Life @ Montrose, Sept. 11

This Sabbath is a special education Sabbath featuring our students at Spring Creek Adventist School. 

It is hard to believe that seven years ago today I received a phone call from my Dad, "Son, turn on the news, a plane just flew into the World Trade Center." I was sleepy after a late night working on a paper at Seminary. I drifted back to sleep for a few minutes. Then it hit me, a plane, what kind of plane? I went to check the news and then I realized the gravity of the situation. I was shocked. I reached for the phone to call my Dad back. The phone didn't ring. My father worked in One Liberty Plaza so I later found out he saw the plane crash from across the street. My mother was on an American Airlines flight that morning. She wasn't answering her phone either. I was scared wondering if both my parents had perished separately on this horrific day.

Later I received a phone call from a relative that both my parents were OK. My Mom's plane had gotten grounded on the runway and had never taken off; my Dad had been safely evacuated before the second plane hit the twin towers and blew out my Dad's office windows (he would work from home for the next year). My Dad was evacuated to an emergency evacuation site on Wall Street and made it out of the city in the company limousine that afternoon. I'm so thankful that both of my parents' lives were spared. God is so good. Let's continue to pray for the families of the victims.

This past week I've re-read the biography of Jonathan Edwards by George Marsden. I'm encouraged as I look back at his life. He is considered the most-famous preacher in American history--his sermon "Sinners in the hands of an angry God" still resonates through time. Edwards was caught between the old and the new. In a Puritan world that was rapidly changing Edwards saw the hand of God in what is now known as the Great Awakening. He saw the hand of God in these revivals. It also split ministers between the "old lights" (those against revival) and the "new lights" (those ministers who saw God's hand in this movement"). I was also intrigued by the 18th-century debate over whether hymns should be sung in church. While Edwards saw his world rapidly changing, it was changing in a way he could have never anticipated and led to the rise of the evangelical tidal wave that reached its peak during the mid-19th century. It is interesting to me because in many ways Edwards set the stage for the rise of Adventism a century later.

Last weekend we took 30 Pathfinders and about 10 adults up to Colorado National Monument. We had a fantastic time going on hikes, learning about the stars, and just having fun. One highlight for me was taking our Pathfinders on Sabbath afternoon through the "squeezers." The kids loved going through the cracks. You begin to realize how much larger you are than our young people when you try to follow them! Needless to say we wore them out.