Mín Englisc Blog

This morning's sermon was different. Normally, Dad prefers to preach expository series, going through a book or books of the Bible over a long period of time; right now, we're going through Israelite history in the early Old Testament. However, today he took a week off from that to preach an election sermon. As the church cannot endorse candidates, and as he does not believe it right to vote under current conditions, he did not look at specific people. Instead, preaching from the sixty-fourth psalm, he discussed people who oppose God and who seek to do evil, either within the government or without of it.
As I mentioned yesterday, Messrs. Finley came for worship this morning and stayed for lunch until after 2:30. Previously, I had only once met Rev. Paul Finley (at Calvin this year), and I had never met Mr. Robert Finley. Without a doubt, we had a great time. Before lunch, Dad took them (and me) on his usual historical tour of the local Covenanter sites.
This week saw much less blogging than normal; most of the 31 posts were added from Monday to Thursday, and more posts were put up on Thursday (7) than on the other three days of the week (6).
1. Becca posted 34 times; however, only once on Monday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday did she post anything but pictures and captions. The rest were two strings of pictures put up on Tuesday.
2. Nathan posted 4 times: one per day from Monday to Thursday.
3. Katie posted 4 times this week: twice on Tuesday and once each on Wednesday and Thursday.
4. Charity posted 2 times: once each on Monday and Friday.
5. Brian posted 3 times, skipping Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday.
6. Abby posted 3 times: once each on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
7. David posted 3 times: twice on Tuesday and once on Thursday.
8. Joseph posted 2 times: once each on Tuesday and Saturday.
9. Anna posted 3 times: once each on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
10. Rebekah posted 1 time, on Monday.
11. Allen did not post this week; his last post was on the twenty-first.
12. Grace did not post this week; her last post was on the twentieth.

Driving with nothing to read definitely made today's trip seem tons longer. I guess that's what I get for reading so much of the time that we were in Pennsylvania.
This morning we all attended the inauguration ceremony for Dr. Kenneth A. Smith, the new president of Geneva College. Many of you probably know his father, Dr. Kenneth G. Smith, who preached at Southside some. Anyway, Dad (as he is a Corporator of the College) walked in the processional, while the rest of us sat in the bleachers (the ceremony was held in the basketball gym) with most of the other people.
Finally! I recovered my jacket from Blackwoods today after it was missing for a week. I left it at Southside last week during the Fall Ministry Project, and therefore I had to make arrangements with Mr. Blackwood for him to retrieve it. I'm just glad that they were at the ceremony today, or I would have had to wait for the meeting of Presbytery — two weeks yet.
Tomorrow we expect to have two brothers visiting at church: Rev. Paul Finley, pastor at Winchester, and his brother, whose name I can't remember. They will be here on the return journey to Kansas from the inauguration. At least that's what they said when we saw them at the ceremony today.

Today was mostly a day of travel. Dad & I went around the local area here visiting various cemeteries, looking for ancestors' graves. After that, we all went down to the RP Home in Pittsburgh to visit Grandma. She is really doing well, far better than when we last were here in August. While we were there, we visited Mrs. Rutherford, the widow of a ruling elder at Belle Center who died last year. She now lives at the Home, and she is doing well to all appearances. Give glory to God!

Dr. Ken Smith will be inaugurated as president of Geneva College on Saturday; as a result, we arrived at my grandparents' in Western Pennsylvania a while ago. The drive seemed to take ages. Right now, I'm sitting in my aunt and uncle's house down the road from my grandparents' house.

Some polls have Bush down. Others have him leading big in some states, including Florida, with leads such as 8%. If he can hold such a lead, and hold a similarly reported 2% lead in Pennsylvania, Kerry should have a very small chance of victory.

Reports out of Ramallah have Yasser Arafat as in danger of his life. Apparently, he is headed to Paris early tomorrow for medical treatment. What I think would be best is if he were to die in spite of all efforts to save him, and despite the fact that Israel is doing what it can to preserve his life. That way, Arafat would be out of the way, and militants like Hamas would have a harder time convincing people that he had been murdered by the Zionist enemy.

Something is wrong with Blogger this morning; I can't view anyone's blog. I guess we can't expect flawless service when we don't pay for any of it.

Can you believe this? Boston, having come back from a 3-0 deficit in the ALCS, has now imposed a like deficit on St. Louis in the World Series. Now we face the question: can Babe Ruth help the Cardinals keep the curse alive?
I suppose that people without anything have a right to our sympathy and that we should try to help them. However, there is absolutely no reason why they should be allowed to do this.

Plenty of more work today gave us good results. Isaac and I went out selling popcorn in another area of the Village this afternoon; although we did not sell very much, I have now passed my goal, and Isaac is close to passing his. He should be able to pass it by the end of the week, since I am now letting him have all sales.
Tonight’s troop meeting went well; although some boys were missing, we had a vary calm and orderly meeting where a good deal of work was accomplished. We have a campout scheduled for this weekend at the local Fish & Game Association. Since my family and I are going to Pennsylvania at the end of the week, we will be missing it; however, since several others will be missing, there will probably be about five or six boys there.
Leaves also occupied a bit of the day, since we worked on two lawns. It’s a good thing that we are done for the week, since tomorrow looks to be raining, and we leave on Thursday.

Wow. What a good time at the Fall Ministry Project. My previous two were better, since this time I barely saw some people and didn't see others (Kevin, Laurie) at all. Still, the whole experience was great; the only other bad thing is that I left my jacket at Southside RP and will have to get it from Mr. Blackwood.
Overall, the best two parts were (1) talking with Luke Dinkledine into the wee hours of this morning, and (2) talking with Aaron Dinkledine, Cindy Mangan, Elizabeth Enas, Whitney Gamble, and Bethany Fisher after worship at Southside.
Dad picked me up at around 11:00 EST, and we arrived home about 3½ hours later, including lunch and gasoline. Since then, I've been selling popcorn (I got over $100 more onto my sheet today) and attending class.

AAARGH! I ha.te this stupid filter on the Blackwoods' computer! The start of the second paragraph should read:

Once we ate, the four of us went out to the parking lot to wait for Mr. Blackwood to show up. Mrs. Johnston told me that we four were going to Blackwoods' with Carrie Filson, who expected to drive three gir.ls

without the period in gir.ls.

Painting was something new for me. I've been here at Ed Blackwood's house since about 9:30 AM. Before we got here, I had an interesting experience getting up. Since I knew late last night that Aaron Dinkledine and I (along with Elizabeth Enas and Hannah Camara of Second Indy) were going to Blackwoods', we slept in the office, along with Adam Doerr. Kevin Mauser came in at around 5:30, asking us if anyone were in the room who was headed for Elkhart. I, tired, thought it was 7:30, and proceeded to get up and get dressed. At least I was able to get back to sleep.
Once we ate, the four of us went out to the parking lot to wait for Mr. Blackwood to show up. Mrs. Johnston told me that we four were going to Blackwoods' with Carrie Filson, who expected to drive three s. It took ages before we figured that she was headed to Zionsville! We eventually ended up going to Southside with Mr. Hart and Mrs. Sturm; when we arrived, Mr. Blackwood was not there, so we began to work at church. After a time, Mrs. Blackwood arrived, telling us that she arrived at Northside at 8:30. If we'd just waited a little while longer, we would have been here much sooner.
After arriving, we painted all day except for a few breaks. Newly painted are Charity's hallway, the dining room, the main hallway, and Mr. and Mrs. Blackwood's bedroom.
Hmm. Due to the stupid time difference, it's 8:24, but the post will be timed 9:24.

Weird. I just got a "General Protection Fault" error shuttting down a game of Solitaire. What's up with that?
Right now, I'm at Dinkledine's, with Luke telling me to mention his name. I should be picked up by Brandon Fisher in about 90 minutes. In the meantime, someone is sitting next to me acting like Adriel. How annoying!

In twelve hours, I should be in central Indiana, heading for the Fall Ministry Project. Right now, it looks like I will be dropped off with the Marcisz family near Marion, thence to Kokomo. Around 4:00, I will be picked up with the rest of the kids from Sycamore by Brandon Fisher and taken to Indianapolis. We just hope that this goes according to plan. Due to a birthday party, I'll need to be near Marion by 9:30AM standard time — meaning I must leave home by about 7:30AM.
In the meantime, I've been busy; we blew and raked one lawn today, and Isaac and I went popcorn selling in Rushsylvania. We've now sold about $1000 between us. If we can sell about $300 more, we should be able to go to summer camp next year for free. Anyone interested in sending me there?

Since it's nearly time for bed, I've got no time to post.

Vote Bush!

For your sake(s) I really wish that I had posted earlier. You're probably going to consider me disheartening.
Tonight's troop meeting was horrible. A new homeschooling family have moved into the area; their two boys are Scouts, one new, and one nearly to Eagle. This was the first meeting they attended. As well, tonight was the meeting of the troop committee, the adults who oversee the troop; as a result, no adults were able to oversee the meetings. Put these factors together with (1) the church that owns the building occupied our normal area, so we had to meet in the cramped basement, and (2) our attempt tonight to begin to reorganize the troop meetings, and you have a recipe for disaster. Four boys went off (as agreed) to inventory the troop equipment, leaving me to run the meeting. I didn't have too much trouble during the meeting, but total chaos began soon afterwards. Isaac, the Frog patrol leader, tried to have a patrol meeting, while Matthew, the Hawk leader, left for his uncle's birthday party. Boys soon began running around the building (inside and outside) and disrupting meetings. With the adults busy and other boy leaders gone, I was unable to manage the mess.
The incoming Scoutmaster, a former Marine sergeant, told me afterwards that he will take care of the discipline problem next week. He knows his stuff very well — talk to parents and only take drastic measures as a last resort. I just hope we won't have to come to drastic measures. Fortunately, he's almost certainly going to be able to resolve the situation before drastic measures.

Another inglorious loss for Cincinnati yesterday. When are we going to see John Kitna back in as starter for the Bengals? With him, they won eight games last year; with Palmer, they are 1-4. Their only victory was over the Dolphins, the only team worse than Cincinnati. Palmer may be someone they pay big money, but Kitna is the one worth more money.
With lots of rain coming our way, today looks to be a day of work inside. Since I have a class tonight, I probably should start reading the next chapter here rather soon. Hopefully the instructor will have an answer for a question I asked last week: since most air particles scatter short-wavelength light best, and since violet is the shortest-wavelength, why do we have a sky that is blue and not purple?
South Dakota voters may do something which President Bush cannot do: silence Tom Daschle. Current polls show Daschle in a tie with challenger John Thune. Others may differ, but I consider this race perhaps the second-biggest this year, trailing only that for president.

Ic hæbbe ánne sin-sorg forþæmþe utberstungecorne.
Last night we went selling popcorn again at the local fish fry, along with two others from our troop. Two of the four of us were selling, the others were wiping tables, and we switched every half-hour. We only sold about 4 items — far worse than we hoped. People donated nearly $30, but still we expected far more.
Today, the visitation committee worshipped with us; because they were here, we moved our lunch and afternoon worship to this week. Between the committee, a family who come only when we have lunch (due to a 2-hour drive) and a few other people, we had 56 people at worship. A pity we don't have that many every week! Folllowing afternoon worship, the committee and Mr. Bump came over here for a "short" meeting that ended up lasting two hours. They just left a few minutes ago.

BLOGS

On the following listings, the numbers with letters indicate when people post. For example: 0S,0M,2T,0W,0T,1F,0S means two posts on Tuesday and one on Friday.

1. Anna: 7, 3 pictures, 1 poll. 1S,1M,1T,1W,2T,0F,1S
2. Katie: 6. 0S,0M,1T,2W,1T,1F,1S
3. Nathan: 5. 1S,0M,1T,1W,0T,1F,1S
4. Becca: 7. 2S,0M,0T,2W,2T,0F,1S
5. Brian: 6. 0S,2M,0T,0W,3T,1F,0S
6. Charity: 3. 0S,0M,1T,1W,0T,0F,1S
7. David: 4, 1 poll. 1S,1M,1T,0W,0T,1F,0S
8. Rebekah: 3. 0S,0M,0T,1W,1T,1F,0S
9. Abby: 2. 0S,0M,1T,0W,1T,0F,0S
10. Joseph: 2. 0S,0M,0T,1W,0T,0F,1S
11. Allen: 1. 0S,1M,0T,0W,0T,0F,0S
12. Grace: 0. Last post 1 October.
Kevin is permanently exempt by his own request.

Popcorn selling got Isaac and Matthew up to the post office before 8:30 this morning. They sold nearly $100 of popcorn — not very much, but it helps send us to Virginia.
We're having the committee here for lunch. So far, they have met with my family, with Mr. Bump, and with the Session. Later, they will be meeting with the deacons; after that, they will meet with any members who want to meet with them. So far, they've pointed out several things we could improve, and we pray that they might be yet more useful over the next 28 or so hours.

Sorry for the short post; we've all been really busy today. The Visitation Committee have arrived and are right now sitting in our living room. We were preparing for them all day. Pray for their time here over the next couple of days, that they might be extremely useful to the congregation.

Dad just returned from Cincinnati, bringing a small box of Timbits with him. Grandmother's doctor visit went very well; she has more appointments coming up, and hopefully they will go well too. Thanks to God!
During the debate last night, Kerry criticized the administration's recommendations for flu vaccines. Come ON! How petty can you get? This is not the way one earns and keeps the reputation of a great debater.
Before my class yesterday, we went to Fazoli's in Bellefontaine for dinner. Isaac, having just received his ziti, took the Parmasan cheese bottle and turned it upside down to put some on. Imagine our surprise when the lid fall off and all the cheese came out! Apparently, someone had pulled the old trick of loosening the lid. Fortunately, this happened to the person who cannot have enough cheese. He offered us some, but he happily ate nearly all of it.

Dad is gone all day today, down in Cincinnati with my grandmother for a doctor’s appointment. He plans to return tomorrow, hopefully rather early. If you could, please keep my grandmother in prayer; she is definitely not feeling too well right now.
In the meantime, I have other things to do. Most room cleanup is either (a) dependent on the rearrangement of furniture, which cannot be done until at least next week, or (b) something that will inherently take some days and therefore interfere with sleeping arrangements for the visitation committee. As a result, I have rather little to do today besides the obvious class tonight. With the poor weather today, it looks like I will be swimming at the YMCA tonight before class.
Isaac and I will probably resume the selling of popcorn tomorrow or sometime like that. We got permission today to set up a stand at the post office on Saturday morning; as well, we plan to sell at the fish fry at the township fire hall on Saturday evening. Hopefully, we can sell a large amount of popcorn; several boys have sold very little or nothing.

Salvation's cup I'll lift up in the LORD's name,
Vows to the LORD before His people pay.
Observed by Him and precious in the LORD's sight
Appears the death of all His saints each one.
O LORD, I am Your servant, Your slave,
I am Your handmaid's son, for You set me free.

Psalm 116:13-16

Many of you knew Kenneth Thompson, an elder at Second Indianapolis. Mr. Thompson was a venerable older saint who had devoted much effort to the memorization of large portions of Scripture. Many of you have memories of him just like I do: at a Thankoffering one year, Mr. Thompson, the speaker, came dressed as St. Peter and recited much of the apostle's epistles. Mr. Thompson passed away peacefully yesterday morning. Read more from Brian Fulk.
Mowing and raking look to be nearly done for the week. Of my four lawns, one has almost no leaves, one I mowed today, and the owners of the other two want me to wait for a time yet before doing more work.
Tonight is our troop meeting, preceded by a central Patrol Leaders' Council meeting. We really need to emphasize popcorn selling and other fundraisers — Isaac and I have each sold over $300 of popcorn, while many others have sold nearly nothing. At least some others need to be stepping up to the plate if they want the troop to go to next year's National Jamboree.
The military has been stepping up attacks against rebels in various parts of Iraq. Rebels in the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah have seen their stronghouses bombed, and soldiers have attacked mosques being used against American troops. The typical response is being given by local enemy sympathisers: "The occupation is violating our sanctuaries!" Hint: Don't use mosques for fighting and they won't become war zones.

Today is celebrated as Columbus Day. No matter the fact that the anniversary was a couple or three days ago.

Today I finally embarked on doing a bit of room cleaning. Among other small things, I hung a picture and put all of my magazines into a single pile from the three or four where they had been.
Besides that, Dad & I went to Bellefontaine early this afternoon to have documents copied for the Visitation Committee. Since the documents would take 1-1½ hours to finish, I had planned to go to the library. A pity I hadn't remembered the holiday — it was closed, and we had nothing to do while the papers were being printed. At least I was able to take a good bike ride. Thanks to Mr. Bump, I now have some of the CDs on which I will put copies of the photo directory.

Today in his sermon Dad preached from the chapters of Numbers which deal with Balaam. It's interesting and somewhat funny how Moab simply told the Israelites to go around them and ignored them until they utterly destroyed Sihon. Of course, this kingdom of Amorites (by no means the only one) had defeated Moab; now, Moab was faced with a people who had utterly destroyed a people stronger than themselves! No wonder Balak Benzippor sent for someone reputed to have power over the god of Israel.
We had 55 people at worship today, several more than on an average week. Nine of these were a family named Watson who have just moved into the area; hopefully, they will return, and that permanently. After worship, the Morton family (members) came over for lunch and stayed until about 3:25 before leaving for home. They live over 90 minutes' drive from here.
I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but we're having a Presbytery visitation committee here next week. The men who will be coming are Rev. Magill, Mr. Hanson, and a minister in this presbytery by the name of Frank Schutz. The plan Mr. Magill (who is the chairman) has put together has them arriving Friday evening, staying through Saturday, and leaving after worship. Hopefully everything goes very well.

Blogs

1. Becca posted 11 times, including 2 pictures. She posted every day of the week except Wednesday.
2. Nathan posted 6 times. He posted every day of the week except Saturday.
3. Brian posted 11 times. He posted on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday.
4. Anna posted 9 times, including 1 picture. She did not post on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Saturday.
5. Joseph posted 6 times. He posted on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
6. Charity posted 3 times. She did not post on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or Saturday.
7. David posted 4 times. He did not post on Monday, Wednesday, or Saturday.
8. Rebekah posted 4 times. She posted on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.
9. Katie posted 5 times. She posted on Tuesday and Thursday.
10. Abby posted 1 time, on Monday.
11. Grace did not post last week; her last post was on the 1st of October.
12. Allen did not post last week; his last post was on the 9th of September.

Too bad I forgot to post earlier; now, there's almost no time. Isaac and I sold popcorn in the nearby village of Rushsylvania today along with Matthew Bump from church. After that, we cleaned the church. Really, nothing has happened other than that today. Ohio State lost (their second straight) to Wisconsin today.

Policemen are supposed to fight drug abuse, and most do. Not so in the small Pennsylvania town of Weatherly.
Now that I've finished my assignments for class today, I have other things to work on. I've a couple or three things to do for my God & Life class at church this week, as well as popcorn selling and room cleanup. At least most of the week's work is done for me; I can take care of other things.
How many of you knew that there was an RP church in Indianapolis 140 years ago? A church was started in 1867, but it closed in 1870. I have text from an old book that has notes about the congregation; if any of you would like to learn about this church, email me at the address above.

In Florida, Darth Vader is angry. He tried to rob a pizza deliveryman the other day.
No mowing today for me; the grass is growing so little that I'm not likely to mow for the rest of the week. In the meantime, I have other things to do: two assignments for my meteorology class, a room to clean, and merit badge work to complete. Hopefully I can get everything taken care of without problem.

Finally, I mowed one of my normal lawns this week. It's not normal for me to wait until Wednesday to start them. Isaac mowed a "new" lawn today; belonging to a business that was recently sold, the grass had not been mowed in months. At least it's a small lot; still, he took 2½ hours. After we mowed, we went out selling popcorn.
Tonight's class was somewhat delayed. The instructor (since he is Korean) uses a projector extensively, and the professor from Tuesday night's class had taken the power cord. It took forty minutes' delay before class started. While we waited, I managed to sell some popcorn to another student. Anyone want to buy Boy Scout popcorn and help send us to next year's National Jamboree?

We had a new troop election at tonight's meeting. The election last month was invalid because non-members voted. The results were the same — I took ASPL, assistant senior patrol leader — but I'm much happier, as this time everything went as it should. One new boy has officially joined. With all the new boys coming in, the senior patrol leader (top boy leader) and I were discussing patrol makeup a lot. A patrol (group below troop level) should consist of at most eight boys, but if all our new boys join, we'll have eighteen in just two patrols. Another might well be necessary. If you think of it, thank the LORD that our troop has seen unimaginable progress since we joined last year.
Mom mowed part of our lawn with my newly-repaired lawnmower today. She would have done it all, but the engine seized up again. This time, there was nothing of someone putting in the wrong fuel; it's something wrong with the engine. Hopefully the guy won't charge labor for this time.

A milestone was reached today in space travel, as the vehicle in the picture, SpaceShipOne, entered space for the second time in less than a week. Visionaries are calling this an achievement comperable to Charles Lindbergh crossing the Atlantic. Already, people are planning for commercial space tourism — just a few years away. Imagine what we highschoolers might see by the time of our eld!
Tonight's class went pretty well; we caught up some ground — we were halfay through chapter II, but we are now most of the way through chapter III — and received our first assignment. It consists of one thing: read about the eruption of Mount Pinatubo (sp?) in 1991 and write about its impact on the climate.
Dad was gone most of the day down in Cincinnati and just returned a few minutes ago. He was needed there for my Pockras grandmother on her doctor visit.

This morning's sermon looked at parts of Numbers xx. and xxi., where the people go around Edom, Aaron dies, the Israelites flatten Arad, and the bronze snake is made. Dad seemed somewhat surprised that the Edomites prohibited Israelite use of the King's Highway (which by the way was an ancient road through several countries) even under strict conditions. Just imagine from the Edomite perspective: a nation of two million people — including 600,000 battle-ready soldiers — wants to walk down its main road. Does this explain why Edom opposed the idea?

Blogs

1. Nathan: 7.
2. Becca: 9, 3 pictures.
3. Anna: 7, 1 picture, 1 poll.
4. Joseph: 5, 1 poll.
5. Charity: 2.
6. Brian: 3.
7. David: 3.
8. Rebekah: 2
9. Katie: 1.
10. Abby: 1.
11. Grace: 1.
12. Allen: 0. Last post 9 September.

I did not include Daniel or Jill, as I almost never read Daniel's, and Jill has not updated since August.

Progress was made today (at least for us) in several fields. Dad and I went with two other Scouts from church to help one pass a requirement over by Rushsylvania. This boy, Sean, has now completed his work on the prestigious First Class rank. As well, Dad & I picked up my lawnmower from the repairman; the damage from using the wrong fuel was minimal, and the charge was mostly for labor. Today also saw my every-other-week battery of tests for the Personal Fitness merit badge. So yes, I've been busy!
Most accounts have Kerry winning the debate a couple of nights ago. One major reason is that Kerry looked perfectly groomed, etc., while Mr. Bush was rather tired — possibly from all the work he's been doing in the hurricane-struck areas of Florida. This is why I wish they would not televise "debates"; radio gives us the candidates' voices and words and nothing more. Isn't that what a debate should be?

I would like prayer for my grandmother, Carolyn Wilson, a member at Rose Point. She's not doing well physically right now; please pray that she might be as I always knew her.

Mount St. Helens erupted today for the first time in 18 years. Apparently, thousands of tiny earthquakes had been occurring in the area for the last several days, and this was somewhat expected. Fortunately, nothing dangerous was put out — just a 16,000-foot-tall plume of smoke and ash. As a result, nothing more happened than its last eruption in 1986.
Another week of mowing is done. Mr. Heminger, an older widower for whom I mow, believes that this was the last mowing his yard will need for the year; however, I expect to mow there (and the other four lawns) again before winter.
Tonight, we went out for supper and a little shopping. Because today was Orin Reames' seventh birthday (he's a boy from church), we went to the Reames' house after eating. For you Southside people, this is the family Dad mentioned in his sermon at Mr Keddie's installation, the family with the really old house that they are redoing. Anyway, Orin had a fun time showing us his new pet turtle and describing what he got to do today. He's really excited about joining Cub Scouts, too; 7 is the minimum age for joining.