Cabela's

Here's for the final post for the Love the Church Conference! 

About an hour or so after we left West Virgina(?) on Monday morning, Hannah began to suffer the effects of a stomach bug and Lilya (who was sitting next to her) started crying, she answered our inquiries of concern saying, "I want my Daddy" So Mom walkie-talkied the Fournier's, we pulled over and Mr. Fournier came to ask Lilya what was the matter. We thought perhaps she was grossed out by Hannah's sickness and didn't want to sit next to her but to our surprise she touchingly cried "I feel bad for Hannah!" with tears streaming down her face! That child is priceless! 

-Continuing our Journey-

While driving north on the highway, approaching Pennsylvania, and discussing the different lectures we had all heard via the walkie-talkies, we happened to pass by a guide sign saying "Cabella's such and such exit" Now last time we went to Cabella's was about 8 yrs ago in Texas, our Uncle had brought us and Mom had stayed with my Aunt and Felicity and Chariti who were then too little to go. Thus Mom and the Fourniers had never had the pleasure of visiting Cabella's. After asking Mom and gaining her consent under the condition "If Mr. and Mrs. Fournier don't mind going then I don't mind" Thus began the pleas to Mr. Fournier. 

Objection #1: "Well, I would love to go but the adult here(Mrs. Fournier) says if we stop we'll get stuck in NY traffic on the way home." replied Mr. Fournier

Objection #1 Solved: "What if we stay long enough at Cabella's so that we're behind the traffic instead of in front of it?"

Bingo! Problem solved and right around the corner was the desired exit, thus ensued a visit to one of our favorite stores in the US with one of our favorite families, the Fourniers. :)

Neat looking statue or as Michael would call it "Art"

Seth with sparkling eyes and a delighted face holds a REAL gun for the first time in his life!

"If you take everything away from a boy, he will make a gun out of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich" 

~Paul Washer

These words have proved true, just a few days ago Seth was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and lo and behold he chewed it into the shape of a gun and said "look! it's a gun" and pretended to shoot with it.

Pink!

That's Stephanie's kind of gun :)

“I would like to see every woman know how to handle [firearms] as naturally as they know how to handle babies.”

~Annie Oakley

That's my beautiful, tea-sipping,Victorian, loves to dress up, ultra-ladylike Momma!

Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our own possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the *real* object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?

-- Patrick Henry, speech of June 9 1788

"A lot of children know absolutely nothing about guns other than what they see on T.V., and those are the wrong things."

Of course, seeing a group of people (especially young ladies) looking at and touching all the guns as if they had never seen any place like this drew in a crowd.

The dialogue went something like this:

So, where ya'll from?

Uh, well, ummmm...Massachusetts. 

Reeeaallly. So whatya'll doin' out here?

Well, we're on our way home from a conference.

It seems like everyone knew each other at Cabela's.

In this picture, you can see the people we met and talked to, the lady in the red is the wife of a retired police officer (pictured below) and the other man is currently a police officer. We greatly enjoyed speaking with them, being older and from a different generation they had much to share about their experiences, especially so on the topic of gun possession. Mom laughingly remarked, "We should move down here where the gun laws are better" The lady replied "No you stay up there, we need people like you in Massachusetts!." The retired police officer strongly urged us to not forsake our 2nd Amendment rights to keep and bear arms.
~

"The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that's good"

-- George Washington

This couple had served in the military, the lady told us: "I carry mine everywhere. In fact, it's right here!

We felt VERY safe here! If some criminal had been there who decided to try something, we were surrounded by people who would not hesitate to use their guns to defend and protect. Now wouldn't that make you feel safer too?

 Here to the left was another retired police officer who informed us that back in his day it was illegal for a police officer to carry a gun with him when he was off duty but he still illegally carried it anyway because just in case anything happened he was armed and prepared. Now if someone like a police officer who knows (to a large extent) what's going on in the world, is taking the risk of illegally carrying a gun then I think that's a good indication that there's a very good reason for it. Makes me think perhaps I should be carrying one. :)
~
‘‘The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjected people to carry arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subjected peoples to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the underdog is a sine qua non ["something essential" lit. "without which not"] for the overthrow of any sovereignty."

-- Adolph Hitler, Edict of March 18, 1938
~

 "One of the ordinary modes, by which tyrants accomplish their purposes without resistance, is, by disarming the people, and making it an offense to keep arms."
-- Constitutional scholar Joseph Story, 1840
~

"To disarm the people... was the best and most effectual way to enslave them."

-- George Mason, speech of June 14, 1788

Look! Deer!

Look! Humans!

Christmas shopping!

This place is incredible!

Stephanie observes the crossbow...

and Tabitha tries it out.

More pink  :)

Lilya enjoying the ride  :)

We just love our lil cowboy!

On our way out of this section, we happened to pass by an older man trying on boots, his friend was picking the boots and bringing them to him. Well, his friend just happened to pick the wrong pair, he brought them over and the man said, "I'm not wearing those! They got fur on the top, them's women's boots!"
I just had to laugh...

The amazing Cabella's artwork

These animals are made from real stuffed skins.

Haha! LOVE that hat!

Chariti tries with a yard decoration.

Our faces say it all, lol!

They want HOW much for this?

Lilya still wanted to be near Hannah although Hannah wasn't feeling well.

What a sweet friend!

Back to the guns...

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government"

-- Thomas Jefferson

In the 'Library'

Some beautiful, yet VERY expensive (some at over $11,000) rifles

Wistfully admiring 

"The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns, we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they will win and the decent people will lose."

"...quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est."
[...a sword never kills anybody; it's a tool in the killer's hand.]
-- (Lucius Annaeus) Seneca "the Younger" (ca. 4 BC-65 AD),

Zebra's!

"There are three things which are stately in their march,

Even four which are stately when they walk:

The lion which is mighty among beasts

and does not retreat before any,

the strutting rooster, the male goat also,

and a king when his army is with him."

Proverbs 30:29-31

A shot from the second floor.

Can you see Emily and Stephanie talking, and Mom waving?

Buffalo and the rest of the store

Interesting...

Price tag for *gasp* $11,995! For that price it must be made out of gold! (It wasn't)

Hey! They tied it down!

Elizabeth tries her hand at it

The man in the back is about to tell us not to let the kids play with the guns..LOL!

The aquarium

Chariti: "I'll take that one. Fried with a side of chips please."

Lilya found a squishy new friend  :o)

Camo purse!

Thank you Lord for blessing our family with the soul-thrilling experience of attending the Love the Church Conference and having such wonderful friends. Such grace the Lord bestows!

Love the Church

 Hello to all our Friends who have stuck with us through these past few months of technical blog problems and a general lack of motivation due to household business. Well, through indecisiveness on whether to kill it or keep it, we're not sure what we'll do with the blog but for now we've decided to keep posting. So enjoy Part 2 of the Love the Church Conference.

Thursday evening, we eagerly anticipate the first lecture.

While we were waiting, we met the delightful Mrs. Morecraft!

and took our picture with her!

I just had time to say hello to the Kuczewski's and snap a picture of Zoe and then Peter Braderick announced that it was time to welcome Mr. Scott Brown for the first lecture of the conference!

Scott Brown began the conference on Friday evening with:
Christ's Love for the Church

• Family idolatry can be a sin that leads to lack of love for the church. Jesus did not let His earthly family keep Him from His task to serve His Heavenly Father. Christ said that if we love our families more than Him, we are not worthy of Him. We must seek and pursue Him in faith, obeying Him, rather than idolizing our families.
• Christ personally identifies with the Church. When Saul persecuted the Church, Christ asked Saul why he was persecuting Him (Acts 9:1-5). In Matthew 25, Jesus says that what you do to a Christian, you are doing to Christ Himself.
• Mr. Brown finished by describing many, many of the ways Christ loves His church. Would we shed our blood for the church? Would we retrain our affections to love and prioritize her? Would we take up His cross and follow Him? Would we have the mind of Christ toward the church?

Joel Beeke

"Cherishing the Church"

Dr. Beeke’s text was the words of Jesus in Matthew 16:18, “Upon this rock I will build my church.”

• The status of the church as belonging to Christ: “My church.” Christ died for the church to purchase her, and if He was willing to die for her, shouldn’t we cherish her at least enough to live for her? We are often quick to criticize, but we should only do this like Jeremiah with tears streaming down our faces, weeping for her spiritual whoredom and adulteries. Jesus was also exalted to God’s right hand to make intercession for the church; though this doctrine is severely under-emphasized in ecclesiology, without this intercession, we would all be lost in an instant. Finally, Jesus earned the word “My,” referring to His bride the church, by the proclamation of the Gospel.

• The substance of the church as founded upon Christ: “This rock.” This is a phrase over which blood has been spilled in history. Although Rome claims these words as the basis for its authority, Protestants insist that it refers to the divine revelation from which Peter’s confession sprang. Jesus’ words refer not to the natural and unstable reasoning of Peter, but rather to the divine sonship of Jesus. The substance of the church is three-fold: 1) Christ is the undergirding cornerstone (I Cor. 3:11). 2) The apostles build their doctrine on Christ as the Chief Cornerstone (Eph. 2:20). 3) All the bricks form the building, the new Jerusalem, the true believers who are living stones built on the foundation of the apostles, who are in turn built on Christ the cornerstone (I Pet. 2:4-5).

• The success of the church as the workmanship of Christ: “I will build.” This shows us five guarantees: 1) wonderful indestructibility (as Puritan Flavel said, we must not to be quick to bury the church before she is dead); 2) wonderful institution (the bride of Christ has lasted 2,000 years in unmatched splendor; it is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints); 3) wonderful individuality (we complain about the church’s messy building site, but we are part of the mess — we are all a work in progress, and God deals with us individually to be the exact stones He wants in His building); 4) wonderful churchly inheritance (we cherish the church for this — this inheritance is laid away and undefiled that we will one day receive); 5) wonderful invitation (Jesus has more work to do, as the world has not yet ended — we still invite people to come repent and believe the Gospel).

Paul Washer

"The Nature of Conversion"
"Conversion is not a superficial decision. Being born again is possibly a greater manifestation of God’s power than any of His other works. Salvation is taught in the Bible as a supernatural work of God. If He starts a work, He will finish it. The world should marvel at God’s power, faithfulness, mercy, and ability to transform. Salvation is for His own glory.
The great test of conversion is not how quickly you are growing but the manifestation of God’s providence in your life, that you cannot escape Him — that He has set about to do a work and will do it and finish it. The evidence of justification is sanctification, and the hope of glorification is the sanctifying work of God right now.
Do you have a desire for holiness? Do you want to follow God’s Word and know His will? Do you mourn when you find yourself outside of the will of God? Your clothes, books, and upbringing may be right, but is your heart right? Do you know Him? Are you a new creature? Are you being transformed, unable to escape the hand of God in your life? If not, be afraid. Examine yourself to see if you are in the faith.
Do you know Christ? Does He know you?"

"As we teach our Son to serve the Lord, in every way,
Lord the most important thing is this that we now pray,
Lord, we thank you everything you give us, but most importantly,
We pray Lord Jesus, make our Son a little boy on his knees.

Lord we thank you for everything you give us, but most importantly
We pray, Lord Jesus, make our Son,
A little boy on his knees.
We pray that someday he'll become,
A young man on his knees."

Friday

Friday morning while walking back to our hotel room which was on the complete opposite side of the Grounds, this kind man stopped to pick us up. Truth be told our legs were so tired we were hoping he would offer to drive us up and were very grateful that he did!

A quick gobbled down lunch and then back to the Conference Center.

 

Where Ruthie introduced me to the Denny's!