“COMPANY’S HERE!”

One of the best things about living here at the Pilkington home is all the company we get. People literally show up with lists of Scriptural questions, and most of the time they get answers and a good meal to boot. Other people just want to hang out, but we feed them anyway.

A few days ago, Win Allabough of Linden, PA came into town with his wife Diane for a little bit of everything. A little bit of everything is what they got.

(Click to enlarge photos.)

Win is one of the stars of a film we made recently, which we hope to release this Saturday. He plays the psychoanalyst of a man (me) who is crazy enough to believe everything God's Word says about him.  

The next afternoon, Stephen Hill drove in from DuBois, PA. Steve is the author of “Making the Most of the Bible,” published by Bible Student’s Press. Steven has two really smart and fun kids, Arianna and Jake. 

Two nights ago, a man named Bill Morgart came over for a visit, and he, Clyde, Clyde Lynn, Nathan, Aaron Locker and myself, enjoyed a two-hour Bible study at the giant dining room table that could have sat King Arthur and his knights. (If only the table had been round.) I forgot to take a photo of the actual Bible study (I'll do it next time), but here is a photo of Bill. (He may be calling his wife to tell her he's just been appointed to the order of the Knights of the Square Table):

Going back in time, Thanksgiving was lots of fun. The weather was great: sunny, with temps in the low 70's.  Aaron Locker’s brother-in law, Ozzie (a Turkey native; how appropriate for Thanksgiving), and I, played a game where we threw a Nerf-type football at each other as hard as we could (that is, until our arms practically broke), at a distance of only ten feet. The first one to make five catches (without breaking a finger or thumb) won. Here are some photos of the epic competition. (I also competed with Aaron but, regrettably, all photos except the winning catch (see below) were confiscated by the Windber police.

Ozzie loads.

Ozzie fires.

Zender fires.

A great spectator sport.

Zender makes winning catch against Aaron Locker.
(Football is actually moving at 800 miles per hour.)

 Here is a group photo from Thanksgiving:

(Again, all photos can be enlarged by clicking.)

The weather was so great on Monday afternoon, December 4, that we all had a picnic lunch on the driveway with, you guessed it, more visitors. This picnic was facilitated by the fact that the freezer blew its fuse over the weekend (we just discovered it Monday morning), and much meat was in danger of spoiling. Averse to the thought of spoiling meat, and being voracious carnivores, we had us a good old-fashioned Pennsylvania meatfest. Here is a ground-level shot of the meatfest:

Here is an aerial view:

We decided to go to the park later. The boys in the back seat are getting a little raucous:

Zender, Nathan Pilkington, Jason Pilkington, Clyde Lynn Pilkington
(In the back seat, Jason's son Percival.)

"Dad, are we there yet??"

Fun on the swings with Clyde and Martin.

Clyde Lynn photographed me on Tuesday doing my Internet show:

We have hired a really nice girl to start cataloging thousands upon thousands of books for the online bookstore. These books have been waiting a long time to be catalogued, because we keep picking up thousands of free books from libraries in Pennsylvania, namely the Altoona library, and, more recently, the library at Tyrone. (You have not lived until you have driven to the Tyrone library in a Ryder truck with Clyde Pilkington. I wish I’d taken photos of that adventure; next time, I will.) Anyway, here is Heather. She is sitting at my desk in this photo, but will soon have her own little office next to Nathan’s shipping department:

Heather commandeering my desk.
(Clyde's desk directly behind; Clyde Lynn's office in back room.)

Someday soon, I will give you a video tour of our work area. I promise.

Ozzie and his wife Becka (Aaron Locker’s sister) visited last night, with their son Aydin:

Jason and Nathan had a good time, too.

Aaron loves his nephew.

Clyde Lynn and I rounded out last evening with night shots of 410 Bedford Street. This is where we all work. (I live in the house to the right, at 412; sorry, no Christmas lights, and no photo for now.)

Tomorrow (Friday) I drive to Fairfax, Virginia, for fellowship with a long-time supporter, Doug Witherspoon. He has invited me to fellowship with his family, and to share the great truths of God. I have never met him, but am looking forward to spending three days with Doug and his family. I will report from there this weekend, complete with photos. Can't wait!

Until then, grace and peace.

Martin

© 2012 by Martin Zender