The People and Preoccupations of my Life
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On our recent trip to Mendocino and the Northern California coast, we stopped by the Point Arena lighthouse. This is a great picture of the recently retired Fresnel lens that warned passing ships for decades. Elegantly effective, but now sadly replaced by a LED strobe less than 6 inches high. Efficient but lifeless.
I’ll make this brief. My hiatus from posting was due to equipment issues of two sorts: my back and my computer. The outcome for both was positive, but clearly took my focus off of blogging.
When I went to Toronto just 13 days after surgery, it was with my surgeon’s blessing. In fairness, however, he did say that four weeks was usually his minimum. I feel that being there was absolutely essential, so I have no regrets for boarding the plane. On the other hand, I now understand why Dr. White usually has his patients wait a full month before airline travel — especially the 5-hour-each-way kind of flights.
The day or two following our return flight, I began to feel pains that were eerily reminiscent of the pains that sent me to surgery in the first place. I was scheduled to lead Stadia through Strategic Planning (Session Two) on Monday through Wednesday, but I knew that would only make matters worse. Tom McGlinchey graciously agreed to lead the effort, giving me a chance to take Naproxen for the inflammation and to rest for three days.
The good news is that the plan worked. On Thursday I returned to work and had my first physical therapy session and since then the pain has virtually disappeared. I credit rest and a return to a healthy, back-supporting regimen.
No sooner was my back on the mend than my computer went on the fritz. No connectivity at all, either wired, wireless or even broadband to Verizon. I was dead in the water. With the great help of our IT team, I was actually put in a new ThinkPad T61 laptop on Friday, which may tell you what I’ve been doing for the last 36 hours. Ah, the joys of reconfiguring a new computer.
So, I’m back online in two important ways. If you are in the habit of checking my posts (or have RSS feed), you may reasonably expect more stirrings of life from me.
Tags: computer, Naproxen, physical therapy, Stadia, surgery, Toronto, Verizon
Today Joy and I head north to Toronto for the annual Board Retreat of Provision Ministry Group. We picked Toronto this year, in part to reinforce our commitment to church funding and church planting in Canada. Our partner ministry, Impact Canada, is very capably led by Jim Tune. Jim is also the founding Pastor of Churchill Meadows Christian Church, a fast-growing church in the suburb of Mississauga. In a future posting, I’ll share more about this vibrant group that is totally sold out to reaching Canada with the good news of Christ.
More later.
Tags: Canada, Churchill Meadows Christian Church, Impact Canada, Jim Tune
When 28 people from the U.S. make the trip across the Atlantic to participate in a wedding, you can be sure that cameras are always present and given a workout. Because we wanted to bring together the best pictures possible for a reception slide show (and for the couple’s wedding album), we invited everyone to upload their pictorial contributions to a group Flickr site. As of tonight we have 2,264 pictures!
No one but a proud parent should have to wade through that many pictures, so here are 153 that Tom and AJ chose to capture the beauty of the week of wedding activities in Germany. This slide show was also shared with over 80 guests at our California reception held last night at Rutabegorz in Tustin.
I hope you enjoy…because we certainly did.
P.S. To view a full-screen version of the slideshow, click here.
Tags: Flickr, Rutabegorz, wedding
Our beautiful daughter and bride
Somewhere along the way, weddings have gotten out of control. If you’ve hosted or been to a wedding recently, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. The joyful anticipation that should mark a wedding event is too often replaced by jangled nerves and frayed relationships as wedding participants get sucked into multi-track project management that would make a NASA space launch look spontaneous. I don’t know where the term “veiled threats” comes from, but I suspect it had to do with an interaction between a stressed-out bride and her frazzled mother.
Thankfully, the two females at the center of my life are wired very differently than that. I can report to you that mother and daughter worked happily and well together, from beginning to end. The smiles were real and surprisingly relaxed, which is a blessing beyond words.
From day one, it was clear to us that A.J. was going to walk a different path with her wedding. Her choice of a low-frills Heidelberg wedding was actually less expensive than a local wedding with all the traditional trappings. And I can say that, even in the face of sky-high airline fares and a particularly painful dollar-to-Euro conversion rate.
She eschewed the idea of tuxes and single-use dresses for the wedding party in favor of sun dresses for the girls and simple shirt & tie combos for the guys. No fancy flowers or candelabras. No DJ or limos. Just the beauty of an outdoor setting in the place where she and Tom first met and fell in love.
A walk through the Castle grounds
The pre-wedding walk from Pepperdine’s Moore Haus to the Heidelberg “Schloss” (castle) was a real highlight. The couple was enthusiastically greeted by a passing tour bus and they were applauded by diners at the sidewalk cafe.
The beauty of the day and the joy of the couple were so inviting that our entourage actually grew as we walked to the chosen castle wall overlook of the city and Neckar River valley. Even locals and fellow tourists moved in close to join in the joyful event. We became something of a wedding “happening” in real-time.
It was my privilege as A.J.’s father to stand with the couple as they exchanged some of the most meaningful vows I have ever heard in over 20 years of officiating such events. The ceremony was simple but deeply satisfying, and our happy band of wedding travelers was rewarded with a unique experience in an incredible setting.
The happy couple with their Heidelberg backdrop
When all was said and done, 36 invitees were in attendance — including 28 who crossed the Atlantic to be present. And that was a present to this couple who figured maybe a dozen people might make the trip.
Our wedding guests
In every possible way, God smiled on this couple and their wedding. And if you catch me with a gentle smile on my face, it is only because I couldn’t be happier for Tom and A.J. or more grateful for everyone whose well-wishes have made their wedding event a cherished memory. Thank you.
Tags: Heidelberg, wedding
We are back from the wedding trip and so glad to report that everything (and I mean everything) went perfectly. Everyone made it safely without health problems, and the bride and groom were stunning. I’ll write more soon (since blog posts written under the influence of jet lag tend to wander more than usual), but I will share just one picture for now. You can believe me when I say “more to come.”
Tags: wedding
Weeks ago I happily agreed to drive from Heidelberg to the Frankfurt airport to pick up my mother-in-law and two nieces from Arizona today. Their flight through Philadelphia was to have landed at 10:20am. In the middle of the night, AJ’s phone rang but we weren’t able to answer in time. Message retrieval didn’t work because AJ always uses speed dial on her phone, and this is a global loaner. Sooo, we assumed that the message was about a delayed flight.
You know the old saying about what happens when you assume, and that sure happened this time. I dutifully raced to the airport and planted myself outside customs. Sure enough, the Philly flight was 35 minutes delayed. After waiting for 1 full hour after the delayed arrival time, I was the sole greeting party in Terminal 1, Exit 3 from customs. No mother-in-law, no nieces, no joy!
It was then (and only then) that I decided to check my own phone. To my surprise, I had never turned it on this morning. Once power was applied, voila…a voice message dropped in delivering the voice of my travel-weary mother-in-law informing me that they missed their Philly connection and got re-routed through London Heathrow and would not arrive until 4:30pm.
After all my work to keep us globally connected with loaner phones from Verizon, the one step I forgot was to turn my phone to the “On” position. That always helps!
So here I sit in the American Airlines Admirals Club in Frankfurt Airport, eating cream of zucchini soup and a hard roll, typing this update on a public computer. If my accomodations were commensurate with my level of techno-intelligence on this day, I would be sitting on the hard floor mooching packets of free mustard from strangers. Thankfully I am enjoying comforts that help to take the sting out of my stupidity.
Now I’m just hoping they said Frankfurt and not Munich!
Tags: Admirals Club, Frankfurt, Verizon
When AJ and Tom announced their desire to get married in Heidelberg, they did so almost apologetically because they felt certain it meant having a very small wedding party. While the final count is not in, it looks like nearly 40 people will be here for the wedding and related events. We’re so happy to have such a diverse group joining us for this celebration.
I could bore you with the names and connections to the wedding couple, but suffice it to say both bride and groom have plenty of family and friends to show their support and well wishes. The group in town this morning launched out to ascend to Konigstuhl via the Kornmarkt funicular. The view from the top is the best around.
Making our way down the mountain to the castle we then scoped out the perfect place for AJ and Tom to exchage their vows on Wednesday. It didn’t take long to understand why this place is so special to both of them. God did some pretty amazing decorating of their chosen wedding hall.
Tonight we gathered the ever-growing group for authentic German food in a relaxed dinner off the church square. With each new addition, group activities become less spontaneous, but always fun as new groupings form and the circus moves from one ring to three. Bring on the clowns! We’re having some fun now…
Tags: Heidelberg, Kornmarkt, Schloss
Today we shifted gears from pre-wedding relaxation mode to wedding planner/host/chauffeur/parents-of-the-bride mode. We left Lausanne around noon to pick up Tom and AJ at the Zurich airport just before 4pm. Together we made our way into Germany and our Heidelberg destination. We arrived early enough to have a relaxed dinner before the big event of the night — the Burning Castle fireworks extravaganza.
It began at 10:15pm with two quick bursts from the Old Bridge, simulating cannon fire aimed at the Schloss (Castle). Within seconds red lights began to shine and flicker in and around the Castle on the hill, looking remarkably like fire breaking out in various parts of the old castle. The focus then shifted back to the Bridge where a wonderful extended fireworks display took place. To view a video of the last 90 seconds, reflected in the flowing water of the Neckar River, check out my YouTube video below.
After a missed shuttle and cancelled train from Frankfurt, Ryan arrived at 10:10pm, just in time for fireworks and a happy family reunion. It’s good to have everyone together safely on foreign — but familiar — soil.
Tags: fireworks, Heidelberg, Schloss, wedding
Today was our wrap-up day, with our activities to be built around a tour of the Chateau de Chillon at the far east end of Lake Geneva (Lac Leman). This fortified chateau dates back to the 12th century and has been wonderfully restored. It certainly gives you a good picture of castle life under the rule of the Savoys and the Bernese.
A real highlight was our drive from Lausanne to the Chateau, through the wine-making region of Lavaux by way the “Corniche du Lavaux” otherwise known as the wine road. This winding and extremely narrow road starts at Lutry on the road marked “Chexbres” and takes you through the villages of Cully, Vevey and Chexbres on the way to Montreux. It is hard to remember that you are in Switzerland and not in Southern France with these picturesque vineyards and homes ranging from cottages to estates. What can’t be matched is the view each vineyard enjoys, since the vines are rooted in the soil of mountains overlooking the crystal blue Lake Geneva with its Alpine background.
The picture below tells you everything you need to know about lunch. This was at a great little find in old town Villaneuve called Chez Yan. The friendly staff took the time to explain all the menu choices with names like Poires Chocolate and Citron Canelle. A 74% dark chocolate crepe with vanilla ice cream won the day, but I’m saving the lemon cinnamon version for my next trip back!
In the evening, we enjoyed throwing open the windows of our third floor room to take in the smell of summer rain, accompanied by the sounds of thunder echoing through the city streets. Another wonderful day in a beautiful European city that we will miss when we drive away tomorrow on our way to Heidelberg.
Tags: Chateau de Chillon, Chexbres, Corniche du Lavaux, Cully, Lausanne, Lutry, Montreux, Vevey, Villaneuve
My name is Larry Winger and this weblog is about the people and passions that make my life interesting beyond my wildest dreams. Whether at home, at work or relaxing with friends, I’m always blessed to be In Good Company.
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