Late Christmas Letter or a Chinese New Year Greeting

THE PATTONS                                                                                        Christmas 2013

May the Blessings of Peace on Earth be with You and All Peoples

5537 Chadwick Road -- Fairway, Kansas 66205-2626

913.831.0178 -- E-mail: pattongroup@earthlink.net

 

Donna and Ron

Celebrated 49^th wedding anniversary in Vienna, Austria

Traveled to Bloomington, MN on several other occasions to visit Andy’s family

Traveled to London in July and joined the Village Church Choir in Munich to tour

and sing in Bavaria, Salzburg, Prague and Vienna

Active in various fine and performing arts organizations in the Kansas City area

Enjoy the Ball (ballroom dancing) Club of Kansas City

Love being grandparents to Frances and Kai

Donna

Continues her career of 34 years as a financial advisor with Principal Financial Group

Sings in the Village Church Choir, serves on Presbytery and professional committees

Had knee reconstructive surgery in February

Swims most mornings each week

Ron

Continues at Village Presbyterian Church as Media Production Coordinator

Completed service as Moderator of the Presbytery Board of Trustees

Serves on several other Presbytery committees and commissions

Andy, Jill, Kai and Frances

Enjoy their home in Bloomington, MN

Andy continues as International Business Development Manager for a bicycle company,

traveling in Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East

Jill is a free-lance writer and teaches yoga

Celebrated their seventh wedding anniversary on September 30

Frances celebrated her sixth birthday on September 6 and attends an Arts-centered

Kindergarten

Kai is a 7th grader, an accomplished soccer player and active Boy Scout

Kirk and Terra

Kirk and Terra celebrated their second wedding anniversary on April 3

Kirk and Terra continue as owner/operators of Bang & Olufsen,

Crossroads

Beo (rescued as a kitten) works and lives with Kirk and Terra

Kirk sings in the Kansas City Symphony Chorus; is an elder at Christ Presbyterian Church

Sally – The Kitty Cat

Four year old, very active tortoise-color kitty who likes to get Ron

up in morning  and observe the birds at the feeders in the winter

Pictures of the Family from 2013

49th Anniversary in Vienna, Austria

The Grand Kids
Kai and Frances

Donna and her men
Andy, Ron and Kirk

The Patton Ladies
Terra, Donna, Frances, Jill

What Can We Say?

WHAT CAN WE SAY?

Last Spring I had the privilege of singing Brahms “German” Requiem with the Village Presbyterian Church Choir.  For years, I have heard the Requiem sung, in German, with large orchestras, and the Second Movement has often sent chills down by back.  But, last Spring, we sang the Requiem in English with a duel piano accompaniment.

We had spent about 6 weeks in rehearsal with all of the detail work that goes into the preparation of any choral work.  Mark Ball, Music Director at Village, had taken time to outline the motivation and emotion that was behind the writing of this great choral work.  I had expected that doing all the work in preparing for the performance of the Requiem, I would not have been affected by the Second Movement.

That was not the case.  An unexpected wave of emotion came over me as we began to sing words based on these passages of Scripture:

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. (I Peter 1:24) 

Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. (James 5:7) 

But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. (I Peter 1:25)

Chills ran up and down my spine even stronger than the first time I heard the Requiem.  I cannot explain why this happened.

Today, December 14, 2012, I struggle, as many do, to try to find words in the wake of the shooting at the Sandy Hoot Elementary School in Newtown, CT.  What can be said to the parents, grandparents, siblings, friends and all the family and friends of the 18 to 20 children who were murdered plus all those connected to the adults who were murdered?

It was not God’s will.  Do not say that God needed more little angels in heaven.  If we can believe in the words of John 3:16 (God so loved the world…), then there must be nothing but great sorrow in the “heart of God” at the murder of almost thirty children and adults.

And, yes, I use the term “murder” and not “killed” in this case.  It is possible to kill a Supreme Court nomination, or a tree or even an animal, but when a person pulled the trigger of a gun that causes a bullet to so damage a child’s body that life can no longer be sustained, that is one thing – MURDER.

Who is to blame for these murders?  The person who pulled the trigger?  Yes.  A school system that lacks sufficient procedures to guarantee guns will never be carried into the building?  Yes.  But there is a large group that carries the blame.  Remember the words from the classic comic strip “Pogo?”

We have met the enemy and they are us.

We are a society that is obsessed with guns.  Those of us who misinterpret the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution mistake ourselves for the militia.  Those of us who seek tighter gun control, in particular handguns and assault weapons, have remained silent for far too long.  Tell me not that: “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”  How many at Columbine High School, or the Colorado movie theatre, or an Arizona political rally or a Connecticut elementary school would be alive today if there were not tighter controls on handguns and assault weapons.

Recently, the Overland Park, Kansas City Council passed an “open carry” ordinance that allows anyone with a permit to openly carry a handgun.  This is 2012 not 1875.  Most of my ministry has been in urban communities.  I have confronted prostitutes that were working within 300 feet of our public charter school.  I have gone nose to nose with drunken panhandlers who caused people to avoid coming into the church on Sunday mornings.  I have responded to burglar alarms at 3 a.m. in the morning.  Not once did I feel I needed to carry a weapon.

In rural Indiana I was a sworn reserve deputy sheriff and carried a weapon only when we were on a stakeout or stopped a vehicle travelling over 100 miles per hour.

What can we do?  Some will say “Nothing.”  Others will place the blame somewhere else on someone else.  But, until we look into our own souls and allow our sorrow join with God’s sorrow will we see a day when the murder of children and their educators is no longer the headlines or the breaking news.  Not because the news media has gone on to the next breaking story, but because we have changed.

I pray that a day will come when our grandchildren, Frances and Kai, and their children and grandchildren will never have to hear of another Sandy Hoot Elementary School shooting.

A funny thing happened...

A funny thing happened…

I am aware that when ministers have been ordained as many decades as I have they have a myriad of stories about many facets of ministry.  Some of these stories have been filled with sadness and sorrow.  But, in this posting I share with my readers some of the stories that continue to not only bring smiles but rounds of almost uncontrollable laughter.  So here are a few of those stories.

One of the first stories comes before I was ordained, serving as a supply preacher from seminary.  It was the days before “Google Maps” so estimating mileage between seminary and a church was dependent on gas station maps.  In planning for a Sunday preaching event, I had underestimated the distance by some 60 miles.  My wife and I drove and drove and the time got shorter and shorter.  In addition, the gas tank was getting more and more empty while my rent on my coffee was becoming due.

We made a quick stop about 10 miles from the church where my wife purchased a few gallons gas and I made a visit to the rest room.  We hurried on to the church and pulled up in front just as the choir was lining up to process up the aisle.  Wearing my clerical collar, I grabbed my sermon, walked up the steps, took my place next to the elder who was liturgist and walked down the aisle as if it had been planned hat way.  We walked in as if I had been there for an hour.

Lesson learned: The Boy Scout motto applies to the ministry: always “Be Prepared.”

Worship in the outdoors can always be exciting.  The church in the small rural community in which I first served decided that once a month during the summer we would worship in the town park.  We had set up for the Lord’s Supper in the Town Park shelter and begun worship just as we heard the increasing sound of a low flying aircraft.  On each side of the one road into the park there was a field of sweet corn and that was the day the local canning plant decided the sweet corn was just right for picking and canning.

Prior to the picking, the fields were aerial dusted to drive out the ear worms, which were not needed for extra protein in the canned corn.  The growing sound of a low flying aircraft was the crop duster about 6 feet above the tops of the corn with its dust dispenser on full force.  There was no worry about being dusted, but at the end of the field were two trees closer together than the wingspan of the plane.  If the plane crashed, the one road into the park would be blocked and the volunteer fire fighters would be unable to get to their favorite fire truck.  Over half the department, including myself, were at the service.

What happened?  The plane turned on one wing tip, flew sideways between the trees, flew a half loop, performed an Immelman turn (roll off the top; half loop, half roll) returned and flew again sideways between the trees.

Several years ago we were back at that church for a celebration.  Everyone remember the crop duster event.  No one, including the minister, remembers the sermon.

Lesson learned: They won’t always remember the sermon, but they will remember the corn.

As third story comes from the urban church I served for over a dozen years.  Our sons were preschoolers when we went to that church.  My wife was singing in the choir and the preacher’s sons were assigned to sit with certain members of the congregation.  One son was assigned to sit with a husband and wife who were retired teachers.  The other son was assigned to sit with two sisters who were “old maid” retired teachers.

One Sunday, in the middle of my sermon, our younger son could not decide whom he was going to sit with during worship.  Thus he was running back and forth across the front of the sanctuary, under the pulpit, trying to decide where to sit.  The congregation was getting more and more uneasy

I leaned up over the pulpit as our son ran in front of the pulpit and in a deep commanding, parental voice said: “Kirk, SIT DOWN.”  It worked, the congregation relaxed and Kirk sat down.  He does not remember the event, but today he serves as a ruling elder in an Italian/Haitian congregation.

Lesson learned:  Don’t hesitate to take charge when needed in worship.  That is the task of a worship leader.

Presbyterians have been called the “frozen chosen.”  But it doesn’t have to be that way.

-- Dr. Ron Patton, H.R.