Mín Englisc Blog

Today at lunch, I sat with a group of people including several from the track team. One of the runners, Rebecca VanRegenmorter, remarked that my Geneva shirt from Calvin (remember the dark red shirts that the college was giving at Calvin?) was slightly different on the front from ones that the College sells, which have a very different back. The Es in Geneva are slightly different, she said, but she left soon afterward, and I forgot about it.
Tonight, as usual, I ate with the track team. As I was about to finish eating, I noticed someone else wearing the other type of Geneva shirt. When Rebecca came back from getting some food, I unzipped my jacket to demonstrate my shirt and asked what the difference was with the Es. You should have seen her reaction: she could not speak for at least a couple minutes from laughter! I really didn't expect such a reaction :-)
Once she recovered from the laughter, she said that they were just different, that it couldn't really be explained. Anyone have an idea about what the difference is, if there really is one?

Needing to get off...sorry for not much post!

Dr. Robson preached today from the last chapter of the First Epistle of St. John. It's been really useful having his series from I John! Today's sermon looked mostly at the last verse, which says, "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." Dr. Robson brought out the significance of this apparently odd statement, showing from other parts of the Bible that, in a way, God considers distractions that keep us from God to be idols. Quite a useful sermon!
Attendance today was slightly down, just 28 people, because the Dymonds are out of town. In my class, Dr. Robson explained a passage I've never understood in Mark xii., where Jesus seems to question his own lineage. His explanation was that Jesus was reconciling the ideas of the Messiah being a son of David and the Messiah being David's Lord. It's really good having a chance like this to ask those annoying questions when Dad's not here.

BLOGS
1. : 29 posts, on 3 days. This is not a typo: she really did post twenty-nine times. Check it out!
2. : 4 posts, on 4 days.
3. : 3 posts, on 3 days.
4. Andrew: 2 posts, on 2 days.
5. : 2 posts, on 2 days.
6. : 1 post, on 1 day.
7. Maggie: 2 posts, on 2 days.
8. : 2 posts, on 2 days.
9. : 2 posts, on 2 days.
10. Rebekah: 1 post, on 1 day.
11. : 1 post, on 1 day.
12. : 0 posts, on 0 days. Last post 1 February.

Tonight, I went to a Greek restaurant downtown with Tony and a few others, at which the menu contained such Greek foods as cheeseburgers and spaghetti. They did have some Greek food, however, such as a good-tasting gyro with lamb meat.
After that, we went to the college's Bagpiper Theatre for an impromptu night performance. They wanted members of the audience to participate, so I ended up volunteering to pretend to mop a floor while Tony and one other guy gave a play-by-play announcement of the "action." It was quite interesting, and I'm glad that I went.

Sorry again for no post yesterday! Dad is here for the weekend, and I spent much of yesterday with him, first on campus, and then spending the night at my grandparents' house. Today, he came along on several things with me, including sitting in on all my classes. It's really nice to be able to have him here!
Tonight has been really interesting. Besides being able to see Dad, I'm going to a piano recital here on campus, which Michael also plans to attend. Even better, I had a short chance to talk with Valerie Swigart and Heather Moore, who are here in town for a TFY reunion. I've not seen either of them in several months, and I likely won't see either of them again for quite a while.

Sorry for no post yesterday! I had planned to post after returning from Filberts'. However, when I returned from dinner, hours before going to Filberts, I found that the network was down. I just now got my Internet back up for the first time since about 5:00.

Normally at this time on Monday nights, I'm at the meeting of a local Boy Scout troop, along with Garrett Marvich, another Eagle who lives in this building. Tonight, however, our driver never appeared. Furthermore, tonight's meeting is being held at the house of one of the boys in the troop, instead of the usual meeting place. Consequently, we can't even have someone else drive us there. Therefore, I'm here.
Since Nathan Curtis announced it in a comment on the last post, I'll remark about it: In their congregational meeting on Saturday night, Southfield RPC made out a unanimous call to Lic. Rutledge Etheridge III to be their pastor. My father (who was present, since he's the interim moderator of their session) told me of this call late on Saturday night, but he and I thought it best not to post about it online at this time. However, since a member of the congregation mentioned it on this blog, I've decided that it's rather pointless not to mention it.

According to something I heard recently, Southfield was to hold a congregational meeting this weekend to call a pastor. I'll post about it when there's something to post.

Dr. Robson preached today from the fourth chapter of I John, with thiry-two people in attendance. I appreciated his emphasis on love: in this chapter alone, forms of the term "love" are used thirty times! What a wonderful illustration of how God is love! Although Noah Finley was absent, Mark Edwards (a local young man a little older than I, not in college) was there for the first time in a few weeks. He had been staying in an unoccupied house to keep it from being broken into while the owners were gone, but he was unsuccessful: at one point, while he was there, someone tried to break in anyway! Thankfully, they were scared off by the alarm before they could steal anything, but still...Not only did Mark have that fright, but when the police came, they suspected him at first! He was able to prove to them that he wasn't at fault (he had the keys, he knew the ins and outs of the house, etc.), but still it was somewhat harrowing.

BLOGS
1. : 4 posts, on 4 days.
2. : 3 posts, on 2 days.
3. : 3 posts, on 2 days.
4. : 2 posts, on 2 days.
5. Maggie: 1 post, on 1 day.
6. : 1 post, on 1 day.
7. Andrew: 1 post, on 1 day.
8. : 1 post, on 1 day.
9. : 1 post, on 1 day.
10. : 0 posts, on 0 days. Last post 10 February.
11. Rebekah: 0 posts, on 0 days. Last post 8 February.
12. : 0 posts, on 0 days. Last post 1 February.

As I went to bed last night, I selected a good deal of quiet music and set it to play on my computer (Tony was staying elsewhere for the night) while I slept. It was interesting that, whenever I would awake (I usually wake up several times in a night), I would hear all of this music, whether piano or strings or (occasionally) something else. It's nice to have at least 7:23:13 of music of this sort, especially since it's not usually my top favorite. As I awoke a little while before getting up, I could hear the last of the Strauss waltzes coming to an end: a great way to wake up!
Over breakfast, I was chatting with Phil Falk about churches, especially about his home congregation of Clarinda, which currently has no pastor. He says that, although they have about thirty members, it's a very good day if they have twenty at worship. One hundred years ago, there were two congregations in the area, with a cumulative total of three hundred communicant members — apart from baptized members! How sad it is to see one of our oldest western churches, for long the strongest church in Kansas Presbytery, in such a condition. "A sparrow cannot fall to the ground without the Father's permission." God will preserve the congregation or care for the members without a congregation: whatever happens is God's will. That said, may God preserve the congregation!

Today has been really quiet: although I got tons of reading and a little work done, I've had almost no face-to-face conversation with anyone.

Grievous news on covienet tonight: the Rev. Ray Joseph has passed away. Please pray for Mrs. Joseph and all of the family, as the bereavement is surely great. At the same time, let us praise God for Pastor Joseph's glorious blessing and passage of the River into the Cœlestial City. He is now with them, singing to the One who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!
Here is what the Rev. Ralph Joseph, his cousin, has to say on the matter:


It is with sorrow and yet with great joy that I report the passing into
glory of one of the Lord's saints. Pastor Ray Joseph went to be with the
Lord this afternoon (Friday). Funeral arrangements are pending and the
information will be made available later, perhaps sometime tomorrow. It
is know, however, that the service will be in Southfield. Cousin Ralph

Today, I've been busy mostly with classes and studying for my humanities test, which I completed a little bit ago. Besides that, I've done rather little. About all I've done amounts to listening to Messiah again and borrowing and looking through a volume of the Minutes of Synod from 1889 until 1896. Most of the time that I spent in it was occupied in looking through the Minutes of 1891, when the famous East End Split divided the denomination. This Synod lasted from Wednesday, 27 May, until Wednesday, 10 June — fifteen days! Much of this time was occupied in a trial of the ministers who had put forward the East End Platform, which opposed the denomination's political dissent principles.
After reading the published reports in the Minutes, several things occur to me. Obviously, these ministers had violated the law and order of the Church: they publicly disagreed with its official position, and (according to the prosecution) after being suspended from the ministry they continued to preach. Furthermore, when they left the denomination, they went into the United Presbyterian Church, which today is part of the PCUSA, which marries homosexuals. Nevertheless, the principles they espoused were correct. As well, their official complaint paper stated five reasons for complaint, including at least one procedural, but the official response by the prosecution completely ignored the procedural complaint. How sad that our denomination suffered so much for its unscriptural principles, and that although these ministers were punished for illegal actions, the denomination completely ignored their charges of illegality! Until 1891, the denomination was growing, although some parts were already declining. After 1891, the denomination soon began to decline, and we did not see consistent growth again until around 1980. What would we have been like without this split? God alone knows, and it surely is ultimately better for us that things transpired as they did.

One of my greatest comforts with this disappointment comes from (not surprisingly) the Bible, through the means of Handel's Messiah. Among my favorite parts of this oratorio is the last part, "Worthy Is the Lamb." This piece includes the words of the great multitude of angels in Revelation 5, praising Christ for his deeds.
Despite any and all troubles that I may have throughout my life, I can remember this scene from Revelation: I will be able to experience this scene! God will carry me through everything to this! And what a glorious experience it will be! Your church is at most a few hundred people. Can you imagine standing before God Himself, praising him with a million angels and everyone who has ever served God in all time? BILLIONS of voices praising God! And if you are a Christian, you have the same hope! What a wonderful blessing!
If you don't have access to this music, I'd recommend that you go here to get it. It's a large file (nearly six megabytes), but it will be worth it.

Tonight, I received bad news. Due to a change in conference scheduling, my Stillwater trip has been moved. It had been scheduled to run from 17 July until 21 August, but it has been moved, to begin on 1 July and end on 28 July. This means that I must miss Covfamikoi. This is a great disappointment to me, and therefore I ask that you pray for me not to dwell on it too much. Furthermore, I have an important humanities test tomorrow afternoon, and I ask that you pray that this might not impact my study for that test.
I promise to endeavor to spend some time in Indiana over the summer, besides by flying over it to get to Oklahoma and back. I'd like at least a week if possible, but we'll see how scheduling works out. I might not be able to go to Indiana at all.
May you all have a wonderful experience at Covfamikoi!

Another email from Dad today:


We are sad to announce the death of Ed Reames, father of member Brian
Reames. Ed died at around 6:30 this morning.
Visitation, D.v., will be at Eichholtz Funeral Home in Bellefontaine on
Thursday from 6-8 PM. The funeral will be at the same location on Friday at
2 PM.
Any further details will be sent out as they come in.

Phil Pockras
Minister, Belle Center, Ohio, USA church
Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America
Belle Center RPC website http://www.bcrpchurch.org

Below is an email that Dad just put out on covienet. Please keep it in prayer!


Please be praying for the fathers of two of our members. This email is sent out at the request of these two families.
Ed Reames seems to be in imminent danger of death. He is the father of our member Brian Reames. The further problem is that, as far as we know, Ed is not a believer. Pray for the Gospel to get through, and for comfort and trust in a bewildering situation for Brian, his sisters, his wife Susan, their sons, daughters, and daughter-in-law.
Bill Morton is the father of member Mike Morton. Bill has been battling a non-Hodgkins lymphoma for some few years and has gone into myodysplasia, which is not usually responsive to treatment. He has just had a discouraging test result, and has had to be taken to the James Cancer Hospital in Columbus OH for a few days. Bill is a Christian man, so we rejoice in that.
Both these families have additional other pressures on them that I will not go into at this time. The pressure is overwhelming without our Father's gently bearing them up. Pray that they will see Ps 103 in all its comfort coming to reality in their lives.

Two important things happened today:
(1) Finally, after over a month, I decided to go to Tech Services to talk about my columbus.rr.com address. Although I could occasionally send email with it, I usually couldn't, but everything else (including receiving) worked fine. After talking with a man at Tech Services, I changed one little setting, and I've had no problem since. In effect, when my emails reached the Roadrunner server, they came saying that they had been sent by a Roadrunner network, when really they'd been sent by the Geneva network, so they were rejected as security breaches. Occasionally, a malfunctioning server would let my emails through. All I had to do was change the network name to Geneva's and it works fine.
(2) Finally, after almost three months, my blinds are fixed! We've been making do by shutting a sheet in the window each night; although it's actually a better curtain, the Venetian blinds are far easier to use.

Please note my new email address!

Dr. Robson preached today from the third chapter of I John, looking especially at the idea of knowledge. One of his main emphases was how God's true revealed religion fights the ideas of the Gnostics, the followers of an ancient heresy that emphasized knowledge above all else. Illness and other matters reduced our attendance today, so that we only had 29 people at worship.

BLOGS
1. Andrew: 3 posts, on 3 days.
2. : 3 posts, on 3 days.
3. : 3 posts, on 2 days.
4. : 2 posts, on 2 days.
5. : 2 posts, on 2 days.
6. : 2 posts, on 2 days.
7. : 1 post, on 1 day.
8. Rebekah: 1 post, on 1 day.
9. : 1 post, on 1 day.
10. : 1 post, on 1 day.
11. : 0 posts, on 0 days. Last post 1 February.
12. Maggie: 0 posts, on 0 days. Last post 20 January.

In some ways, I'm glad that little has happened recently. Otherwise, I'd be disappointed that I couldn't post about it.
Recent events include Mrs. Caskey's funeral; a great Faculty Talent Night last night; Michael Fulk coming for a visit; a Geneva loss in basketball tonight; and, as usual, rather little homework.

It's late. More later.

Today, as previous days, was not very exciting. I did manage to write a two-page paper, but that's about it.
Most important was going to the visitation for Mrs. Caskey at a local funeral home this afternoon. It was interesting meeting some of the family. Furthermore, since I had never met Mrs. Caskey, I had my only chance to see her in person. It's truly a joy to know that, although she suffered greatly in the past 1½-2 years and had to live away from home, she is now truly home for ever, and she will never again face death or mourning or crying or pain. Praise the LORD for his deliverance!
For HIS 201, we must write a two-page review of any historical article in any scholarly journal that is at McCartney Library. Since I had no idea what I wanted to do, I simply walked into the basement (where journals are kept), pulled off a volume of the first journal that had "history" in it (American Historical Review), and read a random article. It turned out to be something about clandestine illegal churches in northern Europe during the 1600s and 1700s, especially ones in the Netherlands. I found it quite interesting; I ended up writing my review on it, finishing just a few minutes ago.
Besides that, not much has gone on. I had my first real conversation with one of my next-door neighbors, who leaves his room so infrequently that I've rarely spoken with him before.

Today has been rather average, overall. Classes have been usual, except for history; it was only different in that it was held in a computer lab in Northwood, instead of the usual room in S&E, because we were studying how to get library resources online.
One abnormal event happened today, however, and for that I would ask your prayers. Just before I left for chapel, I received an email from the Rev. John McMillan, one of our elders, who wanted to tell me that Mrs. Bernice Caskey had passed away. Mrs. Caskey's husband, the Rev. Joe Caskey, is another of our elders. Please pray for Mr. Caskey and for Mrs. Caskey's family; both Mr. and Mrs. Caskey had been widowed before marrying each other.

Not much has happened today. I'll post more after breakfast; it's too late now.

Please understand that I have realized (through a thorough discussions with a certain person) that I have erred greatly in Friday's post about the HUM 203 lecture. I believe that professors' teaching should be held to a high standard, especially when they teach large numbers of students. However, errors that they might make in such a context don't need to be broadcasted in the way that I did.
I should not have published the name of the professor giving this lecture. When I noted the part about him discussing Dante, I was not trying to say that Prof. Copeland was not qualified to teach that, as it may well have seemed; I was simply wondering why the College wanted the political science professor to teach something more along the lines of the professors of history or of philosophy or of biblical studies.
Lastly, on the dates for the Empire: I recognize that the last sentence was totally unwarranted. Other than that, I do not see anything wrong in mentioning the material on the Empire, although I presented it in a very wrong fashion. Furthermore, I realize now that the Empire material was written in such a way that I seemed to be putting myself as an expert upon that material. I realize that, although such an area surely is not Professor Copeland's professional specialty (otherwise he would be a history professor), he obviously is knowledgeable in that area, and probably more knowledgeable than I.
Because I was not trying to put myself up as a know-it-all, I believe that my intentions were not wrongful. I was not implying anything wrong, as far as I know. However, I now see that such wrongful intentions easily can be inferred incorrectly, and I see that it is my responsibility to write in such a way that it is difficult to make such inferences.
Therefore, I apologise to all of you who were offended, and to Prof. Copeland most of all.

Dr. Robson preached today from the second chapter of I John. Among the parts that really appealed to me were his emphases on Jesus being our advocate and on how John repeatedly speaks of "you have." It's really a blessing to have the same minister preaching each week!
Several people who came last week, including some of the children from Treasure Diggers, didn't come today. As a result, attendance was only 32. Nevertheless, our attendance is higher than that of the average in recent years, according to the Minutes of Synod. Anyway, attendance isn't as important as faithful service to God!


BLOGS Those with an * are at Belle Center today for the Gethsemane Challenge.
1. : 1 post, on 1 day. She deserves first place after moving and related recent events.
2. : 4 posts, on 4 days.
3. *: 4 posts, on 3 days.
4. : 2 posts, on 2 days.
5. Andrew: 2 posts, on 2 days.
6. *: 1 post, on 1 day.
7. *: 2 posts, on 2 days.
8. : 2 posts, on 2 days.
9. : 3 posts, on 2 days. This consisted of two audioposts and a picture.
10. Rebekah: 1 post, on 1 day.
11. : 0 posts, on 0 days. Last post 25 January.
12. Maggie: 0 posts, on 0 days. Last post 20 January.
As I feared, Bekah has deleted her blog. Therefore, she's been removed from the listings.

Someone in New York scored one hundred and thirteen points in one game!

Today hasn't been that interesting, except for one incident that I'll relate in a bit. I got up early this morning to go with the Scout troop I'm working with here to a Scout show in Beaver Valley Mall. Although the troop did decently, the people who organized the event ran it very poorly. Our Scoutmaster was never told that we could set up a booth, he was never told about some parts of the events, and the schedule was very different from what he was told. We wasted three whole hours by being there according to the posted schedule! I didn't get back until after 4:30.
While at the mall, I accidentally dropped my watch on the floor, which action caused the back to come off. Although the watch worked as long as the battery was in, and the battery was in as long as the back stayed, I couldn't put the back back on! I eventually ended up going to the information desk, getting a Band-Aid™, cutting it apart, and using the sticky parts to keep it on. My driver agreed to take me to Wal-Mart to get a new one. When I arrived at the jewelry counter, I told the associate what had happened, and she found a clamp and forced the back back on — so it's just fine :-)

Tonight, I went with several other people to an ice cream stand some miles away. I went along just to see people, since I don't like ice cream. Anyway, as we were getting back, I took a surprising phone call from Katie. She and the rest of the Gethsemane Challenge people wanted me to hear their singing, so they sang while I listened and (somewhat) sang along. That was the best part of my day, by far. Thanks to all of you for participating!

To all attending the Gethsemane Challenge: May you have a blessed time at the event, and may your non-event time be enjoyable. I dearly wish that I could be with you in Belle Center today!

I just escaped from a most extraordinarily boring HUM 203 lecture by Prof. Tom Copeland, on the subject of mediæval culture and related mediæval matters. First of all, why is a political scientist lecturing on the Divine Comedy? And why, when he lectures on political matters, does he make egregious mistakes? At one point he said that the Roman Empire fell in 455. Whether or not that is true (it's off by just 998 years, by the way), he contradicted himself sometime later by quoting from a letter that he said was written by Pope Gelasius to an Emperor (I'm guessing Leo I, but it doesn't matter) in 494. Now if there were an Emperor in 494, isn't it likely that there's an Empire in 494? And if it was destroyed in 455, how could it be still running thirty-nine years later? In short, he has a rather flawed idea of when the Roman Empire really was.

Terrorists Chanting "Death to France"
Now that's an unusual idea.

Happy Groundhog Day!

Nothing really significant has happened over the last couple of days, other than everything involved with Stillwater.
Therefore, I don't have much of anything to post. Sorry. All I really have to say is that I had a nice lunch with Bekah and the Gladfelters today.