Re-finishing the Hard-wood Floors

This Christmas we are refinishing our hardwood floors as a project. Last year we put tile on the kitchen counter tops. This is even bigger because we have 900 sq. ft. of hardwood floors. The builders did not do a good job of sanding when they finished them the first time and the finish is gone in spots.

Here are the steps:

1. Get everything off the floors, out of the pantry, and off the kitchen counters.
2. Sand them. We do this to get the finish off, and make them smooth.
3. Put stain on.
4. Put three coats of polyurethane on (sanding, vacuuming, and tack clothing in between coats.)
   

We started on Saturday. Here are some pictures:Stephen Walker, who lives near us, came over to help.This is Daddy running the drum sander (which is for sanding the main parts of the floors). Stephen is holding the cord so Daddy does not run over it.Here is Joshua using a small orbital sander on the floor. The orbital edge sander we rented is beside Joshua.

We will use 3 or 4 different grades of sandpaper.

On Saturday we did almost the entire floor once, then we went to the Browns' barn to spend the night since we go there for worship on Sunday morning and it was too dusty to sleep in our house.

One day left for Vision Forum Give Away

There are only 24 hours left to enter the drawing for the League of Grateful Sons!

If you would like to enter, please send your name, email, and shipping address to hornj@datatek-net.com by noon on December 20.

For more information about this give away, visit: http://hornherald.blogspot.com/2007/12/vision-forum-give-away.html

Bill Brown, one of the heroes in the video, wrote a book with his wife on their life in Alaska. It is called, From Cowboy Boots to Mukluks: Six Years in the Territory of Alaska.

You can buy it from Amazon by clicking on:
From Cowboy Boots to Mukluks: Six Years in the Territory of Alaska

Vision Forum Give away

For 6 days only, we will be offering one free gift from Vision Forum. We will give away one copy of the DVD of League of Grateful Sons, a great video about honoring our fathers which was produced by Vision Forum. Even if you already have the video, you can enter anyway, it is a great video to give to others!



To enter the contest, please email your name, email and shipping address to hornj@datatek-net.com. We will only accept one application per family. All applications must be received by December 20, 2007. The winner will be notified by December 24, 2007. You will probably receive your free gift in 2-3 weeks. Please email any questions to hornj@datatek-net.com.

Mr. Bill Brown and his wife go to our church. He is one of the heroes featured in the film.


Vision Forum also sells a book about Mr. Brown, Coming In on a Wing and a Prayer, written by Kelly Bradrick, his granddaughter who went to our church before she was married.

To learn more about this great movie click here: League of Grateful Sons
To buy more products from Vision Forum, click here: Vision Fourm

We hope you enjoy this contest.

The Horn Family

Faith and Freedom Tour - Day 3

On Wednesday morning we got up and walked a few blocks to the Plymouth waterfront. There they have what is called the Mayflower II. It is a re-creation of the original Mayflower. This year is it's 50th anniversary. Just before we got on the boat, Mr. Phillips and Mr. Potter told us about the journey of the Mayflower, and what it would have been like aboard. It was terrible. The Pilgrims were not allowed up on deck because of the storms and they were cargo on board. There was no privacy in the hold. The Mayflower II is run by Plymouth Plantation, so there are a few actors impersonating sailors and passengers on the Mayflower. Here are pictures from it:

Morning on the Mayflower II

Horn Family aboard the Mayflower II

On the Mayflower we talked to several sailors. After the ship, we picked up lunch and boarded the buses for Salem. Salem was about a 1 1/2 hour drive. Dr. Jehle gave us a walking tour of Salem. We saw the statue of Roger Conant, the peace-maker who was the founder of Salem:
We also went to the Salem witch memorial, where Dr. Jehle talked about the Salem Witch Trials. He said that they were not an example of how all Puritans were, but instead of how the Puritans made mistakes. The problems were gossip, disobedient children, and throwing out the important laws (innocent until proven guilty, etc.) We really enjoyed this speech. We also went by Nathaniel Bowditch's house, and also went in a museum very quickly to see his writing desk, cane and other items owned by him, and also to see two famous paintings of the witch trials.

We also went to Ye Olde Pepper Company - America's oldest candy store. We went down to the Salem wharf where many missionaries left from, and heard a speech by Mr. Phillips and Mr. Potter on missions. After this we headed back to Plymouth and ate dinner there.

Faith and Freedom Tour Day 2

On Tuesday we went on a walking tour of Plymouth. In the walking tour, first Mr. Jehle gave us a talk on providential stories at Plymouth. Then we went to the Plymouth rock memorial were Mr. Phillips gave a talk on Ebenezers.Then we went to the Pilgrim Mothers statue, where Mr. Phillips analyzed the statue. Then we went to the Bradford monument where Mr. Phillips gave a talk on William Bradford.Then we walked through the Brewster gardens. After that we went to the first burying ground monument where the Pilgrims had buried their dead in the middle of the night so the Indians would not know how few people they had. Then we went to the Massasoit statue where Mr. Jehle talked about the Pilgrim's relationship with the Indians. Then we boarded the buses for Plymouth Plantation. Plymouth Plantation is a place where actors recreate what the settlement would of looked like. Mr. Phillips gave all of the children a list of what they had to do to get a special prize. After that we ate dinner with the Pilgrims. It was a re-creation of the dinner John Robinson's church had before some of them left for the new world.
Here are some good books to learn more about Plymouth:

1. Plymouth in the Words of her Founders by Paul Jehle
   
2. Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford
3. Plymouth set: Of Plymouth Plantation, Plymouth in the words of her founders, and the Thanksgiving Primer
4. Landmarks and Liberty(CD)
   

Faith and Freedom Tour - Day 1

This year we are again attending the and Freedom Tour which this year is located in Plymouth, MA. We left last Friday, November 16 pretty late. We drove through the night to Washington, DC, and we arrived at the Days Inn in Arlington, VA about 2:30 in the morning. We had called soon after we got in the car to reserve a room. So they went in and turned the heat on to be ready for us. When we arrived, many hours later, it felt over 100 degrees. I could not sleep for about an hour because it was soo hot. Finally we got to sleep, and woke up Friday morning. Daddy had to go to a business meeting with Mr. Breagy at 9:30. We stayed in the hotel room until Daddy got back, then we drove into Washington, DC.

Mommy and Rachel wanted to go to the National Art gallery, while Daddy, Stephen and I wanted to go to the Smithsonian Air and Space museum, so that is what we did. We had a good time there. We saw the Wright Brother's Plane, and the Spirt of St. Louis Plane, space-ships and many other things. We enjoyed it a lot.

Mommy and Rachel also had a good time at the National Art Gallery.

We met at the car when our three hour parking expired. Then we went to the National Portrait Gallery, where we saw portraits of many men. After this, we sat in traffic an hour and a half to get to BWI airport. There we planned to get on a plane to fly to Manchester, NH. From there we would drive the next morning to visit our friends the Linders.

We got on our plane, but we did not get to sit together because we did not check in early and we were flying Southwester. We arrived in Manchester safely, and went to our hotel to spend the night. We had a nice time with the Linders on Saturday afternoon and went to two church services on Sunday with them. They wanted to hear what we thought about the two churches since they are still looking for a church to be a part of.

On Monday we drove down from NH to Plymouth, MA. We checked into our room and got ready for the opening dinner. We were surprised to see lots of people we know, especially a family from NC that has visited our church, and we had a good time. We are looking forward to the Faith and Freedom Tour.

Chicken Killing

On Saturday, the Breagys, the Damings, the Sides (families from our church), and us, slaughtered chickens together. The Damings had kept the chickens. All of the families got some of the chicken. There were about 99 chickens. There are 7 steps to processing chickens:
1. The first step is catching them.
2. Then they are killed.
3. Then they are dipped in boiling water so their feathers are loose.
4. Then they are plucked.
5. Then they are eviscerated (which means taking the guts out.)
6. Then they are checked for any other feathers, and they are hosed out.
7. Then they are weighed and put in bags.

Killing chickens reminded us of these verses in Numbers, Numbers 11:31-33

"31 And there went forth a wind from the LORD, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this side, and as it were a day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth. 32 And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp. 33 And while the flesh was yet between their teeth, ere it was chewed, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against the people, and the LORD smote the people with a very great plague."

Now we have an idea what it was like. It took us almost a whole day to do 99 chickens, and that was with 30 people. We calculated it was about 90,000 quails on every side, since the Israelites were surrounded with quail. After just one day it would of stunk. They had to do the cleaning with all of them, and they did not have any automatic machines, and they could not get away from it since they were surrounded.

These are some books written by Joel Salatin, who gave the plucker that we used to our friends, the Sides: Pastured Poultry Profits, Salad Bar Beef, and You Can Farm

Henty Series

I have just finished reading the G.A. Henty collection we have. We only have 73 books out of the 99. We bought them all from Vision Forum, and we have all the ones they sell. I started reading them in January 2007. It has taken me less time to read 73 books than it took Joshua and Rachel, my siblings, to read 30. My family thinks I can read very quickly. This is a picture of me in front of our Henty collection:I am going to write an overview of each book as I re-read through our collection.

Reformation Day

On October 31 Hope Baptist Church had a Reformation Day celebration at the Brown's farm. The first thing we did was to eat hot dogs for dinner, and then we gathered in the Brown's tent and sang A Mighty Fortress is Our God. Then there were different families from our church that discussed five great reformers: Jan Huss, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, and Oliver Cromwell. We were going to burn Jan Huss in effigy, but there was a burning ban because of the drought so we couldn't do it, but one of the men from our church, Mr. Sides spoke about him, and all the things he did, what he preached about, his imprisonments, his trial, and his burning. He spoke against the Catholic church and was imprisoned for his denouncement of selling indulgences. Before he was burned, he said, "in 100 years, God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed."

Mr. Sides acting as Jan Huss.

Then another family, the Breagys, did a skit about Martin Luther. First they had Shea and Claire walk around the stage with big signs with the city and the year on them. Then they had Stephen Breagy, who played Martin Luther, nail the 95 theses to the church door in Wittenburg, Germany.

Claire holding up a sign in front of the church door.

Then they had Grace, Shea and Claire come up and ask Stephen some questions about what he was preaching, what was wrong with indulgences, and things like that. Then Stephen read a short paper that he wrote, and Grace sung a song that he wrote, based on the 46 th psalm, to the tune of A Mighty Fortress is our God.

Grace, Shea, and Claire interviewing Stephen Breagy.

Next Timothy Orr came up and read a paper that he and his brother Josiah wrote about John Calvin, about his life in Geneva, and his preachings and doctrine. He is most noted for his commitment to the absolute sovereignty and holiness of God, and the doctrines of predestination, election and grace.

Timothy Orr reading his paper on John Calvin.

Then Mr. Tsantles came up and did an overview on Oliver Cromwell who was an army general, a member of Parliament, and a great reformer. Then two of his children, Allison and Taylor, read two of his letters to his daughters, one to his wife, and one to a friend.

Then our family came up onto the stage and did a reenactment from the writings of John Knox from a conversation between Mary Queen of Scots and himself. Joshua was John Knox, Stephen was a guard, and I, Rachel, was Queen Mary. Stephen brought in Joshua for me to discuss with him what he said about me. Then he talked to me for awhile, and then Stephen said that dinner was served, and took Joshua away.

Stephen, Joshua, and I on the stage.

Then Daddy came up and talked about why we should remember the Reformers, then we sang It Is Well With My Soul, then we had dessert, and then everybody left.

Cromwell Done Right!

These are the notes Stephen took on Dr. Joe Morecraft's talk on Oliver Cromwell at the Chalcedon Conference. Book recommendations: The greatness of Oliver Cromwell (Collier books) The Great Christian Revolution
Cromwell was the greatest English man that ever lived. He created the English world of today. Many scholars of his time praised him, but now people despise him. We think that Cromwell and the Puritans did not like entertainment, but playwriting flourished under Cromwell. We cannot understand Cromwell without understanding Puritanism. When the reformation hit England, Puritanism was created. Puritanism was the idea of making England a Christian nation and changing the Anglicans to Christians. They were trying to clean England. When Cromwell heard of Charles' tyranny, he had no idea what he would do. He did not take up arms and fight till he heard about the slaughter of the puritans in Ireland. Cromwell would become one of the greatest generals ever.
Cromwell did something no one else had ever done. He made officers out of peasants. He saw value in the craftsmen. Cromwell's chaplain was the preacher of the church he had gone to. Cromwell was plagued all his life because the Puritan Scots still wanted a Stewart back on the throne. He knew he would have to stop these. If he did not, they would take over and place a Stewart on the throne, and all would be lost. Scholars charge Cromwell with attacking his subjects, but he did not. He fought with Ireland and Scotland only when they rebelled. Cromwell struck such a blow to Ireland that it never recovered. But he also did Ireland good. Before it was a desert, but afterwards it was cultivated. Cromwell fought Scotland when they tried to put Charles II on the throne.
Cromwell fought Scotland differently than he fought Ireland because they were Puritans. He fought them kindly. Cromwell went to churches with his army and listened to the preacher publicly curse him and his men, yet he did not attack the preacher. Cromwell wrote the first English written constitution. America took a lot from it in the founding. The catholics were afraid of his army. Once when the Catholics were persecuting Puritans in Ireland, he sent a letter to the pope and said that if the persecution did not stop he would burn Rome to the ground with his navy. The persecution stopped immediately. After Cromwell died his son took his place. His son was incapable of ruling. The leader of the army died shortly after Cromwell. Soon Charles II's followers took over and placed him on the throne.
My favorite speaker was Dr. Joe Morcraft because I thought he did the best job. Maybe it was because we heard him before. He used more scripture than the other speakers, although he was talking about a person.

The Great Comission

by Dr. Joe Morecraft

Some Introductory Observations

1. Three errors in interpreting the Great Commission
1. Thinking that the idea is to save the greatest number, no matter if they obey God.
2. Believing that there is not a free offer for anyone to be saved.
3. Finding excuses not to evangelize.
   
2. This helps us transform society with the gospel. John Calvin evangelized France. At the beginning, there were only 30 reformed churches. When he was finished, there were 30 million believers.
3. Universalism - in a good way. The target is ALL NATIONS. Racism stops the Great Commission. The target is the world - John 3:16

Now we will go through the Great Commission.

1. Universal Authority

Everything is under Jesus' power.
God gave him Authority to give everlasting life - John 12.
Jesus is the ruler of earthly Kings.
Ephesians 1:19-21
Christ is over us - not will be over us.

2. Mandate of World Discipleship

A disciple is a learner.
A disciple submits to Jesus.
Jesus says to make entire nations disciples, not just individuals.
Our mission is not complete until all the Nations are Christ's disciples.

A. Person Winning

Person to person witnessing.
Good books on evangelism:
Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God J. I. Packer
Tell the Truth Will Metzger
Today's Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic?

B. Family Winning

Be an example in your family to other families.
Families should teach.
Parents need to teach the children.

C. Culture Winning

Disciple the nation.
Christian nations.
Christian Culture.
Politically Christian, Economically Christian, Educationally Christian, etc.
For 1000 years, Europe tried to be Christian. The modern historians call these the "Dark Ages."

We have to win the individual, the family and the nation - all three.
The Great commission is the dominion mandate taking into consideration that man is fallen.

3. The Promise of Christ's Presence

Here we see Christ claim deity.
Christ will be with faithful evangelists.
He echoes Deuteronomy 20 - Christ leads us into battle. He fights for us.
God says we will reap.

The 2007 Chalcedon Fall Conference

Last week we attended the 2007 Chalcedon fall conference which was called "The Relevance of the Reformed Faith". One of the speakers there was Dr. Joe Morecraft. He had two speeches which were called "The Great Commission" and "Cromwell Done Right!" We enjoyed these two speeches very much, so we have typed up our notes to put on the blog.

Father Son Retreat - Day 2

We woke up with the sun on Saturday, and Daddy got in the car to prepare his sermon for that day. He got in the car so he could plug his laptop in. We went to the fire, and then walked down to the lakes to watch the fishing tournament. There was an award for the biggest and the most fish. The boys that we knew did not catch anything! The only thing was that Anthony Daming caught a fish about an inch long!

When it was time for breakfast, we walked back up to the tent. Breakfast was french toast and sausage. Mommy and Rachel served sausage from over the fire. The first sermon was by Mr. Burroughs, and he talked about the use of time. Then he sent us out to have a father and son time. After this, Daddy got up to give his message about fathers working with their sons. It was a good message and lots of other people liked it too. Then Mr. Dohm spoke about purity. Then there was another father and son time. We went through a list of questions where fathers told their sons about their lives.


After this, at 2:30 there were games. We were on the blue team. The first game was tug-of-war. We first went against the green team. We planned out how we would work together well. We went 1, 2, 3, PULL! On pull, we would pull our hardest. The first match we beat the green team. Then we decided to go ready, PULL, ready, PULL! so that we would pull better. It worked! So we beat the green team again. Then we moved on to the red team. The first time they beat us, because there was slack in the rope. But then the second time we beat them. So for the third match, we pulled and pulled, and then we won! That meant that we won the entire tug-of-war! Here are some pictures:

On your mark (Daddy talked with our team about what to do (he has the hat on))



Get set (the red team)



GO!!!




After the tug-of-war, we did the balloon toss. Half the group shot balloons with 3-man-slingshots to try to get them in the tarps held by the other part of the team. It was hard. We only got seven in. The red team got seven, and the green got four. We did not do very well, because we got 50 balloons!

Then we did the canoe race. We did pretty well on this also. Other people flipped there canoes, and we did not flip at all, except for one canoe. Daddy was in this canoe. He was docking the canoe at the end. He was in with two boys whose fathers did not go, and so he offered to go with them. He was a little off, so he turned the canoe really sharp, and one of the boys leaned the wrong way, and it flipped! It was funny, because Daddy had been saying how good he was at managing a canoe! We had a lot of fun. We also shot bows and arrows. We did not do very well in that. Over all, the blue team was the best at the games! Here is Daddy and Stephen doing archery:



After this, there was some free time. We went swimming in the pond. Then we ate dinner, which was hamburgers and beans. Mommy and Rachel served beans over the fire. It was good. The final message after dinner was by Mr. Brown on how Joshua showed how fathers should be leaders.

We had a good time at the father son retreat, and look forward to going again next year!

Here is more information on the Father Son Retreat: Click Here

Father Son Retreat - Day 1

On October 5th&6th we had a father son retreat at our church, Hope Baptist Church. On the 1srt day which was Friday, first we had BBQ Chicken for dinner. Here is Mommy and Rachel waiting for somebody to come who she can serve mashed potatoes. Mr. Breagy was supposed to do the first session, but he had to get a treatment and he had an infection so he had to stay overnight at the hospital. Mr. Brown did a session for him. Then he did another session on the heart battle between fathers and sons. Then Bill Brown, his father, was going to talk about the stars but it was too cloudy.

Romania - Day 10

On Friday we arrived at the airport in Budapest at about five in the morning. There was a long line at the luggage check-in. The flight to Paris was uneventful. We all slept most of the way. On the way to Philadelphia we had the same kind of plane we had going to Paris. We had a window seat and our seats were not as far back in the plane. This is a picture of the plane:


Stephen got bored and started to take pictures of himself. It took a long time to land in Philadelphia and we had to re-check our baggage. When we went to get tickets everybody said to go to someone else. We were confused because where we landed was on the wrong side of the airport. The plane going to North Carolina was so small that we boarded it from the ground. We bought some Stromboli in Philadelphia for what seemed to us dinner(it was really lunch time.) The flight was supposed to be 2 hours but it seemed a lot shorter. When we got home from the airport we had dinner, even though we weren't hungry. We were very tired and glad to be home. We went to bed at about 8:30.

Romania - Day 9

We got up in the morning, and then showered and ate breakfast at the person's house that we stayed at. It was a good breakfast. Here is a picture of us with the wife. The rest of the family were at school or work:

Then the wife called a taxi to take us to the missionary house. She went with us, so we did not get lost! We arrived there safely, and then got in the car and started on our drive to Bacau. It was a pretty drive through the mountains. We stopped twice. The first time, we got some food. First there was some good sausages. Then we got a kind of dessert. It was dough that was cooked for a few minutes until it was just a little brown, and then had sugar sprinked on it. Here is a picture of some cooking:

Here is a mountain:

After this food, we got back in the car, and drove to another stop. This was in a big pass through the mountains. It had a river, and cliffs on either side. It was really pretty. There we bought some things to bring home. All of the boys (David, Stephen Breagy, Stephen Horn and I) bought pocket knives, I bought a ship, and Daddy got Rachel a box that has a secret way to open it. Daddy got Mommy a honey pot and a tea cup. We only stayed for about 15 minutes, so we had to be quick.

Then we got back in the car and drove to Bacau. We arrived just before the service. Daddy and Mr. Breagy spoke in church. Afterwards we had pizza. Then Mr. Breagy, Stephen Breagy, Daddy, Stephen and I got in a van to drive to the airport. Mr. Brown, David and Max were staying for a few more days. So we got in the van, and drove to the airport. We got there really early in the morning, so we tried to sleep in the van for a few hours. We did not get much sleep.