Sharing My Story

Over five years ago into March 2006 I started blogging (sharingmystory.blogspot.com/) sharing thoughts on my life. This lead me to writing an autobiography that I've just "completed (as of April 1)." I've developed it in decade size chunks (1950s, 1960s, 1970s and so on). I have interspersed it with many photos, pieces of artwork and so forth. So far its clocking in at 214 pages. I see it as a sort of time capsule that people in the future can have a view into what kind of life what this Christian man had in the mid to late 20th century and early 21st century. Its like leaving genealogical footprints in the sands of time for those in the future too discover. The auto bio is in a binder so that things can be added either to existing past decades or the future. Perhaps the greatest thing about this endeavor is seeing how the Lord has so richly blessed my life over the past years. All praise and glory to Him.

My mother Lucille (Holden) Ensign passed away on March 3, 2002 at age 91. Here is the eulogy I gave at her memorial service in Bellingham, Washington.

Mom made the most wonderful shirts and other pieces of clothes for us kids when we were growing up. I thought that all mothers did that for their children. We always thought that the clothes she made for us were better than any store bought merchandise. She was a good—no excellent seamstress. After the children were grown she transferred her sewing skills to making wonderful multi-colored and durable patchwork quilts and crocheted what-nots.

Mom was a good cook. Nothing frilly or fancy culinary speaking. Broiled or mashed potatoes, home grown green beans, fresh carrots and other vegetables were stable fairs. Our small farm, the only home I knew for 23 years raised its own beef. I have the way Mom cooked it. We kids used to complain that we had steak too often—we preferred the juicy hamburgers and Mom’s special bread rolls. We had an apple orchard with three or four kinds of apples—some good for eating and some for baking. Mom knew the right combination. She was a master at making apple pies and delectable apple dumplings with a special syrup that was so good.

Mom and Dad took us to church and Sunday School. They didn’t just drop us off and leave us but they participated in the life of the church. Mom and Dad were Bible people. As a youngster I remember Mom’s Bible was falling apart through much use. One Christmas Dad gave her a brand new Scofield Reference Bible. Wow, that Bible with its reference notes had to be the cadillac of Bibles. For that time I’m sure it was. Mom taught the Beginners class here at Immanuel for many years. I remember her faithfully cutting out flannelo-graphs of Bible stories and faithfully studying her Sunday school teaching lessons. Eventually she turned her duties over to younger hands, but many children undoubtedly profited spiritually from her faithful giving out of God’s Word through those wonderfully compelling Bible stories. Mom and Dad were charter members here at Immanuel. Whaile I was born several years before Immanuel came into being it was the only church I knew before i left Bellingham. Momm and Dad were humble pillars of the early days of Immanuel. Humble, but pillars nonetheless.

When I was in second grade I was very sick—perhaps pneumonia. I stayed home from school for over a month. During that time Mom nursed and bathed me everyday as only a mother could. I was a very sick little camper. As I improved I was able to do second work at home with Mom’s assistance and made it back to finish out the school year. Sometime ago I mentioned that special time to Mom. To my surprise she had forgotten that incident. Well, Mom, I haven’t forgotten it and I pray I never will.

I am sure that without Mom (and Dad’s) tender care and constant prayers i and my brothers would have lead far different and less God honoring lives. Mom had a good long life on this Earth. She is now in the arms of her heavenly Father and His dear son, Jesus. I’m sure my father and her earthly husband has given her a grand welcome to life superb and without end. Mom, we miss you and are eager to join you when the labors that the Lord has entrusted us with on this eart are finished.

Mom, I and my brothers and family love you. We will only be parted for a short season.

My brother Elvin from Canada and his son (my nephew), David just concluded a visit here
in South east Arizona. Here are photos of their visit. We journeyed to Tombstone, the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum and Madera Canyon (near Green Valley). We were joined by one of my other brothers, Russ from Colorado later. Enjoy

Here is a video clip I took of Gabrielle Giffords at a Veterans Day event in November 2009. While I haven't been a political supporter of hers--I differ with her a some
major issues my prayer is for her speedy recovery.

(I began writing this shortly after getting home from the Tucson Comic Con November 6, 2010)

Today is the day of the third annual Tucson Comic Con. Got last minute preparations done and packed up the books and table stuff for the Con. Then went over to Brent Hofstra's home and picked him up and we then drove to the Hotel Arizona in Tucson. We parked in the garage across from the hotel and packed our stuff into the exhibit hall. We found our table which was on the near the entrance we came in on. We unloaded our stuff and set up the table and were ready to go by the time the convention opened at 10 AM. I encouraged Brent to take his jacket (which he did) and needed it as we in an A.C. draft area (not as bad as Phoenix). The crowds were large and consistent through much of the day---ebbing and flowing as groups of people came and went. It is hard to gauge the crowd size--but it was as large or larger than last year.This is overall kid friendly convention as there were a lot of grade school children in attendance. Our table was next to Howard Salmon (the Siddur book) which I purchase at the Phoenix Comic Con in May. Brent subbed at his table on several occasions when he needed to be away. We did meet a number of Christians and gave away a good number of tracts (especially Jack Chick) and ran out of the Action Bible Sampler.

Our sales weren't as good as last year. My sense was that the convention attendees were not in a big buying mode. We didn't see a lot of people with purchased good. We sold sold some stuff but not a lot. Which was too bad as we had a lot of very good new comics and graphic novels. We did our drawings for the Action Bible (12:30 PM and 3:30 PM) but the people didn't show up. So after 5 PM we still had the two copies to give away. I prayed about it and and felt impressed to give one of the Bibles to Howard Salmon and later the other to a young tween girl who was our last customer of the afternoon. We learned that the drawings need to be more frequent and within a fairly short time of the person who puts their name in the basket. Most people are not going to hang around several hours at a smaller convention like Tucson.

Tucson Comic Con is growing as this was was the first one with programming. I attended briefly several of the panel discussions. They were held in two small conference rooms. One of the rooms held about 30 chairs (with 15-20 attendees) and 4-5 on the panels. One of the panel organizers/moderators also does the same thing for the Phoenix Con so there is overlap and cooperation between the two. One panel featured comics writers and another comic book artists. The writers and artists had pro experiences (several from WildStorm) but I wasn't familiar with their work. These were very basic panels where the panelists shared why they do what they do and how they came to be located in Arizona. There was a need for microphones. Another was a demonstration on how to use Apple I-Pads for reading comics. I-Pads have amazing selective zoom and search capacities. This was lightly attended but it gave the audience the ability do do some hands on and ask questions.

Another thing I ran into this weekend was people who were blown away that there is such a thing as Christian Comics. It is almost as if the two words didn't go together. It seems as if Christian comics is a concept some people find it difficult to wrap their minds around. There are still a lot of people (I assume mostly Christians-though not entirely) who are ignorant of current Christian comics. We also had some folks that shared that they had a complete collection of Jack Chick comic books and remembered the Archie Christian comics from years ago (hey, folks there is a lot happening now in Christian comics!!!) This is different response than "I thought i was the only one" which was less than previous years.

This year was similar to previous years in terms of crowds and interest in being at the Con. I heard rumors that next year the Tucson Con would be moving to the Tucson Convention Center which would open up a lot more venue space.

I is good for CCAS to have a continuing presence at this growing regional Con. While it is still as dealer's convention (with a large artist section) it is expanding in other directions.

Mt Blanco Fossil News
and Journal of Omniology #1 Sept.-Oct. 2010

Several years ago I have the privilege of working for Joe Taylor a West Texas Creationary field paleontologist and fossil restorer. During that time and before Joe spoke of producing a magazine devoted to his discoveries and views on paleontology and other issues that interest him. After many years of intellectual gestation the first issue of the magazine is now available. The issue begins with a lengthy article about the "Big Yellow Phytosaur" a huge narrow jawed fossil crocodile from the Triassic strata of West Texas. Taylor details his discovery, excavation and restoration (including techniques) of these amazing complex ancient creations. Taylor gives personal details on how he became interested in these animals as well some historical background of scientists who have worked on these creatures. The article is crammed with numerous helpful photos.

The next major article is one that deals with the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology's (SVP) war on creationists and creation science. Taylor and several others attended the 2007 SVP Annual meeting where notable fossil hunters like Paul Serrano and Kevin Padian launched into rants— "a full frontal attack on Creationists". Taylor's conclusion, "There are those in secular paleontology who are trying to redefine what science is. What we saw were radical evolutionists who will not tolerate being challenged in their belief in evolutionism."

Next up is a well written article called "A Bear in the Constellations?!" Andrew V. Ste Marie, 16 year old home school scholar makes a comparison between the long-tailed bear constellation Ursa Major and the extinct bear dog Amphicyon. While the similarities are intriguing Ste. Marie admits his "premise is definitely speculative." However this hypothesis is definitely worth placing in the public forum. The feature articles are rounded out by Taylor's evaluation and reminiscences about "The Jesus Movement" of the 1960s and 1970s.

The magazine has short columns like Hugh Miller's C-14 dating of Triceratops and hadrosaur bones that gave dates in the thousands and not the tens of millions of years old as conventional secular Paleontology ascribes them to. Also T.P. Beh's humorous look at many fossil stories which emanate from the evolutionary establishment, a review of Michael Oard's "Frozen in Time" book (Mammoths and the Ice Age should be explored in greater depth in future issues), "Important Politics" by Cathie Adams that centers on the misdeeds of the NEA and David Bump's "A Creationist Comments" dealing with Kenneth Miller's silly objections to Intelligent Design, Bigger Galaxies and flying lemurs.

Perhaps the most important feature is opening editorial "Letter from the Editor" which details Taylor's future direction for the magazine. Taylor lists numerous fascinating fossil and geology questions that he and the magazines contributors will address in upcoming issues. Questions like, "Why are the Oligocene mammals of the White River Badlands of South Dakota more petrified than the Cretaceous dinosaurs below them?" and "Why do the white bones buried in red sand of the mammal beds of rhino and saber-toothed cats in the Gobi desert of China look just like the velociraptors and T-rexes of the Gobi desert if they were separated by millions of years?" If Taylor is successful in bringing these issues out and providing reasonable solutions he will be providing a great service to the creation science cause.

(for subscription information call 800-763-7454 or e-mail mtblancofossilnews@aol.com)