Category: History

Home Sweet Homestead

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date May 9, 2019

I’m back from vacation ! My 6-day / 590-mile / 14-county Florida road-trip has come to a close. My trek started in deep South Miami-Dade County (where my home is), and it continued northward through Broward, Palm Beach, Hendry, Glades, Highlands, and Polk Counties, westward into Hillsborough County (Tampa), southward through Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee, and Collier Counties, and then back into Miami-Dade County. I also came within a few feet of touching (mainland) Monroe County for a second.

It was a fun trip. I saw a couple of current movies, I did a little bit of shopping (didn’t buy anything), I ate a lot of good food, I walked over 60,000 steps (to burn-off that good food), I did a lot of sightseeing, I visited some historical museums and animal-based tourist attractions, I went to two Christian music concerts, and I spent a lot of time at the beach.

I saw and I did things that I had never seen or done before in my life. This was a classic vacation. I get to spend the near future reminiscing about the times I enjoyed via the 140+ photos and 1 video I captured during all of the fun.

The 1 video I captured is a spectacular 3½-minute video of this past Tuesday night’s sunset on Venice Beach Florida. The video captures the 3 minutes leading up to the sun dropping below the horizon at sea as well as the 30 seconds right after that moment. I intended to post that video in its entirety here on my blog, but I realized that I can’t upload videos on here with my current WordPress plan. The video is also about 1:10 too long for Twitter, so I’ll have to figure out how to trim it down to 2:20 for Twitter.

In the meantime here’s Monday night’s sunset at 8:05 PM EDT on Venice Beach.

Sunset

From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets – the name of the LORD is to be praised. (Psalm 113:3 NIV)

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Sunday Scripture

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date April 15, 2018

Earlier this week I stated that I attended the Greater Miami Youth For Christ annual fundraising dinner after church service last Sunday.

Today following our Lead Pastor’s sermon I talked about a young man by the name of Billy. He was a young Pastor in his early-to-mid-20s serving at a small Baptist church in the far-western suburbs of Chicago. His friend was the Founder of a local Youth For Christ movement in Chicago, and he himself was a fellow Baptist Pastor. One Sunday he came to the suburbs to see his friend Billy preach. He was impressed with what he saw and heard. He asked Billy if he’d be interested in hosting a radio show in Chicago. Billy accepted, and thousands heard his messages on the radio.

Billy was asked to kick-off the first night of the Youth For Christ meetings in Chicagoland. He accepted. Billy served as the first full-time evangelist of the Youth For Christ ministry. He eventually became the first Vice President – with his friend the Founder as President – of Youth For Christ International – which was established in 1946.

The Founder – in his mid-30s at the time – could’ve had any famous preacher from the big city to move Youth For Christ forward to the next level, but he wanted to work with a small circle of younger ministers who shared his vision and truly understood the youth of the day. These young ministers were all born and raised Chicago men – except Billy – from the western mountains of North Carolina. The Founder was totally convinced that there was no one better than Billy to deliver the message of God’s Good News to the youth of the day.

Billy is the Reverend Billy Graham. He held his first Crusade soon after in 1947.

When you are called on this fantastic journey – accept the calling – receive His gifts – and trust that God will lead you every step of the way as you fulfill the purpose that He has given you. God didn’t give us The Holy Spirit to do nothing with it. God gave us The Holy Spirit to change the world.

And then He told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.” (Mark 16:15 NLT)

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The Summer Of 2011

Saturday June 04TH 2011
Volume 3 / Number 17 / Edition 114

Well here it is the 1ST Saturday night of June of 2011, and it’s Summer in the city. The regular TV season is over. The NBA and the NHL are playing their respective championship series. A new Atlantic basin tropical season has begun. School’s nearly out for Summer !

Where has the time gone ? Whatever happened to the now lost art form of creative expression that was blogging ? This is only my 6TH blog post of 2011. Once upon a time in a year not so long ago I was blogging at least 6 times per week. That was in a different era. All things must change. Life must continue to evolve. Unlike virtually all of my closest friends I have not totally abandoned the fine art of blogging. I’ll continue to make occasional appearances here on WordPress to let you know what’s happenin’.

Here’s what’s goin’ on. Today is the last day of me being 43. I celebrate my 44TH birthday tomorrow – June 05TH. I plan to kickoff the celebration bright and early tomorrow morning at Denny’s where I’ll enjoy my free birthday Grand Slam. Naturally I’ll go with the All-American Slam® – a favourite of mine at ‘America’s Diner’.

This Monday I observe the 26TH anniversary of my High School Graduation, and next Sunday marks my 26TH anniversary working for the USAF (military and civilian combined). It actually does seem like 26 years ago !

: June 06TH 1985, McLean Virginia

I’m not blogging on a regular basis anymore, but I’m still active online. Just don’t look for me anywhere on that vast wasteland known as Facebook. I’ve never signed-up for it. I don’t follow what the rest of the world is doing. If you want to ‘friend’ me then please do so in person rather than on the fake world of Facebook.

I’m on Twitter, as I tweet daily @majorhitwaves. I’m also quietly building my photographic collection on Flickr. So far I’ve got 278 pictures up. They are mostly vacation pictures of the past 5 years (many taken by family and friends). I try to add at least a few pictures to the site every few days, so my photostream should look new to you if you check it out every so often. One of my biggest regrets in life is the fact that I never took any pictures of my life up until a little over a year ago. I actually got my first camera last year when I bought my first Android smartphone. It’s a 5 megapixel camera that takes really good pictures. See for yourself on my Flickr !

My Fantastic Journey following my Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ continues stronger than ever. He rescued me from the darkness of the world 57 months ago, and the Life that I live today is radically different than the life that I led for the first 39 years on this Earth. I don’t force my faith on anyone; however, if you wish to know more about the God that I know and my relationship with Him then please don’t hesitate to walk with me on this journey and I’ll share The Good News with you. You won’t regret it pal !

Everything else in my Life is pretty much status quo for the most part. I’ve been working at the same place – Homestead ARB – for the past 23½ years. I’ve lived in the same home for the past 16 years (next week is the anniversary for that). I’ve driven the same car for the past 8 years (the end of this month is its anniversary). Home Sweet Homestead. Life is good. God is GREAT !

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Home Sweet Home

Post author By Chris M. Day
Post date March 5, 2011

Saturday March 05TH 2011
Volume 3 / Number 16 / Edition 113

20 years ago this upcoming week I went on a roughly 10,000-mile trek as I returned home stateside from Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

The trek began bright and early at 0326 local time on Saturday March 09TH 1991 at Al Kharj AB Saudi Arabia. After a 7-hour and 7-minute flight westbound we touched down at Torrejon AB Spain (near Madrid). The layover was unexpectedly long – nearly 5½-hours. After that it was a 9-hour flight across the Atlantic Ocean and into Dover AFB Delaware. After a long 21½-hour day of travel I was finally back in the U.S.A. for the first time in over 2 months. After a restful night at a nice hotel in Philadelphia we flew back to Miami and then returned to Homestead AFB on the morning of Sunday March 10TH 1991. We pretty much snuck onto the base with absolutely no fanfare whatsoever. Future Gulf War returnees would be treated to celebrations and parades, but my group received nothing – aside from the rest of the month off in rest and recuperation to do whatever we felt like doing !

I felt like returning to my home-of-record up in the Washington D.C. area to spend a couple of weeks with my Dad, Mom, Brother, and two cats – and so I did. 3 days after returning to Homestead AFB from Saudi Arabia I drove 1,096 miles over 17 hours (spanning 2 days) up I-95 and back to my real home at the time. It was perhaps the greatest homecoming to my parent’s home that I’ve ever experienced in my entire lifetime – a Gulf War Veteran returning home.

People sometimes ask me what I did in the war. I actually had 2 separate jobs while serving in the desert. For 23 days I built fuel tanks. I wasn’t good at it. The 11 that I worked with thought that I was pretty much awful at it. I agreed. We parted ways. I eventually found my mad skills building BOMBS ! That’s what I did for 24 days. I loved it. I was also pretty good at it. I quickly realized that bombs were so much easier to make than fuel tanks. Who knew ?