Everyone Is Reading about the Bullying WELS District President John Steinbrenne

WELS' first female Minister of the Means of Grace.
No one wants to open that can of worms, another
Church and Change operation.
But now starring at Steinbrenner's hive of Enthusiasm.

Improper communication - no problem!

WELS District President John Steinbrenner
is full-throttle for Church and Change,
but what about his duty to report?
Alaska Law

The Odious Don Patterson Network,
the Texas branch of the Jeske Crime Family:
Enthusiasm? They haz it.

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Refuting the Doctrinal Fallacies of Justification without Faith. Those Who Agree with St. Paul and Luther No Longer Need To Feel Alone.

 Pastor Michael Henson -
click this link for the seven part video series.

Roses for Mrs. Wright

California Dreamin' Rose

It began with our neighbor Mr. Wright struggling to clear snow from his car. They live next door. He and his wife drove their cars but were not able to do much, due to their health. Team Jackson began clearing the walks and driveways of the homes on each side of us.

Mrs. Wright was intrigued by our new rose garden, first the eight TV bargain roses, then the KnockOut roses, and finally the hybrid tea collection. She came over to visit with my wife Chris, often on the porch overlooking the roses.

Soon she was listening to our worship service every Sunday, although they were Seventh Day Adventists. When I described the roses on the altar, she was watching closely, because they were delivered to her door a few minutes later.

One day Chris took LI and Alex over to meet the Wrights. They loved seeing Alex playing with his latest toy, and Mr. Wright talked to him.

Various maladies have ganged up on Mrs. Wright, and she is in the hospital, in very serious condition. We learned this yesterday morning and made plans to see her.

I put on my hat, overcoat, and old shoes, and began cutting the best roses - in the driving rain - from the various gardens. KnockOuts were sprouting some new blooms, even some buds ready to open. Once a large vase was full, I went to the backyard. Hybrid teas were not really blooming anymore, but one John Paul II white rose was in bloom. I cut that one.

John Paul II rose

California Dreamin has been a bit fragile all summer, so I did not expect much from that rose. However, the best bloom from all summer was reaching up from a long, slender stem. As anyone can see from the photo above, that is a spectacularly beautiful rose.

Maybe the bargain roses will tithe, I thought. One reader, a classmate from Moline, wondered how roses could grow around a maple tree, which is famous for greedy, shallow roots. There was a perfect example of Bride's Dream, pictured below, a delicate pink.

Bride's Dream

We took the roses to the hospital and visited with Mrs. Wright. She could only write her messages. She told everyone that "my Lutheran pastor" was there. I was able to stay a while and say a prayer with her. Chris stayed much longer and had a long conversation with her, Chris talking, Mrs. Wright writing. oxygen running.

Many people think in terms of our worship broadcasts serving a large group from far away, and that is why we set it up initially, with Brett Meyer sending a camera and expecting services every Sunday. The first chapel was actually a narrow hallway that worked perfectly, and our organ music was donated by our Michigander.

We do not have in this house for people in the chapel, but it works just as well for our neighbors as it does for other states and countries.

I am offering this little story to show how the Gospel works in reaching people. One only has to trust the Word and not tell God what to do and when He must do it. One of my favorite hymns sums up Biblical, Lutheran doctrine so well.

"Lord, Thee I Love with All My Heart" by Martin Schalling, 1532-1608
Translated by Catherine Winkworth, 1829-1878

1. Lord, Thee I love with all my heart;
I pray Thee ne'er from me depart,
With tender mercies cheer me.
Earth has no pleasure I would share,
Yea, heaven itself were void and bare
If Thou, Lord, wert not near me.
And should my heart for sorrow break,
My trust in Thee no one could shake.
Thou art the Portion I have sought;
Thy precious blood my soul has bought.
Lord Jesus Christ,
My God and Lord, my God and Lord,
Forsake me not! I trust Thy Word.

2. Yea, Lord, 'twas Thy rich bounty gave
My body, soul, and all I have
In this poor life of labor.
Lord, grant that I in every place
May glorify Thy lavish grace
And serve and help my neighbor.
Let no false doctrine me beguile
And Satan not my soul defile.
Give strength and patience unto me
To bear my cross and follow Thee.
Lord Jesus Christ,
My God and Lord, my God and Lord,
In death Thy comfort still afford.

3. Lord, let at last Thine angels come,
To Abram's bosom bear me home,
That I may die unfearing;
And in its narrow chamber keep
My body safe in peaceful sleep
Until Thy reappearing.
And then from death awaken me
That these mine eyes with joy may see,
O Son of God, Thy glorious face,
My Savior and my Fount of grace,
Lord Jesus Christ,
My prayer attend, my prayer attend,
And I will praise Thee without end.

Hymn #429 from The Lutheran Hymnal
Text: Psalm 18
Author: Martin Schalling, c. 1567
Translated by: Catherine Winkworth, 1863, alt.
Titled: "Herzlich lieb hab' ich dich, o Herr"
Tune: "Herzlich lieb hab' ich dir, o Herr"
1st Published in: Berhnard Schmid's Orgelbuch
Town: Strassburg, 1577

Recycling Cardboard in the Wild Garden. Roses Are Still Blooming in Mid-November. Torrential Rains

When we went outside for photos of his birthday present, Alex said, "Grampy, could I walk on your cardboard?" Adults would scoff  at half the yard covered in cardboard and say, "What a Dogpatch!" but a boy is going to explore it and ask about it.

"Why all the cardboard?"

I answered, "This is going to be the Wild Garden, so we are killing off the lawn grass and building up compost."

"Cool!"

Sassy Sue supervised our backyard adventure.
She helped sing "Happy Birthday" to Alex.

Cardboard
Large cardboard boxes speed up carpeting the lawn, but we still needed carloads of scrap and almost all the cardboard used in our home over a period of time. However, we did get the entire area, half the backyard, covered with one layer of cardboard and a series of objects holding it down.

The last storm gave us lots of wind and almost no rain, so some of the cardboard tried to fly away. The storm from yesterday and today is making the layer heavy and soggy now. The first object is to keep sunlight from renewing the sod in spring, Instead, the lawn will turn into highly productive compost. Entire books are written about building compost, but the easiest and best way is to use something in place with all the ingredients - soil creatures, soil microbes, nitrogen sources (grass), and food (miles and miles of roots).

Do you want even bigger, more radiant blooms than this one, from the Net?
Mulch and earthworm your bushes.

Leaves
The leaves are only starting to fall now. In the front yard they are going under the crepe myrtle bush in a tall pyramid, to feed the roots and protect the Calladium bulbs I left there. They are tender bulbs that might last the winter under a thick blanket of leaves, their spaces creating insulating air pockets.

Sweetheart Calladiums grew under the crepe myrtle and
matched the color of the blooms.

Another place is the rose garden, where thousands of earthworms pull down all organic matter. Their fertilizer is made up of leaves, newspapers, wood mulch, and Robin-gro.

The sunny garden, formerly the Straw Bale Organic Slug Farm, will have leaves to fertilize the tomatoes I grow there next spring. That area already enjoys bales of rotting straw (a nitrogen base), newspapers, wood mulch, weed remains, and newspapers. The area is teeming with earthworms and holds water very well. Although I tended to neglect watering those roses compared to the main rose garden, the  bargain roses grew prodigiously all summer.

I will grab autumn leaf bags from neighbors when I can. They can laugh all winter long, but they will be at the Jackson Rose Farm when they want roses. On Sunday I easily cut a bunch of KnockOut roses for the altar and expect to again this Sunday. After that, the frost will begin to nip them. The hybrid tea roses, more delicate, have decided to sleep for the winter.

Wood Mulch
I am more likely to get one big load of mulch for next year. Almost Eden Nursery is next door, and that will work well for both of us. Mulch will look pleasant and harbor all kinds of creatures while holding down weeds and feeding the soil.

Every time I put down fresh mulch I see a spider's web cast over it. When I cut perfect roses for the altar, I often find a tight spider's web woven around the base of the stem, a message to pests, like Gandalf's - "You shall not pass!"

Arnold Schwarzenegger spoke at the Walmart Saturday Morning Meeting. He was hilarious.

We also heard an actress speak about "Polar," an upcoming TV movie.