August 15 & 16, 2009

It had been four months since we'd seen Bob and Tena, Bobby's parents. That was a long time considering we'd seen them about every other week through the winter and early spring. Or at least it seemed like we saw them that often. We got there just in time for dinner Monday evening which kicked the week off the right way. We spent several hours at our friend, Elizabeth's pool again, ate out, did some shopping and (sounds like vacation, doesn't it?) did something different this time: we spent quite a bit of time at... school!

Bobby's friend of many, many years, Sheila Lynn, works as a chef at Texarkana College, a branch of Texas A & M. Sheila went to culinary school and began her career as a chef in Nashville and then moved back home to Texarkana and began working at the college just a couple of years ago. When Sheila arrived at the school, the cafeteria fed a few students but was not a popular place to hang out. She began interviewing students and asked them what they would put on the school's cafeteria menu if they were in charge. An overwhelming majority said they would like some hot home-style meals instead of just the burgers, pizzas and hotdogs they had grown accustomed to. Sheila got to work planning a new menu and figuring out how to not only create better meals for the students but how to give back to the community and make the college cafeteria a place that Texarkana would be attracted to. Every night the cafeteria offers a different "home-cooked" meal with Thursday always being catfish night. The line goes out the doors with people waiting to eat catfish. When Sheila's boss saw what was happening, he promoted her and gave her more liberties. Actually, what he said was, "you can do whatever you want (when it comes to managing the cafeteria)."

So Bobby, the kids and I ate three or four meals down at the cafeteria (because Sheila gave us several meal passes) and on Thursday night, Bobby, as well as Sheila and another gentleman provided musical entertainment while the folks had their catfish.

At the end of a fun and relaxing week, we drove back to Texas where, on Saturday night, we sang in Allen which is an extension of Dallas. Brother John Myers, a church planter, was hosting a kick-off at an old fire hall for a new cowboy church in Allen. It was with great delight that we got to see and visit with Pastor Mark Lunsford and his youngest daughter, Samantha. Pastor Mark and his wife, Anne, first came to Cornerstone Church, our church in Nashville, back in 1994 to be our music pastor. I joined the choir in January of 1995 and became the piano accompanist for Wednesday rehearsals as our pianist extraordinaire, Pastor Davis' wife, Gail, felt it necessary to work with the band the entire rehearsal time. Pastor Mark really helped me with gaining confidence in my piano playing. I began working as a receptionist at the church office in April of 1995 and Pastor Mark would introduce some new music to me to begin practicing so I could be ready to play for the choir at the next rehearsal. There were a few times that he'd give me something to practice and I would tell him the next time that I saw him that I just didn't think I could handle the piece. He'd insist that I could handle it and that all I had to do was keep practicing. He told me he had confidence that I'd be ready for the rehearsal because he believed I could play what he gave me. And you know, I did what he asked and my piano playing really improved over those three or four years that I played for the choir rehearsals. Obviously, I was nothing like Mrs. Gail, who has a masters degree in piano, but I was able to contribute in a big way and be a help and that's always fulfilling.

In 1997, I bought Bobby a twelve-week old Dashchund for his 34th birthday. I told Pastor Mark what I was doing and I think he got more excited than I was. The evening after I gave Bobby his new four-legged baby, Pastor Mark and Anne took Bobby and I to PetSmart to get "a few things" that our little Buddy was gonna need. We covered every inch of that store and by the time we were ready to check out, our cart was heaping full. Then Pastor Mark got in front of our cart and pulled out his wallet. I looked at Anne and said, "What's he doing?!" Anne just gave me a motherly look and said, "Just let him go. He doesn't do this kind of thing very often, so enjoy it while he's in the mood."

Pastor Mark and Anne had a little dog of their own but were not able to have a baby. Revival broke out in our church and we did something unusual for Cornerstone, we met for church services every night for a week without those services being on our church calendar! One night we had prayer for those people who were trying to conceive and Pastor Mark and Anne were one of the couples we prayed for. That was in March of 1997. In June of the same year, they found out they were expecting and a month later they found out they were having twins. Morgan and Sydney were born in January of 1998 and just a few weeks later in February, Pastor Mark announced to the choir that Bobby and I were expecting our first baby due in September. Then in March Pastor Mark called me in his office one day and told me that he and Anne were expecting their third baby of the year due in December! I laughed in shock and said that God had definitely healed him of whatever it was that was preventing him from having children and suggested he take his healing seriously.

On September 26, when our day of happiness suddenly turned sad and Grace was rushed down the hall to be put on a ventilator, Pastor Mark, Anne, many family members and friends who came to celebrate this new life with us instead circled around my bed and we prayed for God to spare Grace's life. It was Pastor Mark who led us in prayer and declared that we would give God glory in this situation no matter what happened.

The Lunsford's third daughter, Samantha, was born in December and a tiny baby Grace and I visited Anne and Samantha the day after she was born. Today they have three beautiful redheads and live in Texas where Pastor Mark is now an associate pastor at Hope Frisco working alongside Pastor John McKinzie.

So now you can see that we have a rich history with Pastor Mark and Anne and that's why it was such a treat to see him (Anne was sick and in the bed) and Samantha in Allen. We did enjoy fellowship over a meal after the concert. We have hopes to see them when we return to the area the last of this month.

We were scheduled to sing in Red Oak which was on the opposite side of Dallas the next morning so we slept on that side of town in order to have a shorter distance to drive the next morning. We ministered at Lone Star Cowboy Church which is led by Pastor John Coe. This is a growing body of believers and it was a joy to get to fellowship with them. They have two services, one at 8:30 and another at 10:30, the second one being much larger, of course. After the second service Pastor John wanted to meet with his leaders up at the front of the room. He continued using his microphone so we could hear what was going on in this meeting. So many things he said reminded me of another Texas native pastor who I love dearly. He encouraged his leaders and made sure they understood that it was because of their willingness to serve that they were seeing momentum and growth. I caught on quickly that one of the things Pastor John struggled with was keeping up with the new faces coming in the doors on a weekly basis. This, too, sounded very familiar. I heard him talk to his leaders about the area that each of them were assigned to sit in every Sunday. They were charged to look for new faces in their section and greet those people, get acquainted with them and get some information from them in order to write something down for their pastor. I was liking what I was hearing. It sounded good to hear a pastor talking about the "problem" of keeping up with all the new people and keeping his leaders involved.

Pastor John was very kind to take us out to lunch after church and we had a good visit with him.

Again, I was successful in getting the children to take naps while we drove southeast of Dallas to Jacksonville. Bobby's cousin, Mike and his wife, Rose attend Enterprise Baptist Church and this is where we were led to minister Sunday evening. Mike's nephew, Clint, and his wife Cathy drove all the way from Sulphur Springs to attend the concert and say hello. We had a good evening and after the service, a young mother with a four year old daughter and 6 month old son, came up to me at the front of the sanctuary and thanked us for coming and that she enjoyed the evening. I asked her some questions and found out that she was a brand new Christian. She lived just a few miles from the church, was at a low spot in her life and showed up one Sunday out of desperation. She accepted Christ as her Savior and now, as a single mom, has a whole new church family ready to help her and put their arms around her. It was very encouraging to me.

We made the three hour drive back to Texarkana that night, slept and drove home on Monday. What? More cobwebs in my house??? I need to stay home for a change.