Sheri’s Story

By Telling the Truth 

I heard the Briscoes on Focus on the Family this week and was delighted to hear their voices again!

Stuart Briscoe impacted me many years ago while I was attending a college near Los Angeles. I had transferred from another college where women were considered equal with men in ministry (for God needs all His warriors—not just the male ones). But back in the 1970s in Southern California, I was being told that women could not hold ministry leadership positions—I was told it wasn’t scriptural.

I remember Stuart’s response: He said the teachings were unclear on that subject but that he did not want to stand before God someday and be accused of stifling any woman’s calling.

Those words picked up my stifled spirit and gave me the courage to keep on serving God, regardless of what was being taught around me. It helped solidify my courage and determination.

I am now an award-winning children’s author and illustrator, teaching children about Jesus. My new book, The Prince and the Plan, which teaches children about the plan of salvation, will come out next June.

The courage I gained from Stuart Briscoe’s comments all those years ago has helped me grow bold for Jesus. Thank you!

—Sheri

*Photo of Sheri

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6 of the Longest Bridges in the U.S.

While you may be familiar with the country’s more famous bridges — such as the Brooklyn Bridge — there are many enormous ones that don’t have that kind of name recognition, though they’re equally impressive. Here are just six of the longest bridges in the United States.

Louisiana Highway 1 Bridge

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This concrete toll bridge opened in 2009 and is also known as the Gateway to the Gulf Expressway. It’s approximately nine miles long, making it one of the longest bridges not just in the United States, but in the world. It spans across Louisiana’s Bayou Lafourche, a 106-mile-long river providing drinking water to over 300,000 people. Along with LA 3090, Louisiana Highway One provides one of the only ways to access Port Fourchon by land.

If you didn’t think this bridge was long enough already, the LA 1 Improvement Project wants to expand it by nine more miles. Under this project, the bridge would ultimately reach Louisiana’s Golden Meadow. The goal is to provide better evacuation routes to residents and local businesses when Louisiana experiences hurricanes or floods. The expanded bridge would also boost the economy by making local port towns more accessible to tourists and fishers.

Bonnet Carré Spillway Bridge

Credit: Ray Devlin/ Flickr/ CC BY 2.0

This bridge is over ten miles long and carries Interstate 10. It spans Lake Pontchartrain, the LaBranche Wetlands, part of the St. John the Baptist Parishes, and, as its name suggests, the Bonnet Carré Spillway in Louisiana.

This spillway is a vital part of the Louisiana landscape. It helps to prevent the Mississippi River from flooding, reduces the river current’s speed, and prevents local levees from becoming overwhelmed. This structure has only been opened 12 times since it was completed in 1931. The huge bridge spanning across the top of it was constructed several decades later, in 1972.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel

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Shore to shore, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel spans a spectacular 17.6 miles. It was opened in 1964, and by 1965 it had been designated as “One of Seven Engineering Wonders of the Modern World.” It was also given the award for “Outstanding Engineering Achievement” by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

This bridge connects the Delmarva Peninsula with southeastern Virginia, spanning across open waters around the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. It offers an incredible amount of convenience, cutting 95 miles off the trip between Wilmington, Delaware, and Virginia Beach.

Even more impressive is the condition under which it was built; due to its location on the Atlantic Ocean, this bridge had to be constructed during hurricanes and other severe storms. In 1995, a parallel crossing project was built under these same dangerous conditions in order to make the bridge even safer and to meet the increasing traffic demands.

Atchafalaya Basin Bridge

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Sometimes called the Louisiana Airborne Memorial Bridge or the Swamp Expressway, the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge measures 18 miles long and stretches across the Atchafalaya Basin. This basin is the largest river swamp in the country, encapsulating approximately a million acres of land — more than the Florida Everglades. In fact, the word “Atchafalaya” derives from a Choctaw term and means “long river.”

The bridge is a twin bridge, meaning that it consists of two roadways running parallel to one another. It opened in 1973, and since then has become one of the busiest bridges in the state. Driving along the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge, you might find yourself driving through the treetops — parts of the bridge were elevated in order to allow barges to sail underneath. This bridge also connects several rural bayou areas with the highway, making travel much more convenient.

Manchac Swamp Bridge

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If you’re into ghost stories and impressive feats of engineering, you’ll absolutely love the Manchac Swamp Bridge. The 22.8-mile-long bridge stretches across the Manchac Swamp — a place swimming with folklore and supernatural tales. According to legend, a voodoo princess began haunting the swamp after she died in 1915. She is said to have placed a curse on the surrounding area, causing hurricanes and dangerous storms. But she isn’t alone in the swamp. She shares her space with a Rougarou, or a Cajun werewolf (and a lot of alligators).

Just over 2,000 people travel across this area every day. The bridge carries about a third of I-55 across swampland. Due to its location, it was incredibly expensive to build. In order to ensure its stability, each concrete leg of the bridge had to be planted more than 250 feet into the swamp — this means that every single mile of the bridge cost $7 million to build.

Lake Pontchartrain Causeway

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At nearly 24 miles in length, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway is the world’s longest bridge across water — it was even recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records in 1969. You should avoid this bridge if you have any sort of fear of heights or water; once you get far enough onto it, there is a portion of the bridge where you completely lose sight of land in all directions. Drivers have been known to freeze up during this eight-mile stretch, suddenly feeling trapped and frightened. It is a common enough occurrence that local police know to simply escort these motorists back off the bridge.

NEW TESTAMENT STUDY

View today’s reading at Bible Gateway Titus 1 1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness— 2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, 3 and which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior, 4 To Titus, my true son in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. Appointing Elders Who Love What Is Good 5 The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. 6 An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. 7 Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. 8 Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. 9 He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. Rebuking Those Who Fail to Do Good 10 For there are many rebellious people, full of meaningless talk and deception, especially those of the circumcision group. 11 They must be silenced, because they are disrupting whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. 12 One of Crete’s own prophets has said it: “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” 13 This saying is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith 14 and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the merely human commands of those who reject the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. 16 They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good. New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

9 Things You Never Knew About Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the U.S, and it is known for being cold, remote, and mostly barren. But there’s a lot you might not know about Alaska. Here are nine unique facts about the northernmost state.

Alaska’s Capital City Isn’t Accessible by Car

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With a population of approximately 32,000, the capital city of Juneau is one of the largest cities in Alaska. But it has a very distinctive feature: it is only accessible by ferry or plane.

Although there have been some attempts to create a road out of Juneau, the city’s location makes it difficult; it is surrounded by enormous glaciers and ice fields, and its one ice-free side runs along the Tongass National Forest. While the Alaska Department of Transportation tried in the 1990s to build a road through this area, it proved to be both too environmentally damaging and too dangerous. The road would have run alongside a 2,000-foot-tall fjord and been surrounded by moose, bears, and wolve

The First Hammer Museum in the U.S. Is Located Here

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If you want a totally unique museum experience, make your way up to Haines, Alaska, the home of the first-ever U.S. museum dedicated to the history of the hammer. Simply named the Hammer Museum, this nonprofit first opened as a private collection in 2002. It has a collection of over 7,000 hammers, with a rotating display of about 2,000 at any given time. The Hammer Museum’s mission statement is a single, straight to the point sentence: “To preserve the history of the hammer.”

The Longest and Shortest Days in the U.S. Occur in Barrow

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In the northernmost state in the country, Barrow is the northernmost community. Here, the sun stays up from May until August — a day that lasts over two months. This distinctive type of unending daylight is called midnight sun, and it’s only found in areas located above the Arctic Circle. Approximately 33% of Alaska lies above this circle, making for some very intense days.

Also, Barrow also has one of the longest nights. From mid-November through January, the sun never fully rises above the horizon, leading to over two months of dim twilight.

There Is More Coastline in Alaska Than Anywhere Else in the U.S.

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Alaska has more coastline than the rest of the U.S. combined. It has a shore that stretches for 6,640 miles. For comparison, the next largest coastline is Florida’s, measuring at 1,350 miles — at least, that’s how the Congressional Research Service measures it.

If you take islands into account, Alaska has even more shoreline — approximately 33,904 miles of it in total. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration measures Florida’s coast at closer to 8,400 miles, which is still solidly in second place.

Alaska Is Bigger Than the 22 Smallest U.S. States Combined

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Speaking of size, Alaska is enormous. While most people know that it’s the biggest state, you might be surprised by just how big it is. Alaska is 665,384 square miles; it makes up about 18 percent of the total land area of the United States. Also, it has more landmass than the 22 smallest states combined. In fact, the second largest state, Texas, is just about 40 percent of the size of Alaska. If Alaska were to become an independent country, it would be the 18th largest in the entire world. But for how huge it is, Alaska doesn’t have many residents. In fact, the ratio of humans to landmass makes Alaska one of the world’s most sparsely populated areas.

There Are a Lot of Bears

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Alaska is the only state that is home to all three North American bear species: brown bears, black bears, and polar bears. There are so many bears in this state that the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has 10 webpages dedicated to teaching residents how to safely live alongside them. Some tips include keeping your garbage in bear-resistant containers, setting up electric fences around your property, and incinerating your trash.

The State Flag Was Designed by a Teenager

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In 1926, Alaska was still a territory, not a state — but the governor, George Parks, wanted to change that. He thought that having a state flag was a good first step. In 1927 he introduced a flag-making contest to Alaskan children in grades 7 through 12. The winner of this contest, Benny Benson, was a 13-year-old orphan with Swedish, Russian, and Aleut roots. His design featured the Big Dipper, symbolizing strength, and the North Star, symbolizing Alaska’s future.

Alaska Has a Lot of Laws About Moose

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Most states have their own weird, outdated laws that nobody understands, and Alaska is no exception. This state is unique, though, in how many of its regulations center around moose. It is illegal, for example, to whisper in somebody’s ear while they’re moose hunting. It is also considered an offense to feed alcohol to a moose. Perhaps most strangely, Alaska has a law stating that it is illegal to push a moose out of a moving airplane — hopefully not a situation that too many people will actually have to deal with.

Roadkill Is Turned Into Food

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With an estimated 800 to 1,000 moose killed in traffic accidents every year in Alaska — in addition to the slightly lower number of deer and bears that are hit — hundreds of thousands of pounds of roadkill end up on the sides of Alaska’s motorways annually. In the 1970s, the state formed a roadkill salvage program designed to clean up the roadways and make use of the meat that would otherwise go to waste. The system works by alerting troopers when a large animal has been killed in the road. The animal is then collected and turned into edible meat that is generally used in stews or ground into sausages and burgers.

Written by Travel Trivia Editorial