Way Out West Part 2

April 5 & 6, 2022

We had Tuesday, April 5, off, and then sang in nearby Lovington on Wednesday night. That meant we'd camp in Hobbs for a couple of days.  After Justis finished his school in the hotel room on Tuesday (minus the history), we visited the Lea County Cowboy and Rancher Hall of Fame.  There's not a lot to do in Hobbs, New Mexico, and we figured that would be just about the most exciting thing for our cow and bull lover, Justis.  Then back in our hotel room we ate our chili and enjoyed an old movie and popcorn.  We brought kernels, popcorn salt, brown paper bags and even a stick of butter from home.     

                                                                           

Wednesday night we sang at Revolution Church of God.  It was a reacquaintance for Bobby and Faith but a first-time meeting for Grace, Justis, and myself.  Pastor Kevin Dalton came straight from work, shortening his hour-long drive to 45 minutes. Pastor Jeff ______ and his family were the ones to let us in and help us get set up. 

Just as we were surprised on Monday night in Hobbs, we were thrilled once again to see the elder Mr. & Mrs. Neufelt walk through the doors and they brought more friends with them.  We had the privilege of meeting Canuto and Alvina Elias and had a brief but good visit with them before and after church.  

To travel the way we do may not make a lot of sense to people.  When Bobby traveled for a couple of years with our daughters, Hope and Faith, it worked well.  The three of them were able to travel faster in a smaller vehicle, eat quicker and cheaper and sleep more soundly when Grace, Justis and I stayed home. When Hope left for school last summer Bobby was considering just taking Faith with him on the road.  Yes, Justis can sing a melody well but he doesn't seem to hear harmonies. I told Bobby that if he wanted to travel with Faith, I'm happy staying home.  However, if he wanted me to sing, keeping the trio, I'd be happy to do that but it would mean that Grace and Justis would come too.  It would mean traveling in a larger vehicle, sometimes pulling a trailer, spending more on gas, sometimes requiring 2 hotel rooms, sometimes asking for a handicap accessible room in order to shower Grace, and of course taking longer for stops on the road to take care of Grace's needs.  My husband and the father to our children decided to go with the latter choice.  It's not easy to travel with Grace when it comes to caring for her needs on the road nor when it comes to sharing a hotel room with her.  She awakens many nights and disturbs our sleep.  Because she will not tolerate sleeping with anyone, we usually buy a suite with a pull-out couch so that Grace can have that to herself while Faith and I share a bed and Bobby and Justis share the other bed.  Justis interrupts Bobby's sleep often too so it can really take a toll on a 3-week trip like this.  

In light of trials and challenges we have in traveling with Grace, it made my heart happy to catch a glimpse of Bobby spending extra time with Grace, after we got her ready for bed on Wednesday night. You can sure tell they love each other. 

Way Out West     

April 1-4, 2022

Getting ready for a long trip is challenging.  I've got to pack enough diapers for Grace, enough clothes for her for a week with bibs to match her clothes (because they gotta match), socks, shoes, and barretts for her hair. Then there's food / drink for the road.  I used to give her a lot of Ensures but too much of that stuff is hard on her.  I had a lot of eggs at home so I made eggs salad for all of us.  I pureed a slice of bread with egg salad and contained it in something I could throw away after the meal. Because we're out for a long trip I filled a larger cooler with contents from our refrigerator including a large container of chili, cheese slices, summer sausage, baby carrots, green pepper slices, 3 salads for myself, not to mention all the chips and pretzels. And don't forget to pack school work. Gotta look ahead and make sure I've brought all of the tests and quizzes they're supposed to take.

Friday was uneventful with an all-day drive to Fort Smith.  The usual school on the road - except that after 14 years of homeschooling on the road, I've learned to abbreviate lessons and to use a different approach to subjects like geography and history.  Obviously, we can see things that we might have only read about had we not been on the road.

On Saturday evening we made it to Guymon, Oklahoma.  And the following morning we still had an hour and a half drive to the First Baptist Church of Felt. We have known Pastor Orden and Sister Gayla and their 2 children, Sherrie and Orden JT for 13 years.  Our kids have and are growing up together and we love this family dearly. 

Sunday morning in Felt marked the first time I accompanied our trio on the bass.  I told Bobby a year ago that I had a desire to learn the bass.  He really didn't see the point so he didn't encourage me in that.  In 2018 in La Crete, Alberta we saw a family group sing and one of them played a Uke Bass.  I was amazed at the deep sounds made by this tiny bass guitar.  When in Pigeon Forge last summer for the Inspirational Country Music Awards, I had just dropped Bobby off at the venue for a rehearsal and with time on my hands I decided to drive to the music store on 66 and see if they had any Uke basses.  They did have just one, a Kaia, with pickups, built-in tuner, and a gig bag.  I bought it.  

When Hope left for school, I began moving bedrooms around and when I gave Grace her new room, I decided to put the keyboard in her room.  She loved it when I played for her so I decided to add a bass amp under the keyboard, my bass mounted above it as well as a blue tooth speaker for purposes of practicing the bass with music played from my phone.  Grace is so happy that there's a music corner in her bedroom.  Bobby, Faith, Justis and I have gathered beside her bed with our instruments and practiced a few times to her delight.

Anyway, I took a rabbit trail from our western tour to give you the back story about the bass guitar addition. My habit has been to practice the bass every morning after I dress Grace for the day. It's been working well and we decided that I'd begin playing the bass on stage in April on the tour west.  I'm still getting used to it but it's fun and it's only 3 songs.  We use tracks for everything else. 

Back to First Baptist in Felt.  Gayla fixed us an amazing roast beef and potatoes lunch and then we continued westward another 20 miles to Clayton, New Mexico to Pastor Randall Floyd's church - another friend of many years.  Randall had tables set up in the sanctuary at Clayton Assembly of God and we enjoyed a variety of soups for dinner and then sang. Pastor Randall and his beautiful wife, Cindy, have 3 sons that, just like the Hartley's in Felt, we have watched their children grow up.  

On Monday morning we made our way south through the Texas panhandle to Hobbs, New Mexico where we sang at Full Gospel Assembly of Faith, pastored by Benny Greenlee.  We had a wonderful surprise when 3 couples walked in and introduced themselves as friends from Canada.  Nellie Derksen told us she was Joella's aunt.  Joella is a dear, dear friend from La Crete, Alberta, who, shortly after we sang there in 2019, she came to visit us in Tennessee.  Nellie was with her husband, Carl.  They were visiting their daughter and son-in-law, Joe and Crystal, who live in Seminole, Texas.  The third couple was Joe's parents, Neil and Tina Neufelt.  (We can't figure out why they weren't in this group shot but we got a pic of them in the next post.) We couldn't believe we had La Crete friends at a concert way down in Hobbs!  We were thrilled.  

Fremont & Muncie, Indiana March 26 & 27, 2022

 I want to try to post a little more frequently as we head west for three weeks.  But I can't leave out last weekend in Indiana.  We made something like the 6th visit to Revelation Chapel northeast of Fremont.  We just LOVE this place.  There's an excitement within this group as they welcome us each time and they respond with so much enthusiasm.  And they always eat well afterward.  It's always a little challenging when a Saturday night service is spaced a couple of hours away from the Sunday morning service but we drove up to Muncie the day before, spent the night, drove further north to Fremont the next evening, and then had to drive the 2 hours back to Muncie after the service on Saturday night.  The good thing was we were only 5 miles from the church on Sunday morning. 

To sing in Muncie again caused us to reminisce to January 2008 when we first began singing as a family.  The funny thing was, back then when we started from home pointing our minivan northward on Saturday morning, we didn't know we were going to be ministering as a family.  But on the drive north Bobby told me he believed God was telling him to take his family with him in ministry.  Bobby sang at my Dad's church east of Lagrange on Sunday morning and then we drove south to Muncie to sing at Victory Temple pastored by Bobby's first cousin, Rick Bowen. Bobby solo'd the entire service and I gave a short testimony.  Pastor Rick prayed over us that night at the end of the service.  We were officially commissioned by God and man! 

So to return to Muncie for the first time since 2008 was meaningful for us, although we were less 2 children as Landis and Hope are not traveling with us now.  We had a great service there and were reacquainted with a few people and saw some new faces.  I was especially blessed to befriend the minister of music, Bonita Petersen, a very gifted pianist. 

Sunday night we revisited Anderson Church of God of Prophecy, pastored by Charles Barker.  He too has become a friend as we have ministered there several times in the last few years.  At the close of the service last Sunday night Pastor Chuck asked us to stand at the front as a family and called others up to lay hands on us and pray for us.  I was touched that he took his time praying for so many aspects of our lives and ministry and included ALL of our children, not hesitating in recalling everyone's names and lifting each of them up to the Father.  

Headed to our hotel in Fishers that night, we experienced trouble with our van.  The throttle body was failing / going out...I don't know how to say it.  We had a little trouble earlier this year on our way to Shepherdsville, Kentucky and it acted like our shuttle did in West Tennessee several years earlier.  We knew what to do - pull over, kill the engine, wait 60 seconds, pump the gas peddle and restart the engine.  We did that on the way to Shepherdsville and we got back home with no other instances.  Well, you know how it is.  If there's no evidence of trouble you tend to forget there's a problem.  Until the problem shows up again.  It showed up Sunday night driving from the church to our hotel.  The van stalled probably 6 times but we finally got to our room, exhausted.  The next morning we prayed before we left the hotel and expected the best but it was not to be.  We hadn't even driven a mile when the the van stalled again.  My thoughts were like this:

    "Why didn't we get this fixed earlier so we could avoid being stranded and have to possibly stay another night (or more?) in a hotel?  What if we DO have to stay in Indy while we wait for some part to be ordered?  We've got to leave for a 3-week trip at the end of this week.  Is this delay going to mess us up? If we could somehow get home, there's no way our busy mechanic is going to be able get us road-ready in time."  

You can see where my faith was.  But I also resolved not to get upset and trust that God would take care of us if we rested in Him.  

I looked on my phone for a mechanic near us.  Safe Haven Auto Mechanic was the first name I saw and it was less than 2 miles from where we had pulled off the interstate.  I called him and he said he'd look at it at 1:00 if we'd come by then.  Well, it was only 10:30 but I suggested to Bobby that we drive to the place immediately and just make sure we could find it so as to waste no time later.  Bobby didn't stop with just finding it, he went inside.  When the mechanic learned we were already there, were from out of town and had children he dropped everything and got to work.  We mentioned getting a hotel and Dave quickly said there aren't any hotels around that he'd stay in.  It was pretty cold so he told us we could wait inside.  However, we weren't there 45 minutes and he had our van up and running again!  Bobby told me later that after telling Dave that we had prayed and that HE was an answer to our prayers, Bobby could tell the comment got to him.  He didn't see tears but he could tell it effected him.  As we drove off I told Bobby that had we tried to get home or had our van fixed at home earlier, we would've waited in line and been without our van for a couple of days.  The way it happened was perfect. We had our van fixed much quicker than expected and we were able to point a mechanic named Dave to Jesus.

 Tornado in Timbo

We travel nearly every weekend and I feel like there's very little blog-worthy events to write about.  However, the events on Sunday night, March 6 in Timbo (Leslie), Arkansas were a first for us.  We sang at the First Assembly of God of Timbo, which is 2 hours north of Little Rock at the southern end of the Ozarks.  The temperature reached a very humid 82 degrees.  Bobby and I were not aware of threatening weather but right before the service started several alarms went off on phones alerting people of severe weather. Around 6:15 a gentleman rose from his seat and quickly hurried to the exit.  He returned a minute later and whispered to the pastor who stopped the service when we'd finished a song. He told us there was a tornado warning and that there was a twister near Clinton, Arkansas which was 45 minutes southwest of where we were. We prayed, speaking to the storm, and continued singing.  About 10 minutes later the same gentleman hurried to the exit again and returned quickly to speak to the pastor.  They stopped the service again and updated us by saying the tornado was headed on a path between Timbo and Mountain View, which was where our hotel was, 30 minutes away.  The pastor strongly suggested that no one leave but insisted we were safest right where we were and I completely agreed with that.  However, when he suggested that if we needed to, we could take shelter under pews (which were bolted down) in the 400-seat sanctuary or in the baptistry, I disagreed, especially when it came to Grace's safety.  I laid my mic on the altar and took Grace out of the sanctuary to a Sunday school room.  Mark, the song/worship leader, followed me out and asked me if I'd like to take Grace to an adjacent room that had a closet under a stairwell.  Indeed, I would!  We wheeled Grace into the next room and I backed her into a closet.  He ran across the hall and grabbed a couple of comforters from the nursery and I asked him to grab the mattress in the crib.  As I was on my way back to Grace I asked another gentleman to get Grace and I a bottle of water.  At that point all was still quiet so Mark told me he'd stay with Grace if I wanted to return to the sanctuary.  I picked up my mic just as Bobby was about to get to the first chorus of "Land of the Free", and we finished the song as a trio.  The service was interrupted a third and final time, this time because the sheriff had stopped by to urge us to take cover.  The lights had already flickered a couple of times but immediately after stopping the service the last time, the lights went out.  We all made our way to our safety spots of choice, Justis following me.  Faith wasn't far behind and we talked in the closet as we waited for the storm to pass. 

At no point was I afraid.  There were no raised voices except for some women singing as they waited for the storm.  All was reasonably calm - even the storm.  Yet Justis told me later that he had been shaking and that he had prayed quietly, asking God to forgive him of any and all sin. He took it all pretty seriously and wanted to be sure that if something happened to him there'd be no doubt he'd go to Jesus.  

After the storm there were no lights, but there were sales!  People still came to the merchandise table while phone lights were held up.  And there was still food!  With a little light ahead of us we made our way to the fellowship hall and filled our bellies, eating and talking in the very dimly lit room. Everyone was satisfied except Grace.  There was no power to purée her food and so I prepared a to-go box and, fortunately, the electricity never went out in Mountain View.  We had lights and Grace had her puréed food in the hotel. (There had been a tree down on the way to our hotel but it was cleared by the time we left the church.)

There are many times that God spares us from accidents on the highway by delays in our schedule.  We've seen that happen many times and we often contemplate and question how often we are spared from things that we aren't even aware of. God has been very protective over the last 14 years, that's for certain.  Last Sunday night was an obvious reminder of His protection and care for us.

The concert on March 6 was cut short by a tornado and the concert scheduled for March 13, in Kentucky was canceled because of a snow storm.  It's ok!  We are happy to go to our home church for a change and we're all together, safe and warm.