Bobby and I had a rare treat the first week of June...we went on our first cruise and left the children in good hands at home! Kent, our friend from the band Bobby sings with, Heritage Road, told us about Cruise With A Cause (see PraiseFest Ministries)back in March and asked if we wanted to go. He and his wife, Marie had gone last year with their church, Landmark in Cincinnati. He mentioned handing out some Christian tracts one afternoon in the Bahamas. Well, the low price for the cruise was unheard of so we agreed to go and a month later Bobby was laid off from his job. We decided not to waiver and just go in faith (wouldn't you?) and wow! What a blessing the whole week was. We were told we could invite friends to go with us and so Derick and Charcy Luthe, friends from church/work, decided to go along.

Saturday night, the 2nd of June, we left after church. Our kids were being cared for by Pat and Mary Johnson and the Luthe's left their children with Derick's parents who actually live in a part of Derick and Charcy's house. Derick wanted to leave in the evening because he prefers to drive at night. He drove the entire 11 hours to Orlando and we crashed (not literally...I mean "took naps") at Charcy's dad's house. Mr. Evan's fixed us a light breakfast before we snoozed and then in the middle of the afternoon he prepared a wonderful meal for us consisting of a salad with crab and capers, Italian sausage and lasagna made with grilled eggplant. Mmmmmmmm! I like to try new foods and I found I liked capers and very much liked caviar, which he dished up just for me to try for the first time ever.

We were off the next morning to Port Canaveral. It was sunny when we boarded Royal Caribbean's Sovereign of the Seas and saw that our friends from Landmark were already poolside catching the rays. We decided we had all week to tan and was in no hurry to lay out. Little did we know that was just about the last of the tanning opportunities we'd have.

Tuesday morning as we docked in Nassau, we were invited to attend a training session for street ministry. We were given the million dollar bill tracts and were coached on how to ask people if they had been asked the "million dollar question," and the method of witnessing is that used by The Way Of The Master. As our excursion began, some of our shipmates went into the prisons, some went into the local schools and the rest of us went out into the streets inviting people to BahamaFest (a bit more here) at Clifford Park that night.

I asked one gentleman if he'd been asked the million dollar question and without hesitation he leaned back on his stool as if to get himself postured to hear a story and answered, "No, what's the million dollar question?" He laughed when I saw that his buddy had on one of our PraiseFest T-shirts and realized he was one of our own.

We spoke with a security guard outside of a bank. His eyes welled up with tears as he looked away from us and acknowledged that he needed to make a change but now wasn't the right time. We talked a few minutes with him and invited him to Bahamafest and a few minutes later as we were talking to someone else, the young security guard walked by us, touched me on the arm and said, "I'll see you tonight!"

An 11-year-old school girl approached me and asked me if she could sing me a song for a dollar. I won't write the conversation we had but I sure did get pleasure out of talking with her and giving her that dollar. By the way, she sang, "This Is The Day (that the Lord has made)" and said she was taking the dollar to her mother who needed help at home.

I have to write about "Action." I was filming and a very unique individual with piercings everywhere imaginable lined up with my camera and when he knew he had my attention, he approached. We of course began to talk to him and his face lit up as he said, "Oh, I know Jesus!" Action had a "boat" and gave small tours to make a living.

Because of the unfavorable weather we did not dock at CocoCay and there was an attempt to add some things to the schedule so the passengers wouldn't get bored. On Thursday, they decided to have a worship service and it was then that we were given a report that 4,100 people were saved as a result of PraiseFest 2007! And yes, they were working with the local churches to disciple these new converts. Praise God. Some of the artists who sang for us were Nicole C. Mullen, The Crabb Family, Austin's Bridge and David Phelps.

Bobby and I had a great time and at times I thought about how spoiled I was. We couldn't have enjoyed ourselves like we did had Pat and Mary Johnson not taken care of our children for us. What a blessing!!!

We arrived back in Port Canaveral 30 minutes ahead of schedule on Friday morning and was on the road north by 9:30. We had made last minute plans to stay with Charcy's parents who were renting a condo on Daytona Beach, on Friday and then begin our drive back to Tennessee Friday night. As we drove in to Daytona, we heard the radio announcement that the space shuttle, Atlantis, was scheduled for lift-off at 7:38 that evening. Bobby and I wouldn't have thought much about this but Derick and Charcy informed us just how rare of an occurence it was to see the space shuttle lift-off in person.

We enjoyed laying out that day, walking the beach, having another WONDERFUL meal prepared by Mr. Evans and just spoiling ourselves one more day. We loaded our bags by 7:00 and was able to see a perfect space shuttle launch - on time, perfect weather/visibility and then hop in the truck and head back home to Tennessee.

Pictures are posted here.

Videos are posted here.

We are talking about the doing the cruise again next year and taking the children. We shall see.

I'm paying Landis to read his bible. He'd slipped twice with saying, "Oh my G--." The first time I was concerned of course and wondered if I'd even heard him correctly. Well, I did hear him correctly and I told him that we don't use the Lord's name like that and why. It happened again maybe a week later and so I knew something had to be done. I sat down with him and asked him if he'd heard talk like that at school. Of course he did and so I explained to him how important God's name is and that we don't throw His name around like that. Then I remembered listening to some teaching about 5 years ago where the guy was saying that it doesn't work to try NOT to be carnal and to try NOT to do the same old sins you've always struggled with. This guy (Andrew Womack) was teaching that we need to keep the Word before our eyes and to be filled daily with the Holy Spirit and to get so infiltrated with the HIM that there's not room for the old man. At least that's how I remember it from that long ago. Instead of trying to keep out the bad, just pour in more good. Basically, the point is to get our focus right.

Landis needs to get more of the Word in him so I began to wonder how I could get him in his Bible more, now that he's reading. He and Hope already have a weekly chores chart where they keep up with what they need to help with around the house. They get to mark in a box to show that they did the job and they get paid for it at the end of the week. Landis has a little more responsibility than Hope does at this point and gets paid just a little bit more - 5 cents per job and Hope gets 3 cents per job. Hey, you gotta leave room for growth. To show Landis the importance of reading the Word of God and to give him incentive to do it I told him I'd give him 10 cents a day if he read his bible. He was excited about that and he's done a pretty good job of keeping it up. Now, if I can get him into a habit when he's young that would be wonderful...just so he doesn't expect a check in the mail every week from me because he's read his bible. :)

I was making dinner a couple of weeks ago and Landis was reading his bible. I remember hearing him say he wanted to read John 9 but I didn't pay much attention to him. But when he began to read something got my full attention. He read the first two verses and I stopped him and said, "Landis, you just ministered to me." The passage is about the disciples asking Jesus who sinned, the man or his parents that this man was born blind. Jesus told them neither but that the works of God could be revealed in him. I have struggled for years with taking blame for what happened to Grace. But in November of 2002 John Bevere and Pastor Davis both told me together in one conversation that it wasn't anything I did that caused Grace to suffer. (I had rebelled against something Pastor Davis had told me to do in 1998 - just before Grace was born.) In 2005 I was visiting family in MI and went to their church on a Sunday morning. I took Grace forward for the altar call for healing. As they gathered around Grace to pray for her, Pastor Don Smith stopped everything and said that he believed God was telling him to remind me of John 9: 1 & 2. I melted a little but when I thought about it later, I still decided to hang on to my own opinions. Stubborn little sucker, ain't I? Finally, this day in May of 2007, my 6 year old son was reading John 9: 1 & 2 and the Lord said to me, "how long are you going to put your opinions over My Word? I've spoken through the men of God. Now...by the mouth of 2 or 3 every word shall be established." Later I looked at 2 Cor. 13:1 and was so amazed at the accuracy of our great big God and how He doesn't miss one tiny detail of our lives. Wow! He's so awesome. Needless to say I've repented for holding my opinion in higher regard than His Word.