Collin was a child who only came to Bible Club because his Mother forced him to. She would then drive off, leaving him there, and head to the grocery store or some other errand. This may not have been intentional, but it placed us in a predicament at Bible Club. We could not call Collin’s mom to come pick him up when he refused to listen, obey, or cooperate. In fact, one cold day, Collin refused to even enter the building where our Bible Club was held. Nor did he have a warm coat on. Not wanting to man-handle the child, nor wanting him to freeze or get sick, I went inside and grabbed someone’s jacket and told him to put it on while he stood out there in the cold. Then I stayed with him. After all, someone had to…we cannot just leave a child out in the parking lot unattended to! I tried to convince him to come in, tried to find something I could use to “entice” him to come in…to no avail. So we stood, outside, in the cold, frustrated, yet Collin was unrelenting! I think that day he finally did come inside and sit on the back pew away from the other children.
Well, somehow, by the grace of God, I avoided becoming so frustrated with Collin to the point of just “writing him off” as a stubborn, rebellious child, who wasn’t worth working with anymore. Somehow, I kept trying…I know it was of God, because we humans are not like that. He is. So, I finally found something Collin really liked –I don’t remember what it was, maybe a Star Crunch or a Fruit Roll-Up. And I told Collin I would bring one for him the next week, and if he came in, and went right up and sat with the other kids, I would give him this treat. Can you believe, the next week, I think he did come in, and sat with the others! And he started to listen, and was actually pretty attentive to the Bible lesson, as I remember! (Why was that so hard, Collin!?!)
Well, before long I was married, and my husband hustled me off to the East Coast and new ministries there, and I kind of lost track of Collin since I wasn’t in Bible Club anymore. But recently, I received an email from a friend that read something like this:
“…I really wanted to tell you about the Bible Club. I started working in the Bible Club since the summer. In the summer, we had a few children, but after school started our number went up. Last week we had twenty kids and they were all good ;-). Do you remember a boy named Collin? I could be spelling his name wrong. He comes with his older sister, one younger brother, and his one younger sister. That boy is doing really, really good. Abigail told me that he used to be really bad. He would not sit still, he would not talk to you, etc… Abby said, one time he stayed outside during a lesson. Now he is our best kid in our Club. He desires to participate in everything and he listens to the teaching very well. He is a very clever boy. Pastor Voegtlin has been teaching on the Holy Spirit. Even though the lessons are a little bit deep, he understands completely. P. Voegltin’s series of lessons will lead them to the plan of Salvation. Personally, I do not know if he is saved or not. But please keep him in your prayers that he will get saved soon.”
PRAISE THE LORD!
Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Psalm 106:1
God is love. I John 4:8, 16
Will you pray with me that Collin accepts Christ as his Savior?
Labor Day morning was pretty lazy for us. You know, hotels in and of themselves are just plain fun! I know that people that travel on business tire of them easily–but not the Speckhals’!
The night before, we saw someone with a box of real, fresh Krispey Kreme donuts. We thought to ourselves, “That would be an awesome breakfast!” I looked on our little netbook, and quickly found out that there were no Krispey Kreme donut shops within fifteen miles: and that’s a long way in a big city. “Well, we’ll just find something else.” By 9:30am, we were itching to check out and head to Washington!
One of the best things about our hotel, the Hyatt Regency Bethesda, is that it was literally right above the DC Metro (their subway system). I knew before we even left from home that I wanted nothing to do with driving or finding a parking spot in Washington. I was always taught to take the Metro. We boarded the Red Line bound for the DuPont Circle station.
Our stops went past on our way into the city: Friendship Heights, Tenlytown, Van Ness, Cleveland Park, Woodley Park/Zoo, and then came Dupont Circle. For those of you who may know DC some, you may be asking yourself, “Why did they get off there. It’s still a two mile walk to the White House, and more to the mall.” The answer is that we genuinely wanted to see all of the international embassies along Massachusetts Avenue. There was nothing too awful special about it honestly, but it was interesting to see the American headquarters of so many foreign nations. Here is a sampling of a few that we saw along the walk:
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Ah, I forgot to mention: as we got off of the Metro at DuPont Circle, this is exactly what we saw. You can guess what we had for breakfast!
Yes, the "Hot Now" light was really lit up. We couldn't help but take a picture
After walking past a couple dozen foreign embassies, we made our way towards the White House, the next closest attraction. Now, you all know where I stand with the man living–I’ll just say I don’t stand with him much. Nonetheless, the White House is still awe inspiring to see–a true symbol of our country, standing proudly as the former home of Abraham Lincoln, D.W. Eisenhower, El Renaldo Reagenas Maxiums, and George W. Bush. It still makes me thankful to live in America, no matter if what’s his name is in office.
Afterwards, we headed toward the National Holocaust Museum. It was incredible, yet hard to describe in detail. It really opens your eyes to how far mankind can go in his sinfulness. The most memorable part to me was a scaled down replica of the wall of “The Righteous Among the Nations.” The Israeli government founded and keeps the list in Jerusalem. The wall is made up of Gentiles who sacrificed their well-being, fortune, and even lives for the Jews during the Holocaust. Many on that list were put under the same tortures as the Jews for their compassion. Some, nothing happened to them at all. But all gave or risked something for others during the worst atrocity of the twentieth century.
The Capitol Building was our next stop. We toured this historic and significant building, seeing some very famous artwork in the rotunda (which is also the place many of our presidents “lay in state” before their funeral). My favorite part of the tour, believe it or not, was the office of the Speaker of the House. “Why?”, you ask. I saw the placard above the doorway that said “Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.” I simply could not help but dream of that being changed to “Speaker John Boehner”, or better yet, “Speaker Paul Ryan.” November is too far away…
On our way back to the Metro station, we stopped by the World War II Memorial (I could write a whole article just about that!), the Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. By 6:00p, we were underground on a train, on our way back to Bethesda and our car.
But wait! We hopped off one stop early at Friendship Heights. What was there? Not too much except for Maggianos Little Italy! It was my first time there, and let me say that I love Italian food: but I didn’t know what Italian was until I went here. Just look at this bruschetta, and you will understand:
One nice deal they had going on was that if you bought any entrée of pasta, they give you another one for free to take home with you! Altogether, the atmosphere was perfect, the food one of a kind, and the price was even half-way reasonable. What a treat!
We again took the Metro back to our hotel hopped the car around 8:00p, and were home–what seems like a thousand miles away from DC–in just a little over 90 minutes. Our Labor Day was a welcome little vacation that both of us enjoyed, and would do again in a heartbeat. I have my eyes set on somewhere else for us to go on a little longer vacation next month, but I guess you all will just have to wait and see where that is.
Andrea and I tend to be pretty “off the cuff” as some may say. We weren’t exactly sure what we were going to do this Labor Day. A few things were still up in the air, so any plans we could have made probably would have been changed anyway. Sunday afternoon, following church, we were sitting down to eat when I started to think of something fun we could do. By the way, I love to surprise my wife–then again, what husband doesn’t? An idea jumped into my head: we could get a hotel for a night, then spend the day sightseeing somewhere. Unfortunately though, those plans kind of went out the window when my employer called, and wanted me to come in for a little while and run our mission control. “Oh well!”, I thought.
After getting home from church in the evening, I got ready for work quickly, and headed out the door. As I was pulling out, I called my employer, and he pretty much said that they ended up getting done earlier than expected–no need for me to come in! I turned right around (tires probably squealing) and drove around the block back home. As I ran in the door, Andrea imagined I had forgotten something (pretty common), but I surprised her when I immediately said, “Get ready: we’re going to Sonic!” (one of our eat out after evening service places). Then suddenly, something came into my thought process–we could go on a little overnight trip somewhere for the holiday! I rephrased my command: “Pack a bag for a night. We’re leaving in twenty minutes!” Did I know where we were going? No.
Priceline.com is one of my good internet friends. As Andrea was packing, and I still needed to pack, I hopped on the internet, clicking the mouse and keyboard like a maniac. “Washington D.C. sounds fun,” I thought. I have heard that Bethesda, Maryland is a good place to stay outside of the city, so I entered in the date I wanted (that very night), preferred star rating (3 1/2 was the highest), and finally the price. Forty-five bucks sounds like a steal. I clicked the “Buy my hotel room now!” button, waited about five seconds, and BAM–offer accepted! Now to pack my bag…
We drove off around 8:25pm, heading south into “countryville”, then eventually onto I-83 South towards Baltimore. Hitting the insane Baltimore Beltway a little after nine o’clock, we figured we would be there around 10:00pm. And so we we got to Bethesda with plenty of time to spare. Both of us were famished (maybe not quite, but…), so we found a nearby McDonald’s while walking around the city some. Bethesda has all of the good places to eat that we don’t have in York County: Ruth’s Chris, Mongolian BBQ, Cheesecake Factory, and some of those other once or twice a year kind of places.
Bethesda--Third most wealthy city in America
Our hotel was beautiful; it was the Hyatt Regency Bethesda Metro. The design of it was very unique. It’s hard to explain how it looks. Pictures, I think, tell the best story here.
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We went to sleep that night excited for what the next day had for us.
In the summer of 1995, Ebay and Yahoo were founded, the conflict in the Balkan countries of Bosnia and Croatia were raging, O.J. Simpson was found not guilty, and I moved to Lansing–the capitol of Michigan. We found our suburban home just south of the city limits, in a quiet new subdivision surrounded by fields. The address was 6165 Lindsey Lane. I don’t actually remember much about the whole moving experience, but I do remember how much we all loved our new house.
"The Michigan Militia"
My sister and I were scheduled to start school at Capitol City Baptist School (which was our church also) soon after we moved in. I can remember my very first day of third grade–Mrs. Grimwood. Everyone was brand new to me, but thankfully I was befriended quickly. One friend from that first day ended up standing in my wedding as a groomsman, and still is a good friend. I was baptized at Capital City Baptist Church, I began to see God leading me to the ministry, and learned what a good teacher was; in fact, all of my teachers from third to sixth grade were excellent. I also learned to stand up for my faith–yes, even in a Christian school. There were some who did not believe that the Bible was the Word of God, and I learned to study the Book so as to know what I believe and communicate that to others. A strong educational foundation was instilled on me at Capital City, and without it, I do not believe I would have had the discipline and studiousness I needed in the rest of my school years.
I also made several neighborhood friends in those years on Lindsey Lane. Jake, David, and I pretty much stuck together through thick and thin. We would go play in the nearby woods and fields, build forts, pretend we were in the army, get chased out of other peoples property, and name any other boy thing to do: we did it. One summer, a new subdivision was being built directly adjacent to ours, and with it, a new road. Well they stalled on the road after grading it for several months, so what did we do? We built our own “BMX” bike track, with jumps and all! Every day after school we would make our track better, then ride on it and race each other. Oh, how I wish sometimes I could go back for just one day and ride that track again! Today, it’s filled with now decade-old (or more) houses, gardens, and swimming pools.
One day in fifth grade, a friend from school came home with me to spend the afternoon outside. Well, boys enjoy getting dirty–and we sure did! At a nearby pond we found out that there were plenty of tadpoles to catch. We found a couple of nets and buckets and wandered in. We didn’t have waders or water shoes, we just went in with jeans, a t-shirt, and shoe-less. We caught literally thousands of tadpoles, filling up our buckets, and even a dozen or so crayfish. The next day, we took the tadpoles to school for “show and tell!” Oh, how Mrs. Seifert loved us!
I changed a lot when I first moved to Lansing. One major change was my new-found love of sports, especially the Michigan State Spartans! Every Saturday in the fall (which tended to be work outside day) we would listen to the Spartans battle it out on the football field. Back then, Nick Saban was the coach, who since has left MSU and eventually led LSU and Alabama to national championships. He never did that for the Spartans! They had their good years in the 90’s–and bad ones!
Then, of course, there was Michigan State basketball. They had a new coach in 1994–the little known long-time assistant from the backwoods of Michigan. His name was Tom Izzo. When I first started paying attention,the Spartans were in the middle or lower end of the pack in the Big Ten. The dreaded Wolverines at the University of Michigan was the conference powerhouse. Yet, I always still loved those Spartans, hoping that some day they might get better. All of the sudden, the stars in the heavens began to line up in 1996. What happened was the Izzo coaching method and the “Flintstones-” a group of guys from the depressed city of flint. In ’97, they made it to the NIT. In ’98, they lost to Dean Smith’s NC Tarheels in the sweet sixteen. Then in ’99, the Spartans made it to the Final Four! What they ran up against was one of the greatest teams ever assembled under Mike Krzyzewski and Duke, of which I came to despise as a Spartan fan. They lost in the semifinals, but with plenty of hope for the next year. The Spartans had a superb year, followed by a march to the Final Four, were they beat Wisconsin, and then Florida for the National Championship. Tom Izzo, if he had ran for mayor of Lansing, would have won! I followed every game intently, and yes, I am still a huge fan of those Spartans!
Spartan "Flint-stones"
Many other life memories happened on Lindsey Lane: we adopted my little brother and sister from Romania, I was introduced to Fairhaven Baptist College, and I surrendered my life to God and the ministry of the Gospel. I learned a strong work ethic from my parents in Lansing ( I imagine they thought I was hopeless back then! Lots of regrets of what I should have done right…!). The attack on September 11 happened one Tuesday morning while I was in the middle of Bible class (I was home-schooled at the time–from 7th-12th grade to be exact), when my mom told me to turn on the TV. The first plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center, and the second one crashed seconds after turning on the news. I watched the towers collapse, heard about the heroes on Flight 93, and was filled with a spirit of justice against those who did this. My dad told me that this would probably be the only time in my life where I would look up on a clear, blue day and not see streaks from a jet. Fear filled the air. We went to Burger King that night, and I can clearly remember the solemness on the few faces that were there. My parents can remember when Martin Luther King was assassinated, Reagan was shot, the Challenger crashed, and the Berlin Wall fell. I will be able to tell my kids where I was when the terrorists attacked our country on September 11.
In 2001 we moved to the other side of Lansing, in the middle of nowhere with and address in Grand Ledge. By then, we began attending Community Baptist Church of Lansing. Most of my friends were at church by then, and those that were in the neighborhood had moved away recently as well. I was ready to move, but looking back now, I still have those little sentimental memories of childhood on the south-side of Lansing. Here’s a few more just for my parents: Jenna and Jordan with the ducklings, Rich’s Country Store, stabbing myself in the toe with a garden hoe, having to be shown the right way to mow the lawn a million times, the maximum security kennel and fence for the dogs–that they still managed to escape from, white fur from our dog Levi on the dark green carpet in my room…just to name a few.
Next I get to tell you all of our house in the wilderness on Royston Road!
P.S.– I have very few pictures from Lansing. Most of those would be in the possession of my parents!
Collin was a child who only came to Bible Club because his Mother forced him to. She would then drive off, leaving him there, and head to the grocery store or some other errand. This may not have been intentional, but it placed us in a predicament at Bible Club. We could not call Collin’s mom to come pick him up when he refused to listen, obey, or cooperate. In fact, one cold day, Collin refused to even enter the building where our Bible Club was held. Nor did he have a warm coat on. Not wanting to man-handle the child, nor wanting him to freeze or get sick, I went inside and grabbed someone’s jacket and told him to put it on while he stood out there in the cold. Then I stayed with him. After all, someone had to…we cannot just leave a child out in the parking lot unattended to! I tried to convince him to come in, tried to find something I could use to “entice” him to come in…to no avail. So we stood, outside, in the cold, frustrated, yet Collin was unrelenting! I think that day he finally did come inside and sit on the back pew away from the other children.
