Faith

My Books

/ Leland Olson Hoel / Leave a comment
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https://www.audible.com/author/Leland-Olson/B078X4QNT8

This book has just become available in audio, click on this link to listen to the sample, thank you.

Top reviews from the United States

“Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2018, Verified PurchaseIn this book by Leland Olson, we read about a young man named Richard Savage. Savage is a farm boy from Iowa who eventually goes to college and through other life events in this book but always is pondering on the idea that he’s gay. One day, a man learns about these thoughts and starts to blackmail Savage over them. However, Savage refuses to pay him which ends up causing major problems in his life. He starts to be accused of murders, accidents, and other horrible things. Can he stop the blackmailer before his life is destroyed?

This is a very intriguing book and filled with action. It’s also not that long of a read which makes it ideal for those looking for a somewhat quick read. Olson’s writing style helps the story to flow well and includes great imagery and descriptions to help you better imagine certain situations and settings. Overall, a wonderful novel to try out if you’re looking for something unique and suspenseful.”

“Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2018, Verified PurchaseA brave tale of a young man who gets into a bad luck scenario because he likes going to gay bars. Since he has to hide what he is doing to preserve the social image, he becomes a victim of blackmail and ends up in the throes of some terrible crimes. There are excellent ideas and a fantastic plot in this book, but the delivery is poor more often than not. I had the impression that the author took one breath and ran through the book, forgetting to pause, think of the sentence and use proper punctuation – it’s like in all that excitement small and capital letters got confused, and quotes and dashes disappeared. This makes the book difficult to follow. It is in a dire need of editing, which would for sure raise the bar of its value. Unfortunately,

that is the main reason why I decided to give only three stars to an authentic story that is unlike any other I’ve read recently.One person found this helpful.”

“Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2018, Verified PurchaseThe Bay Area Bad Guys is a great plot I love the concept of the story. Richard leaves Iowa to work for a big name firm in the city. He has a love for going to gay bars and ends up in a web of blackmail and lies to maintain his image. The story can be hard to follow with improper sentences, punctuation and changing points of views but essentially the storyline itself was great. Sometimes the story gets pretty deep addressing major crimes such as child trafficking but I feel like things like that need to be addressed and it fit in with the story well. There was some mystery which kept me reading and wanting to know what happens next. General grammar and punctuation aside, I enjoyed this book. I would definitely read more from Leland Olson. He has a knack for creating an interesting storyline, and with a little editing it would be an amazing book!”

“Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2018, Verified PurchaseThis book was definitely unlike any other I have ever read. It is typically not my type of go-to genre, but I did find that I actually liked it more than I expected I would. Richard, the main character, is a country boy who is highly intelligent. He quickly gets himself tangled in with some bad things and bad people. The author, Leland Olson, told the story in such a way that kept me intrigued about what would happen next. The sense of mystery and suspense was thrilling and made me want to read the book from start to finish. It was, however, hard at times to read about some of the negative things in the book, such as child trafficking, because they seemed to be very heavy topics. Regardless, I was very intrigued by the book. My family had a hard time even getting me to eat dinner with them because at times, I did not want to put the book down!”

“Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2018, Verified PurchaseThe Bay Area Bad Guys by Leland Olson goes through the struggles of one man and how he overcomes them. He has to deal with being blackmailed for being gay and ends up in many different situations as he gets more and more entangled. Leland Olson caught my attention on page one and kept me quickly turning the pages to find out what would happen next. I found that the pace set in The Bay Area Bad Guys was easy to follow and I quite enjoyed the way the book played out. When I come across a good book, I strive to make sure that I pass on the joy of reading to anyone who is interested. This genre has piqued my interest and has reinvigorated my love for reading. If you are interested in this genre, I would definitely give this book a read. You will not regret it.”

“Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2018, Verified PurchaseIt is nice to read about a young man who has been able to overcome personal challenges, both with society and his family, in order to claim his true position. From the title, I would never have seen the coming out of a young gay man in here, but it was truly interesting .”

Top reviews from other countries

Ogunna Chukwudi4.0 out of 5 stars A nice plot, that could do with some good editing Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2018, Verified Purchase Leland Olson writes well, and so should be prodded to write more. In the Bay Area Bad Guys, Olson expands upon the story of an uncouth farm boy who gains the privilege to acquire employment in a prestigious firm in a big city. The story extends to the circumstances surrounding his life, and the underlying fear that he could be gay. Blackmail, a big city. The story extends to the circumstances surrounding his life, and the underlying fear that he could be gay. Blackmail, suspense, intrigue, description of simple living in the hustle and bustle of city life, Olson works toward bringing the plot to a satisfactory climax. The book would do with some good editing.

https://lelandolson.com/2019/03/10/leland-olsons-author-page/

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/leland+olson?_requestid=1759195

https://lelandolson.com/

COVID-19 Steals Lives and Dreams

/ Leland Olson Hoel / Leave a comment

I have had to use CPAP and, finally, BiPAP machines for 20 years. The oxygen level in my blood gets low while I sleep. I usually have dreams that wake me up. I have concluded the subconscious mind creates those dreams to wake me up to start breathing again. The alternative would be to sleep until the oxygen to my brain got depleted, and I would simply die sleeping. The more I think about it, that would be a way to check out.


My dreams are mostly about falling, so before landing, I automatically wake up and start breathing, this has worked well. Recently my thoughts have been tainted or infiltrated by news flashes, shocking events of suffocating, suffering and dying people, also mass graves. Family members trying to cope with the situations get told to stay home and not touch each other. Touching and togetherness are what they need the most.

A shroud of hopelessness has fallen over the whole world. We must regain and cling to hope. My entire life, I have remembered and cherished my grandmother’s loving hugs; it was a safe, secure feeling that is indescribable. I also got blessed with a loving godmother who people hugged on site. She prayed for me regularly, giving me an armor shield of unseen hope in my life. The corona virus appears to be changing everything in this world for future generations. The eternal hope that comes from close family units with loving hugs is getting destroyed. We have orders to remain apart, no socializing, so the virus doesn’t spread. Satan seeks to separate people.

We must all seek the creator to solve this problem and turn it around for good. The alternatives paint a very bleak picture of future societies. The masses connected by electronic wizardry and gaggles of gadgets. Social media and other space-age communications have no familiar, loving human touch, feeling, or emotions. We can see each other talk to each other as if we are already robots living in a cyber world. We could quickly become a plethora of pixels with no hope of ever having human personalities .

https://lelandolson.com/

Bowers Ministry

/ Leland Olson Hoel / Leave a comment

Don and Rosie Bowers have dedicated their entire lives to ensuring God’s loving word stays alive and continues to spread all over this hurting planet. Their lives have included loving people, church planting and he was pastor at several congregations in Southern California. As their 60th wedding anniversary nears, they have no plans to retire from their calling.

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Don is a brother to my wife Rose Marie. At the time we got married I claimed to be a confirmed bachelor, for life. Rose was raising 4 daughters by herself. Why, impaired vision possibly, for some unknown reason those two little words “I do” escaped from my lips.

Don told me one day, I should be nominated for sainthood for marrying his bossy older sister. I had that on my mind when I sent this anniversary greeting to Don and Rosie. Rose left for the big Bowers reunion in heaven last April, we were married 49 years. She shared a lot with me about her brother Don’s youth. Oh my, I always thought he was an angel!

James Graham

When Rosie said “I do” to Don 60 years ago.

I think she immediately became qualified for Sainthood.

I have no regrets, being blind like Saul, now I see. The Marriage Institute works, with Divine intervention.

To The Well And Back

/ Leland Olson Hoel / Leave a comment

life

Sunny
Write a new post in response to today’s one-word prompt.

To The Well And Back

What would you do if you were the person in this dream? You have been walking for days in the blistering hot sun, your tongue is parched, your mouth is so dry you cannot spit. WATER, your body cries out! There is none. You are walking in the middle of a desert, wondering why you’re still carrying two very empty water canteens.

Through sunburned bleary eyes, suddenly, far off in the distance, you see something sticking out of the sand, it must be a mirage, you cannot believe your eyes. It looks like an old fashioned water pump with a long handle on it. An old style pump that you pumped by hand. You quicken your pace in spite of your body screaming for a drink of water, you press on to that distant old water pump.

There is a can partially buried in the sand, it must be at least a 2-gallon can. You lift it up and shake it, it has something in it, not sand. It actually has water in it. You have heard the stories about old water pumps. The leathers dry up, when you pour in the priming water you hear it, just run down into the well. They will not pump anymore, with dry, bad leathers.

You recall hearing the Kingston Trio folk song, Desert Pete. You’ve got to prime the pump, you must have faith and believe. That is why that can of water was left for you, with love. Do you prime this pump? Now you are faced with a question. Do you put your faith in yourself who wants to drink that nasty water quick, now, chug-a-lug? Or put your hopes in a belief that a higher power is in control of your destiny? Maybe a few sips, then prime it, yeah right! No way.

You must decide if you want to drink that water that is going to taste Very Bad. It has been sitting in that can for the Lord knows how long. If you prime that old pump, with that putrid water, you no doubt will shortly have some cool water to fill your canteens with, to drink all you want, or pour some over your head if you wish. Then you can refill that precious can, and place it back in the ground for the next person who is lost and is in dire need or the life-saving water that can come from that old well.

I feel this story about priming the pump has a powerful message. Do we go it alone, or step out in faith? I do believe this links our faith to a higher power in our life walk here on this Earth. Each new day has many traps and snares to turn us from the right path. We almost daily find ourselves in need of Living Water, be it from a pump or the Grace received through trials and tribulations.

If we are fortunate enough to have been to the Well for a new life, received the life-saving water, we should share it with others so they might be blessed too. Grace and peace flow abundantly from the well.

James 2:17 says, “Even so faith, if it has not works, is dead, being alone.” Verse 26 says, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

https://lghoelson.wordpress.com/

Simon and Torsten Dakota Land 1880’s

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 1 Comment

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My great-great-grandfather Ole Estensen Hoel was born in 1806. He lived in an area of Norway near Kaafjord, on a farm, he also worked in the copper mines. Most of the families worked in the copper and silver mines, or as fishermen. Our genealogy lists family members there since the 1600’s. Ole and his wife Johanna had eleven children between 1839-1864, three died young. Scarlet fever took many lives in those days.

Copper and silver mining was the main means of employment for the men of the area. Working conditions were bad, primitive and dangerous. In the 1850’s many mines were in trouble because of low copper prices, management and political unrest. There were many different reasons but the mines started closing in Norway, families there were desperate.

The hard times prompted many families and young people without families to think of going to America where copper mining was booming in the state of Michigan. My great uncle Simon Hoel born in 1848, was one of those who decided to leave in 1868. His first cousin Torsten Estenen born in 1852, also decided it was time to search for greener pastures. Torsten’s mother Inger was a sister to Simon’s father.

They went to Michigan together and found work near Calumet and Marquette were they both met and married their wives. Working in the copper mines there was not their goal, or desire. The two fearless, hardy young men were driven to continue west to Dakota Territory. Plentiful, rich farmland was just becoming available to those who were willing to stake a claim on it.

Simon and Torsten ended up living on adjoining land on the southeast side of Lake Poinsett where they both raised their families. The Lake Poinsett area must have been very appealing to them, with a plentiful supply of fresh fish.

They knew all too well, many hardships lay ahead of them, much in the way of trials and tribulations could be expected. Above all else, hard work from sunup to sundown would be the norm. Along with that, howling winds and subzero temperatures in the wintertime, they were used to winter weather, coming from near the arctic circle in Norway.

Simon and Torsten were both men with a strong faith in their creator. Torsten was a preacher, it is said that he baptized over 500 children, into the Old Apostolic Faith. The church’s in Norway kept very good records of all families. Children learned the bible at home from their parents, starting at a very young age.

Their childhood faith traveled with both Simon and Torsten as they came to the United States. Simon married Christina Lindolahti while they were still living in Michigan, they had six children together. Torsten married Greta Kaisa Taskila at Calumet Michigan, they had eleven children.

In the 1880’s those two pioneer families started life in South Dakota in holes dug into a hillside, as any animal would do for shelter. They then built sod houses. Their lives steadily improved from their diligent labors. Simon built a house from the plentiful field stones left behind by the glacier period. Torsten built a wood frame house. Their families did very well.

I wanted to write this story for those who are living today and for future generations. They should be proud to have come from such a heritage, a pioneer spirit, an unshakable faith. May we be always thankful for the blessing of the memory of those who have gone on before us. Let us hold on to and keep that faith that sustained them.

Let Your Light Shine

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 3 Comments

 

https://ceenphotography.com/2015/07/16/cees-black-white-photo-challenge-older-than-50-years/

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Older than 50 Years

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Let Your Light Shine

We have had this picture “Christ of St. John of the Cross”. Since the 1950s, the artist was Salvador Dali. This was one of his more publicized paintings, he had led a very colorful life. Maybe born a generation to early! He saw himself in a different light when this work of his was finished, possibly. I’m not sure just how this picture speaks to me, it has a light about it. It makes no difference where you hang it, even in darkness the light of the cross is there.

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This lamp is a old cast-iron goose neck table lamp. This was one of the first lamps our family bought when we got the magic of electricity. It has been a very good table lamp plus, a durable utility light to carry to another work area. It has been my favorite lamp for about seventy years now. The designer must have considered that, when it was made with a heavy cast iron base, it does not get knocked over very easy.

That heavy cast iron bottom of that lamp would have made a very lethal weapon. I know my mother grew up around the light from the Cross. She came from a family of believers, or she surely would have used that cast iron lamp base on my dad’s head. He could have met with an early demise on many different occasions. The light of the cross saved him many times. I hope it did the same on his last day.

 

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These last two photos are pictures of my grandfather’s diary from 1935, and my mother’s diary from 1947. My mother’s diary has a wooden cover both front and back and linen paper for the pages. The binding on it is made from Birch Bark. The book was hand made in Finland.. It had a Finish Coat Of Arms on the cover and was given to my mother in 1947 by my grandmother.

My grandfather Andrew faithfully wrote in his diary every day. He was born in Norway and came to this country as a teenager, his penmanship was perfect. I feel both my mother and my grandfather left a little light shining for us in those diaries, for all of the family to read and hopefully be guided by what they have written. What they have done in a way lets their light shine through the memories they wrote in their diaries.

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My Winter of Discontent

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 5 Comments

 

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https://dailypost.wordpress.com/photo-challenges/seasons/

PHOTO CHALLENGE
Seasons
Share an image evocative of the weather or represent the current “season of your life” in metaphor.

For those of us who reside on a area of the globe where there are four weather seasons. We should feel very blessed and fortunate. Living where there are four seasons we have the appreciation of springtime when all new life starts fresh, everything is growing. Then we move into the summer months when the temperatures increase and life becomes even more active in all the animals and plants. Fall arrives and the life span of many things draws to a close. Harvesting is done, garden produce is canned or stored in preparation for the long, cold winter months that are coming. If the winter season arrives and you are not prepared, it can be a tough long period of time waiting for the arrival of a new warm  spring season.

Preparation for winter is something that has to be done by both people and animals, domestic and wild. A winter supply of feed must be made ready for domestic animals.Critters like the muskrat and squirrel store up food to get them through the long winter months when food becomes harder to find. If the snow gets deep many animals simply starve to death because they can’t find what they need to survive on.

Man and natures creatures must all prepare for winter long before it arrives. Wild animal understand preparation for winter is a serious undertaking that might mean survival. Preparation for life’s winter means getting ready for the end of life as we know it. Thoughts of where will you spend eternity are pondered and hopefully decided.

Man also must prepare himself and his family for the winter months when the temperatures are freezing and the snow covers everything with a heavy white blanket and a coating of ice. The person who doesn’t have his fire wood gathered in preparation for winter, usually only does it once. You do not want to be digging in the snow banks trying to find fire wood in the cold of winter. It is much easier to have the firewood stacked in a neat pile near the house long before winter arrives.

You will be sure to have your house ready for winters frigid blasts too. Storm windows on, seal cracks around windows and doors. You will be much warmer and more comfortable when the wind attempts to make a snowdrift under your door. Garden produce should have all been harvested, canned in jars or stored in a root cellar, to sustain you during the long winter months. These are all ideas of things you do in preparation for winter on the South Dakota Prairies.. Preparations for winter that I just described here are for someone like myself, living in the last generation. We don’t want to go back to those days, but stuff happens.

The modern man living in the city has far less worries about winter preparation. Just close the window and turn the thermostat up or down depending on what his comfort zone is. He also has to depend on trips to the market to get what he needs as far as food supplies.

As we enter the winter of our lives, our tired old bodies are just about ready for that final harvest. How do we plan for that? I really don’t think it would be wise to try and plan for that inevitable time. Don’t just sit and wait for it. You want to continue to exercise your body to keep your strength up. Try to stay active mentally, so you stay alert and stay as healthy as you can. The body starts to slow down, pain makes you tired all the time. You must press on and make the most of each new day.

We actually spend most of our lives planning for winter, hoping to get through the winter, because it tests our resolve. The knowledge that spring is coming, with abundant new life gives hope. The first meadow lark sitting on a fence post, sent there to sing just for you, is a reward of spring. Is this the last winter of my life? Will I see another spring? I do not want to know, just relax, look out the window, or at the computer screen and make the most of this winter’s days.

https://lghoelson.wordpress.com/