It has been such a long time since I last wrote, I hardly know where to start. I won't entertain you with every little event of our life each time I blog. But I will take a few sentences just now to catch you up on where we are, what we have been doing, and who the boys are at this stage in life.

We are still currently living in Edinburgh, Scotland. Chad is in the second half of his PhD studies in Theological Ethics.  He is very much enjoying the work and challenges, and feels good about how his writing is taking shape. More to come on that in the coming year! As most of you know he has just returned from Palestine as a member of a peace delegation with CPT (Christian Peacemaker Teams). It was an amazing experience for him to serve Palestinian children and communities in this way and was a highlight of his year. Thank you all for your prayers and support. (You can see more about his trip through his link on the main page of our website.)

I am currently working with two families as a nanny. For those who did not know, when we moved to Edinburgh I gained my registration certificate to teach Primary School here in Scotland, only to find out not many teaching jobs were available in Edinburgh after the global financial crisis of the past few years. God is good and always provides. I was connected with a very special family who I have work with the past year and now a second family. I look forward to being back in the classroom soon enough, but for now I get to care for five sweet little ones. 

The boys are great and thriving! Luke is now 5 and is full of life to say the least. He started school this year and is loving his teachers, friends and learning. He enjoys any active sports and play. He has always been one to laugh and smile a lot and does what he can to make others do the same. Paul Michael is 8 (9 in January, yikes!). He also loves school and learning. His love of music has continued and he now finds joy in playing the violin. He is a Cub Scout and thrives outdoors, hiking and camping (his daddy couldn't be more happy).

We continue to be blessed as a family. We live with a wonderful community of neighbors, we are a part of a warm church family, and we are lucky with technology to keep strong connection with family and friends living far away. When reflecting on the past year I just feel simply happy. We have had our share of challenges, but with so many special relationships coming from every direction to support our family and ministry, we have all been happy, healthy, and peaceful.

It is our prayer that you have had a blessed year and that you have felt supported through good and bad times, and you are enjoying the celebration of the birth of the Prince of Peace!

Peace to you all! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

]]>http://www.therimmers.org/uk-update/2010/6/21/a-tour-of-our-edinburgh-neighborly-urban-garden-co-op.htmlChad Rimmer2010-06-21T11:06:05Z2010-06-21T11:06:05Z

Along with our neighbors, we are reclaiming our communal space between our tenement flats for a little urban vegetable garden cooperative here in the middle of Edinburgh.  Luke takes us on a tour!

After confirming some directions, the man behind the counter says to me, "I'm hesitant to say this, but, you must be American, right?"

"Right." I replied. "Why are you hesitant?"

"Well," he said, "sometimes Americans and Canadians sound the same to me.  So, why are you moving to Scotland?"

"Graduate Studies"

"Aye.  In what?"

"Ethics."

"Aye.  Why?  What do you do?"

"Well, I'm an ordained pastor," I said.  He sent back a blank stare, so I followed up with, "A priest."

"Oh, aye.  So, what made you become a Priest?"

Suddenly, I realized, this was more than a gas and go.  I looked up from the debit card keypad and said, "Faith."

The man said, "Oh, right.  Well, I've been baptized, but I'm actually a non-believer."

I suggested, "Well, it's not about belief, it's about faith."

He paused for a second, and sensing he had a willing (if not sleep deprived) conversationalist, he bravely said, "Allright.  One thing, though, and you have to agree with me on this.  How can there be a God, because if there was, the twin towers would never have happened, aye?  Why didn't God just give all of those guys heart attacks the day before they were going to do it? Right?"

I put my wallet back in my pocket and said, "No.  That's not God's fault, it's ours.  Violence was a choice of free will for those men.  And if God hadn't given humans free will, then there would be no point to being human, now would there?"

A big smile shot across his face, like something had been released.  He pointed at me and said, "Damn...you may have a point there."

Of course I do, and all I really wanted was a cup of coffee.

Violence, pain and hunger always seems to challenge belief in God, which seems bizarre to me on the surface because it's not God's fault.  Violence comes because we fail to be satisfied and secure with our own lives, and we fail to satisfy our neighbors.  If we were emotionally, physically, and spiritually satisfied, who or what on earth would we violate?  We'd have no reason to.  But, people are insecure with their religious and social identities, and they are hungry...so, in our homes and our nations we fear and we fight for power and food.  When we see the violent results, how can we rationalize a belief in a loving God?  I have a hunch that this is really what the attendant was wrestling with.  And we all do.  How can we believe when we see peace violated and people hungry?  That's why we all need to think about the role of Christian Ethics in our daily living.

Jesus told us to pray, "Give US this day our daily bread."  Not me, us, and then he asks us to share.  We'd like to think that everybody receiving their own "bread" would be suffiecient proof for rational belief.  But the issue is not whether you can believe in God, but if you have faith in what God has done and what God is asking us to do.  There is plenty of bread to go around - food, wealth, health - life abundant.  But we have to share.  Then it's not just an act of belief, it's an act of faith.  I think God has asked us to worry a bit less on our belief, and a bit more on our faith...and just like Thomas, when you see faith, belief is the easy part.  Truth seeking acts of goodness, belief active in faith, practical theology - that is the very definition of our Christian Ethics. So, with all of this is swimming around my mind in an instant, I got back to my caffeine and petrol peddling friend's question:

Violence is not God's failure to make peace, it's our failure to satisy and be satisfied.

Suffering is not God's failure to give life, it's our failure to nurture.

Hunger is not God's failure to provide, it's our failure to share.

God is faithful to his end of the covenant - how are we doing?  Ponder that...and in the meantime, can I please have my coffee?  I'm tired and it's 2 hours to Edinburgh.

"I love the Spirit and God loves us and everyone.  We love Him so much and he cares for us and the creatures all over the world and me and you.  Amen."

ICC's Green Church Headline on the ELCA homepage ICC's Green Church blog post on ELCA's webpage

The basic point is this - things come from the earth, we process them and use them, and then, we throw them into a landfill where they sit.  This process of consumption is a linear one that uses up finite resources, not a loop that recyces and renews itself.  If we can make products that we can use for a season, and then find a way to get the waste back into the earth, that would be a sustainable loop.  Then all of our waste can be returned in a digestable way to the land so that it can be used again.  Finding a way to only produce waste that returns to the earth is Closing the Circle.

So, our wonderful church ICC is one of the first chartered green churches, "Gron Kirke" in Denmark.  We have committed to a great deal of practices that will "green" our church from energy efficient appliances, to practical things like reusable seasonal bulletins, to refraining from disposable products in fellowship, "cycle to Church Sundays" and such.  One of them is a compost that we started in the back garden last year.  We put all of our vegetable, fruit and plant waste there.  Immediately, it reduced the volume of our garbage by about 25%.  Seriously - Denmark is very serious about how much garbage you can have per week, and being the Church house that hosts all the time, we always cut it close.  Once we started composting our fruits and vegetable waste...no problem!  It was amazing.

Well, half a year later, all of that degrading, rotting stuff of the earth has produced some great dirt full of centipedes and slugs, ants and crawly things that the boys thought was really cool.  And now, that the front garden has been weeded, it was ready to take on some of our newly composted soil.  And in that soil, the boys have planted squash, lettuce, carrots, radishes, and tomatoes.  From the vegetables that we ate last year comes a seedbed to grow the vegetables that we'll eat this year.  We're Closing the Circle.

And...it's fun.  Smooth out the dirt.  One centimeter down, drop in the seed.  Ten centimeters over, make one more seed.  Pat it down flat.  God's hands forming the stuff of the earth.  Now drag out the hose...not too much, you don't want to wash the dirt away, just a little drink.  The breath of life.  Make little signs so that we know which is which, where to walk and what to watch for.  God took delight in watching us carefully name each living thing.  (Here you can see the signs for "rabishes" and "timatoes" that are planted next to my personal favorite, "scowosh")  In two days, we'll water again, unless the rain comes.  So, pay attention to the sky!  Tending our little corner of the garden.

Closing the circle.  Tending the earth.  Thinking about God's will for all of creation.  Taking time for the Sabbath for us and the earth.  Planting the seeds of faith in the lives of our children through acts of earth keeping.  Measuring life not by events but by the renewal of life and participating in God's creative work.  Can gardening be an act of worship?  Absolutely...

Well, this Maundy Thursday, I shared a message about sanctified time. (You can read it on my blog http://www.therimmers.org/pastors-blog/ )  The point of my message was that most of us pray that we had more time so that we could be more intentional, and have time to devote it to acts of love.  But on the Passover, Jesus turned that on its ear.  He showed us that it is not the amount of time that allows for sanctified acts of loving service, rather, it is an act of love that sanctifies time, no matter how long or short it is.  For God is love, and in the act of loving one another as Christ instructs us to do, Eternity is present in that moment.  That is why with only one night left, and only a few hours to give, Jesus sanctified the moment by washing the feet of his disciples, and asking us to share the same acts of sanctifying love of neighbor. (John 13:1-17)

Well, in a week where we were lacking for down time, scrapping for a little breathing room between services to be a family and have meals that weren't just about getting energy for the next service, we had Saturay afternoon.  After the Holy Saturday Celebration at the Church House, we had only a few hours before the rush of Easter Sunday.  I was sitting on the poarch in the sunshine (the positive affects of which I can not overstate in Scandinavia), and I saw our neighbor working in her garden.  Ada is 89 years old and a widower, now having lived only one year without Eyvind, her husband of almost 70 years.  In this time when we are celebrating new life...she still lives everyday in a loneliness that was visible in the slowness with which she was pruning Eyvind's beloved roses.

I called Paul Michael and Luke over to me, and asked if they might like to take Mrs. Moller some of their Easter crafts from earlier in the day.  Luke (probably answering a question from three hours earlier) yelled, "Yes, Daddy!"  But Paul Michael, tired from the days of company and events, flopped his arms and started to say, "But after everyone left I was going to climb my tree!!"  He had been looking forward to just a few hours of free play all week.  But before he got the word "tree" out of his mouth, he saw Ada across the hedge.

He stopped and said, "Yeh, let's make her an Easter basket."  So, we all went inside and made a little easter basket out of a paper bag, with "Happy Easter from Luke and Paul Michael!" written on the side and filled it with that really annoying fake grass, and three colored eggs that the children had dyed earlier that morning.  And off they went.  Paul Michael at full speed and Luke as fast as his little legs would allow him to keep up.  Natalie and I watched over the hedge as they ran down her driveway, turned the corner and ran right between her and her rose bushes.

"Happy Easter, Mrs. Moller." 

Her face really did light up.  And she scooped up Luke (and nearly fell down because she is 89 and he is getting big!).  She hugged them, talked to them about Easter, gave them chocolate, and let them walk through her rose beds for about 20 minutes.  Then hugs and kisses, and home they came.

You know, during Holy Week, my boys only had a few hours for themselves with just our family.  And they so willingly gave that little time in an act of love to a neighbor, a widow, someone in need of some good news.  God is love.  God was there.  And in only 20 sanctified minutes.......Eternity.

Jesus said, "Love one another.  I have set for you an example, that you should do as I have done for you...If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them."