June 25 Update

• I'm enjoying the travelogue posted by my buddy Geoff, who is in Europe with the choir from Menlo Park Pres. Geoff and I met 29 years ago on a music tour with "Song of Praise", a ministry of Artists in Christian Testimony.

Geoff is the shy one on the right; Gordon is the amused one on the left; Lauren is the embarrassed one in front; and Susan is the quiet one in the middle, in this re-creation of "The Sound of Music". I can't wait for the DVD!

• Scot McKnight has a wonderful essay today on the theology soundbyte "Love the sinner, Hate the sin". He offers a much more satisfying alternative. It's something after which he titled both his book and his blog: The Jesus Creed - Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.

• I led worship yesterday and we had a great time recreating the Newsboys' song "Wherever we Go". I was playing that reggae-influenced offbeat strat guitar - albeit on a keyboard. The theme - the Christian life is a life of letting joy and celebration go on display, and the blessings God pours into the life that follows Him. Sort of an updated Isaiah 55. Trees of the field clapping their hands isn't that different from squirrels smiling and waving, I guess. we had fun and the congregation were very delighted with the result - people had great joy at the end of the service as we concluded with Paul Baloche's "All the Earth will Sing Your Praises". (Paul wrote a great second verse that isn't on this linked recording, but we always do it):

No one, no name can rise above You Lord,

One hope, one light that shines forevermore,

Your kingdom in heaven and on earth,

Your children stand to sing of Your great worth.

We also taught our congregation, for the seond week, a new (to us) Chris Tomlin song called "How can I keep from singing?" It's the lead song right now on his website. We enjoyed hearing His song "Indescribable" on the evening news last week - when it was used to wake up the crew of the space station. Pretty amazing to hear that declaration of faith in the creator who placed the starts in the sky and knows them by name, when you're a little closer to them, I should think.

• Today is workday #1 for ElenaClaire and the rest of the kids and adults at the Valdosta workcamp. I bet she's hot and sweaty right about now, but probably just got off the worksite.

• Yesterday we had the fun of reconnecting via email with her Kindergarten teacher, Lynn Willis. He and his wife were delightful people. The exchange of emails made me miss their friendship.

• Finally, spent a couple hours last night picking fresh blueberries with Alicia, Miles, Tamara and Zach. Sweet and delicious - the fruit, and company and the activity

June 21 Update

• The Houston Theater District is ranked second, only behind New York City, for the number of theater seats in a concentrated downtown area, and Houston is one of only five cities in the United States with permanent professional resident companies in all of the major performing arts disciplines of opera, ballet, music, and theater.

In this second-only-to-Broadway district, one of the most significant facilities is the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. Our family was there a few months back to see "Seven Bride for Seven Brothers". Alicia and I will be there on July 1 to see "Sweet Charity" with friends Andy and Lanetta. But we may be back again on the other side of the curtain next year. "How to Succeed" had such a successful run that we may be reprising it next June, onstage at the Hobby Center. I did have a friend tape three production numbers at Final Dress Rehearsal, which you can watch here: The opening number; "A Secretary is not a Toy", and the smash closer, "Brotherhood of Man".

• I've just tried something that is absolutely cool & being the geek that I am. I've got it all set up, it's called SpinVox & it turns voicemail left at my cell phone into email that come to me in my inbox. You gotta try this thing.

(By the way, I didn't type any of the preceding paragraph. I left it as voice mail for myself and then copied it out of the resulting email and pasted it here. It even interpreted "gotta" accurately!)

• ElenaClaire will be among nearly 80 who leave on Saturday for the annual youth trip. This year it's a mission and rebuilding trip to Valdosta, Georgia. For the last 3 years, she's been part of these trips, and one of us has gone along as an adult leader. This year, her final trip, she makes without us. She'll be fine...we all will.

Valdosta, the birthplace of Doc Holliday, is a modern Southern town with a big heart-in a world where too many people just look the other way. The citizens of Valdosta are determined to fix the homes of their less fortunate neighbors. The entire community has made a commitment to eliminate all substandard housing by the year 2020. It's an amazing opportunity to help with this, tackling projects like…replacing rotten siding for an elderly widow, giving a disabled man the gift of mobility with a wheelchair ramp, fixing rickety front steps for a single parent with low income. Or, boosting a struggling family's self-esteem by making their house look like a million bucks with a bright new coat of paint. The City of Valdosta and Group Workcamps received the Community Development National Achievement Award for the Workcamp here in 2006!

June 9 Update

June 9

Last night was opening night for "How to Succeed..." By almost any measure it was a smash success. There were a few gaffes, but they were minor, minor, minor. Alicia and the kids attended and LOVED it, as did the whole packed house.

This shot is from the end of the show stopping production number "Brotherhood of Man". I had a friend videotape the final dress rehearsal of this and two other numbers, which I'll edit and put up later this week.

I forgot to mention in my post about the Grad party that between songs, I announced that the event had special significance for me because it was the eve of a momentous anniversary: the next day represented 10,000 days of marriage for myself and Alicia. (A simple excel spreadsheet makes it very easy to track such things and surprise Alicia with dates of unexpected significance because they count days instead of years. There are two more surprising dates coming up this year, but I won't reveal them yet). I then sang Van Morrison's song "Have I told you lately that I love you".

We've begun plans to spend a three day vacation in Corpus Christi - a place the kids and I have never been and Alicia hasn't seen since childhood. We're told it's a delightful beach town. That will probably be July 9-11, after ElenaClaire's opera. If you know Corpus and can suggest places to go, stay, eat, etc. we'd love your feedback.

May 31 Update

Google Maps Street View
Now you can walk the streets of Oakland Chinatown and 4 other metro areas in the US without ever leaving your computer! Take a look at this new feature inside of Google Maps called "Street View." The feature is in pilot mode so only a few locations are in Street View. These locations include San Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, Miami and New York. Look for the camera icon on the large scale maps, and look for the streets outlined in blue on the small scale maps.



The image I've included here is from the sacred corner of Van Ness and Pacific, for many years the home of The Hippopotamus (aka the Hippo or the Hungry Hippo), the finest Hamburger place I've ever been. Since it closed back in the late 1980s (replaced by a stinkin' GAP store fer cryin out loud...), San Francisco holds very little reason for me to return. (via Geoff...)



The Party was awesome!
Tuesday night was the Graduation party featuring These Guys Here as the band. We were apparently the hot ticket on Tuesday night in Kingwood. People were in our house shoulder to shoulder, parking as far as 3 blocks away. Tamara was outside all evening grilling steak kabobs and shrimp kabobs - her grad gift to EC (and us). Other friends also brought food. It was a most amazing and memorable night.


Kingwood's getting hot and humid. Always seems to happen this time of year...


H2$ is getting nearer - tonight is my last free night until after opening weekend.


Miles has had 7 days in a row of (comparative) health - deepening my suspicion that there is a school-phobia elemt to his severe health challenge in addition to the obvious physiological ones.


EC will be singing in the Kingwood College Summer Opera Worskshop.

May 29 update

1. ElenaClaire Graduates! Friday evening



2. Sisters Elena and Rachel were here all weekend. Rachel still here; Elena has just left for San Diego.

3. Miles is on his 5th day in a row of health.

4. Tonight's the party, with These Guys Here playing music!

May 24 Update

ElenaClaire graduates tomorrow from Kingwood High. The ceremony is at 8:30 pm at Reliant Stadium - the same venue where a famous wardrobe malfunction occurred. I feel confident that no such problem will occur tomorrow.

After Graduation, Alicia and I are volunteering at the "Project Graduation" all-night party held at KHS. Alicia and Miles are now at Hobby AIrport picking up Aunt Elena, flown in from San Diego and here until Tuesday afternoon. Aunt Rachel arrives tomorrow by car from Plano, TX. Elena can't stay for Tuesday night's party. We hope Rachel can.

ElenaClaire will spend the summer working part time as a nanny and a couple days a week as a barista at Jitters Coffee. What a thoroughly stereotypical thing for a 2007 grad to do. (One of her favorite songs is "Taylor the Latte Boy". A recording of Kristen Chenoweth singing “Taylor” is available here. Click the stream labeled 30:14 and scroll over to about seventeen minutes into the clip.)

EC was also offered a lead role in Kingwood College's Opera Workshop this summer. If she can work it into her schedule, it would be a great experience. Her role would be Gretel in the opera "Hansel and Gretel" by Engelbert Humperdinck (No, the famous British pop singer from the 1960s -- real name Arnold Dorsey -- the one with the cheesy tuxedo, sappy songs and silly sideburns -- did not compose this opera. The Engelbert Humperdinck who wrote Hansel and Gretel was born in Germany in 1854.)

Miles is officially through with 4th grade tomorrow at noon. Please God, may this year have been the worst year of his schooling. He's missed, I am sure, in excess of 50 days - nearly a third of the year.

I've just completed a re-designing of the basic arrangement of the CTK website. The goal was to make the page designed more for the visitor or person considering a visit, and less for the member (though members can still easily find what they need). The main menuing now makes it much easier for a visitor to find basic information they might need, and avoids churchy language. I implemented many suggestions made by Tony Morgan and the Internet Evangelism Day site.

Mark, my much-valued colleague in Worship and Music Ministry, has decided to remain at CTK rather than accept the call he received from the church in Ohio. We are all grateful. I still find the idea of a congregation officially extending a call to a pastor (or church worker) who has told you he is not interested is kind of unusual. But there are probably ways that seem normal to me that others would find strange.

Mike Breen was here yesterday to meet with our staff. Mike is the developer of LifeShapes, a series of unique discipling tools. He is now gathering 7 churches to be the model churches for a ministry approach that steps away from the well-marketed church growth method in favor of a disciple-making approach. What does that mean, you ask? Most of us are not entirely sure, and if we are, we're still looking for language to explain it. But it appears we are going to be one of the model churches. I am enthusiastic.

Brad was commenting on his blog about his experience of convergence:

he's a pastor and missionary with the Evangelical Covenant Church, serving on Guam in partnership with the Liebenzell Mission and Pacific Islands Bible College, where their primary work is with Micronesians; he's also helping out at the Lutheran Church of Guam, an independent, culturally diverse Lutheran congregation which maintains affiliation with both the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (where he and Cheryl regularly worship) as the intern supervisor and occasional preacher. Their summer seminary intern at LCG is an American who does US Air Force reserve duty on Guam every few months, but who is living down under, studying to become a minister in the Uniting Church of Australia.

I replied that as a Covenant pastor serving an LCMS congregation that has done 2 campaigns from Saddleback (a Baptist Church) and whose leadership is now being mentored by an Anglican who is connected with an ELCA congregation in Arizona, I thought all the convergence was pretty cool.

A confession for Mother's Day

This confession was written to follow a reading of Proverbs 31:10-12, 25-30 (NIV). It came out of an awareness that Mother's Day can be a difficult day for women whose relationships with their mothers were/are strained, those who have experienced infertility issues, etc. and others who find the Proverbs ideal too lofty to attain.

Lord, many of us read these words from Your Holy Word
And are inspired, encouraged, and grateful.
But some of us are tempted to doubt
That Your grace could ever produce
these kinds of virtues in our lives.

Some of us are tempted by resentment and unforgiveness
Because of those who have let us down.
Some of us are tempted to condemn ourselves for past failings,
and all of us remember times when we have fallen short.

Forgive us for doubt, resentment,
unforgiving hearts, self-condemning attitudes.
Remind us of your forgiveness, always available in Jesus Christ.

In Spite of our failures and sin,
We trust in Your power to transform our lives.
Fill us with Your Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus,
So that our lives may bring Joy to Your world
And Praise to Your Name.

© 2007 Rick Lindholtz

Friday 5/4

• For the third time in 6 1/2 years of calling Christ the King Lutheran Church my home, something has happened that I just find so interesting: Another church has extended a call to one of our staff, even though the staff person has clearly articulated that he is not looking and not open to a change of ministry. I find this interesting simply because it is so outside of my experience. In The Covenant I have never heard of such a thing happening. "No" means "No" in the ECC. If you're a Covenant reader, have you heard of a Covenant Church, in congregational vote, extending an official call to a pastor or staff ministry person who has said "no thanks" on more than one occasion?

This time (again)it is Mark, our Director of Worship and Music, who has been called by a church in Cleveland OH. And he figures that if a church is willing to extend a call, he needs to explore whether it is God's will. So he'll be up there next week.

I'm not concerned. God is in control, but I really don't expect this to happen.

• Miles has concluded his course of Prednisone. It has been sheer misery. Probably the worst month of our lives. And it will take a few days for the remnants of Prednisone to leave his system. Further, there is (as far as we can tell) no evidence that it has accomplished anything other than wreak havoc with his sleep cycle [and ours]and his Blood Glucose management. Today he is having a horrible day of abdominal pain - the presenting problem which the Prednisone was theoretically going to help.

Sunday 4/29

-Awesome worship today in a service of confirmation for 39 8th graders. Doyle preached on "Oaks of Righteousness".

-Miles is slowly getting his sleep cycle back to normal as we taper down his prednisone dose. Last Monday night he slept not one minute from bedtime until 7:15 am. We are still recovering - all of us. Miles is enjoying his new pet, a leopard gecko named Faith, and also enjoyed a visit from Maggie, who is owned by the Reuters - who are also the parents of Jeffrey, ElenaClaire's boyfriend.

-ElenaClaire is moving into the home stretch - Pops Show is over (videos here) and Prom is coming - Graduation is May 25th and her Grad party at our house is May 29, featuring the music of These Guys Here.

Concordia and North Park both offered her generous scholarships ($8500 and $14200 respectively) but she is feeling like it would be wise for her to finish a couple years at Kingwood College - not certain that either she or Miles is ready for her to leave, and not feeling good about starting her post-college life with a pile of college debt (which would surely be the case if she went to either school).

-I just got home from a 5 hour rehearsal for "How to Succeed in Business without really trying", on stage here in Kingwood in June - my first entrance into community musical theatre since "Bye Bye Birdie" 30 years ago in Davis. The time commitment is demanding but I'm having fun. today we choreographed "Brotherhood of Man" step for step based on this video of the Matthew Broderick revival of the show.

I just finished reading "Flyboys" by James Bradley, author of "Flags of our Fathers". Awesome but disturbing book. No one really comes out of war virtue intact. But the details make it clear that a Pacific war was necessary back in the 1940s.

A Cure, using patient's own stem cells?

Read about it at Miles.Lindholtz.net

Thursday 4/12

Easter was a great day... over 1700 in attendance, including the largest number of people ever to attend a single service at CTK (720 - all but maximizing our available seating, with folding chairs set up in the aisles.)
Miles was very sick on Tuesday, then had a great day on Wednesday. Today he is sick and at home again.
ElenaClaire secured a solo spot in the Kingwood High Pops Show at the end of the month. She'll be singing "Eleanor Rigby", backed by a small group of vocalists on the chorus.
She learned this week that she secured neither the vocal scholarship nor the LEadership Scholarship for which she applied. We are looking at Financial Aid packages, but realizing that in all likelihood she'll be at Kingwood College for a year or two. Still, we're making no firm decisions. Who knows what might still happen?

Good Friday

Miles' health has sort of taken over the subject matter on this blog - (and a lot of other stuff in our lives). It will not always be thus (I say in faith). The worship, music, drama, and theological musings will return.

Several of you who read here have sent encouraging notes - Thanks Geoff, Don, and John/Melissa, to name a few -

Miles started on prednisone Tuesday night and as expected, it is shooting his glucose levels all over the place - on the high end. Target levels are between 80-200, and the lower in that range, the better. On Weds., he didn't drop below 200 until 11:15 PM. Wake ups have been in the high 300s to middle 500s with the added complication of ketones, a chemical side effect of high numbers that make highs very stubborn. He went to school on Monday only this week. Last night we increased his nighttime basal rate (The dose of insulin his pump gives him every 3 minutes, day and night). ElenaClaire did a midnight check and I did one sometime in the 4 am hour. His wake up was 186. We'll learn a whole new system of management during his prednisone dose - anticipated to last 3 weeks, I think. Here's my best shot at explaining what this is like.

ElenaClaire had a phone interview yesterday with Concordia University in Austin. She's one of 8 finalists for 3 full-ride scholarships there. She also received a phone call Monday night from the Director of Biology and pre-nursing there, who when she learned North Park UNiversity in Chicago was also in the running, had very complimentary remarks about NPU and said she had sent students there to complete their nursing training - but most interesting was that Concordia is likely to start a school of nursing in the 2008-09 school year. For a number of reasons, not least of which is the relative proximity of Austin as compared to Chicago, I think Concordia has a subtle lead between the two schools. We should know by late next week what each school can do financially, and then ElenaClaire will have to make a decision.

At Christ the King, we had a great Palm Sunday which included a drama I wrote, with a cast of 7. I led last night's Maundy Thursday service worship along with Marilyn and John. Tonight and on Easter Sunday, I will be singing in the choir; on Sunday I will be conducting the choir on one song (Paul Baloche's "What can I do?") and leading vocally on one song ("Crown Him with Many Crowns", in the arrangement generated here last year by Brian West).

Tuesday 3/27 pm

Miles is back home with abdominal pain. So much for 4 full days of school.

Last week I visted with my friend Gerard Baldwin, the last living director and illustrator of the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. He drew and donated this drawing for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Gala Auction, scheduled for May 12. His wife Frances may also donate 5 hours of French Tutoring for the auction. They are really lovely people, most enjoyable company.

Tuesday, 3/27 am

Miles is in school today. In the last month he has not been in school for more than 3 days at a time. Last week: Monday and Friday home because of illness. Yesterday: Home again. May this be a week he makes it through Friday.

He is on a new medication that is for his new, third diagnosis - ontop of Type 1 Diabetes and Eosinophilia, this is gastroparesis, a semi-paralysis of the stomach - a complication of diabetes. Very unusual for such a young child - typical only in adult diabetics. If the medication doesn't help, it might be an inaccurate diagnosis. Highly likely he'll go on steroids later this week - which should ease the eosin symptoms, but make his blood glucose go crazy.

ElenaClaire heard from Concordia yesterday. Of some 80 applicants for the Lutheran Student Leadership Scholarship (full tuition), she is one of 8 finalists for the 3 slots. She goes on to the next level: telephone iterviews next week. She's already assured of an $8500 Distinguished Student scholarship there; she is assured of $4000 so far at North Park ($2500 Dean's Award plus $1500 Covenant Ministers' Grant), with vocal scholarship potentially up to $4000 and other financial aid offers to come in early April. Several local scholarships await.

I am of no clear vision on this decision. I have a strong feeling for North Park, having lived there for 2 years while in Seminary. It has fine music and nursing programs. I'd love for her to have the Chicago experience. But Chicago is far away. I don't know if any of the 4 of us could handle such a great distance - esp. the kids. Austin is much nearer, a mere 3 hours away, which is a plus. But it has no nursing program - pre-nursing only. Perhaps 2 years there and then transfer? EC knows no one at North Park, though a dear friend of ours, like an aunt to EC, lives blocks away from campus. She has friends at Concordia and nearby at UT.

Ultimately it is her decision to make and I am confident that God will lead.

Thursday in Kingwood

Last Tuesday evening we took Miles to our regularly scheduled service of healing prayer. He seemed encouraged and blessed by the experience. He had been sick on Monday with EO symptoms but had been well enough to go to school on Tuesday.

He woke up with very good numbers and no EO symptoms on Weds and today and has had a couple of good days. In school three days in a row - which hasn't happened for a while.

He is also seeing his counseling therapist once a week now to help him cope with all this and is also taking painting lessons, which seems to help as well.

We expect to get info from his GI Dr. today about the tests he has had last week, and we are asking for an aggressive plan of treatment, even if it means doing a course of steroids which will complicate his diabetic regimen.

I am gearing up for leading a band as we lead worship this weekend; then on Palm Sunday I am directing a cast that includes myself in a drama I have written that will be halfway through the service and will be the tipping point as the service shifts from Palm to Passion emphasis. The drama takes place at Ground Zero in New York and is one of the best things I have written - based on a Willow Creek piece from years ago called "The Wall". Then Easter comes and EC and I will be in the choir. Alicia is not singing this year because Miles seems to need her to focus on him instead.

Better on Tuesday

Miles is in school today - Thank you Lord. He woke up with no eosinophilic symptoms and a very healthy blood glucose number.

ElenaClaire received the Dean's award scholarship of $2500/yr at NPU. This week about 6 local scholarships will get filed. We expect to know the big picture by the first week of April. Then it all comes down to negotiations.

Christ the King is stepping into Lifeshapes - slowly but with determination and a sense that God is leading.

It's a beautiful day in Kingwood. And my attitude is much improved.

Sick and Tired

It comes down to this: I am fed up with illness. Not mine: Miles'. Eight plus years of dealing with diabetic management is bad enough. This new eosinophilic disorder is terrible. Miles stayed home from school today because he was not well enough to go to school. We know every year going into it that Miles will rack up more then the allowed days missed from school just from diabetic complications. This just adds to the burden.

I'm really tired of it.

Monday Afternoon - Music, Tools, Rodeo

• Here is a neat online tool. I needed to gather some information related to communications at CTK and this provided me with just the tool I needed.

• We had a great day at the Houston Livestock show and Rodeo on Saturday. Ride 'em, Miles!

















• EC received the "Distinguished Student Scholarship" of $8,500 per year at Concordia. Will she go? Hard to say. Other scholarships are out, there and at North Park, waiting on a reply, and more go out next week.

• My friend and colleague Marilyn Johnson and I collaborated on a song entitled "I am the vine". My contribution was the second verse. Written on Tuesday and Wednesday; presented in worship on Sunday, with Alicia and our friend George joining us on harmony vocals. Out of respect for Marilyn's ownership of the song, please do not use without contacting me first.

EC sings: Il mio bel foco

EC sings: "Honor, Honor"

This is one of two songs for a college vocal scholarship audition.