And as a result of the hardships of the New England Ice Storm, 2008, I give you one Holdenites Art having gone through no electricity for an extended period of time:

by the way, the Holdenite is not me. This is not my poem, and when I find out who’s it is, I’ll let you know.

“Our Nightmare Before Christmas

Twas two weeks before Christmas and all through the town it rained and it froze and the trees all fell down.

The wires that were strung on utility poles snapped like a twig and the houses all froze.

We got our selves nestled all snug in our bed while visions of warmer days danced in our head,
and me in my thermals and Pa in his cap stayed huddled together for a bone chilling nap.

The moon on the ice made a crystalline glow and we thought to ourselves, just how long can this go?

When what to our wondering eyes did appear

but our son with some coffee and donuts and cheer.

We could see our white breath in the darkness above and deep under the covers I searched for my love.

His feet, they were frozen and so was his head — made me think to myself that he just might be dead.

The days passed so slowly, we must be insane as we waited and wondered and called out by name

“On Thursday, on Friday, on Saturday (is this it!)

on Sunday, on Monday, on Tuesday (please quit!)

on Wednesday, and Thursday and Friday (oh dread!)

the kerosene fumes must have gone to our head.

To add to the pleasure of winter’s delight two snowstorms came by – 18 inches of white.

The snowing and blowing made things bad to worse and we prayed to the heavens our pipes wouldn’t burst.

Pa’s eyes now were sunken, his expression — not merry, his cheeks had a pallor, his nose like a cherry.

The odd little smile on his face wasn’t fun and he often was mumbling “go get my gun”.

Then a rap on the door, and  the fireman said, “Are you sick, are you sane, and is anyone dead?

There’s a shelter, there’s warmth, you can come if you’re able, we have showers and kindness and food on the table” — and we looked at each other and thought  —  “what the heck?”

yeah … eleven days later you FINALLY check!

On night number twelve we heard the faint roar of a convoy of trucks and we ran to the door.

To the top of the poles, to the stretch of the cable — please bring us your power just as fast as you’ re able!

They spoke not a word, but went straight to their work and the power came on with a hum and a jerk.

They heard us exclaim, as they drove out of sight —

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!  WE HAVE HEAT! WE HAVE LIGHT!”

Marty and Carie celebrating the "best Christmas ever" at the TCA Facebook reunion!

So all December long I felt like such a scrooge. It wasn’t that I was mean to people, but I just didn’t feel like being in the “Christmas Spirit”.  Ya know, presents and singing and parties.  And I think part of the problem was that I couldn’t have any of those things.  Everytime I was invited to a party, it got cancelled.  Everytime I was supposed to give or get a present, there was too much ice or snow on the road to get to that place of exchange.

In the end, it was just me, my beautiful wife,and this year, I put away the TV during the week of Christmas (save for a few football games that made me jolly),and read through Scripture or books that focused on either the spiritual and/or leadership.

I didn’t really feel like Christmas as I had in years past.  Shopping and gifts and parties seemed more distant than I would have liked.  But the Christ part of Christmas was more evident than ever before.  This part had little to do with external lights as much it had to do with the light of the world.  And the only gift I could think about was the one God gave me when He sent His only son, Jesus Christ to save the sins of the world.

It was the greatest Christmas ever!

I think 2008 somehow became the year where being a critic was acceptable and normal, even for positive types like me.

So 2009 in my life is going to look like this:

I’m going to make an honest attempt at keeping critical words out of my vocabulary, unless I am speaking to the person of whom I am being critical.  If someone else is being critical to me about something that is out of my control and/or about another person, I am going to respond, “Well, let’s pray for that situation right now” or “Let’s go talk to that person right now and see what they think about it.”

So please be warned.  I’m afraid that if being critical is allowed to roam freely in and out of our mouths for too long, critical spirits will follow.  A internal investigation is needed right now within me,and this is the change being made in me in 2009.

And I don’t even care if you call it a resolution.

The last several days have been an incredible whirlwind here in the Northeast. A million people have lost power, which means they’ve lost heat, and many have been without water as well.  Here’s the Lowdown:

Thursday night brought hard rain with 31-33 degree tempreatures, causing ice to form around every piece of grass and every branch of every tree (including bushes).  After driving home from an amazing concert, Carie and I were wet and cold and tired, inspiring us to hit the sack.

I woke up at 4:00 am the next morning to no electricity, and the sound of crashing trees every 5 minutes or so.  It didn’t help to look outside, because there were no lights to be able to see anything.  Looking out a window meant looking into blackness, and simply hearing the sound of crashing.  Very intimidating indeed.

On Friday morning, Carie’s school hadn’t cancelled school yet (the “super” has the same reputation as a baptist pastor in the midwest on a Sunday morning when it comes to cancellations), so I told Carie I’d go out and put some gas in the car for her, and in the process let her know if the roads were safe enough to go to her school, a 25 minute drive through backoads and lots of trees.

I thawed the car out (oddly enough the pavement on the driveway and on the roads were fine) and backed out, eventually taking a right out of the driveway.  I drove approximately 10 feet before I could no longer drive through the large tree branches draped across the roads, not to mention the power lines daring me to “see if I was man enough.”

I was not.  I backed up back into my driveway, then decided to take a left toward Holden.  I drove approximately 20 feet before I could no longer get through the trees.  (yes, there were literally trees across th road)  I told Carie that I was her new superintendant, and pronounced school to be cancelled.  Any other day this would have been a day of glorious celebration, but the house was already getting a bit chilly at this point, so it was time for further decisions.

Friday night we, like so many other families in Ct, Mass, NY, NH, and Maine, left our house which was devoid of electricity and heat, and headed into Worcester.  For whatever reason, the large city in our vicinity had major pockets of electricity, and Carie’s mother lived in one of those pockets.

Friday night a pastor from Connecticut, only about 30 minutes from Fellowship, called me, and asked me via voicemail why I never answer my phone.  I was only mildly amused at his  humor.  I called him back on Saturday morning, and he explained to me about some event he was having at his church in January.  Then he asked me how I was doing.

“Ummmm”, I said slowly.  “I’m in the midst of a major problem where no one has any power in the whole of my town, and we’re looking for shelter and tree removal help.  People are freezing, and a lot of people can’t get out of there driveways.”

“Oh”, he said shocked.  “I had no idea.”

Then on Saturday afternoon Carie and I helped prepare some food at a shelter in Princeton, an area that was hit particularly hard, and when we returned to our house, our power had returned, 40 hours after it removed itself from our presence.  We rejoiced, then made arrangements for church.

Church on Sunday morning was quiet, though we had about half our attendance.  Few in Holden and the surrounding areas knew that we had church, because email was non-existent.  Phone calls were made, but not everyone could be reached.

But we utilized our service as an opportunity to connect people and resources.  On Sunday evening, we had sent out meals to shelters and fire departments around the area.

An amazing thank you should go out to all the power company and tree removal workers who have worked tirelessly and throughout days and nights to get people’s electricity back on and ultimately there heat.

But I’m writing this to let you know, there are still tens of thousands of people who do not have heat and electricity and we are going into a weekend of 10 degree temperaures.  As some friends of mine said once,

Much prayer, much power.  Little prayer, little power.  No prayer…

Thanksgiving with my small group - November 20, 2008

May this holiday not only remind you of our responsibility to be thankful, but make you more thankful than you already are.  I’m thankful for:

My God.
My wife, Carie.
My church family.
My family (including my friends.).

To you, for being a part of my community.

A symbol of masculinity.  A symbol of hope.
No fakes.  No costumes.  Just hair over the lip.

Who’s with me?!