Warren & Benton, AR and Ft Worth, TX
August 22-26, 2010
We did something really crazy. And you'll never catch us doing it again. But before I tell you about the stupid crazy thing we did, I wanted to write about something we did at home. We don't get together with friends very often for obvious reasons (maybe it's not obvious to you ...we're not home much) but we did enjoy an evening with the Luthe family on August 19th. We needed a new inverter in our van for our laptops and refrigerator. We'd blown up several because they were just too small. We were accustomed to plugging the refrigerator in for a few hours and then unplugging the frig so we could plug the DVD player and TV in. I could plug my laptop in when the TV was plugged in but not when the frig was plugged in. We definitely had it down to a science after destroying a few inverters and blowing some fuses. But after the last inverter died we decided to just get a big one and hook it up to the van battery under the hood. Bobby asked for his friend, Derick's help with this and we decided to have dinner together. We had just reminisced a week or two before our plans were made about how Charcy's dad, Charles had cooked for us when we visited him in Florida in 2007 on our way to our cruise ship and after we returned from the ship. Olive Garden and Amerigo's have NOTHING on Charles when it comes to Lasagna made with grilled eggplant. He made us a wonderful breakfast before that and later in the evening he even whipped up some caviar...my first, so I had nothing to compare it to, and I thought it was wonderful with capers. Since we had just enjoyed these memories the week before, Bobby quickly thought of asking Charcy if her dad would be willing to cook for us again. Charcy joked that her dad is happiest when he's cooking and once again, we had a scrumptious Italian meal including, bruschetta, baked ziti and chicken parmigiana...MMMMMMM!!!!
Chicken Parmigiana
Baked Ziti
Bruschetta
Begging Dog
Derick and Bobby were successful in installing the new 1500 watt inverter. However, we were 1/2 mile from home after driving nearly 50 minutes from the Luthe's when the van nearly stalled. We made it home and the next morning Bobby found that the casing of the utility wire that he had been advised to use (no, Derick did not advise him to use it) had melted, leaving the exposed wires to touch and short themselves out. He spent the rest of the morning hunting down welding wire and installing it himself.
The good news is now we can plug the refrigerator, 2 laptops and the TV in all at the same time! We're living in the lap of luxury. Ha ha!!!
Now, on to that crazy thing we did: we were to sing in Warren, Arkansas on Sunday morning, the 22nd of August so all week I assumed we'd be leaving on Saturday late morning and sleeping in a hotel that night. However, on Friday Bobby said he was thinking we'd just stay home on Saturday to avoid paying for a hotel room and leave early Sunday morning to drive to Warren. Sounded good to me because that meant we could go to church. But when I mentioned that to Bobby he said I could go but that he would stay home and go to bed early. I was pretty close to being ready to go when I left for church with 3 of the children on Saturday evening. But when I arrived home there was a note from Bobby saying he re-checked and thought we'd better leave at 2:00 AM instead of 3:00 AM. He had gone to bed at 7:00 but I was almost sure he wasn't asleep when the kids and I arrived home a little after 8:00. I got them ready for bed but realized he had never fed Grace any dinner!!! So I had to get her out of bed and feed her something, brush her teeth AGAIN and then put her to bed AGAIN. I finished up with getting ready and was in bed by 11:00. Of course I was too wound up to fall asleep right away and then Bobby got up at 12:45 because he was concerned about what time I had set the alarm. I awoke when he got up so we got up before the alarm, got ready and left by 1:45.
I cat napped most of the way until it was time to get off the Interstate and still we had at least 2 hours to drive. I was traveling in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and was hoping we'd arrive at the church early enough for me to get changed before anyone showed up. That didn't happen the way it was supposed to either. Bobby parked on the side of the church building and I scrambled to get into the trailer and get my clothes before anyone came out to meet us but as I was pulling luggage out of the trailer to get to my stuff, Pastor Ricky Rawls met us and offered to help. I felt like a tramp standing there in my very non-church clothes, knowing I'd be ministering in a few minutes.
Now I know Jesus doesn't get hung up on whether I wear shorts or a dress or pants or a skirt. But I just didn't want to offend anyone right off the bat. So I mumbled a quick greeting and apology and ducked back into the van.
Another rough, HOT, crowded time of trying to get everyone ready on time. Some things just don't get done, like curling my hair, but I know for a fact that Jesus doesn't get hung up on that either. You just do your best with your appearance and go for it. The main thing is to be prayed up. You can sing all you want, talk all you want, smile all you want but if you haven't prayed, you are wasting your time!
It was a great morning service and I was totally entertained by the choir. We don't usually get to see choirs. We see choir lofts but they usually don't contain singers when we're there to minister. I say I was entertained because of the big yellow choir books they held, the false starts, and the hilarious sideways glances at each other when they were in doubt about what was happening. HOWEVER, I was moved to tears with the next song, “Oh what a Savior, Oh hallelujah, His heart was broken on Calvary. His hands were nail-scarred, His side was riven. He gave His life's blood for even me.” I sat there with tears streaming down my face not because it was sung with perfection – it wasn't – but it's so true that you can worship anywhere you are. You don't have to have moving lights and a great band to worship God. You just have to have people that are willing to abandon themselves and offer praise and worship with their voices to God. It's all a matter of the heart. I allowed myself just to meditate on every word they were singing about God's love for us and the sacrifice Jesus made.
The service was maybe a little abbreviated and then lunch followed in the fellowship hall. Somehow I got stuck at the back of the line and when I finally worked my way through the crowd to get to Grace who I was sure was waiting for me to get her a plate of food and chop it up, there was Landis already chopping Grace's lunch. All I had to do was show up, sit down and start feeding her. I was amazed that he would take the initiative and show such thoughtfulness to do such a thing. I made sure to thank him then and really fussed over him later that afternoon when we got in the van. It blesses me to see him pay the attention to Grace that he's been showing.
After lunch we went back to the sanctuary for another service, where we sang and spoke and glorified God. And then we were off to Benton!
Cross Roads Church was close to the Interstate but you had to exit the Interstate on the north side, drive parallel with it, cross over it and then arrive at the church which was on the south side of the Interstate.
We enjoyed a great time with these folks during the church service and also around the snacks in the fellowship hall after the service. But just because we were finished singing, didn't mean we could rest yet. We still had to drive 2 hours to Texarkana!
We arrived at Bob and Tena's (Bobby's parents' home) around 11:30 and after unloading a few things, visiting, and getting settled, we finally got to bed at 1:00! Exactly 24 hours from the time we rose to start that long day. Yes, we were tired.
And a day like this is not something we want to do again. Even if it means missing church on Saturday and spending the money on a hotel room. If we're going to minister we need to get some rest to give God our best.
We spent most of the day with Bob and Tena and at 4:00 Monday afternoon headed to Ft Worth, Trophy Club, to be exact, to Bobby's youngest sister's home. Anita Gossett moved from Texarkana to the Dallas / Ft Worth area nearly 20 years ago and has been employed by the same bank that entire time. Today, Anita is Executive Vice President of Bank of the West in Irving.
Bobby and Landis had seen Anita in 2008, staying in her home a couple of nights when Bobby sang for a Church of God convention in Weatherford. However, Faith had never really met her “Aunt Sissy” as she was only 4 months old when we all celebrated Bob and Tena's 50th anniversary in 2006. Hope was only 3 at that time so she couldn't say she remembered her either. So we told the younger girls about their Aunt Sissy and showed them a picture of her at Bob and Tena's.
When we got our van and trailer situated in Anita's driveway later than evening, Hope and Faith jumped out of the van and met Anita at her door, screaming, “Aunt Sissy!” There was an instant connection, especially between Anita and Faith.
We were made to feel very welcome and enjoyed plenty of space for the next 3 days. But we had to get up and get going first thing the next morning as we made our third visit to the seniors Bible study at North Richland Hills Baptist Church in Ft Worth. Brother George and his wife of 52 years, Millie, lead this precious group of saints and we've begun a friendship with these folks and look forward to visiting them each time.
That afternoon we spent time around the dining room table and in the driveway doing school and that evening we took Anita to dinner. After filling up on Mexican food we went back to the house where we allowed the children to swim in Anita's pool into the post-sunset hour. Needless to say the children slept well...after we finally got them to sleep, anyway.
On Wednesday we were able to start school earlier in the day and the children had just enough time after school to have a quick lunch and then enjoy some popcorn and an afternoon movie with surround sound and projected on the wall. They even enjoyed comfy home-theater seating to make their movie-watching perfect.
While the kids watched a movie I was able to shower and get ready for church. After the movie there was just enough time to get the kids ready and drive to North Richland Hills to sing at First Baptist Church Smithfield where Anita joined us for the concert.
Toward the end of the service the lady behind us, who I noticed had communicated with the children a little bit, produced an animation of Faith dressed as a princess. We all fussed over her drawing because it so characterized Faith. It was adorable! Of course Hope had to have herself animated as well and after Landis asked for his own drawing, I couldn't help but ask of yet one more of Grace.
Princess Faith
Duchess Hope
Sir Landis
The artist, Lissa, began to think aloud of how she would draw Gracie and when I heard her mention the wheelchair I quickly asked her if she would draw Grace standing just like her sisters. She seemed delighted to do so and I was so impressed with those cute sketches that I asked Lissa to sign them all and I kept them put away and out of the hands of the children until I could get them framed and hung in their bedrooms.
Lady Grace
But the next morning after we'd been on the road for a couple of hours, Bobby asked me what I thought about staying in Texarkana another night! I gave him a look that said, “When can I go home?” Bobby's (our) old friend, Don Peek, was in Texarkana for a few days and Bobby hadn't seen him in 15 years. I could understand Bobby's desire to take advantage of the opportunity to see a dear old friend.
Actually, I wanted to see Don and his wife, Janet too, so we stayed at Bob and Tena's again and spent a couple of hours visiting that evening. We talked about just staying until Saturday morning and then driving to Jasper, GA from there but Mapquest suggested we drive through Nashville to get from Texarkana to Jasper so we figured it would be better to drive home on Friday and sleep at home, breaking the long drive up into two days.
Once again we were only home for one night but it's always good to be home.
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