Viewpoints Viewpoints Page 2 W ednesday, June 12, 2013 Raymond-Pr insburg News The New Girl in Town By Laura Kay Prosser T h Ree Buns and a Hurricane ® Dear Editor, Matt. 10:28 “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Do you fear terrorism in our country? There is another threat that is much more seri- ous. Are you aware that the Is- lamist goal is to place mosques in every city in America? Are you aware that they have the ability to replace the church with mosques. Their goal is to conquer. Their success is figured by how many lands and nations they rule. This is the reason there is so much bloodshed in the Middle East. Egypt, Syria and Turkey, all once Christian nations, have been replaced by Islam. Have we learned the lessons from history? The Evangelical churches in America have watered down their preaching to a point that absolute truth is now second place to accommodation and toleration. People think the problem is apathy but it is ac- tually more than that. Just as the Christian churches are weakened, the Koran is also watered down to sound more friendly to Americans. Much of the Koran readings are sugar coated so one does not realize their true intention. This is again done to make it accept- able to America. Civilizational jihad will use any means to infiltrate Amer- ica and has, not only through terrorism, but also through immigration. They intend to use our constitutional free- doms in America to destroy the constitution. Their desire is to conquer through lulling Americans to sleep. Accord- ing to Dr. Erwin Lutzer, favor- itism toward Muslims is huge in public schools. Are parents laying down a strong Christian foundation for their children? Many young women going to college fall in love with Mus- lim men and buy into this false religion. The mosque is symbolic. Over 80% are supplied with jihad literature. Mosques are very visible. Where they are placed is where Muslims have been most successful. Is it no wonder that they desired to put one up next to the 9/11 Memo- rial? The newest religion, Chris- lam, is a blend between Chris- tianity and Islam. This, of course, is an impossibility. Christians believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who suffered, died, and rose again, who is now at the right hand of the Father, and who alone can save us. Muslims hate the cross. To them it is an offense and their intent is to destroy crosses wherever they see them. Yet in America we are seeing emp- ty pews in our churches while the mosques next door have hundreds flooding into their place of prayer. In all religions one will see a variety of believers: some are radical, some are nominal, some are devout, some are de- ceived and many are deceivers. What then are we to do? Our charge is to go to our Muslim neighbor and share Christ with him/her. Islam is a religion of fear and oppression, not hope, not joy. Christianity is a re- ligion of love, salvation from sin and eternal life with and through our Lord, Jesus Christ. Ref. The Cross in the Shad- ow of the Crescent By Dr. Erwin Lutzer Helen Beekman Raymond MN 56282 It begins So it’s the second week of June. Summer seems to have arrived, kind of . . . depends on the day. People, especially par- ents with school-age children, often look forward to summer as it means the schedule slows down a little. Even without children that age yet, I can already tell it does not slow down. I don’t think it ever does actually. There are so many possi- bilities these days for extracur- riculars. At age five or maybe even sooner, children begin participating in activities be- yond the academic classroom and parents begin their shuttle service and calendar night- mares. With one child going in to kindergarten in the fall I foresee the headaches in our Nobody wants “to be one of those parents” who waits until the last minute to register or assume children can attend without preregistering, but in many cases that’s the major- ity of people. Everyone just has too many irons in the fire, and a lot of time they need ev- ery single minute, even the last one, to get everything done. There also seems to be an e x- pectation of receiving a t-shirt for participating in activities. I love commemorative t-shirts; I have one from an outdoor music festival in college that I still wear. But when kids get several shirts a year they can- not possibly be special. Par- ents want to make sure their kid gets that free t-shirt, even if they don’t register by the deadline, but really, who wants hours of busywork and do this with him every day. When it came time for him to get out and participate in some ac- tivities specifically for him, he fought us on leaving the house. Then I thought, why am I pushing him? He’s five. If he would rather stay home and play in the mud than go to gym- nastics with other kids, who cares? Between school, all the school-sanctioned events, and non-school things (4H, music lessons, boy scouts, church activities, etc.) we will have plenty of time out and about in our near future. Last weekend we ate four meals, all six of us, at the table together. How long before that never happens? I work with a lovely lady who has four boys of her own, all out of high school now (hi Head deep in his car be- tween races and even during his off time at home, Shane Kruger is dedicated to the sport that captivated his imagination at a young age, car racing. “My uncle used to race years ago and I went with my cousin to watch,” Kruger said. From the pit Kruger watched and allowed the diesel to sink into his bloodstream. Soon his cousin and his friends were racing as well, and before he knew it his friend Justin Tam- men, a driver sponsored by Clara City like Kruger, had talked him into buying a car. “This is his old car,” Kruger said. However, it’s been years since the car has seen anyone but Kruger behind the wheel. So, he bought the car, found an engine builder, bought ev- erything he needed to get start- ed and has been racing for over three years now. “You don’t race for money because you really don’t make money racing people,” Kruger said. Everything goes back into the car. According to Kruger, there is always something to check and to make sure it’s done right so that once on the track there are no problems. “These things are pretty high maintenance,” Kruger said. Two to three nights a week Kruger spends working on his car with friends Owen Schipnewski, Jordan Freese, Lucas Doesken, Darrin Caspers and Dakota Runly. Al- most every other day he is rac- ing. Most weekends he makes into a four day racing weekend from Thursday-Saturday. “You race, then you work to get the car ready for the next race and you race again,” Kru- ger said. Racing for Kruger is a lot of time and commitment that he doesn’t seem to mind, not with his friends doing everything to get his car ready and sitting in the pit with him assessing the track with him between races. Being constantly aware of everything is key to racing, ac- cording to Kruger. One has to be aware not just of the track but also the other racers and everyone on the track and in the pit. “When you’re racing you don’t think of anything else, and when you’re done you can’t even remember what was going through your head out there,” Kruger said. The first time Kruger raced he jumped the wall of the track and busted into a horse pasture because his throttle was stuck open. “I remember flying through the air and just closing my eyes,” Kruger said. He didn’t roll, but with a five point seat belt and a roll cage he’d be pretty safe no matter the type of crash. His car land- ed on the right front tire and while he was ok, his car was pretty screwed up. “A bunch of stuff can go wrong at any given time and you see people crash all the time in this sport,” Kruger said. “But people think racing is more dangerous than it actu- ally is.” On a given night Kruger can race 16-18 cars and lately he has been finishing in the top 10. “I’m a pretty competitive person,” Kruger said. This year he switched from the category of Pure Stock to Street Stock. He’s only raced eight times in this category, though he hopes to race about 70 nights this summer alone. With this move Kruger will be able to race more than two nights a week and can race on more tracks than when he was Pure Stock. Last year he was Track Champion in Montevideo, so it’s no surprise that with this new switch he has locked his eye on a new prize. “I’m going for National Rookie of the Year in Street Stock,” Kruger said. Kruger will be competing against hundreds of drivers and 45 rookies. His top 30 shows will be totalled for points so the more nights he drives the better his odds are, if he drives well. “Everyone in this classs has been doing it many more years than I have, they have a lot more laps under them than I have,” Kruger admitted. However, he doesn’t seem to be daunted by this fact. As he gets his car ready week af- ter week and gets behind the wheel to race weekend after weekend, he is one step closer not only to dying of an adrena- line rush but also taking the prize of being Rookie of the Year. “The game plan is to keep it on four wheels and try to win,” Kruger said.