My Photographic Memory
One of the weekly events of my life for the past two years has been to ride my bicycle, and more recently my recumbent trike, from my rural location in South Central Georgia to the post office in Montezuma. I opened a post office box in Montezuma back in 2011 to have a permanent address to use as a contact point for the prison newsletter ministry. The P.O. Box address is printed in all of the Parables Bookshelf newsletters and it gives men in prison a way to get in touch with me. Since I live in a motorhome, and don’t have a permanent address, and it may not be a good idea anyway to give my personal address out in published material that will be distributed widely in prisons, a P.O. Box seemed to be a reasonable solution.
I used to park my bus/motorhome at an RV park in Montezuma and had a bike ride of only a few miles to the post office. For the past two years the distance has been about 13.5 miles one way. It is a nice ride on my trike, however, and something I enjoy very much. I normally pull a bike trailer behind me and do my grocery shopping when I am in town as well.
The bike trip provides good exercise, and I find the rural countryside relaxing. Traffic is very light on this route. There have been times when I passed less than six vehicles (tractors included) on the hour ride into town.
I do thank Yahweh frequently for the blessings He bestows on me daily. I am grateful for the ministry of teaching and writing. To be able to devote myself to it full-time is an immense blessing. I thank Yahweh for the bus/motorhome He has provided for me. When I moved to this rural location I no longer had access to the RV park’s laundry facilities. Yahweh enabled me to purchase a small portable washing machine, and I hang my clothes outside on a line to dry. I thank God for being able to wash my own clothes without a trip to town. For a couple years I did not have hot water for the shower in my bathroom, but a couple years back I installed an on-demand propane fired hot water heater and can now take hot showers in my bus. I remember expressing my gratitude and delight to the Father the first time I was able to take a hot shower in my bus. He has heard me do so a hundred times since.
Having experienced both abundant and very humble living conditions in my life, I have come to appreciate the simple things in life. I delight in expressing thanks to the Father for things I used to take for granted. I often thank Yahweh for the dog He gave to me. Champ is a good companion, has few needs, and is easy to care for. In my blogs I will at times share about my life and experiences. This is not to boast, or draw undue attention to myself. Rather, I want to share with others the presence and goodness of God in my life. I am truly grateful for every day and the blessings it brings.
This past May 7th my daughter Kristin and Nicholas, the young man who was staying with me at the time, purchased a GoPro Hero action camera and presented it to me as a gift. My daughter had asked me for birthday gift suggestions, and a GoPro camera was one thing I mentioned to her. I thought it would be great to be able to film some of my trike rides and share them with others. I want to share with others the blessing I experience while riding through the Georgia countryside, praising God for the sights and smells that I am met with on my journeys. Unfortunately, I cannot share the smells with you, such as driving down my driveway when the honeysuckle is blooming, but I can give you a glimpse of the scenery I pass through.
I posted my first video made with the GoPro. It is now online. It is a recording of a trip to the post office. Fittingly, I have named it Going Postal. The embedded video below is set to 640 x 360 resolution, but it can be viewed at up 1280 x 720 HD on YouTube. I hope you enjoy it. I enjoyed the ride.
https://youtu.be/24yMqcXhX-c
Speaking of being grateful for blessings that others in America and other developed nations often overlook, I wrote in a blog recently about Jeff Higdon being led of the Spirit of Christ to move from Texas to Idaho. Jeff and his family have been living primitively since moving to a plot of land that they are developing. Jeff, his wife and three daughters have been living in a small park model trailer that has two slide-outs on it. They have not had running water since locating to the land. Jeff had dug a shallow well with his backhoe, but he had no way other than using a bucket to get the water out.
A number of readers responded and sent financial gifts enabling Jeff to purchase what is known as a Simple Pump. That is not Jeff in the picture below, but it is a Simple Pump.
A Simple Pump can either be operated by hand, or powered with a solar panel. Jeff’s new pump should be arriving today or tomorrow. He is very grateful for this blessing. He will no longer need to haul water on a trailer from a source some miles away. Thanks to those whose hearts were motivated to bless another member of the body of Christ and his family.
I am removing Jeff’s contact information from the webpage where it was listed to prevent him from getting spammed. Anyone can write to me, however, and I will be glad to put you in touch with him.
I believe a day is coming soon when we will all be grateful simply to have the basic necessities of life. In that hour a people who have been materially blessed with abundance will begin to appreciate a great many things they have taken for granted. Hopefully, they will respond as the Father would have His sons and daughters to respond, by daily expressing much thankfulness for every blessing He bestows upon them. I have found that a heart of thanksgiving is a pleasant thing to have. I sense the satisfaction of the Father as I speak to Him throughout the day, expressing my gratitude for this thing, or that.
Correction:
There was a paragraph in the previous blog post that contained some wrong information. I had commented on the timing of events this upcoming September and had stated that Yom Kippur is part of the Sukkot Festival. Actually Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) occurs five days before the beginning of Sukkot (also referred to as the Feast of Tabernacles.) Sukkot runs for seven days beginning on the evening of September 27th. There will be a lunar eclipse on September 28th, completing a Tetrad of blood moons that fall on Biblical feast days in the years 2014 and 2015.
The previous post has been corrected.
Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws
Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com
Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063
5 comments:
Loved the video! Thanks for the tour of the Georgia back roads complete with entertaining music and commentary. We were expecting to see the toe shoes but it looked like you used standard footwear on this trip.
Thanks for making and sharing that video Papa Joe! It was awesome and cool to watch. Sending love from South Korea! Thank you for being such a blessing to all of us! May our Abba watch over you and keep you in the coming days! May His face shine upon you and give you peace!
-A faithful reader,
Jacinta
Brother Herrin, Thank you so much for sharing your video. It brought back many memories for me. Years ago I used to ride in organized bike races. I had a skinny tire racing road bike. Although I aspired to at least finish the races within the middle of the pack, I always seemed to end up in the last third of the pack, but never last. LOL! To try to improve my racing abilities I would would ride 15-20 mile practice treks. I lived in a very rural area looking much like where you ride. Nothing compares to the experience of being out on the road on a bike. The sights, smells, sounds, wind, etc. are all just right there. You experience the whole scene. When riding my bike on the same roads I drove daily to work on I noticed things I had never seen while in the car. Riding in a protective bubble of a car is like wearing work gloves while trying to feel the soft cheek or face of a loved one. It just doesn't work.
I have moved to another part of the country, but am once again in a rural area. The difference being that several of the neighboring houses I pass by have dogs that love to chase biker riders. It's very dangerous trying to navigate around or past dogs charging at you. And I can't even imagine how hard it would be to fend them off if they managed to knock me off the bike, so i stopped riding. Your video has inspired me to try again. I will pray and ask Father God to show me how to handle these pesky interferences. I guess this is no different than traveling the road of this journey called life and the pip squeak minions of the evil one tries to jump out at us. How do we handle that? Maybe this is the answer to how I should handle the dogs?
I loved your third music selection in your video... very backwoods Georgia! Thank you again for sharing your video, your life, your ministry, and your blog. I have learned a lot from your wise Godly perspective.
Cee
Brother Herrin, Thank you so much for sharing your video. It brought back many memories for me. Years ago I used to ride in organized bike races. I had a skinny tire racing road bike. Although I aspired to at least finish the races within the middle of the pack, I always seemed to end up in the last third of the pack, but never last. LOL! To try to improve my racing abilities I would would ride 15-20 mile practice treks. I lived in a very rural area looking much like where you ride. Nothing compares to the experience of being out on the road on a bike. The sights, smells, sounds, wind, etc. are all just right there. You experience the whole scene. When riding my bike on the same roads I drove daily to work on I noticed things I had never seen while in the car. Riding in a protective bubble of a car is like wearing work gloves while trying to feel the soft cheek or face of a loved one. It just doesn't work.
I have moved to another part of the country, but am once again in a rural area. The difference being that several of the neighboring houses I pass by have dogs that love to chase biker riders. It's very dangerous trying to navigate around or past dogs charging at you. And I can't even imagine how hard it would be to fend them off if they managed to knock me off the bike, so i stopped riding. Your video has inspired me to try again. I will pray and ask Father God to show me how to handle these pesky interferences. I guess this is no different than traveling the road of this journey called life and the pip squeak minions of the evil one tries to jump out at us. How do we handle that? Maybe this is the answer to how I should handle the dogs?
I loved your third music selection in your video... very backwoods Georgia! Thank you again for sharing your video, your life, your ministry, and your blog. I have learned a lot from your wise Godly perspective.
Cee
Hello Cee,
Yes, I can see how dogs would be a concern. There are some that come out and chase me as well. Most of them are not a real threat. Two homes I go by have Chihuahua size dogs that chase me every time I go by. There is a larger dog just at the end of the dirt road where the pavement begins on my trek to Montezuma. He is a bike chaser and acts aggressive. He will run right next to my feet acting like he wants to nip at them. I am concerned he might get into the front wheel. It would be no fun running over a large dog on a trike.
I used to just use my electric motor to accelerate to about 25 MPH and outrun him until he gave up. One day I decided to stop and see what he would do. All his aggression changed when I stopped. He backed up and would not come near me. However, when I started again, he would resume the chase. After doing this on many passes I now stop automatically when he runs up, and he calms right down. Last time I saw him I was even able to give him a dog treat. He took it and carried it over to the side of the road and I was able to ride off without him following.
Today as I was returning from town four large dogs all ran out at me barking and giving chase. This was from a home I had never seen dogs at before. They did not seem particularly aggressive. It seemed to be more sport than a territorial thing as none of them got too close. I have a very loud horn on my trike. It is called a Hornit. It emits a 140 decibel sound. I have had mixed results. Some dogs quit chasing when they hear it, but others ignore it.
I have not used it, but a lot of riders use pepper spray that is sold as a dog deterrent. Many of the products have bicycle mounts for little bottles of pepper spray. Dogs are much more sensitive to smells than humans. A little capsaicin in the air can be a powerful deterrent to them.
May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days.
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