Grace and Gratitude—Your Stories
The following is not a joke—we simply wanted to place it where we know you’d read it!
How has God been specifically at work in your life during this time of economic and global unrest? For what help, challenge, encouragement, or comfort are you giving thanks? The Banner wants to hear your stories with a view toward printing them as part of a reflective Thanksgiving article this fall. Please keep them as succinct as possible (100-300 words), so we can print as many as possible. Send them to editorial@thebanner.org, with “Thanksgiving” in the subject line. Or address them to The Banner at 2850 Kalamazoo Ave. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49560. Please also include your contact information and church membership. Thanks! The deadline is Aug. 28.
Overheard: When the John Calvin bobbleheads first arrived in the Calvin College Campus Store, William Spoelhof, Calvin’s former president who passed away in December 2008, wandered in and picked one up. He shook it a bit, noting how its beard interferes with its bobble, then said, “Isn’t that just like John—saying no more than yes?”
I signed up for an exercise class and was told to wear loose-fitting clothing. If I HAD any loose-fitting clothing, I wouldn’t have signed up in the first place!
—George Vander Weit
The teacher asked the class, “What is your dad doing?”
Johnny raised his hand and said, “MY dad graduated from the cemetery and now he is talking about it in our church.”
Afew years ago we were watching the Fourth of July parade in Ada, Mich., and a little girl only a few years old kept asking her father, “When is Santa coming?”
Her father tried several times to explain to her that this was “a different kind of parade” and that “Santa won’t be coming in this one.”
Then she spotted me, with my “mature” blond hair and beard, and asked, “Is that Santa’s daddy?”
History records that John Calvin was often afflicted with stomach trouble. His visit to Synod 2009 was no exception. Eighty other attendees were also stricken with a norovirus and found themselves “talking to the John.”
Are you a fan of the bobblehead? Check out his creator’s Facebook page under “John Calvin Bobbleheads,” where you can post your own pics! In the meantime, once he’s fully recovered, John plans to continue his 500th-birthday trip around the world.
