Happy Father’s Day!     6/17/18

Wagon Trail Campground, Rowleys Bay, Wisconsin Peninsula

 

It was a dark and stormy night . . . . .

Ooooooo…… a dramatic start to today’s post!  Actually, this is just a brief commentary on last night’s weather.  Yep.  More rain.  More storms.

 

Father’s Day was a little strange this year since there was no family gathering this year, but both boys called their dad and Blaine called his.  We’re so blessed with these four Godly father-figures!  Especially as they influence the next generation.

 

Happy Father’s Day to all those wonderful fathers I know!  Especially my husband, two sons and father-in-law!  I’m privileged to know a lot of good fathers!  I know those are sometimes hard to come by this day and age, and that’s a real shame.  A lot of people tend to overlook the importance of fathers, but they are essential to a person’s overall health and well-being.

Speaking for myself, my father was pretty much absent from my life, but I was fortunate to have a maternal and paternal grandfather, uncles and other male role models in my life growing up.  Still, I think nothing takes the place of a loving, caring father in a girl’s life.

Not having a good father model also skews our perception of our Heavenly Father.  It’s hard to imagine a loving, caring Father when you haven’t had a good role model for that.

I once read where a teacher was trying to help her students understand what God, the Father was like.  One student didn’t get it.  They didn’t understand how that could be because their only father figure was not a good one.  The wise teacher asked them if there was a person in their life who they felt loved them unconditionally.  The student said yes.  A grandmother.  To which the teacher replied.  Your grandmother’s love for you is a lot like God’s love for you – only His love is even better!

One of my favorite hymns is “How Deep The Father’s Love For Us”:

How deep the Father’s love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory

Behold the man upon a cross
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

 

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” ~ I John 3:1

 

We began our day attending an 8:00am worship service at the First Baptist Church of Sister Bay.

It was a nice little church, just coming off a week of VBS, so the numbers were probably down a bit.  VBS is exhausting, trust me.  I’ve done plenty of them in my lifetime.

They had a special missionary speaker, Dr. Pat.  Apparently, she has no last name.  Every piece of literature we were given, in every instance where her name was mentioned, she’s just Dr. Pat.  She’s been ministering to the persecuted church since 1982 when she smuggled Bibles into China.  Her sources estimate that 74% of the world does not have religious freedom.  I never would have guessed it to be that high!!

We thought she would be giving the sermon, but instead, she shared brief stories about converted Muslims from Northern Egypt and the Middle East whom she knows.  These people are so faithful, even under severe persecution!  Puts Christians in America to shame!   We can’t even stand up and share our beliefs with our neighbors or co-workers who like us!  I want to share these stories with you and urge you to please pray for them, and the persecuted church in general:

Pastor Jack – He’s been persecuted often.  He’s been run off the road, his car has blown up, and a host of other things that I wasn’t fast enough to write down.

Nancy – She’s a 14 year old student.  When her teachers discovered that she converted to Christianity, they all got together and decided that she would receive nothing but zeros on all her schoolwork – even though she’s an excellent student.  When asked why she doesn’t just change schools and pretend to be Muslim she said, “That would be denying Jesus Christ.  Even if they kill me, I will not deny Jesus Christ.”  At fourteen!!!

Mohammed – He lives in Morocco and became a Christian (converted from Islam) via the internet.  His family has disowned him.  His apartment was raided by police and when they found some personal Christian literature, they arrested him.  He was sentenced to two years in prison where he was immediately and repeatedly tortured. Through God’s miracle, the courts dropped the charges and released him after four months.  But no one will allow him to live in their apartment buildings or hire him, so he has no home and no job.  And his family is still disowning him.  Thankfully, some other Christians have taken him in and are currently providing for his needs as he does some work for them.

Nagua – She lives in Egypt and had just gotten off the “women’s train” (because they can’t ride with men), when two Muslim women armed with syringes sprayed battery acid on the backs of her legs as she was walking.  She was able to get to a fountain where she washed off what she could, but much damage had been done.

Jacob – He’s a young student.  I didn’t catch his age, but based on the picture Dr. Pat showed, I’d guess him to be 13-15 years old.  He was in class and a taller boy was blocking his view of the board.  He tapped the boy on the shoulder and politely asked him to shift over a bit.  The boy agreeably complied, but the teacher saw the exchange, hauled him to the front of the class calling him a “filthy dirty Christian” and telling him that he had no right to touch or speak to a Muslim that way.  He then proceeded to give Jacob 40 lashes.  Jacob passed out from the pain and now has scars.  The teacher is a radical Muslim.

Georgette – She escaped from Isis with her grandmother.  For two years, they assumed the rest of the family (her mom, dad and three brothers) was dead because Isis kills everyone.  They just learned that the family all lived and they were reunited in Jordan.

 

The Pastor’s message came from Proverbs 3:1-12.  This was the only word about Father’s Day – a father giving Godly wisdom to his son – except to tell the guys to pick up a box of movie theater candy on the way out.  It’s  gotta be hard to preach on Proverbs, but he did a pretty good job.  Here’s the gist of what he told us:

1. Follow good teaching because it brings peace.
2. Display hessed (loving kindness and truth – both characteristics of God) in your relationships and find acceptance; in God’s sight, but not necessarily in man’s.
3. Don’t trust your own wisdom (because ours is corrupt) and you will receive guidance from God. We must start with submission to God, continue with studying His Word, and we will be guided by the Holy Spirit into understanding.
4. Turn away from evil and you will receive “health”. God’s given us a desire to life for Him and the wisdom to do so through His Word, but we still have to choose – our way or His way – every day.
5. Don’t be greedy and you will be blessed. God loves a cheerful giver.  Give as much as possible, or as you feel led.  If we are given more, it’s so we can give more.  However, we’re not to buy into the “health and wealth” teachings of some TV pastors.  Many if not most of our blessings will be spiritual in nature.
6. Embrace discipline because it means you are loved. Some bad things just happen as a result of living in this world, but some times it’s God’s discipline so we can learn and share in His Holiness.  God’s discipline is more like instruction.

 

Since it was Father’s Day, this was Blaine’s day to plan anything he wanted.  I give him two days every year, his birthday and Father’s Day.  😊

He wanted pancakes from Al Johnson’s (the goat on the roof place).

The wait was over an hour, so we went to Grasse’s across the street.  Good service, great food!  He ordered pancakes and bacon, I tried a different kind of breakfast sandwich – toasted wheat bread, Monterey jack cheese, spinach, pecans and sliced apples.  Mine also came with fruit salad – cantaloupe, strawberries, blueberries and cherries.  It was all really good!  But we were really hungry by then, and I forgot to take pictures.  ☹

He wanted sunshine.  But that didn’t happen until later.

He wanted to visit the Cana Island Lighthouse.  So we did!  It was certainly a different experience getting there!  And the first different experience was the massive temperature drop from our door to the parking lot – 85 to 68 in a matter of just 30 minutes!

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And once there, the inside of the lighthouse revealed a lot of restoration that needed done.  They’re working on it, and I suspect it will be wonderful once they’re finished in a few years.

They send people up the tower steps in small groups.  Walking up the steps, I had to just focus on the steps and not look around.  Teeny, narrow steps make me nervous.  Strange, I know.

 

Very nice setting – especially once the sun came out!  And some very interesting information to be found here.  Especially the letter to Keeper Sanderson.  If you enjoy gossip (and even if you don’t), you’re gonna want to read it!

And here’s a quote from the lighthouse’s information brochure:

In 1882 this comment was logged regarding economics:  “Upon the first of this month the assistant keep at this station was removed and also 17 other stations in this district for lack of funds to pay the salaries as Congress failed to make an appropriation to pay assistant keepers, which cannot be less than a disgrace to any civilized government o the face of the earth.”  ~ William Sanderson.  The assistant was his wife.

Wonder if this was the cause of her sour disposition.  She got fired in 1882.  At some point between 1882 and 1928, they hired a male assistant. . . . instead of her.  If she’d held the position, their family would’ve had a double portion of supplies, plus an extra salary.  Hmmmmm . . . . .

 

 

Back outside – –

 

 

I had suggested we visit The Ridges Sanctuary, since it was close to where we already were, and Blaine agreed.  It’s located in a town called Bailey’s Harbor.

 

This Park is called The Ridges because of the topography.  There are 30 lines of “ridges” and in between them are areas of low/wet ground called “swales”.  They were formed by the movement of Lake Michigan over the past 1100 years.  The Ridges owns 1,600 acres in and around Baileys Harbor.  The area has numerous designations – Wisconsin State Natural Area, National Natural landmark, National Audubon Important Bird Area (we didn’t see or hear many birds . . ) and a Wisconsin Wetland Gem.

 

This place was an opportunity to do some hiking, but after a bit, all the trails were the same, so we left to do some “Urban Hiking”.

 

There was a beach close by and he wanted to see what was going on there, so we went to check it out.  Since it was so windy today, there were a couple of wind-surfers and one who seemed to be taking lessons on dry ground.  There were also a couple of kids brave enough to step into the water.  I don’t know. . . . It’s pretty cold as far as I’m concerned, but kids never seem to care about that.

 

Next, we dropped by the town of Bailey’s Harbor – the downtown/marina area.

Beautiful harbor!

Very pretty little town.

And then, as we were leaving the harbor area, we discovered this fantastic mural!

 

 

Blaine was planning on going back to Rowley’s Resort for the buffet again, only to discover that it was closed.  Well, now what?  He didn’t really feel like driving somewhere now that we were home, so after throwing out a couple of ideas, like “Beans and Weenies”, which was met with a look I’d rather not describe, we settled on leftover pasta that I’d made a couple of days ago.

After dinner, it was movie time.  We had recorded “Fargo” (made in 1996) eons ago.  It’s a “dark comedy” and it truly is both dark (and gross sometimes) and funny.  If you haven’t seen it, I recommend it.  And the odd thing is, we keep overhearing people who talk just like they do in the movie!   😊  By the way – spoiler alert:  the beginning of the movie says it’s a true story, but we came to discover that it’s not really.  The Coen brothers took  elements from two real life crimes and worked them into the screen play, along with the rest of the movie.

And that’s it for today!  Blaine said he had a good day, despite not getting quite everything he wanted.