Never Call Retreat, by Newt Gingrich

I just finished the third in the Civil War trilogy of novels written by Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen. The series is very entertaining. The historical work of these two authors is impressive. The depiction of the weight of command in the midst of war is intense and the horror of the carnage in our country’s struggle is gruesome. The strategies are illuminating.

The most fascinating element of the last book, Never Call Retreat, to me was that the Gingricgh and Forstchen brought the war to a close about a year and a half earlier than it happened in history. Their presentation suggested that if the war had ended in the way they depicted, the country would have healed in a much shorter time and the equality of all men would have been a reality at least a century earlier.
If you enjoy good writing and a look into some of the most important people and issues of our society, I would suggest you take the time to read the entire trilogy!

A Week A Camp!

Teaching at church camp is one of my favorite things in life, and it is always a learning experience for me as well as the kids. Last week I again had the tenth graders, thirty eight of them. They were great! And I was tickled to have a young minister work with me this year who not so long ago he sat in my class at the same camp!

 

 

 

Usually at camp I am a pretty creative and active teacher. I use a lot of teaching techniques to keep the class thinking and discovering for themselves. This year our study was in the Minor Prophets, with the aim of seeing “How Great Is Our God.” We have a morning class of an hour and fifteen minutes and an afternoon class of forty five minutes. I made a decision that the sophomores would read, or hear read, as much of the texts of those books as possible. Paul set the scene for each reading and then one of the guys would read the message of God through the prophet. The kids were then asked to create a MySpace bulletin that might be sent to the rest of the campers to transmit the message they had just heard.

 

 

 

I went to camp thinking that at least half the kids would fall asleep during the readings. I mean, it is hot and the kids are tired and the messages are, in some cases, long and a bit repetitive! I figured that for the first time in my camp experience they would find my class boring. But I wanted them to hear the Word of God so much that I was willing to take the chance.

 

 

 

We did have a three or four that could not keep their eyes open, but I was pleasantly surprised at how many read along with the “prophet” in their own Bibles. I was even more pleased at how much they understood the main message of the various texts, especially the traits of our great God!

 

 

 

It made me wonder how I could have doubted that the Bible itself would not suffice to teach those precious kids. And it reinforced my idea that we all need to actually read it more than we do!

Back to the Library

When my girls were at home we all had library cards to the local public library. It was one of the favorite places for our family to go. The girls loved to read and always joined in the summer reading club that was offered every year.

For some sad reason, when the girls grew up and moved away from home, neither my wife nor I went to the library often. When we moved to a new town neither of us obtained a library card.

But now we are raising two of our grandsons because of health issues our youngest daughter is battling. The boys love for us to read to them. We all have signed up for a library card and have a regular schedule for a trip to check out new books every other Friday! It is once again a big part of our life to go to the library!

Expressions of Gratitude

There are so many things for which I am truly and deeply grateful that it almost seems impossible to do justice by naming a few on a blog. But as an exercise similar to my prayer life, I am going to enter this post as a feeble attempt to let my appreciation be known.

I am grateful for a curious and active mind that leads me to ask questions and seek answers.

I am grateful for a wife that is a strong and capable person who can make up her own mind and stand her ground, without whining, and yet has made me the focal point of her life. We are about to celebrate 41 years together.

I am grateful for health, both for myself and for my wife and grandkids who live in my house.

I am grateful for our home. We have a nice house, but a wonderful home.

I am grateful for books! I love to read and seldom find something that I cannot finish. Reading has been among my greatest delights.

I am grateful for the privilege of serving a congregation of Christians that is seeking the will of God and tries to practice it.

I am grateful for the ability to express a thought and motivation to share ideas with others.

I am grateful for a heritage of honesty and dependability from my parents and grandparents.

I am grateful for my three girls and four grandkids, whom I hope will receive the same heritage.

I am grateful for the avenue of expression, and the challenge to creativity that I find in blogging.

I am grateful that you took the time to read these thoughts!

State Of Fear, by Michael Crichton

I recently read Michael Crichton’s, State of Fear. It was a good read, a bit long maybe. And there was a gruesome scene of cannibalism, but a good tale! It is a look at the use of fear to determine policy. Crichton is working with the idea that when science gets politicized it becomes a danger. It made me shudder to think that such things are taking place. I know the work is fiction, but I have no doubt his premise is not so far from fact.

I was a bit surprised that Crichton used the radical environmentalists as the focal point of danger when science gets politicized. But it worked for me. After the story was complete, Crichton gave his personal positions on matters, and that was interesting too. He completes his thoughts by saying that everyone has an agenda, except him! He would like to see the depoliticization of science.

I do not usually read appendices, but the one after the message from the author was really enlightening to me. I had no idea that the theory of eugenics was a popular idea around the turn of the 20th century, in America. Proponents of the idea of ridding the human race of the feeble minded and degenerates included the H.G. Wells, Margaret Sanger, of planned parenthood fame, Leland Stanford, the founder of Stanford University, and Teddy Roosevelt. It was the subject of discussion on college campuses, the way global warning is today. The Rockefeller foundation was a contributor to the research in Germany that gave rise to gas chambers in concentration camps.

I am not sure what steps to take to improve dialogue and elevate sensibility. Has anyone else read the book? Have an opinion, either on the book or the issues it raises?

Sackett Saga

Louis L’Amour is one of my favorite authors. He is primarily known as a writer of Western novels. But he also has a series of books built around a family that came to this country in the late 1500s. He chronicles the advancement of the frontier to the west by tracing the migration of the Sackett family over more than two hundred years. From the arrival of Barnabas Sackett on the Outer Banks and his establishing a settlement in Carolina to the election of Orrin Sackett to the Senate, the journey is a joy to read.

Dangerous Fortune by Ken Follett

My latest audio book to hear was an unabridged version of Dangerous Fortune by Ken Follett. The book is a story of a banking family and the world situation in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The fortunes of the Pilaster Family in London is the primary thread of the book. It is a good story and an interesting look into a segment of history that I had never investigated. A good read!