Author Archives: Madras UMC

Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus! Happy birthday, Baby Jesus. Even when your birthday’s through. All year long we remember, Each precious gift we get from you. –Clark & Jan Gassman Baby Jesus has a grubby face. I supposed I should have expected it. I did manage to get the crayon off his head, but even withContinue reading “December 2019, Note From the Preacher Woman”

Beloved: This week, I am helping lead a retreat at Suttle Lake. There are three of us leading. The other two leaders, Kate and Michael, have been leading this retreat for over thirty years. Last year, they decided it might be time to invite someone new into the mix, so they asked our camp director,Continue reading “9/24/19, Weekly Note From the Preacher Woman”

Beloved: There is nothing quite like having long conversations with someone from Deer Ridge to challenge all my judgments and assumptions. It has been almost two years since I began working in the education department at the prison up the hill. With a simple change of clothes, some of the men there would never beContinue reading “9/20/19: Weekly Note From the Preacher Woman”

Beloved: My grandfather had a special mason jar filled he kept in the fridge. When he would come in from the fields after changing pipe or hauling hay, he would stand there right in front of the door and finish it off in one long satisfying go. Every summer, my family spent a week orContinue reading “9/12/19, Weekly Note From the Preacher Woman”

Beloved: One day I was walking home for lunch when I noticed a woman and a young girl walking on the sidewalk opposite me. The adult monologue sounded familiar: “Come on! Hurry up!” I smiled: the way of a harried mom and her child—or at least it seems that way to me. We are inContinue reading “9/6/19, Weekly Note From The Preacher Woman”

Beloved: I am writing this week from Eugene, where I am attending the Oregon-Idaho annual conference. Methodists have held annual conferences since the time of the Wesley brothers. In our tradition, ordained elders and deacons hold their membership, not in a local congregation, but in a conference. For many clergy, these yearly meetings become somethingContinue reading “Weekly Note From the Preacher Woman, 6/13/19”