Category: News

Following His Transfiguration, Jesus “set His face toward Jerusalem” where He would be betrayed into the hands of sinners, killed and on the third day rise again. The Season of Pre-Lent teaches us to prepare for the time of Lent when we contemplate the sufferings of Jesus. Pre-Lent turns our faces toward Jerusalem with Jesus and yet, we do not go there to find Him, but receive Him where He has promised to be: in His Word and Sacraments given to us in His holy Church. 

To turn our eyes upon Jesus and to call our attention to His salvation delivered in His gifts, Higher Things presents these Reflectionsfor the Pre-Lent season written by the Rev. George Borghardt, St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Conroe, Texas.  Pr. Borghardt will be one of the speakers at the upcoming Higher Things Retreat, “Salvation: Won and Delivered” in Denver, Colorado this February.  Pr. Borghardt is also the original writer of Higher Things Reflections, we’re very grateful that he’s still writing them three years later!  

The booklet of Advent Reflections is available for free in pdf-format for download HERE.  You can also receive the Higher Things Reflections in your e-mail box today! Subscribe by sending any e-mail to: Reflections-on@lists.higherthings.org. An RSS Feed and Podcast for the Higher Things Daily Reflections can be found here.  Listening to podcasts requires iTunes.  Our Podcast is updated daily.

In Christ,

Pr. Mark Buetow
Interim Editor, Higher Things Reflections

…but Asheville still has room!  Those of you who weren’t able to beat the rush to get registrations and deposits in for the Minneapolis Higher Things conference still have time to register for the Higher Things conference in Asheville, NC.  There is still over a month before Registration officially closes on February 15.  You may still register for the NC conference online or print off forms and mail them in with your check.

This is not a part of the job that the Registrar and I enjoy.  We’d love to be able to tell everyone who wants to attend the conference that there is room.  Unfortunately, we have a finite number of spots available and have to tell too many people they can’t come.  Please give the Registrar an opportunity to sort through the flurry of materials that have been submitted this week.  All groups with approved registrations will be notified in about a week.

Groups who didn’t quite squeak in under the line have a couple of options: 

1. Transfer your group’s registration to the North Carolina conference and be guaranteed to attend a Higher Things conference next summer.  Just email the Registrar with your request.
2. Take your chances on a waiting list.  Things come up and, occasionally, groups have to cancel at the last moment.  We will probably be able to squeeze a few in as the conference gets closer.  But we cannot guarantee that any groups on the waiting list will get in.

We recommend that groups take advantage of the first option whenever possible. Don’t risk the waiting list! Yes, some groups cancel and their reservations.  But do you really want to risk not going to a FOR YOU conference at all, especially when there’s still room in Asheville?

More information about both conferences will be available soon – tentative schedules, entertainment plans, Christ on Campus Volunteer applications, etc.

Thank you and congratulations to everyone who gathered up materials and deposits and got them in this week.  Again, those groups whose registrations were approved for the Minneapolis conference will be notified soon.

In Christ,

Sandra Ostapowich
2007 Minneapolis FOR YOU Conference Coordinator

Higher Things welcomes Carolyn Cockey as our new Publications Executive!

Carolyn Davis Cockey, MLS, is a leading communications expert and Associate Director of Publications of the international nursing association, the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (www.awhonn.org). She has more than 20 years of publishing experience at all levels, from writing and reporting to executive management. She also currently serves as Editor of Every Woman magazine (www.ewmag.com) and Executive Editor of the nursing journal, Nursing for Women’s Health. Carolyn holds a master’s degree in liberal studies from Indiana University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Loyola. She is married to Rev. Joe Cockey, pastor of Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Glenwood Springs.  Together, they have two boys, two cats and two dogs that keep them busy! She also leads her church’s youth group and teaches the teen Sunday School class. 

As Publications Executive for Higher Things, more than anything, Carolyn wants to hear ideas and feedback from the those who read the magazine and interact with the organization–no idea is too zany for this lady. Write to her at cockey@att.net.

The response to early registration has been amazing – the Minneapolis conference is almost full!  There are less than 150 guaranteed spots left. 

Anyone who sends in registration materials after those remaining spots have been assigned will have the option of being placed on a waiting list, transferring their registration to the Asheville, NC conference (with no penalty) or requesting a refund (which would disappoint everyone involved).  Both conferences will be very similar in theme and programming, but the one in North Carolina has double the capacity of the Minnesota conference so it can provide additional opportunities for groups to attend a Higher Things conference once the Minneapolis one reaches capacity. 

To expedite the registration process, we strongly recommend that groups register and pay their deposits online.  Those who would prefer to mail in paper forms can download them HERE.  We have noticed a large number of single-person online registrations.  Please be aware that registering one person of your group does NOT ensure that there will be additional spots available when the conference reaches capacity.

It’s so great to see that we have over 1000 youth already registered for Higher Things conferences this summer.  And we still have room for many more youth to hear how the Gospel is FOR YOU in Minneapolis and Asheville!

A blessed Epiphany to everyone,

Sandra Ostapowich
2007 Minneapolis FOR YOU Conference Coordinator

There is still time left!!! Supplies are limited, but we still have Higher Things hoodies available at a special introductory price of $28.00 (shipping included – continental U.S. only)! Hurry and buy an HT Hoodie as a Christmas present for your Lutheran loved one while supplies last!

FREE SHIPPING for all continental U.S. orders during through the Christmas Season!!!!

For bulk or international orders contact Naomi, our Merchandise Manager.

The Pursuit of Happiness is the new emotional drama sweeping the box office.  Starring Will Smith and his son Jaden, the two actors play a father-son duo who undergo trying times in San Francisco.  The story, based on real- life, starts with Will Smith’s character, Chris Gardner, trying to sell bone density scanners.  Gardner has little luck though, and after having invested his life savings in the business, he soon finds himself short of money, but not short of bills.

Tragedy for Gardner doesn’t stop there.  His wife leaves him, he’s arrested for outstanding parking tickets, and eventually he is evicted from his home.  All of these trials seem to land at Gardner’s doorstep right as he takes on a non-paying internship at a stock brokerage company.  This could be the opportunity of a lifetime for Gardner – if he can prove himself among the 20 other competing interns.

It seems like a slippery slope for Gardner, one thing after another seems to go wrong.  The audience wonders if anything else could possibly go wrong, and if things will ever change before the credits roll.  No matter what Gardner does, things just get worse.  Gardner seems like a good guy too, taking care of his son and doing everything he can to provide a better life growing up then he had.  So why doesn’t any of it seem to work?

I have to admit going in I was biased.  I’ve been a long-time fan of Will Smith, collecting every album he’s made (including the ones with DJ Jazzy Jeff!) and I own almost every movie he’s appeared in (almost, because Six Degrees of Separation just isn’t my cup of tea).  I was pretty sure I would like his latest role, especially since it included his son.  However, not even my highest of expectation would prepare me for how emotionally draining this movie was!  The night before its release David Letterman while interviewing with Will Smith said that watching it he felt, “…like his stomach was pulled up through his nose.”  While not as poetic as Smith would have liked, Letterman did convey how absolutely heartbreaking this story is.

Many will recognize this story, though.  The righteous man who does everything the way he should, only to find everything taken away from him in the blink of an eye.  At what point does he man give up?  Can he redeem himself?  The eyes of faith have seen this story far too many times to count.  Thankfully, the eyes of faith also recognize that Gardner’s repeated failures are a simple sign of how much he is in the hands of God.

Even when Gardner seems to do everything right, someone steals his expensive bone-density machine.  Or if he’s lucky enough to get it back, it just so happens to be broken.  When push comes to shove, Gardner finds himself sitting in a church pew, holding his son with nothing left in the world but the clothes on his back, a broken bone density machine and a spare suit.  Even then he is no fool, realizing those things might not be around much longer either!

Faith doesn’t give up simply because the world has.  The world would have us do that, and forsake everything simply to stoop to its level.  Faith overcomes the world’s messages, and knows that even when all seems to go awry, the Lord is in control.  If the Lord so desires that tomorrow Chris Gardner were to become a multi-millionaire stock broker, He’d put that into play!  The most we can do is live with what the Lord deals us.  Gardner does just that, and his pursuit of happiness isn’t dictated by the goods he accumulates, but by the fact that he has one more day to give it another shot.  Anything can happen in a day, and if the Lord wants to turn the table – He’s going to do it!

The eyes of faith know the story in The Pursuit of Happiness all too well.  Bad things happens with no apparent rhyme or reason.  The world will find this movie absolutely astonishing and will struggle to understand how or why a man, all alone in the world, would go on one more day to see what might be in store for him.  That’s troubling to the world!  The eyes of faith, though, realize this is just another day lived in the Gospel of Jesus Christ – where the Lord is in control.

All in all, The Pursuit of Happiness makes for a good movie, and probably the best $7.00 I spent this week.  You will feel your emotions tugged on, but you won’t be surprised by the story.  Aside from that, it’s Will Smith – so you just have to go. 😉

Stan Lemon is the beloved webmaster of the Higher Things Website.  He and his wife, Deaconess Sara Lemon, live in marital bliss in the Internet Services Bunker in Cabot, PA.  He also owns every Will Smith movie and album except one.

While there are still many spots still available for the Asheville “For You” Conference, we are very excited at Higher Things to announce that we have one less spot available.

Pastor Kent Schaaf, our Local Arrangements Chairman, sent us the happy news that he is now a father.  Carolyn Bernice Schaaf  was born on December 10, 2006 at 9:21 p.m.  Mom and child are doing well.  Carolyn was born 5.3 lbs, 17in.  

Congrats to the Schaafs!  What a wonderful early-Christmas gift!

In Christ,

Pastor Borghardt
“For You” Asheville Conference Coordinator