Happy 40th Anniversary Bob and Gail

We just returned from our annual Voss family vacation in Northwest Michigan. We rented a house in Schuss Mountain, a ski and golf resort about 45 minutes northeast of Traverse City. North Michigan is famous for it's cherry farms, which keep to nations pie making industry stocked with shriveled sacks of tart goodness. The area is also known for it's sweet cherry wines, which we sampled freely. We shared the house with Corey and Irene and their 3 kids, Brenna and Brian with their 2 kids and Bob and Gail, the 2 who started it all. So all six grandkids were there romping arounf the living room floor, riding their bikes and tricycles up and down the driveway, and collecting pine cones in the forest. We took the kids biking around the neighborhood where we saw deer, a few wild turkeys, a snake and some crows. We also took some day trips to the various lakes in the area. Torch Lake was the largest one we visitited. It has the look a carribean ocean with it's shades of light and dark blues although the temperature was a chilly 60 degrees. The lake is 19 miles long making it Michigan's largest lake. The highlight of the vacation was celebrating Bob and Gails 40th wedding anniversary. We sent them off to dinner at a neighboring golf resort and had a sheetcake and champaign for them when they returned. We toasted to their wonderful marriage and the influences they've had on our lives.

The $100 Key in Key West

I went to Key West last weekend to celebrate the wedding of my college friend Josh (in the khaki and white suit). My travel itinerary was pretty complicated. I took a greyhound bus from Asheville to Greenville, SC and then to Charlotte, took a cab to the airport, flew into Atlanta and then took a connector flight to Ft. Lauderdale where I met up with my college roommate, Chris (the handsome gent in white next to me at the pool). From Ft. Lauderdale we drove a rental car four hours down to Key West. We spent most of the weekend directly in or beside a pool and were never far from a corona or colada. Josh and his bride, Erin got married on the beach. It was a unique wedding in that Chris, a weatherman from Milwaukee, presided over the vows. He did it as a friend. As strange as it sounds to turned out to be very heart-warming thing to experience. Josh and Erin will go to a church this weekend to seal the deal in a more formal fashion. Key West is a fascinating place. It's the most tropical place you can find in the continental U.S. There's a beautiful historic section in the western half of the 4-mile island that has beautiful french colonial Victorian homes. Duval Street turns into a mini Bourbon Street at night with sidewalks flooded with people walking from bar to bar in search of the best live cover band and best drink specials. In Key West stray cats and wild roosters roams the streets and 800 square foot concrete block houses go for about $500,000. It's come a long way from being an abandoned, boarded up old fishing town. I met a couple of Cab drivers that made it their life's mission to move down there. They seemed very happy. The night before I flew back home I went for a swim in the ocean in Ft. Lauderdale with Chris. Unfortunately, I had the electrical car key in my pocket. The salt water short-circuited the key. My rental company didn't offer to pick me up or come out and replace the key. They did however suggest that I could sit and wait for the water to evaporate out of the key or put it under the hot air dryer in the men's restroom. 3 hours and $30 in cab fares later I was back at the hotel arguing with Payless rent-a-car about the irony of their name. I wound up eating $100 for the key. The rental car insurance covered any damage to the car, but of course the key wasn't included. Of course...

Up, Up, Up!

This week's Mylestones:
1. We discovered the spice drawer. Now tall enough to open cupboard drawers and reach the inner contents, Myles is enjoying a newfound love for spices, small enough to carry around, glassy enough to make a loud noise when thrown on the floor, and interesting-looking enough to shake about. (btw, these photos were taken just a few moments before Myles produced the messiest poop he has ever made in his short lifetime, which eventually was smeared all over my pant leg, down his leg, up his back, on his hands, and onto my arm. Thought you'd want to know. Be thankful I am not describing consistency and color.)

2. We love the doggie shower!! When designing the house, Seth had the foresight to include a dog shower in the laundry room so that when Juniper comes in from outback, we can spray her feet off. Well, we almost never do...but the faucet is at Myles' height so he can turn it on and off, and the sprayer is detachable so it can lay on the ground and create a sprinkler of sorts. Recently, Myles had been sneaking into the laundry room, turning it on, and dancing as the water sprinkled his feet (the shrieking gave it away). So mama decided it was time to end the baths (as he will no longer sit in the tub but stands the whole time) and move to the "biggie boy" shower. The pluses are that he gets much more clean with the detachable sprayer and we save water. The minus is that he is obsessed with turning the thing on and off and still doesn't understand how to make the water warm so he's turning it to cold over and over...All in all it's a hit.

3. While en route to see Billy Jonas for the (gasp!) first time ever (for those who don't know, BJ is a hometown hero in Asheville, he is a children's musician, but sings songs cool enough that the adults love them too), we saw a dog and Myles squealed and said, "Doggie!" Then, when we were going up the steps behind the stage for the zillionith time, I said "Myles, we are going up, up, up," and he said "uh, uh, uh" with the exact same intonation. I repeated, and he repeated. It was incredibly cute, and I couldn't help but take it as a divine sign that our lives are headed in that direction.

This morning I had lunch with a good friend, and was reminded of this line from an Ani Difranco classic: She said, "honey don't tell me that old story, you are boring me. Tell me...what you gonna do now that you're free?" So that's my new frame for the week. I'm going to try my best to quit telling that same boring story of how idiotic the church has been with this recent decision and focus on what I'm gonna do now that I'm FREE!! Task 1: plant garden. I am reading (finally!) Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and it is glorious, glorious, glorious. Meanwhile, I am finally getting some things in the ground in our garden. So far, just a few marigolds, but today I bought some basil and an Amish heirloom brandywine tomato (yes!) to get in the ground when this rain lets up. And thanks be to God for this rain that we needed so so badly. Kingsolver's thesis (well, one of many) is that we have traded flavor for appearance and travel durability when it comes to the vegetables in our lives, and I must admit that just last year I had an indescribable experience with real, locally grown tomatoes that utterly convinced me of this very point. They just don't taste this way when bought from the store (you know, I"m not all that fresh if I've just traveled all the way from California either), and they just don't have that same pinky red look or luscious juice that makes for great fresh tomato sauce or gazpacho. I can't say that we will be eating 100% in season or local, as inspiring as Barbara is, but we will will will be building up our garden, giving thanks for the local farmers markets, and enjoying ourselves some Amish heirloom brandywine tomatoes in about 90 days...Seth says we'll even get chickens one day.

Groovin Forward

Have I mentioned the phenomenon of toddlers being strangely drawn to electronics? Either that, or Myles is already a techie. He loves the ipod, the phone, the cell phone, the blackberry, the remote control, the camera...just about any piece of electronics he can get his hands on. So Seth finally broke down and demonstrated to him the wonders of the ipod. Strange days indeed.

The last week feels like a decade. My (ex) colleague Gary said there's no way around this river of grief, anger, and disappointment, and he's right. So we are just wading on through. I know from pastoral care that everyone does grief differently, but in general it takes a good year to move through the various stages. And that makes me angry too, because I feel like we didn't sign up for this. On the other hand, we have lived very privileged lives and have not had a lot of experience with grief. Rejection, betrayal and grief are truly human experiences, and the more I talk to my clergy friends the more I realize that no matter how gifted you might be, no matter how well you attend to your relationships, rejection, betrayal, and grief are likely to find you at some point. And so it's more about the way we respond and less about the fact that these things happen.

Today we are leaning toward staying in our house, staying in Asheville. My WAND hours have doubled for the summer, and that's helpful. I'm also looking into another possibility for contract work. Neither of these positions will be the "answer" in terms of allowing me to live out my call to pastoral ministry, but for now they will sustain us and offer me meaningful work while we enter into a time of discernment.

Please continue to keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We are looking forward to getting away to Michigan at the end of the month with family.

An update on my dad: he is off of all chemo for two months. Yay!! It seems likely that he will go back on chemo in August, but who knows? Maybe the cancer will not grow in the next two months and he'll be able to have a longer break. So please continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers as well.

Week of Unexpected Change

This week was one of unexpected change. Mandy was sat down by the senior pastor on Tuesday morning and told in very general terms that the search committee at our church selected another candidate for the Associate Pastor. We were not well prepared to hear this hard news. The overwhelming endorsement of the congregation for Mandy's candidacy left us confused about the search committee's decision. We've been grateful to God for Bob and Gail who were coincidentally staying with us this week to help with Myles whose morning out program had a week off. Bob, who interviews school superintendents and principals through a program called Ventures for Excellence gave us very good insight on how hiring decisions are made, what attributes and qualities make for the strongest candidates and how easily things can derail in a search process for a variety of reasons. We had an opportunity to talk through our options with them such as selling the house and leaving Asheville or piecing together other income possibilities for Mandy here. The challenge is finding a job in Asheville, which will sustain Mandy spiritually and financially. It's funny, but this whole situation has made Mandy's desire for ministry stronger than ever. There is only one other UCC church in Asheville with three ministers so finding a pastoral position in another UCC church will require us to move outside of Asheville. We met with a Realtor on Friday and it sounds like we could probably sell the house within 2 months at a price that will allow us to break even, which gave us a sigh of relief. After the Realtor left the house we both felt sick over the thought of someone else living in the house we built from the ground up for our family. We are trying to wade through all the anger, grief, and disappointment and come to a calmer place and we know that will come in time. Not only are we grieving the decision that was made by the search committee we are also grieving the loss of our church and faith community. Several weeks ago, we made the decision that we would leave the church if Mandy didn't get the position, in part because it wouldn't be fair for the new Associate Pastor or the congregation, but also because it's best for us to move on and let the church heal from this without the distractions from us. Mandy wrote a beautiful good bye letter to the congregation and we would be happy to share this with you upon request. Right now we're weighing our options and trying to hold back from making hasty decisions. Mandy is looking into two churches: Marietta, GA, Knoxville, TN. The more options we have the better.

Thanks to all of our friends who have been so supportive this week with cards, calls, hugs, childcare, meals, and reminding us in this hard week that we are loved. We'll keep you posted.