Shane is home

Well, it has been a long year, but Shane's unit returned from its second tour in Iraq at 4:00 yesterday morning (30 May 2008). There are more pictures here and the video below.

McCain, Hagee, and Parsley

Well, the media didn't give John McCain the crap he deserved for his "Jeremiah Wright"-problem, but at least he has finally cut his ties with John Hagee and Rod Parsley.

Happy Memorial Day

I spent most of the holiday driving (yes, even at nearly $4.00/gallon), but I didn't want the day to go completely by without thanking all those who have served and especially those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for the freedoms we enjoy. On a related note, Shane is back on US soil and should be home before the end of the week. My thanx to all of you that have been praying for him for the past year.

Pastor Ruth is installed

I posted this over on the Grace UCC blog, too, but I'm posting here too because my job as search committee chair is now officially concluded.


On a beautiful, if a bit chilly, Sunday afternoon, Pastor Ruth Farrell was installed today as pastor and teacher of Grace UCC. Rev. Dr. Forrest Hoppe, Association Minister, and Rev. Eric Williams, chair of the Association Department of Church and Ministry officiated over the actual installation and the moving message for the afternoon was delivered by Pastor Ruth's father, Rev. Dr. (LTC) Bruce Farrell, a chaplain with the Pennsylvania Army National Guard who recently returned from a year in Iraq. LTC Farrell (yeah, he told me not to call him that, he prefers Chaplain, but he's not writing this blog entry :)) promises that he will be back for a visit with his wife (who was unable to be with us this afternoon because she had babies to deliver this weekend as a midwife in Pennsylvania) in July or September. So, today we celebrate God's blessings as we begin what we all trust will be a long and fruitful ministry together in Lancaster, OH.

Congrats, OU-L Softball team

Even though they were missing a few players due to illness and other previous family commitments, the #2 seeded OU-L Cougars came to play on Saturday in their matchup with UC-Clermont. With the grey skies and the threat of rain hanging over them, they played a tough team from southwest Ohio. UC-Clermont took a 1-0 lead in the 3rd inning. In the 5th inning, Steph and Erin started off the inning reaching on bunt singles, then were sacrificed over to 2nd and 3rd before being stranded. By the way, Erin hustled on that (remember I said bunt) single despite the ankle, but told me later that they ankle was killing her the rest of the game (she started and played all 9 innings in right field, going 1-for-3 at the plate). UC-Clermont stretched their lead to 2-0 before OU-L came back to tie it at 2 in the bottom of the 6th on back-to-back hits by Courtney and Christine and Christine's aggressive base running. The game ended up going into extra innings with neither team really threatening in the 8th. In the bottom of the 9th, Heather led off with a double that nearly left the park in left center and the next batter, Liz, ended it with a home run to left to give the Cougars a 4-2 win and the ORCC Conference Tournament Championship (in addition to being regular season co-champs with Newark) when Newark failed to show up and forfeited the rematch.

Bill Moyers gets it

I found this link on Kent Siladi's blog. I've always admired Bill Moyers and in this clip he says a lot of what I've been thinking about this whole Jeremiah Wright/Barack Obama "controversy". Note, it is almost 6.5 minutes long and I think some of the most important parts are in the last half.