Category: Family

Maria Kristina

Rev. Johann CaauweLeave a comment

A week ago, my brother Adrian and his wife Lia had a baby born at less than 26 weeks. She weighed 1lb. 8 oz.  Maria was received as a child of God by Holy Baptism not long after she was born.

So far things have gone as well as can be expected. This afternoon at 1:30, Maria will have surgery to take care of an air pocket in her right lung. The doctors have been watching it closely and after a CT scan yesterday, decided to go in.

You can read more about Maria and the situation on her CaringBridge site:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mariakristinacaauwe

I would just like to ask for your prayers for this little one.

Kyrie eleison – Lord, have mercy

Home & Family

Rev. Johann CaauweLeave a comment

I have been meaning to share this audio clip. It's a presentation on the topic of parenting, and in particular how parents influence their children's attitudes and habits regarding church. 

The volume level is kind of low, so you might have to turn up your speakers. Even if you're not the parent of young children (or not yet), it's still pretty valuable.

The web site on which this audio was posted is called the Hausvater Project. It's a very interesting, and I think valuable, concept. As time goes by, I'm becoming more and more convinced that the Christian home and family is the most critical battleground for the church today. If we lose there, it is so hard to make up lost ground later in life. And these forces that would seek to destroy the family as God establish it and to prevent Christian families from functioning as God desires are so strong and so prevalent today. I'll be writing more about this in the near future.

Kid Pictures

Rev. Johann CaauweLeave a comment

This evening I uploaded a couple albums of pictures from the kids' cameras. Both Hannah and Andrew have the Fisher-Price Digital Cameras, which they got as Christmas presents. The cameras don't take great pictures, but they're fun for the kids, they really do take pictures, and every once in a while a good picture comes out. As I emptied the cameras tonight, Andrew's camera had over 800 pics; Hannah's had almost 300. On our gallery page, you can see the selection of pictures that were better than most. Enjoy.

Videos

Rev. Johann CaauweLeave a comment

You might know that for a while now I've put together videos for the kids birthdays. They're mostly slideshows of pictures from the past year. Every once in a while we go back and watch them with the kids. Tonight we watched a bunch of them, including this video of Andrew from his second birthday. Since this was before I started posting on YouTube, I just uploaded the video now for you to see if you wish. Do you think Isaiah looks like Andrew did back then? Let me know in the comments.

Bedtime Hymns

Rev. Johann CaauweLeave a comment

Every night at bedtime the kids get to pick a song to sing. Several nights ago Andrew picked a random hymn from the hymnal, “Our Father, Who from Heaven Above” (CW 410), Luther’s hymn on the Lord’s Prayer. I didn’t fight him on it.

But since Hannah can read well enough to sing hymns that she hasn’t seen before, I really enjoyed singing several stanzas of this hymn with her. Bedtime Hymns

Ultrasound

Rev. Johann Caauwe2 Comments

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Today we got to see ultrasound images of our littlest one. We've seen plenty of ultrasound pictures, but seeing those little arms and feet moving around never gets old. It always amazes me to see four chambers of the heart and a cross section of this or that, or to measure the skull or abdomen. But what always gets me are the little fingers and toes. This picture doesn't show the classic profile view of our baby. It's his/her feet, just around an inch long.

Week in Review

Rev. Johann Caauwe1 Comment
This has been a busy week. There are a number things I thought I'd share.

Gustav
Sara and the kids traveled to Leesville, Louisiana, for the affirmation of baptism for Joel & Natalie's baby girl, Emma. They were planning to drive on Tuesday, when Gustav hit that area. They waited a day to come home, but didn't get much damage there. The nearest WELS church experienced flooding, though.

Shut-in Call and Hymns
I visited a shut-in this week who is not really responsive. I had not met her before, but she's unable to carry on a real conversation. But there was no hesitation on her part when I asked if I could read a psalm to her. And the moment I started singing a hymn to her, she clearly sang along with much of the first stanza. I have been teaching hymnology in our school here, and these kind of events just solidify my conviction that we need to keep teaching these hymns. This week I taught "Salvation Unto Us Has Come" (CW 390)—next week's Hymn of the Day.

Meetings
The first week of the month we have our board meetings (before the council meeting next week). So this week I met with the Boards of Discipleship, Elders, and Education. I have been very encouraged my the commitment and support these people give. Not everything that we have to talk about is always fun, but it has been encouraging to work with these partners in the gospel.

Church Mice
I heard earlier in the week that people had seen mice droppings in the church kitchen. So I picked up a couple mouse traps and set them out yesterday. I actually caught two of them today. While I was preparing for Sunday in the sanctuary today, I saw a mouse run across the floor under the pews. I tried chasing him for a while—it was pretty funny. But as I was doing that, I starting thinking about various "church mouse" books or cartoons, and I imagined that perhaps there was a group of church mice who come out when the church is empty to learn about the church year or something. I didn't catch him, but I set another trap in the working sacristy.

Amazing

Credo and the Ordinary
Tomorrow I'll be covering the Creed in our Bible class on the songs of the liturgy. Tomorrow's is interesting because it is the one part of the ordinary that is most often not sung. I've always found that interesting, and I wonder why it is. I wonder why people don't write settings of the Creed like the wide variety of settings of the Kyrie or the Gloria, for example.

Sunday School
Tomorrow we're going to start a new quarter of Sunday School and begin using the Growing in Christ curriculum. I've got 4 teachers lined up and 16 kids registered in K-8, though I'm expecting a few more. I'm looking forward to working with the teachers, and just in general giving Sunday School the attention that it deserves.

Now I'm ready for this week to come to a close and begin a new week with the Lord in his Word and Sacrament.