August 9th ~ The Badlands

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."
Such a simple statement, but so profound! To think that what many believe to have taken billions of years to evolve, God created in six literal 24-hour days and rested on the Sabbath (thus creating a day of rest for mankind).
Then sin came into the world through Adam and Eve. As generation after generation was born, "God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually." (Genesis 6:6) The wickedness of man grieved God's heart to the point He was sorry He had ever made man. But one man found grace in the eyes of the LORD....it was Noah. God's description? "Noah was a just man and perfect (upright) in his generations, and Noah walked with God." (Genesis 6:9)
God told Noah to build an ark because He was going to send judgment to the earth and destroy all flesh. When the ark was completed, Noah, along with his wife, sons, and their wives, went into the ark, and the animals went in according to God's commandment.
The flood came. It rained for forty days and forty nights. For one hundred and fifty literal 24-hour days, the waters prevailed upon the earth.
When the flood dried up, it left what many say took billions of years to erode. In areas it was an earth so desolate it took on the name

The Badlands

Could you imagine being a settler in the 1800's and coming across a place such as this?

We were going right past on our way from Mobridge to Rapid City so we decided to take a little detour.

They call this a "mini Grand Canyon".

Antelope and Buffalo and Rattlesnakes....oh, my! : )

It was amazing to see all the different rock formations.

We happened to be in the area during the Sturgis annual bike rally.
(thus all the bikes)
We weren't familiar with the bike rally, but we found out all we ever thought we needed to know about it and more when our GPS took us right through the middle of Sturgis the week before the rally officially began.

Hardly anything grew there.

We had been riding in the bus with "natural air conditioner" for quite a few hours. It was great for picture taking as we could just stick the camera out the window and click in any direction we desired.....but it wasn't the best for the hairdos. : ) : )

Playin' "King of the Mountain"?

God's creation is so beautiful!

The prairie

We got to see a few buffalo, but not as close as we had hoped.

But the prairie dogs were everywhere. They were so cute as they scuttled from hole to hole in their little towns. We also saw a couple coyotes and a herd of antelope. Not an every day occurrence for us. : )
When we got back to Rapid City, our van was waiting on us, all ready for the trip back East. (Thank you, Heggems!)
We stayed in a mission house in Des Moines, IA for a couple of days, drove to Montezuma, IN on the 13th and stayed the night there in a prophet's chamber, then drove on in to Clarksburg, WV where we had a meeting yesterday (Aug. 15th) at Old Time Baptist Church. We had a wonderful time with the people here. Such sweet, sweet people! : )
We'll post pictures of the flooding in IA and our meeting in Clarksburg in about a week. Today we are heading into oblivion : )....no internet or cell phones....and won't be back into "civilization" until Thursday.