HISTORY

A Little History:
Our story begins in Pocatello, Idaho, circa 1972, when the lovely Debby Christensen agreed to a first, though fateful date with admirer, David Croshaw. Long story-short, he bade her follow him, and they went arm-in-arm to the Logan, Utah temple for establishment of an eternal family unit, Generation 1, on May 23 1973.

From their first blissful summer in Salt Lake City, educational pursuits took them to Provo/Orem, Utah, birthplace of Leslie and Rebecca, and to San Francisco/Oakland California, birthplace of Colin and Matt. Then, for establishment of livelihood, expansion of the tribe with Abby and Dana, and for raising/unifying of Generation 2, it was back to the roots in Pocatello for a rewarding sojourn.

In time, driven by a raging, but commonly shared sense of adventure and independence, one-by-one, Generation 2 escaped the homeland to distant regions of the country and the world, each ultimately developing their own tribal expansions by pairing with worthy mates and initiating Generation 3.

Now sensing fulfillment of their purpose in Pocatello, Generation 1 has also left those roots and transplanted to Cascade Idaho, from which base, they anticipate more abundant contact with The Posterity, Generations 2 and 3, in the future. That contact however, awaits fulfillment of a call to LDS missionary service in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, wherein they hope to help the state of the world by sharing the love of Jesus Christ.

So now, including Generation 0 (Grandma and Grandpa Christensen) home base includes Yuma, Arizona, Pocatello, Idaho, Cascade, Idaho, Vancouver, BC, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Spokane, Washington, Boise, Idaho, Los Angeles, California, back to Boise, Idaho, and on and on (Generation 3+) to infinity.

Our Mission Statement:
This is the blog of our eternal family unit. Initiated years ago, it served well as a journal, but even more so, as an archive of our personal interaction. It was a gathering place, a confabulation instrument, a unifying force for four generations of widely dispersed and progressively prolific posterity, and their valued associates. Though it served these purposes well for many years, it eventually took a back seat to new-kids-on-the-block, Facebook, and Instagram, and was sadly forgotten.

We now move to resurrect this blog with an added functional purpose of archiving the missionary experiences of Generation 1, of their movements and activities as they participate with The Gathering of Israel in the land northward. In so doing, we hope that via their own comments and posts, this blog will again serve to gather and unify the posterity and their friends.

As in the past, that the young and vibrant may know the old and tired, that enduring bonds may be fostered and maintained, that experience and encouragement may be openly shared, that posterity may embrace truth, and that hearts may be knit together, we must resist detachment despite our geographic divergence. We shall do so here.
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Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Uplifting

I love Wintley Phipps and this video makes me smile and gives me goose bumps. It reminds me very much of a class I took for my ministry minor called "African American Religion" during which I learned an amazing amount about the black population amongst us. I loved that class and it gave me such passion. If you like this kind of music (why is Amazing Grace not in the hymnal?!) with a gospel flair, check out the Nation of One Soundtrack. It (and the movie it comes from) will open your eyes to a kind of music that is incomparably stirring.

Did you know music (and especially drums) are used in Africa as a way to communicate to other tribes? When Africans were exported for slavery, it was drums and singing that slaves used to communicate to other slaves so that they could steal away at night, after working all day, to isolated areas in the woods, etc to sing and worship. Truly ALL they had was their faith. Not only were they stolen from their families, any children they had were often sold from them and they were daily de-humanized... but the spirituality remained strong and even better than that, defined the slave population.

I could go on and on about this, but I won't today... take a look at this short video. It is stirring.

If you like this, check out the one I posted on my own blog... I am still crying from the message therein.


1 comment:

Leslie said...

crystal,
i tried to watch this a couple of different times, but only today did it actually work. it really was beautiful. what an amazing voice...and story. there are so many of us who do want the same things, and those things do connect us. thanks for sharing!