Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Brutus, the Bold yet Blundering Buck

Meet Brutus. Everyone say, "Hi, Brutus!" Very good.

If Peter were older, Brutus would have funny stories told about him all the time. There would be all kinds of stories of his days out in the wild. Perhaps he was a deer of great courage and valor. Perhaps he made a habit of fighting off wild beasts and crazed bucks of a very dangerous sort to protect many does and fawns. Then again, perhaps he was a great bumbling doofus. You never know.

There would definitely be stories about what he does at night when we're asleep and stories of what he does when we're not looking. That goes without saying.

And of course, there would be the best story of all: How Brutus came to be stuck in our wall. I bet I'd hold off on that story for a long, long time. Meaning, I'd never tell it and always leave it hanging over the kids' heads.

Now go ahead and ask the question: "Why Brutus?" And, of course, prepare to be dazzled:
  1. Because it had to start with "B," duh.
  2. Because "Buckshot," "Bucko," and "Buckethead" were all too obvious and one-dimensional.
  3. Because "Bluto" just didn't seem to work, unless we're going to work Popeye into every story.
  4. A Brutus could have some awesome stories told about him.
  5. Because it happened to be the first thing that popped out of my mouth, so it's what we're stuck with.
Unfortunately, Peter doesn't get it yet, so there are no Brutus stories to be told. Aren't you sad? Okay, okay, you win. There's one story to be told:

Brutus is the stupid name we gave the antlered fraction of stuffed carcass hanging on our cabin wall. Surprise!

Finis.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Mailing Address


Since some of you have asked, you can send mail/packages to:

First Presbyterian Church
c/o Jake Mentzel
P.O. Box 413
Charleston, MS 38921

Shots that Missed the Cut (Pt. 1)

I figured I owed it to you to post some of Amanda's favorite photos that didn't make the cut the other day:


Monday, June 22, 2009

Update + Random Pictures

This past week was Vacation Bible School, and we were blessed to have a couple of college students from IU down to help. They were awesome!

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of VBS to show you. So, in light of that utter disappointment, I'll put up some random shots I took with my phone:



This is from one of the craziest storm systems I've ever encountered, and it's not even the half of it.

We took a trip with the Halsey's to Memphis not long after we got here. On the way home we got stuck in a random storm on I-55. The clouds above us were first rolling, then spinning. At one point we were able to look directly into the center of what looked like a whirlpool. No joke. The van shook, and traffic stood still. We were able to make it another few miles before we were stuck in traffic for a good 30 minutes waiting for emergency workers to clear the interstate of fallen trees.

Fortunately, we made it home safely, and were back in time to watch the above cloud formation pass over our cabin. I wish I had a better picture of it. It's just a long, long line of clouds that stretch very high vertically. But the cloud line couldn't have been longer than 50 yards. It was moving swiftly, and I literally could run to one side or the other of it. And the sky was clear on either side.

This is a very dirty Peter who had been roaming around Uncle Andy's shop while he recharged our a/c units.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Playin' Around

A few random shots of us playing around the cabin this week:


On Sunday, the owner of the cabin dropped a 4-wheeler by the cabin for us to play around with. Peter was a little afraid at first, but he got used to it pretty quick.



It's also been nice to have a goal around. Peter will sit on the edge of the porch and watch me shoot around for a long time.


At least until he wants to play, too...

"Peter, who made you?"



Revival


On Sunday evening, I joined the Joyful Jammers, a local bluegrass band at a country revival service. The music was bad, but it was good fun.

The church was Pinehill Presbyterian, an old country church out in the middle of nowhere. A pair of "retired" methodist circuit preachers (they're brothers) preached, and did a nice job. They travel around and preach/pastor/officiate wedding/funerals at a number of different rural presbyterian and methodist churches in the area.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

First Pres, Charleston



For those of you that haven't been drawn into the loop yet, Amanda and I are down in Charleston, Mississippi, proud home of Morgan Freeman. I'm serving as a pastoral intern for the church above (90 year-old meeting house in the foreground, brand new Family Life Center in the background).




First Pres. is home to a sweet people that we're looking forward to serving for the months of June and July. I'll be particularly focused on working with the youth, but I'll also preach on a couple of Sundays and in a couple of nursing homes on weekdays.

For those of you who are curious, Grace and Andy (the pastor and his wife... but not in that order) are doing well. We've absolutely loved getting to know them and spending time with them. The four of us and our 3 kids (well, 4 if you count the child in Amanda's swelling belly) took a day trip to Memphis yesterday and hung out on Mud Island. Then we got caught in a nasty storm on the way back. It was good fun.

Speaking of good fun, kudzu to you if you can tell me what's wrong with this picture (apart from how off-balanced the framing is):



Blending right in...


Peter's been working hard to be missional. Blending in to the indigenous culture and all. And yes, that's an empty stick of deodorant in his mouf.

How about a game of create your own captions?







Wasting no time...

...but getting straight to work. The driveway apparently had a few too many rocks on it.


What the dump truck couldn't carry, Peter stored elsewhere...


I think he's adjusting just fine.


Kudos to the first person who can explain the man-made structure in the first picture.

The Homestead



A generous family in the church has set us up in a nice, cozy little cabin on a hill. It's about the same size as our apartment, two stories, one bath, loft, wide front porch w/swing (as you can see), the ever-important a/c, and Direct TV. It also came with a stocked pantry and a home cooked meal waiting for us in the fridge.

I wish I would have taken pictures that day. It was very surreal. The sun was setting, the grass hadn't been burned up by the heat... the place dripped with charm. It still does.

What you don't see in this picture are the many walking paths that surround the place. As soon as I get us ahold of some boots, we'll go explorin' 'em. Sadly, they were left behind.

Charleston is a quaint little town in the Mississippi Delta. We live off of "the Delta Highway", a scenic little road that passes neatly on the border of the hill country and the Delta.

We actually live on the hill side (hence the cabin on the hill) off of a red dirt road:



A good portion of the hill country is overrun by kudzu, a vine not native to the country with the amazing propensity to transform ordinary pieces of land into something out of a Dr. Suess book:


On the way to Charleston


A brief update, with more to follow:

The trip down to Charleston was pretty complicated. I was in Nashville, TN. But really, I was at Appalachian Bible College in West Virginia. But then I had to go back to Nashville and meet Amanda and Peter in Evansville. Amanda had a van full of stuff (as you can plainly see). So I made it back to Evansville, after a minor fight with a guard rail (poor Subaru). Then we went back down to Nashville and stayed with Joe and Jess Beck. And then, of course, we came all the way down to Charleston. Now we're here, and I'll be a-showin' ya what it's like soon.

And yes, she took that while she was driving... .