July 20-23, 2009

I squeezed two loads of desperately needed laundry into Saturday afternoon's (the 18th, during the music festival at Sandy Creek) schedule and couldn't fit it all in so I did one more load at the local laundromat on Monday morning before the rest of the gang awoke. There was no Wifi at the dorm so while I waited on the dryer I drove down to the hoppin' and happenin' coffee shop/gas station where I could buy thirty minutes of time on the Internet, looking for comments on my blog, cleaning out my inbox and sending a "tweet."

We got back on the Trans-Canadian Highway, also known as Hwy 1 heading west. I like the names of the towns so I'll tell you we started out just west of Moose Jaw and then drove through Swift Current and Medicine Hat, stopping in Lethbridge to sleep Monday evening. After Lethbridge we got into the mountains of British Columbia. We didn't allow the television to be turned on the whole day Tuesday as the movie was outside the van. I had figured we'd see snow-topped mountains but those we saw weren't tall enough to have snow in July. Still, the beauty was a lot to behold and we kept the camera on most of the day. Moose was something else we were hoping to see but never did. However, Landis saw some wild elk grazing not too far off the road. The rest of us missed it. The kids would get accustomed to seeing the same mountains for a couple of hours and ask to watch TV but when we made them look out the windows again, they would get caught up in the wonder around them for a while.

We were scheduled to sing in Troy, Montana Wednesday night. However, our destination for Tuesday night was Sandpoint, Idaho. About thirteen years ago Bobby sang in Sandpoint with MidSouth and while he was there he called, telling me how beautiful the place was. He told me he'd take me there some day and sure enough, thirteen years later, he kept his promise. Little did we know we'd have four children with us.

The following day, after driving through Sandpoint to have a look around, we headed out for Troy, Montana to find Troy Community Baptist Church. We met some precious people waiting for us to get there, who helped Bobby with his set up. It was unusual for the kids and I to be surrounded by children back in the nursery while I got the girl's hair fixed. Most churches we sing in are running short on children but this church had a slew of them. It definitely makes a difference what that pastor's vision is and what he's living out before the congregation. He and his wife raised three of their own and had a great time doing so which caused them to consider foster care and adoption. So a couple of those little ones were his.

After Bobby finished setting up his gear, he and Landis, Pastor Cam and sound man, Brian, sat down and just visited. Bobby and Landis had many questions about the beautiful area we were in, the wildlife and, of course, the quality of fishing. It didn't take but just a few words from Landis for Pastor Cam to know that he was a passionate fisherman.

We had a great service with all of those kids, including my own, seated on the front row. Of course it wasn't as quiet and still as I like it to be but you've got to make exceptions. I was just so thrilled that there were children present that it really didn't matter about the stillness factor. When it came time for me to give a testimony, I decided that rather than lose the interest of the children, I'd rather sit on the front steps of the stage so the kids could see me better and I'd make my testimony kid-friendly. I think it went fairly well considering I'd never done that before. Kids always stare at Grace and want to know what she's all about so I explained to them who Grace was, who God was in her and what He's done in her as best I could.

After the service, someone asked me if I had seen Pastor Cam. They were looking for him and couldn't find him anywhere. The rest of us were enjoying ice cream in the fellowship hall. When I just finished feeding Grace, Pastor Cam walked into the fellowship hall and announced that he had a fishing rod and small tackle box for Landis and wanted to give it to him with our permission. He didn't see Landis, who overheard the statement from across the room. Moments later, Landis was practicing his cast in the gravel parking lot and Bobby and I were thanking the pastor for his thoughtful gift.

"What you didn't know," I told him, "was that three days ago Landis was complaining that he hadn't fished on this big Canada trip yet. We had talked about fishing on this trip months ago when planning the trip and realizing that he wouldn't be able to go to Kid's Camp with our church. When he complained I told him he just needed to pray for an opportunity to fish and I was sure God would give it to him. The next day I looked in the rear-view mirror and didn't see Landis in the back of the van so I yelled, 'Landis are you back behind the seat again?!' I heard a small 'yes.' So I told him to get out of there immediately. He came back with, 'but I'm praying.' So I backed down and told him to come out of there when he was done."

It's funny how sometimes we listen to God's leading and we don't even realize it's Him speaking to us? I think Pastor Cam was surprised and even happier after hearing the story. Then he told us of a great little fishing spot and said we wouldn't even need fishing licenses because it was in a state park.

We had decided that afternoon on the way to the hotel that we'd stop on the way back to the church that evening and take some pictures along US Highway 2 that runs between Troy and Libby, where we were staying. The highway and Kootenai River run together and the scenery is picturesque. To make the picture even more interesting there's a waterfall, a railroad track running through, and a swinging bridge has been added over the river at one spot. But because of the ice cream social after church we didn't have enough sunlight to take pictures after church so we rescheduled our picture-taking for the following morning. On top of that we added a little time to fish. With a full schedule of leisure activities in the morning, we knew we were pushing ourselves to get to our Thursday evening concert on time. There was a detour onto a narrow dirt road at one point but we did barely make it on time.

It was one hundred three degrees when we arrived at the Outdoorsmen Church near Missoula, Montana on Thursday night. Pastor Mark and his wife, Sacha have just recently been holding church services in their own building. They had been having church at their home in a tent. People from all walks of life were driving as far as an hour and a half to get there. They truly have a unique ministry at the Outdoorsmen Church as they reach out to the people of western Montana who love to fish, hunt, hike, and...eat. This congregation divides itself in half. One half meets every Wednesday night and the other half meets every Thursday night. Not only do they meet for church but they bring dinner and eat together. There was no air conditioning but we managed just fine and had a good service. After the service Sacha told us that nearly a third of the folks there were unsaved people that just want to come and see what's happening at the Outdoorsmen Church! Evidently they'd been coming. Now that truly is exciting to see that many young families coming out on a Thursday night to the house of God out of curiosity. It's my prayer that seeds were sown into some of those hearts by something we sang or said.

Of course the evening couldn't be complete without a little archery at the Outdoorsmen Church. After Landis asked enough questions, one of the adults took him and Hope out behind the building to practice a little archery which, of course, thrilled Landis. Indeed, a new experience for him.



(Above) Looking across the plains of Alberta toward the mountains of British Columbia. Sorry 'bout the middle picture taken through our dirty windshield. Remember, you can click on a picture to blow it up and then you can see the mountains in the distance better. The third pic was taken right after taking a pic in front of the British Columbia sign.



(Above) All the sweet children that came to the service in Troy. A ten year old girl, Constance, joined us just before the service started. I don't know what the crazy lady's problem is...maybe she can't handle all those kids on the front row.



(Above) Looking at a waterfall and the swinging bridge at Kootenai National Forest.



(Above) Landis' rainbow trout caught with the fishing rod that Pastor Cam gave him.



(Above) Bobby singing at the Outdoorsmen Church. Hope lost her first tooth at a church in Kentucky, her second tooth at a church in Indiana and her third tooth while at the Outdoorsmen Church in Montana.



(Above) Scenic overlook on US 12 in western Montana.