Mín Englisc Blog

Wednesdays are when are held the big 225-student Humanities 103 lectures, where all of the little twenty-person groups meet together. At today's first lecture, we watched the end of the classic movie It's a Wonderful Life, and the professor discussed the issue of wealth, using movie characters as examples. He stressed the importance of friendship and personal relationships, as opposed to the movie villain's sole concern with wealth and advancement in the world. With that in mind, he considered the fact that we freshmen, newly away from home, must neither focus only on advancement nor go wild with our new freedoms.
As I heard that lecture, I felt something that I had not known before. In a new way, I felt cut off from everything I've had before. I have never felt homesick for my family — not because I want to be rid of them, but because I've been away from home (for shorter times, admittedly) and because for years I've understood completely that I would be leaving them, not seeing them for months at a time. Rather, I feel like I'm being cut off from all of you people: no more will I be able to attend most events...no longer will I be "just" three hours from Indianapolis...no longer will I be running on the kind of schedule that I have had for the past few years. How ironic that I feel so much farther apart from all of you, even though I saw so little of you before! What's even more ironic is that I feel lonlier, even though for the first time in my life I actually am living with people I can call friends.
Please pray for me, therefore. Pray that I might get to know better those few people whom I already knew. Pray that I might be able to meet many new people; I've met a few good people, but there are many about whom I feel neutral or negative. I especially feel the lack of anyone immediately here whom I know really well: in that truly do I miss my parents. Pray especially, please, that I might meet or know better someone(s) who could be close to me and vice versa.
Thank you for all your prayers. One last thing: pray for New Orleans! Thousands are now believed dead — so many that the dead are now being ignored in the search for the living — and lawlessness is now overtaking the city. God have mercy.

PRAY FOR NEW ORLEANS! So says Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, and she could not be more right. Broken levees have flooded the city — the water's twenty feet deep in some places — and thousands of people are still stranded. As Fox News says, "...New Orleans' Canal Street, which actually resembled a canal..." The situation at the Superdome, where thousands more fled, is untenable. Worse yet, according to the city's Mayor Ray Nagin, "We're not even dealing with dead bodies. They're just pushing them on the side." Be merciful, O LORD!

Today has not been the best day, although it's been far from bad. As on every day, I needed to get up in time to eat breakfast before an 8:00 class. This morning's class, Bible 151, is the Honors Old Testament class, and it has some significant work and reading — enough that I'm probably going to miss an informal get-together at the Filberts'.
As well, I didn't get enough sleep last night, and therefore I've been rather lethargic all day long. Even though I only had two classes — Bible and a humanities class — I've gotten rather little done. Therefore, tonight will consist of cleaning and organizing my half of the room and of writing two or three pages of Bible essay.
Just for fun, I decided to look way back into my archives. Here's an interesting paragraph from 27 March 2004.

Locally, nothing important. Some guy is protesting outside of the National City Bank in Bellefontaine. Apparently his house got knocked down by a tornado and the bank won't accept the insurance checks. The interesting part is that to do this day-long protesting, he had to get an assembly permit. "Assembly" for one guy? At least he's doing it all legally.

Hurricane Katrina has opened holes in the roof of the New Orleans Superdome; authorities do not believe that the stadium is in danger of collapse.
PRAY to the Lord of the storms that this may be true!

Tonight, I nearly missed supper — at home we eat after church, not before. As planned, after that I attended College Hill, where I sat with Bob and Patty Wilson, my uncle and aunt. After they left, I headed over to the house of Prof. Stahl, a chemistry professor — father of Rory Cerbus' girlfriend — where a bunch of RPs were having an informal get-together. Among other things, we ate some snacks, talked, and sang a few Psalms. Among other things, we discovered that, among the 15-20 RPs that were there, six of us are in the Honors Bible class. This is about 1% of the entire enrolment at the College, yet we included 25% of the class!
In short, this seems to be an informal version of Purdue CORPS, going by descriptions that I've seen. Praise God! This is something I never expected to have here at Geneva. I had heard (correctly) that College Hill does not have a formal college-age youth program, so I wasn't expecting this informal, privately-organized group. Better yet, this weekly program is not just for College Hill-attending students: very good for me, since I do not expect to attend College Hill regularly.

Church today was the annual Campus and Community Worship Service, conducted on the main floor of the Metheny Fieldhouse. Pastor Anthony Selvaggio of College Hill presided, with Dr. O'Neill preaching on Galatians 3:3-17. Among the announcements today was one asking you to Please pray for the Rev. James D. Carson, a retired minister and Dr. David Carson's brother. He was taken to a hospital in Beaver yesterday with vomiting and extreme pain, and a heart attack was suspected. Although a heart attack was ruled out, he was rushed into dangerous emergency surgery on his small intestine. By this morning, he was recovering well and able to sit up in bed. Give thanks for his recovery so far, and pray that it may continue.
Today, I had quite a wonderful time talking with many ministers, including several prominent ones. Here's each one listed:

• David Carson: I spoke with Dr. and Mrs. Carson a bit after worship. Next week, I'll be going with them to Eastvale for worship.
• Jerry O'Neill: I spoke with Dr. and Mrs. O'Neill over lunch this afternoon.
• Denny Prutow: After the end of the service, I spoke quickly with Professor, thanking him for his speaking at Covfamikoi.
• Anthony Selvaggio: I talked quickly with Pastor Selvaggio after the service.
• Kenneth G. Smith: I met Mr. and Mrs. Smith while standing in line for lunch.
• Jonathan Watt: I spoke briefly with Dr. Watt at the end of the service.
• J. Renwick Wright: I sat next to Dr. and Mrs. Wright over lunch — a wonderful experience!

I also spoke with these College officials:
• Jack Delivuk: I sat next to Dr. Delivuk, the librarian, before and during worship.
• Ken Smith: I spoke quickly with President and Mrs. Smith after worship.

In recent days, I have also seen these following ministers:
• Bruce Backensto: As I mentioned yesterday, I spoke with Mr. Backensto at his house yesterday afternoon.
• Thomas Gray: Mr. Gray, who is effectively the college chaplain, is the former associate pastor at New Alexandria, which has since become disorganized. I spoke with him for perhaps half an hour at the football game last night.
• Paul Martin: I met Mr. Martin, a former pastor at Phoenix, when I visited the Hartmans' house yesterday. Mr. Martin is Mrs. Hartman's father.
• Courtney Miller: I talked with Mr. and Mrs. Miller for a while on Thursday or Friday, as they were helping their son to move into Pearce. Mr. Miller is the pastor at Hudson/Ste.-Lazare, PQ.


BLOGS Today's listing includes a comment on each blogger.

1. : 4 posts, on 4 days. She's kept posting despite a problematic illness.
2. : 4 posts, on 4 days. Her posts this week show character given by God.
3. : 5 posts, on 5 days. Congratulations to Anna for posting the most!
4. : 3 posts, on 3 days. He's been rather busy with school, cross country, and a position at the school newspaper.
5. : 4 posts, on 4 days. Despite what he said when he began blogging, he's posted frequently; therefore, I've begun to rank him.
6. : 3 posts, on 3 days. The start of school has retarded the amount of her blogging.
7. : 2 posts, on 2 days. Although school has started, she's still working at a pool as a lifeguard.
8. : 2 posts, on 2 days. Her posts this week were rather contemplative of love and life.
9. : 1 posts, on 1 days. He probably would have posted more if he hadn't gone on vacation again.
10. : 0 posts, on 0 days. Last post 8 August. Allen needs to post.
11. Rebekah: 0 posts, on 0 days. Last post 8 August. Rebekah needs to post.

I'm constantly forgetting to put up a "Best Post of the Week" link. Thanks to Katie for reminding me this time.
Best Post: Nathan: Friday

Last night was my favorite night so far this week. After a 5:00 supper on the upper deck of the Fieldhouse, we had a 7:00 quiz-style gameshow down on the floor. Throughout supper and afterwards, until the beginning of the gameshow, I was able to talk with Bob Menkle, an Eagle from Washington, Pennsylvania. After the gameshow, I was able to complete work on several more thank-you notes, I talked a bit with several friends, and I even was able to talk with Dad and pass on some news and requests.
This morning, my focus group went over to Blackhawk Intermediate School, attended by third- through fifth-graders. This school has a large garden area, which we weeded for most of the morning. After eating lunch there, we returned to our dorms, and we have nothing more required today. Supper is to be in about forty minutes, followed at 7:00 by Geneva's first football game. Has anyone ever heard of their opponents, West Liberty State College?
Tomorrow, unlike normal, is to be a joint RP service, to be held in the Metheny Fieldhouse, with the Rev. Dr. Jerry O'Neill (president of the Seminary) preaching. Because I had a free afternoon today, I decided to check out the local RP churches. I began by going to the house of Dr. David Carson, three blocks up the street, who provided Eastvale information. As well, Dr. Carson gave me the name of Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Hartman, members at Tusca. Next, I walked something like 1½ miles to the Hartmans' house, where I discovered that Mrs. Hartman is a daughter of the Rev. Paul Martin, former pastor at Phoenix RPC. Because of the distance, Mrs. Hartman drove me back to Pearce. After looking in at the room, I headed out to the house of the Rev. Anthony Selvaggio, pastor at College Hill. Finally, I visited the Rev. Bruce Backensto, one of the pastors at Geneva. Yes, it was a lot of walking, but (despite light rain) I enjoyed it — and managed to surprise Mr. Backensto when I told him where I had been :-)

For about the first time in my life, I missed lunch. Why? The orientation-week scheduling sheet said lunch was from 12:30 until 1:30. As a result, I asked a question at the registrar's office (my Bible class is in the technical design center, for some reason), checked a few things here at my room, and spoke quickly with Pastor Anthony Selvaggio before going to lunch at 1:03. Imagine my surprise when the staffer told me that lunch was closed! At least the meals are all-you-can-eat, so I can have a decent supper; still, I must be hungry throughout the afternoon.

Last night, sadly, wasn't very nice. We did have a nice dinner while we cruised around on the main rivers of Pittsburgh: Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio. It was quite impressive to see downtown all lit up, to pass by a baseball game at PNC Park, and to approach closely to Point State Park.
However, the evening was actually rather boring. Please understand that, due to many generous people who attended my Eagle Scout ceremony, I have many thank-you notes to write. For one thing, the trip lasted somewhat longer than I thought, so I had less time last evening. As well, I spent much of the evening looking for people whom I either never found, or whom I found only because of being told by someone else.
Overall, however, I've been having a good time. I have met several other RPs, from places such as Syracuse, Hudson/St.-Lazare, and College Hill. As well, I've run into five or six other Eagles, and another of them and I hope to organize a group for Eagles soon. Today, I spent some time after lunch visiting Dr. & Mrs. David Carson; Dr. Carson is a retired minister and professor who wrote me a letter some weeks ago, asking me to meet them. A little while ago, I returned from my first meeting with my academic advisor, Prof. Kurt Werthmuller.
I leave in a few minutes for Brady's Run, some nearby park, where all freshmen have this organized evening entertainment. Let's hope that it works out better than last night...

My roommate, Tony Mastris, of Larnaca, Cyprus.

Today has mostly been three things: a how-to-use-the-college-library session at Northwood Hall, a time of tidying my room (there's lots left to do!), and the Pisgah session. My Pisgah team, of about fifteen people, had an experience rather like the Stress Challenge at the Winter Conference.
Tonight, we get to visit Pittsburgh on what's being called a dinner cruise. I seriously doubt that title, but...Anyway, every night this week has a different theme. Last night was Hawaii; tonight is New York City; and I don't remember what the other themes are.

Well, I'm beginning to get settled in here at Geneva. For future reference, my address is:

Nathaniel J. Pockras
Geneva College
3200 College Ave., Box 2004
Beaver Falls, PA 15010

This will probably be my last post from Belle Center for a couple of months. In a few minutes, I need to begin loading my baggage into the minivan. We HOPE to have everything loaded and to be on the road by mid-to-late-morning.

The LORD is my shepherd; no want shall come nigh.
Within the green pastures He makes me to lie.
Beside the still waters He leads me to rest;
My soul He revives when I'm faint and oppressed.

In right ways He leads me for His own name's sake.
Although through the vale of death's shadow I walk,
Since You are there with me, no evil I fear;
Your rod and Your staff give me comfort and cheer.

You set me a table before all my foes.
My head You anoint, and my cup overflows.
Your goodness and mercy attend my life's ways;
I'll dwell in the house of the LORD endless days.

With these words ended my last church service as a resident member at Belle Center RPCNA. As I was precenting, everyone could see as tears overcame voice and I could not sing part of the third stanza. Thanks be to God that I have a loving church family whom I will miss!
Thanks to time constraints, I will not post a blog ratings list this week. I hope to resume that in the coming weeks, but we'll see if I have time.

Well, I thought I should post a description of the Eagle Scout Court of Honor from Friday night. Since I'm tired and busy, however, I'm only going to post a summary. If you want a longer description, email me nathaniel.pockras@geneva.edu, or talk to Kevin or Katie.
Before I say anything else, let me say this: Praise the LORD for his wondrous grace! My Pockras grandmother, completely unknown to me, was able to come to my ceremony! Yes, I enjoyed seeing friends, being honored in front of everyone, and various other matters, but Grandmother outweighed everything else. Six months ago, I did not expect that Grandmother's body would ever leave the nursing home — and this weekend, she made three hours of driving on each of two consecutive days!
We started with introductions of various people, followed by a prayer from Dad and a flag-raising ceremony. Next, we had a short presentation on the successive ranks of Scouting that I earned. This was followed by a poem reading, which was followed by the master of ceremonies' talk on the various things that I've needed to learn and to do to become an Eagle Scout. After that, I was called forward from my seat to stand at the podium, where I stayed for the rest of the ceremony.
As soon as I came up, Mr. Hanson also came up to give his Charge to the Eagle Scout. This was my favorite part of the ceremony, as he had fifteen minutes of wise, Christian advice. Much of it was drawn from the charge given him at his Eagle Court forty years ago.
When Mr. Hanson was finished, he returned to his seat while my parents came forward. This was the actual presentation time: first Mom presented me with the Eagle medal, I presented her with the Eagle mother's pin, Dad gave me the Eagle Scout certificate, and I gave him an Eagle tie pin. Next, I was given other awards, such as a Lifetime Member certificate for the National Eagle Scout Association, valid until 2010! After everything else, the Scoutmaster spoke, I spoke, and a few minor awards were given. A few more minutes, and the ceremony was over.
Overall, the ceremony was wonderful. One of the nicest parts was that Mr. Hanson came, spoke, and stayed at our house overnight. Along with that was the pleasure of seeing Kevin and Johanna Fulk and the entire Bussell family. Thanks for coming!

I plan to post far more on last night's wonderful Eagle Scout Court of Honor. For now, however, I'm just going to post these pictures. Besides cards and money, six different gifts were given to me. Here's a picture of each one:



Kevin and Johanna Fulk brought this book. If I understood rightly, Mrs. Fulk wanted them to bring me a gift — partly because she thought (erroneously) that they hadn't given me a graduation present.



Mr. and Mrs. McDonald from church bought me this clock. It looks really nice, and I haven't even read the instructions yet! I just hope the alarm is nice and loud.



Paul Henline, my Scoutmaster's son, gave me this Beanie Baby on behalf of his family.



Mr. Donald Corwin, who's been involved heavily in Scouting for a long time, gave me this 1948-edition Scout Handbook once owned by his own Scoutmaster. This is doubtless the best gift I was given.



Mr. and Mrs. Schrader, whose lawn I mowed, gave me this important piece of plastic. What a good idea! I'll probably have it around less time than I will any of the other gifts.

And finally, my favorite:



Katie Bussell, on behalf of her family, presented me with this framed item. What is it? An origami jacknife! In case something happens to this one, there's another on the back of the frame. I should have expected something of origami from that family :-)


Thanks to everyone who gave me gifts!

Making final preparations for the Eagle Court of Honor...

Today has been rather rushed, and I'm somewhat tired, so I don't feel like doing too much of a post. Instead, I'll list events as they pop into my head.

• This was my last day of mowing. It's hard, since I've been doing this since I was about ten years old. At Mr. and Mrs. Liles, especially, I had a hard time, since this was the sixth year that I had mowed for them. Talking with Mr. Heminger was also sad, since he's in very poor health, and I wonder if he'll be alive when this schoolyear ends.
• Mom took Isaac and me to Bellefontaine tonight for final shopping. While there, we arranged for the printing of the bulletins for tomorrow night's ceremony.
• While we went shopping, Dad attended the monthly local Boy Scout leaders' meeting.
• Because a certain person seems to have lost the troop's set, Dad went to Springfield to buy a set of large cards with pictures of the Scout rank emblems on them.
• Mom went over to church to begin making arrangements, such as setting up flagpoles.
• Tonight, I've begun work on printing out all of the forms, such as the scripts, for tomorrow night.

Vivian Hannah Soma was born on the afternoon of Wednesday, 17 August 2005 in Marysville, OH.

Last night's troop meeting went really well. Although much of the meeting was chaos (popcorn fundraisers were due to be discussed by a committee member, but she was late), the rehearsal of Friday night's ceremony was decent. Of course, there were some problems that will need to be fixed, but the boys in the ceremony did their jobs well. Adults were another story: of the six adults, three (Mr. Hanson, Mom, and a man named Bradley Woolf) weren't at the meeting at all, two others (Dad and a man named Mr. Stoner) were in the troop committee meeting downstairs, and only Mr. Henline, the Scoutmaster, was present for the practice — and even he was absent for a few minutes! As a result, an assistant scoutmaster (who's not in the actual ceremony) had to take two parts, Mr. Henline played himself and Mr. Hanson, and Anthony Jorgensen, one of the older guys in the troop, played Mom and Dad :-)
Overall, the rehearsal lasted about forty-five minutes. There were some delays (for example, giving directions to the color guard), but they were balanced out by Anthony's representation of Dad's prayer. Since we don't know how long Dad will pray, Anthony simply stepped to the podium and said "Amen." The actual ceremony should last a bit longer: while I made remarks the length of what I plan to do, Mr. Henline said less than he will, Mr. Stoner wasn't there to make any remarks, and we skipped Mr. Hanson's talk altogether. The whole ceremony should take about one hour.

HOW could I forget to mention something else important about yesterday?
Yesterday was the tenth anniversary of our return from Ireland. It's hard to believe that it's been that long — over half of my life — since we were there. I wonder whether I'll ever be able to go back? Perhaps I could go on the Galway or Scotland RPM trips. A pity that there isn't a trip to Northern Ireland.
This morning, we have an important meeting: an Annual Program Planning Conference for my Scout troop's Patrol Leaders' Council. The goal is to be able to plan (in general) the entire program year, through the end of August 2006. What's sad is that I won't be able to participate in any of it! Many troops have had such conferences for many years, but this will be our first attempt at it; after all, two years ago, the entire troop was just three boys, half the size of the Patrol Leaders' Council.

Several things on which to update today:
• First, at church last night, Paul Soma said that Dana had been given a drug to stop labor. As a result, the baby won't be born yet.
• By the way, thinking about last night at church, we had several visitors. This resulted in attendance of 37 (AM) and 45 (PM), although we average low-40s in the morning and 33 in the evening. Mr. & Mrs. Howard Keys, who left over doctrinal differences when I was little, decided to come for a visit because their daughter was visiting and because their church didn't have evening worship last night. Not only they and their daughter were there, but two of the daughter's sons, and one of Mr. and Mrs. Keys' sons with his wife and son. It was good to see them all; Mr. and Mrs. Keys hadn't been here for worship in a long time. Praise be to God that they feel comfortable with both the congregation and the people!
• Today has been somewhat relaxed from the pace of previous days, as the weather prevented mowing. However, I still have done some work: scheduling my last remaining speaker for the ceremony, reworking (again) the ceremony script, and preparing my computer to go. In a little while, when I get offline, I'll need to do some work on selecting what items will go with me to college.
• Tonight, we went to Bellefontaine for dinner and shopping. Because we've had fast food several times recently, we decided to go to Ryan's, a buffet restaurant. Not only was the food good (I had four wonderful little biscuits!), but we had a good conversation with a family whom we know from Scouting.
• After we returned, Mom decided to start work on preparing a list of jobs to be done for the ceremony. This made her think of the preparations for the display, leading to thinking of my merit badge poster. For your information: the national Boy Scout office sells a poster, "The Merits of Scouting", with all 120 merit badges depicted. I bought a copy, and tonight Mom glued on spare copies of the merit badges that I've earned. I hope to be able to display it through the rest of my life.

Blog ratings, as usual, are at the end of this post. There's also a very interesting note at the very bottom that I would like everyone to read.
Paul Soma announced this morning at church that Dana was having several contractions. The baby was scheduled to be born by Cæsarean section on 26 August — four days after I leave for college. As a result, however, I may be able to see him or her before I leave. Pray for the health of both baby and mother!
Overall, the Ordeal on Friday and Saturday went decently, although there were some problems. As you can imagine with a name such as "Ordeal", there were certain rules to be followed. However, most of the Scouts there didn't pay attention to one important rule (two others even thought I was odd for obeying it faithfully!) and the leaders did not punish infractions of that rule. Dad says that around the time he had his Ordeal, shortly before 1970, a boy would be instructed to leave after three infractions of this rule. As well, Dad was invited to conduct a Protestant worship service yesterday evening; although we expected at least half of the 60+ Scouts and leaders to attend, only 8 people were present — including Dad, Isaac, Matthew Bump from Belle Center RPC, and me! Furthermore, we were very late getting home, since we couldn't leave until nearly 10:30, and it was a 1½-hour drive. At least the induction ceremony was very impressive, and I am in the Order!
Dad preached this morning from II Samuel 10-12. In this text, King David's friend, the king of the Ammonites, dies, so David sends a delegation to express his grief; however, the new king thinks that the diplomats are spies and humiliates them severely. As a result, war breaks out, and a rapid, decisive victory leads to an Israelite siege of the enemy capital. This provides a chance for David to return to Jerusalem to rest — whereupon we have the incident with Bathsheba. Actually, most of the sermon was on chapter 12, since Dad's focus was God's forgiveness. Two interesting ideas from the text:
• If the Jabesh Gilead (early in Saul's reign) incident hadn't happened, would these II Samuel 10-12 events had happened at all? Nahash was the name of the Ammonite king that attaked Jabesh, and Nahash was the name of the Ammonite king who sheltered David's family and whose death at the beginning of this passage led to the war. If the dead king (or perhaps his father) hadn't had trouble with Saul, would he have so helped a young rebel named David against the same Saul?
• Just imagine David's horror upon being told of his sin at the beginning of chapter 12! The words used are similar to those used against Saul when he was rejected — and David's sin was worse! Not only had he caused murder, but he had committed adultery, and the murder was committed to cover up something else. What a relief it must have been to hear these words, "God has taken away your sin. You are not going to die." For less sin Saul had been rejected by God! Let us praise God that he is merciful to us his children.

BLOGS Everybody had a bad week (except Allen, who posted more than usual) of posting last week. Nobody posted more than four times, and nobody posted on more than three days. Even I missed posting on Satuday, although I'd still be in the contest were it yet running. What shall I do for a best post? Perhaps I'll decide by the time I finish rating the blogs.

1. : 4 posts, on 3 days.
2. : 3 posts, on 3 days.
3. : 3 posts, on 3 days.
4. : 4 posts, on 3 days.
5. : 3 posts, on 2 days.
6. : 3 posts, on 3 days.
7. : 1 posts, on 1 days.
8. : 2 posts, on 2 days.
9. : 2 posts, on 2 days.
10. Rebekah: 2 posts, on 2 days.
Best post: Nathan, 12 January 2005. Perhaps THIS will remind him to give me his promised prize!

Back from Ordeal!

Thanks to lots of work, I probably won't be able to post any more today. A few items of note:
• Last night, we went to a Cub Scout bridging ceremony, where a boy from the pack in Belle Center graduated to our troop.
• Tonight, all of us except for Mom leave for Camp Birch, below Springfield, where Isaac and I have our Ordeal for the Order of the Arrow. We won't be able to return until late tomorrow, so I may not post then.
• Preparation for college has been taking very much time. One nice little note is that my new laptop came in a few days ago, and I've spent a bit of time setting that up. It was paid for by a couple we know who wanted to help.
• Above all, my time has been occupied by preparation for my Eagle Scout Court of Honor, scheduled for a week from tonight.

Congratulations
to Rebekah for posting every day for 203 days.
That's nearly 3.5% of her life!

Dad and I will soon need to leave for my test and shot.

Today has really been rather inactive for me; other than mowing one lawn and going to Bellefontaine, I've done quite little. On the plus side, I got in a bit of driving time, alone with some college preparation. Tomorrow, I will need to focus on planning next weekend's Eagle Court of Honor. Tomorrow, as well, I will be undergoing a tuberculosis test and receiving a meningitis vaccine — and I hate shots. At least I know from Brenda that it causes very little pain.

This contest has now endured over 200 days.
Because Dad was gone on our trip all week long, it was arranged for our ruling elder, Mr. Bump, to preach this morning. His sermon, based on I Peter 4, examined persecution and the world's view of us as Christians. Mr. Bump is to preach again tonight, using Jude 5-11 as his text. Tonight's title, by the way, is unusual: it's in French, although Mr. Bump does not know that language.
"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose"
"The more things change, the more they remain the same"

BLOG RATINGS These ratings only cover this past week; I have decided to skip the week of 23-29 July.
Joseph has been dropped for infrequency of posting. He last posted on 2 June.
As well, Luke Dinkledine has decided to take up blogging.

1. : 5 posts, on 5 days.
2. : 5 posts, on 4 days.
3. Rebekah: 7 posts, on 7 days.
4. Charity: 1 posts, on 1 days.
5. : 2 posts, on 2 days.
6. : 2 posts, on 2 days.
7. : 2 posts, on 2 days.
8. : 1 posts, on 1 days.
9. : 0 posts, on 0 days. Last post 19 July.

Bekah is exempt because something has happened to her blog.
Luke will probably not be listed in these ratings, because he plans to post so infrequently. However, I will link to him.

Best post: Charity, 2 August.

I'm back. A longer update will follow.

This is probably my last post for Nathaniel, as he and the rest of the troop are scheduled to get back home from Virginia tomorrow evening sometime. Hopefully those of you reading this haven't been too bored reading what I've written for him.

I don't have much to write tonight. The guys are finishing up work on their merit badge projects. Tomorrow is their last day, so they want to get all done while they are there in Virginia. It's supposed to be in the upper 90s there tomorrow. Sounds like a good day to go swimming to me.

Up until last night around 11 PM, everything had been going okay despite all the rest of the family being away at Scout Camp. At that time I had a visit from a bat--the mammal, not the baseball kind! Needless to say, I wasn't pleased by his appearance.

Despite my panic, I managed to get to the front door and open it. From my position of safety behind the door out on the front porch, I waited for the bat to figure out his way of escape. After flying a couple more laps around our living room and dining room, it finally made its exit.

I'm praying it doesn't make a return visit anytime soon!!!

Not much to write about today. The guys had their first day at the "local" Scout camp in Virginia.

Things are going well back here in Belle Center. I have all 15 mowing and trimming jobs to do by myself this week. So far I've done 5 of them despite temperatures around 90 and humidity rising. I'm thankful for water and Gatorade!

Today, the guys went to the National Scout Jamboree. They certainly got their exercise with all the walking they did. Tomorrow, they will start working on the merit badge projects they've signed up for.