Home again, Home again, jiggety-jig!

Praise the Lord we are safely home from our vacation in PA. We know that people leave their homes to travel somewhere, sometimes near and other times far, and never return home. Tragedy can happen in a split second. We thank God for protecting us over many miles.

And praise the Lord our house is safe too. Every time we come home from a trip, round that last corner and see our house is standing, we breathe a sigh of relief and thanksgiving.

I'll be back soon to start posting photos and telling you about our vacation.

A Soggy but Special Day

Today started 19 years ago (if I remember correctly). Long day, huh? I was hanging out in my classroom at Penn View Christian Academy on Registration Day, in between meeting parents and students, when an adventuresome little fella toddled through the doorway. Not knowing him or his parents but feeling rather certain they weren't far away and would be looking for him shortly, I struck up a conversation of sorts with him to keep him in one place until they would find him. Greg was so delightful that I was disappointed when I heard his frantic mother say, "Oh, there he is!" a couple minutes later. In those few moments, he stole my heart!

Whenever Mommy came to school for some reason, he always had to visit "Miss Cooley." He was so cute, so loving, so talkative, so funny without trying to be funny, so "little man," so disciplined that he was the highlight of my day every time he walked into my classroom. Truthfully, I thought Mommy (and, of course, Greg) should come to school more often!

By the time I was planning a wedding, I had only one name in my mind for a Bible-bearer: Greg. I was pleased as punch when Mommy & Daddy gave their permission. Mommy schooled him about what he was to do, and he was ready for the big day. He protested a little bit about donning his gray tuxedo, however, because he was certain that a Bible bear ought to wear a brown, fuzzy suit!

When Mommy had him completely attired, she set him on a chair in the nursery with strict instructions to sit still right there until Miss Cooley told him to get up. He sat so still he fell asleep and almost fell off the chair several times!

He did a perfect job of being a "Bible bear."

At attention.

Looks like he fell asleep on his feet!

Listening intently to my brother's exhortation about marriage. (The flowergirls and Bible bearers sat on the steps throughout the wedding so they wouldn't get too fidgety.)

After the wedding, we lived in Baltimore, MD, for five years and visited my family in PA quite often. While visiting, we attended various events at the school, so we saw Greg from time to time. After we moved to TN 11 years ago, however, we only visited once, or sometimes twice, a year, usually at Christmas or in the summer. As a result, we didn't see Greg for several years. Were we ever shocked when we met my brother Andy in his bus in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge and discovered that Greg was part of the high school senior class who had chartered the bus! (I just knew he must have skipped several grades... but he hadn't!) We were so proud of him for becoming such a wonderful Christian young man.

In college, he was chosen to be part of "Majesty," a PR team for Penn View. We have tried to attend at least one service each summer where he is. We were delighted to learn that this summer he would be at our own church!

...which brings me to today. We woke up this morning to rain so intense it had me thinking Noah. (While I was drying my hair I said to Ken, "Why am I doing this?!") By the time we had loaded the car with several bags and a hot crock pot with foods for the pitch-in dinner after the service, not even our big umbrella had done a very good job of keeping us dry--Ken was so drenched he opted to come back inside to change clothes. So, we arrived a bit late, and the church was full except for a seat here and there and the first two rows on the left side. Embarrassed as we were, we "slipped" into the second row.

Majesty did a wonderful job and were a blessing! We enjoyed them so much. Of course, we had perfect seats from which to enjoy them!

After the service and during the pitch-in, we had a few minutes to talk with Greg. Interestingly, he taught music lessons at the same school my nephew and his wife worked at last year. We can hardly believe he starts his college senior year this fall. He will likely not be giving music lessons this year as he has a very full academic load and will also be choir accompanist.

After graduation, he plans to marry on June 12. I asked him if he remembered that our wedding date was June 13. He said he knew it was somewhere around that but didn't remember exactly. They had actually initially chosen June 13, but changed to June 12 because they would like an evening, candlelight wedding. So cool, tho, that his date will be so close to ours!

Yep, he was the highlight of our day.

Campmeetin' Time!

Wow, where has time gone? It's been a while...

We were rather involved getting ready to leave for, going to, enjoying, returning and recuperating from the AL Bible Methodist Church camp in Pell City, AL.

We've been associated with the AL Bible Methodists for 11 years, however, this year's camp was our first to attend. Not that we haven't been invited, had our arms twisted, etc., but that to me there just seems to be something wrong with this picture: "campmeeting in AL in July!" For the past 10 years I have been telling those who asked when we would come that we'd be there "when it was held in February," but after enduring a simmering, sweltering, miserably hot God's Missionary Church camp in Penns Creek, PA, last summer (our first there since we had moved to TN 10 years earlier), I decided we may as well attend in AL!

Always a highlight of campmeeting to me is being part of the band. I was excited to be told to bring my instrument. I very much enjoyed playing, but the band was not quite the size I had been expecting! The highest participation was eight people. I just know that in that group of 300 or so people were some people hiding their talents and instruments!

Another highlight of campmeeting was the God & Country service on Friday, July 4. Lots of patriotic music and flag waving and applause! As each branch of the US military was called out, veterans of that branch stepped to the front of the auditorium for recognition, a photo op and a prayer. This photo is of all the veterans.

Dr. David Gibbs, Jr. (founder and director of Christian Law Association) was the featured speaker and was entertaining and powerfully convicting as he usually is. Never pass up an opportunity to hear the man speak!

Of course, another highlight of campmeeting is fellowship, but we felt a little apprehensive initially since we thought we only knew two families in person and another couple by phone. Interestingly enough, within our first five minutes on the grounds, we had bumped into all of them!

Here are a few people we enjoyed seeing again:

We became acquainted with Bro Eads when he was our pastor. He works in the sound booth (that's what he tells us, anyway!). The first three times we went to the sound booth especially to find him, he was nowhere in sight. The next several times we stopped by, he was there, but he wasn't workin' that we could see! :) Ken finally managed to snap a pic of this rare moment when he went to see if our ordered CD of camp messages was ready--it wasn't. "We report; you decide!"

I had to laugh when I saw Ken's photo of Bro Eads holding a money bag. One of my most embarrassing moments in church happened in response to Bro Eads saying from the pulpit that ...I better stop there to protect all the innocent, but it had to do with money. LoL Oh, the stories I won't tell here!

Jessica was still a cute-as-a-bug pre-schooler when the Eads left our church, so you can imagine that we barely recognized the beautiful young lady we met at camp. I was sitting behind her in the band the first evening we were there thinking that there was something very familiar about this girl playing the violin. All of a sudden it clicked: Jessica!! Duh, she should be familiar! (She wasn't very eager for us to snap a picture tho.)

We also had time for a nice chat with our friend, Carm. (It's a shame when people live nearby and you have to go all the way to AL to sit down and talk together! LoL)

We were delighted to see Jeff & Susan again and their not-so-little Colton. (Susan was a teacher at Foothills Christian Academy when I worked there 7/97-7/01.) We enjoyed being part of the same church as Jeff & Susan for a time and were sad when they moved to GA.

Rana's family attended Ken's home church in Baltimore, MD, way back when Rana was a kid. We've visited their family twice since we've been married, but the last time was probably at least five years ago. Thankfully Rana recognized Ken! (Having only seen her twice before, I didn't recognize her until Ken pointed her out to me.) We so enjoyed meeting her and her husband, Byron, and talking together. Interestingly enough, Byron did his pastoral internship and a year of youth pastoring with Bro Eads! Now Byron & Rana are pastoring near Huntsville, AL.

We met lotsa people, most of whom were new to us. Surprisingly, we met people with whom we had various connections we didn't even realize! Most often, Ken was recognized as being "Paul Young's brother" (Paul & Christine lived there on campus for 6 years.) A few were with my family. A dear lady with whom we have been acquainted in TN for almost 10 years was so surprised to discover that I'm Becky's sister (she's known Becky for years). She had no idea we were related! Obviously, the #1 reason connections between people are hidden is our cultural practice of a wife losing her maiden name and taking on her husband's name when she marries.

I have to chuckle again and again at myself. As a teenager, so many times I groaned, rolled my eyes, shook my head, etc as my parents, especially my dad, explained how people were connected to others in one way or another. Now repeatedly I find myself doing the very thing--and, worse yet, loving it! :)