Rising Park and Standing Stone

The lovely Robin and I journeyed yesterday to Lancaster, Ohio, where both our children were born, and where we spent our first three years of ministry in the early 1980s. While there (for the funeral of Marguerite King, a dear friend and saint of God), we took a short drive through the memorable and beautiful Rising Park, on the city's north side. .

I fondly remember many "corps suppers" and "praise meetings" in the park shelter. I also sometimes went here alone, to pray.

On the west side of Rising Park is Mount Pleasant, a 250-foot-high sandstone bluff called "Standing Stone" by earlier Native American peoples (that's the Fairfield County Fairgrounds in the foreground). Chief Tarhe of the Wyandots camped here in 1797, and on clear days people standing atop this stone can see the Columbus skyline to the north.

It had been far too long since we'd been to Lancaster, a fondly-remembered town. There's a lot to do there, too, from the home of Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman to the Lancaster Festival, an 11-day arts and music festival, to the Pilgrimage Tour of homes, held the first weekend of May each year (Robin and I LOVED the tour the time or two we did it...circa 1982!). Oh, and perhaps the most historic site of all: the hospital where our children were born.