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A Few Simple ThoughtsSeptember 09 The ShackFor some reason, my wife and I were feeling like we had to get away for awhile. Life can get going pretty fast and every now and then we need just to get off the ride and rest a while. So we began looking for somewhere quiet with a few activities nearby just to keep life interesting.
I was talking with my brother Tim from Michigan who recommended a bed and breakfast to me that some of his church groups had used. The name of this place is "The Shack". Whenever anyone hears of a vacation spot called "The Shack" near a little town called "White Cloud", naturally they question what this place may be like. We did as well, until we googled it. After seeing the beauty of it, we were willing to give it a try.
It took for us, about 7 hours to get there, but when we arrived, we were awestruck. "The Shack" is on Lake Robinson with acers of trees, flowers, and just natural beauty. There are things to keep you busy like a game room, with pool, ping pong, and shuffle board; paddle boats on the lake, and hiking trails. They serve a hearty breakfast, and banana splits every evening at 8:45. There is a porch on both sides of the building with many chairs for just relaxing or watching the swans on the lake. Fremont is nearby which had a number of resturants which we tried at mid-afternoon. Every room comes with not only a Bible, but a "Daily Bread", and some other study helps.
This place for us was a God Send. We hardily recommend it to adults (not kids) who just want to get away and spend some time reconnecting with your mate, or with God. July 12 Thoughts On The 4thFor a long time, I gave up on going to parades on the 4th of July. If you see one parade in Hartford, you have seen most others in the future as well. So when the family went, I stayed home. Maybe I'm just getting sentimental with old age, or I'm just getting mellow, but I agreed to go to a Hartford parade on the 4th. We parked our lawn chairs in the front yard of one of the families from our church and began to enjoy the fellowship right away. So if your keeping score, this definately scores points with me. Then the parade started and the first thing is the color guard with Old Glory! More points scored! The Hartford City Band playing "Stars and Stripes Forever". A whole lot of points! Some people elected to public office walking and greeting people scored a few points, but then the score began loosing points.
A Church rock band went by and we at first did not even know that it was a church. We could hear the music from a long ways away, but never could understand the words even tho' they went right in front of us. A dance group goes by with more rock music so loud that my wife and I had a hard time hearing each other, and she was right next to me. Add in a few old tractors, a hot rod or three, fire engines, businesses advertising for free, and some drunks playing "In Heaven There Is No Beer", and you have gone so far backwards on points that you maybe break even if your lucky. I'm not sure what the last few entries in the parade have to do with celebrating our independance. Why can't people use their imagination like a fella I know in Kenosha. He is in his 60's, over 6 foot, with a beard. But every July 4th, he either dyes his hair and beard brown, wears an old suit and top hat, and goes in the parade as Abe Lincoln, or keeps his hair gray and dresses as Uncle Sam.
I have to admit that I enjoy Hartford fireworks. They were 22 minutes long, but were very good. There was even a local radio station that played marches while the fireworks were going.
There have been many people that have laid down there lives so that we could celebrate this day. I hope we don't forget the true meaning of why we celebrate July 4th. July 07 Keep Checking!I promise I'll stick with this blog site! I have been checking out other blogs and waiting for them to post. But if I expect them to write, than I must engage my brain as well! I like a little more depth than what I've been reading in another website that the whole world visits. A blog keeps you current a lot better than idle chatter. So stay tuned, I'll be back! April 07 ReunionTonight, my wife and I were just trying to get on our page at facebook, and kept getting denied. So we decided to look at blogsites instead and were surprized that alot of you are still blogging. Well, if you can forgive my absence in the last five months, I will try to be more consistant. After neglecting this for so long, we will have a reunion. There were two other reunions last week as well. Let me tell you about them.
The first one was a get together after two years. Because I love harmony, and fellowship with good friends, I really enjoy singing in a men's quartet. For five years our men's quartet at church was Troy, Keith, Pat, and myself. Then the Lord moved Troy and Pat to other locations and I was forced to replace them with others who still attend our church. On March 29th, we had a great opportunity to get together with the old quartet, and give a concert at the new church that Troy is pastoring currently. Because our love of the Lord and each other has not diminished, our harmony had not either. We still have the sound we had for five years. Troy did an excellant job of getting the word out about the concert, and needed a name. We weren't the First Baptist Men's Quartet any more, so after some thought we became the Ransomed Quartet. We sang seven songs for the church that Troy is pastor of, and four more for the church he was an intern for a year ago in the evening, including a encore! What a tremendous time we had.
The second reunion was when the Gordon's got together to celebrate our mother's 85th birthday. I have 6 brothers and a sister, and all but two were able to make it and bring some of their families along as well. I had much help in planning this including my wife, and sister in law Karen. They handled the eating, and I planned the singsperation. Yes, we sang together for most of an hour, then were challenged from the Word of God by our Pastor brother, Mike. It was our families first time together in four years. Our family is scattered in Florida, Michigan, Missouri, and Wisconsin, so it is not easy to assemble.  November 22 This is a test...If any of you listen to the radio for any amount of time, you have heard the words of the title of this blog on the radio before. When I hear those words, I get ready to turn down the volume before the nasty, ear drum breaking sounds begin to start. I'm glad the station at least warns you before it starts the emergancy test of the broadcast system. The Lord often wants us to see what our character is made of, so He sends us tests too, only they are not announced. Without warning, the tests surprize us and then show us what we are made of.
Recently, I had a day of tests that left me thinking about the kind of character that resides within me. Twice in one day the Lord revealed to me some things I need to work on. The first was when I was in one of my stores I service for the bread company I work for. I was trying to locate the receiver to check in my product and move on to the next store. I walked up and down aisles, searched the entire back room, looked in offices, (and got angry looks like "mind your own business") but could not locate the receiver anywhere. I decided that said receiver had to come back sooner or later, so I stood outside the receivers office waiting. Unknown to me, she had come in a back door and was waiting for me to come check in. When I finally discovered her, I was made to feel like a blind idiot or something of equal value.
The second time, I was walking in a Wal-mart parking lot to the front door. I had parked my truck on the edge of the parking lot and proceeded to the door, when a car came quietly up behind me and honked the horn. I was startled to say the least, but when I turned around to see who it was, the driver was yelling at me from inside the car. I stepped aside and let him pass me by, only to have him roll his window down and yell at me some more.
Because both of these events were on the same day, I was ready to jump inside the car and beat the snot out of the poor excuse of a man. But words my father spoke to me many years ago came suddenly back: "Just walk away, Jack, just walk away. You will be more of a man than he if you do!" I felt worthless for the rest of the day, until I remembered that I am to be a servant. Did my reaction to these reveal servanthood or something else? I'm afraid it was something that made me want my rights. Do servants have rights? I suppose maybe some, but I'm remembering what our Lord said; "If any man would be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me". November 10 Niagra Falls!In my last blog, I was talking about my lovely wife and I taking a trip to Michigan. Actually that was just the first part of the trip. The second part was fulfilling a life long dream of my dear wife to see Niagra Falls. We were encouraged by our daughter and son in law who made the trip and posted a blog about it. So, on the Monday following our visit to Macomb County (explained in the previous blog) we crossed the border and went into Canada to see the falls! Crossing the border was too easy. We just had to answer 3 questions: Citizenship, destination, and length of stay, and we were off. (I must admit that it might have been harder if we had a chain saw in the trunk!)
The falls itself was very majestic. Once you were there it was hard not to just stare at the beauty and majesty. We thought that a day in the area would be plenty of time to see everything, so we took a tour and learned that there is much more there than just the falls. We learned about the history of the falls, the whirlpool just down stream, the dams that help keep the falls from eroding away, and lots of parks and hiking trails if we should ever go back. All the Canadian people seemed very friendly to us, but then we were there at the end of the tourist season, so the crowds were small. At the time we were there, the American dollar was worth more than the Canadian dollar, so businesses were more than willing to take our money for their price. I stopped to gas the car and used a visa card for $20 of gas but when we were billed it came to $18.67. Another interesting note of interest was the construction signs on the expressway. They were in both English and French.
Getting back into the U.S. was not as easy as leaving it. The border patrol officer asked us a lot of questions about everything. His tone of voice was not pleasent, and it seemed we had committed a crime by only staying one day. At least this whole experiance was easier than what it would have been come June 1st, 2009. Passports will be required to cross the borders so we went at the right time.
We would recommend going to anyone. We are certainly grateful we went and I'm really glad I was able to fulfill a long awaited dream. However, when we got home, I was quickly told about another dream - the Grand Canyon! I knew that living with this woman would be exciting, but I didn't realize what some of the excitment would be! October 09 Troy and Cheries new homeLast week my wife and I took a trip to Michigan to participate in the first service of Faith Baptist of Macomb Township. As most of you know, my son-in-law is the pastor whose wife is our daughter. The service went extremely well as over 120 were in attendence, with good singing and warm smiles and handshakes all around. It was quite evident that the Lord was working in the hearts of all who were there. We were very impressed with the whole realm of it all and are sure that this new work is off on the right foot.
While we were there, Pastor Troy and Cherie were able to show us the home that they will be moving into come Oct. 15th. The Landlord knows them from church and wanted them to rent this house so much that he lowered the rent to meet their needs. It's really a nice place, with 3 bedrooms, a finished basement, two car garage, and a nice fenced in yard. I have posted 16 pictures of the place and I hope that it is not too confusing. Enjoy! |
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