Huselands Return to the Kingdom!

We are excited about our upcoming journey to the UK, spending a month in England and Wales. I will be making frequent updates to my blog once we arrive in Europe late on June 23 (only 3 weeks!). I am so glad our girls will be able to see where they grew up. It will be a new experience for Patience. Even Baby Bump gets to go along (thankfully they haven't started charging pregnant passengers extra)!

Feel free to check this for updates every week as I hope to post many interesting things here.

Brian
for the Huseland clan

Old Waltham, Iowa schoolhouse

This old one-room school was still standing in 1994 when I traced down the former site of Waltham, Iowa, where my great-grandfather went to school in the late 1870's.

Here he is later on with one of his brothers.

Antique Brinsmead photograph

This is a priceless picture... one of only 2 that exist. It was made in Shenandoah, Iowa, about the year 1905. Mrs. Ella Brinsmead Baker brought a handful of photos into the studio of Isaac Hamilton, and paid him to make a photographic montage that she could then send to her brother William... who was busily pursuing an Army career & raising a large family.

What makes this photograph priceless is that hardly any of the photos it preserves still exist. Most of them are long since lost or crumbled into dust. Yet this thoughtful photo montage Ella made for William has given us a small window into the Brinsmead family back in Victorian England.

"A picture is worth a thousand words" is very true in this case. I will retell that story in my next post, using pictures.

Vespuccian

Vespuccian (adj) 1. Describing the property of a person whose surname is Vespucci, especially the famous explorer Amerigo Vespucci: The Vespuccian discovery that the West Indies were part of a New World, and not Asia, was a paradigm shift for Europe.

Vespuccian (noun) 1. A broad, general term for all inhabitants of North America, inclusive of Mexicans and Canadians, to distinguish from the colloquial use of  'American' as referring only to citizens of the U.S.A., as repeated in the universal greeting of the Western Hemisphere: Hail, fellow Vespuccian! 2. The diverse residents of the United States of Vespucci: "I'm proud to be a Vespuccian, where at least I know I'm free..." (Amerigo Greenwood).

(This is not an original idea, but I like the 1st noun definition, since we lack a term for that)

Reformation Resources for a Christian School Consortium

I am currently doing research to support a growing awareness of, and inspire a celebration of, the historical process known as the Protestant Reformation, and the benefits which Evangelical Bible-believing Christians still derive from it.

As a Christian educator, my goals would be:

1) Locate those Christian schools (CSI, ACSI, & Classical Christian Schools) which already celebrate the 1517 event of Luther's first break with Catholic tradition, in his famous posting of the 95 Theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany. I will start with my home state of Washington.

2) Research existing resources on the Web to find what has already been developed that Christian schools could use. What is missing? What will need to be developed?

3) Look into ways to build a network of Reformation-minded educators who would help me to launch an effort to promote the celebration of Reformation Day in 2015, 2016, and especially in 2017, the 500th anniversary of Luther's brave first step. I envision this happening in all 50 states, all 10 Canadian provinces, and territories of both countries. Who knows? If momentum grows, it would be great to link up with Christian Schools around the world. But it's got to start small. My goal would be to identify 3 educators by Thanksgiving, and 10 by Christmas. I'd like to mobilize the schools in Washington state by Reformation Day 2015.

4) Reflect on the future years... 1517 was only the first step. Surely Luther's courageous "Here I Stand" speech before the Emperor and papal representative at Worms, Germany in 1521 was an even more clear break with Rome. What do I want to encourage people towards? The Five Solas are positive statements of what we want to be: Semper Reformata... Always Reforming.

5) Build better friendships with my Catholic friends & neighbors, maintaining a charitable attitude toward individuals while sticking to a thoroughly unashamed Protestant identity which exalts the Good News of the gospel & salvation in Jesus Christ.

Here's some links to understand why I'm passionate about teaching this to the next generation:

Ignorance about Church History is Not Good

A Fun Cartoon About it

Links for Good Resources:

http://www.lovetolearnplace.com/SpecialDays/Reformation/activities.html

By the Lion's Mane

"But," said Eustace, looking at Aslan. "Hasn't [Caspian]-er-died?"

"Yes," said the Lion in a very quiet voice, almost (Jill thought) as if he were laughing.

"He has died. Most people have, you know. Even I have. There are very few who haven't."

"Oh," said Caspian. "I see what's bothering you. You think I'm a ghost, or some nonsense. But don't you see?I would be that, if I appeared in Narnia now: because I don't belong there any more. But one can't be a ghost in one's own country."

Chapter 16, "The Healing of Harms", The Silver Chair

The tributes to C.S. Lewis are numerous; perhaps not numerous enough (the BBC news did not even have the 50th anniversary of his death on its main page today), but there are many people who have made a point of recognizing this man's influence. Why another?

The reason lies deep within my own personal story. Within the deep woods of northern Idaho, I treasured a Christmas gift received from my grandparents--a boxed paperback set of the Chronicles of Narnia. I sat down and read them that snowy winter, as did every single person in my family. They captured my imagination and kindled a longing for forests not found in this world, and a childlike devotion and reverence for the character of Aslan.

It was about 8 years later when I broke through the tangled and perilous groves of adolescence to discover the country I had been hungering for since Narnia: a real Paradise, a real Lion, a real Resurrection. In a word, Christianity.

Not as people invent it, but as Lewis would say, 'mere' Christianity. The core... what Jesus and the apostles declared to the world in the first century AD. God made people; people rebelled, thus laying a curse on themselves and their posterity. God would be perfectly just to let the whole world go to hell, but since He is perfectly merciful He chose the unthinkable: to personally take the hit for His own creatures who have the nasty habit of thumbing their noses at Him. Jesus, God's own Son, descended to earth as God in human flesh, and lived a perfectly obedient life and died an undeserved death on a Roman cross. By faith in His mercy and sacrifice for our sake, we are saved from the penalty of sin (hell) and forgiven. With guilt erased, we are actually adopted by God as His own children, and called to follow Him in a life of discipleship, changing by God's grace and empowered by His Holy Spirit.

This is 'mere' Christianity. It is what mainstream, Bible-believing Christians have persistently said for 2,000 years. It's the basics.

But back to Lewis. I thank God for him because Lewis first enchanted me through The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, then awoke my Christian mind in his book Mere Christianity.

50 years ago, Lewis entered his rest in Heaven, a very real person. He doesn't belong here anymore, except in his works; he belongs in that far green country under a swift sunrise.

Manuscript Proposal

God’s Truth Abideth Still:

10 Things Your Family Can Learn From the Huguenots

           Our 21st-century tension of being salt & light in a Western culture that is increasingly hostile toward Christian faith finds deep parallels in 16th century France, when the emerging Protestants nicknamed “Huguenots” lived and worshipped and worked.  How shall we be faithful to God if persecution increases?  How do we train our children so that suffering for Christ will not be a shock for them?  And how can we do all this while still being committed to blessing our culture?

           This book delves into the Bible’s answers to these questions, seasoned throughout with historical examples from the lives of the Huguenots… showing how the answers they developed as a Reformed community can shape our thinking as we search for answers in our context.

Chapter 1: Seek

Chapter 2: Bless

Chapter 3: Endure

Chapter 4: Release

Chapter 5: Remember

Chapter 6: Rejoice

Chapter 7: Implant

Chapter 8: Impart

Chapter 9: Improvise

Chapter 10: Gaze