Chicken Noodle Soup

Jane and I have both recently caught some kind of bug. She was coughing and had the sniffles. I had this throbbing headache and this nauseous feeling in my stomach that wouldn’t go away for the past few days.

So, she thought it would be a brilliant idea to make chicken noodle soup from scratch. The whole time while we were getting ingredients she was claiming to herself, “This is going to be awesome.”

What can I say? It was pretty awesome.

Jane: “Why am I such an awesome cook?”

Time Out

Earlier today I had the privilege of joining Pastor Dan, Abraham and one of our elders Paul Sonderegger and going away to the South Shore for some alone time with the Lord. It was a sweet time of solitude as well as corporate prayer on behalf of our church and our city.

The Dowds, who were former members of our church and who have now gone on to help a CTK church plant in the South Shore, graciously allow us to use their home and enjoy the scenery.

Though the weather left much to be desired, the backdrop was beautiful nonetheless.

I went out on the dock and found this sucker. Looked like a baby catfish or something. Dude got eaten up a few minutes later by a seagull. Hilarious.

Lesson of the day? Be still and know that He is God.

Final Exams

Seminary is funny because half of the time I spend for final exams or papers I am often reading the Bible. This is a good thing. God’s Word has the power to change lives, even when you’re actually reading it for academic purposes.

Here is a most uninteresting picture of how I spent most of my day.

Here is a brief description of the items above: ESV Study Bible (best one out there, you should purchase it). Cup of coffee that I refilled several times. Panera coffee is good. Folder full of notes and stuff. iPod to listen to music and sermons. Dumb phone to receive calls and texts from no one during the day since Jane is at work and she’s the only one who calls me anymore. Except for my parents. Crumpled up napkin that was given to me along with a free sample pastry from Panera. I love free anything.

Today I plowed through Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, Lamentations and am currently hoping to finish Ezekiel and Daniel by the end of the night. Why I can’t seem to do this throughout the semester like I am supposed to, I have not a clue. Is it because I have a lot to do? Perhaps. Is it because I may have bitten off more than I can actually chew for this year? Maybe. Is it because I still have terrible study habits? Probably.

Either way, tomorrow figures to be a good day. Going away for the first half of the day to the South Shore with the pastors and an elder of our church to spend some time with the Lord. It is super convenient since I’ll have to read my Bible anyway. Why not do it against a beautiful backdrop by a quiet lake?

Goodness, it’s twelve days until Christmas. I hope to get married soon.

Life & Death

This past summer, Pastor Dan and his family took in an international exchange student to live with them. His name is Charles. The young buck comes from a country in the Far East. I’ll let the pictures explain where he is from.

After much seeking, wrestling and prayer, he went up to Pastor Dan and Michelle and told them that he had received Jesus into his life and that he wanted to be baptized this Sunday. Rev. and Michelle then proceeded to cry their eyes out while the rest of the Rogers kids pranced around the house and rejoiced.

Today was Charles’ baptism.

Tomorrow afternoon at 12PM, our church will also be holding a memorial service in memory of Frank McAfee. I did not know Frank personally, but Frank went to be with the Lord a little over a week ago. Frank lost the battle to cancer but Pastor Dan reminded us of the good news that he is now with Jesus and that there will even be a day when death, mourning, and pain will cease.

This is the beauty of the Christian life, that death in the world is not the end. Even though we experience pain, suffering and heartbreak in this world, there will come a day when Christ will rule and reign perfectly as He established a New Heaven and a New Earth. I look forward to this day.

I long to see more baptisms. And though it is never easy to someone pass away from this life, the Gospel gives us assurance that those who are in Christ will be with Jesus and enjoy Him forever.

Welcome to the family, Charles.

See you in heaven, Frank.

Worship In Dorchester

Every Sunday, a group of volunteers gathers together at 50 Stoughton St. near Upham’s Corner at 7:30AM to set-up and practice for worship at Christ the King Dorchester.

They are some of the most musically gifted people I have ever worked with. They are also some of the most incredible people I’ve met so far.

Tonight, we took out our worship team for dinner at my favorite restaurant in the world, Victoria Seafood Restaurant. It was a chance to thank them for all their hard work, sacrifice and love. The only sad part about the night was that not everyone could make it!

Laura, one of our sound engineers. Phil, our keyboardist. Hannah, one of our female vocalists. And Josh, her ridiculous husband.

Lori, Tessa, Maleka and Naomi! Anytime either Tessa or Maleka sing “When I Think About The Lord” people get shivers. And not because it’s cold in our building.

Mandy with baby Norah on the left and Dan and Lydia on the right. Dan needs to learn how to smile.

Issac and Abraham!

Val and Judah!

Luke is another one of our sound engineers. We have five total. Three of them know what they are doing, two are learning. Luke is the professional!

Not pictured here: Craig Leach, Jena Brown, Luke Rogers, Evan Donovan, Jonathan Gramling and Mike Strauss. So blessed to co-labor with these brothers and sisters!

Saturday is a Work Day

Believe it or not, weekends are the least restful times for myself. Being a student means I have a wacky schedule. Much of Saturday is spent taking care of last minute details before Sunday service and also learning how to rest well. I often have to say no when people ask if I want to hang out on Saturday. That’s okay, though. I’m getting old anyway.

It’s the same for Jane, too. As a first-year teacher in an urban charter school, she puts in about 70-80 hours a week easily. Saturday is a work day for the both of us.

Anyway, Jane and I went to a cafe and I decided to procrastinate and take random pictures. And that’s the real reason why I am writing this entry, to post up random pictures.

We did some work at Union Cafe on Harvard Ave. Well, Jane did work. I just fooled around with her camera.

“Why is this adorable bear taking a picture of me while I am trying to do work?”

Super dope chalk drawing. There were four of these decorating an entire wall!

Sugar, we’re goin’ down.

Jesus, come back.

Jane has an iPhone 4S. It’s pretty cool. All I have are pictures of cute Korean babies that I babysit.

Pooh has no nose.

Pooh next to salt-shaker.

Pooh next to iPhone.

Pooh next to coffee mug.

Pooh next to ESV Study Bible.

Pooh next to sugar packets.

Friday, Friday

Every Friday is date night. Jane and I do our best to make sure we spend quality time together. Given our schedules, Friday night is pretty much the only night when we can both get together and take a much needed few hours away from thinking about school, lesson-planning, ministry, exams, grading, etc.

I hope it’s a healthy practice that comes to mark our relationship all the way until the end. I’ve seen way too many dudes burn their wives in this area because they didn’t know how to care well for their wives. Good thing Jane isn’t my wife.

Yet.

During our junior year of college, a friend of mine went up to one of these suckers and said, “Oh, hey Moses. Let me feed you today.” He then proceeded to put his trash into the garbage can. Unbelievable.

Hence, why we didn’t think it was ridiculous at all that Jane would be taking couple pictures with a solar-powered trash can.

The most Americanized name for a Chinese restaurant I’ve ever seen.

Guess what this is?

Yup. I wish my bathroom looked this cool, too.

Come For Me

Come For Me- Charlie Hall

Any Given Sunday

I was originally planning on writing an entry where I would document my entire Sunday. Sundays are nuts ever since I returned to NCPC to take up a position as music director. My day begins at 6AM and doesn’t end until 6:30PM (usually). Today, we also had our monthly prayer and worship meeting at CTK so the day lasted extra long.

Anyhow, I was able to kind of record my day up until 12:30PM. That’s when I picked up Daniel, our drummer/former seminarian/future pastor/future elder/number one critic at his apartment in Watertown. After picking him up and grabbing food, everything is a blur. I’m just glad this day is over.

7AM- Downer Avenue. Nary a soul in sight.

7:30AM- Arrive at 50 Stoughton Street for practice. Oh yes, I am the gatekeeper.

7:30-9:45- Set-up and practice for worship.

Hannah and Tessa smile.

Craig smiles because he is engaged.

Phil plays with smart phone. Dan smiles.

10AM- Service is supposed to begin. Supposed to. Dorchester time a.k.a. Colored People Time = 15 minutes late. Always.

Lydia and Dan don’t smile.

Lydia and Dan do smile. These two are gifts to our church from the Lord. I am grateful for them in so many ways and thankful that God brought them to Boston. I hope they never leave.

Jon- “Man I look good.”
Pastor Dan- “Where is everyone?”

10:15 AM- Opening time of prayer. Service can now begin. Dan glares at camera.

10:30AM- Greeting time. Our church’s favorite time. It takes about 5-10 minutes to gather people back up to continue for worship!

11AM- During service, Mike, the smartest human-being/Canadian I’ve ever met is one of five sound engineers we have. We are blessed.

So… the rest of the service is a blur. We worshiped and heard the Word preached and sang hallelujah. It was fantastic. That’s probably the reason why I didn’t take any more pictures.

Skip ahead an hour… we got done at 12PM today and had our monthly family meal. I took some not-so-great pictures of people eating pizza. But, here they are. Our family.

 Maleka and Naomi eat pizza.

Travis and his babies smiling and stuff.

David Nok looking deep in thought. He was just waiting for pizza.

Blurry picture of Papa John’s pizza slices.

Kids eating.

Freeloaders.

More people eating. Helena on the right: “What are you looking at, gyspy?”

Levi thinks he’s cute. Because he is.

Naomi: “What’s this bear doing sticking a camera in my face?”

12:30PM- Get on I-93 North and headed to NCPC for part 2 of my day.

1PM- Hello Dan.

1:30PM- Arrive in Newton and follow Dan into pizza shop. There are a lot of people named Daniel in my life.

Drink that water, Daniel!

Not-So-Secret Santa

Every year, a group of our friends gather to do a “Secret Santa” gift exchange. We all have one thing in common. We all spent the better part of our four years of college together in church. It’s still awesome that we get together.

This year, our Secret Santa exchange wasn’t exactly “secret” because everyone basically asked each other and found out beforehand.

This doesn’t change the fact that we still had a good time. We also had a chance to celebrate our friend Heena’s birthday early. She just turned twenty-three. Or twenty-four?

I don’t think any of us take for granted the time we get to spend together. Gatherings such as this one used to be frequent but since graduation we’ve since all gone our own separate ways. Who knows how long we’ll be able to keep this up?

Dang, I did this. I went all Martha Stewart up in this joint.

My two favorite mugs from Johnny Cupcakes!

100 wings. 50 Bourbon. 50 Buffalo. Delicious.

Friends.

More friends.

This picture is awesome in so many ways.

Paul definitely posed for this picture.

Waiting for the gift exchange.

Joonhak passionately sharing a story about something.

There were three guys there tonight. And we were the only ones who wore these kinds of socks. Unreal.

Sheer deep v-neck from American Apparel. Never again. Happy Birthday Heena!