This month has been full of travels and meeting new people and renewing old friendships. The month began at Danville, Illinois. Now Danville hods a special place in my heart as it was my first and only pastorate. Also it was there that I meet the love of my life, Niki. That's a long story that I won't go into here but is sufficient to say that our 31 years together have been great! We enjoyed meeting the pastor at Danville, staying in his very lovely bed and breakfast and having the opportunity to see old friends in the church and to meet new ones.
Then it was off to Oskaloosa, Iowa. On the way we were able to spend a night at the home of a new friend that Mark made at camp this year. It was fun to get to know him a bit and his family. We felt very welcome at their home.
The weekend in Oskaloosa began with a Saturday morning workday at the church. While I mostly stood around with my hands in my pockets it was good to visit with the guys there doing the work. I might add that I had a small moment of self control when the doughnuts came out. I actually passed them up justifying it that I had done nothing to earn one!
Sunday services went well and I thank God for his helping us to present the Word and the work in Bolivia.
From Oskaloosa it was on the Minneapolis and the WayCross church. I enjoyed the food, fellowship and more formal times together. There we were able to introduce the game of Bolivian Blotto to share some basic information about the ministry in Bolivia. On the way back home we made a visit to the SPAM museum. We highly recommend it. Whether or not you like SPAM it is highly entertaining, informative and FREE!
Next was a trip down south to Missouri and a weekend at the Brashear church. I have always enjoyed the people at Brashear and this time was no exception. The pastor graciously opened his home to Mark and me. He even showed us his train layout and took us out to an old wooden bridge over a train track to experience the thrill of a train almost crashing into us.
This week we will be going north to Milwaukee and then west to California to attend the annual meeting of the mission board. I am looking forward to both of these stops as well.
Why am I writing a not very clever and kind of boring list of our September travels? I don't blame you if you have already quit reading. I write this as a testimony to the grace of God as he has faithfully watched over us in our travels and ministered to us through the many people we have been with and hopefully through us as well.
Maybe the next post will be more interesting. But until then, Happy Travels and may God's grace go with you.
