Art Class

Sunday's Art Show

For one day over 50 pieces of art came together in one space and time.

The day…
honoring, remembering, celebrating, connecting, contemplating, being…

It was personally important for me to throw a party I was deliquent in giving. It was a way of marking a year. It was a way for the grinerGUYS to let people know it is okay to come to our house. The house was always meant to be a welcoming, gathering place. But, art was really only a cradle to hold a different kind of legacy. The real magic of the day was the relational linking of people, especially among women. Randi’s greatest art was the deep spiritual bond that she formed between her and so many women. There was a giving and receiving that seemed mystical, joyful, hopeful, and very soulful. I have to say my greatest joy was watching some of these women meet, often knowing of each other but never meeting in person. The chairs on the deck surrounded by the gardens in the midst of a perfect summer day were filled with conversation. I don’t know that the conversation was about Randi, as much as a simple numinous relational life giving spirit shared by mutaual soul mates. Randi’s spiritual bequest is what continues in each of us as new understandings that we all --- ALL --- belong. Randi’s art class continues!

Last Black Hills Run

Great early morning runs after the lungs adjusted to the altitude.

Last night the valley was full of kids. The picture shows a few. It was almost as if God spoke again on the 8th day and created the valley just for this night, just for these kids. All the groups mixed well, and needed no prompting to get together just to be.

“Good bye good bye to Lee Valley, we’re really glad you came…”

The decades old song continues blessing each group as they arrive and they leave.

Vision Mountain

Vision Mountain --- would be a more accurate name according the Native American people. Instead it is known as Harney Peak. Named after a general who massacred Native people.

Today we hiked up. It is the highest elevation between the Rockies and the Andes. For us today it was the top of the world.

Dick Borrud

Camp director, once children’s television star, pilot, adventurer, pastor, educator, story teller, dreamer, twice struck by lightening… and at age 74 a strong bodied and willed that is hard to keep up with on a mountain side hike

Dick shared his 25 goals that he wants to do before he dies. Every year some are accomplished and new one’s are added. “The day before I die I will have in my pocket 25 things I planed on doing.”

How to live 100 years happily
(adapted from John A. Schindler.)

1. Do not be on the lookout for ill health
2. Keep usefully at work and ministry
3. Purse your hobbies
4. Learn to be satisfied
5. Keep on liking and affirming pople
6. Meet adversity valiantly
7. Meet the little problems of life with decision
8. Maintain a good sense of humor… best don by saying something pleasant every time you get a chance.
9. Live and make the present hour pleasant and cheerful. Keep your mind out of the past and keep it out of the future.

Peer Ministry Camp '06

Kids and leaders gather under the Lee Valley sign. Daily we work on the Peer Ministry skills and attitudes of caring and welcoming ministry.

More Than Microphones and Committees

relational ministry that counts
Lee Valley Ranch - Black Hills of South Dakota

I met Rachel age 3 and Beth age 4 pushing small chairs in the halls of the education wing of our church. “Hey girls, what are you doing?” I asked. Beth smiled big and said, “We are playing meeting!”

Late night after hearing one of the top Christian speakers in the country for youth I asked my group what they thought. “He was funny,” “He was good,” “I liked him,” were the replies. I agreed, but I doubt any of us made any life changes.

When youth describe Christian leadership they most often name models represented by microphones or a committees. Kids see in the church people holding microphones – speaking or singing on platforms, pulpits and stages. Kids see people sitting in committees – elected to boards, appointed to task forces, joining advocacy groups, sittings around tables, talking and planning. These are the models we see, we reward, we applaud, give money to, and train people for. I am not against microphones and committees. We need them, but these models only fit a few people. It seems to me that the microphone and committee leaders exist only to motivate, organize, inspire, and teach so that we can be servant leaders in daily life?

Isn’t ministry about caring for one’s neighbor? Are not the real leaders the least likely person who walks along side, comes close, reaches out, takes risks, crosses boundaries, takes action and does not expect recognition or rewards?

“I don’t think this counts,” says the high school girl who describes hanging out with a friend on Friday night whose parents just split up. This is her response when asked how she was beginning to use her Peer Ministry training. “I don’t think this counts” seems to be the response of most youth who talk daily with friends about relationships, self-worth, misuse and abuse of drugs and alcohol plus a whole host of other concerns. Such caring conversations are seldom recognized as ministry. They are! I believe kids are already doing ministry! It is just that we have failed to name that what they are doing is about God!

It seems to me our first priority in youth ministry ought to be in helping every youth recognize their vital place as ministers. It seems to me that if want kids to value the church, the church must hold up their relational abilities as essential valued life giving response that any and all Christians are called to do. Maybe it is time to stop playing meetings, stop exposing kids to funny speakers, and empower them with the skills of caring and welcoming ministry. It seems to me we need to be sending letters of call to our kids, laying hands on them and blessing them as front line ministers of our churches.

As the National Director of Peer Ministry I am certainly a bit biased, but not without reason. Peer Ministry takes kids number one concerns, their friendship and relationships and gives them the skills, meaning and purpose to recognize them as ministers. Instead of preaching and teaching the Good Samaritan story Peer Ministry puts skills behind it to live it. If microphone and committees are not resulting in kids knowing that they count as essential ministers, than it is time to learn why Peer Ministry is a powerful training to equip kids in ministry.

www.peerministry.org peermin@peerministry.org

Lets talk.

Black Hills

Lee Valley Ranch… a few feet from my bed, coffee, book, deck, pine scented air, sweatshirt nights, short sleeve days, one of my true holy grounds. Two mile run this morning got my lungs a bit more used to the Black Hills elevation. Kids come tonight and I will be on for the week.

Last Texan Night

thousands of prayers from thousands of kids

The Gathering is over...

After being a Texan for two weeks...
...ready to be a Minnesotan again!

Week Two

This was just a portion of the Peer Ministry kids I met with the second week. Numbers were hard to collect also, but the conversations were many. I will add them when I get my best smaplen count.

Lyle

Peer Ministry Week 1

Peer Ministers from around the country joined in to add to the care and welcoming in the midst of 15 thousand at the ELCA National Youth Gathering. Each day we tallied the number of conversations around acts of welcoming and caring conversations around various issues. First week... our kids did what they were trained to do.


Issues and Concerns

• 6 - Abuse
• 13 - Alcohol / Drug Misuse
• 6 - Cutting and Self-Harm
• 26 - Dating Relationship Struggles
• 19 - Dealing with Authority
• 20 - Depression
• 7 - Eating Disorders
• 12 - Faith and Value Struggles
• 18 - Family Issues
• 9 - Grief
• 9 - Peer Pressure
• 20 - Physical Health
• 21 - Relationship Struggles with Peers
• 18 - Self-Worth or Image
• 5 - Sexually Risky Behaviors
• 15 - Stress
• 5 - Suicidal Thoughts
• 5 - Violent / Anger Management

Welcoming Acts of Kindness

• 14 - Gift named - expressing a person’s value
• 29 - Introduced one person to another
• 20 - Invited someone to be included (e.g. lunch table)
• 8 - Invited someone to come to an event or gathering
• 13 - Served a stranger with an act of kindness
• 18 - Welcomed & Greeted
• 48 - "W.H.E.A.T.ed”

GrinerGUYS Travels

Gloria goes West!

Burnsville, Omaha, Ogden, Cheyenne, Des Moines, La Crosse
Including a night at Walmart and a night with Aunt Mary!
The van doesn’t break down until about 10 miles from home.

Meanwhile Nathan heads to West Virginia driving bus and singing for 80 kids a long the way. While there they are sawing, painting and hammering for a "Group" service trip.

Me? I now live in San Antonio. 17 days with 40 thousand Lutheran kids over two weeks.

Gardens

One of the great satisfactions of life, one that puts a smile on my face --- and Murphy’s --- is watching the gardens grow, change, bloom and add a variety of color to my back yard world. I often say that the gardens are my back yard office. Wonderful writing places, coffee places, sit with friends places, a bit of oasis, maybe my own secret garden which I don’t mind sharing.






The rock has history. It sat in corner of my backyard in Cedar Falls, IA. I have memories of preschool Lyle and friends climbing it, taking bottles of water to wash it, pretending there were great mysteries buried beneath it. Maybe there was? I never did dig under it! When I was in college my parents moved to Marshalltown, IA, where I took on the challenge of moving the rock. It seemed only appropriate when I had to close and sale the Marshalltown house that the rock comes with me to Minnesota. It is now my rock and must follow me wherever I go.

Duluth Training

Celebrated my birthday with this energetic group. (And 7 more times with various other people and groups --- making me feel very, very old.) Plus... a ship comes under the lift bridge in cannel park during an evening break.

Duluth

Lake Superior
Minnesota’s north shore
Pine scented air
Park Point
The lift bridge
The Blue Note Jazz Café

All favorites in the midst of a weekend training.

Tundra

A work of art, built from the logs of the land, 3 brothers built this “hunting lodge” north of Parkers Pairie, MN. For a couple of days I got to work here with the NW L.Y.O. kids. I’ll see many of them in San Antonio and then again as their speaker for a Jr. High gathering. Long dirt roads leading to (???) I don’t know where or really even why?

Vans Warped Tour

Pictured here with my favorite drummer. (I choose not to wear a Hawaiian shirt.) Vans Warped Tour attracts thousands of kids. A few hours in the crowd counts as a genuine study of modern youth culture. As an old guy I hope I earned another degree, or some kind of certificate, maybe a special place in heaven? Gloria is honored by being invited to play on the Ernie Ball stage.

Rock Island

together!

fun to work with my own son at Augustana College.

more kids to introuduce Peer Ministry

and a restful old B & B

Last Castle Days

Last days at the castle

Some can't avoid mud puddles at any age

Masked squirt gun bandents at my door

Early morning run along the Mississippi

The Woods

Driving through Cedar Falls, not in a hurry this time, I turned off the freeway and found the familiar street names. My elementary school building was gone, replaced by a shinny modern looking building with the same name, Cedar Heights Elementary. The street crossing looked the same. I remember returning from lunch – home was half a block from the school – and trying to tell the crossing guards – much older kids – that I had just heard on TV that the president had been shot.

My hometown, the house I grew up in and had not been back to since 1976, it seemed quite surreal. But the real place of nostalgia was discovering the opening to the path in the woods just a block from the house had not changed. I stepped down the path with its familiar plants, smells, feelings of earth and numbers of mind-memory-tapes all playing at once. This was my playground, a world of nature waiting to be discovered. Here I walked with my mom, hid behind trees from my dog, glided down the slop on sleds, found my first arrowhead, learned to avoid the Chatman’s and the Kelly’s who I feared as the neighborhood bullies, learned to stay away from poison ivy, and leaned the names of most other plants in the woods.

Here time had not changed. I felt as if I was 10 years old walking into the woods just as if I had been there yesterday. The trail was an old friend, with the same slopes, and curves. I knew exactly which way to turn and walk on.

Walking on continues with both the familiar, and the new.
Blessings to all whom are journeying with me.

Thanks!

Gloria Annoucnes "Warped Tour"

Gloria, playing for the hometown crowd, announced that they will be on stage at the prestigious Minneapolis Warped Tour.

Way to go guys!

Cricket anyone!

That’s me, the batsman, waiting for the ball to be bowled. I managed to hit it before it hit the wicket. Great night for Criket, ah!

Memorial Day

Summer of Pictures

It is looking like it will be a summer of odd pictures.

Wearing Togas to class.
(I am too old... "But everyone is doing it!" Please don't make me do this again!

Biking around the Minneapolis Lakes

Playing in cement as we experiment making a bird bath

Listening to Nate and Lance at the French Press in St. Paul!

and I didn't take the camara everywhere!

Group Run

Look! Making friends at camp.
Early morning 3 mile run.

Canoe

Here are the rules.


Get in the van...



Get your picture...



Get in the canoes...



Decide how to go in a straight line...



Let the rain begin...



Do not take rain gear...



Be cold and wet for the next 3 hours.



Great Thursday!!!