Wednesday...

...back from Fredericksburg. It was a nice respite from post-Ike reality. We heard from EC that our power came back on late Monday night. There was a section of Kingwood that lost power Tuesday and we almost cancelled our return drive, but a friend drove by and saw our ligths on so we drove home, arriving about midnight last night.

Fredericksburg was really a pleasant break and I especially enjoyed seeing the National Museum of the Pacific War (housed in and around the property owned and operated from way back in the 1850s by Admiral Nimitz' family - hence the unusual location in a tiny hill country town) and the LBJ Ranch about 20 miles east of town. Johnson's "Texas White House" only opened for tours about a month ago and the only portion open to tours is the office area. But it was quite interesting.

Top Ten Reasons Why Hurricane Season is JUST like Christmas

10. Decorating the house (boarding up windows).
9. Dragging out boxes that haven't been used since last season
(camping gear, flashlights).
8. Last minute shopping in crowded stores.
7. Regular TV shows pre-empted for "specials".
6. Family coming to stay with you.
5. Family and friends calling from out-of-state
4. Buying food you don't normally buy ... And in large quantities.
3. Days off from work.
2. Candles.
And the number one reason Hurricane Season is like Christmas?
1. ...At some point you know you're going to have a tree in your house!

159 hours later...

...power came back on. Thank you Lord.

Hurrication

...that's the word that has evolved this week to describe what we're in. It's not like vacation at all. In fact I think the kids would just as soon get back in school. But Kingwood schools won't re-open until next Thursday according to current schedule. Which means they've been out of schools a day shy of 2 weeks. That gets old when there's no power for your Wii and all the other stuff kids are used to.

I saw a map of the hurricane track for the first time today. Probably old news to those of you who have power and regular newscasts, but the eye of the hurricane went right over Kingwood and our house was in it. It was quite unusual to go to absolute stillness about 6:30 last Saturday morning, and then back into the storm about an hour later.

We're getting away after church on Sunday. We're going to Fredericksburg, where Alicia's cousin lives. We just need a breather.

SMILES FOR MILES

Once a year we throw a party called SMILES FOR MILES, an evening benefiting the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. It's a great evening of live music, food from three area restaurants, comedians and magicians, raffles and auctions, and donations towards a truly worthwhile cause.

I know that many of my readers live elsewhere and won't be able to join us; but I invite you to surf over to http://miles.lindholtz.net/. Enjoy the poster there - the third in our series of posters honoring a certain four musicians we're partial to - and also click to watch the 3 minute video featuring ElenaClaire. Then, if you like, click to make a secure online donation to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. You'll be part of millions of dollars raised, including our goal of $10,000 in this, Miles' tenth year of living with diabetes. We want to see this thing cured before he graduates from High School, which was the prediction of his endocrinologist back when Miles was 2 years old.

Wednesday post-Hurricane

We continue to work our way through recovery from Hurricane Ike. We have it SO much easier than many – especially those in Galveston. We are without power into our 5th day now, but we have power at church – it’s on the same grid as the Fire and police Stations, by happy circumstance – and our water supply is fine in Kingwood, as opposed to greater Houston. And we also have a few friends who are on that same grid. Grocery stores are open, though without refrigerated foods, and even though gas station lines are half a mile long, we live within a mile or two of everything we need, so we can stay out of those lines and let others who really need the fuel have it. So our circumstances, though wearying, are not at all desperate as many people are.

I have to keep in mind our blessedness, because my little exposure to media features people whining and getting angry because someone else is not taking care of their needs. I do not intend to get government assistance for anything I am going through. But I realize there are those far worse off than I who do need help.

Last time (Katrina and Rita) churches and individuals all over the country sent gift cards from Target, WalMart, gas stations etc. to us and we distributed them to those in need. That worked well and we are prepared to do that again, though we will probably do it through ministry partners closer to the areas of real need. But we suggest sending checks and letting us purchase the cards here, for security reasons. You can find our mailing address here (bottom left corner).

Tuesday after Ike

Well, actually, first the rest of Monday. We sat down as a staff and went through the entire list of people with connection to CTK. "Were they here at church yesterday?" If yes, consider them in contact. "Has anyone heard from or seen them, or know someone who has heard they're OK?" Scratch them. That left us with about 300 households from whom we had no info, and as we'd gone through the names we sorted them by neighborhood. We then sent staff and other volunteers to phone them and confirm they were OK or if they had needs they needed help with; and if we could not make phone contact we drove past their homes (it was quite a task to map out a plan to go these homes in sensible order so as not to burn up too much gas, which is a rare commodity - lines at open stations are 5 blocks long); if no one was home, we left notes. If they were home, we'd see how they and their home was; were there needs; if not, were they of a mind to help others? It was a good day of ministry in a hands-on way - people were touched to know that their church was reaching directly out to them.

Now Tuesday. We reviewed needs and prioritized them, and then assigned staff to meet needs, but not to do it alone - to recruit those who said they were available. So I went to the home of a single woman who actually is out of town - she ditched Houston before the storm - and with a crew of 10 adults and children, cleaned up her yard, raking debris and large branches from the lot and off the roof. Happily we had few people with huge pressing needs.

The church has power, being on the same grid as the Fire and Police station, and we have Wi-Fi, so that's being made available to anyone who needs it. Though this is not publicly announced - our strategy is to connect with the "person of peace" - the one who has connections to someone in our church or who approaches us because they see us in the community - i.e., the receptive person.

This afternoon after we cleared that yard, Alicia and I cleaned the last of the food out of our fridges and freezer. We've seen some power trucks around the area in the last day or two so we're hopeful that we'll have power before the week is out.

Monday Morning Post-Ike

It is blissfully cool and dry this morning. Yesterday was a productive day of cleaning up the yard. I'll post some pics later, but we have several large piles of debris raked into piles for crews to haul away eventually, including a number of very large branches, lots of smaller stuff, and of course 80 feet of fencing.

We are thankful to have a couple friends who have power. They (and the church) are on the same power grid as the local fire station and police station, so they get back online fast. We're hoping for some time today.

We know we have it much better than a lot of people, especially down in Galveston, but even here in Kingwood there are people whose houses were sliced in two by falling trees. And the fact that we have friends like the Burkes whom we stayed with last night - it's amazing how a good night's sleep in air conditioning can improve one's attitude.

Grocery stores are pretty empty and most gas stations are gasless. More updates are being posted on my site each day. Click here.

Prepping for Ike

Here’s the news we sent out to our congregation.

...and now, Ike

…and once again we’re bracing for a storm. In our area (northeast corner of Houston) we’re told to expect 7-12 inches of rain and winds of 75-115 mph. The church will likely be opening as a shelter and will also be housing first responders. The Kingwood area tends to lose electrical power rather easily, so I’m expecting we’ll go through that, which is a complication for Miles – keeping his insulin cool, and really, keeping HIM cool as well – we may be staying with friends down the street who have a generator if we lose power for long. Gustav was nothing for us, but this one looks more serious. I’ll post as I am able. The storm is expected at o dark thirty on Friday night-Saturday morning, and much of Saturday and Saturday night as well.

Random Notes

• Needless to say, as I sit here in suburban Houston with the sun shining and the gentle breezes blowing, Gustav was a no-show in Kingwood. I suppose it’s necessary to show extreme caution, but the alarm bells in the media and government are going to be hard-pressed to avoid comparisons to a certain boy who cried wolf. Our prayers, though, are with those in the severely-hit areas, who are truly suffering.

• The Wall Street Journal features this assessment of the economy during 2001-2007. It’s not what the news media would have you believe.

• In the “strictly for fun” category, I browse through offbeat music blogs looking for interesting rarities, and found the master tracks for Marvin Gaye’s “Heard it thru the grapevine”. Individual tracks for bass, drums, guitars, lead vocal, keys, orchestra, percussion, and BG vocals. Load these individual tracks into audacity, and you’ve got your own mixing board to re-mix a true classic. My favorite, remixed yesterday: Lead vocal on one side, Harmony vocals on the other, and bass guitar in the center, That’s all. The same music blog had already provided me with the master tracks for 4 Sgt. Pepper songs as well.

First Responder

Christ the King is a base for first responders who are coming into the area in preparation for Hurricane Gustav. Obviously no one knows for sure where it’s going to hit or how hard, or who will be most deeply impacted. Keep us in your prayers in these days.

August 17

• Last night was awesome. These Guys Here performed at Berryhill under the name "The Reese Foster Experience". Here's the back story. When our drummer Reese was in 9th grade, there was a 9th grade dance at which the bands would be composed of 9th graders. Reese said he had a band but the other 3 guys were old. We got to play and that is the name we played under. Last night was Reese's last night before leaving for college. His Dad, our guitarist Raymond, had about 50 shirts printed up with the R.F.E. band name, and we wore them along with a LOT of people in the house. And lots of other band supporters and friends of Reese were there as well. The owner loves the crowd we draw. Anyway with that kind of enthusiasm in the house, we had a GREAT night.



• Miles and I are 15 chapters from the end of book 7. We started Book one last July, right when everyone else was finishing Book 7. We've been reading about a chapter a night since then and I am enjoying the books SO much - we both are - major Dad-Son bonding - but I am also grieving that I am nearing the end of the series. Still,we have three movies left (we watched the first 5 movies after reading the first 5 books) - but learning that movie 6's release has been pushed back to next July was a downer. Miles and I were looking forward to that.

• Michael Phelps is awesome. He won #8 during a band break last night, which was very considerate of him. Everyone in the restaurant was gathered around the TVs in the place cheering him on. I know he'll appreciate knowing that.

• Alicia and I had purchased one of those digital converters for the TV, and at first it didn't get a strong enough signal to work. But I discovered quite by accident last week that the antennae line needed to be well away from power lines, and suddenly we're getting very good reception on about 5 channels in our area. Having quit the cable habit about 5 years ago, we've gotten used to unsatisfactory, fuzzy reception. Now we're enjoying crystal clear images and audio almost all the time.

• How did Thrivent afford that? Thrivent Financial hosted a splash day at Schlitterbahn Galveston, which normally costs about $33. We got in for $5 each. And the price included a BBQ brisket lunch that was worth about $7.

You are the One

Our 7 week fall series will be called "Every Breath: God". Its goal is that disciples learn the joy of God's powerful presence and leading in every minute of their lives.

Mark suggested that I write something for the song "You are the One", by Lincoln Brewster and Paul Baloche. Here's the original song (PDF):

You're the One who made the heavens
You're the One who shaped the earth
You're the One who form'd my heart
Long before my birth
I believe You'll always lead me
All my days have been ordain'd
All Your thoughts toward me are holy
Full of love and grace

Chorus
You are the One You are holy
You are the One You are worthy
You are the One, You are the One
Everlasting
You are the One I will worship
You are the One I will serve all my days
You are the One, You are the One
Everlasting
You are the One
Jesus You're the One

Brewster/Baloche © 2002 Integrity's Hosanna! Music

Here's the piece I wrote:

Every second, every moment,
Every minute, every hour,
I rely upon Your presence,
Stand upon Your power.
You have called my heart to follow
You’re my Savior and my friend
You surround my life with goodness,
Faithful to the end…

©2008 Rick Lindholtz

P.S. By happy coincidence, if you add "I will" to line 4 and "You are" to line 8, you get a verse that will work with the traditional hymn tune "Hyfrydol", which is often sung with the lyric "Jesus, what a friend for sinners".

August 8

• Sherwood Pictures, the church that produced the films

"Flywheel" and "Facing the Giants", has a new film coming out September 26, called

"Fireproof". Sure looks good. Firefighting is the backdrop, but the hard work of building a good marriage is the storyline.

-

• I am so glad to have Alicia and Miles back home from their weeklong visit to Cape Cod. Wish I could've been there with them...sigh...maybe next year... there are few places that mean more to our family than 44 Nyes Neck Road, Centerville.

August 5

Worship was powerful this past weekend. One of several highlights was Sara singing "We will Cry". (The file is hosted on www.drop.io, a very cool utility. Bookmark it.)

I wrote this confession for Sunday. For some reason it was overlooked at 8:20, and at 11:00 there was some kind of technical problem, but here it is:

Lord, You call us to a life of faith and faithfulness – of living with trust that the life revealed in Your Word is
Your best design for our lives.

We confess our weak obedience to Your call. We drift far from Your path for us. We are often distracted by
other voices around us. And when the journey includes hard times, we struggle even to believe that You
have our good at heart.

But here and now, we declare yet again our faith in You.

We confess our sins, confident that Your promise of forgiveness is true.

We ask once again for the filling of Your Holy Spirit, to empower our life in You.

We thank You for your many gifts of grace. Amen.

The sermon, "Grace for the Hard Times", was excellent. It can be heard here. Afterward, Raymond sang "Healing Rain" - also archived at www.drop.io/mp3s080308. It was very powerful.

• Alicia and Miles flew home from Cape Cod yesterday. It's good to have the whole family under one roof again.

• Tropical Storm Edouard was a blowout. When I was a kid we used to call these "rainy days", and they didn't cancel all regular television programming so the news guys could talk it up all day long. They didn't send some poor sap of a reporter out to a street corner so that he could say on local network television "There is a puddle of water here on the side of the road". Literally!

Back to the Tracks

This blog is entitled "On the tracks" because of the picture above, taken near Mount Hermon Conference Center in the Santa Cruz Mountains. There as a child of 5 or so, my heart said yes to the God who had already said yes to me, and the faith in which my parents raised me became my own.

12 days ago I fulfilled a longtime wish and revisited that place with my family. I took a walk on the tracks with ElenaClaire and with Miles.

Before we left I knelt in prayer on those tracks, and only two things tumbled out of my heart: "Thank you" and "Yes". Yes to Christ; to His gospel; to His call and plan for mylife; to whatever the future may hold.

July 25

Having returned from a very nice vacation in California, I've uploaded pics to a drop site for those of you who might enjoy seeing the Lindholtz gang's family pics. There were too many to put on the family pic blog. I just discovered this site from a friend and it's a good way to share stuff. No sign ups, no email requested.

Next week Alicia and Miles head to Cape Cod for a week with her family. I am jealous. But I'll be busy every evening working on the score for a movie.

Sunday, July 13

• I preached at CTK for the first time today. Here's the link to the podcast page.

• Tomorrow morning we're off for 10 days in California. Looking forward to time with all of my family; with some of my friends from High School; and with other friends as well.

• The link is up at Miles' page for SMILES FOR MILES on October 3.

Declaring Faith

As Mark and I are preparing worship for Sunday, we wanted to come out of Covenant Pastor Andrew Thompson's "We've Come to Worship", which includes the line "Trading our shame for your holiness", include a short confessional piece, and move into the song "Trading my Sorrows".

Here's the confession component:


Leader: All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own.

People: I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night.

Leader: But You are a God of forgiveness, gracious and merciful, slow to become angry, and rich in unfailing love.

People: In Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.

Leader: You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make us rich:

All: Beauty for ashes,a joyous blessing instead of mourning,festive praise instead of despair. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Isaiah 53:6 Psalm 51:3 Nehemiah 9:17 Ephesians 1:7, 2 Corinthians 8:9, 9:15, Isaiah 61:3


(into "Trading my Sorrows")



Then after "Trading my Sorrows", we wanted a brief affirmation of faith that would connect the repetition of "Yes Lord" in the song with biblical truth:



Leader: The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. (Isaiah 40:28)

People: Yes, Lord! Amen!

Leader: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. (1 Timothy 1:15)

People: Yes, Lord! Amen!

Leader: He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. (Romans 8:11)

People: Yes, Lord! Amen!

Leader: All of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” ascends to God for his glory.
(2 Cor. 1:20)

(return to song: Yes Lord, Yes Lord, Yes Yes Lord…)