Rockhay's Place

            Welcome to Rockhay's Place!   My name is Peter Haynes.   In Greek,  Peter (petros) means "rock."   Add the first three letters of my last name and you've got "rockhay."     Corny, I know.     But it works, doesn't it? 

I hail from a northern suburb of Baltimore, Maryland (USA).  I'm the father of 4 children, 22 years of age and under, pictured below on our 1999 trip to the Adirondacks.



That Fall my wife and I celebrated 20 years of marriage. It's hard to believe how quickly life passes, isn't it? Here's a '99 picture of us all.

Here the kids are again in 2000:

They're growing faster than I can keep up with them.   Compare the above shots with how we looked back in 1997 on our big trip west.   This picture was taken on the shores of Lake Yellowstone in Wyoming.

Vacations are great family opportunities !  The summer of  '99 my family surprised me by planning our vacation while I was away directing a week of camp.  I had no idea where we were going as I pulled the van and camper out of the driveway.  When my wife said "turn left," that narrowed the field a bit.  It cut down on my male "drive to arrive."  I actually enjoyed the trip.  Ought to do this more!  I like surprises (my wife doesn't). We ended up at a beautiful campsite on the shore of a lake in the Adirondacks (New York, USA). 

In 2000 we headed to Cape Cod - Massachusetts, USA - and all the bicycle trails there.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn't all that cooperative, raining five out of eight days. No good pics... Sigh! The following year we took in the outer banks of North Carolina, camping near Cape Hatteras. The weather was better, and it was an enjoyable week.  Here's a shot of the kids there.

In 2002, we stayed closer to home, camping at Cape Henlopen State Park on the Delaware shore, a favorite destination with lots of biking trails. We made it there in spite of a blown transmission gasket a half-hour down the road. Church members helped! In 2003, we headed to upstate New York (but not the Adirondacks), as well as a few more days at Henlopen. Below is a pic that year from Robert H. Treman State Park.

Lately family time has taken on a different flavor, with our older children heading their own ways.

Our oldest spent recent summers on staff at Shepherd's Spring (2004), working at Comfort House, a hospice in McAllen Texas (2005), and working as a daytime caregiver to 2 young children (2006). From January to May of 2007, she was an an exchange student at the Universidad San Francisco in Quito, Ecuador, through a program at Manchester College, where she is presently a senior. I was fortunate enough to visit her there the week after Easter, and we explored the central part of that nation amid the Andes mountains.

Our next oldest graduated from high school in 2006 and is now a sophomore at Loyola College, where he worked this past summer. Prior to that, he gained experience (and cash) working at the Cockeyville library. He hopes to study abroad the Spring term of his junior year at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Our third-born is a junior at Loch Raven High School where, among other things, he was on the varsity football team, runs winter track, and plans to play varsity baseball. He's begun the college search. The youngest is a very dramatic 8th grader at Cockeysville Middle School, where my wife Karen works as a special ed aide with Asperger Syndrome children. Below is a shot of all four of our kids in 2005.

Our "vacation" time the past few years has consisted of a week each at Cape Henlopen State Park, where we went again this summer (2007). A big event last year was our denomination's every-four-years National Youth Conference, to which I and our third oldest traveled, along with 13 others from our congregation (the older 2 went in 2002).

As far as non-vacation stuff - well, I serve a Christian church here as pastor.  I am an advisor to our denominational District Senior High Youth cabinet. For 14 of the last 17 years, I have co-directed a week of church camp for youngsters in the summer, and have in the past served as chair of the board of this outdoor ministry center - Shepherd's Spring. In 2003, I was involved in a production of "Godspell," that year's offering in our congregation's dinner theater. My oldest, Caitlin, joined me on stage, and my wife, Karen, was in the pit band on the piano. In 2004 our church put on "Oliver," in part to raise funds for our young people to go to National Youth Conference in 2006. All of us, but our oldest, were involved on stage or in the pit crew. In January of 2005 I traveled with a group from our church to the Dominican Republic to visit our sister church in San Juan de la Maguana. We are planning a work camp there the summer of 2008.

On the side, I've put a Bible paraphrase by the late Clarence Jordan online (the "Cotton Patch Version"), and info on the meetinghouse of a pacifist denomination which found itself in the middle of the bloodiest day in U.S. history.  I also write songs and dramas (good therapy).  And, like everyone else, I vegetate.

Well, again, welcome!
Rockhay

p.s. something else of which I'm proud:

This page was last updated: 11/24/07