Steve Parke, a man for the ages.

Every so often, a man comes along who is comfortable in his own skin.  I rarely actually meet such a man, but here you see one!  Let me introduce you to Steve Parke.  And see that guitar hanging off his shoulder?  He can play that!  And he can sing!  And sometimes he lets me sing with him.  Usually that happens when he is at the Peace Flotilla at the nature center in the fall.  Everyone goes down to the river to launch the floats and we wail away.  Here he is at the courthouse steps where the faith leaders were  holding a rally to ask for civility in our discussions on gun control.  Steve is a retired minister and is often found at any gathering for anything that even faintly resembles civil rights and that means any civil right for any human, animal, or anything that comes up.

And he plays that guitar and sings for Mothers Day Out at our church.  He is now working on publishing his second album.  Don't know what it is called, but do know that I will be in line for one of the first ones sold!  Then I can sing along with him all day!

He can travel to Ireland in search of his roots, come home with a slide show of epic proportions and make us all feel like we had gone there with him!  Ireland is beautiful and he is proud of his roots!  Steve is one of the best story tellers I have encountered and I have known a few!  He is at home in the coffee shops, nursing homes, church meetings, ski slopes, gym, river walk, and anywhere he points his little nose.  And girls, he is single!

 

 

But at our fundraiser at the church last Saturday, Theresa caught a side of Steve that we had never seen.  Now I am not sure that he was setting at this vanity because he was thinking about purchasing it, or just wanted to get off his feet for a break, or what was in his mind, but we got quite a kick out of this and I did promise him that I would present him in a good light.  I at first thought he had a necklace there, but if you look closely it is his phone.  His shirt has a Coors Light advertisement on the back.  He did not wear the one I like that says "Well, just because beer makes everything easier." 

So I present to you Mr. Steve Parke, retired from the work he did at the State Hospital, retired from active ministry, but always on hand to help his fellow man, brighten our day, or pet a stray kitty on the street.  A Godly man and one loved by everyone whose life he touches and touching more lives then even he knows!

I will let you know when his new album is out and will make it available in my store if he lets me, or if he doesn't, I know how to photo shop and that cell phone may turn into a tube of lipstick!

Love you, Steve!

 

 

 

 

March 17, 2012 at First Church with Steve Parke!

I put captions under all of these and I am hoping that when I hit the "publish" button they will miraculously appear. 
This was St. Patricks Day at our church and Steve Parke put on a wonderful presentation of his trip to Ireland to see family that remains over there.  Steve is big on the genealogy thing and I may have him help me find the roots on my dad's side of the family.  Mother's side has been documented back to the 1400's, but my dad was a slippery little fellow and all I know is I was named after his mom.
 So enjoy the slide show and if the captions do not come up, there are several of the people from our church there.  But the dancers are from the Sarah Shaw Dance Studion and are under the direction of a very capable young lady named Samantha!   If you ever get the chance, these kids are great!
I am off to do chores, but I will check on this and see if it is working later.  

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Happy St. Patrick's Day!! and meet Steve Parke!!

Well,  here is my little friend, Steve Parke!  Today he is going to be conducting a program on his trip to Ireland a little while back.  We will get to see lots of slides of the Irish side of Steve, but I bet they have been censored.  Oh, not really.  He is a really great guy but I bet you would never guess by that ornery look on his face that he is a retired minister, would you?
He has lots of irons in the fire and genealogy is only one of them.  He plays a mean guitar and does the coffee shop strumming thing.  Open mike nights are his forte.  He also works with the little kiddies in our "Mothers Day Out" Daycare program.  He really likes that and the kids think he is superman!
Steve is an avid ski bum.  (I did not say skier cause I am not sure how to spell it.)  Winter time comes and Steve is up in Gunnison, teaching and doing the down hill thing. 
I do believe he is starting to stay in town a little more in the winter which is a good thing because we are always happy to have him in our midst.  He has put out an album which I had for sale in my store for a while.  I can sing along on all those songs.
So this afternoon I will be whiling away the hours in Mayflower Hall, learning all about the Irish roots of the Parke family.  And that is a good thing to do because as I understand it, we are all Irish on this day!  Hmmmmm....Can Haas, Gagnebien, and Hatfield actually be considered Irish!

See you later today, you wild little Irishman , you!

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Christ Congregational Church in Belmont.

I perchance decided to attend Christ Congregational Church in Belmont a couple Sundays back.  I can do this.  Want to know why?  Christ Congregational Church in Belmont and First Congregational Church are both members if The United Church of Christ.  And if that is not enough, we share the same minister.  Reverend Jeannine Lamb is Pastor to both churches.  We are separate but the same.  Kind of unusual and lots of fun!

As luck would have it Christ Congregational Church was taking a "Noisy Offering"  on this Sunday.  Christ starts services at 9:30 so I had plenty of time.  There is little Bernadette dancing around with the stainless steel bowl for us to throw our change into.  First Church does not do this.

 And there is the bowl of money up close and personal.  I do not remember just what this bowl of money was going for, but it is usually something very worthwhile, like things for the migrants, or school supplies, or the dog pound.  You just never know!  See the idea is to bring all your change on the appointed day and throw it it this bowl and make lots of noise, hence the term, Noisy Offering!

 See those feet?  Those belong to Pastor Lamb.  She is standing on the little step stool that Scot so kindly built for her so she could see over the podium.  See, the guy before her was very tall, so he needed a tall podium.  Pastor Lamb may be a little thing but I am here to tell you this,  that woman knows how to fill a pulpit!  Size ain't no issue!

 Here is Pastor Lamb looking for her little footstool so she can show it to me!  What a very nice lady!

Now that the New Year is here, we change times.  First Church will meet at 9:30 and Christ will meet at 11:00.  I personally prefer the early time, but that is just me.  So, if you are in the market for a place to worship, we have the real deal for you!

Christ Congregational Church, UCC is located at 1101 Liberty Lane in Belmont and holds service at 11:00 AM every Sunday.  The building was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright's grand daughter and built in the 1950's. It is an open and affirming church and a great place to go.

First Congregational United Church of Christ is located at 228 East Evans and holds service at 9:30 AM.  This church was built 131 years ago and is on the Historic Registry.  I love both of these churches, but am currently a member of the First Church.  Since I got Pastor Lamb wherever I go, I still have the best of both worlds!

So, you go to your church and I'll go to mine, but we will both walk along together!

Sixteen Annual Peace Flotilla, and a good time was had by all!

Last night at the Nature Center marked the 16th time that the little floats with candles in them were launched down the Mighty Arkansas River here in Pueblo, Colorado!  I had not been for a couple years and was just amazed at how much the event has improved.  This is all thanks to a little guy in our town named Doug Gale. You will meet Doug and his lovely wife Dorothy probably next week. I want to take pictures of them and do them full justice, because if God ever touched a man and said "Bring peace to the world and feed my people, it is this man."  I am inadequate to do justice to a man of this stature but I will give it my best shot!

But last night was the Peace Flotilla.  There were girl scouts, boy scouts, McClelland School children, Martin Luther King Center, and more floats then you could shake a stick at.  Someone said there were 83, but that was before I threw mine in the mix.  School kids are more organized.  They had blocks of wood about 10" square and their candle set in the middle.  Then they wrapped it up the sides with butcher paper which had been decorated with peace signs!  Very neat.  I wove some New Mexico Sunflowers into a circle and jammed some purple candles in the thing and called it good. Gave it to some sad looking kid who didn't have one to launch and made him all happy.  Made me happy too cause then I did not have to walk half a mile in the dark through the willows to the launch place!

Usually I run into lots of my friends at something like this, but they were sadly lacking last night. My pastor, Jeanine Lamb and another preacher friend, Steve Parke was there so I kinda hung with Jeanine.  Steve had his guitar and a friend or two and they were the music for the evening.  Gotta' love that Steve!  He does the folk songs and what ever it is us old hippies used to sing.  So they played and we sang at the top of our lungs, "If I had a Hammer!", "Where have all the Flowers Gone?", "This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land." 

Now I need to interject here that I had a lovely visit with Pastor Lamb, which I shall call her out of deference to her vocation.  Yesterday she had given a sermon that really made me think that I may be a good person.  Not perfect by a long shot, but my Lord takes me like I am.  It is me he wants, just like I am so it is me he's going to get!  Aside from the preaching thing she is also a very interesting person. Oh, yeah, and a very good listener.  Knows when to nod and everything!

Then they released the Great Horned Owl into the night sky and launched the floats. These were then caught by the Sheriffs Dive Team right before they went over the rapids and returned to their owners.  I am a thinking that my little float with the 3 purple candles might have gotten by unnoticed in the dark and made it's way to the sea.  At least that is the dream I shall hold on to as I once more, in my idyllic world think that peace may actually be a reality some day.

This is Pastor Lamb!