As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right

I am a so-called "SAHM" now - a stay-at-home-mom. I'm really happy that I have the privilege to be home with my children, but sometimes this job doesn't get the OOOHs and AAAhs of other professions. Rod Dreher's always interesting Crunchy Con blog pointed me to this book by Nicole Johnson about women building cathedrals. Here an excerpt:

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself as I looked down at my out-of-style dress; it was the only thing I could find that was clean. My unwashed hair was pulled up in a banana clip and I was afraid I could actually smell peanut butter in it. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, "I brought you this."
It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: "To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees."
In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work:
No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names.
These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished.
They made great sacrifices and expected no credit.
The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.
A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, "Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it."
And the workman replied, "Because God sees."
I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, "I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become."

Those were the "old school days"

Maybe it's the fact that we are about to leave just another school, but recently I have been thinking of my old school days. And my dear school mates. I wished I had kept contact.

Chris went to school in the US and Germany. He had to learn German when he entered the humanistic Gymnasium in Munich. Even though he moved around quite a bit he still keeps contact with some of his old friends from school. The Internet is so amazing! Well, maybe it helps that his name is still the same, but mine has changed a bit.

I grew up as Gudula Buecker in Telgte, Germany and went to school in a Catholic girls school. When we were studying world religions, learned how to critique them and then read Nietzsche, who said "God is dead", I told myself that I would really like to become a Lutheran. It made a lot of sense to me. But since God was dead there wasn't any reason to switch from one dead denomination to another.
Well, little did I know the plans He had for me!


Hey, if you by any chance are one of my old friends from St. Mauriz, send me an email. Ich spreche auch deutsch!

Call Day Is Drawing Near —Am I Prepared For My New Job?

No, I don’t play any instrument. I can’t sing very well either. And while I am excited about mission and ministry, I am not sure I feel equipped and ready to leave this “Lutheran Island”. Is there still time to brush up on some useful skills, so that I can become a proper vicar’s wife and later—maybe– even a pastor’s wife?
There is so much fact and fiction, there are so many expectations, ideals, horror stories, hopes and dreams connected with that particular role.
Arrrgh—what am I going to do when a church elder visits our home unexpectedly and asks me to please be in charge of the upcoming Christmas pageant? “Hey, there are still two weeks left to get it all done!” Then he turns around, sees all the popcorn on the floor, uneaten apple cores in the corner, unfinished science projects on the table and half empty laundry baskets on the couch. He shakes his head with a look of pity and leaves the house to have a talk with my husband.
What if I just can’t fill the shoes of the previous pastor’s wife? What if I don’t have “my own ministry”? Will the congregation be disappointed? Will I suffer burn-out as you sometimes hear?
Pondering all of that I find the Lutheran doctrine of vocation to be extremely helpful. God calls us into different positions during our lives: that of student, daughter, wife, mother, neighbor, doctor, teacher, Sunday school teacher, grandmother, business owner, SWA member, civic leader… In these roles we are to work as if serving the Lord (Eph 6:7). It is a holy calling, inasmuch as Christ works through us in every important and also seemingly mundane job—cleaning the house, changing diapers, raking leaves...
But I can’t fulfill the duties of all these positions equally well. There are not enough hours in the day!
Jesus tells us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind and then to love our neighbor as ourselves (Mt 22:39). But who is my neighbor? At different times different people are our closest neighbors. In my mind, the closer the neighbors are, the more time and effort they deserve.
Your single years seem to be an ideal time to actively seek out opportunities for service, at home, in the church, the community, and even abroad.
But after the wedding, our husbands should be our second priority after God. (Eph 5:22). The love, respect, spiritual support, and encouragement we can give our husbands will form the foundation of his work and family life.
When there are children in the family they are clearly the next closest neighbor—for a while at least. These gifts from God need to be brought up in the training and instruction of the Lord (Eph 6:4). I believe that’s one of our most rewarding opportunities for mission work! And it promotes church growth :)
If you support your husband financially by working for a company or running your own, or you are still in college, you have more close neighbors to serve: your manager, co-worker, customer, teacher, and clients. And don’t forget your extended family, physical neighbors, friends, community, and church congregation members!
With all these different demands competing for my limited time, effective housekeeping and time management alone can’t resolve the conflicts. I sometimes have to make tough choices when selecting the most important vocation of the week. Trying to identify my closest neighbor at a given time, helps to prioritize the jobs at hand. The job I would like to have is not always the one that God has in mind for me today.
And now the vocation “Vicar’s/Pastor’s Wife” is going to be added to the mix. Even though I—and likely the new congregation as well—have ideas for my involvement in the church, at this stage in life I have to look realistically at my available time slots. Well, the good thing is that a major part of this new vocation is actually an old one: “wife”.
My husband, not I, will be called to be an ordained minister in the church. So my future job shouldn’t be much different from the one I have now. Yes, the children and I will have new opportunities to serve the church as a family. But we won’t be able to do all we wished we could. My core responsibilities will stay the same.
Now this gives me comfort and peace and I don’t feel rushed to take some last minute crash courses for pastor’s wives.
I pray that the talk about vocation between the church elder, who will see the mess in my house, and my husband will lead to a better understanding of the challenges of being a “Pastor’s wife”. And to forgiveness for the lack of love and service to my neighbors.
What do you think?

First published in the Seminary Women's Newsletter

The Lone Moose Ranch Endorses Governor Huckabee

This evening we had the chance to cheer for him in person at the Drury Inn in St. Louis

Merry Christmas - 2007

We praise God for the birth of Jesus! Come, Lord Jesus!

Froehliche Weihnachten

Chris had the opportunity to lead a German Worship Service in the old church building of Hanover Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau. It was beautiful!

Fashion Show!

Today we had fun. We were models in a Resale Shop Fashion show for the Seminary Guild. This is a group of wonderful ladies that support so many wonderful things here. We all wore clothes that we found at the 2nd hand shop here on campus: J.J. his flight suit, Carlotta her Nancy Drew outfit, the girls velvet dresses and I a Christmas night gown. What a wonderful blessing this shop with the best deals in the world is!

The Tiews at the Creation Museum

Have you visited the brand-new Creation museum yet? From their website: The Creation Museum presents a “walk through history.” Designed by a former Universal Studios exhibit director, this state-of-the-art 60,000 square foot museum brings the pages of the Bible to life.
Since we didn't know whether we'll be that close again to Kentucky and with Chris' upcoming creation science class, we thought the best time to visit this great place was now. It was so worth it! The museum is very well done, educational and exciting for the kids.

We even had the pleasure to listen to Ken Ham and meet him to sign our books.

Happy Reformation Day

20 home schooled kids at the Sem took part in our first Reformation Day play called "Light in the Darkness of Halloween". Lula wrote a script that covered key scenes from the sale of indulgences to Luther's translation of the New Testament into German and tried to match our actors' talents and abilities. We rehearsed diligently and presented the play on Reformation day on the steps leading to our campus chapel. We had a great audience - visitors and seminary community members that just had attended the Divine Service. They participated wonderfully and cheered Martin on when he nailed his theses to the real chapel door. (Since this door is made out of bronze, sticky putty was needed). Tetzel and his demon helpers were chased away successfully and Katharina and Martin were united in marriage.
The children really learned a lot about some key events of the Reformation and had a great time. (They best remember Tetzel's line to Martin "You drunken little German monk. This will cost your dearly!") We also handed out recommendations and ideas for activities to celebrate Reformation Day.
In the evening we had a great time touring the campus and Luther Tower in the dark, roasting marshmallows, eating a 'Diet of Worms' cake and telling jokes using the Karaoke machine. This will certainly become a family tradition. Not at the Sem of course....

Of Pumpkins and People

Taking a Stand for Life

Taking a Stand for Life
By Carlotta (Printed in the Seminary newspaper "Around the Tower", November Edition)

Are you ready for some really scary numbers? Every year there are approximately 1.37 million abortions in the United States. To give you an idea of how huge that number is, I’ll give you the death toll for all of World War II (for the United States), which was 418,500. But these are not just numbers. They represent hearts that have stopped beating way too early. Did you know that abortion is the most common surgical procedure in America? It is certainly nothing to be proud of. It is one of the cruelest things that anybody could do.
On Sunday, October 7, 2007, 35 people, including 18 kids, came together for a Life Chain event. We were standing at the side of Clayton Road, holding up signs, and silently praying for an end to abortion. The signs read “Abortion Kills Children”, “Jesus Heals and Forgives”, “Abortion Hurts Women”, and “Pray to End Abortion”.
You are probably asking, “What is Life Chain?” Louis Hintz, age 10, provided this answer: “Life Chain is an organization that helps stop abortion.” Life Chain organizes silent and prayerful public gatherings against abortion in the U.S. and in Canada as well. I also asked Louis if he thought it was good for kids to attend the gathering. His reply was, “Yes. I think it was good for kids to attend because abortion kills children and when we’re there, it shows [the people driving by] how cute we are.”
While we were standing, we heard quite a few honking cars, some thumbs up, some thumbs down. One lady drove past two times, honking, and sticking up her middle finger.
Jeremiah Tiews, age 7, said, ”I think that it was good for them [the kids] to be at the gathering because the people driving by were probably shocked that kids know what they’re doing to the little babies.” He also said that his favorite thing was climbing up on the Concordia Seminary (now Washington University) wall, holding up the signs for all to see.
Mariam Tiews, age 4, told me that “My favorite thing was the brownie and cookie table afterwards.”
I think that it was really good to set aside an hour of our time and pray specifically for this tragedy of abortion that is happening all over the world. In our hurried life style, we very often don’t get to take the time to reflect on it.
We sincerely hope that you will join us at the next Life Chain event to help save America’s babies.
Plans are being made for a “Round-table” discussion in late November or early December. For more information check http://nationallifechain.org//

German Days at the Sem

Chris had the pleasure of helping to host some of our visitors from Germany that spoke during the interesting "German Days at the Sem". Is Germany still Christian, or Post- or maybe Pre-Christian? Is it becoming an Islamic Republic? Has Luther a future in Germany?

One of the speakers couldn't make it due to health issues, so Chris presented his talk( The Corporate World: Germany's Promising Mission Field?). What a coincidence (or was it planned?) that Chris had been asked before to translate this very talk into English.

All contributions are available on iTunes University.

• Start iTunes
• Go to iTunes Store
• Select iTunes University
• Select Concordia Seminary
• Click on "German Days 2007"

"We simply want to go to a church service on Sundays"

A future church planter should broaden his and his family's horizon, so last Sunday we drove out to visit a different LCMS church, which has been planted a couple of years ago. We checked for worship times and directions on the Web. Church service was supposed to be at 10:30 am. When we arrived, there was a little group of musicians playing outside the High School. When we were looking for the auditorium, we were informed that there won't be a worship service today. Just outside play. Hm. The pastor wore a T-Shirt saying "Don't go to church".

But that was exactly what we wanted to do. So we went to the Baptist Church next door who had a good old-fashioned service going on. We were invited to pot-luck-supper and all. The kids just thought it ended on a bad note, since a lot of people were crying at the altar call, we didn't hear about forgiveness of sins nor did we receive a blessing.

Reluctant Socialites

...that's what Chris and I are this quarter. And the blog suffers from too few updates. Sorry about that.

This year Chris is the secretary of the Student Association, hosts Creation Worldview Workshops, was interviewed on the doctrine of the Two Kingdoms, participated in the "German Days at the Sem" and other things.

If you want to see him or take free, wonderful classes from the great professors here or listen to chapel sermons and symposia check out Concordia Seminary's resources on iTunes. (Install iTunes, if you haven't done it yet, and go to http://itunes.csl.edu/)

Chris can be seen in three "The Two Kingdoms" episodes:

• Start iTunes
  Go to iTunes Store
  Go to iTunes U (niversity)
  Go to Concordia Seminary
  Go to "The Two Kingdoms with Uwe Siemon-Netto"
  Go to epsiodes 24, 25, 26
  
  I have the privilege to edit the Seminary Women's Association's bi-quarterly newsletter.
  
  We can't believe that we are already going into our third and last year. How the LORD has worked on our hearts!

The Lone Moose Ranch Institute of Higher Education on a Field Trip

We had a chance to tour Concordia Publishing House and learn many interesting things about the publishing process. While walking around we discovered the original paintings of many famous pictures we got to love over the years. CPH has recently published many interesting new books and we really liked their new Sunday school curriculum "Growing in Christ" .

Yes, he's got it now

J.J. can swim!

At the Dawn of the Last Year at the Sem

Well, it’s hard to believe almost two years have passed since we moved from Tomball, Texas, to Concordia Seminary in St. Louis and started to live the lives of students of the WORD. Next year a new chapter will start again as we hope to head out to a new challenge - a church plant. What did we learn?

· This past year Chris has been given several new opportunities to hone his skills in teaching creationism. As such, he was asked to teach a six-week Bible study class entitled “Can Christians Really Believe in the Theory of Evolution?” at our field work church. The class was very well attended and he has been invited to teach a repeat class this coming November/December. Also, one of the electives he took this past spring was “Studies in Creation.” The fact that the Bible states a 6-day creation is sufficient. Nevertheless, for some people it is helpful to be able to back Scripture up with scientific data and, conversely, demonstrate the many scientific errors and absurdity of the theory of evolution). The irony is of course that he used to be an evolutionist himself, being blind to the truth while he was a secular geologist back in the 1980s. If you are interested, he is more than happy to share class and information materials as well as an article he wrote for the student newspaper “Around the Tower”.
· The Lord seems to be solidifying our understanding that there is a reciprocal relationship between a church’s doctrine and practice, and that if you change one, you will change the other too. As such, the Tiews are growing in the understanding that Lutheran churches applying classic church growth practices such as business marketing, altar calls or mega-church worship styles to increase membership are at the same time frequently diluting Lutheran doctrine—whether they realize it or not. This in turn is gradually morphing Lutheranism into just another American Evangelical denomination. There is no better explanation of the Christian faith, of what God’s Word is telling us, than in the (Lutheran) Book of Concord, which serves as the standard of the Lutheran Church in determining faithful Biblical teaching and preaching, to which I pray the Holy Spirit would lead me to adhere. Combining this historic Lutheran focus with a desire to shepherd a “Lutheran yet exciting,” church, plus hopefully someday becoming the kind of pastor of whom the individual congregant would say “he cares,” Chris wishes to leave the “church growth” part up to the Lord—and not to man-made business techniques.
· Did you know that 2/3 of Martin Luther’s works have never been translated from their German and/or Latin original versions into the English language? A huge extracurricular opportunity that the Lord has given us is that Chris has been selected by Concordia Publishing House (CPH) to be on a very small team of translators to begin translating the mountain of Luther’s “left behind” sermons and letters into the English language. This task could very well keep me busy for many years to come. In addition to this translation work, as a part-time job this past year Chris continued to do a variety of translations of theological texts for the LCMS and of business texts for a number of high-tech companies in Germany. He also had the opportunity to support the homeschool movement in Germany with interpretation and translation.
· This past school year our homeschoolers Carlotta completed 5th grade (and her third year of Latin), Jeremiah 1st grade, Mariam pre-school, and extremely active Lillian (now 16 months old) was most busy climbing, emptying out drawers, pulling books out of bookcases, jumping head first into a pool and giving us one near-heart attack after the other.

Spread the Good News
Chris

Small Group Reunion in Arkansas

Eight years ago four couples started to meet for bible study in their homes - with just four children. Now the same number of couples spend a terrific long weekend in Lutheran Camp at Petit Jean - with 15 children. How wonderful the LORD has blessed us!

We had a great time with our friends. The children loved all the activities and excitement. Check out this wonderful action video Collier made.

Our Sunday Service was extra-special in the historic Lutheran Trinity Church.

It's so good to get visits from friends