astonishingly Redemptive story

Pert-near stayed up half the night reading the jaw-dropping story of Ruthie Bolton entitled "Gal: a true life." I think the house could have pitched and rolled with an earthquake, and I wouldn't have noticed. Ruthie's voice captivated me from the first page.

This excerpt at the end of the book seems to fit: "I've learned a lot of things that I never knew was important about plants. I thought it was just throwing it in, just putting it in the hole and that's it. But it's not that. It's just like a human being, if you don't feed it, it won't live. Or don't take care of it, it won't grow. I think about it like that, too. That's a baby there. It's going to die if I don't take it. That's what I feel about those plants. Not all of them ~ only the ones that I know that want me, the ones that are talking to me."

NPR interview of Ruthie Bolton and her transcriber, Josephine Humphreys:
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1107785

Blessed are the hungry

It's a daily devotional but I've devoured it in 4 months. Now I'll start the trip over, just to glean the Truths more carefully. Not to pass a knowledge test at the end ~ but with the goal of living these pages. Join the journey.

Senior Model ~ Allie

Is this kid gorgeous or what? Inside and out, Allison McKinney. Give a shout-out cuzes.

Heads-up folks

http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell042109.php3

Read 'em and weep

T.E.A. Parties across the land

I've thought many times that America was overdue for a re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party. The original protest against taxation without representation was December 16, 1773. The modern version will be April 15, 2009, in a city near you! T.E.A. rallies across the fruited plains. Taxed Enough Already!

I'd like to attend the rally in Sioux Falls this Wednesday. My children and grandchildren will thank me! (Code: grab your wallet)

Find out more: worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=94752

Erkel Jr.

On the job

I shoot my own photos for my articles these days, and the most recent photos turned out to be more interesting than I intended. Today, my photo editor scanned my shoot on a local violin maker and he discovered that the guy flipped off the camera. The violin maker is so nice and we had a great interview so I don't think he did it on purpose. I sure hope he wasn't trying to send me a subliminal message. The note on the photo is from our editor.

More Colorado photos

Life since our Denver trip has been crazy busy. I'm finally posting a few of my photos. The first shot is just a funny one of the bro-in-laws. The second is with Laura Huene and the fam. We could've chatted all weekend, but had to make it a quick catch up. It was so great to meet her kiddies!
-- Danielle

Aaron & Danielle Save the Day

Aaron and I were invited to a surprise birthday party last weekend for a friend from Bible Study who turned 30. The theme was "James' last kid birthday party," so everyone was asked to dress as super heroes. No one else took the theme quite as far as Aaron and I did. They wore Superman and Spiderman T-Shirts. But we were voted Most Likely to Save the Day.

The Great Generation

This is the story of Ed Freeman.
You're a 19 year old kid. You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle in the Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam, 14 November 1965.

Your infantry unit is outnumbered 8 - 1, and the enemy fire is so intense - from 100 or 200 yards away - that your own Infantry Commander has ordered the MediVac helicopters to stop coming in.

You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you're not getting out. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.
Then over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn't seem real because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.
Ed Freeman is coming for you. He's not Medi-Vac so it's not his job, but he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come.
He's coming anyway.
And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire as they load 2 or 3 of you on board.
Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire to the Doctors and Nurses.
And he kept coming back. 13 more times. And took about 30 of you and your buddies out who would never have gotten out.


Medal of Honor Recipient, Ed Freeman died last Wednesday at the age of 80 in Boise, Idaho.

May God rest his soul...

May we never forget the Great Generation.

I love these pics! I wonder if Morgan took this pic of Gabe and her Mama in the snow this weekend ~ 4 April 09? Yes, we're still in the throes of winter. Off and on, in and out.

Pic 2 is a cooking weekend a few weeks back.

Love to my chilluns

squwaack

A pheasant just glided into my yard. They make a unique sound as they fly. The prettiest bird on the face of the globe, they are. And there's one in my yard. What a terrific place to live.

The funny thing about pheasants is that I'd hardly heard of them until we moved to SD. These beauties hail from China. Either someone brought one across the seas or they had a long migrate one winter. Not sure.

My artist Dad painted a lovely pheasant landscape and the water color proudly hangs on my Art Wall. Why a Missouri lad would paint a group of pheasants, I cannot say. But the picture foreshadowed my family's prairie move. Pheasants on the wall ~ pheasants in the yard. Terrific

Intrigued

I am haunted by the question: Why don't Christians look more like Christ?
The people Jesus taught were experiencing real transformation.
Instead of counting Christians in the pews every Sunday, Dallas Willard suggests "we need to weigh them. We weigh them by focusing on the most important kind of growth - love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, kindness; fruit in keeping with the gospel and the kingdom. The gospel as Jesus brought it to earth is the most powerful thing that has ever hit the world."
A growing understanding of the Good News of Jesus coupled with simple practices that "clean the inside of the cup" will result in Christlikeness. Trust Jesus. That's all.

Grace vs. works: "In most churches we're not only saved by grace, we're paralyzed by it. But grace is not opposed to effort, it's opposed to earning." (DW)
I take that to mean, we won't just wake up one day and be able to "bless those who curse us." Becoming the kind of person who can do that will take effort just as learning a language or musical instrument requires practice.

"Instead of making people dependent on us to keep them coming back for more, we ought to set their tails on fire and let them go." Not sure what Willard has in mind, but I love it anyway. My tail is ablaze and I hope to fire-up a couple of others along the way.

And this from Dieter Zander: "A lot of people live unintentionally. They get pushed around by circumstances and culture. The spiritual disciplines serve as anchor points - or a rule of life - that keep you from drifting all over."
At the church in San Rafael where he serves, Zander entreats: "We're going to learn how to live without anxiety and fear, is anybody interested?"

Yes, I am interested. I am intrigued. I want to know more.