Podcasts about bordentown

Tonight, on NJ Spotlight News…MULTIPLE SEXUAL ASSAULT CHARGES…two corrections officers are arrested for abusing a juvenile girl in a correctional facility in Bordentown; Plus, election day is ONE WEEK AWAY… and New Jersey is home to one of the most closely watched congressional swing districts in the country… we're breaking down all the election speculation; Also, DUMPING PARTY POLITICS….as the rhetoric continues to create division at all levels of government… one town weighs whether to keep their council nonpartisan; And, New Jersey farmers grapple with severe drought… as the state's historic dry spell continues. 

I was first joined by Executive Chef Maurizio Peccolo from Ristorante Lucca, located in Bordentown, NJ. Chef Peccolo has traveled the globe, sharing his vast experience in the creative art of authentic Italian cuisine. Having earned global recognition, awards, and author of several recipe books, Chef Peccolo shares his background and passion for the industry he loves. His passion far exceeds the simplicity of an indulgent and delicious meal - as he takes pride in his achievements, Including showing a medal of honor given to him by (fill in the blank), as well as the honor of being a International Judge of the Tiramisù World Cup in 2021. His many achievements are remarkable and well-deserved, however, what he loves most is to create dining experiences for all to enjoy. So, he joined me to chat about the menu and desserts that he's created for Ristorante Lucca, and how you can indulge all your senses in them too.Related Links:https://ristorantelucca.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/maurizio-peccolo-20264323b/?trk=public_profile_samename-profileI next spoke with Tony Altomare who is the owner of Gentili's Pizza & Steaks, located in Exton, PA. I first came across Gentili's while taking care of a friend's pet, trying to find an easy meal that I could have delivered to my friend's home. Little did I know that Gentili's was about to ignite my love for pizza all over again. And why, might you ask, am I sharing this? Because I tasted Gentili's for myself and found myself clamoring for more after just one slice. My adoration of this 'za can only be usurped by Tony's, who described how much effort he put into finding just the right tastes and textures for America's favorite guilty pleasure: Pizza, Cheesesteaks, and Hoagies! As much as he could allow, Tony shared some of his secrets on why his business keeps customers coming back, and what earned his rank in Main Line Today's "Best Of" list.Related Links:https://gentilispizza.comMy final guests co-founded the To The Table experience; To The Table is a roaming supper series, highlighting the chefs, farms, artists and more from what Chesapeake Bay has to offer. The intimate dining experience provides an opportunity for the participating chefs to stretch their culinary legs, giving them the freedom to curate a multi-course, farm-to-table and sea-to-table dinner, highlighting the bountiful array of ingredients and services from the Chesapeake region with every bite. The next TO THE TABLE event is happening on September 28th in Annapolis, MD featuring Chef Tae Strain while the soulful sounds from musician Noah Pierre fills the air. Guests will be treated to an immersive evening, hosted on the grounds of Hollywood Farm - a farm that is deeply committed to sustainable agriculture and provides the perfect backdrop for an evening of community, connection, and culinary delight. Related Links:https://www.hollywoodfarm.comWebsite: https://www.tttsupperseries.com/Instagram: @tttsupperseriesFacebook: @ToTheTableUpcoming Dinner: September 28th, 2024Ticket Link: https://www.tttsupperseries.com/event-details/fall-supperTime & LocationSep 28, 2024, 4:00 PM – 9:00 PMHollywood Farm, 1701 Pleasant Plains Rd, Annapolis, MD 21409, USA

Kayla from Bordentown called in to vent about her disgusting husband. Is it OK to wear a band T-shirt if you're not a fan? & more

One of the most treasured professional skateboarders joins the podcast! UNLEASHED is proud to welcome 31-year-old skateboard style icon Ishod Wair from Bordentown, New Jersey. In his exclusive nterview with The Dingo, Danny, and Brittney, the decorated all-round skateboarder (and occasional runway fashion model) details his passion for skateboarding, streetwear, and customized German sports cars.Ishod Wair is your favorite pro skater's favorite skater. Born and raised in New Jersey, Wair barged into the spotlight on the strength of video parts stacked with never-been-done tricks executed with effortless style. Wair's rise started when he won the 2011 Kimberley Diamond Cup pro competition as an amateur rider, netting a $100,000 cash prize. From there, things really took off.In 2013, Thrasher Magazine elevated the self-proclaimed skate rat into the rare circle of ‘Skater of the Year' Award recipients. He made history as the first African American skateboarder to earn that title. Although he's more at home applying his all-round skate talents at street and transition spots, Wair has racked up quite the portfolio of competition wins: Accolades include an X Games gold medal as well as victories in Street League Skateboarding and Copenhagen Pro Open events – without ever compromising his nonchalant style. Hear what drives the sportscars and streetwear enthusiast – only on UNLEASHED!Press the play button (and hit Like) on the new episode of UNLEASHED with The Dingo, Danny, and Brittney. Make sure to subscribe and stay tuned for more UNLEASHED episodes. Regular editions of the show are recorded live inside Studio M at Monster Energy headquarters in Corona, California and published bi-weekly. Also follow @monsterenergy for updates.

Video - https://youtu.be/W4IG0SH_WHA Nestled along the banks of the Delaware River, Bordentown, New Jersey, stands as a testament to the rich tapestry of American history. With its breathtaking landscapes, architectural gems, and a vibrant community. If you're curious, the next town we'll explore is, Lambertville, NJ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/norbert-gostischa/support

Video - https://youtu.be/XqZ1Fr56bbU Cape May is a city located at the southern tip of Cape May Peninsula in Cape May County in the state of New Jersey. It is the oldest seaside resort in the United States. If you're curious, the next town we'll explore is Bordentown, NJ. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/norbert-gostischa/support

'Subject To Interpretation' is a weekly podcast that deep dives into the topics that matter to interpreters.

Rabbi Alex Lazarus-Klein came to Buffalo in the Fall of 2008 to serve as the rabbi of Temple Sinai, now called Congregation Shir Shalom. He brings warmth, creativity, and compassion to the role of synagogue rabbi. A trained chaplain and gifted teacher, he is actively engaged in all aspects of communal life, from helping people with their everyday struggles, to intricate details of synagogue governance. Rabbi Alex is a respected leader in the Buffalo area, serving on many local boards including the Buffalo Board of Rabbis, the Network of Religious Communities, Jewish Family Services, the Bureau of Jewish Education, the Jewish Community Center, and the Coalition of Economic Justice. He is currently serving as president of the Network of Religious Communities. He is also on the national board of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association out of Wyncote, Pennsylvania. He works with leaders of all faiths, to improve the quality of life in Western New York and beyond. A 2004 graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College he also holds Masters's and Bachelor's Degrees from the Jewish Theological Seminary, as well as a Bachelor's degree from Columbia University. Before coming to Buffalo, he served as rabbi of Temple B´nai Abraham in Bordentown, New Jersey, and directed the Community Partnership Program for the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. He currently resides in Amherst, with his wife Ashirah, and three young children, Jarah, Boaz, and Noam.  Listen to this insightful Whinypaluza episode with Rabbi Alex about how he helps guide his congregants through the highs and lows of all the stages of their lives. Here is what to expect on this week's show: How Alex became a Rabbi and why it is his true calling. How Rabbi Alex guides people through the cycles of their lives and how he helps his congregants through stress and hard times. Special guidance he gave during covid times, and how he saw amazing things despite the added stress. Removing expectations from outsiders drastically reduces your stress when planning special events, like a bar/bat mitzvah. How he approaches guiding and supporting couples when they need help connecting and working at their relationship. Grief comes in many forms, and Rabbi Alex has helped many people through myriad situations. Having his own family, Rabbi Alex can give sage advice for parents. How does he manage all the things he does in a day, on top of having a family? Rabbi's Advice: You aren't here to be superhuman. You are here to be human. What resonates most with him about Judaism. How can we contribute to creating a world with more acceptance and love. Why he wrote a book and how he hopes to help others. How to fit your religious commitments into your kids' busy lives. The impact of removing guilt from your life. Advice on navigating the ever-present Christmas season, when you are Jewish. Connect with Rabbi Alex: https://shirshalombuffalo.org/ Twitter https://twitter.com/ShirShalomBflo Facebook https://www.facebook.com/experiencejewishbuffalo/ Going Above and Beyond https://www.amazon.com/Going-Above-Beyond-Exceeding-Expectations-ebook/dp/B09SVJM469 Follow Rebecca Greene Blog  https://www.whinypaluza.com/ Book  https://bit.ly/WhinypaluzaBook Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/whinypaluzaparenting Instagram https://www.instagram.com/becgreene5/ @becgreene5 TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@whinypaluzamom?lang=en @whinypaluzamom Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We set Anna and Brandon up on a Blind Date! Anna is the jealous type and just wants a guy who will accept her! Have you heard about this restaurant in Bordentown that has a strict dress code? Also, wait until you hear what this Olive Garden manager said to her employees! & more

Justin and Natalia got set up on a blind date for the weekend. He's an "extreme couponer" and she's a reggae street performer. A psychic has Gianna convinced she can never go to Bordentown, NJ. Plus, Gianna's dad, Mike, came on to play a Father's Day version of two truths and a lie. & more

In this min-episode, I break from my chronology and discuss Joseph Bonaparte, exiled king of Spain and brother of Napoleon, who lived in Bordentown after fleeing Spain. Guess what he claimed to have seen whilst on a hunting trip…

Krysta, Laura and Dean acknowledge that due to a mistake on Dean's part, they will not be joined by author Gerald Rice and they get down to discussing New Jersey's most famous cryptid, the Jersey Devil. But first, Krysta hips us to some weird facts about deserts! Then we discuss the strange origin story of the Jersey Devil...how according to folklore it is the 13th child of Mrs. Leeds! We discuss the Pine Barrens, it's ecosystem and some famous folks who encountered the Jersey Devil. We discuss a few of the more famous sightings and some potential things skeptics say people are seeing. We take a few stabs at summarizing all we learned before saying our goodbyes! A must listen show!

Today on BEAT BERNIE: Leonard from Bordentown, NJ who is now retired faces off against Bernie, just over a week before Christmas Day!  Will Leonard come out of retirement and send Bernie away, or will the Master prove why he's the best?! Tune in now. BANG!

Just in time for Halloween comes an episode laying out a very NJ mystery. This episode is different for us, as Mike D dives into an adventure that starts in sleepy little Bordentown but spans the globe and centuries in the process. We've gone down a real rabbit hole here and none of us are sure how this might end. Get bonus content on Patreon Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

QB1 joins the bros to breakdown the NFL draft and our Bordentown Card Show experience. We recap the top draft picks, how they'll influence the card market, sleeper skill position players, and much more. Ryan, Mook, and QB all had wildly different experiences from the card show, and of course, Mook gets got. Negotiating is not his strong suit. Tune in! As always, rate, review, and subscribe to the pod. Thanks to everyone of you we are growing every week, we really appreciate it. Insta: @Bro_Cards @PhillyCards25 Twitter: @Bro_CardsPod @MookBets

Pastor Dr. Gwendolyn Cook joins us for a discussion on Human Trafficking.Imagine surviving human trafficking, sexual abuse, assault, domestic violence, and gang exploitation all before the age of 13. Pastor Gwendolyn Cook sees it every day. She is the founder and director of Women Walking in the Spirit (WWITS) Girls Mentoring Program in Camden, NJ. Her organization works with young girls returning from juvenile detention at Hayes Secure Care Facility for Girls in Bordentown, NJ. The girls have survived severe and often multiple forms of trauma.

Pastor Dr. Gwendolyn Cook joins us for a discussion on Human Trafficking.Imagine surviving human trafficking, sexual abuse, assault, domestic violence, and gang exploitation all before the age of 13. Pastor Gwendolyn Cook sees it every day. She is the founder and director of Women Walking in the Spirit (WWITS) Girls Mentoring Program in Camden, NJ. Her organization works with young girls returning from juvenile detention at Hayes Secure Care Facility for Girls in Bordentown, NJ. The girls have survived severe and often multiple forms of trauma.

BECOME A PRODUCER! http://www.patreon.com/themidnighttrainpodcast   Find The Midnight Train Podcast: www.themidnighttrainpodcast.com www.facebook.com/themidnighttrainpodcast www.twitter.com/themidnighttrainpc www.instagram.com/themidnighttrainpodcast www.discord.com/themidnighttrainpodcast www.tiktok.com/themidnighttrainp   And wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.   Subscribe to our official YouTube channel: OUR YOUTUBE          Today, my friends, we have another installment in our creepy places series. We are taking a trip to the east coast. We've covered probably the most known creepy story about this state already in a past episode, and now we're back for more creepiness! We know there are more than a few listeners from this particular state, so if we fuck up, we know we’ll hear about it. At the same time we would love to hear more stories about anything we cover from the people who are around it and may have visited these spots or encountered any of the crazy stuff we discuss. So without further ado...the train is pulling out of the station and heading east to none other than New Jersey. Keep your hands inside of the train and watch out for raccoons!          So a little less than a year ago, at the beginning of this whole covid plague, we did a quarantine mashup. We discussed Springheeled Jack, The Wendigo, and the one and only Leeds devil, aka The Jersey Devil! If you are looking for our take on the Jersey Devil Go back and listen to that episode, we will not be discussing him(it?) today. But we are going to head to a bunch of different creepy spots. First Up we head to Totowa (toe tuh wuh) NJ.          Totowa is a borough in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. Totowa in its current iteration has been around since 1898, but the land that is Totowa has been occupied since the 1600’s. Its been around for a long time. Having been around for so long there are destined to be tons of creepy tales, like our first one!            First up is the legendary “Ghost Of Annie”.  For more generations than anyone can seem to remember, Totowa’s Riverview Drive has been more commonly known to locals as “Annie’s Road.”  And for just as long, it has played host to innumerable carloads of late night thrill seekers. What these adventurous night riders are looking for is the spectral figure of Annie herself, an other-worldly apparition that has long been associated with this snaking riverside byway. Running along the Totowa side of the Passaic River, Riverview Drive, or “Reefer Road” as it has been dubbed by many a partying teen, seems to be just brimming with the stuff from which local legends are made. At night it is a dark and treacherous drive that leaves little room for error between the steep hillside on one side, and the muddy slough of the Passaic on the other. It is a remote and wooded road, right in the heart of a densely populated area. There are mythical places to be discovered here as well, or so many have alleged. The isolated community located on Norwood Terrace, an oxbow street found on one of Riverview’s many curves, has long had the reputation of being New Jersey’s much fabled “Midgetville.” We are not going to discuss midgetville here as it is one of the more famous Jersey legends. But what really beckons people to Annie’s Road year after year, decade after decade, is the quest to see Annie herself. The lure of experiencing the supernatural first hand, has been the catalyst for countless late night adventures over the generations, and several notorious misadventures as well. In most cases, these ghost hunters and seekers of Midgetville are nothing more than carloads of bored suburban youth, looking for some harmless late night thrills. Annie’s Road has however, on more than one occasion led its nightriders down a pathway to danger, and even death.  Riverview Drive is no stranger to severe auto accidents, and Annie is not the only soul who has been lost there. What better way to get to the heart of the legend than to hear it from the locals! This is the story of her death as recounted by a local who was young when it happened:                              “As I have been a resident of Totowa all my life, I can tell you the actual story of this poor girl’s fate. Annie was walking home from her prom at school in Little Falls. The shortest and perhaps the easiest route to take was Riverview Drive. She was passing the Laurel Grove Cemetery when a large truck plowed her over and dragged her about 50 feet or so. Her blood can still be seen on the side of the road she had been dragged. If she is to be seen she is a short ways down the road from the blood. This is very close to the place where her tomb once is. My brother has been to the plot in the Laurel Grove Cemetery that was created for her. Though I was little, I do remember hearing that for no apparent reason at all, the tomb caved inward and looked somewhat like a cave”. —Court Well Thanks Court for the info!!! Another story we came across was that back in the 1960s, a couple was driving down the road in Totowa when they got into a huge fight which led the man to open the car door and throw out his partner. Ah, the 60’s! Alone, scared, and injured, the woman began wandering on the street only to be hit by a truck and die on the spot. Even worse, her dress got tangled in the car and she was dragged along the road, taking off her face. Sounds like a cannibal corpse song.  While the stories may vary, they both have the same stories attached. The main one is that there is a trail of old blood on the road from where she was dragged and a splatter of blood on a guardrail as well. Here’s a story about the blood splatter from another local:                                      “ I have heard many stories about this road, and have been there numerous time. I was told roughly the same story that she was killed on her wedding night, and was killed on the road and dragged along it. The first time I went there my friends told me that there was a bloodstain on the road, and a splatter on the guardrail. It WAS there, whatever it was, and it scared the shit out of me. I have taken other friends there throughout the years, and have told them the same story. “Annie’s Lane,” as I have often heard it called, is a great place to bring people for a scary experience. —Marcus Freeman” Sounds crazy right! So the cool part about researching all of these legends is finding different people recounting their stories and seeing all of the crazy variations on the legends. One story has her ghost appearing at midnight while another swears it's at 2am. There's the prom story, the couple story,  then there was another that is positive that her cousin's uncle's brother's friend's grandpa was at the scene and that she was decapitated during a car accident. Then you have the tales of the blood on the asphalt and blood on the guardrail. There's a variation on that story that says that her deranged father would come back every year on the anniversary of her death and paint the guardrail red to keep the memory of his daughter alive and meet with her ghost. Regardless of what version you want to believe, it seems that overall the stretch of road is pretty creepy. There is a cemetery nearby where she is buried and supposedly is a hotspot for paranormal happenings as well. There are reports of video cameras being drained of their batteries, strange lights being caught on camera but not being seen by the naked eye, and some have reported seeing Annie's Ghost at the cemetery as well. Some people also have attributed the “hail mary murders” in NJ as having something to do with this story. We found this tale on another website. It goes as such : It was 1992, and six high school boys spent their days fixated by Annie’s tale. Believing she was run over by a car and that she now haunted the road, they spent their nights at Norwood Terrace, near the house she supposedly lived in, then they would drive up and down River View Dr, before ending up at the mausoleum where they thought she was buried.   Eventually though 5 of the boys felt that they no longer wanted to hang around with the 6th boy, and decided to make him leave. They made several botched attempts to burn his car, but they all failed. Eventually realizing that they couldn’t make him go away, they decided he needed to be eliminated. (and all this because they were bored with his company mind you) They tried to stuff an aerosol can into his gas tank in the hopes of causing an explosion. It didn’t fit. They tried to convince him to be handcuffed to the steering wheel, after which they would stick a flaming rag into the gas tank. He refused. After so many botched attempts to scare him and even eliminate him, some of the boys wondered if he wasn’t protected by Annie herself… They finally settled on a simpler method, and tragically it worked. One day they all drove out to the HS and parked in back. They all began to recite the Catholic “Hail Mary”, and then one of the boys in back took out an electrical cord and strangled the victim from behind, garrote style. Putting his feet on the headrest, the victim didn’t have a chance, and the other boys continued to recite the Hail Mary, until after nearly 10 minutes, he was dead. They tried to cover up the crime by outing the body in the trunk and causing an explosion, but it didn’t work. They ditched the car, and predictably, were caught, arrested, and convicted.   Although this makes for a great story, after going through more than a few articles about the Hail Mary Murders, not one of them had any mention of the Annie legend in them. Doesnt mean its not true but we didn't come up with any proof! Sounds fun...we’re there! Anyone out there experienced Annie’s ghost, or have you been there to check it out? Let us know!        There is, or once was, a legendary place off a dirt road called Disbrow Hill in Monroe Township (Middlesex County) known as Crematory Hill in local lore. As the stories go, back in the 1970s it was one of those scary places where at night anything could happen. The legend of this place was that it was a structure where bodies were cremated, with the remains either shipped out or buried in the graveyard adjacent to the building. It is said that it was abandoned long ago due to the presence of ghosts and spirits. We thought this would make a really cool story but it was hard to find a ton about this legend! There was a story that was on Weird NJ website that we found that has the most info and it came from a local so we are going to relay that story because it is pretty cool!                 “Back when I was in East Brunswick High School, ’69-’72, it was a great place to go with friends or your date and get a good scare, especially on Friday and Saturday nights. It was considered a real rite of passage. There was usually clothing and unrecognizable stuff hanging off the trees at the start of the road leading to Crematory Hill and sometimes further on down. On several trips, we saw a large wooden sign painted in red propped up on the side of the road with the warning: WELCOME TO HELL. That was the signal it was going to be a hell of a ride! Screaming sounds were often heard from the woods, but we drove on, excited and expecting anything! On the way, there was one house close to the dirt road, always with the lights on, where it was rumored that you would see the family living there hitting each other with hammers in the windows. We never saw that, but even with the lights on, it really didn’t look like anyone lived there and it had a weird presence, stuck out there in the middle of nowhere. After passing that landmark, we would look for the opening in the woods off the dirt road that would lead to the Crematory. It was on the right side. This is where the courage factor came into play. It was dark, real dark, and the woods were thick. Weird sounds startled you. You didn’t know what was out there. All we had were a flashlight and our nerve. We walked the dirt path, adrenaline pumping, always aware that something was out there, and in the beams of the flashlights, the structure loomed. Covered with graffiti, it was imposing in the darkness, yet waiting for us to enter and explore. The large, empty building was built up on a dirt hill. It was made out of bricks, stone, and cement. There were openings for windows and doors; there was rubble in the basement. To get to the basement, you had to jump through a hole in the floor. There were some pipes through the floor, which were supposed to be part of the crematory equipment. The structure was probably built in the 19th century. After exploring the Crematory, more courage was mustered to walk the grounds and find the cemetery. There was a low wall, which you followed to find the graveyard, taking you deeper into the woods, further away from your car, the only means to escape if anything happened. This took a lot more of your courage.         After locating the burial ground, the walk back seemed longer and scarier. When you got closer to the road and the car came into view in the flashlight beam, you breathed a sigh of relief, quickening your steps until the key was in the door and you were back in the car. One time we got out of the car at the Crematory, started walking, and heard some rustling in the trees. All of a sudden from the dark came a combination of howling voices and figures, trying to attack us. We were close enough to the car and I had the key in hand fast enough for us to pile in and for me to spin my wheels in gear to get out of there like a bat out of hell. Luckily we escaped uninjured. One of my friends looked back and saw dark outlines of figures, but there were no cars around for them to follow us in. How and why they were there is a mystery. I was told that the Crematory was used by Rutgers fraternities and Douglass sororities as part of the pledging/initiation processes since the 1940s. Crematory Hill provided lots of unpredictable excitement for us teenagers. The ride itself was scary enough, but you were always drawn to walk in the woods, to face the unknown.” –Lewis Sofman      There were other stories of people hearing howls and screams when they would travel through the woods to get to the site. There are stories of people being shot at while they were there. People claimed to have been chased but god knows what. It's odd cus there seems to be tons of local stories but there isn't much outside of that. Which is great for legends and myths though not so much for research.  It does appear that the building was definitely there, there are old pictures of the building that you can see, we’ll definitely post them. Unfortunately for everyone the building has been demolished and condos now reside on the spot where the building used to be. We were unable to find any concrete evidence that the building was actually crematory either. If any of you folks from jersey can shed more light on this one we’d love to hear it, meanwhile we’ll keep digging!               Now we are gonna switch it up and talk cryptids. There are more cryptids than just the Jersey devil roaming and swimming around. First up we have the The Sandyhook Sea Serpent.               The North Shrewsbury (Navesink) River is one of the most scenic estuaries on the Eastern Coast of America. Known for luxury yachts, stately homes, and iceboating, it is hardly the place you would expect to find the legend of a sea serpent. But, in the late nineteenth century it was the location of one of many well-documented and unexplained sightings of mysterious sea creatures that plagued the waters of the North Atlantic. The creature in question was seen by several people, all who were familiar with local sea life. While returning from a daylong outing, Marcus P. Sherman, Lloyd Eglinton, Stephen Allen and William Tinton, all of Red Bank, encountered the monster. The Red Bank Register reported the witnesses to be sober and respectable local merchants. At around 10:00 P.M. the yacht Tillie S., owned by Sherman, was making its way back to Red Bank after a picnic at Highlands Beach. The men had enjoyed a pleasant Sunday evening escaping the warm early summer weather. The moon was shining bright, providing for high visibility as the yacht cut through the water. A stiff summer breeze was blowing and they rounded the Highlands and headed toward Red Bank. At the tiller of the Tillie S., Marcus Sherman steered through the familiar waters. At the bow was Lloyd Eglinton, who kept watch for debris in the water ahead.   Suddenly Eglinton yelled that there was something in the water dead ahead. Sherman steered “hard to port” to avoid the collision. As they looked to see what the obstacle was, they were shocked. There ahead of them was the Sandy Hook Sea Serpent that had been sighted many times over the preceding two years. So credible were the sightings of the Serpent two years earlier, that Scientific American had run an article issuing an opinion that the monster was in fact a Giant Squid. The article, complete with drawings, appeared in the December 27, 1887, edition of the prestigious scientific periodical. The earlier sighting at Sandy Hook had been made by several credible witnesses. Most notably the members of the Sandy Hook Life Saving Service. The crew members had sighted a large monster in the cold waters just off Sandy Hook in November 1879. The sighting was so credible that scientists were dispatched to take statements. It is from these descriptive statements that it was determined the Sandy Hook Sea Monster was, in fact, a giant squid. For the next several years there were reports of all types of sea serpent sightings up and down the east Atlantic Coast.             What the Red Bank men saw was surely no giant squid. It was described as about 50-foot long and serpentine in shape. It swam with snakelike undulations slowly and steadily through the water. As it passed halfway past the bow, its head rose from the water giving forth a mighty roar. The head was described as small and somewhat resembling a bulldog’s in shape. It had two short rounded horns on its head just above its eyes. The eyes we said to be the size of silver dollars. Bristles adorned the upper lip of the monster, much like those that would be found on a cat. The beast’s nostrils were quite large and flattened. The serpent-like body tapered to a sword-like pointed tail. The frightened men stared in disbelief as it slowly and leisurely swam toward the shore of Hartshorne’s Cove. As the monster disappeared into the night, the men made their way back to Red Bank with a monster of a story to tell. The men of the Tillie S. were not the only ones to see the creature. Other boaters on the water saw the serpent and gave near identical descriptions. In all over a dozen boaters had seen the strange creature on his nocturnal swim. Over the next months and years there would be other sightings of the monster in the Navesink. In time it came to be known as the Shrewsbury Sea Serpent. No scientific explanation was ever given for the sightings, as had been done for the so-called Sandy Hook Sea Serpent, however the description is not totally without merit. Other than the size, the description is very similar to that of the Oarfish. In any case the mystery remains as to the true identity and fate of the Sea Serpent.         Next up we have the blobs….yes the blobs. On  August 6 a large mysterious blob appeared in a Little Egg Harbor tributary in 2003. The Jersey State Police’s marine unit was called in and the Department of Environmental Protection poked and probed the blob and determined that it was not hazardous, though they could not say for sure just what it was. The gooey mass was eventually towed out into the Great Bay using a 50-foot rope and then released. The following year in May of 2004 another gooey, putrid mass surfaced in another waterway in the lagoon community of Beach Haven West, miles away from the original Blob encounter. This smaller “Son of Blob” was only about 10 feet in diameter, but terrorized the beach community nevertheless. “It’s miserable, ugly and disgusting,” said resident Nancy Olivia in the Press of Atlantic City. Olivia called Ocean County officials to say “I went to work today, and I have a Blob in my backyard!” The NJ Department of Environmental Protection, the NJ State Police and Ocean County Health Department were called in to inspect the mass, and samples were taken. The inspectors believed that it was not the same blob that appeared in Little Egg Harbor the prior year, but still didn’t have a clue as to what it consisted of.  It smelled like rotten eggs and measured about 8ft.x10ft.  Most scientists think it was just a mass of algae or plant waste. We like to think its something creepier.  The blob might just be the most disgusting and frightening thing ever encountered at the Jersey Shore, with the possible exception of some cast members from the TV show of the same name. The blob may still be at large, lurking in the depths––so BEWARE!     On top of those there are the numerous bigfoot sightings! These are my people. They are out there and we know they are! In some areas of Jersey they use the nickname Big Red Eye as many reports state he has glowing red eyes! Sussex and Burlington counties seem to be hotspots as they are the top counties for sightings. Here are a few sightings, just cus we love bigfoot sightings.  In 1975, five people reported in a local Sussex County newspaper that a large creature, about nine-feet-tall, was spotted near the Bear Swamp, south of Lake Owassa in the farthest reaches of Sussex County.  The creature walked upright, and was covered with shaggy gray hair. Locals who hunt and fish in the surrounding forest said that it’s possible that something like that could exist because of the remoteness of the area.          In May of 1977, a Sussex County farmer in the town of Wantage reported that a large brown, hairy, Bigfoot-like creature with no neck and glowing red eyes had broken down a one-inch thick oak door and killed his rabbits. Some of the bunnies’ heads were torn off, while other hares were crushed and twisted. The man said there was an unusual absence of blood at the scene. Four men waited with loaded guns the following night for the creature to return. It reappeared at dusk, was shot at, and reportedly hit at least three or four times before running away growling. Although there was an account of the wounded beast re-emerging a few days later, no carcass was ever found. Bob Warth, a member of S.I.T.U. (The Society for the Investigation of The Unexplained based in Little Silver, NJ), claims these Bigfoot-like entities may be UFO related. “We know what robots are,” says Warth. “Is there a possibility that these bigfoots with super-human strength are an extraterrestrial biological robot up in North Jersey? These farmers encountered a bigfoot stealing animals from their barn, they shot at it, hit it right in the body cavity, but there was no blood. It then ran away. When you witness something like that, the first thing you do is relate it to yourself—physically and mentally. If you shoot it, you’re going to shoot where you know the heart is, or whatever, to be to bring it down. First of all, you don’t know what kind of armor it has, and secondly the brain (or control system) may be in his feet for that very purpose…if it is a biological robot.” According to the report on The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization website, this witness and his brother-in-law were hunting in an area that they had frequented for several years and heard a sound that neither of them could explain. The sighting,which took place in 2006, was recounted as follows: The deer stood there for about a minute or two mostly looking to the north and east, then turned directly south and walked away. Shortly after this moment I heard a screaming sound coming from the east. The sound had a human quality to it and sounded more angry than distressed. I immediately thought my brother-in-law was hollering for some reason as he was in that direction but chose not to contact him via radio. There were several short 10 second screams lasting a little over a minute and then stopped. I sat there completely perplexed having never heard a sound like that before. After this I noticed the conspicuous absence of any sound or movement in the forest. Prior to this the woods had been filled with the sound of twittering birds and chattering squirrels. After this, the forest was dead quiet. This was the most eerie part of the whole event. After this incident, the witness found a sound file from another website dedicated to Bigfoot encounters. He and his brother-in-law agreed that it was similar to what they had heard. And then there are the stories of “the big hairy man”. No it's not Moody either, he's only been to Jersey a couple of times and we're pretty sure the timelines don't match up to any sightings, well maybe 1 or 2. A Bigfoot-like entity has been seen in the regions of Somerset County, including the Great Swamp area and the Somerset Hills. The locals call it “The Big Hairy Man,” and he has even been spotted as far away as Hillside. According to eyewitness reports The Big Hairy Man stands about eight-feet tall and is covered with hair the color of a deer’s. He walks upright with a human gait, according to a bone specialist and a physical therapist who encountered the Big Hairy Man while taking a shortcut through the Great Swamp on Lord Stirling Road in a hurry to reach the airport.   They claimed the Big Hairy Man walked in front of their car and hopped the fence alongside the road. They could not see his face because he (or it) was looking down. These sightings, according to the Folklore Project in Bernardsville, have occurred for many years. We’ll finish up with a story about Big Red Eye:                             Not that I’m a big believer of urban legend and folklore, but I must tell you this story because after reading about The Big Red Eye in a recent issue, I got the chills! My wife and I live in Westwood now, but we’re formerly from Mahwah. One night, early last summer, we were walking our dog in our condo development (Paddington Square in Mahwah) and heard this guttural sound that scared us so much that we called the police. I’ve heard just about every animal noise imaginable and I’ve got to tell you this was the strangest thing I’ve ever heard. It wasn’t a dog, or bear, but it was big and angry, and had red eyes. I estimate it was roughly 30 yards from us. We were standing by a street light on the sidewalk. I told my wife to pick up the dog and go into the street and walk home slowly. I was shaking in my boots as I slowly backed up, keeping my eyes on the brush. We made it home and called the police, not once, but twice, to find out what the hell that thing was. They investigated but found nothing. To this day my wife and I wonder what it was.  –Mike V. So now with some cryptids out of the way, we have another creepy haunted road. Texas has shitloads of haunted bridges...Jersey has haunted roads, there's always something. This may be the greatest road name ever though. It is called Shades Of Death Road. Yes that's the real name. It’s a two-lane rural road of about 7 miles (11.2 km) in length weaving from farm country just off I-80 along a portion of Jenny Jump State Forest, riding the edge of the unofficially-but-aptly-named Ghost Lake. The road is the subject of folklore and numerous local legends.           One tale relating to murder says that the original inhabitants of the area surrounding Shades of Death were an unruly band of squatters. Often, men from this vile gang would get into fights over women, and the squabbles would result in the death of one of the participants. As the reputation of these murderous bandits grew, the area they inhabited was named “Shades of Death.” When the civilized world encroached on and disbanded the bandits, the last remnant of their control over the meadows was restricted to one road that retained the name they made famous. Another murder theory says that the road was originally known as “The Shades,” because of the low hanging trees which formed a canopy over the length of the street. Legend says that over time, many murders occurred there, and many stayed unsolved, causing local residents to add the sinister “of Death” twist to the formerly pleasant “Shades” name.       One of those legends is that many years ago, a car of teenagers was driving down a country road in Hackettstown, NJ after the prom. The road was slippery that night and it curved sharply to the left and right, winding into the dark. The driver lost control and the car crashed into a ditch killing one of the passengers. To this day, on dark and slippery nights, you can still see the girl who died wandering that murderous curve wearing her prom dress.         There are the stories of the random pillars of steam rising from the lake that people attribute to the souls of dead Indians that settlers tossed into the lake. The phenomena is also called The Great Meadows Fog. People claim to see the dead walking in the mist. The road was also the site of many deaths that were once attributed to a curse in the area. The deaths are also sometimes blamed on a plague caused by the waters in the lake, said to have been a malaria outbreak.  Lenape Lane is an unpaved one-lane dead-end street about three-quarter mile (1.1 km) in length running eastward off Shades just north of I-80. It ends at a farmhouse for which it is little more than a driveway, but halfway down there is space to park or turn around next to a wooden structure described as looking like an abandoned stable.                       Weird New Jersey writes that visitors to this stable site at night have reported extremely local fog surrounding it and seeing apparitions in it, or sometimes even in clear weather, and also claimed the air is sometimes unusually chilly, and feeling general unease in the area for no immediately apparent reason. An additional legend claims that sometimes nocturnal visitors to Lenape see an orb of white light appear near the end of the road which chases vehicles back out to Shades Of Death, and if it turns red in the process, those who see it will die. This may be due to an old tree near the end of Lenape that was never cut down when the road was built. As a result, the road forks right before the tree, and a big red reflector has been nailed to the tree to warn drivers. Another legend says that if one circles around the tree and drives down the road again at midnight, a red light will shine and the driver will never survive.                There are some legends concerning a Native American spirit guide who supposedly takes the shape of a deer and appears at various points along the road at night. If drivers see him and do not slow down sufficiently enough to avoid a collision, they will soon get into a serious accident with a deer.   Another legend tells of a bridge where, if drivers stop past midnight with their high beams on and honk their horns three times, they will see the ghosts of two young children who were run over while playing in the road. This legend actually refers to a bridge over the Flatbrook on Old Mine Road, not far from Shades of Death. The bridge is no longer accessible by car as a newer, larger bridge has been built next to it. The original bridge can still be reached on foot.   And then there are the polaroids. The site Weird NJ, which is all about weird stuff in New Jersey, and quite on the nose, has a page about Shades of Death Road. Now, if you go to their page for Shades of Death Road and check out the tags at the bottom of the page, you’ll see one that says “Polaroids” but the story article itself never mentions Polaroids. From what we could find, back in the 1990s, when Weird NJ was a magazine, they shared a story from two readers who claimed to have found hundreds of odd photos while checking out Shades of Death Road. Some of the Polaroids showed a TV on different channels, and others showed various women bound and apparently in distress. Weird NJ turned the photos over to the local police but after that the story kind of weirdly ends with the police supposedly losing the Polaroids. Were the Polaroids taken by a serial killer similar to that of the BTK Killer in Kansas? Or were they a hoax? The lack of any solid information on them, and the idea that the police lost hundreds of Polaroids makes most think hoax. Still, if you Google for Shades of Death Road Polaroids, some of the images will come up          Ok, how about some good old haunted buildings? Everyone loves haunted buildings, except pussies, they don't like haunted buildings. At any rate, first up is the so-called Spy House.            One of the most haunted houses in America is the Spy House, built in 1648, added on to and moved to its present day site. As a tavern during the Revolutionary war, it was frequented by British troops. The tavern owner would tell the Colonial troops about British plans of attack. For many years it was open to the public as a historical museum, but just a couple of years ago it was closed to the public. Quite simply, it is one of the most haunted houses in the country with not one but up to five different spirits haunting it. A female spirit dressed in white has been seen walking from room to room looking for her crying baby. A full bearded old sea captain is also known to roam the grounds and halls, and a small ghost of a boy has been seen peering out of windows. Even the infamous pirate Captain Morgan was known to hide treasure in the house's basement and conduct sordid business and tortures in the old house. He's been seen in a ghostly form threatening children and others who visited the museum. This ghostly activity has been going on for years.   The Spy House once touted 22 active ghosts. Longtime volunteer curator Gertrude Needlinger would show videos of the seances! In October, 1993, Neidlinger was locked out of the museum after a dispute with the Spy House Museum Corp. The board claimed she continued to lead ghost tours through the house, with visitors carrying lit candles and posing a fire hazard. In 1992, while it was still an antique-cluttered, spirit-infested treasure of the Jersey bayshore, 13 nights of ghost tours drew about 1,800 people. Gertrude, an elderly woman who, by most accounts, was a colorful character with a vivid imagination, would spin yarns of the house’s past, weaving in threads of ghosts and espionage as she walked visitors around the museum. Though most historians today bristle at the tales she told, they will admit that Neidlinger’s narratives gained quite a bit of attention for the house in the public’s eye. ghost stories that began to circulate about the Spy House soon became the primary focus of the homestead’s appeal, much to the chagrin of the local historians. Here's a couple tales of ghostly happenings:          Spy House Ghost Boy One morning my friend Dave’s parents went to visit the old Spy House Museum in Port Monmouth. They were there at the appointed opening time but the curator wasn’t there. After about a half hour of waiting they said “the hell with it,” and left. As they were getting back into their car, my friend’s father looked up and pointed out a kid about 10 or12-years-old, looking at them from the upstairs window. His dad said that the kid had on one of those puffy shirts that they used to wear in the old days. As they watched, he slowly backed away from the window. Just then the curator drove up and apologized for being late. They told her that they had seen a young boy in the upstairs window. She said no one is supposed to be in there. She opened the house up and together they searched the place, but found no one. –Ray     ROCKING CHAIR GHOST         On the way back from a very fun day at the water park in Keansburg, my dad decided to show my sister and myself the Spy House. When we got there we looked into the windows. It was extremely dark inside, and everything was locked. When we made it to the left side of the house my dad noticed something moving inside the house. I just shrugged it off as nothing, but then when I was looking in the same upstairs window I noticed that the rocking chair moved! I was scanning all the windows to see if I could see anything else unusual, and I clearly saw a man sitting in a rocking chair reading. It couldn’t have been a ranger because he was wearing old clothes and was sitting in the dark, reading, in a locked up house. We snapped a picture and ran, and as we pulled away, a ranger pulled up and unlocked the doors, so we assume it must have been a ghost. –Ali Creepy! Ringwood Manor According to the caretakers, Ringwood Manor is one of the most haunted places on the east coast. It has layer upon layer of legend, myth and folklore. The Native Americans would even call it the Haunted Woods. In fact, before the home was built, prehistoric artifacts were found on the grounds of Ringwood confirming Native American occupation of the site dating back to the Archaic and Woodlands periods of prehistory. These Munsee-speaking Lenape peoples lived in a hunting and farming paradise at the head of the “Topomopack” or Ringwood River Valley and traded with other natives in the Pompton area. The Lenapi recognized special earth forces at work here, and as long as their memory is, this has been sacred ground with supernatural occurrences attributed to the area. Perhaps it is the earth’s immense magnetism at Ringwood that affects all type of matter. It is said that the Highlands region was a gathering place for all of the diverse prehistoric Native Americans of the Northeast.   While the “forces” remain a mystery, it was known that there were lots of iron in the hills and valleys of Ringwood. As such, in 1742, the Ogden family established the Ringwood Company and built the first blast furnace to begin mining and selling the iron. By 1771, the last ironmaster of the American Iron Company, Robert Erskine, was sent from England. He would manage the company during the Revolutionary War. The iron mined at the site helped to supply the Continental Army with components of the chain system used to defend the Hudson River, camp ovens, and domestic tools and hardware.       After the war, Martin J. Ryerson purchased the historic ironworks in 1807 and began building the first section of the present Manor circa 1810. The home was a small, 10-room, Federal style building. In 1853, the Ryerson’s house and property were purchased by Peter Cooper. Cooper purchased the 19,000 acre site, which included the Long Pond ironworks area, for $100,000. Cooper’s iron business, Trenton Ironworks, was managed by his son Edward and his son’s business partner, Abram S. Hewitt. Additions to the Manor were constructed in 1864, 1875, 1900, and 1910. Eventually, the iron industry moved further west in America and Ringwood’s iron mines finally closed. In 1938, the Hewitt family donated Ringwood Manor and its contents to the State of New Jersey. Preserved as a historic house museum and State Park, Ringwood Manor and its grounds are excellent examples of Victorian wealth and lifestyle.   The Ringwood Manor Hauntings In total there are four different places that are said to be haunted. If you wander the halls of the Manor House at night, guests commonly meet the ghost of a servant known as Jackson White who haunts a small bedroom on the second floor. Legend states that in the early 1900’s Jackson worked as a servant for the family, but was caught stealing food from the pantry in the middle of the night. One of the white workers beat the man to death in this room. Many visitors have heard noises coming from the empty room – footsteps, sounds of heavy objects dropping, soft crying. And they keep finding the bedroom door ajar and the bed rumpled.   Behind the Manor pond is the grave where Owner/ General Robert Erskine is buried. The locals are afraid to come near the graves because at dusk General Erskine can be seen sitting on his grave gazing across the pond. The pond itself was created for a young woman known as Sally who can also be seen around the graves. She meets guests with music as well as flowery fragrances. The French Soldiers Also near Erskine it is said there is an unmarked grave filled with the remains of French soldiers who fought during the Revolutionary War. During the day, all you can see is a depression in the grass near the General’s grave. But it is believed that, at night, when the lights are out and the moon hangs brightly over the manor, the dead return to walk around the pond, and gaze over the shore in search of their loved ones. Sometimes, you can hear soft, sad voices speaking in French.   The last haunting is the grounds itself which were said to hold an ancient Indian burial ground. When the house was build over these remains, along came a curse and haunting which was resulting in various strange occurrences to visitors who say that a dark energy can be felt. Others claim that spirits come home with them. Sounds fun!   "A purported meeting place for the KKK, notorious suicide site and rumored gateway to the depths of hell".         This was the first description of The Devil's Tree that we found, kind of had to put it in. While it's not exactly a building, Thrillest named The devil's tree one of the most haunted places in America and the most haunted in New Jersey! the Devil's Tree is infamous among locals and has evolved into a chilling tourist attraction," according to Thrillist. "Legend has it, anyone who harms the tree will suffer swift and violent retribution — so naturally, it has become a tradition for ballsy teens across the Garden State to pee on its trunk.             The infamous tree stands alone in an open field off Mountain Road in Bernards Township right on the border of the Martinsville section of Bridgewater and continues to draw in thrill seekers from all over the Garden State and beyond.           Legend has it that the tree has been cursed since as far back as the 1920s when a group of KKK members were rumored to hold cross burnings and hangings off the limbs of the tree.       Basking Ridge historian, or also known as mrlocalhistory.org, Brooks Betz confirmed there was in fact an active KKK clan located just down the road on the Bridgewater side near Route 202/206 and Brown Road, where the Hindu temple now stands. However, the clan activities have not been proven.         "One of the different rumors is that one of the guys, a grand wizard of the clan, who owned the property in Bridgewater would hold a series of KKK activity and cross burnings. And instead of doing it on the Bridgewater property they did it on the tree. There were tales of lynching and cross burning. But nothing was substantiated," Betz said.        Another rumor revolves around a farmer — who lived in the white farmhouse that had stood adjacent to the tree — who murdered his entire family at the home and then hung himself on the tree.        Betz said there is no record of the murders ever being reported.       "The property then laid dormant until the 1960s when a couple of local kids invented a story about a rogue white pickup truck that would come up over the hill and kill you," Betz said.          Betz said he spoke with one of those boys later on who told him that they made up the story and drove the "haunted" pickup in an attempt to keep people off the property so they could hang out and drink by the tree.         The tree has since been called "a portal to hell" because of all the rumors.         "Supposedly anyone who tries to cut down the unholy oak comes to an untimely end, as it is now cursed. It is said that the souls of those killed at the spot give the tree an unnatural warmth, and even in the dead of winter no snow will fall around it," Betz wrote in a piece about the tree years ago.         The tree gained much more attention after Weird NJ published a story on the tree in 2012.       To this day, thrill seekers come out to the tree and try to press their luck and see if they end up cursed.      Some try to touch the tree, while others pee on it or try to cut it or burn it down. You can still see the ax and burn marks permanently branded onto the tree. Many took pieces of the bark as a souvenir or proof they were at the tree.      With much commotion surrounding the tree the township designated the area a park where the field and tree are now sanctioned and protected. The tree has a protective chain link fencing around the trunk and the park remains closed with Bernards Township Police patrolling the area for trespassers.         Betz noted that there is "some element of truth" when you look at the rumors "but when you dig deeper" it doesn't all check out.         "Was there a clan there? Yeah. A white truck? Yeah. There were no hangings proven," Betz said. "You decide for yourself. Is it real? Is there any truth to it? Or is just some tree. You decide." How about another road? INDIAN CURSE ROAD Route 55 has a long history of curious occurrences.   Home state HauntingsIn March of 1983, the Department Of Transportation started construction on a field just off Route 47 in Deptford, between Mantua and Franklin Township, to build a new 7.2 mile stretch of Route 55. Two months later mysterious deaths began to befall the workers involved with the project.   “All they had to do was detour around the field maybe three or four miles and nothing would have happened,” said Carl Pierce in a newspaper article at the time. Pierce, or Sachem Wayandaga, the chief and medicine man of the Delaware Indians, said the land was an ancient Indian burial ground, and therefore sacred.   “I told them what would happen if they didn’t stop the desecration, Pierce was quoted as saying. “The damage is done. The problem is I feel sorry for some of the people who will be traveling that road in the future.”   The first unfortunate incident was that of a 34-year-old worker who was run over by an asphalt roller truck. Another worker fell to his death when he was working on an overpass, swept up by unexpected high winds that had apparently come out of nowhere.   Soon after those incidents, an inspector fell dead on the job from a brain aneurysm. Other workers, or members of their families, suffered strange maladies. One worker’s feet turned black, while other workers’ family members developed cancer. Then a van carrying five Department Of Transportation employees caught fire and blew up. The parents of killed asphalt worker died during the first week of construction, and a brother and father of another worker died that same week.   A D.O.T. employee, who asked not to be identified because he fears the curse, said that Karl Kruger, the site engineer for the project, would often speak about the curse, and the coincidence of the events. The employee informed Weird N.J. that Mr. Kruger had died of cancer shortly thereafter. Yet another victim of the curse? DEVILS TOWER The Devil's Tower was built in 1910 by a millionaire sugar importer named Manuel Rionda. Before it received the name Devil's Tower, it was formerly known as Rio Vista. According to reporting from Forbes, the tower was built and dedicated to Rionda’s wife, Harriet Rionda, who was buried on nearby land but later moved to Brookside Cemetery, Englewood. Rumor has it that Mr. Rionda built the tower for his wife so she could look out at the New York City skyline. Others believe he built it as a mausoleum or for religious purposes. But, even with Mrs. Rionda’s death and later Mr. Rionda’s death in the mid 1900’s, many believe Harriet Rionda’s spirit still lives on at the tower.   The tower was connected to Rionda’s home by an underground tunnel. According to the local legend story, his wife was looking out of the tower when she saw Manuel with another woman. While she may have suspected infidelity for years, according to reporting from New Jersey Magazine, distraught from the site, she jumped off the tower, killing herself. Since her rumored suicide, there have been many reports of hauntings, including people who have said they have been pushed by something unseen. Others have reported strange noises and because of this, Manuel locked up the tower, filled in the tunnel connecting the home to the tower and even removed the elevator leading to the top of the tower proclaiming, “Nobody will ever go up here again,” according to reporting from Try To Scare Me.   Since that time, people have started calling it Devil's Tower. Witnesses report still hearing noises and smelling perfume, while at other times you can hear a scream as the wife jumps from the tower or a workman falls from it. Her ghostly spirit has also been seen as a shadowy figure in the windows.   Some have said that if you drive or walk backward around the tower a certain number of times, the devil or Manuel's wife appears.   Devil’s Tower and the spirit surrounding it clearly seems to be here for good, keeping a dark cloud around the rich community of Alpine. Even after Mr. Rionda’s death there were plans to demolish the tower by the Town but activities were halted and eventually aborted after several workers fell to their death.     BURLINGTON COUNTY PRISON The Burlington County Prison is a historic museum property, located next to the Burlington County Jail in Mount Holly Township, Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. Operating from 1811 to 1965, it was the oldest prison in the nation at the time of its closure. The imposing structure was designed by Robert Mills, considered to be the first native-born American trained as an architect. Mills may be most famous for his government buildings and monuments, including the Treasury Building (featured on the back of the 10-dollar bill) and the Washington Monument, but he also designed several courthouses, churches, and prisons.  The Burlington County Prison, built with 18-inch-thick walls made of stone and brick, was designed to hold 40 inmates. When it opened, the penitentiary didn’t have electricity or running water; it was the first prison in the U.S. constructed to be fireproof, and each cell was heated by a wood-burning fireplace. The first floor, for perpetrators of less severe crimes, had larger windows than the second, which held more serious offenders. A maximum-security cell (known as “the dungeon”) located on the top floor is flanked by niches for additional guards and has a steel ring on the floor to which a prisoner could be chained. In 1876, five men punched a hole through the ceiling of their prison cell, located on the top floor of Burlington County Prison. Four of the men slipped through the hole onto the roof, climbed down a woodpile, and over the prison yard wall to freedom. The fifth man, upset that he was too large to fit through the small opening, didn’t wait long before he snitched on his cellmates. The warden responded immediately to the alarm, but only two of the four escapees were ever caught and returned to the prison. The early laws of NJ required that prisoners convicted of capital crimes had to be executed by the county in which they were convicted. Except for two of the earliest executions in the 1830s (one of which was a woman, the other a young man named Joel Clough), public hangings took place in the prison yard, on gallows erected for each event. The first two mentioned were carried out on public lands at a crossroads a few miles from the prison, and from contemporary accounts, drew quite a crowd. According to records, Joel’s body was later buried in the prison yard in a corner where a large tree now grows. It is believed his ghost is the principle haunt.   Besides the executions, other violent deaths took place at the prison. During the 1920s some inmates managed to escape, making their way through the lowest level. They encountered a trustee near the kitchen and murdered him. A few decades later practically the same scenario occurred, with a second guard being killed in the same corridor.   The last execution to take place at Burlington County Prison was a double bill in March of 1906. Two men, Rufus Johnson and George Small, were executed just two months after their crime. They had murdered an English-born governess at a refuge for homeless children in Moorestown.  Joel Clough had been arrested and convicted of the stabbing death of a woman in Bordentown—apparently she had jilted him. Though he managed to escape, the 29 year old Clough was quickly recaptured and confined to the Death Cell on the upper floor of the prison. A brochure given out at the museum describes the maximum security cell this way:       The “dungeon”, or maximum-security cell, was in the center of the top floor. That location was carefully chosen to prevent escape by digging, to minimize communication with criminals in the cell blocks, and to ensure constant surveillance by guards making rounds. This was the only cell without a fireplace. It is flanked by niches for guards or visitors and has one very high, very small window and an iron ring in the center of the floor to which the prisoner could be chained. As one might expect, tradition states that this cell is haunted.   Policy of the time was to chain the condemned to a ring on the floor, naked. Accordingly, Joel’s spirit has been heard moaning and languishing there, and electro-magnetic indicators (used in ghost hunting) routinely register a “hit.” The Death Cell, complete with its metal ring, and all the “accommodations” at the prison, welcome inspection, and in many cases prisoner graffiti has been preserved on the walls.   The Prison now is a Historic Landmark and a nice museum, a fascinating place to learn about prison life. It still holds a few entities who don’t want to leave. This became evident when in 1999 renovation work began on the run-down building, in order to create this museum for the public. MANIFESTATIONS The Prison now is a Historic Landmark and a nice museum. It still holds a few entities who choose to stay here. There is much psychic research done to support this haunting of the old prison. Thanks the North and South Jersey Paranormal Research groups. In a joint effort, they investigated this prison with video, photos, EVP equipment and came up with some interesting results.   During the renovation work, workmen experienced some paranormal activities. They were treated to loud noises, voices and screams from their new friends – The entities who stayed behind. The workers would find their tools missing and later found on another floor or other location much later in the day. Because the workers were uneasy being the last ones in the building, they started to leave early, prompting the officials to call in the South Jersey Ghost Research team to confirm or deny the claims of the now scared workers, in order to ease their minds. Dave Juliano of theShadowlands.net was in on these early investigations and saw first hand evidence. This was the first of several investigations.   An apparition was seen in the shower area, and a foot print in the dust was found there as well.  The Maximum Security Cell – Haunted by entity or entities who spent their last nights here before being hanged. David Juliano observed with his team that a stretcher next to the maximum security cell moved by itself, and that the movement sensors were set off by a force in the cell itself.   Susan Bove (SJPR) meditates in the “Death Row” cell while two orbs move past.   The gallows which are on display are haunted by the condemned. Possible candidates may include convicted murderers Rufus Johnson and George Small, as well as others who were executed here. Got to love old prisons and asylums! And speaking of asylums… We don't have one...I know I know, but all of the reportedly haunted asylums that sounded awesome to us have been demolished, and honestly… What's the point then? Here's some quick guys for you guys since there's so many things we could cover:  Probably one of the more popular urban legends, the Atco Ghost is said to appear when drivers honk three times on Burnt Mill Road in the Pine Barrens. Legend has it that the ghost boy haunts the site where he was struck by a drunk driver.  The Hindenburg disaster occurred on May 6, 1937, in Manchester Township. The German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst. On board were 97 people; there were 36 fatalities. Though the disaster took place 77 years ago, some say that reverberations of the tragic event, of a paranormal nature, can still be felt around the Lakehurst Naval Base to this day––especially in Hangar No. 1.  Ok so there you have some of the creepy things we could find in Jersey. Honestly there's a fucking ton more, but… we saved the craziest,creepiest, and possibly the most tragic story we could find for last. Mad science, murder, and a lasting presence in new Jersey, make this the craziest story you may have ever heard. It goes like this: Rumors had started circulating around the creepy plain building in Hudson county in New Jersey. It sat by itself and seemingly none ever went in or came out. No one knew who owned it or what it purpose was. That is until a mysterious fire gutted the building one night in 1974. After the fire was put out investigators quickly depot in and started to gather what was left and sweep it away without letting anyone see what was there. However, they were not as through as they thought and left behind some interesting evidence that was find by curious townsfolk checking out the site after the fire. As much as could be piecedd together goes like this. Apparently the government owned the building. After WW2 the government brought over Nazi scientists with operation paperclip. Well it looks like this building in Jersey played host to several of the worst. The files showed the scientist were working on some sort of biological weapon and also animal experimentation to train small animals to be weapons. They experimented with mice, rats, possums, raccoons, squirrels, moles, groundhogs, and other small animals trying to find ways to train them to deliver explosives and other biological weapons. When the fire started there were many animals that escaped. Most of them were near death due to mistreatment. But a local family stumbled across possibly the most disturbing pair of animals to have been tested on and experimented with. These two animals, a male and female raccoon, showed many disturbing characteristics that trains should not have. They acted almost human like and communicated with a series of sounds that seemed like their own sort of language. They had very little fur left except on their heads. The couple put it done food for them and the raccoons are the food and then took off. Nobody else saw these two raccoons but there's compelling and creepy evidence that they existed. Wandering the streets of Jersey today you may find yourself in some unsavory places. Within these unsavory places is where you can find the evidence of these raccoons existence. While you may run into many normal raccoons, you may also run into raccoons that are essentially… Human. They walk, talk and wear leather jackets. They are tough and will not hesitate to cut you as many of them carry switchblades. They generally have bad attitudes but have been known on occasion to help you out if you are being threatened by someone from the family Pepitone.  These raccoons are said to be the direct descendants of the two raccoons that escaped from that burning building so many years ago. So when you're in Jersey the takes warn to beware the raccoons! Well there you have it, our first installment of creepy Jersey! There will be another at someone as we've found so many cool creep places and things in Jersey. Because if its age and location there's a ton of really cool historical places there and events that took place there. We recommend checking out the history of the state. While it may have a reputation as being the garbage dump of the United States, there's actually alot to love, especially if you like creepy and haunted…. And raccoons!                               

Learn how we self recorded an entire full length album, in a tiny house in Bordentown, NJ. There were infinite problems, issues, wrongdoings, and lessons we learned! Can listen to "In Local Trance" by Good Friend Electric HERE https://open.spotify.com/album/3WmbzS0pe8rl2A8GG5tNrA?si=NsbPs6kCRei-QIQ9zB69xA

Mychalynn is confident she will be the 2nd winner of 2021! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode, we are delighted to have the amazing, William Stell to talk about his journey and share with us some of his wisdom and advice.William is a Ph.D. student at Princeton University, where he studies American religion and sexuality in the twentieth century. He is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and previously served as the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Bordentown, New Jersey.What are you watching? Currently watching The Muppet Show and the last season of Schitt's Creek. And we're always watching The Golden Girls :) Movie recommendation: "Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am" (on Hulu)Where can they find William: Via Facebook and Twitter (@wmstell)Coming Out Loved and Supported The group for the LGBTQ+ community and family of LGBTQ+ wanting to learn more and do better!My name is Annie Henderson and I'm a Coming Out Coach here to support the LGBT community and parents of children that have come out.Wherever you are on this journey, I'm glad you are here!Feel free to reach out!AnnieMHenderson.comMessage me at M.me/AnniemhendersonFor LGBT only:www.facebook.com/groups/safeandoutFor LGBT and Allies with pastor support (if wanted):www.facebook.com/groups/lgbtandalliesNeed some 1-on-1 coaching?www.calendly.com/lifecoachannie/1-on-1-coaching Please like and subscribe and If you know anyone that is needing support as they are going through their journey, please share because I honestly believe by doing so, we can save lives.

On this episode, we are delighted to have the amazing, William Stell to talk about his journey and share with us some of his wisdom and advice.William is a Ph.D. student at Princeton University, where he studies American religion and sexuality in the twentieth century. He is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and previously served as the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Bordentown, New Jersey.What are you watching? Currently watching The Muppet Show and the last season of Schitt's Creek. And we're always watching The Golden Girls :) Movie recommendation: "Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am" (on Hulu)Where can they find William: Via Facebook and Twitter (@wmstell)Coming Out Loved and Supported The group for the LGBTQ+ community and family of LGBTQ+ wanting to learn more and do better!My name is Annie Henderson and I’m a Coming Out Coach here to support the LGBT community and parents of children that have come out.Wherever you are on this journey, I’m glad you are here!Feel free to reach out!AnnieMHenderson.comMessage me at M.me/AnniemhendersonFor LGBT only:www.facebook.com/groups/safeandoutFor LGBT and Allies with pastor support (if wanted):www.facebook.com/groups/lgbtandalliesNeed some 1-on-1 coaching?www.calendly.com/lifecoachannie/1-on-1-coaching Please like and subscribe and If you know anyone that is needing support as they are going through their journey, please share because I honestly believe by doing so, we can save lives.

Mike Virok is the owner of The Guitar Rescue located in Hamilton, NJ. Mike is a certified guitar luthier who specializes in building his own line of one-of-a-kind guitars and repairing/maintaining guitars and basses for his diverse clientele throughout the tristate area. We also discuss details of his recent departure from Bordentown, NJ, and what the future of The Guitar Rescue holds.

CRYPTIDS 101

Episode 1784 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about another reason we fought in Vietnam. The story appeared in the Courier Post of Bordentown, New Jersey titled: Bordentown City resident named Burlington County Woman of the … Continue reading → The post 1784 – Another reason we fought in Vietnam appeared first on .

This week, I'm talking to Jennifer Nasta Zefutie, who has accomplished what many people think is impossible: she's a working actress, and the co-founder and co-producing artistic director of the Pegasus Theatre Company in Bordentown, New Jersey. Jennifer has one of the most interesting (and unlikely) creative journeys you're likely to hear, and our wide-ranging conversation also covered loss aversion, why failure is essential, defining success for ourselves, and the theatrical improv rule of "Yes, and...," both as a creative principle and a way of life. Check out the show notes and links at fycuriosity.com.

This episode of ORIGINS features New Jersey citrus growers Vivek and Seema Malik along with their daughter and baker Simran Malik.The Maliks are self-taught, part-time citrus growers. Citrus is a passion stemming from their love of Japanese cuisine. A chance encounter with yuzu soy sauce at Nobu in NYC, started a journey of discovery and adventure which has led to a greenhouse filled with 16 citrus varieties in Bordentown, New Jersey. In Hindi, “Bhumi” refers to Mother Earth. “Bhumi Growers” is a labor of love to honor Vivek’s mom who passed away just before this venture was born. Vivek and Seema focus on growing and sourcing specialty citrus for their customers and are constantly learning and educating themselves to help improve the quality of their citrus. They are pleased to call some of the top names in food as their clients. Their growth so far is based on the philosophy of establishing a direct connection with chefs, bartenders, brewers and consumers through Instagram, Twitter and referrals from existing customers.They are very pleased to be here sharing their passion with all of us.ORIGINS is powered by Simplecast.

Kate talks about some of the sacrifices she made to take care of her mother as she battled her last days with cancer.  She also talks about dealing with some other losses that many people experience later on in their sobriety.  She also knows that surrender means that her success in recovery may be as a result of some of the "best decisions she never made".Enjoy!!Use the link below if you would like to be a guest on the show or to make a recommendation.https://www.seasonsofsobriety.com/contactIf you would like to make a donation, please use the link below.https://www.seasonsofsobriety.com/donateBook recommended by Kate in this episode:The Power of Now  

Lisa Giancarli is the Executive Director and Owner of Over the Rainbow Child Development Center, located in Bordentown, New Jersey. Lisa followed her passion to own her own business and fell in love with childcare after acquiring the center in 2011. She talks about the improvements she and her husband made when starting Over the Rainbow from the bottom up, the specific things she has done to create a culture in line with the overall company vision, and the benefits she received when really looking at her metrics and taking action steps based upon them.   Key Takeaways: [3:13] Lisa’s husband is a REALTOR®, and they bought the Over the Rainbow building as an investment in 2011. Her plan was to run it until they got a deal but she ended up taking it on and 8 years later, the rest is history. [6:10] Lisa proves that it is possible to learn as you go. She became a student of the childcare business and they went from a barebones school to one that utilizes technology and state-of-the-art electronic reporting and data collecting. [9:36] Lisa and her husband Joe not only work great together but they are also high school sweethearts who have been married 28 years. [9:54] While you are working hard and building your business, self-care is not only important but it’s also essential. [13:34] The Director position is a huge component of success in the school. Lisa realized firsthand how important it is to listen to the team and foster an environment where people can speak up. [17:38] When one toxic person leaves, sometimes more follow. [20:45] In an age of electronic communication and quick responses, a well thought out handwritten note goes a long way to create a personal touch and show that you care. [21:28] Lisa tracks enrollment weekly and reviews her metrics to create a realistic view of where her business is. This wasn’t always the case but she found much more control and power once they started consistently looking at metrics. [28:45] Lisa’s top pillars to success in the field: Never stop learning about the business and immersing yourself in the industry. A happy family and happy staff build the business and foster high retention. Be open to the outside-of-the-box ideas from all people on your team. Don’t resist growth and change or advice from others who have done it before you.  [36:287] A rockstar is one who learns what they need to do and figures out how to do it. They understand, plan, and execute.   Mentioned in This Episode: Kris Murray The Child Care Success Company Child Care Success Academy Child Care Success Summit Over the Rainbow Ann Rhoades ChildCare CRM The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace: Empowering Organizations by Encouraging People, by Gary Chapman and Paul White Child Care Millionaire: Secrets to Building a Profitable 7 or 8 Figure Child Care Business, by Brian Duprey StrengthsFinder ProCare KidReports  

Nubius & Chaos attended a local comic book show, and interviewed some of the vendors, a talented young self published author, and our resident Silky Smooth displaying his artwork. The Witch of the Elements: Book One by Courtney Kirkpatrick https://www.amazon.com/Courtney-Kirkpatrick/e/B07X2DFSML/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1 Wade's Comic Madness https://comicmadness.com/ S-Mart Collectibles https://www.facebook.com/smartcollectiblesnj/ Trailer for our fan film Predator Recall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gj8b6JULpM Subscribe to us on itunes rate 5* @ https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/blacklisted-podcast/id1058504075?mt=2 PodOmatic http://blacklisted.podomatic.com/ Stitcher http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/blacklisted?refid=stpr Google Play https://play.google.com/music/m/Imonfnjs7535svy3wtwdx7rhbpa?t%3DBlacklisted_Podcast Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/01L8OZCsaKQZrN2Lm2vb22 Or wherever you steal your free podcast.

a blackout in Bordentown

In his 2nd Speaker Series appearance, Bill O'Reilly joined Dom Giordano at the Bordentown Performing Arts Center in Bordentown,NJ. O'Reilly discussed the latest in his Killing Series, "Killing the S.S."

History was made during this episode as we hosted our FIRST EVER "MikexSteve Sandwich Showdown" LIVE @ Common Sense Brewing in Bordentown, NJ!⁣

History was made during this episode as we hosted our FIRST EVER "MikexSteve Sandwich Showdown" LIVE @ Common Sense Brewing in Bordentown, NJ!⁣

Broadcasting LIVE from Chickie's & Pete's in Bordentown, NJ!!!We're covering a wide-range of topics from baseball to soccer to boxing! ⚾⚽Including the NBA season getting underway and the Lakers & Rockets getting into a BRAWL last night!

Eric Gibbons joins Cindy on the podcast today to share his passion for teaching art. While in college, a professor noticed Eric’s talents in art and teaching, and encouraged him to become an art teacher. Eric says he may have been the first student at his college to switch majors from pre-law to art education, but he has no regrets. Eric has nearly 30 years of teaching experience and has been able to carry his love for art to both Egypt and Japan, where he was able to teach art. Currently, Eric teaches high school art in New Jersey, and was recognized by the state for his excellence in art education in 2015. His classroom lessons have been featured by Davis Publications and other books on art and education through Firehouse Publications of Bordentown, NJ. Eric’s best-known book is If Picasso Had A Christmas Tree. Eric’s work has been featured in international exhibitions and in many publications. Additionally, Eric is a blogger on his website, Art Ed Guru, and his blogs are appreciated by educators worldwide.  Show Highlights: Eric shares how his love of art began at an early age. Cindy and Eric discuss components involved in teaching art in a public school Eric shares why there has been some push-back to his philosophy of teaching art. Students find relevance in art when they have a personal connection to it. Cindy discusses how art can give students a method to express their emotions.  Eric tells about how he has his art students partner with students at other schools for a project. Eric discusses how he uses a universal rubric for 2D and 3D artwork in his classroom. Eric shares how he has his students reflect on their work. Eric shares tips for ensuring uniqueness and individuality in student work. Cindy and Eric discuss incorporating art history in the classroom.   Resources: Art Ed Guru Firehouse Publications Art Grading Tips for Ensuring Individuality Tips and Tricks in the Art Room Eric’s Philosophy Diagram Ken Vieth  

Hala Madrid! Sean is fired up because Liverpool lost, Kyle is fired up because Fulham is back in the Premier League, and Samsel is fired up because Sergio Ramos is a cheater! (or as Kyle puts it, a "master of the dark arts") Enjoy our post Champions League Final postgame LIVE from Old Town Pub in Bordentown, NJ.

William Stell is a gay pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Bordentown, NJ. He's a writer for HuffPost and Patheos and has presented on "sexual ethics" at the recent Q Christian Fellowship conference. When William entered Princeton Theological Seminary, he'd just come out as gay and had no specific intention to become a pastor. But at orientation, he met his first boyfriend, and by the time he graduated, he felt the calling to be a minister. Before studying at Princeton, William lived and worked in the country of Jordan at a school for Deaf and Deaf-Blind children. Although his familial roots are Presbyterian, William was raised in a black Baptist church, and he has spent significant time in Methodist, Catholic, non-denominational, and other church traditions.

Dr. Maj interviews Dr. Evans about building her dream...Properly Fueled! BIO For two decades, Dr. Denise has been caring for her community in Bordentown, New Jersey at Evans Family Chiropractors. She is a 1991 graduate of Life University, and a 1987 graduate with a BS in Biology from The College of New Jersey. Utilizing a variety of techniques to suite each individual, she has extensive experience in caring for children, infant, and pregnant women. When she's not caring for patients in the office, she volunteers her time as the active Events Director for the League of Chiropractic Women. Her love of the profession also inspires her to participate in the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association,  International Chiropractic Association, and New Jersey Chiropractic Society. Dr. Denise approaches health from a holistic approach which is why she has always felt it necessary to stress the importance of diet and exercise to her patients as well. After practicing in the office for so long, Denise began to notice a huge void in healthy restaurant options in the area for her patients. All of the restaurants seemed the same—a lack of focus on nutrition and convenience. One night she awoke from a dream with a clear vision and a name. Dr. Denise is so excited to enter another business endeavor and finally bring this hip and healthy café concept offering quick take out options to life! Properly Fueled is anticipated to open in Spring of 2017 and will be located right next to Evans Family Chiropractors. Dr. Denise's ultimate vision is that by educating people about healthy lifestyle choices she can make a positive change in their lives. She believes there is no greater gift than being able to assist someone in reaching their full health potential, and no joy quite like feeling healthy. Whether someone's goal is pain relief or improved mental or physical health, she aims to make their goals her goals. Turn on the cells of your brain, turn on the ability to use fat for fuel and unlock massive energy and focus by quickly getting your body into ketosis!  To try a 5 Day Keto OS Experience Pack, go to drmaj.com/keto5day. Notice the difference after just a couple days! To learn more about Dr. Maj, go to drmaj.com/bundle to receive the digital copy of her book & speaker’s books and resources will be delivered right to your inbox.   drmaj.com     CommunityChiropractic.net

Featuring Flemington's panel on race relations after the boro paints a "Thin Blue Line" down Main Street to show support for their police department, Hunterdon Central High School's social media threat that led to increase police presence on campus, and what happened to Bordentown's public works building? It's a total loss! Click here for our livestream digital radio feed now: http://www.greenbirdievideo.com/panjradio/player/

Bordentown School -volunteers needed - restoration underway with volunteer electrical contractor John White! A museum on the once thriving black school's cam[us kknown as The Tuskegee of The North  is John's Mission. The Bordentown school, was originally established in 1886 by Rev. W. A. Rice, a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, as a private institution under the name of New Brunswick Technical School. It was later called  "The Ironsides Normal School." in honor of Commodore Stewart the benefactor of t Bordentown's Campus, his 350 acre estate    . Reverend Walter A.S. Rice of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in New Brunswick founded the Bordentown School in 1876 as New Brunswick Technical Institute a privately supported educational entity. Reverend Rice’s mission was to educate African American students of both sexes and train them “in such industries as shall enable them to become self-supporting”. The school was founded just five years after the famous Tuskegee Institute in Alabama was formed. It was known as the Tuskegee of The North"  The school relocated to Bordentown City in 1886, where it was shrewdly renamed and incorporated as the New Jersey Manual Training and Industrial School for Colored Youth. The name change from Technical Institute to Manual Training was an insult to the founders and it  was the beginning of the propaganda campaign against black educational institutions, as a continuation of slave labor. The donor of the property, Commander Stewart, the oldest enlistee in the Civil War and an Irish activist demanded in his will that his property be used for training purposes- the State of New Jersey believes they meet the requirements, insofar as they offer training courses to their detainees.  

reports from Farley Plaza on the Atlantic City Express Way.

Eric, Lon and Sean welcome Karyn Dolan this week to BTE Radio. Karyn has been interested in spiritual and paranormal subjects for her whole life, but only got involved in the UFO research field in 2000. She began reading about the subject and attending conferences, listening and talking and asking questions. In June 2007 she hosted the premier episode of Through the Keyhole on the Paranormal Radio Network with an interview with Ryan Buell of the Penn State Paranormal Research Society, later featured on the hit television show, Paranormal State. In July Karyn gave her first public presentation at the 60th Roswell UFO Festival in New Mexico, site of the most famous UFO crash in history. Since then, Karyn has spoken at several other conferences including MUFON events, the UFO Crash Retrieval Conference, the Jamestown NY Paranormal Conference, and the UFO Congress in Bordentown, NJ. Karyn has also served on the Board of Directors for the International UFO Congress in Laughlin, NV. She currently helps run Keyhole Publishing, which specializes in books about UFOs and the paranormal, work with Mothership Productions, an audio visual company, and also continues to promote conferences and events on her radio show as well as here on her site. Karyn began hosting Through the Keyhole on the Paranormal Radio Network in 2007, the same year she first presented at Roswell. Since then she's had the privilege to meet and interview some of the most brilliant and fascinating people around, on topics ranging from the Starchild Skull to demonic possession, to modern science and the nature of the universe. There's a lot out there that we don't yet understand, and each week Karyn explores another piece of it. Join Karyn Fridays from 7-9 pm eastern time, and be sure to call in or text her in the chat room during the show! www.karyndolan.com

reports from Cannstatter's Annual Oktoberfest.

Meet Sam and Ryan. Sam is from Lanzhou, China. Ryan is from Bordentown, New Jersey. Sam is poised for a fulfilling college experience. Ryan is scared of his own shadow. Though an unlikely pair, Sam and Ryan help each other through a rewarding freshman year at Drexel University's LeBow College of Business. Not only do they earn successful co-ops, they become a fine pair of LeBros.

---------------- Join us tonight on The Gist of Freedom as we discuss the uncermonious closures of historical black schools. with host Shellie Gaines and guests Nathaniel Hampton class of 45' and Dr. Arthur Symes 48'   Academy Award-nåominated actress Ruby Dee narrates the film, which tells the history of Bordentown Old Irondises, the only state-supported, elite co-ed, all-black boarding school north of the Mason-Dixon Line, which operated from 1886 to 1955. Over its 70- year history, the school was a "unique educational utopia" and an incubator for black intellect that taught values and life skills for black children, according to the film.   The school, The Tuskegee of The North, bloodlines go back to Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois.    The school was forced to close due to the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. It has since been converted to a juvenile detention center. We'll discuss this conspiracy to transforms our Historical Black educational Institutes into a state of obscurity    Bordentown School, also known as Old Ironsides, a prestigious historical Black school founded by a former enslaved minister, Reverend Walter Rice was forced to close as a result of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. The State of New Jersey converted it into a Juvenile Detention Center which is it's status today. A small percentage of the 400 acre campus is being used to house the detainees while the majority of the campus is left to rot.    

Rebecca talks about her trip back east, and a haunting in Bordentown, New Jersey, that she was investigating! And she takes your calls!

Rebecca talks about her trip back east, and a haunting in Bordentown, New Jersey, that she was investigating! And she takes your calls!

  Bordentown, New Jersey's, African American school affectionately known as "The Tuskegee of the North". Founded in 1886 by Rev. Rice. Modeled after Booker T. Washington, It was NJ's first Vocational Technical Institute. The school was self sustaining. Most of the 40 buildings were built on the 400 acre campus by the students. The campus included farms, technical labs and industrial shops. Bordentown's excellent academic reputation attracted supporters and dignitaries such as Albert Einstein.  Unfortunately it was closed in 1955 due to it's non-compliance of the Brown vs. Board of Education segregation decision.  It is currently being used as a female juvenile correctional facility. The School is in disrepair to the extent that it is on New Jersey's Ten Most endangered historical sites.

Join Terry Johnson, Organizer of Bordentown's "Food For the Soul" Diversity Celebration. Bordentown is a historically progressive town in New Jersey. It is the home of Thomas Paine, Clara Barton, the founder of The Red Cross and the historically black school known as "The Tuskegee of The North". Unfortunately the school is now a Juvenile Detention Center. For more info contact Terry @ 609.880-3587

Join Mr. John Medley, (center) of Bordentown's class 1954. Mr. Medley is also the historian of this Extraordinary Historically Black School known as the Tuskegee of the North. Mr. Medley made is film debut in the documentary A Place Out of Time: The Bordentown School. He is also one of the film's researchers. Commodore Stewart's, estate donated the land for the school.

Introduction At the end of the century, at the end of the millennium, Time Magazine put out a number of issues in which they were entertaining the question that's really in front of us in our text today: What is the nature of true human greatness? And they had one issue after another. I have one of those issues, I was looking at it some time ago and that particular issue focused on the greatest minds of the 20th century. The greatest intellectual achievers, those that did great things by their thinking. By their inventiveness. So they talked about the Wright Brothers, who came up with the first heavier than air flight machine, or Alexander Fleming, who developed penicillin, and Enrico Fermi, who split the atom. Jonas Salk, who defeated polio with his vaccine which he developed over a number of years. Albert Einstein of course, that we all know about with his special and general theories of relativity. Robert Goddard did pioneering work in liquid rocketry that enabled us 50 years later or so to go to the moon. Tim Berners-Lee, the man really responsible for the internet. I'll just move on at this point. William Shockley, who fathered the transistor and brought the silicon to Silicon Valley. Now these are great minds, great achievers. This is what passes for greatness in the eyes of the world. At least in terms of intellectual achievement. Other issues focused on other achievers; politicians, military commanders, poets, architects, artists, writers, filmmakers, musicians, all of these were picked up and looked at in turn for human greatness. This issue is in front of us all the time, some time ago I was watching an NBA playoff game and one player was playing extremely well and the announcer said, “You are watching what true greatness is all about.” Well, I just heard that like I hear everything, I heard it theologically. I said, “No. True greatness is all about Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” and that's what I have the privilege to preach about today; true greatness, the greatness of Jesus Christ. And also the greatness that comes to those that enter his kingdom and more specifically for us, how he measures greatness, the measurement of greatness. Look at verses 26 through 28. Jesus said, “Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first, must be your slave -- just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.” So Jesus does not denigrate the inquiry, saying what is true greatness. He doesn't put it down to ask what is a great life, how can I be a great person? And he doesn't put it down. What he does is shift the entire playing field from under our feet so that we look at it entirely differently.Tto Jesus Christ, true human greatness then came down to this: humble servant-hood. Putting the needs of others ahead of your own for your whole life, and whoever was most willing to lay himself down for the good of others would be called greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. This standard is simple to understand but I can testify, it's hard to live. I have been fighting this struggle, I've known about this since the first weeks that I was a Christian. This is not a new idea, I must become a servant but oh I have found it difficult to do. How Not to be Great: Self-Promotion (vs. 20-21) Greatness by Self-Promotion Well let's begin, as the text does, negatively, how not to be great. And at least from the text, self-promotion is not the way to become great. Look at verses 20 and 21. “Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. ‘What is it you want?’ he asked. She said, ‘Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.’” So this is greatness by self-promotion. Now, this is common in our time. Putting yourself forward. Espousing all your best attributes, putting it in a resume presenting it to others but it's not new. It's been going on since the beginning of time. James and John were practicing it here with Jesus 20 centuries ago. Secular kingdoms have been dominated by this kind of approach. In the Roman Empire, counselors to the Caesars would orchestrate political scandals for their rivals so that they could topple them down by shame. That failing, they might just have them poisoned. But in any case, they're going to advance by putting others down and by presenting themselves well. Cicero who was one of the leading orators of that time was especially expert at destroying enemies with innuendo of immorality. He was good at it. I was disillusioned to find that out. I always thought of him as this pure moral kind of guy but he was actually excellent at putting himself forward by putting others down. In European courts of the Middle Ages, lords and nobles would fight jousts with one another to find out who was the strongest and who could sit at the king's right and at his left and be in a position of power. In the modern era, we don't know that much about kings and their courts and emperors and all that. It's more of the corporate setting, the board room, what happens in the corporate world. I was reading recently off the internet; a summary of a book entitled, Twenty-One Dirty Tricks at Work: How to Win in Office Politics. So don't listen to this in order that you might learn something that you can then put into practice, but this is what the book was saying. It discusses techniques like stealing credit for someone else's success, trapping someone in a compromising situation and then blackmailing them, using flattery to gain the confidence of a fellow worker and then sticking the knife between the ribs at just the key moment at the board room during a meeting. Well, this kind of thing has been going on for a long time. Advancing yourself by destroying others, by presenting yourself well. Nepotism: Their Mother Made the Request James and John were, I think, maneuvering to get the best seats in the Kingdom. Actually though, if you read the text carefully, it wasn't them per se. It was their mom. I was thinking this might be a good Mother's Day sermon but I'm actually glad it's not Mother's Day. But yeah, it was mom. Now I think that James and John really put mom up to it, because in Mark's gospel mom isn't even mentioned, and here in our account, mom gets ignored after the first foray. From that point on, Jesus is dealing directly with James and John. Now indications are that James and John's mother, Zebedee's wife was named Salome and it's quite possible that she was a sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus, which would make her Jesus' aunt and it would make James and John, Jesus' cousins. So what we have here then would be a case of nepotism, using family ties and connections. Pulling strings along family lines to get a position of importance in the coming kingdom. This has been going on for a long time, nepotism. Napoleon sat brothers on thrones throughout Europe when he could do so. James, his brother, was King of Naples, mismanaged it so badly that he was made king of Spain. Until he abdicated and lived in Bordentown, New Jersey for a number of years. Napoleon's brother Louis was made king of Holland and his brother Jerome, king of Westphalia. This is what you do, you get your brothers in there, you get your cousins, your relatives. So this is common. Family members using their influence to gain positions of honor and power. So what is the request? The Request Look at it again, verse 20 and 21. “Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. ‘What is it you want?’ He asked. She said, ‘Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other your left in your kingdom.’ Now notice her reverence, her humility, kneeling down in front of Jesus. The request however, is even more comprehensive in Mark's gospel. In Mark 10: 35 and 36. It says this. “Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee came to Him, ‘Teacher’ they said, ‘We want you to do for us whatever we ask.’” So we're gonna hand you a blank check, we would like you to sign it and then we'll fill in the amount. Jesus wisely says, “What do you want me to do for you?” So he's very careful, an open-ended request. Now kings sometimes like to show their power and their glory by being able to grant these kind of open-ended requests. “Whatever you want, up to half of my kingdom,” they're willing to say. No king in history has been as able to cash a blank check as Jesus. No one had so much power and wealth at his fingertips as does Jesus, the King of the Kingdom of Heaven. But he is very wise and very careful and he asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” So the mother in our account in Matthew has this request, “Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom.” Now these would be the two most important positions of influence and honor in the coming kingdom of Christ. They would have free access to Christ. They would have, so they probably believed, influence over Christ's decisions and with it would come immense privilege and power and prestige and possessions, all of the things that our little idolatrous hearts crave so much. And so James and John are pushing themselves forward to gain the most influential seats in the kingdom of Christ. It's a play for power. My friends, it's a play for greatness and so Jesus has to respond. Jesus’ Response: Places Are Assigned by God (vs. 22-23) First Response: You Don’t Know What You’re Asking And so he responds in verses 22 and 23 by saying, those places are assigned by God. He actually has multiple layers to his answer. The first layer is basically to correct their ignorance. He says to them in Verse 22. “You don't know what you're asking.” He strips their presumptions bare. Like all the other disciples, like the disciples were constantly, until the coming of the Holy Spirit and even afterwards, not really understanding the kingdom and how it would come. Their understanding of the kingdom is woefully inadequate. They do not understand the nature of Christ's kingdom, they don't understand how greatness will be weighed or assessed in the kingdom. They don't understand what it would take to sit in those seats, they just don't understand. So he says, “You don't know what you're asking.” He starts there. Second Response: Can You Drink the Cup? The second layer of his answer is to refer to a cup. Verse 22 he says, “Can you drink the cup I'm going to drink?” Now what cup was this? Whatever it was, it seems to have been prerequisite to taking those seats in the Kingdom or else Jesus wouldn't have brought it up. The drinking of Christ's cup is essential to sitting in those seats. Now the cup was the issue but what cup was Christ going to drink? Well, in a very short time in Matthew's Gospel, we're going to see Jesus taking James and John along with Peter with him into the garden of a Gethsemane and we're gonna see him overwhelmed. Mark's gospel says, he was astonished. We're gonna see him shaken to the core of his being and he's going to go a little further and he's gonna fall to the ground and great drops of blood like sweat are gonna flow down his face and he's going to pray, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will but as you will.” Now he doesn't identify the cup but we know it must be the cross and digging deeper, it must be the cup of God's wrath poured full strength into that cup, that he would drink it to its dregs. That Jesus would bear the wrath of God for us. At the physical level, it would mean rejection by human beings, it would mean persecution, it would be a shame, it would mean pain, torture and death. So there are many layers or levels to this cup that Jesus was going to drink. Clearly, no light thing but a thing of immense cost, of immense difficulty. Can you drink the cup? And I'm going to drink. James and John said, “We can. We are able to do it.” Go back a little bit and the verse, “You don't know what you're asking.” Well, they don't know what they're saying here. They don't have any sense of the weight of that commitment. They don't know what Jesus's cup is. Whatever it takes, they'll do it, that's what they're saying. It's a bold assertion here. Oh, how prideful are our ignorant hearts. How much we trifle with weighty things. Things of immense worth and value. We think very little of them. We are so confident in ourselves aren't we? We think we can do it, we ought not to be so confident. A mature Christian loses that self-confidence and grows in confidence in Christ only, for we are the circumcision. We who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh but I think James and John were putting conference in the flesh here and so they say “We can drink that cup.” Well then Jesus says very strikingly, “You will indeed drink from my cup.” You will indeed drink from my cup. Now Christ's cup as I said, is the cup of God's wrath. His atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. They would not drink that Christ alone could drink that cup, that was for Jesus alone but if you could picture some drops falling from the cup, if you could picture some of the physical aspects of Christ suffering, the human rejection, the pain, the suffering, the persecution, the shame, you will indeed drink from my cup, James and John. James would be put to death with the sword by King Herod, the first of the 12 apostles to die, that Martyr's death in Acts 12. James would indeed drink from Jesus's cup. And how about John? Well, he'd outlived them all but he would suffer greatly. Church tradition tells us that in Ephesus, he was boiled in oil but God miraculously spared his life. Then he was exiled to the isle of Patmos, suffering persecution for the testimony of the word of God, testimony of Christ. So John also drank from Christ's cup. Only Jesus drank Christ's cup but we are called on to suffer for Jesus we are called on to live a life of self-denial of taking up our cross and following Jesus. James and John would indeed drink from Christ's cup. Third Response: Those Places are Assigned by my Father However, Jesus says, those places, the one you asked about, the ones at my right and my left, they're not for me to grant. What an astonishing statement that is. This is God in the flesh and he's saying, I don't have the right to tell you that. I don't have the right to give it to you. Those places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father and He'll give them out. So Christ leaves them in the dark about whether they're gonna take those seats or not. Will James and John be sitting at Jesus' right and his left? I can't say. I can't say. I don't know. Jesus doesn't tell us so they might actually sit at his right and his left but that's not gonna be settled now with Mom coming and asking. Not at all. It will be settled in that future world. And notice that Jesus does not deny that there are such places sitting at his right and his left, that there is power, there is honor, there is glory to be won for the kingdom. He doesn't deny that. And notice the word here, “prepared.” Those places are for those for whom they have been prepared by my Father. I actually believe the heavenly father prepares both ends. He prepares the place for the people and he prepares the people for the place. Maybe today you're getting prepared for your final place in heaven. By listening to this sermon, you'll learn how you can rise in the estimation of God. How he can see you as great. A great son or daughter living a great life, doing great things. You will learn what true greatness is from the word of God but he's preparing, he's getting you ready for the place and he's getting the place ready for you. Preparation. So there will be places of honor. Christ wants us to know that but what he does now is he educates us all on how they will be given out. On what basis will they be assigned and he deals with that in verses 24 through 28. How Greatness is Assessed in the Kingdom (vs. 24-28) “When the ten,” it says in verse 24, “heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. Jesus called them together and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be your slave -- just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.’” Feelings of Indignation Well, this phase of the education begins with the feelings of indignation in the hearts of the ten. They're indignant, it says, with James and John. The Greek word is used sometimes for the teething pain of an infant. Sometimes for the feeling of a pebble in your sandal. It's a feeling of mild if not perhaps even strong irritation. So the other ten apostles are annoyed, they're irritated with James and John. Kinda hypocritical if you think about it. I think they're annoyed because they wish they'd thought of it or they wish they were Jesus's cousins or they could finagle for positions. I don't find them any more humble than the others. I actually think their annoyance is every bit as prideful as James and John pushing themselves forward. There's really no difference. But they're irritated, they're annoyed, and so Jesus must deal with this sordid situation right now. Now, he's already dealt with it. Oh, he's dealt with it again and again. You remember him back in Matthew 18. They were arguing about which of them was the greatest and he had a little child come and stand among them and he said, “Unless you humble yourself and be like this little child, you'll never even enter the kingdom.” You've gotta be transformed. He'll deal with it again, the night of the last supper when as they enter the upper room, they're arguing about which of them is the greatest, they can't seem to get off this topic. Which of them is the greatest? And so Jesus gives them a demonstration of who among them is the greatest. Jesus said, “I am among you as one who serves” and so he took off his outer garment and he wrapped a towel around his waist and he got down and he washed His disciple's feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around his waist. So he's got to deal with this issue because they would be the future leaders of the church. They were the pillars, humanly speaking, the foundation on which the church would be built and this pride is a stinkweed. It's a wicked root that bears much bitter fruit and so he's got to deal with his pride and so he calls them together, he assembles them together and as he would soon tell Pontius Pilate in a different sort of sense, there he would say, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest but as it is, my kingdom is of another place.” It's a heavenly kingdom. It's got a heavenly nature, a heavenly essence to it and so in a similar way, he's gonna say to his leaders “My kingdom is not of this world.” It's not like that, it's not like the gentile kingdoms. Lesson by Contrast It's a different kind of kingdom and so he teaches them a lesson by contrast, look at verses 25 and 26, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you.” So Jesus is here speaking of the glories of Gentile rulers and kings and lofty officials, they had seen it, the Jewish nation had been well educated in Gentile rule, they'd seen it with King Herod, who really wasn't Jewish but it was a Gentile usurper and who was a wicked man. They'd seen it with a string of Gentile emperors ever since the exile to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar and then the Medo-Persian emperors, one after the other. Alexander the Great and all of the Greek rulers and now it's the Romans. They had seen these Gentile rulers, one after the other, and notice what Jesus says, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their high officials exercise authority over them.” So here Jesus is speaking, I think, of both the motive and the manner of Gentile government, Gentile rule. The motive is self-glory, making much of yourself. In some cases, even the point of self-deification. Alexander the Great had a coin minted of himself in Egypt with the horns of Jupiter Amon on the side of his head. Clear claim to deity. He really believed he was a god. He spoke of his biological father as “the man supposedly, my father.” [chuckle] And the same attitude was found in other Greek rulers like Antiochus IV who called themself Epiphanes, “the manifest one,” a clear claim to deity. The Romans picked up on this. So Octavius came to be known as Caesar Augustus, the title Augustus is a claim to deity. So they're claiming to be divine so also their underlings, like a Pontius Pilate has a motive of self-glorification, making much of himself. So that's the motive of their rule. How about the manner of their rule? How do they carry themselves in their rule? Well, their outward displays of prestige and power and glory. There are trumpets sounding at the approach of the Roman governor. There are banners that are fluttering in the breeze, of maroon and gold. There's a manner of superiority and an attitude towards those that are under them. They carry themselves with this kind of attitude. So they love the places of honor and the most important seats and lofty greetings and words of praise, the trappings of power. I was reading about Louis XIV, the Sun King, King of France and he built Versailles, his palace, magnificent display of his wealth and of His power and there's one particular room called the Hall of Mirrors and it's just covered with mirrors all around, ceilings, walls all around. And he would meet foreign dignitaries there on a raised dais, on a glorious throne. He would meet them and they would inevitably shrink in their own eyes before this glorious personage, this Sun King. Well, that's how they do it. “The rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and the high officials, they exercise dominion or authority over them. Not so with you.” Not so with you. Oh, that the church would learn this lesson. We have been fraught with people, with leaders who have not understood this lesson. During the years right before the Reformation, Pope Julius carried himself like a conquering Emperor. He used to ride around on a white horse with a full coat of armor and with these kinds of trumpets and banners. He was like an earthly king. He was the Pope. The head supposedly of Christ's Church. Christ's vicar on earth. Oh, that we would learn this but it's not just out there my friends, it's right in here. It's in our own hearts. We need to hear this lesson. When we get positions of power, we are tempted to lord it over and exercise authority, not so with you. How Greatness is Measured in the Kingdom Verses 26 and following, “Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first, must be your slave -- just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Now, ambition for heavenly glory is not evil. Actually, I think it's good. You should yearn for and desire to gain as much glory and honor as possible in the future. We already talked about that with the issue of rewards but let's remember where we're starting from. What Jesus says is whoever wants to become great among you. What does that imply about our starting place? We weren't great at the beginning. “Kingdom of heaven is like a tax collector and a Pharisee who went to the temple to pray and the tax collector stood off to the distance and beat his breast and would not even lift up his eyes to heaven but said ‘Be merciful to me, oh God, the sinner.’” Well, that's where all of this starts. Remember that when you talk about your own greatness, I think it's easy to forget that we are saved by grace alone and so Jesus says greatness in the kingdom is earned by servanthood. Humble yourself now, stop living for yourself, stop living for your earthly advantages, your earthly pleasures, earthly prestige and power and glory. Deny yourself daily, take up your cross, make yourself nothing. Meet the temporal and eternal needs of others and live that way, every day. And when you have achieved some level of genuine servanthood, go even lower. That's what he's teaching here. If you want to be great, you must be a servant, he says. A diakonos, from which we get the word deacon. Diakonos did menial labor in the house, scrubbing floors, cleaning rooms, waiting tables, living to see that others had enough food and clothing, everything that they would need, that their needs were met. That's a servant in the household. You wanna become great, be one of those. Do you wanna become first? Then you'll have to become a slave. Well, that's a doulos. Now, the diakonos, the servant can leave if he wants. His life is his own, he owns himself, he's a free man. A slave is owned by another. You're not your own, you're bought at a price, you don't have the freedom to come and go. You live at the will of the Master. Jesus said, “You wanna be first, then be a slave.” So in effect Jesus is giving us a downward journey, diakonos to doulos, from servant to slave, lower still. And this is what Jesus himself has done. Jesus the Greatest in the Kingdom (vs. 28) Christ’s Example of Humble Servanthood So he says in verse 28, “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.” So Jesus presents himself as a humble example, “just as the Son of Man,” that's he himself. Christ, the prime example of meek and lowly servanthood. He himself traveled that journey, that downward journey, infinitely farther than any of us ever could. And what was his motive for everything? And Christ's motive, it was not selfish but selfless. It says “The Son of Man did not come.” Why did you come Jesus? Why did you enter the world? For what reason were you born? Why did you come? He said, “I didn't come to be served. I came to serve.” That's what he's saying. He wasn't looking for anyone to sit him on silk pillows and bring him bread and meat and another cluster of grapes to squeeze into his cup and drink it's sweet drink. He wasn't looking for that, to be some kind of earthly potentate, having all of his needs met and his feet anointed and rubbed and having servant girls dance for him and have himself fanned. He didn't come for that. Frankly, he had left infinitely higher than that. He sat on the throne of glory with His Heavenly Father and around him, thousands upon thousands attended Him and 10,000 times 10,000 stood before him, ready to serve him. That's the glory he left and he took off those robes of glory that he shared with his Heavenly Father and He made Himself nothing and he entered the worlds, taking the very nature of a servant, which is a human being. That's what we are. That's what we were created to be, servants of God and He took on human form. That was his motive. He came to serve. He came out of love. To lift us up out of the muck keep of sin. To cleanse us, to redeem us, to put a song in our mouths. To put a robe, a white robe around us. Lift us up, that we might dwell with him forever in heaven. That was his motive. His motive was love. And what of his manner? Well, he always appeared lowly as well. He was born of a poor Jewish couple. He was laid in a manger where animals eat. It's a lowly way to enter the world, an abject poverty and humility and he carried himself that way his whole life. He didn't take on trappings of wealth and power, he didn't demand that people respect him or honor him, he put up with slights, he put up with insults. Aren't we right in saying that you're demon possessed and your father was a Samaritan? What an insult. Questioning the legitimacy of His birth. Jesus put up with all those things, he carried himself with humility. He was weak and lowly, just in terms of himself. He entered the world humbly, he lived humbly. He lived in perfect submission to the law of God. Every moment fulfilled all of God's commands. Luke chapter two tells us that He was submissive to his own parents. We learned from other scriptures that Joseph was a carpenter. We learned also that Jesus was a carpenter. That same title is ascribed to him as was ascribed to Joseph. So my guess is he was Joseph's apprentice. Can you imagine Jesus submitting himself to Joseph in the carpentry shop? I can. Can you imagine Him taking orders as a 15 year old? I can imagine that. Being submissive to his father. It's all speculation. I don't know when Joseph died but we can imagine that he would have been trained that way, that he was humble. He was Joseph's God, He was Joseph's creator. He will be Joseph's judge and yet He submitted meekly to Joseph's commands on how to handle a piece of wood. Kinda like, “Alright, Joseph, after you're done, I'll teach you how to create a piece of wood, alright? You teach me how to do that and I'll... “ He didn't do that. Rather, he humbled himself. He made himself lowly and when it came time for Jesus to begin his earthly ministry, he did so in the most humble manner imaginable. He submitted to John the Baptist, baptism of repentance for sin. John didn't wanna baptize him, he said “I need to be baptized by you and you come to me?” He said, “Let it be so now, we must fulfill all righteousness.” And so, he humbled himself, he lowered himself and was covered with the waters of baptism for repentance he didn't need. He had nothing to repent from. He was sinless. And in his ministry, he was healing huge crowds of people and the way I read the healings, He tried to have personal encounters with people he healed. He would have been able to heal 10,000 people with a word but you remember the woman subject of bleeding, who touched the hem of His garment and thought to get away unnoticed? Jesus wanted the encounter with her. He wanted to touch people, to speak to them, to encounter them and so you can imagine how exhausting a ministry of healing like that would have been. He poured himself out, day after day, for multitudes, huge crowds, that would come from Jerusalem, Judea, Galilee, Samaria, the region across the Jordan to be healed and see how humbly he rises and goes with the centurion to heal his servant. Lord, my Centurion lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering. Matthew 8. “I will go and heal him,” He says. And then in the very next chapter, Jairus comes and says, “My little girl has just died but come and put your hand on her and she will live” and Jesus gets up and goes with him. Jesus is humble, he is led, he's a doulos. He's a slave. Anyone and everyone, it seemed, could impinge on his time. Never once did he murmur. Never once did he lord it over anyone claiming “Do you know who I am? Do you realize what kind of honor you ought to be giving me?” He doesn't do that and all of it culminated in his death, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. This was the ultimate servanthood. His substitutionary death on the cross, the greatest act of humble servanthood in history. If you consider that Jesus retained his divine power through the entire process while he was being scourged and mocked and beaten and spat upon and nailed to the cross and at any moment he could have come down off the cross and shown himself to be divine and he withheld himself at every moment, you see then the nature of his humility. It's not like he lost his power and couldn't do anything about it, it wasn't like that at all, he was restraining himself at every moment and showing his humility and here, Christ asserts, I think, that his primary reason for being born was to give his life as a ransom for many. He came to die. Now the other things were necessary, the life had to happen but he came to die. To give His life as a ransom for many. This is the measure of greatness. Now, what do we mean by this? These are significant words for our doctrine of the atonement. In what sense did he give his life as a ransom for many? Now, the word ransom means the payment of a price, sometimes it's used to refer to money paid to rescue prisoners of war or money paid to get slaves out of chains. It's money paid to get someone out of trouble. Along with this, it's striking that Jesus' life is a ransom and it's paid instead of. There's a little Greek prefix, which means instead of or in the place of, it's ante. He gives himself as a substitute ransom. There's kind of an intensification here. Substitutionary atonement. Christ's life then was forfeit. It was paid out for many for their distress. Now in the Middle Ages, some Medieval theologians misunderstood this ransom concept and they thought that Jesus paid a ransom to the devil. Something like the devil had kidnapped us and Jesus had to pay the devil's price. My friends, the devil is a created being and the greatest of all sinners. He is great in his wickedness. Hell, the lake of fire is made for the devil and his angels. The devil, it says, is filled with rage because he knows his time is short. What does God owe the devil? He owes him nothing. This ransom was not paid to the devil, not at all. Rather the ransom was Christ's life paid because the death penalty required it. That we deserve to die for our sins. This was established back in Genesis 2:17, in which God said to Adam, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for when you eat of it, you will surely die.” The death penalty established right there, Ezekiel 18:4, “The soul who sins will die.” Romans 6:23, “The wages of sin is death.” Jesus had to give his life as a ransom so that we might be free to live forever. So he paid the debt of many. Says in Isaiah 53, “He was pierced for our transgressions.” Listen to the substitutionary side. “He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him and by His wounds, we are healed. We all like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Do you not see the substitution there? Oh, can I urge you to come to Christ. If you've never trusted in him, look to Jesus as your substitute, you have no other hope! You have no other hope. You cannot stand before God on Judgment Day on your own merits. You must have this death penalty paid for you or you'll pay it yourself in hell. Look to Christ. Don't look to your own good works, trust in him. Jesus came to give his life as a ransom for many. Free us from the death penalty. Therefore my friends, the position of greatest in the Kingdom has been filled. It's been filled. No other applicants need apply. Position has been taken. Jesus is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven but if you wanna be second greatest or third or tenth greatest, he's showing you how to do it: imitate him in his servanthood. Application Be Alert to Your Pride Now, what application can we take from this? Well first, can I urge you to be alert to your own pride? Do you think James and John were aware of how prideful they were as they stepped up there? Are you aware of how prideful you are? Am I aware of how prideful I am? Be aware of this stinkweed. Begin to walk by the power of the Spirit controlling you moment by moment so that you learn how to serve. Be Ready to Drink from Jesus’ Cup Secondly, be willing to drink from Jesus's cup. He drank the cup to it's bottom but yet, there are some drops for us. You cannot go to Heaven without suffering Jesus' suffering and there are two kinds in particular, that Christians must be willing to suffer. You must be willing to suffer temptation. Jesus himself, it says in Hebrews 2:18 suffered when he was tempted. The unbelievers, they don't suffer temptation, they just sin. We have to be willing to say no to wickedness, to stand firm with the armor of God on us and to suffer until the temptation evades. Calling on God for protection and help during that time of testing. Suffer temptation and you have to be willing, secondly, to suffer rejection and persecution by this Christ-hating world and I think the more faithful you are to serve in Christ and others, the more persecution you will endure, as it says in 2nd Timothy 3:12, “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” In the Book of Hebrews 13 says “Jesus also suffered outside the gate to make the people holy through His own blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.” Understand the Places of Honor in the Kingdom Thirdly, understand that there are places of honor in the kingdom. There are place of honor and they will be given out to people. Understand the Path of True Servanthood Fourth, understand the path of true servanthood. To serve another means put their needs ahead of your own. Consider others better than yourselves. Deny yourself, take up the basin and towel. Do these hard things. Give others the seats of honor. In personal conversation, talk less and listen more. Be an encourager. Find ways to encourage others. It troubles me sometimes when I hear about church members talking about what they're not getting from the church. Do you realize how much that violates the spirit of the passage I'm preaching on? The Son of Man came not to what? Be served but to serve. If the church is preaching the word, if there's lots of Christians there doing spirit-filled ministries and good things are happening, you're in the right place. You don't need to go shopping for another church, alright? Then I would urge that you just take Jesus' attitude and say “How can I serve others here?” not “How can I be served and have my needs met?” That's the ethos that Jesus is giving us here for one another. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve. I want to focus on three areas in particular; serve with your money. Every Lord's Supper, we have a benevolence fund, a Deacon Benevolence Fund. We give that money out to people within the church and in the community whose needs are pressing. That amount or those cases are increasing and getting more intense. That shouldn't surprise you. I'm sure you're reading the newspapers. We need more money for the Deacon Benevolence Fund. You will be serving others if you deny yourself in some way, in your everyday life and bring more money than you've ever brought before to the next Deacon Benevolence offering. So just look and see when the next Lord's Supper is and let's see if we can double or even triple the amount of money that's brought into the Deacon Benevolence Fund. That money is given out first and foremost to needy people in the church and secondly, to those in the community as the Lord leads. So with your money. Secondly, with your prayers. Can I urge you to get the two prayer lists that the church has. There's a prayer list we use on Wednesday that has general issues, hospital issues, salvation issues, different things, that's the church's general prayer list. Get a copy of it. Secondly, Keegan Callahan puts out one for our missionaries, we said we would hold the ropes for these folks. You can serve them by praying the request they ask us to pray. So, I would urge you get those prayer lists and serve others by doing that. Thirdly, with your spiritual gifts. One of our goals here for this year is that every member of First Baptist Church would have a recognizable spiritual gift ministry. What is yours? What is your ministry here at this church? It's a pattern, it's not a foray. It's not an occasional thing, it's something that you do regularly. A consistent pattern of using a spiritual gift. Now spiritual gifts are special abilities given by the Spirit of God to meet horizontal needs with others. How are you serving others with your spiritual gifts? And if you're not, I would urge you to not look at a list of spiritual gifts but look at a list of needs of things that can be done, needs that could be met in this church or in the community and start serving and you'll find your spiritual gifts. Honor Christ for His Humility One final application is I want you to honor Christ for his humility. Honor Christ for what he did and I can't do it any better than Paul did in Philippians chapter two, speaking of Jesus Christ, “Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Close with me in prayer.