The Year of our Lord, 2007

This was a year of financial unrest. A record-setting wave of mortgage foreclosures, coupled with a steep slump in the housing market, buffeted financial markets, caused multibillion-dollar losses at major banks and investment firms, and became an issue in the presidential campaign. Oil prices soared to record highs, at one point reaching nearly $100 a barrel. The high prices, which burdened motorists and owners of oil-heated homes, nudged Congress to pass an energy bill that ordered an increase in motor vehicles' fuel efficiency.

It was a year of irony. President George Bush was named in a USA Today/Gallup poll as the most admired man of 2007. Al Gore won an Emmy, an Oscar, and a Noble Peace Prize for inventing global warming. His ardent fans (at least his wealthy fans) found a way to have it both ways – live in huge mansions, maintain a jet-setting lifestyle, and purchase carbon offsets to help themselves feel good. Meanwhile, some 400 internationally prominent scientists published the inconvenient truth of scientific evidence disputing human influence on global temperatures. 

NFL quarterback, Michael Vick, was sentenced to more than two years in prison for killing dogs, while we aborted another 1.3 million unborn babies with no legal consequence. CBS fired radio host, Donald Imus, for calling the Rutgers women’s basketball players names that dominate popular rap music. Senator Reid (D-Nev) introduced a letter on the floor of the U.S. Senate, and got 39 other Democratic Senators to sign it, using public office to smear Rush Limbaugh for exposing phony soldiers as....“Phony Soldiers.”

A crowded stage of presidential candidates stumbled over each other in attempts to spin the war on terrorism and the perceived need for sweeping immigration reform in their favor. Meanwhile, Arizona discovered that simply enforcing current immigration laws works.

This was the year the Creation Museum opened outside Cincinnati. The I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed during rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring hundreds. J.K. Rowling wrote her seventh and final Harry Potter book. Apple’s iPhone and Nintendo’s Wii hit the market, and the 8-foot-long Smart Car was introduced to the U.S. market. And an array of Chinese exports were recalled, ranging from toys with lead paint to defective tires to tainted toothpaste and food.

This was the year 23-year-old, Seung-Hui Cho, killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus, before killing himself. Closer to home, Robert Hawkins killed 8 people in an Omaha Mall, before killing himself. Still closer to home, Tyler Peterson killed 6 people in Crandon, WI before killing himself. And still closer to home, 13 bomb threats hit the Sheboygan area school district.

This was the year that Jerry Falwell, Ruth Bell Graham, and Dr. D. James Kennedy completed their mission on earth.

O.J. Simpson was back in court. Facing charges of armed robbery, he mused, “I thought what happened in Vegas stays in Vegas.” The Mitchell report named 85 baseball players for using performance enhancing drugs. The University of Michigan was embarrassed by Appalachia State in the biggest upset in college football history. Tiger Woods won the first ever Fed Ex Cup, the world series of professional golf. And 38-year-old Brett Favre broke several NFL career records, while leading the Packers in matching a franchise best 13-3 record.

This was the year the Christian Reformed Church celebrated her 150^th anniversary, which Sheboygan-area churches celebrated in a joint service on Easter Sunday evening. The CRCs of Brookfield and Waupun began a pastoral search for church plants in Milwaukee and Fond du Lac. Meanwhile, at FOCRC we tried to come to resolve a General Fund revolt.

During the course of the year we witnessed the baptism of six children, the professions of faith of eight young people, the marriage of six members, and the death of seven members. This was the year of our Lord, 2007.