BCM October 2022

Steve:
Well, hello and welcome to the BC Messenger. This is the October 2022 podcast for the BC Messenger Monthly Newsletter and Podcast. My name is Steve Hall and my wife, Jennifer, and I host this podcast. And we are glad to be with you here today and it's October.

Jennifer:
Yes, hard to believe the fall season is in full swing here in Central Illinois. We just got back from a brief walk outside on a gorgeous fall afternoon and enjoying the beautiful brisk fall mornings and the clear air. Just gotta love it.

Steve:
There's a chill in the air, got my hot cup of coffee sitting here and we're ready to go.

Jennifer:
Yes, we've got a great monthly roundup of content for you. And I thought I would just give you the bullet point so you could know what to expect on the broadcast today. First, we're going to be focusing in on the Exodus in ancient biblical history. And looking at our featured book and featured video on the Exodus. Then we will be transitioning into our section on the anti-aging vitamins, which I know is of interest to many of our listeners. We will be sharing some news on that front. And then also an updated testimonial from one of our customers who's been supplementing the vitamins. And then at the conclusion of the podcast, we will be sharing Helen's view, which is our monthly regular behind the scenes glimpse at the work here from Dr. Aardsmas' wife, Helen.

Steve:
Yes, so we've got a lot to squeeze in here today. So let's jump right into it. As our byline suggests here on the podcast, here at the biblical chronologist we take a high view of both the biblical and scientific data bearing on any question. That's why it's real science, real Bible, real history, and real world. We believe that God's world and God's word will come into beautiful harmony when both have been understood correctly. We don't have to disregard one or the other. And in fact, we shouldn't. It's an amazing world with an amazing story to tell. God's spoken word and God's spoken world. Many Christians today have been raised to believe that the Bible and science are at war with each other. But nothing could be further from the truth. Are there problems, questions to be investigated? Well, sure there are, because we are fallible humans in our understanding. Our questions do need to be investigated. And so we here are privileged to bring to you the work of Dr. Gerald Aardsma, who has spent decades working on these very kinds of questions. And whose work has turned up some findings of great interest.

Jennifer:
Yes, it has by the grace of God. And as you were explaining that there about the real science, real Bible, real history, real world, I was thinking about recently, I was in a kindergarten class of five and six year old children, and a book was being read to the children there in the class. And can we learn something from a book being read to kindergartners? I think we can. And as I sat there and listened, my mind was going to the work that we're doing here at the biblical chronologist. And the moral of the story just seemed so applicable to what we desire to do here. So what was the story? Well, it was seven blind mice. Maybe you've heard that story before. And what happens in that book is that there are these seven little blind mice that live by a pond. And one day, something brand new and unknown to the mice arrives there on the scene beside the pond. And they do not know what it is. So each little mouse goes out one by one to investigate and discover what this might be. And so they each bring back seemingly contradictory reports and the conclusions that they have reached from the investigation that they did. One little mouse comes back and says, it's a great strong pillar that's there beside the pond. And another mouse comes back and says, no, it's a rope. And a third mouse says it's a great large fan. And another mouse says it's a snake, etc. So they're bringing back contradictory reports, but they're investigating the same thing. And so the book reveals that what it actually was there by the pond was an elephant. And each little mouse had been seeing a part of the whole or had been investigating a part of the whole, bringing back their different reports. And then what was the moral of the story? Well, the book concludes by saying, "Knowing in part may make a fine tale, but wisdom comes from seeing the whole." And so I just thought of the work being done here at the biblical chronologist and the desire that we have to take in the whole of all that God has given us. Not to latch on to just one part and then craft a fine tale off of that, even with good intentions. But we want to be humble and we want to investigate and come to as full knowledge of the truth as God will allow us to as we draw on all the types of evidence that he's given us.

Steve:
Knowing in part may make a fine tale, but wisdom comes from seeing the whole. What a good statement that is. And God is good to give us more and more light to allow us to see more and more. And as you said, Jennifer, we have to be willing. We have to be humble enough to allow God's light to show us more and more of the picture that we need to see so that we can more clearly see the things that are true. And that takes us into our featured book for today. The featured book this month is "The Exodus Happened 2450 BC." Last month, if you listened in to our podcast last month and if you didn't, we encourage you to go back and listen to it, we talked about the flood. We talked about what is often called Noah's flood. And we are going to, this month, place another major event on the timeline, and that is the Exodus. The traditional date for the Exodus is 1450 BC. That's what most Bible scholars, that's the date that most people put the Exodus at, 1450 BC. However, and same as what we saw last month with Noah's flood, this date just does not work. You say, well, what do you mean This date does not work? Well, the Bible says, and it says very clearly, that Egypt was destroyed. We'll read that verse in just a little bit here on our podcast. But at the date of 1450 BC, the traditional date, we see in archeology that Egypt was actually thriving at that time. We don't see a nation that was completely destroyed. We don't see a nation that was suffering the consequences of terrible plagues. Actually, what we have found is, that at that time, it was an extended period of uninterrupted strength and prosperity for Egypt. A very unlikely setting for the absolute devastation suffered by Egypt, according to the biblical account. Because of these things, many people, their faith has been shaken in the Bible. Atheists who say they don't believe the Bible anyhow, use this as evidence for their view. Here's a quote from an article from an online magazine called haretz.com. It's an Israeli magazine. And it says this, "For decades now, most researchers have agreed that there is no evidence to suggest that the Exodus narrative reflects a specific historical event. Rather, it is an origin myth. It is an origin myth for the Jewish people that has been constructed, redacted, written, and rewritten over centuries." And again, that's from haretz.com.

Jennifer:
So you do have to ask the question, what is going on? How are we getting these contradictory reports? Why does the Bible say Egypt was destroyed, basically fell into chaos, and then we have the secular historians piecing together the Egyptian history and saying the opposite? Why are we getting these contradictory reports?

Steve:
Right. Well, as a result of this and other problems at the traditional date, the account of this major biblical event appears to be falsified. It appears to be the case that, well, the Bible says one thing, we go digging in the dirt, and it's telling us a whole different story. But here's the good news, where traditional chronology fails miserably, Dr. Aardsma's new chronology works beautifully. Again, the name of the book is The Exodus happened 2450 BC.

Jennifer:
So if you notice, the traditional date is 1450, and the name of our book is, it happened 2450. So there's a difference there of 1,000 years.

Steve:
1,000 years, and we call that around here the missing millennium. The missing millennium discovery pushes the date back from 1450 to 2450 BC, where, guess what? We do find Egypt utterly destroyed and falling into chaos, and for centuries. This is known as, and you might have heard this in school or in history lessons, the collapse of the great Old Kingdom of Egypt. At this date, we also find other major synchronisms between Egyptian history and the biblical account. But this is 2450 BC. This is when Moses left Egypt with millions of people camped in the desert, wandered through the wilderness, leaving a remarkable trail that, yes, we can find in the real world. It's amazing the secular historians go back into these areas and go back to these dates, dating these things back to 2450 BC around that time, and they don't even realize what they're describing. They have no biases because they're not relating their findings to the biblical accounts due to the differences in dates. But as they describe what they're finding, we are finding remarkable correlations between the two.

Jennifer:
Yes, and a lot of that is explained in the book, The Exodus Happened 2450 BC. This thing of the Egyptian society collapsing is really a pretty big deal. You know, just imagine all the plagues that Egypt suffered there that are told to us in the biblical account. And try to imagine if that happened here in America today. I'm going to read a little bit out of chapter six of our featured book. "Imagine if within a few weeks time, the United States of America were to suffer severe pollution of all its drinking water and irrigation water, uncontrollable infestations of frogs and insects in its homes and in its food reserves, an outbreak of boils on all its people so severe that they are unable even to stand up, death of all its livestock, destruction of all its forests and standing crops by hail, complete denuding of the ground by locusts so that no agricultural crop survives, three days of total darkness and finally death of a high percentage of the population. All of this happened to Egypt immediately prior to the Exodus." And the Bible tells us Pharaoh's counselors only partway through the initial series of calamities said to him, "Do you not realize that Egypt is destroyed?" Now, thinking of that in our modern day is not a perfect analogy, of course, because we have global communication and global ties and transport, which did not exist at the time of the Exodus in ancient Egypt. So we would be a little more resilient to a series of calamities like this. But we can relate a little bit. I mean, we have been through a few years now of the pandemic and we have experienced our country trying to pull through something like this that came on the scene unexpectedly and really wreaked havoc in many areas of our society. And just imagine if that was followed by yet another disaster and yet another, even within days or weeks of each other. You're certainly not going to look back on that period of time and say that it was thriving and it was stronger than ever. You will be seeing that there was true devastation. And so in fact, one of the archaeologists that investigated the time period of the collapse of the Old Kingdom of Egypt says, "It was the collapse of the whole society and Egypt itself had become a world in turmoil." Now there we're starting to get the big picture. We're starting to understand, this is the biblical account correlating with the secular history.

Steve:
Yes, you can go to thebiblicalchronologist.org. You can purchase the book if you would like to have a copy mailed to you or you can get the download for absolutely free. So that is a great opportunity there to get ahold of this book, read it. We really hope that you will. So what we're trying to say here, Jen, is that it's pretty important that we get the dates right.

Jennifer:
Yes, you know, when discussing biblical history or really any history at all, of course, it is of paramount importance that we get the dates correct. A great way to seemingly falsify any major historical event is to place it at the wrong date or not even give it a date. Then you're kind of free to just wander all over the timeline, so to speak. But what happens without a functional date? Well, the event will lose its realness. It eventually will wander off the timeline altogether. It becomes what Steve and I sometimes like to call floaty truth, you know, some kind of otherworldly spiritual entity, perhaps amusing or cute or interesting, but anything but real history, which actually has real life implications.

Steve:
So if we don't have a real date for a story in history, then it becomes a fairy tale.

Jennifer:
It becomes a fairy tale. That's right.

Steve:
We can date something like the account of the tragedy at Pompeii, Italy, where a volcano erupted and many people died. We can go find evidence for that in the real world and we can date it. We can put it on the timeline and say that's where it happened and that's when it happened. And the when is a very big deal. But if we have a story like, say, Cinderella, well, when did this happen? Where did this happen? And it becomes a fairy tale.

Jennifer:
Right. And so what you see happening, I'll give you an example of this kind of thing where knowing in part may make a fine tale. Well, here's what's happening. If you do a search online for the historicity of the Exodus account in Scripture, you will find results like this. The Torah.com, they say that the Exodus story was born out of a war that was fought in Egypt between a man named Irsu and Setnatki. And it was a traumatic war for all involved. And guess who they say Irsu was. They want to say that that was in fact Moses. And this war, which happened in history, happened at 1186 BC, which here at the biblical chronologist we can assure you that 1186 BC has nothing to do with the biblical account of the Exodus. And the story that they are drawing from doesn't have anything to do with the Exodus either. The war that was being fought at this time between Irsu and Setnatki was someone trying to ascend to the throne of Egypt. And it was a struggle for power between opposing forces in Egypt. Eventually, Irsu lost the war and so he was expelled from Egypt. And so they are saying that this was Moses and his men who left Egypt and left for Canaan. And so they are taking the biblical account. They are making a desperate effort to try to relate it to something in history. And really, they're coming up with this fine tale.

Steve:
Yes, no functional date for the Exodus has led to all kinds of fine tales and statements and disbelief in the scriptural accounts. Consider these statements. If you do a Google search on the Exodus and get to Wikipedia, here's a statement from Wikipedia. "The Exodus is the founding myth of the Israelites, whose narrative is spread over four books of the Torah or Pentateuch, namely Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy." Again, we mentioned the quote earlier from the Haretz.com Israeli magazine. That, by the way, comes from an article titled, it's after a verse in the scriptures, "For you were slaves in Egypt." And the actual title of this article is "For you were... not slaves in Egypt." Here's the quote. "The Passover narrative is one of the greatest stories ever told. More than any other biblical account, the escape of the enslaved Hebrews from Egypt is the foundational story of the Jewish faith and identity. One that all Jews are commanded to pass on from generation to generation. Also, it never happened." The article says. "For decades now, most researchers have agreed that there is no evidence to suggest that the Exodus narrative reflects a specific historical event." And here's their conclusion. "Rather, it is an origin myth for the Jewish people that has been constructed, redacted, written, and rewritten over centuries to include multiple layers of traditions, experiences, and memories from a host of different sources and periods." And again, the reason they say that, you may be listening and saying, "Well, how can they say that?" Well, again, if you go looking for this Exodus account, this grand event, at the date, the traditional date of 1450 BC, you're going to come away with the same conclusion. It's just not there. However, if you get the date right, then it's right there for everybody to see.

Jennifer:
Without a functional date, we do see the event of the Exodus, which is foundational to so much of the rest of biblical history, of course Jewish heritage, and even in the Passover account and God bringing his people out, it's a foreshadowing of God's redemption plan. And so falsifying this account and saying that it's a myth has serious ripple effects in Christianity and into those who are seeking for what is the truth. This is a big deal, and it's a tragedy to have it relegated to a myth, tradition, a story born from a traumatic event, but of a completely different nature. So it's exciting to see the reality that starts to become clear when we get it placed on the timeline in the right place.

Steve:
It's right there for everyone to see.

Jennifer:
Okay, and that takes us right into our featured video for this month, which is also on the topic of the Exodus. This video was recorded by Steve for the Truth and Time Ministry, which is the communications public speaking arm of the biblical chronologist. And this is where on this video, Steve talks about the triple synchronism that helps to place the Exodus at the corrected date of 2450 BC. If you are not at the correct date, you're going to be hard pressed to find a triple synchronism like we have here. One of those triple synchronisms is the reign of Pepe II, who was a pharaoh of the sixth dynasty in Egypt's Old Kingdom. He was the longest reigning monarch in world history, which of course, when you say the longest reigning monarch, that kind of brings to mind Queen Elizabeth and some current events that we've had happening in our world today. She reigned for 70 years. She was a very long reigning monarch. But Pepe II, who directly correlates with the Exodus account there in scripture, had a very long reign. And his reign actually was 94 years, according to secular history. He reigned from age six until he died at age 100. And when you read the Exodus account about Moses having to leave Egypt and the pharaoh there, this is who we're talking about. And it's, it's absolutely fascinating. Now the link for the video is going to be in the show notes of today's podcast and on the newsletter publication. All the links throughout the program will be there for you to easily go and check out these resources.

Steve:
Yes. And it is a triple synchronism. It doesn't just stop with Pepe II. There's another pharaoh that comes up on the scene after Pepe II in secular history, who has a very short reign. Now I'm not going to give away any more information.

Jennifer:
Right. Why did this pharaoh have such a short reign?

Steve:
If you want to read this in the book or watch the video Jennifer just talked about, it's really amazing. When we get the dates right, the Bible just comes alive in the real world. But what I want to do right now is park back on the missing millennium for just a few minutes. It's important to understand that this is a single chronological correction. Earlier we mentioned folks who seem to wander all over the timeline with no real anchor. Well, that is not what is happening here. We are not saying, okay, shift this event over here and then place this other thing over here and adjust the entire scheme of Egyptian history. No, not at all.

Jennifer:
Or change the biblical narrative, that it's not really saying that Egypt collapsed at all.

Steve:
Exactly. No, this is one careful, deliberate, chronological correction based on solid evidence being made in one verse, 1 King 6:1. If you want to go back and look these things up, that is a linchpin for all the events that come before it. And as a result, we have harmony, clarity out of confusion across the board of ancient biblical events. That's quite a statement. That's quite a claim that this one correction in biblical chronology results in finding event after event after event in secular archaeology, lining it up with the biblical accounts. It's just fascinating. And what's amazing is it just continues to build. It keeps growing.

Jennifer:
Yeah, and that reminds me, I did want to say that some of Dr. Aardsma's research in relation to the Exodus and the wilderness wanderings is brand new and it's not even able to be published yet, but you will not want to miss it. I really believe you will not want to miss some of the new discoveries that we're going to be talking about in the upcoming months. I hope you will stay tuned on the podcast.

Steve:
Yes, don't miss it. Our family has a ministry called Truth in Time where we schedule meetings to present this very work that we're talking about here on the podcast. We present the work of the biblical chronologist through Truth in Time sessions. We believe hearts will be stirred through music and the spoken word as we share about God's work in history, and as we praise his name through song. In October we have meetings scheduled in Illinois here where we live right now and in Virginia we have some things planned. And we would love to come to your church, to your ministry, your Christian school or other organization, home school group. Contact us. Let us know. You can get on thebiblicalchronologist.org and we have a page there with our contact information as well as truthintime.org and send us an email. There's a contact page. We'd love to talk with you about that.

Jennifer:
We sure would love to bring our family and minister to your group or organization. All right. So now we will transition into the anti-aging vitamins section of our podcast today...

Steve:
Anti-aging vitamin. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. We've been talking about Exodus. We've been talking about biblical chronology. What in the world...

Jennifer:
You don't see the correlation between anti-aging vitamins and biblical chronology?

Steve:
Well, it's a good question, isn't it? What does anti-aging vitamins have to do with biblical chronology?

Jennifer:
Yes. That's a great question. And certainly would seem unrelated at first glance. How in the world could these things go together coming out of the same research group?

Steve:
Well, that's part of what we're doing here with our podcast and newsletter is we're trying to tie these things together. What is this about chronology, Bible chronology, and the Exodus and the flood, and anti-aging vitamins?

Jennifer:
Right. Part of our byline says real world. And the anti-aging vitamins is certainly where the rubber meets the road for individuals today when they hear about the research here and the discoveries that have been happening. And when God brings us to a greater understanding of the truth, a fuller understanding, and more light is shed, then we continue to build a foundation where we can investigate other questions, solve other mysteries and problems, and building upon the truth that has been established coming into greater understanding. And so, you know, something like a missing millennium that Steve just explained to us, that sounds very textbook, very academic. Okay, so there's a number issue going on and the timeline has to be adjusted. I understand what you're saying that there's a missing millennium there in biblical history. We need to adjust things back on the timeline. That sounds kind of dry and classroom or something. But the fascinating thing is that building upon that foundation has enabled Dr. Aardsma to research into the true nature of Noah's Flood, which dovetails right in with the longevity that is recorded in Genesis. And it begins to answer the question, what could have happened during Noah's flood that resulted in the loss of the long life spans? So that is where the discovery of these two new vitamins has flowed out of the most unexpected place. And that is so often the fingerprint of God at work is that it's kind of a wild journey sometimes. And you end up places that you never dreamed as you pursue after the truth.

So because the two newly discovered vitamins have life saving implications, the biblical chronologist has initiated a nationwide mailing campaign to bring the news about the newly discovered anti-aging vitamins to as many people as possible as quickly as possible. So we want to give a special welcome today on the podcast to many new readers and listeners who have joined us this month after receiving our large postcard mailer in your mailbox. Thanks for reading the postcard and thanks for taking action on what was being communicated to you there. And definitely thanks for joining us today.

Steve:
Yes, we've been having some great, some really neat phone call conversations with some individuals and been getting some emails from the postcard. And something that many people are interested in are testimonials from folks who have been taking the vitamins.

Jennifer:
Sure. Yes, always of great interest is what have people been saying about their experience. And we do have one to share with you here today, an updated testimonial. But before we get into that, I thought maybe we should just quickly, because this is new to so many of our listeners, just give a general explanation of the vitamins. I know many of the phone calls we've gotten, the question that people want to ask is, what are these vitamins? What's in them? Explain it to me. So what is in the vitamins? Well, that is a good question. And I'll tell you what's not in them. No traditional vitamins and no just healthy ingredients like, beet juice, like garlic or beet juice or something. These truly are two newly discovered vitamins. And they are unique compounds that are not available to you in any of the traditional vitamins. But of course, the human body needs all of the vitamins. And that includes these two newly discovered vitamins. But the thing about vitamins is that they work in the body in so many different ways. And they just affect the overall physical and mental well-being of the person. So before we share the testimonial, I just wanted to remind everyone that these vitamins are needed by everyone, no matter their age. And they are no longer naturally available. They were depleted out of the environment after the time of Noah's flood. And they're not necessarily going to target one thing. Will it help my blood pressure? Will it help me sleep? But it truly is working on the vitamin deficiency in your body that is causing the breakdown due to aging.

And so with that background and all of that that I shared with you is currently the working hypothesis here at the biblical chronologist as the research and discovery is ongoing. We do want to share with you this updated testimonial from one of our customers. She has been struggling with a high platelet count since May of 2016. She started the anti-aging vitamins three years after that in the summer of 2019. And since that time, her platelets have gradually fallen from a dangerously high level. Last month in August, her doctor said her most recent platelet count is almost normal. So needless to say, she's thrilled with this news and she concludes her testimonial by saying to God be the glory. But her full testimonial is about much more than the platelets. And so Steve is going to share that with us now.

Steve:
Yes. And let me read her testimonial. Before I do though, let me remind you if you would like to see all the testimonials that we have record of, you can find those on the website. And again, in the show notes, there is a link that you can go to this individual's testimonial and find all the other ones as well. Well, on January the 28th, this lady provided the following testimonial. She says, "In June of 2016, my platelet count was 655,000 and my primary care doctor sent me to a hematology doctor. Normal for platelets is 150,000 to 450,000. The hematologist did all kinds of blood tests, ultrasound of spleen and ordered special blood tests. They had to call Mayo Clinic to figure out what to do. They started checking my platelets every three months, then six months, and then yearly after my number started improving. The condition is called thrombocytosis, a disorder in which your body produces too many platelets."

Jennifer:
And then she does give a rundown of her platelet numbers, which I always think is fascinating when somebody is actually able to provide lab numbers, lab results that can show a correlation between the time that she started the anti-aging vitamins and the time that her numbers began to fall. This is not subjective. These are just numbers based on lab tests. And so if you're interested, you can go look at the full testimonial there and see, kind of track her platelet count was climbing and climbing. She started the anti-aging vitamins. It climbed a little bit more, and then it began to fall and drop in almost normal, just a little bit away from normal, just a month ago.

Steve:
Yes. And she says, "My oncologist said my platelets were doing well enough, my primary doctor could monitor one time per year, and I wouldn't have to come back to him unless they were a million plus." Also, she says, "Since taking the vitamin drops, I have noticed I don't have as much stiffness in my knees. They don't creak when I bend. I was pre-diabetic in the past, but my last A1C was 6.0. The doctors want it under 7.0. My blood sugars are always good, but I do watch my sugar intake. I also started my special needs adult daughter on the anti-aging vitamin drops about two months ago. Yesterday, she woke up sniffling and sneezing and blowing her nose frequently. It was so cold, I kept her home from workshop and I didn't know if they would test her for COVID. Today, she woke up and all those symptoms were gone. She has never gotten over something so fast. Her blood sugar was 150 this morning where I want or below, had been in the 160, so I hope it will keep improving." And you know, we've heard a lot of that, that kind of a testimonial, and we've experienced some of that in our own home, that there's just a higher, better rate of healing. That you get a cold or you strain a muscle or whatever, and you just get better quicker.

Jennifer:
It just seems that the newly discovered vitamins strengthen the body and make it more able to deal with whatever the issue is at hand that you're having to deal with. I have seen that even with our own children, things that used to really get them down for weeks, they can usually get over in just a matter of a day or two. We do of course want to say that nothing here on the podcast should be taken as official medical advice. What we just read to you there is just one person's experience and one person's report. If you're struggling with any of the issues that were mentioned there from this individual, of course, we recommend that you talk to your health professional and get a professional medical opinion and guidance there. Of course, even talk to your health care professional about the anti-aging vitamins and present them with the research.

All right. As we are winding down here with the podcast for today, we of course enjoy bringing to you every month Helen's view. Today, she is going to be sharing with us some of Dr. Aardsma's roots. He is an independent Christian research scientist and she's going to share with us some of his background that helped shape him into the individual that he is today, doing this unique work that God has called him to.

Helen:
Helen's view, October 2022. Gerald was raised in a home with godly and devoted parents. His father, Jacob Allen Aardsma, was a Baptist pastor for most of his life. Gerald was privileged to sit under his father's exceptional Bible teaching most of his growing up years. His dad is greatly missed and has gone on to his heavenly reward. Gerald's mom, Margaret Aardsma, was a stay-at-home mom, a talented homemaker and a very involved pastor's wife. She taught Gerald many valuable life lessons as they did life together on a daily basis. She lives in Texas and will be 91 this coming November. The photo was taken on Christmas 1970 when Gerald was 15 years old. He is the top right. I love that sweet face. Gerald has three siblings, Allen, the second child on the top left, Valorie, the oldest, bottom left, and then the youngest, Margaret, bottom right. All three siblings are serving the Lord in various capacities following the godly upbringing they were given and passing on the baton to future generations. What a tremendous heritage Gerald has been given and one we are both very grateful for. Gerald was given a solid foundation for the work God has called him to as a biblical chronologist interfacing the Bible and science. I have many wonderful memories of Gerald's parents. I first met them as a young teenager and was very impressed with both of them. They had a huge impact on my life. His dad was a very happy and kind and caring person. He truly lived out the Christian ethic of servanthood. He was hardworking and sacrificial. Whenever we would tell him that we were having another baby, he was always thrilled and would quote Psalm 127 to me. When I first met Gerald's mom, I thought she was pretty classy and sophisticated, and I still do. She was the best dressed woman in the church, and I wondered how in the world she did that living on a meager pastor's salary. Do you know how she did it? She shopped thrift stores which was not a very common thing back then. She would go to the thrift stores and buy beautiful clothes and then come home and make adjustments to them to fit her or add collars or lace on the bottom of the dresses and they were just beautiful. She taught me the art of thrift store shopping which I have enjoyed for many years. His mom worked very hard with her hands always creating art in her home. She made braided rugs out of old wool coats and sold the rugs. She had flowers and her beautiful sewing and decorated her home to make it a real haven for her family. I've always admired and looked up to her. A godly upbringing is a gift to be cherished. I will always be grateful for the gift of Gerald in my life and I have his parents to thank for the huge role they played in his life. It's been great talking to you and I look forward to talking to you again in a few weeks.

Jennifer:
Okay, we appreciate that interesting history that was shared with us there, and as we think about the individuals that Helen talked about, we can remember that we all have a unique role to play in the story that God is writing here in history, and we each have a special part in it. And so we just wish you a blessed fall season and we've certainly covered a lot of territory today. We hope we've given you some interesting things to think about and meditate on as we draw the podcast to a close today.

Steve:
Yes, definitely some things that we believe deserve a place at the table of discussion. And yes, thank you for joining us today, and as always we welcome your feedback, your questions and your comments. We want to know your thoughts as we prepare to bring you future issues and episodes of the BC Messenger. Have an enjoyable fall season in this amazing world that God has given to us. We'll see you next month.

Jennifer:
Bye.