City Council Declaration

I am submitting my name to fill the vacated seat formerly held by Mayor Tom Ross.

Until 2016, Minot currently had a city council made up of two representatives from each of the seven wards. The original intent of the Make Minot proposal, as **I** was given to understand it, was to “bring more people and interest into the Minot city government.”

I agreed that more voices needed to be heard, but this plan was totally backwards. Instead of bringing in new voices, cutting the size of the city council ended up limiting new voices from having any say in how the city is run. Ending the Ward system also effectively ended representation for the working families of Ward 2.

As a resident of Ward 2 for over 40 years, I am submitting my name for the vacant seat. I am an active volunteer in the community, serving on the Board of Directors of the Second Story Club and on the Human Rights Committee at Kalix.

Thank you,

Nikki Paulsen

Synergy
A Leadership Guide for Church Staff and Volunteers.
Ann A Michel

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/synergy-ann-michel/1125327182

I only decided to read the book because I needed to tick the box for a book in the “Leadership Development” category. To be honest, the very topic sounded dull. It surprised me to be both drawn in and inspired by this book.

Possibly because of the very word Synergy itself, I have been passing over this specific book for a while now – it joined our reading list in 2018. It is not a word I use, and I am a person that really likes ten-dollar words. I had the opportunity to correctly use the term malfeasance earlier today, and I have been snickering quietly ever since. Fun words make me happy. But Synergy? What is that supposed to mean?

Upon looking it up, I discovered that synergy is not a new word. I generally look stuff up in my ratty-tatty paperback Webster’s dictionary, but it is currently hiding from me, so I turned to Volume Two of my Funk and Wagnalls New Practical Standard Dictionary to look up the word. My copy of this dictionary is marked Copyright 1954, so it does not contain any new words. It very clearly tells me all about the word synergy.

               The Dictionary Says:

                      Syn*er*gy (-ji)  noun   1 Combined and correlated force;
                      united action

                      Syn*er*gism (-jizm) noun   1 The doctrine that human
                      effort cooperates  with divine grace in the salvation of
                      the soul.  2 The mutually cooperating action of separate
                      substances which together produce an effect greater
                      than of any component taken alone, as certain drug
                      mixtures.

With this definition in hand, it clearly makes sense for this book about the call to lay ministry to be titled Synergy.  Personally, I never really thought that getting the nudge from God to do things at the church to be an actual call to ministry. Over the years, He has told me to do a few things. While I tend to argue with Him first, I do eventually do my very best to do what He tells me to do. As I am not perfect, it does not always work out they way we planned, but I will give it my best shot. Even so, “ministry” is a term reserved in my brain for the fully ordained clergy.

This book stands that notion on its head. It not only encourages us to get up and actively join in the church’s ministry, it leaves the reader with a feeling of excitement and urgency about the very idea of getting involved. God is calling all of us to use our gifts in His service – what does He have planned for you today?

A Prayer in Spring
by Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.


“A Prayer in Spring” by Robert Frost. Public domain.

Fun at Faith

February 16

5:30-7:00 PM

Santa taking off for his trip round the world!

The Grinch is joined this year by Cindy Lou Who

They watch over the yard from high atop the crane

Pooh sits on his pot of hunny

the giraffe reads happy stories to keep us all in the Christmas spirit

Unicorns and toy soldiers keep watch 

Mister Bear is actually fuzzy

The little unicorn is shy but friendly

Grabbed these pictures before everything was covered with snow!

Vote No!

Minot

December 7, 2021  

$110 MILLION DOLLAR BOND ISSUE

Minot really does need a new middle school in SOUTH Minot. That is where the students live. In a perfect world, we could use several new middle schools in south Minot. It would make good sense to build one near Our Redeemers/ Washington Elementary School; it would make sense to build one near the new John Hoeven Elementary School, or Edison, or Perkett; it would make sense to build one near the mall or near the new YMCA.

It would NOT make sense to build a new middle school in downtown Minot. Central Campus High School is in walking distance from Jim Hill Middle School. Converting the old Central Campus building to a new middle school is a foolish idea and a WASTE of my tax dollars. It was not that long ago that they spent millions of dollars to “fix” that old building. Instead of pouring money into that old building, it should have been replaced then!

If the school district wants to keep it, they can use it for the administration building, they could use it for the alternative school, they could use it for a large storage shed.  They cannot logically use it to serve the exact same population of middle school students that are already being served by Jim Hill.

VOTE NO!!!

The lights are on!

Halloween is coming and the lights are on for 2021!

We discovered the view of the swing was obstructed, so the cute guy made extenders for the swing legs.  Scarecrow girl and Scarecrow boy have been holding their court on that swing for years, so they needed to be where they could see what was going on!

They have a little ghostie to protect them from the squirrels. This year, the fat and sassy squirrels have been climbing all over their corn stalk border. It might be because of the drought? The squirrels have not bothered their display in the past!

We decided to try a hashtag this year. Not sure if it will work or not, but we see a lot of people taking pictures. We never see any of the pictures, so it would be cool to see what it looks like through somebody else’s eyes.

Pooh and all of his pals wish you a very Happy Halloween!

Eeyore is going Trick-or-Treat as a pirate this Halloween

Ahoy Maties! Have a very Happy Halloween!

Dakota Doughboy

by Marvin Baker

Homepage

Dakota Doughboy

The Otto Ihringer Story

Otto Ihringer enlisted to fight for the United States in World War I because he felt it was his duty to enlist in the American Army and join the allies in “the  war to end all wars.”

In March of 1999, Otto Ihringer was presented the Chevalier of the National Order of the Legion of Honor Award from the French Government. He served in the Battle of St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne offensive in France in the fall of 1918. These are two of the worst battles ever recorded in human warfare. Jean-Pierre Tutin, deputy consul general of France, presented the award and personally expressed his thanks. “The French people will never forget the sacrifice you and the other veterans made.”

Reading his story, I realized how quickly my education skipped over World War One. We studied the Revolutionary War, at least  in some way, almost every school year. Then the history class would fast forward to the Civil War, which often leads directly into World War Two. My college history classes included Ancient Greece and Rome, the Westward Expansion…and both the Revolutionary and the Civil Wars.

There is a solid introduction at the beginning of this book about the events that led up to World War I. There is a great deal of information on the battles and events of WWI, made more real as we are seeing them through Ihringer’s eyes.

My own grandfather fought in WWI, but he never talked about it. I do know that he also went through his initial indoctrination at Camp Dodge, Iowa.

Their Army training was done quickly. On April 29, 1918, Ihringer left Carrington for Camp Dodge.  On June 20, he left New York on a boat headed for France.

A month after the Armistice was signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, Ihringer was sent into Germany to be part of the Allied Occupation Force that would protect western Europe and see that Germany held up their end of the agreement.

In his later years, Ihringer gave talks in classrooms about his time in the trenches and his time after the war with the American Occupation Force in Germany.

He continued speaking in classrooms into his 90s, telling of his adventures. His daughter said he told of his experiences in story form, which kept the children more attentive while he was speaking. He did not talk of the gruesome details, his daughter said. He wanted to be sure the children all knew about the Great War and the effects it had on the United States.

Spoiler alert : the War to End All Wars did not end all wars. Ihringer saw his sons grow up to serve in WWII  and Korea. He did not talk much about World war II or Korea, but he said his sons did their patriotic duty.

Otto Ihringer.

Patriot of the United States of America.

Come on out and SWING YOUR PARTNER!