November 2016 projects

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo for November 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lexmark Collection Cars

Amazing, we are in the moment of time, I took this photo at 5:57 and posted it on Facebook at 5:57 and then posted the photo on my Blogger at 5:59 p.m.

Thanks to Brian Williams for sending me two Lexmark 1/64 collection cars. My collection is growing. Brian is April's husband, who is the daugher of my lovely sister Ellen, who is the daughter to my wonderful Mom Pauline Whisnant, and they all live in Texas.

SPORTS COLLECTIONS AND THE GOSPEL

The view of our house

The yard that I cut is all the green.

For six years I push a small mower.

But really loved it.

SOMETIMES YOU WONDER WHY PEOPLE WHOM HEAR YOU PREACH OR TEACH, SEEM TO JUST BRUSH THE MESSAGE OFF. WELL THERE IS A REASON FOR THAT..................

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  Now, when we preach the gospel, unless you have spiritual life, you cannot feed upon it; and if you were to come to the communion table, unless you were truly alive unto God, you might eat the bread, and drink the wine, but with real spiritual food, the body of Christ, and the blood of Christ, you could have nothing to do. We do not give food to people in order to make them live. That would be a useless experiment; but, because they are alive, they take food in order to sustain and nourish the life which is already in them. Always recollect, dear friends, that the best spiritual food in the world is useless to those who are spiritually dead; and one very essential part of the gospel is that truth which our Savior so plainly taught, "Ye must be born again." All attempts at feeding the soul are of no use until the new birth has been experienced; even that precious, priceless bread of life cannot be assimilated unless the soul has been quickened by the Spirit of God.

WHILE I DO LIKE MY SPORTS COLLECTION, ITS JUST A COLLECTION

The Dale Earnhardt Sr. Collection

Jeff Gordon collection pre 2000

The corner of my collection room

Sports Collection

MICKEY MANTLE, BOBBY RICHARDSON, TOM TRESH, YOGI BERRA, ELSTON HOWARD, ROGER MARIS, WHITEY FORD, AND THOSE YANKEES OF THE 50'S AND 60'S.

OVER THE YEARS I HAVE ENJOYED COLLECTION STUFF

Wheaties - I have eaten the breakfast of champions for years, I just kept the box
Baseball, Football, NASCAR, Basketball cards have been a part of my life for many years.
A view in the collection room - Hot Wheels and NASCAR

Some preachers play golf, or enjoy fishing, and a few dirt racing.

DO PREACHERS/PASTORS/TEACHERS HAVE OTHER INTERESTS?

The last several years, I have had little time for my collection, I do from time to time collect a few Hot Wheels, and a few new Wheaties Boxes.

I still enjoy looking through my sport cards. I do look as I go down the steps in the morning at the collection I have on display, but that is about as far as I have time for these days.

ITS OKAY - YOU DON'T HAVE TO FEEL GUILTY

Wheatie Box Collection Charles e Whisnant

JANUARY 15, 2000 - LEXINGTON HERALD-LEADER NEW

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WHEATIES AT KROGERS

Charity had picked up a box of Wheaties at Kroger, back in 1999 and at the counter she met Beverly Fortune, staff writer. Beverly made comment about Charity buying a box of Wheaties. Charity said, "My husband collects Wheaties". Beverly said, I am a staff writer for the Lexington Herald, and I am doing a series on Collectors, could I come by and interview your husband about his collection?" Charity said, "Charles would be happy about that."

Sure enough, several weeks later, I received a phone call, from Beverly and we set up an appointment. She came to the house and was really in shock when she saw my collection. We spent several hours talking about the collection. Then a few weeks later, the article appeared in the Herald-Leader.

Beverely writes "Last night at 12:30 a.m. I went to Kroger's and found a new box of Wheaties," said Whisnant, a Baptist minister who lives on North Ashland Avenue. With each new Wheaties purchase, Whisnant carefully opens the bottom of the box and pulls out the bag of cereal, so he doesn't dent the top." That was it, placed in the center page of the Home & Garden insert of the newspaper. There was a front page picture as shown in the above photo. and two photos on the inside page.

This article in the Herald Leader, went out through the Knight-Ridder News Agency all over the United States. Really. Over the next year, I received a number of calls from Chicago, Ill. Asheboro, NC. , Mass., Texas, Mich., and a number of letters. One person, sent me a set of pictures of his collection of Wheaties.

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One person, called and asked if my father's name was Everette Whisnant. She said she and her husband were saved in a Tent meeting in Ashville, NC, and my dad had established a church in Asheboro, NC. She said the church is doing good today. She said our family had been to their home many times when I was very young. Amazing. Her husband had passed away a few weeks before she called, and they did not know where we were living the last thirty years. She had seen the article in their local newspaper, and for some reason she read the article. Now that was amazing that she would read it. How she knew that was a Whisnant in the picture I will never know.

Charles

THIS PHOTO IS A VIEW OF THE STAIR LANDING IN OUR HOUSE.
First Installment

THIS PHOTO IS A VIEW OF MY COLLECTION FROM THE SIDE

Kurt Nunnenkamp said once, "Charles you do have an addiction, its preaching and teaching."

In sixteen years as pastor/teacher of First Baptist Church in Altoona, Kansas I taught a Sunday School Class, preached Sunday Morning, and Sunday Evening and then again on Wednesday Evening, and then Fundamental of the Christian Faith class during the week. Studying was an addition for sure.

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From 1994 to 1996

Since I didn't hunt, fish, the boys and I

collected sports cards.

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But I had a second addition, you might say, from 1996 to 2001 when I moved to Lexington Kentucky. I traded one addition for another in those years. From 2001 to presence, I just collect a lot of dust in Porstmouth Ohio.

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I really enjoy displaying my collection of paraphernalia. The photo above is a view from the top of the stairs in our house, looking down the stair landing. As you can see, both sides and the wall is filled with three ring binders of sports cards, display of Michael Jordon, Scottie Pippen, Mickey Mantle, and Dale Earnhart, and a display of NASCAR 1/24 cars.

On the back wall is a display of my son's. He is a Firefighter, and loves riding bikes.

You will note also display of pictures on the wall as well. (Hopefully)

What you are unable to see is 100,000 sports cards.

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WHILE THE LOVELY WHITE SNOW FALL: PERSONAL REFLECTIONS
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While the lovely white snow ( six inches) came down over Porstmouth, we missed the heavy snow (nineteen inches) that Columbus received, Charity and I were enjoying our day off from our jobs.

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So after my regular visit to PYROMANIACS AND PULPIT MAGAZINE, reading the articles from the Shepherd's Conference 2008, I cut off the Gateway. For the next few hours I worked with my HOT WHEELS DIE CAST COLLECTION.

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HOT WHEELS DIECAST COLLECTION

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I believe I started a collection of Hot Wheels in 1996. Before 1996 I had never bought a Hot Wheel Diecast in my life, nor did I have any. My collection was sports cards. (You can check my blog on that story.) Then NASCAR die cast 1/24 and 1/64 cars became an interest in 1996. Following Dale Earnhardt, Sr.'s death in 2001, I lost interest in the collection. Then for some reason I began a collection of the first edition of the 1998 Hot Wheels Collection.

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Followed by the 1999 and 2000 first editions. What really became of interest was the variations of the cars. I was able to pick up a few variations in flea markets. Then in 2006 after a visit with my nephew Stephen Sigmon, my sister Ellen's son, I really became interested in going to Wal Mart, K Mart, and Target to search for variations. "The Hunt" is really what is fun. Stephen was gracious enough to find me several nice variations. That really started this search.

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Then of late, over the last year, I have really found a lot of variations of Hot Wheels. So I began to display these variations. I had about twenty cars with variations. Then all of a sudden I found myself with over fifty cars with two variations. Then there were the three car variations, then four, and now several cars with five variations first in 2007. Now I have over sixty cars with variations.

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I have never really liked real cars and don't know a Dodge from a Ford. I can pump gas, but never have changed the oil in a car. So why do I like collecting cars? Go figure!

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I thought, " I will collect all 1/64 cars." So I started looking for the 1931 Doozie, '32 Ford Coupe '32 Ford '32 Bugatti Type 50, '33 Ford Road, '35 Cadillac, '36 Cord, '40 Ford Coupe'41 Willie, and '47 Chevy. This gets worse. '50 Chevy, Plymouth, '60 Lincoln, T-Bird '70's Dodge Charger, Plymouth Barracuda, Pontiac Firebird.

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Oh, then the Jaguar, Corvette, Porsche, Mustang, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Mercedes and my favorite -- the Mercucy Cougar. (The best real car we have owned.)

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• My son Eric really likes riding his "bike". So guess what, I look for motorcycles. I have a very nice collection of bikes (about 40 different ones). And a very nice display of them in my room. And since he is a Lexington Firefigher, guess what -- I look for fire engines

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Then I like, for some odd reason, to display out of the box, the yellow cars. I have a very nice display of these cars (over fifty). Then there are the buses, goodness, sad isn't it?

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Earlier last month, I made a very nice display of over sixty cars with two variations.
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So yesterday during the blizzard, I spent several pleasant hours checking out all my Hot Wheels. I discovered there are a number of cars that I could fit into one of the catagorgies I have listed. I noticed that Hot Wheels makes the same cars over and over. For example they make the Phaeton Car over and over.

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This could go on and on, but really it's not a big time killer for me. Though, it's fun for sure. Who said you couldn't still have fun at sixty.

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NASCAR, WHEETIES, POSTERS, SPORTS CARDS, MAGAZINES, USA SPORTS SECTIONS

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I enjoy displaying my collection of NASCAR, the Dale Earnhardt Sr. collection, and the Jeff Gordon collection. Today my collection is in our upstairs room. You can find a nice display of Wheatie boxes, a Tiger Woods collection, A Lexmark 1/64 diecast cars (provided by nephew Brian Williams), and collection of Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordon, and a display of old baseball cards. And there is a nice display of sports binders of cards collected over the last few years.

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Also, I have a nice display of Starting Lineup Players. Then there are the posters of Earnhart, Griffey, Pippen, Jordon and the Chicago Bulls. Today I collect very little of these I have mentioned.
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I started collecting baseball, basketball, football, hockey, NASCAR cards again in 1993 until 2001 with regularity. Couldn't go into a store or flee market without buying cards. Today I have some 150,000 cards. Isn't that really great! Buying cards was rather cheap. Today I only pick up a pack and look that them.

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What was really fun was going on trips. We would go to Sam's, and as Eric got older, he would buy a box of baseball cards, and we would split them half and half. When we would leave Kansas to come to Porstmouth, Ohio, to visit family, we would stop in Pittsburg, Kan at a Flea Market and get a box of 500 old cards for $5, and that entertained us for the whole trip. In Altoona, I would go with Eric and Chad to card shops, and get cards. That was always great to do, and they would know what to get me for my birthday and Christmas. As a matter of fact, Chad picked up six or seven packs of cards over Christmas and gave them to me. That was really neat! Chad has a good collection of cards, and so does Eric.

In the first years of our marriage, while Charity shopped I would sit out in the car reading my Bible. When I became interested in sports cards around 1993, I would go in with Charity and shop for bargains, too. My spirituality slipped!

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HERE IS THE ADDIDICTION

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From 1996-2003 I was not pastoring a church, and my interest changed. From 2002-03 I was studying church ministry, and then I lost my job at the church. From 2003 to 2007 I didn't have employment at a church or secular place. My interest changed to studying over the Internet. For the next years I spend as much as eight hours a day studying the Doctrines of the Bible. There were a few attempts of seeking a place to serve in a church, but there was little interest from those churches. In 2007 I spent the whole year in research and study for a ministry that I believed I was going to have in a church. This was a wonderful time to get back into ministry, but at the end of 2007 I no longer had the positon.

In August 2006 I discovered Bloggers. They have a free website that you can have your own blog. That is, you can write your thoughts on a daily basis or how many times you want to. This was a really wonderful thing for me. I have spent many hours studying and writing "posts" for my "Grow By Learning" site. Today there are over 400 posts.

Then in Febuary 2008 my sister Ellen, was gracious enough to get me a web site. GROWBYLEARNING.COM. She is my websister. Now this is another avenue in which I have to express myself in ministry.

Finally, I went back to work at a secular job, Mex-Itali (the business Charity's mom and dad owned and operated for thirty-four years.) My good friends Tim and Sherri Wheeler were nice enough to give me a job for four hours a day in October 2007.

THE PURPOSE OF LIVING

My family, Eric, Becky, Chad and Kyle are living their own lives, and doing rather well, I might say. So that part of my life is not as involved as it was. Ministry in a church at the moment has not materialized. There seems to be this idea that my service is not needed at the moment in a local church.

I have to express in some way the ministry that the Lord has called me to do. While I would love to express my love for teaching in a local church, the opportunity has not occured. I still have this spiritual need to express my love for the Lord and love for people.

So there is now a mix of ministry, one 'GROW BY LEARNING' Two, at Mex-Itali, Tim introduces me as the resident chaplain. Three, my e-mail ministry as well, and my study over the Internet.

Then in those moments to relax, I love to get into my collections.

Spring is coming and I love the outdoors. Lawn mowing is what I really enjoy doing. Soon Union Mills, Mex-Itali and our place will be ready for me to get out the old lawn mower. I also love walking about three to four miles a day (at least 30 minutes of that time is with Charity.) Then there is hitting the old golf balls! I gathered over 300 golf balls from the wooded trails surrounding the resort at Lake Cumberland last August!

Proofread by Charity, and some added remarks.