Just An Ordinary Guy

Is Anyone There?

2011-11-28T21:48:00.001-05:00

I decided to finally put something on here. I know - it has been way too long. I think it's the result of being way too busy!
I was going to try putting some pictures on here but Blogger wasn't cooperating with me, so I guess that's something for me to work on some time.
Hopefully it won't be very long until I get that figured out.

Stay Tuned

2011-08-23T20:45:00.002-05:00

Yeah, I know, I know - it's been way too long since I put anything on here.
But, I do have a lot of pictures and I'll try to put some of them on here within the next week.
So, stay tuned for some pictures of our adventures over the past few months.

I'm Still Alive And Well - Almost!

2011-05-10T21:55:00.002-05:00

Contrary to how it may appear here sometimes, I'm still among the living.
The past couple months have been interesting to say the least.
Let's see, there was Revival here at our church with the Cassadys (it was great!), Dad preached a Revival at another local church (He did great - I know, I'm biased - but it's the truth!), there was a week off for IHC (a much needed break and a relaxing, refreshing week), our local library book sale (I stocked up on a few more books, records, and tapes), and the BIG book sale over at Penn State (I REALLY stocked up there!).
Throw into the middle of all of that mix - teaching a Sunday School class every third Sunday, mowing grass (the Church and the neighbor's), working full time, getting a wisdom tooth pulled (that was in the morning, then I went to work - I think a few people thought there was something wrong with me for that!).
Yeah, I've been a little busy. There have been a few bumps in the road, but nothing worth complaining about - it's like someone said, "Life is hard, but God is Good."

What Does PC Mean?

2011-02-16T21:09:00.002-05:00

One day a young man was out working in a field on the farm where he lived.
He looked up and saw the letters "PC" in the sky. He immediately thought that God was telling him to "Preach Christ," so he went off to Bible School.
After he had been there for a little while, it became obvious that he "didn't have it" so the school president called him in to his office. He asked the young man why he felt that he should be a preacher, so the young man told him the story of seeing the letters "PC" in the sky.
The school president, with great wisdom, told him that maybe the letters "PC" meant "Plant Corn."
That young man went back home to work on the farm and, with the money that he made there, became a great blessing to preachers and missionaries around the world.

Here I Am!

2011-02-06T17:43:00.002-05:00

Yes, I am still alive and well - though I feel like it's barely sometimes!
We just got back this past Wednesday (the 2nd) from our annual trip to Florida for our church camp down there. Camp was great - God really helped a lot of people, me included. It was great seeing old friends and making new ones. We had a good time sightseeing for a couple days. The flight from Tampa to Atlanta on Wednesday went good, with the exception of a stress-causing email. The flight from Atlanta to Harrisburg was another story. The story of that flight includes some rather unpleasant details that I don't want to put on here and I really don't think you want to read on here.
All in all it was a good trip and we're getting settled back into our normal routines here.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2010-12-24T15:11:00.001-05:00

What Is Christmas?

Is it bright lights on a tree
All strung so carefully with care
Causing children to squeal with glee
While others just stop and stare?

Is it parties that seemingly never end
Lasting long into the night
As we visit with family and friends
Even until morning light?

Is it people singing pretty songs
That lift our eyes above
This world and its wrongs
And fill our hearts with love?

Is it pretty paper and bows
Wrapping toys and other gifts so nice
Found up and down each row
and bought at such a high price?

Is it cards stamped and signed
Each with a message and our name
Sent to every name that we find
As who to send to becomes a game?

All of these things are fine
And may even have their place
To each of these there may be a time
As we go through life's race

But Christmas is really about a child
Born in a stable so very long ago
To a mother that was tender and mild
Who laid Him in a manger so low

But in that manger He did not stay
He went out and faced the world's strife
He lay down on top of a hill one day
And upon a Cross He gave His life

He was buried and rose again
To purchase eternal life for one and all
So that we can live a life without end
And make atonement for Adam's fall

So, Christmas is about One who was born
And now to His Father He does pray
For us when we feel so forlorn
That we may live with Him some glorious day

May we all remember the reason we celebrate Christmas.

Thankful For God's Help

2010-11-07T16:19:00.003-05:00

Our Sunday School lesson this morning was titled "Delivered Because Of Grace" - it was about God delivering Lot out of Sodom - and it was my turn to teach the adult class.
I told the class that I didn't know what was going on with these lessons - the last time I taught, the lesson was about God destroying the world with a flood!
I said later that I didn't think the devil ever fought me on a lesson the way he did this one - but, the Lord helped me with it. In one way, I feel like I'm not the person that should have been teaching that lesson (and I still don't), but on the other hand, I've experienced so much of God's grace that this just gives me a fresh perspective on it.

You're Invited!

2010-08-29T19:56:00.002-05:00

The Central PA Interchurch Holiness Convention will be held September 7 - 10 this year.
The Thursday evening service will be at the Lewistown God's Missionary Church at 7 pm.

Camp Work Day

2010-07-18T15:54:00.022-05:00

Yesterday was Work Day at Penns Creek Camp. Over all, attendance was down but we had a good turnout from our church. Here are some pictures from the day.
Sis. Stoner vacuuming the front of the tabernacle.

Bro. Stoner proving that he really can operate a vacuum cleaner!

Jim Bair vacuuming seats.

Reagan Shaffer helped clean the piano.

Mom dry-mopped in the tabernacle.

It looks like Dad's answering somebody's question.

Father and son - Bros. Kenny and Alan Walters.

Joanne Shaffer vacuumed the platform and front of the tabernacle.

Al Fritz working on the rain spouting.

A big group of young people worked outside.

Bro. Jeff Stratton pulled weeds - his daughter was off to the side supervising!

Bro. Plank Sr. giving a speech before lunch - Bro. Plank Jr. is in the background listening.

Dad and Reagan going back to work after lunch.

Bro. Plank spreading mulch.

Dad taking a turn vacuuming seats.

Sis. Martin Sr. and Jr. worked in the flower beds.

Sis. Stoner spent some time on her knees - cleaning!

Bro. Plank running the weedeater.

Lauren Plank even showed up!

Thanks For Dropping In!

He Supplies Wants Too!

2010-05-15T17:47:00.003-05:00

I think it's great how God supplies our needs right when we seem to need it the most. But I also think it's neat how, from time to time, He'll supply our wants too.
For quite a while now, I've been wanting a telescope, but just never did a whole lot about it. After all, in town isn't the best place to try to use a telescope!
When I came home from work yesterday, this telescope was sitting in the living room with a sign on it that said "For Sale Make An Offer." Mom & Dad had gone to some yard sales yesterday and found this at one of them.
Now I'm just anxiously waiting for the chance to use it.
By the way, Dad sold it to me for what he paid for it - so he didn't make any money off of me!

Thankful For God's Blessings And Help!

2010-04-24T19:56:00.002-05:00

Although we weren't able to attend IHC in person this year. We were able to attend via the livestream of the services on the internet.
Words can't describe how thankful I am for the help and blessings that I received through the services that I was privileged to see either live or through the archives.
If you go to the convention website here you can go to the archives and see the services yourself!

Some Of My Projects

2010-04-12T17:37:00.008-05:00

Yes, I still do like to do some woodworking . I don't do as much of it as I would like to though! I should do more considering how much I can relax when I'm working on these kinds of projects. Here are a few of my most recent projects.
You can click on these pictures to make them bigger.
I made this one for Dad to give to a friend of ours. These are his two favorite Bible verses. There are only 14 pieces of wood in this, but there are well over 100 cuts in the letters.
I made this one for Mom for Christmas. She has wanted a camper for a long time and this was the best I could do at the time! There are 115 individual pieces and 12 different kinds of wood in this one.

This is what I made Dad for Christmas. There are 55 individual pieces and 12 different kinds of wood in this.

This is a cat's paw back-scratcher that I made for a guy at work. He got me to make it for him for a Christmas gift for his daughter. He said she liked it.

This is my latest project. The Relay For Life team at work is going to be having a Crafty Coworker fundraiser in a couple weeks and the one lady asked me to make something for it. This is what I ended up making.

Getting Back In The Swing Of Things!

2010-02-07T17:59:00.003-05:00

I just thought I would pop on here and say that I'm getting back in the swing of things after spending about 9 (or 10 - depending on how you count them!) days in Florida.
I'll try to get some pictures on here soon!
Thanks For Dropping In!

Shopping's All Done!

2009-12-13T08:11:00.002-05:00

Well, I believe my Christmas shopping is pretty much done now. Yesterday, we went on our annual trip to Altoona. We didn't really go for anything in particular, but this has become an annual thing that we enjoy.
Mom & Dad and / or I went to: Five Below - didn't buy anything, Panera Bread - cinnamon rolls and brownies - expensive but good!, Barnes and Noble - bought a book for myself - not too sure about it, Unkel Joe's Woodshed - yes that is spelled right! - it's a really neat store that has a little bit of everything, Prime Sirloin Buffet for lunch - all you can eat steak and much more - as usual, I ate too much but it sure was good!, Logan Valley Mall - bought a few things there - it's a really nice mall, Salvation Army Thrift Store - bought a couple more things.
Our next stop was home - it was a great day!

In Disguise or A Hypocrite?

2009-11-19T23:32:00.004-05:00

After my last post, I was recently asked if I really was still here, so I decided I better put another post on here.
Here is a picture from our service Sunday night.
Dad preached a message on not man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart and how we shouldn't judge by appearances.
He turned this into an object lesson by having a soldier, a nurse, a graduate, a mother, a waitress and a policeman.
These people are usually known as Joel Sickler, Linette Sickler, Angela Sickler, Hannah Sickler, Serena Sickler and myself.
As a result of our appearances, Dad accused the six of us of being hypocrites!
Thanks For Dropping In!

I'm Still Around!

2009-09-26T14:29:00.002-05:00

Yes, I'm still around!
There's been a lot going on around here, but we're doing pretty good.
I have a lot of pictures, I'll try to get them on here in the not too distant future.
I realize that a lot of people have migrated to Facebook, but there are still some things that I like better about the blogs, so I'll see how this goes for a little while anyway.
Thanks For Dropping In!

Penns Creek Camp 2009 - Part 2

2009-08-30T15:29:00.006-05:00

I know, I'm way behind in doing this! Here are some pictures from the second week of Penns Creek Camp.
Mary Braun and at least some of the kids in the VBS program
The three ministers (and their wives) who were ordained this year - Mr. & Mrs. Jeff Stratton, Mr. & Mrs. Jonas Hight and Mr. & Mrs. Eric Kuhns

The Lebanon Valley Gospel Band

Bro. Plank trying to find the owner of a set of keys that was found on the camp ground

A view from the back of the tabernacle during the last service of camp

Thanks For Dropping In!

Penns Creek Camp 2009 - Part 1

2009-08-03T22:15:00.008-05:00

Here are some pictures from the first weekend of Penns Creek Camp. These pictures aren't in any particular order.
Here is one of the quartets that sang during the Penn View Bible Institute service - Aaron McCarty, Dwight Rine, Dan Durkee and Steve Davis
Heritage Ladies Trio from Penn View

Majesty Mixed Quartet from Penn View

We got to see our good friends, the Calhouns - Laura was there, she's behind Lizzie on this pic (if you look close you can see her hand up on the neck of the bass!)

Mom & Dad managed to acquire three more "grandkids" at camp this year! Here's the youngest one, Laura Shrout (the other two were Laura's big sisters - Emily and Mariah).

Here are Lucas and Hannah Shrout singing - they did a great job!

Check back later for more pictures!

Fourth Of July Celebration

2009-06-30T20:27:00.009-05:00

This past Saturday was the annual raft regatta and fireworks here in Lewistown (yeah, I know, we do things different around here!)
Here are pictures of some of the rafts.
The big raft to the left had 69 people on it.
This one won the prize for being the prettiest raft.

This guy was the fastest one - he made it 4.7 miles in just a little over an hour.

I am glad to say that these two were just costumes - fortunately!

Here are a few pictures of the fireworks - they were very nice this year.

Thanks For Dropping In!

A Snowstorm?

2009-04-26T12:56:00.004-05:00

No, it's not really a snowstorm!
I was sitting on the porch this morning waiting for Mom & Dad to come over from church when I saw the wind blowing the petals from our neighbors' tree across in front of their house. I thought it looked neat, so I tried taking a picture of it. If you enlarge the photo by clicking on it, the petals show up even better.
Thanks For Dropping In!

Here They Are!

2009-03-28T16:42:00.008-05:00

Here are the promised pictures from our Spring Revival with Rev. Rick Maloyed.
Bro. Maloyed preached and Bro. & Sis. Maloyed sang.
Sometimes, Bro. Maloyed even preached from behind the pulpit!
But, he spent a lot of time out from behind the pulpit.

Quite a bit of that time that he wasn't behind the pulpit, he wasn't even on the platform!

Bro. & Sis. Maloyed did a great job singing.

Sometimes, they sang with the guitar -

and sometimes they sang with the piano.

We had a great, encouraging series of Revival services. The Maloyeds were tremendous to have in the home.

Thanks For Dropping In!

Pictures To Come!

2009-03-24T17:30:00.002-05:00

We just finished our Spring Revival Services here at Lewistown. I have some pictures that I want to post but there's one that I want to get from Dad before I post any. Hopefully I can post them this evening.

You're Invited!

2009-03-15T15:26:00.003-05:00

Yes, I know that it has been a while since I've been on here.
I guess it's called "out of sight, out of mind" or something like that!
Things have been quite interesting around here. For more details of what has been going on, check out The Happy Pastor Blog.
I would like to take the time to invite you to our Spring Revival Services.

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

2009-02-14T10:20:00.004-05:00

If you check out The Happy Pastor blog, you will see that he posted a picture to go with a Happy Anniversary wish. Since it takes two people for there to be an anniversary, I thought it would only be fair to post the rest of that picture, so here it is!
Here are the two men who performed the ceremony that day - my two grandfathers, Dad's Dad on the left and Rev. Marlin Crock, my adopted Grandfather, on the right.

Florida - Precious Memories

2009-02-05T21:03:00.026-05:00

Here are some pictures from our recent trip to Florida. This is only a few of the over 300 that I got prints made of and a small fraction of the over 1500 that Dad & I took.
This is shortly after we left Harrisburg.
Florida, here we come! Coming into Tampa

The five that stayed in the "Men's Quarters" at our church camp - L - R: Stan Gemberling, Bro. Krauss, Me, Steve Aurand, Joe "Rebel" Holingsworth

Some of the people standing outside talking after the Sunday morning service

The beautiful dining hall

Even in Florida, Dad "has" to clean the tabernacle.

One of the camp's resident monkey squirrels

The Bible says that we should become like children, so . . .

Mom, Dad & I at the sign for John's Pass, a neat little place with a bunch of little shops.

Here is where we ate supper on Monday evening - Delicious

Madeira Beach

Here is the air boat that we rode out to the Gulf Of Mexico. In this pic, you can also see the man that was running it.

One of the many beautiful houses that we saw

The Gulf Of Mexico!

On Wednesday, we went to the Florida Aquarium. It was very nice!

Comin' right at ya!

Here a fish, there a fish, everywhere a fish!

The SS American Victory - a World War II Merchant Marine ship that Dad & I toured

Me at the wheel

The kitchen - or galley or whatever you call it - of the ship.

Good-bye Florida!

This is what our car looked like when we got back to Harrisburg! It got into the 80s the day we left Florida - it was 22 when we got to Harrisburg!

Thanks For Dropping In!

Our Church Christmas Program

2009-01-03T09:05:00.010-05:00

I know this is late, but here are some pictures from our Church Christmas Program which was held on Sunday evening, December 21.
Here's one of the scenes from one of the practice sessions.
Here, the Three Wise Men (Dad, Steve Aurand, and Jim Bair) have met up with Herod (Me). At this point, I was getting rather frustrated over the whole situation.

In this scene, I believe the Angel (Joel Sickler) is telling Joseph (Adam Sickler) to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt.

Here's King Herod when he was angry at the Wise Men for not returning - yes, that is a sword!

This would have been shortly before I "died." I think there were some people that were surprised by that scene in the program.

Here's Mary (Angela Sickler) and Joseph - I believe they were getting ready to leave for Egypt at this point. If you look to the far left of this picture, you will see our narrator extraordinaire (my Mother).

Here's the program MC Dean Sickler - that's Hannah Sickler setting up a small Nativity Scene.

Here's our Church string trio (Angela, Serena and Julia Sickler) - it's usually a string duet, but Julia was able to be here for the program.

Here's part of the Church Choir - there was another song with more people in the choir, but I don't have any pictures of that - probably because one of the photographers was in the choir!

Here is Joel Sickler and Dave Plummer Singing.

This was a very nice, old-fashioned Christmas program.

Thanks For Dropping In!

Another Great Christmas Program!

2008-12-16T22:36:00.018-05:00

Last night we traveled to the Beavertown God's Missionary Church for their annual Christmas program.
This years program was an outstanding production called "The Drummer Boy."
Here are some pictures from the program.

Doug Rine played Joseph as only Doug Rine could!

This also included singing a song.

Here is Daniel sharing part of the great story with his sister.

Here, Daniel's family discusses the recent events. I believe this was after Daniel went to the city council meeting trying to get them to change the law that outlawed Christmas.

Here, Simeon (Matt Maloyed) meets Jesus (Cayden Rine). I don't believe Cayden was very impressed with "Simeon"!

Mr. Pablo and Daniel discuss the great story.

Steve Stahl did another great job singing.

The mayor (Jeff Stratton) getting upset with Daniel. I think this was after Daniel walked around the council meeting playing his drum and singing.

Daniel playing his drum for Jesus.

He is then joined by his family - including his father who had given him a hard time.

The neighbor who was getting annoyed with Daniel's drum playing.

Mr. Pablo watching the change that is coming over the city as a result of his gift of a drum to Daniel.

Jeff Stratton as himself closing the service.

"Simeon" was walking around outside blessing the people.

Thanks For Dropping In!

Maybe They Were The Low Bidder!

2008-12-09T23:19:00.003-05:00

I'm sorry this picture is blurry, but I was in a hurry when I took it.
This picture could serve as an example of why it might not always be a good idea to go with the lowest bidder on a project!
Our local Wal-Mart recently had some paving done in their parking lot. As Dad and I were coming across the road on our way to the car this evening, I saw where the painting had been done on the road across in front of the store and I decided this would make a good blog post!
Thanks For Dropping In!

Brave?

2008-12-04T22:11:00.003-05:00

As you might be able to tell, I decided to get adventurous with my blog!
I thought about the possibility of losing my links if I changed the background, but I decided to be brave (or should that be crazy?) and make the change!
Everything went fine and I kind of like it!
Let me know what you think!
Thanks For Dropping In!

Youth Service

2008-11-30T22:14:00.006-05:00

Tonight was another one of our youth services at church. The young people had the whole service.
Here are a few pictures from our special service.
It was good to have Adam Sickler in church today - he led the singing for the service tonight.
Here's our girls trio (Angela, Serena and Julia Sickler) singing a special - they did real good.

Here we have the Sickler Choir - Angela, Linnette, Joel, Serena Hannah, Julia and Adam - singing a song - they sounded great.

Joel led the service and gave a message on praise - he did a good job.

Thanks For Dropping In!

My Christmas List

2008-11-30T16:31:00.005-05:00

I've seen this on a couple other blogs and I thought it was neat, so I decided to do it on my blog.

1 Wrapping paper or gift bags? Depends on what the gift is – I like wrapping paper, but sometimes a bag is quicker and easier.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real – We used to have an artificial tree, then we had real ones for a while, then we had an artificial for a couple years, now we’ve been getting a real one for the past couple years.
3. When do you put up the tree? I really don’t think there’s any set schedule for that.
4. When do you take the tree down? See answer for number 3!
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes – sometimes it doesn’t like me though!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? There have been so many highlights that I can’t pick out just one.
7. Hardest person to buy for? My Grandmother
8. Easiest person to buy for? My Brother
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Actually, I think we have five of them: 1. The ceramic set that we’ve had for as long as I can remember. – 2. The big lighted set that we put out in the front yard. – 3. The very small set that I take to work. – 4. The small wooden set that I made a few years ago. – 5. I think there’s another old set that we don’t use anywhere.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mom and Dad usually take care of the Christmas cards. They mail quite a few – they might email some, I’m not sure. I usually have these good intentions of sending Christmas cards to a few people, but I haven’t done it yet – hopefully this year I will.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? That would be the time I got some kind of goofy action figure thing in a gift exchange in public school. Dad gave me some money for it and I bought a Slim Whitman gospel tape - I think I still have that tape!
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I don’t know that I’ve ever actually seen a Christmas movie!
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? No set schedule, but not soon enough this year.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don’t think so.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Ham
16. Lights on the tree? Colored
17. Favorite Christmas song? Beautiful Star Of Bethlehem – done bluegrass style - Is there any other way for that song to be done?!
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay at home until we go over to my Grandmother’s.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? No
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? I honestly don’t remember – it’s been too long since I’ve seen it!
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas Morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? People complaining about the holidays when I’m trying to enjoy them!
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I don’t really have a favorite – I guess I just like the variety!
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Ham, Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, Corn
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Mom has been asking me about this – on the material side, I haven’t given her a whole lot of help. One thing that I would say that I want would be to just have a relaxing time with my family.
Now you know a little more about me! Maybe more than you wanted to know, but isn't that what these blogs are about anyway?!
Thanks For Dropping In!

A Family Trait?

2008-11-16T13:53:00.004-05:00

Could athletic talent run in the family?

In The News

2008-11-12T18:52:00.003-05:00

Here is a picture of a newspaper article that we saw recently.

Update - Mom thought I should offer an explanation of this post. If you look at my previous post, you will see that we were at a museum yesterday and that is where we saw this newspaper article. If you click on the picture and enlarge it (or maybe you don't have to enlarge it), you can see that the article is about a Frank Calhoun - but the fact does remain that it's a Calhoun!

I know - we shouldn't judge a whole family by one person!

Just kidding you Tim - again!

A Special Day!

2008-11-11T23:55:00.009-05:00

I had the day off for Veterans Day today. I knew we were planning on going to State College, but when we left the house, we ended up in the Huntingdon area. You can tell from looking at a map that going to State College by going to Huntingdon is not the shortest route possible!
Well, here are some pictures of why we were in the Huntingdon area - the Isett Acres Museum. For more pictures - check Dad's blog here.
This is the first building that you go through.
These are the other two buildings.

Mom playing one of the two grand pianos.

Dad standing beside one of the vehicles (a big boat of a Lincoln!) in the museum -

Me standing beside the other one - a Morris pick-up.

This was our tour guide for the last two buildings. I don't know what her name was, but she did a great job!

We stopped on top of the Pine Grove Mountain at the Jo Hays Vista - what a beatiful view!

Thanks For Dropping In!

A Family Photo

2008-11-10T23:14:00.003-05:00

Get your own Family Sticker Maker

I Jumped The Gun!

2008-11-09T22:47:00.004-05:00

In my previous post, I referred to a certain fellow blogger who had not attended our Revival Services this week. I posted that before church this evening and lo and behold, who should show up at church this evening but the Prodigal Blogger!
Here he is sitting with his family in church. Yes, believe it or not, he was actually seen with his wife this evening!
Here he is singing "He Didn't Throw The Clay Away" - Bro. Thornton requested that Tim sing, so here he is.

Please excuse the quality of these first two pictures, but don't you think it's appropriate that since I'm posting pictures of Tim Calhoun that I post Tim Calhoun type pictures?!

As proof that we will extend the hand of fellowship to anyone, here is a picture of Dad talking to Tim as he is leaving the church this evening.

Thanks For Dropping In!

Revival Services!

2008-11-09T18:05:00.002-05:00

As you may recall if you read The Happy Pastor blog, we have been having Revival Services this week at our church with Rev. Robert Thornton.
The attendance hasn't been too bad - some that we thought would be here haven't been (there was one individual - a fellow blogger - who Dad made sure got one of the Revival cards, but we haven't seen him either), but we have had quite a few visiting folk in, so we've been thankful for that.
Thanks For Dropping In!

Wayback Memories

2008-11-03T20:02:00.004-05:00

I know, this is probably a shock - I'm actually posting on here two days in a row!
One of my fellow bloggers has an occasional feature that he calls "Wayback Wednesday" where he posts a picture from the past - some from the distant past, some from the not so distant past.
I decided to do something similar here - I don't know if I should call it "Wayback Monday" or "Monday Memories" - I guess I'll have to decide that later.
Here is an announcement for a Penn View Bible Institute service when Dad was pastoring in Berwick. This group actually consists of at least three current bloggers.
The members of this group are: Seated, left to right - Terri (Devinney) Walter, Kim (Helfrick) Hoffman; Standing, left to right - Mike Shiery, Jon Plank
Thanks For Dropping In!

Follow The Path!

2008-11-02T21:06:00.003-05:00

Dad did an object lesson in church tonight.
He had stickers on the floor laying out a path.
He got Dorothy Olnick to help him - she followed the path which eventually took her downstairs. There were things which she was supposed to pick up that were laying on the path. He had planned on getting someone else to help him, but they weren't at church tonight.
There were also other things laying near the path. She said she didn't pick those things up because they weren't on the path.
Dad's point was about not getting off of the path.
In this picture, Dorothy has returned and is showing Dad what she found on the path.

Thanks For Dropping In!

A Surprise!

2008-10-12T16:22:00.013-05:00

No, the title of this post is not referring to the fact that I am actually posting on this blog, although that is probably a surprise too!
It's referring to a surprise that I had yesterday.
I had heard something being mentioned yesterday morning when we were eating breakfast about something in the afternoon. Later on, I asked Mom what that was about and she asked me if I wanted to know or if I just wanted to wait and find out. For some reason, I said I would wait. When we left, I still didn't know what we were doing. Actually, we didn't go all that far from home (about 3.5 miles), but it was still neat.
We went to the Locust Campground where they have a boat that they use to take people on rides on a restored section of the Juniata Division of the old Pennsylvania Canal.
Here are some pictures from our ride.
Click here to see the pictures that Dad posted from our ride.
This is my ticket for the ride.
Here are a couple pictures of the boat that we rode on the canal.

This is our Captain for the ride - Mr. Dave Knox.

Here he is giving us a little bit of the history of this part of the canal before we get started.

Mr. Knox left several of the children that were on the ride take turns driving the boat. This is Noah. Mr. Knox figured he had experience driving a boat and asked if he brought two of each animal on board!

We even had a sing-along time on our ride! There were songs like "I've Been Workin' On The Railroad," "She'll Be Comin' Round The Mountain," and others.

This is a picture taken from near the bottom of the second biggest tree in Pennsylvania. It measures 9 feet in diameter and 27 feet around. It is a Sycamore tree - actually better known around here as a Buttonwood.

The Indians would wet the bark from this tree, place rocks on it to flatten it, then use it for their writing "paper."

"Captain Knox" gave us some history not only about the canal but also about how his family came to be the owners of the land that this part of the canal is on. It was very interesting.

This is a scene down the canal from the front of the boat.

This is what they call "the lake." It was at places like this that the canal boats would tie up for the winter. The livestock would be taken to a local farm.

Here is a scene back up the canal from the dock.

Thanks For Dropping In!

Calhoun Youth Service

2008-09-07T20:36:00.005-05:00

We had a youth service tonight, so sticking with the theme of youth, we had Tim Calhoun and his girls here to sing - at least the girls fit in with the youth!
Here Tim is doing one thing that he likes to do - talk!
Tim and Lizzie sang and played.

Tim and the girls sang.

2008 Antique Machinery Show Trip

2008-09-04T21:36:00.014-05:00

Today was the day for our annual trip to the Nittany Antique Machinery Association's Fall Show. This is one day that I usually schedule pretty far in advance to be off work. It was hot, but it was a good day.
Each year there is a featured tractor at the show. This year it was Silver King along with another lesser known make or two.
Here is one section of food stands. This is actually where I made my first purchase of the day - french fries!

They had an old tractor hooked up to an old sawmill cutting logs into lumber. I sat with a good friend of ours - Rev. Paul Miller - and watched this for a little while.

The old steam engines always fascinate me.

I thought this one was kind of neat even though it's not restored.

There were some neat, old farm tractors there. There were something over 300 tractors there at one point today.

I thought this John Deere with the corn planter on it was neat.

There were some, shall we say unique, tractors there - like this one with the extra seats . . .

. . . and this pink John Deere!

There were actually quite a few garden tractor type tractors there.

There were some real little tractors there.

There were some old cars and trucks there.

There were even a couple horses there.

This should give you a little bit of an idea of what we saw today. I didn't get any pictures of the HUGE flea-market or the campers. For more pictures, head on over to the Happy Pastor blog.Thanks For Dropping In!

2008-08-07T17:58:00.007-05:00

Here are some very random pictures from Penns Creek Camp this year! I'll try to post more shortly but I'm not making any promises on how soon!
We saw this distinguished looking gentleman in the tabernacle one night after service. Actually, I'm not sure what Bro. Frank Heidler was doing at the time, but I thought it was a neat picture!
Here is one of the mainstays of the Chatterbox Cafe snack shop - fellow blogger Laura Ellison.Here is our tremendous leader - Conference President Rev. Harry Plank. Besides keeping the services interesting, he is an all around tremendous man that I have a great amount of confidence in.

Here are the main singers for camp this year. Not really, but Blake and Chloe did do a great job singing!

Here is one of the veteran ushers in action (see the blur!) taking up the offering. I don't know how many years Dad has been doing this now.

Thanks For Dropping In!

My New Toy!

2008-07-21T17:17:00.002-05:00

I recently bought myself a new toy - I know, I'm a little big for that kind of stuff, but hey it's something that I've wanted for quite a while now.
As you may - or may not - be able to tell from the picture, I bought a laptop computer. I won't go into all of the technical details, but it's a Toshiba that I got a good deal on at Circuit City because it was actually a display model.
While I was at it, I also bought a case and a small mouse for it along with the service contract that covers both the mouse and the computer!
We got it taken care of today so that I can get on the internet using the wireless connection - which is how I'm posting this right now!
Thanks For Dropping In!

Some New Friends

2008-07-21T17:06:00.005-05:00

I know this is a little late!
We recently had a missionary service with Rex and Missy McDowell and their son Devin. I think we made some new friends in the process.
Here is Rex, Missy and Devin standing by their display.
We found out that Devin likes dogs, so we were showing him the different ones that we have here, including Harry the Hairy Dog. I ended up giving him this one to take along - we didn't really have room for him, and Dad wasn't too happy with me when I bought him anyway! Thanks For Dropping In!

A Miscellaneous Post!

2008-06-30T19:43:00.008-05:00

This past weekend was the time for the annual "RiverFest" festivities here in Lewistown. One of the big events was the raft regatta. Here are some pictures of some of the rafts.
There were some "rebels" with the Confederate Flag
Obviously, this wasn't one of the rafts, but we thought this was neat

There was a floating farm - notice the gate, wagon wheel, and watering trough

A dragon

Saturday evening was the fireworks

Here is the sunset we got to see Sunday evening

If you want to see more pictures, click here to go to Dad's blog.

Thanks For Dropping In!

A Birthday Celebration!

2008-06-13T20:53:00.018-05:00

Here I am again!
Today was my birthday and as a result, I took the day off work. We originally had some other plans but those got changed. Mom and Dad kept asking me what I wanted to do on my day off but I wasn't being any help in that area! We left home this morning and headed over the mountain in the general direction of State College. Our first stop was at the Elk Creek Dry Goods store - a very nice Amish store near Rebersburg. From there, we went over the mountain - a beautiful drive - to the Hillside Variety store near Loganton - variety is a very appropriate word for this Amish owned store! They have everything from a wide variety of used and new merchandise to furniture to canned goods! We left there and went a couple miles down the road to Kauffman's - an Amish owned hardware store. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take any pictures of these stores. From there, we went to the PA Fish Commission's Tylersville Fish Culture Station. That's where these pictures begin.
This is looking out over the fish runs.
The fish in the runs range from these ones that are about 3 - 4 inches long . . .

to these ones that are about average sized . . .

to the ones in these next two pictures. I thought these ones were very nice sized fish - then one of the men that was working there told us that these are next year's trophy fish! I would have considered any of them a trophy now!

After we left there, we headed to Centre Hall for lunch. We did stop at a yard sale on the way! We had lunch at the Whistle Stop Restaurant - a very nice little restaurant with great food.

We left the restaurant and went to Boalsburg to the Pennsylvania Military Museum - a place that I have wanted to visit for quite some time.

They have a wide variety of items in their displays. Here is a display of handheld weapons.
This gun is just a little bit bigger!
Then there are the cannons.

They also have different kinds of vehicles and other items on display in the museum.

This is just one of the four tanks on display outside the museum.

This is part of the memorial area outside of the musuem. It is a beautiful setting.

After we got home, Mom & Dad gave me my birthday gift. It is a train crossing bank that stands 4 feet high. When you drop a coin in, the lights flash and a train whistle blows.

I like this picture better. Nothing against Dad's picture taking - it's just that I'm not in this one!

We wound up the day at Sal-Lee's Restaurant for supper - baked haddock, macaroni & cheese, stewed tomatoes, applesauce and rolls - it was good!
It was a very nice way to celebrate my birthday - beautiful weather, neat places to go, and time together as a family!
Thank You for everything Mom & Dad!

Thanks For Dropping In!

Penn View Choir

2008-05-18T15:52:00.005-05:00

Last evening - for the first time in years - the Penn View Bible Institute Chapel Choir was at our church. They did a tremendous job! Besides the choir singing, there were a couple solos, all three PR groups sang, and there was a duet on the piano for the offertory - I don't know if that piano has ever been played like that!
Here are a few pictures from the evening. There was no way of getting a picture of the choir singing "He Hideth My Soul" - they were lined back both sides of the church for that one and sang it accapella. It was beautiful!
This is the whole choir singing together.
ShaDawn Heidler singing one of the solos - what a voice!

Velma Ninjipa singing a solo - she did a great job as well.

Of course, PR man extraordinaire, Dan Durkee had part in the service as well!

Thanks For Dropping In!

What A Book Sale!

2008-05-10T20:28:00.005-05:00

This weekend is the annual book sale that is held at the Penn State Ag Arena. This year is the first that I've been over for a few years.
Here are some numbers to give you an idea of the size of this book sale - try to picture a 12,000 square foot arena with 225+ tables holding over 200,000 books. Now, insert into that arena several hundred (at least!) people trying to look at those books - some carrying boxes, bags, pushing handcarts, etc. Dad even saw one person trying to pull a wagon through the place! Add all of this together and you have what can only be described as a madhouse!
I did end up getting about 20 more books for my collection of history books.
This is one of three parking lots outside the building. This one is actually across the road from the arena.

This is a view out across the arena from where I was standing once I finally got done. Mom and Dad were still looking!

This is down along the outside edge of the arena where the six checkout tables (all of them with lines!) are located.

Thanks For Dropping In!

My Two Favorite People

2008-05-07T17:12:00.002-05:00

This might be sort of a different type of blog post and it is definitely a longer one than I usually do, but it is something that I felt like I wanted to do.
I wanted to do a tribute to my two favorite people in the world. Once you see the picture below, you'll know who I'm talking about.
Recently, I have been forced to ask myself the question, “Do I realize how good I have it when it comes to my parents?”
When I hear people talking about being glad when their husband / wife is gone, I see how fortunate I am to have two parents who truly love each other.
When I think of the help that my parents have been when I have been going through a battle – things might be rough during the day, but I can stop and think of how things are going to be better after I get home. I don’t even have to say anything to them about what I was going through – just being there with them has been and is a tremendous encouragement to me.
There have been times when they have gotten pretty straight with me when they were talking to me about something that I was going through. The way I look at this is, “They love me enough to talk to me that way.” Those times have helped me.
They’ll probably never know how much it has meant to me when they have expressed confidence in me. This usually comes at a time when I didn’t have a whole lot of confidence in myself. There have been times when the memory of something that they have said to me is what kept me going.
Spiritually, I have confidence in a lot of people, but Mom and Dad are at the top of that list.
My parents are, among many things – my cook, my taxi driver, my seamstress, my Pastor, my laundress, my counselors, my nurse
– but most important, they are my Mom & Dad!
Thanks For Everything Mom & Dad!

Some Miscellaneous Pictures

2008-04-23T19:38:00.011-05:00

Here are some random pictures from our trip to IHC this year - Enjoy!
When I took the picture of Gene & Angie Davis with my parents, Gene asked me to make him look tall. I did what I could Gene - how's this?
A beautiful sunset that we saw one evening.

A typical breakfast for Dad - fresh made waffle, syrup, orange juice, and coffee (I usually just had toast and orange juice - the waffles did look good though!)

Even when away from home - Ebay gets checked!

Marie Plank hard at work at the recording sales counter.

Here's something that you don't see very often - Father and Son on the platform at the same time!

It only seems fitting that Jim Plank would be on the platform during the Patriotic Service!

How would you like to be greeted by this site as you're driving down the road? This picture was taken out through the windshield of the bus as we traveled down the interstate on our way home from IHC!

Don't panic! This one was actually traveling backwards behind the one that was pulling it!

People At The Podium

2008-04-22T20:57:00.008-05:00

The next few posts are some pictures from IHC this year. I've divided them up by category (somewhat).
Check back in the next few days. I'll try to post some more random pics.
If you want to see more pics from our trip, check out The Happy Pastor here.
Here are a few pictures of the people who were behind the podium(s) at IHC this year.
Rev. Paul Kauffman - what a message!

Ron Coleman - Patriotic Service
Travis Johnson - Time Of Discovery - This may be when he was doing his "Top 10 Pick-Up Lines That Guys Shouldn't Use."

The one and only - Jim Plank

Outstanding Leader - Leonard Sankey

Song leader - Paul Gray

The Offering Taker Uppers

2008-04-22T20:49:00.005-05:00

For the first time in a long time, they actually met their goal of how much money they needed to pay for the convention.
Here are some pictures of the different people that took of the offerings.
Marcus Doddrill - On the first night of convention, he raised something like $11,000.
Jim Plank and Mark Cravens - what a pair! They (with some help) raised around $30,000 the second night of the convention.

Don Bates - he was taking up the offering when they went over the needed $50,000 for the convention. Praise The Lord! There were some happy people that night!

IHC Music

2008-04-22T20:39:00.006-05:00

Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of some of the music that we heard at IHC this year.
Aaron McCarty
Patriotic service quartet

The Cassadys

Penn View Quartet

Of course, one of the music highlights is always the Mass Choir.

Some Of Our Friends

2008-04-22T20:28:00.006-05:00

Out of the thousands of people that we saw at IHC, there were actually some that we consider to be our friends.
One of the highlights of the trip was finally getting to meet Gene & Angie Davis and the boys!
The Blog King himself - you'll have to ask Angie Davis what her reaction was when Joel walked up!

Tim Calhoun - just as he was telling Dad about how he was trying to sneak a picture of him but couldn't, I walked up and took his picture. What's so hard about that?!

This is Brenda - she took care of the breakfast at our hotel. We had a lot of fun with her. She gave Mom a couple hugs and told her how sorry she felt for her because of Dad & I. I wouldn't know why she would say something like that!

Our Gang!

2008-04-22T20:15:00.005-05:00

We had quite an assortment of people on our bus this year.
From the very young (Clayton Plank - who we hardly heard anything out of) . . .
. . . to the not so young (Thelma Rine & Esther Maneval) . . .

. . . to a preacher and his wife from the Turks & Caicas Islands (Martin & Darlene Hanfield) . . .

. . . to the newlyweds (Bill & Alyssa Peters).

This is just a sampling of the mixture that we had!

A Different Object Lesson

2008-04-14T20:10:00.008-05:00

Dad did an object lesson at church last night. He got Mom to help him and they used a recipe for chocolate chip-walnut cookies. As Mom would read the ingredient from the recipe, Dad would hand it to her - or at least his interpretation of that ingredient. This led to some very interesting substitutions!
His point was how some people put their own interpretation on how things should be as well as things in the Bible.
The table of utensils.
The two bakers ready to go to work.

Adding the soda - what difference does it make whether it's baking soda or 7-up?!

Adding the chocolate chips - who says they couldn't be in ready made cookies?!

And here's the finished "batter" - ready to be baked!

Some of the other "ingredients" were - flowers instead of flour; white chocolate for the vanilla; peanut M&Ms for the walnuts; sawdust for the brown sugar; rock salt for the sugar; cocoa butter for the butter; two eggs (in the shell) for the eggs - the recipe said "two eggs" not just the insides!

For some reason, no one wanted any cookies when he was done!

Thanks For Dropping In!

God Is Great!

2008-04-09T20:11:00.002-05:00

In case you're wondering what this picture is - it is a lot of 71 books by Zane Grey and one about Zane Grey. Now, you may be wondering what the title of this post has to do with a bunch of Zane Grey books! Well, keep reading and I'll try to explain. Before I go any further though, please understand that I am not telling this story to brag on myself, but to praise God for a blessing and His faithfulness.
As you know if you read my Dad's blog - The Happy Pastor - he likes to buy books and resell them on Ebay. I sell stuff on Ebay from time to time myself, but I sell pretty much anything and everything - within reason of course!
A few weeks ago, we were at an auction where they had a large amount of books - about 88 boxes to be exact! I bought these two boxes of Zane Grey books because I thought they looked like I might be able to sell them. I brought them home and they've been setting here. About a week and a half ago, Dad started encouraging me to list them on Ebay, so I got them out and started typing up a list of the titles.
I noticed that the back cover was sort of bulging on the one book, so I checked it out to see if it was damaged. It wasn't - instead, there, inside the back cover was a bank envelope with $403.00 cash in it!
Again, without bragging, I can say that there really wasn't a question of what to do with the money. Dad got in contact with the people that the books belonged to and returned it to them. They were quite surprised as you can probably imagine!
A couple days later, a card from these people came in the mail. Inside the card was $40.00! I said to Mom, "You know something about that money?" She said, "It's the tithe on what you found?" I said, "That's not what I was thinking. What I was thinking was, that's how much I paid for those two boxes of books!" Talk about a blessing!
But, the story continues.
I went ahead and listed those books on Ebay last week. They got a bid pretty quick, but they didn't really do anything spectacular. They went up yesterday, the last day they were on (the auction ended yesterday evening) - nothing real big, but I was satisfied. When we clicked the "Refresh" button the last time, there were shouts, there was a "Hallelujah" and there was three very happy people in this room.
Final sale price - $258.87! - and I already got the notice that the payment is pending!
Who says that honesty doesn't pay?!
God is Great!
God is Faithful!
Thanks For Dropping In!

The Storm

2008-03-25T20:40:00.002-05:00

This is something that I recently received in an e-mail. It is a little lengthy, but is well worth reading. It was a great encouragement to me - I trust it will encourage someone else as well.

A pastor had been on a long flight from one place to another. The first warning of the approaching problems came when the sign on the airplane flashed on: Fasten your seat belts. Then, after a while, a calm voice said, "We shall not be serving the beverages at this time as we are expecting a little turbulence. Please be sure your seat belt is fastened."
As he looked around the aircraft, it became obvious that many of the passengers were becoming apprehensive. Later, the voice of the announcer said, "We are so sorry that we are unable to serve the meal at this time. The turbulence is still ahead of us."
And then the storm broke. The ominous cracks of thunder could be heard even above the roar of the engines. Lightning lit up the darkening skies, and within moments that great plane was like a cork tossed around on a celestial ocean. One moment the airplane was lifted on terrific currents of air; the next, it dropped as if it were about to crash.
The pastor confessed that he shared the discomfort and fear of those around him. He said, "As I looked around the plane, I could see that nearly all the passengers were upset and alarmed. Some were praying. The future seemed ominous and many were wondering if they would make it through the storm.
"Then, I suddenly saw a little girl. Apparently the storm meant nothing to her. She had tucked her feet beneath her as she sat on her seat; she was reading a book and everything within her small world was calm and orderly.
"Sometimes she closed her eyes, then she would read again; then she would straighten her legs, but worry and fear were not in her world. When the plane was being buffeted by the terrible storm when it lurched this way and that, as it rose and fell with frightening severity, when all the adults were scared half to death, that marvelous child was completely composed and unafraid." The minister could hardly believe his eyes.
It was not surprising therefore, that when the plane finally reached its destination and all the passengers were hurrying to disembark, our pastor lingered to speak to the girl whom he had watched for such a long time. Having commented about the storm and behavior of the plane, he asked why she had not been afraid.
The child replied, "Cause my daddy's the pilot, and he's taking me home."
Let us remember: Our Father is the Pilot. He is in control and taking us home. Don't worry.

HE IS RISEN!

2008-03-23T16:46:00.004-05:00

This morning, Dad and I were at an Easter sunrise service on top of Jack's Mountain. Dad had been asked to speak, so away we went. Dad thinks it was the shortest message he ever gave. Before he started, I told him to remember the five Bs of public speaking - Be Brief Brother Be Brief - he was!
In case you're wondering - yes, it was extremely cold up there!
There was actually a pretty good group of people there. It was a very ecumenical gathering: A Brethren-In-Christ pastor was in charge, a God's Missionary pastor spoke, a Methodist pastor prayed, and there were Mennonite people in attendance, and these are just the ones that I know about!
This is the sunrise that we were privileged to see during the service.
Here is the crowd of 43 people listening to my favorite pastor speak - very briefly - about Christ's resurrection.

Thanks For Dropping In!

A Good Evening

2008-03-18T21:30:00.006-05:00

This evening, we attended the annual drama presented by the Mifflin County Home Schoolers. This year's was titled Bridge of Blood. It was the story of the five missionaries who gave their lives for the Auca Indians in Ecuador.
It is a great play with a great message and they did a great job presenting it!

Miriam Shuell (usually known as Angela Sickler) giving her testimony
The missionaries' wives talking

Pete Fleming (also known as Adam Sickler) and his wife

All of the missionaries and their wives - from left to right - Jim Elliot, Ed McCully, Nate Saint, Pete Fleming, Roger Youderian

Thanks For Dropping In!

Scenes In Church

2008-02-29T23:37:00.008-05:00

I thought I would put a post on here of some of what goes on during the course of a typical service at our church. These pictures weren't all taken during the same service, but on average, this is what takes place.
Please excuse the quality of some of the pictures - I had the wrong setting on the camera for a couple of them!
Steve Aurand leading the service
Offertory music

Special music

More special music

A great message from our pastor - my Dad

Checking out the bulletin board at the back of the church.

Fellowship after the service.

Thanks For Dropping In!

New Camera!

2008-02-22T22:23:00.003-05:00

I just got a new camera this past week!
This picture isn't my actual camera, but this is the kind that I got. So far, so good - I'm happy with it!
Hopefully, this will be an inspiration to do some more posting on here.
Thanks For Dropping In!

Just A Note

2008-02-16T20:38:00.002-05:00

This is just a short post to let you know (if there's anyone that actually reads this!) that I haven't forgotten about this blog. Things have been kind of goofy for the past few weeks. Maybe I'll blog about some of it sometime - maybe not!
I'll try to get something else on here shortly.
Thanks For Dropping In!

Something For The Scrapbookers

2008-01-26T18:50:00.000-05:00

Here's something for all of the scrapbookers and / or cardmakers out there - or maybe it's for their husbands!
I'm not trying to offend anyone with this, but I read this recently and got a laugh out of it and I thought someone else might too!

She learned to stamp on Monday;
Her embossing was quite fine;
But she forgot to thaw out dinner,
So we went out to dine.
She did backgrounds on Tuesday,
She says they are a must;
They really are quite lovely,
But she forgot to dust.
On Wednesday it was birthday cards,
She says that chalking is fun;
Shading, blending and water coloring,
But the laundry was not done.
Her card swap was Thursday,
Using green, blue and red;
I guess she really was engrossed,
But she never made the bed.
It was shaker cards on Friday,
Using techniques she just adores;
Bet she never seemed to notice,
The crumbs on all the floors.
I found a maid on Saturday,
My life is now complete;
My wife can stamp the house away,
The house will still be neat.
Well, ‘tis already Sunday,
And my forehead is feeling damp;
I fumed, I raved, I ranted,
The maid has learned to stamp!

Thanks For Dropping In!

You Never Know!

2008-01-12T22:04:00.000-05:00

You never know when I'm going to show up on here!
After Christmas, I guess there just wasn't anything going on that I considered bloggable (is that a word?).
We had a great Christmas - we managed to spread it out quite a bit!
Now, I guess you could say that we've settled back into our normal routines - Mom got some of her scrapbooking supplies organized in her new storage unit. Dad built a set of shelves in the basement, so now we have some more storage space. I've been trying to do some organizing myself besides working my regular job.
We went to an auction today for a little while. We didn't get a whole lot - the stuff was going pretty high. Among my purchases was a box of cassette tapes - it looks like I got some pretty good ones there.
You may also be happy to know that I've removed the Christmas songs from the music player at the side of my blog and I rearranged the other ones!
Thanks For Dropping In!

IT'S CHRISTMAS!

2007-12-25T01:22:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to share my contribution to the Christmas decorating as a way of wishing everyone out there a very Merry Christmas!
Here is part of my collection of light up buildings. I actually just got these a few weeks ago.

This one has a light in it too, but for some reason, it didn't get plugged in. It also has a music box in it.

Merry Christmas!

Thanks For Dropping In!

Christmas Program

2007-12-24T22:27:00.000-05:00

Last night was our annual Christmas program at church. Below are a couple pictures that I took.
Please excuse the quality (or lack thereof) - I have trouble taking zoom pictures with my camera.
The wind trio - at this time, they were singing, not blowing!
Our resident string trio along with "Mary" holding the baby.

Lights In The Park

2007-12-23T08:25:00.001-05:00

For a couple weeks around Christmas this year, some people decorated the one park close to Lewistown. There are quite a few lights there. Mom, Dad and I went out last night to see it. It's really nice.
Here is the nativity scene that they had.
It doesn't show up the greatest here, but I thought this flag was nice.

There was even a "sailboat" there. No, there's not a fire in the boat - those are lights!

Mom & Dad under the arch coming out of the park

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Thanks For Dropping In!

An Introduction

2007-12-16T21:32:00.001-05:00

I would like to introduce you to the latest member of the Donahey menagerie.
This is Harry the Hairy Dog (I called him Herkimer the other night, but I like Harry better!).
Thanks For Dropping In!

Christmas Shopping Time!

2007-12-09T21:23:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we took off and went over the mountain to State College. We went to several stores while we were there - Michael's Craft Store, Circuit City, Staples, Nittany Mall (only went to one store and a restaurant in there), Big Lots, Office Depot, Sam's Club, Barnes & Noble (Mom & Dad went to the greeting card store while I was in there).
As you can see, it was quite a day - I did manage to get some Christmas shopping done! That is actually something I enjoy doing.
I don't know what's going to take place this coming week. I'm supposed to be off work Thursday afternoon and all day Friday - the last of my vacation time for the year. I guess we'll wait and see what we do!
Thanks For Dropping In!

Thanksgiving Update

2007-11-27T21:32:00.000-05:00

Here are the promised pictures from our Thanksgiving.
Our Thanksgiving gathering this year consisted of my brother's family (see previous post), my grandmother, Mom, Dad, and myself.

This is what the dining room table looked like before we started to eat . . .

. . . and after we finished!

After a meal like that, everybody was ready to rest - even Katie! (not that she got anything from Thanksgiving dinner!)

It's just about time to head home - I think Katie really wanted to be outside!

Thanks For Dropping In!

Nothing Exciting Here!

2007-11-17T21:49:00.000-05:00

There hasn't been much out of the ordinary going on here.
It was pretty much a normal week at work - eight hours overtime (anymore, that's normal).
I've been fighting a cold since last weekend - I think it's clearing up pretty good now.
My brother and part of his family came Tuesday evening - the ones who came were my brother, his wife, and Katie the dog, the cats couldn't come.
Friday evening, we went to the Penn View Bible Institute Christmas Benefit Auction. This is the third weekend in a row that we've been to an auction. It looks like we'll probably make it four in a row this coming weekend.
Today has been pretty laid back. We did a little running around and got a couple things done around here.
Thanks For Dropping In!

Here's An Update

2007-11-07T21:59:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry I haven't been on here for a while, but I think one of the problems is called procrastination!
If you look at The Happy Pastor blog, you will see some of what I've been up to within the past week.
Up until the middle of last week, I was busy about every night working in the shop trying to finish up six wooden turkeys - I had only had the order since March!
This past weekend started out with my day off work on Friday (that's a great start to a weekend!) when we made our trip to Bass Pro Shops and the Civil War museum. It was a great day! Just being together as a family is a plus for me.
On Saturday, we went to an auction. I managed to buy a bunch of things - probably some things that I didn't need, but now I have them and have to figure out what I'm going to do with them!
This week has been pretty normal so far but stay tuned in case anything unusual happens!
Thanks For Dropping In!

A Campaign Post

2007-11-01T21:58:00.000-05:00

As citizens, I believe that it is our duty at times to get involved in the political process. In light of this, I would like to present the following campaign ad -

A Beautiful Day For A Great Trip!

2007-10-13T22:11:00.000-05:00

Today, we took a fall foliage bus trip with Cooley Coach & Charter. We went to the Tioga County area. Our Conference President, Bro. Plank, was the co-host for the trip to his home area.
For more pictures, click here.
Our first stop was at the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. This is looking straight down to the bottom.
We even got to see some wildlife at the Grand Canyon - this one was probably about 4 feet away from us!

It was a beautiful day for this trip!

We enjoyed lunch in the famous Wellsboro Diner - as did the Calhouns. I don't know what kind of pose Lizzie's trying to pull off!

We went for a ride on the Tioga Central Railroad where we saw some views like this of God's beautiful creation.

From the back of the train to the front of the train!

One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to the birthplace of our Conference President. It was a pleasure to meet Bro. Plank's parents.

Mr. & Mrs. Plank in the front yard of their beautiful home. I said, "I can understand why Bro. Plank called this Canaan land."

Thanks For Dropping In!

Some Miscellaneous Information!

2007-09-30T21:07:00.000-05:00

Well, here I am. I mentioned in my last post about how my work week was going. I ended up at 57.1 hours for the week (that’s the way the company figures our time – in tenths). It was our month end – quarter end when the close the books for the month and quarter, so that’s why things were so crazy – and believe me, they were!
I, for some reason, have fallen victim to this tagging thing that’s going around the blogs. For some reason, Tim Calhoun saw fit to tag me, so here goes:
1. I don’t like heights – For some reason, being on a ladder doesn’t bother me all that much, but if I’m standing somewhere where there’s not much between me and a long drop, I don’t usually like that - there are some exceptions to that though!
2. There are times that I would much rather stay at home with my family than go away somewhere – unless I’m going with my family. One of my mottos is “Say what you want to about me, but leave my family alone.” One more thing along this line – If you tell me that I act like my father (and I have been told that many times!), I will say, “Thank you!”
3. I have had several collections during my lifetime. Someone once asked my mother, “What does Dwight collect?” She said, “It would be easier to tell you what he doesn’t collect!” I have collected stamps – still do, I have no idea how many I have; just about all types of sports cards – still have a lot of them, but have also sold a lot of them as well; NASCAR collectibles – sold most of them on Ebay and at yard sales; history books – that’s probably the one that takes up the most room; business cards – this one actually got started by accident but it’s probably the cheapest one of the bunch.
4. I have had different jobs outside of home over the course of my life and I didn’t apply for any of them. When I got my paper route in Berwick, the District Supervisor had called the house to see if anyone in our church would be interested. For my current job, the department supervisor called to see if I would be interested in a job.
5. When I was 2 years old, my arm was cracked / broken when a neighbor kid pushed a swing into me.
6. When I was a senior in high school, I spent the better part of a week at Bob Jones University. I was sick about the whole time – I think it was a problem that is commonly called homesickness! I suppose it didn’t really help matters any that I was dropped off there without knowing anybody!
7. I don’t really like to talk about myself, so I’m going to bring this to an end!
Thanks For Dropping In!

I'm Still Among The Living!

2007-09-26T21:30:00.000-05:00

I intended to post more before this, but - Sunday night, I was downright sick - in fact, I was in bed before 9:00 - very unusual for someone who usually doesn't go to bed before 11:00! Thank the Lord, I'm feeling much better now!
Right now, I'm part way through a work week where I've worked almost 35 hours in three days.
Hopefully, I'll be able to get something else on here soon!
Thanks For Dropping In!

For My Friends!

2007-09-18T18:18:00.001-05:00

I found this the other day and thought I would share it with you!
Thanks For Dropping In!

A Very Relaxing Day

2007-09-15T20:47:00.000-05:00

Today, we took a trip to the Lake Tobias Wildlife Park at Halifax, PA. The weather was beautiful and it was a very relaxing day.
There are many more pictures that I could have posted, so this is just a sample.

These two monkeys were chasing each other around the cage - kind of reminded me of my brother and I!
This character was being quite noisy - evidently he wanted some attention for himself!

It looks like Mom is having a conversation with these critters (I think they are Alpacas).

Dad went to check out this cute little Alpaca.

Here is our safari tour guide . . .

. . . and here is our safari tour bus.

I don't know if this buffalo was planning on riding along, but our guide wouldn't let him anyway!

This elk decided to come over to pay us a visit.

This "little" fellow walked up beside the bus.

Here I am with a couple of my friends from the petting zoo part of the park. For some reason, the goat down at the bottom of the picture seemed to enjoy chewing on my jeans and shoestrings - no harm done!

Here's another one of my friends.

The next three pictures are from the reptile building. As you can see, they had more than just reptiles in there. Here is an alligator that they had.

Here is Cuddles the porcupine - not exactly something that I would want to cuddle up next to!

This 12 1/2 foot long python was the one that we got to touch - well, Dad & I did, Mom didn't want to!

This little fellow - an Artic Fox about the size of a small dog - was kind of cute.

Thanks For Dropping In!

New Shoes!

2007-09-13T21:50:00.000-05:00

I have figured out that there is at least one person out there who likes to go shopping for shoes. Knowing that, I decided to show you a picture of my latest acquisition. They are Timberland Pro sneakers.
How would you like to go shopping for a brand new pair of shoes and not have to worry about the price?
Here's the story - In my job, I am required to wear safety shoes. They can be steel toe or otherwise, as long as there's something there to keep my toes from getting smashed. Every so often, the shoe truck comes around. When this happens, we can go get a new pair of safety shoes at the company's expense - up to a certain limit.
So far, so good - I like them!
Thanks For Dropping In!

A Story For You!

2007-09-10T21:58:00.000-05:00

Here is a story that I read recently that I liked and thought I would share with my blog friends -
Once upon a time a guy asked a girl to marry him. The girl said no. The guy lived happily ever after. The End
Thanks For Dropping In!

Antique Machinery Show Time Again!

2007-09-06T20:32:00.000-05:00

The time of year has come once again for the annual Fall Antique Machinery Show just outside of Centre Hall. This has become an annual event for us - not to mention a day off work for me! We were there for about five hours today which made for a lot of walking, but it was a good, relaxing day.

Every year there is a featured make of tractor at the show. This year it was the Allis-Chalmers tractors. I don't know how many tractors there were, but they ranged from very big Allis-Chalmers tractors . . .

. . . to very little Allis Chalmers tractors!

There was even a race car with Allis Chalmers on it!

As you can see from the drivers in the following two pictures, the Antique Machinery Show is for the young . . .

. . . and old alike!

With a solar powered tractor, this guy seemed quite happy that he didn't have to worry about buying gas for it!

The old steam engines always fascinate me.

There were several steam engines there this year.

Thanks For Dropping In!

Labor Day Weekend Trip

2007-09-03T19:05:00.000-05:00

We headed west on a mini-vacation this Labor Day weekend. We got home around 3:30 this afternoon.
The two pictures below are the only ones that I took while we were away.
The first one is a recently remodeled house that we passed. The second picture is one of the two barns on the property. Notice the moose horns on the front of the house and the end of the barn. The other barn had a rather large set of elk antlers on the end.

In case you were wondering where we went on this vacation - we went to State College (about 30 miles away - and slightly to the west)! We ate lunch at Ce-Ce's Pizza Buffet, went to Michael's craft store, Circuit City, and the Nittany Mall.

The pictures above were taken along route 322 several miles outside of State College.

It was an enjoyable day, and for me at least, it felt like a vacation!

Thanks For Dropping In!

Surprise!

2007-08-28T22:00:00.001-05:00

I got a surprise in the mail today!
Dad sent me an e-mail at work and told me that I got a box in the mail, but he didn't tell me who it was from.
When I got home, I saw it was from my brother and sister-in-law. Inside the box were the goodies that are in the picture above: A Winross truck (I collect those) - Some money (500 Riels) - A very nice Bloomsburg University pen (my brother works there).
Thank you very much Darv & Christi!!!
Thanks For Dropping In!

Another Auction!

2007-08-18T22:26:00.000-05:00

Mom, Dad & I went to an auction today. I was going to take some pictures of the stuff that I bought, but I didn't get around to it. I bought some misc. junk along with several boxes of books, old magazines, etc.
I didn't buy any of the real expensive stuff - like the tin wind-up toy that sold for $1350.00!

Thanks For Dropping In!

Penns Creek - Another Good Camp!

2007-08-07T21:24:00.000-05:00

We are all home from Penns Creek Camp now. I wasn't able to be there as much as I would have liked to have been, but maybe that helped me appreciate the services that I was able to be in. The preaching was tremendous, the singing was great, and the presence of God was real. I didn't get very many pictures from camp, but I did post a couple below.

A Couple Pics From Camp

2007-08-07T21:07:00.000-05:00

One of the reasons that I wanted to go to Camp this year was because of the youth evangelist. The youth evangelist was the one and only Rev. Joel Byer. I only got a couple pictures of him - unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of Rev. Byer when he was wearing sunglasses during his message or the time that he came down off of the platform walking with a cane! Needless to say, I think he kept everyone's attention, but at the same time he got his point across.

During camp this year, I was happy to see one of my Grandmas. I hadn't seen Sis. Crock for a little while, so it was good to see her. No, I'm not standing on anything in this picture - Sis. Crock is just a little lady that I look up to very much.

Thanks For Dropping In!

Another Update

2007-08-01T20:44:00.000-05:00

It has been a little longer than I intended since my last update, so I'll try to let you know what has been going on around here.
On July 21st, we went to Penn's Creek for our camp Work Day. That meant alot of hard work but also some times of good fellowship and some fun.
On July 27th, Mom & Dad picked me up at work and we went back to Penn's Creek. I got to be there for the first weekend of camp. We heard tremendous messages from Bros. Fuller and Stetler!
I came home on Sunday evening. This week is the end of the month at work, so that's always a busy time. Today was officially "closing" but it actually wasn't too bad. Tomorrow, we're supposed to have a free steak dinner compliments of the company! Every once in a while there are rewards for all of the hard work!
I have gotten to work in the shop some this week. This is the first that I've been able to do that for a while. Here is a picture of something that I made this week. It's about 4 1/2 by 9 1/2 inches.
Thanks For Dropping In!

Just To Let You Know!

2007-07-16T21:36:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to let everyone know that even after my last post, I am still alive and well!
Things are looking pretty busy this week, so maybe in a few days I'll have something to blog about.
Keep checking back for more updates!
Thanks For Dropping In!

2007-07-10T19:38:00.000-05:00

There hasn't really been a whole lot of out of the ordinary stuff going on around here lately, but I wanted to put something on here.
I decided that I would put a picture on from sometime in the past. How far in the past, I'm not going to try to guess!
Thanks For Dropping In!

I Didn't Need This!

2007-07-03T23:18:00.000-05:00

Just an update here.

While I was mowing grass on Saturday, my tractor broke down - fortunately, it was easily fixed and it's fine. However, as I was walking into the house, apparently a honey bee decided that it didn't like me walking through the clover in the back yard. It proceeded to sting me on the lower part of my leg. This is always a concern since I'm allergic to bee stings. I took two Benadryl capsules and went back to work. Throughout the day on Sunday and Monday the spot on my leg continued to alternate between itching and just plain hurting!

By the time I got home from work Monday evening, I had a dark red spot about 2 by 3 inches on the side of my leg. Dad & Mom decided that it needed to be checked out. The doctor wasn't in and wouldn't be for a couple days, so Dad and I headed for the hospital Emergency Room.

I ended up being there for a little under two hours, after which I had to go get two prescriptions - one for an antibiotic and one for an anti-inflammatory drug.

The final diagnosis was that it wasn't an allergic reaction to the bee sting, but that it somehow got infected.

Fortunately, it hasn't been too bad today and it's starting to look better, and I'm thankful for both of those.

Just another interesting couple of days!

Thanks For Dropping In!

A Busy Week - But We Survived!

2007-07-01T21:18:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday, Dad & I went to a car show at a local park. This is just one of the many cars that was there.

On Friday, I took a day off work and we went to the Bel Sano Holiness camp. It was a very enjoyable day. I managed to get a picture of this couple sitting on a bench on the campgrounds.

Yesterday was the day for the local Riverfest - a time of several events here in town. One of the events was the raft regatta. I think someone said that there were 40 rafts that entered the event. They were to float 4.3 miles on the Juniata river. Some of them were very elaborate, others were very simple. I said that some of them should get an award just for making it that far - if they made it!

Last night was the night for our local fireworks. This was actually the final event of the Riverfest activities. I tried taking some pictures of them, but that didn't go too good. It was about like trying to take pictures of lightning - next to impossible! I did get a few pictures, but nothing spectacular. We actually had two sets of fireworks, the main ones downtown along with the ones that somebody was setting off on their own.

In between the car show last Saturday, camp meeting Friday, the raft regatta yesterday, and the fireworks last night was a week where I managed to work a little over 40 hours in 4 days along with preparing to try to teach a Sunday School class this morning. Oh well, it keeps life interesting. This coming week looks like another busy week, so we'll see what happens!

Thanks For Dropping In!

I Have Returned!

2007-06-19T19:41:00.000-05:00

I promised you some pictures from our vacation last week. Here are a few of the ones that I took.

2007-06-19T19:31:00.000-05:00

Here was our home away from home for a little while last week.

This is the front porch where we enjoy spending time - even when it's raining!

This is one of the farm fields that had already been mowed.

This is a field of wheat that is ready to be harvested.

This is the first camp that you come to on the way to the cottage where we stay. There is an Amish couple that stays in this occasionally.

Filling You In!

2007-06-12T20:28:00.001-05:00

This is part of what's left of the tree that fell on the wires that Dad had the picture of on his blog. Bro. & Sis. Stoner came and we tried to clean it up as much as we could after it had been cut down this morning.

While we were working on the tree, we got caught in a couple rainstorms. This double rainbow is what we saw after the first one.

I also want to let you know that I'm going to be off of here for a few days. I'm planning on joining my parents on vacation for the rest of the week. I'll try to post some pictures after we get back.

Thanks For Dropping In!

Going High Tech!

2007-06-11T21:45:00.000-05:00

I got a very pleasant surprise this morning when Dad asked me if I wanted one of my birthday gifts early. It caught me off guard and I didn't really know what to say, so he handed me a gift wrapped box.
When I opened it, I found what you see in the picture above - an RCA Mp3 player!
So far I have put 69 songs on this little piece of equipment which measures 3 1/4 by 1 1/4 by 3/4 inches. This is a little less than half of its capacity of 160 songs without a memory card which would expand the memory even further.
I have really been enjoying me early, unexpected birthday gift - I'm listening to it while I'm typing this!
Thank You So Much Mom & Dad!
Thanks For Dropping In!

2007-06-07T17:31:00.000-05:00

From time to time, some people like to share photos from the past on their blog. That being the case, I thought I would share one from the very distant past here - as in about 40 years distant! In case you don't know who this is - go to The Happy Pastor blog and look at the profile picture for an up to date photo of this same person.
I have also heard that some people don't think there's a need to check this blog daily as it doesn't get changed very often. I will try to do better in that area.

Long Time No See!

2007-06-02T21:41:00.001-05:00

Back sometime ago I had put a post on here about us hearing from a girl that had been a neighbor of ours in Berwick.
Well, today we finally got to see her again - along with her boyfriend Jon. We had a great time remembering things that we used to do and people that we knew.
Hopefully, it won't be so long until we see each other again!
Thanks For Dropping In!

An Enjoyable Evening

2007-05-31T19:46:00.000-05:00

After our new members reception service last night (for more pictures from that, click here to see the ones on my parents' blog), we were invited to the Sicklers' home for a time of fellowship and refreshments.

Everyone got involved in the preparation for this time of fellowship -

from clearing the table . . .

. . . to making the lemonade . . .

. . . to washing the dishes!

It was an enjoyable evening!

Thanks For Dropping In!