The Bowen Arrows

2011-12-11T19:04:00.001-08:00

Christmas Concerts
Part 1: Ohio and Michigan

Bobby said he wanted to do Christmas concerts this year. The funny part of that is we had planned a year ago to set aside money for this December, and we did, but it was spent on that beast of a motor home sitting in our driveway. We made a decision to just take December off for this year since it was hard to book dates in December anyway and taking the month off would be good for us. However, because of the the motor home expenses Bobby changed his mind and booked dates by advertising Christmas concerts with the participation of the entire family. It went over pretty well and by mid November, he had 14 Christmas concerts booked! I thought it was ironic that last year I made plans for this year to work 11 months and take the last one off. Instead, I took 11 months off and am working the last month!

We took the songs from our Christmas CD and made out a program and assigned scripture for the kids to memorize to introduce a few of the songs and threw in something new...a skit! We sat around the kitchen table as a family and timed the whole thing, going over it a few times and we all agreed that by the time we did the last concert on December 18th, we'd finally be getting the hang of it.

It's gone well. We started the Sunday after Thanksgiving in Adger, Alabama and drove on to Carthage, Mississippi for the Sunday evening service. I had to get past myself in the first few concerts. Self-consciousness and all. The following weekend Bobby had a private Christmas party booked on Friday night, nothing on Saturday, a cowboy church on Sunday morning where they only wanted us to do 3 or 4 songs, and a family concert Sunday evening. The Sunday evening booking canceled and so Bobby decided to rent a car and just take Landis. I really wasn't disappointed in staying home with all the girls and Justis. We had a nice time at home even though it wasn't nearly as restful as my weekends with just Grace and Justis. I had a lot more schooling to do plus I had to keep track of Landis getting his work done out there on the road. Not to mention all the work that children are at home. Don't get me wrong, it's good work. I'd much rather have them here and causing me work than for them to not be around. But it is funny how when Bobby and 1 child are gone I tend to think there's no need for me to cook dinner and that I'll be having a mini vacation. Hello! I still have four children I'm responsible for! When Bobby and the 3 children leave for a trip, the house usually needs a lot of picking up but by the time they get home on Monday, I've had time to pick everything up, catch up on all laundry, and clean a closet or sew or bake something. Not so with most of the children home, but still, I was very glad to be at home.

It wasn't until Monday, the 5th, as we were awaiting the arrival of Bobby and Landis from Texas that I realized that we'd be leaving that coming Friday and would be gone nearly 2 weeks. I had to let that sink in a little as I'm not used to being gone that long lately.

On Tuesday, we had no home school as we were gone all day long doing Christmas concerts. One at 11:00 at Crossroads Baptist Church in Greenbrier and Tuesday evening at Life Assembly in Mount Juliet, where my sister, Mary, joined us, contributing her humor and clever writing. There were meals provided at both places so we ended leaving the house at 9:00 that morning, coming home at 3:00 to make a couple of wardrobe changes including changing Grace's diaper and leaving again at 3:30 to be gone until 10:00! Long day.

We headed out Friday morning, the 9th, about 1 hour after the planned departure time. However, my husband, who chides me about "always" having to wait on me was just as busy as me with his running around and getting that one last item or making sure something was tightened or turned off...something he doesn't have to worry about if I stay home. We drove to Columbus, Ohio and made it in time for the 5:30 Kickback at the Drury. Bobby had reserved a two-room suite at my favorite hotel chain for the second time in two weeks. I teased him that he's trying to romance me back to being on the road. On Saturday morning we drove the remainder of the trip to Cleveland and checked into the Hilton Garden where we had adjoining rooms. We sang that evening at Willoughby Baptist Church. Bobby and the kids had just been there in August but he was successful in booking a Christmas concert.

The kids can't get around doing school on the road.

Glenda was such a blessing. She booked the concert, arranged for the great hotel rooms and brought Chik-fil-A nuggets, slaw, waffle fries and brownies for us for dinner in the church fellowship hall! Mmmmm. Our concert had improved much since the previous Tuesday and the folks seemed to enjoy it.

We didn't get much sleep because of Justis waking up at 4:20 Sunday morning. Was I ever thankful for having two rooms as I closed the door to the girls' room so Grace wouldn't be awakened. I was up with Justis for an hour and then dozed off and on until my alarm went off at 6:00. We were able to get everyone up and ready by 7:00 in order to enjoy a long and leisure breakfast bar in the hotel restaurant. From Cleveland we drove east about 90 minutes to a little Methodist church near Jefferson, Ohio. The pastor there was older but very young at heart with a desire to minister to the children. They were advertising "Breakfast With Santa" and provided breakfast as well as clay gingerbread men for the children to paint. And although he didn't preach Sunday morning, he still had a mini sermon for the children at the front of the sanctuary before we sang.

Again, the Christmas concert improved but I started hearing regular reports of the short blonde to my left. Faith was beginning to steal the entire show with her lip syncing of every song, yawns, leg-crossings, animated faces and various and peculiar facial expressions she would use in response to mine or Bobby's singing.

We enjoyed a delicious meal with our friend, Connie Smith in her home as she graciously received us and allowed us to just watch the football game and rest. She outdid herself with the rigatoni, garlic bread, salad and pumpkin roll. What a nice autumn comfort meal.

The Sunday evening concert was another visit to Pastor Bob Terasiak's church, Family Fellowship Church in Conneaut. You can actually see Lake Erie from the church - I love it. I enjoy going to Conneaut because of it's unique personality and beauty. We love being able to befriend some folks over the years and Pastor Bob and Sister Marianna are two people we look forward to seeing.

Again the concert went even better than the last one and again, I heard a few reports of our drama queen but a surprise was after Pastor Bob introduced Justis, who was sitting next to Grace in his stroller, I had to ask our friend Connie to take Justis and change his diaper because I could tell by his face that he had just pooped. I knew there was no way that poop would all stay in his diaper if too much time elapsed. So I had to tell Connie from the stage right there in front of God and everybody that Justis had serious troubles in his diaper and would she please take him out to change?

The folks at Family Fellowship brought in some great snacks for after church and we filled up before driving two hours to Milan to our not-so-favorite hotel chain, Super 8! The nice thing about this place was it was yet another two-room suite with no less than three double beds! It was very basic yet clean. The kids did see a couple of lady bugs though. We got to sleep in a little bit, enjoy a more simple breakfast, and then hit the Ohio Turnpike, headed west toward my Dad's home in Burr Oak, Michigan.

2011-11-21T06:10:00.000-08:00

No Sense Crying Over No Sleep

Monday/Tuesday, November 14 & 15, 2011

It's been a tight season, financially speaking and I have had to keep putting off buying the "supplies" I needed for the upcoming long trip that Bobby and the kids would take when I would be left at home to paint the living room and bake ahead for Christmas. Finally, on Monday, the 14th, I saw an opportunity (my last one) to go to the store. I proposed to Bobby that after our company left Monday evening, I would pack the kids clothes, prepare their school lessons, cut coupons and prepare my grocery lists which would all cause me to go to bed very late and then rise as early as necessary to get to Wal Mart and Publix and be back home no later than 9:00 to get him to the airport by 10:00 so that he could pick up his rental car at the airport and they could be on their way to Oklahoma. He wasn't fond of the idea because he knows me and was afraid I would run late which would cause him to be late which meant he would have to choose from leftovers at the car rental place. I reminded him that I hadn't been able to get to the store before now because of not having the extra money and that there was no way I could go and get the things I needed once they left. I CAN push the wheelchair and pull Justis in the cart through Wal Mart but I can't get a cart-full of groceries at the same time. I'm not THAT good. He gave permission and after the company left Monday night, I dug in with packing clothes, preparing lessons, etc. I didn't get to bed until 3:45. Actually, I didn't go to bed. I kept my clothes on, my contacts in, my makeup on and laid on the recliner for an hour and a half. Rising at 5:15 I put my shoes on, made sure I had my wits about me and my purse before leaving the house and drove off in the dark of the night to Wal Mart.

I LOVE going to Wal Mart at that hour. I was the only customer. I was a dizzy, sleepy customer but I was alone with all the cleaning, straightening, organizing employees. On the way to the store I realized I wasn't going to be able to buy any paint as there wouldn't be anyone at the paint desk to mix it for me at that early hour.

"Oh well," I thought, "I'll get everything else I need and worry about the actual paint later."

I grabbed a biscuit at Hardees before driving to Publix which opens at 7:00. Again, I enjoyed being one of only a handful of customers as the store employees hustled and bustled around me saying "Good morning!" By the way, I spent $87.10 and saved over $62 after all the buy-one-get-one deals, other sales, and coupons! My cart was nearly full and I always compare to Wal Mart, thinking that if my cart looked like that at Wal Mart my bill would be well over $150. Ha! Which, I just realized, is what my spending plus my savings was at Publix!

It was raining so I was hurrying but trying to be careful and made it home by 9:00! I walked in damp, sleepy, and my arms loaded down with grocery sacks only to hear my husband say, "I think I'll just wait until tomorrow to leave."

I hung my head and all kinds of thoughts ran through my mind very quickly, like, "REALLY!?!" and, "Ha ha! For a minute there I thought you said you were going to wait until tomorrow to leave," and "What is WRONG with you?" and "That's a low blow!" and, "I can't believe you just said that!!!" Nah, I didn't even consider back-handing him like one friend asked me later. I hung my head down and didn't say anything for a second and then said, "I should have seen this coming." My husband changes his mind more than any woman I know.

Getting upset about the whole thing really wouldn't make much difference in his decision. I didn't blame him for not wanting to drive in the rain. They had time to leave at 4:00 the next morning and still make it to Moore, Oklahoma in time to sing.

And that's what they did. But you know, it was still raining. I had an uneasy or unsettled feeling when they left and let's just be real. Whenever you say goodbye to your family when they get in a car there's always the thought waaaay in the back of your mind that it could be the last time you see them. That thought was pushed aside and I prayed with faith for them as I laid back down to sleep after they left, knowing that staying awake and "thinking" about them would do no good.

Bobby called me at 7:20 to say they were still 30 miles EAST of Jackson sitting still on the Interstate and had been there since before 6:00! A cattle truck had turned over and there were dead cows everywhere! He said the first thing that happened was the trucks in front of him tapped their breaks, then slowed down. If he hadn't slowed down it could have been so much worse because he said about 10 cows came running toward him. He slammed on his brakes and swerved a few times missing them all. The trucks in front of him turned their flashers on and then finally everyone came to a complete stop.

We kept talking to each other over the next few hours and he watched as the arrival time on his GPS got later and later. He got in touch with the pastor from Highland Baptist Church and told him of his predicament.

By 9:30 I began to lose hope that they would make it to Moore in time to sing but at 9:45 Bobby called me and said they were moving again and he intended to stop only once and do some speeding. They did stop only the one time, 10 minutes to fuel up and use the bathroom. They made it to the church before 6:00 - plenty of time to set up and change clothes. The funny thing was Bobby, who normally showers before getting in the car, chose not to shower that morning - I think because he knew it was raining and he knew it would mess up his hair. So he had to wash his hair in the sink and put on a little extra cologne.

Like Bobby said, "It was only by the grace of God that (he) didn't hit one of those cows." God is faithful. Now...if Bobby would have just left when he had originally planned...then again...God might not have had the opportunity to show Himself like He did this way.

2011-09-25T21:19:00.001-07:00

September 25, 2011

Honor's Reward

Another weekend at home with Grace and Justis. Another weekend with Bobby and the 3 middle children traveling and making music. I'm focused on being content with how things are right now. I really do enjoy being at home this year. I know that if and when I go back out there with Bobby that I will look back at my productive Saturdays and my restful Sunday afternoons with fondness. I am content but at the same time I miss my family and really would like to be out there with them. Looking back at last year I realize now that I was headed toward burnout. I was pregnant and emotional and then caring for Grace on the road was getting more and more difficult.

Speaking of Grace, it's her birthday tomorrow. I can NOT believe she'll be 13! I never dreamed 13 years ago that I'd still be changing her diapers and spoon-feeding her. These things weren't in my plans nor are they God's plans for her life...or mine. The Saturday before Labor Day I went to get Grace dressed for the day and, just in case you ever wondered, no, there's never a day goes by that I don't think about her healing. And just so you know what I think about that. I think...no, I KNOW, that God gave her her healing and we've received it. I rest in that and am totally confident in it. But it dawned on me this particular day to ask God what it was that was keeping that healing from manifesting. What is going on in the spiritual realm that is hindering this thing from happening?

That evening we all went to church. Bobby and the kids were singing about an hour west of Nashville the next morning so we could all go to Cornerstone together Saturday night. Guest speaker, John Bevere was preaching about honor. I had a question that morning about what was hindering Grace's healing and decided I should pray about what that was and that same day I felt like God was already revealing to me the answer to my question. Bobby bought the book for me and the CD set for himself so he could listen to it while driving.

Let me explain the connection between honor and Grace's healing. Mark 6:5 says that, "...He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them." He COULD NOT do mighty miracles. Why? Verse 4 explains. "...Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives and in his own house." The people around Him were familiar with Him. They'd watched Him grow up. They did not honor Him as someone great.

I saw the parallel in my own life as I listened to the sermon Saturday night. I didn't honor my husband. God's hands were tied.

The next morning, Grace and I watched John Bevere's message again, via the Internet. This was heavy to me as I began to realize the serious consequences of my attitude toward my husband.

Monday came and went and I never spoke with Bobby about this issue. Tuesday was no different. There was one thing different on Tuesday, however. I began to feel ill. The later the hour the sicker I began to feel. Not nauseous. Just heavy, sad, depressed, oppressed, bleak. It got worse until I went to bed thinking that maybe I just needed to sleep.

Wednesday morning I awoke and realized I still felt the same. I went to a nearby green-way and walked alone. Suddenly I realized what was going on. I felt terrible because I was under some heavy conviction. At least when I realized what was happening to me I felt a little bit better because I knew. But it wasn't until Thursday night after the kids were in bed that I had the opportunity to finally talk with Bobby.

I didn't stumble with my words, I didn't cry. I just told him that I was wrong and that I was very, very sorry. But I knew and even told him that this was only the beginning of my transformation. The longer something yucky like this has had it's claws in you, (years!) the deeper those claws have dug and it's gonna take some washing of my mind with the Word of God, and more time in the presence of Jesus to fix me.

I'm putting something out here for the whole world to see. I wasn't going to. I don't want to. But it's needful. I'm a work in progress as we all are and part of progressing is to be honest and admit my faults.

"...being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ..." Phillipians 1:6

2011-09-06T20:35:00.000-07:00

I've always been thankful for Eph 5:19 for Grace's sake. However, I think most of the time we're not supposed to keep silent in our praises (or the rocks will cry out) because it does something for us as well as the One we're praising. (Works the same way with our human relationships too) That's why I can go to church feeling terrible and leave feeling great. I'm needing to do that right now. Praise, that is...or just go to bed. Maybe both. It's been a long hard day...just like yesterday and the day before that and the day before that. The baby's crying every night and Grace is a drool factory as she is congested and has a canker sore. Yep sounds like I need to do the difficult and praise. I'll let ya know how that works.

2011-08-05T21:36:00.000-07:00

HOPE

Our daughter, Hope, just got back from Kid's Camp a couple of weeks ago. She was so excited because she won a Game Cube...whatever that is. She's been so busy since she got home that she's not even asked to get it out of the box and hooked up. I hope that doesn't sound like she's unappreciative. Like I said, she's very excited about winning this thing. I know as the school year gets underway, the days get cooler and shorter and the rain starts to fall, we'll get it out and hook it up. And then there will be time restrictions for such a toy. We've never purchased electronic games for our kids until Christmas of 2009, when Bobby got them a Wii. They have had a lot of fun with their Wii but WE don't play the Wii unless it's dark, or raining, or work is complete, or snowing, or vacation...or we have company and want to entertain. This past Christmas we bought our youngest daughter, Faith, a Leapster specifically for something to do while sitting hours upon end in a car every weekend. In this case I think an electronic game is justified. So...how did Hope win the Game Cube? She was nice.

I still don't know all that was involved but I was beginning to think that if someone accused Pastor Joe (our childrens' pastor) of having a favorite, I would agree with them. He's always been partial to Hope, and rightly so, in my very biased opinion. When she was only a toddler, she spent the night with Joe & his wife, Kelli, who told us the next day that Joe kept waking every couple of hours to tiptoe out to their living room to peek at Hope who was sleeping on the couch and making sure she was ok. When Pastor Joe learned that Hope was going to be baptized, he told me that he wanted to do the dunking. And then the sweetest part of the story is when, last year at Kid's Camp, Hope received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Pastor Joe was the one laying hands on her and he began to cry.

But what happened at Kid's Camp wasn't about having a favorite. I just learned this past Wednesday that the camp staff voted for the child they thought should win the game. Hope got 4 votes, which I guess, was the most. Why did she get the votes? I think it was because she reached out to other campers and was kind to everyone...not just her closest friends. Am I proud of her? Absolutely! But do you know what? God puts that kind of thoughtfulness and kindness in people. None of us are that way naturally, unless, of course, you're a Disney princess. I see Hope at home with older brother, Landis, and younger sis, Faith. I see Hope every day and I know her ugly side (just as she knows mine). I just want to take a second to praise Jesus for what He does in our lives to make us more like Him. On our own, even our very best is not good enough. It's only His goodness in us that makes us anything at all.

2011-06-19T21:03:00.000-07:00

To blog about the birth of our fifth child, Justis, in March, I've copied parts of my husbands' newsletter and added some things from my own perspective.

"An On Time God!

As I sit here and think of all the things I want to say in this newsletter all I can think about is what an awesome God we serve! He is always on time and is always in control.

I wanted to tell you what he has done in The Bowen Family's lives.

Back in August of last year (2010) Becky came to me and told me she thought she might be pregnant. To be honest with you I really hoped she wasn't. We were traveling and ministering in churches as a family for the last three years and things were going really good for us. I started thinking, how will we travel? What will we travel in? It's going to be even more tough to travel with five kids.

After a pregnancy test that showed negative I was relieved. Then a month later Becky told me that something wasn't right. She said she felt like something was growing in her stomach and if it wasn't a baby then what could it be?

She took another test and again it showed negative. She began to get concerned even more because 9 1/2 years ago her mother died of cancer, so Becky thought it might be a cyst or a tumor that was growing inside of her.

I told her I was praying and believing that it wasn't cancer and nothing was going to harm her. I told her to go get an ultrasound just to see what was growing in her stomach. She made an appointment and took our son, Landis with her. She didn't tell him what she was going to get checked out for other than just a check up. She had him stay in the other room because she wanted to speak freely with the doctor and not worry Landis.

Becky told the doctor her concerns and he said 'well, let's just have a look.' Just like looking away from the needle going into your arm makes it hurt less, Becky looked away from the monitor so she wouldn't see the mass in her abdomen. But on second thought she decided that it was best to face her fears and deal with whatever it was that she was about to fight and just as she turned toward the monitor she saw an oval with what looked like a little backbone trailing away from it. At the same moment the doctor announced she was carrying a baby and the whole moment was so overwhelming she said she felt dizzy.

Becky said she just about fell off the table. She said "are you sure" and he said "yes can't you see the spine"? And right away he asked if I'd like to know the sex of the baby. Of course she wanted to know and was so excited to be told it was a BOY!

They called Landis back into the room and Becky asked him what it looked like on the monitor but Landis said he didn't know.

She said "take a closer look" and then, very cautiously he asked, "a baby?" After his suspicions were confirmed he pumped his fists and with a super wide grin he said, "YES!"

Landis was so excited to be getting a baby brother. He later said he had been praying for years to have a baby brother but then gave up because he thought it wasn't going to happen.

We actually found out she was going to have our baby boy when she was 17 1/2 weeks into it.

We are so thankful to God for his blessings of children. The Bible says blessed is the man who's quiver is full!

The Lord knew that I needed a bass player!

Getting close to the due date I was scheduled to be gone for 21 days ministering in West Texas, Western Oklahoma and New Mexico. I canceled a couple of the first churches thinking the baby would be born soon. He didn't show up so on Saturday, March 5th, Landis, Hope, Faith and I left for Snyder, Texas leaving a very pregnant, very tearful Becky standing in the driveway in the pouring rain to be gone for 17 days with the due date right in the middle of that trip. Now, you'd think (as we did) that the 5th baby would come a little early, especially after the 4th baby came 2 weeks early!

We spent a lot of time on Skype during that trip and every night when Becky went to bed she set her webcam up so that when she went into labor, it would be ready to go and she could give us a call (after she called the midwife) and tell me "it's time!"

Now, when I left in on the 5th, I told Becky that the baby would wait to come until after we'd returned home. However, we both knew the chances of that happening were pretty slim.

So on Monday morning, March 21 we headed out from Amarillo with 965 miles between us and home. We anved at home at 10:45 PM Monday night and at 12:45 AM the contractions began. At 2:52 AM Justis Loy Bowen was born! See what I mean about God's timing?

We want to say thank you for your prayers and support of our family and our ministry. We couldn't do what we do without your prayers and financial support.

A lot of people have asked me if we needed anything. The only thing we need is diapers!

We have had several people send us a gift card from Walmart and other stores that sell diapers so we can go and buy them here in town. That would be awesome if you wanted to do something like that. God bless you for it.

As I close I ask you to continue to pray for The Bowen Family. We realize that time is running short. Jesus is coming soon! We all need to go tell people about Him and his saving grace.

Also please check out our schedule and if we are within driving distance of you please come see us. We'd love to see you!

One more thing, We have a new look to our website http://www.bobbybowen.com/

Blessings,

Bobby Bowen & Family

2011-06-03T13:24:00.000-07:00

Maternity Leave

January and February 2010

Although I've been very quiet on this site, I've been very busy at home. In January we began a new trend...Mama stays home. Mama liked it very much. I needed a break physically as well as emotionally and mentally. I was nearing the 30 week point of my pregnancy and my midwife recommended I get off the road. So every weekend Grace and I would say goodbye to Bobby and the other children and they'd leave us. A couple of those times they were gone for 4 days, usually it was 3 days, and occasionally it was only 1 day.

Since Grace and I were going to be regular church attenders again, I asked Mr. Pat Johnson when he'd like us to attend. I knew he and his wife went to church on Saturday nights and that would have been my first choice too but because I knew his wife, Mary, might not appreciate Mr. Pat leaving him for a younger woman (Grace, that is) I decided to let him tell me when he'd rather we'd come since he tended to Grace during church. Mr. Pat preferred that we come on Sunday morning and so that is what we did and I was happy to do so when I considered that it would put me back in touch with my Sunday School class.

Grace LOVED going to church again and instead of crying when Bobby and the kids hit the road every weekend, she was GLAD. I have to admit I was surprised, knowing how much she loves to go places. But thinking it through I realized she enjoyed the fact that I was speaking to her a WHOLE lot more since she was the only other person there to speak to. I gave her choices of two when it came to what to eat, what to do next, which clothes to wear, and which show to watch. She also enjoyed the fact that she got to watch a whole lot more television. So when we asked her if she was ready for Daddy and the kids to leave again she smiled and screamed her happy scream.

I got so much sewing done on those weekends. I loved it. I made progress. I also read to Grace quite a bit and...blogged? Not so much. I decided I couldn't sew and blog at the same time so I decided that sewing would be pre-baby and blogging would be done post-baby.

My due date was March 13. However, I'd asked God to call this baby out a couple of weeks early because Bobby and the kids were going to be gone a lot in March. I walked and walked and walked and walked but even walking 2 or 3 times a day didn't cause our baby to come...when we wanted him to.

In the meantime Bobby and the kids were going out and ministering and having a good time...most of the time. One of my main concerns about them going out without me was Faith's safety. She's not afraid of anything and is very curious, to put it nicely. Not only would the children be on their own the hour before the concert, helping Bobby with set-up and making sure their hair was combed, etc., but they had to be still on the front row without Mom during church and oh, what about after the service when Bobby was greeting people and then tearing down his stuff? Faith likes to run off and explore the church. I begged Bobby please find the pastor's wife or some lady that might keep Faith under a watchful eye until Bobby is ready to leave the church. I could see that wasn't going to work as I'd hoped and so I knew that I had to leave it with the Father and trust Him with my family. I felt bad for Bobby but had to laugh at him as he had more responsibility on him than ever with leading the service as well as looking after the children. When they returned home from their first weekend without Grace and he said, "It was mentally exhausting for me just to make sure everyone changed their underwear and brushed their teeth!" Classic.

2011-05-03T19:28:00.000-07:00

December 2010

We were able to attend Cornerstone on Saturday night, the fourth of December and then drive to Lyles, Tennessee to sing on Sunday morning. We always have baptisms on the first weekend of each month but I hadn't put everything together in my mind that Faith was a candidate for baptism now and she'd be there to get baptized. So when Pastor invited people up who were ready to be baptized I looked at Bobby and asked him what he thought about going to get Faith. Pastor always reminds us that the Bible tells us that the eunuch, after he'd heard the Gospel and understood the command to be baptized, obeyed that command as soon as the opportunity presented itself. He didn't wait for his family to get there to see him get baptized. Nor did he wait until an artist was available to capture the moment in a painting. The Bible just tells us to be baptized. Since we're rarely there for any weekend service let alone a baptism weekend, we decided to get Faith. I talked to the children's pastor first and he was all for it. Faith was all for it but kept asking questions. I tried to explain to her what we were doing and I believe she got it. For those of you reading this and feeling concern for the lack of discipleship, don't worry, the children's pastor gave us a packet that night of devotionals for Faith and I to work on together over several week's time to help her better understand what baptism was and what it meant. Fortunately, a there was another mom with her camera and she took a couple of pictures of Faith for me. I wish a picture could have been taken of Faith's feet as they were straight up in the air when her head was dunked under. So cute.

Mr. Pat Johnson joined us in Lyles at Wrigley Church of God of Prophecy the next morning and we had a great service there and we were able to spend our Sunday evening at home. Well, kinda of. We did go to Bethel to see the Christmas Program put on by Faith and her fellow Parents' Day Out classmates at Bethel Baptist Church that evening. She was one of the millions of angels...and a very adorable angel she was.

The following weekend we drove to Michigan. Dad's friend, Joann, invited us (Dad too) to stay at her home on Cory Lake west of Three Rivers. Joann has a beautiful home with a finished basement. We were able to have our own apartment, and a large one at that. We had a stocked kitchen, living room, pool table, 2 bedrooms and a large bath! Not to mention a beautiful view of the lake.

Joann's house before ...

...and after.

We arrived on Friday evening and again, enjoyed playing Farkle with Dad and Joann. And then on Saturday we joined my mother's family for a Christmas gathering in the fellowship hall of a local church. It's hard to believe there's 100 of us now!

On Sunday morning a winter storm was starting to blow in although the brunt of it had not arrived yet. A snowstorm is usually worse as you drive west toward Lake Michigan because of the lake effect but it turned out that they hadn't received much snow in Coloma where we sang Sunday morning at Lake Michigan Beach Community Church. It was a tiny little church and the room was full. After church my kids made a bee line for the snow as to get as much play in as they could. The snow we get in Tennessee is usually very dry and powdery; Michigan snow is much more conducive for building snowmen!

On our way back to Joann's house, it began snowing heavily and blowing. Bobby and I mentioned to each other that it would be nice to go back to Joann's and just stay there the rest of the day where it was warm and dry instead of getting out again in a couple of hours to go sing again. Well, that's what we did as my Uncle Moe Troyer spoke with Bobby on the phone as soon as we got back to the house and they agreed that the evening service should be canceled. So it was an evening of Farkle, movies and chili as the wind blew the snow around outside.

Bobby would have been fine with sitting still on Monday and letting the snow melt just a little but I was pushing to get home. Oh, it was pleasant where we were but I like being home these days and since the sun was shining outside, I didn't see any need to sit around and do nothing. It was soooo cold but my dad got the driveway cleared for us and we finally got ourselves packed and on the road home.

And finally, our last ministry weekend of 2010 was in Arkansas. We drove to Texarkana on Friday or Saturday, the 17th or 18th, and on Sunday morning the 19th, we got in the van and set out for White Hall which was about a 2-hour drive from Bob and Tena's home. However, we had just started out on I-30 when we thought the van was making a strange noise so we turned around and went back to Bob and Tena's. Grace and I stayed there while Bobby and the other 3 children borrowed Bob and Tena's car and left again. The van only had to go 1 block to take Grace and I and Papaw and Mamaw to church. It was a quiet and long afternoon as we waited for Bobby and the kids to return but once they did we only had a short while until we had to be at Rhema Baptist Church for our Christmas concert. Brother Jesse and the folks at Rhema feel like family to us and of course, there was family present. Bob and Tena, Bobby's sister, Judy, her son, Aaron and his son, Layne. I love it when they come and join us and, of course when you're with friends and family, you have to eat! So we enjoyed a lot of good food in the fellowship hall after the service.

It was back to Nashville on Monday where we began getting ready for Christmas!!!

2011-04-23T15:15:00.000-07:00

It's Been A While

As you well know I'm way behind in my postings and the post written just prior to this one was written on December 18th, the events written about occurring in early November. December 20th was my last travel day as we were taking off for Christmas as a family and then I was planning to stay at home for several weeks, taking maternity leave and keeping Grace with me. My plans were to sew in January and the first half of February, have a baby at the end of February, and then do some catching up on my blog while re-cooperating after the baby. Although I did pretty good (good compared to how I behaved after previous births) about sitting still and resting, I found I was very busy whether it was because of visitors, feeding/changing baby Justis, or just being "mom" from my recliner. Obviously I did no blogging until now...the first week of May. I never would have imagined I'd wait this long. So, rather than try to remember details of trips, people and experiences from 5 months ago, I will summarize and consider myself caught up!

Our November tour to North and South Carolina was a busy one...and a tough one. We left on Saturday, November 6, and sang Sunday morning in Easley, South Carolina and Lincolnton, North Carolina, both return visits. This was our third visit to Lincolnton and this time, Pastor Joey Williams greeted us from the doors of his new facility...a former sock factory. By the way, no one got my joke using the word, "darn." Guess I'm getting old. Talk about space. This new building is and will be GREAT for this growing and excited church, Daystar Family Worship Center.

I mentioned the tour was a tough one. It was tough concerning our marriage. I'm sure we grew through the tough time, or rather, because of it, but it was probably the worst time on the road that we've had yet, at least it was for me. It was also the first tour we'd done with me being pregnant. What does that tell ya? It got stressful enough that when we landed in Clinton, North Carolina on Wednesday afternoon, our friend, Pastor Rodney Hall sensed the tension immediately when he met us in our hotel lobby. I thought I was hiding everything pretty good but he told Bobby later that evening, after asking him if he could get personal with him, that he said he could have cut the tension with a knife. Yikes!

We ministered (I hope) at a cowboy church in Greensboro, North Carolina the next night, Dunn, on Saturday night (return visit to Pastor Doug Howard's church), and Sumter on Sunday morning. We finished up this Carolina tour at Christian Fellowship Assembly of God in Hartsville, South Carolina where we met some of the most precious saints yet. Sister Gloria Joye Bowman and her husband pastor this congregation and we had a great time at their homecoming, Sunday afternoon, November 14. They were finishing up their fellowship meal when we arrived and when I got ready to feed Grace, Sister Joye insisted that I let her do the feeding. She spoke a little Spanish to Grace and immediately became her friend. Sister Joye and Grace took to each other pretty quickly and that's always comforting to me.

Because it was an afternoon service we were able to drive a while, stopping in Asheville for the night and then coming home mid-afternoon on Monday. My dad and his friend, Joann Riley were waiting for us when we walked into the house. They'd been staying at Kris and Mary's since Saturday and were going to be visiting for a week. They came to see us Monday evening because that was the only time we were going to get to spend with them as we were leaving for Oklahoma the next morning. We did a lot of laughing after a good dinner together, playing several rounds of Farkle.

Only that one night at home and we were leaving again the next morning. This time westward to Moore, Oklahoma where we sang for the Wednesday night service at Highland Baptist Church. Dave Evans is the pastor of this young and energetic body. We had a great night celebrating Jesus.

The following night we made our fourth visit to Chisholm Trail Cowboy Church in Enid, Oklahoma. We love Pastor Dan O'Daniel and appreciate his graciousness to us and his devotion to Jesus Christ.

We made our way down to Forth Worth. Colleyville, to be exact, to stay with Bobby's younger sister, Anita. This time we were privileged to meet her friend, David, who joined us for dinner at Texan Station at the Gaylord Texan and then he treated us to ICE! featuring Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts gang. It was "cool!"

Our service on Sunday morning was at probably one of the most raw and rustic places we've ever been. We left Fort Worth early and drove 72 miles north to Prairie Point, Texas where our GPS took us to a grassy/muddy lot out in the boonies. We pulled our van and trailer in to the middle of the field and parked next to the 40x30 metal building and waited for someone to show up. Now, I don't want to be misunderstood. We LOVED the folks! And we appreciate rustic and raw. But when you write a blog and you want to be honest so I was a little miserable with my open-toed shoes on that dirt floor. That was my fault. I should have worn appropriate clothing to cowboy church...like cowboy boots. Hope got poison ivy and the floor in the van was covered with little sticker balls from the sweet gum trees so we kept getting poked the rest of the afternoon until we had them all picked out of the carpet.

They had a turkey shoot after church, as well as horse riding and other fun. Even Grace got to shoot the gun, a first for her. The kids had a blast and weren't ready to leave but we had to move north to Calera, Oklahoma for the evening service.

We arrived early and had time to just sit so Bobby and I took advantage of the quiet time and were able to talk and work through some of the issues that had been a problem a couple of weeks earlier on the Carolina trip.

For the past several years we've been spending the week of Thanksgiving in Texarkana at Bobby's parent's house. We did that again this year and celebrated Thanksgiving with family that we rarely get to see. Brother and sister, Josh and Merranda, our nephew and niece, and Josh's son, Isaac were able to join us.

We sang in Greenville, Texas the Sunday morning after Thanksgiving and then headed home. We hadn't reached Texarkana yet when Hope announced to the rest of us that she had just led Faith in a prayer asking Jesus to come into her heart! There in the back of the van, the two had been sitting quietly talking for several minutes while the rest of us were talking in the front! As the kids were going to sleep later that night somewhere between Memphis and home, I sat in my seat thanking God that all of the children have given their heart to Him.

2010-12-18T16:18:00.000-08:00

A Motor Home

November 5, 2010

Because our trusty Ford with its 233,000 miles was beginning to suggest that it wanted to retire from the road, we were forced to look into our options of transportation. We knew we needed a motor home and maybe now was the right time to look for one. Bobby began shopping on-line and found a Winnebago diesel with less than 100,000 miles in Wabash, Indiana. He made an offer which was counter-offered and after Bobby spoke with the seller he told me he and a friend would drive up to Wabash on Friday to look at it before handing them a check. I was kind of excited about sending Landis and Hope with their daddy and having a quiet house with Grace and Faith and getting a lot done that day. However, the friend couldn't go after all and Bobby insisted that I go instead, saying that it was better that I go and look at it with him anyway. Oh, how I didn't want to go. Oh, how I had so much to do and if I were to drive all day to north central Indiana and back that it would put me so absolutely far behind on my painting and packing and preparing to be gone for most of the month. But I knew he was right and that I really needed to go.

We got going fairly early that morning and found the place with ease. The motor home was in rather rough shape on the inside and by taking a good look I decided the previous owners were parents of small children who were not made to mind. There was everything from crumbs to quarters to matchbox cars in corners and behind things, not to mention lots of stains. The carpet in the kitchen area had been cut out and replaced with linoleum so evidently the carpet had been pretty messed up in that area. Blinds were missing, the visors were missing, the queen bed in the back had stains all over the mattress, the door fronts in the kitchen were dirty and grimy and the kitchen drawers were off their tracks. I stood there in the middle of the thing looking around and imagining myself moving in and it disgusted me. Finally, after a meal down the street and thinking things through, it came down to decision-making time. When Bobby asked me what I thought I told him that I thought the deal was a good one considering the mechanics, the price, the diesel and the low mileage. But considering the interior I could not picture myself moving into someone else's dirt and grime. I knew that if we bought it that day Bobby would want to drive it home and load it up for the following day as we set out to North and South Carolina for a week. So I told Bobby that I would compromise with him. I liked the idea of buying it but waiting to use it until it was cleaned up and remodeled. He was a little disappointed about not getting to play with his new toy right away but he understood and agreed.

I will say there's one feature that I love about the motor home and that is the large bathroom. It's not an enclosed bathroom with a hallway passing outside of it. Instead, you have to pass through the bathroom in order to get to the back room. Maybe that's not the most convenient situation 100 percent of the time but when it comes to getting ready for church in a small bathroom, being able to shut off the entire back half of the motor home and have all that room is definitely a plus in my book.

Grace, Faith and I drove the van home and the motor home carried Bobby, Landis and Hope. Bobby and I started talking on the phone that evening of the ideas we had and he suggested that we just gut the back bedroom, taking the bed out and put 2 bunks on either side. The more I thought about that I realized what a great solution that would be for Grace when it came to getting out of her chair and stretching out in a place that was safe as long as we had a rail or gate across the opening of her bunk. It may also solve the problem we have with Grace in hotel rooms. She falls off the bed easily unless she's watched closely, she kicks the wall, and sometimes she screams out of dissatisfaction, unhappiness or anger. If we could put her in HER very own bunk, equipped with speakers to pipe in some soothing music and maybe some colorful tracking lights for her enjoyment, the whole world would be a better place each and every night we're on the road.

The girls and I made it home a little after 11:00 with the motor home easing its way into the driveway a few minutes later while I was getting the girls ready for bed. A long day, a late night, painting and packing not finished, and a very tired woman trying not to get discouraged. I went to sleep quickly counting my blessings.

2010-12-18T11:32:00.000-08:00

Shippensburg and Jane Lew

October 31, 2010

Because of the little hesitation Bobby noticed in the van as it approached New York City the week before, he decided to rent a mini van again and have us all pile in. Even though the van ran great all the way back home from New York, he decided he didn't want to make it work so hard pulling the trailer through those West Virginia hills. I figured it was probably a good idea except that we disliked the lack of space.

We arrived at our hotel Saturday night in Shippensburg and found out we were booked in a room upstairs and the hotel had no elevator. This has happened probably a half dozen other times. Bobby checked to see if we could move to a first floor room but the hotel was booked full so we opted to get Grace out of her chair and Bobby carried her upstairs while I took the wheelchair to the front desk and asked if they could guard it for the night. They agreed and I ran off to bed.

Pastor Dan Cluck met us at the front doors of the church and while he helped us unload the mini van, Bobby quickly explained that we don't normally travel in such a small vehicle and that our big van was taking a break this weekend.

We enjoyed a great service and at the close, Pastor Dan asked us our family to move to the center of the sanctuary while his congregation surrounded us to pray for us. Pastor Dan and this group of believers were a huge blessing to us not only because of their prayers for us but when we drove away Bobby told me that Pastor Dan had written a second check from the church in addition to the original love offering and for nearly the same amount as the original!! And I shouldn't neglect to tell of the lady who blessed me with the “pentecostal handshake.” She reached out to shake my hand after church and put a $50 bill in my hand and simply said, “lunch!”

A quick lunch was what we had to do as we were due to arrive in Jane Lew, West Virginia a few hours later. We arrived at Broad Run Baptist Church in Jane Lew in plenty of time and our friends, Brother and Sister Godfrey helped us get in and even supplied that children with some yummy snacks from the kitchen. Bobby and the children practiced some of their Christmas songs since we had a little extra time.

It was an enjoyable concert, as the room was nearly full and we sang and spoke of Jesus on Halloween as well as sang about 4 Christmas songs.

Afterward, we enjoyed some soup at a family restaurant before retiring in our hotel next door for the night.

2010-11-28T18:57:00.000-08:00

Yancey and Sandy Brown and family

New York, New York

October 21-25, 2010

Since I'm behind it's taken me a while this morning to remember back a month ago as to exactly when we left for Walton, New York, but it was during the day time. I'm thinking early afternoon is when we left the house and made it as far as the bypass on the southeast side of Cleveland where we stopped to sleep at a La Quinta.

The following morning we continued on our journey and made it to Mr. Yancey Brown's home by mid afternoon. Yancey led us to a cabin about 30 minutes from his house near Downsville that belonged to one of his landscaping/yard mowing clients. We stayed in a rustic but remodeled cabin that belonged to a man that lives in NYC, currently works in Albany and formerly worked in the City for Rudy Guliani. Yancey said the man had more than one or two other homes where he was able to hang his hat. I was curious as to the last time he and his wife were there as the cabin was decorated with Halloween items and autumn décor. The wood-burning stove in the middle of the cabin kept us busy the first several hours to get the chill out and also got us in the rustling leaves and hot chocolate kind of mood. There wasn't time to sit and drink hot chocolate, however, as we had to unload and get dressed to go sing in Walton, crossing the Mighty Delaware on our way into town.

We enjoyed a very nice evening of music at Riverside Alliance Church as not only Bobby and the kids sang, but Yancey sang about 3 songs before Bobby came up, but Yancey also asked his 2 daughters, Bethany and Emily, to sing a song together and they did a great job. The interesting thing about Bethany and Emily is that both girls have Cystic Fibrosis. Both girls know the rigors of dealing with disease and disability but neither one allows what Satan has come against them with to slow them down or hinder their testimony in song.

The following day was spent sleeping in (a little bit), a leisure breakfast at the cabin, showers and school. We opted out of school on Wednesday at home because I was so busy and decided to, instead, do school while we were sitting in a cabin on Saturday with nothing else to do. The beauty of home school is you schedule school when it suits you best. I do like that aspect.

When it was time we got ready and drove toward Roscoe to Horton Brook Free Methodist Church but it wasn't easy. If I didn't know where we were I would have guessed we were in West Virginia. It was a mountainous, curvy drive but when we landed in a beautiful hollow at the church I got out of the van and could hear the roar of a happy creek at the edge of the gravel parking lot just yards away. I've always thought I'd love to build a home near a creek just like that. In the spring I'd open my bedroom window and let the sound of that rushing water lull me to sleep.

We had a really good time that evening as Yancey and Sandy and the kids came out, although they didn't sing. The people were responsive, too, and that always makes things more interesting. Coffee, cake and cookies were served after the service and then we started back to the cabin. However, we got a little turned around somehow and thought we might have been lost. Finally, we figured out how to make use of the GPS and realized we were very close to Downsville.

That was a rough night with little sleep as Grace decided she didn't want to settle down. We were in bed by 11:00 but because Grace was upset, Hope (bless her, Lord) began singing to her. The girl sang for 45 minutes and Grace still wasn't happy. So just a little before midnight Hope came in our room and complained that Grace was still upset and when she's upset she kicks Hope. I felt bad for Hope but I was so sleepy I didn't do anything. Don't know what I could have done anyway.

To make a long and not so memorable story short, Bobby and I drifted off to sleep about 5 times in two hours and had to rise at 5:00 in order to load up and leave the cabin by 6:00. What I've noticed is that there are so many Saturday nights that Grace doesn't want to settle down which keeps many or most of us up much longer than we should be on a Saturday night which hinders the anointing. It means I have to pray extra hard the next morning. (wink) I started to make light of the situation for just a second but there is something to that. Satan is happy to distract us, tire us, frustrate us, and cause us to grow weary in well doing, seeking to cause us to be ineffective in what we do. It's not a coincidence that it's Saturday nights when this happens.

It wasn't fun but we got everyone and everything loaded in the dark and cold rain and headed toward Liberty, New York. It turned out to be a nice day in spite of the dreary beginning. We ministered at Liberty Free Methodist Church where Yancey and Sandy and the kids showed up one more time. Liberty had two morning services and Grace and I skipped the first one in order for me to feed her and change her out in the van.

I enjoyed the second service where Bobby and the kids sang and then Pastor Dick Devendorf gave a great message called "How To Be More Than Happy."

After service we soaked up some good conversation with a couple of different people and then the Brown's and us had lunch together where, by this time, it was easy for us to converse and have a good time together as we'd spent most of the weekend together. Faith felt so comfortable with Yancey and Sandy's youngest, Riley, that she forgot her manners and poured out her sincerest feelings for the poor boy. She is NOT my daughter.

The couple taking the picture with Bobby and I attend Liberty Free Methodist and Hope, recognizing them from church, hugged them immediately. You just never know what a hug will do for someone. They approached us at our table just before they left and let us know our meal was paid for! We couldn't believe it that just a hug inspired someone to show such a nice gesture. The couple wasn't going to tell us what they were doing but they didn't trust the Pizza Hut staff to let us know.

From Liberty we drove south about 2 hours to Boonton, New Jersey where my long-time friend (and distant relative) Michele (Bontrager) Marshall lives with her husband, Garrett and their two children, Dylan and Mikayla.

We sat down to a delicious dinner with the Marshall's and they opened up their home for us to spend the night. The kids had a blast playing down in the finished basement while Mickie and I figured out where everyone would sleep. It was great to catch up with her after years of not seeing each other. So many things have happened since we used to see each other on a regular basis. The common thread I suppose, for both of us, was the passing of our mothers, which is how we're distantly related.

The following morning we tried to stay out of their way as the kids got ready for school and Mickie got them out the door and down the street, and then she and I visited just a little more while Garrett took Bobby to Wal Mart to get a new battery for the van.

Yes, a battery for the van because the night before after arriving at the Marshall's it died. I had the lights on for about 3 or 4 minutes without turning on the engine so I could see what clothes I was selecting in the trailer, when Bobby came out and scolded me for it. He said the engine had been sluggish, which is something I didn't know, and sure enough when he tried to start it, it didn't turn over.

Bobby had the new battery installed in no time and finally, after lots of tips and advice from Mickie and Garrett, we were off toward the City. We prayed as we drove and asked the Lord to give us favor and protection that day, specifically asking Him to lead us to a good parking spot. Mickie and Garrett advised us to leave our trailer parked at a hotel just before crossing the bridge into the city.

We had just prayed when about 5 minutes later we were in the Meadowlands and Bobby looked at the dash and then looked at me and said he just didn't have a good feeling about driving in. He said the van was sort of missing or hesitating just a little bit and he felt it was a warning. Our 3-day stranding in Decatur, Alabama was still fresh in our memories and we knew that being stranded in New York City would be much more costly.

Many folks that we've spoken to have suggested to us that we should have parked our van AND trailer and taken the train in to the city. However, we didn't think we could do that so easily with Grace's wheelchair.

So with great disappointment, yet with surprising trust I told Bobby that if he thought we should turn around and go home to please do it. Sometimes you just know you shouldn't argue with your husband but trust that he's doing the right thing even when your plans are destroyed or your expectations aren't fulfilled. I wish I could tell you why that happened; tell you that we were spared from a terrorist attack or from even some minor disaster. Just like not knowing why it didn't work for Bobby and I to leave the kids with the Johnsons in September and take a little honeymoon in Florida, I can't tell you why I didn't get to make my first visit to NYC – something I had been longing to do since we were first married.

We had a pleasant drive all the way to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania where we had the salad bar at Ruby Tuesday. Bobby mentioned that it was a shame that we couldn't find something to do in the area for the following week since we'd be coming right back to the same area the next weekend.

We stopped to sleep in Grantsville, Maryland and the following day endured a rough ride home through the hills and curves of West Virginia and eastern Kentucky.

2010-11-28T18:28:00.001-08:00

Christmas CD

October 12, 2010

The recording of our Christmas project totally slipped my mind and I should have written about it a couple of “posts” ago.

After the first weekend in Conneaut (the first weekend in October), Bobby got the notion to make a Christmas CD featuring the entire family. When Bobby gets in his mind to do something like this, he doesn't hee haw around. He called our friend, Rick Sandidge at Mark Five in Hendersonville and scheduled our studio time for Tuesday, the 12^th of October. With little time to prepare, we spent the weekend to and from Ohio (October 9 and 10) going over and over our Christmas songs, practicing with the kids to learn songs that they perhaps had heard before but didn't know the words to.

Faith sat on my lap for the Kids' project last spring so we figured we'd just keep with tradition.

Landis LOVES the studio environment

I can never tell if Rick is working hard or hardly working.

Relaxing after a job well done!

Once again, the kids impressed Bobby and I as they stepped up to the mic and crooned away. And of course, I had cookies waiting as rewards after each song...and available just in case we needed to bribe anyone. Bribing wasn't necessary and the kids and I completed our parts in less than 3 hours! Bobby stayed to sing his solos and went back the following day to mix.

2010-11-21T20:48:00.001-08:00

Third Time's a Charm!

October 16 & 17, 2010

Third trip to Ohio!!! This time we had a friend of Landis' with us as it was his parent's anniversary weekend and they needed a little time alone. We arrived rather late to our hotel in Conneaut (yes, the same hotel we stayed in 2 weeks earlier) and decided to go ahead and buy a second room because of the extra person.

The next day we drove back west a bit to the next town, Ashtabula and sang at the county nursing home. We don't do a lot of nursing homes but I sort of enjoy them.

They served us a lovely lunch there before we sang and when we were finished we drove back to Conneaut and made a visit to the park that sits right at the edge of Lake Erie.

Faith got out to the sand before I got out of the van. I called to her about getting her tights off...

...but it felt so good to walk on that sand in her tights...

...that she slipped away when I got distracted.

"Where did that Faith go?!"

Can you tell Bobby had the camera this time? There's actually pictures of Mom!

With only a little bit of time there we snapped a few pictures and then drove back to Ashtabula for a Saturday evening service at Church of the Living God. We met some precious folks there and one of them even asked if she could feed Grace. That's only happened one other time but of course I'm delighted as it's a nice break for me.

Back in Conneaut, we got sufficient sleep and rose the following morning to make a second visit to the Family Fellowship Foursquare church with Pastor Robert Tarasiak. They serve a simple but tasty breakfast there on Sunday mornings and we took part in that, of course. We enjoyed a wonderful morning service and then found Connie Smith's house a few blocks from the church where we enjoyed some homemade pizza and ice cream cake for Landis' 10^th birthday!

After lunch we headed to Akron where we found Springfield Baptist Church and unloaded equipment and set up the CD table for the 4^th time in 48 hours. Whew!

The next day was a typical day of driving for hours on end in a crowded van and struggling to get school done, BUT we made it. Another day of school and once again...home.

2010-11-18T13:53:00.000-08:00

A Baby? A Baby!

October 5, 9 and 10, 2010

I took Landis with me to the ultra sound on Tuesday afternoon, October 5, because he had a Tae Kwon Do lesson following my appointment. Shortly after we left the house he asked me where it was we were going and why. I reminded him of the time he went with me to Faith's ultra sound. I quickly assured him I wasn't pregnant but I just wanted to go and make sure everything was OK inside of me. That answer worked for him and we arrived a few minutes early for the appointment. When I stepped in to see the doctor, I asked Landis to wait outside because I wanted to be able to speak freely with the doctor and keep Landis from hearing things that might cause him to worry about his mom.

The doctor asked me about my concerns and I shared with him briefly what I had been thinking. I told him that I had been, what I would call, “bloated,” but it was much more than that. He told me to just get on the table so that we could take a look. As soon as he put the scanner on my stomach I thought, “I'm going to look at the monitor because I need to see whatever is in there for myself. I'm not afraid. I can handle it.” As soon as I looked at the monitor I saw a perfect circle with a spine coming out of it and I recognized the picture. At the same time the doctor said, “Well, you're 'bloated' because there's a baby in there!” I felt incredibly dizzy and overwhelmed. The only thing that came out of my mouth was, “Oh my goodness!” over and over again. When the doctor asked me if I wanted to know the sex of the baby and that it was a boy, I so wanted Landis to witness this event but I hesitated in calling him in because I didn't know if I should tell Bobby first. But the doctor told me I was 17 ½ weeks along and he encouraged me to go ahead and let Landis in on the joyful news since I wouldn't be hiding my little secret much longer anyway. When Landis came in the doctor asked him what he saw on the monitor. Landis told me later that he recognized a baby but was doubtful because I had specifically told him an hour earlier that I wasn't pregnant. So I said to Landis, “Go ahead and tell me what you think that looks like.”

“A baby?” he asked.

When I told Landis he was finally having a little brother he clenched his fists and pumped his elbows back at his sides with an excited,”YESSSSS!!!”

As we drove away Landis told me that he'd stopped praying for a baby brother a long time ago but that night he was going to pray again. I asked him what he'd be praying about that night.

“To say thanks!” he said simply.

Both mine and Landis' thoughts were on the new baby and how we'd tell Bobby that night after getting our shopping done. We did a little bit of clothes shopping for Landis and then got groceries. I found the perfect card of congratulations for Bobby and then Landis and I schemed on how to deliver the news.

I knew that Bobby would not ask me about my doctor appointment until the kids were in bed so after everyone was tucked in, Landis, who had taken a picture of the baby in the ultra sound with my phone, would send the picture to Bobby's phone as soon as he heard Bobby ask me how my appointment went. So I'm standing just inside the door of his office and he asks me how it went. I spoke slowly in order to give the picture time to be sent and I started with, “Well, do you want to the good news or the bad news?” With a serious look on his face he replied that he didn't really care he supposed which came first. Then I really hesitated because the picture seemed to be slow in sending. When I only paced and stalled in telling him anything, he began to get a little nervous and thought, “is the bad news so bad that you don't know how to tell me?” It seemed like an eternity for the picture to send so I asked him where his phone was. Just as I asked the question, his phone chimed, telling him he had a message. As he reached for his phone, I reached for the card I had bought for him. He looked at the message on his phone, saw that it was from me, saw the picture of the ultra sound and I handed him the card at the same time. He recognized the picture of a baby and said, “A baby?” and smiled. Then he opened the card and saw that it was light blue in color. He opened it and read, “Congratulations the new 'little man' in your house!”

I thought it was the perfect card because in every concert Bobby sings a song called, “Little Man,” that talks about our sons (children) watching what we do and how we live our lives. It's a reminder to fathers, in particular, that they need to be careful because the little eyes of a little man are watching.

After he sat there for a minute taking everything in, Bobby stated, “I'm happy!”

Our second trip to Ohio was a quick one. We sang at New Haven Baptist Church on Sunday morning where Bobby only had about 10 minutes before the sermon. Of course I didn't speak. Many of the people were out sick, including the pastor, and a guest speaker filled the pulpit.

We wouldn't have been surprised if my dad had walked through the doors that morning because my brother had mentioned the possibility of Dad coming to Ohio that weekend and surprising us. He didn't show up that morning but later that afternoon on the way to Vanlue, I thought about it again and not long after I had thought about it, Dad called. He didn't say anything about seeing us, we just made a little small talk so finally I asked him if he was on his way to see us that evening in Ohio. He wanted to deny it at first because he wanted to make it a surprise, but he finally confessed to his whereabouts and told us he'd see us in an hour or so.

He did meet us about an hour later at Harvest Time Chapel, where we sang that night, but he wasn't alone. He brought a friend with him, Joann Riley from Three Rivers, Michigan. They'd been seeing each other for about a month and we'd heard some wonderful things about her from her long-time friends, Pastor Randy and Karen Helms when we sang at their church a couple of weeks earlier in Tampa, Florida.

We had a nice visit before church and then a service that started out very laid back but ended up being a meaningful time after all with God having a word for us. Then we went to eat with Dad and Joann back in Upper Sandusky where we visited for quite a while before saying goodbye to them. We went across the street to our hotel and they drove back to Michigan.

On our way home the next day we took the time to stop and visit some friends in Fairborn, Chris and Christine Rupp, and their two children, Conlan and Claire. Christine, who we still refer to as “Miss Bates” from time to time, was Grace's teacher at the Christian school she attended in Smyrna back in 2003 and 2004. We have kept in touch over the last few years and when she saw that we'd be in central Ohio she contacted me and invited to stop by for a visit. I'm so glad we had the time to do it. It was great to see them again and see where they live. She even made homemade bread to go with soup and salad, a delicious and healthier lunch than fast food. Thank you, Christine!

We got home a little later because of the stop in Fairborn but it was worth it. A few days at home before heading back to Ohio once more.

2010-11-06T17:54:00.000-07:00

Conneaut and Jefferson, OH and East Springfield, PA

October 1-4, 2010

Packing for this trip was a bit burdensome as we were just finishing up the summer season and the previous weekend we were in Florida but we were headed to the cold north. I had worked hard the few days we were home that week to dig out the winter clothes for the kids and try to figure out who had enough clothes to sing in 3 times and were we all color coordinated each time? When we have a change of season like this it takes me 7 hours to pack for me and the kids. Once we're into the season a few weeks I've got the wardrobe down pretty good. I also had the problem of not only finding myself some winter clothes to wear but finding something that FIT! My clothes weren't fitting me right. They were too tight around the middle yet I hadn't changed any eating habits and actually tried to be careful about what I ate. Packing was a stressful job for this trip.

We drove on Friday all day to get to Conneaut, Ohio, (pr. “connie-ott”) which is in the very north east corner of the state. It's an old town, situated beautifully on Lake Erie and my kids know the town for Ms. Connie Smith, the promoter that lives there and TRAINS.

The railroad is big business there and until the town built an overpass at one end of town and an underpass at the other end, the town was used to waiting on trains. We weren't used to it and Saturday evening we sat and sat and sat as we waited to meet our friends for dinner at the Sugar Shack.

Let me back up just a bit.

As we got ready Saturday morning in our hotel room, I tried on a new blouse I bought at Cato. It was made in such a way that I thought it might disguise my large belly. All my of my britches were getting too tight around the waist and I was beginning to look “fat” and I was disgusted with myself! When I tried the blouse on and layered a sweater over it, I asked Bobby, “Do I look pregnant in this? I DO! I look pregnant in this! I'm not gonna wear this!”

Let me back up just a bit more.

In August I took a pregnancy test and it was negative so pregnancy was immediately ruled out. Our schedule allowed us to attend our own church a couple of weekends in September and when Pastor Davis gave the altar call, it seemed to be the perfect opportunity to go and ask for healing...or whatever it was I needed. On Saturday, the 18^th of September I rose in the wee hours of the morning to use the bathroom as I'd been doing the past several weeks and it dawned on me that I only wake in the night like that when I'm pregnant but since I wasn't pregnant, according to the pregnancy test I decided it had to be something else in there pressing on my bladder making me have to go. Suddenly I knew...there was a foreign object growing in me. I was rather sober through most of the day, glad to go to Cornerstone that night and especially thankful that we were having communion on a night that I could be there. Pastor Davis preached about dreams and made the statement, “You can't deliver the dream until you're able to carry the baby.” Of course he was speaking metaphorically but that statement totally stood out to me. I went to the altar that night, praying alone and not telling anyone my thoughts.

The following morning was when we got stranded in Decatur. Late in the morning, Bobby was downstairs in the business center on the computer. The kids started watching a movie so I took the opportunity to leave the room and go talk to Bobby. He removed his hands from the keyboard and turned his chair toward me because he could tell that I had something important to tell him. I told him that I didn't want to worry him but that I KNEW there was something inside of me that shouldn't be there. I had complained earlier of feeling bloated but now I told him that it was far more than bloating. There was definitely something in there. I told him I wasn't scared or worried. Cancer is curable physically speaking, and I was already healed by the stripes of Jesus...IF that's what it even was. Let me just tell you if I ever did find out that I had cancer I wouldn't tell anyone. I would NEVER go through the sickening and toxic rigors of chemo and radiation. These are routine treatments that statistics have shown do NOT work. They MIGHT delay things a bit but it's not a pleasant way to handle things. In spite of the fact that my mother passed away with cancer, I never give to the American Cancer Society or St. Jude's because I've seen cancer cured over and over by natural means, but not by traditional, costly pharmaceuticals. Cancer is a huge money maker so why would they want to eradicate it? No, I would quietly seek the help of a holistic doctor on the proper nutrition and supplements to take. As a matter of fact, I did visit a local health food store and went through a sort of physical screening. One of the things we checked for was the pregnancy hormone and again, it was negative.

From that weekend on I began to speak God's healing Word over my body and take communion early in the morning in my quiet time. Finally, Bobby told me that I needed to get an ultra sound so that we could find out, if I wasn't pregnant, just exactly what WAS inside of me. I scheduled the ultra sound for Tuesday, October 5^th at 4:00 PM. I'll share the results of that ultra sound in the following post.

Back to Conneaut. I wanted to change blouses but didn't have time and as we passed by the front desk and chatted with a lady from the hotel staff a minute, she made the comment, “Oh I see you're expecting. Congratulations!” Immediately I felt bad for her and I quickly said, “I know I look pregnant, but I'm not. I'm gonna have an ultra sound this week and find out what's going on in there.”

“That's a good idea,” she said.

Bobby was singing in an all-afternoon concert with other soloists and one local group. As a matter of fact, Mitchel Jon, better known to us and our Cornerstone family as Mitch Kenitzer, former choir member, praise team singer, and former member of the group, Three Bridges. We joked with Mitch about the fact that we have to drive all the way to Lake Erie to see our church friend from Nashville.

We had a fun and even relaxing day in spite of the smaller turnout than was expected and the dreary, rainy weather. I did run back to the hotel room shortly after we arrived in order to grab my laptop and change tops. Yes, I thought I had found something to hide my large belly.

One of the soloists, Jerry Garcia, introduced himself to me, asked about Grace and began to tell me about his family. He and his wife have adopted 4 special needs children and they usually travel with him but it just so happened that they were sick that weekend so we didn't get to meet them. He told me about each one of the kids, their uniqueness, and the gifts that they were. When he told me about his second oldest, Katie, who has Cerebral Palsy and Autism, he told me about a song that he sings to her that talks about limping to heavens' gates but running on the other side. Jerry seemed regretful that he couldn't share that special song with us that day but I told him I wished he'd sing it to Grace. He was delighted to do that and Grace was delighted to be sung to.

After the concert that evening and after waiting for the train for 15 minutes, we enjoyed a nice dinner with Connie, Mitch, Jerry, and the quartet, Circle of Friends.

It was nice to get back to our little hotel room early enough to get a decent rest before heading out to Jefferson the next morning.

We sang at First Baptist Church in Jefferson on Sunday morning and Bobby and Landis had to unload the equipment in the rain. I sat in the van with the girls with my Bible and couldn't understand why I had the uncontrollable urge to cry. I'm not talking about a few tears, I'm talking about pouring tears that I couldn't stop for a few minutes and the feeling that I did NOT want to be there. I wanted to be home! I hid it from the girls behind me and finally gathered myself together enough that I got my daughters inside and parked the van.

I knew that getting with other folks and forgetting about myself, I'd be fine and I was. Also, I met the sweetest old lady! I can say “old”...she was in her mid eighties. That's old. She had a wonderful testimony of God's faithfulness in her life and she was so encouraging with her promise to pray for our family. She even gave me her contact information and said I can call her any time of the day or night if I ever needed prayer.

The church served a wonderful fellowship meal after the service and it was there that a gentleman told Bobby and I that in all the years he's been attending First Baptist, (I think he said 35 or 40 years) he's never seen the pastor have a musical guest on a Sunday morning. Now that's the hand of God working on our behalf. Thank you Lord for favor!

There were a couple of hours to rest in the hotel room and then we drove just over the Pennsylvania line to East Springfield where we sang at the Federated Church. We had no idea what Federated Church was but the pastor, Dr. Edward Huntley explained to us that years and years ago, there was a Presbyterian Church and a Christian Church in town. The two congregations decided to come together to make one larger church. When trying to come up with a new name for the church one of the members suggested that because federated means a union of more than one entity, that they ought to call themselves the Federated Church. Obviously, the name was liked and it stuck. Not only did the name stick but the spirit of unity in this body of believers has remained for so long because of those seeds planted so long ago by those who've since passed on.

After service the youth group provided some pizza and Dip-n-Dots for themselves and our family in the Family Life Center (gym) where our kids played hard for nearly an hour and I enjoyed fellowship with folks with similar life experiences to mine.

We drove home the following day which completed the first of 3 consecutive trips to Ohio.

2010-10-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

September 25-27, 2010

St. Petersburg and Tampa, Florida

Bobby and I had planned to take a getaway the last weekend in September. We planned it way back in the spring. We didn't necessarily want to get away on Grace's birthday but it was the only weekend Bobby didn't have something already booked besides some time in December. We planned to attend a marriage conference in Fort Myers but of course Bobby, who was happy to go, wanted to get some bookings for us in order to make some money while we were down there. We had worked child care out with Pat and Mary Johnson months in advance and I was looking SO forward to our honeymoon. I'd even done a little shopping for the occasion. However...and that's a big fat however, because of the van being in the shop (Mr. Pat needed the van in order to keep Grace for the weekend), not to mention the fact that we didn't make any money the weekend before, I suggested to Bobby that we rent a mini van and the whole family go to Florida. I can't tell you how sad I was to give up these big plans I'd made for so long but was glad about one thing: I never felt right about doing a couple of concerts without the kids. I'm sure it would have been fine but there's just something about the kids' involvement in the service that cause people to like us quicker. (smile)

It was a long and not-so-easy drive from Nashville to St. Petersburg on Saturday. After arriving at the hotel while we were unloading the van, a gentleman who had stepped outside to smoke, smiled at Faith as she danced and sang a Christian song. He commented on her talents and I quickly told him he could come see her sing live in the morning as she was performing locally. He answered that he probably should be in church in the morning praying for his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers. He was in town to watch the Steelers play Tampa Bay.

Jehovah Jireh, our Provider, was once again faithful to us and we not only had two great services with at least 1 person giving their life to Christ Sunday morning, (no, it wasn't the Steelers fan) but we made twice as much money as we typically do!

Pastor Randy Helms and his wife, Karen, were so down to earth and enjoyable to visit with before church Sunday morning. We found out a few days earlier that the Helms knew someone that we were hoping to meet soon. My dad called me earlier that week and asked me if we were going to sing at a church in Florida with a pastor named Randy Helms. I said yes, of course and wondered how he would know that. He laughed and told me that his lady friend he'd been seeing for the past few weeks was long-time friends with the Helms! Dad had told Joann about Bobby and I and kids and she went to Bobby's website. The very next booking on our schedule was Glad Tidings Assembly of God in St. Petersburg and of course her thoughts were, “what a small world!” Needless to say we heard some wonderful things about the lady my dad is seeing long before we met her and that was comforting.

Randy and Karen invited us to a baseball game with their church family after the morning service but considering the children, wheelchair, etc., we felt we'd have an easier time having a leisure, sit-down lunch, allowing plenty of time to get to Faith Independent Missionary Baptist Church in Tampa for the evening service.

We had contacted Bobby's nephew, Brandon Sams, who is an EMT and lives in St. Pete, letting him know we'd be in town and really would be glad to see him. His work schedule allowed him just enough time to get off, drive home, shower and drive to Tampa. He and a friend walked in just as the service started.

We had another good service that evening and I think Brandon's friends' heart was stirred a little. He expressed something to me after the service that said as much. Visiting was Brandon after church was great, just not long enough. We had to move on and head north for a while so as to get a head start in the morning. We had a rental to return by 8:00 PM.

I had hoped to stop an hour before we actually did but we found a good place to stop for the night in Lake City. We found a Best Western, older, but our room had two kings so we had plenty of horizontal space. The following morning we visited with another home school family at breakfast before heading home.

Pat Johnson had come up the previous Friday and had dinner with us as we celebrated Grace's 12^th birthday. He came again on Monday evening to sit with the children while Bobby and I returned the rental van...which was returned in plenty of time.

I didn't get my honeymoon but if the children had anything at all to do with that man getting saved Sunday morning, it's worth giving up. Some day I'll know.

2010-10-26T16:50:00.000-07:00

September 19-21, 2010

Stranded!

Yet another opportunity to attend our own church service on Saturday night and on Sunday morning the 19^th, we set out at 5:00 for Booneville, Mississippi. We had discussed several route options which consisted of going west on I-40 almost or even all the way to Jackson and then down to Booneville. Or we considered briefly going a more direct route down the Natchez Trace. However, we've driven that before and it can grow old very quickly with constant curves and no opportunities to buy coffee or go to the bathroom. The third option, the one Bobby decided to go with was to go south on I-65 to Decatur, Alabama and then west to Booneville. I wasn't sure this was the best way but decided to let him make the call and I went to sleep along with the children.

I awoke at 7:00 when Bobby used the brakes to exit toward Decatur and curve westward on the off-ramp. As we approached the city limits I told Bobby I smelled something hot. He immediately began feeling the inverter behind him and then checked his gauges in front of him. Everything inside the van seemed to be OK. While driving over the river I saw a Holiday Inn and thought about how it was right there on the river and looked like a nice place to stay. After the bridge we stopped at a light and as the noise of the engine became more quiet, we could hear noises and Bobby said he thought we had a flat. We turned right and was in front of the hotel so he pulled into the Holiday Inn parking lot, parked and walked around the van to look for the problem. He saw no flat and he began to think maybe I was smelling things and he was hearing things when he saw huge mess of grease coming out of the back end of the van!

Now there had been a slow leak and finally on the previous Thursday, Bobby had spent the whole day waiting on the van to be fixed. They simply put a new seal on the back end. But apparently the seal didn't hold and we now had a big problem. All Bobby said was, “Well, we're not going anywhere,” and then he called the pastor in Booneville. There wasn't even time for someone from their church to drive to Decatur, pick Bobby up and drive back to that service, as well as that evening's service were postponed. Then Bobby checked us into the Holiday Inn and there we stayed for the next 3 days!

Of course we didn't know we would be there that long. We had all of Sunday to sit and do nothing. I had considered the fact that I didn't get a day of rest that week and decided I would just have to do without. However, the Lord knew I needed and desired it and He gave me a day of complete rest in that hotel with nothing to do! While we waited we discussed some possible scenarios and how we would handle them. We decided that if the van would not be finished until Tuesday or after, that we'd rent an economy car, take the wheelchair apart and put it in the trunk, and pack ourselves into the car enduring the two hour drive back home. Bobby would then drive the rental back to Decatur and pick up the van when it was ready. On the other hand if the van would be ready by Monday evening, we'd just stay in Decatur until it was ready.

However, in all of this planning we forgot to remember how it usually goes with mechanics. Most of the day Monday the word we got was that they thought the van would be ready either by the end of the day Monday or before lunch on Tuesday at the latest. Of course the van wasn't ready on Monday but we thought we could stand to stay one more night and wait just a few hours on Tuesday. What actually happened was the van wasn't ready until late Tuesday afternoon. As a matter of fact, we ended up getting a late check out and waiting in the hotel lobby until 1:30, and when we realized that the restaurant would be closing in another 30 minutes, we decided to spend the money on one more meal since we couldn't go anywhere anyway and we were getting hungry.

The hotel staff got to know us and our story and were very, VERY gracious to us. We ate our own food we had brought from home Sunday morning and at lunch. We finally ate in the hotel restaurant on Sunday evening and that was the only meal the children didn't eat free. After that, whenever we ate downstairs they only charged us for Bobby and I. That was a big blessing. For the final meal on Tuesday afternoon, the staff didn't charge us anything and we had already checked out of our room by the time we ate!

Driving home, we contemplated how the week ahead looked a little scary as we spent the amount of money that we needed to make! We earned absolutely no money but sat doing nothing in a hotel room for 3 days. However, we knew that God would take care of us. We knew that we would not be homeless or go without food. I have been putting money aside for months in order to buy new living room furniture and other home décor but offered it to Bobby. You know I was glad when he said unto me that wouldn't be necessary. (whew!)

The following morning he went to check on the van sitting in the driveway and discovered we still had a leak. The first time he had it fixed it didn't work and in that case we shouldn't have had the same procedure done! We should have had a whole new back end put in. So this is what he did on Wednesday. We said goodbye to our van for several days which meant Pat Johnson came to the rescue when it came time to go to church Wednesday night. I had taken the car to an appointment but Pat came to the house and picked up everyone else. They didn't even have to disassemble the wheelchair as Mr. Pat's trunk was deep enough that the chair could lay on its side. After church I was able to take a couple of the children with me and Mr. Pat brought everyone else home.

We had an early morning prayer meeting at Cornerstone Friday but because we couldn't fit everyone in our car, I stayed home with Grace and the rest of the family went. I took my laptop into Grace's bedroom at 6:00 AM with the intentions of watching the prayer meeting live stream and sing and pray along with the rest of the church. However, it didn't broadcast so Grace and I had our own prayer meeting. I got so excited at one point I knocked a shelf off of her bedroom wall. You know things and people fail us; sometimes they leave us stranded but never leaves us stranded. He never fails us.

One of the things I prayed about was our lack of finances that week. I told God again how absolutely grateful I was that God provided for us so specifically. God didn't do anything bad to our van but He knew what would happen and He provided just the right place for us to break down. It wasn't just ANY hotel that we stayed in those 3 days without a vehicle, it was a Holiday Inn with a restaurant where we could eat 3 square meals a day, swim in a pool, use the fitness room and play in the arcade. I also told the Lord that I was not at all concerned about the fact that we lost money the previous weekend because money was no object for Him. He is the one who gives the power to get wealth. It's only by His grace that we can go out and make money in the first place. In that case I could see no reason to worry.

When Bobby came home from prayer meeting later he told me that a dear old friend stopped him at church and said he wanted to give him something. Bobby didn't look inside the envelope until later on and saw a check for $500! The following week Bobby got a call to sing background vocals for someone's recording and he came home at the end of the day with another $500! His Name is Jehovah Jireh – our Provider.

2010-10-04T18:47:00.000-07:00

I wrote 4 posts at once. You'll have to read 4 posts back in order not to miss anything. Of particular interest to me are the posts from August 22-26 and September 5 & 6.

September 9-12, 2010

Yard Sale and Cape Girardeau, MO

I've been trying to sell our king-sized bed for many months. I've tried different avenues such as Facebook Marketplace and Craig's List. I even tried giving it away once but it seemed we'd be stuck with it forever. Bobby and I loved the luxury of a king bed but because we decided to exchange bedrooms with our daughters, the kind just didn't fit comfortably in the smaller bedroom we moved to. So the little girls were sleeping on the king. If Grace didn't do better in her own bed with padded rails, there'd be plenty of room for her in that bed too. Finally, Bobby suggested we have a yard sale in September and he was confident we'd sell that bed. We also discussed going ahead and selling some other furniture that we've had for years, is outdated hand-me-downs, and really needed to go.

So at 5:00 AM on Thursday morning, the 9^th, we stumbled around carrying furniture outside. We began welcoming customers at 7:00 and by 7:30 we had probably 2/3 of our furniture sold! By Thursday afternoon we had sold all of our furniture except an old painted dresser, (It's so old it used to belong to then bachelor, Robby McGee when he lived in a single-wide trailer!) and what else...the king-sized bed. It rained all day Friday so we kept everything covered up or inside. Saturday turned out to be beautiful but since we had pretty much made up our minds the yard sale was over, it didn't dawn on me until 9:00 that I should put the yard sale signs back up and set at least a part of the king bed out in the driveway. We were getting ready to hit the road by noon so we weren't paying much attention to the driveway and watching for customers.

But finally at 11:00 or 11:30, someone knocked on our door and my heart took the chance on hoping one more time. Sure enough, an older gentleman took that bed and gave us $100 for it. It's not what I had been asking but we wanted that bed GONE!

We had an easy drive to Cape Girardeau, Missouri and checked in at my favorite hotel chain, the Drury Suites. If you know anything about the Drury, you know they offer not only the complimentary hot breakfast, but also a good-sized evening snack called the "5:30 Kick-back" featuring baked potatoes and toppings, hot dogs, chicken wings or tenders, nachos, salad, cut veggies, soft drinks, tea and coffee!

While we were enjoying the evening snack (dinner) downstairs, Pastor Ken Strong from Father's Arms Fellowship in Scott City came in to check on us and join us at our table. We had a great time of fellowship for about an hour and we spoke with anticipation about the upcoming service in the morning.

We had a great service the next morning and it culminated to an altar call and then finally ended with Pastor Ken singing a duet with Bobby. They served a wonderful large lunch after church in the fellowship hall and then we were on our way back to our hotel room where I did something VERY unusual. I took a NAP!!! That never happens on Sunday afternoons these days! But it did that day.

We drove back toward the Scott City exit and this time turned right off the exit toward Chaffee where we sang that evening at Chaffee First Baptist Church. Another very young pastor leads the congregation here.

It was a joy to sing and speak to this welcoming congregation and we felt even more at home when Pastor Ken and his family walked in. Pastor Lucien and his precious wife from the East Cape Girardeau church where we sang in June were there as well. Actually, the pastor's wife from Chaffee First Baptist attended that concert in June and she encouraged her husband to have us come to their own church.

Upon arrival back at the hotel we promptly grabbed a couple of bags of popcorn from the lobby on the way up to the room and got settled in bed. But the lights wouldn't go out until the Titans game was over.

I enjoyed a workout and my quiet time in the fitness center the next morning and we made another easy drive back home.

2010-10-04T18:40:00.000-07:00

West Tennessee

September 5 & 6, 2010

It was a privilege to attend services at Cornerstone again with an extra special treat of hearing John Bevere as our guest preacher. He spoke about God's empowering grace that causes us to live extraordinary lives. If you ever get a chance to listen to John speak, consider it a chance you can't pass up. God used this man to speak into my life in 2002 and what was said has undoubtedly changed my life.

The following morning we drove to Erin, Tennessee and had a good service at Erin Church of God of Prophecy. Afterward, we headed down to Bolivar where Bob and Tena joined us! This is because the church was pastored by Josh Clark, who, with his wife, Brittany, adopted Alayna and Haley, Bobby's great neices. What an answer to prayer Josh and Brittany have been as Bob and Tena were helping to care for these sweet little girls who's mama didn't want them. Bob and Tena love them so much but caring for two preschool-age children was taking a toll on them both. They didn't carry the burden alone, however. Another set of great-grandparents were caring for them. What is it about the great grandparents? I guess that's what makes them great.

Anyway, Josh and Brittany, relatives on the other great grandparents' side, showed up with their own two little boys and said they would like to adopt the girls. As I said, prayers were certainly answered the day Josh and Brittany walked in.

Brittany fixed BBQ beef, and delicious sides to go along with it, all for us to eat at the church before the service! It was a very kind thing for her to do and we ate well.

We had a lot of fun in that church service with so many children between us and Papaw and Mamaw there in Tennessee with us.

There was only a little more visiting but a lot of hugs and goodbyes before we left. We wanted to get home as soon as possible as we planned rise as early as we could stand to drive to Petersburg, Kentucky, which is just outside of Cincinnati to visit the Creation Museum.

It was a tiring schedule but we made ourselves get up earlier than if we were just staying home. If we wanted to kill ourselves we would have risen pre-dawn and tried to get to the Museum, which was 4 ½ hours away, by the time they opened. Instead we tried to get at least 6 hours of sleep and then pack some sandwiches and finally getting on the road by 9:00. That meant we didn't get there until 1:30 and entered the museum at 2:00. We only had 4 hours until closing time but we enjoyed every minute. I'd heard a lot about the place over the past year or two but, of course something like that is never fully appreciated until you go and experience it yourself. I think the part I enjoyed the most was the Noah's Ark exhibit. Very impressive! Something else I so appreciated about Creation Museum is that they present not only the Biblical story of creation but also, Darwin's theories. You won't find both of these presented side by side in our public school textbooks. I wonder why the world is afraid of doing that? (smile)

Landis and dinosaur. (Landis is in front)

The serpent in the Garden of Eden

Eve's remorse for her sin

Noah

King David...and Faith

I think Faith was feeding the "Zorse"

2010-10-02T18:26:00.000-07:00

Jasper & Canon, GA

August 29, 2010

It was only 4 ½ hours to Jasper but we needed to leave by a certain time because we were meeting our friends, Wes and Marie Nolan for dinner at 5:00. We met at Pizza Hut in Jasper and their pastor, Ron Rucker joined us for dinner as well.

We were grateful for the two rooms they got us at the Super 8 and everyone was able to sleep comfortably.

We really enjoyed a great service at Cornerstone Church. The room was full and the folks were very enthusiastic. Bobby and the children sang and then Pastor Ron gave a great message out of Philippians concerning walking in the authority that God gave us in Jesus Christ. The altars were full at the conclusion of the service.

We had lunch with Pastor Ron, his wife and the Nolan Family and then took a long time to say goodbye to the Nolans out in the parking lot before driving to Canon by way of Atlanta.

Our evening service a return visit to Canon Church of God with Pastor Gary Steward. We love this guy. His birthday is near Hope's and when we were there in December of last year the kids surprised him by singing happy birthday to him during the offering. He's become of friend of Bobby's over the past several months and we appreciate the spirit of this man.

We had another blessing with two hotel rooms and rested well. With school on the road the next day it made the time go a little faster and we arrived home before the hour was too late.

2010-10-01T17:35:00.000-07:00

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 22^nd 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 50^th 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

We had a short time a visiting with Anita at the house after church and then thanked her once again for her hospitality and kindness toward us and said goodbye, making plans to leave for home the following morning.

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.

2010-09-20T10:42:00.000-07:00

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North & South Carolina and Virginia

August 9-16, 2010

We were only home one night and left again the following day, headed for Lexington, South Carolina. On Tuesday morning we ministered at a senior's Bible study group called Young At Heart at First Baptist Church. I sat at the CD table which was in the hall near the door before Bobby sang and was amazed at how many folks were coming in. When I finally joined my family in the dining room, I saw over 250 seniors packing the room. This is a healthy group for a weekly Bible study! And were they precious! Older folks usually aren't afraid to touch you. They grab you and hug you and hold your hand. I just love hanging out with them. They loved the children, of course, and you could hear their comments and whispers as the kids did their thing.

A big lunch followed that and we packed up and went back to our hotel room where we started our school year. It's not easy schooling in a hotel room...or in a van, for that matter, but you can figure out ways to git'r done.

On Wednesday morning we headed south to Charleston...what a beautiful city. It was incredibly hot so I let the kids swim before it was time to get ready for the service that night.

We sang in a smaller town north of Charleston on Wednesday evening called Monck's Corner. A VERY young Pastor Jason Leviner met us and helped load in. Actually, he was not as young as he looked but still...I guess they're just gonna keep looking younger to me as the years go by, aren't they? Pastor Jason's beautiful wife, Angela, and their 3, even more beautiful children came to us in the front pew and introduced themselves before church. Following a great service we enjoyed a quick meal with them, completing the night.

The following morning we made sure to get going early enough to see some sights and learn some things about Charleston, since it's so full of history. We spent quite a bit of time at the Visitor's Center where we saw educational videos about Charleston's involvement in the Civil War (which is what my children are focusing on this year) and spent nearly an hour watching a basket weaver. The gentleman used sweet grass to make baskets, crosses, flowers and jewelry. My kids, especially Landis, who likes to work with his hands, were so intrigued by him and weren't shy about asking him how he did what he did. The gentleman was very patient with them and willingly showed them his moves.

We walked only a half block to the Children's Museum where the kids could go crazy for an hour, painting, playing with water, doing some time behind bars in a pirate ship, dressing in medieval costumes and running around a castle where we lost sight of them for several minutes at a time. What a great place for kids!

Most of all I enjoyed driving through the old city and looking at the gorgeous homes. If only I could see inside just a few of them! I've always LOVED looking at architecture and floor plans.

We allowed just enough time to get to Loris, which is up near North Myrtle Beach for the evening service where we found the doors unlocked but no one home at Loris Church of God. The pastor and his wife finally showed up about 30 minutes before the service started, but not before my children found some costumes in one of the side rooms where I had my flat iron plugged in.

Another great evening and who do you think we met? Landis took a pic with the gentleman who taught Stonewall Jackson to play the guitar. (The one that became an Opry star - not the Civil War hero.) When Landis played his guitar during the service, this gentleman rolled his chair up the middle aisle to get a closer look at him. He couldn't speak but others told us he gets such a joy at watching the little ones develop their giftings in music.

We slept in Florence and the next morning it was time to do laundry. Ah yes, laundromat school! It was NOT easy (I looked at Bobby said under my breath, "I hate homeschool," in a moment of frustration.) but we forged ahead and got some schooling done in the laundromat. When the last shirt was folded, we headed to North Carolina and spent the night just north of Charlotte.

Bobby had scheduled a concert in Parkersburg, West Virginia. However, the pastor there had surgery in July and had lost all memory from July on. We didn't go to West Virginia. Instead, we drove to Troutville, Virginia where we checked into the Holiday Inn Express (2 ROOMS!) and then drove back to Elliston Church of God where Pastor Wayne Powell greeted us. We had one of the best turnouts for a Saturday night.

A late night getting to bed and a very early morning rising because Fincastle Baptist Church has 2 morning services and we had to be there by 7:15! It was a little rough trying to get kids up, dressed and ready to sing but by the grace of God we did it. I let Hope and Faith sleep while the rest of us dressed and had a quick breakfast. I grabbed some muffins for the younger girls and they climbed into the van in their pjs.

Fincastle is a large and growing congregation with a very considerate pastor, Kevin Cummings, who used to travel himself and understands the needs of those who travel in ministry...hence, the 2 rooms.

We got to listen to the sermon, "One More Night With The Frogs" twice and laughed as Pastor Kevin threw plastic frogs all over the stage in an almost illustrated sermon. He brought out the point that after God brought the plague of the frogs on Egypt, Moses asked Pharoah if he wanted God to get rid of the frogs. Pharoah's reply was "yes...tomorrow." Pastor Kevin's point was that we allow sin to remain in our lives just a little longer instead of telling the Devil to get lost. I suggested to Pastor Kevin before the second service that he ought to throw the frogs out on the congregation and he implied that he might. However, he must have decided to be nice to his congregates because he threw the frogs around on the stage again.

Pastor Kevin and his wife, Terri treated us to lunch after church and we enjoyed fellowship with our new acquaintances as if they were old friends.

Our evening service was in Madison Heights which is just a suburb of Lynchburg at Lighthouse Baptist Church. The church was very small but they streamed their services so Bobby enjoyed letting his friends know on Facebook that they could join us from Nashville, Michigan or wherever they were.

After a delicious meal with Pastor Cary Forbus, his wife Jackie and their children, Megan and Matthew, we had a restful night at the Kirkley Hotel.

In the morning it took some begging but I finally convinced Bobby to take the kids about 25 miles back to the east to Appomattox where the final moments of the Civil War took place. We're focusing on the Civil War this year in our homeschooling and I thought it would be a shame to pass up the opportunity to spend at least a couple of hours at this major historical spot when we were so close. (You can click on the pictures below to enlarge them and read the plaques. Very interesting.)

The Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road that Lee had hoped to escape by but was blocked by the Union Army. This is looking eastward.

In the McLean House where Lee surrendured to Grant.

The same room today

It was an interesting field trip for the whole family and as we were leaving the famous McLean House, Bobby was pushing Grace to the van, the rest of us following. He engaged Grace's brakes and stepped toward the van. I walked up behind Grace and thinking Bobby would lower the ramp, I disengaged the brakes, ready to push Grace up the ramp. After standing behind Grace for half a minute and realizing the ramp had not come down, I looked to see what Bobby was doing. He was tidying up the van. Imagine that! At that point I decided Grace would probably like a drink of cold water. We were all very hot. I took my hands off of the wheelchair to see if she'd roll and she didn't so I stepped into the van. I was in the van only 6 or 7 seconds and glanced out to look at Grace...who was not there! I jumped out of the van and started running after the wheelchair which had turned around and rolled past the front of the van. I was screaming after her as she gathered speed and approached a curb. It all happened in probably 15 seconds. Grace hit the curb straight on, was airborne and landed on her head and then rolled over on her side. Somehow I managed to roll her back over and get her upright again and then began examining her head as I wept. Very quickly several people had gathered around us to offer whatever help they could but none was needed as we had our own first aid kit, ice and phones. We thanked everyone for their kindness and concern and got Grace loaded in the van where Landis was the first to offer to hold some ice on Grace's goose egg that had risen out of the left side of her forehead.

Would you believe Bobby took a picture of the curb (right side closest to me) where Grace crashed? And I have the guts to post the pic.

Even though I sat in my seat in silence, tears in my eyes, feeling like a terrible mother, I was listening to Landis talk to Grace and admiring how he was talking to her as his equal. Actually, I was just happy that he was TALKING to her. I heard him telling her about the time that he fell and hit his head on a stone and had his own goose egg. "And when you saw it do you know what you did?" he asked Grace, "You LAUGHED at me!" I was smiling in the front seat.

A couple of hours later, we stopped to eat and I purchased a sample pack of ibuprofen, assuming Grace needed it. She took one with her lunch and that evening I asked her if she wanted the other pill. She gave me a big smile and a squeal. Her response cracked me up as I thought of my daughter taking a liking to drugs.

Our time of arrival back in Greenbrier was very late, like 11:30. We would have arrived home much earlier if we hadn't driven to Appomattox. But we all learned so much today. We learned a lot about the Civil War and how it ended, and we learned that in a hilly place like Virginia you should always, always, ALWAYS, make use of the brakes on Grace's wheelchair.

Another thing I was reminded of today: way back in 1967 when I was being formed in my mother's womb, (I wasn't born until '68) God called me to be Grace's mama. I may make mistakes, but He doesn't. His calling on my life remains the same and it's His empowering grace that enables me to ...git'r done.

2010-09-19T20:12:00.000-07:00

Illinois and Kentucky

August 8, 2010

We arrived in Collinsville, Illinois, which is on the outskirts of St. Louis, in the late afternoon hours of Saturday, August 7, and checked into our room. There we found a beautiful gift basket and the most creative welcome card we've ever received! It was so cool!

We anticipated meeting some pretty nice folks as we drove to the home of Roger and Cindy Matthews. There we met their 3 children and Pastor Jeremy Drake, his wife, Lori, their 2 boys, and of course, Roger and Cindy. We had a great evening eating grilled hot dogs, sausages, potato salad, corn on the cob...you get the picture. After dinner the kids enjoyed the pool (yes, we always carry their swimsuits with us) Bobby and Roger went to the basement studio and I joined the rest of the adults on the deck.

A great evening followed by a wonderful morning at Center Pointe Church. Pastor Jeremy led worship as Roger played drums and Cindy sang on the worship team. We were given liberty to lead the service as the Lord led and the morning ended with several at the altar.

We enjoyed more hot dogs after the service with the church in the fellowship hall and after some prolonged goodbyes we headed to Owensboro for the evening service.

Roger works with people with special needs and offered to help with Grace.

The Matthews Family

Pastor Jeremy, Bobby and Roger

Wings of Faith Church of God in Owensboro is pastored by our friend Larry Bidwell. This was our third visit and although the congregation is very small, this family of believers, especially the pastor, have become very dear to us. Pastor Larry met us at the door and helped load in and then started snapping pictures. I haven't known him to take so many pictures before but he has really gotten into it. He took us into his office before church and amid hundreds of pictures on his computer, he picked out some favorites of his grandchildren.

Bobby started off the service a little differently and instead of kicking it off with canned music, he asked everyone to sing Amazing Grace with him as he just played the acoustic. I believe the Holy Spirit was there; I could sense His anointing on Bobby as we spent a little while just worshiping.

It was a lovely evening and once again we enjoyed our visit with Larry Bidwell and his flock.

Of course it wasn't too far to Greenbrier that night so we slept at home and awoke at home the next morning. I like it when it works out like that.

2010-09-06T19:35:00.000-07:00

New York, New Territory

July 30 – August 3, 2010

We left late, Thursday night, driving north to New York, a new state for us. On the way up Bobby informed me that he told brother-in-law, Timothy that we'd probably swing by my dad's house in Michigan on our way back to Tennessee from New York in order to see Tim and Kristy one more time and say goodbye. At first I thought he was a little crazy because it seemed so out of the way and we had said some pretty thorough goodbyes to the Halls a week earlier. But then I decided that was a pretty thoughtful thing for Bobby to think of and do.

We found the town of Friendship easily enough and met Pastor Duane Broadwell at the edge of town and he led us to our family suite where we would stay for the following two nights. When Bobby scheduled the date and asked about lodging, Pastor Broadwell told him that his church owns a single-wide trailer which is stocked with linens, dishes and a few toiletries. It was definitely different as we were accustomed to checking into a hotel room. The trailer was a '68 model with a long weather-worn deck connecting two exterior doors. It was tidy on the inside and stocked with dishes, plenty of groceries for us for the weekend, bedding and, yes, a TV.

After unloading and then resting a while, we got ready and drove to the little town of Almond where we ministered in Almond Union of Churches, another first for us. It was such a pleasant evening. I sat there on that front pew and felt a slight evening breeze taking me back to July 3^rd last year in North Dakota as we sang in a little church near Hazen where the breeze was so comfortable and the sky so clear as the sun set. (deep breath) Intoxicating.

There was food and fellowship after the service and I got some advice from a couple of the ladies about visiting Niagara Falls, which was something we thought we might have time to do on Sunday evening since we weren't singing.

I discovered Faith had swimmer's ear a couple of days before we left home and I was treating it with colloidal silver. But by the time we headed north she seemed to be doing better. When I put the children to bed Friday night in the trailer I thought, “yep, we got this thing licked!”

Saturday morning we were supposed to meet Pastor Broadwell and his wife at the church and then go to the starting place for those participating in the parade. Parade? Yes, this particular weekend was the Friendship Freedom Fair.

Pastor Broadwell didn't know how much he was asking of Bobby to ride on a float and lip sync his songs but we all joined in with him and I was proud of Bobby for being so cooperative.

We made it through the parade just fine and then found a cafe nearby to get a quick lunch. However, we didn't get our food in time and Bobby had to leave before his order was brought out because he was scheduled to sing on the front porch of the church at 1:00. I hurried the kids because I knew he wanted them to sing too and we brought Bobby's lunch with us.

We had the rest of the afternoon and evening off and we spent it relaxing at the trailer.

But wouldn't you know at bedtime, Landis began complaining of an asthma attack, Hope said her ear was beginning to hurt and Faith cried that her other ear was beginning to bother her! The scary thing was we forgot to bring Landis' inhaler. I had sent it to Kids Camp a couple of weeks prior but forgot to pick it up again from the church after camp. Now here we were away from home without it. Not the first time we've been in this situation. However, I did have a capsule with me in my medicine bag that works great for opening up the bronchials. I just wish Landis wouldn't refuse to swallow pills! I told him he HAD to in order to breathe but he still refused and I thought he went to bed. A little while later I found out he had sneaked into the kitchen, opened the capsule and poured the contents into a tablespoon of peanut butter. Whatever!

Landis woke me 3 times in the night because of the attack he was suffering with. The first time he needed to take another pill and his breathing was pretty labored. The next two times he woke me indirectly as I heard him vomiting in the bathroom. The third time he woke me it was 30 minutes before my alarm was to go off so I just stayed up. To give you the full story of how the night went, what was supposed to be 8 hours of sleep tuned into 6 hours of frequently interrupted sleep as Grace refused to settle down very quickly and Hope complained about her kicking. And Faith awoke crying 3 times and couldn't give me a reason why. My guess is that her ear was bothering her.

When I rose at 5:30 the fire whistle in Friendship was going off. The weather did not seem threatening although it was overcast, so I decided to get on the Internet and check www.weather.com to make sure there were no warnings of any kind. I mean, we WERE in a trailer, after all! There were weather threats so I checked my email quickly and saw I had a note from a dear friend in Michigan. She had sent a letter of encouragement the evening before and wow, was it encouraging! It was a timely note that God knew I needed to read that particular morning. I replied to it quickly and rose from the table to pace the floor and make some declarations. Sometimes you have to begin to remind yourself of who you are in Christ, Who's blood you've been washed in, Who bought you with His life, Who bore the stripes on His back for you, Who clothed you with His righteousness, Who has seated you in heavenly places, Who put the Devil under YOUR feet and Who intercedes in prayer for you! Yep, sometimes you just have to remember. So I paced, prayed and declared and I got fired up. I was sleep deprived and ticked off. Not ticked off at the kids but ticked off at the Devil for messing with us. After I reminded myself of who I was and what I had, I then reminded Satan of the fact that he's defeated and doomed and then I got ready to go to church.

Landis considered whether or not he could go to church and I considerately told him that we weren't gonna lay down to sickness. I told him that he WOULD go. He didn't have to eat breakfast, smile or even sing if just couldn't physically do it, but he would get dressed and be present.

The girls had a little pain in their ears but they were fine otherwise. I, on the other hand, was pretty fired up and asked Bobby if I may take some liberties when I gave a testimony. He didn't even ask what I was thinking of saying. He just gave permission.

The old church building where Friendship Bible Baptist Church meets is more than antique and it's beautiful with it's high tongue and groove ceiling and beautiful details in the carvings of the woodwork. The pews matched the floor in color and our voices reverberated in the room from all the glossy hard surfaces.

Landis sat very still, spoke a little and by the time the service began he was feeling much better. He sang with his sisters and even sang his solo and played his guitar. I want to spread the news that we as Christians should not lay down to sickness if we can help it and if we're physically able at all, to make ourselves go. I've heard people say, “I wish I COULD kick the Devil in the teeth.” I reply with, “Really? Well, you CAN!!! Get your sick little body out of bed on Sunday morning, go to church and make yourself praise the LORD!

By the time church was over Landis was fine.

Oh yeah, what was my testimony? I just told the folks in a nutshell about our night with sickness and lack of sleep and then proceeded to talk about how we as Christians in America are so fat, lethargic and complacent and we'd better wake up and realize that we'd better get into the Word and let the Word get into us. Instead, we've gotten into the worLd and allowed the worLd to get into us.

I really felt like the Lord wanted me to share the things I shared but before the service started, a brother began telling me about his physical ailments and then about the physical problems with his college-age son. His son's health has deteriorated so much that he had to quit college and move back home. I heard two more stories of sickness before church and word spread around the room about Landis' puny condition that morning. You might imagine that I began to doubt and was tempted to just give my usual testimony about our Grace and God's grace, kind of like, “church as usual.”

But I went ahead and shared what was on my heart and afterward the same man that shared his problems with me before church, expressed his appreciation for what was shared and admitted there were things about our healing that he'd never considered before. Thank you, Jesus!!!

There was a cookout in the yard outside the building immediately after church and then we said our goodbyes and headed back to the trailer to change clothes and pack up.

We had no concert that evening so we decided to drive 2 hours north to show the children Niagara Falls. It was a beautiful evening and we had a great time.

Our plan was to head west and drive as far as we could that night so we wouldn't have as far to go on Monday but our wait for our dinner at Denny's was nearly an hour and traffic was terrible leaving NF so we slept just on the west side of Buffalo. Grace woke us the following morning around 5:30 and for a change I was thankful since we had so far to go and had told family that we'd join them for dinner.

We enjoyed a great evening with my dad's brother, Moe and Aunt Ruth, Dad, and of course Timothy and Kristy and the boys. Moe grilled pork chops and Ruth put on a wonderful homemade spread of cheesy potatoes, salad with homemade dressing and corn.

Dad with his 8th grandson, Ethan Malachi Hall.

The St. Joe River runs right behind Moe and Ruth's house. Where there's water, there's Landis with a fishing pole.

The special treat was my brother, Joel bringing his new “acquaintance,” Candace. What a sweet gal! I really enjoyed meeting her and getting to visit with her a little while the others played some cornhole.

The real and final goodbyes (until next summer) to Tim and Kristy the next morning and we were on our way home...after we had some ice cream at the Nottawa ice cream store. Bobby HAS to stop there every time we're in Michigan.

2010-08-28T12:08:00.000-07:00

Close to Home

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!

2010-08-27T15:34:00.000-07:00

Pickin' In The Panhandle

July 16-19, 2010

Last spring when we learned that our calendar was open enough for Landis and Hope to attend Kid's Camp with our church, I talked it over with Bobby and then gave him the dates saying, “Just remember not to book anything too far away.” The children had to be at the church around 11:00 AM on Monday, the 19^th and if we had too far to travel after a Sunday night concert, we wouldn't be able to get the kids to the church on time.

The next thing I know we're booked in western Oklahoma! At first I thought we'd have to drive all night long to get the kids home but even that wasn't going to give us enough time. So Bobby said the only thing we could do would be to leave Landis and Hope with someone like Pat and Mary Johnson for the weekend while he and I and Grace and Faith made the trip.

Oh, the packing and preparing to be done. I tried my best to make it simple for everyone, including Pat and Mary. I packed a bag for Landis and Hope together for the weekend at the Johnsons as well as packing separate bags for Landis and Hope for the week at camp. There was nothing, not even toothbrushes, that had to be moved from bag to bag. The weekend luggage was totally separate from the camp luggage.

Friday evening with the rain pouring down we drove to Bellevue to leave two of our babies while we headed west. It was a big deal for me but I didn't cry.

The girls and I settled down to sleep in west Tennessee and Bobby drove until about 3:00. That was a little earlier than usual but he figured we got an earlier start than we usually do so he figured he ought to quit a little earlier. I started driving just before Little Rock and found out later Bobby was sleeping very little back there. I drove as far as Shawnee, Oklahoma and then Bobby drove some more until we stopped in Elk City to have breakfast.

We arrived at the Best Western in Guymon in plenty of time to shower and refresh ourselves and then drive another 80 miles to Felt where we were happy to see again, Orden and Gayla Hartley and their youngins, Sherry and Orden J.T. I think Sherry was a little disappointed that Hope wasn't with us but Faith and Orden J.T. remembered each other and seemed to pick up where they left off as kids can so well do.

Pastor Orden grilled hot dogs and the ladies brought all the stuff that goes around that, including dessert. In spite of the fact that the meal and concert were outside in the church yard where the thermometer read 98 degrees, it felt better than the weekend before in Mississippi where it wasn't quite as hot. The low humidity out west is a wonderful invention.

Bobby sang to us while we ate our hot dogs and then it was Faith's turn to sing. We'd been preparing her weeks in advance telling her that Landis and Hope would not be with us and that the children's part of the program was all on her shoulders. Every time we told her this she insisted that she would NOT sing a solo, so one night at bedtime I asked her why. She said she didn't want everyone looking at her, so, remembering an episode of the Brady Bunch, I told her that when she sang she should just imagine everyone in their underwear. This cracked her up so hard that she was shaking with laughter.

Then on Thursday, the 15^th, the day before we left for the Oklahoma trip, we sang at a nursing home in Goodlettsville and we coaxed her into singing her solo while sitting on Mama's lap. She did it! And we were hopeful that this one time would build some confidence in her and encourage her for the coming weekend. It did, and when Bobby called her up to sing at the Felt concert, she sang her song beautifully. By the way, the song has a LOT of words, is entitled “My Day” (a Veggie Tales song) and is recorded on the kids new CD. When Bobby started introducing her and her song, he usually says, “This song has a lot of words.” And Faith will inevitably interrupt him and say, “No...it just has two words.” She's referring to the title.

We had the 80 mile drive back to Guymon that night and then drove back west again the following morning but only about half that distance to Keyes. We met a very young Pastor Nichols and his beautiful family. We were shown to our Sunday School classes and then had a good church service. Before the service we were introduced to Leland and Loretta Arthaud who said they would take us to Guymon for lunch since there were no restaurants any closer. I felt kinda bad for them to go that far but Loretta insisted that they were used to that.

However, immediately after church Loretta approached me and asked me if we liked spaghetti. She said she'd thought about it during church and decided that it would be more pleasant for all of us if we just came to their home for lunch and she figured she could find something to prepare quickly. She went on home ahead of Leland who was brought home by his son and family who lived next door.

We were led down straight dirt roads to a lovely but humble farm house and were made to feel right at home. The Arthaud home reminded so much of the farm houses of relatives in Indiana and Michigan where I grew up. All that was missing was the sound of the FM radio over in the corner hissing and blurting out gossip and information. After lunch Grace and I lay upstairs, she surrounded by toys and me on a sofa and Leland and Bobby lay in recliners down in the living room. Loretta and Faith made play dough, colored red and had a good time together in the kitchen. We snoozed about an hour, and waking, realized we'd better hurry to Balko or we'd be late for the evening service. How pleasant it was there in that quiet and comfortable house under large shade trees. We thanked Leland and Loretta for the yummy lunch and the moments of rest and then it was off again to sing and minister in another church.

Balko Baptist Church was where we met Mr. Dale Naylor in March over a year ago. Dale was the gentleman, who, after visiting with Grace and I, told his pastor that he wanted to offer us his aged parents' motor home. We were delighted and grateful and enjoyed having a motor home for a few weeks but it became a problem for us as it began breaking down and costing us more money to maintain than we could afford. Through that experience though, we have enjoyed getting to know Dale and Jackie. This time we had the great privilege of meeting Dale's parents Dick and Opal and his sister, Bertha.

Before the service, we were reacquainted with the Blosser Family. Their son, Tanner, has a big heart for children with special needs and couldn't wait that evening for Grace to come out of the bathroom where I was combing her hair and washing her face. Had I known he was out there I would have hurried a little more. When I finished getting ready for church and joined the others on the front pew, there was Tanner sitting in my spot next to Grace at the end of the pew! He offered to move but I insisted he stay right where he was. He sat there in the front with our family for the entire service and was such a sweetie to Grace, who enjoyed the attention.

After the service, we followed the Naylor's to their home just a few yards shy of the Texas line to enjoy a meal with them. We figured we'd have some sandwiches and tea but Jackie had prepared fried chicken, mashed potatoes and everything that goes with it. All this at 9:00 at night! We were surprised to say the least but loved it and ate our fill. We had a great time visiting with the Naylor family around their dining room table in their lovely ranch home.

Following dinner and lots of conversation, I had the opportunity of looking at some pictures of Dale's brother, Darrell, when Darrell was in the service in Vietnam. It was in battle that Darrell sustained injuries that left him unable to walk, talk or care for himself in any way. He could not even turn himself in the bed and his parents cared for him for 36 years until he passed away over 4 years ago with congestive heart failure.

It was a privilege to finally fellowship with Mr. Dick and Mrs. Opal Naylor; to thank them face to face for their generosity toward us and to receive encouragement from them regarding caring for Gracie.

We followed sister, Bertha down some country roads into Perryton, Texas where Mr. Dale had purchased a room for us at a brand new Baymont Inn. We rested there and our family of four headed east toward Nashville the following morning. I had a bit of a lump in my throat when I got to speak to Landis and Hope for the last time until Friday evening, blessing them for a wonderful week at camp.

We arrived home at 3:00 AM - exactly 24 hours after Timothy, Kristy and family LEFT our home. They had spent the night at our house on Sunday night in order to be close to the motor home. They rose at 2:30, put the boys in the bus and headed out at 3:00 AM heading to North Carolina to see family. I thought I would not see them again until next summer, but I've been wrong before...

2010-08-23T13:05:00.000-07:00

A Mess In Mississippi

July 10 & 11, 2010

My youngest sister, Kristy, her husband, Timothy Hall and their 4 sons, Clay, Thaddeus, Christopher and Ethan live in China and came to the States for their annual visit at the end of June. They arrived in Detroit and my dad picked them up and took them to his house. The Halls stayed in Michigan for 1 week and then drove Dad's Winnebago to Nashville for a two-week stay. They parked the motor home at our house and stayed at my sister, Mary Kelso's home in Mt. Juliet. Dad actually followed them down and stayed at our house. I had a big meal prepared for all of us when they arrived and we enjoyed getting to meet little Ethan, 3 months, for the first time.

The Halls and my dad arrived in Nashville on July 6^th and a couple of days later Bobby asked Dad if the Bowens could borrow the motor home for our trip to Mississippi the coming weekend. I resisted and wondered why Bobby would even want to mess with it. The problems with our motor home from a little over a year ago were still pretty fresh in my mind and I figured it would be the same way for him. Dad said he didn't mind at all if we took the motor home but it took us a couple of days to work it out. Bobby told me that the Saturday night concert was outdoors and considering the heat and humidity he thought we might really be thankful for the air conditioned motor home. I figured he was probably right and we drove the motor home.

We hadn't even gone completely out of town when Faith said, “We forgot our pajamas.” I thought she was funny and assured her that we had our, “pajamas in the... Bobby we don't have the suitcase!!!” It was still sitting on the table in my bedroom, unzipped. I guess just changing to a different vehicle and making sure we had the things we needed messed me up. I am still amazed that Faith, who's 4, would have noticed such a thing. At first we were trying to think of ways to get that suitcase but Bobby insisted we'd be fine. He said we could stop and buy a few things that we needed. “A few things that we needed?” My mind began scrambling over how we could made do with what we had. At least we had clothes to sing in. I could wash underwear out in the sink if I had to. I've done that before.

When we got to Jackson, Tennessee Bobby pulled over at a Family Dollar! Yuck! I went in and bought a package of small boys white t-shirts and a package of girls underwear. I didn't want to buy more than one package because the girls had more underwear at home than they need anyway. I knew that what I bought were going to be too big for Faith's itty bitty butt but knew that I had to buy them big enough for Hope to fit into. I got myself a package of underwear and decided I could make do with that. Thankfully, Landis' clothes were packed in Bobby's bag.

Our concert was at Union Grove Family Worship Center near Mooreville, Mississippi and outside as I said. The girls and I waited in the motor home as long as we possibly could before we got up the nerve to go out in the humidity. We enjoyed some hot dogs before the concert and the kids were having a great time playing in the inflatables and other games. Bobby shared the stage with a family group from Alabama and our kids had their turn singing as well.

The church put us in the Wyndam but only one room so Bobby offered that he and Landis would sleep in the motor home and the girls and I could sleep in the room. That was especially nice because the girls were sleeping in their new t-shirts and undies instead of pajamas.

I hurried as quickly as I could getting those sweaty girls bathed and ready for bed and finally got to bed after 11:00. I was in a hurry to get to bed because the following morning we had to make the 2 ½ hour drive to Carthage to sing at Free Trade Church of God.

When I met Bobby in the lobby for breakfast the following morning at 6:00 he told me he had bad news. He said around 2:00 AM the air conditioner quit working in the motor home. It wasn't too uncomfortable in the middle of the night but he was concerned about the rest of the day Sunday and Monday's drive home.

We were fine driving to Carthage and before we arrived there, Bobby was on the phone with Pastor Mark telling him about our trouble and asking him if he had any good mechanics in his church. Sure enough, when we arrived there were a couple of men dressed in their work clothes ready to take a look and see how they could help.

We sang here back in the late winter and really enjoyed getting to know Pastor Mark Gill and his beautiful wife, Gayla and their girls, Katelyn and Chelsea. Pastor Mark was the one who got us turned on to listening to Keith Moore again and his sermon series called Receiving and Ministering Healing. Oh how I enjoyed listening to that in the early morning drives while Bobby took a break and slept in the back of the van with the kids. Pastor Mark has become a friend of Bobby's and will call him every so often just to see how he's doing. He's a great guy and we appreciate him and his family a lot.

Unfortunately, after church we were no better off but we thanked these men for their time and trouble and went to lunch with the Gill Family.

After lunch we headed over to Philadelphia to unload the van and check into the Marriott. We took Chelsea with us as the church where we were ministering that evening was her uncle's church in Sebastopol and Pastor Mark thought she might be helpful in finding the place.

When we walked into our beautiful room it was like Christmas as the children each had a colorful basket with toys and candy overflowing out of them. There were squeals of delight and exclamations of excitement as they tore into their individual baskets and began to play with their toys. Even Bobby and I had a basket. It's pictured below. Chelsea was so helpful as she began picking up trash that was strewn all around the room for us. What a cool kid to see what needed to be done and just dig in.

After arriving at Crossroads Church of God in Sebastopol, I found a wire cutter in Bobby's tool box and had to cut a 3-pronged fish hook out of Hope's prettiest singing dress that she'd worn that morning. I was so thankful I could get it out without hurting the dress. I promised my huntin'-lovin', fishin'-freak boy of mine that every single piece of fishing gear I find from that point on I'd throw in the trash. That was the third time I've found a fish hook where it shouldn't be. Twice I found fish hooks in the floor, the first time being in Grace's shirt while she lay on the floor! That scares me! Since that promise I've thrown probably a half dozen fishing items in the trash.

Shortly after we arrived at the church it began raining and I had to run out in it to close all of our open windows in the motor home. Unfortunately, the rain did not cool things off but only made things steamier outside. For some reason I totally forgot to take my groceries into the hotel room so when we got to the church I remembered them and had to put them in the church's refrigerator. We had great food after church in the fellowship hall, barely remembered to get our groceries, and then headed back to Philadelphia to our very nice room.

We got ready for bed as quickly as possible – and that's NOT quickly when you consider changing Grace's diaper and clothes, making sure everyone's teeth are brushed, etc. But we wasted no time and got to sleep between 11 and midnight.

Bobby and I discussed it Sunday evening and I begged him to get up early on Monday and get a head start on the day because of the lack of air conditioning. My alarm went off at 5:30 and I began to dress and wake children up. We were on the road by 6:30 with the windows open and the wind blowing through the motor home wildly. I saw no point in fixing my hair so I just pulled it back in a ponytail. Why I didn't think of wearing a hat, I don't know. However, I did take the bow from the gift basket pictured above to hold my hair down for the day. Of course it was lovely. Ok, I only wore it for a moment because it was hideous on my head.

With the wind blowing through it was comfortable enough the entire trip. However, it was awful when we stopped to fuel up. We also had cloud cover the entire day until we drove into Nashville where the sun began to shine through the breaking clouds, and then I could really feel the difference in the temperature. But I was so glad to be home before it got too warm.

Cleaning up the motor home immediately after we parked in the driveway wasn't fun but we let the sweat run down our bodies and reminded ourselves it was good for us to sweat.

Of course it was good to be home again for a few more days with Timothy and Kristy and boys and then we were to leave for the panhandle of Oklahoma on Friday evening.

2010-08-12T19:03:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-08-07T12:15:00.000-07:00

Probably Proctor and Absolutely Abilene

June 24-29, 2010

Another all-night drive. This time to Proctor, Texas. We settled in our room at the Best Western in Comanche and then, when it was time, we found Proctor Baptist Church in ...Proctor! Perhaps there was more to the town than we could see, but what we actually saw was a post office, the church, of course, several houses, cats, chickens and goats and a drive-through liquor store. I'd never seen a drive “through” so I had to get a picture.

We liked Pastor Robert Whitefield and his son, Bobby, immediately and later I thought that if we were going to serve in one spot for 3 days, alongside Pastor Robert was a great place to be. This is a genuine Christian with an obvious call of God on his life and a burden to reach the lost. I sensed a sincerity in this man but the biggest thing that impressed me was how his teenage children responded to him. His children plainly respected him but didn't fear him. They were not typical teenagers with careless attitudes but could easily become a part of meaningful adult conversation, including conversation with their parents. I was impressed with this and decided this is what spoke the loudest of Pastor Robert Whitefield's walk with the Lord.

We were not the only guests at Proctor Baptist Church. A gentleman by the name of Dallas Houston preached for the 3 services, while Bobby and the kids sang about 30 minutes at the beginning of each service, Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday morning. The sanctuary was full each time and each time we had food and fellowship following the service. It just goes to show, people always show up when there's food involved.

Brother Dallas had quite a testimony. He is well-known regionally as he has been a radio DJ for many years and is THE voice of the local football teams as he announces the games on Friday nights on the radio. He also used to serve as pastor in Proctor and now leads a congregation in Center City, Texas.

By the end of the third service, 3 young boys had given their lives to the Lord. Pastor Robert said they already had 8 waiting to be baptized as soon as possible and now he thought he might need help baptizing 11. They didn't have a baptistry so they were lining the saints up and getting ready to put a date on the calendar to meet at the river.

After a big catered lunch on Sunday, we took our time leaving, spending just a few more minutes with the Whitefield family and a few others that had become so special to us. Mrs. Joy Green (a.k.a. “Ganny”) finally said, “Well, I don't have any reason to be staying here but only to wait to leave until you folks leave.” She fussed over all of the kids and kissed Grace several times. As I hugged her goodbye I told her that if I didn't see her on this earth again, I'd be looking forward to seeing her in heaven. What a sweetie she was!

We did finally get on the road and headed to Abilene where we ministered at Berry Lane Baptist Church. Clay Jacobs was our contact. Bobby had contacted the pastor, who then asked his best friend, Clay if he'd ever heard of Bobby Bowen. Clay had good things to say about Bobby so Pastor Billy Bardin took his friend's word and scheduled Bobby to come sing. Clay met us at the church, let us in and helped us get loaded in. We had a great time meeting Clay's wife, Rachel, Pastor Billy, his wife, Robbie, and a woman that introduced herself as someone who grew up near Sturgis, Michigan and was delivered in the same hospital I was delivered in. Small world. Hope and Faith were supposed to "point" at "side 1" and lead in some clapping, but Faith can't help herself; the girl LOVES to dance. I just wish she weren't so shy. (ha!) The next photo is Bobby with brother Clay Jacobs.

Bobby with Pastor Billy Bardin

A tailgate party after church

It seemed like a long ride to Texarkana the following day. We arrived at Bob and Tena's around 7:00 and spent the night. We spent the next day with them because they had a Young At Heart fellowship at their church they didn't want to miss. Finally, on Wednesday morning, Bobby got behind the wheel of his parents car and I drove the van. Tena was with me and the girls while Bob and Landis rode with Bobby and we all went to Nashville.

We complain occasionally that Bob and Tena don't make enough of an effort to come visit us. We can't say too much about it because we come to see them so often. But Bobby had a great idea to drive his folks to our house so they could visit with us there. We took them to see the rodeo at our church on Thursday night, since they're big fans of the sport, and we could drive them back to Texarkana the following Saturday as we were to sing near Dallas on Sunday morning.

The construction of our sanctuary was completed in the fall of 2000 and Pastor Davis planned then to replace the carpet in 10 years. So for this 4th of July at Cornerstone he wanted to have an indoor rodeo! Bring in the dirt! Let the poop drop! No worries, they're ripping that stuff up and replacing it the week after the Fourth! The rodeo was a success over the course of the five services with over 200 people giving their hearts to the Lord including several of the bullriders!

My friend, Chele, her daughter, Mali and friends

Does this look like a church sanctuary?

Landis and Hope got to participate in the calf chase.

Another great lazer and pyro show!

My sister, Mary, told us about Thomas' Drugstore in Cross Plains where you could get old fashioned malts and ice cream sodas, so we made a drive up there on Friday.

Having Bob and Tena come to Tennessee with us was a plan that went very well. They enjoyed the bullriding very much, in spite of the fact that it wasn't PBR, which is what they're used to watching on television. I believe we had the best visit with his folks that we've ever had.

2010-07-25T12:39:00.000-07:00

Father's Day

June 19 and 20, 2010

We just happened to be home for Father's Day weekend last year and attended services at Cornerstone. When a guy got up on stage to sing a song with his guitar I thought, "Well, we were not on top of things. I could have let Pastor Sarah know that Bobby has a song appropriate for Father's Day called "Little Man" on his just-released CD. We could have had Landis holding his own guitar sitting next to him, maybe even dressed similar to Bobby 'cause he's the "little man!" Shoot, we sure did miss a good opportunity! Of course we hadn't planned on being home. There was a cancellation and there wasn't time to get the song approved at such short notice. "Oh well," I thought, "maybe that could happen next year."

Sure enough, I asked Deeanna who lead the drama ministry and she brought it up in staff meeting. The song was approved and Bobby sang "Little Man" while Landis mimicked his dad on his own guitar. The band backed them up and my friends, Chele and Marna, sang background vocals.

I was surprised at how nervous I was on Saturday morning as I sent a text to Pastor Sarah verifying a couple of details of the service. There was no need to be nervous. Bobby and Landis sang and played beautifully Saturday evening and many people commented on how the little boy kept looking at his dad's hands while he played which went with the message of the song so well.

We were back for the Sunday morning services to do it all over again. We were given permission to make our CDs available in the lobby and sold a few...we were pretty disappointed about that since that was our income for the week.

I failed to simply take a snapshot but I did get some terrible video. I say "terrible" because the video was taken on my little Sony Cyber-shot which I carry either in Grace's back pack or in my purse. It's takes OK pictures but not so much on the videos. Actually, the video is OK, it's the audio that ruins everything. This is their sound check which was done after church on the Wednesday night before.

We were grateful for the opportunity to sing at Cornerstone and attend our third weekend service of the year. OH! And very VERY thankful to be home for nearly 2 WEEKS! Yay!!! Sssshhhhhh, don't tell Bobby. He doesn't like staying home because he thinks his wallet shrinks.

2010-07-25T12:23:00.000-07:00

June 13, 2010

We had an easy drive out to West Plains, Missouri on Saturday, the 12^th, and found our hotel. We got settled and then walked next door to the Waffle House to have dinner.

It didn't take long to get across town to the Civic Center where His Place Worship Center meets for their Sunday morning services. We met Pastor Greg Worley and his sweet and beautiful and adorable and amazing wife, Angie. Together Greg and Angie, along with a third person, (I think she's a relative) lead the worship and it's great! Pastor Greg plays the keyboard and the girls stand in front of him. They have 4 other pieces to their band and I loved their music. We worshipped together and had a great service.

After church as I was standing next to the CD table, Angie brought a lady to me and introduced her as a mighty prayer warrior who was saved in prison. (Those are the best kind!) She asked if she could pray for Grace and we did. She wanted to know what I believed for Grace and I told her. We realized we were in agreement with each other and she promised to continue to pray for Grace. Angie told me later that if you mention to her friend that you could use some prayer, she'll stop wherever she is and pray out loud, whether it's in the church lobby or in Walmart. It doesn't matter, she's not ashamed. She'll pray as if there's no one else around. That's a Christian.

When I hugged Angie goodbye there was a longing in my heart to know her better. Sometimes you meet people that you just seem to have a kinship with. I was wishing that we had more time with Greg and Angie as they seemed like people we'd enjoy knowing.

We headed out of town eastward stopping along the way to grab a quick lunch before driving all the way to East Cape Girardeau, Illinois.

East Cape Baptist Church was just over the big river from Cape Girardeau, Missouri. As a matter of fact, the church sat next to a body of water that was a little inlet from the river. Bobby unloaded and set up while I took the children to the nursery and began getting them ready. About 30 minutes before the service I heard a woman speak to Bobby in the hallway outside the nursery. She had to remind him of who she was and he remembered the woman and her husband from years ago when he sang with Mid South. They were from Arizona and had been in Nashville for CMA's Country Music Fest. They learned that Bobby was going to be in Cape Girardeau so they decided that instead of going back home the way

they came, they'd drive a bit north out of the way to hear him. What great fans! I wish I could remember their names but I failed to write them down right away.

After a good service we enjoyed some refreshments in the fellowship hall. The church purchased an ice cream machine a few years ago for a great price. Our kids thought that was one of the coolest things they'd ever seen...to have an ice cream machine in the church!

When we were leaving the church I couldn't help but notice and take a pic of the sign advertising the strip joint across the street from the church. ...never in all my days.... :)

We were able to drive home that night as we were only about 3 hours from home. And we were able to settle in for a while as Bobby was singing a special song at our own church the following weekend for Father's Day.

2010-07-19T12:27:00.000-07:00

Time In Texarkana

June 2-7, 2010

A couple of days at home and then it was on the road again, Willie, back to Arkansas. We made our third trip to the town of Warren and the second visit to Bruce and Beverly Culp's church, Faith Free Will Baptist Church. This pastor and his wife have such interesting things to tell us when we visit with them. They tell of an all day singing and dinner on the ground when a Mrs. Martin asked Beverly if she would accompany her three children on the piano as they sang a song. Beverly began to play but stopped and stared at these three little kids as they sang a song in three part harmony with such perfection and beauty that all she could do was sit and listen in amazement. What she heard was not at all what she had expected to hear from those children. I think she might have gone back to a little piano playing again just before the song was over. That same day Mr. and Mrs. Martin asked Bruce and Beverly if they would allow their children to sing a few opening songs at each one of the Culp Family concerts as they toured regionally with their boys. And that is how The Martins, Joyce, Jonathan and Judy, winners of 6 Dove Awards and a Grammy, got their start.

We had a great Wednesday evening service and instead of driving all the way to Texarkana as we've done in the past (remember, they had fleas) we stayed in a motel in Warren. The next day we drove to Texarkana and checked ourselves into the Ramada. This was a little weird. We've never stayed in a hotel in Texarkana before. Bobby actually got a really good deal on a very nice room for 4 nights.

That evening Bobby sang at the Bulldog Bistro, the cafeteria at Texarkana College where our friend, Sheila Lynn has been teaching for the past 2 years. A special guest appearance was made by Bobby's oldest sister, Judy who sang a couple of songs with him and of course Sheila, who's not only entertained the Thursday night catfish diners several times, but who also makes sure the catfish is done right, sang a little too.

We were introduced to a new program this summer called, www.kidsbowlfree.com, which was set up to give kids something to do with their parents during the summer. We had to pay $25 for the summer and select the facility, city and state we chose to bowl in. This membership allows us to take the kids bowling any time before 7 PM, paying only for their shoe rental. We chose to bowl in Texarkana since we knew we'd be there often and would need something to do. Pretty good deal for us. So we took the kids bowling on Friday and again on Saturday.

Friday evening Bob and Tena, Bobby's parents came over to our place, which was the lobby at the Ramada and we played Farkle while the kids watched a video at the table next to us.

We sang at Oaklawn Baptist Church in Texarkana on Saturday evening and then on Sunday morning we drove down to Ida, Louisiana to sing at Victory Tabernacle Assembly where long time friend of Bobby's family, Pastor Roy Smart leads. For Bobby this was like a reunion of friendships that started in childhood and for me it was a treat to finally meet some of the folks I've heard about for years. We had an absolutely great time in church as well as afterward complete with a lunch and lots of picture taking.

On the way back to Texarkana from Ida, we passed what used to be Oak Grove Assembly where Bobby's uncle, Hollis pastored a thriving congregation. Uncle Hollis died suddenly one Sunday night at bed time in January of 1990. Today that little church building stands there sadly forgotten. It's thought that perhaps the presbyter of that little church, who is also a pastor in the area would rather NOT have a thriving little church there so as to avoid any competition for his own congregation. Hopefully that isn't true.

We made our third visit to Partnership Church in Texarkana on Sunday evening. Brother David Markum leads the worship here and his dad, Blaine, is the pastor. Both men welcomed us and were very encouraging and supportive. They served grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and all the fixings before the service and David's wife, Jennifer, approached me asking me how she could help with getting my children fed. It's funny how sometimes just the smallest gestures can mean so much. I just really appreciated Jennifer and her simple offer of help.

The church service was great and we had fun worshiping with the saints at Partnership. Bobby and I told the folks that night that if we lived in Texarkana, Partnership is where we'd attend church.

After the service Hope and Landis recruited some band members on the spot and held an after church concert. While they were having fun on stage I asked Jennifer about the door near the front of the sanctuary and where it led to. She told me it went outside and asked me if I'd like to take a look. The door opened to a stage area. The stage ran alongside the building and was complete with electrical outlets and stage lighting. But I barely saw the stage because beyond the stage was a meadow and not just any meadow. This was a long meadow about the length of 1 and half football fields and enclosed on 3 sides with trees. Immediately I could see that meadow FILLED with people hungry for God. I told Jennifer what I imagined and she said I wasn't the first person that has spoken the same thing.

We slept our last night at the Ramada and headed home the next day. It wasn't until we were nearly home on Monday night that I realized I couldn't find my wallet. Thinking back I decided I must have left it in the grocery cart at Wal Mart in Texarkana on Saturday night after the concert at Oaklawn. Thankfully, there had been no cash nor any credit cards but it's just a big hassle to have to reacquire the other things like my driver's license, voter's card among other little things. Writing about this 6 weeks later, I can tell you I filed a police report for that missing wallet, called Wal Mart security, canceled my debit card, got a new one, got a new driver's license and never did hear anything about that wallet. I'm sure it was picked up, looked through and tossed in the trash....and I'm thankful for that.

Happy to be home until Saturday morning.

2010-07-18T15:03:00.000-07:00

Oklahoma and Arkansas

May 27-30, 2010

On Thursday morning we decided to take the time to visit the Science Museum in Oklahoma City before driving to Enid where we were to sing that night. However, we were only in the museum about 40 minutes when we were ushered to the front doors to stand outside of the building with everyone else. We waited there another 40 minutes and finally asked if we could get vouchers to return and finish our visit at a later date after explaining we were from out of town and had very limited time for play that day. Our address was written down and a week later we received our vouchers in the mail. There wasn't a fire, but there was smoke somewhere in the building so everyone had to be evacuated. Thank goodness Hope and Faith got their makeup on before we were evacuated.

We made our third visit to Chisholm Trail Cowboy Church in Enid. The Junior College World Series was being held in Enid and nearly every hotel room was booked. Pastor Dan finally found the last room available at the Ramada. It was a handicapped room on the first floor and it was smoking. However, it didn't smell of smoke, it smelled of urine. It was a lovely and spacious room but that bathroom, or the special equipment in it, stunk! After asking the front desk twice to remove the special equipment, hoping that would take care of the stink, I finally just removed it myself and set it in the hallway outside. But our bathroom was still stinky. The redeeming factor was that the beds and pillows were the most comfortable I've ever slept on in any hotel, including Hampton.

Our concerts at Chisholm Trail, like most cowboy churches are short and formatted because the pastor nearly always preaches. We don't mind the abbreviated concert and we appreciate the opportunity of hearing a message. We try to accommodate and meet the needs of whoever we're serving. We love Pastor Dan and this time met his lovely wife of 54 years. And we were privileged to witness the ordination of Buddy, who would be starting another cowboy church nearby.

After a wonderful rest in that comfortable bed, I rose the next morning to wash 2 loads of laundry. I've learned that since I usually do laundry after the kids have gone to bed or before they get up, I need to pack 2 sets of pajamas so that I can wash the dirty pair while they're sleeping in their clean ones. While the clothes were washing, I found the fitness room, which I almost always have all to myself, walked on the treadmill and then, while the clothes dried, returned to the fitness room to read my Bible. Yep, I love having the fitness room all to myself. Then it was back to the room to wake everyone up and make breakfast as it was not complimentary at this Ramada.

Then we set out toward Tulsa and beyond to meet Dad at his cousin, Susan Detweiler and her husband, Robert's home near Chouteau. This is where Dad stays when he comes out to Oklahoma and it just so happened that Robert and Susan were attending a wedding in Iowa. However, they made it back on Saturday afternoon in time for us to get to see them at the Mazie Reunion.

Being in Chouteau only once every ten years or so, I wanted to eat at the Dutch Pantry, Robert and Susan's restaurant, regionally famous for it's delicious homemade pies and home-cooked food. Then it was on to Mazie to show the children the house that Grandpa Troyer was raised in, the store that he frequented and of course, the Mazie School, which is where we spent the evening. Dad had talked to Gayle, the lady in charge of the school reunion and she had said it would be ok for us to sing a few songs and make our CDs available for sale. We enjoyed a potluck dinner and then Bobby and the kids sang a few songs. While Bobby was packing up, I got Grace ready for a late night drive and the kids took advantage of the playground out back.

We made it to Sheridan, Arkansas, south of Little Rock, by 1:00 AM and got a few hours of sleep before rising to minister at First Assembly of God. One thing I appreciated was that Bobby and Landis were able to drive the 2 blocks to the church and set up while I got the girls ready in the hotel room.

Bobby and I were able to attend the Sunday School class that Pastor Eddie Gwin taught and the kids enjoyed their own classes. And then in the service we had a prayer time and a wonderful gentleman who seemed to be very sensitive to the Holy Spirit prayed and wept over Grace, left, and then came back and prayed over me. It was obvious that he was touching the Throne with his interceding and I was humbled and eternally grateful to be brought before the Father.

Pastor Eddie and his wife, Paula, treated us to lunch afterward and Bobby, who lived in Sheridan for 6 years back in the 1980's, got caught up on the church, the town, and people who lived there.

We drove to east Arkansas to Hughes where we were glad to see Pastor Ralph Stone again and this time we were privileged to meet his beautiful wife, Janice. We did not meet Janice the first time we served at First Baptist in Hughes because she'd been sick and in the hospital.

We enjoyed a laid back but sweet-spirited service followed by some refreshments in the fellowship hall. I, personally, enjoyed visiting with some precious sisters, giving and receiving encouragement before leaving there continuing eastward with the big river in front of us, the big orange sun setting behind us, and the low, green rice fields on either side of us.

It was our original intention to drive back to Texarkana after singing in Hughes, making our trip a little over two weeks but because Bobby's folks had an unusual incident with fleas, there was no way for us to stay with them. Don't misunderstand. Bobby's mother is a very good housekeeper and puts me shame, working circles around me. However, they live in an old house and they think that perhaps something under the house hosted the fleas and they found their way up from underneath.

We decided since we were so close to Memphis we were already nearly halfway home and we should just drive there for a couple of days. However, by the time we reached Memphis Bobby was ready to stop and sleep. By Sunday nights we are all exhausted and Monday morning is our day to sleep in! So we found our new favorite place to stay, the Drury Inn and bought a suite! I asked Bobby if he was feeling generous and he replied that we had all worked hard and deserved a little splurging.

A couple of days at home doing laundry and repacking to head back to Arkansas on Wednesday.

2010-07-04T22:38:00.000-07:00

Headshots in Henryetta

May 17, 2010

I should have included this in the last post but had forgotten about it. I can't believe I forgot about this because it was such a spontaneous thing that we did and had a lot of fun doing it.

We left Shawnee, Oklahoma that Monday morning, the 17th of May after singing in Purcell the night before. Not far down the road Bobby expressed his concern about getting the photo taken for the CD cover for the kids new project. He desperately wanted to get the photo taken and turned in for duplication so as not to be waiting on that after the CD was mastered. We had some ideas on what kind of photo we wanted and planned on taking some snapshots in our own backyard. But being as pressed for time as he felt we were, Bobby pulled off the Interstate in Henryetta, Oklahoma and we began looking for good spots to take some pictures. We found a couple of cool and interesting brick and stone walls and even one with teal-colored tile on the quiet old streets of Henryetta. The photos above are not the ones we chose for the CD, but I wanted to show off the wall. The top pic of Faith is one of the chosen pics. I like it.

We pulled the van over on a side street and began working on wardrobe changes. Quiet on the set! I combed hair and washed faces while Bobby shopped for a package of batteries for the camera.

He took pics for over an hour as I situated the kids, danced to make them laugh, fixed hair, fussed at the kids, and fussed at Bobby. But we got back on the Interstate 2 hours later, feeling so pleased with ourselves for making good use of our time and resources.

Later that night, after the kids were asleep, I uploaded 112 pictures to the laptop and then with Bobby's help I began to design a photo insert for the new CD.

We arrived home at 1:00 AM and 1 hour later we had a completed a 2-color insert that Bobby emailed to a company in Cleveland, Ohio. Even on the road we were able to get a big job done and it caused Bobby to sleep much better knowing it was out of the way.

2010-07-04T22:34:00.000-07:00

May 22-26, 2010

We were delighted to be able to attend our first Saturday evening service of this year at our home church, Cornerstone. It was Grace's first time to go to “big church” as she is now in 6th grade and has graduated to Jr. High. I tried so hard to be ready early so that we'd have plenty of time and opportunity to find a good seat because of needing an appropriate place for the wheelchair. I was so proud of myself for being ready and leaving the house 45 minutes before service started only to be shocked when we got on the Interstate and saw brake lights ahead of us. Because of construction we crept along for the next 4 miles or so making our 20 minute drive well over an hour. We were embarrassed as we walked into the sanctuary on the main floor nearly 30 minutes after the service had started. Thankfully, we had called Mr. Pat and asked him to help us in saving a couple of seats and a spot for Grace to sit with us. He did and it all worked out except that Grace decided this wasn't church as usual. She would have rather been back in the Children's Ministry with Mr. Pat. I may have been successful in leaving early for church but I failed to remember some items for Grace, like something to drink during church to keep her quiet. Finally, Bobby had had enough of her moaning and complaining and felt that we were at the point of disrupting the service so he took Grace out in the hall. I was so disappointed and discouraged, even to the point of tears. I absolutely HATE feeling like I'm giving in to the Devil when we make exceptions where Grace is concerned. I know some people reading will think I'm a little extreme by saying that but that's exactly why we have sickness and disease...because we make exceptions and excuses. In other words, we PUT UP with sickness and disease. As long as we are willing to put up with sickness, it will be with us. And if you're wondering, yes, I've put up with it too. I'm no exception. In the estimated number of 20 personal and specific healings that Jesus did in the Gospels, a little over half of those healings occurred because the person being healed did something. They didn't just wait to see what would happen, they were aggressive in stretching out the little bit of faith they had. I'm tired of people being offended so easily by saying that they are being picked on by those “faith people” who say, “If you just had enough faith!” It's not a matter of having enough faith. It's a matter of doing something with your faith...not just sitting there waiting for something to happen. Because it might and then again, it might not. That certainly is true and that's why sometimes God heals and sometimes He doesn't. Those are the cold hard FACTS, I agree, but the TRUTH of the Word of God is, it is His will to heal us. He made that very clear in Isaiah 53:5, Matthew 8:17, Hebrews 13:8 and 2 Peter 2:24. There are a lot of things that happen though, that are not necessarily God's will. I mean look at how He said that He is willing that NONE should perish but for ALL to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9) ..but they don't.

Ha ha! I never intended to get into all of that when I started writing but my emotions got caught up when I started writing about Grace being taken out during the church service. There are TV monitors, great sound and overstuffed chairs in the hallway, so Bobby and Grace actually got more out of the sermon than if they'd stayed in the sanctuary. He said she was quiet and paid attention the remainder of the service. God works all things out for our good because He loves us. And that's what I need to close this subject out with: even though we don't always do the right thing or make the right decisions, God's mercy and grace is abundant to us and greater than our weaknesses (or our greatest strengths, for that matter) and even when precious saints die from sickness, even then there is victory. Satan is already defeated and God has already spoken the last word.

We drove home, ate some egg sandwiches and Bobby took a nap while I finished packing. We got on the road at midnight and after putting the children to bed in the van, headed west.

I spoke with my dad the following morning before he'd gone to church. He chuckled when I told him where
(Landis and I snapped some pics of the sun rise in Arkansas.)

we were (eastern Oklahoma) and that we'd been to church in Nashville just 12 hours earlier. In our conversation we realized we were going to be in Oklahoma at the same time as he planned on driving out there from Michigan in a few days. So we made plans to meet up in the small town where he'd be (where he was raised) on our days off between Enid, Oklahoma and Sheridan, Arkansas. Not only did we plan to meet up but to do a little singing at the all-school reunion he would be attending in Mazie. You can't blame us for snatching up any opportunity we can find to make a few bucks by selling some CDs on our day off.

The week prior, when Bobby and I discussed our schedule for this weekend and saw that we'd have some time to kill between Sunday evening in Ardmore and Thursday evening in Enid, Oklahoma, meaning we'd have to spend some money on lodging, I suggested that the 2 rooms that the pastor from Ardmore was treating us to Sunday night might be changed to 1 room for two nights so that we might benefit by not having to pay for Monday night and he'd still be spending the same amount of money. Bobby called Pastor Robert Peterson and talked to him about our situation and asked him about changing the reservation from 2 rooms for 1 night to 1 room for 2 nights. Pastor Robert agreed and upon hanging up the phone but he called back moments later telling us that when he explained the new plans to his wife, Paula, she immediately retorted, “You mean you're going to allow him to drive all that way from Nashville and then stuff the whole family in 1 hotel room? I don't think so!” I told Bobby, “I like her already!” So he decided to just keep the 2 rooms for 2 nights. However, he had a better and more economical idea a little while later and called yet again letting us know he moved us to another hotel and got us a suite for 2 nights. How generous.

After driving all night, we finally arrived in Ardmore a couple of hours before it was time to freshen up and head to New Hope Church of God. We loved Pastor Robert immediately and appreciated his down to earth personality. We expressed our deep gratitude for the generosity regarding the suite and just had a great time visiting before the service.

In spite of our weariness, we enjoyed the moving of the Spirit of God in that service. In our weakness He is strong. It's when we acknowledge that we need Him in order to accomplish anything that He proves Himself faithful and we walk away with the biggest blessings.

A great meal and fellowship followed a great time at church and all of that was followed by a great night of much needed rest.

(Pastor Peterson and his wife on the left.)

We spent a couple of hours in the pool the next day, something that doesn't happen often and after another restful night, we left the following day and headed north to Oklahoma City where we spent a couple of nights at a Microtel. We did a little shopping on Tuesday and Wednesday and then found a church that we thought looked like something we'd enjoy just 3 miles east of the hotel.

We were made to feel very welcome at OKC Faith and enjoyed some teaching on the Revelation by Lead Pastor TL Bates while our children enjoyed Royal Rangers and MPact Girls Ministry. As we sat and waited for the service to begin, Bobby leaned over and whispered that he was sure he had contacted this church about coming to minister.

After the service one of the greeters asked us not to leave until the worship leader, Jamie, spoke with us. Jamie had greeted us before the service and it occurred to her afterward that she might know Bobby. Sure enough when we visited with her in the lobby after church, her suspicions were confirmed that this was Bobby Bowen from Mid South whom she had listened to as a kid. And yes, she remembered being contacted by Bobby previously and promised that we'd be hearing from her in the near future. Isn't it cool how God blesses our faithfulness and obedience. I mean, we didn't have to go to church. We weren't scheduled to sing and we could have made ourselves comfortable in our hotel room as the visitors from out of town that we were. OKC Faith is a large church and could turn out to be a good booking, financially speaking, if Jamie does give us a call.

The following morning we would be heading up to Enid for a third visit to Chisolm Trail Cowboy Church. More on that in the next post.

2010-06-29T19:49:00.000-07:00

Amarillo By Mornin'

May 14-17, 2010

We left for Amarillo on Friday morning, the 14^th and arrived at the Drury Inn late that night, exhausted and FREEZING! That didn't matter, however, when we saw how nice our hotel was. Having a nice place to stay eases the pain of having to be away from home so much. Not that our home is that “nice” but I'm sure you've heard there's no place like your own.

On Saturday we enjoyed steak at The Big Texan: Home of the FREE 72 oz. Steak before finding Triumphant Truth Church where Pastor Alberta Helton leads a loving congregation. It was a smaller group that we ministered to but, wow, what receptive and loving people they were.

We met some precious folks, Johnny and Shirley Sluden who loved on our kids. They said Bobby reminded them so much of their own son who was near the same age.

Pastor Alberta and her husband, Pat have a ranch outside of Amarillo and have served the Lord for a very long time.

After the service we drove to Elk City, Oklahoma to stay at The Clarion and rise the following morning to drive up to Leedey to serve at Harvest Fellowship Church with Pastor Mark Haney and his gracious wife, Jada. This was a date that almost wasn't as there was a mix-up in the scheduling and Pastor Mark didn't have us down on his calendar. At first he thought he'd have to cancel us but he changed his mind and we were so relieved. What a blessing these people were. They are a young church and are seeking to be relevant but peculiar to their community.

Pastor Mark and Jada are no strangers to pain as they lost their 1 year old son eight years ago in a dry drowning. This tragedy has not left Pastor Mark and Jada empty-handed but, instead, has allowed them to minister with more compassion and with more skillful understanding into the hearts of the people they lead. Once again, God encouraged us as we set out to encourage others.

Pastor Mark and Jada treated us to lunch but unfortunately, it was hurried. We had to get to Purcell for the evening service.

We made it to Union Hill Baptist Church near Purcell in plenty of time and after loading in we had time to sit and visit with Pastor Barry McConathy for a while and just get to know him a little bit. He used to pastor Whispering Pines Baptist Church in Conroe, Texas, where our friends Fred and Felecia Rivas attend. Barry and his wife, Char, were very close friends with Fred and Felecia and Char and Felecia used to sing in a trio together. Felecia has told me since there's not a day goes by that she doesn't think of her friends, she misses them so much.

After the concert Pastor Barry, Char and another couple that I really enjoyed getting to know but can't remember their names (I know, that's AWFUL!!!) went out for pizza and had a fun time.

We drove out as far as Shawnee to the HI Express we've stayed in before and found rest there for the night. A long drive home on Monday but glad to be home for the week.

2010-06-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

Recording Vocals

May 12, 2010

Since the music tracks were completed on April 22^nd, the kids had done some practicing on their vocals with the tracks in order to be ready to record their vocals on Wednesday, May 12^th. I say “some practicing” because no one practiced as much as I thought they should have. And actually, we didn't get the tracks for Faith's solo until the 5^th or so, leaving only about a week for her to memorize all 4 verses.

As Bobby was leaving with Landis and Hope to hit the studio hard on that Wednesday morning, I pulled him aside and reminded him that they're children and that he might not want to have his expectations too high. I told him I'd be at home praying for them to do well and for him to have patience with them. As he drove away he was braced for a tough job ahead of him, figuring he'd be pulling his hair out in frustration later on that day.

The plan was to work hard all day until 4:30 and then go to church. Whatever didn't get done would be finished the following day. Neither Bobby nor I figured the whole thing could be completed in 1 short day, but our kids surprised us.

Grace and Faith and I headed out, ready for church that afternoon, but drove to Rick Sandidge's house/studio, the Mark Five Company. Faith did something that I was really afraid we'd suffer for later...she fell asleep on the ride over.

We arrived just a few minutes before the others were finished with their last song. The only thing left to do was record Faith...sleeping Faith. A situation as delicate as this must be handled with extreme caution. Fortunately, I thought of bringing cookies to be used for ...shall we say, “motivation?”

Faith started out sitting on my lap in front of the microphone, cuddling, with her thumb in her mouth. I knew better than to say things like, “Ok, it's time to sing now.” No, I just talked about the microphone in front of me and wondering what song I should sing into it. I talked to Faith about lots of things, but not about her singing. And of course I mentioned that I had some cookies. Finally, when she asked about having a cookie, I assured her she could have one after she sang the second verse of “Jesus Loves Me,” into that microphone. She was reluctant but she opened her mouth as she heard the music. Do you know what that little squirt did? She spoke the words of that second verse – no melody – just spoke, with barely heard monotone words. So you know what I did? I praised her and celebrated what she did and then reminded her that the cookie came after “singing.” Not long after that she sang that verse through beautifully and really got happy when she finished her first cookie. Yes, I said “first.”

Confidence abounded, cookies crumbs were scattered throughout the room and Faith gave a dozen high fives after each song or verse was successfully recorded, most of which were sung while sitting on Mom's lap. Her solo, “My Day,” was literally recorded one section at a time as I mouthed the words and she read my lips. Some of the song was even recorded line by line because of her lack of familiarity with the piece.

Now Landis and Hope: that's another story. When Rick asked what song they were starting out with that morning, Landis volunteered to sing one of his songs first. He told me later he was so nervous, he was shivering. But after he got that first song done, his confidence increased and he was ready to do more. They had four songs done by lunch. Bobby was amazed when he told me on the phone, “they're nailin' it!” When Bobby came out to get Grace out of the van when we arrived later that afternoon, Landis went ahead and sang some overdubs without his daddy there to coach him. When Bobby returned to the room a little while later, he told Landis he needed to come and sing his harmony part on the last song. Was he surprised when Landis told him he had already done it. Landis loved the studio and thrived in that environment.

Grace had her part in this project too. After her dinner and a bath is when Grace is happiest and she usually giggles very easily at that time.

(Don't let the above photo confuse you. This pic was taken one year ago when Bobby recorded his last project.)

So as she lay on our bed in her pj's with her hair still wet, she giggled at Bobby and I as he held his iPhone over her head, and the two of us made faces and danced. At one point I thought of bumping butts but when I did so and Bobby caught on and returned the move, he threw me into the nearby wall! So when you hear Grace giggling on the CD, you can now picture Bobby and I acting stupid, him bumping me into the wall and me having to stifle my cries of "ouch!" so as not to mess up the recording.

The kids' CD is completed and is available at www.bobbybowen.com for $10 plus $3 shipping.

2010-06-13T21:39:00.000-07:00

Indiana

May 7-9, 2010

After my breakfast with 3 aunts and 2 uncles, I drove back to Dad's to load the van and trailer, say goodbye to Dad and head to Anderson, Indiana.

It was a warm, windy afternoon with storm warnings and it turned cold after the sun set. When we pulled into the parking lot of Anderson Church of God of Prophecy, I noticed the pastor's name on the marquis was Barker and mentioned it to Bobby because that's the name of our friend, Pastor Rich Barker of Christ Tabernacle Church of God of Prophecy in Sheridan, Indiana, not very far from Anderson. We've sung at Pastor Rich's church twice before and were to sing there again the approaching Sunday morning.

“Yeah,” Bobby said, “this is Pastor Rich's dad.”

Later in the sanctuary I made a comment about Brother Charles being Pastor Rich's dad and he corrected me saying they were brothers. (oops) I was sure to tell him that I hadn't assumed anything – no – I was just going by what Bobby had told me. (cheesy grin)

We had a great service with 6 or 7 pastors from the surrounding area attending. One of those pastors was Bobby's cousin, Rick Bowen from Muncie. I always look forward to seeing Rick. He's an encouragement to everyone he meets, not to mention I appreciate his great sense of humor. Rick even brought some folks from his church with him.

We enjoyed some snacks in the fellowship hall after the service and then we were on our way down to Indy to check into the Microtel that Bobby had reserved for us that night and the next.

The weeds growing up around the building was our first clue that this Microtel stay was not going to be as pleasant as all of our previous visits at the other links in this chain. We got everything into the room before I realized there was no refrigerator. I called the front desk and asked them if they had a room with a frig.

“Um, no” was the reply on the other end.

“Ok...you don't have refrigerators at all?” I asked.

“No.” was all he said.

Before we turned the lights out to go to sleep I had called the front desk 3 more times asking for an iron, a hair dryer, and a luggage rack, all of which the answers were ...no.

After the third “no,” I wasn't saying anything. I was just slamming the phone down. Would I recommend this hotel to a friend? Only friends that I don't like. Don't stay at the Microtel on I-465 on the west side of Indy unless you want to rough it.

The following day, even though it was Saturday we had school because there was nothing else to do and after lunch across the road at Ruby Tuesday's, got ready to go sing at the First Baptist Church in Greentown north of Indy. This was a return visit and when I walked into the sanctuary, I couldn't resist greeting the pastor by calling him Brother Leroy. He laughed and I quickly explained that because he couldn't remember Landis' name the last time we were there, he simply called him Leroy. Well, that just stuck in my head and now I want to call Pastor Ken by the name, Leroy. He admitted that he probably deserved that because Landis isn't the only person he calls Leroy. Leroy is anyone whose name he can't recall.

Pastor Ken's wife, Aloha warmly greeted us and we had a very laid back and fun service with a lot of sweet folks hugging our necks afterward. And then it was back to our great hotel.

We checked out Sunday morning and headed north again to Sheridan to minister at Christ Tabernacle Church of God of Prophecy. We looked forward to seeing Pastor Rich and Kathy and the kids again. We admire this family who used to travel and sing in family ministry. After the 5^th child Kathy finally told Rich she just couldn't continue so they settled down to pastor a congregation instead. Today they have 8 children with 2 sets of twins and are now doting over their first grandchild.

Oh yeah, it was Mother's Day. That's how it goes at our house – or hotel room – it's something that comes to everyone's mind later in the morning...but I'm not bitter or anything. (hee hee)

After the morning service we headed back to Nashville and I was told I could choose where we were going to eat lunch since it was Mother's Day. You'll never guess where I chose to eat...actually, I can't believe it either. As we were approaching Seymour, which is 50 miles north of Louisville, I saw a billboard ad for Russell Stover's. I've never been to a Russell Stover's and have always wanted to try it so what better day to try it than Mother's Day when I was given the opportunity to choose where we ate? Shockingly, there was no argument from any of the kids about eating there.

This was the weekend after the Great Nashville Flood and so I asked Bobby if he'd pass the Ridgetop exit that would take us home and drive down to Nashville to see if we could see any evidence of the damaging water. If I hadn't known there was a flood the weekend before I probably wouldn't have noticed anything. However, since I knew, I was looking for signs and the most obvious sign was all of the clean-up trucks in the downtown area. We drove out to Opry Mills and that was far more telling as the exit to the mall was closed and the mud was still in the vast parking lot. And where there should have been hundreds of cars parked as their owners would have been shopping inside, there were, instead more clean-up trucks.

I'd like to link you to a post my sister wrote on her blog about the flood that I felt should have been sent to the newspaper. It wasn't but I'll take the opportunity to share it with my readers. I don't think you have to be from Nashville to appreciate the way this writing causes your heart to swell with pride for our great city, more generally, our country.

2010-06-12T20:03:00.000-07:00

...something you don't see very often

Back "home" to Michigan

April 30 – May 6, 2010

We'd been looking forward to our Michigan trip for quite a while. We arrived at Dad's house on Friday night, the 30^th after an uneventful trip. Dad had parked his Winnebego alongside the patio so that, after the awning was pulled out it nearly reached the eaves of the house. He had planned for Landis, Hope and Faith to sleep out there and at first the three thought that sounded like a fun time. However, after lying out there in the dark alone for a while, they weren't so sure. I must have spent an hour out there with them, talking to them and cutting up with them to get them to relax. I finally just had to tell them goodnight but told them they could talk, figuring they'd wear out soon and fall asleep. But at midnight I could still hear them so I threatened them to be quiet or else... They went to sleep but in the morning I found Landis sleeping in the living room with Grace. He claimed that the night air bothered his breathing.

Bobby had worked it out to sing at the Nottawa Party Store where we love to eat ice cream, hoping the weather

Mom's brother, Merlin and sister, Ony

would cooperate and he'd set up outside on the deck overlooking the lake. The weather did not cooperate and he sang inside instead. We had a small crowd of mainly faithful family members and Bobby began to wonder why he even bothered with setting up his equipment and singing when we could have just had a family reunion. But two couples sat in the back of the room eating ice cream cones. One of the ladies approached me and asked if Bobby had a business card. She told me that they belonged to a motor home group that meets once a month and this first weekend in May they were just down the road from the ice cream store at the St. Joe County fairgrounds. She expressed interest in Bobby singing for one of their weekend gatherings, particularly she was interested in their largest gathering which is Memorial Day weekend. I didn't tell her we were to be in Arkansas that weekend, I just figured she'd call Bobby, he'd tell her but he'd offer to sing the following year and everything would work out. But after she left I felt so foolish

My cousin, Jesse with wife, Laura, and children Taylor and Aaron

because I didn't get her information. That could have been a really big contact and I let it slip between my fingers. But God is good. Those couples left halfway through Bobby's little concert, went back and told their friends and the friends came to the party store to hear the music for themselves. They arrived as Bobby was singing his last song and liked what they heard. Later I found Bobby in a booth talking to this couple and they introduced themselves as Dave and Penny Hough. They are responsible for the entertainment for this motor home group and informed us that their gathering on Memorial Day weekend sees 1000 motor homes with 25 states represented. It's huge and to think of all the church members that will suggest Bobby's name to their music ministers...hopefully.

Since they'd only heard half of one song, Dave and Penny said they'd plan on attending the concert in Three Rivers the following evening.

On Sunday morning we ministered at my dad's church, Morningstar Christian Fellowship near Topeka, Indiana, an appointment we'd been looking forward to for several months. Dad asked me to share about our experience with fasting instead of the usual testimony that I share. I figured God would probably speak to me through my husband so after asking God what He would have me do, I asked Bobby if he thought I should do as Dad had requested. The answer was affirmative and so I was taken out of my comfort zone and had a little homework to do to prepare for the Sunday morning service.

God was faithful and He ministered like only He can to the hearts of some hurting people in the room.

Pastor Jerry Stutzman and his wife, Laurie treated my dad, Bobby, the kids and I to lunch after the service in the quaint Amish and Mennonite town of Shipshewana. Since most of the merchants are Mennonite, the sidewalks are rolled up on Saturday evening and everyone goes to church on Sunday...not to work. However, a Chicago pizza buffet was open which made our lunch choice obvious. If you've never been, and you have a fascination of the Amish, you need to visit Shipshe, as my relatives call it.

That evening we made a return visit to Light and Life Wesleyan Church in Three Rivers,

All three girls side by side on the couch...rare!

Michigan. Pastor Sam Maddox was waiting for us and we got set up, cleaned up and ready to sing. This is a much more laid back congregation and the emphasis is more on good music and having a good time. My dad came and I got to see a couple of cousins, brothers, David and John Hostetler and their wives, Christine and Michelle. I got to visit with the Hostetlers after church like I never had before. We were able to spend more time talking and I really enjoyed their company. One other dear friend that showed up Sunday night driving over 50 miles and toting a homemade blueberry pie, was Becky Irving from Delton, Michigan. Mmmm. Thanks Becky!

It was such a laid back evening that at one point, Pastor Sam asked Bobby and I to take some questions about what our life is like on the road. What a surprise. That was definitely a first and kinda fun.

Mr. and Mrs. David Hough from the motor home group showed up and after the service told us they liked what they heard and definitely wanted us to come to Berrien Springs, Michigan to their large gathering on Memorial Day weekend next year. Pastor Sam heard about that and suggested that we make plans to come back to Light and Life the weekend before that. So it looks like we'll be in Michigan again next year at this time.

So many times when I stay at my dad's house in Michigan, I spend too much time sitting at the house instead of taking opportunities to visit with cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. So before we drove up there I had made plans with my cousins, sisters, Regina and RoxAnne.

On Monday I picked up RoxAnne and we had lunch together. We chose an outdoor spot to eat our soup and as

My brother, Joel's pride 'n joy.

we sat down I looked across the table at her and said, “This is WEIRD!” We both just laughed so hard because it had been many years since we had been alone and were able to talk without interruption. She has 9 children and it's virtually impossible to visit at her home. The kids play well but there is just too much going on all the time for me to stay focused. RoxAnne is definitely the queen of multi-tasking. She can begin a conversation with me, get dinner, change a diaper, chase down a couple of kids that wandered off, punch her rising bread dough down, help a little one get a splinter out of her finger, give orders to her daughters about how to help with dinner and never lose her place in the conversation. She makes my head spin. We had a great visit over soup and under sun.

I rushed back to Dad's after lunch with RoxAnne, to wait for the arrival of two of my dad's sisters, Sue and Ann. I was so grateful for Becky Irving's blueberry pie. Bobby made coffee and I cut the pie and we had a great visit with my aunts. Bobby was nearby with his laptop and he saw that my youngest sister, Kristy was on Skype so he called her up, got a video of her and she sat at the table talking with us all the way from Hong Kong! That was cool.

Later that evening I took Landis and Hope over to RoxAnne's so they could play with Andrew and Ashley (RoxAnne and Jeff's 4th and 5th children) and spend the night with them. Andrew and Landis are both eat up with fishing and hunting and they crack me up with the things they find to do when they're together. Shooting frogs? Yes, that was one of the entertaining sports they enjoyed together.

On Tuesday morning I took Grace to get her hair cut. I love the way my friend, Amy cuts Grace's hair with a razor. The lady that cuts her hair at home might use a razor if I ask her to but she cuts it with scissors and then finishes with the razor. But there's a big difference. Amy gives Grace some cute cuts and so we held out for a trim until we got to Michigan. After Grace's cut, I took her back to Dad's house and then I returned to Sturgis to meet RoxAnne's older sister, Regina. I'm the oldest grandchild of 22 and Regina is only 2 months younger than me. We grew up together very closely, spending the night with each very often and meeting at the lake to swim on hot summer days.

But what we did on Tuesday, May the 4^th was something we'd never done together before and she had never done ever! She had a baby boy in October of last year and so instead of buying something for him, I bought something for her, a pedicure! She was delighted because it was one of those things that seemed unnecessary to spend money on, yet she would have loved to try it. She held onto that gift certificate and when we met in Sturgis that day, we bought some iced coffees first and then headed over to Hollywood Nails where she pulled out her gift certificate and I bought a pedi for me. We spoiled ourselves just a little sipping our iced coffees and getting pampered. It was a delightful afternoon and time well spent.

When it came time to go to church on Wednesday night, we decided that Firm Foundation was the right place to go since Dad's church didn't have service (although Bobby and Landis went with Dad to the men's Bible study on Tuesday evening). Pastor Don Smith leads this congregation and several of my family members attend here. If I lived in the area, it's probably where I would attend too. Bobby and I couldn't help but notice that the two churches we passed on the way to Firm Foundation each only had 3 or 4 cars in their parking lot. However, the country club we passed was packed out! It's not about legalism, it's about priorities and where your passions are. Not to mention the world is watching us.

We attended the National Day of Prayer service – something I've never participated in before – at Firm Foundation on Thursday at noon followed by one more stop at the ice cream store in Nottawa to meet our friends, Clint and Lori Zehr for some good fellowship. And finally on Friday morning I had the privilege of meeting some aunts and uncles at a cafe` for breakfast...a special treat. After breakfast it was back to Dad's to load the trailer and van and head for central Indiana for the weekend.

2010-06-07T11:59:00.000-07:00

Clinton, Dunn & Goldsboro, NC

April 24-26, 2010

Another all-night drive which meant a quiet drive to Clinton, North Carolina. Because of I-40 being shut down east of Knoxville the previous 6 months because of a rock slide, we opted to go through Atlanta, Augusta, and Columbia instead. I got behind the wheel before we crossed into South Carolina and I pulled us into a Waffle House in Florence for a big breakfast and a bedding transition.

Our lodging was at the Jameson Inn and after unloading and fixing ourselves up we found Destiny Outreach with Senior Pastor, Rodney Hall, who is the son of our dear friend, Jim Hall of Arrington, Virginia. Destiny Outreach is a store-front church that houses a loving congregation with a desire to expand the Kingdom of God. They know how to treat a guest, too! They showed us to the “green room” where they had a fruit tray and bottled water waiting for us. Wow. We've never been treated like celebrities before. (smile)

Pastor Rodney, his beautiful wife, Teri and their 2 well-mannered daughters treated us to dinner after the service and although we appreciated the generosity immensely, and enjoyed some great fellowship, we decided the next day that we should decline invitations to dine out on Saturday nights. It's just too hard on the children, and it's hard on Bobby and I too. It's rather miserable trying to get my babies up and ready for church the following morning. Denying ourselves the pleasure of good company and food, especially when you're treated, is a difficult commitment to keep on a Saturday night, however, I think I can stay committed when I remember the regretful feeling I'll have the next morning if I give in to the temptation. Our Pastor has taught such anyway. On Saturday night you need to get to bed and get a good nights' rest so you're ready to give it all you got on Sunday morning. Sometimes that's easier said than done when you're a traveling musician, but where there's a will there's a way...usually.

It was not a happy time in our hotel room that Sunday morning. Landis is the most difficult to awaken. He's very stubborn about getting his eyes open and getting to his feet. I went from speaking gently and cheerfully to yelling at him and threatening to use the spoon on his hind end. Oh, yeah...I keep the road spoon with me at all times. At home it's a wooden slat from an old closet door. The children sang but barely opened their mouths and were reluctant to smile. Hope even yawned on stage. I felt guilty for keeping them out late and then expecting them to act like adults and pretend they felt great. Oh well, we learn as we go. I went somewhere and I learned something.

The saints at Taylor's Chapel Church of God in Dunn, North Carolina loved the children in spite of their honesty, and we enjoyed good fellowship after the service. Pastor Doug Howard and his wife, Connie treated us to lunch and I felt so privileged to get to know yet another precious pastor and his wife. God's been so good to us to allow us to fellowship with and encourage the men of God and their wives.

Three years ago I did a prolonged fast and one of the things that I prayed for was that Bobby would find favor with men. He was working a tree-cutting job and I knew Bobby well enough that I knew he wouldn't change jobs. He's very loyal and will stay where he is. I didn't even have the faith to pray about him changing jobs. So as this company fell into difficult times financially, we watched Bobby's pay check get smaller and smaller I prayed that somehow God would give him favor where he was and that God would miraculously double his income. After a couple of years of booking his own dates, other artists approached Bobby and asked him how in the world he was getting so many bookings. I didn't even realize it until a couple of months ago but I believe it's the favor that I prayed for 3 years ago. But God did even better than I asked, didn't He? He moved Bobby on to his own business and yes, our income had doubled. And why not say “our” income when the entire family contributes?

That afternoon we made our way to Goldsboro where had a little trouble finding Oak Ridge Church of God of Prophecy but at the last minute Bobby finally called Pastor Tommy Moore and found out we were on the wrong side of town. The GPS is a great thing to have...98% of the time.

We had some help with the load in and I got the girls ready to sing. Just a few minutes before it was time to start, I began visiting with Pastor Tommy's wife, Hope. Our conversation had just started getting really interesting when we had to quit talking, so, like good girls, we zipped our lips and looked forward to more visiting after the service. Sister Hope and Pastor Tommy have 4 beautiful children, 3 girls and 1 boy like us but Sister Hope wasn't sure they wouldn't have 2 more by the next time we saw them. I tried to encourage her that if the desire to have more children was deep within her and she had her husband's agreement, then more than likely God had some family expanding plans for them.

After everyone else had gone we had an impromptu meal together in their fellowship hall, enjoying sandwiches, fruit and chips and of course much more conversation.

There were severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings in the county just north of the church which was where we were sleeping that night so we took our time visiting a little more out in the parking lot. At one point Brother Tommy got off of his cell phone and announced the tornado warning had expired for Wilson so we hugged our new friends and said goodbye.

On Monday we were prepared to take the detour around the rockslide but Bobby decided since nothing was stopping him from continuing on I-40, he'd go ahead an chance passing by the optional detour. As we moved westward, we began to wonder if I-40 was open for travel again and then we saw brake lights ahead and wondered if we'd made a mistake. However, we weren't delayed for long at all and continued on I-40 the remainder of our trip home. I Googled I-40 and learned that the Interstate was scheduled to open that very weekend and had in fact, re-opened two days early. Again, it's the little things that can make such a big difference in our travels.

2010-05-31T10:12:00.000-07:00

First Recording!

April 22, 2010

In February of 2009 at the end of a concert in Searcy, Arkansas, the pastor said he felt led to take an offering for our kids before we dismissed. He specifically asked that we not spend the money on any kind of expense but strictly on the children. That little Church of God congregation took up $99 for the children that day and that was the beginning of their savings envelope. We made the decision to use their money on things like amusement parks, museums, zoos, etc. Giving the children each a dollar or two was something that people just started doing. It wasn't much until Bobby began getting requests for a CD of the children singing. After a few requests he decided to go ahead and let people know about what the children's goal was and if they felt led to give a dollar or more to the kids it would be set aside in a savings envelope to be used for their first recording. People began to give

more than ever and soon, after tithing and with a little help from Bobby, the kids had enough to go to the studio and record the music tracks.

Thursday morning, April 22^nd, Bobby, Landis and Hope left the house to go to the Mark Five Company in Hendersonville where
they met Jeremy Medkiff and Johnny Brown. Engineer, Rick Sandidge owns and operates his recording studio on the second floor of his home and normally, music tracks are not recorded there because of the small space. However, we had planned to keep the children's first project as simple and inexpensive as possible so Bobby played bass, Johnny was on keys and Jeremy, of course played not only guitar, but a drum machine via a keyboard.

Faith went to Mother's Day Out so knowing it was going to be only Grace and I in the house most of the day, I had big plans to prime and paint the girls' bathroom. You know, you can make plans but things don't always go the way you expect. Only 30 minutes after they'd gone, Landis called, wheezing, saying he needed his inhaler. He doesn't use an inhaler on a regular basis but it seems every April he has a flare up of asthma due to pollen (or something). Since he doesn't use it every day he didn't remember to take it with him. I had no choice but to load Grace up in the van and drive 35 minutes to Hendersonville and take Landis his puffer. Once I was there, I stayed for a little while prodding Landis on to get his school work done and admiring the music being created. Suffice it to say I didn't get much priming done, but a little, after picking Faith up from Mother's Day Out.

Grace, Faith and I went to our monthly Ministry Dinner at Cornerstone that evening and afterward swung by the studio to cheer our musicians on to the finish line. I think it was about 11:00 when we finally returned home. With the music tracks finished we had the foundation ready to build and complete the project as our schedule allowed.

I'm so thankful for what God is allowing our children to see and do at this early age. My prayer is that they will always have a heart for people and ministry.

2010-05-29T21:08:00.000-07:00

"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.