Matthews Family Herald

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" from Joshua 24:15

Hi family, friends, etc. I've mentioned before that we drive to a family farm in Mannheim about once per week in order to buy fresh, raw, unpasturized, etc., milk. Here's a picture of some of that delicious and fresh milk. Looks like something out of those old cartoons, huh?

I've mentioned that we draw water from various springs at the base of different mountains around where we live. Some springs flow more quickly than others. The one with the fastest water flow happens to also be the closest to our house. It's a very popular spring so I typically end up going at about 9 or 10pm. Here's a picture of the storage area we have. This lasts a little over a week. It is ice cold when first drawn, even in the summer and it is so very refreshing.

Micah decided to play the guitar that Rachel gave to him in a public are of the town in which we live. He had a lot of fun doing that. Later on, he and Jacob took turns hiding in trash cans and jumping out as people walked by. They also tied fishing string to a rubber snake and took turns hiding and pulling the string as a person walked by. They did surprise a few people and I believe they made someone a little upset, unfortunately. :)


Sweet Eden made a mess here. Isn't it strange how people love to take pictures of their kids making a mess!

We watched "Homesteading, Volume II" and were inspired in a number of ways. We are looking forward to the beginning of spring when we can go out and draw sap from nearby Maple trees and make our own syrup. But here is a picture of Eden making indentions with her fingers in the "Tea Cakes" that Heather and the kids made after watching the homesteading video. If you'd like to look at homesteading stuff, the folks that produced the video have a website: http://www.homesteadbeginners.info/ but we purchased it from Michael and Debi Pearl's No Greater Joy Ministries. http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/

Another shot of all the family working on those "Tea Cakes." I was busy making this blog post and Micah was "chilling out" beside me.


The kids and I made a snow igloo the other day. It was a full day's work, spread out over two days... Here is Micah working on it. To his right is his very good friend, Leon. He's really a good friend of the whole family. He's an excellent example of the wonderful people that most of the Deutschlanders we know are. He's very intelligent, creative, inventive, polite, respectful, and confident. He's been a good friend to Micah and together they are becoming fluent in one another's languages and sharing their cultural differences together. Hannah is seen here also with her new Raggedy Anne doll. She has one of each now, along with an old copy of the original Raggedy Anne and Andy stories. A bit different than what is out there now. The New World Order, global elite athiest assimilators would not allow this kind of book in the library as far as I can tell.


Here's Micah and Nathan together near the finished product. We learned how to make the snow igloo by reading a couple of different wilderness survival books. The little sticks that you can see in the igloo helped us not to dig too far into the walls as we cleared out the inside space.


Hannah is seen here inside the snow igloo. It was hard to get a good photo of it but Hannah's feet are there just inside the entrance and her head is seen way back there. I think Nathan or Jacob was the person sitting in there with her. When it was finished, they could not stand up in it but they could sit up. Three people could lie down in it fairly comfortably. Unfortunately, the next day the tempurature warmed back up and after three days, the thing had collapsed inside.

Here's another picture in the early stages of the snow house. Jacob is near the entrance this time.


All the kids received art supplies from our good family friends, the Bacherts. Micah has done some very nice pencil sketches and I wanted to share them here. Micah did this funny pose for your entertainment.


Here's a more serious shot of Micah at work.

Here's a scene that Micah did which was inspired by the beauty of Germany. Rolling hills of farmland. A church below. Castle wall in the distance. City factories spinkled here and there. A castle and a log cabin to the far right area (hard to see in this photograph, the fault lying with the camera.) An airplane in a beautiful sky above. (Click on the images to see a better and larger rendition.)


Also, here is Micah's pencil sketch of a log cabin. Heather's first reaction when seeing it was "Beautiful! I want to live there, Micah!" I really wish we could. Lord willing, we'll be in a place like this soon. Farmsteading, I mean. Another great example of the talent which the Lord has blessed Micah with.


Okay, I have to tell you how wonderful the meal was that my wife prepared for me. She prepared some very fine cuts of beef for me along with a sauteed vegetable medley on the right of the plate. The noodles were so delicious with buttery, baby shrimp throughout. The best part, though, was enjoying it as a little mini date with my Heather. I'm truly blessed!


We had our weekly family gathering time last week, which is the only body fellowship we have right now, and the Lord gave me the idea of using the "stone soup" example. We all got together and I brought a large pot in. I said, "We are having stone soup and everyone has to bring in something to make it good. But it must be stone soup. It cannot be stone soup without three things: A pot, water, and a stone inside."
So, I got out a pot and said "This is the Holy Bible" and I set the pot on top of a copy of the Holy Bible. "The water is the Holy Spirit. The Rock inside is Jesus Christ," I said and I placed the Rock in the pot first, pouring the water on top. "Without the Rock, it's not stone soup. Without the water, the food would burn up. (I thought of this also just now: The water brings out the nutrients and should be drank) The heat will not be distributed evenly as the items simmer together, and it just won't be soup. The pot, the Holy Bible, is the context that the soup is contained within. (I thought of this as well: You need the whole pot to hold the soup in. Leaving part of it out won't hold the soup in.) The constraints of the Holy Bible keep the soup in the form it belongs in and we would have no soup without the pot. Nothing would stay together.
I then went on to hand out plastic toy vegetables to each person in the room. I challenged them to "bring something." To "Think back through the week and tell something that God has done, an experience you had in the Lord Sing us a Holy song, read a passage the Lord led you to this week, something." Each person did so, one by one, and placed their items into the soup as they shared. Even the baby, Eden, sang us "This Little Light of Mine" and it was a blessing for all.
I also emphasized how dead attempts to do something in the Lord could be born out of one legitimate and God inspired event like this "Stone Soup" analogy. Whole demoniations are born out of things like this where, 20 years later, there's a still a silver pot by the alter. The congregation comes in, takes a plastic vegatable and sits down waiting for their turn. Trying to hold on to a point God was making and turn it into man's attempt to create God's movement over and over.
The family said it was likely one of the best family gatherings we'd had. I think the whole experience shares a lot about what body fellowship should be. What kind of soup have you been drinking? Make sure it's actually stone soup.












My wife was visiting with some German friends of ours and as they "got to talking" the subject of firewood came up. These friends have a beautiful fireplace in their home and a wall filled with firewood for the winter stacked outside (our family had the pleasure of helping them stack it there).

In Germany, you must first get a special license if you want to operate a chainsaw and cut down your own firewood, just as you would get a license to drive a vehicle. And yes, it's very expensive. At least a thousand dollars. To get the license, you must attend a special school and learn all about how to operate a chainsaw and how to cut down trees in an environmentally safe way. THEN, you have to first purchase special equipment and safety gear. AND IF THAT WERE NOT ENOUGH, you must pay the government thirty Euros per square meter of firewood that you actually cut down and bring home. And so it is much easier and likely much cheaper just to purchase your firewood from a commercial distrubutor. Gone here are the father/son times of going out and getting firewood for the family.

We were told that the German countryside is open to anyone and doesn't belong to anyone. Anytime, however, you get close to an area which is publicly owned (owned by the Government, I mean), it has a special triangular, green sign with the symbol of a flying eagle on it. The label on the sign translates roughly to "nature area" and there is a long list of things you can't do. No campfires, no tents, no hunting, no etc., etc., etc. Basically, if you'd like to do anything other than take a walk through it, you can't do it. A friend of ours from Germany who is presently visiting America was complaining on Facebook and saying how he missed the openness of the German wilderness and that there were fences everywhere in America where people claimed ownership of everything. My friend may have a point but I can't decide which is worse. In either case, you can't do it. Whatever you'd like to do, I mean.

Oh and goodness, if you would like to hunt or fish, you must pay huge fees in the three to five thousand Euro range, attend classes lasting months, and jump through many other hoops. If you are not 18 years old, you will not be allowed to hunt legally, period. Permit or not. You must be 18. Hard to transmit a way of life, knowledge, and values onto a child when you can't do that thing with them anymore. By the time they are 18, will they want to even do it? That's the point, I think. In order to fish, you must be 13 or 14, I'm not sure but no younger than that is allowed. If I recall correctly, you are never legally allowed to hunt anything by bow and arrow. I'd imagine trapping is illegal too.
But in looking around in Germany and learning, I can see that this must once have been the outdoorsman's paradise. Hunting, fishing, building, living, being! They must have been the happiest people alive at one point in history. That is, before the dark times...before the Empire. I don't mean what you might think when first reading this. I'm not referencing Hitler at all, although I definitely am not a Hitler fan by any means! I'm discussing the NWO. I wonder if Germany was a proving ground, of sorts. "If we can do this new way in Germany, likely the most conservative, most religious, most intelligent and hardy and family people likely in existence, and make it work, we can do it anywhere." is what I wonder was the thinking. I once heard that Planned Parenthood opened a headquarters in Waco, Texas, for example, by stating that it was indeed a bold ascertion and that if they could plant and sustain a Planned Parenthood clinic there, they could do it anywhere. (It's called "Pro Familia" in Germany, what a deceptive name and what a cover up for the real agenda. We are not a garden for others to weed and tend and certainly are we not livestock to tend and care for, nor are we populations of animals that at times overpopulate and must be thinned out "for our own safety and good." I just read of a government controlled rabbit hunt on a nearby installation for similar reasons and I couldn't help make the association between that event and the Planned Parenthood/Pro Familia agenda.)
Anyway, this posting has taken an interesting path but there is some food for thought as to the differences (and similarities) between the US and Germany/Europe and an idea for where these NWO planners might want to take us.

We would like to officially announce some wonderful news to all. Yep, you guessed it! We have a little bun in the oven, some 6 weeks now or so. Rachel, our oldest daughter married this past September, and her husband Tom are also expecting their first. Grandparents at 35! She is only a week or two behind me. We look foward to being sick and fat together. I don't know about her, but I am craving cucumber and tomato sandwiches, and artichokes! In fact I just had some( at 4:30 am).mmmmmm! James is wonderful and supportive as always and the kids are equally excited.
After reading and researching thoroughly(over the past year or so- yes, we helped plan this one. The real "planned parenthood"), we are planning to have a home birth assisted by a midwife this time. It is a common and accepted practice here in Germany and there are several midwifes nearby. Hopefully, we'll find one that speaks English( ha ha). Your prayers are much appreciated. Also we know many of you(because we've all been conditioned by society, which is motivated by money)may want to caution or dissuade us to have a homebirth out of your love and concern. Believe me, we have prayed and done our homework. We would just suggest that you alleviate your worries by reading or watching several of the wonderful (scientifically and statistically researched) books or dvds on home births available first. Remember, it is only in the last century or so that women have apparently lost their ability to naturally have a baby outside a "professional" doctor, staff, (interferring) equipmentladen foreign environment. But we do appreciate your concerns.
So a BIG CONGRATULATIONS(once again and twice over) to all you grandparents, great- grandparents, and great-great- grandparents, and aunt,uncles out there in the Matthews clan!


You know, if people would trust God and simply just do what is right, in other words, just seek His will and act/react as God leads, and not try and manipulate, lie, subvert, cheat, steal, rob and otherwise take matters into their own hands (see the link below) wouldn't that be great? Does it ever seem outlandish when people believe crazy conspiracy theories, for example? Who can hardly blame them when we've got things like this that have happened:




I'm thankful I know and trust God. I don't think I could sleep at night otherwise. That such a thing would even be possible to conceive, that our own leaders would contrive such a plan...really. It boggles the mind. It hardly seems real but there it is.


"Count Rugen: Ah. Are you coming down into the pit? Wesley's got his strength back. I'm starting him on the machine tonight.


Prince Humperdinck: [sincerely] Tyrone, you know how much I love watching you work, but I've got my country's 500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder and Guilder to frame for it; I'm swamped. "


Quote taken from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093779/quotes, accessed 22 Nov 10

The other day I declared "Backwards Day" We did everything backwards. We stayed in our pajamas and didn't get dressed till that night. We ate in our rooms instead of at the table. I cooked pasta, rolls, and corn(no salad of course/ nothing healthy, that would be bad)in the morning for our "supper". We likewise had cereal and toaster strudles for "breakfast" that night. Poor James, didn't know what he was walking into when he got home. And the kids personal favorite-No chores or any responsibility!, and video games(nice educatioanl ones of course), during the week( gasp!) After each playing around of 20 min. however, the ugliness springing out of them put a stop to it pretty quickly. My point was to have fun in making a point, not to actually cause them any harm. They did not like however, when I said," Now, since we don't do structured"school" like the rest of the world does, normally, today we are! We will sit at the table with textbooks, and do every unrelated subject over the next 8 hours straiht, only breaking for lunch. I will cram as many facts into your head as I can whether or not you are ready developmentally for it and expect you to know them for the test later." Oh the look of horror and shock on their faces! Of course I did not follow through, like I said I did not want to harm the children, only make a point, which was made well enough by just proposing it. And what was the point you ask? Was there method and meaning to this madness?
Yes, actually.
The whole thing was an object lesson on Isiaih 5:20,21. Where God says " Woe unto them who call evil good and good evil, who call darkness,light and light darkness."(not exact quote)
We discussed many of the things the world says are good but showed scripurally where God says it is bad. Some examples were having lots of money( that's a biggie and sooo pervasive in our society) Getting lots of education so as to get the most amount of money and glory. Woman's rights, for ex.( not that I am for woman being abused wrongly by their God given authority,namely men)Rights such as abortion, equal ability/standing and pursuit of "fulfilling careers". Society implies that being a"barefoot and pregnant" housewife and supporting and being in subjection to your man is shameful. When in fact, the Bible teaches that we are to be keepers at home, submiting to our husbands, bearing much fruit(which the bible calls a blessing for women) and raising and training that fruit in the ways of the Lord. This is the highest calling one could ever hope for(and the most challenging and personlly fulfilling, I might add) These lies perpetuated in the world are a big part of why the infrastructure of the family and consequently society is deteriorating so fast. Women's selfish needs and ambishons for personal fulfillment have replaced there sense of duty to the detriment of there family. Some even put there kids in daycare as babies although they don't have to go to work, because as one woman told me, she "needed a break and didn't want to get burned out", as if children are a terrible burden instead of the most incredible joy that they are. Same said woman even said that the doctor, at her childs check up, and the child's psycologist advised her to keep her child in daycare so the child wouldn't be clingy, although there was known abuse to several children there, that even this woman admitted to me she had seen the adverse effects of in her child! Wow! talk about backwards! I hope my words had an effect on her. And we wonder why there is such vast rifts in parent/child relationships-duh!?! I didn't really mean to get on a soap box, but I guess I take it personally where the essence, purity, nobility, beauty and purpose of a woman is so perverted and destroyed and the children suffer for it.( And I daresay the woman too!) ( breathe, smooth red hair- If I were a preacher I'd be wiping the spittle off my chin and the sweat off my brow!-hmmpf!)

Things that the the world says are bad, that God declares "Good" are homeschooling(self-righteous wierdos), religion(what a crux for a weak mind!),rural living(how uncivilized, just a hand laborer), and large families(gross,what's wrong with you? Are you ever going to get fixed" ie, willfully sterilized?!?!)I guess lots of kids would be bad if you viewed them as estranged, burdensome, little monsters(product of society and public school). Ouch that was harsh.(What's wrong with me today?)

Anyway, we know that human nature and the carnal mind is enmity against God, but woe unto them. It is our duty as parents to keep our children from falling into satan's traps though these false, anti-scriptural worldviews. Enough said. I think it was a very effective and eye-opening object lesson for the kids, who admitted that although some of these things might be fun for a day or so, eventually they would be sick of it, and not to mention run out of clean clothes and dishes. So although we may seem backwards to the world, it really just depends on where the front is and which way you are facing. So go and live a "backwards" life!

Here's an interesting presentation entitled "World Poverty, Immigration, and Gumballs" given by Roy Beck. I have no clue who he is. The first thing that popped out to me (besides gumballs) was the number of immigrants. He referred to 1 million legally. Well, there's 7 to 20 million illegally. I would imagine that the 1 million the US takes legally "robs" so to speak, other nations of their talents, but the 7 to 20 million illegally entering likely have improved their quality of life. That was my first concern with the foundation for his argument. Interesting for sure though. Thoughts?

Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE

Our kids are really into skateboarding. Micah is heading down a ramp in this picture.


Here's Jacob showing off his talent.

Here's Hannah skateboarding with her new helmet.

Nathan got a new "Cars" helmet too and had a great time riding fast away from me while I chased him shouting "Hey! Come back with my pizza! He stole my pizza!"

The kids went along with me to fetch natural spring water from the base of a nearby mountain. Hannah was off playing nearby. We collect our drinking and cooking water each week from one of these springs.

Someone had left a container of waterbased and nontoxic yellow paint open in the "schoolroom" and, of course, Eden found it. We just HAD to get a picture of how cute she looked!

This is the finished product of about a week's worth of family activity. Rachel and Thomas bought Heather a Thomas Kinkade puzzle and we all worked on it "here and there."

Here's a photo of Heather during the early stages of working on the puzzle.
Happy Veteran's Day to all those who have ever served the Lord as they served in uniform.

























Well, I voted today! Yep, it may seem odd that I'd vote considering how I often feel about the way of things but it's not a contradiction after all. I have no intention of letting the devil render me ineffective in the world around me by convincing me that it's all going to crud anyway and why bother. Our leaders AFFECT our lives. Yes. From the moment they take the reins of whatever office God has entrusted to them, they make decisions which affect the lives of everyone under their authority. Those leaders need our prayers. They need our encouragement. They need our chastisement too! They need us. And so, our vote may well determine who it is that takes the reign. I think if we don't care to get involved, then God may give us the fruit of our apathy and allow people who will hurt us to take control. You've heard maybe that it's all corrupt and your vote won't matter. Don't believe it. It's likely another lie to render you ineffective. Those with authority to act are authorized to act. We are blessed with individual authority excerised by our vote so use YOUR authority from God. If your vote is lost through corruption, you will not bear the guilt of that affect; the one who corrupted the process will.


I also agreed to commit financial resources to causes I believe are important in the Kingdom of God through the Combined Federal Campaign. I've chosen:


-The Voice of the Martyrs

-Cadence, International

-The American Center for Law and Justice

-Homeschool Legal Defense Association

-American Family Association


Additionally, our family supports the "Gospel for Asia" ministry and a local missionary family living near us.


The Kingdom of God is advanced by our prayers, by our support, by our actions, by our words, by our lives. I think a large part of God's accomplishment of His will is through His empowerment to get us to act and to stand in the gap by defending what is right and spreading the gospel to all Nations.

Thought I would share what our educational goals are for our family. Some people have asked and many more wondered I’m sure, “Does this educational style really prepare our kids for the “real” world, for college, for being a productive member of society in their well-paying 9-5 job to provide the American Dream for their children?” The answer is a purposeful, resounding “NO!”

We are anti- “real” (pseudo) world, anti-college, and anti-American Dream 9-5 lifestyle. When one’s ultimate end goal and priority is Not the American Dream then the educational paths and vehicles taking us in a different direction will look very different from the traditional, mainstream educational methods. We believe that this world and its system, including college and a material lifestyle are contrary to the Christian faith and biblical principles. Not only that, but scripture makes it clear that it will only become more hostile to Christians, so much so that one won’t be able to buy or sell without the “mark of the beast”. This is perhaps a shorter time away than we might think. Why would we prepare our children to fit into an anti -Christian system that is faulty and harmful in every way? Wouldn’t our time be better spent learning the skills necessary for survival ; (food ,clothes, shelter, and herbal medicine) and preparation for the furtherance of God’s Kingdom through outreach, service to each other in a community of faith, and preparing them for marriage and parenthood?

I have been appalled to realize the many years wasted preparing my children for the world’s system by pumping them full of facts that the “world” says are important to know with methods that the “world” approves of. Much of homeschooling, even by Christians is nothing more than secularized education geared for success in a secular world- which makes for very unhappy , and unhealthy families and relationships. Not our idea of success. You can put a Christian label on it, have a curriculum full of Christianese lingo, refute evolution, but basically the end goal is the same: to prepare the children to become successful in this world, servants to an un-godly , materialistic, self-serving society.

Our picture of success looks more like this. We want our children first and foremost to have a totally devoted and intimately personal relationship with God, demonstrated by Godly lives of obedience and service to others. This alone would be enough. With God’s leading, they would become and do everything God wanted them to be and do, whether it is a doctor, or pilot, or sanitary worker, farmer, homemaker, entertainer, artist, teacher or hamburger flipper . They would hear God, know and be submitted to His plan for their life and He would equip them through whatever methods He chose. We tell our children, that they don’t get to chose whatever they want to be, but that God already chose and wrote the days of their life designing inside of them the desires and talents necessary, before they were even born. (That is another worldly lie- “you can be whatever you want to be if you just believe in yourself!”) That is totally unbiblical. The Bible says to believe in God- not yourself. That is humanistic, “We don’t need God, we can build a tower to the sky ourselves” kind of thinking. This kind of thinking is very prevalent, not just in public schools and public educational television, but even among Christian homeschoolers. We don’t even tell our children that it is their job to find out what God wants them to be or do. We don’t want our children identifying who they are by the job they do- those titles are not who they are. They are a redeemed; second Adam generation, new creations. They are only to identify with their new life and identity in Christ (being crucified and raised with Christ, hid in Christ, no longer they that live, but Christ who lives in them). They may “do” many things throughout their lives to provide food, clothes, and shelter for themselves and their families.
Learning how to provide these things without being dependant on others is ideal and gives them more freedom, especially as Christians. These are the practical skills we wish to teach our children. The journey, the purifying of Christ’s Bride, each and every step or moment walking with our God, being a light to those around us furthering the kingdom of God to which we are loyal citizens, IS our mission here on this Earth. In contrast to society’s mindset of preparing one’s whole life to reaching a pinnacle of occupational height or wealth, material goods or reputation (which are usually unreachable and at the cost of much family destruction and misery.) Man’s nature is such that it is never satisfied; not with these things anyway. God designed man to only have satisfaction and total contentedness, peace and Joy when being restored to Himself. Farmers, on the other hand, experience less divorce and health problems, and live a generally longer, healthier life with strong family bonds.

The other goals/skills we wish to train or teach our children are relationship skills, such as pertains to marriage and parenthood. Much of a successful happy life depends upon these two factors. Society does a good job at downplaying the family (which is their goal), but ask any married person (or divorced) or parent. They will tell you the largest bulk of their woes are related to their children and/or spouse (or lack thereof). We aren’t the perfect model of parenthood or marriage at all times, but when we blow it we acknowledge that to each other with apologies, and tell our kids that that is Not the right way to behave. As we grow in Faith to Walk more and more after the Spirit, these things take care of themselves, so everything, really, relates back to that walk with God. The children are trained in and practice daily with one another very vital skills, like: selflessness, preferring others above you, forgiveness, not returning evil for evil, self-control, patience/longsuffering, kindness, not being envious or jealous, generosity. These are the skills that will make for a happy, successful life as it pertains to all relationships whether it be your children, spouse, boss, co-workers friends, or neighbors. This is the “socialization” we prefer to give our children. Not the dog-eat-dog, cliquish, competitive, cruel, me-first, sexually saturated, foul-mouthed, disrespectful to authorities, governmental/political; brainwashing and often violent socialization that the world has to offer( I know , I went to public school and things are 100 times worse now.) This is how children are trained in relationships in the world. Is it any wonder that more than half of marriages end in divorce and children are rebellious and estranged from the family? Well, I’ll get off this soap-box for now.

Do we think all other book learning is irrelevant? NO. Of course not. Reading , writing , and arithmetic, as well as history and science, all play a very important role in everyday life ( especially rural living). For example, when we were picking apples yesterday at an orchard, Micah, found too kinds of flavors he liked to eat together, came home and decided to plant some seeds, and got very excited when I told him how farmers breed two kinds together to get hybrids ( this is NOT genetical engineering , mind you!) So we will get books about how to do that at the library today hopefully. Jacob has a renewed interest in navigation( stars , compass, etc.), and Hannah, is enjoying her newfound freedom to make all kinds of projects and write letters to friends, now that she is writing independently. I mean, come on, deep down in every man, they long to build a log cabin with their own hands- it takes quite a bit of math and science there to do it properly. (Micah is itching to build his own skateboard ramp! I see a great geometry opportunity.)

WE love discovering how the gospel message, is hidden in all of nature, including every system of our body/ math and the sciences that have math and formulas all contain spiritual truths in them as well. Literally, EVERYTHING (in this natural world (natural laws included) SCREAMs to us “ILOVE YOU” from God. The Bible tells us this about nature as well in Romans 1:19, 20; “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them: for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His external power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”

Generally, as a guideline our learning choices are based upon these three goals/priorities:
(a) To know God
(b) To be known by Him
(c) To make Him known to others

These are the reasons we learn anything that we learn: it keeps us on target, constantly vigilant to weed out the worldly, unnecessary things (there are many, many things to learn out there). We select only the best that line up with these priorities and the Christian Faith ( biblical, God-glorifying truths.) Truly, all the subjects can/are, used to fulfill these three criteria. I could list many specific examples; if you’re truly interested, just comment to this blogpost.

So we don’t learn “just for the sake of learning” or just because society says it is something you should know. We don’t learn for the end goal that most people get an “education”. Education being the cure-all to all man’s ills, is another very popular deception out there (even among Christians, sadly). WE learn to learn more about God and how much he loves us, this in turn, leads to the second reason we learn- to grow in our relationship with God, and this in turn, leads us to the third reason we learn, to further God’s kingdom here on earth. We also learn, to be able to sustain life on this earth (independently of society, if need be) so that we can fulfill the first three goals. So there you have it- Our educational goals.
Hope this blesses and encourages someone or at least clears up some confusion. Happy Whole-life learning!

Hi, we recently had the opportunity to go to the Heidelberg Zoo. (Thank you very much Heise Family!)

You can click on any of these images in order to enlarge them and enhance your view of them.

Lots of turtles were there! They were not as active as the ones our family viewed in Tucson, though...

There was a whole barn full of these, as well as those outside. This mother and child were cute. It looked like the two donkeys behind her might have been teenage sons or males who were interested in her. She kept kicking at them if they got too close!


Another shot of the donkeys as they came around us. .


This donkey looked like he might have been sick. He was moaning and breathing heavily.



Rabbits and hampsters, etc. You can't tell from looking at the picture, really, but the critters lived in a town constructed to look like a human town. These guys eat pretty well, huh!

When we first entered the zoo, there was a large playground filled with many things to do. Among those things to do were many wooden carvings of animals which were life sized. You'll find several pictures of here of the kids playing on them. In this image, Micah is standing behind a Hippo's rear end and flung his shirt back just as I snapped the shot. It made for quite a gas!

This is not a self portrait! I can't believe you'd say that. It's not Sally either. But it is one of the many camels that were at the zoo.

Here is wise grandfather. He sat above our head levels and looked down with an aire of wisdom and judgment. Perception often is NOT reality. Micah and the boys say that one of the apes, probably this one, earlier had "gone # 2" and then ate it. We've seen them do some strange things at other zoos also. One time we saw a mama ape nursing herself. That was odd but yeah, okay...

Just about all the kids wanted me to take a shot of them getting "eaten" by this hippo.

Here's Jacob at the playground.


Poor Hannah's turn to be eaten alive.
The best petting zoo area I've ever seen. There was a little machine just outside the gate that dispensed feed; a handful for 1 Euro. Lots of fun watching the kids and helping them. Eden was too scared unless I held her above head level to the goats. There's Nathan feeding them.
Heather is helping Eden feed the goats and you can see Hannah and Nathan here feeding them too. One of the goats almost got out. I had to catch him and steer him back inside the fence. Also inside were shaggy haired sheep and an occasional chicken. The chickens must eascape rather easily because I saw one here and there wandering throughout the zoo.
Here's Nathan on the ropes.
(I could not get these two photos to act properly! Nathan sitting on this sleeping (wooden) camel. He just won't wake up! You know, my Grandfather and Dad would always tell me about how they once rode dinosaurs. Bet they never rode a fake camel!
Hippo girl amazes the crowd with her feats! How did she get the hippo to hold still that long, anyway?! Mind control! There's a joystick between the Hippos eyes that Hannah is using to control it. Works on me!








Jacob couldn't resist being eaten alive when it was his turn.









I guess I couldn't resist some things either. Tried sneaking this kiss in when Heather was looking elsewhere. Reminds me of a family favorite movie..."I dooo"

Micah was having his share of fun on the ropes.







Ah, no words are needed to convey how sweet and wonderful this photo is. That's why I didn't bother writing anything at all for this photograph. There just wasn't any need to. And so, since I've not bothered writing anything here, let's go ahead and move on to the next photographic representation. Wait, there isn't any more. Ah, man. Is it time to leave the zoo already?



(Clicking on any of these photos will give you much larger, and more importantly, much clearer views of them. The photos look MUCH better once you click on them.)

Rachel went to North Carolina to get married a little while back. She and her new husband are doing very well. They are decorating their new place for fall and getting settled into life together. One of the things that touched me most was when Rachel told me what she's really been enjoying is just getting to know her husband more. That was such a sweet thing to hold so dear and it means a lot to me. Well, she and her husband recently sent our family a care package filled with gifts for everyone. This dress for Eden was in it and doesn't she looks so cute in it?! I had to laugh because they bought me a coffee mug that looks like it's made of titanium. That's funny because Thomas has bought me several coffee mugs since he and Rachel met. They've all, for one reason or another, broken in relatively short periods of time. So far, I've had this one for about a month...




There are beautiful forests surrounding every city here in Germany. Connecting each city, aside from the streets that automobiles use, are trails through the woods. I believe that most of these trails are very, very old because of the landmarks within them, such as very old looking benches, stone forks in the road with chiseled directions and names, etc. Trust me, it looks and is likely very old. Kinda neat to imagine townsfolk coming down with packhorses carrying fruit, etc. Anyway, we have learned by watching the Germans to take walks nearly each day through the woods, especially in the wintertime. We took a family walk recently and while taking a break and letting the kids play in a wooded section, Heather and I picked blackberries and harvested apples from the ground from a nearby orchard. We snapped this shot of Nathan taking a break.




Here's Hannah playing with some of her most favorite toys. Prior to her birthday, I took Hannah to something akin to a shopping mall here named "Kaufland." "Kauf" in Deutsch is a reference to commerce and, of course, land is land. So while there, I steered her to the toy shop and watched what all she showed interest in. She really thought a mood ring there was neat but what she loved the most were these horses. I purchased the one she liked the most later on for her birthday, in part, with money sent to us for our birthdays from Grandpa Ray. Thank you, Grandpa and thank you, Dale, for your love and friendship. After Rachel married, she sent the care package I mentioned earlier. In it were more horses from the same series of toys which Hannah loves and that we saw at Kaufland. Oh, that table she's sitting on is an "L" shape bench table kitchen table which tucks into a corner and thus provides more kitchen space. It's made entirely of solid wood and was a gift from our friends and missionaries in Europe but from America, the Macy family. We've mentioned them before here and they live about 20 minutes from us.





Here is a picture of Micah, on the right, and Jacob just before going for a run held for all those in our area. The sweatsuit Jacob is wearing was bought with this occasion in mind. Jacob has always been athletic and competitive, and a good runner as well. I've taken him running on the trails with me before and he did over 3 miles with me, with little trouble. He's faster than many adults I know and has more stamina for distance. Micah has lots of talents and among them are his ability to entertain and amuse others. He's very good at impromptu and this picture captures just such an example.

Well, we recently went to the zoo and I want to upload those scenes for you but the boys are not here. They are out skateboarding and playing. They often take our camera and use it to make silly videos. Often, it doesn't make it back into the camera case and so I'll need to get it from them first. Grrr....it's one of my "pet peeves." I have about a million of them. :) Kids and pet peeves! I think each kid makes new pet peeves for me. :) Speaking of that, we leave it to God to decide whether we have any kids more. We've gone back to this way of doing things for the last couple of months but no baby yet. Must not be what He has for us right now. But we'll see...

Love from The Matthews,

James

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