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Parsonage Connection Retreat This Weekend!

God be praised for a WONDERFUL retreat this weekend! The Parsonage Connection (PC) met at Camp Comeca for an amazingly relaxing and supportive and FUN PC retreat Friday night and Saturday morning!

The PC is a group of men and women married to United Methodist clergy, currently appointed, on leave or retired. Our retreat focus was understanding the grief journey. We all experience grief throughout our lives. This year, our presentation was about how to heal from grief by understanding the grief journey.

Our presenter was Jacque Amweg, a clinical social worker who has worked at Great Plains Hospice in North Platte for nine years as a bereavement coordinator and social worker. She coordinates bereavement services for the hospice program and facilitates grief support groups and classes.

The information Jacque shared with us was so very illuminating! And, of course, the fellowship was awesome!

Snowbound Today!

Here's Pastor Charles hard at work, digging us out of a snowbound parsonage. Whoa: That's a lot of snow!

Hip-Hop Dance Routine at Tonight's Basketball Game

The local dance troupe performed at the halftime of a basketball game in Sidney, Nebraska, tonight. They were great!

Basketball Game Tonight

It was fun to go to a basketball game tonight at the Sidney High School! What energy was there!

A Snowy Day in Sidney!

Charles had a real workout this morning clearning our very long driveway at the parsonage!

Praise God for a wonderful husband who is so handy around the house!

This week at the Five-day Academy

All this week, Charles and Belinda are attending the Five-day Academy for Spiritual Formation at the Benedictine Retreat Center in Schuyler, Nebraska. Schuyler is about six hours east of Sidney.

Please visit the church blog to see what we're doing!

More Visitor Cats Pictures from the Parsonage!

Both Karl and Dietrick stayed busy at the parsonage this last week, standing guard! After awhile, they would get some "cat naps," of course! They do most everything together. They make a great team!

Charles trimmed their nails... a job that needed to be done, even though they did NOT want to undergo the procedure. Finally it was over, and they got some extra nibbles to make up for the inconvenience!

Karl the Cat is More Aloof!

Karl the Cat much prefers hanging out ... on a kitchen chair in the breakfast nook, soaking up some sun ... or nuzzled into a corner of the blue chair in the living room.

Dietrick and the Recliner

Dietrick the Cat loves to hang out ... on, in and under the recliner! It's all good for him!

SPAM in Email Accounts Just Too Much!

Dietrick the Cat does NOT like having to deal with SPAM in a computer email account! He wonders, "what is a cat to do?" Belinda helped him delete it all!

Brrrrrrrrrr.... It was SO Cold Today!

Today was a very cold snowy day! It was wonderful to stay inside today!

Visitors to the Parsonage This Week

We are entertaining Karl and Dietrick Ronge this week at the parsonage. They are most agreeable houseguests! Aren't they cute?!

Leyton Girls Basketball Team Wins Tonight by One Point!

We had a great time at the basketball tournament at our local high school tonight!

The last game we saw was an action-packed game resulting in the Leyton girls basketball team winning by only one point: Wow!

Basketball Tournament Tonight at the Sidney High School

What a great time we had tonight! We attended the basketball tournament at our local high school tonight! The first game we saw featured the boys basketball team from Potter-Dix.

We were impressed to see Pastor Terry Tomlinson helping to coach the team to victory! Yea, Terry! Terry is a United Methodist pastor assigned to the Prairie West Church in Potter.

About Our Day in Lincoln, Nebraska!

After watching the inauguration on TV, we went to Cracker Barrel and enjoyed a fabulous brunch. They had a wonderful fire going in their stone fireplace. It was so cozy, sitting there, relaxing and discussing the events of this day.

Thanks so much to one of the lovely families in our home church who very thoughtfully provided us with a Cracker Barrel gift card. It was a wonderful and thoughtful thing to give us: Thanks so much!

Belinda dropped Charles off at St. Mark's United Methodist Church (UMC) this afternoon, where he is attending the clergy session of the Nebraska Annual Conference of the UMC.

To learn more about the clergy session, you can go to
http://sidneyfirstumc.blogspot.com/2009/01/united-methodist-clergy-session-lincoln.html .

Our Day in Lincoln, Nebraska!

We arrived in Lincoln, Nebraska, last night. This morning, we woke up, and (like most of the country), we watched the inauguration of our new president on TV. We had fun taking digitial pictures of the proceedings on the TV. It certainly has been a special day in our nation's history.