Ah, the sweet life

I know I have written before about the pasticceria (Italian for pastry shop) at Cossetta’s Restaurant and Grocery in St Paul. And I hate to revisit an old topic, but earlier this month we found ourselves there again. You see, it was my daughter’s fondest wish on her birthday to have her pick of the tasty delectables from the all-too-enticing counter display at this café of temptations! She selected a few pastries and we sampled each of them, toasting her on her 16th birthday, arguing over which dessert was the best. Then it was time to go. “But wait!” she cried. “We can’t leave without trying the gelato!” What were her doting parents to do but, of course, allow for that post-dessert dessert.

Did I say that out loud?!

Be forewarned: I’m going to throw a statistic at you, and by the end of this blog I’ll ask you to do two things. This will, indeed, have to do with stewardship, but hang in there with me. This is important, and it involves you!

I was at a synod large pastors’ meeting. Wait. Let me rephrase that. It doesn’t sound quite right! I was at a large meeting of synod pastors. That sounds much better (but, actually, both statements are a little bit true!)

Headlines

We welcome guest blogger and stewardship committee member Jessica Groff as our writer this week:

There are periods of time when I stop watching the news. It just seems like there are so many bad things to hear about. Yet even if I don’t sit down to intentionally watch the news, our society is so media-driven that I can’t escape hearing about it. Hearing about so many tragic things can be overwhelming. And it’s especially overwhelming because these are events I could never impact.

Once in a while, the news will tell us about some good that has been done. Often, it is about one person or group that has decided to create change. And I think, “Wow, if there were just more people like that, we would have a lot more good news to report.” Then my busy life intrudes and I go about my day. Sometimes it seems like good work is hard work. What can I do that makes a difference?

I think I CAN…I think I CAN…I think I CAN…

A very interesting little one-page report on pop cans was placed in my mailbox this week. As most of you know, Family of Christ has a can recycling bin in the southeast corner of our church parking lot, and every once in a while it mysteriously gets emptied. Well, I discovered it’s not such a huge mystery. There is a volunteer who consistently notices that it has filled up, and then takes on the task of emptying it out and delivering the cans to the recycling center. He has done this 9 times since this effort was begun in September 2009. (This is a thank you and a shout out to Kent Ludford!)