Two elephants, two giraffes and even two detailed cardinals sit perched on the brightly colored, three-dimensional mural recently completed in the pre-school/kindergarten Sunday School classroom at the First United Methodist Church in Miller. When the Christian Education Committee at the church decided to depict a Bible story on the wall of the classroom, they were turned down after asking Mary Breitling to take on the task. It wasn't until some time later that she changed her mind and decided to tackle the project as it fit into her schedule. "Lots of churches have Noah's Ark. I wanted to do something different," said Mary. And different she did! Mary enlisted the help of her husband, Bryan, and together their creativity blossomed. "Mary told me what she wanted, and I did it," remarked Bryan. "She wanted a ten foot ark!" The couple started the project on a Saturday and finished a week later on Sunday. First, Bryan constructed the ark in their garage using plywood, shaped 2x4s and quarter-inch tongue and groove to get the 3-D effect. "We had to leave one of our vehicles outside," Mary added, "the ark took up one whole stall in our garage." Mary added the finish to the ark using a watered-down brown paint which she rubbed off after applying it. Next, Mary searched through clip art to decide which animals would be featured in the ark. The animals were then blown up and Bryan cut them out of wood. Mary carefully painted each one adding life-like details. The only problem she encountered was while painting the animals. The green printing stamped on the plywood bled through after the animals were painted, so she had to turn them over and free-hand the faces on the other side. The male lion was saved until last, which turned out to be their favorite animal. The animals were fastened to the wall using various sizes of spacers to add to the three-dimensional effect.Pastor Dave Andrews helped prepare the wall initially by painting it blue and also helped paint the waves. Gene Norton added the two port-holes and the men's breakfast group also lent a hand with the project."It turned out a lot better than I thought it would," said Bryan. Mary recalls conveying her satisfaction with the project to Bryan as well. The Education Committee was awed with the finished ark, having thought she was going to just paint a mural on the wall. "We really appreciate all their work," remarked Pastor Andrews. "They have made Noah's Ark come to life."This was the first project of any magnitude that they had ever been a part of. Before they had a family, Bryan used to cut projects out of wood and Mary painted them. However, Mary has completed a few other painting projects including a solar system and the Twins logo in her sons' rooms. As for now, they have no future plans for any huge woodworking projects.The Breitlings are members of the Methodist church. Bryan is administrator at Hand County Memorial Hospital. He is also currently working on his Masters in Business Administration with an emphasis on Health Care at the University of Sioux Falls. Mary is employed by the Miller Area School District in the Special Education Department. They have three children, Mason 10, Camden 7 and Abby 6.

Once again, our little Newsblog his listed with a group of bloggers. This time it is the Knight Citizen News Network (KCNN). they call us a Citizen Media Site. You can read what they have to say about us in more detail on this link: http://www.kcnn.org/citmedia_sites/detail/234/

After a whole lot of reading, study, and prayer, nothing was going to keep Jerry Hinkle from the Lay Speakers course at the Methodist Church in Onida. The Friday Night session was cancelled because of a widespread blizzard. A blizzard that at one time was rated as 2 telephone polls on the Harold Hinkle Blizzard Scale. That's less than a quarter mile!

People came to Onida from as far away as Rapid City and Clear Lake, South Dakota to learn all they could from Larry Cass and Susie O' Connell. There were 11 students in the basic course, among them were Mary, Jerry, and Kristi Hinkle, Tom Hovland of Pierre, who serves as the Secretary of the Department of Public safety, and as such, works with Doug Hinkle, and Carol Zilverberg's sister in law, Mary Lomheim.

The event was fun, but Jerry Managed to learn a little something along the way. One little note to all of them who have said through the years that Jerry is certifiable, he did get certified. He won't be able to preach outside his own church just yet, but they won't be able to contain him very much longer, try as they may.

John Zilverberg brings his unique perspective on taxes. In his way, he asks a question that many have been asking. " If a man can afford to buy a hospital, is he paying his fair share in taxes? " We won't name any names, even though we all know who we are speaking of whenever the question is posed. More on John's grasp of the subject can be read here: http://johnzilverberg.blogspot.com/2007/02/taxes.html

As for me, I think of it as the 21st Century version of the old Robber Barons. The Carnegies, the Morgans, and the Rockefellers. Each of these men made an obscene amount of money while they were able. Later on they decided to give it away. They build libraries, parks, even hospitals with their names on them. I don't begrudge anyone who has the means to do that the opportunity to do so. After all, Jesus tells us to give money to the poor. I do wish that those that do it didn't have to do so on the backs of those with huge interest on their credit card bills.