Springfield Bible Conference

This is just a quick plug for a conference I've found that is wonderful. Faith Bible Church is a church in Springfield, Illinois that hosts a Bible conference each year. A group of men take the church bus over to Springfield for a day's worth of preaching by various speakers. Last year Paul Washer was the headliner and this year was Steve Lawson (who works with John MacArthur) and Jeff Pollard. In addition to a wonderful day of preaching and teaching from the Bible, they sell various Christian books at substantial discounts. Below is a photo of three I picked up this year. The three combined cost me about $20, and the first book, Foundations of Grace by Steve Lawson, is over 500 pages. If you are anywhere nearby and want deep, rich teaching that goes from around 10 a.m. until 8 p.m., stop by. Everything is free (except the books, of course).

Pictured books are (from left to right): Foundations of Grace by Steve Lawson, 558 pages. This demonstrates how grace has always been God's plan from the beginning of time. Foxe's Book of Martyrs by John Foxe, 373 pages. This book details some of the millions who have died for their faith in Jesus Christ. Finally, The Unwavering Resolve of Jonathan Edwards by Steve Lawson, 166 pages. This deals with the way God used a Puritan pastor in Colonial America to proclaim and defend the gospel of grace.

Deer Season 2009

It's a little early for me to write a report on the success of the 2009 deer season since it is still in progress, and continues for me and for Michael on Friday and Saturday of this week, but opening weekend is now behind us so here is an update.

As some of you know from a prior post, Michael and Abbey took and passed hunter education in October. This allows Michael the ability to hunt from his own stand (separate from me). He did just that on opening weekend and saw several deer but didn't get any shots. Though it was a cloudy weekend with some rain, Willie, Michael, and I all hunted and I was the only one to kill a deer that weekend. Though it was a small deer, I felt lucky to get it after the weather we had. My uncle Randy, however, had much better luck, killing two deer on opening day, a buck and a doe.

Here are some photos from our first weekend.

On Friday, November 13, shortly after Michael arrived at camp after school, we made this campfire.

Even though this wasn't the biggest deer I've ever killed, I was glad to get one with weather so foul and on Michael's first day hunting in his own stand during "big deer season." It was a button buck.

An overview of our campsite. Willie drives the Ford Explorer and I have the GMC pickup

Here is Michael getting ready to head back to the stand for the afternoon hunt. This picture was taken on Saturday.

A moment of relaxation in the camper. Pay no attention to the mess or all the Mountain Dew bottles.