September 18-21, 2009

Bobby succeeded in booking us back in Sheridan, Indiana at Christ Tabernacle Church of God of Prophecy. We had a great service back in August of 2008 when we were there before. God blessed our time together and He touched our hearts that night. I was impressed with Pastor Rich Barker and his wife Kathy who have eight children including two sets of twins. I got to visit briefly with Pastor Rich and then hugged Kathy's neck when she arrived at the church with about four kids in tow. I wish I could name them all but at least I have a



picture containing most of the Barker clan. The oldest of the children is married with a baby and is a youth pastor at a church in Kokomo. See? Doesn't Kathy look fabulous? Especially, when you consider she's carried twins twice, has four other children and is now a grandmother! Wow. Hats off! Another item of interest and something we have in common is that Rich and Kathy and the children used to travel together in ministry. They traveled in a fifteen passenger van and pulled a trailer. Once they had five children, Kathy told her husband she just couldn't possibly go on they went home and began to pastor a church. God's richest blessings to the Barker Family in Sheridan, Indiana!


I'd love to share with you one of our traveling "joys." After the service at Christ Tabernacle, Pastor Rich treated us to some quick food at Burger King. We didn't eat in with them because we told them we had to get moving. (We planned to drive three hours north to my Dad's house that night.) However, after we got our food, it was another 30 minutes until we actually rolled out of the Burger King parking lot. We put the wheel chair in the trailer and made beds in the van for the children to go to sleep. I changed Grace's diaper, fed her and took the other three into the restroom. But about 20 minutes after we left



Sheridan, someone called from the back saying Grace was stinkie. So I crawled to the back and changed her again while Bobby kept driving. Grace tends to battle with constipation and when she's stinkie, she's STINKIE!!! So now we're driving down the road at 10:30 p.m. with this incredible aroma called "Stink a la poop," and there's no trash can for miles. We were in the middle of corn fields. Bobby threatened to throw the diaper out the window but I wouldn't let him. Ha ha. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking how could anything so foul and stinkie come from such a little cutie? Don't let her fool ya. Some of you don't think about those kinds of experiences in a traveling ministry, do you?


We arrived at my Dad's house at 1:30 a.m. and after unloading, getting drinks of milk or water and getting everyone changed into pajamas, I was finally falling asleep a little before 3:00. Even though Dad stayed up waiting for us, he still got up Saturday morning and went to his favorite restaurant for breakfast, the Bluegate in Shipshewana, Indiana. However, we stayed in bed.


We enjoyed a beautiful Saturday evening in Three Rivers at Light and Life Wesleyan Church where my cousin, John Hostetler and his family attend. John was instrumental in getting Bobby in touch with the pastor from Light and Life. He also worked hard to advertise for the event and we really appreciate all of his efforts. John's mother, my dad's younger sister, Ann, came also as well as Dad's older sister, Sue Cole. A little extra kick to the evening was the fact that Christian



artist, David Meece hung out in the sanctuary after the service as he was giving a concert there on Sunday morning and was getting set up Saturday night. I told him my sisters and cousins and I used to sing in 3-part harmony, (and I broke into song) "Falling down you know I'm falling down and I don't understand why I keep losing ground..." David Meece attends Brentwood Baptist Church where his son is on staff.


If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that whenever we visit Michigan, we have to stop at the Party Store in Nottawa and have some Hudsonville ice cream. Sorry, but I don't think Bluebell has anything on Hudsonville. And the size of the servings at the Nottawa Party Store are crazy huge. We drove past the Party Store on our way back from Three Rivers, so naturally we had to stop and indulge. When I write that we ate at Burger King the night before (at 10 p.m.) and ate huge servings of ice cream after the concert the next night, you really need to know that I didn't order anything either time but had some bites of the kids' food. I sure wouldn't want you to get the wrong idea.


On Sunday morning we sang at Locust Grove Mennonite Church where several of my relatives attend. I admitted in the microphone that morning that I visited Locust Grove on an occasional Sunday evening as a teenager mainly because I was hoping to get a date. There was not an explosion of laughter as I had hoped for. I don't know if that was because they were thinking, "I KNEW it!" or they were simply shocked. I definitely had a reputation of being a little goody, goody two-shoes.


It was wonderful to see so many dear friends that I hadn't seen in years at Locust Grove and after church we were invited to have lunch at my Uncle Fred and Aunt Marilyn's home. She went all out with



mashed potatoes, roast, gravy, veggies, apple sauce, dinner rolls and chocolate pudding cake for dessert! Everything was delicious and we were so grateful for such a spread, not to mention the precious time we could spend with some relatives that we don't see as often as others.


We had only about an hour at Dad's until we had to leave again to go to his church near Topeka, Indiana. Dad went with us and showed us how to get to Morningstar Christian Fellowship. This congregation moved to this location near Topeka at the beginning of the year and changed their name from Plato Christian Fellowship. Plato, Dad's church, was the first place Bobby sang back in January of last year. I really like Dad's pastor, Jerry Stutzman, a dairy farmer who was formerly Amish and is hungry for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. My cousin Tobey who sings with his family group, The Schwartz Family, graced us with his presence as well his beautiful wife, Erin and their son Logan. Bobby invited Tobey up to sing an old MidSouth song with him and that added to the fun of the evening. Tobey is an accomplished songwriter and actually penned a southern gospel song that was nominated for song of the year in 2005 or 2006. We had a good time of worship at the end of the service and I was privileged to pray with a lady who used to be Amish and wanted prayer for her sister who is a drug addict.


Tobey and Erin joined us for some grub at McDonald's after the service and it began to rain.


The following morning we slept in as we often do on Mondays and finally found our way out of the house to go to the St. Joe County Grange Fair! We spent the majority of our time at the animal barns because my cousin, RoxAnne's children were showing goats and turkeys as they do every year. But I was also thrilled to see 2 gals that I graduated with along with their husbands and their daughters. I rarely get to see anyone I graduated with since I live so far away but to see Julie (Everitt) Mitchell and Diana (Pagels) Yeager in 1 afternoon



was a real treat. After the children grew impatient with us we finally took them over to the rides so that Landis and Hope could enjoy some excitement. Hope and Landis are actually in the photo above situated in the front seats (left side) of the ride that's hanging upside down. Hope was crying because she was afraid she was going to fall out. Poor girl was scared to tears. Grandpa took Faith with him to see the ponies, ride a kiddie ride and see a magic show. After about 4 hours



we left to pick up a birthday cake I had ordered earlier in the day, buy some ice cream and head to RoxAnne's house where I began to warm up some chili that Dad had made and I had packed in a cooler in the back of our van. Dad joined us as well as my mom's sister, Esther (RoxAnne's mom) and her husband Larry, and my cousin Danny and his new bride, Danae for chili, ice cream and birthday cake as we celebrated RoxAnne's son, Jeffrey and Grace's birthdays. Good food and fellowship was enjoyed by all and once again, I enjoyed visiting with my Aunt Esther again as we talked about heaven.


We left Dad's house at 9:30 on Tuesday morning and was able to spend 2 days at home until heading to Arkansas on Friday.