{"id":620,"date":"2008-12-13T00:01:19","date_gmt":"2008-12-13T00:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/markdroberts\/2008\/12\/snow-in-boerne.html"},"modified":"2008-12-13T00:01:19","modified_gmt":"2008-12-13T00:01:19","slug":"snow-in-boerne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/12\/snow-in-boerne.html","title":{"rendered":"Snow in Boerne"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One night this last week it snowed in Boerne. Now if you&#8217;re from places like Minnesota or New England, you&#8217;ll probably find it odd that I&#8217;m excited about a half-inch of snow. But even a dusting of snow is a big deal in the Texas Hill Country. And it&#8217;s even a bigger deal for transplanted Southern Californians, like me and my family.<br \/>\nDuring my seven years living in the Boston area while I was in school, I experienced plenty of snow, including one storm that dropped 29 inches and shut down classes for several days. But, since then, I lived for more than two decades in the flatlands of Southern California, where snow falls about once every century, if that. I missed the excitement of snow, along with the way it transforms the world. My wife and children have never lived in place where snow falls. So we all enjoyed the surprise of snow in Boerne last week.<br \/>\nThe weather in Texas never ceases to amaze me. Last Tuesday, it was unseasonably warm during the day, with the high in Boerne reaching 77 degrees. But, in the late afternoon the temperature began to drop quickly. By 11:00 p.m. it was 34 degrees. By 11:15 it was snowing. When we awoke the next morning, it was 29 degrees, and there was a modest dusting of snow covering our house and yard. Here are some photos to prove that I&#8217;m telling the truth<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.markdroberts.com\/images\/family-snow-yard-7.jpg\" height=\"356\" width=\"504\" \/><br \/>\nMy family, dog included, enjoying the first few snowflakes.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.markdroberts.com\/images\/snow-yard-sandy-7.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nMy dog ran a few dozen &#8220;puppy laps,&#8221; but then settled in to enjoy the snow.<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.markdroberts.com\/images\/house-snow-7.jpg\" \/><br \/>\nOur house the next morning. As I said, a dusting. But that&#8217;s more than we ever got in Irvine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One night this last week it snowed in Boerne. Now if you&#8217;re from places like Minnesota or New England, you&#8217;ll probably find it odd that I&#8217;m excited about a half-inch of snow. But even a dusting of snow is a big deal in the Texas Hill Country. And it&#8217;s even a bigger deal for transplanted&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":214,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-texas"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Snow in Boerne - Mark D. Roberts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/12\/snow-in-boerne.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Snow in Boerne - Mark D. Roberts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One night this last week it snowed in Boerne. Now if you&#8217;re from places like Minnesota or New England, you&#8217;ll probably find it odd that I&#8217;m excited about a half-inch of snow. But even a dusting of snow is a big deal in the Texas Hill Country. And it&#8217;s even a bigger deal for transplanted&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/12\/snow-in-boerne.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mark D. Roberts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-13T00:01:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.markdroberts.com\/images\/family-snow-yard-7.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark D. Roberts\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Snow in Boerne - Mark D. Roberts","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/12\/snow-in-boerne.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Snow in Boerne - Mark D. Roberts","og_description":"One night this last week it snowed in Boerne. Now if you&#8217;re from places like Minnesota or New England, you&#8217;ll probably find it odd that I&#8217;m excited about a half-inch of snow. But even a dusting of snow is a big deal in the Texas Hill Country. And it&#8217;s even a bigger deal for transplanted&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/12\/snow-in-boerne.html","og_site_name":"Mark D. Roberts","article_published_time":"2008-12-13T00:01:19+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.markdroberts.com\/images\/family-snow-yard-7.jpg"}],"author":"Mark D. Roberts","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/12\/snow-in-boerne.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/12\/snow-in-boerne.html","name":"Snow in Boerne - Mark D. Roberts","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/12\/snow-in-boerne.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/12\/snow-in-boerne.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.markdroberts.com\/images\/family-snow-yard-7.jpg","datePublished":"2008-12-13T00:01:19+00:00","dateModified":"2008-12-13T00:01:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/#\/schema\/person\/1ff094a57b7e41f534434b1723df3d73"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/12\/snow-in-boerne.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/12\/snow-in-boerne.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/12\/snow-in-boerne.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.markdroberts.com\/images\/family-snow-yard-7.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.markdroberts.com\/images\/family-snow-yard-7.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/2008\/12\/snow-in-boerne.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Snow in Boerne"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/","name":"Mark D. Roberts","description":"Mark D. Roberts: Thoughtfully Christian Reflections on Jesus, the Church, and the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/#\/schema\/person\/1ff094a57b7e41f534434b1723df3d73","name":"Mark D. Roberts","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/f2d\/f2ddf5f080861f66ea230384f9d1bab2x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/f2d\/f2ddf5f080861f66ea230384f9d1bab2x96.jpg","caption":"Mark D. Roberts"},"description":"The Rev. Dr. Mark D. Roberts is a pastor, author, retreat leader, speaker, and blogger. Since October 2007 he has been the Senior Director and Scholar-in-Residence for Laity Lodge, a multifaceted ministry in the Hill Country of Texas. Before coming to Laity Lodge, he was for sixteen years the Senior Pastor of Irvine Presbyterian Church in Irvine, California (a city in Orange County about forty miles south of Los Angeles). Before his time at Irvine Pres, Mark served on the staff of the First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood as Associate Pastor of Education. (Thanks to Janel Pahl for taking the photo to the right.) Mark studied at Harvard University, receiving a B.A. in Philosophy, an M.A. in the Study of Religion, and a Ph.D. in New Testament and Christian Origins. He has taught classes in New Testament for Fuller Theological Seminary and San Francisco Theological Seminary. Mark has written several books, including No Holds Barred: Wrestling with God in Prayer (WaterBrook, 2005), Dare to Be True (WaterBrook, 2003), Jesus Revealed (WaterBrook, 2002), After \"I Believe\" (Baker, 2002), and Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (Word, 1993). His most recent book is Can We Trust the Gospels? Investigating the Reliability of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (Crossway, 2007). He is currently working on a commentary on Ephesians that will be published by Zondervan in 2014. Mark writes a devotional for The High Calling of Our Daily Work, a website associated with Laity Lodge. His \"Daily Reflections\" can be viewed online or sent as a daily email. If you wish to receive this email, just visit TheHighCalling.org and sign up. Mark serves on the editorial board of Worship Leader magazine, where he publishes articles and reviews, including his regular column \"Lyrical Poetry.\" Additionally, he has published dozens of articles in leading magazines and journals. He often speaks for churches and other Christian groups, and has been interviewed on over seventy-five radio programs nationwide. Mark is married to Linda, who is a Marriage and Family Therapist, a Spiritual Director, and a retreat speaker. They have two children, Nathan and Kara.For Publicity Photos and Bio Statements for Mark, please check here. Mark's Dossier Professional History: Senior Director and Scholar-in Residence, Laity Lodge, October 2007 to present. Senior Pastor Irvine Presbyterian Church, June 1991 to September 2007 Adjunct Assistant Professor Fuller Theological Seminary, 1994 to 2007. Courses: New Testament Theology and Exegesis. Adjunct Instructor San Francisco Theological Seminary, 1995 to 2001. Courses: New Testament Greek and Exegesis Associate Pastor of Education First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, 1987-1991 Teaching Fellow Harvard University, 1980-1983 Education: Ph.D. in the Study of Religion. Harvard University, 1992. Area: New Testament and Christian Origins M.A. in the Study of Religion Harvard University, 1984. A.B. magna cum laude in Philosophy Harvard University, 1979. Phi Beta Kappa; Danforth Fellowship Books: Can We Trust the Gospels? Investigating the Reliability of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Crossway, 2007 No Holds Barred: Wrestling with God in Prayer. WaterBrook, 2005 Dare to Be True: Living in the Freedom of Complete Honesty. WaterBrook, 2003. Jesus Revealed: Know Him Better to Love Him Better. WaterBrook, 2002. After \"I Believe\": Experiencing Authentic Christian Living. Baker, 2002. Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther in the Communicator's Commentary Series. Word, 1993. Contacting Mark: You can reach Mark at: E-mail: mark@markdroberts.com mroberts@laitylodge.org Phone: Laity Lodge: (830) 792-1216 Address: Laity Lodge 719 Earl Garrett Kerrville, TX 78028","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/author\/mroberts"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/214"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/markdroberts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}