2
St. Paul Journey | May 20, 2011 Building
ND ING FUthe debt on ct BUILD ce oje
Pastor’sColumn
redu ing pr Gifts to tuary build nc the sa
$
11 220, 1200 E 6, 2 NY M JUA Name: ss: Addre
, hope,
ith Now fa
By Pastor Peter W. Marty
urch ran Ch Luthe St. Paul dy St. 3 2136 Braort, IA 5280 Davenp
Senior Pastor
Gifts that keep on giving The Internet has become one of the most popular places for single people to meet eligible companions. Fifteen years ago, we all but dismissed the idea. It reeked of idiocy. Who but a crazy person would risk meeting a complete stranger in a chat room, and date him (or her) a world away? When I sat down with one couple for pre-marriage counseling, they had met each other in person only two weeks before. I knew we were in trouble. His train and flight connections from a small Russian town had gone smoothly enough. Her non-existent Russian and his terribly broken English were another story. They canceled their second appointment for all kinds of good reasons. I later learned he was back in Russia, by himself. That was then. Today, the Internet has become a more viable way to meet compatible mates, thanks to sites with more refined search, screening, privacy, and match processes. Take the case of Jon Rowley and Kate McDermott. This mid-career couple met through a mulch and composting forum hosted by the largest community of gardeners on the Internet — GardenWeb.com. Rowley is something of a seafood guru in Jon and Kate took all the brown and Seattle, known for his brilliant of taste and his consultgreen ingredients given and turned sense ing words on all things food. them into ‘something bountiful and McDermott is one of the most sought after pie-making infull of life.’ structors in the country. Their wedding altar was a compost pile in the local community garden where Jon was actively involved. Sounds like a destination wedding to me. Their wedding invitation included organic gift suggestions from Jon: “I would be honored to receive your leftover lobster shells, vacuum-cleaner bags, coffee grounds, poached salmon carcass, pet llama manure, banana peels, dryer lint, or moldy vegetables from your fridge.” Finding the right gift for most wedding couples is hard enough. How do you select wedding-worthy garbage? That was the challenge for guests of this wedding. One food critic for Vogue magazine was stumped over what he should send or bring. “You can return a gift from Tiffany,” said Jeffrey Steingarten. “Garbage is different. You can’t return garbage. And you can’t throw it away, for it has already been thrown away.” Wedding etiquette manuals suggest that guests have up to a year after a wedding to send a gift. This doesn’t work so well when sending the decomposing remains of your Pasta Primavera supper.
Fund
e. e abid13:13 ians and1lov Corinth
ORGANIC GREEN GIFTS
A prominent American chef sent a single perfect banana peel, gift-wrapped. A restauranteur in Colorado sent a box of buffalo dung, thanks to a pricey shipping fee of $57.90. A food columnist for Parade magazine did her Fed-Ex courier one better. She gift-wrapped a pile of dryer lint. The wedding happened. Jon and Kate took all the brown and green ingredients given, and turned them into “something bountiful and full of life” (Kate’s words). In what was surely a climactic point during the wedding vows, not to mention a vital step in aerating any compost pile, these two mulchmates turned the mixture. Oh, wedding bliss. Certain gifts in life do keep on giving. Yes, there is carbon- and nitrogen-rich garbage, perfect for a garden’s compost pile. But there are also lovely charitable gifts that put others first, gifts often inspired by one’s faith commitments. There is the Christmas fruitcake, of which humorist Dave Barry is convinced there is only one in the world. It just gets passed along to someone else each year. A batterycharger is a gift that keeps on giving, eliminating the expense of throwaway batteries. Those reusable shopping bags are perfect for the planet. Tuition for an education is hard to beat for its continuing benefit. The list is long. One close-to-home gift that keeps on giving is the one that you make towards our Acting with Love for the World (AWL) campaign. This three-year campaign is how we launched our valuable neighborhood schools partnership and how we are conquering our once-massive debt. AWL is on my mind a lot these days with only seven months remaining. Gifts large and small have now reduced the mortgage to $450,000. Q: How is the debt shrinking? A: Organically, through green gifts. People are not sending rotten lettuce; they’re giving their heart and soul in little green building fund envelopes full of sacrifice and love. Thanks for every gift you are able to manage. Trust me — your generosity will keep on giving. At St. Paul, we are still benefiting from the sacrifice of so many before us who once filled similar green envelopes. They left us the church campus we still enjoy.