Mark Hayes Peacock – blogs

Yesterday I was able to be present for the baptism of Caleb Yeonjun Kim, the infant son of the Korean pastors at the Upper St.Croix Parish. Rev. Tim Berlew did the baptism and Holy Communion services. He’s from Wauwatosa United Methodist and has an easy, graceful manner that went over well. Pastor Kookho has a “fun” sense of humor, which  I think serves him well in congregations that have to pay attention because of his accented English. The place was full and it was great to experience that again in the space that I’d been accustomed to seeing full when I pastored in St.Croix Falls. The occasion’s four-congregation choir sounded good, too. There was lunch downstairs, with one dish featuring Korean noodles in a light sauce. I had the opportunity to greet many people and many faces of people whose names I have yet to learn but whom I’ve seen during the time I guest pastored in those four congregations. And I even sold a book! Overall, I’m glad I could be present for this fine event. The timing was right; I’m booked to guest preach the next couple of Sundays.

I dropped a note to Luck Library’s Librarian, Jill Glover and, after apologizing for forgetting to give her the book I’d promised for the library, I said, “Thanks for setting up this reading. We had a good time.”

Jill responded, “So glad to hear it. The folks at the Museum said it was a successful program. Thanks for offering to do it for our community!”

I read “Little Red Hoodie” to a great group of guys who meet at the Luck Library/Museum. We had a good time, some laughs during the story reading, and a fine discussion afterwards. It’s no secret that we also solved most of the world’s problems in our talking after the reading. It was good for me re-connect with several people I knew a few years ago, as well as with a man for whom I’d done his father’s  funeral. They bought some books, which does help the cause and which I appreciate. May they enjoy all of the stories in the book!

Today marked the end of weekly guest preaching for the Upper St.Croix Parish, which consists of the United Methodist Churches in Grantsburg, Atlas, Wolf Creek and St.Croix Falls. As many of you know, I pastored Wolf Creek and St.Croix Falls for 11 years. It has been good to return and to be so well received. I believe the Lord has helped me with the messages; now, I need only to prepare something each week for the Tuesday Devotional message at Good Samaritan Care Center-St.Croix Valley, where I serve as one of the chaplains.

Today saw more people at Wolf Creek and at St.Croix Falls than on the previous Sundays I’ve been there. There were enough people today that St.Croix Falls didn’t feel quite so forlorn.

I expect to be called for guest preaching at Taylors Falls United Methodist Church during August and September.

I have the next story brewing. It’s set in dry, dusty Fort Thomas, Arizona and it has horses, child brides, harvests, Indians and prejudice. Our police chief read “The Eye of the Beholder” this morning and I have all the police and arrest details captured well. So, there is one story ready for the next Kindle book, with three to go before publication. Ole!

Following services at Central and Atlas United Methodist Churches last Sunday, Marina and I headed to Dancing Dragonfly Vineyards for Joan Solum’s 80th birthday party. We’d not been to this nice facility before and, aside from the noise generated by high ceilings and hard surfaces, we found it to be a nice place for a large venue. Such places are difficult to find around here. Dresser’s Pizzeria catered the food, which was up to its usual good standards.

I did speak about Joan and called her a person of integrity and generosity. Integrity? The story I told went back to 1997 when I was first appointed to the St.Croix Falls/Wolf Creek charge. The St.Croix Falls church’s cleaning lady–I’ll call her Phyllis, just because–wanted a raise (at least I think that was the issue) and Joan was the only woman at the table while the topic got brainstormed. One idea was to give her the raise but cut her hours (the budget was thin). Another idea was to have Phyllis clean upstairs every other week and downstairs weekly–cut the time, in other words. Someone else wanted to work a tax angle that would save the church money. One slick idea after another got tossed out for discussion. Finally, Joan spoke: “We need to do the right thing for Phyllis,” she said. “We need to do the Christian thing.” All the men at the table sat shame-faced; Joan was right. Phyllis got her raise but left soon after to cut down her weekly workload.

Further, anytime I’d go into the laundry Jim and Joan owned in town, Joan would be there, folding someone’s laundry–a bit of extra service for customers. She was a worker, too.

Did I mention that Dragonfly’s “Cha Cha” red wine was quite good?

Last night I read “Hansel and Gertie” at the Northern Lakes Center for the Arts in Amery, Wisconsin. Readings by writers draw small crowds and last night was no exception to that, but I was pleased that the reading drew laughs in all the right places and even in some surprising places, with loud guffaws at what I thought might be funny, too. Now, on to reading at the Museum/Library in Luck on August 2nd. I’m not sure what I’ll read there but I’ll know after I size up the audience. I’m told there may be some interest in publishing with that group and I’ll be happy to share my experience and decisions.

My decision to self-publish was prompted by a distasteful experience with the Wisconsin Editor of the St.Paul Pioneer Press. Pat McFadden was the seventh editor at the SPPP I’ve worked with over the decades and I have real problems with his ethics and with the way he deals with writers–at least with this writer. Life is too short to work with assholes. At my age I’m especially aware of that. So the decision was easy: skip the editor completely. Fortunately, because of many years of writing for money and being in print and learning from the small adjustments editors have made to my work from time to time, I’m pretty good at editing myself. Putting my stories on Amazon Kindle also allowed me to get them out there to get reactions, as well as being able to retrieve them to make adjustments and corrections when they were needed. In the process, I could make some money as people bought and read the Kindle books. I can do the same with the print books and did so when the first dozen or so were printed with some awkward and embarrassing physical problems like dots in odd places and sentences that broke apart on the page. Most of those came from trying to adjust from 8 1/2×11 inch pages that were OK for Kindle to the 6″x9″ format for a print book. We learn by doing. I gave those odd copies to relatives and close friends, who have “a rarity”. Two of my kids bought the odd books, too.

 

Next week marks the end of weeks of guest preaching at the Upper St.Croix Parish churches of the Central, Atlas, Wolf Creek and St.Croix Falls United Methodist Churches. Pastor KookHoo and I have alternated weeks. I expect to be scheduled soon for Taylors Falls in August and September, usually once a month.

Today I read “Little Red Hoodie” to the Osceola Seniors and I have to say it was fun to hear people laughing in all the right places and even in some places I wasn’t sure would ever get even a chuckle. Sharp bunch of people, those! (Full disclosure: Marina and I are members of the Osceola Seniors.) This group snagged a large grant to help bring about Osceola’s new Village Library, Village offices, Discovery Center and a place for senior citizens. I sold some books, too, which warms the cockles of my checkbook and in a month when both our Village utilities AND the property taxes are due, that helps. Now, on to reading “Hansel and Gertie” this Saturday night at the Northern Lakes Center for the Arts in Amery. I read that story to the writing group earlier this week and for that story, too, laughter and chuckles in the right places were gratifying to hear.

So Mary Yambrick fought the good fight, ran the race and finished the course. She was a person who lived out well what she said she believed. I’ve known Bill and Mary for almost 30 years and have served as the main writer for their weekly church page newspaper ads for 28 of those years. Mary was a giver to young people and to her many friends and to her family. Cancer was a fierce foe but she took it on with about as many approaches as there are and with great faith in the ultimate outcome. Mary Yambrick: a first class human being. I’m glad I knew her and I keep Bill, Alex, Paul and Whitney in my prayers.

I took services today in Wolf Creek and St.Croix Falls United Methodist Churches. I pastored those two congregations for 11 years and retired from them in 2008. Wolf Creek is scrappy and has several new people, so attendance is about the same, if perhaps slightly smaller, than when I was there. St.Croix Falls is painful. Two weeks ago there were about a dozen people in attendance and about the same this morning. When I was there, the place was full, with a side room about half-full on most Sundays. The pianist, who is quite good,  is a refugee from the now-defunct Church of the Nazarene. There was another woman I’d not known before.

Small can be beautiful. I’ve seen small become large; Birchwood almost doubled in size during the 9 years I served there. What happened was that the congregation decided they really did have something to offer, so when they invited someone to church, it was not “please come help us so we won’t die” but “we have something good here; come, taste and see!” People can “smell” the difference. In Birchwood, people who’d lived in town all their lives and had never set foot in that church except perhaps for a funeral started coming to church. In summer, the place was full because cabin people were around; I loved it when my counseling elder and his family showed up one Sunday and couldn’t find anywhere to sit because the place was jammed. That was fun and it made me look good; but it really wasn’t me: the people had let the Lord work and when you do that, things happen.

Yesterday, I attended a graduation party for the daughter of a couple whose wedding I did 20 years ago on the St.Croix River. Jon and Jen have two daughters, both sharp and gracious. They play tennis well and went to State for Mahtomedi. Maggie, the elder, was #3 in her graduating class and will go to Bethel. Grace, the younger sister, also is at the top of her class. I believe the two played as a doubles team in tennis and both expect to play college tennis. Great-grandma is Lucille Henry, of the Exeland United Methodist Church I pastored. She’s 98 years old and teaches Sunday School every week. Lucille cared for a sickly husband for 40-some years and owned the town’s cafe. She also took in her granddaughters when their home life became abusive. Lucille is a remarkable person, erect and alert and fun to be around. She is one of those people who is a good example of the payoff from decades of trying to live out a Christian life.