Munising Tourist Park, Munising, Michigan (Upper Peninsula)
We were expecting to go to church this morning, but we’re so far out, the closest one was almost an hour away, so we visited The Chapel via the internet and listened to Pastor Mike teach on the church in Thyatira from Revelation 2:18-29. Keep in mind that these seven letters are written to actual churches at the time, but they are also for us today, as we see ourselves in these letters – in all of scripture. That’s why we have God’s Word. It’s “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” II Timothy 3:16
He’s already taught us about three of the churches –
Ephesus, the ‘bible study’ church who loves scripture and learning, but lost their love of people. Revelation 2:1-7
Smyrna, the persecuted church who had no confrontations from Christ, but instead was told to hold on to their faith “even to the point of death”.
Pergamum, the compromising church who, even though they had faith, had allowed themselves to believe that it was okay to compromise with the world’s views on what God considers sin.
And now, Thyatira. This town was small as far as the world measures things (commerce, politics, etc.), but they received the longest letter. It was 35-40 miles north of Pergamum and, as I said, was quite unremarkable. They had no major gods to worship and there’s very little information to be found about them. The most noteworthy item is that they were known for their dyes, especially purple. This is the only town in these seven letters that no longer exists.
Jesus compliments them as a working church, you know, always doing stuff, and they had faith and love for others as well. So what’s the problem?
The problem is the person they’ve allowed to be in charge. He calls her “Jezebel”. If you know even a smidgen about Jezebel, you know this is not good at all. Even if you don’t know why, I think everyone realizes the connotation that comes with the name “Jezebel”. She was (and still is) the epitome of evil and wickedness. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on her, but I’ll highlight a couple of things. She was the Queen to King Ahab, but she might as well have been “king” because she was most definitely the one in charge. She brought idol worship with her into the marriage, and corrupted Ahab. Because of her, I Kings 16:30-33 and 21:25-26 tells us that “he did more evil in the eyes of the LORD than any of those before him.” “urged on by Jezebel his wife”. In one instance, King Ahab was whining about a piece of property he wanted, but the man wouldn’t sell it to him, so Jezebel had the man killed and presented the information to Ahab – along with the property. (I Kings 21:1-16) She was killing prophets of God left and right, sending many of them into hiding. (I Kings 18:4) The prophet, Elijah was afraid of her. (I Kings 19:1-3) In the end, she met a gruesome end to account for her wickedness, just as it was foretold by Elijah in I Kings 21:23-24 and II Kings 9:30-37.
So anyway, this is what Jesus compares the leader of the church in Thyratira to. Ugh . . . definitely and decidedly not good!
He says that she’s not only caught up in sin, but she’s convincing other believers that it’s okay as well because she portrays herself as a prophetess of God. He’s given her opportunity to repent, but she refuses, so she will be made to suffer, along with all those who follow her teaching.
It talks about idol worship and we’re tempted to think this doesn’t apply to us because we don’t see a lot of idol worship anymore. But Pastor Mike pointed out that today, our idol is “Me”. We live in times where nothing and no one else matters except ourselves. I want what I want and I want it now, and I don’t want anything that makes me feel uncomfortable.
And since we don’t know how to teach our children to love those who may be different (sort of a “love the sinner, hate the sin” mentality), we diminish Jesus and His teachings. We accept the world view that it’s okay to be homosexual, that it’s okay to live together outside of marriage, that it’s okay to get drunk, or use the Lord’s name in vain, or gossip, or practice gluttony, or any of a myriad of other things that God’s Word tells us is sin. Diminishing Jesus and His teachings is essentially idol worship.
At the end of the letter, Jesus offers praise to those who stand firm and don’t cave into her teachings. He encourages them to continue to hold on and they will receive their reward.
So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. II Thessalonians 2:15
Paul writes in Philippians 4:9 – Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
By the time we got around, it was almost noon before we left today! Sure didn’t expect that! We’re usually early birds because we want the worms! But that’s what happens when you tell old bodies to hike 10 miles in a day … we were a little slower moving, plus I made a big breakfast – German fries! And still we didn’t get around. It seemed to take a while to wake up our old bones and get the joints oiled. Kinda like the Tin Man when Dorothy and Scarecrow found him in the woods. We just weren’t expecting to take so long. We must be more out of shape than we realized!
And lest I forget to mention – – it was pretty cool today! Temperatures dipped down into the low forties last night!
This shows how cool it was – look how bundled up they are!
But eventually we were ready to go. Blaine put our first destination in the gps and off we went.
Today was waterfall day – the day we were going to do yesterday. It’s a better day for that since it’s breezy and cool and overcast. Plus, a running race was going on in Munising today, so we went west of town – which is where most of the waterfalls are.
We sure didn’t expect to see Christmas today, and yet, we did! We drove right through it! It was pretty small. In fact, we almost missed it. There was a cute motel sign for the “Christmas Motel” that was shaped like a present with neon green outline and a neon red bow. And there was also a giant Santa in front of a store. But that was it. Sorry. No pictures.
We also didn’t expect to see a huge field filled with wild daisies! It looked like snow! It was beautiful! Sorry. No pictures.
We were sailing along on a main road, past intersections where different road names were on either side, even though the road ran straight across the one we were on. That was certainly unexpected. We’ve never seen that before on such a grand scale.
In time, we made a turn and ran smack-dab into an honest and truly Jeep road! No way could you take an ordinary car on this road!
There’s even road signs!
Some of these are not signs we’re used to seeing. : )
Back on a smoother road!
It was a ton of unexpected fun! Brought to us, unexpectedly, by the gps no less! Goes to show you, you can’t always trust those things!
As we were maneuvering our way down the road, we kept seeing side roads (more like trails, honestly) that were labeled on the gps as “Slapneck”. So unusual, I had to check it out.
Slapneck is no longer found on maps, I guess because it’s just a small residential area now. It didn’t get it’s name as I suggested – people slapping their necks because of mosquitoes. I was named for John F. Slapnick, a land surveyor from Pennsylvania. No one seems to know why the town (and a road, and a creek) bears his name. They think either he named the area after himself, or people in the area who knew him chose it. Regardless, it’s wrong. Did you catch the spelling of his name? Around 1915 a guy managed to temporarily get the town’s name changed to – – – ready?
Calciferous. Supposedly it has to do with the area geography. No matter. The name was too hard for the French, Finns and Swedes who lived here to pronounce (and most of us, to be perfectly honest), so one night they all got together and had a community meeting where they voted to permanently change the name back to Slapneck.
And now you know . . . . . the rest of the story.
And then we were at the 100’ Laughing Whitefish Falls, where they had part of the overlook closed for renovation. Wasn’t expecting that. We weren’t able to get a look from the bottom, but it still looked pretty great from the observation platform. Interesting tidbit – – there was a family here at the same time. To make a fairly long story short, the grandma was encouraging her grandson to do something mom didn’t approve of. Grandma pretty much ignored her. It’s the same with grandma’s everywhere. Sometimes moms forget that grandmas managed to raise them just fine. 😊
The trail to Laughing Whitefish.
Crossing a creek to get to the Laughing Whitefish Falls.
More wash outs?
Laughing Whitefish
What kind of name is that?
Looking down the waterfall.
The creek that feeds it.
When we left, it was onto a paved road once again, and at 12:37pm, on Route 94, between the Laughing Whitefish Falls and the Au Train Falls, I was just opening my mouth to warn Blaine about a large black dog walking on the side of the road, when we both realized at the same time . . . .
That’s no dog!! That’s a BEAR!!!! Looking right at us as he walked toward us! Wow! He ran off the road and into the woods when we drew a bit closer. Certainly didn’t expect to see that!! And of course, no pictures. ☹
Next up – Au Train Falls. I have no size information. At this one, we discovered a hydroelectric power plant. Didn’t expect that. We could hardly see the top of the falls through the trees, but the bottom was pretty nice. Just not a lot of water. Probably because it was spread out over a wide area.
See the pipe?
Stealing water from the falls.
Trying to get a better view, because we didn’t know to go to the bottom yet.
“The bottom” is beyond this creek.
Water coming right out of a small hole in the ground!
Oh, man! Another out of focus flower!
I hate when that happens!
Look what we found when we followed the road a bit further!
Nope. Not it.
There’s the power house.
Nope. Not it.
Lower Au Train Falls
This next video is just to let you hear how loud it is here.
The Hydro electric plant was up and running. They were generating electricity.
Being a commercial electrician, Blaine was really concerned about safety with these exposed wires. They were less than ten feet above the ground and fully exposed.
On down the road was Wagner Falls. I don’t know much about this one either, except that it “cascades over rock ledges in this area before emptying into the Anna River, creating a beautiful spot”. I don’t think there was anything unexpected here, or on the way. 😊
Perspective to show how big the tree was. : )
Wagner Falls
Munising Falls also has a Visitor Center for the National Park , so we stopped in and asked questions about kayaking along the Pictured Rocks area. The Ranger there was very helpful – – in talking us out of it. I don’t think she realized what she did. 😊
There was a great history information section on logging in the area. Wasn’t expecting that!
Out to search for the aforementioned waterfall.
How do they do that?!?
It’s amazing to me!
Looks like storm damage, but the actual trail was fine.
The waterfall was a fifty-footer. There were steps going up either side of it, so we went to check it out, but the view wasn’t great from either side. We think it’s because you used to be able to go behind the waterfall, but they’ve had to close it off due to falling rocks.
Munising Falls
You can see where people used to walk behind it, but unless you climb and scrabble, there’s no way to get there anymore.
Down there’s the viewing platform – the only place you can see the waterfall from.
Last but not least for our day, Sand Point. This wasn’t a waterfall, just a beach area within the Park. Blaine was still considering kayaking in a bay area and this was a possibility, so we went to check it out.
It was pretty apparent right away how the place got its name. 😊
What a nice, restful, beautiful spot!
We walked the beach for a while and discovered some unexpected things – like an old coastguard station boathouse. We didn’t know it was coastguard at the time.
We knew it hadn’t been used for quite some time, but it wasn’t until we meandered our way around and ended up at the back side that we discovered it’s been made into a museum of sorts. More on that later.
We ran into a Mallard Duck, of all things! That was a surprise!
It’s not often you see a Mallard Duck on a beach – at least it’s novel to us anyway!
We discovered more unexpected beauty around the corner!
What is that?
Pretty cool looking, whatever it is!
There was pink colored sand all around this area.
I don’t know if someone designed this or not, but it’s beautiful, don’t you think?
I found it under the (tee-pee)
Just because! : )
Heading back a different way is how we discovered the information on the former coastguard station.
The former Coastguard station, built in 1933 and closed in 1961.
The men worked in 2-hour shifts up in an observation tower and were forbidden from abandoning their post or sleeping at anytime during that 2 hours.
What follows is our discovery inside the boathouse:
Does this view look familiar? : )
The ropework in here fascinated me! Incredible!
This faking box and gun were interesting too!
The end of our day found us back home on “our” beach enjoying a lovely sunset. Ahhhh . . . .
Moon rise on our way back home.