February 6 & 7, 2010

It's a little confusing but let's see if I can explain this easily and without making your head spin. As we were leaving North Richland Hills on Tuesday, Bobby checked his messages and got some bad news. The music pastor from the church we were scheduled to sing in on Sunday evening in Roswell, New Mexico, called to apologize because he had forgotten we were coming! Of course Bobby faced the temptation to get angry and insist that we'd be there regardless of whether there was an invitation extended or not. But remembering Pastor Bobby Ready's encouraging words a few weeks earlier, he waited before calling the pastor and gave himself time to think everything through. In the meantime, the Roswell pastor wrote an email giving a more detailed explanation of the reason for canceling and then offered to find us another church to sing in the last minute. He also offered to pay for our hotel accommodations Sunday evening. This was an honorable thing for him to do and when he and Bobby finally spoke, they had a friendly and sincere conversation. It was last fall that Bobby had spoken with the music pastor and he had scheduled us to come in February. However, he put it on a 2009 calendar and when he transferred things over to his new calendar year, he overlooked the Bowen concert on February 6. Meanwhile, the senior pastor planned to make prayer the focus of their church on Sunday evenings letting nothing else take precedence. When the music pastor realized his mistake, he shared it with his pastor and after a meeting with the staff decided to continue with prayer as planned. I know that still doesn't sound fair to the Bowen Family. However, some things in life aren't fair. By the church keeping prayer their focus and showing integrity by finding us another church to sing in, I believe both parties honored God through a situation that could have brought shame to both of our names.

Nadine Baptist Church in Hobbs, New Mexico was our scheduled place of ministry on Sunday morning and pastor Bill Bennett booked us in the Country Inn and Suites for Saturday night. So we simply asked the Roswell pastor that had offered to pay for our accommodations Sunday evening, if he would cover Sunday night, simplifying things for us with not having to move

around so much. He agreed and also found us a church to sing in Sunday evening in Dexter which is just a little south of Roswell. But first, I am excited to write about Sunday morning in Nadine. It's really a community and not so much a town and it's very close to Hobbs. We had a little trouble finding the place. The building was completely white and a thick fog hid it so that we passed right by it. We turned around at Billy Walker road, wondering if it might just be named after our beloved and missed Billy Walker, the country star/Cornerstone elder that passed away in 2006. The picture was taken after church.

Pastor Bill welcomed us and helped us get loaded in and sound checked. While that was happening I combed the hair of my children and asked who wanted to go to the van with me to pray. I'd rather pray alone but I also think we should pray in front of our kids to teach them first of all to pray and how to do it. Surprisingly, both Landis and Hope said they wanted to come with me and we locked ourselves in the van for about 10 minutes.

Like every congregation, there was a variety of saints that came through the doors. Some of them had been in the church for many years and looked like church people. And there were some who were struggling in their Christian walk with the Lord and with every day life. I received a big hug from one sweet old grandma after service who was missing some teeth and wreaked of alcohol. When the altars were opened at the end of the service, Bobby asked Pastor Bill to come and take over at that point while he stayed on the guitar. Some things I prayed before the service that morning I heard repeated back when Pastor Bill prayed during the altar call. A couple of individuals came to the front and were prayed for but the pastor lingered and I could tell there was someone in the room that he was hoping would respond to the invitation. He didn't have to wait too long before an big old cowboy named Robert walked the aisle and when he did, the room erupted into shouts of praise and cheering as Robert prayed a prayer of faith asking Jesus Christ to be the Lord of his life! We found out later that the church had been praying for Robert for years and Pastor Bill had visited him many times, and as recently as the week before he came asking Robert to surrender his heart to the Lord. Each time Robert would say that he figured he still had time and he wasn't ready. What a thrill and privilege to witness this event with this precious congregation that prayed for a lost soul and didn't give up on him. As exciting as it was to hear the shouts and praises of this little congregation, I had to think of what it must have sounded like in heaven at that very moment. (Luke 15:7)

After church we went back to our suite and rested for just a few minutes before picking up some lunch and driving the two hours back toward Roswell. We found Midway Baptist Church and had a small but fun concert on Super Bowl Sunday night. It was a pleasure to meet Pastor Leo Pennington and his wife, Cathy and we thanked them sincerely for allowing us to come on such short notice.

We had all started complaining a little when Bobby would pull into McDonald's for every meal. So he promised that we'd try something different Sunday evening. Golden Corral isn't one of the nicest places to eat (or the cleanest) but I sure did enjoy having a wide variety of foods to choose from and the kids ate well too.

It was a long drive back to Hobbs to sleep but we had two hours less to drive the next day as we made our way across Texas to Bob and Tena's, my “PIL” (parents-in-law) in Texarkana where we stayed for a week.