Mark Hayes Peacock – blogs

Today is the Second Sunday of Advent and it felt like it this morning at Taylors Falls United Methodist Church. I preached on 2 Peter, Chapter 3, which deals with being ready for the Second Coming. Peter tells us it will come in the fulness of time, a phrase he does not use in this passage but one that I love. Whenever Jesus returns, we’d best be ready and, as Peter says, “at peace”. To me, that means to be at peace with oneself and if we can achieve that, we are likely to be at peace with others; we will have an aura of peace surrounding us. Sounds good to me!

 

I expect preach in Taylors Falls again in January, 2018. Meanwhile, no publicity visible yet for my story reading for Festival Theatre on January 20th. It sounded as if they were doing up a brochure for the event; if so, I’d love to see it. The event is a fundraiser for Festival and I’m hoping it will draw a good audience and raise a bundle for Festival!

“Four More Break Time Stories” is now on Kindle. The stories deal with art–or not; a bit of racial prejudice; an out-of-fashion actor; and “Jack and The Bean Sprouts”, the latest “mangled” fairy tale.

The next little item planned is to bring all four of the published “mangled” fairy tales together in their own Kindle book.

For the next four story collection, I’ve finished “A Cabbie’s Sunday Morning Soap Opera” and am working on the next story, yet untitled and not yet fully formed. Deadly? Only in my mind.

Last night (Wednesday, November 15th) I read two short stories to some of my favorite people at Milltown’s Public Library. The setting is intimate there, with chairs in a semi-circle and the reader’s chair–a comfortable one on the order of a living room chair–at the focal point. I had a good time and I think those who attended did, too.

One listener was a Unity Sophomore named Molly, who also writes and who has had one of her stories submitted by her English teacher for publication. Bravo to you, Molly! She said she came to be inspired but if drive and ambition augment talent, she has already what it will take to succeed.

I read “I’ll Cook For You” from “The First Gathering” and “Jack and The Bean Sprouts” from just-published “Four More Break Time Stories”.

I’m scheduled to read stories for Festival Theatre on Saturday, January 20, 2018. I’ve asked LaMoine MacLaughlin to join me to read some of his poetry. This should be fun! It’s a Festival Theatre fundraiser, so grab a ticket soon to help a worthy cause. I’m hoping to sell out the space!

I just received a call from Jason Richards, the artistic director for Festival Theatre in St.Croix Falls. Festival began as an Equity company almost 30 years ago and I did an article (maybe two) on the new enterprise and on Carrie Claussen Smith, one of the founders. Jason called in response to an idea: reading some of my short stories as a fund raiser for Festival. I’d include LaMoine MacLaughlin reading his poetry–a single voice can become wearisome. Our books would be available for purchase. Festival has a mailing list and a need; here’s something I can do that can take the place of money I don’t have to help them.

It sounds like we’ll be doing this on a Friday night sometime in January, 2018. I’ll let you know!

I’ve just gotten off the phone with my elder son, Aaron, who lives in Portugal and whose house and everything associated with it, including all the fruit trees, were gobbled up by the wildfires that raced through Portugal, fanned by high winds from the hurricane. The experience in both Spain and Portugal has been similar to the fires in northern California, but with fewer lives lost. Apparently, most of those who died were fire fighters who paid the price for trying to help someone else. Aaron’s nearby village has no electricity right now, but Aaron does because, miraculously, his solar panel was spared and the other electric gear he needs for contact with the outside world he’d hastily stored in a brick building that houses his water cistern before he had to flee the flames.

Anyhow, I’ve said often that each of our kids, each in his or her own way, have been trying to make this world a  better place. Proof of this is that Aaron’s siblings banded together quickly to set up a funding site on behalf of their brother in response to people asking how they could help Aaron and his wife, Berta, re-build their home and put their life back together again. Funds already are in the Pay-Pal account and I know they will be well used. The link is http://helpaaronandberta.org.

We are grateful to God that Aaron and Berta are alive. We also appreciate and are thankful for those who choose to provide financial help to Aaron and Berta.

The warmth of this congregation made up for the lack of heat this morning in the sanctuary of St.Peter’s Lutheran Church in Luck. Their furnace was not operating but the congregation bravely huddled upstairs in the sanctuary for our service and Holy Communion.

I like this bunch. It’s a small group, but the building does not seat a great number of people in the first place. Perhaps this is a case of the physical facility limiting the size of the congregation. (When you hit 80% capacity, people feel too close to one another and attendance tends to fall off.)

Anyway, I enjoy being with this bunch and perhaps we can meet together again. I think this is the fourth time I’ve done services there. One poor kid got a Communion wafer from me and had not had his First Communion yet. He wasn’t sure quite what to do with the wafer. My bad; I can always learn and one thing I can learn is to ask first. My tradition(s) are that everyone can receive; it’s up to the parents to explain the meaning of what takes place in the service.

I just finished listening to a taped broadcast with Dr. Bunny Vreeland on Mercury Broadcast, an internet radio station. (Full disclosure: Bunny is my sister-in-law). Although my wife, Marina said my voice sounded good, as a guy who’s done radio and stage work, I thought I sound like a geezer these days. Anyhow, we had 17 minutes for me to ramble. The truth is, though, that Bunny gave me good lead-ins so that we could cover a variety of subjects in a fairly brief time and still be able to plug “The First Gathering” book.

 

Mercury Broadcast has a nice audience that is growing, so I appreciate Bunny’s generosity in giving me the time to share. She interviews a variety of people with expertise in a broad  array of subjects. By profession, or at least one of her professions, she is a hypnotherapist, hence the “Doctor” by her name. She operates out of Oxnard, California with her office and school located in Camarillo, California.

 

As an aside, I’ve had more conversations with both the White Bear Arts Center and the St.Croix Festival Theatre for possible book readings. We shall see if something comes of the latter (it would be a fundraiser for them) and a date is all that needs be done for the Arts Center.

I took Sunday service yesterday at Cumberland United Methodist Church. Their sanctuary is a beauty, perhaps 35-40 years old and modern. The congregation boasts some fine Christians. I heard several mentions of the Holy Spirit in casual conversation. They have some young retired people and three children were present, yet I was told they are struggling. There were 44 at worship, which is “down” for them, I gather, but that has been the trend of late. A few years ago the church at McKinley they were joined with closed and I suppose some of the remnant came over to Cumberland. That’s not the best way to gain new members. We talked a bit about how Birchwood UMC came to understand that small can be beautiful and then that congregation doubled in size while I served there. It’s a matter of becoming beautiful so that people are attracted to you and then recognizing what you have to offer and that what you have and who you are is unusual today.

 

I’m glad I had the opportunity to serve Cumberland yesterday.

Instead of “It was a dark and stormy night” it was a warm and muggy night in St.Croix Falls last night. My thanks to Librarian Sarah Adams for arranging this reading. We had a good turnout, perhaps 17 people, which is good for author readings around this area. I sold books, too. The first fellow who showed up told me that if I were to run against Rep. Adam Jarchow I’d have lots of support in this area. No interest on my part, although I’d like to see Jarchow thrown out. But the people who did show up are some of the people here I like most.

 

I read “I’ll Cook For You” and “Hansel and Gertie”. The readings went well and I’m grateful for the opportunity. “Hansel” got plenty of laughs, too. There was some discussion of doing a reading for Festival Theatre as a fund raiser for the theatre. Stay tuned.