A View From The Earth

This is the cross and statues that are atop the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend, Iowa. Yep, it is Saturday afternoon, the kids are outside playing and I'm inside on the computer. So what gives? Why am I in here? Well I was to lead church services at a campground in Clermont, Iowa tomorrow morning. But the manager called and said that they weren't going to have services because they weren't done cleaning up the mess that was made when the Turkey river overflowed and created havoc in part of the campgrounds, they haven't reopened the section that the services are held in and they may not reopen it this summer. But since I had already written a rough draft of the sermon I was going to give, I thought I should finish it and see if the worship leader at the Episcopal Church of the Saviour would like me to give it tomorrow at Church since the priest is on vacation this month. The Gospel text is the parable of the sower from Matthew. It is one of my favorite parab...

This past weekend most of the family (minus the daughter who was wandering around in Yellowstone) packed up and headed to West Bend, Iowa for a class reunion. We stayed at an excellent bed and breakfast north of town called Prairie Oasis. I would recommend Prairie Oasis to anyone who is staying in the area. My wife's class reunion was good with over half of the class being there. I personally knew a few folks there but since I wasn't from the area I didn't know many people, so I basically followed her around kinda like a big puppy dog. In West Bend there is a religious shrine next to SS Peter and Paul's Roman Catholic Church. It is called the Grotto of the Redemption which was started almost a century ago by the priest at the church as a thank you to God for helping the priest through a very serious illness. That priest worked on the Grotto for a number of decades and the Grotto is still a work in progress. It has a number of grottos which depict scenes out of th...