Ahhh. . . Spring Break

The long overdue spring break is finally here. Hooray!

The ride home yesterday was quite uneventful. There were many statetroopers on the road but nothing to cause delay except for a few minor accidents.

This morning I woke at about 10:00 AM after about 9 hours of sleep. After eating breakfast I dove into some old geneaology records. I was amazed to find out how many of my ancesters came from Ireland and Scotland. On my mom's side of the family there was the line of the Faris family which came from Ireland, the County Down in-particular. From Scotland came two other family lines, the McDonalds and the Armstrongs. George Armstrong (my great-grandfather) who was a missionary married Margaret Faris. Throughout their marriage my grandparents served as missionaries to China, which I think is really cool.

Earlier than that my great-great-great-great granfather, Archibald McDonald, came to America at the age of 12 (ironically enough, I have ancestors on my dad's side of the family with the name, McDonald, who came from Scotland, could there be a connection?). Archibald was born in 1760 in Inverness, Scotland. For seven years he served in the Revolutionary War as a fifer in the 1st Pennsylvania Regiment and played at the battle of Yorktown. Is it a coincidence that my great-great-great-great grandfather was a musician? Besides my great-x4 grandfather "Archie," I also have many other ancestors in the Faris family who served in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. I always wondered if I had ancestors who served in the early wars.

Besides researching my family ancestors, I managed to get in some practice today and I saw the last half of, "The Fiddler on the Roof." I think I saw the "Fiddler on the Roof" a long time ago but I vaguely remember it. On a very high note, I finished Elisabeth Elliot's book, "Through Gates of Splendor," today. After reading the book and seeing the movie, "End of the Spear," I am captivated by what the five missionaries did. I highly recommend everyone read the book or at least see the movie. The first epilogue in the book was of particular interest to me. Part of my thesis is that Jim Elliot's martyrdom had a profound effect on Christians. Well in the first epilogue, Elisabeth explains the tremendous response of Christians around the world, after the missionaries' deaths. She says one eighteen year-old wrote her to tell her that he was so inspired by their martyrdoms, he planned on going into the mission field. It is awesome to see how the Lord uses situations. I sometimes ponder. . ."maybe I'll go into missions someday."

Anyway I have to go to bed seeing as I have church in 9 hours and I have plenty of work to do over spring break.