Cross Foolishness
Stories
Object:
Contents
What's Up This Week
A Story to Live By: "Finding a Life"
Shining Moments: "Response" by Marie Regine Redig
Good Stories: "Cross Foolishness" by Jo Perry-Sumwalt
Scrap Pile: "Dangers of Dust-Off"
What's Up This Week
With so many of our soldiers dying in Iraq and the murder rate in America increasing daily (at least in Milwaukee where we live), we don't need one more thing to worry about. But, alas, there are two new horrors that are taking the lives of our not-so-innocent children and youth. Have you heard of the "choking game" and something called "dusting"? These are two new ways of getting high that don't involve drugs. Both are potentially deadly. For more information about the "choking game" that recently took the life of a 15-year-old girl in Kansas, click here. And in this week's Scrap Pile, read a police officer's chilling account of his 14-year-old son's death by inhaling Dust-Off, a product used for cleaning computers. If you are preaching on the Gospel, you will enjoy Jo's "Cross Foolishness" in Good Stories. It gives a whole new meaning to Jesus' invitation to "pick up your cross and follow me."
A Story to Live By
Finding a Life
Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it."
Matthew 16:24-25
In 1995 a young woman named Valerie went to Somalia to work as a nurse. She wanted to help people who had nothing. She wanted to offer them a better way of life. Valerie was concerned about her safety, but nothing would stop her from doing her work. She was in charge of a feeding center in Mogadishu. Through her life-saving efforts, children who had been near starvation were fed. Valerie went on to establish a school so children could learn and have some hope for the future. She was fortunate to see some of the fruits of her labors before it was time to go home.
Early in the year 2000 Valerie made the national news when she was killed by armed bandits outside the school she had started. Twenty-three-year-old Valerie Price found the abundant life that Jesus promised to those who are willing to pick up their cross and follow him.
Shining Moments
Response
by Marie Regine Redig, SSND
There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."
Exodus 3:2-5
In the summer of 2003, I was yearning and hungering to deepen my relationship with God in an intimate way, so I took a week away to pray in the country at a lake. On the fifth day I was sitting by the lake when the words came to me, and they flowed from my pen as the tears rolled down my cheeks. This is what I heard and what I said in response:
Knock!
Yes?
It's Jesus and I've brought my Father with me.
Welcome!
We want to make our home with you.
Not much here, but what I have is yours.
It's enough!
Marie Regine Redig is a retreat and spiritual director. Now semi-retired, she left Mount Mary College in Milwaukee and serves on the Leadership Team for Associates connected to the School Sisters of Notre Dame in the Milwaukee Province. She is a member of Mary Queen of Martyrs Roman Catholic parish in Milwaukee.
Good Stories
Cross Foolishness
by Jo Perry-Sumwalt
Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it."
Matthew 16:24-25
Emma stomped up the church steps and unlocked the front door. Her dinner appointment had kept her much later than she planned, and now she needed to hurry if she wanted to make it home on foot before dark. Walking home alone after dark was a serious concern, but it could not deter her from her family duty.
Keys still in hand, and without stopping to remove her coat, boots, or scarf, Emma plodded to the storage closet near the secretary's office. She unlocked the door and turned on the light. There, in its place on the back shelf, encased in a handmade velvet cover, sat Grandfather Norman's cross. She removed the faded maroon cover respectfully, folded it, and placed it on the shelf. Then she lifted the heavy gold-plated cross, which was very nearly as big as she, and gingerly backed out of the closet. She took extra care not to bump one of the crosspiece arms against the woodwork. Grandfather Norman had purchased this cross in the Holy Land in 1902, and had it shipped home at great cost, as a gift to his church. After all these years it fell on her shoulders to see to its care and placement every week.
Not that there would be such a need if "certain circumstances" had not come about. Emma staggered a bit under the sheer magnitude of her burden as she made her way to the elevator. Once inside, she set the cross down on the carpeted floor and pressed the "up" button. There was a slight shudder as the door closed and the compartment rose toward the sanctuary. If it weren't for "certain circumstances," and stubborn mules like Harvey Volkman, she wouldn't have been making these weekly rounds for the past 10 years.
Most of the younger members of the congregation knew nothing about "the circumstances." Most of the longtime members didn't care. But it was a matter of family honor for Emma, and a matter of pigheadedness, she could testify, on Harvey Volkman's part -- because Harvey had been the one who brought up the idea of the "old rugged cross" in the first place.
Fifteen years earlier Harvey Volkman had raised the idea of replacing Grandfather Norman's beautiful gold Holy Land cross with a rough-hewn, life-sized wooden cross. It would come complete with three metal spikes embedded where Christ's hands and feet would have been. To Emma's mother's horror, the worship task force had referred the idea to the trustees, and the trustees had actually brought it before the church council for discussion. Well, of course, Emma's mother had objected to such a ridiculous idea. She stated quite eloquently the importance of her father's loving and beautiful contribution to the worship experience of their church. And Harvey Volkman had had the gall to call Grandfather's cross a gaudy museum piece that had nothing to do with Jesus or his sacrifice for us.
Well, the battle raged back and forth, with members taking sides, until finally the council chair had the presence of mind to table the discussion until a study could be done. Unfortunately, a mere five years later their new pastor began a Saturday night service, and she bought Harvey Volkman's idea hook, line, and sinker. The morning after that first Saturday night service, Emma and her mother entered the sanctuary early to find that "old rugged cross" still standing in the chancel. Grandfather Norman's cross had been unceremoniously dumped behind the altar, out of the way!
From that Sunday until her death, Emma's mother had carefully put the Holy Land cross away, in the cover she made for it, in the locked closet, every Saturday morning. And she lovingly returned it to the altar after services every Saturday night. For the past 10 years, the duty had fallen on Emma.
She lifted the cross into her arms again. There was a strange pause when the elevator stopped, just before the doors slid open. And when they did, there stood Harvey Volkman, punching at the elevator buttons, with the "old rugged cross" perched on his shoulder just like Jesus on his way to Golgotha. When he saw Emma he snorted, kind of like an old bull. And instead of stepping aside to let her out, he barged right ahead, jamming that oversized woodworking reject right across the elevator door so Emma couldn't even pass. While he tried to heft it around so that it stood upright, he bumped the crosspiece arm into the button panel, which closed the door and started them down. Then, when he tried to turn to stop it, he bumped the buttons again, and the elevator jolted to a halt halfway between the floors.
Emma was fully prepared to tear into Harvey for his rudeness, until she saw the surprised look on his face and realized that he hadn't really meant to get them stuck. After a few minutes of his button punching, door pounding, and calling for help, she set Grandfather's cross in the safety of the corner behind her. She helped lift the "old rugged cross" off Harvey's shoulder and lean it against the wall. Then she sat down as daintily as the limited space allowed. When another 40 minutes had passed without any hope of rescue, Harvey Volkman did the same.
It was about 9:30 when Pastor Jones looked out her dining room window and noticed there were still lights on in the church. She had thought Harvey Volkman would turn them off when he put the cross away after the 5:00 service, as he always did. Running over to switch them off was no chore, and while she was there she remembered that she'd left her sermon notes on the pulpit. When she tried to take the elevator up to the sanctuary to get them, it didn't work, and she called the janitor.
Emma patted her hair and lifted Grandfather Norman's Holy Land cross into her arms when the elevator began to move again, after a lot of hammering and cussing by the janitor. She couldn't quite describe the looks on the pastor's and janitor's faces when the doors slid open to reveal her and Harvey, bearing their various crosses. Nor would she have attempted to relate their reactions when Harvey shifted his burden onto the janitor with instructions to dump it in the trash, and she deposited hers in the pastor's arms suggesting that it might be permanently placed on the chapel altar. They said they planned to share the expense of providing a new cross for the sanctuary; and it was to be chosen by the worship task force and the trustees.
Their chins really hit the floor, though, when Harvey held out his arm to Emma and asked her to join him for a cup of coffee, after which he would give her a ride home. No one was ever told just what had occurred in that elevator in those three and a half hours. But it had a lasting effect on Emma and Harvey, and on the church as well.
Scrap Pile
Dangers of Dust-Off
If you have children or grandchildren, PLEASE read this officer's story carefully. You can verify the story at http://www.snopes.com/toxins/dustoff.asp. Dust-Off (or a variant of the product) is available everywhere there's a computer. Yet this threat is not limited just to Dust-Off -- the abuse of inhalants and solvents found in many common household products (referred to as "huffing" or "bagging") is a growing problem among teens and pre-teens.
First I'm going to tell you a little about me and my family. My name is Jeff. I am a police officer for a city which is known nationwide for its crime rate. We have a lot of gangs and drugs. At one point we were #2 in the nation in homicides per capita. I also have a police K-9 (dog) named Thor. He was certified in drugs and general duty. He retired at three years old because he was shot in the line of duty. He lives with us now, and I still train with him because he likes it. I always liked the fact that there was no way to bring drugs into my house. Thor wouldn't allow it. He would tell on you. The reason I say this is so you understand that I know about drugs. I have taught in schools about drugs. My wife asks all our kids at least once a week if they used any drugs, and makes them promise they won't.
I like building computers occasionally and started building a new one in February 2005. I also was working on some of my older computers. They were full of dust, so on one of my trips to the computer store I bought a 3-pack of Dust-Off. Dust-Off is a can of compressed air that blows dust off a computer. A few weeks later when I went to use one of them, they were all used. I talked to my kids, and my two sons both said they had used them on their computer and messing around with them. I yelled at them for wasting the $10 I paid for them. On February 28 I went back to the computer store. They didn't have the 3-pack which I had bought on sale, so I bought a single jumbo can of Dust-Off. I went home and set it down beside my computer.
On March 1st, I left for work at 10 p.m. Just before midnight my wife went down and kissed Kyle good night. At 5:30 a.m. the next morning Kathy went downstairs to wake Kyle up for school before she left for work. He was propped up in bed with his legs crossed and his head leaning over. She called to him a few times to get up. He didn't move. He would sometimes tease her like this and pretend he fell back asleep. He was never easy to get up. She went in and shook his arm. He fell over. He was pale white, and he had the straw from the Dust-Off can coming out of his mouth. He had the new can of Dust-Off in his hands. Kyle was dead.
I am a police officer, and I had never heard of this. My wife is a nurse, and she had never heard of this. We later found out from the coroner, after the autopsy, that only the propellant from the can of Dust-Off was in his system. No other drugs. Kyle had died between midnight and 1 a.m. I found out that using Dust-Off is being done mostly by kids ages 9 through 15. They even have a name for it. It's called "dusting" (a take-off from the Dust-Off name). It gives them a slight high for about 10 seconds. It makes them dizzy. A boy who lives down the street from us showed Kyle how to do this about a month before. Kyle showed his best friend -- told him it was cool and it couldn't hurt you. It's just compressed air. It can't hurt you. His best friend said no.
Kyle was wrong. It's not just compressed air. It also contains a propellant called R2. It's a refrigerant, like what is used in your refrigerator. It is a heavy gas -- heavier than air. When you inhale it, it fills your lungs and keeps the good air, with oxygen, out. That's why you feel dizzy, buzzed. It decreases the oxygen to your brain and to your heart. Kyle was right. It can't hurt you. IT KILLS YOU. The horrible part about this is there is no warning. It can just go randomly, terribly wrong. Roll the dice, and if your number comes up you die. It's not an overdose -- it's Russian Roulette. You don't die later, or not feel good and say I've had too much. You usually die as you're breathing it in. If not, you die within two seconds of finishing "the hit." That's why the straw was still in Kyle's mouth when he died, why his eyes were still open.
The experts want to call this "huffing." The kids don't believe it's huffing. As adults we tend to lump many things together. But it doesn't fit here. And that's why it's more accepted. There is no chemical reaction, no strong odor. It doesn't follow the huffing signals. Kyle complained a few days before he died of his tongue hurting. It probably did. The propellant causes frostbite. If I had only known.
It's easy to say hey, it's my life and I'll do what I want. But it isn't. Others are always affected. This has forever changed our family's life. I have a hole in my heart and soul that can never be fixed. The pain is so immense I can't describe it. There's nowhere to run from it. I cry all the time, and I don't ever cry. I do what I'm supposed to do, but I don't really care. My kids are messed up. One won't talk about it. The other will only sleep in our room at night. And my wife, I can't even describe how bad she is taking this. I thought we were safe because of Thor. I thought we were safe because we knew about drugs and talked to our kids about them.
After Kyle died another story came out. A probation officer went to the school system next to ours to speak with a student. While there he found a student using Dust-Off in the bathroom. This student told him about another student who also had some in his locker. This is a rather affluent school system. They will tell you they don't have a drug problem there. They don't even have a DARE or PLUS program there. So rather than tell everyone about this "new" way of getting high they found, they hid it. The probation officer told the media after Kyle's death, and then the school admitted to it. I know that if they would have told the media and I had heard, it wouldn't have been in my house. We need to get this out of our homes and school computer labs. Using Dust-Off isn't new, and some "professionals" do know about this. It just isn't talked about much, except by the kids. They all seem to know about it. April 2nd was one month since Kyle died. April 5th would have been his 15th birthday. And every weekday I catch myself sitting on the living room couch at 2:30 in the afternoon and waiting to see him get off the bus. I know Kyle is in heaven, but I can't help but wonder if I died and went to hell.
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How to Share Stories
You have good stories to share, probably more than you know: personal stories as well as stories from others that you have used over the years. If you have a story you like, whether fictional or "really happened," authored by you or a brief excerpt from a favorite book, send it to StoryShare for review. Simply click here share-a-story@csspub.com and e-mail the story to us.
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New Book
The third book in the vision series, Shining Moments: Visions of the Holy in Ordinary Lives (edited by John Sumwalt), is now available from CSS Publishing Company. (Click on the title for information about how to order.) Among the 60 contributing authors of these Chicken Soup for the Soul-like vignettes are Ralph Milton, Sandra Herrmann, Pamela J. Tinnin, Richard H. Gentzler Jr., David Michael Smith, Anne Sunday, Nancy Nichols, William Lee Rand, Gail Ingle, and Rosmarie Trapp, whose family story was told in the classic movie The Sound of Music. The stories follow the lectionary for Cycle A.
Other Books by John & Jo Sumwalt
Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences
Vision Stories: True Accounts of Visions, Angels, and Healing Miracles
Life Stories: A Study in Christian Decision Making
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle A
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle B
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle C
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit: 62 Stories for Cycle B
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About the Editors
John E. Sumwalt is the pastor of Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee, and is the author of eight books for CSS. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary (UDTS), John received the Herbert Manning Jr. award for Parish Ministry from UDTS in 1997. John is known in the Milwaukee area for his one-minute radio spots which always include a brief story. He concludes each spot by saying, "I'm John Sumwalt with 'A Story to Live By' from Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church."
John has done numerous storytelling events for civic, school, and church groups, as well as on radio and television. He has performed at a number of fundraisers for the homeless, the hungry, Habitat for Humanity, and women's shelters. Since the fall of 1999, when he began working on the Vision Stories series, he has led seminars and retreats around the themes "A Safe Place to Tell Visions," "Vision Stories in the Bible and Today," and coming this spring: "Soul Growth: Discovering Lost Spiritual Dimensions." To schedule a seminar or a retreat, write to jsumwalt@naspa.net or phone 414-257-1228.
Joanne Perry-Sumwalt is director of Christian Education at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee. Jo is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, with a degree in English and writing. She has co-authored two books with John, Life Stories: A Study In Christian Decision Making and Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit: 62 Stories For Cycle B. Jo writes original curriculum for church classes. She also serves as the secretary of the Wisconsin chapter of the Christian Educators Fellowship (CEF), and is a member of the National CEF.
Jo and John have been married since 1975. They have two grown children, Kathryn and Orrin. They both love reading, movies, long walks with Chloe (their West Highland Terrier), and working on their old farmhouse in southwest Wisconsin.
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StoryShare, August 28, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
What's Up This Week
A Story to Live By: "Finding a Life"
Shining Moments: "Response" by Marie Regine Redig
Good Stories: "Cross Foolishness" by Jo Perry-Sumwalt
Scrap Pile: "Dangers of Dust-Off"
What's Up This Week
With so many of our soldiers dying in Iraq and the murder rate in America increasing daily (at least in Milwaukee where we live), we don't need one more thing to worry about. But, alas, there are two new horrors that are taking the lives of our not-so-innocent children and youth. Have you heard of the "choking game" and something called "dusting"? These are two new ways of getting high that don't involve drugs. Both are potentially deadly. For more information about the "choking game" that recently took the life of a 15-year-old girl in Kansas, click here. And in this week's Scrap Pile, read a police officer's chilling account of his 14-year-old son's death by inhaling Dust-Off, a product used for cleaning computers. If you are preaching on the Gospel, you will enjoy Jo's "Cross Foolishness" in Good Stories. It gives a whole new meaning to Jesus' invitation to "pick up your cross and follow me."
A Story to Live By
Finding a Life
Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it."
Matthew 16:24-25
In 1995 a young woman named Valerie went to Somalia to work as a nurse. She wanted to help people who had nothing. She wanted to offer them a better way of life. Valerie was concerned about her safety, but nothing would stop her from doing her work. She was in charge of a feeding center in Mogadishu. Through her life-saving efforts, children who had been near starvation were fed. Valerie went on to establish a school so children could learn and have some hope for the future. She was fortunate to see some of the fruits of her labors before it was time to go home.
Early in the year 2000 Valerie made the national news when she was killed by armed bandits outside the school she had started. Twenty-three-year-old Valerie Price found the abundant life that Jesus promised to those who are willing to pick up their cross and follow him.
Shining Moments
Response
by Marie Regine Redig, SSND
There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then he said, "Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."
Exodus 3:2-5
In the summer of 2003, I was yearning and hungering to deepen my relationship with God in an intimate way, so I took a week away to pray in the country at a lake. On the fifth day I was sitting by the lake when the words came to me, and they flowed from my pen as the tears rolled down my cheeks. This is what I heard and what I said in response:
Yes?
It's Jesus and I've brought my Father with me.
Welcome!
We want to make our home with you.
Not much here, but what I have is yours.
It's enough!
Marie Regine Redig is a retreat and spiritual director. Now semi-retired, she left Mount Mary College in Milwaukee and serves on the Leadership Team for Associates connected to the School Sisters of Notre Dame in the Milwaukee Province. She is a member of Mary Queen of Martyrs Roman Catholic parish in Milwaukee.
Good Stories
Cross Foolishness
by Jo Perry-Sumwalt
Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it."
Matthew 16:24-25
Emma stomped up the church steps and unlocked the front door. Her dinner appointment had kept her much later than she planned, and now she needed to hurry if she wanted to make it home on foot before dark. Walking home alone after dark was a serious concern, but it could not deter her from her family duty.
Keys still in hand, and without stopping to remove her coat, boots, or scarf, Emma plodded to the storage closet near the secretary's office. She unlocked the door and turned on the light. There, in its place on the back shelf, encased in a handmade velvet cover, sat Grandfather Norman's cross. She removed the faded maroon cover respectfully, folded it, and placed it on the shelf. Then she lifted the heavy gold-plated cross, which was very nearly as big as she, and gingerly backed out of the closet. She took extra care not to bump one of the crosspiece arms against the woodwork. Grandfather Norman had purchased this cross in the Holy Land in 1902, and had it shipped home at great cost, as a gift to his church. After all these years it fell on her shoulders to see to its care and placement every week.
Not that there would be such a need if "certain circumstances" had not come about. Emma staggered a bit under the sheer magnitude of her burden as she made her way to the elevator. Once inside, she set the cross down on the carpeted floor and pressed the "up" button. There was a slight shudder as the door closed and the compartment rose toward the sanctuary. If it weren't for "certain circumstances," and stubborn mules like Harvey Volkman, she wouldn't have been making these weekly rounds for the past 10 years.
Most of the younger members of the congregation knew nothing about "the circumstances." Most of the longtime members didn't care. But it was a matter of family honor for Emma, and a matter of pigheadedness, she could testify, on Harvey Volkman's part -- because Harvey had been the one who brought up the idea of the "old rugged cross" in the first place.
Fifteen years earlier Harvey Volkman had raised the idea of replacing Grandfather Norman's beautiful gold Holy Land cross with a rough-hewn, life-sized wooden cross. It would come complete with three metal spikes embedded where Christ's hands and feet would have been. To Emma's mother's horror, the worship task force had referred the idea to the trustees, and the trustees had actually brought it before the church council for discussion. Well, of course, Emma's mother had objected to such a ridiculous idea. She stated quite eloquently the importance of her father's loving and beautiful contribution to the worship experience of their church. And Harvey Volkman had had the gall to call Grandfather's cross a gaudy museum piece that had nothing to do with Jesus or his sacrifice for us.
Well, the battle raged back and forth, with members taking sides, until finally the council chair had the presence of mind to table the discussion until a study could be done. Unfortunately, a mere five years later their new pastor began a Saturday night service, and she bought Harvey Volkman's idea hook, line, and sinker. The morning after that first Saturday night service, Emma and her mother entered the sanctuary early to find that "old rugged cross" still standing in the chancel. Grandfather Norman's cross had been unceremoniously dumped behind the altar, out of the way!
From that Sunday until her death, Emma's mother had carefully put the Holy Land cross away, in the cover she made for it, in the locked closet, every Saturday morning. And she lovingly returned it to the altar after services every Saturday night. For the past 10 years, the duty had fallen on Emma.
She lifted the cross into her arms again. There was a strange pause when the elevator stopped, just before the doors slid open. And when they did, there stood Harvey Volkman, punching at the elevator buttons, with the "old rugged cross" perched on his shoulder just like Jesus on his way to Golgotha. When he saw Emma he snorted, kind of like an old bull. And instead of stepping aside to let her out, he barged right ahead, jamming that oversized woodworking reject right across the elevator door so Emma couldn't even pass. While he tried to heft it around so that it stood upright, he bumped the crosspiece arm into the button panel, which closed the door and started them down. Then, when he tried to turn to stop it, he bumped the buttons again, and the elevator jolted to a halt halfway between the floors.
Emma was fully prepared to tear into Harvey for his rudeness, until she saw the surprised look on his face and realized that he hadn't really meant to get them stuck. After a few minutes of his button punching, door pounding, and calling for help, she set Grandfather's cross in the safety of the corner behind her. She helped lift the "old rugged cross" off Harvey's shoulder and lean it against the wall. Then she sat down as daintily as the limited space allowed. When another 40 minutes had passed without any hope of rescue, Harvey Volkman did the same.
It was about 9:30 when Pastor Jones looked out her dining room window and noticed there were still lights on in the church. She had thought Harvey Volkman would turn them off when he put the cross away after the 5:00 service, as he always did. Running over to switch them off was no chore, and while she was there she remembered that she'd left her sermon notes on the pulpit. When she tried to take the elevator up to the sanctuary to get them, it didn't work, and she called the janitor.
Emma patted her hair and lifted Grandfather Norman's Holy Land cross into her arms when the elevator began to move again, after a lot of hammering and cussing by the janitor. She couldn't quite describe the looks on the pastor's and janitor's faces when the doors slid open to reveal her and Harvey, bearing their various crosses. Nor would she have attempted to relate their reactions when Harvey shifted his burden onto the janitor with instructions to dump it in the trash, and she deposited hers in the pastor's arms suggesting that it might be permanently placed on the chapel altar. They said they planned to share the expense of providing a new cross for the sanctuary; and it was to be chosen by the worship task force and the trustees.
Their chins really hit the floor, though, when Harvey held out his arm to Emma and asked her to join him for a cup of coffee, after which he would give her a ride home. No one was ever told just what had occurred in that elevator in those three and a half hours. But it had a lasting effect on Emma and Harvey, and on the church as well.
Scrap Pile
Dangers of Dust-Off
If you have children or grandchildren, PLEASE read this officer's story carefully. You can verify the story at http://www.snopes.com/toxins/dustoff.asp. Dust-Off (or a variant of the product) is available everywhere there's a computer. Yet this threat is not limited just to Dust-Off -- the abuse of inhalants and solvents found in many common household products (referred to as "huffing" or "bagging") is a growing problem among teens and pre-teens.
First I'm going to tell you a little about me and my family. My name is Jeff. I am a police officer for a city which is known nationwide for its crime rate. We have a lot of gangs and drugs. At one point we were #2 in the nation in homicides per capita. I also have a police K-9 (dog) named Thor. He was certified in drugs and general duty. He retired at three years old because he was shot in the line of duty. He lives with us now, and I still train with him because he likes it. I always liked the fact that there was no way to bring drugs into my house. Thor wouldn't allow it. He would tell on you. The reason I say this is so you understand that I know about drugs. I have taught in schools about drugs. My wife asks all our kids at least once a week if they used any drugs, and makes them promise they won't.
I like building computers occasionally and started building a new one in February 2005. I also was working on some of my older computers. They were full of dust, so on one of my trips to the computer store I bought a 3-pack of Dust-Off. Dust-Off is a can of compressed air that blows dust off a computer. A few weeks later when I went to use one of them, they were all used. I talked to my kids, and my two sons both said they had used them on their computer and messing around with them. I yelled at them for wasting the $10 I paid for them. On February 28 I went back to the computer store. They didn't have the 3-pack which I had bought on sale, so I bought a single jumbo can of Dust-Off. I went home and set it down beside my computer.
On March 1st, I left for work at 10 p.m. Just before midnight my wife went down and kissed Kyle good night. At 5:30 a.m. the next morning Kathy went downstairs to wake Kyle up for school before she left for work. He was propped up in bed with his legs crossed and his head leaning over. She called to him a few times to get up. He didn't move. He would sometimes tease her like this and pretend he fell back asleep. He was never easy to get up. She went in and shook his arm. He fell over. He was pale white, and he had the straw from the Dust-Off can coming out of his mouth. He had the new can of Dust-Off in his hands. Kyle was dead.
I am a police officer, and I had never heard of this. My wife is a nurse, and she had never heard of this. We later found out from the coroner, after the autopsy, that only the propellant from the can of Dust-Off was in his system. No other drugs. Kyle had died between midnight and 1 a.m. I found out that using Dust-Off is being done mostly by kids ages 9 through 15. They even have a name for it. It's called "dusting" (a take-off from the Dust-Off name). It gives them a slight high for about 10 seconds. It makes them dizzy. A boy who lives down the street from us showed Kyle how to do this about a month before. Kyle showed his best friend -- told him it was cool and it couldn't hurt you. It's just compressed air. It can't hurt you. His best friend said no.
Kyle was wrong. It's not just compressed air. It also contains a propellant called R2. It's a refrigerant, like what is used in your refrigerator. It is a heavy gas -- heavier than air. When you inhale it, it fills your lungs and keeps the good air, with oxygen, out. That's why you feel dizzy, buzzed. It decreases the oxygen to your brain and to your heart. Kyle was right. It can't hurt you. IT KILLS YOU. The horrible part about this is there is no warning. It can just go randomly, terribly wrong. Roll the dice, and if your number comes up you die. It's not an overdose -- it's Russian Roulette. You don't die later, or not feel good and say I've had too much. You usually die as you're breathing it in. If not, you die within two seconds of finishing "the hit." That's why the straw was still in Kyle's mouth when he died, why his eyes were still open.
The experts want to call this "huffing." The kids don't believe it's huffing. As adults we tend to lump many things together. But it doesn't fit here. And that's why it's more accepted. There is no chemical reaction, no strong odor. It doesn't follow the huffing signals. Kyle complained a few days before he died of his tongue hurting. It probably did. The propellant causes frostbite. If I had only known.
It's easy to say hey, it's my life and I'll do what I want. But it isn't. Others are always affected. This has forever changed our family's life. I have a hole in my heart and soul that can never be fixed. The pain is so immense I can't describe it. There's nowhere to run from it. I cry all the time, and I don't ever cry. I do what I'm supposed to do, but I don't really care. My kids are messed up. One won't talk about it. The other will only sleep in our room at night. And my wife, I can't even describe how bad she is taking this. I thought we were safe because of Thor. I thought we were safe because we knew about drugs and talked to our kids about them.
After Kyle died another story came out. A probation officer went to the school system next to ours to speak with a student. While there he found a student using Dust-Off in the bathroom. This student told him about another student who also had some in his locker. This is a rather affluent school system. They will tell you they don't have a drug problem there. They don't even have a DARE or PLUS program there. So rather than tell everyone about this "new" way of getting high they found, they hid it. The probation officer told the media after Kyle's death, and then the school admitted to it. I know that if they would have told the media and I had heard, it wouldn't have been in my house. We need to get this out of our homes and school computer labs. Using Dust-Off isn't new, and some "professionals" do know about this. It just isn't talked about much, except by the kids. They all seem to know about it. April 2nd was one month since Kyle died. April 5th would have been his 15th birthday. And every weekday I catch myself sitting on the living room couch at 2:30 in the afternoon and waiting to see him get off the bus. I know Kyle is in heaven, but I can't help but wonder if I died and went to hell.
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How to Share Stories
You have good stories to share, probably more than you know: personal stories as well as stories from others that you have used over the years. If you have a story you like, whether fictional or "really happened," authored by you or a brief excerpt from a favorite book, send it to StoryShare for review. Simply click here share-a-story@csspub.com and e-mail the story to us.
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New Book
The third book in the vision series, Shining Moments: Visions of the Holy in Ordinary Lives (edited by John Sumwalt), is now available from CSS Publishing Company. (Click on the title for information about how to order.) Among the 60 contributing authors of these Chicken Soup for the Soul-like vignettes are Ralph Milton, Sandra Herrmann, Pamela J. Tinnin, Richard H. Gentzler Jr., David Michael Smith, Anne Sunday, Nancy Nichols, William Lee Rand, Gail Ingle, and Rosmarie Trapp, whose family story was told in the classic movie The Sound of Music. The stories follow the lectionary for Cycle A.
Other Books by John & Jo Sumwalt
Sharing Visions: Divine Revelations, Angels, and Holy Coincidences
Vision Stories: True Accounts of Visions, Angels, and Healing Miracles
Life Stories: A Study in Christian Decision Making
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle A
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle B
Lectionary Stories: Forty Tellable Tales for Cycle C
Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit: 62 Stories for Cycle B
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About the Editors
John E. Sumwalt is the pastor of Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee, and is the author of eight books for CSS. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary (UDTS), John received the Herbert Manning Jr. award for Parish Ministry from UDTS in 1997. John is known in the Milwaukee area for his one-minute radio spots which always include a brief story. He concludes each spot by saying, "I'm John Sumwalt with 'A Story to Live By' from Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church."
John has done numerous storytelling events for civic, school, and church groups, as well as on radio and television. He has performed at a number of fundraisers for the homeless, the hungry, Habitat for Humanity, and women's shelters. Since the fall of 1999, when he began working on the Vision Stories series, he has led seminars and retreats around the themes "A Safe Place to Tell Visions," "Vision Stories in the Bible and Today," and coming this spring: "Soul Growth: Discovering Lost Spiritual Dimensions." To schedule a seminar or a retreat, write to jsumwalt@naspa.net or phone 414-257-1228.
Joanne Perry-Sumwalt is director of Christian Education at Wauwatosa Avenue United Methodist Church in Milwaukee. Jo is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, with a degree in English and writing. She has co-authored two books with John, Life Stories: A Study In Christian Decision Making and Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit: 62 Stories For Cycle B. Jo writes original curriculum for church classes. She also serves as the secretary of the Wisconsin chapter of the Christian Educators Fellowship (CEF), and is a member of the National CEF.
Jo and John have been married since 1975. They have two grown children, Kathryn and Orrin. They both love reading, movies, long walks with Chloe (their West Highland Terrier), and working on their old farmhouse in southwest Wisconsin.
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StoryShare, August 28, 2005, issue.
Copyright 2005 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., P.O. Box 4503, Lima, Ohio 45802-4503.
