Stories and Stuff

Airplanes of Renée’s Dad

The Jefferson Airplane was a favorite band of mine. I saw them in Baltimore in 1970 and three of them again in New Bedford at the Feast of the Blessed Sacrament around 2000 or so. Last week (Oct ‘22), the three remaining original members (Jack Casady, Grace Slick and Jorma Kaukonen) were enshrined with their own star in Hollywood. I also saw Hot Tuna in D.C. in 1970, meeting Jack and Jorma. Time flies when you’re having fun! Their song “Volunteers” from Woodstock is on my Coolness page. I pray for them to find faith in Christ, to this day.

I attended Dallas Theological Seminary. Twice. 1979-1983 (Master of Theology) and again in the D.Min. program 2003-2008. Both were wonderful experiences and I am thankful to the Lord and to Renée for getting me to and through. Most of my professors are with the Lord now, but I am still a fan of DTS. Both degree programs were challenging and required determination to complete them. But the education benefits, the exposure to great people in the Lord and the “equipping” for vocational ministry + “continuing education” were highlights of my life. Favorite professors of mine included Drs. Edwin Blum, John Hannah, Howard Hendricks, Ron Blue, Donald Sunukjian, John Reed and Bill Lawrence. I intended originally to attend Westminster Seminary (PA) and visited there twice. But my application was rejected because I had no courses in philosophy in my undergrad engineering curriculum. So the Lord opened a door instead to DTS. I am thankful that He did.

Well, if you’ve never seen it before—there it is! That is Plymouth Rock. By the edge of Cape Cod Bay in Massachusetts. I did a wedding in 2009 right next to it almost. The rock was moved over the years to a couple of other locations and then returned to this spot. A lot of history—the Plymouth Colony—launches from there. And it is just a big rock. Did the pilgrims actually step on it? Who knows. That was the legend. Maybe and maybe not. But here is the rock—or very near to the place, at least—where they set foot on shore from the Mayflower in November of 1620. It feels a bit magical to be near to such a memorable artifact. But in the end, it’s just a rock.

Here is Susanna with her medical team, working in a cholera clinic with Samaritan’s Purse in Haiti in 2011 after the big earthquake there. Last case was reported in 2019. I was so proud of this team, and teams like them that sacrifice and sustain personal risk for the privilege of supporting a needy population.

NCD at Buchenwald Concentration Camp near Weimar, Germany, June 2013. Accompanied by daughter Jocelyn, son-in-law Aaron and grandson Raymond. My Dad was here April 1945, twice, just at the camp’s liberation by American armored units. A moving, troubling experience to visit a place of 56,645 deaths by the Nazis. Eli Wiesel and Dietrich Bonhoeffer were also here. It puts a lot of things into perspective.

One of our many Worship Team configurations, during a Thursday night practice… Man, I loved our Teams and I always looked forward to their practices. One of the ways the Lord blessed DBC!

Our Staff Christmas 2015, probably our high water mark.

The first thing I ever wrote was political! I was 7

Daughter Susanna’s Blog about her hiking