My Duck Stamp Entry

So I just recently entered a painting into the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service's junior duck stamp contest. Unfortunately I won't know the results for a while, but I am hoping to win Idaho. Here is my painting...

It is a Common Eider and the painting was done in acrylic paint. The painting is an original from the depths of my imagination, I hope you all like it.

The Flag

Here is a little free-verse poem I wrote a while back....

The valiant flag in which our Nation takes pride
Hung above the ground with red, white, and blue
Through war and trial it has survived
In hopes that future generations would know
That we may pledge our freedom every morn
It represents the U.S.A the country so true
For over 200 years it has told
Of our power and strength and freedom galore
With the character that only a flag has
It tells the story of a nation under God
A nation that has people from all over the world
Yet still has the strength to never ignore
That the love of our people and our God
Never will fail no matter the storm
 It doesn’t always prevail but always will trust
One day a long time from now
Our children will look up and see
With a twinkle in their eyes
That beautiful flag that flew so valiantly
So that we never would forget in all our days
The purpose of freedom that we will never regret

Finding Freedom

The waves rolled and so did my stomach. “Oh why did I come on this blasted boat,” I wailed. “Well, probably because you want to go to America,” one of the crewman said to me with a smirk as he walked by. “But of course,” I said to myself. I wandered wearily back to my bunk below. Most nights I wondered if this whole notion of going to America was silly and childlike, but I knew that America equaled hope and hope was exactly what I needed. I stared down at my tattered trousers and calloused hands and thought of the life I was leaving behind in France. As I was thinking of home the boat rocked dangerously and suddenly I was in my old room. It seemed as though I had gone back in time to nearly a year ago, before everything had changed. My life was perfect, I had to work hard, but it was everything I imagined. My parents and siblings still loved me then and all of my friends trusted and believed me. Unfortunately no one believed me anymore, not since the trial. My whole life changed because I was accused of stealing a dozen cattle from our neighbors and sworn family enemies, the Moreaus. In our village stealing something or committing a crime meant immediate extraction from all family and town happenings, otherwise known as the town prison, located directly under the pub. Suddenly I was an outcast without my story even being told. The truth of the matter was that I was in fact not stealing the cattle, but returning them from wandering over our side of the river. Naturally nobody believed the youngest son of the family. At the trial the church gave me two options, I could either be executed or I could be exiled to who knew where as long as they never had to see my face again. In that moment, while standing there being convicted, I had looked at my poor mother. She had a gaze of pure terror on her face and she was tearing up. I knew that I could never be publically executed, at least if I was exiled my mother would know I was still alive. “Elders,” I had said, “In order to no longer bring pain and dishonor to my family, I choose to be exiled.” And that was that, the very next day I was on my way to the coast, ready to embark on this new journey. I did, however, get one last conversation with my mother. As I was packing my things, my mother handed me the old worn out family Bible. Stroking my brown hair, she whispered in my ear, “I have heard amazing stories of this free country across the ocean called America, perhaps you can go there and start a new life.” The next day I had tried to hold back tears as I was saying goodbye to my family, but to no avail. Just then the images of my dear family disappeared and I woke up on a boat, I looked over at my bunk and realized that when the boat had rocked violently I had fallen off my bed, hit my head, and had been knocked out. Rolling over, I groaned. Some sailors ran by yelling, but it all seemed like a blur, but suddenly I noticed that I was in three inches of water and it seemed to be rising fast. “The boat must be sinking,” I said to myself, absolutely terrified. I jumped to my feet, wobbled a bit, and then ran onto the deck. The first thing I realized was that I could see land not too far off. That’s funny, I though, how long was I knocked out? The second thing I realized was that the deck suddenly tilted sideways, which meant that when I got on deck I started falling towards the icy water. Somewhere far off I heard someone scream, perhaps it was me. Just as it seemed that all hope was lost, I abruptly stopped falling; I looked up and saw that my jacket had caught on a protruding plank coming off of the splitting deck. Just a few feet away I noticed the lifeboat fighting the waves with the captain and a few sailors. I knew what I had to do, I started taking off my jacket and immediately I commenced my fall towards the freezing water. The impact made me feel as though I was slowly dying, but my head bobbed to the surface and I could breathe once more. I looked about, trying to find the lifeboat and then I spotted it off to my right just about ten feet away. I swam for my life and reached the boat after what seemed like an eternity. I clambered aboard to the discontented grunts of the others. I started shivering violently, and then I fainted. I awoke not long after to the sounds of a busy port, I looked around and wondered what port this might be. Just as that thought went through my head, my eyes landed on the statue of liberty gleaming in the sunlight. I knew exactly where we were. I looked at that beacon of freedom given to America from my home country France just eleven years before and knew that I had come to the right place. I, Luke Fontaine had found my hope.

Heroes Speech

Here is a little speech that I wrote for my speech class, it is based on my criteria for a hero that I posted before.......

Heroes, they are everywhere. If you look through history there were many heroes, whether Biblical heroes like Esther or everyday heroes like firefighters. But what makes a hero? A hero is a normal person; they just chose to do extraordinary things with their lives. Instead of watching T.V. they chose to help at the food shelter. Instead of buying things for themselves, they buy things for the homeless man at the corner. Some heroes get more recognition than others, perhaps you know someone who is a hero, but has never been on T.V. or ever been written about. Even though someone was greatly recognized does not make them a greater hero. A hero is a hero, but there are some pretty amazing heroes that we can learn from, such as Abraham Lincoln or Mother Theresa. No matter the extent of the hero, God sees each and every one and rewards them in heaven. I intend to tell you of Amy Carmichael and Corrie Ten Boom, two ordinary people who felt a calling from God. Each is special in her own way, but they both looked the evils of the world in the eye and risked their lives to save others.  

Amy Carmichael and Corrie Ten Boom are great hero examples because they gave their entire lives to God for the good of others. Many people in life think that they don’t have to really do anything special or really go out of their way for anyone. They think that they can just coast through life and really only worry and care about themselves. God instructs us to help those in need and Amy and Corrie are perfect illustrations. We need to spend more of our time helping others rather than focusing on ourselves. Not only should we give, but give from our hearts.

In some senses, Amy Carmichael was not exactly the perfect candidate to be a missionary. In fact, she had a disease called neuralgia, which had her bedridden at times due to weakness and painful aches. Even though she was plagued by this disease she still felt a calling to be a missionary. She chose India to help the suffering children there. She mostly helped the Indian temple girls. She often wore Indian clothes and dyed her skin brown with dark coffee. She then would travel miles along the hot, dusty roads just to save one child. She founded an organization called the Dohnavur Fellowship that became a sanctuary for more than a thousand children, who otherwise would have had a miserable life. Amy once said this, “It is more important that you should know about the reverses than about the successes of the war. We shall have all eternity to celebrate the victories, but we have only the few hours before sunset in which to win them. We are not winning them as we should, because the fact of the reverses is so little realized, and the needed reinforcements are not forthcoming, as they would be if the position were thoroughly understood." She is saying that we only have so much time to help and bring people to God and we could use all the help we can get, but not much help is coming.

Even before the war, Corrie was known for her charitable and hospitable work in the community. At first her family and herself only helped her neighbors, the Weils, but soon others heard of the Ten Boom’s generosity. Since her family housed so many Jews, they decided to create a hiding place. They built a false wall in Corrie’s room, because it was the highest in the house, thus giving the Jews more time to hide. The Ten Booms helped many Jews escape to safety. Unfortunately, her entire family was arrested on February 28, 1944 and her father, sister and she were sent to concentration camps. During her time in the camps she and her sister Betsie would minister to the other prisoners. Her life wasn’t exactly easy, but she made the best of it and trusted God. Corrie once said this, "We are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world and the spiritual agents are from the very headquarters of evil. Therefore, we must wear the "whole armor of God," that we may be able to resist evil in its day of power, and that even when we have fought to a standstill, we may still stand our ground." This is the true mindset of a hero, to stop at nothing to end evil for God.

Heroes are not born, heroes are made. Being a hero is a choice, not a burden. Today’s media thinks that a hero has to have extraordinary powers or skills, to be masked and to fight villains, but a true hero is a normal person who uses their gifts to their full extent to further the kingdom of God. Whether that is fighting evil or simply just helping out a neighbor. Do not think that a hero is greater than anyone else. They in fact are normal people that chose to have a great load to carry and could use all of the help they can get. Heroes are great people, but anyone can be a hero. Unfortunately, not many people want to be heroes. The question is will you be a hero?

A little more info concerning the life of me

Hello 2011!! My have you come fast. I look back at the last year and my family certainly has gone through many big changes. First off, I changed from my private school that I had been going to for 6 years, to being homeschooled. Homeschooling is definately a challenge in itself but it is completely worth it. Not only can I wear my pj's but I also get to chose what curriculum I want to use and when. I feel as though I am not hindered as much as I might have been going to a school, I no longer have to wait for other people to finish, I can just move on. I also feel that I can be a more rounded person homeschooling. Secondly, My parents closed their children's store that they had had for four years and my dad got a new job. Along with these big changes, I have also had some other pretty exciting trips this past year. In April, before my birthday, my parents and I went to Ohio for the huge homeschool conference in Cincinnati, I learned a lot about homeschooling there and really felt this was the route I wanted to take. We also got to go to the huge art museum they have there and I could see the art of some of my favorite artists, such as Monet and other Impressionist artists. While there, we also took a tour on our own of Kentucky, we got to see the capitol, Lexington, and Louisville. We even went into Indiana so that we could say we went there. My family also went to the Washington coast with my grandma and I got some awesome pictures like this one....

We were walking through the Hoh rainforest when I saw this unicorn peeping out from behind the tree. Also this year I went wakeboarding for the first time and I went to Scarywood with my two best friends, which is our theme park Silverwood that turns haunted for Halloween, it was extremely fun.  We also went to San Francisco to visit family, but while we were there we went to this really pretty Catholic missionary from the 16th century. The architecture was beautiful. Not only did all of these exciting events happen but I feel as though I grew closer to God this past year, I read my Bible every night, but I still have some work to do. This new year I have come up with some new resolutions such as again to read my Bible every night and also to learn to play piano. Last year I wanted to learn to play guitar and I did. So in hindsight 2010 was a good year, I can't wait to see what 2011 has in store for us.

My God, my Heaven, my All

This is an old methodist hymn sung by slaves in the South. When you read it you can just feel the emotion behind it and how these slaves would live for heaven, because that is really all that they had to live for. They didn't look at how they were being treated on earth, they just looked to heaven. They looked through their trials and would just hope for the day to come when they could finally see their savior and redeemer. Sometimes we go through hard things, but we just need to look to heaven and we will find peace, just like the slaves who sang this hymn did.

When I can read my title clear
    To mansions in the skies,
I'll bid farewell to every fear,
     And wipe my weeping eyes.

Should earth against my soul engage,
     And hellish darts be hurled,
Then I can smile at Satan's rage,
     And face a frowning world.

Let cares like a wild deluge come,
     And storms of sorrow fall,
May but safely reach my home,
     My God, my Heaven, my All.

What Is a Hero?

-An ordinary person who made an extraordinary difference by living out his or her God-given gifts.

-A person worthy of admiration because of his or her character qualities and responsiveness to his or her life situation.

-A person who should serve as an inspirational model for our lives today.

-A person who uses courage: courage is not the absence of fear, but courage is action in spite of fear.

Will you chose to be a Hero for God?