Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Going for the gold



Mat-Su Valley from Hatcher's Pass

"Have you gazed on naked grandeur
where there's nothing else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore,
Big mountains heaved to heaven,
which the blinding sunsets blazon,
Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
Have you swept the visioned valley
with the green stream streaking through it,
Searthed the Vastness for a something you have lost"
Have you strung your soul to silence?
Then for God's sake go and do it;
Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost...."
"The call of the Wild", Robert Service
We did!

Independence Mine tracks


The next generation of gold miners at Independance Mine Hatcher's Pass

I remember summers in Nova Scotia, listening to relatives talking about the lure of the gold. Relatives on both sides worked in gold mines and seemed to be always on the look out for nuggets in streams and slag piles. So it is only right (or wrong) to raise up the next generation searching for the gold. As Robert Service wrote in " The Spell of the Yukon"
"I wanted the gold, and I sought it;
I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.
Was it famine or scurvy- I fought it;
I hurled my youth into a grave.
I wanted the gold, and I got it-
Came out with a fortune last fall, -
Yet somehow life's not what I thought it,
And somehow the gold isn't all...."


                                                                    

and panning for gold











at Cooper's Landing,  Kenai peninsula AK

And "Olympic practise" at Wasilla Ice rink
Family time is precious.

But "Lord you are more precious than silver, Lord you are more costly than gold... and nothing I desire compares with you." music and words by Lynn DeShazo




Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy Independence Day

We watched fireworks display this year from our porch.(last year's video)


Here are some random thoughts today as we celebrate our country's independence.

  1. We returned from Alaska to find the barn swallows fledged from the nest outside our back door now independent and new monthly tenants happily taking up residence. Here a video of previous year's fledglings.
  2. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Declaration of  Independence. Pray we can preserve these rights.
  3. How prayer underpinned American Independence
  4. A wonderful day of church, parade, picnic and games in the park, baseball game and celebration of our liberty.(video not put together yet)
We are grateful that we could spend over a week with all our family in Alaska, for the freedom to travel and meet together and for God's blessing on our time. I will try to post some highlights throughout this coming week.

What are you grateful for? How will you pray for your country?