A Special Privilege

For many, when they look back on their lives, they see times at which they are able to do something that is not only special, but has an affect on many other people.  This post is about one of those times, happening right now, in my life.

For the past few months, Vanessa and I have had the privilege of helping out other congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses in other counties and towns in the northern half of Indiana.  We are part of an arrangement called Local Design and Construction, or LDC.  One of the many facets of LDC is helping fellow worshipers to learn how to take care of their places of worship, which we call Kingdom Halls.  Every congregation cares deeply for their places of worship, but many wish they had more or better skills to help out in their own congregation.  That is where my wife and I help out.  We are referred to as “Skilled Trainers” which means that we have a skill in a specific area that will benefit the care and maintaining of a Kingdom Hall.  So, when we get an invitation, we go to another congregation and help them to learn the skill we have to teach them.  There are many skills taught at one time, and so there are many skilled trainers that show up.

What we do is help the friends learn about their cleaning equipment.  Everything from how to disassemble their vacuum cleaners and give it periodic maintenance to how to keep their cleaning closet in order.  Safety is a big part of the program, and is incorporated in each area.

I have been amazed at just how much the friends at these training visits appreciate our part.  I was nervous about having just one or two friends sign up, because it would be easy to say, “Vacuums?  No thanks.”  And yet, we have several at each congregation that are not just willing, but honestly interested in what this area of maintenance has to cover.  And even when these friends are in the thick of it, with a vacuum in pieces and parts here and there, they are not only happy at what they are learning, but sincerely thankful as well. It has been especially heartwarming when we have multilingual groups. Neither Vanessa nor I speak Spanish, yet, when we have friends in our group who are from a Spanish congregation, they are still happy, and there is always someone who can translate the instructions. They also know that now that they have been trained, they are able to help train others in their congregations after we have left.  So even though Vanessa and I may never see them again, that training that we have given will go on from one to another.

There is such a great sense of joy when we attend these events.  We know we are making Jehovah happy when we do this, and we also know that when the friends in the neighboring congregations care properly for their Kingdom Halls, Jehovah is happy with them too.  There is such a wonderful interchange of encouragement, and everyone leaves being built up and refreshed.

Blessings of this sort do not come along every day.   I definitely treasure this one!

Adventures at the Indianapolis Children's Museum!

       What a day, what a day! We spent almost 6 hours at the Children's Museum today. All of us were exhausted at the end, but we had such an enjoyable time! I thought that I would share some of the highlights with all of you. You should be warned that this will be a rather loooooong post. This post will also have many images, so I hope you enjoy them as well.

       When we arrived initially, we were greeted by the one of the Egyptian gods. It was Anubis, and he towered about two stories high. The statue of him was visible right outside our van door. He was definitely a sight to behold.

       As we entered the museum, yet before we purchased our tickets we were humored by something that foretold a future exhibit. It was a Darth Vader car, and it was promoting the new Hot Wheels exhibit that begins in May, if I remember correctly. For some reason it felt reminiscent of the style of car that Disney's Darkwing Duck drove back in the day.

       One of the things I thought was most interesting was in the area around the Dinosphere. There is an area where you can draw and they have replicas of different prehistoric teeth. One such replica was a Megalodon tooth. The tooth, as you can plainly see, is as big as my daughter's hand. I asked her to imagine a Great White shark as long as our house with six rows of teeth like this. Her eyes widened a bit as she thought about it. After all, a prehistoric shark that could basically fit a VW Beetle in its mouth is nothing to scoff at.

       After that it was off to a special exhibit that was based around the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Both my sister and my kids were anxious to see this. I think one of the highlights was the replica of one of the costumes used in the first live action movie. They had a game where you launched foam pizzas at pictures of the bad guys and even had skate board decks on stationary mounts so you could try them out.

 

       After that it was off to the exhibit entitled Alien Worlds and Androids. This exhibit featured replicas from Star Wars, The Terminator, Iron Man, Star Trek ( 2009 ), and even Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still and Robby from The Forbidden Planet. I was really hoping that they would have had a Dalek from Doctor Who, but hey, maybe that was asking too much. Haha! Chloe and Noah loved trying to work a real, functional robotic arm. Even though the task was simple; you were asked to stack blocks on top of each other, it proved not as easy as it looked.

       There was another exhibit that I thought was interesting that dealt with the topic of discrimination. In three different sections that were all connected together, you were able to see facets of the lives of Anne Frank, Ruby Bridges, and Ryan White. Each facet dealt with their personal lives as well as their public lives. There was one specific part that caught my attention, though, as it was somewhat personal to me. In the Anne Frank section there was a board that read, “Why did Hitler target Jews and other groups?” When you lifted it, underneath it read, “Hitler believed that certain Germans were a superior race” and went on to list some of the groups thought to be inferior. It was a bit of a surprise that Jehovah's Witnesses were included in the list. Many people do not realize that persons of my faith suffered alongside the Jews. While the Jews wore a yellow star to identify them, Witnesses wore purple triangles. I felt honored to see them mentioned there.

       There was so much more that I could speak on but I think that will do it for now. Suffice it to say, we had an amazing time. If you have the chance, take a look for yourselves. It's definitely worth it.

Chloe, Noah, and the Four “Shermans”

     Spring has started well. My parents decided to get some chickens. After helping to put up the fence to keep them in, they were let loose in their pen. I knew right away that Chloe and Noah were going to enjoy having them around. They were both eager to see them for the first time.

     When the day finally came, I even saved a couple pieces of bread so that they could feed them. Noah wasn't too interested in feeding them the first time, but he noted how they would fight over the pieces of bread even though there was plenty for them to share. ( Definitely a reference point for me to remember when they aren't sharing. )

     

     The funny thing is, even though my parents got four hens, my children named them all “Sherman.” I took a moment to remind them that they were all girls, but Chloe insisted that they were still going to call them all Sherman. They then proceeded to talk about how they were calling everything and everyone Sherman. It reminded me of a time when I was a little older than Chloe and I went on a stint for some time where I was making references to Spam several times a day for days on end. It got to the point that my mom said that if I didn't stop she was going to buy me a can of it. Which she did, and I still have it to this day. Perhaps this is the repayment I am to receive for my antics as a young person. Hey, it could always be worse.

      Take care everyone. Soon it will be time to plant the garden and I hope to have an update and pictures from that as well. Since Chloe and Noah love to help as well as get dirty, there should be many chances for pictures. Also, with the weather getting warmer there will be many chances to go on outings with friends, or perhaps just the three of us. I look forward to sharing those experiences with you as well.