March 27-29, 2009

Scott City, Cape Girardeau, Jerome and Marble Hill, Missouri

We enjoyed one last early Friday morning corporate prayer meeting at Cornerstone until the fall and started out for Missouri before noon. We sang that evening at Father's Arms Fellowship in Scott City and I can't express just how amazed I am at the sweet people we meet everywhere we go. Pastor Ken Strong and his wife both had the sweetest spirit about them and I, especially, enjoyed visiting with her at the end of the evening. Turns out they pastored a Mennonite church in Hesston, Kansas in the 1990's. Two other pastors attended the concert Friday night and one of them, in particular, Brother Jack Owens, was a blessing to our family. We see pastors every where around this country competing with each other instead of working together to accomplish something great for the Kingdom. We learned Brother Jack called Brother Ken when he was brand new in town and extended the right hand of fellowship and suggested they work together to reach the lost. He left after the service and returned with new testaments and candy for our children.

The children completed their schooling Friday afternoon in the hotel room and I asked them if they wanted to do their schooling on Saturday, since we had time to kill and then skip school on Monday. They did and I complimented them on a wise decision. We were allowed a late check out on Saturday afternoon and then met our friends, Wayne and Glenda Mayberry for dinner. After dinner Wayne and Glenda led us back to Cornerstone Assembly of God where we sang 11 months earlier. When we arrived at the church the weather was cool but comfortable, but when we left the church it felt like it dropped about 20 degrees and the wind really picked up. We knew there was a winter storm moving just north of us and we hoped we wouldn't be affected by it. After the service at Cornerstone, we drove northward and about halfway between Cape Girardeau and St. Louis, I went to sleep. But 30 minutes west of St. Louis on I-44 West, I was awakened by Bobby saying, “I can't SEE!” I don't remember him saying that but when I bolted upright, I saw the largest snowflakes I'd ever seen in my life blowing toward us. We were in that blinding snow that can make your eyes cross. We drove about 30 miles per hour down the Interstate and then slowed to 15 because the road was covered with snow and we could go no further. We pulled off at a truck stop trying to decide if we should just sleep in the van and drive the remaining 40 miles to our hotel in the morning and shower or try to keep going. Finally Bobby suggested that we just get a room where we were and pay for it and drive the remaining 50 miles to the church in the morning. That was the best decision. The infamous, Econohell....I mean... Econolodge came to the rescue as that was just down the street from where we were sitting. We carried each child in from the van plus our luggage through that wet, slushy snow and shivered our way to bed, getting to sleep by 2:00. And no. No one tried to open our door.

We meet the nicest people at our hotel breakfasts and often have something in common. For instance one morning we met a couple from Texarkana. Last weekend in Illinois we met a family with 8 children, although they only showed up to breakfast with 2 little boys and the baby she will be delivering in May. We saw their 15-passenger van the evening before and one of their teenagers. He is a pastor but they were ministering in his brother's church that particular weekend. They home school and they used to live in Tennessee but currently in Kansas. Yesterday morning we met Jim Chilton from Fairbanks, Alaska. Bobby always feeds Grace breakfast when we're on the road and I get the other children what they need before I eat. Mr. Jim decided he would appoint himself the waffle maker yesterday morning. We invited him to sit with us and we visited. He flew down to Sullivan, Missouri (where we were) to attend his daughter's wedding next weekend. He said, “She sleeps in on Sundays so I'm just waiting until she gets up and then I'll go hang out with her today.” Jim's wife, Amy is a Christian singer/songwriter so we exchanged CDs, thanked him for his help with breakfast and wished him well. What did we have in common? We both love Sarah Palin!

Apostolic Faith Church in Jerome, Missouri believes in reaching the children. God opened the door for Pastor Don Arthur to have a bus route in Rolla, the closest big town to Jerome, and it led to busing in children for Sunday services. At least 15 children stood at the front of the sanctuary yesterday morning in this small congregation of about 50 people. Pastor Donnie handed out awards for perfect attendance to three children, and certificates of baptism to two! I was impressed with their reaching and preaching to the kids and the perfect attendance in the middle of flu season. Go Church! So many small churches we minister in the congregates are aging and the next generation is missing.

It was a scenic drive back east through the Mark Twain National Forest to Marble Hill, Missouri to see our friends, Dan and Carmen Montgomery and their daughters Elizabeth and Essie Grace at Marble Hill Assembly of God. Once again the discussion before and after church was about the lack of enthusiasm in the church. One older sister said she was burdened to pray on Saturday night at bedtime and ended up praying all night long. She never slept a wink but felt fine the next morning. The Holy Spirit has been urging me to be a woman of prayer for the past ten years and although I'm a better pray-er than I was 10 years ago, I'm still not even close to what I ought to be. You'd think I'd discipline myself to have a greater prayer life because I really believe that's the way we'll see the manifestation of Grace's healing, specifically praying in the Spirit. I heard someone say recently that you should tell others what your goals are so that you're more likely to achieve them. How 'bout broadcasting your goals and deepest desires on the World Wide Web? Feel free to comment and ask me how my prayer life is. Hold me accountable.

Anyway, Pastor Dan and Carmen had pizza for just our two families down in the basement of the church and we had a fun visit talking about ministry, vacations, kids and home school.

After singing Friday night, Saturday night, driving four hours late Saturday night, rising early to sing Sunday morning, driving another four hours Sunday afternoon, and singing Sunday night, makes us very tired so our habit has been lately to sleep in on Monday morning. This morning was no exception and we didn't start out on the road until after noon. It's a beautiful day to travel and we're thankful that we can get home in time to have some daylight left for the kids to enjoy outside. I'm just glad that we did today's schoolwork on Saturday! :)