Happy 4th!!

July 3 & 4, 2010

On Saturday morning Bobby, the kids, his parents and I all headed back to Texarkana, just as we had planned and after dropping them off at their exit, we continued on to Waxahachie, Texas. It was pretty late when we arrived at the Knights Inn but they put us in a suite because the cable TV was out in the building we would have been placed in so we got to sleep very quickly; everyone on a bed...3 beds!

Ellis County Cowboy Church was not far away and we quickly got loaded in and set up. It seems the later the summer gets, the more often I put something on the kids (particularly Landis and Hope) and find that it's too short or tight. Landis had to make a last minute wardrobe change in the van after we arrived at the church because his shirt was too small. What are we feeding our children?!

This cowboy church is the biggest we've been to yet. Their auditorium seats between 1,100 and 1,200 and it was 75% full in both services. They have a pretty good sized campus with some good children's programs. During the second service Grace enjoyed watching a movie in the special needs room. That's not exactly what she needed but she enjoyed it.

During Bobby's first concert in January of 2008, he asked Landis if he'd like to come up and sing a song with him. Landis said absolutely not and for months that was his answer. Now, two and a half years later at one of the largest churches we've ministered in, he's begging Bobby to let him sing a solo off the kids' latest project. Of course Bobby let him and I was so proud of the kids for singing to a crowd as big as that one was just the same as if they were singing to a crowd of 40...something they've done many times.

Cowboy churches are different from all the other churches in that they have a lot of musical guests, some weekly, but they have a very short time of music and they always have a sermon. It's all fine and good...just different from other churches. But I suppose that whoever started cowboy church had “different” in mind when they started it.

We drove east of Dallas a ways before we stopped to grab lunch and after we got back on the road, I began reading where I'd left off somewhere in the middle of the book, “The Long Winter,” by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I read aloud for four hours straight. I started reading these books to Grace and Landis (actually, I read the entire series to Grace a few years ago) but Bobby found himself getting involved in the long and hungry winter the Ingalls Family suffered in 1880. I'd finish a chapter and ask Landis, “Shall I read another?” Before Landis could answer, Bobby would quickly say, “Yeah!” I finished the book at 7:00 pm.

Along the way east as it grew darker we could see fireworks for miles and miles until finally, it grew too late and people stopped celebrating so they could get some sleep. But not the Bowens. We couldn't rest until we got home around 3:00 am.