Farragut Presbyterian Church (USA)
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WebSPARKS
Archive
2/08
Do You Have a Clue Who This Could Be?
Now
don’t be bad and scroll to the bottom to find out the identity of
this interesting person. Just read along and see if it will
come to you. For a while, we’ll play the game and call our
subject “she.” You’ll have fun!
As
many of us have loved pets, animals have accompanied and blessed
this person on her journey. Early on, cat rescuing, many cats,
was high on her family’s priority. If only maintaining them had
been more successful….. They died frequently.
There was the time, when preparing for a long distance move, when
there was much discussion of what to do with Zeus, a particularly
high energy cat, and how difficult the experience would be.
Then, lo and behold, Zeus was not able to make the journey due to
close contact with the rear wheel of Dad’s car. Providence?
Memories, memories.
A
vivid birthday memory comes from preschool at the Noah’s Ark in
Bowling Green, Ohio. The frugal preschool had a huge ceramic
cupcake complete with a spot to anchor a candle for each child’s
birthday. When this birthday tot’s great moment arrived to
blow out that candle, a great breath was inhaled and an epileptic
seizure ensued. 911, the ambulance, the hospital.
Exciting birthday! Fortunately, her epilepsy disappeared with
the onset of puberty.
Playing
make-believe has always been a blessing of childhood. Cooking
in a small kitchen was this person’s favorite game. [You
just think you have the gender of this person, don’t you?]
Later, when allowed to work in the real kitchen, during supervision
lapses, interesting ingredients were added to dishes. There
was the time of the corn bread explosion….
As the third child in the family, with two
older brothers, you might not be surprised to know that she often
was the one standing in the hall to give the rest of the class a
break from her youthful exuberance. The fourth grade choir
teacher nixed her being a choir member before it began because of
her disruptive reputation. That was not just in school.
Indifferent to adult punishment, standing in the hall extended to
seventh grade confirmation classes. If only they could try to
make things more interesting!
Yet, to be fair, this very complex person
was a very good student and could often be very helpful in the
classroom, clapping erasers, and being very solicitous of the
teacher. Go figure!
Childhood memories can be anchored by
yearly family reunions on the farm in Iowa. There were fifteen
aunts and uncles, so that meant mega cousins. She and her two
brothers were the only city kids, and seeing possibilities for fun
in soybean and cornfields was difficult. Grandpa thought they
should learn to work. “Why, there is no reason a child of
ten cannot pilot a riding lawnmower!” Riding that
prize vehicle promptly into the ditch ended that episode.
Okay, I cannot keep this up. Our
subject is none other than Colleen Curtis, our Associate Pastor.
When asked what she and her friends spent time doing and thinking
about in middle school and high school, the answer was BOYS!
How normal! Colleen had another love too. It was the
church youth group. Her favorite thing in the world was to be
in church. Never could she understand how her brothers would
grumble about church.
In
fact, Colleen knew from the age of five that she would be a pastor.
She just knew! However, in college she made her major
Psychology and was planning to be a counselor. When it became
clear that that was not working out, she made Religion her major
and, as they say, the rest is “herstory.”
Mark
is the love of her life. They went to middle school and high
school together. Colleen says she always had a crush on him,
but they were just best friends. After high school they both
attended a local community college where they got together as a
couple. Then Mark went to Berkeley and Colleen to California
Lutheran.
Today
they are living in Maryville where Mark is an Associate Pastor
at New Providence Presbyterian. They keep house with two dogs
and a “Cashew.” “Cashew” is the loving
name for the sonogram of baby Curtis who will arrive right around
August 11th. We are so happy to have Colleen and
her family in our lives.