Washington, D.C.

It is good to be back in DC today. One thing I loved about being here was the variety of license plates. Of course you have those from DC, MD, & VA. You also have diplomat plates & plates from all the states and beyond. I never licensed my leased vehicle in DC when I was here. I did when I picked up another vehicle and moved to MD. DC at that time had some Clergy plates that would have been cool to get.

The tag-line on the plates are interesting to read. MD has their website mentioned. I was reminded that the slogan on the new DC plates is a political statement - a slap in the face - "Taxation Without Representation". They have been trying to get statehood and were even willing to settle for the status of a U.S. Territory for awhile. Wisconsin's is and has been for a long time, "America's Dairyland". When they redesigned the plates they asked for submissions of designs and tag-lines. The all-time classic which didn't win - Wisconsin: "Come Smell Our Dairy Air".

You think red light cameras are bad? They have the equivalent for speeding here. I guess some zones have warning signs warning of the cameras and some don't. YIKES!

CBN Story.

You can watch it here (click on the downloads tab and search for: "The 700 Club: November 21, 2008") or download it here.

CBN News story to air tomorrow.

On November 4 I mentioned that a CBN News crew was at the church to do a story on hunger. Here's the information I've been given today.

"The story airs tomorrow on the 700 Club. Locally, look for it on your ABC family channel--or view it at CBNNews.com. It will also air on Newswatch and possibly Christian World News--two of our others newscasts."

Samuel Nehemiah Smith

This weekend I will be returning to Washington, DC and will be attending a Homecoming/Homegoing of sorts to celebrate the life of a Pastor, Friend and Mentor. Rev. Sam Smith was my pastor when we lived in Danville, IL. My Dad was on his staff as the church's Minister of Music.

Years later he invited me to do my college internship with him in Washington, DC. My parents would visit the church, return and try to explain to me what a wonderful place it was. I was somewhat hesitant; maybe a fear of the unknown, a new city, considering obstacles I would face in picking my internship destination and getting that approved. A college choir field trip to DC First, directed by George Dunbar, during my senior year (my first senior year :) ) again was providential and helped to remove the mystery and mystique surrounding the situation. I fell in love with the place immediately and now had faces and names to put with my prayers about returning there for the internship. My request was approved! The director was leery at first, but upon learning that Sam Smith was behind it, soon acquiesced.

The tradition in March was for candidates to attend a lunch, with bags packed, ready to go out to parts unknown. They and their new pastor would dine and dash to a church in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, or Wisconsin. Only then did they find out where they were going for the next two months. Instead, I dined and drove the 700 miles alone to my new assignment. When I arrived though, I was really made to feel at home. I was in seventh heaven. I could not have found a better learning lab myself. The Lord was gracious.

Washington, DC First Church of the Nazarene (since then National C.O.T.N. and now "Mosaic: A C.O.T.N.") was "the church home for 450 people from some 45 different nationalities. Incomes range from those barely subsisting on welfare to a few earning more than $200,000 a year." It was a pleasure to watch Rev. Smith thrive in this setting. It's not always easy in such a context or an urban setting. Rev. Smith could "honestly say that the benefits of ministering in the city far outweigh the frustrations: 'I love the diversity. Within minutes of each other, I might be in a millionaire's mansion and a welfare home. I enjoy helping those people learn to love each other.'"

Regarding his preaching: "He learned that 'the farmer who's been alone on his tractor all day wants to know you're preaching to him personally. If you use notes, he'll tune you right out. He needs intimacy. In the same way, city people are starving for intimacy and love. Their real needs are the same.'

So Sam has kept his country preaching style - using few notes, lots of self-deprecating humor and colorful stories, and avoiding literate phrases that some may not understand. He firmly believes that 'the best sermons are preached where the pain of the people and the truth intersect.'"* It was fun to sit behind him each Sunday and watch the sermon unfold in this way.

Rev. Smith took his chances again and hired me to return after graduation. Following his retirement, Ed Felter was given the nod. He allowed me to stay on during his tenure. 3 1/2 years spent in ministry in the Nation's Capital was a dream come true.

So it will be bittersweet to make the trek but trek I must. One more trip to DC alone and back Home.

For more on Rev. Smith see - http://www.ncnnews.com/nphweb/html/ncn/article.jsp?sid=10000023&id=10006599

"The Church Without Walls"

*excerpts & photos from "The Pastor in the Big City", Lyndee Breeding, Worldwide Challenge, Campus Crusade for Christ, Inc., March/April 1990, pp. 26-31.

National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day

Today is an important National Holiday. The banks remained open. Most employers didn't give workers the day off but many stayed home sick to clean their nasty ice box. How did you celebrate the day? There wasn't much to clean out of mine but I took time to give it the once over nonetheless and give it a fresh box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda. The idea is too purge your appliance of all the unnecessary entrées and accoutrements, making way for the inevitable Turkey Day leftovers.

Bon Appétit!

Hi Mom!!

I was blessed to have grandmothers who could cook and who passed those skills on. Both of my parents know their way around the kitchen. When Mom was completing her degree, Dad often took over for her. When Mom was sick, which as I remember it was rare, he wouldn't resort to ordering pizza but came up with a full-course meal.

I'll pit my Mom against your Mom any day in a cooking contest. She can cook things in short order, go southern, international or gourmet. She can acommodate your allergies or hers. Catch a cold or the flu and you'll receive some comfort food and room service to boot. Sunday dinners and holidays were the most memorable. She has entertained everyone in Nazarenedom from the top dogs to the rank and file. She can easily follow a recipe or taste something she likes in a restaurant and mimic it to a 't'. Forget the tableware for tailgating at a ballgame? Nevermind, she'll make her own out of whatever she has on hand.

You've probably heard of the Ritz Mock Apple Pie. Well, my mom is so good, she can make pumpkin pie without the pumpkin and pass it off as the original. :) We like to give her a hard time around Thanksgiving and Christmas every year because she forgot the main ingredient in a pie served at a potluck and people might not have known if my dad hadn't told them. For a minister as with anyone, confession is good for the soul.

Here's to you Mom!

Today the church received these large cans of pumpkin and a pallet of pie shells. Wish you were here!!

Tastes Like Chicken - Turn Your Heads My Vegetarian/Vegan Friends

We had the Sculpin (a.k.a. California Scorpionfish) last night for dinner. It was a small fish so it helped that the deck hand threw in two more from someone elses catch. They either didn't want them or were over the limit. It turned out to be a good tasting fish.

Wendy Kessler found a great recipe in a Rachel Ray magazine for Parmigiano-Reggiano Crusted Chicken Piccata. She cooked up some chicken and sculpin that way. I was as equally enamored with the dish as I am with the author of the recipe.

Wendy, you were wondering about the garlic changing color and why? It just adds to the presentation. :)

"Garlic contains anthocyanins, water-soluble pigments that can turn blue or purple under acidic conditions. This is a variable phenomenon that is more pronounced for immature garlic but can differ among cloves within a single head of garlic. If you grow your own garlic, be sure to mature it at room temperature for a couple of weeks before using it." http://cetulare.ucdavis.edu/news/n0898pub.htm

Undone. C'est la vie!

Well I've learned not to take life too seriously - why bother? It's better that way. Sometimes you just have to laugh at life.

Yesterday the stitches that went in on 11/01 came out. Larry called today. I hadn't told him yet about the injury with his TV. I didn't want him to feel bad about it at all. He did feel bad when I told him. He then said, "Is that the TV set that came out of the bedroom? That TV was no good. It needed to go in the trash."

:)

ginormous pumpkin

we have received all kinds of things in donation. limburger cheese. scrapple (yes Dad, you can be proud I know what that is). caviar. store displays. lawn furniture. things i can't mention here but are sold in the store. add to that an 80 lb. pumpkin we received yesterday.

CBN News Visits Our Food Distribution

Today we hosted CBN News Reporter, Heather Sells, and crew at the church's food distribution. They are are planning to air a story sometime prior to Thanksgiving. More to follow.

Thanks!

I had a wonderful birthday yesterday. In the morning I got to do something I love - fishing on the Pacific. I caught a Sculpin and a Barracuda that was too small to keep.

In the evening some friends took me to the Old Spaghetti Factory. They solicited letters from friends & family & then took turns reading them. Thanks to all who called, wrote, sent e-mails, text messages, facebook shout-outs, etc.! It was a lot of fun and very humbling hearing what you wrote.

We really laughed at a portion in my Dad's letter that I'll relate here. He spent some time this last week looking at some of my photos and papers that they have at home.

"I also found a really cool list of 10 things that you were promising yourself about life. I'd sure like to know how old you were when you wrote the list, but I'd guess that it was somewhere in the second, third, or fourth grade. The list is printed, but your signature at the bottom is written in cursive, so I think that may be a tipoff as to when you wrote it. Want to know what you wrote? Here is the list.

1. I will never smoke
2. I won't quit high school
3. I will graduate from college
4. I won't marry for money
5. I won't beat my children
6. I won't watch T.V. a lot
7. I won't change my religion
8. I won't drink
9. I won't try drugs
10. I won't be on welfare

It seems to me that those were pretty good goals for you as a child, and it appears that you have lived up to them in your life. I do wonder about number five. I wonder if the list was written after one of the infrequent spankings either Sharon or I administered. :) "

So .... I was fascinated by this list that was found. I was pleased with it - except for #4. I'm willing to make some concessions now on that one. I learned cursive in the second grade and tried drugs in the third so that tells us when it was written. :)

Sleep depravity took over at the end of the meal. I could identify with the would-be drunk driver at that point. I wanted to charge my phone which was as dead as I was & go check the alarm system at work to be sure it was armed. The Kesslers threatened to take my keys and phone. Their will thankfully won out. I ignored the phone, re-charged it and myself on their couch. Thanks! I'm well rested and ready to write the next chapter in life.

I heard the song "All the World" coming to work this morning & it seemed apropos for how I feel today. [Had a chance to serve the ladies (Point of Grace) dinner while catering in college.] I would post the lyrics here but want to abide by the copyright guidelines. I could probably do it with the church's license but don't know all the ins & outs of that. You can google it if you'd like. Sorry.

Saint Deron/I want my Mommy!!!

If this doesn't flow so well I'll blame it on my head trauma.

********************************

Well, I came into this world on All Saint's Day at St. James Hospital so it is fitting that I would spend 4 hours in the hospital this go around on All Hallow's Eve/All Hallow's Day. A run in with a television was the cause this time. A few of us were helping Larry move everything out of his apartment. He's recuperating in a nursing home.

It was a race against the clock - trying to beat the 8:00 curfew at the storage place. I think I ducked to exit the truck and hit my eyebrow on the corner of the TV. It felt reeaaallllllll good - let me tell you. Then came the blood (sorry - PG-13). Some have been trying to tell me I'm accident prone. I say I work/play hard. This takes the cake of my most recent escapades if nothing else just because medical intervention was required or desired to reduce scarring. Popping the wheelie last week and the subsequent melon jarring fall to the pavement - no sweat. Running into chairs in the dark at work because I'm too lazy to turn on a light - routine. Working on my truck recently, stumbling backwards over my toolbox, breaking my fall not by landing with my hand on the ground but my thumb in my toolbox, sitting on the toolbox as I went down, threatening to sever said thumb from the rest of my hand - levity for those looking on.

I now have bodyguards at work that go before me and clear my path of all obstructions. They pretend to talk to each other in microphones hidden in their cuffs like the Secret Service. Where were they tonight??? Greg tells me of a dream he had where I break my arm. We're just waiting to see how that happens.

I've got to thank the Doc on duty tonight for 4 wonderful, strategically placed sutures in the upside down Y or "Mercedes symbol" in my left eyebrow. I have arrived!! Thanks also to the nursing staff, one a PLNU alum. Thanks for the warm blanket, an update on the tentanus and for dinner. It does help to have someone familiar nearby in such settings. I was blessed also when I had my wisdom teeth pulled. One of the nurses in the room was one I had done a grad check for while working in the Records Office.

I learned early on tonight that there was another Matson in the house. What are the chances? Whenever they called for Matson, I had to clarify. "Matson come on in here." "Which Matson - there are two of us." Then the lab guy came around with a cart of vials. I was pretty sure they didn't need my blood tonight. I knew I didn't want to give any blood tonight - for me on occasions a.k.a. "pass out". He poked his head in my room. "Blah, Blah, Matson?" "It's Deron Matson". I thought he said Devon Matson. I get that all the time b/c people read the r as a v. He said "no, Kevin (not my cousin) Matson. What's your date of birth?" "No there are two of us." Upon further review he chased down Kevin and came back, got his cart and left without any of my blood. I wish Kevin Matson would have paid my co-pay.

So much for my planned snooze before fishing this morning. There will be time for that later.

Pastor John says the church would make me a Saint but reminds me they would have to kill me first.