Out and About Sacramento
A hearty congratulations to our own Norris Burkes, author of Inside’s “Spirit Matters” and the self-syndicated column “Spirituality in Everyday Life,” which appears in 35 papers nationwide. The retired military chaplain is the recipient of the 2019 Will Rogers Humanitarian Award sponsored by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.
In his columns, Burkes has written extensively about the humanitarian project Chispa, which sponsors children’s libraries in Honduras and equips them with quality books in Spanish.
Out and About: The Grid
A hearty congratulations to our own Norris Burkes, author of Inside’s “Spirit Matters” and the self-syndicated column “Spirituality in Everyday Life,” which appears in 35 papers nationwide. The retired military chaplain is the recipient of the 2019 Will Rogers Humanitarian Award sponsored by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.In his columns, Burkes has written extensively about the humanitarian project Chispa, which sponsors children’s libraries in Honduras and equips them with quality books in Spanish.
First Responder
The caller to my church office had a question. “First,” he said, “I’m curious as to what kind of church you are running up there?”
This was the kind of question I get since returning to the pastor role.
Many callers are like the young mother of three who told me, “I have three churches I’m considering attending. But first, I’m asking the pastors to answer some questions.”
She squashed that ordinal number “first,” as if drawing a line in the theological sand.
“First, does your church teach tithing?”
Lights Out
Whenever I meet fellow veterans, we often engage in some good-natured ribbing. I set up the first joke by announcing that I’m an Air Force vet. This inevitably invokes the response, “Oh, you mean you’re a Chair Force vet.”
I understand the nickname because Air Force members occupied a lot of chairs doing technical work in places such as Cyber Command and Space Command.
I met those seat-techies in 1994, on my first active-duty assignment at Onizuka Air Force Station in Sunnyvale.