Highlands Hammock State Park, Sebring, Florida
Today, we mourn the passing of one of the greatest Christian Evangelists the world has ever known. Billy Graham passed over into Paradise today at the age of 99.
I was going to do a segment on his life and ministry, but there’s just way, way, way too much information. You’ll have to look him up yourself. Sorry! But I do have a teeny-tiny snippet.
He was an ordained Southern Baptist minister who first became popular around 1949. He counseled 12 presidents, beginning with Truman, in addition to Trump before his run for office.
Over 58 years, Billy Graham reached more than 210 million people (face to face and by satellite feeds) in over 185 countries and territories on six continents.
We were stunned when the CBS Evening News not only reported his death, but chose to play video excerpts of his most important message – – over and over and over again. Choose Jesus Christ. Ask Him to change your life. Only Jesus will get you into Heaven. (these are all paraphrased because I didn’t write it down exactly)
Sirius radio has dedicated channel 145 to his recorded messages and is advertising it on its other channels.
Even in death, this man of God is still evangelizing the world. We’re so happy for him and his new life in Eternity! One day, we’ll both join him!
This morning, Blaine went out with Planters salted peanuts in hand. I told him not to. There are signs all over that say “Don’t feed the wildlife”. But does he listen? Noooooo!
So now he’s got the things hanging around him like Snow White. Standing on their hind legs begging, crawling up the chair, sitting on his Bible (that was only for a second, or so he says), and even when the nuts ran out, they’re still out there. I can hear them scampering about and Blaine’s cajoling whispered words to them.
They didn’t even care when I went out and sat on the carpet to take pictures.
They’ll probably starve to death when we leave on Monday. Or who knows. They may follow us to site #84 . . .
I blogged for 4-5 hours today, finally making it up to February 19th.
While I was working on that, Blaine left for haircut, which turned out better than last time, but still not nearly as good as the barber he sees in Green, Ohio. The first place he stopped at was called “Barber Shop” (how creative!). There were 3 women cutting and they were all busy and said they could probably fit him in sometime tomorrow. He left. Without an appointment. There was another place we’d stumbled across when we were at Publix the other day. This was where he decided to stay. He said his barber barely spoke English. I’ll have to try to improve on the cut a little. Maybe I should go to barber school?
Tired of sitting at the computer, I announced to Blaine we were going out for a bit. Well, he’d already been out. It was me who was in desperate need to get out.
God sent us out at the perfect time and we walked in the perfect direction!
Blaine suggested we walk to the museum to take in the 30 minute film they have on the CCC. Sounded good to me. It’s record-breaking temperatures down here and the museum is air conditioned, so we get fresh air and then, just when we can’t stand the heat anymore, we can have air! At least it’s not very humid!
As we crossed the road, the firefighters pulled up and started a prescribed burn! Right there at the side of the museum!
‘Flame throwers’ (I’m certain they’re called something else) in hand, they came out and we heard, “Light ‘er up!” And two of them started walking around lighting the ground on fire.
We moved to a bench, but didn’t sit. They kept coming. They never once asked us to move back. I guess they figured once the smoke started we’d take it upon ourselves. Which we did. 😊
There’s some kind of fuel that drips out of the end along with the fire.
It looks like it comes out at the same place, but that can’t be, can it?
Talk about being in the hot seat!
Yikes it was warm!
We’ve moved now. : )
There goes the palm tree!
Oh, wait! They don’t want that to burn . . . .
All better!
There’s the CCC statue to give you some perspective of where they’re working today.
My goodness! This took me back to when my Grandpa Glass was the volunteer fire chief in Uniontown, Ohio and even after that, when my kids were maybe young middle school age. It’s a small town and every so often, the firemen would practice on old houses. We’d go watch the ‘show’ until it burned down, sometimes taking a picnic lunch. It was hot. It was smoky. It was beautiful! It was great!
So was today!
They kept moving along the side of the building and also down the side of the road, forming a fire-line to keep it contained.
The parking lot in front of the building
That’s where they started moments ago.
Then they moved aorund back!
People were starting to congregate at the side of the museum and they had to ask us to move back.
I overheard the man who seemed to be in charge today tell someone that they just burned this area 7 months ago and it’s burning even hotter today than it did then.
There he is, taking his call.
Brush debris was flying through the air
It’s nice they take the time to talk to people.
It was hot. It was smoky. It was beautiful! It was great!
The pictures don’t do it justice!
We tried going into the museum, but it was filled with smoke! We didn’t stay. We’d inhaled enough already. But we did see some things we missed the first go ’round. How we missed a full sized tent, is beyond me!
This is a map of all the CCC camps! Look how extensive it was!
These next pictures are as we walked past where they first started.
I tried a black and white.
Doesn’t look much different does it?
We discovered the next day why the sky was so orange.
They weren’t done setting fires yet when we left!
They did another section on the opposite side of the building.
The timeline for all these pictures? 48 minutes!
For tonight’s pot luck, I made Mother’s Day Casserole (so named because I made it for Mother’s Day one year). I pre-heated the convection oven since the casserole had to be in a 9 x 13. It took 15 minutes (that’s how long a regular oven takes!). Just as I put the pan in, closed the door and pushed start . . . . . the power went out!
Now mind you, I live with an electrician. He knows his stuff. He ran important jobs all over the Akron, Ohio area.
Our surge protector doesn’t like the low voltage that’s permeating the campground right now because everyone’s running their air conditioners.
He by-passed it. Which you’re not supposed to do. But I had a 9×13 casserole to bake and a pot luck supper to go to. There are no other options. For the next 45 minutes.
And I sat in an un-air conditioned steamy hot home. When the power came back on, the convection oven decided to pre-heat again – which took another 15 minutes! Even though it was only 3 minutes before I turned it back on again!!! Fortunately, at least it was still hot in there since we didn’t open the door.
I really don’t know why anyone likes these things. The only advantage I’ve found is that you can have an oven in the same appliance as a microwave, thus saving space.
Next time we plan on attending a pot luck, we’ll be taking something that doesn’t have to be baked in a 9×13 pan.
The pot luck was great fun and terrific food! There were maybe 30 people there and a couple dozen food offerings – only one being dessert. 😊 Hey, that’s why they call it pot luck!
And the volunteers hosting this shindig offered prayer for the meal and fellowship!
We met some really nice people and filled our bellies. This is only the second time we’ve been able to participate in anything like this. When I mentioned that to one of the hosts, she was quite surprised. She’s been volunteering at this Park very January and February for 23 years! We expected pot lucks to be in most campgrounds, but outside one near the time we first left in June, this has been the only one. Too bad, because we really enjoy the fellowship!
By the time we were done, it was dark, so we’re done for today.
TOTAL HIKING MILES: 2
Year To Date: 154.5
Daily Average: 2.97