Recently in My Life Category

This is a repost from my old blog that has been updated to reflect more than 2 years of “progress” in making my name as confusing as possible.

Okay, so just about every time I start to get to know someone new this question inevitably comes up. The basic confusion is that I like to use my full name on things, Andrew Sterling Hanenkamp, and sometimes I use Andrew and sometimes I use Sterling and things get really confusing. I’m writing this blog post to try and explain the history of my name and the basic issues involved with its multiple uses.

I was born, “Andrew Sterling Hanenkamp.” I’m not exactly sure where “Andrew” came from other than my parents liked the name. I like it because it means “manly” and “strong,” which I hope reflects on my character some, since it doesn’t at all reflect my physique. My middle name, “Sterling,” comes from my dad’s dad, Delmont Sterling Hanenkamp. His response to having me named after him was basically, “Why’d you give him that name? I hate it.” Grandpa Del didn’t much care for his name, though I can’t say I blame him with “Delmont” as his first name. (Though, I’m told he seemed to like his first name. Go figure.)

When I was a wee short person, I went by the name “Andy” and my surviving grandparents, who are in their 80’s, still call me that to this day. About third grade, I got tired of “Andy” and started demanding that everyone call me a serious name, “Andrew.” (No offense to the Andy’s out there, I was a third grader and didn’t know any better.) The name “Andrew” lasted through the end of high school and into the first week or two of college.

Problem. I lived in an all guy’s dorm on Manhattan Christian College’s campus. Not only that, but women weren’t allowed up the stairs to our hall. In general, this meant that folks, especially girls, were yelling up the stairs whenever they wanted someone. There were three Andrews on my floor. One was a sophomore, he got to keep his name. One decided to go by his last name. The last, me, decided to go by his middle name. I’d halfway considered doing it anyway, so this was the last bit of motivation that carried it through.

Now, fast forward about 10-12 months and I started chatting with this girl online named Terri. We exchanged emails. We chatted. We talked on the phone. We met up in person. This was in 1997, when Internet dating was still one of those naughty no-nos for creeps and weirdos (my email address at the time was sterling@weirdness.com, by the way), but we only lived a couple hours apart and somehow managed to keep our relationship after she moved up to Manhattan. Most of you probably know that we got married and had kids, etc. But I digress. When she asked me what to call her, I decided that it would be “cool” for her to have a special name for me that happened to line up with what my parents called me, “Andrew.” So, now I have two names. One familiar and one for my colleagues.

This became further confused when she moved up to Manhattan. She wanted me to be known as “Andrew” in the contexts we shared, which mostly included church. Therefore, many of my friends here know me as “Andrew.” Some know me as both and pick whichever they prefer. Thus, I pretty much always sign email and such as “Sterling” unless it’s to a friend or someone at church. Sometimes, I don’t sign just avoid the issue, but then the email comes from “Sterling,” which has to be explained and on and on…

(All this and I haven’t even mentioned my desire to go by “Master Sterling” since I have a Master’s degree, but I’ll leave that for another time.)

Therefore, if you have any doubt, just call me “Sterling.” That’s my general preference. The only folks that call me “Andrew” are those that already do (don’t change what you call me just because you read that I prefer “Sterling,” it’s not that important), my neighbors, those that go to my church, and family. Everyone else can go with “Sterling.”

Anyway, I hope that clears everything up. No, actually don’t. I confess to enjoying this particular eccentricity, so if I’ve confused you all the more. Great! Just pick something to call me and stick with it, though I’d prefer that it wasn’t offensive.

Cheers.

I just got a total blast from the past. I have an old blue canvas Bible case that I used to always carry with me. I got it in high school and it had the honor of holding two of my most used Bible’s, my NIV Thompson Chain Reference Bible and my NIV Life Application Bible.

Those two Bibles and this case were with me through the end of high school, my time at Manhattan Christian College many different churches. In Wichita, New Life Christian Church, Riverlawn Christian Church, Metro East Baptist Church (where Terri and I were married, which met in pretty nice building on Tantarra Golf Course), and Messiah Baptist Church. In Manhattan, Grace Baptist Church (where we go now and went while we were engaged, I also went there most of the time when single), New Hope Community Church (where we spent most of our time married), and Westview Community Church (which I visited frequently when I was single). In Hutchinson, Grace Bible Church, which is the church Terri’s folks help to create and have been going to since before I knew them.

I decided to clean out this old Bible case while cleaning my office and the treasure trove of notes and bulletins and things has been fascinating to look through. Here are some highlights…

I have all the papers and notes I mad while attending a Christ In Youth (CIY) conference at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri. I have a personal note in here about a storm that blew through while there, which knocked down a tree limb and scared some of the non-Midwesterners in attendance because someone shouted “Tornado!” There was no Tornado and every Midwesterner there knew it. Anyway, I noted that I thought it was significant, but I don’t know what the significance would be. I also note that I had an infatuation with one of the girls on the trip that I made note of, hoping that I would have a chance with her. Glad that never panned out. I was such a hopeless romantic in those days.

I found some notes from a Niel Anderson conference I, unfortunately, attended. If you don’t know who that is, don’t listen to him. If you do know who it is, stop. That’s really all you need to know.

I found an itinerary from a missions trip to Dallas I took in high school with our youth pastor at the time, Kevin Yoakum. That was an interesting trip, though pretty scattered. It was like a missions sampler. We stayed on the campus of Dallas Christian College and then visited a different mission in inner city Dallas. The most memorable for me were a food bank where we parceled out bags with potatoes for a few hours. I learned that I was really good at repetitive tasks. I also remember visiting a mission for prostitutes in a former brothel and touring a part of Dallas where the homes were made out of junk.

I found a flyer that I made for the last Falcon Fellowship of my graduating year. In high school I was part of and helped lead a prayer group and Bible study at our school with Wendy Walker. There was a Campus Crusade (if I recall correctly) ministry that helped us pay for an off campus meal at the ELCA Lutheran church across the street (pretty much the only off campus building within sight of the campus in those days). At this particular event I spoke my first and last sermon. I don’t think it was a particularly good one, but I was barely an toddler in the faith at that point.

I have some programs from Grace Baptist Church from 1998 that made me realize that some things never change. The bulletin format is practically the same now as it was then. The main difference I notice is that the mission then was “To Seek. To Saturate. To Send” and we’ve added “To Serve” to the list since.

Looking through the bulletins, I must have been fairly awful at taking notes during these days. In fact, most of them seem to be notes passed between Terri and myself when we were dating or engaged. And many of those seemed to be concerned with getting food after the service was over and how I was to pay for it.

I found a cryptic set of notes in one bulletin for Grace Bible Church on November 15, 1998 suggesting that that was the day we informed them either that we were getting married or that we were planning to get married in May of 1999.

I found a directory for New Hope Community Church that is a single page, printed on both sides with the entire church membership on it. It included a number of names that I haven’t forgotten, but it was great to be reminded of.

I found the rules for a game my family made up, called The Insult Game. The original incarnation of this game occurred when we lived in Lawrence. We remodeled our basement and had new sheet rock up. My parents told us that we could write on the walls with pencil with impunity because they were going to paint over it. So we did. One of the things we did was The Insult Game, which was invented as we went. You write an insult of your opponent on the wall, i.e., something silly rather than truly degrading. Then the other person can change a word, add a word, or remove a word to reverse the insult.

Lastly, I’ll leave with a poem I wrote while sitting on a bench outside the Campus Center at MCC. I used to write poetry when I was single. I don’t think I have enough angst anymore to write poetry, but here’s what I wrote there—I won’t say it’s very good poetry. ;)

Blessed Innocence

Where has the innocence gone?
The elders have lost its twinkle.
The aged remember, but know it not.
Was its parting so long ago?

Where has the innocence gone?
The men have lost its restraint.
They have heard, but care not of it.
Is its destruction so enticing?

Where has the innocence gone?
The women have lost its purity.
They have felt, but shaken loose from it.
Is its modesty so lonely?

Where has the innocence gone?
The children have lost its hope.
They have nothing and their anger cosnumes.
What price must we pay?

When will the innocence return?
Will it come again in revival?
Is this the last fall?
Lord, we long for your cleansing.

Please, come soon.

Cheers.

It’s time for a change. I’ve been blogging my personal information over at Andrew.Sterling.Hanenkamp.com for a long time. Since at least 2004 or so, I think. Maybe earlier, but I know I don’t have the earliest blog posts there from the days when I used Blosxom for my blogging software. However, I think it’s time for a change.

Why?

A few years back I split my blog in two so that I have a tech blog and a personal blog. For the moment, I want to keep that split going because I feel like the things I type over at Contentment have a totally separate readership (nerdy) than I will have here (friends and believers and, occasionally, angry anti-theists). That’s a distinction in reader interest, not a distinction to me at all since I see both overlapping completely.

However, I do want the focus of my blog to shift to something more positive and scriptural. My old blog was a bit too ranty at times and I’m sure this one will do the same, but I want the focus to be on my true passion, the Word of God. That’s why I bought this domain a few years ago and now I’m finally putting it to use.

New, Regular Content

Another thing I will attempt now is to post a little more regularly. I have a couple regular postings already planned and started.

First, tomorrow should see the first release of Sterling’s Stash which will be a post containing a bunch of interesting links I’ve gleaned from around the web, blogs I like, my feeds, the news, things friends send me, funny videos, etc. In the past, I’ve been known to post these things to Facebook and/or Twitter, which I will continue to do some, but this will be an expanded version that contains a longer list of things I’ve compiled.

Second, I’ve been studying 2 Peter and am usually in the midst of some personal study. I will be posting a segment from my personal studies once a week. I don’t know when I will schedule these yet, but probably I will put them together on Sunday and they will appear on the blog Wednesday or something.

Third, I am almost always reading a book or two or three. I plan to post one note each week about that book. These will probably appear whenever.

And then, of course, whatever else strikes my fancy. I will try to at least post something short on the days I schedule things and consider working myself up to one post per day here and at Contentment.

Oh, and one other thing. I’m not using Facebook notes anymore. I don’t my comments over there. I want them here. I will post notifications to Twitter and Facebook, but not full notes.

Anyway, we’ll see how successful I actually am shortly…

Cheers.