October 9-11, 2009

It's never fun driving in the rain but that's what we did on Friday, October 9th. By the way, the 9th of October marked 8 years since Mom graduated to heaven. That was a beautiful fall day in Michigan with big puffy white clouds, bright crisp colors and a cool but gentle breeze. With the yellow mums in full bloom it was my mother's favorite kind of day. After my dad told her he wanted to take her to the hospital the day before, she quickly informed him that she wasn't going anywhere but "home." And she did less than 24 hours later. To be absent from the body is to be present with Jesus. She passed away in Dad's arms so she literally went from his arms to the arms of Jesus in the twinkling of an eye. It was a beautiful and sad day. Can you understand?

So we drove in the rain to Harrodsburg, Kentucky where we sang at Deep Creek Baptist Church, pastored by Scott Davis and his wife, Sue. I felt a connection with Sue immediately (perhaps because she was a Yankee?...just kidding). Because Grace and I couldn't go downstairs to join the others for the fellowship meal prior to the service, she stayed with us as we sat in a classroom and enjoyed our meal in a more quiet setting. Pastor Scott was a Mid South fan, first hearing a song on his car radio in the mid 1980's while living in California that really ministered to him. He waited to hear the DJ announce the artist after the song finished playing but he never did. The following day the same thing happened and once again the artist was not announced so he called the radio station and solved his mystery.

We had some time to kill the following day so we took our time with breakfast and departure and then did a bit of shopping in downtown Harrodsburg and had lunch in Lexington before driving to Ashland which is situated on the West Virginia line near Huntington. If you read my last post you saw that we met the parents of some Cornerstone friends, the McClanahans. Well, this weekend there was another "Cornerstone Connection," as the father of one of our youth leaders, Devin Williams, is the music pastor at Ashland Assembly of God in Ashland, Kentucky! We had a very small crowd at Ashland Assembly that night but what a great time we had. When it was time for the service to start and Bobby saw how few were there, he had pretty much decided he'd sing a few songs, give everyone a free CD and call it a night since we had 4 hours to travel after the concert anyway. But once he got his body into it, his spirit followed and we did a normal 75-80 minute service complete with kids singing and me testifying. The folks were so responsive and encouraging and don't you know we felt like we received more of a blessing than the rest of the folks? But they insisted they were the ones who were blessed the most and Pastor Charles said he'd like to have us back on a Sunday morning.

We dressed the children in their pajamas and moved on up the road to Greensburg, Indiana. The following morning we ministered at New Point Baptist Baptist Church where "Big T," better known as Pastor Troy Caudill welcomed us back. We enjoyed a great service here back in March of this year (see post from March ) and Pastor Troy said his congregation has been asking ever since when he was going to have us back. Now, that was a first!

Pastor Troy had a great salvation message after our singing and testifying, yet no one responded to the altar call. Now that I see empty pews and altars in so many churches and altars without tissue boxes, (no need to have tissues if there are no tears being shed) I realize that what I've been seeing at Cornerstone Church all these years as people fill the altars Sunday after Sunday is nothing short of miraculous. And I took it for granted.

When we were in New Point in March we had lunch at the Iron Skillet truck stop (now doesn't that sound good?) where "kids eat free!" and had a good salad bar. We had the same lunch on this trip and then moved on to Brandenburg, Kentucky. On the way, however, I spoke on the phone with my sister, who had just passed through southern Indiana a couple of hours earlier. She had been invited to speak at my cousin's church in Fort Wayne for a women's weekend retreat.

Brother Eddie Broughton, the minister of music at the First Southern Baptist Church of Brandenburg met us at the van and welcomed us and then helped Bobby load in. I got the children dressed and presentable in the nicest church bathrooms we've ever seen. The no-touch toilet flushers and sinks were something new to us in a church. We were impressed and we let the folks know it during the service too. It got a chuckle.

We enjoyed a well-attended and God-centered service and fortunately, Faith fell asleep after she sang her songs. It was fortunate because she was in rare form as her dear mother failed to make her take a nap earlier that afternoon. She slept on the front pew until we were loaded up and ready to turn the lights out in the sanctuary.

We were warmly greeted immediately upon dismissal and Brother Eddie's wife, Glenna told me she felt like we were family. Now that makes you feel loved.

After taking the time to actually go in for a sit-down meal at Huddle House (can we say, "grease?") we made it home before midnight and the following day discovered we had a couple of new friends on facebook from Brandenburg. How fun.