Do You Need College?

Charlie Kirk is the founder of Turning Point USA, and he has a new book out: The College Scam. 

The promo for the book says:

“We all know that colleges are filled with far-left professors, but the truth is much worse. Anti-American ideals are thriving, progressives repress speech, and brainwashing is the norm. In The College Scam, Charlie Kirk puts the college industry on trial with a ten-count indictment of why academia has lost all credibility.” 

Moreover, Charlie Kirk is not the first to level these charges. An internet search for “College Scam” does not turn up his book as the first result. Rather, there are several articles equally critical of the college system, and people have been saying the same thing for decades.

There are two great evils in the world, yea, three make God’s people groan:

That millions of innocent human beings are killed while still in their mothers’ wombs, and the assassins get obscenely rich charging their mothers for the service.

That a man intent on destroying our nation sits in the White House, and we the taxpayers are paying him and his staff to do it.

That millions of our best and brightest youth are being brainwashed for four years in leftist / communist indoctrination camps called colleges and universities, but their unsuspecting parents are expected to pay for it and many will put themselves in debt up to their necks for a couple of decades.

~The Book of Margie, Chapter 2:1-4

Okay, I know, that’s not in the Bible. But honestly, we need to use the money with which God has entrusted us wisely. So, we must properly evaluate where it’s going.

My Experience

In the early 1980s, I studied for a while at Purdue University on the G.I. Bill. Purdue was just across the river from where we lived in Lafayette. In fact, during the summer, to avoid having to drive the family car on campus, I enjoyed early morning bike rides, crossing the bridge to reach my classes and returning home before my family missed me.

Naively, I believed I would learn how to be a better writer. It turns out that Purdue really wanted me to appreciate paintings of naked bodies and learn to view feminism and humanism in a positive light. I was supposed to learn to accept that what I thought was evil could actually be good. We read books presenting examples of such “situational ethics” so that any semblance of absolute truth resident in our souls could be erased.

Such was probably the lot of most of my classmates. But as for me, Purdue failed. 

I’m not a pushover. Neither is Eric. One time a Pentecostal-style evangelist lady tried to get people “slain in the spirit” by pushing them over. He caught onto the scheme and put his foot back to stabilize himself so he wouldn’t fall and land on his guitar. 

I also didn’t “fall” for the professor’s scheme. I told him, when he asked, why I thought the books we had been reading were evil. He decided to use me in his classes as an example, and spent at least 5 or 6 class periods arguing / debating with me in front of the stupefied students.

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”

    ~Isaiah 5:20

That one very definitely IS in the Bible. 

This experience, however, was 42 years ago, and if you thought for a moment that it got any better at Purdue after that, you would be greatly mistaken. In the end, my credits expired and I didn’t get the degree.

Lisa’s Experience

Our eldest daughter Lisa has a bachelor’s degree in Communications from Indiana University and I am very proud of her because she completed her studies online (mostly from Illinois) while working full time and also homeschooling much of that time. 

I asked her about her college experience recently. Would she recommend distance learning for others, maybe even others trying to avoid communist indoctrination?

I imagine the woke factor is the same whether it’s online or not. Gender in Communications class taught that sex and gender are not the same thing. I got a B in Ethics class when I wrote a paper about abortion being wrong, even though I got A’s in every other class and I know that topic inside and out. Biology, of course, had an evolution chapter. That one was strictly a multiple choice test so it wasn’t like I even had a chance to debate it.

Lisa has college-age kids now, too:

 

I’ve even heard that some of the professors at Evangel University have some woke tendencies. It’s like cancer. Even if students don’t hear it from their professors they hear it everywhere else. Trying to avoid wokeness is like trying to keep from getting wet in a hurricane.

But it’s also one of those things where people, even if they agree, are afraid to talk about it because they don’t want to be controversial. 

Illinois is a lot more liberal. I know my kids shy away from controversy. Probably having parents on the opposite side of the political spectrum doesn’t help, either.

There was a meme I saw recently about cartoon kids in a class hearing blah blah blah about white male oppressors, with one kid asking the other, "Hey, I must be in the wrong class. Where's Calculus?" 

"This IS Calculus."

So what do you do? All the teachers are coming from the same teacher colleges. And, when college accreditation evaluation comes from woke organizations, compliance with politically correct ideology is demanded from everybody.

Here’s a story about Professor Joseph Branson, a tenured college anthropology professor at UCLA who complains of “Woke Capture” at colleges and universities, and why he decided to retire early.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/ucla-professor-retires-woke

He writes on his blog:

"[M]ainstream U.S. higher education is morally and intellectually corrupt, beyond the possibility of self-repair, and therefore no longer a worthwhile setting in which to spend my time and effort."

A.J.’s Experience

A.J. Carlson is a young friend of mine who has just spent two years of his life at Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana. 

A.J. first spent a long time evaluating various schools to find out which one would most closely align with his Biblical values. It was tough. You cannot rely strictly on a college’s website to learn about what you’ll get in exchange for your tuition. Additionally, A.J. is taking courses in elementary education. He aspires to be a teacher.

A.J. writes:

As an elementary school teacher in training, I have recognized many of the red flags that are being promoted within the school system, and the sad truth is that they have been taught in schools well before 2020. Furthermore, many teachers are being trained to teach such propaganda, including inclusivity (LGBTQ+ and SEL (socio-emotional learning), diversity (Black Adam, CRT, and revisionist history), and Keynesian economics. 

Education is not neutral ground, even in the arts and sciences. Not only do the two largest teachers unions overwhelmingly support the Left and are its largest donors, but individual teachers donate to the Left more than any occupation. Do not think that a teacher’s money and their teaching are somehow different. Furthermore, many individual “Christian” teachers also support Leftist agendas, including Red For Ed, equity, etc… 

Valerie’s Experience

Like me, our daughter Valerie didn’t finish getting the diploma, but instead quit going to college after her second year, even with an impressive four-year scholarship. She found the atmosphere spiritually oppressive. Unlike me, she went to a private Catholic college, St. Mary-of-the-Woods, which happened to be a very good one for a specific vocational pursuit—Music Therapy.

SMWC Madrigals in Ireland. Valerie is on the front row on the Right

Valerie writes:

I would still recommend SMWC and their music therapy program to anyone who's interested in studying that, but with a few stipulations: If you are a conservative Christian, you will likely get pressured with a lot of woke crap. 

If you can handle that and not give into the pressure to be brainwashed while also not making a lot of your classmates and teachers dislike you, you'll last longer than I did. I think it's possible, but it will be really hard and you’d better know you really want that degree. It really tests you in a lot of ways and if you can get through it without giving in, you'll probably come out a lot stronger in your convictions, while also gaining a more accurate perspective on how the world thinks. Just know what you're getting yourself into.

The nuns at Valerie’s college all went to D.C. for—not the March for Life, but for the Women’s March, if that says anything. There was no such thing as a pro-life club on campus.

Aren’t Christian schools the answer though? 

Lisa’s daughters are going to an Assembly of God college, A.J. is attending a general Christian college, and Valerie tried a Catholic college. These are all liberal arts colleges.

A.J. says:

While I will state that Christian schools are better than public schools, do not place them on a lofty pedestal. Just because the teachers adhere to Christianity, that does not always relate to their understanding of Fundamentalism or give any evidence of the influence that teacher’s unions have had on their ideology. Sadly, many of the same problems found in public schools are also in Christian schools, it is just that the guise of Christianity shields many of these teachings from being criticized. 

This brings up an important point: a friend of mine that works in campus ministry stated that it is easier to identify the Christians on a secular campus than on a Christian campus (and this applies to primary, secondary, and higher education institutions also). 

But aren’t all students at a Christian school Christians, A.J.? 

No. In fact, especially at private Christian higher education institutions, an alarming percentage of students are there because their grandparents agreed to pay the bill, for athletics, to find a spouse, or because they were not accepted at a state institution. Students on a Christian campus are expected to act the same, say the same things, and do the same activities. Christians on a secular campus stand out, but sadly, many reject their faith because of the pressure of their friend groups and professors.

A.J. and Valerie also related how many of the students coming into the college had been educated in public high schools and were already affected. So they were already affecting their peers just by being roommates.

What Can You Do?

First, let me reiterate something I talked about a few weeks ago. 

→ Homeschool! ←

If it’s even a remote possibility, you are your son or daughter’s best teacher, so get in there and do it. Here’s my short summary of our 30-some years of homeschooling.

A.J. writes:

The topic of public elementary schools has been hotly contested within the past two years since many of the social / emotional learning programs (S of the Left have been exposed since the emergence of online learning. This goes without saying, but many of these dangerous teachings entered the school system when the Bible and prayer were removed from the classroom (1962 – 1963).

Recently, a SECOND GRADE teacher recorded a TikTok video, in which she revealed that her entire class had “come out” as gender fluid. She was emotional about this moving experience. If that had been my child’s teacher, I would have been emotional too, but the emoji for it looks rather like a fire-breathing dragon.

Back to A.J.:

Even though I am training to be a teacher, I would not vouch for the public elementary school system. Granted, there are many great teachers and several great school districts. For example, 70% of teachers in the Warsaw Community School District attend church. However, that being said, I already plan to homeschool my children. 

The biggest objection against homeschooling is whether the student will be as prepared as a public school student or will they be socially awkward? As a self-taught homeschool student, yes, I realize that I may lack in some subjects but I realize that I excel in many areas of life where many others have no clue where to start. 

Furthermore, yes, I can be socially awkward at times, especially not knowing the latest movies, celebrities, music, video games, and any other trend of society, yet, not only have I learned to deal with this barrier, but I have remained nearly a straight-A student in college when many others have not. That is partly because I grew up with a strong work ethic, both in my academics when studying and in working part-time. 

There are skills that students will learn through homeschool that have not been and cannot be taught in the school system. I stand behind homeschooling as the best way to teach your children godly values and many life skills, with Christian schools as a distant second. 

Me too, A.J.! Don’t leave your child’s future to chance and destructive brainwashing. You can teach your child to read and write and do elementary school math. Or, if you can’t do that, you can at least choose your own tutors.

But Do You Actually Need College?

When I started homeschooling, it wasn’t long before I met a really sweet nurse who volunteered to be our “school nurse” at our co-op. Once when talking to me, she challenged my thinking with “Now that you know you can teach your children at home, you should also think about having your babies at home!” I resisted that one for a while and then finally gave in, finding it fit in well with what I was doing.

Thus, I found that there were many institutions I could do without or with less of. Is it possible we can do without college in 2022 and still make a good living?

The Lord brought together many factors in our lives to finally lead the Haley family into a full-time business rebinding books and Bibles as a cottage industry. Gradually, that became a prosperous business because it is the Lord’s business. Entrepreneurs and small businesses are the backbone of this country.

And like generations of young men who inherited the family farm and continued in their father’s footsteps, learning as an apprentice in a family business is a college-less way to earn your keep. 

An apprenticeship in a different trade, such as electrical engineering, will also do well for you. And if you can stand the current military “wokeness” and the shot requirements, much of the experience is also O.J.T.—on the job training. That doesn’t require a degree, but many jobs in the military are useful in civilian life.

My Texas brother also reminds me that the nation needs tradesmen such as welders, carpenters, plumbers, and truck drivers. Absolutely! And I love this link he showed me: mikeroweWORKS Foundation When you have a flat tire, you won’t be calling someone with a degree in Gender Studies. Trade schools will help you get a real job and keep you off food stamps.

When You Have No Choice

Lisa works for the Illinois State Police. She writes:

The hard part is that many jobs still require it. Mine didn’t require a degree, but it did require four years of college or equivalency. I’m not sure what all counts as equivalency but I know military experience counts.

And of course we know that they're indoctrinating the military as well, firing the best generals and promoting the ones who care more about pronouns than readiness. We’re hoping that that is a temporary state. Train your students well before sending them off into the world, even to the military. It’s not your grandfather’s military.

But she’s right—many jobs still require that diploma. Our son David is very busy taking online classes as Lisa did, so that someday when he retires from the military, he can be an architect. That’s a job that needs a degree. In fact, he’s already got a few architecture clients.

What about a Catholic college if you’re not even Catholic?

Valerie says:

As far as Catholic goes, that didn't really come into my actual classes all that much except for singing some Catholic songs in choir and having to attend some masses. That stuff didn't bother me. 

For any kind of technical degree at any college, I wouldn't worry about it. Mostly they have to focus on the technical stuff, and the woke stuff isn't relevant to that most of the time. They might still try to slip it into the Gen Ed classes, but every student knows you can pretty much fake your way through most of those classes. 

And where it really matters, you can be honest about what you believe, and even if you get lower grades for it, those classes don't count nearly as much. You just have to pass them.

 

A.J. recommends a private Christian college over a state-run school:

As a current student at a private liberal arts institution studying Elementary Education, I will be the first to point out the flaws in the system, both in the Department of Education and the higher education system, yet I believe there are still several strong reasons for why one should invest in a private higher education institution. 

The biggest reason for me is that you are surrounding yourself with other believers, including many professors, that can help challenge you in your faith, in a good way. Plus, the learning in the classroom will be integrated with the Bible, which you will not experience at a public institution. 

Also, while I strongly recommend a private institution over a state school for higher education (some of this depends upon your desired major), do not attend a private institution to “escape” Leftist teaching. Do your research and find an institution that still stands on Biblical truths, which is more and more difficult to do. 

When I went through the college selection process, I received many great offers, including a few free rides, but I chose the best school that offered my desired academic programs in the state of Indiana. 

Even at the best school in the state, it is always important to “be Bereans” and test everything taught against Scripture. I have found several instances where equity, diversity, and SEL have been taught in the classroom, which is why as a student I will continue to not only challenge the accepted norms, but also educate fellow students to identify Leftist teaching.

Again I say, be very careful where you send your children. If you were their primary teacher during their elementary and high school years, they may feel “liberated” to learn something other than their parents’ “brainwashing.” In turn, they will open their minds to Leftist brainwashing instead. 

If you weren’t their primary teacher as they grew up, but their minds have already been open to that leftist ideology, then even a community college or trade school is dangerous, as it will be infested with teachers who will cement that ideology into their psyche. 

At a minimum, let them sit out a few years until they have matured in their faith before they enter one of these institutions. It would do them good to work a real job and save money, too, while they think about what they really want to do with their lives. And several of our kids graduated from Bible college, where they found a good, solid anchor for the future.

One more word from A.J.:

Whether you are a parent of young children or are considering attending college yourself, it is important to know and understand the nuances of what you are being taught. This means that everything should be held under a magnifying glass to compare it to God’s Word, since this is the foundation of all Christian belief and doctrine. 

The Godfather, Organized Crime, and The Lawless One

It’s been fifty years since the movie The Godfather came out, winning three Academy Awards including “Best Picture”, but it probably had an “M” rating for “Mature” audiences. Thus, I was not exposed to it, being only a teenager in high school, though I had heard about bits and pieces of it. Over the years I think it was released again, maybe the special effects were improved. But the impression that The Godfather was a “bad” movie and the certainty that I would not like it, never left me.

And yet lately, we’ve thought again about some of the movies we had rejected over the years, because, it seems, some movies just have a culturally significant effect on our society. In other words, literary allusions to certain books and films become so frequent that in order to understand the thinking and writing of the times, you have to have had at least a passing acquaintance with them so you can relate. For example, when all of us are pointing fingers at the White House and saying with a gasp, “Biden’s Disinformation Board is exactly the Ministry of Truth!!” then we ought to know that that’s a concept from Orwell’s 1984, what it means, and why it matters.

The morning after Eric and I watched The Godfather for the first time, I awoke from several nightmares about living in the 1940s and 50s, during the time of the organized crime syndicates in New York. There was a great deal of gunfire, explosions, blood, and death. Eric reassured me that he had searched our bed earlier and found no severed horse heads, so I felt safe. However, as we talked, we realized that those days were not at all over—they were certainly not over in 1972, so much so that the director had to form a relationship with members of the Five Families (Mafia) so he could even produce the film, or it might have gone bad with him. Promises were made—like never to say the word “mafia” in the movie, and to cast some real members of the Families in various parts.

And what’s more, those olden days are only much worse now, fifty years later.

As it happens, my dad grew up in Brooklyn in the 40s and 50s, and he is also part Italian on his father’s side. Now that his hair has all gone white, he even looks like he could be a New York mobster. Except… he’s not. But where he grew up in the Big Apple, families had to look out for one another. Dad’s family, the Atanasio’s, had their own “gang” of sorts—a large collection of cousins who had to fend for themselves against others who didn’t like them very much. Dad didn’t get into street fighting or switchblades, but as soon as he could, he joined the military and left Brooklyn without a backward glance.

The movie opens with the words: “I love America… but… ,“ and the character at the beginning explains, “I need justice.” Some bullies had beaten up his daughter because she had fought off a rape situation, and after a court battle, the bullies had gotten off with only a suspended sentence. So he enlisted the help of The Godfather as he sought vengeance for the dishonoring of his daughter. Basically, the mob had begun as a way for the Italian-American community to protect one another in a sometimes hostile environment. But it morphed into Big Organized Crime as a “family business.”

The fictional Corleone family in the movie, headed by Vito Corleone (Marlen Brando) didn’t want to get into the narcotics “business” because it would soil the family name. Gambling and prostitution were okay, but not narcotics. In the end, in an effort to bring peace to the warring Five Families that ran New York, Vito Corleone agreed that his family would help to provide “protection” for the narcotics dealers—but insisted on no sales to children or near schools!

Nowadays, if there’s any “business” at all that the mafia is involved in, it’s the illegal drug market. We speak of the drug cartels in Mexico, and they are a fact. There are some places in Mexico where it’s downright dangerous for a U.S. citizen to just pass through and buy a postcard. Last week, the U.S. DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) seized a million fake pills with a street value of $15 - $20 million, all laced with the deadly drug fentanyl. And also last week, one of the most wanted drug lords, Caro Quintero, was captured in Mexico, in an operation that left 14 people dead from a helicopter crash.

But how do you think the illegal substances are distributed here in the States, once they have made it across our porous southern border? It’s obvious that the amount captured is a small percentage of what is attempted. And fentanyl is potent enough to instantly kill police officers who accidentally breathe it when they have seized it.

And now, our nation is also struggling with rampant internet child pornography, Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein’s Pedo Island enterprise, and human trafficking enterprises all over the world. 

And we have Hunter Biden and his “laptop from hell” along with a 4Chan hacker who got into his cloud storage, which serves us almost daily revelations of how much Hunter’s dad Joe knew of his son’s pornography and moneymaking schemes, while Hunter made his fortune capitalizing on his father, who was a senator, Vice President of the United States, and now President. We’re finding out more and more of Hunter’s “deals” involving “The Big Guy,” as well as his own weakness for prostitutes and crack. Interestingly, Joe “The Big Guy'' Biden has even made crack pipes and illegal drug paraphernalia available to addicts in “underserved communities'' through grants to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Do you think that might actually encourage drug use?

And more recently, we’ve learned about another family member, Jim Biden, who also had been “investing” a lot of money in shady deals. The criminal activity by the Biden Family looks so bad that the Babylon Bee ran a story entitled “Shocking Photo Shows Hunter Biden Fully Clothed Not Smoking Crack.” Unbelievable!

 

Then there’s insider trading, where politicians, whose jobs include making decisions about the success or failure of various companies, buy and sell stocks based on their insider knowledge of pending legislation. Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul, for example, padded his personal portfolio the other day with computer chip stocks, just before a vote in Congress.

New Yorkers are complaining that this crime-infested city “Stinks.”  Yes, there’s a lot of that going on these days.

The FBI and the CIA, as well as the Department of Justice, are supposed to be looking out for us Americans—why is there no prosecution of real crimes? Why is it that we all know about Hunter, and the FBI had the laptop in their custody for several years—even before the 2020 election—but he still roams freely?

Why is there such heavy censorship of conservative voices crying foul over such things?

Why are peaceful, unarmed protestors from Jan. 6 in jail indefinitely, while murderers are being let out to kill again? AOC and other members of “The Squad” were just arrested today for being unruly outside the Supreme Court building. Will they get the same treatment as those arrested for “insurrection” on January 6, 2021?

Why did the Republican supermajority in Indiana sit on their hands and not move forward with a Marriage Amendment to our Constitution a few years back? All we were told is, “They were under a lot of pressure.” Ha! They were likely blackmailed.

Michael: "My father is no different than any other powerful man—any man who's responsible for other people, like a senator or president." 

Kay:    "You know how naïve you sound… senators and presidents don't have men killed." 

Michael: "Oh, who's being naïve, Kay?"

There are two primary ways the Mafia gets what they want:

1. Bribery

2. Acts of Terrorism (including blackmail)

The Mafia, or more accurately, the Organized Crime Syndicates of today, “own” people in key positions in government, the media, and law enforcement. Organized crime operatives will do a “favor” for these people, so that in turn these people will owe a “favor” to their benefactors, which they will use when the time is right. The well-known phrase that embodies the methods of the Mafia was made popular by The Godfather: “We made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.”

The Supreme Court of the United States recently made a hugely significant ruling, overturning Roe v. Wade. This was not made lightly. There were indications that the Court had avoided hitting the abortion issue head on for many years, probably out of fear for their lives and those of their families. Organized crime is not gentle. And now we have someone who has sworn to uphold (enforce) the Constitution, who does not care at all about the Constitution, the Rule of Law, nor the safety of the Supreme Court. They had reason to fear, with angry mobs outside their houses, people putting a bounty on their heads and harassing them at restaurants, and crisis pregnancy centers mysteriously burning down. Looks like… organized crime. Someone is owned.

In Uvalde, Texas, 376 police officers were on the ground at the school for nearly an hour without going in and stopping a young active shooter from slaughtering children and teachers. Why? Was the Uvalde police chief owned? Just asking. It makes a convenient springboard for a national outcry against so-called “assault rifles” and the beginnings of firearm confiscation. Was this another organized crime project? Certainly if the U.S. citizenry is deprived of our right to bear arms, organized crime would have less resistance to their various criminal activities.

Ultimately, who’s pulling the strings? Barack Obama?—yes. China—yes. George Soros—yes. The United Nations, World Economic Forum, World Health Organization, global elite—yes yes. Biden? No, he’s the dancing puppet. He is totally and thoroughly owned and operated by others.

But who is pulling their strings? It is Satan, the Enemy of Mankind. Eventually, this whole world as we know it will be in the clutches of one who believes he is above the law, that the law does not apply to him. So he is referred to as “The Lawless One”—the antichrist.

At the end of the movie, Vito Corleone passes away in a touching scene, and his son Michael becomes the next Godfather.

The other members of his family pay him homage and demonstrate their fealty just as they did to his father. Of course they would—he has just assassinated all the opposition. Eventually, and I believe very soon, the Lawless One will take the reins not of just a city, nor even of a country, but the whole planet, and the inhabitants of the planet will be forced to show their fealty… or be assassinated. 

But who holds the leash of the antichrist? It is the Lord God. And it is a short leash. He will not be revealed until “the restrainer” is gone. That is the Holy Spirit, resident in The Church. (2 Thes.2: 1-12) And then, he only gets to be in power for seven years.

I told my dad that on Sunday. He had been concerned about what he’d heard about the chip, as is supposed, that will probably be implanted in everyone’s forehead or hand for tracking and controlling purposes. But we should all know that it will be impossible to accept this “Mark of the Beast” so that we can buy and sell, until “The Beast” is revealed. And we who love Jesus will not be here then. We cannot accidentally be enrolled in his program. It will be a deliberate act of worship.

Yes, Satan can hurt us, but he can’t have our soul, unless we give it to him.

“Dear Lord Jesus, we are comforted in the verses of Scripture that point to Your soon coming. In the twinkling of an eye, we will be leaving this corrupt world behind.  But Your coming is for those who love You, and we only have a chance to receive your free gift of salvation while the door is still open.

“If there is anyone reading this blog post who doesn’t know Your grace and forgiveness through faith in Your sacrifice, I pray they would understand that the time is now.  Today is the day of salvation!  May they know peace and healing in Your love and not miss the Great Evacuation.

“It is in Your Name we pray, Amen!”

A Letter to My Old Penpal, in Heaven

Time was, when if you had a penpal, you would get a letter full of news from their neck of the woods. You would learn to love the feel of a thick envelope full of surprises and know their handwriting style at a glance. And then you would tell your penpal all the news from your end, in return, and maybe include pictures. Email doesn’t approach the thrill of a stuffed envelope, especially one that said “PAR AVION” and had red and blue stripes around the perimeter, so it didn’t take a slow boat to reach me. 

So I shall pretend this is a letter, the way I used to write them. My penpal’s name was Margaret, and she was from Canberra, in New South Wales, Australia. She died a few years ago after a lifetime of illness, but if I could write her today, it would be like this:

Dear Meg, or should I say Margaret now that you are no little girl anymore? XOXO

No, it’s too bad. You will always be Meg to me, though I won’t call you “Nutmeg”!

How I’ve missed your letters! I am so glad that you finally got out of that crazy Anglican church when you did and that you are safe in Heaven with the Savior! I am so looking forward to being with you there, maybe sooner than we think!

Here’s the news you’ve been missing, complete with a few pictures. Even if some of it’s sad, I know you will be able to see it from an eternal perspective better than I can, so none of it will mess up your day—if you can call what you are experiencing “days.” 😊

Last Monday night, the original store building in Lafayette owned by Eric’s father Leonard Haley back in the 70’s caught fire from a firework set off by its North End neighbors. We’ve been renting it to a church for several years.

First thing Tuesday morning, we got a call from Jerry, our tenant. He and his wife Geraldine (the pastor) were sleeping upstairs when it happened. The smoke alarms in the building didn’t go off, but Jerry smelled smoke, and he quickly woke his wife and exited the building. Thankfully, Geraldine said the fire department responded “in about 30 seconds,” so it didn’t have a chance to spread, and no one was hurt. But the building was burned on the side by the alley and the interior smelled smoky.

I asked Eric if the fire had made the news and he said yes, in a way. WLFI only noted something like “Sixteen Fires Started by Fireworks in the Lafayette Area Monday.” I guess it was too small for a standalone story, and for that we are grateful.

The fire department thought it was an electrical fire, though, so they pulled off some of the siding to look for burnt wiring and pulled the meter out. In order to get the electricity turned on again, the city electrical inspector had to give it a green light, and they didn’t. They said there were too many problems with the building’s wiring, so we were required to upgrade it first. Since they’re requiring that only certain city-certified contractors can do the work, we’re pretty sure we can’t afford it. Meanwhile, the church is having to meet without air conditioning or lights.

We think we will just sell it to the church, very cheaply. There’s hardly anyone else who would want a commercial building in that area anyway, across the street from a bar, a tattoo parlor, and several other empty buildings. It’s hardly good, even, for tearing it down and rebuilding, since there’s no setback from the sidewalk. But for ministers who love the people there and love to share the Gospel, it’s exactly what they need, and that’s who we want to have it. 

They’ll be able to get a loan to have the electrical system upgraded and the wall rebuilt, and take care of closing costs.

Remember when the new highway went in near us? We’ve had problems with our basement flooding ever since, and we think it could be old sewer tiles that have broken or sunk under our street or in a field somewhere. We were thinking we needed to stand up for our little town and the other residents here who were also experiencing flooded basements, but we are just too small of a group to be taken seriously. The county wouldn’t fix anything, and even our Senator didn’t think there was anything that could be done. 

Finally, Eric figured out how to install a sump pump in our basement, and with the help of Micah, the 14-year-old son of a friend, he got a hole dug and the sump pump in the ground. It hasn’t had a good operational test yet—there’s been so little rain this summer that our basement would have stayed dry anyway, even without the pump. So now we’re watching and waiting for a good-sized thunderstorm.

In other parts of the U.S. they have it even worse, though, as far as being a dry summer. In Texas, I know my friend said they were just glad most of the wildfires had been contained and there would be no fireworks for the Fourth of July. I remember the year Australia was on fire. That was early 2020. Meg, I’m actually glad you’re missing some of this…

My dad’s 88th birthday was Saturday, and I’m so glad to still have him. His big brother is weak enough that people have to help him eat now, but Dad is still in pretty good health. I try to visit him at least once a month. I love to make the trip south and see him. Whether we eat out, see his chickens, look at a picture album, do some target practice, or just talk politics, we have a lot of fun. 

Meanwhile, this month we also had a first birthday party to go to. Our youngest daughter, Vivian, had a baby a year ago. Ah, she’s so cute, and she has the sweetest cheeks! 

Our older son’s wife also had a baby last month and our younger son’s wife is having a baby in August. 

Can you believe that will make 22 grandchildren? There’s nothing like the snuggles from a newborn baby!

You probably didn’t hear about this from where you are, but Roe v. Wade was overturned last month. It’s hard to believe people were protesting in Australia when our Supreme Court ruled that! But it’s pretty monumental, really. Remember when I was doing all the Operation Rescue activities back in the 80’s? Many precious babies’ lives will be saved—about half the states will ban abortion soon. Hopefully Indiana will be one of them. You may have encountered some of the children who were killed by abortions in Indiana and in the United States. If you see them again, tell them we love them, and after 49 years of hard work, we’re finally making some headway against the devil’s plan of killing their peers.

I get to teach on Wednesday. This is not a frequent.event. I think the last time I seriously taught, I had so much to say that people were falling asleep because I went overtime. This time my topic is Proverbs 31, only the first nine verses. But though the elders had been teaching through Proverbs two or three chapters a week, they assigned three of their wives to teach that last chapter. I said I would need a week just for those nine verses. I have my outline ready, with plenty of room to change up
things as the Spirit moves.

It’s a lot about alcohol, and a few other things. I know there are Christians who don’t like to talk about alcohol, or would like to say that the way they drink it, it’s safe. But are they right on target with God’s will? That’s what they have to consider. It’s not a comfortable subject, Meg, as you know from growing up with that in your family. I’m probably going to step on a few toes. Maybe they won’t entrust that Wednesday night study to me anymore after tomorrow, I don’t know, but sometimes the truth is hard to hear.

Our business is slow, as are many other businesses in the U.S. And if I were to tell you all about the death rate from illegal drugs and disease, the invasion of our borders, the brainwashing of our public school children into perversion and communism, the violence by our own citizens, and the threat of war by our enemies, you would be shocked to hear it and this letter would be too heavy for one stamp. (It probably already is.) And there’s lots more besides.

I don’t believe we’re headed for a recession. I believe that in record time, the incompetent man in the White House has already put us in a recession. It could get very bad here. I don’t know how bad it will get before we are rescued from the earth, but I know we talked about this before you left us. In a twinkling of an eye, it will all be over, when Jesus comes back for His Bride, the Church.

Meg, I’m so excited to see you. Here’s a picture of me, so you’ll recognize me. I want a hug from you when I get there. It’s been a very long time!

Love, Your Penpal,

 Margie