Chris Loehmer Kincaid's Blog, page 123

Kids, kids and more kids

Earlier this week, I posted pictures of some of the speakers and artists we saw at Lifest. Always an amazing and talented group of people. Sometimes, though, the other things a person witnesses are just as amazing and just as much a testament to our heavenly Father.
Between acts on the Grandstand on Thursday evening, a little girl was picking the clover flowers from the grass where she sat with her family. After she had given everyone in her family a flower, she reached out and started giving them to all the people in the area.   She gave me a few of them. 
 And my hubby too. 
 Everyone who received a flower expressed their appreciation to the little girl and a lot of people displayed their gifts by tucking them behind their ears or sticking them in their hats. 
 One woman strung a handful of clover with longer stems into a crown and placed it on the little girls head. She had taken it off to check it out by the time I got my camera on her. 
 Other kids had fun in all sorts of other ways, not that this looks fun to me at all. 
 The ducks boats would be okay, but I don’t think I would fit. 
 Bob and Larry even showed up. 
 And what kids don’t love the petting zoo. 
 Kids and baby animals. Is there anything better? 

No More Muddy Messages

Saturday evening, Hubby and I returned from another great Lifest. I was looking back over the previous eight Lifests that I’ve attended, and well, they’ve gotten kind of muddy. What matters though is that the message hasn’t gotten muddy.
Either the last time or the time before that, when I was at Lifest, I carried around a little notebook and actually took notes on what the speakers had to say, snippets of their inspirational words. Umm, yea, this year, no notebook. I had paper and pen in my backpack and thought about pulling them out a couple times, but then told myself, “you’ll remember”.  Umm, yea, no.
My next great idea (in addition to buying the book written by one of the speakers) was to find their message on their websites. That’ll work, when I get around to it.
Argh. The good news, however, is that I actually edited through the over one hundred pictures I snapped. And that’s probably what you really want to see.  
 Jimmy Needham  The amazing Tiffany Thompson  Peder Eide, under cover from the rain, while we toughed it out, not enough rain though to make much mud. Earlier that day, it was a different story.    Jonnie W, comedian  Britt Nicole  Dani Tietjen, originally from Detroit and now living in North Minneapolis in the poorest neighborhood in all of Minnesota. She's scrappy and my new favorite inspirational speaker, and the one I bought the book from.   Josh Wilson  Doing the Chainsaw to Family Force 5. We didn't quite get it, but that's ok. We are old.   Jeremy Camp  Eric Samuel Timm. Can you see the rainbow behind the stage?   Nancy Beach  Joshua Jordan, illusionist, and I thought he was funnier than the comedian who followed.  Peder Eide and his remarkably talented daughter, Allison


Oh, and that message? You know, the one that is important, that I won’t let get muddy in my brain ever again? God’s got it covered. He loves me and He’s got my back. Always.  
Check back next time for the rest of the story. 

Just How Far

 For his unfailing love toward those who fear him    is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us    as the east is from the west. Psalm 103:11-12 (New Living Translation)
Over the last month or so, I have continued to struggle. Instead of seeing the cup as half full, I’ve been seeing it as more than half empty, sometimes seeing only a few drops. Yes, I’ve had a lot going on, but it hasn’t been bad stuff. I’ve just been busy.
What is really dragging me down is that voice in my head telling me that I feel this way because there is nothing out there, there is no God in heaven. If there was, the world wouldn’t be so messed up, I wouldn’t be so messed up. The voice says, how can you believe in a God who lets bad things happen, how can you say you have a loving Father in heaven when He has apparently abandoned you and tens of thousands of other people who have nothing, nothing in this world except maybe the clothes on their backs. How can you say that this book called the Bible can be the inspired word of God when it is just a book of stories written two thousand years ago by people who didn’t have a clue? How? How, Chris, how? And what makes you think that you can write this blog and tell people that you are a Christian?
And I’ve been letting that voice just keep right on talking. But I told myself that I just had to hang on until this weekend when I would go to Lifest and get all rejuvenated. Get my focus back and get a ton of ammunition to just blast that voice in my head. 
This was my ninth year going to Lifest. Incredible, isn’t it? And yes, the speakers are great and the music is great and just the whole atmosphere. As one friend describes it, it’s like being in a bubble, a bubble filled with God’s love and people who know God’s love and you can cast all your cares aside. And then, how much of that can you bring home? And how do you hang onto it when that voice starts up again?
Friday night, Casting Crowns was on the Grandstand. I love their music, how can you not?
The lead singer shared their song based on Psalm 103:12 and that the reason David wrote in that verse east to west instead of north to south is because east to west is infinite. You can go to the west and just keep going. If you have a big enough plane with enough fuel, or better yet, a big enough eagle, you can just keep going to the west and go around and around the world. Same thing with going to the east. If however, you go north, you can only go as far as the North Pole and then you start going south.  
But the whole point of the song, as well as the Bible verse, is that Jesus is infinite just like that. And we all get that, right?
But here is my ah-ha moment. My tiny little proof in the words of the Bible. 
Scientists way back in Jesus time had proven that the world was round, but nobody believed that. Even when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, people thought he was going to fall off the end of the earth.
But God, of course, knew that the world was round because He created it, along with all the heavens and the planets and the moons and the stars. He had it figured out from the very beginning. He knew what it meant to travel around the world from east to west and He knew that His love would keep going around and around without end.
So there you have it. My answer to that little voice that says I don’t know what I’m talking about.

God, Heavenly Father, You are Lord and Creator of all. You have got it all figured out, all taken care of. I only need to set all of my cares and troubles at Your feet. You will always, always be there. Amen

Happy Independence Day (a day early)

Some thoughts for Independence Day tomorrow.
From Galatians 5 The Message Bible translation
The Life of Freedom 1 Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you..       .           .           .           .           .4-6 I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more important: faith expressed in love.                     .              .           .           .           .           .           .13-15 It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?
16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?                     .              .           .           .           .           .22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.                     .              .           .           .           .           .25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.
Have a safe and happy Fourth and remember to love one another. 

A House, a barn and a horse

 I’ve put on a lot of miles the last two months, which means I’ve taken a lot of pictures as well. I wanted to continue in chronological order, finishing up April before moving onto May and certainly before June. But this past Sunday afternoon, when my son said, “I suppose you will blog about this right away,” I couldn’t disappoint him.

My son Nick rents a room in a restored turn of the last century farmhouse in south-eastern Wisconsin.  His landlord has a small church in the neighboring city of Whitewater and once a year he has a church service in his barn, followed by a potluck. He invited Nick to speak about our work in Kenya during this weekend’s service.     First, though, when I got there Saturday night, Nick took me out to eat at the Bicycle Shop / Deli / General Store in the community of La Grange. We took this picture in honor of our cat Fred who has a tobacco addiction.  This was the guest room I got to sleep in. No air conditioning, but it does have WiFi.  In case you forgot what the weather was like this weekend, I took this in the car on the way down. At least the car had air conditioning
 Not only is the inside of the house beautiful, the yard is simply amazing.
 The barn where the church service was held. Maddie was not willing to give up her share of the barn. 
 But at least she listened intently to what Nick had to say. 
And she was very glad when everyone left and she could just go hang out in her pasture.   

Need Encouragement?

 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17(New International Version)
I’ve been under a lot of stress the last few weeks to the point of feeling on the verge of a having a nervous breakdown. Feeling that I cannot get through one more single day, or even one more single moment.
I didn’t have a sudden epiphany. All of my problems didn’t suddenly go away. Maybe I just got tired of stressing. Or maybe, maybe I listened to that still small voice in the back of my head, the one which tells me that everything is going to be all right. Things will happen the way they are meant to happen. That still small voice which gets me back on track every time.
I don’t know how nonbelievers do it. Where do they turn when stress drives them to the breaking point? What does their still small voice tell them?
Mine tells me to turn it over to God. And that works every time.
Thank You, Lord Jesus, thank You.

Put a Cap on Cancer

The first American Cancer Society Relay for Life that I attended was in 1998. My sister Pat was still gallantly fighting her battle and she wanted to go to the Relay to show her support. The team which her co-workers from the paper mill had formed was dedicated to her and the war she had been entrenched in for five years.
She had an old wool blanket in her truck that we took out so that she could sit on the ground after the one lap she had walked had done her in. Somehow that blanket ended up in the back of my car and it is still there, moving to each different car I’ve owned.  
June 18, 1999, I went down for the Relay for only a short time. Pat had passed away earlier that day and I really didn’t feel like facing a lot of people. But if I had thought the year before that the paper mill had devoted their team to Pat, in 1999, the support was immeasurable. Bag after bag during the luminaria ceremony bore her name.
The following year I couldn’t help but form my own team. We petered out after five or six years, but I still made an appearance at our town’s Relay for Life almost every year. This year, sadly, I need to go out of town that day. That doesn’t mean I won’t be there in spirit.
They are doing a lot of different things for the Relay for Life this year, one being the Capping Cancer Campaign. 

The streets of Tomahawk have been lined with strings of caps since last week, leading up to the Relay kicking off tomorrow morning. You can read all about it in our local paper, The Tomahawk Leader. 

Church from a Foreign Land

 A year or two ago, I ran across an article about the Estonian Evangelical Martin Luther Church in Gleason, Wisconsin. For starters, I didn’t even know what Estonia was but I was intrigued enough to look it up.
Estonia is a small country on the Baltic Sea, just across the channel from Finland and north of Latvia. The country has a long, complicated history, only winning independence in around 1920, but then to be overrun by the Nazis during World War II. But before all of that, many of its people immigrated to America looking for freedom and prosperity and some of them settled in northern Wisconsin. The first Estonia church in America was built in 1914 just down the road from the farming community of Gleason.
It still stands, but, man, it needs a lot of work.  I stopped in to see it for the first time on a rainy day the end of May. Dino rode along, but we decided not to drive up the driveway.  



Like their Facebook page and follow the slow progress (currently it’s pretty slow, let’s hope it picks up). I'd hate to see this cute church lost completely. 

Father's Day and Other Things

Today is Father’s Day and yesterday was the 17th anniversary of my sister passing away. My dad’s been gone for 23 years. I miss them both every single day.
I think how much they both shaped my life. My sister’s sense of humor and quick wit. My dad’s dry sense of humor. My sister’s easy laugh and dimples. My dad’s half-smile.
They were both so intelligent and absorbed books like my garden absorbs rain water, as if reading was necessary for life. They were both tenacious perfectionists, unable to finish a job until it was done to their satisfaction. And yet, as tough as they were on the outside, they had soft hearts, reviling suffering or injustice.
I picture them in heaven competitively playing cribbage or throwing horseshoes, building things which they had only imagined here on earth. And hopefully they are waiting for the day – way in the future – when the rest of the family I can join them.     




The best picture I've been able to find of Pat and Dad

Closing the Book on Illinois

            As promised earlier in the week, today I will finish telling you about our trip to Illinois in April.              The Old Illinois State Police Headquarters of District 6. Built in 1941, the building is shaped like a pistol, which maybe at the time sounded like a good idea, but in the year 2016, um, probably not. It closed down in 2004, and is a pretty cool empty building now             Down the road, between Pontiac and Chenoa, somewhere near Ocuya, we ran across this potter’s field, The Livingston County Poor Farm Cemetery. So quaint yet sad. Sad too that it wasn’t listed in any of the books or maps I had. People should know of these kinds of places to be able to pay tribute to the poor, these were probably hard working people who just didn’t have any money. So sad.
              Drove to downtown Chenoa just to see the pharmacy and the blue shoe sign. The lady working in the pharmacy was not real cordial, but I suppose she gets tired of people just walking in to nose around. We should have bought something, but like I say, she just wasn’t very friendly. People in those businesses need to try harder, considering it was the only business in town. 

              After Chenoa, we decided it was time to head back home. On our way to the Walmart in Morris, we drove through El Paso and passed this amazing building, The Elms.                The Elms restaurant was open for business from 1946 until 2004. At some point in that time it also contained a hotel. Prior to being a restaurant, it was the home of James H. Wathen, one of the founders of El Paso and mayor in 1869 and 1870. He never married and died in 1902 as one of the town’s wealthiest residents. What a shame that this grand house has fallen into this sorry state. 
             Stopped next at the WWII Canteen Monument in Streator. It is a tribute to the citizens who met the trains filled with returning servicemen, offering them their first home-cooked American meal. 
              Drove through Marseilles again, after our first day in the area when we stumbled on the Middle East Conflict Memorial there. Found some other memorials in town as well as the old train depot.
             This is the Norway Store in the little town of Norway, the first Norwegian settlement in America. 
             It didn’t look like much on the outside, but inside the building is a complete fully-stocked grocery store and little café, with cute Norwegian décor hanging around. 
             Last, the Norsk Museum, which we didn’t get to go into because it wasn’t open for the season yet.
             That would be it for our April vacation to north-central Illinois. Oddly enough, I was once again in Illinois just a few weeks ago. I bet you can’t wait to see those pictures!