One year ago today (5/7/2013) the first several posts for “A. Knapp For That” appeared.  This one makes 431, give or take. 

I find the categories help me to stay organized.  The counts by category:

Clean Jokes:                         148

Cool Numbers:                      65

Fear and Awe:                       45

Gospel Messages:               48

Group Prayer:                       39

Holy Lists:                               52

This I Know:                            45

Two or More Categories:   11

Add up the first seven categories and you get 442.  Then subtract the double counts to get 431. Maybe that means the Give or Take above is zero.  Arithmetic is amazing!

My kids would say there has been a post every day, just like they would say I never drink alcohol.  The mathematician in me knows I missed a day or two over Christmas when our power was out and maybe another time.  I also know I had a wine cooler back in the days when Diane and I were taking disco dance lessons. Always and Never are hard to live up to.

The little counter thing at the bottom says more than 35000 “hits.”  I think that is the number of pages.  It seems to be about 100 people visit every day. As Eyore says, “Thanks for noticing!” 

I have thought of adding pictures and getting a facebook page and other stuff suggested in this big Blogging Book I received as a Christmas present. That may be fun to do this summer after my second client’s contract ends.

Thanks to Dave for setting up the site and to Linnea and Jason for giving me the push to get started. And thanks to the several people who have left comments!

God has some interesting ways of telling you when to move and when to stay.  A year after Diane and I were married, we tried to leave Spartan Village, Michigan State University, family and friends to pursue teaching careers in Illinois. We had both  completed Bachelor’s degrees and were looking at next steps.  I had been accepted into a Masters Degree program at the University of Illinois; the goal was preparation for teaching math at the community college level.  Diane had applied for high school teaching jobs all over the Champaign-Urbana area.

In the early summer of 1973 we made a trip past Chicago and down highway 57 to finalize living and school arrangements.  First we checked out University housing, found it to be acceptable, and said we would be back to leave a deposit after we checked in with the Math Department.  There, we were stunned by a secretary who told us they had no job for me – the funding for the community college training had been terminated by President Nixon, so they were closing up the program.   

That was just weird.  First of all, the whole site had that slightly unreal feel of a familiar setting where you had never been before. Second, it didn’t seem right that the Department waited for us to get there to tell us we had no job and would be paying out-of-state tuition for courses that were no longer part of a degree plan.  And third, the whole disappointing turn of events was the fault of the President of the United States! What did Mr. Nixon have against me? I think I even voted for him.

We were certainly happy we had not left a deposit with the housing office.  And we were very glad we had not had any moving sales or unloaded prized crates and homemade furniture. 

Upon returning to East Lansing, my advisor in the Math Department said they would be glad to offer me a teaching assistantship to fund a Master’s Degree, but I would be on my own to take education courses.  We settled back into Spartan Village for two more years.  Diane landed a teaching aide job the first year and then a full time position in Laingsburg starting that second year. And we stayed.

It is also interesting that daughter Linnea now works at University of Illinois – Chicago, and our niece Katie works for U of I – Champaign.  They are both MSU grads and I don’t think Illini blood is seeping in yet.

Pastor Doug spoke at our men’s retreat  a couple of weeks ago. He had amazing stories of men and women who allowed God to put them in a place where He could use them as his gospel witnesses.  The account that impressed me most was the liberal arts major who went to Turkey.  He had said “I don’t know what I should do there.  I’m not a doctor or engineer or teacher; I don’t see how God could use me.  But I sense that I ought to go anyway.”

The man ended up at a college campus; I think he was teaching English as a Second Language.  One day while walking home he saw a group of men playing American football.  He stopped to look because these guys were serious and they weren’t playing real football  – “soccer.”  One of the players came over and asked if he knew anything about this game.

“Well, I did play college ball.” 

“Could you help us?  We really need help.”

So began a great career.  The man gave them tips and ideas and eventually became the official coach for the university club team.  They did really well – well enough that most other Turkish colleges also hired American coaches.

And, bonus, the man had arranged when he first moved to Turkey to have a satellite feed of NFL games. He and his wife had numerous opportunities beyond the coaching to be hospitable and share what they knew about Jesus.

The moral of this story isn;t necessarily that you get to be a football coach, but if you are willing to serve, God will find a way for you to do so.

God has made some great places on the earth.  One of my favorites is my mother-in-law’s house on Anna Maria Island in Florida.  Everything you need is close by.  Two blocks east is the Gulf of Mexico.  Two block south is the schoolyard where you can play Frisbee.  And two blocks north is the donut store.

Cool.

This morning thirteen children were baptized at church.  It was a joy to watch as the parents read a verse and said a prayer for their little one.  It was not like back in the day when I was baptized…

 

My neighbor Vicki and I were the only ones who had not yet been baptized when we went through the communicant’s class at the neighborhood Presbyterian Church.  So she and I became members at the early service, and all the other kids joined at the later service.

The only thing I remember about the service is the envelope they gave each of us at the conclusion of the ceremony. Big, white, official looking, with my name printed in calligraphy. Actually, I don’t remember the envelope, but I remember how the envelope got us into trouble.

The baptism was at the beginning of the service and then the sermon started.  Vicki and I sat by ourselves over on the side of the sanctuary.   Our moms were at the other end of the row.  The church was fairly empty, being the early service and all.

We listened quietly until Vicki wondered what was inside her envelope. This was one of those stiff almost-cardboard containers that don’t bend easily.  She slowly lifted up the flap –screeeech.  Then she pulled out the certificate – scriiittch.  Then she read it and put it back in the envelope – scriitchh, and closed it up – screeeeech.

Then it was my turn, since Vicki hadn’t shown me her certificate.  So, screeeech, scriiittch, read it over, scriiittch, screeeech.  Evidently those things were noisier than we thought because our moms told us in no uncertain terms what a commotion we had made and how embarrassing it was to them, and we were never to do that again, etc.

 

I guess one good thing is that I do have a memory of my baptism day.  Most of the babies this morning won’t remember much, but they all have pictures galore to remember it by.  Mobile phones had not been invented back in the day and flash cameras were probably too noisy.

PI (π) is the non-repeating irrational number which starts off 3.14159265358….  It is the ratio between the diameter and the circumference of a circle. 

Since 3.14 is an approximation of PI, March 14 (3/14) is PI day.  English speakers know the event is tastier when known as PIE day.  Other language groups can enjoy all the geekiness but miss the punny treaty-ness.

Diane clued me in about the existence of PI day by having a lovely Dutch Apple Crumb Pie delivered on March 14 several years ago.  She included a doctored greeting card proclaiming “PI Day wishes from Gandalf” – it was during Lord of the Rings trilogy days.

Jesse worked at a company in Wisconsin whose cafeteria invited all employees to come down and enjoy a tasty, free slice of pie on 3/14, at 1:59 in the afternoon.  There was a near riot at the place in 2009 when PI day fell on a Saturday – no free pie for you on the weekend!  The natives had accepted the inevitable by Sunday March 14, 2010 and have been satisfied ever since.  Next year will be tough again.

What an amazing creator we have who put this simple circular relationship in place.  But the simple definition has been used to challenge computer scientists, mathematicians, and supercomputers – the decimal representation has been done to over 10 trillion digits.  An infinite number of digits, an ever expanding universe sounds like Isaiah 55.9:  “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yoru ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

This being the season when high school seniors are finalizing plans for next year, it seemed good to tell the stories of college searches conducted by some people I know.

 Linnea wanted to be major in Physical Therapy and started with a list of a dozen or so schools that had excellent programs.  She ruled out Northern Michigan after hearing a lady describe the beautiful scene of ice in the lake at an open house in June.  Others were gradually eliminated until two options remained.  There were friends and some scholarship money at both schools.

The final choice was tough, so Linnea devised a strategy – since Augustana cost more, the decision can be made based on their offer in scholarship money.  If they offer BIG money, she goes there.  If they offer little money, she goes to Grand Valley.

The letter arrived and the wailing began – they offered medium money.  “God, what kind of non-message are you sending me?”  Eventually her  grandparents made up the difference and she went to Augustana.

 Jesse worked with a short list.  One day the MSU recruiters came to his high school.  He talked to them, they checked his records, and admitted him.  He signed up.  Done.  We made him go on a visit to Western, just to see someplace else.  He had probably thought about it longer but he seemed to make a decision in one day.

 One other student, a long time ago, wanted to be a Math Instructor so applied to three schools known for solid math programs – a large, a medium and a small.  The medium was too far away, the small was too small, so he went to the large one.  Decisions are made in mysterious ways.

 A follow up on Linnea:  We prayed that someone at that little school in Illinois would look out for our girl and take her under their wing.  It did not happen.  But, the first week after she transferred to MSU, a woman from church called, announced  she was her advisor for the business school and asked to get together!

God works in even more mysterious (and glorious) ways!

Yesterday at 6:15am I checked the thermometer in the kitchen – 18 degrees outside.   That’s not so bad, I said as I went outside to clean off the driveway with broom and shovel.  The sky was blue with puffy clouds and the sun was getting ready to rise.

At 7:30am I was driving east down Mt hope toward the mall, and big grey-blue clouds were on the horizon, with the sun behind them and blue sky on this side.  It was quite pretty.  But, I looked at the care temperature: 10 degrees.  That was unexpected.  I looked again.  Then I looked up to notice the clouds had moved dramatically to the south and are being pushed very quickly.  Wind coming from the North, so I looked that way. Yikes! A huge wall of dark, dark clouds was just waiting to dump. 

While we walked at the mall, there were whiteout conditions outside.  At 8:15am while driving home on Mt Hope, the snow had abated but the temperature said 6 degrees.  And the outdoor thermometer at home confirmed it.

This morning, the last I looked, at 7:30am, we have negative 10 degrees!

I am thankful for a warm house, cars that work, and a God who is in charge of clouds, snow, and everything else!

 

After us kids were grown and out of the house, my parents had one of the best weird Valentine’s Day traditions. They would drive over to the Crestwood Mall, walk in to the Fannie May store, and purchase a huge heart-shaped box of chocolates.  They took them home and had chocolates for dinner.

The really weird part was that they actually liked the ones with coconut, pecans, cherries or chewy orange stuff.  Forrest Gump may have meant it negatively, but “you never know what you’re going to get” was an adventure for Mom and Dad – they liked all the options.  I have a bag of Snickers “bites” picked out for Diane; everything is edible and delicious in those lovely treats.

This year Valentine’s Day has competition.  Most of all, the Detroit Tigers pitchers and catchers are reporting to Spring Training, so all the important news feeds will be covering baseball.  Tune in to see whether Justin Verlander has recovered from off-season surgery, how the new manager will address the troops, and whether they any of them care that it is still only negative five degrees around here.

Valentine’s Day also has to compete with real National Holidays.  The Lansing Schools graciously provide a four day President’s Day weekend, which means the schools are closed on Friday, February 14.  Classroom parties were held on Thursday, the thirteenth.  If all the traditions continue, those poor kids won’t have a party on the real Valentine’s Day until 2017!

One good thing about schools being closed on Friday the 14^th is that paychecks went out on the 13^th. No complaints here.  We are very glad to have the teacher’s check direct-deposited – most likely the money will be available even if there was some huge ice / snow / wind chill / tornado / other act of God event on Thursday.