Photography Club

My grandfather was an avid amateur photographer.  Slide shows were a regular post-dinner pastime for our family when we were at my grandparents’ home.  Grandpa would set up the screen and projector in their small living room and we would listen to the stories he attached to each photo.  He took thousands of photos through his life and he kept every single one.  He had pictures from every trip he and my grandma took.   He chronicled the lives of my brother and me.  He loved the technology as it improved.  I remember metal framed slides that were loaded one at a time into the projector.  The frames eventually changed to cardboard and he had an early carousel projector made by Kodak.

I come by my interest honestly.  I do not remember a time when I did not have a camera of my own.  As a kid, I enjoyed taking the pictures, saving my money to have the film developed at our Rexall Drug Store, and making albums that told my own stories.  I thought drop-in film cartridges and flash cubes were amazing advances! 

The last time I was a member of a photography club was during my junior year of high school.  Back then we learned the basics of dark room use and photo developing—skills which are not in heavy demand today!  By now, I’ve had three digital cameras, none of high quality, but good enough to have some fun.

A few weeks ago Pastor Jeff Schlesinger (St. Matthew, Princeton) has a passion for connecting faith and photography.  He convened a group of five of us from our synod to consider forming a new photography club.  This past Sunday evening, the first official meeting of the Northern Illinois Synod Photography Club met at Lutheran Outdoor Ministries Center.  About a dozen of us from as far away as Lockport and Galva gathered.

At the meeting we adopted a purpose statement.  “The Northern Illinois Synod Photography Club is a group of the baptized who love photography and gather to make their photography a part of their faith journey through mutual sharing, learning, and photographing.”

How many club meetings begin with devotions?  How often are you invited to see God through the lens of a camera?  I had a great time at the meeting.  I am in awe of the talents of some and their willingness to help those who are less skilled, like me.  I met some new folks and we are all anxious to welcome more.

John the Baptist at LOMC

For part of the meeting we went outside and took some pictures.  Here’s my effort.

Do you love photography?  Would you enjoy spending time with brothers and sisters from our synod?  You’re invited!  No skill level is required.  Our next meeting will be at 5:00 p.m. Sunday, July 15 at LOMC.  I volunteered to bring treats!

Comments?  Go to http://niselca.blogspot.com or comment on Facebook.  --JC 

Remembering

It was a Saturday early last month.   It occurred to me that it was my grandmother’s birthday.  Although her memorial service was held the day before my ordination (29 years ago), I have always recalled her birthday.  I called my brother and I asked him if he knew what day it was.  After a couple of incorrect guesses, I told him the significance of the day.  “Grandma was born 110 years ago today.”  “I had forgotten,” he said.

It was not surprising that he didn’t remember.  It seems that every family has one member that knows the family history and has memorized all of the important dates.  My brother is not the keeper of dates in our family.

Grandma’s birthday did make me stop and think a bit.  In truth, it made me think a lot.  Could it be that I was the only one who had remembered her birthday?  Who else would know?  There are precious few people who would remember her at all.  Of course, my brother and I still have lots of stories to make us laugh and many loving memories.

We were especially close to Grandma because she lived with us throughout our childhood until we were grown and gone from home.  She was just about the only babysitter we ever had.  Even so, we cannot tell you many stories of her life in “the old country.”  We cannot tell you of her life with our grandfather.  We just don’t know those stories.

The number of stories diminishes with each succeeding generation.  I shared this picture with my son and he recognized it as a picture of me taken on my baptismal day, but he didn’t know which of my grandmothers was holding me.  Part of this story may already be lost.

Last Sunday in worship, I preached on the story of the Ethiopian eunuch, which is found in Acts.  Following the service, a visitor complimented me on my sermon and said, “I’ve never heard that story before.”  Fortunately, we as a Christian family have a written history, so we are not in danger of losing the stories, no matter how many generations pass.  But, the stories of our own lives of faith are not recorded.  We need to tell those stories ourselves.

As a Christian community, we have family stories to tell.  We tell them so that our children and our children’s children will know the love of God and how that love compels us to live.

We are called to remember each time we are invited to the Lord’s table.  “Do this for the remembrance of me.”  Lord, let us never forget.

Comments?  Go to the blog website or comment on Facebook.  --JC