Mín Englisc Blog

In the middle of the eighth inning, Cincinnati was losing to Cleveland 7-0. They scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth, gave up one run in the top of the ninth, and scored one run in the bottom of the ninth. With two outs, they had a man on third, and Cleveland's closer was on the mound. He proceeded to walk two players — and then gave up a home run to Adam Dunn. A walk-off grand slam to win the game 9-8! What an ending!

By the way, please don't expect as faithful of posting of me while I'm gone. I hope to be able to post consistently, using Audioblogger if necessary, but I can't guarantee it. Since airports (I hope) would have wireless Internet, I would like to put up a normal post tomorrow from St. Louis. We'll see.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan, in this country for a formal visit before he leaves office, went with President Bush to Graceland, the Memphis-area home of Elvis Presley. The prime minister, who is obsessed with Elvis, occasionally will begin singing an Elvis song in daily life, and the President therefore gave him a juke box with tons of Elvis songs. Their tour, moreover, was given by Elvis' only child and her mother!

With my flight leaving in less than 18 hours now, I have plenty of preparation to do. Since all my lawns are mown, I'm now in packing mode. I've been looking forward to this trip for over five months, and it's hard to believe that (assuming all goes well) I'll be on the ground in Oklahoma in less than 24 hours. I've only crossed the Mississippi three times: once to attend Carleton in central Minnesota in 1988 (how much would I remember of a time when I wasn't yet walking?), and twice to visit my aunt in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. North-central Oklahoma should be rather different — not to mention an area just outside of Rocky Mountain National Park, where Covenant Heights is located! I'm really looking forward to everything.

Ireland
Around 7:00 tonight we all drove up to Portstewart for a barbeque from church. When we first got there we drove along the beach looking for Miss Joanne, who was in charge of everything. The Millars had brought a bucket and shovels so we could make sand castles.
While we were there we walked up some sand hills. We also went down to the water's edge. Later we built some sand castles. Daddy & I walked between a lot of big rocks and we found some pretty shells.
We had to wait a long time before we ate. After eating we sang some Psalms together. It was past 11:00 when we got home.

Notes:
• We actually could have attended the last night of the Balleymoney Holiday Bible Club if we'd not gone to this instead. By the way, we didn't attend the one at Dervock because it was to be held when we were gone.
• The idea of a barbeque in this country led us to believe that this would be a full dinner. It wasn't. You can imagine that we were quite hungry by the night's end.
• "Miss Joanne" was the oldest of the daughters of the Millar family. During the time we were there, she made a short visit here to her own pastor. Among other things, when she was here she ended up killing an injured mouse in our pantry by using a golf putter :-)

Relatively little happened today except for mowing. And mowing. And mowing. Isaac and Mom worked on finishing three of his remaining four lawns, after which they helped me mow three more. Six lawns in one day! Now granted, some are bigger than others (Isaac's three aren't very big at all), but that's still a lot of work. What's more, Isaac was feeling rather tired today, so Mom did far more work with my lawns than he did.
As many of you know, I will leave on Saturday morning for Oklahoma to participate in the RP Missions team for the Stillwater RPC. Since it's late at night, I'll postpone posting much about it. I'll just say that I must leave home tomorrow night — less than twenty-four hours from now — and not return until 29 July. We'll be doing evangelistic work in Stillwater, evangelistic work in Enid, and attending the Colorado part of the Midwest Presbytery's family conference system, to be held at Covenant Heights.
Today's psalm was 69. As I considered the text, I was reminded of how many passages were reflected in Christ's passion. Christ was afflicted, poor, and deep in pain; he was given vinegar the time his thirst was great; and he rose victorious in the end, just as is expressed in the psalm. I have suffered many different things in my life (although far less than most people), and this psalm helps me to remember that Christ suffered more than any mere human.
He is my refuge and my stay;
My citadel of strength is He —
My God in Whom my trust shall be.
Psalm 91

Ireland
Tonight was the last night for Isaac & me to go to Bible Club. I had 15 tokens when we finished and Isaac had 14. At first I got a plaque, a pin, and a book about David. Then I found out that there were some nice, big books there. So I exchanged the plaque for a book about David Livingstone and a small notepad. Isaac picked out a plaque, a notepad, and a pencil. When we left I started crying because I didn’t want the Bible Club to be all done.

Mowing today was restricted to one lawn plus helping Mom here at our house.
Much of our late morning was occupied in attending Mr. Forsythe's funeral. Although he was a PCA minister, the funeral was held in the Huntsville Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), where he grew up. A faithful gospel message was preached, and I appreciated the speaker's reminder that such a message is what Mr. Forsythe would have wanted, and that the message was similar to that which Mr. Forsythe often used at other people's funerals. The church building and parking lot were filled. Many of the visitors appeared to have been a delegation from his presbytery. After the short service, we joined the funeral procession to the nearby Huntsville Cemetery, where he was buried with military honors (he served in Vietnam), and where a bagpiper helped celebrate his love of his Scottish clan heritage. Isaac and I wore full BSA uniform to the funeral and graveside because Mr. Forsythe was a past Scoutmaster of Troop 51.
I appreciated hearing the "Memories of Max" remembrance presented by a secondary speaker. His memories, compiled from both family and friends, showed me some sides of Mr. Forsythe I had never seen or was unsure about. Although of course I knew more about him than I saw, my only interaction with him (other than when he preached for us) was on the occasions when he came to our house to discuss some matter or another with Dad. For example, I have always wondered how effective he could really be as a pastor, living over an hour from the church. I wonder no longer. All that I have heard spoke of him as a faithful and useful pastor to his congregation, despite the distance. Important, too, was the note about how faithful he was at his duties to his wife and his three sons. May God especially keep Mrs. Forsythe: seeing this lady's grief at the funeral of her husband was truly the greatest sorrow of the whole service.
Today's funeral and the passage I read on my Palm today while mowing went well together. As we read in Psalm 103, although our life is like the flower in the field, God heals all our diseases, his lovingkindness abides eternally to his servants, and his righteousness remains to the descendents of those servants. Here is a man who was ordained to the ministry at age 42 after working God's work in other ways of life, who knew what the Bible taught and sought to impart it to others, who had a great influence for good on many others, and who fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith. He was instrumental in founding a church where he preached faithfully and pastored carefully. He loved Christ, sought to show Christ's love to all Christians, and sought to win others to him. Although he did not know it when he woke up last Friday morning, his work for Christ was done, and it was time for him to be given the reward bought by Christ's sacrifice. "Well done, good and faithful servant! Enter into the joy of your Lord!" Such Mr. Forsythe heard on Friday evening, and such will we hear as well if we are in Christ.
Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my end be like theirs!
Numbers 23:10
Although this verse is actually part of the oracles of the heathen Balaam, it still expresses a feeling we all should have. Death is to come for all of us, unless the Lord return first. How better should we pray for ourselves at death than to die in the confidence of salvation in Christ? If we rest in Christ, we may be saddened for our loved ones, but we have no reason to worry for ourselves. Mr. Forsythe lost the enjoyment that he might have had on earth for many years yet. What possible regret should it be that he lost earthly enjoyment because of heavenly enjoyment? Would we prefer to play Minesweeper on the computer or to be with those whom we know best? And that cannot compare properly. I pray God that I die, either suddenly so that I have no final, sinful fear and no pain, or with speed enough to recognize that God is calling me home and that I have no more work required of me.

Ireland
This morning Mama did laundry & mowed the grass. Later, she made oatmeal cookies.
Tonight at Bible Club we played a game called "What Time Is It, Mr. Wolf?" Then we watched the second half of a video. We saw the first half last night. We got an extra token tonight for being there.
After Bible Club was done we drove out to the Ballylaggen RP Church building. When we got there we met a few people who had helped at their Bible Club.

Mowing occupied a little bit of my day today. All I had was one smallish lawn, due to the mowing schedule of last week that means that all other lawns are still rather short.
This evening, Mom and Isaac and I attended the visitation for the Rev. Max Forsythe, a local PCA minister whom we had known for many years. Mr. Forsythe passed away on Friday evening. Although his charge is in a Columbus suburb, he lived here, where he had grown up. Since I was little, I can remember him coming to our house to visit us and to discuss matters with Dad. He preached for our congregation more than once when Dad was out of town and none of our elders here were available. God keep his wife, his family, his church, and all others who are affected by his death.
Observed by Him and precious in the LORD's sight
Appears the death of all His saints each one.
Psalm 116:15

Ireland

June 23
This afternoon Mama & I practiced a little golfing. I used a sand wedge and made some nice shots with it. Later, Daddy & I walked up to the Presbyterian Church building and back again. We had planned to go only to the playground, but ended going for the longer walk instead. I showed Daddy how I could climb all the way to the top of the monkey bars and then get down.
Tonight, we went to a Family Focus on Missions program at church. The speaker talked about some mission work in Spain.

June 24
Today was the Ballymoney Mayor’s Show. This afternoon we went to watch a parade there. One funny incident in the parade was when a man on very tall stilts came along. He told a policeman to take a break because he would direct traffic for a while.
Today was the final match in Rugby World Cup between New Zealand & South Africa. We all thought that New Zealand would win, but when we got back from Ballymoney we found out that South Africa won 15-12.

June 25
This morning Daddy used the order of service from Belle Center, here in Dervock. He still had a children’s sermon, though. He talked about our favorite foods and how we would get tired of them if we has to eat them all the time. Then he told us that we should be tired of sin & ask Jesus to take our sins away. Daddy uses such familiar things for his children’s sermons.
About 2 hours after we got home from church we went to the grass area by the playground, here in Dervock, for an open-air worship service. Before and after the service I had fun picking daisies.

June 26
This morning we went to Ballymoney so Daddy could cash £100 of travelers’ checks. We also looked at some shops on Church Street for clothes for Isaac and me. We didn’t find anything so we went to Wellworths in Colraine.
Tonight was the first night of 4 of the Ballymoney RP Church’s Bible Club that Isaac & I went to. We were given little paper tokens. At the end of the week we get to trade in our tokens for prizes. We can earn different amounts of tokens for doing different things. Isaac & I both had a very good time.

June 27
This morning Isaac was sick with a fever of 101°. Mama gave him some Tylenol which helped some. Because he was sick he couldn’t go to Bible Club tonight.
I remembered to take my Bible with me to Bible Club and I said my memory verse so I got 3 tokens tonight. When Mama & Isaac came to pick me up Isaac tried one of my cheese & onion chips. He liked them so I got him his own bag which he ate when we got back home.

Sorry for no post yesterday; I did not think of posting until I was ready to fall asleep.
As normal when we're visiting my Wilson grandparents, we worshipped at Rose Point RPC yesterday morning. This week, there was a guest preacher: the Rev. Tim McCracken, pastor of Fresno RPC in California, and brother of Andy McCracken at Columbus RPC. I suppose that some reasons for his being invited were (1) it's not every week that an RP minister from California is in town, and (2) he has family roots in the congregation.
Last night, we worshipped in Beaver Falls. During the summer, all four area congregations hold joint services, and it was the turn of College Hill. It was really exciting to see many people whom I'd not seen in two months and whom I'll not see again until the end of August. The sermon, a wonderful one, was preached by the Rev. Andrew Quigley, pastor of Airdrie RPC in Scotland. He is in town as a fraternal delagate to...
The 175th Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America began this evening at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Elected moderator was the Rev. James Pennington, a longtime pastor and missionary to Japan. Meetings are due to continue until Friday. As a result, Dad will be gone all week. I strongly urge you to check updates here at least once a day this week.

New moderator of the 175th Synod, James Pennington (left), receives the gavel from retiring moderator Jonathan Watt.

Today, meanwhile, has been rather different. We left my grandparents' house shortly after 1000 and, after some grocery shopping and lunch, arrived home shortly before 1500. Since then, Mom and I have mostly relaxed, while Isaac has been bicycling like normal.

Because this post is already so long, I will postpone all my days of Irish diaries until tomorrow.

Happy birthday to my mother!

After some time of debating with myself, I've decided to humble myself. Please don't be put off by my begging.
Since I first learned how to add comments, two years ago, I've never had a time with fewer comments than right now. I have not had a comment in ten days, while many others consistently get several comments per post. What am I doing wrongly? I am not unhappy with anyone, either individuals or groups, but blogging this month has made me rather depressed. Are any of you Indiana bloggers reading this blog anymore? Many of you outside of Indiana have told me that you read my blog, so I know that I've not been abandoned, but I've always run this blog primarily in accord with people such as whose blogs I rate each week. It just annoys me that I post every day and get almost no comments, while others post once a week and receive a dozen comments. Once again, I am not at all unhappy with anyone else, whether commentors or infrequent-but-popular posters. I am simply disappointed and somewhat depressed.

This morning, I had two doctors' appointments. First, Dad took me to the office of my dentist in Bellefontaine, who told me that my mouth is doing rather well. After returning, we had a short break before I walked to the neurologist's office here in Belle Center. He informed me that my antiseizure medicine levels were slightly low, so I've now been switched from 400mg to 450mg per day.
Mowing, as usual, was a factor today: we finished two lawns, leaving just two more to mow.
Once the mowing was finished, we headed to Bellefontaine, as Isaac had a meeting of the troop's Patrol Leaders' Council. A small meeting indeed — only two of the five full members were present! Our troop has always had trouble with attendance, and it's absurd when even the PLC doesn't make a quorum.
As we entered the north side of Bellefontaine, a powerful storm passed. Isaac, a trained weather spotter, called the National Weather Service with a report: 40mph sustained winds, gusts of at least 60mph, and rolling sheets of rain. Branches and boxes flew across the highway (our car was struck by a ten-foot branch!) while steel lightpoles and great trees swayed in the wind. Dad described the conditions as similar to a tropical storm that passed through Philadelphia while Dad was in seminary. Thankfully, today's storm passed far faster than a tropical storm :-)

Ireland
Today was Mama's birthday. Daddy gave her a rugby shirt like the Irish team rugby players wear. I made a few paper flowers that we taped on the shirt. This morning I also made her a paper rose bush that she liked a lot.
Instead of a cake Mama made some apple dumplings. She put a candle in it that Daddy lit. Both Daddy & I took her picture. After Mama blew out the candle Isaac took a picture of her, too.
After breakfast Daddy took me to the doctor's office. I saw Dr. Lynch. Daddy didn't have to tell him much because I told him what was wrong. The doctor thought I just had some sort of virus. All day long I felt pretty well.

Three things have dominated today for me:
• Rain. We had short periods of heavy rain during the morning. While Mom was shopping in Bellefontaine, she had to wait in the car twenty minutes before the rain lightened — and the "lightened" rain still drenched her before she reached the building!
• Mowing. Despite the rain, the grass dried enough to allow us to mow five lawns: two of mine and Isaac's three that (together) are one decent-sized lawn. One of those three is about the size of two normal dinner tables.
• Leonardo. Although it took several hours, I read the entirety of The Da Vinci Code this morning. When Tony read it, he found the storyline itself (independent of the warped theology) to be great. I'm glad he liked it; although it was gripping and exciting, several parts were confusing, such as personality of The Teacher. As far as theology, I knew that it would be heretical, but I didn't expect the depth to which it descended. All I expected (from what I had read elsewhere) was stuff using the Gospel of Philip (a Gnostic text composed in the third century) and talking about other Gnostic texts, as well as what I'd heard about the Catholic Church hiding things about Christ's humanity and affair with Mary Magdalene. I did not expect to find the extent of the Gnosticism, such as hard-core dualism. You may not know this, but ancient Gnostics were a heretical offshoot of Christianity that taught salvation through special knowledge and believed that spirit was good and matter evil. Some Gnostic groups were ascetic (since matter was evil, it should be shunned), while others were libertarian (since matter was evil, what one did with it didn't matter). Many Gnostics, such as those who wrote the long book of Pistis Sophia, believed in several gods: the Old Testament God, who was an evil god who created matter; the New Testament God, who was a kind and loving god who would defeat the Old Testament God; and a goddess, which bore different names, such as in Pistis Sophia, where this goddess bore the name of Sophia. This book goes all the way into the goddess part, even teaching that the יהוה, the name of God as revealed at the burning bush in Exodus 3, was actually a fusion of the true name of the Old Testament God and the goddess. Not to mention that it teaches that Jesus was only considered God after the Council of Nicæa or that early Christian worship included orgies...
What a blessing to believe in the One True Living Triune God revealed in the actual New Testament!

Ireland
This morning, Mr. Thompson, the Presbyterian minister in Dervock, took Daddy golfing at a 9-hole, par 3 course at Portrush. Daddy did okay for his first time. He even beat Mr. Thompson on one hole.
We drove up to Ballycastle this evening. First, Isaac & played on the playground. Then we all took a walk to the end of a pier. We saw a lot of kelp (seaweed) in the water. Next, we walked over a bridge to get to another part of the beach. We found several pretty rocks along the beach that we brought home with us.
Most of today I wasn’t feeling very well. My throat was hurting a lot. When we got home from Ballycastle I was feeling very cold. We couldn’t find our thermometer for a while, but Mama finally found it. I had a temperature of 101°.

Very little of import has happened today. I mowed just one lawn, since the rest needed no mowing. Tonight's troop meeting involved the boys going swimming at the local YMCA, so I had little involvement. However, I did have one major bit: due to a lack of other adult leaders, I was asked to help with a board of review, which was supposed to discuss the possible advancement of a boy from First Class to Star rank.

Ireland
Mama went to Ballymoney this morning to buy groceries. After lunch we went to Rev. Johns' home. He’s the minister of the Church of Ireland here in the village. While we were there we had sandwiches and sweets to eat. We all played a little bit of soccer in the yard, with 2 pairs of bamboo poles serving as goalposts.
Again I took a nap, but this one wasn’t as long as yesterday's. After our naps Isaac & I played some more outside.

Ireland Sorry for no diary post again yesterday.

June 18
Today was a normal Sabbath except that we went to a joint Presbytery young peoples’ meeting. It was held at the church building here in Dervock. At first they planned to have it in the church hall, but there were too many people for that. So we all moved to the auditorium. Daddy was the main speaker. He talked about work with young people in America.

June 19
This morning we had nice weather, but it didn’t last long. While Mama was trying to mow the grass it started raining.
This afternoon I took a nap because I woke up so early this morning. When I got up it was pouring. We didn’t do much the rest of the day.

BLOGS
1. posted four times this week, on the 12th, 13th, 16th, and 17th.
2. posted eight times this week, on the 15th and 16th. Six of these consisted solely of a picture and short caption.
3. posted two times this week, on the 12th and 14th.
4. posted two times this week, on the 12th and 14th.
5. posted one time this week, on the 11th.
6. posted one time this week, on the 13th.
X. did not post this week. She last posted on 25th May.
X. did not post this week. He last posted on 6 June.
X. Rebekah did not post this week. She last posted on 14th May.

All of this morning was occupied with attending the conclusion of Isaac's Tomahawk weekend. Although the ceremony was unimpressive, it appears to have been the least impressive part of the entire week. Isaac had a wonderful time, learning tons of important material, working well with the others, talking with the two other Tomahawk participants from our troop, and not even needing any medical attention! Sadly, one of the other boys did need medical attention: last night, this boy was running around on an unused road and tripped over a cable intended to prevent vehicular traffic. He fell hard on a rock and suffered a severely fractured shoulder. With the "growth plate" being shattered, he'll have to have surgery here in the future.
After we returned from there, the day was mostly routine except for two things. For one, we went to Bellefontaine to eat and to get groceries. Since Mom and Isaac wanted Arby's and Dad and I wanted Skyline, we compromised, each of us going to the restaurant (they're next door to each other) that we wanted.
More importantly, we had a visit from three men on the Southside session: Pastor Keddie and Messrs Mauser and Pritchard. With the condition of our building being so severe, they were interested in surveying it professionally (Mr Mauser is an engineer and Mr Pritchard an architect) better to understand its condition.

Because of the condition of our churchbuilding, we are not to worship in it tomorrow. Instead, as with last week's evening worship, we will be at the Presbyterian Church, worshipping at 1PM and 7PM, so as not to interfere with their service. This arrangement is quite likely (although with possibly changed service times) to continue for quite some time.
As a few of you already know, our building is in very poor condition indeed. At the beginning of last month, a committee from the congregation surveyed the building and discovered extensive bat droppings in many places (which would require very expensive cleaning) and also many structural problems, some of which actually endanger the safety of anyone using the building. Furthermore, some of our members have been becoming ill because of mold in the building. Even the situation of the building is a problem, with almost no parking available! Therefore, we are considering several possibilities, ranging from extensive refurbishing to destruction and rebuilding on the same site to building or buying a new building elsewhere. All possibilities will cost large sums of money, and we seem sometimes to be caught between Scylla and Charybdis (and some other mythological obstacle as well!) in this question. Please pray for wisdom for us!
Finally, please pray for unity for the congregation in this matter. Many congregations of all denominations in the past have fractured over issues such as their churchbuildings, and there is no biblical guarantee that Reformed Presbyterians are not susceptible to such problems!

Ireland
We all drove to Portrush this morning for a Sabbath School outing for the Presbytery. I had fun climbing on some metal bars on the playground. After lunch there were some contests for kids. Most of them were races. Later it started to rain so we came home.

We finally had good, warm weather today, for the first time in two weeks. Sadly, since Mom disagrees on how good this warmth was, she was partially overborne by the heat, so mowing took longer than it would have. Natheless, we finished the last three lawns for the week, having a relatively easy time despite Isaac's absence. One of today's lawns took longer, moreover, because of tons of little bits of trash in the grass. The son of the owner had had an old trailer there, which he partially burned before disassembling for scrap. You can imagine all those little bits of fiberglass insulation, chipped steel pieces, aluminium bits, screws and nails, broken window, thin wood frames — and even a small lightbulb! Now imagine helping us to pick them out of the needing-to-be-mown-height grass...
Tomorrow morning, we'll be leaving early to go down to pick up Isaac from his week of Tomahawk. Before leaving Camp Birch to bring him home, we're to attend a graduation ceremony. I expect that it will be rather impressive (proportional to the size), given the prestigious nature of the Tomahawk program.

Ireland
This morning we all went to Ballymoney. First, Daddy had to get some copies made. Then we went to a music store and bought a pair of recorders for Isaac & me. We also saw some very expensive instruments there. For instance, a saxophone was priced at about $1000.
We went to the Kerrs' house for supper. We stayed for a couple hours after eating to talk. They liked looking at our Usborne books we had taken with us.

Notes:
• You may remember my recorder, a small dark wooden vertical flute that I have occasionally taken to youth events, and which I had at Geneva this year. This was when we bought it. Isaac has never done anything with his.
• The Kerrs were a family in the congregation, although I can't identify them because (I think) there were multiple Kerr families! I still remember them, farmers, looking at these Usborne children's books about tractors.

More mowing was the main part of today. Otherwise, we had very little go on. I have been able to work somewhat on stamps, as well.
So little has happened that I'm going to end this right now :-)

Ireland
After breakfast we drove up to the Giant's Causeway. We climbed on the main rock formations and pretended to be "King of the Mountain." We also climbed up some very steep cliffs by walking on little paths and stone steps.
When we were walking along the paths on the top of the cliffs, we could see Scotland a little bit. We also saw (clearly) the mountains in County Donegal. The wind was very strong today. It blew Daddy's hat off his head and into a gorse bush on the other side of a barbed-wire fence. Mama stepped through a gorse bush, leaned over the fence, and just barely was able to reach the hat.

This morning, I had planned to spend some hours working on more stamp album pages. That plan was destroyed by a trip to Bellefontaine about which Mom had repeatedly warned me, but I had forgotten. We did a little shopping, but the main part of the trip was a visit to the hospital's outpatient lab, where I had to have blood drawn. This test, to check levels of my antiseizure medicine, took longer than expected, partially because they required four vials of blood!
Since I need to get to bed, I'll cut this post off now and just give the Irish diary.

Ireland
This afternoon while Mama & Daddy were at the Ballymoney church building, Isaac & I went over to the McCauley’s house. I had fun playing with their Legos. They had treasure chests, castles, boats, and I collected little, round discs and pretended they were treasure.
Miss Ruth Millar watched us at the McCauley’s house. She drove us to the church building around 7 PM. Isaac & I ate some grapes & tossed salad while we waited for Mama & Daddy to come. We were there for a Missionary Rally.

With Isaac out of the house, I'll have more mowing work than normal. He has five lawns to mow per week, although two (between them) add up to perhaps 200 square feet. Today, we mowed two; with one yesterday and two not needing to be done this week, we only have ten left for the rest of the week.
Tonight's troop meeting was altogether dinky. With three of the five top leadership boys gone at Tomahawk (including Isaac) and another out of town, we had just the senior patrol leader and three others, one of whom arrived twenty minutes late. As a result, nothing happened; we left just as the late "other" boy arrived.
Happy eighteenth birthday to Katie!

Ireland Yesterday I forgot to include an entry. The top entry is yesterday's, with today's below.

Mr. & Mrs. O'Neill (from Pittsburgh) came for lunch today. After we were done eating we all went to the clubhouse. Mama & Mrs. O'Neill played a game of pool. I played a lot of pinball. Later I played a game of house soccer with Mr. O'Neill. Daddy & I took the O'Neill's to the Dervock church building. Before they left I beat Mrs. O'Neill at 2 games of UNO.
After supper, Daddy went to Ballymoney for Synod. While he was gone, the rest of us played some golf. Isaac hit his ball too far into the clump of weeds at the edge of the yard. When he tried to get the ball out he hurt his hand on some nettles.

After breakfast Daddy left for Synod. A little later Mama, Isaac, & I walked to the post office. On the way home we stopped at a playground next to the Texaco station. We stayed for a while. I tried out all the things they had to do there. Then, we went to the Texaco station to buy a few groceries and a newspaper.
After we got back, Isaac & I played ball. One time I punted the ball and it went on top of the clubhouse roof. It later came down somehow by itself.

Notes:
• The Rev. Dr. Prof. Jerry O'Neill is the President of the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Mr. O'Neill was the RPCNA fraternal delegate to the Irish Synod.
• All of us well remember Isaac's experience with the nettles. These plants, when brushed against by the skin, produce a severe stinging reaction and leave welts. The leaves contain tiny poisonous stingers, perhaps like those of the jellyfish.

This morning, I woke up far earlier than normal, at just 5:48. We took Isaac down to our Boy Scout council's main camp, where Isaac joined an advanced leadership program, called Tomahawk, that began last night. He will be down there until Saturday. After we dropped him off, we continued to Cincinnati, where we visited my grandparents for a few hours.

Alberto has suddenly picked up speed and is approaching hurricane strength just off the Florida coast. Pray for those at ECHO! I remember last year, as we had heavy rain, despite being 250 miles away from the center of 40mph Arlene. This time, they're closer to the center of a stronger storm. However, it's good that this won't be like Charley two years ago, which landed on the Ft. Myers barrier islands and destroyed or damaged much of the farm.

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who led the Steelers to their Super Bowl victory, was seriously injured today in a motorcycle crash, partly because he refused to wear a helmet. Apparently, someone pulled out in front of him. I can't understand why so many NFL players, including Roethlisberger, ignore the stipulations in their contracts that prohibit motorcycling. Hopefully his injuries, which include two sprained knees, will allow the Bengals to have an easier time in their division next season.

Happy 52nd birthday to Dad!
On his birthday, Dad preached from all of Daniel 3 and from parts of John 8, morning and evening. The Daniel passage is the blazing-furnace passage. One thing I noted with this chapter is that its author definitely enjoyed long lists of things and people. In this chapter, 8 different lists appear: three lists of royal officials, four lists related to music, and a list of the articles of clothing worn by the three as they were tied up.
Tonight, we had our worship service at the Presbyterian Church, due to problems with our building. We may be having our services there more in the future.
As we went to worship this morning, I remembered a call to worship Dad formerly used frequently, from Isaiah 12:4-6.
Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted. Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.
Ireland
After church we went to Mrs. McConaghie’s house for lunch. She’s my Sabbath School teacher. I had a lot to eat including 2 pieces of rhubarb pie which I liked. When lunch was over, Isaac & I did a bunch of jigsaw puzzles.
This afternoon Grumps & Grandmother called to wish Daddy a happy birthday. A little later Uncle Larry & Aunt Pam called to do the same.
Tonight's evening service was at the church building. After worship we had a psalm sing. Like ours back home, it lasted half an hour. Isaac & I didn’t get to bed until 10 PM.

BLOGS I've decided not to rank non-posters, so I'll just list them alphabetically. It seems somewhat ridiculous for a non-poster to get sixth place.
1. : 2 posts, on the 5th and the 7th. One post included four pictures.
2. : 2 posts, on the 6th and 8th.
3. : 1 post, on the 5th.
4. : 1 post, on the 6th.
5. : 1 post, on the 5th.
X. : 0 posts. She last posted on 25th May.
X. : 0 posts. She last posted on 1st June.
X. : 0 posts. She last posted on 31st May.
X. Rebekah: 0 posts. She last posted on 14th May.

What do you think when you plan your day around something or someone, only to find that your efforts are blown off and your schedule is completely disrupted? As I stated last night, our troop were to work, beginning at 8:00 this morning, at setting up chairs for a wedding. Therefore, my father and Isaac arose at 6:45 and I at 7:00. Before I had even begun to dress, my father took a call from the Scoutmaster, saying that he'd just been called by someone from the wedding. "8:00 won't work for us after all," she said. "Can you come at 1:30?" As you might imagine, all of us, including the Scoutmaster, were quite displeased with that decision and quickly decided that we couldn't go because of other things scheduled for that time. Had I been able to go at that time, I still would have refrained, because I had never agreed to anything save working at 8:00.
My uncle and aunt left this afternoon, shortly after 4:00, after a thoroughly enjoyable time. Besides dinner last night, they also decided to have us eat lunch on their bill at Zeller's Round Table, a small restaurant here in Belle Center with which we were already pleasantly acquainted. As I had guessed, the reason for their visit was to help celebrate a slightly early birthday for Dad; today he had a card-opening, a present-opening, and a candle-blowing-outing.

Ireland
Today we went to the McCollums’ house in Cullybackey for lunch. Mr. McCollum is the pastor of the RP Church there. They have 2 boys, Jonathan & Stephen, ages 7 and almost 6. It was hard to tell them apart because they are about the same size and they look a lot alike.
Isaac & I played some video games after lunch with Stephen. We also watched 2 Thomas videos. One of the videos had a story about Daisy which we had never seen before.

After finishing today's mowing (we're done for the week :-), we went to Bellefontaine to meet my uncle and aunt, Dad's brother and his wife. Uncle Charles and Aunt Debbie are here overnight for Dad's birthday, which will occur in the near future. We went to two exalted establishments before returning to our house: first Fazoli's for spaghetti and ziti, and then Walmart for milk and birthday cards for said birthday. Dad and I had completely run out of 2% milk!
By the way, I forgot to mention some time ago that I had gotten new glasses! The prescription is the same; it's just that I got new frames and lenses, because the old frames weren't the best and because the old lenses were faulty, so that (as many of you surely remember) it appeared as if they were perpetually fogged up. As a matter of fact, I took delivery of the glasses on 18 May, the day before I left for Indianapolis. How many of you noticed the change?
We will have to arise early tomorrow morning to help with a troop fundraiser. Some of us are to go to West Mansfield, a village on the other side of the county, to set up chairs for a wedding. Sound exciting?

Ireland
This afternoon we went to the Ballymoney Public Library. We got out 11 books, 1 book less than what we were allowed to check out. I picked out a book about Winnie-the-Pooh, one about trains, and one about inventions.

Note: The libraries around here have no limit to the number of books allowed to be checked out at one time. Therefore, at least Isaac and I were surprised by the 12-book limit for our family.

Ireland
After breakfast, we all drove into Ballymoney. Our first stop was the hospital where Mr. McConaghie is. I made a get well card for him. Daddy gave it to him when he went to visit.
Next, we went to Walkers store through their back entrance. Mama bought a cookie sheet and a muffin pane. Upstairs, we bought a 1000 piece puzzle. It has pictures of 4 different castles on it. Each one is like a separate puzzle.
Another place we went was a travel agency. Daddy picked up our tickets for the ferry boat from Larne to Stranraer. We’ll go on it in early August.
We went to the Daniel McKeeman’s house for supper. After we ate we went to the milking parlor to see the cows being milked. Then we saw a couple of their beef bulls. We also saw some cats and a newborn kitten.

Notes:
• Mr Norman McConaghie was the senior elder at Dervock congregation. He passed away a couple of years later.
• In August, as I expected, we took the ferry from Larne in Ireland to Stranraer in Scotland.
• The McKeemans were a family in the congregation.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of al-Qaida in Iraq, was killed in an airstrike yesterday. US officials have confirmed his death from fingerprint evidence from his captured body.

But the LORD is still my stronghold;
God, my Refuge, will repay.
He'll for sin wipe out the wicked;
Them the LORD our God will slay.

Lawnmowing occupied some of my time today. However, more time was occupied with work on worldwide stamps — but in an unexpected way. Yesterday, a man I know in Belle Center told me that he had some stamps that he wasn't doing anything with and that he wanted to give them to me. By this afternoon, I had completely forgotten about that incident, but then he stopped by and delivered them: not a few US issues from just recent decades, but a small worldwide collection with a few stamps going back to the 19th century! It seems to me that there's nothing impressive in the collection, but it does look nice, and I am impressed by his generosity.

Ireland
This morning, while Mama mowed the grass, Daddy, Isaac, & I played "house sokcre" in the driveway. It was a new game I invented. Two people stand at the gate by the road and someone else stood near the garage. One person by the gate kicked the ball part way and the other person kicked it the rest of the way. The person by the garage acted like a goalie & tried to stop the kick.
All of us except Mama walked up to the post office. We took along 2 hamburger buns to feed the ducks & geese in the Dervock River. I bonked one goose on the back with some of the bread.
Uncle Charlie & Aunt Debbie called us before supper. They wanted to know how we were doing. We all took turn talking to them.
After supper we drove over towards Limavady again to see if we could get a good view of the Republic & also Scotland. We had a sunny day today, but it was cloudy again tonight, so we still didn’t see as much as we wanted to.

Sixty years ago began the Normandie invasions.

Surprisingly, due to short grass, only two lawns did we mow today: Mom mowed a lawn during the afternoon, and she also mowed this evening as the rest of us were at the troop meeting. The meeting itself went decently well, as Mr Watson led many members in a discussion of Citizenship in the Nation merit badge (required for Eagle), and those who had earned it already discussed a possible canoeing trip.
Thanks to no mowing today, I spent some time working on my room. I've now gotten it into the best condition it's been since the beginning of last schoolyear, and perhaps the floor itself is cleaner than before that. Now we have to see what to do with the frames. When my grandmother had to go into the nursing home with the strokes, my father and his siblings distributed my grandparents' frames: paintings, pictures, and at least one crossstitch. Three or four of them fell to my father, and they have all been stored in my room...
We were saddened today to read of the death of Mr. Samuel McConaghie, a longtime member and elder at Dervock RPC. According to his obituary in the Irish Covenanter Witness, he passed away on the 9th May, after fighting cancer since before we were in Ireland. Praise be to the One who has now healed all his diseases!

Ireland
This morning in the mail we found a letter from Grandma and 2 birthday cards for Daddy. One was from Uncle Joe & Aunt Sarah and the other was from Grumps & Grandmother. Daddy got a check for $35 from his parents.
On May 28th, Grumps & Grandmother had been wakened in the night by tornado warning sirens. They quickly went to the basement (Daddy thought so) until the warning was over. They had no tornado there, but it rained & hailed very hard.
Mama went to the Stewarts grocery store by herself this morning. While she was gone, Mr. Ivan McConaghie came to fix some fuses that blew out last night. He came back later to fix the doorbells, too.

Notes
• Dad's birthday is on the 11th June.
• Mr. McConaghie was (and likely still is) an elder at Dervock RPC.

Two years ago was the death of President Reagan.

Please pray for Dad lately. He is completely swamped with work and quite overstressed. Nothing new has been happening; it's simply that his usual duties are requiring far more time than usual. Working with other people has caused him to be on the telephone much longer than I can ever remember him being — perhaps a couple of hours per day or more — as well as driving more, working later, and taking tons of time in other ways. Not to mention his exhausted condition! Besides all of these usual duties, he's had trouble with the general condition, as problems such as the critical condition of the building and my seizures have not helped over the past few months. Please pray that he might be able to resume a more normal pattern of living, and for the rest of us as we seek to help him. He's busy enough that we can't really have a normal family life right now.
Much mowing toward the later part of last week meant that we had relatively little mowing to do today. Therefore, I rested much of the day, even not awakening until around 8:30. I played a part (altogether small, but still a part) in helping Mom as she planted much more of the garden: more radishes, replacing failed beans, and also peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and corn. It's been several years (she may have said three years) since last corn was included in the garden.
One problem we've had recently involves opossums and raccoons. Behind our house, as some of you may remember, is an old railroad bed, a bank six feet tall, which is overgrown with trees and undergrowth. There, we usually dump biodegradeable wastes, mostly grass clippings from all of our lawnmowing. However, around the time that I came back from college, we discovered one dead opossum and one dead raccoon, dead at about the same time. They are almost all decomposed — but two days ago I discovered another raccoon-opossum pair! This raccoon was closer to the path than the other, and this opossum was actuall on the path. None bear any signs of great illness, of wounds, or of anything else that could kill them. What's causing this? You can imagine the stench we smell when we work out back.

Ireland
We went to a McDonalds restaurant, in Colraine, for lunch today. Everyone had cheese burgers except for me. I had a hamburger. After Isaac & I finished eating, Daddy bought us a donut. Mama had a piece of apple pie.
After lunch we went around a BP station a couple times before we found the right way out onto the highway. Then we drove over toward Limavady through some mountains. Yesterday when Daddy drove there to preach it was so clear that he could see Scotland. It was too cloudy to see much today.
Later today we went to the McCollums’ farm near Portstewart. While we were there I had fun playing Wacky Wheels on their computer. It’s a game of racing cars. Mr. McCollum took us to see the silage being gathered in the fields. When we got back I printed up a picture of some dinosaurs in their computer.

Dad preached today from the first two chapters of Daniel (morning) and from part of John 8 (evening). Something I noticed with the two Daniel chapters: they don't appear to me to have been written by the same person at the same time. Look at the way God is addressed: in chapter 2, with one exception, Daniel and the narrative always speak of God as "heaven" or "the God of heaven", a phrase that does not appear in chapter 1. Of course, they could have been written by the same person at different times or different people at the same time (there's no guarantee that the book was written by Daniel). I'm not saying that the book was something like a compendium collected in the days of the Maccabees, such as many critical scholars suggest.

Ireland
This morning’s children’s message was about bells. Daddy talked about the Liberty Bell & how it cracked. Then he told us that God wants us to be ringing bells & not cracked ones that are ruined by sin.
After lunch Daddy had a meeting here in Dervock with the other ministers. Then he went to a nursing home to lead a worship service there. Tonight he preached for the Limavady congregation which currently has no minister. He got back home around bedtime.

Blogs I'm tired and don't feel like posting as much about these blogs as normal. Perhaps if you posted more, I'd be more energetic :-)
1 Becca 6 posts, on 5 days
2 Charity 1 post
3 Andrew 1 post
4 Ellie 1 post
5 Nathan 1 post
6 David 1 post
7 Katie 0 posts, last post 27 May
8 Anna 0 posts, last post 25 May
9 Rebekah 0 posts, last post 14 May

With a lift in the rain (at least until late evening), we were able to finish our mowing today. Mom, who didn't mow anything, actually took the longest, as she worked on trimming the bushes at the doctor's office. Between lots of big bushes, some poison ivy, a relatively small trimmer, and thick, hard-to-rake bits of bushes, it became rather laborious — especially after the trimmer ran out of battery, forcing her to use the hand loppers!
This evening, we went to the house of a couple that attend our church, John and Misty Conrad. They recently moved into a new house, so this was somewhat of a housewarming party for them. Or so it was billed; I spent most of the time talking with Isaac and two other people from church.

Ireland
This morning we all went to the Agricultural Show in Ballymoney. After an hour of slopping through the mud we decided to leave. We had bought a few ginger cookies.
Mama & I watched 2 rugby games on TV this afternoon. During the second game I fell asleep on the couch so I missed the end of the match.
After supper we all played games together. I played Mille Bornes with Daddy while Mama & Isaac played Trouble.

In principio creavit Deus cælum et terram...dixit vero Deus congregentur aquae quae sub caelo sunt in locum unum et appareat arida factumque est ita et vocavit Deus aridam terram congregationesque aquarum appellavit maria et vidit Deus quod esset bonum

As Genesis 1:1, 9-10 says (up above, from the Latin "Vulgate" translation), God separated the waters from the earth. Quite obviously, that doesn't mean that water doesn't cover parts of the earth. Nearly constant rain since last night resulted in flooding throughout the flatter parts of Logan County. Both branches of the Miami River outside of town had overflown their banks and spread into adjoining fields, including at one roadside spot where the stream bank actually kept the stream at a higher level than that of the field.
Because of the rain, mowing was altogether impossible. Therefore, we took much of the morning and early afternoon to visit the Tecumseh Council Scout Store, where Isaac bought some items necessary for his Tomahawk junior leader training (two weeks away) and I got a new short-sleeved uniform shirt. I yet have the short-sleeved uniform that I wore before, and it still fits, but I want to leave it permanently in the condition in which I wore it at my Eagle Scout court of honor.
Want a weird story? Find out what happens when you mix snakes and airplanes.

Ireland I just realized that I posted today's entry yesterday. Therefore, this is yesterday's entry.

After lunch Mama, Isaac & I played soccer for a while in the lawn. Isaac was learning how to run up on the ball and kick it. I was trying to kick the ball like rugby players kick.
While Isaac was sleeping, Mama & I walked up to the post office. I took along a hamburger bun to feed the ducks & geese in the Dervock River. When we started down to feed them they came waddling up toward us. A few even waddled up out of the water.
After supper we all went to a mall in Ballymena. I got a new Usborne book and Isaac got a Thomas magazine.

Note: Ballymena is the town that, in the United States, would be called the county seat.

Sorry for such a dismal stream of posts. Despite a few impressive events, my life this week has been rather boring.
Today involved three things: (1) a useful visit to the cardiologist, where I was told that I can begin to be weaned off my Atenolol heart medication; (2) two lawns being mowed; (3) a close-of-the-year homeschool group picnic. Basically all that happened at the picnic is that we sat down, everyone else sat elsewhere, we ate alone, Isaac played football without rules (he received a blatant block in the back without a penalty being exerted), I read more of Persuasion, and we left. It felt somewhat like Kevin's graduation, since I knew so few people and spoke with almost noöne.
Tonight, a thought struck me: we have about 2½ months until school resumes. Pray for everything with the next semester! I just think of several. Residence Life staff (it's amazing how many of them I know!), such as Tony, have so much to prepare for. Faculty must put together classes. A new chaplain must be found. Perhaps more than anything else, please pray for Dr. Smith to be able to put together a high-quality and God-glorifying chapel program! It must be so hard to decide how to run such a central part of the Geneva College experience, especially as, if the rumors I heard were correct, the administration have been considering returning to a mandatory chapel program. We'll see what develops.

Ireland
Tonight Isaac & I went to the Millars’ house while Mama & Daddy went down to Belfast. When we went to their house it was near supper time. For supper we had pizza, salad, and cornbread that Mama made. Everyone had some of the cornbread which was a different food for them.
After supper Rachel Millar, Isaac & I all played a game of Monopoly. We also went outside to see their cows, but we had to get back in because it started to rain.
Miss Ruth Millar brought us home around 9:00. She liked reading my list of words that shows differences between Irish & American terms.

Notes:
• The Millars really didn't like the idea of cornbread. This grain is not used for human consumption in Ireland!
• You'll see the Irish-American lexicon in a few months.