October 25, 2016
 
Beloved:
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         He’s the size of a peanut M&M but silky soft, with legs and feet thin as toothpicks.  He lost his grip on his mama’s back as she tried to escape a flower pot on my screen porch.  He fell three feet to the floor.  I figure that’s like 10 stories to a human, but he landed on carpet and survived.  I hoped they’d stay but the mama was too spooked.  She had de-stuffed a porch pillow to build her nest, burying herself below three inches of fluff and potting soil.  I water the aloe every other week so she’d given birth and been nursing there no more than two weeks when I frightened her by plucking up the fluff.  She poked her head up and we both screamed a little.  I quickly put everything back and left her alone, but it was too late.  By the next morning she and her seven pups (yep, that’s what they’re called) had evacuated, refugees from what was in fact a very sweet setup. 
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                                               In eighteen years I’ve seen one mouse inside the house.  Simba saw it before me, dispatched it and matter-of-factly returned to his nap.  Winter is coming and Simba is gone.  I might as well have hung out a sign,         ​

             He is so cute I imagined letting them live on my porch all winter, feeding them bread crumbs.  But she neither asked my permission nor agreed to my rules.  She hid in the first place and escaped when discovered, her pups’ safety her only concern.  Had I left her alone, she’d mostly likely have moved her family another fifteen feet through my kitchen and into my pantry.  Left alone six more weeks, my house would be colonized as each female became a mama with pups of her own.
 
            Who knew?  Simba knew, that’s who!  Instinctively and matter-of-factly, that ancient orange beast took care of business like a boss for eighteen winters, and I’m not sure I ever once thanked him properly.  How many times do we fail to recognize the gifts and graces of others until they leave us?  I want to pay better attention.  And crazy as it sounds to my own ears . . . I truly can’t believe I’m saying so . . . I might have to get a cat.  
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~ peace & prayers,
​pastor annette

October 18, 2016

Beloved:

    I’m a little tired but still in honeymoon mode after a most delightful weekend of church homecoming celebration.  We received alumni, including charter member Harold Garwood and his wife Shirley, from Jeffersonville, Indiana.  We read mailed-in greetings from others, including former pastor Ron Liesmann.  We enjoyed reconnecting with old friends and making new connections with people who’ve loved University Baptist over the years.  We ate fabulously, worshipped joyfully and honored Rob Drummond for his 20 years of service among us.  Shawn Kang and Erika Drummond took lots of video and pictures, some of which are already posted on the church facebook page.  More will be added to our website soon. 

    As is often the case, some of my favorite moments were in the planning.  I spent hours with old pictures, reliving my twenty-seven years at UBC, first as member and then on staff.  Insofar as I have grown up in ministry, UBC has been my school, the Lord and this congregation my faculty.  I’m so grateful for the privilege, and for your patience and good humor when the learning curve was steep.  UBC is what my children know of church.  You are their village and they are better for it.

    Thank you.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who worked so hard to make this weekend such an amazing time.  Most of all, thank you Fan Hamrick!  For service above and beyond what I could ever ask for, thank you from the bottom of my heart.  Thanks to Carl Briggs, Vicki Pierce and Hope Snodgrass, the Jubilee committee.  You are all such busy people and you added nine months of email and jubilee details to your already too long to-do lists.  Thank you to everyone who prepped, cleaned, gardened, set up, took down, drove, shopped, invited, corrected, photoed, video-taped, edited, rehearsed, gave money, prayed and a thousand other things I don’t even know about.  It was all to produce a wonderful weekend that will no doubt work in us and in our life together for years to come. 

~ peace & prayers,
pastor annette

​Far right is Reverend Wyatt Parker, first pastor of University Baptist Church.  Taken around 1967.  Two church members, names unknown.

​October 11, 2016
 
Beloved:

I've no idea why, but in church life we call them anniversaries instead of birthdays.  I suppose because we say we've been together as a church for however many years.  All the same, University Baptist was born 50 years ago this month, and we are having a party to celebrate!

In 1966, Bloomington Baptist Church, the first Southern Baptist church in town, felt called to start a fledgling congregation to serve the university community.  Those first members met in various locations near campus until moving into First Presbyterian Church, on the corner of 6th & Lincoln – which would be home to University Baptist for the next 20 years.  In 1969 UBC bought 5 acres of property on East Third Street.  The property was paid off quickly and they began to save for a building.  I came around in the very late 1980's and had the privilege of being part of the groundbreaking and building in the summer of 1992.

While I could go on and on about why UBC is such an amazing church (I am a preacher after all), I'll keep my comments brief.  Our affiliation with the Southern Baptist Convention is long over, but we’ve kept three of the best things about being Baptist.  One, we believe a person’s faith is between them and God.  That’s called soul liberty.  Two, we’re really big on the separation of church and state.  You can imagine what this campaign season is like for us!  Three, we really don’t think we’ve had a good church meeting if we don’t eat together.
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​Toward that end, this weekend – October 15-16 – we’ve planned a very Baptist celebration of our 50th anniversary of life together in Bloomington.  So, whatever your faith, please come and bring a friend.  The weather is going to be beautiful, so consider it an escape from the crazy campaigns besetting us all!  We’ll be in the parking lot Saturday from 1-5 pm with lots of good food, great people, face painting, a bouncy house, and whatever else I put together between now and then.  You may also join us for Sunday Worship at 10 am with a potluck meal after.  Childcare will be available for kids 3 and younger during the worship service, but we are also very happy to have little ones remain with their family during the service.

We’re calling it homecoming but I’d love to have people join us for the very first time as we begin our next fifty years of life together as the church.  What a privilege and joy to be part of what God continues to do through such a sweet congregation in this time and place.  
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~peace & prayers,
pastor annette

October 4, 2016
 
Beloved:
 
     National news is so out of hand it’s no longer obvious which articles are from The Onion, the margin between real and farcical narrowing by the day.  Reality television is now front page of the New York Times.  It’s helpful that I’ve read some Sarah Vowell, a historian who writes with a wit that comfortingly reminds me of the times America has survived and even thrived previous political bluster and buffoonery.  We will too, I suppose. 

     Besides that, I’m a Christian.  My confidence and hope are planted in other gardens.  Which isn’t to say I don’t vote in or pray over elections.  I just don’t expect what they promise but cannot possibly provide.  Some will get my vote but not my heart.  The winners get my prayers but barely a thread of my allegiance, because I’m already promised to someone else. 

     Jesus lived his human years among people bent by the very worst of governments.  His followers cocked their ears for any hint of rebel talk but he gave them not a word.  Instead told them to pay their taxes and be respectful, helpful even, to those who would bend them so.  Not a few couldn’t take it, and Jesus let them walk away.  His talk of a “kingdom not of this world” takes more listening than some have patience for.  Me too, some days.  I want justice without courage.  But whoever heard of such a thing?  It’s not in any history book anywhere.  Nor the Bible either.

     So, courage it will be along with enough levity and faith to endure what is surely just another season of human bluster and buffoonery, meant to entertain our minds and test our faith simultaneously.  Besides, it’s too beautiful outside to read the news anyway. 

     I wish you peace & prayers. 
    ~ pastor annette