Gma2546

[Gma2546 @Bonnarpa]

@japan_nobunaga Despite rivalries, however, if disaster strikes one state, support from other states flows in (people and money) to the stricken state.

[Gma2546 @Bonnarpa]

@tanpukunokami In Wisconsin: cheese curds

[Rodney Smith Jr @iamrodneysmith]

Challenge Accepted! McKinley of Massillon,Ohio has stepped up to make a difference and accepting our 50 yard challenge , committing to mow 50 free yards for those in need in his community. This is what it’s all about. Welcome to the family, McKinley!

[Gma2546 @Bonnarpa]

@japan_nobunaga B + Florida

[Gma2546 @Bonnarpa]

@JamesHu27192912 @KurtSchlichter Haha. My Bavarian grandpa used to give me money and a note to go to the liquor store around the corner to buy him a bottle of beer. Yukon Erik was wrestling; had to be ready❤️

[Rodney Smith Jr @iamrodneysmith]

Braden of Arkansas City, Kansas who is taking part in our 50 yard challenge is back in action with a new lawn !

[Yoshi @fivestaryoshi]

時間が無いながらもこの行程を決めた時にココだけは絶対に行くと決めていた憧れの世界自然遺産・グランドキャニオンへ。
よく写真や映像じゃ伝わらないって言われるけど、本当にその通りで久々に言葉を失うほどの大パノラマの絶景に出会えました。
生きているうちに行けてよかった！！！

[Rodney Smith Jr @iamrodneysmith]

Hunter & Austin of Grangeville, ID who are taking part in our 50 yard challenge , have submitted a new lawn !

[NOBUNAGA🇯🇵🏯_夏樹蒼依 @japan_nobunaga]

USA. A backyard. A man. A grill. Four hours.

He never left it once.

Everyone else drifted, drank, wandered, laughed.
He stood before the flames, turning meat with a long fork, immovable.

I knew him at once.
The keeper of the sacred fire.

I took my place beside him.
I said nothing.

This is the first rule.
You do not speak first to the man at the grill.

After a long while, he spoke.

"Low and slow," he said, eyes never leaving the coals. "You can't rush it. Rush it, you ruin it."

I bowed my head.

A blade. A tea. A life.
None can be rushed.

I had crossed four thousand miles of ocean to hear my grandfather's words spoken by a man in a "KISS THE COOK" apron.

"Everything worth doing is slow," I said.

I have never cooked meat in my life.
But I said it as if I had said it a thousand times before.

He glanced at me.
Something passed between us. A current older than language.

His voice dropped, low, almost ashamed.

"My wife says just use the oven."

He shook his head at the fire.

"She doesn't get it."

"They never do," I said.

And this is where the man transformed.

For the first time in years, he had been understood.
He rose to meet it.

His back straightened.
His shoulders set.
His voice fell half an octave.

A teenager reached for the grill.
He lifted one hand without even looking.

"Not yet."

The boy retreated. He did not argue. He could not have argued.

A woman asked when the food would be done.
He told the flames, not her.

"It's ready when it's ready."

Three people approached.
Three were turned away with a single word each.

By the fourth hour, no one questioned him.
The whole party had arranged itself around the man and his fire, the way a village arranges itself around a shrine.

Then he turned to me.
He held out the fork.

"Watch it a sec. I gotta pee."

I have stood at the gate of lords with a naked blade in my hand.
Nothing has ever weighed as much as that fork.

I did not move my eyes from the coals.
I did not touch the meat.
I did not know how.
I would not learn.
To learn would be to break the moment.

When he returned, I handed back the fork without a word, as one returns a sword to its rightful master.

He served everyone before himself.
He ate last, standing, still watching the fire.

We never traded names. We did not need to.

He believed he had finally met a man who took grilling seriously.
I believed I had finally met America's last samurai.

Neither of us will correct the other.
Not now. Not ever.

So I have made a vow.

Every summer of my life, I will return to this country.
I will find a backyard. I will find a man at a grill.
I will stand beside him and say nothing until he speaks.
And when he says "low and slow," I will bow my head as if my grandfather had spoken.

I will die before I tell him I do not know how to cook meat.

"KISS THE COOK," his apron commanded.

I have obeyed.
I will obey again.

[Gma2546 @Bonnarpa]

@MoxieLady411 @TLwr24601 @CynicalPublius Truth!

[Gma2546 @Bonnarpa]

@Joeinblack Granddaughter is helping woman feed a couple batches of feral cats. She’s partial to one but it’s not interested. Patience is called for, she tells me.

[Rodney Smith Jr @iamrodneysmith]

Ryker & Bella of Ashland,Nebraska who recently signed up for our 50-yard challenge received their starter pack in the mail which included their Raising Men and Women shirts, safety glasses, and ear protection. They are now fully equipped and ready to take on the challenge ! Do you have any words of advice for this dream team ?

[Gma2546 @Bonnarpa]

@TLwr24601 @CynicalPublius Just moved here from WI in Sept. Grandkids are delighted. Was their favorite back home😊

[Gma2546 @Bonnarpa]

@TLwr24601 @CynicalPublius We have Culver’s in Florida!

[Gma2546 @Bonnarpa]

@CynicalPublius @EWErickson You have not tried the truly American burger joint until you’ve gone a White Castle and a Culver’s!

[CatholicVote @CatholicVote]

In a historic moment for Catholics across the country, Cardinal Raymond Burke consecrated the United States to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on June 12 at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

The ceremony took place on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart.

[Rodney Smith Jr @iamrodneysmith]

This morning at the event, we mowed around the entire block and helped make a positive impact in the community. One of the people I had the pleasure of meeting was Ms. Michelle, who has been living in the area since the 1960s. I also had a young man named Antoine working alongside me. It was his first time mowing, and he did a great job!

[The Husky @Mr_Husky1]

In September 1942, a single Japanese floatplane lifted off from a submarine off the coast of Oregon. In the cockpit sat Chief Warrant Officer Nobuo Fujita, carrying two 170-pound incendiary bombs and a 400-year-old samurai sword beside him in the cramped space.

His mission?

Drop the bombs over the forests of the Pacific Northwest, start a massive firestorm, and force the U.S. military to pull vital resources away from the Pacific theater.

Fujita released his bombs over Brookings, Oregon. But the mission failed. Recent rain had soaked the forest, and alert park rangers put out the small fires almost immediately. The war continued, and the strange, isolated attack slowly slipped into the margins of history.

Until 20 years later.

In 1962, a civic group in Brookings came up with an extraordinary idea. They found Fujita and invited him back as the guest of honor at their local festival.

The invitation caused national controversy and split the town. But the deepest conflict was inside Fujita himself. Deeply ashamed of what he had done during the war, Fujita accepted the invitation with a dark private promise. He packed his family’s ancient samurai sword in his luggage. Later, he admitted that if the Americans put him on trial for war crimes or publicly humiliated him, he planned to use the sword to commit seppuku, ritual suicide, right there.

But when he stepped off the plane, he was met not with hatred, but with handshakes, applause, and a town offering real forgiveness.

Overwhelmed by the mercy of the people he had once attacked, Fujita stepped to the podium and did something no one forgot. He knelt and gave the town his most treasured possession, his family’s 400-year-old samurai sword, as a lasting promise of peace.

For the rest of his life, Fujita helped fund student exchange programs between Japan and Oregon. He even returned to the exact place he had bombed and planted a redwood “peace tree.” When he died in 1997, Brookings named him an honorary citizen, and his daughter later returned to the forest to scatter some of his ashes on the land he had once tried to burn.

Today, that 400-year-old sword is displayed inside the Brookings Public Library, not as a trophy of war, but as a masterpiece of peace.

[Mr Patel 🕉️ @Patelindianlion]

From Christian Homes to Slave Markets: 4.5 Million African Christians Brutally Enslaved in 2026:

While the world keeps obsessing over slavery from centuries ago, millions of Christians are being kidnapped, bought, and sold right now in Africa yet almost no one is talking about it.

Africa has 7 million people trapped in modern slavery.

4.5 million of them are Christians.

Among the victims: 2.4 million Christian women & girls
1 million Christian children

An average slave is sold for just $90.

Worst affected Christian populations: Nigeria: 1.611 million slaves (45-50% Christian)

DR Congo: 407,000 slaves (90-95% Christian)

South Sudan: 115,000 slaves (60-70% Christian)

These are Christian believers people who follow Jesus, read the Bible, and live their faith being ripped from their homes and communities into forced labor, sexual slavery, and horrific exploitation

Why is there endless discussion about historical slavery, but complete silence on this massive ongoing Christian slavery crisis in 2026 ?

Christian lives are under attack today.

It’s time to break the silence and demand attention for this tragedy.

[Gma2546 @Bonnarpa]

@Joeinblack Happy 29! God bless you and I hope you enjoy another 29. You are a true priest.