Quite a unique combination: Fruity Fit peach yogurt, bacon bits, and homemade pesto. I had one of those on my pasta for lunch (the pesto).
My creative wife reuses yogurt containers — this one flavored peach — for keeping special food items. In this case, after last week harvesting a couple of our Basil herb plants, she produced enough pesto for months to come. Since we’re out of bacon bits (bummer), that one came back for a new life as a pesto container.
Nothing profound. Just daily life, reusing and recycling, and celebrating the resourcefulness of God and my wife.
This weekend Kari and I are privileged to be able to preach God’s Word. She is heading down south to teach the womens retreat for Calvary Chapel of Corvallis . She has (as usual!) poured over God’s Word and prayed and studied diligently. The four session titles — centered around the theme of "Expectancy without Expectations" came out as:
The God of Disappointment, Identifying Expectations (Friday night)
Processing Pain, Identifying Fear (Saturday morning)
Enjoying Fulfillment, Worshiping God (Saturday night)
Her notes are close to 40 pages single-spaced, and I look forward to going through them at the same time she teaches many miles away. They will provide specifics to pray for and about. She will probably have some reflections to blog about when she gets home and rested again.
On this end, I’ll be flying solo with the Dutcher (with family help), and having good discussions with our boy about how wonderful his Mommy is. Privileged again for the opportunity to preach in Wilsonville another time at Canyon Creek Church . This time the text is Philippians 3:1-11 , and the title will be "Worthless Doing and Priceless Knowing ."
It is amazing how difficult it is to distill a whole message on a couple paragraphs down to that length, just a paragraph or two. I was asked to give a little synopsis for the church bulletin; this is what I wrote:
We have natural bent towards religion. That is, we tend to find our identity by what we do, rather than in Who God is. It is easy to think we have done so much on our own, for our "gains" are clearly seen by looking at our own religious resumes and feeble good works — especially by comparison with others. Yet, in the Gospel, the ground has become level for everyone, from the talented and motivated to the least gifted. The common thread is God’s grace in Christ, and our response in humility (looking out to Him, not into ourselves).
The Gospel of God’s glorious grace is the only means God has designed to set us free from empty religion. We no longer come to our Creator as ones holding our great accomplishments in our hands. Instead, we along with the Apostle Paul, can rightly say, "whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ" (Phil. 3:7 ). Our empty doing is traded for priceless knowing. We now can know, love and enjoy Jesus our Savior as the supreme object of our affections and the true desire of our hearts. Does that describe your trajectory?
Hoping to help us all discover grace-renewal in the God of all grace, and be people who "worship in the Spirit" (Phil. 3:3 ), knowing, loving and enjoying our Savior above all else.
Today was my first day as half-time summer pastoral intern (officially "Intern for Education & Technology") at Foothills Community Church in Molalla. Since September I’ve been privileged to be an intern here, shadowing the leadership, being mentored by Pastor Dale Satrum , helping to reshape ministries and taking the lead in teaching our Foundations class. Now for the summer I have a few projects to work on, one being to help our Web Team revamp our web presence , another is to help us visually communicate better (print, images, video, web, etc.). These "tasks" are not my real passion, as are people who are being continually transformed by the Gospel, but I’m happy to serve wherever is needed. These are some of the "gaps" in the gift-mix in our specific church leadership.
As Spring transitions to Summer, in some ways our future plans as a family in ministry are "on-hold," but in other ways we cannot help but sense God’s joy in conforming us to the image of His Son. Nothing is wasted in this process. Our identity is not limited to what we do. As I reminded the Cornerstone graduating class on Friday, even if I never "make it" as a pastor my core identity is "in Christ," and being a faithful husband and loving father are the measure of true success.
Today is also my last day as a 29-year-old. Kari threw me a 30th birthday party on Saturday, which was awesome and so much fun with family and friends. The big gift was what I call our "second car" — a Marin Muirwoods 29er. (With 29" wheels, larger than the standard 26".) It’s halfway between a road bike and praise God less expensive than either (relatively to an equivalent in value).
A few years ago my brother handed down his old Cannondale road bike, which is a great bike. It’s still rolling after 20 years. But it was built for a someone shorter than 6-foot, and with the rural roads out here I can’t get a half-mile from home without calling home with a flat tire. Enter what the experts call an "urban" commuter bike, and one gets the best of both worlds — half road bike, half mountain bike. The large 20-1 /2 " frame fits nicely, and the 29" wheels can really glide along. (And look ma, no flats!)
Thank you to Kari, my parents, and so many friends who chipped in on this sweet ride. It took me exactly 30 minutes to cover the 7.7 miles to the church office this morning, the last hill being the hardest (and thus most rewarding) part. Here’s looking forward to a summer full of worship and work commuting on this new bike. And rides with my boy, who loves his seat on the back.
Yesterday we three ventured out for our first ‘08 hike in the woods. The single track trails were closed due to winter erosion but the old logging roads provided a good and wide path for us to let Dutch loose on the trails. We set out to go about 4 miles round trip, but that was cut short by an impatient little 16-month-old. In Kari’s words :
We did do our hike, although it is now confirmed that Dutch does NOT like hiking. That is, he loves hiking, as long as he’s the one hiking. He doesn’t like being stuffed into a backpack. So, our hike was significantly truncated because about 1/2 through we had to let him hike on his own. That meant going as fast as his little 16-month-old legs could carry him. It went something like this: step step step (stop to pick up a stick and wave it around) step step step (stop to pick up a bug, mom grabs it before it goes in the mouth) step step step-TRIP, BOOM, WAHHHHHHH!!!!! (tears, hugs, scraped hands…sniffs, whining to be put down) step step step (veers over toward cliff, daddy scoops him up and plops him in middle of trail). Anyway, you get the picture. But it was fun nonetheless. We just need to plan to hike one mile in three hours.
The house is quiet tonight. Just returned from teaching our Foundations class. Kari and Dutch are not here with me, as they hopped on a plane this morning bound of Salt Lake City to visit her brother and his family.
Truly, I married up (!), and miss Kari already. As much fun as Dutch is and as much as I love Him, I could not live without my Karina.
I think it was J.C. Ryle who wrote: “The great thing I always desired to find was a woman who was a Christian, who was a real lady, and who was not a fool. Whether I was successful or not, others must judge the better than I can, but I call God to witness these were the three points I always kept steadily in view.”
Before dropping her off at PDX I asked her to send me lots o’ pics, so I could at least "see" how they were. A whole bunch were waiting in my inbox tonight when I arrived home. Uncle Kris taught Dutch how to throw rocks, our precious boy giving cousin Jennika a kiss on the cheek, then giving her a little frightening, and then one of his beautiful blue eyes.
May God be the glory for all His mercy in our lives and the abundant ways He lavishes us with His love, in practical evidences of His grace.
——————————–
Nothing deep here … I just wanted to reflect on the joy of mommyhood. Yesterday Dutch got a new toy–a green John Deere truck from my dear friend Crystal. Dutch flipped! He loved it. Usually snack time is the most exciting part of the day and when I pull out the special Dutch muffin and start breaking off pieces and putting them on his high chair tray, he just about goes crazy. He loves muffins. But yesterday, he totally ignored the muffin as soon as he saw the tractor! Then later, the boy who hardly ever plays on his own, took his tractor over to the stairs and played for 30 minutes, all by himself, making the engine sounds and loading and unloading special imaginary bucket-fulls of dirt on the stairs.
Dutch’s other favorite thing right now is to sneak into our bedroom and go through Jeff’s nighstand drawer. He usually goes for the “No More Fungus” bottle (yeah, gross) and hides things in our bed. So last night, about 2am, I woke up and couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t comfortable, the realized something hard was under my back. I reached back and there was a deck of playing cards … from our special little boy. Too tired to get up, I tossed them down to my feet and fell asleep smiling. What a little boy.
Today at church, I was the proudest mommy ever because Dutch ran to Pastor Dale and jumped into his arms. Then I said, “Dutch can you give Pastor Dale a kiss?” And he leaned up and planted a huge kiss right on our pastor’s cheek. Yeah, it was pretty sweet. Of course he might be a terror at home for me, but at least he’s sweet at church.
It snowed yesterday morning (and this morning too) but only a little bit; yep, it’s a week into Spring, and we live in a part of Oregon that rare sees snow. In one day we truly saw all four seasons.
Even still Dutch enjoyed his slide during the break in the weather…
He also enjoyed roaming around the grass with his Daddy… can you tell there’s something in my hand he wants?
Saturday three generations of “boys” went to the OSU hoops game Saturday (the Beavers lost their record 18th consecutive conference game, ending the season 0-18 in the Pac-10 — but I must say they fought hard!).
Papa had connections to some tickets in the best possible seats for bringing a 14-month-old boy — and Dutch loved every minute of it (see video at bottom).
We want welcome our dear friends, the Seifers, back to Oregon, as they set up shop (literally) down in Corvallis. They have recently acquired the Big Town Hero sub sandwich shop across from the OSU campus on Monroe St.
Sunday we ventured down to help them clean up the restaurant and get ready for their grand opening, Monday morning. Wish we could have been there to order the first sandwich. (Read Kari’s reflections on the day.)
If you are in Corvallis or stopping by, drop in at 2043 NW Monroe Avenue for a great sub sandwich. Tell Aaron you read about them here.
The two Greek words de ("but") and Theos ("God") are the first two words of Ephesians 2:4: "But God, who is rich in mercy..."
Because of God's great love and grace extending to us in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven, redeemed and able to know, love + enjoy God more fully, ever-increasing and forever.
This site contains the thoughts and conclusions and journeys of the Patterson family -- Jeff, Kari and Dutch -- who have experienced the front-end of God's amazing grace, and continue to delight in His unfailing love.
Read more about us, and what we hold most precious.
Quite a unique combination: Fruity Fit peach yogurt, bacon bits, and homemade pesto. I had one of those on my pasta for lunch (the pesto).
Today was my first day as half-time summer pastoral intern (officially "Intern for Education & Technology") at Foothills Community Church in Molalla. Since September I’ve been privileged to be an intern here, shadowing the leadership, being mentored by 
Today is also my last day as a 29-year-old. Kari threw me a 30th birthday party on Saturday, which was awesome and so much fun with family and friends. The big gift was what I call our "second car" — a Marin Muirwoods 29er. (With 29" wheels, larger than the standard 26".) It’s halfway between a road bike and praise God less expensive than either (relatively to an equivalent in value).
Thank you to Kari, my parents, and so many friends who chipped in on this sweet ride. It took me exactly 30 minutes to cover the 7.7 miles to the church office this morning, the last hill being the hardest (and thus most rewarding) part. Here’s looking forward to a summer full of worship and work commuting on this new bike. And rides with my boy, who loves his seat on the back.
Yesterday we three ventured out for our first ‘08 hike in the woods. The single track trails were closed due to winter erosion but the old logging roads provided a good and wide path for us to let Dutch loose on the trails. We set out to go about 4 miles round trip, but that was cut short by an impatient little 16-month-old. In 
Kari took this picture of Dutch with her phone…
We want welcome our dear friends, the Seifers, back to Oregon, as they set up shop (literally) down in Corvallis. They have recently acquired the Big Town Hero sub sandwich shop across from the OSU campus on Monroe St.
