Within the Two Binders: Thanksgiving

Continuing through the two binders of my great-granddad's lessons and prayers, I came across what seems to be a Thanksgiving Day prayer.

"THE TWENTY THIRD PSALM"

"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;
He leadeth me besides the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righeousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and they staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table for me in the presence of mine enemies; thou anoinst my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."

"Lord, Thou hast indeed been bountiful. As we look back over the years, how gracious Thou hast been, how tender Thy mercy, how warm and constant Thy Love.

Create within us, our Father, that true gratitude that shall make this day of Thanksgiving one of rededication, when we shall not think of how much we can eat but of how thankful we ought to be.

So may we-all across this land today-act as recipients of God's richest mercy and bountiful blessing, as we share with others. May we, in gratitude, get on with the job of creating not only a nation but a world in which men shall have the right to seek happiness.

Help us to make that dream come true in our homes day by day, in street and office and school, and so to live that Thou shalt be able to bless us and bless the nation for which we pray. In His name, who created us a nation, we pray Amen.

Crystal Grottoes

Today, my oldest daughter and I went to Crystal Grottoes in Boonsboro, Maryland.

Admission to the cave is $20 for adults, $10 for kids 11 and under. There are $1 off coupons available on their website and on brochures in the lobby of the cave.

We arrived at the cave shortly after lunch.

The visitors center and where you enter the cave

After we paid for our tour, we waited about 15 minutes for the previous tour to finish and the tour guide to complete her break.

We then headed down the stairs into the cave. Our tour consisted of 4 of us, a couple and my daughter and myself.

The entrance to the cave

At the bottom of the stairs, you turn and enter the cave. The tour guide pointed out where they had blasted into the cave. The cave doesn't have a natural entrance, but miners dynamited into it.

The black marks where they dynamited

The black marks where they dynamited

The tour guide claimed that this cave has the most decorations per square foot of any cave in the world. I don't know if that is true, but it certainly is plastered with decorations, more than any other cave I've been to.

The Crystal Palace

Fantasy Land

The mummy

The string looking thing is a honeysuckle root 45 feet below the surface

Supposedly a dragon

Looking up 55 feet which is 5 feet beneath the surface

In the formation, there is a horse with an elephant on its back with a giraffe on its back

My daughter's favorite feature

Pool

The blankets

My daughter and me in front of the blankets

The tour lasted about 30 minutes. If you are in the area, a nice cave tour to see a beautiful cave.

Pastor of the Restaurant

In Sunday School, we've been reading through John Leonard's Get Real.

This week we are studying Chapter 10, Sow Widely. The chapter is about evangelizing. At the end of the chapter, he talks about a pastor who while walking around the neighborhood around the church is discovered to not know the people around the church. The author tells the pastor "You don't pastor just a church; you pastor a community. Every one of these people, whether they know it or not, are your sheep. Your job is to shepherd them. Don't walk by them without calling out to them, asking 'How are you doing today? How's your family? How's that problem we spoke about last week?'"

It reminded me of a pastor friend of mine who pastored a restaurant.

Now this pastor was an ordained United Methodist elder and was the Senior Pastor of a church. However, he was a widower and devoted long hours to the church and the gym and not to cooking for himself. Just about every night, he would go eat dinner at a restaurant down the street from the church. Anytime he and I ate together, we ate at this restaurant. And anytime I ate at the restaurant separately, I would see him there.

Now though I was friends with the pastor and meet with him several times, I never heard him give his thoughts on that day's Lectionary reading. The only time I was in the sanctuary of his church was for a wedding that he didn't officiate. But I heard that pastor preach many sermons at that restaurant.

Whenever I ate dinner with this pastor, he would constantly be talking with the wait staff, hostesses, and bartenders. He knew who their family was, where they were going to school, and what problems they were having. It seemed the staff would intentionally come by our table just so the pastor would be able to talk with them.

The pastor told me once that though he was assigned to the church, his primary congregation was the staff at this restaurant. I thought the food was really good, Jamaican. A Whataburger or a BBQ place would be good places to be assigned as well.