Evangelism Day at Martin Luther College - WELS. The Usual Church and Change Suspects Will Speak

Rev. Donald Patterson has delayed his African hunting trip
to teach students how to use synod funds to support the parish budget
by calling it "missions."

Evangelism Day

When	Jan 21, 2015 from 08:30 AM to03:00 PM
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Evangelism Day is dedicated to equipping MLC students to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, both in their personal lives and when they serve in the public ministry. The public is invited to attend the opening worship service from 8:30 to 9:15 a.m. in the Chapel of the Christ, or watch it live on MLCTV.

"We lead the people to and fro,
in error's maze astounded."

• President Zarling has promised that no one will mention the efficacy of the Word in the Means of Grace. 
• SP Mark Schroeder has thanked him for his faithfulness to UOJ, Halle University, and Kokomo.
• Paul Calvin Kelm will reveal how one can mine the truths of What Color Is Your Parachute? to jump from one protected synod job to another, without answering to anyone.
• David Valleskey will deny he studied at Fuller Seminary.
• Frosty Bivens will deny that he studied at Fuller Seminary.
• Lawrence Otto Olson will describe how he earned a drive-by DMin at Fuller and never once saw Valleskey or Bivens there.
• All Scripture readings will be from the New NIV, but Parlow will read from The Message.

Yay! WELS dodged another discussion abut the putrid New NIV
by blessing all translations and paraphrases.

Vines and Trees - Another Form of Vertical Gardening

Boston Ivy, U. of Chicago building.

Having 200 linear feet of chain-link fencing certainly made me think of vertical gardening - peas, beans, gourds, pumpkins, and Malabar spinach.  Our six trees also encourage vertical gardening.

Long ago, my initial effort did not work out, growing a vine up a tree. I made a rookie mistake, thinking one vine and one tree would equal a vine-covered tree.

The first step is to begin planting the vine where it will have a good base for roots to grow, farther away from the tree, and where more sunlight will reach at first.

Boston Ivy (really Japanese - and a grape) has an interesting characteristic. The vine grows fast in the shade because it looks for sunlight and heads toward it. Someone from Harvard saw it growing in Japan and brought it to Harvard. Yale liked the look and added it to its buildings, now cursing the day they copied their rival. Boston Ivy is great for birds and old crumbling structures, but it is terribly invasive and destructive for buildings.

The Ivy League was started as a football association, so the more scholarly students could play their peers instead of the brutes in the South and Big 10 universities.

Boston Ivy is not on my list, and I already have English Ivy on the front of the house, inherited from a previous renter.

Trumpet Vine is one of several hummingbird plants I will grow as living feeders.

My first choice is Trumpet Vine, because we grew it at home in Moline. I remember mowing the lawn and seeing the plants coming up, never reaching another location, but doing well on our tiny garage. When we tore the vines down to paint the garage, the vines grew back fast, because the roots were well established in that location.

I began in the fall by covering the base of the dead tree, alive with crabgrass, with Jackson mulch: newspapers to compost the crabgrass, wood mulch to hold down the newspapers and promote fungi in the soil. Much later, a new supply of newspapers meant an enlarged circle and all the wet autumn leaves we could gather. The rain fell for several days afterwards - composters' weather.

The dead tree is a few feet from the compost pile, my earthworm dormitory and cafeteria. I will choose spot where the soil is deep, plant one or two vines, and fence around it until the vine is established. The advantage of a pre-mulched area is having a fertile and protected zone to plant, where the new project will have an easy time getting established, with moisture moderated by mulch.

Gardening companies and books have all kinds of gadgets to deliver water to plants outside. I use mulch to hold water and slowly add nutrition to the soil.

I am not sure which vines to try in the future, so ideas from the readers are welcome. I have thought about Maypop or Passion Flower.

Maypop or Passion Flower.

Opinions about Roses

Somehow I was put on a list for rose catalogs, and they are coming in. Edmunds, Jackson and Perkins, Wayside Gardens, and roses in the various seed catalogs. One arrived that featured all the old-time roses that some love to plant.

Rather than extol the classic roses of the past, the catalog seemed to delight in running down hybrid tea roses, my favorites. No sale there. I like "spindly plants," another name for long stems. I enjoy repeat blooming, not just once a year. I had a rugosa rose once, the meanest thing on earth, covered with prickles rather than roses. Someone gave it to me, free - I wonder why.

Tree roses have great appeal - and cost. I might buy one at the end of the season, if offered for $10. The $50 price tag is due to the extra labor to create them. If you think Double Delights and Peace roses disappear fast, try them on standards. They will not be among the $10 leftovers. It will be more like Desert Mistake Tree Rose - or Purple and Black Tree Rose. But still - worth a try again.

Some say, "Plant roses in threes and fives," Those experts probably work for the rose companies. Roses can be priced low in larger groups. But - have you noticed - roses never clash in an arrangement. No matter what colors are put together, they look glorious.

Bella Roma - yes, fragrant too.

All my roses dollars were used up when I saw two more kinds that I wanted - well, maybe next year. Mrs. Ichabod approved one for later - Bella Roma. I will not even mention the other one - OK - Summer Surprise.

Summer Surprise

But I learned this - introduce an irresistible purchase slowly, gradually, subtly. If all goes well, Mrs. Ichabod will say, "Did you buy a Bella Roma yet? I hope some are left."

As everyone knows, half the enjoyment is studying the lists, comparing the strengths and weaknesses, counting spaces, anticipating watering, and building more compost. True gardening browsing is a year-around endeavor, the best time being in winter when no weeds grow and no plants fail. Maybe I can capture rainwater from my two gutters and save that for real boosts for the roses.

Rose DNA and Creation
What continues to dazzle me is the vast library of rose DNA they shape and move around with hybridizing. Roses were great but odorless. Boom, they created new varieties with color and fragrance galore. But where does all this come from? The data was built into the rose at the very beginning. "Nothing that was created was created apart from Him."

The software of each plant, microbe, and soil creature works to perfection, and yet they are inter-dependent on each other. Software is not exactly the right term, but it comes close to describing what happens. Temperatures call into action three different types of bacteria, which appear when needed.

Earthworms will mix and improve compost, but only when the time is right. If they entered the fray too early, they would melt in the heat of the early stage of composting. Human drivers head into storms heedless of the danger, but earthworms are wiser and more careful.

All of this points to Creation, which is more astonishing at the microbe level than at the plant level, which is beyond comprehension.

Tree or standard roses are doubly spliced
to add height and drama to the flowers.