McEwen Farming and Family Stuff

The Fletcher family have been our hosts for the last three days on their little farmlet and beautiful Cape Cod home in the lush Lake Anna region of Spotsylvania ,VA .

Greg and Brenda were in Australia and attended the Easter Convention as missionary guests around 2000 and 2001 and they stayed at our place on the farm at that time They went to Perth to establish a base for Pioneers mission in WA and then came back here to Greg’s home town to educate their kids, Erika and Evan . Greg is still involved in the mission along with some other part time work here. Evan came with me to the vintage museum yesterday and Erika is in England, won a trip with the Civil Air Patrol that these kids are both involved in.

It has been good to spend a day or two here in the center of this historic area.

Greg and Brenda live near Fredericksburg which was the scene of a most bloody episode of the Civil War in 1862.

When over 100,000 soldiers mostly Northern Union troops died in a few days and put the Union cause back months and gave the Southern Confederate’s army under General Lee some hope against Grants superior northern force.

The issue of States rights along with the slave issue trigged the hatred.

The Southerners reckoned they needed the slave force to work the developing cotton fields and the established Northern area did not need this force and Lincoln was desperate to unite the Country and emancipate the slaves and in a very unpopular move he freed the slaves in the south before he freed them in the North.

The result of the slaughter at the town in Fredericksburg made Lincoln very unpopular. Knowing he was not winning the offensive battles, Lincoln decided to break the South by emancipating the slaves. When the Union held Fredericksburg, thousands of slaves crossed over into the north.

Sunday morning, we attended church with Greg and Brenda and Evan. The local people were very friendly. Greg is an elder in the church. But Sunday morning finds him leading the worship team

With Brenda, his lead singer and Evan on keyboard and one other lady, the sound was excellent and we enjoyed the service. After the service we were served a very substantial morning tea. Following which was adult SS/bible Study. I was in Brenda’s group and they loved chatting. So I told a snake story and a koala story. Ian wanted to know what the spiritual application was? There was none. One of the men was interested in Australia. They all want to come for a visit. We did share for prayer. I loved the group. I told the story of Ian shooting the snake at the front door, cut the snake in two with half going under the house and I had to wash the blood and guts off the wall,

On the way sth to Fayetaville NC and Yana our Ukraine translator from Sumy who has married a Yank .Spencer and they have lovely daughter. Yana translates her Mother Annas letters for us .,

Anna Heads up the Christian Ethics programme in the government schools in this North Western region of Ukraine and we had Yana translate for us one time we were in Sumy so it is good to meet her again .

On the way we went to another civil war museum in Petersburg Va where another 70 thousand from both sides perished in this bloody war.