Higher Ground Drone, Wyoming, MN (2026)

06/13/2026

Fort Severson, Carpenter, Iowa
Actually, it’s just a barn but where’s the fun in that? It’s long been called Fort Severson by Mitchell and Worth County residents. Actually, the term “Fort” was a common designation on the American frontier for larger secure structures built by early pioneers. These included some churches, a remote farm house or other safe place to stay when needed. People often found themselves away from more populated areas on the prairie and needed good shelter. Sadly, it never actually acted as a “fort” for protection.

But that takes away nothing from the structure itself. Solidly and skillfully constructed of local limestone and timber from surrounding woodlands, it has survived since the mid 1850s.

In 1867, Nels Severson constructed this two-story barn, Fort Severson, in the clearing close to his house with the help of his neighbors. This 30’ x 32’ stone two-story barn has walls 18” thick of irregularly cut local limestone held in place by lime mortar. The gable roof was once covered with wood shingles and later with cedar shakes. The loft flooring was originally of planks. This barn is a lovingly crafted example of frontier building, using local materials in a simple but enduring way.

In 1864, Nels joined the Iowa 12th Regiment (according to his pension documents) Infantry, Co. G as a private and served until the close of the Civil War in 1865 returning home to his wife and two young daughters. They eventually had seven children and remained here until Nels died in 1914 and Anna in 1926, both in their 80’s. They are buried at their local church cemetery, Deer Creek Lutheran (ok I am a Lutheran pastor so I needed to note that!).

The date is 1867 is etched into one of the rocks on the outside. It is weathered and hard to make out, but it is there!

06/11/2026

Green Giant, Blue Earth Minnesota.
The Green Giant statue stands more than 55 feet tall. He is 8,000 pounds of sculpted green fiberglass. And Little Sprout was added later!

Still raining and foggy but the cross country adventure off off the beaten track locations continues. I am making the best of the weather and dark skies (hoping I can lighten the dark sky in photoshop later! I met a young family in an RV touring the same same off the beaten path places. The first of many new friends!

The story of the Green Giant goes like this…. This section of the road was set to open in the late 1970s, and some local buisnessmen came up with the idea of installing a Green Giant statue nearby in hopes of luring motorists to pass through town. They received permission from the President of Green Giant to build the statue, but were told they would need to raise the necessary funds. Luckily, the $50,000 needed for construction of the statue was raised by local businesses within only a week.

Work on the statue began in Sparta, Wisconsin, in 1978. While Green Giant advertising was able to provide some of the necessary guidance for the statue, the Giant's backside had to be designed from scratch, as it had never been depicted in any ads.
The completed statue was too large to fit in a flatbed truck, so its arms and the rest of its body were transported separately (that would be great to see), and everything was put together upon arrival in Blue Earth.

On July 6, 1979, the statue was erected on an eight-foot-high base with a staircase so that tourists could climb up and pose for pictures between the Giant's legs. Upon its completion, the smiling Giant was the fifth-largest free-standing statue in the United States.

Every winter, the Blue Earth Fire Department gives the Giant an enormous red scarf to keep his neck warm in the Minnesota cold.

06/11/2026

Green Giant, Blue Earth Minnesota.
The Green Giant statue stands more than 55 feet tall. He is 8,000 pounds of sculpted green fiberglass. And Little Sprout was added later!

Still raining and foggy but the cross country adventure off off the beaten track locations continues. I am making the best of the weather and dark skies (hoping I can lighten the dark sky in photoshop later! I met a young family in an RV touring the same same off the beaten path places. The first of many new friends!

The story of the Green Giant goes like this…. This section of the road was set to open in the late 1970s, and some local buisnessmen came up with the idea of installing a Green Giant statue nearby in hopes of luring motorists to pass through town. They received permission from the President of Green Giant to build the statue, but were told they would need to raise the necessary funds. Luckily, the $50,000 needed for construction of the statue was raised by local businesses within only a week.

Work on the statue began in Sparta, Wisconsin, in 1978. While Green Giant advertising was able to provide some of the necessary guidance for the statue, the Giant's backside had to be designed from scratch, as it had never been depicted in any ads.
The completed statue was too large to fit in a flatbed truck, so its arms and the rest of its body were transported separately (that would be great to see), and everything was put together upon arrival in Blue Earth.

On July 6, 1979, the statue was erected on an eight-foot-high base with a staircase so that tourists could climb up and pose for pictures between the Giant's legs. Upon its completion, the smiling Giant was the fifth-largest free-standing statue in the United States.

Every winter, the Blue Earth Fire Department gives the Giant an enormous red scarf to keep his neck warm in the Minnesota cold.

06/11/2026

“Hermann the German” New Ulm, Minnesota. This is the first stop on a cross county adventure to drive from Minnesota to Austin Texas.

“Hermann the German” (Arminius) was a 1st-century Germanic chieftain who famously defeated three Roman legions in 9 AD, halting Roman expansion. He is celebrated by a 129-year-old, 102-foot monument in New Ulm, Minnesota.

The Historical Figure (Arminius): Born around 17 BC was a Cheruscan chieftain who trained in Rome but later led a tribal alliance to victory in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. He is considered a symbol of early German unity and liberation.

The New Ulm Monument was dedicated in 1897, the monument is a copper statue of Hermann holding a sword and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is a cultural landmark for German-Americans.

Due to extensive water damage and structural issues with the base, the monument requires an estimated $11.6 million in restoration.

Unfortunately, the day I visited was foggy, overcast and it started to rain! I still managed to put the drone up and capture these photos!

06/11/2026

“Hermann the German” New Ulm, Minnesota. This is the first stop on a cross county adventure to drive from Minnesota to Austin Texas.

“Hermann the German” (Arminius) was a 1st-century Germanic chieftain who famously defeated three Roman legions in 9 AD, halting Roman expansion. He is celebrated by a 129-year-old, 102-foot monument in New Ulm, Minnesota.

The Historical Figure (Arminius): Born around 17 BC was a Cheruscan chieftain who trained in Rome but later led a tribal alliance to victory in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. He is considered a symbol of early German unity and liberation.

The New Ulm Monument was dedicated in 1897, the monument is a copper statue of Hermann holding a sword and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is a cultural landmark for German-Americans.

Due to extensive water damage and structural issues with the base, the monument requires an estimated $11.6 million in restoration.

Unfortunately, the day I visited was foggy, overcast and it started to rain! I still managed to put the drone up and capture these photos!

06/06/2026

Don’t delete a picture - you never know what you might see in it later!!

We’ve learned that lesson dozens of times over the course our trips to Biblical lands. It just happened again the other day…

We were lamenting that after all of the times we’ve been to the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, we still haven’t been able to find a way to see the ancient baptistery. This is one of the earlier baptisteries in existence (definitely not the earliest), some date it to the 537 reconstruction of the ancient church by Emperor Justinian. We’ve seen pictures of it online (one included in the photos posted here) but our guide has never been able to take us to it. Scrolling through photos we took from the balcony of the Hagia Sophia in May 2025 we paused at a picture of a window looking out into a small courtyard… could it be… YES!! It is the courtyard where the massive marble immersion baptismal font is now located! Zooming in we can even get a blurry glimpse of the end of the font itself. So while not entirely satisfactory, and we didn’t notice it at the time, I guess we’ve seen it!

Another thing we had read about in the Hagia Sophia is a carving in the stone lintel above the Imperial Gate that reads “The Lord said: I am the door for the sheep. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved; he will come in and go out and find pasture”. Looking at the door, one focuses on its massive size, the cross in the door that has been altered, and the golden shimmering mosaic above the door of Christ and Leo bowing to him. We found that we had captured the lintel carving too!

A final example: we were standing in the nave on the main floor of the Hagia Sophia (which for a few years now has been off limits to tourists) and did some video clips just panning around the vast space. It wasn’t until long after that visit that we noticed the video captured a black and white mosaic high up on a wall with a stylized church and dome and a cross at the center.

So, moral of the story - don’t be so quick to delete your “extra” photos and videos, you never know what surprises they might hold!

While not exactly biblical archeology, the Hagia Sophia is a fascinating place with a long and complex history that begins early in the life of the Christian church. It was built in 360 AD by Emperor Constantine, less than 50 years after the legalization of Christianity. It has gone through fire, earthquake, reconstruction, renovations, conversion to a mosque then a museum then a mosque again. In spite of this, the Christian foundations of this space in the early church are readily evident in hundreds of ways. If you are in Turkiye to follow the footsteps of Paul in Asia Minor, or to go to the archeological sites of the 7 churches of the Revelation, the Hagia Sophia truly is a must see - whatever small part of it we are allowed to see at any given time!

For more Biblical travel photos and videos visit us at:
www.scriptureinstone.org/blog

05/16/2026

Greek Agora of Athens

“Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.” Acts 17:16-17

At the time of Paul ’s visit to Athens (50ish AD), the city and the agora (marketplace) were already past their pinnacle of importance:
The temple of Hephaestus had already stood for over 5 centuries, dedicated to both Hephaistos the god of the forge and Athena, the goddess of arts and crafts.
The great Stoa of Attalos was funded by the King of Pergamon of Asia Minor in 159 BC
The Tholos - headquarters of the Athenian government - had been functioning for over 400 years
The Metroon, or state archive and sanctuary of the mother god (Meter Theon) had been complete for over 150 years
The awe inspiring structures on the acropolis high above the agora, the Parthenon and the Temple of Athena Nike, had been gleaming in the sun for nearly 500 years already
The grand processions on the Panathenic way through the agora and up to the acropolis had been going on since 566 BC

Athen’s was still an intellectual capital of the Greek world, but Rome was taking over. Athens was still a center of philosophy and a place to argue and entertain any and every school of thought and idol and false god. Paul clearly recognized how far from truth all of their famous philosophies and temples had taken the Greek and Roman world. God placed Paul in Athens, debating with the intellectuals and civic leaders, at a time when the message of Christ crucified and risen would be given a hearing, and at the beginning of the decline of this world of false gods. Just 30 or so years later, the agora would become more of a roman administrative center. In the next two centuries Athens would be invaded by Germanic tribes and Visigoths and the lauded agora with most of its temples would be lost under layers of rubble and dirt.

The world would not discover the Athenian Greek Agora again until the 1930’s. The Temple of Hephaistos survived largely because it became a Christian Church. The same is true of the Parthenon (until it was blown up in 1687!). What a contrast to the enduring message of salvation that Paul introduced to the Areopagus of Athens!

For more Biblical travel photos and videos visit us at;
www.scriptureinstone.org/blog

05/12/2026

We got the bikes out tonight! Just a nice six mile ride in the neighborhood. So fun!

05/09/2026

Euphrates River

“The name of the third river is the Tigris… and the fourth river is the Euphrates.“ Genesis 2:14

“He [King Solomon] ruled over all the kings from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and to the border of Egypt” 2 Chronicles 9:22-26

“He [Jacob] fled with all that he had and arose and crossed the Euphrates, and set his face toward the hill country of Gilead” Genesis 31:21

The River Euphrates is mentioned directly 21 times in the Bible and an additional 30 or so indirect references. The Euphrates marked one of the borders of the land that God promised to Abraham and his descendants. Ancient Mesopotamian civilization and its great kingdoms and cities were possible because of the Euphrates and the Tigris Rivers and their reliable flood cycles feeding the soil. Sumerian cities of Ur, Uruk and Eridu from 3000 BC. The Akkadian empire and its cities of Sippar and long lost Agade. The Babylonian empire. Assyria and many more. Abraham and Terah likely followed the Euphrates as they led their families and flocks north away from Ur and to Harran (in southern Turkiye today). For the Old Testament Israelites, the Euphrates was also the route of the enemy - Assyria and Babylon would come northwest along the Euphrates, then follow the Fertile Crescent as it turned south toward the Levant to conquer everything in their path.

We crossed the Euphrates at the modern day Turkish city of Birecik as we traveled from Harran to ancient Syrian Antioch on the Mediterranean. Still today the river is a crucial source of drinking water for parts of the down stream countries of Syria and Iraq. The river’s headwaters are in the eastern Anatolian mountains of Turkiye. In Turkiye, the river is an important source of hydroelectric power. Numerous massive hydroelectric dams in each of these countries create political tension and controversy as everyone needs a piece of this valuable resource.

Standing on a bridge looking down on this great river brings on a vivid imaging of the Old Testament events that were shaped by the river. 2000 BC seems not so impossibly long ago!

For more biblical travel photos and videos visit us at:
www.scriptureinstone.org/blog

05/03/2026

Southern Steps of Temple Mount, Jerusalem

“Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.” John 8:2

To sit on the broad monumental steps of the staircase leading up to Temple Mount from the south is to experience being in a place where Jesus and his disciples walked many times as they came to the temple to worship and teach. The bright sun, with a quality unique to Jerusalem, in contrast to the cold stone steps (many hewn directly from the bedrock of Mount Moriah) give a physical sensation of weight to our salvation history. It’s an amazing place to sit and envision the Biblical era pilgrims coming up from the pool of Siloam in the City of David to worship and offer sacrifices at the Temple. And to envision Jesus, the ultimate sacrifice for sin, teaching and foretelling his death and resurrection. We long to go back to this place and experience it again!

The entrance to the Ophel and to the southern steps of Temple Mount are through the Davidson Archeological park at the southern end of the Western Wall plaza. The steps were built in the time of Herod the Great’s enlargement of the Temple Mount platform. The steps have varying narrow and deep treads to slow the pilgrim, encouraging prayer and contemplation as they approached the temple. Rabbis and teachers could use this large broad area to address groups of people and thus the name “Teaching Steps”. Nearby are ritual mikveh pools for purification before entering the temple area. Once the top of the steps were reached, there were two sets of gates onto Temple Mount, the west double gate and the east triple gate. They became known as the Huldah gates.

Both sets of gates originally led to underground vaulted ramps that led out onto the temple platform. They were walled up in the Middle Ages. A tower was built up against the southern wall in medieval times and disrupts the remains of the arch that was the double gate. The Al-Aqsa Mosque has altered the architecture of the area inside the gates. The triple gate was explored by Charles Warren in the 1860’s. He found a maze of passages and open areas that are now incorporated into the mosques under Temple Mount.

For more Biblical travel photos and videos, visit us at:
www.scriptureinstone.org/blog

Higher Ground Drone

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