June 7, 2009

Santa Claus, Indiana

We were scheduled to sing in a church in central Indiana on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. After the Sunday morning service, there would be a lunch followed by baptisms in a lake on the church property, followed by games, fun, and fellowship. Hope received Jesus as her Savior in late 2007 and recently has been asking when she could be baptized. I looked at the calendar and there was no opportunity for us to attend Cornerstone on the first weekend of the month any time the rest of this year. (We do baptisms on the first Saturday night or Sunday morning service of the month.) It really doesn't matter where Hope is baptized. She would be just as baptized if it were done in bath tub as she would be if it were done in a baptistery. So we had resolved to get Hope baptized at the church in Indiana this past Sunday. However...don't ya love those "howevers?" Yeah, however, the church canceled the date. When Bobby contacted them on Friday to finalize some details, he was told there must have been a communication glitch because they had decided not to have us come. The "glitch" was simply that they forgot to let us know they weren't going to have us. Plain and simple. I'm glad Bobby decided not to leave it at that but to call back and pursue the situation a bit. Fortunately, they showed some integrity and responded by saying they would send an offering, "as best they could." Financially speaking, times have been difficult for a lot of people but the truth has been withheld in so many pulpits about what giving really is and what it can do for the giver. We were not asking for a certain amount of money from this church, but simply a love offering. When Bobby told me about the

cancellation, I replied with, "Why don't they just let us come and allow themselves to receive ministry from song and testimony and financial blessing from giving whatever they give?" The Bible clearly says, "Give, and it will be given back to you..." It says MORE will be given back to you than what you gave. If the Church believed this, we would all be living above an economic recession, and would not be victims of it with the rest of the country. I realize I sound harsh and very opinionated (I am) but the truth is we either take Him at His Word, or we don't.

Well, one of the consequences to the cancellation was that we were able to attend Cornerstone...the third weekend of the year, the second weekend in a row, and the first Sunday service of 2009. Hope was able to get baptized at Cornerstone! I emailed Pastor Joe to let him know and he replied that he had arranged to be the one to baptize Hope. How sweet was that? We were really thankful to be able to attend and hear the first sermon in the series, "Our Civic Duty." We'll be sure to listen to the remaining sermons the rest of this month.

After a quick bite to eat at home, we got back in the van and headed to Santa Claus, Indiana. The original plan included meeting up with Pat and Mary Johnson, spending the night in Owensboro, and then going to Holiday World on Monday. However, (there's that word again) when we learned, on Friday, that the other church canceled, we thought it would be wise to fore go Holiday World this time. The hotel in Owensboro had already been booked and was non-refundable so we stayed the night in Owensboro even though we were only 3 hours from home.

Our evening with the folks at Heritage Hills Baptist Church was great. We showed up just in time to eat as they had tables filled with home-cooked dishes made by the women of the church. Then we moved on to singing followed by more fellowship afterward. After the service Pastor Jerry told us he had an idea during the concert and shared it with his wife, Jane. He had thought of people that had connections to Holiday World and had come up with four season tickets to the water park by the close of the evening! He told us that when it worked with our schedule he'd have the remainder of the tickets needed plus a chalet to stay the night in, FREE of charge! He said that this was his way of ministering to us. What a blessing!!!

Also, Hope wants me to mention that she lost her second tooth during the service Sunday night. She placed it in a paper cup but after church someone threw it away. Hope began frantically looking for her tooth and I told her it had probably been thrown in the trash. That was all it took for 4 adults to head over to the trash can and start digging! We had just about given up when a young dad held a cup in front of Hope's face and asked if she wanted to take that cup home with her. He was the HERO of the evening! She hugged me but I told her he was the one that deserved the hug. She gave him a big hug and I think they made each others' day.

We arrived at the Fairfield Inn in Owensboro and hung out with Pat and Mary until we got sleepy and then enjoyed breakfast together the next morning. We made one quick stop in Owensboro before leaving to drive home, to see the oldest known Sassafras tree in the world. It's 250 to 300 years old, over 100 feet tall, and 16 feet in circumference. It's pretty amazing to think about all the things that have happened around, under and even in this tree in the past 300 years.

We were planning to leave on Thursday, the 11th and not return home again until the first week of August, but we didn't get any bookings for Father's Day Weekend. So unless someone calls, we will drive home after this coming weekend and then not leave again until Wednesday, the 24th. We'll head to Canada and stay there for the month of July, singing in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba. We'll also dip down into North Dakota and Montana while we're up that way. We've been looking forward to the Canada trip for a long time and it's almost upon us. I have a feeling the summer is going to fly by.