Posted in pastor

The late Friday afternoon phone message

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Jonah Pettrich on Unsplash

It happens a lot. When I get to my study at church on Monday morning, I find that someone left me a message late on Friday afternoon, somewhere in the neighborhood of 4:55 pm. Sometimes the message is important: someone is in the hospital or on the way to the emergency room. Sometimes it’s not urgent at all. A question about the church or even the bible (I really like those questions, but they’re rarely posed).

The thing is, I take Friday off. I’ve taken Friday as my day off for about thirty years. Some pastors take Mondays off. Fridays have always worked out better for me. I like to get a jump on the week on Mondays, and have a buffer at the end of the week before Sunday’s worship and preaching. Saturdays are a wild card day. I may spend a little time at church, or I may have a few visits to make that day. On Sundays, I’ve got plenty to think about and get ready for. My office administrator is there till 1:00 pm on Friday. So if wait until late Friday afternoon to call and leave a message, it may not be heard until Monday morning.

One day I realized that a late Friday message may be intentional. You know no one will answer the phone. You know you’ll have to leave a message. You won’t have to talk to an actual person. You can dump whatever you want, and it’s off your plate and on to theirs. Just like that. I advertise my cell phone and email, and have a broad social media presence, so I know you can get a hold of me in an emergency. But you chose to leave a message on the church phone when no one was around.

I will admit that there have been times when I’ve called someone and prayed that I get the answering machine. That way I could say that I called, but I wouldn’t actually have to talk to the person. Why? Sometimes you just don’t want to have the conversation. Maybe I’ve put off talking to them for too long or I don’t think they really want to hear from me or I just don’t really want to talk to them. But I need to, I’m supposed to and I make the call. But it’s so nice when you can just leave a message.

So I get it. You put it off all week and squeezed it in on a Friday afternoon. Or you waited till late in the afternoon on Christmas Eve to call and ask when services were. Or you were in a hurry and didn’t even identify yourself so I don’t even know who called.

Call me back, OK?

Posted in Food

Our sugar-free quest

Posted on by William Douthwaite

A couple of years ago we started paying attention to how much sugar was in the food we consumed. We quickly became aware that it’s challenging to find foods that don’t have a lot of added sugar. Those that don’t have added artificial sweeteners which are an issue for us. I am talking about things like tomato soup, barbecue sauce and pasta sauce.

The solution: you have to make your own. Here are a few of my favorite recipes.

  • I found this recipe for marinara sauce in the New York Times years ago. Simple, easy and so good. Sometimes I’ll add a whole bunch of sautéed mushroom slices, and my wife will love me even more.
  • I love this barbecue sauce I found at Wholesome Yum. I did not add any of the suggested sweetener they recommend, and it was delicious.
  • Tomato soup? I don’t have any favorites yet, but you can find many recipes online. I’ve learned that you can leave out any sweeteners, and still end up with a delicious bowl!
  • We make a batch of Flourless Blueberry Banana muffins weekly. The fruit provides all the sweetness you need. You have to try these. I make large muffins and bake them for 17 minutes.
  • The Gluten-free Almond flour pancakes we like the best are here. We make a double batch and freeze what we can’t eat. They microwave back to life when we want them for a quick breakfast!

I am not the best sugar-free eater on the planet. Not by a long shot. But we constantly strive to do better, and I am sure we are reaping the benefits.

Posted in memories

My decade in review

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Nine Köpfer on Unsplash

When I look back on the decade that just past, I am amazed at how many significant events happened in my life.

  • My wife and I took all of our foreign mission trips in the 2010’s. She headed out first, going to Haiti with a medical mission team just six weeks after the devastating earthquake there. She called me in the middle of my Sunday sermon to tell me about the work she was doing. We both went to Haiti later that year, took a team from our church in 2011 and returned one more time in 2016. She and I did another trip to Kenya in 2013 and Madagascar in 2015. (You can read about these trips elsewhere on this blog.)
  • Our two daughters graduated from college in 2010 and 2013, and our son graduated from the seminary in 2013. I had the privilege of ordaining him at our church, my top moment when I was thinking back over thirty years of ministry.
  • All three of our children got married in the past decade. Our son married in 2012, and our two daughters both married in 2014. I got to be there at ground zero to lead them in their vows to one another.
  • All six of our grandchildren were born in the 2010’s: three granddaughters and three grandsons. (We had all six together this past Christmas, all under the age of six! No, we could not get them all to sit still for a group picture.)
  • At church, which was a big part of the decade, we housed the homeless with Family Promise, danced and sang in Vacation Bible School, closed our preschool after twenty-four good years of ministry, and partnered with local churches from other cultures who use our facilities each week.
  • Oh, and of course it was the decade of Sam, our Florida Brown Dog. He had his own memoir here.

It was anything but a dull decade! My family tripled in size, we remodeled our home, and I learned a lot with Child Evangelism Fellowship and Stephen Ministry. I wonder what the ’20’s will bring?

Posted in toys

The joy of nesting Santas

Posted on by William Douthwaite
  • Baby Santa!

About thirty years ago friends of ours gave us some nesting Santas for Christmas. Back then, we had no idea how many years of joy we would get from that simple gift!

The Santas are one of the first decorations out of the storage boxes each year. They are guaranteed to keep little ones (and oftentimes older ones) busy for hours. My grandson came back to them time and time again the afternoon we unpacked them.

The star of the show is the smallest one, the baby Santa. Who couldn’t love that little guy? When my children were growing up, a favorite game was hiding baby Santa. It’s pretty simple. One person hides the baby Santa on the Christmas tree while everyone else has their eyes closed. The first one to find him gets to hide him for the next round. On a Christmas tree filled with lights and ornaments, a 2-inch Santa can be surprisingly hard to find. Wrapped in greenery, balanced behind ornaments or nestled close to the trunk, baby Santa has quite a range of hiding places.

The grandchildren are just about old enough to play this game. Next year for sure. For now, it’s so much fun to watch them laugh as they discover Santa after Santa after Santa in this simple entertaining toy.

Posted in Food

One of these things just doesn’t belong.

Posted on by William Douthwaite
I did not stage this. I would never do that to ice cream or beer. But this sight at Publix made me think of few story nuggets…
  • With a cart chock full of food for the family for the week, there was room for one more item. The ice cream aisle is so long and looks so good. Why not? Grab a 1/2 gallon. But then you turn the corner and you think to yourself, “I may have made a mistake.” However, it’s one you correct. Abandoning the ice cream, there is just enough room in your cart for something from this beer aisle that is just as long and looks oh so good.
  • You made the mistake of bringing the kids to the store with you. The non-stop whining for this and that finally got to you. At first, you agreed to some ice cream. But the pleas for more didn’t let up. That’s it. No treats for you. But there will be a treat for me!
  • Uh-oh. Here she comes. I can’t let her see this. I thought I could slip it into the cart between the spinach and the eggs. I’ve got to ditch this somewhere. Whew, that was close.
  • I hate it when the ice cream is so hard that you can’t scoop it out of the container. I’ll just let it soften up in here for a minute.
  • “I already got some double-chocolate fudge brownie turtle swirl sundae. Put that vanilla back, and let’s go.” Yeah, like I’m walking all the way back there. This freezer is good enough.
Posted in Ministry

The rare albino garbage truck

Posted on by William Douthwaite

I’m glad my phone was accessible when I saw this rare albino garbage truck on US 1 n the way to St. Augustine. This is a first. All the others I’ve seen were green and painted with a waste disposal company logo. It doesn’t look brand new but has a couple of rakes on the side and a hefty winch on top. So I’m wondering what this is all about.

I suppose you can buy your own garbage truck from whoever manufactures them. A quick search revealed a $250,000 price tag. I wonder what other colors are available? And what options can you choose?

Someone may have made a mistake at the assembly line, and pushed the “white” button instead of “green.” Pretty major error.

Or maybe this person bought a used garbage truck and painted it white for their own business. Could a private collector undercut the big boys who contact with the city? White would certainly make you stand out. But there’s no business info on it, so I’m not sure that’s the case here.

Perhaps this isn’t a garbage truck at all. Maybe its a cover for some other kind of business, smuggling something from one end of the state to the other. Does anyone ever question what you’ve got in that garbage truck?

Maybe the truck isn’t there at all. It’s not albino, but a ghost!

Posted in Ministry

The Hanukkah aisle at Hobby Lobby

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Early in December I was cruising the aisles of Hobby Lobby with my grandson when what to my wondering eye should appear but an endcap devoted to Hanukkah. I wasn’t surprised, yet in some ways I was.

Hobby Lobby makes no secret of being a Christian company, closed on Sundays like Chick-fil-A. Yet it has plenty of aisles devoted to Santas, reindeer, snowmen, and nutcrackers, as well as secular seasonal items for Halloween, Easter and pretty much every holiday in-between. So why not a nod towards a Jewish festival? At least items are 50% off, like most things in the store.

Even so, there are only fifteen items here, none of which look that appealing. I took this picture four weeks before the first night of Hanukkah, so I wouldn’t expect the shelves to be bare yet. It appears to be little more than an afterthought. Or a bone thrown to appease someone who complained that this tradition was excluded. Plus, is this what Jewish families shop for as the festival of lights draws near? I suspect not. Is this what one would expect to see in a typical Jewish family’s home? Not if the festival is more about family gathering, prayers and special foods than decorations and cookies.

I believe Jesus came down hard on those in the temple who capitalized on religious observance. I suspect he would do the same today.

Posted in memories

Some highlights from 2019

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash

Keeping an electronic calendar makes it easier to go back and review the previous year. When I do, I’m amazed at all that happened and all the places I went.

Travel included:

  • Late January and mid-August trips to Springfield to see my Dad.
  • February and August trips to Dallas to see my son and his family, including the birth of our 6th grandchild, Josephine.
  • April trip to the graduate’s call service at Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, IN.
  • May trip to Detroit for a spring pastor’s conference.
  • June trip to Orlando for Stephen Ministry Leader training.
  • July trip to Seven Devils, NC, to get away from some of the Florida summer to a nice cabin on the mountain.
  • July trip to Tampa for the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod convention.
  • August trip to Ridley Park for my Dad’s funeral at the church where we grew up.
  • 10 day September trip to Israel!

Family events included:

  • The birth of our 6th grandchild, Josephine on July 26 and her baptism on August 4.
  • The death of my father at the age of 95 on August 12. My brother, my son and I preached at his funeral on August 16.
  • Two of our grandchildren, Daniel and Cameron celebrated their first birthdays.
  • My son and his family from Texas came to visit in June and again in December.

A few other interesting tidbits:

  • I started holding some of my elder meetings by teleconference. Worked well, especially since some of the church elders live some distance from the church.
  • I got to preach a dialogue sermon with Pastor Brent Hartwig, the uncle of one of our confirmands in April. It was both fun to prepare and deliver.
  • I got to assist in the worship service where my son baptized his newborn daughter, Josephine.
  • I build a really cool wooden fort/swing set in our backyard for the grandkids.
  • Lots of trips to playgrounds, zoos, attractions, restaurants, and movies with the grandkids.
  • I announced my retirement from full-time pastoral ministry, effective July 26, 2020.

I could add to that all the weddings, funerals, baptisms and celebrations I was a part of, too. I am so grateful for a great year!

Posted in Advent devotions

The Cast of Advent: December 24 – All those the shepherds told

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash

And [the shepherds] went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. (Luke 2:16-18)

They came, they saw and then they talked about it. The shepherds had quite a story to tell. Their shift that night had included angels, an announcement, and a baby lying in a manger.

Who did they tell? I’ll bet they talked about this over a drink with their buddies after their shift. Or whatever that looked like 2,000 years ago.

I’ll bet most days and nights as a shepherd were uneventful. Not many stories to tell. An occasional wolf to shoo off or a stray to recover. Shooting stars in the sky.

How many believed their story? It’s out there, for sure. The audience may have “wondered,” but they may have wondered whether it was true or whether the shepherds were simply spinning a tale or had started drinking before their shift ended.

At the beginning of the gospel, Luke tells us that his account is based eyewitness testimony (Luke 1:2). Do you think he sought and found those shepherds who recalled what they had seen years ago? If so, I’ll bet their story was just as compelling as the first time they told it. it’s still compelling when we hear the story!

Don’t forget: it’s just as compelling when you tell the story, too!

Thank you, Lord, for all who told the story and continue to tell the story of the baby lying in a manger. Amen.