Question For Macktheknife

[winston225]

Macktheknife-do you mind to tell what your religion is.

[macktheknife]

I am a member of a large Protestant denomination. Why?

Are you a Christian?

[macktheknife]

Yes I am a new Christian-about 1 year now. Its a hard life-isnt it. But I am not sorry. Do you know any good Christian writers.

[macktheknife]

Winston, ignore that last post. My grandson is here and he put that on there.

Are you a Christian?

[winston225]

Yes, Methodist. Do you really want to know good Christian authors. I like Og Mandino.

[macktheknife]

I think my grandson wanted someone to give him the names of some good authors. He reads some of the children's series.

Yes, Og Mandino is great. Have you ever read "The Christ Commission"? I love that book.

What country are you in?

[winston225]

Yes I have read that book. Its good. Max Lucado writes good books to. I like books by Brother Charles Stanley to. They are not fiction though. He writes how to be a better Christian or have strong faith. I am in the US. Are you.

[macktheknife]

Also in the U.S.

Did you see Bro. Stanley's sermon on war a couple of weeks ago? It was very powerful and moving. If you didn't see it, you should try to get hold of a tape of it.

How did you happen to come to a message board centered around Belgium? I wandered in because my great-grandmother on my mother's side was Belgian.

[winston225]

No I didnt see it. How can I get a tape. I had a Belgian pen pal when I was a kid. I lost tarck of her down thru the years. But I stayed interested in Belgium. I would like to find her again.

[macktheknife]

Bro. Stanley's ministry, called In Touch Ministries, has a website. Books and other things are offered there as well as a wealth of information. I have several of his books.

Do you remember in what city in Belgium your pen pal resided? You might be able to begin your search there. In what language did the two of your correspond? I also had pen pals when I was a child, but all of mine were here in the U.S. One of my sons corresponded with a girl in Italy through a school project. The thing I remember most about her is what a big fan of Michael Jackson she was.

We are visiting relatives in DeSmet, South Dakota next week and will visit Mount Rushmore while there. We were there some years ago. The Crazy Horse memorial wasn't open yet, but I understand it is now. We were at Rushmore early in the morning when the sun was not high in the sky. It was one of the most beautiful sights I've seen.

On that vacation we also went to the Custer Battlefield in Montana. We were there on the 116th anniversary of the famous battle. Quite interesting. That was just about my favorite vacation ever.

[winston225]

I believe it was Antwerp and English. What is in DeSmet. It must be small because I have never heard of it. Of course I have never been to So. Dakota. We usually vacation in Florida. We did go to the Alamo once but that was because my husbands company held a conference in San Antonio. Isnt the weather bad in So. Dakota. I thought that battle took place in So. Dakota but you said Montana.

[macktheknife]

What is in DeSmet? Besides my husband's family, it is the site of several of the "Little House On the Prairie" books written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I don't know how familiar you are with that series of books, but I believe all of them from "By the Shores Of Silver Lake" on take place in the DeSmet area. Several structures still stand. The surveyor's house in "Silver Lake" is still there; you can tour it. It is tiny, yet it is the house in which the family boarded travelers all winter. Their home in town is there and it is also open to the public. I believe the cemetery in which several members of the family, as well as the Boasts, are buried is nearby.

I believe the weather is very unpredictable there. The last time we went was in summer. It was 95 degrees when we left our home, but only in the 30's when we arrived in DeSmet. The temperature never rose above the upper 50's-low 60's the entire time we were there though they assure me they have their hot days too. My husband did not grow up in DeSmet. He was reared in Council Bluffs, Iowa--a beautiful city. His parents moved to DeSmet after their children were grown because that is his father's hometown.

We are going for what I guess you would call a family reunion. My mother-in-law has cancer of the bladder and is not expected to live much longer. She knows it and is at peace (praise the Lord). I know she has given some of her most prized possessions to family members. She recently gave my daughter her beautiful Whitby Jet cameo brooch, circa 1800's. My daughter is too young (14) to appreciate it now, but she will later.

A lot of people think "Custer's Last Stand" took place in South Dakota--probably because of the Wounded Knee thing. But the trip to the historic battlefield in Montana is well worth the trip. Our guide did a fantastic job of laying out the chronological sequence of events. It didn't happen at all the way it is seen in movies. It was actually (according to our guide) a series of skirmishes at which both sides fought half-heartedly. That is, until the big battle. Our guide also said it is a fable that the Native Americans saved Custer to be the last white man killed. He said there would have been nothing to distinguish Custer from any of the others, that he fell anonymously along with the others.

I loved our trip to The Alamo. There was such a hush inside the building, I felt a presence--whether of God or the ghosts of the fighting men I do not know. San Antonio is a beautiful city, but so hot!

[winston225]

I loved the Little House books when I was a kid. I thought they took place in Minnesota like the television series. That is too bad about your mother-in-law. One of my best friends has cancer in both lungs. She never smoked a cigarette in her life. I like the Alamo to. But now Biography is saying it didn't happen the way we were always told. They said Davy Crockett didn't die there. Some Mexican who was there kept a journal and he said Davy was taken prisoner and killed then. How do we ever know, like that box that is supposed to have the bones of Jesus brother James in it.

[macktheknife]

The Ingalls family did live in Walnut Grove for a time, but not during the years the television series indicated.

I saw that Biography program about the Alamo also. When we went to Plymouth Rock, right next to it there was a big sign that said that though one of the passengers of the Mayflower had gone back in later years and identified it as the very rock upon which the pilgrims first set foot, there was no way of knowing for sure. Same thing with the cabin where Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky. I have visited it, but in later years read that it's not known for certain it is the Lincoln cabin.

I doubt very seriously that those are the bones of James, brother of Jesus Christ, in that box. Everything I have read says it would have been very unusual for the name of a a dead person's brother to have been inscribed on such a box. I am suspicious that was put on there by someone who was deliberately playing to a particular audience. But there are people in my church who are confident a great religious discovery has been made, including my minister. They could be right. What do you think?

Did you know there are people who are confident the Israelis found the Ark of the Covenant somewhere in Ethiopia, and that they have it hidden until they rebuild the temple?

[winston225]

I doubt its his bones though I like to think it is. It sounds like you have been a lot of places in this country. I read some of your posts before I put one on. It sounds like there were some who disagreed with you on things. Do you think it is allright for Christians to be so outspoken.