Puzzles "Our Lord's Corner" (April Edition)

My wife, Michele and I like puzzles. Usually we work on 1000 piece puzzles sometimes 2000 never anything less than 500. At the present time we are slowly working on a 2000 piece nighttime of Times Square, New Year’s Eve, a most difficult challenge.

          Puzzles remind me of life. One goes through it constantly trying to fit the right pieces into the right place at the right time. Sometimes succeeding sometimes, a lot of times failing.

          Life without God and Christ is like a puzzle without the picture and you’re by yourself. There is much more guessing and many more failures. I know the first 19 years of my life was like that. I had not missed behaved but I was struggling to know who I was or what the puzzle looked like. I wanted to do the right thing place the correct pieces of the puzzle into the right place. But I just had no idea of why and how.

          My U.S. Army recruiter had changed that for me. He thankfully went boldly in a non-politically correct way and while on the middle of the traffic jammed Schuylkill expressway witnessed to me as to whom Jesus Christ is. My life change then as the picture of my puzzle came into view for the first time. I know longer was alone in putting the puzzle of my life together. Each piece became easier to place. I may not always be right in the placing of the pieces, but I know that I am not alone while working the puzzle.

          This Easter, April 20^th is the time marking the rising from the dead of our savior, Gods son, Jesus Christ. In John we are taught. John 3 ¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that He gave His ^[a]only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. This is a very simple concept. We are all sinners, God realizes this, Instead of continual sacrifices of lambs for the atonement of sins, he (God) once and for all sent his son to be the final sacrificial lamb. (Lamb of God). All you have to do is 1) Realize no matter what, God loves you. 2) Realize you are a sinner 3) Know that God will not have sin with him and turn away from sin. 4) Believe that Jesus sacrificed himself, died for your sins. 5) Know that you are forgiven and begin a new life.

          This is the time to get the picture of your puzzle in front of you. Find a partner in placing those small but all important pieces. Find Christ today! You don’t need me there or anyone else. Find a quiet spot or loud...look up, look down...Just for a moment know that you can’t do life by yourself anymore and just have a chat with the Lord, he is listening all the time. Then as you place that final black colored piece into place you will realize it was part of the tunnel behind you in the puzzle of your life.

Looking up to Mark (April Edition)

          Yes, you have the surnames right. Just so you don’t do too much guessing I am writing about my son. Writing about Mark Carpenter on this sunny day in March is not as easy as it may seem it should be. As I look out over the partially snow covered front lawn I asked myself what I was going to write about.

          Stepping back inside, I passed the hallway coat closet on the right and slid open the door. There it was tugging at my heart strings, pencil marks from Mark as he began recording his own height every year beginning in 1999. March 5^th of that year he stood at my chest. The following year, another 2 inches were added. I looked up to 2007 and found that he was easily a couple of inches over my head, where he is roughly at the present.

          Standing and looking at those pencil marks roughly placed I realize that I have my story. Mark Carpenter is a 2008 graduate of Boyertown High school who also marks a large part of the story in his high school life with a trumpet in his hands. Along with Hannah Liesau 2^nd Lt. U.S. Army (Georgia on Her Mind) he also played trumpet under the now retired and well known & admired Mr. Glen A. Brumbach.

          Mark was not limited to a trumpet in growing up in the Boyertown/Gilbertsville area. He was a member of Boy Scouts of America rising to Eagle Scout and the Boy Scouts of America, Venture Crew where he learned that he also loved mountains, new challenges, adventures and rising to new heights while he climbed with his friend Andrew.

          When it came time to further his education we, his mother and I thought he would go to West Chester University and pursue an education in music while playing with a U.S. Army band locally.

          We were proved wrong when he told us he was going to attend a military school. The school he picked was by how challenging it was. He looked at Valley Forge Military academy and College, Norwich in Vermont, Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Va. and finally The Citadel, Charleston, S.C.         The northern schools he quickly eliminated because he didn’t feel they were difficult at all and focused on the southern, latter two schools. We felt that Virginia Military Institute was a perfect fit because the band director did his student teaching both in the Boyertown Area School District and Owen J. Roberts School District. A trumpet player himself the two extended their interview and audition time into the afternoon so they could ‘jam’, playing jazz for a period of time after lunch.

          Mark was accepted to both schools and chose The Citadel to study business administration because it was again more difficult. The Citadel, VMI, as well as West Point and other senior military schools operate on the 4^th class system. The Citadel’s knob year lasts the entire year, making it in our opinion one of the most challenging schools.

          Mark played in the Regimental Band. He with the band represented the U.S. at the 60^th Diamond anniversary of The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo 2010 in Scotland.

          It was about this time that he told us that he needed another year of a language and furthering his French may be too difficult. Instead he took Chinese (Mandarin). The U.S. Army arranged this and the Dept of Defense arranged for him to take summer courses in China, where he furthered his business studies.

          We would visit Mark a couple of times a year while he was in Charleston, as well as he would come home on leave for holidays. During those times I recognized that not only did I look up to Mark in stature but also began to look up to the man that he had become. 

          The Citadel is a school where a student does not lie, cheat or steel nor tolerate those who do. Mark is the embodiment of those principles. In his senior year he continued to press upward with his goals. His first choice for where to lead within the U.S. Army was with branching Medical Service Corp.

          After being branched as Medical Service Corp. officer 20 slots for medevac pilots came open in the U.S. during the latter part of his senior year. With high recommendations from the ROTC program at The Citadel, Mark was awarded with one of those slots and following BOLC (Basic Officer Leader Course prepares an officer to function within their capacity as a nurse, doctor, medical service corps officer, etcetera) at Fort Sam Houston, during the fall of 2012, he reported to Aviation school January of 2013.      

          On a personal level, two years ago on one of his summers home Mark went swing dancing in Pottstown. While there he met Bianca Funer, of Nurnberg, Germany, who was an au pair in the town of Wyndmoor at the time. Two years later and the two have become engaged during this past Christmas in Michigan. They plan an October wedding.

          As this paper goes to press, 2^nd Lt. Mark Carpenter will graduate with his wings from the U.S. Army aviation center at Ft. Rucker, Alabama. He now has orders to report to Mountain Dust-off of the 10^th Combat Aviation Brigade of the 10^th Mountain Division, New York, as a medevac pilot.

          Looking again out the front door over the partially snow covered front yard I hear, then see a Helicopter fly over. As it passes under the bright blue hue I see in my mind’s eye, my son and know that yes I do look up to him, the man, the Army officer, soon to be husband, some day father, but always the little boy who tugs at my heart strings, remembering I’m ‘looking up to Mark’.

                  

Who Died and Left You in Charge "Our Lord's Corner" (March Edition)

Luke 6:37

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.

(New American Standard Version)

            Regardless the version and the rationalization, we are taught not to judge.  This past year, I have seen, many “Born again Christians” as I, who have brought much pain to others and me.

            In the latter part of this year, one person vilified me for not listening to them, as they wanted me to vilify someone else.  Our friendship and business relationship ended at that time.

            Another individual whom I remember vividly bragged to my son, a pastor, about being a Christian as he showed off his Ixoye (Christian “sign of the fish”) tattooed to his chest.  Then, 15 minutes later, the individual was sitting at the dinner table as he, in a vile fashion, described his hatred of a mentally ill person.  At another time, that same person would provoke a fight at a restaurant, only because he was asked politely to watch his language.

            So many times I have witnessed Christians, who not only observe the fruit of the tree, but picked and threw the fruit, at anyone who they chose.

            I have to ask, as you should.  Has our God died and leave them in charge?  Did he leave us in charge?

One Catholic Priest and Dominos (Greatest Generation Series) (March Edition)

            “Eddie, you would better benefit the world by quitting school and getting a job.”  Thus, the dominos began to fall in young Edwin J. Liedike’s life.  Seventeen years old and just beginning Catholic High School in Philadelphia, the priest did not see young Eddie going any place while in school.

            December 12, 1944 and Edwin (Eddie) is headed for Camp McClellan, Alabama for Basic Training.  This is the next domino to fall for Edwin, from Pike street in Philadelphia, when he was drafted.

            I sat comfortably in the living room of their ranch home, nestled in the woods of Montgomery County.  A two-decked organ set in the corner.  “He likes to play,” says his wife, Joan, sitting to my right.  “He also plays the drums,” she continued.  This beautiful home had burnt down in 1987, just after the home was built in 1986.

            I turned the conversation to who they were and more specifically who is Edwin Liedike?  He freely spoke to me about his brief stint in the US Army.

            After leaving his 17 week long basic training, he found himself at an embarkation point in Virginia.  “Mothers of America stopped that,” he says, “Too many boys dying,” continued Edwin, who sat in front of me.

            As the dominos continued to fall, he found himself next at Camp Howese in Texas.  A temporary Army camp where he now learned the use of the flame thrower, which he described with a chuckle as singeing his eyebrows.  The conversation was effortless as we smiled at each other.  A box of letters he wrote to his mother sat in a black shoe box in front of him now, as he accessed them for information.

            Embarking from Fort Ord, he got word that the war in Japan was over while on a navy ship.  This sigh of relief was short lived as he found himself in the Philippines.  He witnessed one shot, which rung out over head striking high on a vehicle in front of him.  It was a Japanese soldier, one of the 10,000 who had not gotten the word that the war was over.

            “There were so many soldiers in the Philippines that they didn’t know what to do,” he described the scene.  He continued to tell me, “I went to the lieutenant and asked to go to Japan, part of the occupation army.”

            After seven weeks, Staff Sergeant Liedike (a tech T sergeant) found himself in Japan in charge of publications and field manuals.  One month shy of two years, twenty three months in service ended.  So did the smile as he looked introspective.

            “Edwin’s brother served in the Army,” his wife began while looking at him.

            “Bob was both in the invasion of Europe and Battle of the Bulge,” Edwin continued.  I asked and he told me that he was with the 28^TH ID (infantry division) of the Pennsylvania National Guard during Battle of the Bulge.  “He married a French girl,” he continued.  They both had also passed in the past two years, I learned, as he looked solemn.

            He met Joan at a doggy roast he said.  “We would bring 6 hot dogs and a case of beer,” he smiled as he clarified what a doggy roast was.  Joan had just graduated from high school.

            “He was twenty two, I was eighteen,” she added.

            After a couple of short jobs, post-war, Edwin was led to a job with Sears, Roebuck & Co., where he opened catalogue sales offices.  He remained with them until retirement at 59 years old.  When he left, he was doing interior design for new Sears stores.

            At the ages of 87 and 83, Edwin and Joan have been married for 63 years.  They have four children, “One girl, then a boy, and then two more girls,” Joan told me.  They also have ten grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.  Eddie took some pride in telling me that he played drums in a small band called Eddie and the Flying Saucers.  “We played fifties,” he added.

            I looked around toward the end of our interview.  I was moved by what one Catholic Priest and dominos started.  I told them it brought you to right here.  He smiled and shook his head affirmatively.  As I was leaving, he asked me to remember his brother, Bob, in my writing.

            Bob, we honor you and what you also gave to our country.  We honor you for what you stood for in your family in life and afterwards.

            As I walked out the front door, I turned back and looked at the ranch house in the woods, and smelled wood burning from a fireplace nearby.  I pictured a domino standing outside the front door, leading to many more, ending with three great-grandchildren & the new set of dominos and again thought of one, Catholic priest.