Okay. That's enough snow already. It has ceased to affect me in any positive way. No longer do I have the capacity to say, "Wow, look at those beautiful snowflakes. Isn't God's creation wonderful?" I am now at the point where I say, "You've got to be kidding me! More snow? Are you serious?" In many parts of Ohio we have nearly doubled our normal snow total for the entire winter, yet we still have more than a month of winter left. Ugh.
What this winter has caused me to do is to daydream a great deal about life in the islands. I keep telling Danielle that I'm going to do some continuing education at the Seminario Evangelico de Puerto Rico, which is a PCUSA affiliated seminary in Puerto Rico. Apparently she's not okay with that. Then I tried to convince her that because there are so many parallels between baseball and faith that I need to go do continuing education during spring training in Arizona or Florida. She wasn't on board with that either. Come on, this is the Lord's work we're talking about here!
So here is what I am going to do today so that I'm not the only one who keeps getting lost in daydreams that look a lot like a Kenny Chesney song a la "No shoes, No shirt, No problems;" I'm going to facilitate and resource your own daydreams, but I'll do so in a pastoral and churchy kind of way.
Did you know that in the PC(USA) we are not required to baptize by pouring or sprinkling water? We can do full immersion if we want to, even in the ocean! So let's do it. Any takers? If you haven't been baptized yet and you want to fly me to the Bahamas to baptize you I am more than willing to do that as a service to you, to the church, and to the 
Already baptized? That's cool; I do weddings too. How about Tahiti. I hear it is a beautiful destination for weddings. Already baptized and married? I've been told I do a great funeral. Maybe I went too far with that one... but just keep me in mind if you decide to be buried in the tropics.
So, no takers on the beach baptism, wedding, or funeral huh? How about this? Let's do a joint service with some of our Presbyterian brothers and sisters at Mililani Presbyterian Church in Hawaii. They look like good folks and I think we could really grow through some time together. What do you think? Remember Jesus' prayer for unity among believers. Also, while I was on their website I noticed that they are looking for a pastor. Hmmm... I'm not sure my salary would stretch as far in Hawaii as it does in south-central Ohio.
Okay, okay. Let's quit thinking about ourselves and think about others for a change. Our faith, if it is real and mature, is supposed to drive us out to serve others. One way that we often do that is through mission trips. But what we have begun to understand about mission trips is that they often do more harm than good. The reason for this is that we "rich" Americans swoop into a place and do other people's work for them instead of helping them to do their own work. While trying to help them we actually hurt them by stealing their dignity. Also, we often do not get to know the people whatsoever. They are projects to us instead of people who are our equals. So what we need to do is to go somewhere and just hang out and get to know the people. So here's what I'm thinking: we need to get to know the good folks of the Pacific Islands. I really think we could learn a lot from them and maybe help them do something while we're there. Maybe they have a drastic surplus of fruity drinks with umbrellas in them. We could help them solve that problem. It's just an idea.
Well, it was worth bringing up, but it looks like we're still here in snowy Ohio. I guess we can serve God here too, even if it is 87 degrees in Acapulco right now.
Stay warm,
Pastor Everett
