Month: September 2025

I really do not like moles. I know they eat grubs and aerate the lawn, but I still don’t’ like them. In fact, I try to kill them. I’ve tired smoking them, poisoning them, and trapping them. The first one I got, I actually got with a spade after seeing the ground move. I had just watched The Ghost and the Darkness, a movie about man-eating lions. The hunter who killed them celebrated by making a necklace out of a lion’s claw. I did likewise with my trophy. Like I said, I really do not like moles. But the dirt piles and raised dirt trails you see around the church grounds are not from giant moles. They are signs of repairs, and progress.

Our water line broke a couple of months ago, and after looking for leaks, I decided the increased water bill was just from our Wacky Wednesday Waterday. But the next month’s bill proved me wrong. A plumber was called, and since we had repaired our water line a couple of times in the past, an entire new line was called for. It’s all in, and everything is now good, except for the mole tracks.

The other tracks, leading to the gym being built, are from electric and gas lines. Those are tracks I really do like. The builder had to wait for the water line to go in first, but now that the gas and electric lines are in place, the concrete floor can be poured. And then the north wall can be covered with siding, and interior work can begin.

There is still a lot of work that has to be done before the gym is ready for use, but we’ve actually set a target date. If everything goes well, we may actually be able to have our Thanksgiving Dinner in our new facility. That will really be something exciting to be thankful for.

God Bless, Rick

After telling Matt about an experience I had with someone from Netflix, he said he knew where my next article would be coming from, and I thought he was right. But my envisioned article just became nothing more than an introduction to Carter’s experiences.

Several weeks ago Marilyn discovered we no longer had access to Netflix. I really don’t like dealing with computers, so I called. We learned they shut us off because someone in Indonesia was using our account. It took three attempts to straighten things out, but finally got it done by switching to my church email address. After making sure everything was working, the lady I had been talking with wanted to know if she could ask me something. She presumed that I was a preacher and wanted to know what I did when things weren’t going well. I shared with her the confidence I have in Christ’s love for me, and she thanked me with tears in her eyes. Now on to Carter.

It had been his practice to listen to a daily Bible reading while in the shower at home, and he was doing the same in what he thought was an empty bathroom at his new dorm. When he finished, and paused the recording, a voice came from a stall that said there was no need to turn it off, he was listening. Carter decided to seize the moment, invited him to join him at Encounter that night, and he did.

A few days later, as Marilyn and I were going for a walk, she got a message from Carter. It was a picture of a gash above his eyebrow, with blood flowing down his face and all over his shirt. A panicky call discovered that teeth from a collision with another basketball player had caused his wound. A quick call to his sister, a run to Urgent Care, and three stitches later, and he was ready to play softball that night. But not before he had shared his faith a couple of times. A girl in the elevator had noticed his bloody Fellowship of Christian Athletes shirt, and he had bonded with his nurse, so he encouraged them to also get involved in the ISU campus ministry.

As Peter told us, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope you have.”

God Bless, Rick