August 2, 2009

Sunday morning we said goodbye to Dad and drove to South Bend, Indiana which was about an hour and a half away. We found Forestbrook Missionary Church and met one of the sweetest pastors yet, Ronald Drake. We had a blessed morning serving the Lord there and then enjoyed a delicious fellowship lunch in their basement. We left in a bit of a hurry because we thought we were pressed for time to get over to Crowne Point, Indiana, which was just south of Gary. But Pastor Drake reminded us that we'd go back into central time on the way which helped a lot.

Mary and her boys went to church with Dad in the morning but after lunch said goodbye to him and drove to Crowne Point to meet us at our hotel where we had a few minutes to freshen up. We drove north of the hotel to East Lake Baptist Church where we had a great evening. As soon as we arrived we met Derrick and Meggan, the music/youth pastor and his wife. Mary and I had a good time visiting with Meggan in the nursery talking about kids, health and following the call of God.

Since the Kelso cousins were with us, Bobby had all of the kids come up to sing. It was definitely entertaining as Faith, who is prone to dance, inspired cousin, Ivan who ran circles around her while she wiggled and jumped in place. It was a great show and although there was dancing and silliness, I believe people were ministered to by the time the service was over.

We grabbed some fast food before going back to the motel and the following morning set out for HOME! We played musical vans throughout the day as the children wanted to take turns riding with a cousin.

Finally, after six weeks and 9,000 miles, we arrived home, safe, sound, happy, blessed and...HOT. We walked into our house where the air conditioning had been turned off but wouldn't turn back on. After a hot sweaty night and following morning, we found someone to come out and charge the unit and we began the cool down. So in spite of the fact that the heat and many little cobwebs greeted us, it was a sweet homecoming because of being gone so long and because Pat Johnson and Derick Luthe took such wonderful care of our place while we were away. Mr. Pat and his son, Nathan kept the yard cut and Derick, with the help of others like Pat, poured a concrete slab in our driveway. Now we have a small parking lot big enough for eight cars and it's going to come in handy when it comes to loading Grace between the house and the van, especially when we get the ramp built.





We have so much to be thankful for and a couple of weeks after this trip as I write of this account, I rejoice in the fact that our ever-faithful God woke us every morning with beautiful weather. We can only remember two days of rain on our six-week trip. He kept us all healthy. He blessed us financially. He provided for us in so many ways. He blessed us with new friendships and most importantly, lives were impacted, including our own. Yes, much to be thankful for and on Monday evening, August 3rd, I was thankful for HOME, sweet home.