Longmont, Colorado

Growing up, I attended school at the Longmont, Colorado SDA Elementary School from first though eighth grade. The school was a two room school with the first through fourth grades in one room and the fifth through eighth grades in another. Here is a photo of the upper grades taken during my sixth grade year. I am in the farthest corner just barely visible.


Here is my school photo from that year. It must have been taken at the beginning of the school year as I am still sporting my "summer" haircut.



We never lived in Longmont, but did our shopping there. One of the things that I remember about Longmont was the Great Western Sugar Factory. On our drive from Frederick, and later after we moved, Erie, I could always tell we were getting close to Longmont when I could see the gleaming white silos of the Sugar Factory. The factory was the first thing you would see if you were coming into Longmont from the east.



The Sugar Beet industry was a major force all along the front range of Colorado from the turn of the century up until the late 70's and early 80's. Why did beet sugar in Colorado mostly fade away? The common reasons I've read are competition from cheaper cane sugar abroad, and other sweeteners such as corn syrup. My first job out of high school was working for Dalton Truck Sales near Longmont. They specialized in taking old 2 ton trucks and refurbishing them fitting them with special made Sugar Beet Boxes to haul sugar beets to the factories. These trucks were only used for the harvest season, but were needed to haul the beets. I have painted many sugar beet trucks similar to the one in this photo.


My favorite place in Longmont was the Public Library. During the time I was in school I read just about every book in the kids section of the library. I still remember being disappointed that I was only allowed to check out three books at a time. I also didn't understand why I couldn't check out books from the adult section on my kids library card. I would take my three books home and have them read in a day or two and then begged my Mama to take me back to the library. I kept a flashlight handy for reading after I was supposed to be asleep. The Longmont Public Library was my access to knowledge.



As I got older I loved shopping at the Woolworths Store. There is just something about a Woolworths. One of my favorite singers, Nanci Griffith, wrote a song about Woolworths titled "Love at the Five and Dime". She tells the story of growing up in Austin, Texas and changing buses in front of the Woolworths store. she said that she had just enough time get a vanilla Coke, dig through the record bin, wink at the boys and get back on the bus. My favorite thing to do at Woolworths was digging through the discount record bin. As a kid Woolworths was the only place where I had access to music. I have a large and eclectic music collection and I can say that it all started at Woolworths.





There are so many memories that I have of those years of going to school in Longmont. The Dairy Queen and A&W Root Beer Stand were favorite places for a special treat. We shopped at Ranch Wholesale Supply and The Corner Pantry. Our bank was First National Bank, and they always gave a little box of gum with two Chiclets inside to each of the kids in the car.


Longmont will always hold fond memories of my childhood. The last time I was able to go back and look around was in 2009. The town is no longer the sleepy little town that it was when I was going to school there. It has grown exponentially. While we were there I went by the old school grounds. The building that I went to school in is still there, and really hasn't changes much except there is now a gymnasium attached at the back of the building. I would hate that, because I remember spending a lot of time looking out the full wall of windows that lined the back of the school and daydreaming.

C Is For Coast

It's time again for ABC Wednesday. If you aren't participating in ABC Wednesday, you are missing out on a lot of fun.

This week the letter is C. Recently my wife and I took a trip to the Oregon Coast for a family reunion. We flew out of Tulsa, Oklahoma in an ice storm. Our plane was late taking off and we had to jog through the airport in Denver to make our connecting flight. We just made it on the plane, but our suitcases didn't. The rest of the flight to Portland was uneventful.



It had been more than 10 years since I had visited the Northwest and the Oregon Coast. Although we had one very rainy day while we were there, the weather was lovely and we had one day of absolutely perfect weather with beautiful blue skies. We spent the day visiting Depoe Bay and the Yaquina Head Lighthouse.


DEPOE BAY, OREGON


YAQUINA HEAD LIGHTHOUSE


COBBLE BEACH

On Friday even though the weather was bad we had a great time. The stormy weather made the ocean very turbulent and it was great watching the waves splash at the spouting horns in Depoe Bay.


SPOUTING HORNS - DEPOE BAY, OREGON

Because of the wet weather we decided that it would be a good day to visit the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. The aquarium is excellent and we had a great time there.


JELLYFISH


SHARK TANK


FEEDING THE SHARKS


TIDE POOLS

Every morning I enjoyed walking along the beach as the sun rose. Our condo that was so graciously provided for us by the Boyds had beach access. I love the sights and sounds of the ocean.


FOOTPRINTS ON THE BEACH


WAVES AS THE SUN COMES UP


EARLY MORNING MOON OVER THE OCEAN

The only thing more beautiful than the beach and waves rolling in first thing in the morning is seeing the beautiful sunsets over the ocean as the sun is going down.


THE BEACH AT SUNSET

We had a wonderful time for the four days we were able to spend on the Oregon coast. My wife and I both love the ocean. The family reunion was lovely and we enjoyed visiting with everyone. Everyone we met made us feel welcome; well almost everyone.


TOURIST SEASON

Here is a video montage of our trip to the Oregon Coast. The music is Take Me Away by Helen Austin. You can check out her music here.

Body Armor

How many Bibles do you own? I did a quick inventory at my house and counted over 50. I love to collect Bibles.

There are eight billion Bibles in the world. That's more than one for each person on the earth. This does not include digital versions of the Bible on computers, ebook readers and iPhones. Over 190,000 Bibles are sold or given away every day. But despite all that, according to a Christianity Today survey, less than 10% of professed Christians regularly read their Bible. What that basically means is that we as Christians are biblically illiterate.


In Ephesians 6:11-13 Paul writes, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”


If we are in a battle like this armor is important. No soldier would want to go into battle without armor. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the body armor provided to U.S. troops. A January 3, 2011 Inspector General Report is the fourth report in less than three years criticizing the body armor program. It is an important issue because we want our troops to have the best armor available. We as Christians also need to make sure that we have the best armor available when we go into battle against the Devil. What armor is available to us?


Ephesians 6:14-17 tells us, “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Notice that there are five defensive items listed, but also listed as armor is an offensive weapon; The Sword of the Spirit. A soldier might rely on his body armor, but he must have a weapon to do battle.


Jesus is our example when it comes to Christian Warfare. I’m sure you remember the story of Jesus being tempted by Satan in the wilderness.

We read the story in Luke 4:3-8 “And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’” Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’

Jesus used the sword by saying “It is written”. This is our example of how to use the offensive weapon, the Word of God, in battle. To be able to use this weapon, we must place it in our memory. I can’t use the physical book as a weapon; I can only use the wisdom it contains.

The Bible is the only weapon that a Christian has at his disposal, and yet ninety percent of Christians don’t regularly read it. Can you imagine an army going into battle with only ten percent of the soldiers carrying a weapon? Can you imagine the outcome?

The Bible contains God's living water and we live in a world that is dehydrated. We need to keep ourselves hydrated and you can't get a drink just once a week and stay hydrated.

I hope you will join with me in resolving to spend more time with the Word of God. Don’t go into battle without your weapon.

B Is For Belize

It's time again for ABC Wednesday. If you aren't participating in ABC Wednesday, you are missing out on a lot of fun.

This week the letter is B. My favorite place to visit is Belize. Belize is a small country in Central America. In February 2004, 17 members of my church raised 20,000 dollars and went to San Pedro, Belize in Central America to build a church. While we were there we made lots of friends. We were only in San Pedro for a short time, but by the time we left the walls of the church were finished. During the following months, the church members in San Pedro finished the church building. Below are photos of the completed church.


NEW HORIZON SDA CHAPEL


BICYCLES AT CHURCH


NEW HORIZON SDA SCHOOLROOM

During our stay in Belize we learned to love the people, the culture, and the natural beauty. We have returned three times since our first trip, and we have had friends from Belize come visit us in Arkansas. We have made so many friends while in San Pedro. You can read the story of our friendship with the Amaya family here.


ANGEL AMAYA

On our first trip to Belize, my wife and little Jeffery formed a special bond almost immediately. She held him through church. She played with him on the beach. Jeffery's Mom and Dad helped with the construction of the chapel, so we spent time together. Whenever Jeffery was where my wife was, he wanted to be with her. We stay in touch with Jeffery and his family. We recieved a phone call from them just a couple of weeks ago. The story of little Jeffery is here.


JEFFERY AND HIS MOM

During our visits to San Pedro, we have become good friends with Rigoberto Roches and his wife Shirley. They are wonderful friends who have invited us into there home. During the summer of 2008 they came to visit us in Arkansas. The story of their visit was published in our church paper. You can read it here.


MY DEAR FRIEND RIGOBERTO

One of our favorite things to do when we visit Belize is to go snorkeling. Belize has the second longest barrier reef in the world. Inside the reef, the waters are shallow and calm, and the amount of wildlife is amazing. Besides many kinds of fish and coral, there are stingrays and sharks. One of the tour guides that we made friends with was Eddie. He likes to play with the sharks, and had my wife Gina help him bring this one to the surface for a photo opp.


GINA AND EDDIE HOLD A SHARK

Belize is a beautiful and interesting place to visit. If you are a scuba diver, it is one of the premier diving locations in the world. I loved getting up every morning to photograph the sunrise. There just happened to be some fisherman out on the water as I was taking this shot. It is one of my favorite photos from Belize.


FISHERMAN SUNRISE

Every morning I was in San Pedro I would walk through the town taking photos. Here is a slideshow of San Pedro coming to life set to the song "Good Mawnin Belize".

Crazy Japanese Microvans

I ran across these photos over at the blog A Time To Get. They really grabbed my attention as I had never seen anything like these. They are awesome, I would love to have one. Dream Factory Blow takes the stock micro vans that cram the streets of Japan, and turns them into custom creations styled after iconic American vans of the 1970s.





















The creators of these vans get an A+ in my book for originality and gosh darn cuteness

A Is For ADRA In Haiti

It's time again for ABC Wednesday. If you aren't participating in ABC Wednesday, you are missing out on a lot of fun.

This week starts a brand new round of ABC Wednesday. My post is A is for ADRA. ADRA is the acronym for The Adventist Development and Relief Agency. ADRA is one of the charities that I contribute to. Although they are active in over 120 countries around the world, I have been particularly interested in their work in Haiti this last year.



A little over one year has passed since the devastating earthquake struck the island nation of Haiti on January 12, 2010. The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) has provided more than $4 million in aid, personnel and assets to assist Haitian survivors in the months since the earthquake.

Throughout the twelve months that have passed since the January earthquake, ADRA has been focused on managing displaced persons camps, water purification, food, the distribution of non-food items, sanitation and hygiene, psychosocial support, education, and semi-permanent shelters.




To date, ADRA has built over 2,500 shelters for displace families, benefiting more than 15,000 displaced persons. These efforts have been focused in the Carrefour district, just outside the city of Port au Prince, close to the epicenter of the quake. The following list of activities briefly summarizes ADRA’s work over the past year:

Camp Management:

* ADRA managed a camp of more than 20,000 displaced Haitians in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Carrefour.
* Activities included the training of zonal community leaders and counselors, providing security, water, health and psychosocial programs, food, and non-food item distributions.


Water:

* ADRA and Canada-based partner GlobalMedic purified more than 130,000 liters of water a day in Carrefour during the initial phase of the response using 64 water purification units, including 62 motorcycle-powered mobile units.
* The mobile units were dispatched to approximately 50 sites a day in Carrefour, Port-au-Prince, Jacmel, and Cap Haitian.
* Assistance also included more than 5 million water purification tablets, 110,000 water purification sachets, 55,000 Oral Rehydration Salt units, and 86,000 Aquatabs donated by UNICEF.
* Since the earthquake, ADRA has purified more than 18 million liters of water.
* A water purification system called Nomad continues to purify and provide nearly 50,000 liters of clean water each day to the ADRA-managed camp in Carrefour.




Food:

* ADRA worked with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to distribute 4,802 metric tons of food to more than 776,000 people during three massive food distributions between January and March.
* A donation of 16.5 tons of baby food from Germany was distributed in the Carrefour camp.


Non-food Items:

* ADRA distributed more than 50,000 non-food items to earthquake survivors, including shoes, hygiene kits, jerry cans, kitchen sets, shelter tool kits, solar light kits, tarps, tool kits, medicines, and flashlights. Upcoming distributions include mattress pads, blankets, and mosquito nets.


Sanitation and Hygiene:

* A total of 75 latrines were built in six camps and one permanent latrine was improved benefitting a total of 3,396 families. The project also provided cash-for-work for 86 individuals who dug the latrine holes.
* ADRA constructed 95 new bathing places and rehabilitated one previous bathing space in eight camps, assisting 7,241 families.
* ADRA secured support from UNICEF to provide 221 mobile latrines and daily servicing of waste removal from mid-March until the end of June. In July, ADRA received 150 mobile latrines from the Clinton Foundation on behalf of UNICEF.
* A team of 50 sanitation workers from among the camp population cleaned the sanitation facilities twice a day.
* ADRA constructed two solid waste pits and employed a team of 50 from the camp to pick up and collect waste on a daily basis.
* Eight cash-for-work projects where completed, benefitting 169 workers with livelihood support.
* Some 15 truckloads of trash were removed from one camp in Carrefour.
* Seven camps received tools for camp cleaning.
* A total of 35 stations were built for laundry washing.
* ADRA built a bridge to improve the safety and convenience of camp residents walking to collect filtered water.





Health:

* Between January and mid-April, ADRA operated two free primary medical clinics in the Carrefour camp. One was set-up inside a mobile tent and the other in a local primary school in Carrefour. During this period, more than 7,000 people received assistance. After April, the two mobile clinics were consolidated and have so far treated more than 5,500 patients.
* ADRA conducted a one-month immunization campaign, which vaccinated more than 12,000 infants, children and adults with vaccine materials provided by the World Health Organization.
* ADRA community health nurses were based in each of the 12 designated zones inside the Carrefour camp. They were trained to triage patients, recognize infant and child malnutrition, and to educate mothers in lactation and optimum nutrition.
* Cholera prevention education project trained individuals in the community of Carrefour on preventative measures and emergency treatment of the disease.


Shelter:

* ADRA provided 900 large family-size tents throughout Haiti, including 453 in Carrefour.
* More than 2,700 semi-permanent shelters have been constructed in Carrefour and Petit-Goave.



ADRA’s focus remains on the long-term reconstruction of Haiti. Operating in Haiti for 30 years, ADRA is committed to the Haitian people and their country’s recovery.

To contribute to ADRA’s life-saving work, call 1.800.424.ADRA (2372) or give online here

ADRA is a global non-governmental organization providing sustainable community development and disaster relief without regard to political or religious association, age, gender, race or ethnicity.

For more information about ADRA, visit this link