The Spiderman's Web

Golden Boy is in the House

2008-12-03T11:51:00.003-06:00

During my mom's 10 day visit, I was determined to finally learn some of the old recipes that she cooked for our family when i was growing up. My two favorites were Grebel (No one has any idea how to really spell it) and Kraut Biroques (Again, there is no official spelling. We all just know how to say it and how to eat tons of them). Both of these delightful dishes are now not only stored in my brain, but written out on recipe cards. Mom told me I was the first of the siblings to successfully make Grebel, which again secures my spot in the family as the Golden Boy, favored sibling of the Guenther household. For Christmas, I believe that my brother and sister will be sending me a coat of many colors as I dance about the kitchen, making Grebel and Kraut Biroques for all who come to visit me.

A Bloody Good Black Friday Pie

2008-11-29T14:05:00.002-06:00

My mom is from a small town in Michigan, and has to travel about an hour to get to a city to do any serious shopping, so she jumped at the chance to do some Black Friday shopping this year. We weren't insane enough to wait all night for a good deal, like my nephew Andrew does annually, but we did leave the house at 5 am. We found suprisingly good parking spots at Kohl's, Younker's and Penney's, and were able to pick up all of the things on our list. We got home by 8:30 and both of us were exhausted. I am an anti-napper and have been ever since I was 3, so I refused to go to sleep. I did have a couple of cups of coffee, but that didn't seem to help.

Later that afternoon, I was about to head to Steve and Barry's to see if I could pick up some cardboard boxes for the coat donation project when my son told me I should go and give blood at Russ's. They were giving away free pies to all who donated. I was an avid blood donor back in Michigan and the high school I taught at often won state championships for blood donating (yes, they actually gave out trophies). It was the only thing we could win at, so we really put our hearts into it ("hearts"....get it?)

I went to Russ's and gave a pint. I've got great veins and am an excellent bleeder, so it didn't take long at all. I got a pin for reaching my 2nd gallon of donating and thought I was pretty big stuff until my mom told me that my brother has already reached his 10th gallon or some crazy figure like that. Good job, Doug! I was the last person to donate that day and the Red Cross only got 10 pints of blood even though they were collecting for 7 hours. I guess that Black Friday might not be a good day to try to have a blood drive, even though they did give out delicious pies.

The day ended up being a really nice one, though I was exhausted by the end of it. Unfortunately I had to get up at 3:30 am this morning to get my wife to the airport and off to see her parents. No nap again today, but some peach pie should keep me wide awake.

A New Coat for Thanksgiving

2008-11-29T13:48:00.002-06:00

On Thanksgiving morning, my family and I sat in the same row with a mother and daughter who were visiting Messiah. They came to church with Don Eggers, who was taking them home to his wife for an American Thanksgiving dinner. The mother, Xia Wang, is here in Lincoln to learn more about teaching English. She is an English professor in Shanghai, China. Since Xia's arrival in the United States, she has learned about the Christian faith and was recently baptized by Pastor Bill at the University Lutheran Chapel.

I had the chance to ask Xia if her daughter, Kexin, needed a winter coat. The one she was wearing looked pretty thin. Xia and Kexin were very excited about that possibility, and they were even more overjoyed when they found that I had some gloves and hats to look through for Kexin. After all was said and done, we found two coats for them to take, along with a nice hat and pair of gloves. It was great to see that all of the coats that were donated are now headed toward people that need them. Don Eggers came back on Friday and took about 1/3 of the coats that we gathered and took them to the clothing bank at Christ Lutheran, where many Sudanese families that are new to Lincoln come and get clothing they need. The rest will head over to the People's City Mission next week. The final count is somewhere around 250, but donations were still arriving on Thanksgiving day, so we never did find out exactly how many coats were collected. The exact number isn't important, just the fact that many people who didn't have a warm winter coat will now have one. Thanks to all who helped in the efforts to collect coats.

213 Coats and a Couple of Days to go

2008-11-25T18:16:00.002-06:00

On Monday, the coat count reached 213, with a couple of big cardboard boxes full of sweatshirts, vests, hats and gloves. A few people have contacted me and said they still have coats to bring in, so 250 is still a possibility. If you have some good used coats, please clean out your closets and drop them by Messiah by Thanksgiving. Bring them to the 9am worship service. The People's City Mission Distribution Center can take as many coats as we can get them.

165+ Coats, 32 Others......Let's top 250

2008-11-18T13:51:00.002-06:00

Marty and I did a count today, and our totals were:
165 Coats
32 Sweatshirts, snowpants, hats, etc.
10 Coats in need of repair (my mom is visiting next week and guess what she's going to do!

I think setting a goal of 250 coats is definitely an attainable goal. I just heard that Steve and Barry's is closing in just 3 days, so get there soon. The good news is that prices are now 4 for $5, so if you want to spend $10, you can donate 8 coats or hooded sweatshirts. Clean out your closets or head to Steve and Barry's and find more coats.

The picture of Marty shows just about half of the donations we've received.

It's Time to Blow Past our Goal

2008-11-15T09:53:00.006-06:00

By the end of this work week, the goal of 100 coats was close enough to touch. Coats kept coming in on a regular basis, and there were around 90 coats outside my office when I had to move them all to get the youth room ready for Sunday's Bible class. The Lincoln Lutheran choir is singing at Messiah this weekend, so the normal high school group of 50 or 60 could swell to 8o or more. Because of that, the coats had to be temporarily moved.

The Lincoln Journal Star published an article about the coat drive in the Saturday values section. It appeared on the first page of that section, and there has already been a donation of some used coats, snowpants and hats by someone who read that article this morning. With the combination of the newspaper article and our Sunday worship attendees having had a full week to do some shopping, I think it's time to do a reboot of our goal. I'll give you an update on Sunday afternoon of what the numbers are. Feel free to leave some comments on how high you think the new coat donation goal should be set.

Another Day... Another Batch of Coats

2008-11-12T14:46:00.003-06:00

The blessings continue as more bags of coats keep arriving at Messiah. The total coat count is now up to 73. A few good used coats have come in, and the greatest need at this time is for used coats for females. The coats being sold at Steve and Barry's are aimed a bit more at males, so if any of you reading this have some good used coats for females, please drop them off at the church. For those who aren't aware of our location, we're at 1800 S. 84th St. in Lincoln. Sizes really don't matter on any of the coats, as there is a city-wide need for all sizes of coats.

There has been a drop in prices at Steve and Barry's today. All items are now $2.98 or 2 for $5. There are still plenty of coats, and also a good supply of sweatshirts (hooded and regular). Feel free to pick up some sweatshirts as they will help people stay warm during the cold winter to come. I'll keep updating my blog regularly so you can see the progress of our efforts.

4 Days... 51 Coats

2008-11-11T08:28:00.004-06:00

The coat drive is moving along faster than a speeding bullet. Steve and Barry's shelves are being emptied and the coats are piling up in the youth room. Some people are bringing in some nice, used coats and those are just fine too. Today, one of my volunteer youth workers has invited my out to lunch with Sonny Hill, who is the new director of the People's City Mission Distribution Center in Lincoln. The center takes in all of the donations from the city and organizes them for distribution to the needy of our community. The high school youth and I have spent a number of evenings at the center, sorting through donations and helping to keep their operations organized. It'll be exciting to hear the ministry that is taking place under Sonny's leadership and to tell him about the blessings we've received so far in regards to our coat drive. Keep those coats coming!

100 Coats by Thanksgiving

2008-11-07T11:58:00.002-06:00

I'm always looking for a bargain. I love to find a great deal. Because of this fact I always notice signs when big sales are happening or when stores are closing down. I noticed some signs recently outside of our local Steve and Barry's store at Westfield Mall. (I think every mall in America is now called Westfield Mall). The latest signs I saw said that everything in the store was $3.98 or 2 for $7. I went inside and found the store still had tons and tons of clothes available. I noticed a Michigan jacket (that always catches my eye here in the foreign land God has called me to, named "Nebraska"). It was one of those varsity jacket types with the wool chest and the leather sleeves (faux leather, but who's keeping track). That was when I got my idea.

I thought that for such a cheap price, wouldn't it be nice to start buying coats and collecting them to give to the homeless shelters in our city? They may not be the absolute warmest coats in the world, but they are new and much better than many people have. I talked to the workers at Steve and Barry's and they told me the store would be closing right around Thanksgiving. That gives us about three weeks. I think that 100 coats is a fair goal to shoot for. Why don't you consider swinging by Steve and Barry's and pick up a couple of coats (and maybe even a sweatshirt or two) and bring them by Messiah Lutheran Church on 84th St. I'm certain that God can work through us to provide at least 100 new coats for the needy in Lincoln.

Brings a tear to my eye

2008-11-01T21:58:00.002-05:00

As a lifelong comic collector, I dream of the big score. Finding thousands of old comics in an attic or at an estate sale and winning the "lotto" of comic collecting. It's been done plenty of times in the past. The Mile High collection and the Mile High 2 are some huge finds. Others didn't have as many books, but were equally exciting in the fact that these comics sat unknown and untouched for decades before being discovered by joyful collectors.
My mom called a month or so ago with the discovery of some old comics in the attic of the Sebewaing Historical Society. They were ripped and smelly, but I convinced her to send them to me anyway. They arrived today and though I am always thrilled to receive any comics, the sight of these certainly filled my heart with excitement and great sadness. The comics were all from the 1960's and there were some nice finds among the dozen or so books she sent. The first appearance of the Black Panther. Spiderman number 35, with the black background cover featuring the Molten Man. Brain Boy, which I'd never heard of before, but has got to be one of the coolest titles of a comic ever. Unfortunately, these books have sustained some bad water damage. You can tell that most of them have probably only been read once or twice, and without the water, would be in incredible condition for their age. One Thor comic had the brightest color I've ever seen out of a 1960's comic, but it has a moldy water stain on the back and some places on the front where another comic cover is stuck to it. I weep for these comics and any others that have had to suffer a similar fate.
When you go to visit your great aunt or your 90 year old grandparents this Thanksgiving or Christmas, go and snoop around in their attic, their closets and under their beds. When you find a few boxes of dusty old comics, toss them in the back of your car and take them home. Mail them off to me and you can be certain that they'll be well loved and cared for by me.... or whomever I sell them to on eBay ;)

Beware of cameras

2008-10-27T08:41:00.002-05:00

We all change over time and good old facebook sure does remind us of that. I don't remember having this picture taken, but it definitely reminds me that I am old. Wow. This was taken a very long time ago.

Back from a crazy week in California

2008-10-15T13:23:00.004-05:00

I spent the past 7 days in California with Marty, the middle school youth leader from Messiah, and had a great time, but I sure am glad to be back home. I flew to Sacramento for a youth worker's conference, but arrived a couple of days early. Marty and I drove down to Dinuba where we spent two nights with our friends from Gleanings for the Hungry. We spent an entire day and night tearing apart a bathroom and laundry room for them and we then installed two new counter tops, 4 new sinks, 2 new light bars and a new mirror. We had to redo all of the plumbing below the sinks and then make everything look pretty before we left. The project went great and we pray it will be a tremendous blessing to all of the youth that serve at Gleanings in the future.
On Thursday afternoon we drove back to Sacramento for the start of our conference. During the 5 day conference we heard plenty of great speakers and got some super ideas to bring back to our ministries at Messiah. We also ate tons of candy, got lots of free stuff and had a chance to visit Gov. Arnold Schwarzengger's office at the state capitol. I think riding a magical unicorn while eating cotton candy and wearing a fake moustache was the highlight of my trip.
Our flight was delayed on the way home, so we spent an extra night on the road (in Denver) before making it home. It was a tiring trip, but one that will help both of us as we continue to share the message of God's love to all of the youth and families we serve in Lincoln.

Gotta cut back...

2008-10-01T09:10:00.002-05:00

It's finally getting to me. With the love of technology that I have, it's easy for me to want to help out others around the church with their problems. I love the feeling of being able rescue someone who is stuck in the mire of a lost printer connection or a computer that just won't connect to an email account. It must be the closest thing I can do to be a true superhero, like Spiderman or the Flash. I'm Computer Man!

Well, just like in the comics, superheroes sometimes need to retire and pass on their capes to others. Spiderman has done it. Superman and Batman have done it. It's time for Computer Man to do that too. I've been spending less and less time on the youth ministry I'm called to do, and more and more time fixing technology and plotting and planning for future technology expansion within the church. It's time to step down and let some other superheroes take over.

We've recently hired Dave Porath and Jordan Bergland as part-time technology assistants here at Messiah. They are both very gifted and talented in the areas of technology. I'm passing my webshooters on to them. I wouldn't do that unless I had complete confidence in their abilities and talents. They already have done some great things in the AV room and will continue to do great things throughout our building.

If the internet is slow, your computer won't print, you need to get a DVD player working or your cat is stuck in a tree and needs rescuing, please contact Dave or Jordan (the new Computer Man and Megabyte Boy). If they have some problems or need some input on how things are wired around here, I would be happy to assist them with the occassional need. I would humbly ask that you respect my need to retire from the computer superhero business and allow me to put my full energy and abilities into youth ministry, which is my calling and my love.

Happy Apple Day!

2008-09-28T11:01:00.002-05:00

Did you know that yesterday was official Apple Day in Lincoln, Nebraska. Actually, I just made that up. It was very "appley" around the house yesterday though, as Catherine, Amy and I headed out into our neighborhood for a bunch of free apples. We've been seeing a very heavily laden apple tree on our walks through our neighborhood, and it looked like the apples were just falling and going to waste. After repeated attempts to reach the owners of the house, I finally connected and got the "ok" to take as many apples as I'd like. We ended up with 4 grocery bags full of somewhat bruised and bug laden apples, but after spend a few hours on the back patio table removing the bad and keeping the good (ooooohh.... there's a great analogy of God and us in those apples and it's just waiting to be shared).

We were up until about midnight, but we now have plenty of applesauce in our freezer, a few jars of apple butter in the fridge and a HUGE pan of apple crisp just waiting to be eaten. Thanks for the apples neighbor!!! Nebraskans really are some of the friendliest people I know.

The last 20 years....

2008-09-23T07:54:00.002-05:00

Since facebook has put me back in touch with so many of the students I taught 20 years ago, I thought I'd blog a little on what the last 20 years has been like for me. This should answer any questions that the Lutheran East Eagles class of 1988 has for me.
In the fall of 1989 I was transferred to Lutheran Northwest to teach Biology and PE and coach socccer, as that school's enrollment was going up, and East's was dropping as fast at the Detroit Lion's playoff hopes. I was training for the Detroit marathon when the LHE class of 1989 graduated, and ran my first marathon in the fall of 1989. My wife and I had our first child in 1990, a son named Derek. I also got my Master's degree in Phys. Ed in 1992, with thoughts of becoming an athletic director or college phys. ed. prof. I continued teaching in LHNW, and an opportunity or two came up to move on to college teaching, but it just wasn't God's plan for me. We were blessed with a daughter in 1996, Leah, and another in 1999, Amy. I really loved teaching and enjoyed a great deal of success coaching both the boys and girls soccer teams. We only had one losing season in all of the 11 years I coached.
In the mid 90's, I got involved in the youth ministry at the church I belonged to, St. John's in Rochester. The youth director left our church, and so I filled in for a while, continuing with my full-time teaching at the same time. I really felt God was calling me to move into full-time youth ministry, so I put my name on the LCMS call list and listed myself available for a youth ministry call. I received a few calls, but it wasn't until late 2000 that God called me to serve at Messiah Lutheran in Lincoln, Nebraska. I had never lived anywhere but Michigan so it was truly a leap of faith when I accepted this call and my family and I moved to Lincoln. I've loved my ministry here in Nebraska and been blessed with a very supportive congregation. I made some running friends out here and have gotten back into the marathon circle, running Chicago in 2003, Minneapolis in 2005 and Disneyworld in 2007. I'm now in charge of all youth ministries for the high school students at my church (we have about 165 high school students) and last year we hired a full-time middle school youth director.
My son is a senior this year, and I'm feeling older by the minute. My girls are in the 7th and 4th grades. My wife and I celebrated our 23rd wedding anniversary, as I got married straight out of college in 1985, just before starting at LHE. We love to travel and my youth ministry job has taken us to California about 1/2 a dozen times, Colorado, Orlando, New Orleans, Nashville and more. The local Lutheran High in Lincoln had an opening for a boys soccer coach this year, so I started coaching again for the first time since leaving teaching in 2000. I love it.
I'd love to hear what each of you has been up to over the last 20 years. Send me a nice long facebook message and tell me all about your lives.

Digital Natives

2008-09-18T10:20:00.003-05:00

I'm really enjoying a book I'm reading called "Born Digital". It's taking a look at the generation of people who have grown up in a digital world. The book lumps anyone born after 1980 into this crowd, but I don't know if I'd stretch it quite that wide. I loved the introduction, which looked at how digital immigrants (old people who didn't grow up with the internet or computers) could deal with digital natives. We (I'm an immigrant because of my advanced age) can either try to restrict their digital use out of fear or the unknown or we can allow the digital natives to take our culture and society to new and exciting places. This could be taken in a couple of ways, but this statement was coupled with the fact that no matter if you have grown up a digital native, or grown up in the 1600's, it's important that friends and family are close and providing support, advice and accountability to children and teens. That should be followed up with teachers and other mentors and then closely watched by the community and society surrounding them. It doesn't take a village to raise these digital natives. It takes parents and peers that are also making wise choices. It takes a school and community groups that are teaching natives to use sound judgement and good morals in their digital lives as they do in their "real-world" lives. Once I return this book to the library, you should look for it if you know any digital natives or are one yourself.

A terrific lunch

2008-09-16T14:31:00.002-05:00

Had a great free birthday lunch courtesy of Dare 2 Share ministries and Greg Stier. Greg is a preacher who loves youth and has a real fire for evangelism. Every year Dare 2 Share tours the country and Lincoln is the smallest city they come to. Lincoln also sells out quicker than any other stop and is a faithful host for the Dare 2 Share conference. I hope that plenty of youth can make it to the Invincible tour this year in February when Dare 2 Share comes to town. Thanks for lunch, Greg! The food at the Wilderness Lodge was delicious!

I'm in love all over again

2008-09-15T14:31:00.008-05:00

While my wife is and always will be the one true love of my life, I sure am infatuated with my new iPhone. It's really awesome. I love having all 500 of the contacts from my Mac address book on my phone. I have already used the facebook and twitter features a bunch and look forward to the ability to text all of my youth anytime and anywhere. My communication ability has taken a giant leap forward with this wonderful creation that came from the minds at Apple Inc.

The artists within

2008-08-18T15:42:00.002-05:00

I'm a very creative person. I don't have a great deal of artistic ability, but I surely do love to try. That's probably what I enjoyed most about the car painting project that Derek and I tackled. It took many hours of sanding, priming, bondo-ing, and prep work, but it was well worth it. The car with the bad sunburn is now a car with a BAD paint job. It's not perfect, but that doesn't bother either of us at all. It's shiny, new and so much better than before. I think that's how God sees us. We dwell on our imperfections and our failures, while He sees us as His children and He loves us so greatly and so dearly. Derek's car just needed someone to love it and we all need our Lord to love and save us.
On a related note, it was especially exciting to finish this job with Derek as we both have the very annoying habit of starting projects and then never seeing them through to completion. This one is done and we can check it off the long list of things to do.

Carnival Time

2008-08-08T22:00:00.003-05:00

Went with Catherine and the girls to the Lancaster county fair. We had lots of fun watching a couple of girls from my youth group show their sheep. They won plenty of ribbons and did very well. We also enjoyed some cotton candy and seeing all the awesome 4-H projects, with plenty of them done by the youth from Messiah. The highlight of our day was when the girls road the Tilt-a-Whirl. It looked like it was from the early 1900's and after the girls got off the ride, we noticed the nice tarp full of spare parts next to it. My theory is that when they got done putting it together, these were the parts left over. That's usually how my projects go when I fix things. I take something apart and when I put it back together I always have parts left over.

That's got to be what happened when the Tilt-a-Whirl was put together.

Cool as a cucumber

2008-08-04T17:32:00.002-05:00

It's nice to be back in Nebraska, even though the weather is horrible. High heat and humidity don't mix well. Enjoyed every aspect of the California mission trip and it ended on a fun note as I ran into David Beckham in the LA airport. He was right behind me on the escalator heading for security. I was cool and collected as I skated through security and caught up to him for a photo. A soccer coaches dream, that's what this pic is entitled.

Heading West

2008-07-26T14:24:00.002-05:00

I'll be heading to California for the second Gleanings mission trip of the summer. Follow all of our adventures at my me.com website.

Mulberry Jam

2008-07-19T16:16:00.003-05:00

I really enjoyed my time back in Michigan this summer. I hadn't been back in 4 years, and so I savored every moment I had back in the Great Lake State. One exciting discovery I made in my mom's back yard were a couple of mulberry trees (they're trees, not bushes) I picked a bunch of them and made three batches of mulberry jam. Yummy! Do they have mulberries in Nebraska? Leave me a comment if they do. I'd love to know.

wow....I'm done traveling for a while

2008-07-09T07:56:00.002-05:00

A week in Cali and two weeks in Michigan (plus the driving time). I'm really ready to stay put for a while, but it may not be happening. I've got more trips planned for the summer, so the this is just a small break in the schedule. I sure enjoyed my time "on the road" but I do look forward to finishing up this traveling and getting back to life in good old Lincoln.

In California

2008-06-16T08:33:00.004-05:00

I'm in California all this week, so to see what I'm up to, head to http://web.mac.com/sguenther