More "root" gathering

While Al was at the Grand Canyon with our son and grandson, I kept myself busy with various things.  One thing I did was go on a little excursion with my dear friend, Sarah.  She and I teach a young mom's Bible study at our church.  We needed to get together to do some planning and decided to make a day trip of it, checking out a couple cemeteries of our ancestors close to Moundridge, Ks, not too far away.  She has many ancestors buried at Lone Tree Cemetery.

My mother loaned me this book several years ago and it was fascinating!

It is a historical fiction story about the Becker family.  The Beckers are Sarah's family!

Below is a photo of the gravesite of her grandparents on her mother's side.  They were involved in a tragic car accident on December 5, 2000.  They were going with another couple to Carriage Crossings in Yoder when they crashed.  The other couple were pronounced dead at the scene.  Nina was hospitalized but never made it out.  She died about a month later. 

Lewie remarried 2 years later to a Marguerite Schmidt, who had never been married before.  They were only married a little over 3 months when he died in June of 2002!  How sad for her!

Nina was an Unruh.  (I am guessing that we are distantly related as my grandmother was also an Unruh.)  Nina was one of 17 children!!  And I thought I was busy with my 3 children!

Most of Nina's 17 siblings are buried in this cemetery, except for 1 buried in Oklahoma and 1 on the east coast.  Only 2 siblings remain; 1 in Canton and 1 in Massachusetts.

I was rather surprised that they allowed non-pacifists to be buried here at the Holderman cemetery.  This is another of Nina's brothers.  He was killed in the Korean war.

Nina's sister.  I've never heard this name before.  Mollie yes, but not Mulvena.  I think I'd want to go by Mollie too.

Lena was Sarah's great-grandmother.  She passed away when her grandfather, Lewie, was around 12 years old.

Below, this is her great-uncle and great-aunt but on the other side of the family.  Norma was a sister to her Grandmother Elizabeth Koehn.  Let me tell you, Mennonite Anabaptist roots get really complicated!  A bush, not a family tree!

Her grandparents on her father's side.

This is an active cemetery and people are still being buried here.  We wondered if the modern laser design would last longer?  Time will tell.  

Several gravestones we could not even read what they said.   If you bring a plain sheet of paper and a crayon, you can rub the crayon lightly on the paper ( apply more pressure as needed) to transfer some of the words onto the paper.

I am pretty sure this guy was not Holderman, but they must have some ties to be able to be buried here.

We spent about an hour here then we drove to the First Mennonite Church cemetery, except the GPS had it wrong and sent us out to the middle of a country road with field all around.  

We called the church and got the right directions.



Here is the head stone of my great-great-great grandfather, Christian Voran, who immigrated here in 1874.

and great-great-great grandmother Katarina (Goering) Voran.

These markers were put up to thank our immigrant relatives for making the decision to leave present day Ukraine to come here.

Quite a few Vorans (my maiden name).  We are all related.

Downtown Moundridge is pretty cute!  

My parents lived in this town the year before going to Japan.  Dad pastored the Hopefield Mennonite Church.

This picture above is right before they went to Japan.

Sarah recommended going to The Hub for lunch.

There was enough for me to take home for Allen and I to share another meal.

We going to study the book of Haggai.  There are about 20 of us studying this every other week.  It will take us until the Spring to study this 2 chapter book of the Old Testament!  We decided on our schedule and what we'd do on the first day.

In this world that seems to be falling apart, we will learn how to take courage as Christians.  But as the saying goes, "the world is not falling apart, it is falling into place."

"Fear not.  I AM with you always." is His promise!

Grand Canyon with grandson, Eli

One of our goals as grandparents is to take each grandchild on a trip of some kind; either mission, ministry or educational focus to help them grow in their faith.  This year it was Eli's turn.

This year's trip was with ICR (Institute for Creation Research) Grand Canyon trip with explanation of the geology from a Biblical creation/flood perspective.

Our son Josh also wanted to go along as did Eli's other grandpa, Dan.  They all drove up from Arkansas and spent the night with us.

I said my "byes".  I wanted a last photo in case they didn't make it out!

They drove to the Wichita airport and flew from there to Las Vegas.

I will let Allen tell the story:

We had to be at the lobby of the hotel by 4:30 am to catch a ride to Boulder City airport.

Here we boarded a small single engine plane to fly to the Canyon.

On the river, we boarded our boats: two boats with 14 people each.  We were allowed to bring a small duffle bag of belongings only.  They supplied all of the necessary items like cots, sleeping bags, food, etc.

Life jackets were a required attire any time we were on the boat.

The morning began with morning devotions from Charles Spurgeon.

We stopped each night to set up camp around 5 or 6 pm.  Not really sure as we didn't have a watch to keep time.  There was no cell phone connection.  Actually no contact with the outside world.  After a while you forgot what day it was.

(Only the guide had a satellite phone for emergency only - which we ended up using.)

(I, Debby, felt pretty unsettled about it. A little disconcerting not being able to contact them.  I mean, what if I had a heart attack and died in my chair.  He wouldn't know until he came home!  But the Lord was with me.  He never leaves nor forsakes us so that gives one peace.)   

Many side canyons run into the Grand Canyon.  We would stop and hike many of them, finding waterfalls to play in.

It was usually in these where Dr. Tim Cleary, the geologist, would lecture on the geological aspects of the canyon.

Here Eli is showing the first sedimentation layer of the first megasequence of the flood, resting on the basement rock.

After a day of riding the river, and hiking side canyons, we were usually pretty tired and ready to sleep under the stars.  Eli took this picture of the night sky.  You see so many more stars where there is no light pollution.

        "By the word of the LORD were the heavens made,

               their starry host by the breath of His mouth."

                                                    Psalm 33:6

        "I AM the LORD,

            Who has made all things,

            Who alone stretched out the heavens,

            Who spread out the earth by Myself."

                                                Isaiah 44:24b

Since the days were 100 degrees plus, it would take a long time for the night to cool off.  Way too hot to use a tent.  The cots were a welcome addition as they kept you off the sand where the scorpions like to crawl around.  (A word of advice:  always shake your shorts out prior to putting them on in the morning.  One guy didn't and a scorpion got him in a place where the sun doesn't shine.)

In six days, 5 nights, we covered 188 miles of the river and traversed 63 rapids.  In the canyon, they rate the rapids on a 1-10 scale, 10 being the most extreme.  We had two 10's, five-six 9's, and a bunch of 8's.   Here is a photo I found on-line of one of those rapids.

Everyday had more hikes with study of the rock layers.

And more waterfalls, which were extremely cold. 

One advantage of the waterfalls was they washed the stink off, so you never really had to change clothes if you didn't want to.

The river was 50 degrees.  We learned quickly to wear our rain clothes for some protection from the cold water.  And a water bottle of hot coffee or hot chocolate would do wonders to warm you up, especially after a rapid.

With a bath like this you would be refreshed and good to hike some more.

On Day 4, one of the men accidently fell about 30 feet, off the narrow ridge and landed face down into a creek below.  The guide, who was right behind him, shimmied down and got his head out of water.  The man was unconscious.  Because the guides have satellite phones, a life-watch helicopter was called in.

The man was taken to a hospital.  He is okay.  His 13 year old grandson was not able to go with them, but the rest of the group took good care of him until the end of the trip when he was reunited with his parents.  We were thankful that the rescue team did such a good job!

The guides made all the meals from scratch.  Supper started with horsd'oeuvres!, followed by a main meal like steak and pototoes, ending with desserts.  One night there was even ice-cream!  Fresh food was carried on the boat in large metal containers filled with dry ice. 

End of the adventure, seeing the evidence of the global flood.

Inside the helicopter.  On our way out of the canyon to Bar 10 Ranch, where we had hot showers and then boarded our small plane back to civilization.   

"Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life."  Genesis 9:15b

I, Debby, had a copy of their itinerary and each day looked up on Google Earth where they were and Googled photos of the locations.

So glad they had this time together!  But I'm glad I stayed home!!  Glad we all survived!