Apollo 12 Fifty Years Ago, Artist Alan Bean, Horses

Volume XVII, Issue XVII, XVIII: Special Edition

Today’s DOUBLE ISSUE gives you two weeks’ reading as I step back from weekly publication to devote myself to several important projects. I hope you enjoy it.

The Journeys of Apollo



The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.” – PSALM 19:1-3

First Paintings of Another World
By an Artist Who was Actually There, Alan Bean

[click to read]

I was the Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 12 and the fourth man to set foot on the moon. I explored the beautifully desolate landscape of the Ocean of Storms and later, as commander of Skylab 3 (Skylab Mission II), I spent 59 days in orbit around our fragile, blue-and-white Earth.

I had been painting earthbound subjects for many years by the time I returned from Apollo 12 and Skylab 3 missions, but my fellow astronauts convinced me to paint my experiences on the moon.

You can create the very first paintings in all of history of a place other than our own planet,” they said. “Your paintings will forever be the first paintings of the many other worlds humans will visit as the centuries unfold.”

Because of this unprecedented opportunity and challenge, I resigned from NASA in 1981 to devote all of my time and energy to painting, celebrating the great exploration that was Apollo.

Over the years, my art has evolved into a mixture of painting and sculpture, textured with my lunar tools, sprinkled with bits of our Apollo 12 spacecraft and a touch of moondust from the Ocean of Storms. You can see many of my paintings on this site and read more about the space-age techniques and materials I use in my work. (read more)


The Alan Bean Gallery.


In the video: Astronaut Alan Bean, Moonwalker, Skylab Commander, Artist at the bottom of today's THYME, we learn how an astronaut's incredible observations led to a wonderful exploration in art!

Incredible Journey of Apollo 12



Seeing Things in 'Living Color'

I need a mathematician that can look beyond the numbers, a math that doesn't yet exist..."
-- Al Harrison in Hidden Figures

My colleague and I just were part of a very interesting discussion of 'lucid dreaming.' It seems there was a study some years ago where participants 'taught' themselves to dream lucidly using sound waves called binural beats. Supposedly the medical students who were the subjects of this study achieved higher grades because they were 'practicing surgeries/outcomes in their sleep.' While this would be hard to substantiate, it does open the fascinating discussion on the place of the human imagination in achieving outcomes.

In my youth, there was an idea floating around that 'sleep learning' would be the wave of the future as lessons would be fed to students as they slumbered. Nothing much ever came out of this.

But the training and use of vivid imagination, however, may indeed be the 'wave of the future.' To find it, however, may require a journey to the past. I recently watched the movie: Hidden Figures, and was fascinated as mathematician Katherine Johnson and her colleagues at NASA are stymied by the problem of calculating a transition from elliptical orbit to a parabolic descent. No modern mathematics would adequately calculate it. Katherine was a mathematical savant however and she dug deep into some antiquated equations to find the answer. She was a mathematician with imagination!

Industrialist R. G. LeTourneau once hit a roadblock, along with his team of engineers as they tried to design a machine to lift airplanes. He left the workgroup one Wednesday evening to go to a prayer meeting. His colleagues protested, reminding him that they had a deadline to meet. Walking home from the prayer meeting, LeTourneau says that he 'saw' the needed design in his mind!

And so we arrive at the wonderful consideration of the place of vivid imagination as an instructor. C. S. Lewis found inspiration in the world of wonder opened to him by a rather lucid observation of nature and the works of Scottish fantasy writer: George MacDonald. Although MacDonald has fallen from favor with some scholars, there is renewed interest in his work, much of which is now in the public domain and so can be here presented. (h/t Kristina Elaine Greer)
(to be continued)


Photo by Bob Kirchman


C. S. Lewis was influenced by the work of George MacDonald.

The Fantastic Imagination
Excerpt from A Dish of Orts (scraps)
By George MacDonald

That we have in English no word corresponding to the German Mährchen, drives us to use the word Fairytale, regardless of the fact that the tale may have nothing to do with any sort of fairy. The old use of the word Fairy, by Spenser at least, might, however, well be adduced, were justification or excuse necessary where need must.

Were I asked, what is a fairytale? I should reply, Read Undine: that is a fairytale; then read this and that as well, and you will see what is a fairytale. Were I further begged to describe the fairytale, or define what it is, I would make answer, that I should as soon think of describing the abstract human face, or stating what must go to constitute a human being. A fairytale is just a fairytale, as a face is just a face; and of all fairytales I know, I think Undine the most beautiful.

Many a man, however, who would not attempt to define a man, might venture to say something as to what a man ought to be: even so much I will not in this place venture with regard to the fairytale, for my long past work in that kind might but poorly instance or illustrate my now more matured judgment. I will but say some things helpful to the reading, in right-minded fashion, of such fairytales as I would wish to write, or care to read.

Some thinkers would feel sorely hampered if at liberty to use no forms but such as existed in nature, or to invent nothing save in accordance with the laws of the world of the senses; but it must not therefore be imagined that they desire escape from the region of law. Nothing lawless can show the least reason why it should exist, or could at best have more than an appearance of life.

The natural world has its laws, and no man must interfere with them in the way of presentment any more than in the way of use; but they themselves may suggest laws of other kinds, and man may, if he pleases, invent a little world of his own, with its own laws; for there is that in him which delights in calling up new forms--which is the nearest, perhaps, he can come to creation. When such forms are new embodiments of old truths, we call them products of the Imagination; when they are mere inventions, however lovely, I should call them the work of the Fancy: in either case, Law has been diligently at work.

His world once invented, the highest law that comes next into play is, that there shall be harmony between the laws by which the new world has begun to exist; and in the process of his creation, the inventor must hold by those laws. The moment he forgets one of them, he makes the story, by its own postulates, incredible. To be able to live a moment in an imagined world, we must see the laws of its existence obeyed. Those broken, we fall out of it. The imagination in us, whose exercise is essential to the most temporary submission to the imagination of another, immediately, with the disappearance, of Law, ceases to act. Suppose the gracious creatures of some childlike region of Fairyland talking either cockney or Gascon! Would not the tale, however lovelily begun, sink at once to the level of the Burlesque--of all forms of literature the least worthy? A man's inventions may be stupid or clever, but if he do not hold by the laws of them, or if he make one law jar with another, he contradicts himself as an inventor, he is no artist. He does not rightly consort his instruments, or he tunes them in different keys. The mind of man is the product of live Law; it thinks by law, it dwells in the midst of law, it gathers from law its growth; with law, therefore, can it alone work to any result. Inharmonious, unconsorting ideas will come to a man, but if he try to use one of such, his work will grow dull, and he will drop it from mere lack of interest. Law is the soil in which alone beauty will grow; beauty is the only stuff in which Truth can be clothed; and you may, if you will, call Imagination the tailor that cuts her garments to fit her, and Fancy his journeyman that puts the pieces of them together, or perhaps at most embroiders their button-holes. Obeying law, the maker works like his creator; not obeying law, he is such a fool as heaps a pile of stones and calls it a church.

In the moral world it is different: there a man may clothe in new forms, and for this employ his imagination freely, but he must invent nothing. He may not, for any purpose, turn its laws upside down. He must not meddle with the relations of live souls. The laws of the spirit of man must hold, alike in this world and in any world he may invent. It were no offence to suppose a world in which everything repelled instead of attracted the things around it; it would be wicked to write a tale representing a man it called good as always doing bad things, or a man it called bad as always doing good things: the notion itself is absolutely lawless. In physical things a man may invent; in moral things he must obey--and take their laws with him into his invented world as well.

You write as if a fairytale were a thing of importance: must it have a meaning?"

It cannot help having some meaning; if it have proportion and harmony it has vitality, and vitality is truth. The beauty may be plainer in it than the truth, but without the truth the beauty could not be, and the fairytale would give no delight. Everyone, however, who feels the story, will read its meaning after his own nature and development: one man will read one meaning in it, another will read another.

If so, how am I to assure myself that I am not reading my own meaning into it, but yours out of it?"

Why should you be so assured? It may be better that you should read your meaning into it. That may be a higher operation of your intellect than the mere reading of mine out of it: your meaning may be superior to mine.

Suppose my child ask me what the fairytale means, what am I to say?"


Illustration by Kristina Elaine Greer.

If you do not know what it means, what is easier than to say so? If you do see a meaning in it, there it is for you to give him. A genuine work of art must mean many things; the truer its art, the more things it will mean. If my drawing, on the other hand, is so far from being a work of art that it needs THIS IS A HORSE written under it, what can it matter that neither you nor your child should know what it means? It is there not so much to convey a meaning as to wake a meaning. If it do not even wake an interest, throw it aside. A meaning may be there, but it is not for you. If, again, you do not know a horse when you see it, the name written under it will not serve you much. At all events, the business of the painter is not to teach zoology.

But indeed your children are not likely to trouble you about the meaning. They find what they are capable of finding, and more would be too much. For my part, I do not write for children, but for the childlike, whether of five, or fifty, or seventy-five.

A fairytale is not an allegory. There may be allegory in it, but it is not an allegory. He must be an artist indeed who can, in any mode, produce a strict allegory that is not a weariness to the spirit. An allegory must be Mastery or Moorditch.

A fairytale, like a butterfly or a bee, helps itself on all sides, sips at every wholesome flower, and spoils not one. The true fairytale is, to my mind, very like the sonata. We all know that a sonata means something; and where there is the faculty of talking with suitable vagueness, and choosing metaphor sufficiently loose, mind may approach mind, in the interpretation of a sonata, with the result of a more or less contenting consciousness of sympathy. But if two or three men sat down to write each what the sonata meant to him, what approximation to definite idea would be the result? Little enough--and that little more than needful. We should find it had roused related, if not identical, feelings, but probably not one common thought. Has the sonata therefore failed? Had it undertaken to convey, or ought it to be expected to impart anything defined, anything notionally recognizable?

But words are not music; words at least are meant and fitted to carry a precise meaning!"

It is very seldom indeed that they carry the exact meaning of any user of them! And if they can be so used as to convey definite meaning, it does not follow that they ought never to carry anything else. Words are live things that may be variously employed to various ends. They can convey a scientific fact, or throw a shadow of her child's dream on the heart of a mother. They are things to put together like the pieces of a dissected map, or to arrange like the notes on a stave. Is the music in them to go for nothing? It can hardly help the definiteness of a meaning: is it therefore to be disregarded? They have length, and breadth, and outline: have they nothing to do with depth? Have they only to describe, never to impress? Has nothing any claim to their use but the definite? The cause of a child's tears may be altogether undefinable: has the mother therefore no antidote for his vague misery? That may be strong in colour which has no evident outline. A fairytale, a sonata, a gathering storm, a limitless night, seizes you and sweeps you away: do you begin at once to wrestle with it and ask whence its power over you, whither it is carrying you? The law of each is in the mind of its composer; that law makes one man feel this way, another man feel that way. To one the sonata is a world of odour and beauty, to another of soothing only and sweetness. To one, the cloudy rendezvous is a wild dance, with a terror at its heart; to another, a majestic march of heavenly hosts, with Truth in their centre pointing their course, but as yet restraining her voice. The greatest forces lie in the region of the uncomprehended.

I will go farther.--The best thing you can do for your fellow, next to rousing his conscience, is--not to give him things to think about, but to wake things up that are in him; or say, to make him think things for himself. The best Nature does for us is to work in us such moods in which thoughts of high import arise. Does any aspect of Nature wake but one thought? Does she ever suggest only one definite thing? Does she make any two men in the same place at the same moment think the same thing? Is she therefore a failure, because she is not definite? Is it nothing that she rouses the something deeper than the understanding--the power that underlies thoughts? Does she not set feeling, and so thinking at work? Would it be better that she did this after one fashion and not after many fashions? Nature is mood-engendering, thought-provoking: such ought the sonata, such ought the fairytale to be.

But a man may then imagine in your work what he pleases, what you never meant!"

Not what he pleases, but what he can. If he be not a true man, he will draw evil out of the best; we need not mind how he treats any work of art! If he be a true man, he will imagine true things; what matter whether I meant them or not? They are there none the less that I cannot claim putting them there! One difference between God's work and man's is, that, while God's work cannot mean more than he meant, man's must mean more than he meant. For in everything that God has made, there is layer upon layer of ascending significance; also he expresses the same thought in higher and higher kinds of that thought: it is God's things, his embodied thoughts, which alone a man has to use, modified and adapted to his own purposes, for the expression of his thoughts; therefore he cannot help his words and figures falling into such combinations in the mind of another as he had himself not foreseen, so many are the thoughts allied to every other thought, so many are the relations involved in every figure, so many the facts hinted in every symbol. A man may well himself discover truth in what he wrote; for he was dealing all the time with things that came from thoughts beyond his own.

But surely you would explain your idea to one who asked you?"

I say again, if I cannot draw a horse, I will not write THIS IS A HORSE under what I foolishly meant for one. Any key to a work of imagination would be nearly, if not quite, as absurd. The tale is there, not to hide, but to show: if it show nothing at your window, do not open your door to it; leave it out in the cold. To ask me to explain, is to say, "Roses! Boil them, or we won't have them!" My tales may not be roses, but I will not boil them.

So long as I think my dog can bark, I will not sit up to bark for him.

If a writer's aim be logical conviction, he must spare no logical pains, not merely to be understood, but to escape being misunderstood; where his object is to move by suggestion, to cause to imagine, then let him assail the soul of his reader as the wind assails an aeolian harp. If there be music in my reader, I would gladly wake it. Let fairytale of mine go for a firefly that now flashes, now is dark, but may flash again. Caught in a hand which does not love its kind, it will turn to an insignificant, ugly thing, that can neither flash nor fly.

The best way with music, I imagine, is not to bring the forces of our intellect to bear upon it, but to be still and let it work on that part of us for whose sake it exists. We spoil countless precious things by intellectual greed. He who will be a man, and will not be a child, must--he cannot help himself--become a little man, that is, a dwarf. He will, however, need no consolation, for he is sure to think himself a very large creature indeed.

If any strain of my "broken music" make a child's eyes flash, or his mother's grow for a moment dim, my labour will not have been in vain.

The paper on The Fantastic Imagination had its origin in the repeated request of readers for an explanation of things in certain shorter stories I had written. It forms the preface to an American edition of my so-called Fairy Tales. -- George MacDonald


'Wood Between the Worlds.' Photo by Bob Kirchman.

The Joy of Sauntering


John Muir. Public Domain.

Hiking - "I don't like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains - not hike! Do you know the origin of that word 'saunter?' It's a beautiful word. Away back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed asked where they were going, they would reply, 'A la sainte terre,' 'To the Holy Land.' And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we ought to saunter through them reverently, not 'hike' through them."
- John Muir

The Smartest Horse that Ever Lived
A True Story



More than simply the biography of an unusual sideshow act, Beautiful Jim Key by Mim Eichler Rivas takes a thorough look at American history from before the Civil War to the mid-20th century, examining race relations, World’s Fair and exposition history, and the development of the humane movement. The story centers around the “Arabian-Hambletonian educated horse” Beautiful Jim Key, his breeder William Key, who was a business-savvy former slave, and their promoter, Albert Rogers, a privileged young New Yorker who aspired to being a philanthropist. (read more)

Jesus, Horses, Healing
Risen Ridge Ministry


Dezi, Socks and Maple graze at Risen Ridge Ministry. This Spring they will begin providing ministry sessions. Photo by Jen Beck.

Horses have an amazing way of communicating. They are honest, gentle, and encouraging. In a horse ministry, people who are seeking healing through the love of Jesus will come and find it through a relationship with a horse and a facilitator. They will learn what it is like to care for another's well being, and what it feels like to have an honest relationship based on love. Horses don't care about your past or what you look like. Over and over, the horse will see you for who you really are, whom God created you to be. The experiences will demonstrate that God's love never fails, can bring restoration, and how we all have value. (read more)

I will restore you to health and heal your wounds, declares the Lord.” - Jeremiah 30:17

Astronaut Alan Bean
Moonwalker, Skylab Commander, Artist



Apollo 12, Pinpoint for Science



Tolkien And The Eucharist In “Lord of the Rings”
[click to read]

This lecture was given by Prof. Peter Kreeft (Boston College) at Rutgers University on 8 October 2019. Dr. Peter Kreeft is a professor of philosophy at Boston College and teaches philosophy courses at King’s College. Kreeft is a popular writer of Christian philosophy, theology and apologetics and the author of dozens of books, two of which include The Philosophy of Tolkien: The Worldview Behind the Lord of the Rings and Symbol or Substance: A Dialogue on the Eucharist with C. S. Lewis, Billy Graham and J. R. R. Tolkien. (read more)

My Cathedral in Autumn
Photos by Bob Kirchman







Honoring Our Veterans


Students at United Christian Academy in Stanardsville, Virginia created this display of flags to honor our veterans. Photo by Walter R. Key.

The America I Love, a Historic Photo Journey

Volume XVII, Issue XVI: Evening at Raven's Roost.

The America I Love, A Photo Journey
Photos by Bob Kirchman

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier


Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington, Virginia.

Wright Brothers Memorial


Wright Brothers Memorial, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

America the Beautiful
Words by Katharine Lee Bates, Melody by Samuel Ward

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!

O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
Whose stem impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through
wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!

O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man's avail
Men lavished precious life!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!

The Cherokee Nation


New Echota, in present day Georgia, was the capital of the Cherokee Nation.

Mohomony, The Natural Bridge of Virginia


The Monacan People knew Virginia's Natural Bridge as Mohomony, the Bridge of God.

Sherando Lake, Jefferson National Forest


Ice covers Sherando Lake in Augusta County, Virginia.

America's Early Railroads


Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Bridge South of Staunton, Virginia.


Arches of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Bridge South of Staunton, Virginia.


Cornerstone of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Bridge, Ellicott City, Maryland.


Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Station, Ellicott City, Maryland. The station actually had an engine house behind the large door.



High Water Marks, Railroad Bridge in Ellicott City, Maryland.


The Patapsco Hotel, Ellicott City, Maryland. It is built of native granite.


Dolls in a Shop Window, Ellicott City, Maryland.

McCormick's Mill


It was here that Cyrus McCormick invented the reaper and revolutionized world agriculture. Steele's Tavern, Virginia.







Mount Airy Farm






Before she became famous as a folk painter, Grandma Moses lived at Mount Airy in Augusta County just North of Staunton, Virginia.

Historical Mural, Crozet, Virginia




This mural celebrating the history of the Crozet area was painted by John Pembroke, Bob Kirchman and Western Albemarle High School Art Students. Restoration in 20112 was done by Kristina Elaine Greer, Meg West and Western Albemarle High School Art Students. The mural highlights the Monacan settlement here, the Big Survey settlement and the coming of the railroad built by Claudius Crozet, for whom the town is named.

Virginia State Capital Building




Thomas Jefferson designed the Virginia State Capital Building in Richmond, Virginia.

Poplar Forest


Thomas Jefferson's Octagonal House near Forest, Virginia.

University of Virginia


The Lawn, as designed by Thomas Jefferson, originally opened out to the rolling hills of Albemarle County, Virginia. In this reconstruction by Bob Kirchman it is seen open once again.

Sitka, Alaska


The Russian Bishop's House in Sitka, Alaska.


Abandoned Cemetery, Sitka, Alaska.

Shenandoah National Park, Virginia


Mary's Rock Tunnel on Skyline Drive, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia.

White Rock Falls, Virginia


White Rock Falls is along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia.

1776, Not 1619
[click to read]

America’s Founding was Not Defined by Slavery

For decades, much of academia, the liberal activist class, and the public school system have operated on the premise that America is fundamentally racist. The latest manifestation of this outlook is the 1619 Project, rolled out last month by the New York Times. Claiming that “anti-black racism runs in the very DNA of this country,” it “aims to reframe the country’s history” by making 1619—the year slavery was first introduced by the British to Virginia—the year of “our true founding.” This narrative is akin to the Jacobins’ alteration of the calendar to make their revolution the decisive turning point in human history. Just as they would save France from the monarchy, so, too, will the Times save America from white supremacy. The Times encourages public schools to adopt an accompanying curriculum that spreads the 1619 Project’s message to young Americans. Its goal is to brand our founding documents—the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution—as immoral and thus unworthy of our allegiance. To make America’s Founding contemptible, one must hide, ignore, and distort the Founders’ writings and thoughts. Irresponsibly omitted from this narrative is the fact that not a single major Founder endorsed slavery. On the contrary, the Founders unambiguously saw slavery as evil. George Washington said, “there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it,” and Thomas Jefferson’s original draft of the Declaration of Independence calls the slave trade an “execrable commerce” and an affront “against human nature itself.” Gouverneur Morris called slavery a “nefarious institution” and “the curse of heaven,” and John Jay said, “It is much to be wished that slavery may be abolished. . . . To contend for our own liberty, and to deny that blessing to others, involves an inconsistency not to be excused.” (read more)

The Man Who Moved a Mountain
Bob Childress, The Pastor Who Tamed Buffalo Mountain


Pastor Bob Childress.

 A Milestone Monday Feature

Today we think of gang violence downtown and forget that once there was gunfire in the small communities of Southwestern Virginia. Bob Childress was a hard-drinking, hard fighting resident of that region where the poverty of subsistence living was made more bearable, it was thought, by escaping to alcohol. Bob's parents drank heavily and fought constantly.

Following in his parent's footsteps, Childress missed a lot of school as a youth. One day he witnessed a massacre at the local courthouse and was moved to quit drinking and pursue a career in law enforcement. This was a noteworthy change in itself. Childress settled down, married and had four children; but G-d had plans for his life that would change the lives of people around him in a way he couldn't imagine.

Childress went to a revival meeting and found something more powerful than the spirits in a bottle. He found G-d and felt called to the ministry. At the age of thirty he returned to school, finishing high school in the same one-room schoolhouse attended by his six year old son.

He sought to bring the Spirit of the Lord to his hurting community. Though his education was pretty basic, he managed to go to Union Seminary in Richmond and struggled through. He became a much sought after speaker and was offered a very comfortable position with a large church... and he turned it down. Buffalo Mountain was his calling from G-d and he returned to his community and started a number of churches. His Sunday was a marathon as he made the journey to preach at each congregation.

Bob faced the daunting task of bringing the message of G-d's love to a community steeped in fatalistic despair. The churches he founded are testimony of what can be accomplished by a life lived for a greater purpose. Childress continued his ministry while caring for his daughter Hattie, who was severely disabled. When Bob's wife died, he took on such tasks as boiling the wash water for diapers. In the 1950's he was preaching in fourteen different churches every week. He died in 1956 at the age of 66.

Richard C. Davids tells his story in The Man Who Moved a Mountain [click to read], a stirring book. Lives like that of Bob Childress should challenge all of us. “Only eternity will tell the tremendous good accomplished in this unusual diocese.” -- The Synod of Virginia.

Remembering a Great Mentor
There was a Man who Convinced Me I Could Do This


Reconstructing my model of Ellicot's Mills for the B and;O Railroad Museum.

A Milestone Monday Feature

In Chapter 14 of Chuck Balsamo's book Make Me a Legend Pastor Balsamo talks about the importance of finding a good mentor. He brought back some important memories as I recalled the influence of a man named Reggie. Reggie served in the Navy during World War II and achieved the rank of Aviation Machinist's Mate, Second Class. He was a first class mentor.

I met this amazing man because I went to school with his daughter. He was a Chevrolet mechanic and an avid outdoorsman. He introduced me to the wonders of Coastal New Jersey as I happily paddled for hours through marshes and creeks. At about 50 years old, Reggie became an instructor at the vocational technology school. There he discovered his true gifts and passions.

At an age where most men are thinking about taking it easy, Reggie enrolled in Rutgers University and pursued a degree in administration. Education and young people had become his true calling and he graduated from college the same time one of his daughters did.

Days at Reggies place where full ones. He lived in a little postwar bungalo and when his children and their assembled friends were descending on the place around ten in the evening, he'd put on a pot of coffee. It came as no surprise that Reggie enjoyed lively conversation and sometimes these talk sessions would end in the wee hours of the morning. Good coffee, however, always made up for sleep deprivation.

Reggie went on to become a high school principal, but I have to believe that the best classes he ever taught were at his own kitchen table. He noticed that I was a hands-on guy struggling with an academic world. He found information on architectural model making and shared it with me. "You'd be good at this, Bob." Years later I was literally living off of this compliment. My little studio built models for architects, including one famous one. I worked on several models for resort projects in Japan, though I'm not sure how a man who served in the Pacific Theater would feel about that.

No doubt, this man has influenced many young lives in a similar manor. I am priviledged to have known him.

Education's Misplaced Priorities
By Kasey Norton
From Walking Redeemed [click to read]

Is it possible we’re educating our children right OUT of salvation?

It’s a scary and extremely counter-cultural thought but I believe there’s something to it. And if there’s any chance that even a grain of truth lies within that question, it’s something we’d better look at long and hard.

Because society over the past 200 years has evolved where we now worship at the altar of education. We serve the gods that feed us with information, curriculum, diplomas and degrees.

Which, in turn, causes us to remain bowed down before gods that feed us money.

More money.

All the money.

We stress education so much that our children grow up thinking it’s the link to true success. And that, my friends, is a lie that may just hinge them to a life of ruin.

Because success is NOT any worldly attainment. A man in a big house with a fancy car is NOT more successful than a man in a small house with a clunker. Not if the man in the small house knows and serves Jesus while the man in the big house doesn’t.

Society lies. Our culture lies. The devil lies. And we, innocently or not, perpetuate those lies.

If we push our children to read by 3, and speak multiple languages, and write poetry as poetically as Longfellow, but they don’t have the love of God that seeps into their being and transforms them from the inside out, they literally have nothing. Our work is in vain.

If we train them, through hours of repetition, to calculate with the speed and efficiency of a computer, or to solve complicated problems using high order algebraic function, but they don’t know the love of God that saves them from themselves, they have nothing to share with others. Their lives will be lived in vain.

If we spend hours and weeks and years filling the minds of our children with historical facts, and geographical landmarks, and the periodic table of elements, they’ll be very smart in many ways. If we serve them up a side of church and religion and we talk occasionally of faith and prayer, they’ll even have a bit of head knowledge about God. But if we haven’t CONNECTED them to God and shown them His character and taught them of His sacrifice and pointed them to His victory on OUR behalf, we’ve given them nothing.

We’ll have raised brilliant infidels who may even change the world ... they just won’t be changing it for Jesus.

Education isn’t what we’ve made it. Or more accurately, we’ve corrupted education until it’s been depleted of much of its value. Because we’re educating our children to assume their rightful place in a society of dream seekers and money makers.

But very few are educating these children to be God chasers.

I, myself, have done it wrong. I’ve not taken my lessons from the schools of the prophets and, as such, I’ve allowed the world to paint my view without even realizing it. And I see the world tugging HARD on the hearts of my young people.

And let me tell you, it’s very difficult to convince a person of something with your words when your actions have told them otherwise.

God is the author of redemption, however. He points out our mistakes so we can repent of them. He shows us a better way so we can tell others of it. And He promises to do all He can, within the parameters of the human will, to restore what the locusts have eaten.

If you’ve done it wrong and this culture has snagged your beloved children and is holding them within its grip, all is not lost. Repent of your wrong course and accept the forgiveness He offers. And then go out there and love them with all the love that God loves us with because it’s His love that wins us.

It’s not a setting aside of principle or a winking at sin or a compromise of conviction that wins our kids back. It’s the sweet love of Jesus filling us to overflowing that will ultimately infect them. He handles the details and He gives us the words and actions that will be most effective in reaching them.

And if your children are still young, choose the narrow way. Focus 99% of your time on showing them the face of Christ and 1% on facts that simply help them pass tests our societal rules demand. Because if they’re looking for evidences of God in nature, and storing up the treasure of Scripture in their memories, and studying the history of the great gospel commission and how it’s transformed hearts and saved lives, and learning how to spend the money they have to reach souls with the good news that so few truly grasp, you will be transferring the absolute and very best education possible to your precious children.

And God will add to them knowledge and understanding and wisdom according as they need it.

True education is miraculous and it’s also what’s going to set this world on fire when people grab ahold of it.

I’m picking up my torch, even if it’s not trendy. And I plan to get to work lighting theirs!

Reinventing Yourself
[click to read]

By John Rampton

Just because everything in your life is running smoothly right now doesn’t mean that that’s going to last. (read more)

Proverbs 11:24-25

There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.”
‭‭— Proverbs‬ ‭11:24-25‬


Fields near Swope, Virginia. Photo by Bob Kirchman.

Betsy Bell and Mary Gray
Staunton's Twin Mountains Recall Two Young Ladies


Flowers and leaves on Betsy Bell Mountain.

Memorialized in a historic ballad, Betsy and Mary were daughters of two Perthshire gentlemen who went into isolation in the country to avoid a plague. The year was 1666 and a young man who was in love with both of them came to supply them regularly with food. The man eventually came down with the plague himself, passing it along to the two girls. The young man and both girls died of the plague.

The first settlers of the area named the mountains because they reminded them of two similarly named mountains in the old country. The City of Staunton's history records the following:

The original 50-acre park was donated to the City in 1941 by Charles Catlett, who specified that "The City of Staunton shall as far as is reasonably practicable and in its considered opinion advisable, and for the common benefit of its citizens and inhabitants, keep and maintain the crest of the mountain as a perpetual memorial..." of events in the past life of the community and in memory of its citizens who have given their lives in protecting the nation.

Catlett further specified that the site be maintained in its natural state, that a "cross" cut out of the woods along the crest be maintained, and that City Council visit the crest of Betsy Bell once each Spring in remembrance of the gift. These requirements have been honored since the bequest. An additional 20 acres was acquired by the City through a donation from CSC Associates in 1995."

The two mountains are one of my favorite places to hike. They provide a wonderful bit of wilderness right in the city of Staunton.


You forget that you are in the city as you walk up Mary Gray Mountain.


The Cross cut out of the forest on Betsy Bell Mountain. It is there as a memorial to those who have given their lives in defense of this Nation.


Looking West from Bear Den Mountain, Mary Gray and Betsy Bell show you where Staunton is.


The trail up the mountain was alive with color when I visited it in Autumn.

The Place of Faith in Education
A Unique Perspective on the Issue from CIVITAS


Iris.

Education is only adequate and worthy when it is itself religious… There is no possibility of neutrality… To be neutral concerning G-d is the same thing as to ignore Him… If children are brought up to have an understanding of life in which, in fact, there is no reference to G-d, you cannot correct the effect of that by speaking about G-d for a certain period of the day. Therefore our ideal for the children of our country is the ideal for truly religious education." -- William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury in 1942.

Here is a very interesting report from CIVITAS [1.], on The Place of Faith in Schools [click to read] by Professor David Conway. It adds a new dimension to the debate now raging in America between those who would impose a strictly secular criteria and those who consider Faith an essential component of learning.

[A] nation which draws into itself continuously, and not merely in its first beginnings, the inspiration of a religious faith and a religious purpose will increase its own vitality… Our own nation… has been inspired by a not ignoble notion of national duty to aid the oppressed – the persecuted Vaudois, the suffering slave, the oppressed nationality – and it has been most... characteristically national when it has most felt such inspiration…

We offend against the essence of the [English] nation if we emphasise its secularity, or regard it as merely an earthly unit for earthly purposes. Its tradition began its life at the breast of Christianity; and its development in time, through the centuries… has not been utterly way from its nursing mother… [I]n England our national tradition has been opposed to the idea of a merely secular society for secular purposes standing over against a separate religious society for religious purposes. Our practice has been in the main that of the single society, which if national is also religious, making public profession of Christianity in its solemn acts, and recognising religious instruction as part of its scheme of education." -- Ernest Barker, Cambridge Philosopher

Professor Conway  Concludes: "All would stand to benefit from such committed forms of religious education in the country’s state-funded schools, not simply because it would be likely to improve the educational performance, behaviour and well-being of the nation’s schoolchildren. They would also all benefit because, I believe, only by continuing to provide it can this country be assured of remaining the independent and united liberal polity that it has for so long been and from whose continuing to be such all its diverse inhabitants would derive benefit, even those who do not share that faith or any other."