"Sweet Home Alabama"

April 17 & 18, 2010

We made a short trip down to Sylacauga, Alabama, or to make Grace laugh, I like to say, “Sycalauga, Abalama.” Debe Hooley is a friend from my childhood and teen years. She and Phil used to attend the Mennonite church in Michigan where I was raised. Today she has a quaint little shop in Sylacauga called, Yoder Family Tradition Gift and Craft Shop, and she wanted us to come by there for a kind of meet and greet before going on to Weogufka to sing that evening.

Mr. Presley Boswell heads up the Saturday evening concerts at the old Weogufka High School where many of the Alumni come out to enjoy a dinner and concert and just reminisce about the good old days. There's always catering by Kenny Boggans Whiskers Catering and the food is fantastic! This time we had catfish.

Presley has a great sense of humor, too. He enjoys letting us know he's reserved a place for us to get ready in the “Star's” dressing room. That's funny because the building is so old and worn that the old bathroom that serves as the “Star's” dressing room is pretty dingy, rusted and cracked, not to mention “buggy.” But that doesn't mean this building is unwanted. The Weogufka High School Alumni Association fought to save their alma mater by having these dinner concerts and raising money until they had enough to buy the building, sparing it from the scheduled demolition.

Phil and Debe came down for the concert also and sat at our table with us. Debe and I can relate to each other about several things, one of the main things being that we both lost our mothers within the last few years. We had a good time sharing stories and experiences.

After a restful night at the Holiday Inn Express in Sylacauga, we had to check out pretty early in order to make it to Harvest, Alabama to minister at Community Missionary Baptist Church with Pastor Brandon Dyar . This is a very young congregation and for as small as it is, there are a lot of children. The kids here love to sing and they have very purposely been included in the congregational worship.

We had a very sweet time of ministry as a couple of people came to the altar and got some much-needed freedom from some things that had been holding them back. We weren't aware of any salvations but after the service, a lady told me that her husband, who rarely comes to church came that day, who says he's a Christian but she says he's not, insisted his wife buy one of our CDs and although he seemed a bit shy, hung out a little while after church and visited with us. I've prayed for him several times since that Sunday and I believe we'll hear that he received Jesus as his Savior when we make our next visit.

We had a fun lunch with Pastor Brandon and Maria and their kids and Maria's sister and her family. Each family had 4 kids which made a "mess o' kids" but boy, were they all good while we sat there so long and visited.

After a short drive home we popped some popcorn and watched Extreme Makeovers Home Edition. OK, I confess, I was extremely excited about not singing Sunday night; getting into my sweats and enjoying family time at home for a big change. Sshh...don't tell Bobby.