Our Country's Monuments

As we have traveled throughout the country we have seen several monuments along the way.  The monuments were erected in memorial or in remembrance of so many different people or groups of people. We soon learned that we could not take pictures of every monument or we would be stopping every few miles.  Every country has their monuments and the USA is no different.  But as we have traveled across the country and talked to people we have learned that monuments are built for man and that we must build our monuments in our hearts to glorify God.

Below are just a few of the monuments we have come across.  The last one is a monument that hit us hard though.  It is the monument talked about in the documentary movie "Monumental".  Look at the pictures of this monument and read the captions below.  As you read them think about where you have built your monuments?

Monument at the gate of Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona

 Memorial at the Hoover Dam

The Statue of Liberty

Monument to the Founding Fathers

  It starts with faith that we can only get from God that is why she is pointing up and there is a star on her forehead which represents the wisdom God gives us.

  It takes morality which we get from the 10 commandments, she has no eyes so she cannot be distracted.

 

 The law is kept by the justice system whether you our rich or poor we are all treated the same.

Education is holding the Bible and this is where we are to get our education.

Liberty has the chain broken from where we have come but a sword in his hand to remind us we must fight to keep it.  Liberty can only come with the rest of these.  It cannot happen without the rest of these or Liberty would be on top.

As we serve God in our ministry we are reminded that we all have erected monuments to those we have loved and served on this earth.  The Monument to the Founding Fathers left us thinking...if our country has been built on Morality, Law, Education and Liberty, that comes together because of our Faith...are our monuments built on faith in what God can do or are our monuments built on what man can do?  We will be serving in disasters all over the world, I pray that as we go out and serve that we can continue to build our monument in heaven on our faith in what God can do.

For more information on the above monument please watch the movie "Monumental"

Family, Friends and places along the way...

We have been on the road now for 22 days.  Our travels have taken us from Minnesota through the fields of Nebraska, the mountains of Colorado, the deserts of Utah, California, Arizona and New Mexico, to the beautiful Grand Canyon and the powerful Hoover Dam.  We have seen the roaring waves of the Pacific and the oil wells of Texas.  And then the beautiful rolling hills of Arkansas and Tennessee.  We have rolled through Mississippi and then spent a few days in Alabama.

But the most important part of this trip has been the people.  From the high school classmates, in St. George, Utah and Santa Rosa, California to the siblings in Visalia, California and Memphis, Tennessee we have been welcomed with open arms.  In those 22 days we have spent only 4 nights in hotels!  We have been blessed with comfortable beds, yummy meals, laundry facilities and even an oil change.  We have been prayed over by friends that we haven't seen in years and loved on by aunts, uncles and cousins.  Below are the pictures of some of those that have blessed us along the way.  May the Lord bless them as they have been a blessing.

 

We stayed at Jane Rohr Peterson's house in St. George, UT our second night on the road.  Jane and I sat down and started to talk like we had seen each other the day before.  It was such a blessing to see Jane and meet her husband, Pete.

Two of my sister in law Cheryl's three dogs.  We stayed with Todd (Jackie's brother) and Cheryl for 5 days before we dropped Brad off at Stanford.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We then moved on to Jackie's friend Ann's house in Santa Rosa, California.  We had a great time with Ann catching up.

We spent a family day in San Francisco before we dropped Brad off.  This is fun on the Cable Cars!

On to the Los Angeles area for breakfast with Jackie's Aunt Sheila and brother, Todd.  What a blessing to see Sheila again.

And believe it or not we had dinner the same night in Phoenix with my Aunt Diane.  I am amazed at the number of people we have been able to see on this trip.

From Phoenix we moved on to Tuscon for an afternoon and evening with Rob's cousin, Gary and his wife, Patrica.  They hadn't seen each other in over 25 years. They spent ours catching up.

Then a couple of nights in New Braunfels, TX with a friend of ours that Rob met several years ago.  He made smoked ribs and pork loin.  Yum Yum!

 

Please pray for everyone that has blessed us so much! We would not be able to do this trip without them.  We are being constantly surprised by God each day.  Again, just like our ministry with TouchGlobal it is about the relationships not the tasks. We praise God for these relationships.

 Yesterday, on the 4th of July we went through some of the tornado torn parts of Harvest, Alabama.  It was a reminder of why we are on this trip and why God has called us to work in Crisis Response.  We feel more fortunate than ever that God chose us!