Changes in the works

I presented this letter to the elder board at Noelridge last Thursday:

To the Elders at Noelridge:

It has been my privilege to serve the body at Noelridge with you for the past eight years, first as a deacon apprentice, then for a time as a deacon, then for a few years as an elder apprentice, and now for the past 18 months as an elder. You are dear brothers and friends to me, and I have learned much from each of you. However, the Lord has burdened my heart to serve fully in the upcoming church plant in downtown Cedar Rapids. As the day of the first service draws near, I find myself needing to devote more time to planning and preparation for that mission, and straining to try to remain consistent in my duties at Noelridge. I therefore request to be released from my responsibilities as an elder at Noelridge Park Church, effective immediately.

After much discussion with my wife, it is our plan that our family will attend the new church regularly and not Noelridge; our desire is for effective ministry balanced with church stability for ourselves and our daughters. I will work to make arrangements to transfer my various responsibilities to other church members over the coming weeks. I anticipate that I will continue to assist in leading music for the time being; Dave Tessier and I will work out plans to ensure that both Noelridge and the new congregation are well-led musically. We all covet your prayers as we embark on this great mission in the service of our Savior.

In Christ’s love,

Chris Hubbs

This is a big change for us. But we’re excited about this church plant, and ready to see it happen. To my brothers and sisters at Noelridge who will undoubtedly read this and may have it be the first you’ve heard of it: yes, it means changes. We do have plans in the works that will mean I’ll still be leading music at Noelridge once a month or so. And we’ll still be around on Wednesday nights, so you haven’t seen the last of Becky and the girls, either. :-) Pray for us and this church plant. We want to see great things for God’s kingdom.

Happiness is... a new pen.

Back in February I bought my first-ever fountain pen. I knew nothing about them, but had always thought they would be cool, so when I encountered a pen shop in a mall in Washington, DC, I was a goner. I ended up with a cheap Retro 51 pen with a nib that was really too wide and that didn’t lay down ink very well at all. But I was hooked.

In May, back in DC, I had done my research, and bought another pen, similar in price to the Retro 51, but far superior in function: a Lamy Safari Al Star. The lightweight aluminum body was stylish and the Fine nib ended up being just to my liking. Along with the pen I purchased an ink adapter and a bottle of blue ink. I really enjoyed that pen.

I use the past tense in the previous sentence because on my trip to Orlando in June I lost it somewhere on an airplane. I was bummed. Not having a lot of disposable income this summer, I knew it would be a good lesson to me to just deal with ballpoint pens again for a while… maybe I’d hold onto the next pen more carefully. (Am I sounding like a parent here? I think I am. Scary.)

A couple weeks ago I was given a very nice gift for playing the organ for a wedding. So as a little gift to myself I went online and ordered a replacement Safari Al Star. It arrived in the mail late last week and I am thoroughly enjoying it. Writing is so much more fun with a pen like this.

Last time I was in that pen shop in DC they were trying hard to sell me a pen that ran about $150. I don’t know that I could ever really understand why I should spend that much for a pen… but I’m sure happy with my $30 cheap-o.

An update of sorts

It’s been slow around these parts lately, which likely just means that life has been pretty busy. Even online there have been a bunch of other projects that have been taking my time. I guess I could discuss a few of them and you might not get too bored. :-)

One of the web projects I’ve been working on is a new site for Coldwater Programs. Kevin Sutton is raising support for this outdoor exploration and leadership training ministry. I’ve done some design and layout work on the site, now it’s just waiting for him to add content.

Another site that kicked off last week is the AndrewOsenga.net forum, which is an online home for the fan community of Andy O, as he is affectionately known. I’ve been happy to see folks registering and discussing thus far, I hope it will continue. I enjoy the interacting and discussing.

The other big thing coming up is the church plant. No, not the philodendron on the piano. We here at Noelridge along with a coalition of other churches in the area are planning to start a new church in downtown Cedar Rapids. We have a facility we can meet at, and we’re planning on starting services on Saturday night, October 27th. The Saturday night service will be an adjustment for me, but I’m really looking forward to see what the Lord has for us down there. I’ll be the music guy; I’m also doing some website design. The name isn’t finalized yet, but one potential domain name has already been reserved and I’ve been doing some basic web design.

So at the moment it’s Sunday morning and why am I blogging on Sunday morning? I’m on the laptop at church, ripping this morning’s sermon audio to mp3 so it can be posted on the church website. Laura is downstairs in Sunday School, and Becky is off running errands. This laptop is pretty old and slow, so I have a bit of time to write before it’s done ripping the audio. Then it’ll be homeward bound for a bit of rest before work starts up again tomorrow. Life is busy, but life is good.

It's not Monday, it just feels like it.

The joys of having a Monday holiday: a 4-day work week, and a Tuesday that feels like Monday. Oh, and a Tuesday jammed full of meetings since they couldn’t schedule ’em on Monday. (And Geof, don’t give me grief about “jammed full” - 4 meetings today is waaay more than my average has been for the past several months. :-) )

Overall had a nice weekend; a busy Saturday included playing a pipe organ for a wedding, which was kinda cool. Any real organist present would’ve recognized me for the hack organist that I am, though. My pedal skills are in the poor-to-non-existent spectrum. Also finished catching up on Harry Potter movies this weekend, and read a book called Making Room For Life, which was decent, but I guess I didn’t find it as revolutionary and impacting as my friend (who bought it for me) did.

Now it’s on to a fairly busy week; looking forward to next weekend when the cooler temps arrive (highs around 70F! Woohoo!) and my folks and brother come to visit.

Well, I asked.

Becky and the girls stopped by my workplace for a few minutes this morning to drop off some lunch for me. As I sat in the van with them chatting for a few minutes, this conversation with Laura (3 years old) ensued:

Me: Yeah, Laura, I’ve got to go back to work for a few hours…. but then I’ll come home.

Laura: And you’ll go wee, wee, wee…. all the way back to my house?

[Becky chokes strangling laughter at this point.]

Me: Yep, then I’ll come back to your house. Wee, wee, wee, like the little piggies? Are you saying that Daddy is a little piggie?

Laura, with comic scorn: No.  [Pause for perfect comedic timing.] You’re a BIG piggie!

Well, I asked.

Caedmon's Call - Overdressed

Well at least half of you who read this blog are already listening to this album, but I should still note that Caedmon’s Call released their 15th album yesterday, entitled Overdressed. It marks the return of Derek Webb as a contributor to Caedmon’s, though whether he’s actually considered a “member” of the band is fuzzy to me at the moment… the word “contributor” has been used more, I think.

Christianity Today gave this album 5 out of 5 stars yesterday, and it deserves them. Good solid music and songwriting all the way around. My man Andy Osenga had a lot of influence on this album, and it’s better off for it.

If you’re interested in Overdressed, you can check out the info over on the cc.net Song Vault. Also, Bryan Allain has been doing some amazing liveblogging from the past few days and there are multiple videos, pictures, and inside info on songs available on CaedmonsCall.net. Go check it out. You can buy the album from their online store, too. I don’t think it’s available on iTunes yet, but it should be shortly.

Bullet Points for a Monday

How can it have been a week since I last posted? Well, it has been busy. So in the spirit of “short updates are better than none”, here we go.

  • Airline travel can be a pain in the backside. After two canceled flights on Monday, flew to Seattle early Tuesday morning. Got to my committee meeting a couple of hours late.
  • Kudos to the hotel (the Hilton Garden Inn in Renton) for being nicely setup for wi-fi access; seamless transitions between the meeting room, lobby, and bedroom.
  • Got to see my college roommate Matt and his wife Abbie one evening. Had a good time catching up.
  • Got to meet my partner-in-crime TK for some breakfast and Starbucks on Thursday morning. Also took a couple of cheesy pictures and some even cheesier video.
  • Managed to leave a library book in my hotel room in Seattle. :-( They said they didn’t find anything, but I’m sure I left it there. I’ll call again today and see if it turned up.
  • Finished the Harry Potter series while on the trip. The ending to Book 7 was almost perfect. The most I’ve enjoyed a series of books in a long, long time.
  • Got home and had to mow the grass since it had been raining all week. It took twice a long as usual to mow. Ugh.
  • Preached on Sunday morning. Audio available if you’re curious.
  • Talked to my brother Ryan last night for a little while. He’s really having a tough time at the moment, wrestling with some tough decisions. Pray for him.
  • Caedmon’s Call did their first show to release their new album, Overdressed, last night. There has been some seriously great liveblogging going on. (Go, Bryan!) What I wouldn’t give to have been there. At least it sounds like we’ll get a bootleg from the concert sometime soon.

I’m now back in the office for six weeks before my next trip. It will be nice to settle into some sort of schedule.

How can it be so hard to leave town?

Instead of sitting here writing this blog post, I should be on a Boeing 757 just taking off from Minneapolis en route to Seattle.  But you’re reading this, which means I’m writing it, which means yeah, I’m not on the plane.  I don’t know if it’s weather or just general incompetence, but Northwest Airlines decided to cancel my 12:45 flight from Cedar Rapids to MSP.   I found this out around 10 AM, contacted travel, and got a rebooked flight on Alaska Airlines, leaving Cedar Rapids at 1:30.

As soon as I saw the booking info, I checked online to see the departure status.  What? Canceled?!?  Yes, American Eagle (codesharing with Alaska Air) canceled the 1:30 flight from Cedar Rapids to Chicago.  Back on the phone with corporate travel.  Everything was booked on all the remaining flights out of Cedar Rapids today.  Unbelievable.   Finally I am set up on a 5:10 AM flight tomorrow morning from CR.  If everything goes on time (a big if IMHO), I will get into Seattle around 9 AM Seattle time, and make it to my conference only an hour or so late.

Not fun.

New Specs

I got my most recent pair of glasses about 6 years ago.  Now, I don’t wear them all that often; my Focus Night and Day 30-day contact lenses have been my friends.  But still, there are times when I need or want to wear the glasses.  My existing pair is half-rim, and while they seemed at the time I bought them to be really small lenses, in reality they are still pretty big.  I’ve been thinking of getting a new pair for a while now, but the opportunity hadn’t presented itself.

This afternoon, though, I will be headed to visit my friend Roy who is an optician.  He says that the folks in his office can pick out the employees from my company just by the glasses they choose; engineers and nerds, all.  He has promised that the pair of glasses I end up with won’t make me look like an engineer.  I’m looking forward to the change.

Seattle

It’s 8 AM in Seattle and this hotel restaurant is a pretty comfortable place to sit and write.  The in-room web access doesn’t seem to be working, but the wi-fi in the lobby works just fine, so I can sit here and catch up on news and email whilst eating from the voluminous breakfast buffet.    It’s fairly cloudy and cool this morning, but there’s the threat of sunshine this afternoon, which would be nice.

I’m in town to support a meeting with a customer, but it still leaves me with most of the morning (the meeting doesn’t start until 11) and a good portion of the afternoon (the meeting is over by 2 or so) free.  Couldn’t manage to get a flight back home tonight on short notice, so I"ll be leaving on the early (5:45) flight in the morning.  Such fun.

This is my third trip to Seattle, and I really do enjoy the area.  So beautiful with the mountainous terrain, all the water, and I just adore the cool weather.  After the meetings today I’m planning on heading downtown to the Pike Place Market; for sure a tourist location, but it’s been recommended by a couple friends so I guess I’ll give it a go.  I’ll be sure to post pics tomorrow when I get home.

Well, I’ve pretty much finished up here at the restaurant so I think I’ll move to the lobby, find a plug-in for this laptop, and start working on some work stuff.  Should be at least moderately productive today.  :-)