October 22-25, 2009

Back to Arkansas. Isn't that how I started my last post? Yes, it is. Maybe I should write a song called such. This time we went straight to Texarkana. We swung by Bobby's parents home and picked up his mother who was standing in the driveway waiting for us. We were running a little behind because of a delay west of Little Rock. It had rained quite a bit and I think there was an accident. However, thanks to the aircard and the Internet, we were able to find a bypass around it. Although many others took the same route and slowed us down a lot, it was still faster than sitting still on the interstate.

After picking up Tena, we drove over to Texarkana College where Bobby sang to folks who like to come out to the college on Thursday nights to eat fish. Our friend, Sheila Lynn, has really made the local college cafeteria a popular place with her home-style dishes and Thursday night fish fry's. And when she added the live entertainment with the fish, it added an element of fun to the evening. Sheila does most of the entertaining, singing classics such as, "Walkin' After Midnight," "I Fall To Pieces," and "Crazy," and the people love it. Bobby has sung there twice now and although his gospel music is appreciated, Tena and I advised him that the next time he sings at the college, he ought to have some Buck Owens and George Jones material ready. We told him with his vocal abilities, the folks would go crazy.

Bobby's dad had been working that afternoon and evening, delivering a car to Dallas, and was not able to join us but Bobby's sister, Kathy was there as well as her son, Josh. Just a few days before, Hope heard Josh's name mentioned and asked, "Who's Josh?" We told her that Josh is her first cousin and that it was a shame that she didn't even know who he was. So it was extra special to see Josh and introduce him to his "little" cousins.


The following day, Friday, we rested and on Saturday morning we drove over to Chidester, Arkansas (population 369) to a festival put on by the local churches as a ministry to the community. It was a little chilly but there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it soon warmed up. The atmosphere was that of 60 years ago with unlocked doors, trust, and small-town friendliness. The face-painting booth was a popular spot for my kids and before long they had taken over the activities there. When I caught up with them, they had all been painted, (Grace too), Hope had a paint brush in her hands and Landis was designing new ideas for the girls that were supposed to be running the booth, to try.

My main job for the day was to feed Grace and man the CD table, but I did get to tour the tiny school that 11 of the children of Chidester attended. One of the mom/teachers, Tonya, was especially friendly and went out of her way to visit with me, show me the school, and even take Faith to the bathroom for me. Tonya told me that the local public school closed a couple of years ago so instead of transporting their children to the next town, the community decided to open up their own community school. The parents volunteer teach and use mainly Christian curriculum. It's basically a home-school co-op and it seems to be working well for them.


All of the food offered at the festival was free of charge and there was no lack in the variety, quantity and quality. Those church ladies know how to set the table and we enjoyed things like baked potatoes with all the fixings, nachos, hot dogs, BBQ chicken and ribs (with homemade BBQ sauce) and catfish! Not to mention the hot chocolate and coffee in the cool morning hours and all the cold bottles of water you could drink in the afternoon.

Of course the stage was in the main area and gospel music was provided by the local groups and bands with Bobby being the main musical attraction. A band of 3 young guys from Magnolia played after Bobby and I got a chance to talk to the lead vocalist just before they sang. I found out he and one of the other guys were newlyweds and the third guy was still single. They were strongly considering moving to Nashville the first part of next year to pursue a recording contract. I asked him if he knew where he and his bride would be attending church in Nashville. Since he had no leads on churches yet I told him all about Cornerstone, how to get there, the webcast, Pastor Davis' testimony in a nutshell, etc. He seemed grateful for the information and encouraged in the pursuit of his musical dream.


Other things our children got to participate in that day was a quail race, Bible quiz, bounce house, a story time, and a scavenger hunt. When it was time to leave, the kids were a bit reluctant but the last thing Landis and Hope participated in earned them each a goldfish. I wish I could have snapped a picture of Landis' face as he ran toward the van with that goldfish. He came running toward me holding that fish in a bag of water out in front of himself screaming, "look what I got!" With painted faces, messy hair, dirty clothes, helium-filled balloons, live goldfish and candy, they rested in the van as we drove on toward our next destination which was Meridian, Mississippi.



So often I hear my children complain about traveling, about missing things at our own church and not being in their own homes, so shortly after leaving Chidester I said to them, "I just HATE traveling and going to these different places every weekend, don't you?" Landis quickly yelled, "No WAY! I LOVE it!" I loved hearing that.

We made it to Meridian at a decent hour. Well...at least enough time to get to bed and get a good night's rest. We found Anchor Christian Life Center the next morning and met Pastor Richie Ables, his beautiful wife, Dena and their son Brady. He had promoted this particular Sunday as a family day with a homecoming feel, challenging his congregation to invite friends. They even had a specific number of people they were hoping to have in attendance and he went so far as to tell his people that if they reached that number, he'd shave his beard. The room was almost full and we had a great service in spite of the fact that the attendance goal wasn't quite reached and the beard was allowed to stay. A delicious potluck after the service and warm greetings sent us homeward where we were able to arrive in good time and sleep in our own beds. However, only 2 days at home and we'd be off again.

October 16-18, 2009

Back to Arkansas. We made it to Arkadelphia by late afternoon and found Dino's Main Street Cafe` owned and operated by Dino and Jackie O'Chello. Jackie was an acquaintance of Bobby's from the 1980's. MidSouth used to sing at Magic Springs Amusement Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas and Jackie was in one of the shows at the park. Jackie's sister found Bobby on facebook and through that connection, all were re-acquainted and the date was scheduled for Bobby to come sing at Jackie and her husband, Dino's cafe. We had a fun evening as many of Jackie's family came and friends from area churches. Of course it's always fun when there's food involved...which was delicious, by the way. The kids had a blast as they met Dino and Jackie's daughter, Faith, an 8 year-old cutie patootie with a lot of spunk. They played together and had a good time before, during and after the singing and even mentioned being pen-pals with Faith.

We had a little over an hour to drive to Texarkana and that's where we laid our weary heads to rest. We rested the following day, Saturday, and enjoyed some good Mexican cuisine that evening. The following morning, however, it was back to work as we drove up to Ashdown to sing at New Faith Tabernacle pastored by Bobby's cousin, Teresa and her husband, Ed Root. I was looking forward to seeing both Ed and Teresa again but Ed was suffering from a kidney stone and was not able to be there. A great surprise was to see Bobby's Aunt Peggy! Peggy is Teresa's mother and we hadn't seen her in several years. She looked as lovely as ever.


We went to lunch with Teresa, her friend, Becky, her granddaughter Ashley and Ashley's boyfriend, and then got back on the Interstate and headed northeast to Little Rock. We made another return visit to Little Rock West Assembly. Pastor Larry Davis and his beautiful wife, Brenda, were so gracious to us a year ago when we were there. They shared with us how they have a 20 year old granddaughter, Jessica, who lives in Brentwood, Tennessee, who has cerebral palsy, and just how special she is to them. You can tell they are really in love with her and enjoy spending time with her whenever possible. Brenda and I spoke at length about her and Grace and the special needs they have and then we had cake! Pastor Davis' birthday was the following day so the church had a party for him following the service complete with dinner, coffee and of course, birthday cake.

I have to make mention here of Marlene. She's about 8 years old and approached Grace and I before church started. She informed that she's been praying for Grace since she met her a year ago. I was moved that a child would have a burden to pray for someone like she has and thanked her, asking her to please continue praying. She was so sweet.

When the church ladies asked me where we were going from there, I told them we were planning to drive home. So they loaded us up with goodies and coffee to get us down the road a little easier. We got the kids ready for bed before we left the church and made it home before 4 a.m. Three days at home before we got back in the van on Thursday.

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.