Enid, Oklahoma? WHY???

Enid, Oklahoma (June 28-30, 2010) Why are you coming to Enid, Oklahoma? Our dear friends Brian and Cynthia Odell asked that question when we told them we were coming. "To see you guys, of course!", was our immediate answer. They couldn't believe anyone would make that trip just to see them. We met Brian and Cynthia when we were stationed in Warner-Robins GA and we had that special blessing of both sides of the husband/wife couples forming not just good, but great friendships. We had the Oregon connection going there in GA as Brian is from Medford. He now works as a flight simulator instructor at Vance AFB which is why THEY are there! What a great time we had. We got to see their daughter Kimberly, 20, who is their last at home and we even got to see their daughter Catherine and husband Stu who just celebrated their first anniversary. We got the grand tour of Enid which usually takes about 15 minutes, but we were able to stretch it into an hour or so! It's really quite a nice little town, too bad it's a little off the beaten path. But that's what an RV is for, going to those off the beaten path places. Wish we could have stayed longer but we soaked up all the friend-sharing time we could in the time we had and left spiritually refreshed and verbally exhausted!

Thanks you guys...Hope to see you in Oregon in September!

The Big D

Dallas, TX (June 24-28, 2010) We headed out of Del Rio, TX and made our way north to near Dallas. We packed a lot into the few days we were there. Here's the brief run-down...Found another cemetery where my great great grandparents on my dads side are buried, got to see a Texas Rangers baseball game that was great, had lunch with my brother Bill and sister-in-law Shirley, spent some time with my sister Jane and brother-in-law Phil as well as their granddaughter Elli-Grace, met my niece Lauren's husband Kendrick and swam in the pool at their new house, got to visit The Village Church just outside of Denton whose pastor, Matt Chandler, we have enjoyed listening to by podcast several times on the road, and reconnected with some good long-time friends from our first military assignment at McChord AFB in Tacoma, WA, and also our Pentagon assignment, Pete and Pam Peterson. Pete led the Navigator's Bible study we plugged into and has been a great friend and mentor to Ed all these years.

We didn't stay long but we did enjoy the time we had in the Dallas area. Now we're off to Enid, Oklahoma!

Texas Two-Step

Del Rio, TX (June 1-20, 2010) There are many things about Del Rio, TX that I don't care for but the fact that CJ, Katie and Kylan are there makes it one of my favorite places to go! Fortunately, they will be there just a little while longer and so we will only have to visit them there one more time, October 1st, for CJ's graduation from pilot training.

We did enjoy our 3 weeks there and had fun swimming in the base pool, watching Kylan take her first swim lessons, going out on their boat and swimming in Lake Amistad, meeting their friends, coloring, playing hide and seek, reading Bible stories, watching videos, going to see Toy Story 3 (not in 3D!), eating, and just spending time together. We were also able to be there for Katie's 29th birthday and Father's Day. Ed was even able to get in several rounds of golf, and a little bit of fishing. Saying goodbye is always hard and I will miss seeing Kylan's sweet face everyday. But it is time to move onward and westward once again.

Church on the Road

When we launched out on our great adventure back in January we committed to try to go to church on Sunday while we're on the road as often as practicable. We have done pretty well overall and the variety of churches and worship experiences has been incredible, stretching, and in a way humbling. Here are some of the highlights...

• A church plant in Greensboro, NC with a loud rock style worship band. The church is focused on providing a place where young college and career kids can experience Christ and providing a save environment where they can find authentic relationships. We were given an option of ear plugs during the worship time and the speaker invited the audience to text him with questions about the sermon. At the end he answered the questions people had texted him during the service!

• Several chapel type church services at a Thousand Trails (TT) campground near Orlando, FL. An entire family put on the service. Mom played piano, 2 daughters and son played violins, and Dad preached. They are the regular minsters at this chapel all year as best we could tell. It was very plain, but very effective. Hymns were sung, the Word was preached, the Gospel presented, and Christ celebrated. What surprised us was the 200 plus snowbirds who packed the place out!

• A Saturday night service at a mega-church in Miami, FL. We were one of 7 services held over the weekend. The service we attended was satellited to 6 other locations. We passed the cappuccino/coffee bar on the way in and sat somewhere in a sloped floor sanctuary (?) that probably seats 2000. The worship band started up a little early with stage-fog coming up from the floor then led us in a loud pump-you up yet very worshipful set of praise songs. The sermon was simple, but well done. The announcements were all very professionally done video clips, one reported on huge church outreach to the poor of Miami that had been held a few weeks before. Somewhere in all that I picked up the fact that the church had given one million dollars to missions the year before!

• A very traditional service at a very traditional church in Lebanon, PA, just down the road from our TT campground. Very friendly people. 3 hymns and a 3 point sermon...very traditional, but well done. Several people introduced themselves and asked us about ourselves. We found out that the church actually leads a Sunday Service at our campground!

• A contemporary service in Ohio where the congregation seemed to be mostly young families. No one spoke to us, but God did. The pastor preached from Isaiah 1 and God really spoke to us through his message. There was a man, probably in his 40's sitting in front of us by himself. I couldn't help but notice as we were standing and singing that he had a bald spot on the crown of his head where he had a tattoo of a man pushing a lawnmower! I pointed it out to Joy and used it as a conversation starter as the service broke up. He too was visiting. I asked him if he as a Christian and he said, "I'm Methodist". We encouraged him as we could and then spoke briefly to the pastor who took the time to pray with us over something we had shared with him.
  

• A church in Hot Springs, AR, where our friend pastors. Wonderful worship and a great message from one of several teaching pastors with a very practical and somewhat surprising application. We celebrated communion for the first time since we left VA and enjoyed a very worshipful experience in the particular way they celebrate the Lord's Supper.

• A church in Del Rio, TX which we visited with Katie, CJ and Kylan where the loud praise band had some help from some hopping, dancing, hand waving young people in front. It was a very charismatic service with a good message and the preacher interrupting himself every minute with a "can I get an Amen?" He handled the Word well using a text from Haggai which really spoke to us. Not a church we would be at home at if we lived there, but we met God that Sunday and that's as much as you can ask anywhere.
  

The humbling part is that it really should not be surprising that as believers in Christ we can worship in all these different settings, formats, and denominations. Why? Because of this magnificent truth from God's Word:

"There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all." (Eph 4:4-6)