Pascha 2021

Pascha 2021

Palm Sunday at St. Thomas

Services started at 10:30 PM for the Pascha Rush service. Ilene and I had come in about 45 minutes early to help get things set up for the next three-plus hours of celebration, worship, and then feasting.

In Orthodox tradition, we spend 40 days fasting, with a couple of exceptions, on everything from meat, fish, olive oil, wine, dairy, and eggs. The Lenten Fast is a celebration of Christ, a giving up of things of the world, to grow closer to the God-man, Jesus of Nazareth.

The fast isn’t just giving up something we like, it’s giving up letting ourselves be ruled by food, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” The fast also emphasizes more prayer in our goal to grow closer to God, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul…” The Fast also emphasizes, “You shall love your neighbor as your self,” in that we are to give more of our time, money, and treasure to others. Continue reading Pascha 2021

Pilgrimage 2019

There are still old men in Greece who will bow to you when they learn you have been to Jerusalem.

Pilgrims have been traveling to the Holy Land for over two millennia hoping to walk where Jesus walked. As a history buff, however, I couldn’t help but think about how even before the time of Jesus Jerusalem was a Holy City and men and women from around the world traveled to the Jewish temples to honor the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

Our pilgrimage began back in December of last year when we saw a flyer at our church, St Thomas Orthodox Church, from Father Ilya Gotlinksy’s company Orthodox Tours. I looked through the flyer and got down to the bottom line and thought, “Hmm that’s actually quite affordable for almost two weeks in Israel, the West Bank, and Jordan”.

I went home and did some research and found out it was quite a great deal and since our priest Father Methodios and his wife Dannielle were planning on going Ilene and I started talking it over. Long story short, even though it was a bit of a stretch financially we knew it was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Thus began nearly a year of preparation for what became one of the highlights of our lives as a couple and Christians.

Over the next couple of months I’m going to recount the highlights of our trip. I plan to add photos and commentary on what we experienced and I’ll be brutally honest, I’m going to talk about what this trip has done to reinforce my faith in God.

I am not a religious scholar, I am not a clergy member, I’m just a guy who has been searching for what many have searched for in their lives; answers to the questions who are we and why are we here. These will be MY reflections and musings. I am not looking for debate or commentary. I am not looking to “convert” anyone to my way of thinking.

I believe that the best way to explain my faith is to live it. I don’t need to cram it down anyone’s throat. I don’t need to get into debates about what I believe or how I live. All I can do is to try, humbly, to live up to the two commandments emphasized by our Lord Jesus to:

      1. Love God with all your heart, all you mind, and all your being.
      2. Love your neighbor as you do yourself.

In fact I’m going to take a bold step and turn off commentary on these posts in order to express my opinion, my beliefs, and not, hopefully, create controversy and animus with my readers. I will, however, be happy to answer questions or read commentaries emailed to me at keith@keithgshafer.com. I’m hoping that this way we don’t get into the FaceBook/anti-social media propensity to troll and comment uncivilly with one another.

Again, I just want a place where I can share our adventures, some photos, and some thoughts about what we saw, what we experienced, and why it was such an important event in MY life. I’ll also be writing about our other adventures as we travel this beautiful, exciting world.

May God Bless You and I hope you’ll come along for the ride.

We’re Expecting!

That’s right! These 60-somethings are expecting a new addition to the family and it’s due in September 2019. On September 16th Ilene and I will be picking up our new Oliver Legacy Elite II Travel Trailer.

While traveling full time over the past two years we’ve kept our eyes open for just the right place for us to eventually settle into. We think we’ve found it with Fredericksburg (FBG), Texas. Continue reading We’re Expecting!

Willkommen in Fredericksburg

Willkommen in Fredericksburg, or Welcome to Fredericksburg!

Limestone buildings unique to the Texas Hill Country line Main Street in Fredericksburg and give one the feeling you’ve left the good old US of A and entered a country filled with cowboys and Indians, princes, and barons. This is the Texas of the mid 1800’s before the Civil War and not so soon after Texas won its independence from Mexico. Continue reading Willkommen in Fredericksburg

Hanging Out In Athens, TX

Imagine our surprise when our friends Hoss and Janet pulled into Texan RV Park the day before the NRVIA Conference! We’d expected them the following week and certainly not staying at Texan RV Park! They showed up just in time for Hoss to help a friend of ours back his fifth wheel into the spot next to us. Seems they’d had the 5’ver for some time but never had to back it into a spot!

We had time to get caught up that day and part of the next day while we prepared for the conference, but once the conference started we were pretty busy and only had time to visit in the late evening. Monday and Tuesday I attended Lippert Component Training learning about levelers, slideouts, awnings and other Lippert systems. Continue reading Hanging Out In Athens, TX