Pastor Appreciation, Part 2

One of the best gifts I received on Sunday was not meant to be a "Pastor Appreciation" gift at all, but it was. One man, leaving the church after the service, told me something like this (I don't remember the actual words, but this was the gist):

"Pastor, 167 hours a week, it's chaos and trouble. One hour a week, it's right and peace."

How very, very cool is that?  :-)

Pastor Appreciation, Part 1

Finally got a Luther mini-fig!

Champlain Canal Lock 5

We got to see this working canal lock on the Hudson River - very cool. We watched a few boats go through as the water level rose and fell and the gates swung open and closed. There are a bunch of these still operational on the Hudson.

You can see from the sides how far the water level falls.

You can actually walk out on the gates and watch, and we did, though we didn't go for a ride when the opened and closed!

On Beautiful Long Island Sound

Rest in Peace, Dear Brother

Just learned that my brother in Christ, Rev. Allen Vomhof, was called home by our Lord last night. He had been suffering with cancer that had moved to his brain for quite some time, and was most recently on hospice. I was able to be with him and his family a couple of weeks ago and to give them the Lord's Supper. Now Al is enjoying his eternal rest in Jesus, triumphant over his cancer finally. Yes, triumphant! For his cancer did not win and it did not take his life. It couldn't! His life was safe in Jesus since the day of his baptism, and Jesus has now fulfilled the promise He made to Al in that wonderful, magnificent water. And this promise too: Today, Al, you will be with me in Paradise. Today forgiven. Today alive. Today at rest. Rest in peace, dear brother.

Church

A picture of the chancel of the small, traditional New England Lutheran Church we attended on vacation. A very nice place! :-)

Animals!

Penguins holding "hands!"

That's a meerkat on my daughter's head!

Releasing Our Inner Squirrel

Also on vacation we want to an "adventure park," which is a ropes and climbing course strung in the trees, with obstacles, zip lines, and stuff like that.  Here's a sign with the descriptions of the courses:

We started on yellow just to get going. Moved to green. And then my older daughter and I did the blue, while my younger daughter and wife did a second green course. The blue was pretty tough! As you can see, the harder the course, the higher up in the trees it goes - and I'm no fan of heights! But sometimes you just have to "pucker up" and do it, and it was a lot of fun. I was actually so focused on the obstacles that the height wasn't a problem, even on the zip lines. We ended in the dark and could do no more, but it might be fun to go back and try the single black diamond course in the future. I might be too old for the double diamond!

Here's a picture of my wife and daughter all geared up at a different, smaller course we went to earlier in the summer:

In Philadelphia

Piano Guys

Saw the Piano Guys at Tanglewood in Lenox, MA.

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

Going to start posting some long overdue vacation photos. This one taken by my daughter's GoPro: