At one time, I was that little Vietnamese girl

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Last month I had the pleasure of meeting a missionary to Vietnam who works with orphaned children. A story he related while preaching at our church was the absolute perfect picture of my life, and I felt moved to share it.

One of the orphans he worked with, along with her sister, saw her daddy hang himself. The children were terribly traumatized, as you can imagine…and this particular little girl wouldn’t smile or talk to anyone. After a lot of work, she would smile and talk to Mike.

One day, she heard that he was coming to the village. She dressed up in her best clothes and prepared to come see him. While crossing a canal that was basically an open sewer, on a bridge consisting of a fallen tree laid across the canal, she slipped and fell into the sewage slop.

When he got there, she was crushed and reeked of all the stinky gunk that she was covered in, crying uncontrollably. Moved by the spirit, he knelt down, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her cheek, and told her, “It’s okay, honey…I don’t care what you smell like, I love you anyhow.” The little girl was overjoyed. It was this gesture that convinced the communist authorities that he was the real deal, and that he loves those kids over there.

The same picture applies to the sinner being saved when he/she accepts Christ. I was in the same sorry shape as that little Vietnamese girl. I was covered in slop spiritually, things that would be putrid to an almighty and just God. Things like:

– the sin I was born with. We all are, since Adam. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned…” (Romans 4:12)

– the idea that I was basically a “good person.” “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one…” (Romans 3:10)

– the sins I’d committed in my life, most notably, according to Jesus: “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28)

– the good I thought I’d done to make up for the bad. “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags…” (Isaiah 64:6)

– the religion that I thought would absolve me of my sins: “Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” (Mark 7:7)

I was eternally stained with a load of foul, awful mess that neither I or any other man could never wipe clean. Neither could “religion.” I was stuck with it. My soul reeked with the disgusting mess of the sin I’d inherited and the slop I’d rolled around in for nearly thirty years. Yet God didn’t care about that. When I finally humbled myself and believed that I was a simple sinner in need of God’s mercy and grace, It was as if he knelt down, wrapped His arms around me, and told me, “It’s okay…I don’t care what you’ve done. I’ve made a way for you…Jesus died for those sins. You’re clean in my eyes.” It was then that I knew for sure that God is real.

I remember that night, when the summation of all the witnessing by my Christian friends finally sunk in. I suppose I could simplify things into three choices. One, you could reject Jesus altogether. Two, you could claim to know Him, but trust in sacraments or good works to justify you in God’s sight. Or three, you can admit that you’re a sinner and only Jesus’ dying on the cross for your sins can save you. Only the third will save your eternal soul. The apostle John wrote in the Bible, “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (I John 2:2), “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) That whole world includes you, me, and everybody. Not only did God love us, but he “washed us from our sins in his own blood” according to Revelation 1:5. But you’ve got to believe.

Spiritually, the lost sinner feels the same way as that little Vietnamese girl when he approaches God and trusts in Jesus for his eternal salvation…to be accepted and loved, when they feel filthy and unloveable. That was me several years ago. I just wanted to share that with you.

Photo credit: Man Him, Republic of Vietnam (modified for this post within Creative Commons license)

This post has been bumped up from May 3rd, 2008.

Power Station, or Some Like it Hot

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I couldn’t help but give a little tribute to the 80s band with the title of this post. It’s relevant, after all; a power plant can be described quite simply. Despite all the wires, pipes, belts, machines, and computers, the purpose of a power plant is to make steam. The steam turns a turbine or two in order to generate electricity, but all the complex and massive functions of the plant essentially exist to make water really, really hot.

I was on my way to the Harmon Lake area to see if some astrophotography was in order when I spotted this view of Heskett Station. I pulled over at the nearest approach, took the Hoof Express back to a good camera location, and snapped a few shots. The moon was in just the right spot, and so was I. From there it was only a short hop north to Harmon and the decision that Saturday night was far too cold for this would-be photographer to be standing outside in a hoodie and light jacket. Thanks to the view above, though, I didn’t come home empty handed.

Where else can I go to lower my IQ a couple dozen points? I’m sure the Internet will provide

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Yesterday the publisher of the Bismarck Tribune announced that they were no longer going to allow public comment on most stories posted on the Tribune website. The reason given was that many comments posted by users “have been in poor taste and nothing more than personal attacks on either a person or group.” That’s an understatement.

I’ve often stated that if I start feeling too intelligent I simply have to go peruse the Comments section of the Bismarck Tribune website to knock off a couple dozen IQ points. It was serious tinfoil-hat territory, and it did as much to hurt the Tribune’s credibility as their editorial bias…but in a slightly less guarded tone.

I hit my teens during the dawn of the personal computer age. I remember calling local BBSs (Bulletin Board Systems) with my 300 baud modem nearly thirty years ago. Even then people were frantically pounding away at their keyboards, typing outrageous things they’d never have the nerve to say to someone in person. It was a valuable lesson to learn back then rather than right now, where everything you type is instantly available worldwide forever. Some would say I still step in it, but we can debate that another time.

Now how do I lower my IQ on demand? I don’t watch television. I guess I could still go to the Tribune website and meander through one of Clay Jenkinson’s rambling missives occasionally. Of such garrulousness I simply say, brevity is the soul of wit.

In any case, even though the local tinfoil-hat crowd has been silenced within the Tribune’s purview, I’m sure the Internet will provide a suitable alternative should the need arise.

Fort Lincoln frisbee frolicking

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My little guys have really been looking forward to a trip to the blockhouses at Fort Lincoln lately, so last night I made that happen. One boy had his bike, one boy had his frisbees, and Daddy had his camera. The winds aloft were pushing all the nice clouds away to the southeast, but I was able to catch a few before they moved off. Then it was on to the fun.

I fancy myself quite the proficient frisbee thrower and catcher. I don’t do the frolf thing very often; my favorite frisbee pastime is to do lots of running, jumping, throwing, and catching on the capitol lawn. My latest favorite is throwing multiple frisbees simultaneously and seeing how many little guys can catch ’em! We took that show on the road last night as I threw frisbees up to the roof of the blockhouse and darted around as my fellas threw them back down. All the while trying not to spill camera gear.

The evening came and went quickly, as the fleeting sun darted over the horizon with September velocity. At that point it was time to grab a couple shots of clouds reflecting a pinkish hue and bolt back to the truck for the long ride home. Not a bad little adventure for a weeknight, and since that pesky sun sets so early this time of year I think we all made it to bed on schedule!

Off duty at 22,000

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This is my 22,000th photo through my newest camera. The subject is something that has drawn my eye every time I pass it on I-94 near Sweet Briar. Over the extended weekend I decided to venture out at sunrise and, since I’ve photographed all the obvious stuff in Bismarck-Mandan ad nauseum, I needed to travel a little further and get this shot from my photographic “bucket list.”

This is an old police/security vehicle sitting alongside a little gravel road along the interstate highway. While it has a reflective Air Force Security logo sticker on the door, I don’t think that’s original. The car is not directly accessible from there; one has to hit a couple of gravel roads to find it. That’s easily accomplished with a little GPS or Google Earth.

The clouds mostly obscured the sunrise until the sun had come up quite a ways. That actually provided a nice photo opportunity of the car, since I didn’t have to deal with any blazing highlights or deep shadows. Clouds are a great natural diffuser of light. I turned around to capture the sun poking through, although I didn’t care much for the power lines (see yesterday’s post).

Once the golden cast of the sunrise faded, some nice dramatic blues remained. That allowed me one more angle before moving on. People sometimes ask me how I have time to grab all the photos I post on here from day to day. The answer is, quite simply: I don’t. I maximize the photo opportunities that I do get, and then post the photos over time. One photo trip can sometimes provide a week’s worth of blog material if it’s a productive one. In this case, yes, I did find some other fun stuff…and yes, it will have to be posted later. 🙂

I didn’t think this was going to turn out but I snapped it anyway…

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Saturday morning, while working on something else that I’ll likely post in the next day or two, I noticed that the sky behind me was doing something really cool. Yes, I was out at sunrise and pointing my camera the other way – more on that later. The clouds had obscured the rising sun for the most part, but once it began to poke through I took notice. Sadly, there were power lines in the way of an otherwise nice sunrise landscape shot.

I went ahead and maneuvered closer to the power lines to include them, since I certainly wasn’t in a good position to avoid them. In this case I they actually provide a nice bit of geometry to the shot. While not ideal, they do lead the eye toward the horizon and the rising sun.

Certainly not ideal, but not a total throwaway shot, either. Since I do freelance industrial photography and an advocate for North Dakota’s energy industry, I’m somewhat sympathetic to lines like these anyway. Now, about the photographic subject that had me facing away from the dramatic sunrise…well, that’ll have to wait a day or two.

Now THAT is a pile of mowers

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I didn’t have time to explore this pile more thoroughly but I had to stop and snap a quick shot of it. This rather large assembly of mowers in various states of disrepair stood outside a repair shop near downtown Rapid City. I managed to grab (and stylize) a photo the day before it vanished. I wonder if it will now be replaced with a pile of old snow blowers? I hear those are harder to stack…

I hiked through poison ivy to take these, so you bet I’m gonna post ’em

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We had some welcome house guests during our family Black Hills retreat last weekend. As I rolled into the driveway I saw a doe hanging out behind the deck, and sprang out with my camera without even unlocking the house and dashed to the backyard.

As it turns out, there were two does as well as two bucks and two fawns. With ample grazing in the yard (and apple trees over the deck) they were always rummaging about in the morning and evening.

Of course, after climbing all over the side of the mountain that suffices as a backyard, I realized that it was teeming with poison ivy.

I’ve had poison ivy so many times that it doesn’t even really bother me any more. I had one itchy spot on my ankle for a few days and, since I didn’t scratch it, it didn’t spread. I was tempted a few times but stayed strong.

I wish I had this kind of luck with human subjects; the deer posed so nicely and, since they’re deer, remained relatively still. Since we were throwing them apples from the trees by the deck from time to time, we didn’t appear to pose much of a threat.

The fawns were the most skittish, the hardest to find, and the least likely to approach the house. I only saw them a few times and they rarely left me an opportunity to point the camera at them. When not moving they blended into the background so well that they were hard to spot even when near.

Since we pretty much left them alone and there was plenty of good grazing around, they hung out with us for the week. They seemed to be okay with me wandering around nearby with my camera as long as the fawns were hidden.

I’ve pretty much had my fill of deer photos now, except I wouldn’t mind having a nice close-up session with the fawns again sometime. Unfortunately they weren’t about to give me that opportunity this time around. Maybe next time. Until then, I’m pretty satisfied with my little mountainside deer-chasing adventure.

Sickle mower vista

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I had the opportunity to spend some time at a friend’s house in rural South Dakota last weekend, and I was delighted to find this old artifact in their back yard. It wasn’t just the implement, a McCormick-Deering #6 Horse-Drawn Sickle Mower if you’re wondering, that impressed me; the view was amazing.

One drawback to photography in the “energy corridor” of the great state of North Dakota is the ubiquitous power line in almost any landscape. Seriously, they’re tough to escape. No problems in this photo…just wander out in the backyard and snap away. I did manage to find the hidden rusty barbed wire in the grass, too…but thankfully my tetanus shot is up to date.

Benched at Fish Creek with Big Spider’s Back

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My friend Jerry told me about this cool lookout point high above Fish Creek Dam, located about fifteen miles or so west of Mandan. I had a stressful day today so, after a quick power-nap, I bolted out to catch the sunset. I arrived just in time to hike up to the summit with my cameras. I found the one spot on the appropriately placed bench that wasn’t covered in bird poop and set about trying to catch the sunset in the few short minutes before it disappeared.

Here’s what I saw. It was a perfect evening with no wind, nice warm summer air, and of course the tranquility of the brilliant sunset. Here’s what I heard: the song “Secret Chiefs” by Big Spider’s Back (click to listen on iTunes.com), one of my favorite sunset tunes. It fit the mood perfectly tonight, which is why I have deemed it tonight’s Sunset Song of the Weekâ„¢.