I Hate Swelling...

I had my foot up pretty much all day and yet my toes are the size of small hotdogs!

The Last Week...

The past week has been crazy, but good.

I'll start with Wednesday. Wednesday was Box Day. It was also a crazy busy day. I don't think I really stopped all day - just went from one thing to another. Eventually, that night, we had worship and I got another $166 in donations for my night outside and then changed clothes, moved my box out to the front lawn, and stuck it out for the night.

I hit an amazing window for weather too! It not only warmed up, but transitioned from wet weather Wednesday afternoon to clear skies for the night. It rained for about ten minutes at 7:30 in the morning, but didn't start pouring until after I'd already moved inside at 9 that morning. It then rained almost the entire day on Thursday.

I did sleep in the box, although not as well as I would have in my own bed (obviously). I wound up sleeping for an hour at a time from about 11:30 to 4 then slept pretty much straight through til 7 AM. The local papers (very local) each showed up to take pictures. The Spirit of Bainbridge is apparently putting the story on the front page. I just hope that translates to more donations for Lord of Life.

I was ever grateful for my bed Thursday night when I crawled in. I slept for 11 hours and probably would have kept sleeping had my alarm not gone off yesterday morning. Then I left that afternoon for a first communion retreat at Camp Mowana which was going great until I pretty much broke my ankle.

I was playing basketball and came down wrong on my ankle. The doctor at the ER says he didn't see a break on the x-ray, but because it is so swollen, he's treating it like a break. At the very least, he says, I severed a ligament in my ankle (a very severe sprain). So, now I'm on crutches, have prescription pain meds, and a cast like splint on my ankle. I also am supposed to follow up with an orthopedic doctor. It hurts... but I'll make it through.

The retreat was a blast until that happened. Oh well...

So anyway... that's the deal. It's been an amazing week in some ways and painful in other ways... =)

Kate

The Morning After

Weather In Ohio

Last night shorts... This morning this...

Awe

I am totally in awe of the past five days! I am in awe of the generosity of people - of people's willingness to give for a night in a cardboard box. But really, their generosity to help those who need it most, those who don't have houses in Biloxi.

Pastor Rob, my internship supervisor, just came back from Biloxi on Saturday and used a lot of his experience for his sermon yesterday. He told of one of the families for whom they were building a house - of their comments to him. The owner told Rob, "Pastor, if it wasn't for you and your group, then we wouldn't have a home. We would live the rest of our lives in a mobile home."

This is why I'm sleeping in a box. This is why people in the congregation are making things and selling them. This is why people are hosting dinner parties and asking for donations. This is why kids are making noodles to sell or selling their coats and other clothes. This is why people continue to put their lives on hold for a week, a month, or a year and travel to the Gulf Coast to rebuild homes and lives.

This is why...

And this is why I am in awe of the past five days. At the moment, my pledge total is up to $2779 and every day it keeps going up. I'm now getting pledges from people I don't even know. That's that much closer to another house for somebody who otherwise wouldn't have one.

Let me say, "Thank You." Thank you for your donations! Thank you for spreading the word - for telling the story. Thank you for telling the world the good news. Thank you for your commitment - for helping to build another house. Thank you!

Kate

Here's the Press Release...

INTERN PASTOR TO SLEEP IN CARDBOARD BOX OUT IN THE COLD MARCH 21, 2007

Church Challenges Members to Raise $25,000 to Build a House in Biloxi, Mississippi

On Wednesday, March 21, 2007, Kate Murray, the intern pastor at Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, will voluntarily spend the night out in the cold on the church’s front lawn. Ms. Murray is committed to contributing significantly to the church’s goal of raising $25,000, which will pay for a house in Biloxi. She is taking donations to sponsor her night outside in a cardboard box. This money will directly benefit those who do not have a home because of the lasting effects of Hurricane Katrina.

Ms. Murray was inspired to raise money for Biloxi by a challenge from the senior pastor of Lord of Life, Robert Henderson. Several weeks ago, as a part of the congregation’s continued commitment to rebuilding the Gulf Coast, he gave out ten dollar bills to those in the congregation and asked them to multiply their money to raise the $25,000 needed to build a new house. Some members of the congregation have used their skills as craftspeople to make items to sell. Others have sold old items found in their basements and attics on eBay. Ms. Murray thought about all those who do not have homes and how difficult it would be to sleep in the cold weather. It was then that she decided to sleep outside in solidarity with her brothers and sisters who do not have a house – asking family, friends, and neighbors to donate money for her time in the cold.

Lord of Life is a 900 member congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

# # #

Exciting!

So... lots of exciting stuff happening around here - or at least I'm a bit excited and probably a bit of a geek for being so.

One - I have figured out what I'm doing with my ten dollars! I'm going to sleep in solidarity with my brothers and sisters in Biloxi who don't have houses - I'm spending the night in a cardboard box in hopes that people give me money for the time that I'm out there (kind of like a jog-a-thon when people pledge per minute you run or whatever...). I'm also going to alert the media (local papers, the Plain Dealer, TV stations, radio stations... whoever) and tell them what I'm doing. Then I'll spend the night out on the front lawn at Lord of Life - I'll put up signs and lights so people who drive by can see what I'm doing. I'm also planning to go to the local grocery store or maybe even door to door like the Girl Scouts do to see if people will sponsor me.

So here's my first shameless promotion - please sponsor me! However much you'd like to give would be great... a dollar an hour, five dollars an hour, a flat amount of ten, twenty, or even fifty bucks... maybe more. If you'd like to do so - please send me an e-mail at tiredkate@gmail.com and I'll get you some more information and arrange a way to do that.

So there's that... I'll definitely let you know when I set a date to do this! It will probably be in the next week or two.

We're also moving forward with ministry in the Streetsboro area (ten miles south of Lord of Life). Our team has planned a music night at a local coffee shop down there called Greenie Beanie. Friday, March 16 we'll take over and provide entertainment that evening. It's our first "experiment" and I am hoping that we'll attract people and be able to do it again.

Plus there is all the other general stuff going on - it's Lent, I've been busy preaching my butt off (not necessarily a bad thing). I've written/preached five sermons in the past two and a half weeks - kind of an amazing thing in my mind. And I'm busy organizing a senior high trip to Biloxi in June... and teaching confirmation... and making visits to people (members and visitors to the church). I've also spent time running around, making phone calls, and doing all sorts of odd jobs... I love ministry! I really do. It's a ton of fun (most of the time).

So that's it - that's what I'm excited about. It may be geeky - but I'm excited at the possibilities.

Help us build another house for somebody in Biloxi!!!

Kate

I've Been Bad...

So apparently, while I've been doing well with one of my Lenten disciplines, this particular discipline (posting to this blog twice a week) has been lacking. Here it is over a week from my last post and yet I'm posting for the first time. Bad, bad, bad. Well, I must strive to do better.

So, while I've been busy and have had many thoughts lately, I can't seem to think of any at the moment to write about. The weather is one thing that I suppose has been interesting as of late. It's been an odd winter here. First it was really warm and for the first time in years (so I'm told) we didn't have snow up here on Christmas. Then sometime in early January it turned bitterly cold and snowed, and snowed, and snowed some more. We weren't above freezing for at least a month and a half. Two or three weeks ago we had a ton of snow and the storm pretty much shut down everything. Then last week it warmed up and rained - melting a good chunk of the 20+ inches of snow and actually showing ground in many places. But then yesterday it cooled off yet again and last night and this morning we got several more inches of snow (several more than was forecasted too). All of this is particularly interesting given the fact that the groundhog predicted that spring would arrive soon. =)

I think most people around here are feeling spring fever. I am not yet amazingly enough. Last year about this time in Columbus, I distinctly remember the first warm, sunny day and thinking that I would very much like it to warm up even more. But right now I'm still enjoying the snow and cold - I'm sure I'll enjoy it when it warms up a bit, but for some reason it's not of great importance to me that it be now. I don't know, I guess I'm kind of odd. =)

In other news I've been preaching a lot lately. Two of the past three Sundays as well as Ash Wednesday at noon, last Wednesday, and this coming Wednesday I'll preach again. It's been good, but it seems like every time I turn around I'm writing another sermon or homily. I suppose that's one thing that I can expect if I'm a solo pastor in my first call.

I've also managed to get myself into a ton of stuff ministry wise right about now, but I'm excited about the possibilities. I'm going to be starting a young adult ministry in Streetsboro (about ten miles south of here) and what may happen with that is exciting to me. Plus, our Streetsboro Aurora Mission Strategy (SAMS) team has organized a music night at a local coffee shop down there and I'm looking forward to how that will go. I think we're moving in a good direction for Streetsboro. I'm also involved with a group working to improve support for first call pastors and we just had a really good meeting on Friday. So that's exciting. I'm in the midst of Lent and that means Wednesday mid-week Lenten services for me too. That's been good (but we've only had one so far). =) Plus, there is the usual stuff to do around Lord of Life which is fun.

So that's what's going on with me... I'll try to see about writing more in the next couple days. Maybe about some thought provoking topic. I haven't done a whole lot of that for a while.

Kate