was strongly convinced that the joke behind this would be revealed.

Upon arrival at the meeting place, I was met by Michael, my pastor, who informed me that Bubba and Jennifer were waiting there for me and we needed to talk outside until everyone else in the family showed up. When we returned to the café, he took me to the back outdoor annex of the place and the joke was revealed. A large representation of people from church greeted me with a surprise. Apparently Michael had carefully orchestrated this story in order to get me to the place for a party in celebration of my first year at the church (though it’s only been eleven months at this point).

I learned that all the characters were from Michael’s vivid imagination and that he’d established free e-mail addresses through Hotmail to lend legitimacy to the story line. It was a brilliant practical joke which provided laughs not only as it was playing out, but also every day since it ended. We had a wonderful gathering to honor me, for which I was humbled. The entire scenario will likely provide laughs for Michael and me for a long time to come.
Throughout this last year as we’ve been planting this church, humor has played a major role. I’m thankful that God put someone like Michael in my experience here and for the gift of laughter. With all the pressures and stresses of church planting, I’m thankful for the gift of humor and the ability to laugh at situations, and in this case, at myself.

Summer in the City

As June winds down and temperatures begin to rise, central Queens comes alive. Commuters make their ways home emerging from overheated subway stations to have reheated leftovers for dinner and watch re-runs on their plasma TVs or sit out on the stoop to engage in chit-chat with their neighbors.

Children play in water from fire hydrant sprinklers and anxiously await the familiar chimes of the Mister Softee ice cream truck and beg their parents for money to buy a vanilla/chocolate twist cone or bomb pop. Playgrounds in Flushing Meadows of Forest Park, complete with swings, slides and see-saws are popular destinations for families with small children, while the bigger kids pick up a game of softball or basketball. Even the streets are home to a few games of wiffle ball, stick ball or freeze tag, while little girls in pigtails still play hopscotch and jump rope.

Shoppers browse the windows of the swanky shops on Austin Street in Forest HIlls or look for bargains along 63rd Drive in Rego Park. Outdoor tables fill along restaurant row off Queens Blvd. or beside the tracks at Austin's in Kew Gardens.

Summer in Queens still has much of the magic it had when I was a kid growing up on 78th Street and in my opinion it's still the time of year when NYC's largest borough shines brightest.

Ascension Church has some big doings this Summer. The biggest is our Vacation Bible School which we are continuing to promote by word-of-mouth and fliers posted all around the area. We are excited by the prospects of introducing the neighborhood children and families to the Gospel thought what is shaping up to be an exciting program. The Indie Society, our young adults/singles ministry has a number of outings and other social events that Summer in the city affords. Michael and I will hopefully be making another attempt at a fundraising trip in August. The Summer is a challenging time for a young church considering people's crazy and unpredictable schedules. Please keep all out summer plans in your prayers as we seek to serve the Lord as we serve our neighbors and engage in Gospel interactions with them.

Fatherly Inspirations

This Sunday is Father's Day; a day to honor our fathers and thank them for their influences on our lives. More by coincidence than by design, this week's blog entry has a fatherly theme.

This past weekend, I finally had the chance to visit with my sister in Connecticut to celebrate her birthday along with my older sister's birthday (June 8 and 9 respectively with a four-year difference between each sister). While I took pictures, my digital film isn't finished so there are no pictures of my nephews on this blog this week. It was, however, great to spend time with the family and see my nephews whom I haven't seen since Christmas. Don't worry, I sent my brother-in-law a Father's Day card a few days ago. I think there should be an Uncle's Day so someone will send me a card in lieu of my own fatherhood status.

I had the chance to experience a little taste of fatherhood yesterday when I took the boys from our youth group to Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. We had a wonderful time. One of the boys even braved the Kingda Ka roller coaster (the fastest and tallest in the world). I like roller coasters, but this thing rockets people at a whopping 128 mph and travels more than 400 feet straight up and down with an unsurpassed Zero Gravity effect. I had a hard time even watching it. The boys got along great and thanked me for taking them to the park (I hadn't been there since my senior year in High School). I got the father feeling, though none of these boys could pass for my son. The nice thing was that I got to drop them off with their actual fathers and get a good night's sleep on my own.

Of course, the Father theme would not be complete without mentioning Ascension Church's continued reliance on our Heavenly Father as our Summer plans continue to take shape. There is much on the docket during the next couple of months, not to mention a major change in my own status in relation to my work in the church. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

Water, Water Everywhere!

Ascension Church marked a milestone this past Sunday. We held our first Baptism during our morning worship service. It was exciting, not only for the three individuals who were baptized, but for their extended family and our church family. Like all Protestant Christians of an Orthodox persuasion, we recognize two sacraments of the Church: The Lord's Supper and Baptism. At our church, we celebrate the Lord's Supper each week. Baptism, by design, is not a weekly practice, but we do endeavour to do it as often as possible in recognition of God's covenant grace. Of course, from a logistics standpoint (without going into any theological detail), it's much more advantageous for a Presbyterian church plant to perform a Baptism, than for our Baptist brothers and sisters.

Speaking of Baptism, only eight days into June, and it seems we've had about a month's worth of rain. If you've been reading my blog since I started, you may recall my mention of a two-week span of constant rain back in the Fall. This one isn't quite that bad, but the volume of rain in nonetheless impressive. This past Friday afternoon, we had such a downpour that Subway service was disrupted for track and station flooding. For a guy without a car, mass transit is my lifeline, and problems with the trains pose big problems for me. Relief is in the future according to the weather forecast and the weekend is looking good at the moment.

On that note, today is my older sister, Charlene's birthday and tomorrow is my younger sister, Jane's birthday. That's right. There's a four-year and one day difference between my sisters' ages. I was born in the meantime. This weekend we will all be gathering at Jane's home in Connecticut to celebrate. This will be my first trip up there since Christmas. In addition to celebrating two birthdays, I'm looking forward to seeing my nephews (Jane's two sons). Don't be surprised to see pictures of them posted here soon. I think they're, "blog worthy."

Troops on the Ground

At the Memorial Day Parade on Metropolitan Ave. in Forest Hills, Ascension Church pounded the pavement to hand out postcards and other church info to the people lining the street. It was a beautiful day (though a tad humid), and we may have generated some interest in some of our church's programs like VBS and next week's DaVinci Code discussion.

These events are always a platform for the local polititians to press the flesh. Mayor Bloomberg walked at the head of the parade and there was at least one senator and congressman there as well (others may have been there, but I didn't see them). If the people's representatives can make their presence known, why not the Kingdom's representatives?

I preached this Sunday and missed an opportunity. Memorial Day is a day when we remember those who died for the sake of our freedom. Didn't Jesus do that? Of course, he also resurrected and ascended, but the sermonic opportunities for a tie-in only hit me at the parade... after I preached.

Wow! It's June already. That means our summer plans are in full swing and it will be a busy one. In a couple of weeks I'm taking the boys from our youth program to a Six Flags amusement park. When I was a kid, there were two amusement parks in Queens; Adventurer's Inn and Rockaways' Playland, both of which have been torn down. I suppose we could have planned for Coney Island, but from the very beginning of our planning, all the buzz was for Six Flags. Oh well. If I had it my way, I'd prefer a park with subway access. Coney Island, of course, is a subway hub. The nearest station to Adventurer's Inn was an unreasonable walk. Playland had, and still has, a stop. The station still says "Playland," though the park was demolished in the late 1980s.

We are also trying to nail down a few things for VBS and some other summer ministries. Please keep all this in your prayers as we enthusiastically and creatively look ahead.