A Special Lantern #87

This lanterns is special. It's one I just recently made for my wife. Of all the lanterns I've made, she's never had one of her own to decorate and that suited her. So, I was able to get some scrap walnut boards from my dad and started buiding only the second lantern that I've made with a front door. What was neat was the different colors of wood within the walnut. It took me 2-3 times longer to build than a normal lantern but I think it turned out pretty well. I finished it with an old furniture oil that my wife's dad had called "Powder House". It really made the grain "pop". I don't think I'll be making another one like this very soon. :-)

2012 Deer Expo

Had a great time at the annual Deer Expo that my sister and brother-in-laws church puts on in Pittsfield IL. It's always the Wednesday night before the first deer shotgun season and caters to the hunters. It's a great ministry and my first time to set my Bibles For The World/Lanterns of Light table up. Selling is not allowed but I made some good contacts and loved talking with the people....and there was a LOT of people! I was able to hand out a few Bibles, business cards and ran out of gospel tracts. As usual, the kids keep coming back for more. The tracts from Livingwaters are the best ever. Here are some pics of the event.

Fort de Chartres Winter Camp

We had a great time camping at Fort de Chartres the first weekend of November. There were a lot of firsts for me this time. It was the first time I got to tent camp with some new friends named Logan, Dillon and Zack. They are a great bunch of guys and a joy to be around. My normal camping buddies, Dale, Simeon and Brooke were there too. I can’t say enough about what good friends they are. I look forward to many more camps with or new formed group again. It was also the first time that I had camped in temperatures that got below freezing! Friday night, when we arrived, they were out of firewood. We’re not allowed to bring our own in but Dale and I had not had supper yet and it was getting much colder after dark. Finally, about 8:00 a load of wood arrived and they, thankfully, dumped it just a few yards from our campsite. Dale and I cooked fresh trout on a flat rock and it was late when we turned in. Saturday night is when we got the really hard frost. There was a heavy fog in the morning. At least we had enough wood to keep everyone warm around the fire. The one picture is a guy trying to brush his teeth.

It was the first time that I got to hang my business shingle on its new hanger. We were camped back only the levee, away from most the vendors, but I believe that the sign helped to draw attention to my lanterns and my dad’s totes he had made. I was able to get rid of all my lanterns but one!

A lot of good memories were made this weekend. We had four guns made by Jackie Brown in our camp; a smooth rifle 20 gauge of Dales, a smooth rifle 28 gauge of Simeon’s, a 20 gauge fowler of mine plus a .45 caliber pistol. The fowler is not finished yet so will be a good winter project of me.

I’ll not forget the three younger guy’s tent almost going up in smoke. The rear door flap caught fire from being too close to the stove pipe. We got it put out before too much damage was done.

Dale led our Sunday service and he really did a great job. Talking about God’s blessings and how He has worked in the lives of our fore fathers is always great. We want to make that a permanent feature of our future camps.

This was really one of the better events that I’ve been to. The food was great, we had guests to our camp, we froze to death, fun with good friends and we picked up some new gear! Plus, I sold some lanterns(the proceeds from these will go to help with the medical clinic expenses that Bibles For The World just finished). They put on a Woodswalk event as well and hopefully by next year we can have a team to participate. That will be another first!

Here's a few more event pics. Thanks for visiting.

That all the world may know!

I would be very grateful to anyone who would be willing to help me reach my goal and send Bibles to Nepal. You can follow the link to the right under my listed emails, called grouprev, for information about how to do it. This link is for use with a credit card only. If you wish to send a check directly to me, please send me an email. I am at $200 towards my goal of $500 at present. Thank you for helping to send God's gospel around the world! Our Lord and King, first served, Mark

Prairie Land Heritage Steam Show 2012

I was able to set my Bibles For The World table up in the barn this year where other craft booths were. It was great not having to tear down and set back up each day. I also had some great neighbors around me. We had three days of fantastic weather and a large crowd was on hand this year. When business was slow on Saturday, I went out on the grounds and did some "town crying". Not sure if it worked but business seemed to pickup shortly after. It could have been that it was approaching dinner and the ham and beans drew them my way, since our booths were right next to the kitchen! My parents had a spot outside to sell assorted wood products and odds and ends. I made some great contacts and sold a few lanterns. My granddaughter, Julia, helped me hand out gospel tracts. She was a big help. This is beoming one of my favortite events. I may do things a little different next year and hope to have a peddlers cart to move my wares around the grounds instead of being restricted to one place. We'll see. Here's some pictures of the event. Until our Lord's return, I remain, Mark Bentley

MY NEW SHINGLE IS FINALLY FINISHED!

Well, I actually think I do have a good excuse for being so far behind on posting to this blog. The Prairie Land Heritage Steam Show is coming around again at the end of this month and I’ve been very busy preparing for it. I’ve been trying to get my new business shingle made, renovating our old house plus, trying to increase my inventory of lanterns. Here are two pictures of the Lanterns of Light shingle. The short one will be used at outdoor events and the porch post will be utilized at indoor events. I have three special people to thank for helping turn the sign into reality. The sign was actually designed by a Christian friend named Ken P. He also helped with the same design for my business card. By the way, the business cards were also printed by a good friend named Greg T.

The above picture was taken in front of my new woodworking shop that I hope to be making the lanterns in soon. The red bench will be repainted to match the house color. The sign was painted by my son-in-laws mother Mary Jo S. And the hangers were made by a Christian blacksmith named Don A. The lantern on top of the porch post has a battery operated candle that flickers. It all breaks down for easy transport. I am so grateful for all the time, money and effort they donated in doing such a great job with it. I’m anxious to display it indoors at the Steam Show.

I’ll be posting pictures of the show after it’s over and hopefully in good time. Pray that things go well for my family and me at the event. Also, please pray that people will be interested in BFTW and sponsoring some children in India. But, most importantly that they will take some tracts, see their need for the Savior, and give their lives to the Lord. Till next time, Our Lord and King first served. Mark

June Lantern Highlight #49/12 & #50/12

June’s lantern highlight consists of two lanterns I made for a friend of mine, Greg T. and his family. These lanterns are made of Ash and were cut out of the same board. I wanted them to be a matched pair yet somewhat like bookends so one has a lifting dowel in the left rear corner and one in the right rear corner. The wood grain was excellent with both of them and Greg’s family was very pleased with how they came out. So was I. Our Lord and King, first served, Mark

May Lantern Highlight #62/12

As you can tell, I’m WAY late getting this month’s lantern highlight posted. But, here it is. It’s one that our friends Bud and Barb bought. They wanted one that was a lighter shade of stain than I normally use to go with their home decor. This is the glass lift model that is made of Ash with rounded corners. I put a mirror in the back and also a paraffin candle instead a grungy one. The wood knots look nice, but, this had to be one of the hardest lanterns I’ve ever made, I think, due to them. I had the worst time getting the glass to lift right. But, it turned out pretty good I think.

Thanks for looking. Mark

A FORT NIGHT

The first weekend in April, I took part in the Spring fort event at Fort de Chartres. I had not camped over night at this event before so I was excited about it. My friends Dale and Simeon, with Simeons lovely daughter Brooke, would be camping as well with me. I took my diamond tent and Simeon had his.

Dale and I arrived on Friday morning shortly after Simeon and Brooke. It was "School Day" at the fort and many buses of school kids arrived to check out the living history. This is a juried event that depicts life on the frontier between 1760 & 1780.

Dale was especially excited about the event because he was going to be picking up his new coat made by our good friend Kathy. It looked great and was a blue version of mine.

Friday night Simeon and Brooke had to leave but would be back the following day and spend the night. Dale and I cooked pheasant on the spit and it was really good. One of our neighbors gave us a loaf of bread and I imagined this might have been like what the children of Israel experienced with quail and manna in the wilderness.

We slept fairly well Friday night on top of our lose stray even though it was a tad bit chili. We had pitched our tents out in the front of the fort gate so we did not hear too much of all the night time activities taking place within the fort. All in all, it was a pretty pleasant night.

I had to leave the next morning early to get back for my grand-daughters first birthday party. It was great being at the fort again and meeting old friends. I look forward to going back for the Summer event.