Congraduations!

Its official. Nick is a graduate from Concordia Seminary. We are still waiting for a call. At least he's done with school now! YEAH!!!

This Pretty Much Sums Up My Feelings Right Now

Waiting it out....

I wish I had some big news but I don't. Still no word about a call...we'll still be getting one but we have to be patient. I think that is what God is teaching me right now. Patience...not my best virtue but I am trying my best. Last night we had the 4th year banquet which was a lot of fun. Its surreal to think that graduation is in two weeks from Friday and then its a matter of time before people are leaving to go their separate ways to start their ministries. Its an exciting time but bittersweet too. Its so comfortable to be here and in the seminary community. We won't have that anymore and there are some wonderful people here that I will miss. But until then we wait to hear God's plans for us and try to enjoy the time left with our friends.

Today's the day....sort of.

Well today is Call Day. About a year ago I put up the countdown and today we won't have a call. Nick will be "Call Pending." Its not the end of the world or anything. A little disappointing to not have a call on call day but it won't be taking away anything from the call that he does receive. We will be joyful when we do get one. We've heard that there is one district that with in the next few weeks that will have 11 calls to it. And then a smattering of other places across the country. Nick is not the only person who will be call pending. There are 17 other guys from St. Louis and 13 from Fort Wayne. So we are not alone which is also a nice feeling. We find comfort in Jeremiah 29:11 “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord . . . plans to give you hope and a future.” As soon as we hear anything we will let you all know. Please keep the other 30 candidates in your prayers and I am hopeful to have us all placed by graduation.

He's Certifiable...wait no CERTIFIED!!!

Its official. Nick is certified!

Dear Nicholas, Brother in Christ:

I am very happy to let you know that the faculty of Concordia Seminary has ( to use the formal language) now expressed its satisfaction that you will meet all personal, professional, and theological requirements for the office of ordained minister, declare you to be of entry level competency and qualified for a first call, and recommend you, subject to the satisfactory completion of the appropriate course of studies, your receipt of a Theological Diploma or Certificate, and your receipt and acceptance of a call assigned to you by the Board of Assignments.

We praise God for his work in your life, and we rejoice with you as you move closer to service as a pastor in our church. May the Lord keep you safe and joyful as you complete your studies and prepare to serve.

Cordially in the Risen Christ,

Dr. Jeff Gibbs

Only 4 more days till call day. Still no word on a call or even if we'll still be call pending. Its an exciting time though either way. We can't wait to find out God's plan for our ministry!

I'm Starting to Think St. Louis Wants Us to Leave!

Back in July of 2006...actually on July 19th 2006 there was a bad storm that came through St. Louis and knocked the power out for like the entire city and some people were with out power for a week. There were a number of tornadoes. Then on my birthday(July 20th) it was like 103 (before the heat index) and not having power made for a crappy birthday. So we fled to Chicago for that weekend.


This winter in St. Louis was more active than the other winter we spent here. LHM closed a total of 3 days and most schools in the area used all their snow days and have to stay later into the summer this year. Very unexpected for us since the winter of 06 was very mild...and maybe it snowed once that year.

I am starting to suspect that St. Louis wants us out.

So at 4:30 this morning I woke up. Initially I thought it was just because the last 3 days I've been opening at Starbucks but then I heard the windows rattling and the bed was moving. An earthquake wasn't the thought on my mind. I thought a train was going by. But what is funny about that is that we don't live anywhere near a train track. The windows have never rattled before because of a "train." What was I thinking? Meanwhile Nick is snoring away unaware that anything had occurred.

So if anything goes wrong today or in the next couple days the entire city of St. Louis has the earthquake to blame it on. I also hope that we don't get a call to St. Louis because I would hate to see what the city would do next. It must know that I'm a Cubs fan.

You Know You're a Seminarian If..

This was one of the articles in the seminary's student paper. Some of them were pretty funny and I thought I'd share.

* You ask for your vicarage location to be based on where you want to go on vacation.
* You used vicarage to justify a new car purchase
* You have more than three brands of beer in your refrigerator.
* You do not complete you assigned readings but you pick up free books by the mail boxes
* Last year, you read thousands of pages, memorized hundreds of facts, wrote dozens of papers, translated ancient Greek and Hebrew text, and you still feel dumb.
* You know at least ten couple expecting a baby this year.
* Part of your attraction to your wife/girlfriend is the fact that she knows how to differentiate between the two types of righteousness.
* You think a leather-bound copy of Luther's Small Catechism would make a great gift.
And my most favorite....
* Conception suddenly becomes a result of "something in the water."

Well with knowing AT LEAST 10 couples expecting this year there must be!

I've Got Something For You!

Well it must be Eagle Man. This is a commercial from my childhood. This makes me laugh still.

A Call Day Update...

Well these last few weeks have been pretty tough. We are coming to the culmination of a long 4 years (or 8 if you include undergrad) and as of right now we don't have a placement. As of Sunday (4/6) 22 guys from St. Louis and 21 from Fort Wayne are call pending. This is a stressful time for everyone. So please keep all of the people involved in your prayers. We know that this will all happen in God's time. Its just hard to remember that when things are so stressful.

The placement director Pastor Hoehner said if we don't have a call on call day that he is confident that we would have one by graduation or early summer. I know that if we don't have one on the 22nd that at some point we will. I know I just have to be patient...something that I've been working on for a while. Pastor Hoehner had this scripture in his email to the "call pending candidates" from 2 Peter:
“make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
So that's really all the info we have. Hopefully we will have more very soon. Keep us and all the calling candidates in your prayers.

Crap I need a Napkin!

No one ever offered me coffee before!

So CA has made a ruling on tips that Starbucks baristas recieve. And Howard had this to say about the ruling. So as a "shift supervisor" this is what I have to say. In all reality I am just a barista that counts money. There are many baristas that make more than I do right now because they have been with the company longer. Tips vary from store to store. My old store averaged about 50 cents an hour for tips per week. At my new store we get almost $2 an hour per week. I need any extra money that I get with the cost of gas going up and what not. And as far as being a "supervisor" that is a very loose term. I am responsible for more but I'm not paid that much more than the baristas (in fact its only a whopping $1 an hour more). I have no athority. I would imagine that most baristas would agree that shifts deserve that money too. We are only there to help out our partners and taking that little extra away would really hurt us. I am sure the courts don't realize what shifts acutally do. We are just glorified baristas.

WHOO HOOO!!!!

We are now down to the daily count for call day. Its crazy that its only 29 days away. It felt like it would take forever and now its almost here. This weekend we even went shopping for call day outfits. I have a very cute dress! I am getting nervous about it though. I mean the excited sort of nervous. I am looking forward to settling down and staying somewhere. I am also looking forward to not working 800 hours. I've never looked forward to a move so much. The only bad part is we have to start packing. I am a little concerned that we'll find out on the 22nd that we need to be there like May 30th or something. It will be a fast pack up for us so I want to start a little earlier then.

Our Easter was pretty uneventful. We went to church at St. James in University City then we went out for brunch...then we came home Nick played video games while I worked on crocheting a blanket...Its almost finished. OH and we had snow! Its nuts. It didn't stick or anything but there were some pretty big flakes coming down. That was pretty much it.

Now its downhill to call day! I am so excited.

Its not about baking cookies

I am taking a class at the seminary. Well its a "women's class" so to speak. They offer free classes (some do have fees) to the women (staff, students wives, or deaconess students) during the quarter. Some classes are more intellectual than others. Like one of the more popular classes with the sem guys is a class on Revelations with Dr. Gibbs. He offers that class for the women on tuesday nights.

Well this being the last quarter one of the classes that is being offered that I am taking is called Partnership in the Gospel. Its a class for wives/fiances of the MDiv guys and mostly we talk about what to expect and how do deal with stress and what not. On the first day we talked about how many people thought the class was on making sure that your house was spotless at all times and that you have cookies ready if anyone visits. And how unrealistic that is. Its just good to network and talk with people who are going through similar things. Tonight is another class. It should be fun.

So in other news, I just wanted to share this video. Maron was a friend of mine from grade school. She's now a Christian Artist. Its pretty cool.

Happy St. Patrick's Day....

As if you couldn't tell that I love these comics. I am sharing them with you. At least the good ones. This one is in honor of St. Patty's Day. We didn't make it to the parade on Saturday. It was supposed to rain so we visited friends instead. So since I don't have pictures from the parade I'll share this comic.





Happy St. Patrick's Day!

[Technorati tags: Cartoons, Chickens, St. Patrick's Day, Lucky Charms, Rainbow, Leprechaun]





-
Doug Savage

Pi DAY!!!

Happy Pi Day!

This one's dedicated to Ellie T.

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I Made This!

the sweater that is....not the baby. Heh....Not my best work but it is fun. He's obviously loving it.

A sad starbucks story

Its sad to say what some people do for an easy fix in life. I'm sad to say that this story is true. A man gave his life for some Starbucks Partner's tip jar. I am asking everyone to keep this family and the people who did this in your prayers. I just don't know what else to say.

You gotta know when to fold em, KNOW WHEN TO FOLD EM!

So this might only be funny to Nick and I but I wanted to share it with everyone!




More Kenny.

Bonus Fun! Godzilla in Spring

[Technorati tags: Cartoons, Chickens, Kenny Rogers, Gambler, Poker Tips]

In Memory of Grandpa Arnie

Arnold Feldt
Born 9/29/1924 Died 2/27/2008

"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life." John 5:24

Grandpa's Obituary

Nobody's Ever Offered ME Coffee!

Well since most of my readers know that I am a barista...and seeing how the media is playing up all this change at the Sbux, I figured I should put in my two cents.
I've been with the company for about a year and a half now. I still love working there. And many people I know really hate Sbux. And thats fine. I'm not here to change everyone's or really anyone's ideas about the company. I do believe that we have an awesome product. I do love working there and its not for the coffee. I really love the people I work with (both parners and customers). It seems that when ever I tell some one I work for Sbux I get the response "Oh, I don't like the coffee." Thats fine. I'm not forcing you to drink it. I detest pepsi products but when some one tells me "I work for Pepsi" I don't say "Oh I'm a coke drinker." Ok moving on now.
I don't know why so many people out there think that as an employee we can't acknowledge that our customers would go anywhere else. It would be like a McDonald's customer not going anywhere else for a burger. That is just not the case. I do love what I make. I believe its the best. I feel the same way about the drinks I make as the papers I wrote in college. Its hard not to take it personal when someone doesn't like it or doesn't agree with your topic.
That being said there was this article on CBS. Sure we closed for three hours and sure we lost business but from our "re-training" its not about making money. Its about improving ourselves and the team and also improving quality of our product. And I think it was sucessful in doing so. We are able to refocus and relearn the basics and have a change of pace. So over all I think it was good for our team. And especially at the store I am at now.
So I am happy with the changes and I am looking forward to everything. People are always going to hate Sbux because they are "corporationy and make money" but thats just how it is. Its not about making tons of money its about giving our customers what they pay for. So thats my two cents, for what its worth.