Being reminded of my need for a Savior

Last night our church softball team lost 24 to 2 in 4 innings of play in a city recreational league. I began pitching in the top of the 2nd inning when the score was 9 to 1. My only time up, bases were loaded, there was one out, the count was full, and I stood there watching a pitch down the middle of the strike zone that was a little high/deep and I was called out looking. As I pitched, I could not find the corners of the strike zone of the umpire, so eventually gave up trying and pitched fat pitches down the middle. Unfortunately, due to sin in my heart, my attitude toward this umpire was that of clinched teeth anger. Again unfortunately, sin came out of my mouth, because my heart was sinful. I said things while pitching that I should not have said: cheering for pitches he called strikes (not really getting on the umpire's good side), loudly declaring pitches that I thought were catching the inside/outside edges of the strike zones (hoping to influence his call, yet he still called them balls), and an overthrow to our first base young lady player, after an easy hit ball to me, that I overthrew because I was full of anger induced adrenaline. My sin was showing it's ugly face, and the team noticed. I only know that the team noticed, because first, after the Game, our coach reminded us that we were God's witness to the other teams and was encouraging us to give God glory by our example in sportsmanship, and second, the Holy Spirit convicted me of my sin, and so confessing it to my teammates, asking them to forgive me for my sinful attitude that I displayed, asking the Holy Spirit to help change my heart from the inside out - remembering that if I received what I 'deserved' - I would end up condemned in hell, and only by the love of the Heavenly Father sending His Son to take my sins upon himself, the spotless lamb, that I have been graciously given that which I do NOT deserve - eternal life with Him in glory. I truly need a savior, o sinner that I still am, and am thankful Jesus Christ is my savior - forgiving me of ALL of my sin.

O to be more like Jesus, is my soul's cry, to put to death sin in my life, by the help of the Holy Spirit.

As I read Romans 8:32 today in light of my need of a savior, I weep for joy for His love towards me:
"He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things."

Meditation on Romans 8:32

I've never done this before, but yesterday's sermon by Pastor Mark Alderton suggested in order to assist in meditation on God's Word - [His Word is life to me (Deuteronomy 32:47)] - that one could journal what they have meditated on in His Word, so that one then could consider how best to apply what the Lord is teaching them, because as James admonishes us in 1:22-25, we are not to be hearers only, but doers of the Word.

I thought I would start by attempting to meditate on Romans 8:32 which Pastor Mark had mentioned two Sunday's ago when he spoke on "Don't Worry, because the Sovereign God is going to take care of you as you do His Will."

Romans 8:32 (ESV)
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
(Updated NASB)
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
(Amplified Bible)
He who did not withhold or spare [even] His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also with Him freely and graciously give us all [other] things?

The message of the new Testament by Mark Dever (pg 157 - speaking about Romans with a section heading of "Justification Is by Faith Alone, but Justifying Faith Is Never Alone"):
'Though we struggle now, we will know a glorious liberation, according to chapter 8. God did for us what the law could not do: "what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering" (8:3, margin). Christians therefore look forward to "the glory that will be revealed in us" (8:18). And then, in what may be the most encouraging verse in the Bible, we find Romans 8:32. If you need an encouraging verse to stick on your refrigerator, mirror, or computer screen, use Romans 8:32: "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?" We can be assured that whatever God knows we need for accomplishing his perfect purposes, he will graciously give.'
"

Matthew Henry's Commentary:
Romans 8:32-39. "All things whatever, in heaven and earth, are not so great a display of God's free love, as the gift of his coequal Son to be the atonement on the cross for the sin of man; and all the rest follows upon union with him, and interest in him. "All things", all which can be the causes or means of any real good to the faithful Christian. He that has prepared a crown and a kingdom for us, will give us what we need in the way to it. Men may justify themselves, though the accusations are in full force against them; but if God justifies, that answers all. By Christ we are thus secured. By the merit of his death he paid our debt. Yea, rather that is risen again. This is convincing evidence that Divine justice was satisfied. We have such a Friend at the right hand of God; all power is given to him. He is there, making intercession. Believer! does your soul say within you, Oh that he were mine! and oh that I were his; that I could please him and live to him! Then do not toss your spirit and perplex your thoughts in fruitless, endless doubtings, but as you are convinced of ungodliness, believe on Him who justifies the ungodly. You are condemned, yet Christ is dead and risen. Flee to Him as such. God having manifested his love in giving his own Son for us, can we think that any thing should turn aside or do away with that love? Troubles neither cause nor show any abatement of his love. Whatever believers may be separated from, enough remains. None can take Christ from the believer: none can take the believer from Him; and that is enough. All other hazards signify nothing. Alas, poor sinners! though you abound with the possessions of this world, what vain things are they! Can you say of any of them, Who shall separate us? You may be removed from pleasant dwellings, and friends, and estates. You may even live to see and seek your parting. At last you must part, for you must die. Then farewell, all this world accounts most valuable. And what hast thou left, poor soul, who hast not Christ, but that which thou wouldest gladly part with, and canst not; the condemning guilt of all thy sins! But the soul that is in Christ, when other things are pulled away, cleaves to Christ, and these separations pain him not. Yea, when death comes, that breaks all other unions, even that of the soul and body, it carries the believer's soul into the nearest union with its beloved Lord Jesus, and the full enjoyment of him for ever."

Just beginning to meditate on this truth now, will need more time as I have to go to work now.

Day 22 of our June 2008 vacation

We left the East side of Kansas at 7:15am Central time and made it home at 5:15pm Mountain time.

Glad to be back home!

Day 21 of our June 2008 vacation

We were in the car for 14 hours today with a couple of huge thunderstorms, having to pull over the car on the side of the road a couple of times due to the downpours. We pulled into our campsite in Kansas around 10pm and without disconnecting it from the car had it hooked up by 10:15pm and in bed by 10:20pm.

Day 20 of our June 2008 vacation

We went to the Creation Museum today from open until close today and we tremendously enjoyed it. We especially enjoyed the planetarium. They did a very good job in their media presentations, and their walk thru museum was much larger than we anticipated too.

Day 19 of our June 2008 vacation

Today after breakfast and packing up the camper, we drove 30 minutes to the Buffalo airport in NY and dropped off Amy around 10:15am so she could fly home (again missing the 3 long drives home.) The rest of us then drove out of NY, passed through a corner of PA, went through all of OH which included some severe thunderstorms where we pulled off at a rest stop due to the downpour and finally entered KY around 7:30pm. We are staying at Big Bone Lick State Park in Union KY. After setting up the camper at 8pm, having returned to warmer and more humid climate, we all decided to cool off in their swimming pool, which closed at 9pm - that was a blessing to cool down before bed. I called Amy and she had made it safely back home. We watched the colorful sunset. At around 10:15pm, we started a small fire to watch - it was too late to sing since it was past quiet hour, so we all went to bed around 11pm. We decided to come home a day early and skip the Underground Railroad museum, so we can be at church and then go to parent/teen on this coming Sunday. Tomorrow, Lord Willing, we will visit the Creation Museum for most of the day.

Day 18 of our June 2008 vacation

Today we toured Old Fort Niagara for a couple of hours. It was less expensive for the 6 of us to join for a year as a family then to enter in as 6 adults (since their child range stopped at 12), so we joined for a year family pass :) It was interesting how often this Fort traded hands -> starting out with the French who built the first 'house of peace' - a fortress made to look like a house instead of a fort, for their trading in the early 1700's with the Indians - it made the British mad, and in the French-Indian War, became the ownership for 40 years by the British after a 19 day siege on the Fort and the eventual surrender of the French. 12 years after the Revolutionary war had ended, due to working out the peace treaty, the British handed over the fort to the Americans. Then the war of 1812 came and we attacked from the fort against the northern shores of Lake Superior, but they had the high ground and actually had better success, so in the winter of that year, the Americans built a 3rd floor to give them the height advantage of their cannon shot and as the war continued in 1813 with the assistance of the American fleet, we had the advantage and nearly wiped out the British fortress on the northern shores. When we landed, we not only burned their fort, but their entire town (a bad thing) as the British took revenge in December of 1813 and did a surprise night attack, killing 65 and taking as POW's 335 of our men, and took the 15 stars and 15 stripe flag down and captured it, and replaced the fort with the British flag - flying again over Fort Niagara. When that war finished, the British again returned the Fort to the Americans peacefully. So the fort has seen 3 countries flags, exchanging 5 times. The reason this was important was prior to the Erie canal being built was due to the fact the ships had to port around Niagara Falls in order to continue on out further west (from the Atlantic ocean). There was a lot of hands on things to do, and we all had a very good time there.

Then we went on to see Niagara Falls. We took the Maid of the Mist ride out into the river at the base of the falls enjoying the beautiful scenery our Lord created. The falls are named: the American falls on the left, Bridal falls, right next to them on the right, then an area where a LOT of birds had gathered on the rocks, then the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side, what I typically think of when I visualize Niagara falls.

We came back to the campsite and rested our legs from quite a bit of walking today and were surprised, yet again, by a community band that was playing (quite well actually too) in the State Park, so we enjoyed listening to a free concert!

We have been thankful for this trip, thanking the Lord for our wonderful weather, and no real major problems (I've listed a couple minor ones along the way, but nothing ever major.)

Our last night at this campground in Darien State Park in NY.

Day 17 of our June 2008 vacation

Today I got up around 7:30am and went to finish the drying of the clothes Amy and I had washed last night. When I came back to the campsite at 9am, everyone was just waking up. We dried off the camper, thanking the Lord for a nice dry morning after the thunderstorm last night, packed it up, and took our longest road trip with Amy in the car with us today. We took our time, stopping at various 'service centers' along the way, eating brunch at McDonald's; then snacks in the car, then some Dunkin Donuts later for an afternoon snack. My phone is working again in this neck of the woods so were able to make a few phone calls. We arrived at Darien Lake State Park just east of Buffalo, had dinner, and I had a nice long shower in their clean shower stalls. Tomorrow we get to see Niagara Falls and Fort Niagara, our good Lord Willing.

Day 16 of our June 2008 vacation

Amy woke up at 6:30am, but I slept in until after 10. When I got up, I called the B&B, and she had completely forgot that we were coming as she forgot to write us down on her calendar, so she apologized and we forgave her, wanting to make sure that we were 100% reimbursed for our charge to our credit card and she said she hadn't even written down our credit card number I had given to her on the 20th so to expect no charge.

So, with a late start, we packed up the camper and drove with it in tow on up to Lexington, walked to the visitor's center along the Minute Man trail. There we bought the girls each a mob cap to wear and Todd a three cornered hat to wear for the day. The multi-media event is excellent (and free) at the Lexington Visitor Center - setting the stage, telling the story of that day in April 1775 where we eventually shot and killed British Troops - beginning the Revolutionary War for our Independence. As we drove to the Tavern, we were blessed with an unexpected set of singers who were singing at the old Tavern, followed by a scheduled ranger talk and a firing demonstration of his musket. Then we drove onto the North Bridge in Concord where we met a Ranger giving a talk that explained how our first command that was ever ordered to fire back at the British troops was given on that bridge.

It did feel as though we were on hallowed ground as we recalled the treason each one of those minute/militia men could have been hung for by firing at the British troops, yet we wanted freedom, freedom from oppression and tyranny - it was truly the 'shot that was heard around the world' as many nations have fought for freedom from oppression and tyranny from that day forward.

We then drove to our next camping site in Lee MA, called October Mountain State Forest Park. Amy and I went and started the laundry by washing it, but there were so many people at the laundry mat, we could not dry our clothes, and so came back to the campsite around 9:30pm.

This night around 3:30am we awoke with lightning that was close and bright, and thunder that was extremely loud. We all woke up to it and watched it, except I had to go to the bathroom and made a run for it 'in between lightnings' in the rain. It was a spectacular thunderstorm as we all zipped up all of our windows.

Day 15 of our June 2008 vacation

Today was a very long day :)

While we drove into Boston, we stopped for a hot breakfast at Starbucks :) Then continued onto Boston Common. We were blessed with a Bazaar that was raising money for indigenous people; each of the kids bought something. Abby bought an orange belt from Indonesia, Todd bought a little "Zombie" made from yarn/string from Thailand, Beth bought a pink top from Mexico, and Jamie bought a purse from Uzbekistan. After the surprise unscheduled Bazaar, we bought a self guided tour book from the Visitor's Center and walked the Freedom Trail (to the Old North Church), nearly finishing the 2.5 mile one-way trip. On the walk back to the car, we stopped at another Starbucks and had a cold beverage to keep us going. Two Starbucks stops in one day - for us, that is unheard of.

It was great to see the sights leading up to and including the first parts of the Revolutionary War.

We couldn't get our car to the limited Boston map we had and all of the roads kept forcing us via one way directions away from the Boston Tea Party, so we didn't see them, so left Boston around 4pm.

When we got back to the campsite, Amy took a shower while I wrote down the directions to where we were going to celebrate our 26th Anniversary one day late. I wanted to leave the kids the computer and the cell phone while Amy and I prepared to head back into Boston together to celebrate our 26th Anniversary. I had previously purchased tickets to the Boston Pops on Saturday night, June 21st starting at 8pm, that was celebrating Dizzie Gillespie. Around 6pm, we left the campsite and made it to a restaurant Amy had noticed that was close to the campsite and ate a wonderful meal from 6:15pm-7:15pm. Then we drove downtown and due to road construction related traffic delays, I dropped Amy off at 7:55pm near the door to the concert, and I was blessed to get a close parking spot and ran up the stairs at 8pm with them saying to the crowd approaching to hurry up as it was starting, but I made it to the first balcony before the conductor even entered, so it was perfect timing. It was as though there were 3 concerts that evening. First, the Symphony played 2 numbers, then a very young (18 year old) talented pianist played from memory along with the orchestra a number from Stravinsky written for Piano; then after the intermission; 6 Jazz musicians, most of them very old, one who had played with Dizzie since 1942, (who was 21 then), now 85 years old who played sax and flute - the other older musicians played the trombone and the other played the trumpet and the other played the electric bass. The two younger ones were the piano player and the drum player. They played about 50 minutes with the entire orchestra, and then for an encore, played one more song with just the 6 of them. It was a wonderful night and we left around 10:30pm to go to our B&B we had just reserved the day before in Hull MA (after making sure it was OK with the kids that they spent one night without us.) That trip out to the point on Hull took a lot longer than either of us had wished. Our directions were wrong, it was getting late, and finally we found a place to ask for better directions. When we found the B&B it was around 1am. So, the inn keeper had said she would leave the back door unlocked for us. It was so we came in and did not see any note to which was our room, so I went and found 2 doors to rooms that were already opened and one was a single bed, and one was a double, so I assumed I had found our room. When Amy and I both went into the room, she noticed some of the pillows were at the foot of the bed and the bed did not look made, there was garbage in the garbage can, but nothing in the closet, and there was a damp towel and wash cloth laying on the bed. It looked like this wasn't our room; so we wrote a note to the owner stating we would give her a call in the morning and decided to drive back to the campground. We arrived at the campground around 2:30am. Thankful that 2 of the 3 events we planned for our anniversary celebration worked out as planned.

Day 14 of our June 2008 vacation

Woke up on our 26th Anniversary today and after breakfast, Jamie cleaned out the car, while the rest of us cleaned out the camper since it wasn't wet and we still had some sand from the ocean in the car from two nights ago.


We headed out of our NJ Cheesequake State Park and up towards Wampatuck State Park in MA. On the way, we had previously picked out Harriett Beecher Stowe's home to tour in Hartford CT, since the kids had read Uncle Tom's Cabin this year in school. What we didn't know was that Mark Twain's home of 17 years was right next door to her home. So, we decided to tour Samuel Clemen's home instead :) We did the full home tour, which was worth the money, our guide did an excellent job. It was interesting how Sam and his wife constructed and decorated their home - it was way before their time, not until the 1920's did people start using architecture or the geometric shapes they used to decorate their home.

After the tour, visiting their museum, and perusing their bookstore (Jamie purchased A Connecticut Yankee in King Author's Court) we left Hartford and drove into Hingham MA and set up camp. Now ready for our trip into Boston tomorrow.

Day 13 of our June 2008 vacation

Today we took the Ferry ride from the NJ side over to Ellis Island, spending two hours there. Note: if you go, don't buy ice cream on Ellis Island, but wait for the Statue of Liberty as you can get a larger waffle cone for less than Ellis Island's soft serve ice cream cone :) That was the only thing we were disappointed in. Then four of us (all but Amy and Jamie) climbed the steps to the highest point they will currently let us go to (which is to the top of the foundation), as they closed the climbing up inside the statue of Liberty in 2001 after the attacks on 9/11.

The kids bought the funny hats and wore them around taking some silly pictures. We had a good time.

After the ferry ride back to NJ, we ate our picnic in the grassy area of the parking lot while Todd chased some pigeons, I guess those steps were not enough of a workout for him! Most of us took some Dramamine during dinner since we still felt like we were on the ferry - not very sea worthy legs :}

We came back and did laundry in the nicest coin laundry mat Amy or I have ever seen.

Day 12 of our June 2008 vacation

We drove from French Creek State Park in PA to Cheesequake State Park in NJ.

Then we drove to the closest public beach, we found out there was a free concert on the beach that evening, weather permitting. As we drove into the parking lot at the beach, they were cancelling the concert due to the bad weather that was visibly on its way. The kids and I ran out and played along the edge of the water for a few minutes taking some pictures of the ominous clouds before heading back to the car, just as the wind picked up and sandblasted us as we headed back to the car. We ate our picnic in the car as other folks drove out of the parking lot watching the lightning and rain and dark clouds continue to pass out to sea. After we were done with our picnic, the rain was now a sprinkle, so the kids went back out to play, while I napped in the driver's seat, and Amy watched the kids from the passenger seat. They came back wet, cold and sandy, but had a great time.

Day 11 of our June 2008 vacation

After cereal for breakfast, we drove into Philadelphia from our French Creek State Park location and spent the day at the Independence National Park. We started off seeing the Liberty Bell, then at the Library that Benjamin Franklin established, read some of the historical artifacts on display there. The girls really liked Lewis & Clark's Journal that was displayed, and I was wowed by the Declaration of Independence that was placed on parchment in a larger font by the printer in his second printing - the only one remaining of this second printing. Then we went to Todd's favorite display that was in the the Great Essentials Exhibit in the west wing of the Independence Hall - it had a copy of the paper copy (first edition) of the publicly read Declaration of Independence, then we were given a tour of Independence Hall. I was glad that we had done the Valley Forge tour the day before, as that gave us a great reference point to the declaring of Independence on July 4th, 1776, and then the actual signing of the final hand written document in August 1776. These men literally risked their lives and fortunes to this new government that had no allies and a very large enemy at that point (martial law already ruling in Boston because of the Boston Tea Party). We are looking forward to our visit to Boston, Lexington and Concord coming up that will show the beginning of this war with the 'shot heard round the world.'

After our tour of Independence Hall, we had to have Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches while in Philadelphia - so that was our lunch - very filling and tasty!

After lunch we saw the Free Quakers meeting house (the 'Fighting' Quakers who were 'read out' of the Quakers meetings.) Then we went to the home of Betsy Ross, then on over to the excavations of Benjamin Franklin's home - even that was very interesting! We went and saw the 30 minute movie at the Visitor's center called 'Independence'. We ended the day by seeing Benjamin Franklin's grave site - then drove back to our campsite, ate dinner, roasted some marshmallows and made smores, and sang a couple of songs as we watched the fire. The fire is once more a heap of coals as we have burned up the last of the free wood that we took a portion of from our generous campground host's site.

Day 10 of our June 2008 vacation

I was up at 6am so went off to find the closest coin laundry to wash our two loads of towels from the rain drenched camper from yesterday. After getting lost on back roads, even though I had the laptop with me, a local person pointed me to a closer coin laundry than Google business had found the closest to our location, so people still know more than Google does :)

After I returned and had breakfast, we went to Valley Forge today and learned a lot more about the 3rd of 8 winters the US Army went through to prepare for their campaign against the British Armies (that were retreating from Philadelphia in June of 1778 due to May's signage of France to assist the fledgling USA's army.) We also learned of Ben Franklin speaking with King Louis the XVI in order to attempt to persuade him to become allies with the USA (since the French at that time hated Britain). While in France, Ben Franklin persuaded a Prussian military officer, Von Stueben, to join the USA forces. After two weeks, George Washington advanced him to become Inspector General of his troops. Due to his standardization at this 3rd wintering and training the men how to use the bayonet, the USA army was considered by historians 'born' (even though they had been fighting for their independence for a couple of years already.)

That was a great couple of ranger led programs we enjoyed in addition of having the blessing of using Amy's sister's just recently purchased CD Auto Tour program as well.

We ended our adventure at an ice cream shop, and then came home to relax awhile before having dinner. (Amy has been making some really nice dishes in the crock pot in the morning so it is ready when we return back to the pop-up-trailer in the evening.)

Before bed, we read some of the letters written during the winter of 1777-1778 about Valley Forge that Amy had pre-printed before we began our trip. It was amazing to see how involved General George Washington was with his men - fighting with congress for the supplies they needed, paying rent to the home they used for their head quarters that winter (which we toured since it is still standing and is a part of the Auto Tour.) George Washington charged his men to value personal property (as the British troops did not, but just "quartered their troops' as they saw fit.) This right to private property later became written out in our original Bill of Rights as the 3rd Amendment.

Day 9 of our June 2008 vacation

After breakfast, we packed up the camper (it had rained the evening before so it took some extra time to dry off the sunbrella walls before folding up the pop-up camper.) Lots of caterpillars were attempting to make their cocoons in our chairs that we had put underneath the camper, so that took awhile to remove all of them as well.

We showered and went to our sister church in Gaithersburg MD called Covenant Life Church. It was Father's day, and we heard an excellent message to father's from Psalm 78 by pastor Don DeVries who made 3 main points:
1) God has called fathers to tell His story.
2) God has called fathers to teach His Word.
3) God has called fathers to embrace His purposes.

We met with some old friends from church, Bill and Nancy Whitacre who had moved back to Virginia about 4 year years ago, and they drove up to meet us at Covenant Life instead of their main church in Fairfax which was so nice of them. We had lunch together at Panera Bread and caught up on each other's lives - it was a fun time to spend together.

Then we drove to French Creek State Park in PA and set up camp. The gas is much less expensive in PA than it is in MD or VA (more like the price in CO).

Day 8 of our June 2008 vacation

We decided to try the Claude Moore Colonial Farm - A working farm made historical to the year of our Lord 1771 that a family operated farm in Northern Virginia - their "rent" was all of their tobacco crop - 500 pounds a year, the rest of the 5 acre land was whatever else they harvested they could trade with or eat. It was a quick tour only taking about an hour - we ate lunch under their shade trees, bitten by flies, and thankful that we did not have to stay out there all day like the family that was living on the farm - we were in shorts and t-shirts with water bottles, the ladies had quite a bit of clothing on - with fires burning in the small house that slept 6. We were thankful it was really 2008; so we all decided to go into some air conditioning and went to the AMC movie theater to watch the new Indiana Jones movie and cooled down. When we came out of the movie around 5pm it had rained and the temperature was much more bearable now.

We came back to the campground to get our stuff ready for Sunday.

Day 7 of our June 2008 vacation

We drove to downtown DC and found a parking garage that was not full and parked as close as we could to the Smithsonian American Art Museum at the Renwick. Our favorite there was the 'Ghost Clock' solid piece of woodwork that looked as though a draping was tied over the Clock underneath, but the draping and string that tied it was really made out of the same piece of wood, just died white. The draping and indentations in the 'cloth' was remarkably done so well, it was extremely difficult to tell even after staring at it for awhile.

After the Renwick, we had lunch at Potbelly's - voted the best sandwich in DC, and we devoured some very tasty sandwiches there.

Then we took the metro over to the Freer Gallery of Art which was showcasing Asian art works and the painter Wheeler. Fantastic works on silk from the orient that have survived over two thousand years, and some artwork in glass from Egypt from even earlier. We also quickly looked through some of the artwork being displayed at the Arthur M. Slacker Gallery, but could not see it all due to closing time. Amy and I walked over to the Sculptured Gardens (not gardens that have been sculptured, but sculptures placed in a garden.) The kids rested in the shade and ate a snack by the museum where a ground squirrel came up on to the back of the bench and when Abby turned around and saw it staring her in the face, she had quite the start.

Then we took the metro close to where we had originally parked, and using the map this time, made it home quite easily.

The kids have been helpful with the cooking, dishes, laundry. I'm doing the last load of drying and it just finished so I'm gonna call it a night.

We've looked up a number of options for Saturday to do, but we'll figure it out in the morning.

Day 6 of our June 2008 vacation

We decided to not go into DC today, but instead drive to Gettysburg. Aunt Laura (Amy's sister) had given us the "Auto-Tour CD" she just purchased earlier this week while she and Garret went there. While driving the "2-3 hour" auto tour (which took us a little over 5.5 hours - that's just because were slow and like to get out and read a lot of the plaques of information along the way), it put into perspective the importance of this specific battle, the fact that more US troops died in the Civil war than in both WWI and WWII combined, and how one race to "little top" on July 2nd was such a victory for the North even though both sides had many casualties. Then Pickett's charge (after 2 hours of artillery fire from both sides had quieted down) from the south sent 150,000 infantry troops across open field to attempt to take the point held by the North called 'The Angle', only 150 men from the South made it over the wall of 'The Angle' and fought hand to hand and actually became the 'High Water Mark' of the south, but when they pursued further were gunned down by another regiment of the North. This failed charge on July 3rd caused the South to retreat on July 4th.

Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm that only took 2 minutes to give after another speaker spoke for 2 hours prior to him speaking - not much is remembered about the prior speaker's 2 hour discourse, but every word of Abraham Lincoln's speech is remembered by students today, and his penciled copy he wrote himself on paper is in a museum (no speech writer for this president). Beth, Todd, and Abby quoted from memory his speech they had memorized this year, while we were in the cemetery. His speech left such an expression of awe, that no one said anything afterward, and Lincoln initially thought it was a flop. Only sometime afterward had he realized it was significant. I admire this president who did not start the war, but for the sake of the union, and for the sake of the slaves, called to arms the North for both of these purposes.

After seeing Gettysburg (the turning point of the Civil War), and the Holocaust Museum where over 6,000,000 Jews were killed, it made us think of what terrible wicked thing our current times face - our thoughts turned to abortion - an accepted 'norm' today like slavery was when Lincoln began his presidency, but a great evil - the killing of over 45 million humans for profit, over 7 times more deaths than the Holocaust caused! http://www.abortionfacts.com/literature/literature_927hh.asp

We pray for a president that will stand up to this great evil in our time. The slogan of the Holocaust Museum is 'never again', but it is still happening around us. American slaves have been set free because of a terrible civil battle that took place and cost many lives for their freedom; The double-agent spy that made Normandy's D-Day invasion of the Allies a victory against Hitler; what will it look like for the deliverance of our current day Holocaust? I don't know, but I do pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will forgive our nation of its wickedness, wake up Americans to this Holocaust, and change the outcome of this current day evil - that is being accepted by most of us - may our eyes be opened to see, and our will be enabled to act as He would direct us to do so.

Day 5 of our June 2008 vacation

We attempted to ride the Metro into DC, but all the parking lots were full at Shady Grove, so we decided to drive further South on 270 expecting to see the other Metro exit signs. We never saw them, so we ended up driving into downtown DC and found a free parking spot close to the mall.

Once at the Southern side of the mall, we started our mall adventures at the Franklin Deleno Roosevelt memorial (that either was not there in 2001, or we never made it there last time.) At first my reaction to FDR's New Deal during the great depression, creating the CCC and employing folks sounded like a noble cause, but then Amy reminded me of the history of the previous president, Woodrow Wilson, who would not forcibly take from one man's riches and give to another man, but had desired that people would do it out of the own goodwill to the underprivileged. That did not make Woodrow Wilson a hero, even though he had stuck to his convictions, while FDR started the Social Welfare system that we still use today. Given the great depression, FDR did a better job with America than I soon relearned Germany did with Hitler.

Then we walked East toward another memorial that we did not see last time too, that of George Mason - the author of the first Bill of Rights (for Virginia). Then on around to the Thomas Jefferson memorial. These two founding fathers of our country, having learned from England what was wrong with their government, were able to put into our new republic new governing rules that allowed men to defend themselves (right to bear arms) against a government gone corrupt, and freedom of speech, and freedom of religion, etc. What a foundation of freedom they laid for us!

As we came back around the East edge and headed West on the North side, we decided to go into the Holocaust Museum. We started at 2:45pm and didn't finish until 6:15pm. It reminded us all of our trip to Dachau Germany's concentration camp in 2003, and was extremely sobering. To see how, with only 38% of the public vote, Hitler was given the position of Chancellor in January of 1933, while the councilors of the aging democratic president assured him that Hitler would become more moderate and that they could keep him "under control", even though they did not like him. However, within 6 months, Hitler became the new dictator of Germany, using brutality and fear to control, and forcing all of his political opponents into jail, changed the laws drastically, changed the school curriculum to make him Germany's "saviour", burned books, took control over all the press, and carried on with his mission to first attempt to get the Jews out of Germany (due to Evolutionist ideas he and his scientists believed - which reminded me of the recent movie that pointed this out well - "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed") and then the "Final Solution" which was to attempt to completely annihilate them - he killed hundreds of thousands of Jews, and thousands of others too, that he felt were inferior to his "Assyrian" race: Gypsies, Jehovah Witnesses, homosexuals, and people who spoke up to defend these as well were enemies of the state. His killing squads that killed thousands at a time, having them dig their own graves before shooting them (over 10,000 people were killed at many locations.) Comparing FDR and his socialistic views from the great depression was a great lesser evil than the obvious evil Hitler did.

We went by the Washington memorial that had already closed at 5pm, so headed on up to the Abraham Lincoln memorial. His humility on his second inaugural address was absolutely amazing to me (during the time of the Civil War). He clearly spoke in terms of the Sovereignty of God, His Will, prayer from both sides to the same God, in the midst of this terrible war http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres32.html

We reflected upon the day, by sitting and having an ice cream as the sun began to set and the sunset began to change the colors of the Washington Memorial into those orange tones that only the sunset can do.

When we left the City with our car, we didn't have a detailed map, nor the laptop, so we knew we needed to go back to Clarksburg MD area (North and West) and get onto 270, so took a shot at what we thought was 95 that looked like it headed north and then west around the top of the City on the little map we had; however we missed 95 and ended up on the turnpike to Baltimore and kept noticing the Van's direction kept stating NE, so we pulled over after about 25 miles at an exit, bought a map, made it over to 95, retraced a few miles, then finally got home about 10:15pm - didn't eat much for dinner and were still thankful for the rain the night before as we could tell the temperature was more bearable to sleep again.

Day 4 of our June 2008 vacation

We went to the International Spy Museum today in Washington DC. Spent the entire day there and did the extra 1 hour long event. It was amazing to me, to learn so much about our history and the importance of the spy/double-agents and how they gained secrets, gave up secrets, made D-Day successful for the Allies, How we sold scientific research to other countries during the Manhattan Project from Los Alamos Labs to USSR. No wonder the 50's and 60's had so many spy movies and TV programs. I would Highly recommend this museum to anyone interested in the 1940's to present as it presented a different 'history lesson' than the one I remember learning from high school in the late 70's.

Found out that the Metro is less expensive after 10am and again after 7pm, so we will continue to use that model to go downtown DC again today.

The thunderstorm last night cooled down this evening beautifully, and the weather forecast for Wednesday is to be the coolest of the days we have remaining so we plan on touring the MALL tomorrow.

By the way, it looks like the replacement alternator is beginning to sometimes show a charge around 14 volts now, so maybe it is working after all - maybe it just took some time to recharge the drained battery from yesterday's failed alternator while we were driving for some time with the lights on and the A/C on before I noticed the dashboard showing the drop in voltage charge on the battery.

Day 3 of our June 2008 vacation

Left early from Richmond, IN. The kids were quick in getting up, having a quick breakfast, and putting down the camper - from waking up to leaving was 1 hour - so we were on the road early - it was a good thing too.

We stopped in Dayton OH to get a part for the camper (a new faucet since ours leaks) - Todd had done the research while we were driving to Richmond IN the previous day using the laptop - so we knew where we were going. However, since it was a Monday morning, and there was road construction - we were basically stopped on the freeway - so we took our first exit and Todd helped use the laptop and Google maps to get us to where we needed to be via the back roads. After we got the part we got back on I-70 a different way and continued heading east - no more traffic problems the rest of the day.

About 2:30pm as we were entering Maryland, I noticed the battery light come on and the voltage dropped from charging, so I assumed the alternator had quit working, so we turned off the headlights, turned off the A/C, and started calling ahead to the next cities and towns - the big city said they would not have enough time to finish the work, so we needed a closer town to them, so they recommended a Chevy dealer that was 3 miles past where we were and gave us directions how to get there on the back roads. When we got off the next exit (22) we double-checked our directions at a gas station and found that the bridge was out due to construction, so we had to take the freeway back to exit (18) on I-68, we were thanking the Lord we asked again - especially pulling the trailer - so we only had to back track 3 miles and arrived a little before 3:30pm and their mechanics quit at 4:30pm and they had one alternator in stock - again thanking the Lord - plus the one guy was willing to stay late and finish the work on our car so we could continue on our way. So, between 3:50pm after they confirmed it was the alternator and that they had the part, the kids and I had one hour to spend - so we walked up to a little ice cream shop and enjoyed some refreshment. We got the van, with the replacement alternator nearly working perfect (it charges, but just barely), so he said we could come back after he ordered another alternator for us, so I have his card and am deciding if we want to call him to have him order it and then drive the 2+ hours back to his town to get it replaced with a better alternator. We left Grantsville after re-hooking up the trailer we had to unhitch in a parking lot and then due to good traffic, was able to drive directly to where Amy was, asking her to hang at the airport another 30 minutes before taking the Metro to where we were picking her up.

So then we set up camp at dusk, ate our dinner meal, Amy's sister and son joined us bringing us two oscillating fans from the store since there was no wind here and it was so nice to have the air movement in the trailer last night as we slept after taking cool showers, sleeping on top of the sleeping bags with wet hair.

Day 2 of our June 2008 vacation

We made it safely to Richmond IN today. Sang songs around the campfire, Plan to drive to Clarksburg MD tomorrow and pick up Amy from the DC metro. Better gas mileage today after the winds subsided. A very nice campground, everyone took showers to cool off from the humidity to help us sleep tonight.

Day 1 of our June 2008 vacation

Jamie, Beth, Todd, Abby and I safely made it to Bonner Springs Kansas today (12.6 mpg). We ate at the Gottschalk's favorite hamburger joint in Hays, called Vernie's - it was good :) Boy was the cross-wind blowing strong, and we were roughly 6 miles from running out of gas, asking the Lord to help us make it to the gas station, turning off the A/C and praying the 3 miles to Alba as our gas gauge was below the E line - We made it safely and we were all thankful. We will miss you all from church tomorrow, may you enjoy worshiping and hearing the word preached from Dave Bendinelli. See you when we get back!