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July 25, 2010

We were happy to go to Cornerstone on Saturday night, the 24^th and then got up early enough to drive to Evansville, Indiana to Assembly of Faith for our third visit there.

We have really grown to appreciate, admire and love this pastor and the congregation. They hadn't grown much since the last time we were there but there is still a passion in the spirit of the people. “Whoopi” as everyone calls her was just as animated and friendly as ever and Mrs. Winnie Hope was there to love and honor. When I asked her how she was doing she smiled and said she was OK but getting older. I hope for my own sake I'll see her there the next time I go but for her sake and heavens, I hope her home going is soon. She's such a sweet heart.

Pastor Brenda still leads her flock with wisdom and fervency and I have gained more and more respect for her each time I visit with her.

We grabbed a fast food lunch and headed home just in time to change our clothes and freshen up and then drive the long 3 miles to Bethel Baptist Church just down the road from us.

We have a lot of history with Bethel as Landis, Hope and Faith have all attended Mother's Day Out here and I even taught a Mother's Day Out class one year. All of the children have attended VBS here. Bethel does a great job with VBS. Our own church, Cornerstone, leads in every area of ministry in my own biased opinion, however, Bethel has it “goin' on” when it comes to VBS and I have to say, they have it goin on a little better than our own church did in June. In all fairness, Cornerstone has not had VBS in the last several years so I think this was a trial run and learning experience for them this summer.

Brother Mike Corbin has been the worship pastor at Bethel for many years and actually for the past 2 years he and Bobby have been trying to coordinate some dates. Finally, we got it worked out to come on the 25^th of July and Brother Mike combined it with an ice cream social! How yummy!

Bobby let several of our friends know on Facebook that we would be singing locally and many came. I tried to get as many pictures of current and old friends as I could.

Grace enjoyed the attention from 2 dear friends, Mr. Pat and Mrs. Mary Jones, her former Special Ed. teacher from Watauga. They shared the task of feeding Grace her ice cream, which is her favorite vegetable.

We had a good service and a great time with the folks at Bethel as well our friends that came out to support us. We appreciated their presence so much!

Another thing we appreciated was the fact that we were able to minister that evening, and then only drive 3 miles and sleep in our own beds. Oooh, that was nice!