Fulfilling the Great Commission

The vision and mission of Harvest Community Church:


Are you ready to be challenged in your walk with the Lord?

Happy Thanksgiving

from our house to yours!

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

Environmental Learning Center

The Armstrong County Community Foundation had a board retreat at the Crooked Creek Environmental Learning Center yesterday. It's a wonderful Armstrong County resource--you can visit the animal exhibits inside, hike the trails, rent the facility for meetings or family reunions (even overnight ones!) The atmosphere is rustic (no 5-star accommodations here), but if you enjoy God's creation, visit sometime.
This litter graveyard is behind the herb garden, which is maintained by the Penn State Master Gardeners. (To find out how to become a Master Gardener, contact our Armstrong County Cooperative Extension office.)
We shouldn't litter, but we are not going to "Save the Earth." Why? Because followers of Christ are looking for a new heaven and a new earth:
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells [2 Peter 3:10-13].

Mankind is given the earth to use and take care of: Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it [Genesis 2:15]. The Hebrew word keep means "to have charge of, guard, preserve, protect" according to Strong's Concordance. We are all stewards of what we have been given by God. (A steward is "a person who manages property or affairs for another entity.") We are stewards of the earth, the money entrusted to us, our spiritual gifts, and stewards of the mysteries of God--even our bodies belong to God, not us.

We should not ever be wasteful or negligent with anything we have been given, but we will not 'save' the earth by trying to have a smaller 'carbon footprint' or driving a Prius. These things are fine to do, commendable even, but keep an eternal perspective!

My Wildself

Lion mane, polar bear ears, tiger paws, bird of paradise wings, jellyfish "feet," peacock tail. Cool. What is your wild self? Click on the picture . . . .

Did it snow at your house?

Pictures from my deck

Some people REALLY love their Halloween decorations