Pool Water Filtration at My House

I have a modest house in Florida and many even modest homes have a swimming pool.  Mine was probably constructed back in the 1980's although the house dates to the 1970's.  The pool is almost 8' deep at the drain and is constructed of cement.  It takes exactly 10,031 gallons of water to fill it to proper level about midway up the dark blue tile border.   We don't use the pool as much as one would imagine so its probably the most expensive decoration a home can have.   Its a shame really but water and plenty of it is soothing to the human soul so to even look at it is comforting.  I have a creek that runs along the back yard which I will mention later.

Recently visistors were to come to the house and stay for a week so my wife authorized me to change out the water and get it ready for swimming.  Financial times have been tough so part of my austerity program was to spend 0 dollars on the pool.  I just let it go.  Here's a picture at the end of 6 months of neglect.

Mr. and Mrs. Froggy found a living off bugs and larvae and who knows what else.  They settled in and had children all of which were later pumped out to the creek.  Maud and Claude were relocated to the creek bank as well.  A lovely couple and outstanding swimmers to catch with my skimmer net.

It was really quite easy to drain the cruddy water and pressure wash the walls and scour it with bleach.  The most problem was fussing with equipment like the gas engine and the electric sump pump when it had problems.  That being done I filled the pool with a garden hose over a period of about 3 days.  I turn it off during peak use times out of consideration of neighbors plus I don't want to run it during the night and risk overfilling.  In Sarasota county if you don't report your water usage in this way you will be charged for sewage treatment. They don't know that your 10,000 gallons didn't go back into the public system after all.

My circulation pump is a 1hp motor and it forces water through a Pentair FNS DE filter.  Diatomaceous Earth filters for pools are the finest level of reasonable filtration possible.  The media costs very little and looks exactly like bread flour.  You mix it in a 5 gal. bucket of water and slowly pour it into the return skimmer screen.  Over 2 or 3 days of running the garden hose you get some dust and pollen from the air but not a whole lot.  Most visible are just insects and leaves.  The next picture is a combined before and after shot of my pool.  'Before' is the city water un-balanced, un-filtered, and not chlorinated for people to swim in.  'After' is just 24 hours of filtering, a bag of pool shock and 1.5 gallons of pool chlorine.  In 24 hours my circulation pump has probably passed all the water twice through the DE filter grids.  Look at the amazing results.

The colors you see are the colors not absorbed by the water from the rainbow of colors.  The light is a ordinary filament bulb that gives off primarily a yellow-white light.  Photo taken at night with no flash obviously.  If anything this is proof that city water does need a little scrubbing but is good enough for human consumption.  The Pentair DE filter is capable of filtration down to 1/10 the width of a human hair or about the size of a particle of fog.  I think its a great filter and I recommend it.  I had a Jacuzzi brand DE filter and it was so complex and delicate I dreaded working with it.

I did have to adjust the Alkalinity a little with city water which brings me to my point about the creek behind my house.  The creek is basically a drainage canal of fresh water coming from commercial building condensation water drainage, neighborhoods watering lawns, rainwater obviously and tinted from the roots of plants.  BUT when I have filled my pool only with creek water the chemistry was perfect.  I needed no adjustment to Ph or alkalinity.  Just shock it and filter it and it was good to go.  I think that's interesting in itself.

More Church Unification or "Nobody is as Dumb as All of Us"

To read up on this topic you can click -->World Communion of Reformed Churches .  But to read up and become as well informed as I am on the specific topic of Gender Justice in this unification of reformed churches you can click on the title of this post.  A PDF file will open up and you will be able to read the agenda outline of a royal smart female in this organization.  Gender justice resource paper has an intended purpose of finishing the work the ancients failed to implement.

Topic Sentence for this posting:  "John Calvin, John Knox, Martin Bucer, Heinrich Bullinger, Peter Martyr Vermigli, and Huldrych Zwingli you all have really cool names but you are all miserable failures for not beginning the work of gender equality and sexual orientation equality in your respective reformed churches.  We, the women, and we the women who are genetic errors are about to set you straight.  This is a historical step that the wise, all sufficient 100% biblically correct modern women of today will complete for you."

Resources: Any of the names and organizations mentioned in this posting can be easily researched in Wikipedia.  I am no expert and except for reading a little more from other sources Wikipedia will get you up and running in definitions and history.

Warning to Readers:  Do Not read too much about the issues of the Reformation Movement, the churchy vocabulary that defines it and the various creeds that contain it.  Otherwise you will tempt insanity from information  overload.  A side effect would be to come to a new appreciation of the ecumenical graduates whose theses were based on memorization of said overload.  Jesus saves.  That's all you have to know.

I could make this really complicated and paste diagrams of all the churches and denominations of the Reformation Movement but I want to make this easy to get to the point.  Instead I'm going to paste a railroad freight classification yard.

At the near end of the freight classification yard where the little gender neutral person is hanging off the side of the boxcar is representation of the results of unification.  Mid-picture all the rails represent various reformed churches.  Why use the term 'reformed'?  Because at the furthermost distant end of the rail yard that you cannot see is a single rail called The Catholic Church.  This rail yard, as many do, has a bypass around it for hotshot manifests that don't need anything added or subtracted because the hotshot manifests are sufficient to themselves as complete for the destination in the delivery of their train car contents.

There you have it!  The whole explanation of The Reformation Movement Unification in one photo and 4 sentences.  When you take that and add it to Bible scripture you have, possibly, 2 churches of the 7 churches alluded to in Revelation 1 and cryptically mentioned in Revelation 2.  This is a milestone in the spiritual history of the world.

Jesus said to us that we will hear wars and rumors of wars and that we should not be alarmed by that but that the end is still to come. (Mark 13)  Just easily one could conclude that we can hear of splits and rumors of unification among divisions of the church but do not be alarmed the end is still to come.  The Catholic Church views itself as the one true church and the Reformed Church, as a bad child, with no root historical connection to St. Paul and Jesus.  Reality is who cares what the Catholic Church thinks they have problems sufficient for their days.

The problem I have with these modernist progressive women and their cause is that without knowing it they denigrate and undermine the contributions of women in the church throughout history.  Worst is in the WCRC there is no room for discussion. It has been decided.  But to read this paper of the Reverend Patricia Sheerattan-Bisnauth an outsider would think that church ladies have been expected to wear burkah's or be barefoot and pregnant for their entire life in the church.  I have been a baptized Christian since the age of 12 and in my teen years a female ordained minister was hired at my Christian Church Disciples of Christ to wear the robe alongside our man minister.  The Holy Spirit alerted me that this was unnatural to God's design of the church because there was no shortage of men.  There are instances I am certain that have occurred in history where most of the men had been killed in war and a woman has stood up and served to pastor a village or to serve as a deaconess but it is not their place to be there on normal basis.  In other words there is a reason why men should be pastors and deacons and I will leave that for you to discover.  We haven't even touched the sodomite issue.

Anytime you want to know where a church denomination stands on sodomy search for discussions of gender.  Keywords surrounding this acceptance include 'gender', 'diversity', 'ethnic unification', 'cultural awareness' dialogs expressing 'concerns'.  In the Bible God condemns the adding or subtracting of words from scripture.  These women in the church are careful to avoid it technically speaking but in reality they are adding words that are not there.  Challenge me on that.  Give me proof.  Reverend Patricia gives her proof in Galatians 3:28.  What do you think?

Worldly Fun Stuff

Since the Supercenter opened traffic in the parking lot is jammed all the time.  People are so intent on getting the very first parking spot that they jam the whole lane full.  My tactic is to just get my shopping done and get out.  So I park in the back of the lot and, walking in at a normal pace, I get in before all the people parking up close.  What makes it worse is that 4 different groups will load groceries into their cars and instantly want out at the same time.  So they begin backing out.  What a hassle.

The best part is I might start working there.  My wife is pushing from inside for somebody to give me a call.  Makes sense monetarily even if Walmart pays less than the church.  Like earning 12/hr for 20 hours is the same as working 40 hours at 6/hr so if Walmart paid 9/hr then I'd be money ahead over the 40hour week.

  I'm trying to be productive here whilst the hubub is out of the house.  I'm painting some inside trim and front door and touchup stuff.  But I rented a couple of action films to watch that would've been too disruptive.  Braveheart I watched this morning before returning it.  What a long movie that was and it was a challenge eating toast and cereal while spears were going through people's heads.  Ever seen Braveheart?  I recommend it.  The main storyline is historically accurate overall so its not like watching something made up.  Getting the time frame in my head is thought provoking to say the least.  I'm accustomed to reading ancient stories and history.  So when you watch a movie portray Scotland in 1230AD and look how primitive life is portrayed and even how Edinburgh may have looked then you realize that even that is one thousand two hundred years after the death of Christ.  Sort of gives me an appreciation for how well preserved the bible is compared to any documents coming out of Scotland in 1230AD.  Its supernatural in fact.

Oh what do you think of the Icelandic volcano?  You know there are a lot of events happening right now but next time someone decides to launch a volcano they should at least name it something easy like we do hurricanes.  Volcano Betsy is much easier to pronounce than Volcano Eyjafjallajokull!  Sheesh.  Volcano Sheesh is another easy name to pronounce.

Take that global warming believers and think about it.
Give it a ticket!  Fine it a bazillion dollars for pollutin'. 
Tell it not to erupt until it has earned more carbon credits.

  Hears the faith lesson in all of this:

• In the last 365 days we have seen a volcano ground all the planes of the European Union.
• The earth shook half an island and reduced it to rubble.
• The earth shook the southern tip of South America causing infrastructure to collapse like a child's playthings.
• Tsunami waves washed ashore thousands of miles away.
• Earthquake in northern Mexico causing a little confusion
• Submarine earthquake off the coast of Honduras plus an earthquake on the mainland of Honduras wrecking roads and disrupting day to day lives.
• A plague launching out of Mexico called H1N1.
• A very lovely fireball meteor landing and not hurting anything but reminding us all that we don't know where everything is in space.
  

With one exception, the virus, insurance companies are left with no other terminology other than calling them Acts of God.  It isn't their statement of belief necessarily they just have to fill out a form and put something on the blank line.

This is a quote of something, an event, that is still to happen in the future, that was dictated to a man named Ezekiel.  It hasn't happened yet but you can see now that it is possible from just what I wrote above and what you catch on the news about world events. 

"When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign LORD. 19 In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. 20 The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground. 21 I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign LORD. Every man's sword will be against his brother. 22 I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. 23 And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD." This isn't even the final battle just a warmup.  Ezekiel 39 then describes the drunken feast of the animals that normally clean up roadkill.

To Steven Hawking and Richard Dawkins and others likeminded I say "A fool says in his heart there is no God."

Israel-US crisis deepens

Pastor Mike wants you to have this news update on the
state of Israel/Palestinian relations. David Dolan has
been reporting on news in the Middle East since 1980.
A good and balanced news source. Pastor Mike


CRISIS DEEPENS IN US-ISRAEL RELATIONS
By David Dolan


A new wave of Palestinian violence engulfed Jerusalem
and surrounding areas during March, leaving several
dead and many others wounded in its wake. Israeli
officials and political analysts indicated that the
American government was at least partly to blame for
the renewed unrest, which broke out after US leaders
issued harsh condemnations of Israeli home building in
the small country's capital city.


During a late March visit to the United States, Israeli
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu made clear that he
will never order a halt to Jewish home construction in
the holy city that has been the Jewish people's most
sacred site on earth for over 3,000 years. He stated
this one day before meeting several times with US
President Barack Obama at the White House. Israeli
media reports said the meetings were extremely tense,
with the US leader himself insisting that Netanyahu
must immediately halt all home construction in areas of
Jerusalem captured from Jordanian forces in 1967,
including the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.


Netanyahu consulted with six "inner security cabinet"
ministers, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak who
was accompanying him on his US trip, before reportedly
telling the President that Israel's home building policy
in Jerusalem will never be altered. The Israeli Premier
noted that this has been the consistent policy of all
Israeli governments over the past 43 years, and that
fact didn't stop Yasser Arafat from signing the
American-mediated Oslo peace accords in the 1990s,
nor prevent peace agreements from being reached with
Egypt and Jordan. He also pointed out that he has
ordered many actions over the past year that have
significantly eased living conditions in Palestinian cities
and towns, including the tearing down of dozens of
Israeli security roadblocks that has facilitated
Palestinian economic activity. News reports said
Netanyahu was considering a request from the
American leader for additional concessions in order to
get the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.
While security forces were focused on restoring calm in
Arab populated portions of Jerusalem, fresh violence
broke out in the Gaza Strip, leaving two Israeli soldiers
dead. The clashes began when an army patrol unit
came upon Palestinian infiltrators planting bombs next
to the border fence. Israeli tank and artillery was then
fired at known Hamas militia positions in the area. One
week earlier, a Thai agricultural worker was killed when
a rocket landed on the farm he was working on inside
Israeli territory. Security officials warned that Israel
will need to respond in a major way if the unprovoked
assaults continue, noting that over 325 rockets have
landed inside Israel since the Gaza conflict ended on
January 18, 2009, most of them deliberately launched
at civilian areas.
Vigilance was maintained along the northern borders
with Lebanon and Syria. This came as Israel's armed
forces chief told a Knesset committee that the
Iranian-backed Hizbullah militia is deploying more men
in southern Lebanon in apparent anticipation of a
possible upcoming clash with IDF forces. Arab news
reports revealed that hundreds of Sunni Palestinian
men have arrived in Lebanon in recent months to fight
alongside the radical Shiite Lebanese force. Iranian
leaders issued more verbal blasts against Israel during
the month, saying the Jewish state is in the process of
being abandoned by its Western allies and will soon be
destroyed.


AMERICAN SCORN TRIGGERS FRESH UNREST


Whenever political relations are strained between the
United States and Israel, anti-American Arab Muslim
groups like Hamas seem to see this as an opportunity
to foment violent clashes with Israeli security forces.
After fairly warm ties during the eight years that the
Bush administration governed America, tensions
between Washington and Jerusalem have been
mushrooming over the past year, sparked off by
Barrack Obama's verbal pressure on the Netanyahu
government to halt all construction in the disputed
territories and eastern Jerusalem.
Relations deteriorated even further while Vice President
Joe Biden was visiting Israel during the first week of
March. The American official was in the country to
inaugurate indirect US-mediated peace negotiations
between the Netanyahu government and the
Palestinian Authority.
The day after Biden arrived at Ben Gurion Airport, an
announcement was released by the Israeli Interior
Ministry stating that permits would be issued to build
1,600 new housing units, mainly apartments, in the
northeast Jerusalem suburb of Ramat Shlomo, which
translates into English as "The Heights of Solomon."
Already home to hundreds of observant Jews, the
suburb lies between the eastern slops of the Mount of
Olives and Mount Scopus and one of the largest Jewish
communities in the disputed territories, Ma'ale
Adumim.
Biden quickly echoed Palestinian leaders in strongly
condemning the announced building project. In his
remarks, he implied that he was personally insulted
that such a declaration was made while he was in
Israel, indicating he viewed it as a deliberate slap in
the face by the Prime Minister.


NO SNUB INTENDED


PM Netanyahu and his top aides tried to explain to the
offended American deputy leader and his entourage
that they did not know in advance the Interior Ministry
would make what officials in the ministry viewed as a
routine announcement. They said American officials
should understand that unlike the United States with its
two party political system, Israel is a parliamentary
democracy that is always ruled by coalition
governments comprised of several different political
parties with varying positions and opinions. Each party
views the ministries they control as their own little
"government" inside the larger coalition quilt.
One of Netanyahu's current partners, the Orthodox
Shas party, runs the Interior Ministry, as they have
done for most of the past 25 years under both Labor
and Likud-led governments. The party always seeks
control of the Interior Ministry primarily because it has
direct authority over marriages (which by law must be
carried out by an ordained rabbi if either the bride or
groom are Jewish), along with funerals. The ministry
also disperses tax revenues to cities and towns for local
projects like synagogue building, and issues housing
permits.
Netanyahu explained to Biden that a low level
committee simply finished its routine review of the
proposed Ramat Shlomo project, and simply by
coincidence issued the building permits the day before
the Vice President arrived in Israel. Netanyahu and
other officials apologized to Biden for the bad timing of
the announcement. Later the Premier ordered that all
future Jerusalem building announcements be
coordinated first with his office.
However Netanyahu also told the Vice President that he
should be more mindful of the politically risky actions
he has taken in response to the American demand that
all settlement construction be halted. He noted that
the Civil Administration which oversees Jewish affairs in
Judea and Samaria has issued more than 400
stop-work orders and confiscated over 40 pieces of
heavy machinery used by contractors since the Israeli
building ban went into effect the end of November.
This occurred despite strong protests from many of
Netanyahu's political backers. He also noted that 11
structures and building foundations have been
demolished, despite furious protests from Jewish
residents who see this as feeding Muslims hopes and
expectations that over 350,000 Jews will be uprooted
from their homes as part of any final peace settlement
with Israel.
US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton added fuel to the
fire by terming the Interior Ministry announcement "an
insult" to America, adding that Israel needed to make
the current building ban permanent and halt all
construction in the eastern half of Jerusalem. This
came as Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to
America, sent out a memo saying diplomatic relations
between the United States and Israel are more strained
now than they have been since the mid 1970s, when
the Israeli government resisted American pressure to
evacuate IDF forces from the Sinai peninsula, captured
during the 1973 Yom Kippur war that began when Egypt
and Syria attacked Israel on its holiest day with full
Soviet backing.


A LITTLE BACKTRACKING


As violent Palestinian protests spread to several
portions of Jerusalem, Biden seemed to grasp that the
American administration might be adding to the unrest
by making a mountain out of a molehill. On his last full
day in the country, he delivered a speech before
students at Tel Aviv University that Israeli leaders
characterized as quite friendly. He justified his anger
over the home building announcement by stating "Quite
frankly folks, only a friend can deliver the hardest
truth." But then he added that "American support for
Israel is not just an act of friendship; it's an act of
fundamental national self-interest on the part of the
United States, a key component to our broader efforts
to secure this region and a wider world, as well as our
own security."


The Vice President said he fully appreciates Israel's
apprehension to take additional risks for peace after its
military withdrawal from South Lebanon in May 2000
and Gaza Strip evacuation in August 2005 were met
with "rockets as a reward." Biden also spoke of "the
special connection to Israel" felt by American Jews, and
said the Obama government expects indirect American
mediated peace talks to begin soon, despite the Israeli
Interior Ministry's ill-timed housing announcement.
President Obama himself seemed to realize that things
were getting out of hand. He made a rare appearance
on the Fox News network where he averred that "Israel
is one of our closest allies on earth." He also noted that
"the Israeli people have a special bond with us and it's
not going to go away," although he added that "friends
are going to disagree sometimes" and that the Israeli
building announcement "was not helpful" to American
efforts to re-start the stalled peace process.
Political analysts said the President was partly reacting
to strong criticism of his approach to Israel over the
past year which appeared mid month in both the
normally left of center Washington Post and the more
right wing Wall Street Journal. The Post editorial laid
the blame for deteriorating US-Israeli relations
squarely on the President's shoulders, saying "It has
been startling, and a little puzzling, to see Mr. Obama
deliberately plunge into another public brawl with the
Jewish state." The paper added that this will hardly
help persuade the Palestinian Authority to return to the
negotiating table. The Journal editorial was even more
pointed, maintaining that "If the Obama Administration
opts to transform itself, as the Europeans have, into
another set of lawyers for the Palestinians, it will find
Israeli concessions increasingly hard to come by."


Several members of Obama's own Democratic Party
also voiced criticism of his dealings with Israel.
Representative Gary Peters from Michigan said, he
hoped "the administration will end its unnecessary
denunciations of Israel and will instead turn its focus to
working with Congress to finally enact strong sanctions
on Iran." Former Democratic Party vice presidential
candidate Joe Lieberman, now a registered
Independent, joined with Republican Senator John
McCain to state on the Senate floor that "the American
relationship with Israel is one of the strongest, most
important, most steadfast bilateral alliances we have in
the world."


PM Netanyahu met earlier the same day with Speaker
of the House Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader John
Boehner, thanking them for their "constant support and
unflagging friendship." He added that although "the
challenges we face are immense, our will and our
partnership is also immense."


However a substantially different tone was adopted by
a senior American military leader. Testifying before a
Senate committee just days after the acrimonious
Biden visit to Israel, General David Petraeus, the
army's Central Command chief, alleged that "Israeli
government intransigence" was "harming US interests"
in the Middle East. Adopting words that some in Israel
saw as clearly anti-Semitic, he added that this
supposed "intransigence" could contribute to future
American military casualties in the region. Some
analysts said this was yet another worrying sign that
the Obama administration may be backing away from
fully supporting Israel in its ongoing conflict with Iran,
with the consent of at least some senior military
leaders.


PEACE TALKS ON HOLD


Joe Biden asserted that the ill timed Israeli apartment
building announcement might prevent the Palestinians
from returning to the peace table. This came after
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said that the PA
"can't go to the talks while Israel is building
settlements." However Arab and Israeli media reports
claimed that PA leader Abbas will order his negotiators
to attend the indirect negotiations after a "suitable
delay" designed to demonstrate their anger that more
religious Israeli Jews will be living not far from the
Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site on earth, which
Palestinian Muslims claim as exclusively their own.


During a speech before the American-Israel Public
Affairs Committee in New York, PM Netanyahu,
countered that Jerusalem is Israel's eternal capital city,
not some "settlement" that might be torn down as a
result of any final peace accord. In a passionate
speech, he reviewed the deep, ancient and enduring
Jewish connection to the holy city, gaining sustained
applause from his mostly Jewish audience. The
Premier later told his cabinet ministers that
"establishing Jewish neighborhoods does not hurt
Jerusalem's Arab residents, and is not at their
expense." Israeli officials pointed out to their American
colleagues that PA leader Mahmoud Abbas had sat
down to discuss peace terms with the former Barak and
Olmert governments while Jewish home building
proceeded in the disputed territories and in all portions
of Jerusalem, as was also the case when Yasser Arafat
discussed the Oslo peace deal with the government led
by Yitzhak Rabin.


It is precisely the Obama administration's repeated
demands last year that Netanyahu halt all construction
that has caused the Palestinians to dig in their heels,
they aver, despite the fact that last November, the
Premier did order a ten month halt to all home
construction in all contested communities north and
south of Jerusalem's municipal boundaries. They noted
that Netanyahu's decision caused a major commotion
with some of his coalition partners and many members
of his own Likud party, even if it at least partially
pleased the White House.


Despite the escalating tensions in US-Israeli diplomatic
relations, Benjamin Netanyahu requested a meeting
with President Obama the day after his AIPAC speech.
In the end, the Premier stayed an extra two days in
Washington to meet several times with the American
leader and to consult with his top aides on what actions
he might take to ease tensions. The Israeli delegation
remained tight lipped on how the meetings went, but
the Israeli press portrayed them as extremely strained.
They noted that Obama abruptly left one of the
meetings mid way in order to eat supper with his wife
and two daughters in his private White House quarters,
suddenly leaving the Israeli leader alone with some of
his aides. American officials also refused to allow the
media to cover the meetings or take any pictures of the
two leaders, despite the fact that photographers are
normally allowed to snap shots of visiting foreign
dignitaries meeting with the President.


DAYS OF RAGE


An attempt by the radical Palestinian Hamas movement
to stage a massive "day of rage" last October failed to
bring many people into the streets of Jerusalem and
other areas to clash with Israeli security forces.
However just one day after the American Vice
President's official visit ended, many Jerusalem streets
were filled with violence once again. As has been the
case so many times over the past 80 years, the unrest
began on the Temple Mount, which Muslim's call the
Islamic "Noble Sanctuary."


Acting on security tips that violent actions were being
planned on the Friday after Biden left the country,
police forces were beefed up in and around Jerusalem.
Palestinian Muslim males under the age of 50 were
prevented from attending Friday prayers on the Temple
Mount. This sparked off clashes at the holy site and in
nearby neighborhoods, which spread over the weekend
to other parts of the disputed territories. A closure was
imposed on the areas, which was later extended over
five days.


Meanwhile Hamas took advantage of the situation to
call for a "Day of Rage" on Monday, March 15. This
was timed to coincide with the official opening of the
large Hurva synagogue in Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter
which was first constructed in 1701, and served as the
center of Jewish religious and cultural life until
Jordanian troops deliberately blew it up after occupying
the walled Old City in 1948. Several Israeli policemen
were injured as Palestinian rioters took to the streets,
with one officer shot in the process, suffering medium
injuries. Over 100 Palestinians were treated for mostly
minor injuries as the clashes spread to many Arab
neighborhoods.
Speaking at the dedication ceremony, Ashkenazi Chief
Rabbi Yonah Metzger said Muslim claims that the
restored synagogue will somehow harm their interests
on the Temple Mount, located over two blocks east of
the site, are entirely baseless. "All we are doing is
resurrecting the Hurva, which was destroyed more than
60 years ago. We have no intention of rebuilding the
Temple." He added that "rumors suggesting we will
later march on the Temple Mount are just that, rumors;
inspired by a media spin by anti-Semites who wish us
harm."
Israeli officials expressed dismay that the PA leadership
allowed a public square in Ramallah to be renamed in
honor of Dalal Mughrabi, a Palestinian female terrorist
who participated in a heinous PLO attack upon an
Israeli civilian bus in 1978 that took the life of 13 Israeli
children and 23 adults, along with a visiting American
Jewish photographer. PA leaders had earlier said the
planned ceremony would be indefinitely postponed at
the request of US officials. They claimed that "local
residents and Fatah supporters" had carried out the
renaming ceremony without official PA government
sanction, which Israeli analysts said was absurd given
that PA security forces control the city and could have
easily prevented the large public gathering from taking
place.


The restored Hurva synagogue, with its white painted
dome visible from my Jerusalem apartment window, is
a reminder that the Jewish people continue to thrive in
their capital city, despite how the nations, including
Israel's closest allies, react to that fact. Israel's God
warns that He will also react one day to world meddling
in the status of Jerusalem: "It will come about in that
day that will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the
peoples: all who lift it will be severely injured. And all
the nations of the earth will be gathered against it.
(Zechariah 12:3)


*********************************************


*********************************************


***********************************
DAVID DOLAN is a Jerusalem-based author and


journalist who has lived and worked in Israel since


1980.

YouTube View Counts - What they mean in the Atheist debate

Tonight I got sidetracked viewing YouTube postings of Richard Dawkins snappy responses to stupid questions and I discovered something.  There is a huge discrepancy between the number of people looking for comfort from the Christian Evangelical viewpoint and the Christians looking for a way to dispute and embarrass Atheists.  Search for 'Dawkins' and look at the view counts of some of his snippets of videos answering questions about God.  One for a speech he gave at a women's college near Liberty University had well over a million views!  The question an audience member posed was "What if you are wrong?".  By contrast the number of views of Christian originated videos refuting atheism were lucky to earn 25,000 views!

What does this say?  It says that Christians are making a huge difference because if their arrows weren't hitting their mark in day to day life the atheists would never need to seek the balm of videos of Dawkins making smartypants, shallow, Biblically illiterate comedy answers.  Answers always followed with tons of laughter from audiences with itching ears.

The sad part is if the scene was traded; if the audience were filled with Christians and Dawkins or another leading atheist were at the podium there would be sincere concern for souls to be won and that's serious business.  We wouldn't laugh at atheists and make fun of them and minimize them and trivialize them and marginalize them.

The issue in our society was well defined in a recent newsletter from the Ravi Zacharias International ministry:

"In fact, long before theology was ushered out of the public square, out of politics, economics, and the sciences, it was considered to be the highest science, the study of the rational Mind behind our own rational minds. It was the discipline that made sense of every other discipline, the subject that united every subject. Such a perspective is inherently foreign to the contemporary mindset. But it cannot be shooed away like a meddling religion or deferred like an unwanted question without dismissing some sense of cohesion—and without dismissing Christ himself. His very life is a refutation of compartmentalized thought, belief, and action. His cross was neither public nor private; it spanned both, and every century following its own." (Jill Carattini is managing editor of A Slice of Infinity at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.  )

The real answer that Mr. Richard Dawkins should have given the student is "If I'm wrong then I will be eternally separated from the creator I thought didn't exist.  I will be sent to a place where my sins will be played back to me forever and I will be tormented forever and long for a single drop of water and I will want to warn everyone of this place." That would've been the braver more intellectual more scholarly researched answer but he's a naughty little smart-mouthed boy.  He gets paid to help fellow atheists feel good about themselves and make Christians appear like foolish half-wits.    Check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mmskXXetcg
Probably his most embarrassing remark is his statement that because the questioner is American she is Christian and that if she were from India she would be Hindu.  I felt sorry for his ignorance and I wish there was something I could do for him.

YouTube is all about entertainment and the true intellectual thermometer of our country and our world is read by just scanning down a few comments.  Vocabularies are so limited that very soon you find yourself descending into a middle school toilet stall range of intellect.   I say this because of view counts.  They are like an unofficial poll of what interests our students, what interests our public, and where their focus is.

Richard Dawkins is afraid to read the book of Ecclesiastes because it would be too threatening so how could he ever make it to Acts Chapter 9?  God only knows because to Him all things are possible. 

Here is another  intellectually embarassing video.  When people produce dialogue like this I just can't bear to hear it all because it reveals so much ignorance.  It takes a lifetime to clear up those questions with real answers that God gave us thousands of years ago and this poor fellow doesn't have a lifetime left.  But look it earned 5 million views!  Compare that to videos from the evangelical point of view.  Lucky to get 2,000 views.

It isn't circular logic to go to ancient scriptures to look for answers to modern questions.  If I were asked for the phone number of the nearest Dominoes Pizza I might go to Superpages.com.  You ask me "How do you know that number is for Dominoes Pizza?"  I tell you "Because Superpages.com told me so."

There are a few things atheists can't explain away and Nick Vujicic is one of them.  I don't think the Randolph-Macon Women's college would ever invite him to speak.  There just isn't enough intellectual bravery there.

 

Physics and Creation Theory

Magnetic monopole experiment at CERN could rewrite laws of physics
(PhysOrg.com) -- An experiment led by a University of Alberta researcher, at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, could dramatically change our concepts of basic physics, revolutionize our understanding of the Universe and could eventually lead to technologies in future generations that right now only exist in science fiction.

In this article please play the animation embedded in it.  A well done animation that reveals ideas that are difficult to grasp for those that are visual learners.  This isn't a blog entry about me but I am mostly a visual learner however I can take words and form visuals but it is not a strong point.  When it came time to study 20th century physics in my degree courses particle physics was the most difficult for me.  To imagine spins and momentums and visualize theories of magnetism in substances from equations and variables was darn near impossible and my grades weren't stellar.  But I digressed.

Scientists, at least ones primarily in modern times, do not believe anything until it is proven to them in hard numbers, lots of photos and evidence of the kind you see discussed in the animation.  In rare cases you catch scientists starting out with a conclusion, working to arrive at said conclusion just so they can earn the grants and finances for their work.  Who likes unemployment right?  Such was the case of global warming theory and that whole debacle.

A famous theorist and atheist once said "We don't believe in God because we don't want anyone meddling in our sex life."  That really gets straight to the point; although it is a bit broader than that it still is valid.  If anyone out there can tell me who said that please leave a comment because I don't recall.

Note how the beginning of the animation starts out with the conclusion that the universe starts out with a big bang and it isn't attributed to any deity or anything of the sort.  Just 'bang' there it is.  All work after that is working up stream to support that conclusion.  A conclusion that itself was a matter of heated discussion in my lifetime.  Apparently there is enough evidence for Big Bang theory of origin that scientists everywhere have come out of the closet  and bravely mention it as in this case.

Suppose we had a piece of pottery that represented our universe and all the matter in it.  A fictitious, superior race of scientists one day picked up this pottery and began asking themselves how the pottery came about.   A leading scientist of this race stated "This thing came about suddenly by itself behaving according to the substance that makes it.  They photographed it and observed that it was built with rings.  "Rings made of what?", they asked.  So they begin by cutting it in half and observing a cross section then they break a piece off and grind it up and look at the pieces microscopically.  They blast it with fire and lasers and study light spectra to classify what it is made of.  Then this race of superior beings write a report, the summary of which I found and copied below...

"This thing which we have named "bowl" came about suddenly and evolved over a period of trillions of years.  Bowl formed according to the manner in which the substances behave when they come in close proximity to one another.  Briefly the list of substances are dry powders mixed with water.  We found trace elements of minerals that added color to the element silica including iron, boron, copper,  carbon, nitrogen,  zinc, sulfur and aluminum-oxide.  Water came into contact with some elements and the elements began exerting attractive forces which morphed into coiled compounds.  The coils or ropes of compounds began circling and sticking to one another and as rotational energy was lost the coils became tighter until you have one end smaller than the other end.  Our statistical theoretician estimates a one in a trillion chance that the correct amount of electricity zapped this bowl while it was in a cloud of trace elements giving it the color and pattern we see. "

A scientist not affiliated with their group named 'Reveileb' writes a response.   I found it and it is printed below.
"I too examined the object and I agree it should be called 'bowl' however I disagree with its origin.  I believe that nothing is made that does not have both a maker and a purpose.  It was made from coils of clay formed by hands, stacked on top of one another, smoothed over by hands using water then fired in an oven to maintain its shape.  I turned the bowl over and found etchings of a kind I cannot interpret other than they are in a pattern that suggest the bowl was etched by the finger of its creator.  The creator has a name and here I have a photo of the etching below.  Other than that I understand all the other points my fellow scientists were making and I agree with the list of substances and compounds the 'bowl' is made of.  However I do not agree with how it was made.  But this has not stopped me from my research only taken me beyond the research of my fellow scientists because I started with a different conclusion of how bowl came into existence.

  
 The conclusion of this matter is that saving face is the most important thing for all people including scientists who are, after all, just like you and I.  Scientists do not like to face the possibility of being close to the discussion of believing in God because to do so would admit that there is a being out there more intelligent and more powerful than themselves.  This is a trait that is programmed into us and was responsible for the fall from grace the archangel Lucifer experienced.  It is the reason for the fall from grace of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  To this day we still make that same mistake.
  

Scams! - or How to Handle Internet Scams the Christian Evangelical Wacko Way

Searching for a more secure job involves putting your credentials out there on various large relevant job banks and search engines.  I do not use Yahoo Hot Jobs.  I also go to large credible corporations and organizations and open an account, establish ties with them and have job notices sent to me automatically.  This is standard procedure for the last 15 years for me. 


Once in a rare while I get an email out of the blue like the image I've posted above.  If this doesn't jump out at you as a scam then you probably can't spell the brand of car you drive.  Let's go through this point by point.  Just reading the company name in the From: field is a tipoff so obvious I didn't even highlight it. 

1.  Employers almost always know what sex you are and put a 'Mr. Meyer' so this tells me this scam is using an email robot and firing out perhaps thousands of emails using placeholders. "Hello name," etc.  
2. Secondly this woman, if it is human, makes no attempt at hiding a foreign origin.  Not as suspicous as it once was but is a clue to be added to others.
3. There is no specific job title for this woman.  This is so 'duh' that it makes me resort to slang.  Next it mentions Yahoo!HotJobs which is a common search engine that I do not use...it is naive and all but a useless waste of time.
4. She says that I'm qualified for the position of Finance Manager.  Oh I'm so impressed with that compliment I'll jump right on it.  Not!  This is an insult to Finance Managers everywhere because if my credentials were even slightly perused it would be obvious I'm a geek and you shouldn't let me anywhere near money...too few decimal places and it confuses me.
5. Point 5 is only something a geek would catch.  Spam filters and the like are trying to be avoided here by placing a period in between the 'o' and the 'b.  This is done twice so it is no  accident.  When you break up keywords a simple filter will miss it and probably not mark it as possible spam, such as mine did.  I use the Thunderbird email client and Verizon's junk mail resources.

Finally, a '.biz' URL is so small time.  A '.biz' URL is like a business card amount of advertising and is inexpensive to host and to change.  How many .biz URL's do you know?  I thought so.


So what do we do with this scam email?  We can delete it.  We can open it as long as we have virus software running.  We can become a Finance Manager and launder money for commies overseas.  We can mutter a bad word and list it in our junk folder for future filtering.  We can report the scam to proper authorities.  When you get this type of email you can safely assume proper authorities have already been notified and that this email you got is the result of their ineffectual efforts.


There is one other option.  We can recognize that behind every scam is a person and that person might not know Jesus.  By the way these email addresses might even have been an identity theft.  Still there is a person somewhere along the way even if it is an FBI agent.  So below is my example of a response to scams.  You can safely click on the link it goes to a Christian ministry website.


I have received your information for the position of Finance Manager. At this time I am not qualified to fill such an esteemed position and so I will have to ask for my removal from your email list.
Life?? offered to you.
Sincerely,

Wade Meyer
Warm and sunny Florida




If a person clicks the link it takes them to EE Prison Ministries International to the exact page that walks you through the ?? steps to salvation.  So I can either be a son of thunder about it all or I can be constructive.  I finally decided to be constructive and I hope you do too!

A Man of Integrity? President Mahmoud Ahmedinijad

I try hard to make up title's for this blog that will grate on your nerves and invite you to read its content...sometimes.

What is a man of integrity?  Once again remembering my speech class in Middle School a speakers rough outline is to 1. Tell your audience what you are going to say.  2.  Tell them.  3. Tell your audience what you told them.  This forms the basis for speeches and essays and even blogging which is nothing more than a really informal essay.  Expanding this outline to action steps we have a person of integrity as a person of kept promises who makes plans known and then follows through with them.  I am going to tell you that in that sense the President of Iran is a man of integrity.

Obviously the whole concept of integrity is a framework made of a system of values and of course values rooted in God or a god.  The word 'integrity' is like the word 'temperature' in which it has no meaning unless you attach values.  Good/bad morals for integrity and hot/cold for temperatures.  Jesus spoke of this when he said to his audience to be hot or cold for him for if they are lukewarm he spit them out of his mouth.

Announcing that Iran would begin enriching uranium the President of Iran said on April 9, 2006 "I am officially announcing that Iran has joind the group of countries which have nuclear technology."  He refers to the operating of centrifuges for the purpose of weapons grade uranium.  He began preparations for this speech by breaking UN seals over the labs January of that same year.  A man of integrity follows through on his plans.  Of course he's insane I'm not praising him lest you think I'm insane as well!  Here's the proof as his speech continued: "...At this historic moment, with the blessings of God almighty and the efforts made by our scientists...produced enriched uranium needed to the degree for nuclear power plants Sunday."  (a lovely Sunday sermonette eh?)  Insanity is doing something like this in the name of a god. 

Let me just add this about these lovely scientists of his:  Some of his scientists and engineers were trained at universities in America.  Notably at my university the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.  This university, buried in the heart of America, surrounded by modest mountains and hillbilly forests, had its own nuclear reactor.  The only university that did, at this time.  Buried in the heart of America were Islamic students even at my local Garland county Community College.  Many enrolled in engineering , to my knowledge, without exception.  I had friends, I was a member of the Foreign club.  I attended the wedding of my friend Mahmood after my girlfriend became enchanted by him.  I also dated a Jordanian girl briefly.  A beautiful girl that played guitar.  I asked myself where does one get the money to project onself to the other side of the planet to attend a college in the heart of flyover country and why?  Just one example comes from the day I was sick and missed a class.  I don't remember whether it was Dynamics, an engineering course with obvious applications to understanding centrifuges, or my Calculus 2 class but the math and notes were critical.  I stopped by a future Islamic terrorist organization member and fellow classmate to copy his notes from class that day.  There on his bookshelf was a bag, I kid you not, the size of a 1 gallon Ziploc, filled with marijuana.  I pretended not to notice and retrieved his notes and finished my business.  Look, I barely knew enough evil existed to know that I needed Jesus.  These were all just people to me and that in truth is the way it should be.  My friend, that was a girl, that Mahmood married was an American white girl.  I asked her what her father did, I had earned her trust, she nonchalantly told me that her father flew a small plane to Louisiana and back carrying freight and sometimes carrying drugs.  These are the types of alliances Persians often look for to achieve their ends.  I don't know what ever happened to what's-her-face but I hope she's happy.

What the President of Iran did in 2006 was bold and defiant and beligerant but the world took him seriously.  Jacques Chirac, president of France, said on January 19, 2006 "Leaders of states who would use terrorist means against us, just like anyone who would invisage using, in one way or another, arms of mass destruction, must understand that they would expose themselves to a firm and fitting response from us.... This response could be conventional.  It could also be of another nature."  The Associated Press stated: "Chirac even hinted that France had already retargeted its nuclear arsenal." AP source  Remember this is coming from the land of pastries, impressionism, and Peugeot!  You can imagine what we've done.

Finally, four years later our man of integrity is telling us what he told us he was going to do.  He announced his nation has joined the other nuclear armed nations.  If only we had such a strong and determined leader, under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all, of course.  I am not worried because the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is in control of the master plan and Iran is only an event on a much more complete timeline.

Nutrition Absurdities

 "Just 2 teaspoons of blackstrap molasses will sweetly provide you with 13.3% of the daily recommended value for iron. " - World's Healthiest Foods website (click title to go there)
I wonder if there are any nutritionists out there who can explain to me this whole concept of "recommended values" of this and that?  I think the earliest I can recall being taught about the food pyramid and the United States Department of Agriculture recommended daily allowances of this and that was in 7th grade science class, about 1972.  I could easily confirm this with Google but 1972 may have been when all this was beginning to be taught in our schools.


By the way as an aside the building I attended junior-high, what they now call middle-school, was the same building that President Bill Clinton attended in high school before the new high school was constructed.  If you are a Bill Clinton supporter reading this then I'll let you kiss my book.  Central was another broken promise.  He was going to convert that building to a shining institution on the hill supporting and sponsoring artists and the art community.  Instead it stands abandoned.  Sarasota has done far more with its old high school and the buildings are even about the same age.  In all fairness Sarasota's old high school is half the size in a community with intellect.  The old ways are worth preserving for future generations and so Central Junior High School stands as a monument to Bill Clinton's intentions.


On to the business at hand:  2tsp * (100/13.3) = 15.03 teaspoons of molasses would have to be consumed per day to achieve the USDA's recommended daily allowance of Iron.  Remember this is a food high in this nutrient.  Just think how much you would have to eat of other foods.  Mixed nuts: 6%Iron, per serving of 20 nuts is just one other example of a great source of iron.  20 * (100/6) = 333.333 nuts.  How absurd!  This means to be healthy and eat a variety of foods I would, for example, have to consume 7 teaspoons of molasses and 151 mixed nuts per day.  

These standards feed guilt trips and foster a sense of failure just reading the nutrition labels.  Where does that leave the rest of the world?  Why are we even still alive if we can't even meet the minimum daily requirements?   I have no trouble meeting recommended daily allowance of chocolate; especially during holidays and St. Valentine's Day. 

That's Life!

Good morning and happy birthday to me.
Since the beginning of the year the world has been focused on very weighty matters while a quiet revolution has taken place in the breakfast cereal world.  Since I was 12 years old, which if you do the subtraction, was 39 years ago I have been a frequent eater of Quaker Life Cereal.  My father chose Chex Rice cereal as his constant favorite but I liked the sweet nuttiness of Life.  I didn't care who paid for it I just would ask for it and it magically appeared in the cupboard above the stove.  Quaker can thank me for my faitfulness up until now.

To my recollection Life never included a toy in the box so its not like I was lured as a customer by a toy like a dullard.  But one early year I do recall an offer on the side of the box for a Revell plastic model airplane kit.  It was a DC-9 American Airlines airliner and it was probably 4 or 5 dollars but I could be off; minor detail.  Life was just a quality cereal, non-candy, that tried to be good for kids before it was fashionable and trendy to eat puffed cardboard pieces.

When I grew up and began a family of my own you naturally look for ways of cutting costs.  Life was going for $5 a box for a while and I just had to cut back somewhere.  I started buying all sorts of cereals which I won't go in to but after the black-white generic experiment bit the dust there became more and more store brand knock-offs of mainline brands.  This was smart because the mainline brands paid for the advertising, rolled the cost into their cereal then the consumer, if he was wise, would buy the store brand.  I waited and watched and waited for years for a store brand knock-off of Life cereal.  Walmart had the lowest cost for Life.

Just two weeks ago my wife went grocery shopping and came home with a cereal called Simple Living oat cereal.  Finally the patent or whatever was holding things back timed out and Hannaford of Sweetbay grocery stores had produced a competitor to Quaker Life.  What follows are the results of the taste test by an experienced consumer...me.

Appearence is remarkably the same down to the waffle hole counts.  Compared to Life the texture of Simple Living in your mouth with milk was ever so slightly coarser but that's not a problem.  Both tastes are almost identical with Life coming out ever so slightly sweeter.  I suspect Hannaford was  able to save money here by not putting as much sugar in the mix.  Life cereal's nutty flaver is brighter and maybe fresher tasting but Simple Living is just as nutty flavored but a little darker or stronger and this may be due to differences in roasting the cereal.  I tried to take a fair picture of the two cereals side by side with equal lighting.  I have spotlights in my stove hood so the lighting is not equal but fair enough.  Try Simple Living I think you will enjoy the right-on taste and the cost savings.  Ironically Walmart had Life with a reduced price last time I visited the cereal aisle and this may have reflected the new competition.

If anyone out there can shed any light on how pricing is determined and know of any other competitor to Life let me know with your comments.  Anybody an expert on cereal production chime in too.

Young Man River

Young Man River

by Wade Meyer

One time on an outing my family and I went .
To western Oregon's waters framed by cathedral trees.
There ran a swift small stream close to the road it seems.


Our father pulled over to a spot where we could go explore.
But I stood with hands on hips looking down across the shore.
My attention drawn to round stones where water trickled over.

The sound it made was garbled. Voices mournful and hollow.
I picked up boulders, moved stones by rolling and found;
Voices changing low, and high brightly in sound.

My family wandered and explored.
But I stayed working not in the least bit bored.
With shoes and arms wet I toiled on, absorbed.

Everyone began returning back;
Into the car they clamber.
Hurried, I worked quicker with my work in that river.

Finally, my mother grew impatient, down to that river she went.
"Wade we wait and need to hurry on; what is that you're doing?"
"Ma, its the river, the sound, it needed tuning."

Increase of CO2 Triggers Glaciation

(Dr. David)"Zink goes on to explain that scientists have focused their attention only on "the first stage result" of the greenhouse effect. He adds that they fail to recognize that the greenhouse effect is the trigger that sets off glaciation."


This is a quote from the online book you can read by clicking on the title above.
This is fascinating stuff. I remember the 70's and the reports of core samples and glacial periods in National Geographic and Scientific American. (yeah comic books were boring) If you were a boy it was the stuff that fuels the imagination of a world that will never be seen in our lifetime....or will it?

The Young Dead Soldiers by Archibald MacLeish

The Making of a Murderer - The Making of a Christian

Kate Uttinger writes in this month's Leben Magazine issue an article that will capture your imagination.  It is about Apache Indians in the 1800's.  Specifically one man born to the Bendonkohe Apaches in southwestern Arizona.  The Indians always had fascinating names for their people, to me at least.  Its like inventing your own name for playing the blues- pick an infirmity, pick your favorite  fruit, add your last name and that's your blues name.  Mine would be "Blind Watermelon Meyer".


Goyahkla translates to "One Who Yawns".  Early in his life, according to Ms. Uttinger's research, he "lived the idyllic picture of native simplicity."  Played hide-and-seek among  the rocks and brush with his siblings, learned how to track animals and from the adults learned to recognize medicinal herbs.  


Apache warriors grew up able to travel on foot 70 miles per day. Running, bathing in icy water, wrestling and marksmanship made up a large part of their training.  This is what Goyahkla did and more.  He married Alope, a delicate girl and had 3 children by her.  "He farmed, occasionally raided nearby Mexican outposts for supplies, and played with his children on the dirt floor of their wickiup."  This all changed one day.


The day that would change his life forever was the day he left with his fellow warriors to trade at a Mexican village.  They left a small guard with the women back in their own village.  Upon their return Goyahkla  found his wife and children and mother and many of the other women butchered by hostile Mexican raiders.


He vowed to avenge his family and avenge he did.  Murdering many and he raged and hated for decades.  The last words of his unfortunate Mexican victims would consist of crying out to Saint Jerome.  Phonetically it comes out "Sahntoe YAH ro-may!" in the Spanish language thus giving Goyahkla a new name Geronimo!


How many of us have yelled that name as kids as we jumped from our tree forts and tree limbs and creek banks?  But why Geronimo?  According to Leben magazine there was a young man nearly 70 years ago named Private Aubrey Eberhart that  leapt out of a C-47 transport with a parachute.  He had been influenced by wild west movies popular at the time.  He delivered on a promise that he would yell something recognizable to fellow paratroopers on the ground when he jumped out at just several hundred feet.  And that is the way it all began.


Geronimo is quoted as saying in 1902 "The Jesus Road is best and I would like my people to travel it...Now we begin to think the Christian white people love us!"  After being captured and relocated to Fort Sill, Oklahoma two Dutch Reformed missionaries invited him and his men to attend services in the evening.  The pastor preached on the atonement.  An old warrior by then Geronimo limped into a service a year later after a recent fall from his horse.  He heard the sermon titled "Jesus Made Just Like Sin For Us".  Right then Geronimo begged that the pastors would "Pray that Jesus would give me a new heart."  A week later he was examined to satisfaction to have "more knowledge than anyone anticipated".  "No consistory of our church could refuse to admit this man into membership." said Dr. Walter Roe and so Geronimo was baptized into eternal life.


That is the end of the story of Geronimo but there are more details that I will leave you to discover.  He is a man I may one day stand side by side with in eternity along with St. Jerome, whoever he was.