Mín Englisc Blog

Well, I'm home from the Winter Conference. It was really emotional for me this year — not only were several good friends absent because they're older, but also this was my last WC. There were several important things that I'd like to note, in no particular order:
*Meeting some new people.
*Seeing old friends again.
*Rev. York's sermons.
*Seeing and talking at length with Laurie, whom I'd not seen since ECHO, and Kevin, whom I'd not seen since Calvin.
*Talking with Kevin, one-to-one, in a way I just can't do on IM.
*Getting to know Katie Bussell much better and meeting her sister Maggie.
*Singing with some of my closest friends.
As I sang Psalm 73C this morning in Prayer & Praise, I began to cry, overcome by a combination of factors: the words of the psalm, dear memories of Mr. Keys (a late elder here who loved this psalm), and thinking of all my WCs. Even now, as I type, I'm getting tears again.
After talking with different people, especially one of the counsellors, I have a strong sense of something I heard at Calvin. One night, Rev. Long preached a sermon on the subject of missions. A part of the sermon was encouraging young people to group together to move to a city without an RP church and form one. Tonight, as I think of this, I feel a call to prepare for doing just this. Of course, if I ever do this, it's going to be years away, but I know that I can prepare for this (or anything else in God's will) today.
This idea, by the way, is not new. For decades, most new RP churches were founded in this manner, and very few were started by setting up a mission in a new city. In this, as in other ways, let us follow the godly examples of our ancestors!
What do you think of this idea? Leave your comments!

Today's important event: the journey homeward from Pennsylvania in the snow (hámweard fram Pennsylvanie on þæm snáwe). After a little interlude, it's time to prepare for the Winter Conference. Dad is taking me (as all previous years) along with Isaac (his first WC) and a girl from Southfield, Laura Soma. See you there!

1. Anna: 4
2. Nathan: 3
3. Brian: 2
4. Charity: 2
5. Katie: 2
6. David: 2
7. Becca: 1
8. Rebekah: 1
9. Grace: 0. Last post on the 9th of this month.
10. Joseph: 0. Still no posts since the first of the month.

Since I don't have much time to update before church, I'll skip the best blogs. Look for ratings tomorrow. We just returned from Pittsburgh from visiting Grandma.
Yesterday, after we finished Christmas dinner at my uncle Tom's house, Grandma was talking on the phone to my aunt in Louisiana. Suddenly, she began to fall — headfirst down the steps! She ended up on her side on the concrete floor of the basement. In summary, we rushed her off to the hospital, where we stayed until late evening. She has a cracked left shoulder, but is (overall) doing extremely well for her condition. Just think: delicate older lady falls headfirst down a flight of stairs onto concrete, yet has absolutely no head injury! Pray for her, especially, and also pray for Grandpa (who saw it all) and for Mom (who tried and failed to catch her) as they recover mentally.

Time to get ready to go. Pray for our safe journey!


MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Well, we might might be going to Pennsylvania. Despite what Mom said, we were able to dig out the entire van before 6:00. Besides earning almost $50 by shovelling today, I had one interesting experience: normally, the post office has all PO box mail available by 10 AM, and the building closes at 5:00. Today, due to the snow, the mail truck didn't arrive until after 5:00, and I got the mail (at the office!) just before 6:30!
Due to uncertain road conditions, however, we still might not be going tomorrow. Hopefully, we'll be able to go and find out that the interstates are clear; the way Dad wants to go is nearly all on US highways or interstates. Pray for our safety!
I forgot to mention our big event yesterday — early in the afternoon the Christmas tree fell over on its front. We only had two broken ornaments: one of those little glass balls and a special "Our First Christmas" of my parents'. The latter really was a big loss. It's amazing we didn't have more little balls broken; when Isaac decorated the tree, he put most of the little balls on the front.

Can you believe it? Fifty-six centimetres (that's 22 inches!) of snow??!!! Snow=shovelling; as a result of all this, we may be staying at home this Christmas. Expect another update later.

Well, we were planning to leave for Pennsylvania tomorrow, probably in the morning, but that idea is history tonight. With three parts of a foot of snow on the ground (and more expected!) and associated bad road conditions, we couldn't possibly undertake a 4½ hour drive tomorrow. As a result, we're now hoping to leave on Friday (Christmas Eve) and return Monday.
With this storm coming in, we've all been rather busy with the ±10" of snow. Isaac was nowhere to be found much of the day, as he was out sledding with his little friends. Mom and I worked a bit of the day on shovelling sidewalks; Isaac also did a bit of that work. Mom and Dad even went to Bellefontaine for most of the morning!
I occupied most of my day working on the computer: designing new album pages for stamps and working on the 2005 church directory. We now have 70 different people on the birthday list, even though we only have 55 members and mid-40s attendance; most of the extra people are occasional attenders or out-of-bounds members. After all, if all our members attended every week, we'd average over 60 people at worship. Of course, it's impossible for people in the military in Germany, California, and Louisiana to attend.
Anybody have an idea for an EASY costume for the Winter Conference?

In Iraq, rebels often attack US soldiers while they eat; normally, little damage is done. Today, however, rebels in al-Mawsil fired a large rocket at our soldiers, and they pulled off the worst single attack to date in Iraq.
THIS is why we must continue to fight in Iraq — these enemies deserve death. They killed fifteen American soldiers today while they ate lunch! If we pull out prematurely, we'll have the same things happening here. Remember this image, and the worse ones that doubtless aren't available, whenever people tell you that we must leave Iraq.
My Tuesday, while much safer, was not very productive; we rose at 0600 to get Grandmother to her chemo in time; however, due to a fever, she couldn't get the treatment. Despite no chemo, we were at the hospital for 2½ hours waiting for various things to be finished. As a result, we did almost nothing useful, except for a little shopping. I found another book by Solzhenitsyn; more importantly, I also found a new Bible — my old one is now practically without a binding. Due to shopping and other things, we didn't get home again until an hour ago.

A summary of today's events: Go with Mom & Dad to deliver the car to the body shop (to repair deer-collision damage). Come home and eat lunch. Work on stamps. Type some Glasgow. Help with the Christmas tree.
Tomorrow, we're going to be getting up extremely early — 0600 — so as to be down in Cincinnati by 0930. Dad is driving Grandmother to and from her chemotherapy, and nothing can start until we get her to the hospital. While she's having the treatment, we hope to go do some shopping: Isaac needs a new coat, I need some stamp supplies, and Mom & Dad probably have something or another that they need to get.
Give thanks that (from Grandmother's point of view) the cancer is doing very well; the chemo is generally doing its work and killing the cancer. Please do pray that this might continue, that Grandmother might be free from this forever. Pray, too, for her brain arteries, that she might be spared from strokes.
Thinking of Cincinnati, the Bengals really bungled their game yesterday against Buffalo. Apparently, the best performance by a Bengal was that of [first name here] Spikes, who NOW plays for Buffalo! So much for Kitna giving Cincinnati a certain win; hopefully, he and they will do better next week against Eli Manning and the Giants.

Already, at Campbell Hill in Bellefontaine, it's just 1.5ºF. With a temperature of 3ºF here and clear skies over the entire state, are we going to have our first sub-zero night of the year?

Because Christmas is this Saturday, many people will be travelling next weekend, including us. As a result, our normal last-week-of-the-month lunch and afternoon worship was moved up to this week. Three members who normally can't be at worship were there, and a family of six came who (due to distance) only attend when we have lunch; despite this, and mostly due to one family on vacation and another at a wedding, we only had 45 people there today. It's annoying seeing how attendance the last couple of months has been somewhat lower than before, but it's not so bad when I realize that ten years ago we had half our average attendance.
Dad preached today from the last two chapters of Joshua and from part of the first chapter of John. Besides that, we had a disconcerting piece of news — it looks like Mr. Dave Pierce may well die soon. Mr. Pierce, who lives in Northern Kentucky, is a member remaining from the failed work in the Cincinnati area. Some months ago, he had a malignant melanoma removed from his eyeball, but now it is known that not everything was killed. Once melanoma metastasizes, it's nearly impossible to catch — and melanoma has been found in his liver. Do pray for him, and for his wife, Voni.
Forgot to mention that, while we were camping, Mom & Dad got a Christmas tree. When was the last time that we got one so late in the season?
Happy Birthday to Grandmother Pockras!

BLOGS

1. Anna: 4
2. Katie: 4
3. David: 2
4. Rebekah: 2
5. Charity: 1
6. Becca: 2
7. Abby: 3. This includes one today, as she's going to stop blogging for a while. 8. Brian: 0. Last post 11 December.
9. Grace: 0. Last post 9 December.
10. Nathan: 0. Last post 7 December.
11. Joseph: 0. Last post 2 December.

Due to a number of factors, the camping trip could have been much better. For one thing, I (as normal) was in charge, although I'm officially the assistant SPL — even though the SPL was there. As well, there was low attendance — only six boys. Also, we were late into camp because it was announced that we were to meet at a certain place to pack troop equipment at 5:30. We arrived slightly late, waited for an hour without seeing anyone, went to the campsite, found the others there, and discovered that they didn't know about the revised meeting time (we often meet at 5:00). People were slow at breakfast; we awoke at 7:00, but breakfast cleanup wasn't done until nearly 11:00. Lastly, due to rain (which didn't last long), we left hours before we expected to go.
Still, there were good points; this time, I was much warmer than last year, when we had a similar campout. I got another night of Scout camping under my belt, leaving me just one short of the minimum for an Eagle-required merit badge. Also, I'd gotten canned Skyline Chili for supper; the SPL, Wes, for whom I was cooking besides myself, came up to my house a while ago to try the chili and loved it.
Tomorrow, unlike normal, we have a lunch at church (it's normally the last weekend of the month) followed by afternoon worship. Although one family of five will be missing, we should have others; a family of six who comes only when we have lunches (due to a four-hour round trip) is planning to come, and others might as well.
In the mean time, I have one important thing to do: sleep! The sleeping bag last night kept me warm OR in a good sleeping position; it wasn't until about 3:00 that I was able to get it to do both. Thus my rambling tonight 8^D

I'm about to leave on a troop campout. Temperatures tonight should be around 20º. Have a good time!

For once, I actually left the county, for the first time since about Thanksgiving. We all left around 9:45 for Bluffton, a town 45 minutes north of here, where I took a CLEP test. These tests, if passed, give the taker college credit for a class or classes; my test today was for early American history. Overall, I think I did quite well; however, there were several on which I had no clue. The military and political questions were easy, but when it came to "is X a political leader, a military leader, a scientific leader, a feminist leader, or an African American leader?" I didn't have any idea. What's more important — the reason for the French & Indian War or the first feminist petition to the government?
Other than that, I did little, mostly continued work on stamps and genealogy. The only other bright point was lunch — on our way home from Bluffton, we ate Skyline Chili.

Overall, today has mostly been occupied by work on a small field of stamps. In the early years of the 20th Century, Portugal issued stamps featuring Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain and harvests (from whom comes the word cereal) at home and for its colonies. The colonial stamps are of similar design (except for different colony names) and occur in tons of different colors and values; as a result, much of the day was occupied in making album pages for them. Can you imagine that making pages on a CAD program is slower than making them by hand?
Other than that, practically nothing has happened today. I expected to be at Prayer Meeting tonight, but (as often in the winter) it is cancelled due to illness. Will I be at any more before the spring?
Oh, I must mention that Dad and Isaac are excited; the extended-edition Return of the King DVD arrived today. Dad's already watching it. I'd be more excited if I had more time to watch it.

Dad was gone much of the day down in Cincinnati visiting Grandmother. He's not said how she's doing, but I gather that she's doing decently. While he was gone, he also stopped at the local Scout store; there, he bought various items, including patches for the troop and a new Scout Handbook for someone.
Tonight, as normal, was the troop meeting. The Scoutmaster, understandably dismayed at the level of misbehavior recently, announced some interesting points — among which was the fact that some leadership may be replaced. I feel rather secure, but I hope that we don't lose our guiding PLC and the boy-led (encouraged by National) way we've been doing things.
One funny thing that happened tonight: the troop committee (overseeing committee of adults) met downstairs throughout our meeting. On the stairway landing was a bat, apparently dead or nearly so. However, after the end of the meeting, the bat proceeded to start flying around, only to be hit by a younger boy — with a rope!

Today was, by and large, a day of business. Much of the morning was occupied by work on Eagle projects, as I discovered the high price of gravel (an idea for work at church) and discovered that another idea I had was already taken care of. Please pray that I might SOON find a good Eagle project!
This evening was our semi-annual Thankoffering program at church. Twenty-two people (Dad says it's good attendance for Thankoffering) were there, mostly longtime members, although Mrs. Miller was there and lent the television we used. We watched a DVD produced by the Home Mission Board, which focusses on various new works in this country and Canada. One interesting point: Two of the three people from Elkhart (one congregation featured) on the DVD are no longer there — Mr. McCracken is at Columbus, Mrs. Spencer moved away with the rest of her family. Of the three, only Mr. Menbere is left.

During the Fall Ministry Project, Aaron Dinkledine and I were talking after lunch at Southside, discussing different congregations. Overall, the Indiana congregations (except for Bloomington, and that partially) are a totally different culture from here at Belle Center. Since the Indiana churches (except Bloomington) are all new congregations compared to us, many or most of the members don't come from historic RP families. On the other hand, Belle Center is an old congregation, founded in 1877 — 87 years older than any Indiana church except for Bloomington. Although we have some new people, everyone except about two families is historically RP.
In a new congregation, people are generally not RP-heritaged; they sometimes are eager to learn about the denomination, and nearly never have denominational traditions in the RPCNA. However, at this old congregation, we have plenty of people to whom tradition is second only to God's word — above attracting visitors, above function, even above maintenance! Overall, there are probably many more people with a concern for other things than tradition than there are "traditionalists," yet if the majority were to act, it might cause serious divisions in the congregation.
Since I became a Life Scout 2½ weeks ago, I've been working on plans for an Eagle Scout project. Of course, the church might be a good site for such a project. Therefore, today, after church, I went around asking people: what could be done? I spoke to a couple older members, asking for ideas. They said something like, "We aren't good with ideas; ask your parents for ideas, and we'll agree with them." Yet when I proposed four different ideas from my parents, I got responses such as, "But I like those _____," and "That _____ is so heavy, and we just put it in yesterday. I'm sure _____ wouldn't want to move it." Anybody from Indianapolis want to switch congregations?

Today's sermon looked at ten chapters of Joshua, where the land is divided between the tribes, and the Transjordan tribes build a memorial altar. Dad had several points that I really liked, viz. (1) The people really didn't trust God as they should have done, (2) Even when God punishes someone, like the tribes of Simeon and Levi, he does wonderful things with them! (3) It's important to remember always to seek to preserve peace before taking drastic measures. For example, in chapter 22, the Transjordan tribes built an altar on the bank of the Jordan. The other tribes mobilized against them, thinking that they were worshipping other gods — an action that would destroy all Israel. However, they sent a delegation of the high priest and some tribal chiefs to talk with the Transjordan chiefs; the delegation found that the point of the altar was to united the two groups of Israelites! If the western tribes had attacked without an embassy, just think of the unneccessary blood that had been shed!


1. Katie: 9.
2. Anna: 5.
3. Brian: 4.
4. Grace: 3.
5. Becca: 3.
6. Charity: 2.
7. Nathan: 2.
8. Rebekah: 2.
9. Abby: 1.
10. David: 1.
11. Joseph: 0. Last post 1 December.

Today was mainly taken up with three different things: stamps, Scouts, and genealogy. Work on stamps was easy; I simply pulled some stamps out of one album to prepare for putting them in another.
Genealogy was my favorite part about today. Since the genealogy counsellor had told me that I ought to have a separate file for each ancestor, I took the first step on doing that by transferring information from a text file to a database. When I was done, I decided to amuse myself by putting names of little-known ancestors into Google. Imagine my surprise to find an entire website dedicated to a family of which I knew almost nothing! Among other things, I discovered the name of a great-great-great uncle named U.S.Grant Harlan. This family line is more or less traced back to the early 1600s in England, whence my ancestors fled because they were Quaker.
Scouts was not so fun. We had scheduled a meeting of the central Patrol Leaders' Council; this council is formed of the senior patrol leader (the troop leader), the assistant senior patrol leader (me!), the patrol leaders, and the assistant patrol leaders. Besides the SPL and me, one of the two patrol leaders showed up, along with Isaac, the other patrol leader's assistant. Another boy from the troop also came. I don't know how many times I had to call the SPL to order — and he's the one supposed to be running the meeting! The patrol leader started calling names at one point, he and the SPL were playing with pets throughout the meeting, and overall far little was done than we needed to do. Why don't some others see that we work and maybe have some fun, not maybe do a little work while having fun?

Sorry about no post yesterday. Now, I have two straight days of weirdness: one day with no post, and the next with more than one 8^D
Today was much taken up by work on my stamps. I am finally done with sorting them and filing duplicates; now, all that remains is mounting them — a process that might still take a long time. Mom & Dad, meanwhile, were doing other work; among other things, they arranged for me to take a CLEP test at Bluffton College, north of Lima, next Thursday. I shouldn't have too much trouble with the test — it's one on American History!
This evening I went down the street to talk with another boy in the troop about our menu for next weekend's campout. Since he took all the food last time, I'm taking care of it this time. Immediately after I got back, we left for Bellefontaine. One thing to do in Bellefontaine was to meet with the man who was the Scoutmaster of the troop with whom I went to summer camp; I needed his signature that I had gone camping five nights with him. He wasn't home; however, we later met him at Wal-Mart. I worked on buying stuff for the campout while at the store; at the same time, Isaac went with another boy, teaching him how to buy cheaply.
Yesterday, Mom came in with quite sad news: a former neighbor whom we much loved, Mrs. Eileen Alloway, died yesterday morning. She'd been in the nursing home for some years with Alzheimer's disease, but this was still a grief to us. Pray for her family!

Oops! No post yesterday, but an update will be forthcoming later.

Today is definitely not normal. For one thing, we had a guest at dinner, Mrs. Keys from church. Plus, for the first time since September, I'm going to be at Prayer Meeting. What else is going to happen?
Isaac installed SimCity on the old computer today. I didn't even know we had it anymore! As a result of seeing it, I've been playing it half the day. It's fun, but I probably should have done something other than playing the computer that long.
After Prayer Meeting, I need to do a little work on my stamps again. With my final on Monday, I did practically no work because of studying, and the last couple of days I've been relaxing.
Tomorrow, Isaac and I go to finish work on an Eagle-required merit badge, and I finish my Genealogy work. Hopefully, everything works well.

Three score and three years ago, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Today, survivors gathered there to remember the "date which will live in infamy." Truly, to our grandparents, Pearl Harbor was like September 11 to us.
Almost nothing happened today other than the troop meeting. Dad was talking on the phone, doing pastoral counselling, some of the day. Then, late in the afternoon, he went to do more counselling, and he got back too late for supper to be ready. As a result, Mrs. Bump took us to the troop meeting, and Dad arrived late.
We had a major shakeup of leadership in the troop tonight. Least importantly, one of our new transfer members, an experienced Scout, was appointed the librarian. Secondly, a new assistant patrol leader was announced, as the old one resigned. Most importantly, Isaac had his patrol hold an election for patrol leader — his spot. Because of the (seemingly poorly organized) way he ran it and other boys' self-seeking ways, Isaac missed out on the opportunity. He now will be the assistant, and he'll probably be doing a lot of the work. The first event for Chris, the new leader, is a patrol leaders' council meeting on Saturday — and he's going to miss it.

Tonight was the final for my college class. Overall, I think I did decently, although I probably did better on the midterm. Somehow, I just felt as if I didn't know my material as well as I did for the midterm. And it wasn't the oldest things — I had far more trouble on the last couple of chapters than I did on the first couple! Aaargh. At least I shouldn't have trouble getting a good grade; the instructor announced before class that the worst member of the class would get a C- if s/he got a 0 tonight.
Because of the test tonight, I got practically nothing done all day except for studying. Granted, I did get a ton of the book typed (15 pages — normally two days' work), but nothing with my stamps, little other work on the computer, practically nothing for Scouts. I really need to get working to plan an Eagle Scout project and to begin work on a couple of big merit badges.
One humorous thing tonight was that the class was quite delayed, because the instructor had to get some stuff set up. He was late because he went to Tim Horton's, and he had to get out the donuts, the pop, the orange juice, and the cups, and he had to set up the coffeemaker! At least he can't be accused of having too formal of a classroom setting.

Today's morning sermon looked at chapters 9-12 of Joshua, where Israel (9) makes the treaty with Gibeon (10) defeats the cities of the south (11) defeats the cities of the north (12) reviews its conquests. Something that occurred to me: obviously, one of the cities of Palestine, faced with its imminent defeat, made a treaty with Israel. Did any cities with the same outlook get up and move, young and old, maid and youth, to a new land? I'm sure some individuals would have, but could or would an entire city have done so?

1. Katie: 7
2. Nathan: 7
3. Anna: 6
4. Charity: 3
5. Brian: 3
6. Abby: 4
7. Joseph: 4
8. Becca: 3
9. David: 1
10. Rebekah: 2
11. Grace: 1, on Wednesday. If she hadn't updated this week, she'd have had the same horrible fate as Allen.
12. Allen hasn't posted in over a month. It's time for me to remove my link to him; if I see him update, I'll relink.

We had planned for our Scout troop to march in the Bellefontaine Christmas parade this morning. Bear in mind: the troop consists of seventeen boys right now. Anyway, we were given some notice of changes: our Scoutmaster's wife wanted to have her Cub Scout pack march with us, and three of our members said they couldn't attend. We ended up marching as a single unit with the Cubs: nine Cubs and FOUR Boy Scouts! Talk about poor attendance! Granted, we hadn't talked this up too much, but there should have been more people! After all, we had all seventeen members present for our troop meeting on Tuesday night; it's not like lots of members don't attend.

Today, President Bush welcomed Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf at the White House. Despite Pakistan's withdrawal of hundreds of anti-bin Laden soldiers from a lawless mountain area on the Afghan border, Bush was very supportive of Musharraf's efforts to help against al-Qaida.

Today seems to be the basic quiet, semi-boring day. My list of things done: type Glasgow, work on stamps, go shopping in the evening. Granted, I did get a lot of work done on these; I also made a couple of phone calls about the idea of Eagle Scout projects. I really do hope that I can get going on planning for at least one idea, and that it will work out.
Literally the only interesting thing that happened today came in the morning: a man came and replaced the shattered windshield on the car. Basically, he loosened the coverings around it and lifted it out. Learn something new every day...

Mom took Isaac and me bowling in Bellefontaine this morning, the first time I've gone in months. It's easy to see that from my scores; my second game was the first time in ages that I have either scored under 100 or lost to Isaac.
While we were gone in Bellefontaine, Dad stayed home to talk to the insurance adjustor. This adjustor came, looked over the car, and pronounced the damage to cost more than $2500. Thank God that the insurance will pay for everything!
Most of the day, Dad was working at the computer, either typing sermons or talking on the phone with a pastoral matter. Although the pastoral matter prevented me from working on the computer until evening, I was able to complete a lot of work on my stamps. At least that was something for me to do 8^D

Well, tonight's class was not all the review I expected. We had a full hour of lecture — not that it was too bad. As we studied thunderstorms, the instructor remarked about how a thunderstorm formed by another thunderstorm is always called a "daughter cell", and never a "son cell". This led him onto a tangent about various cultural habits (like making storms, ships, countries, etc. feminine) that ended up with him discussing how Koreans don't view the tipping of waiters to be as important as we do.

I expected higher-than-normal comment levels on last week's post about the behavior of guys versus that of girls; however, I never expected 21 comments. After all, my previous high was 10!
On the other hand, I do want to apologize for the way I presented the post, mentioning people's names in such a manner. It's one thing with you girls reading this that weren't mentioned, as I only included people I thought of quickly, but I don't have a possibility of thus "quickly omitting" guys. I'm going to try to think longer and be more careful in the future. At least, of the people who commented, only David and Rebekah weren't mentioned by name.