St. Paul {Guy Penrod} Weekend, Part 3 {Finally!!}

Note: This is part 3 in a multi-part series.  Part 1 can be found here. Part 2 can be found here.  

"Day 1" finally arrived.  Here are a few things we saw, felt, and learned on Day 1:

* No matter how carefully you plan, your plans will change.  Jodie and I had talked for weeks about the best plan for Saturday morning.  We modified, and modified, and modified again.  We ended up with what should have been a great plan.  A child having an early-morning seizure just before Jodie was to pick us up was our first departure from said plan.  But we "flexed"...the first time of many on the trip...and finally got everything and everybody loaded in the car.

* Do not depend on children sleeping in the car, no matter how little sleep they have had or how early they were awakened.  We thought the girls...particularly the little girls...would sleep a good bit of the trip.  Nope.  They tried to sleep...at times they looked like they were sleeping...but they didn't sleep.  We thought this was because they were too excited.  However, the same thing happened on the way home.  They finally slept when we were less than three hours from home...less than 3 hours out of what ended up being 30 hours on the road. :-O

Don't let them fool you...they only LOOK like they are sleeping! :)

* It's an amazing thing to drive down the interstate jamming to Guy Penrod and realize that in 30 hours or so you are going to be seeing him in person.  Just sayin'! :)

* Jodie is Wonder Woman.  And an amazing driver.  I will probably say this more than once.  It needs to be said more than once.  She drove the entire 30 hours herself.  And went non-stop in between.  She's not only an amazing driver, but an amazing friend.  I'll probably say that more than once, too. :)  She's just amazing.  And she has the Wonder Woman shoes to prove it. :)   (Just for the record, I did *offer* to drive.  But she never got that desperate.  And lest you think I'm that bad a driver, I'm not.  Jodie just likes to drive. :))

* It doesn't take much to excite Jodie and I.  Or my girls. You'll hear more about that later, too.  You should have seen the excitement when we saw a CVS drugstore in Kansas City.   We've both always wanted to go to a CVS (not to be confused with the local chain of CVs Family Food Stores...much cooler! :))

* For those of you who have never driven through Iowa, allow me to make a brief Public Service Announcement.  If you see a restroom, stop.  If you see something that MIGHT be a restroom, stop.  This applies whether you think you might need a restroom in the next hour of the trip or not.  Because for those of you from our part of the world, where there are McDonalds and convenience stores and even Wal-Marts every 10 minutes down the interstate, let me tell you...Iowa is a WHOLE different ball of wax.  You can drive for MILES and MILES and MILES without seeing a sign of civilization, other than an occasional farmhouse in the distance or perhaps a small herd of cows every hour or so.  And if you skip an exit with a restroom, the smallest member of your party will immediately afterward announce that she needs a restroom.  15 minutes later, she will be practically in tears.  15 minutes later YOU will be practically in tears.  10 minutes after that, you will take your chances and pull off onto an exit, only to discover that there is STILL no restroom in sight for miles.  Then just when you are to the point of hysteria, you will round a curve and see the most amazing conglomeration of chain restaurants and retail stores you have ever in your life seen...like an oasis in the desert.  Said panicky smallest member of your party will then announce that the Subway you race into is her "very favorite restaurant in the whole wide world".  The guy working in Subway will explain that he has to drive an hour in any direction to get to a Wal-Mart.  You will all decide that you could NEVER live in Iowa.  Oh...and when you get back ON the interstate, you will discover that had you stayed on that interstate and driven just a couple more miles, you would have been able to drive right into a populated area brimming with restrooms.  Ask us how we know...:)

Gracie's favorite restaurant in the whole, entire world!

* I know you probably figured this out from the last point, but again, for those who have never driven through Iowa...be prepared.  Iowa is mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile after mile of farmland.  And more farmland.  And more farmland.  More on this in the return trip report. :)

This quaint church was a break in the miles and miles of  Iowa farmland. 

* No matter how often or how recently you have checked the 10 day forecast for your destination on a long road trip, the weather is likely to be dramatically different from what you expect.  I'd been checking for days, and there was a 0% chance of precipitation on our route Saturday.  Just as we got to the Twin Cities metro area, it began to rain.  That rain soon turned into a torrential downpour.  We pulled off the road twice because the visibility was so poor.  As mentioned in part 1, we were less than an hour from our hotel at the time.  So close, and yet so very, very far.

* As also mentioned in part 1, that torrential downpour turned into a hailstorm.  Those of you who know my children well know that some of them have an extreme phobia of hail, stemming from a hailstorm several years ago which took out the large front window of our house, sending glass all over our living room.  The mere mention of hail sends them diving for cover and brings the threat of tears to their eyes.  We sat in a convenience store parking lot trying to soothe them and figure out how to get back on track to our hotel when it was over, until we heard sirens.  Yes, THOSE sirens.  The ones that go off in our part of the world when a tornado is approaching.  The ones that every self-respecting Arkansan knows mean "Hit the fraidy hole!"  We didn't have a fraidy hole, but we decided that the inside of the convenience store had to be better than the car in the parking lot under a tree. So Jodie dropped the girls and I off and went to park the car, planning to follow us momentarily.

We run into the store, dripping wet, with tears still trailing down some of the girls' cheeks, only to see the proprietor calmly talking on the phone.  He gets off the phone and I say, "Ummm...the tornado sirens are going off...?"  He replies, in heavily accented English, "Yes, but not tornado. Just hail.  Sirens for hail."  I say, "The sirens are for HAIL?"  We're from Arkansas, and in Arkansas when the sirens go off, that means there is a tornado headed our way."  "No, no tornado, just hail.  Sirens are for hail."  Seriously??  HAIL sirens??  Not to mention the fact that the hail was OVER before the sirens started.  They do things a little different up north, friends. :)

* When you've been on the road for 15 hours, any hotel looks wonderful.  But I'm pretty sure that even had we *not* been on the road for 15 hours, the Shoreview Hilton Garden Inn would have looked wonderful.  I have never been so thankful to pull into a parking lot in my entire life! 

* When you arrive at a hotel after 15 hours on the road, you don't look your best.  When you arrive at a hotel after 15 hours on the road, the last hour of which included getting out in a torrential rainfall, you don't even look remotely presentable.  (That's what I'm claiming the problem as, at least, since Jodie looked WAY better than I did at that point, and she didn't get out of the car in the rain. :))   When you arrive at a hotel after 15 hours on the road with three children in the car, they want a snack, a drink, the remote, and their pjs.

All of that being the case, when the hotel phone rings just as everyone is settling into their rooms and the desk clerk says, "there are some ladies down here who would like to see you," you call your much-more-presentable-looking friend across the hall, tell your girls, "just throw your jackets on over your pjs", slap a bit of lipstick on (knowing that it is really hopeless), and race for the elevator.  :)

And that, I think, is as good a place as any to stop for now. :)  I started this post almost a MONTH ago...just before we left for Family Camp. Since then, we've been gone for a week to camp, I spent almost a week in bed with a stubborn infection, we had a week of VBS, and this past week we've just tried to stay cool and play catch up.  But I am finally to "catch up blog" on my list, so hopefully I'll be knocking out posts like crazy this week! :)  That's the thought anyway.  So...tune in tomorrow to hear what (or who) was at the other end of that late-night elevator ride!

Independence Day...Not Just Celebrating...

Soon after Andy came to Oak Cliff as Student Minister, he began a practice of reading about and praying for a country from the Voice of the Martyrs Persecuted Church Guide during our Sunday School opening.  This morning, with Andy being gone and Chad being sick, it fell to me to read about our country for the week, Mauritania.  On this Sunday before our Independence Day, I was especially touched by the plight of the Christians in this small country in Western Africa.  

Mauritania is 99.8%+ Muslim.  Barely 0.1% of the population know Christ.  It is against the law to be a Christian...or anything other than Muslim...in Mauritania.  It is against the law to print or import religious materials of any religion other than Muslim, and it is illegal to evangelize Muslims.  Conversion to Christianity is punishable by death, and in 2009, local police arrested and tortured 150+ Christians for meeting together as a church.  

This week in America, many of us have been greatly distressed by a Supreme Court ruling which we see as a major blow to freedom.  There has been much talk...and rightly so...of the way our freedoms in this country are being eroded little by little in many areas.  It is disturbing, and we definitely need to take a stand and protect the freedom that has been paid for with the blood of so many over the last 236 years.  

However, I was overwhelmed as I read this morning about Mauritania...just one country among many in the world today where merely claiming the name of Christ can result in imprisonment or death...that we still have so very much to be thankful for as we approach this Independence Day.  We are able to claim the name of Christ without fear.   We are able to gather together for worship in peace.   We are able to own as many Bibles as we choose.   We are able to share our faith without reprisal.   We are even able to declare and defend our religious and political views via social media.

Yesterday I commented on a blog post by a blogger troubled about the popularity of the movie "Magic Mike" and the book "50 Shades of Grey".  One of her last sentences summed up her whole post so well..."We were made for SO much more!"  After spending a week studying/teaching God's plan and design in Creation in VBS, I was especially struck by the truth of that statement.  In my comment I said, " I want to be so caught up in the "more" that God created me for that I don't have time for books or movies like these to even be on my radar." 

I was reminded of that this morning as I read about the country of Mauritania and the hardships faced by Christians there.   I don't begin to understand why God allowed me to be born in a country blessed with the freedoms we are blessed with here.   There are things that sadden me about the direction our country has taken in recent years, and even more in recent days.  But...I am still incredibly thankful for this country in which we've been blessed to live and raise our children.

And I am even more convicted about the urgency of being caught up in the "more" for which we were created.  So often, we...I..."waste" the freedom with which we've been blessed.  We use our "freedom" as  justification for pursuing all manner of things which are not honoring to our Creator.  We're often very poor stewards of the precious freedoms with which we've been blessed.  

My heart aches today for the persecuted Christians in Mauritania and other countries around the world.  It is frustrating to feel that there is so little that can be done for their plight.  But there are things that we...I...can do.  We can pray.  We can give to organizations that are working to help.  We can become involved in those organizations.  I can teach my children and others about the plight of the persecuted church and about the preciousness of our own freedom.  I can teach them how to be good stewards of that freedom, and I can be a good steward in that area myself.  

Most of all, I can not waste a single ounce of the freedom I've been granted.  I can put a priority on reading, studying, and memorizing the Bible for which so many through the ages have sacrificed so much, up to and including their lives.  I can make the most of every opportunity for corporate worship, fellowship, and ministry.  I can devote my heart and life to discovering and doing what God created me to do, without worrying that I am going to be imprisoned or put to death for doing so. 

My prayer as we approach this Independence Day is that we will not only celebrate our freedom, but that we will steward it well.  

If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

~2 Chronicles 7:14 AMP

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Brief Break...

For those looking for the rest of the St. Paul/Guy Penrod series...I'm taking a brief blog break this week, but will continue (and someday finish! :)) the series after the break.  Please check back Saturday! Thanks!

St. Paul {Guy Penrod} Weekend, Part 2

Note: This is part 2 of a multi-part series on our trip to Minnesota to see Guy Penrod in concert last month. For part 1, please click here. 

Back in March, Jodie posted this status on Facebook: 

I just called John and said, "Did you know it is only 12 hours to St. Paul, MN?" He started laughing. Really? What's so funny about that? :)

It would take a book to tell all the backstory, from the concert in Lavaca in August 2011 until that status on March 20.  Suffice it to say that Jodie had been to three other concerts in the interim, all around 6 hours away, and all totally on the spur of the moment.  Her husband and daughters had gone to the last one, earlier in March, with her.  Mr. John's comment on the trip was: "...I did find Mr. Penrod's singing and preaching worthy of a weekend."   Those of us who went to concerts with her were realizing the truth in what she kept saying, that it wasn't just the voice, or the music, or even the hair...it was his genuineness and a seemingly very real and open heart for God.  Guy left the Gaither Vocal Band in 2009 because there were things that he wanted to be able to share that he couldn't share in the setting of a Vocal Band concert.  Those who come away from his concerts talk frequently about his "preaching" and how much it blesses them.  (More on that later...)  God had blessed Jodie greatly through Guy's ministry, and her heart was to pass that blessing on to others. 

When I saw that status about St. Paul, I laughed, too...but with a tiny bit of "I can't wait to see what happens now..." added in.  Jodie's "limit" for these road trips was 6 hours, she said often, but I knew her well enough to know that she was seriously tempted by this one.  This concert was special...our new friend Heidi, who had discovered my blog through a Google search on Guy Penrod,  was the promoter, and this concert was a huge answer to prayer for her.  She had never "done" a concert before, and her story about how this one came to be is goosebump-inducing.  (That will be another installment, so keep an eye out!)  

On April 9, Heidi posted on Jodie's Facebook wall asking if she planned to come to the concert.  I laughingly replied that I was trying to talk her in to expanding her limit, and that I might just stow away in her trunk.  I knew that such a trip would never happen, but it was a fun thought.  

One thing I should have learned over the years...never say never with Jodie around!  I've called her the "Queen of Plans" for many years, but she outdid herself this time.   After Bayley's birthday concert last year, Emlyn and Ammah Grace had become "Guy fans", too.  Jodie decided that her early birthday present to all three girls...and their mom!...this year would be a Guy Penrod concert...but this time in St. Paul! 

We decided not to tell the girls until a few days before, for two reasons. One, we've learned that life is nothing if not unpredictable, and we didn't want the girls to be disappointed if something happened and the trip fell through.  And two, Jodie very thoughtfully didn't want me to have to deal with the daily and then hourly "How long is it till we go to Minnesota????" questions and over-excited girls for over a month.   Not to mention the fact that Jodie was having way too much fun planning the "surprise reveal".  

In the meantime, I was trying not to let myself get too excited, either.  These last few months have been more than a little stressful, with one of our children being diagnosed with epilepsy and all that has come with that.  The anticipation of this trip was such a huge "bright spot" during some dark days.  I took to calling Jodie the "concert fairy". :)   I was also excited about Billy and Peter having a fun "guys weekend", which would be a special treat for the non-Guy fans in the family.:) I was very aware that there were all kinds of things that could happen to cancel the trip; however, as much as I tried not to get too excited, I just couldn't help it.  The closer we came to May 19...our departure date...the more intense my excitement...and Jodie's...became.  (I was so excited I almost let the cat out of the bag to the girls more than once, but I managed some good saves. :)) 

Finally the day came for the "big reveal".  Jodie had planned every detail to perfection.  As often happens with the best-laid plans, though, there were a few glitches along the way.  The girls were still incredibly surprised and excited, and that was the important thing. :)  

Reading their birthday cards with the concert tickets inside :)

The girls asked Guy to sign their cards. I think he got a kick out of  being part of a card with Grover. :)

Emlyn is a little excited!  (Not sure why this picture is distorted here...ugh!)

Ammah Grace is pretty excited, too!

Cool map table decorations...Mrs. Jodie thought of everything. :)

Yummy and adorable "road trip" cookies from Paul's Bakery.   

"We're going to see Guy Penrod!!!!"

Bayley got to the party a little late. 

Realization hits. :)

"Sweeeeeeeet!!!!"

Wishing I had one of these right now!  Although they were almost too cute to eat. :)

Once the girls knew, it finally began to seem real.  Well, more real, anyway.  We still kept thinking it wouldn't really happen.  Until we piled into the car Saturday morning....

(Check back tomorrow to follow our adventures on Day 1 of our trip...:))

St. Paul {Guy Penrod} Weekend, Part 1

Guy Penrod Concert, St. Paul, MN, May 20, 2012

Three weeks ago exactly, as I begin this post, I was sitting in a hailstorm in Burnsville, Minnesota, with my friend Jodie and my three girls.  Somehow in the 1200 photos I took on our almost-66 hour whirlwind trip, I neglected to get a photo of the monsoon-type rain we encountered as we entered the Twin Cities Metro area, or of the hail that pelted us as we sat less than an hour away from our hotel.  Never, we thought, had the expression "so close, and yet so far" been so true.  

Entering the Twin Cities area on a rainy Saturday night...not sure if this was before or after the downpour/hailstorm. 

It's hard to believe it's been three weeks.  In some ways, it seems like just yesterday, and in others, it seems like it's been years!  And in still yet others, it seems like a dream...as Jodie and I occasionally still say, "Do you believe we really did that??"  

All the way home that Monday, I anticipated the blog series I was going to post.  I couldn't WAIT to get home and start uploading and editing photos, and typing the story of our amazing weekend.  But the emotional and physical intensity of the trip hit hard, and between trying to catch up from three days away and the rest my body demanded at that point, there was little time or energy left for blogging.  It took over a week to even get all 1200 photos uploaded to my hard drive, convert from RAW to jpg, and get the best of the bunch edited.  During that time, VBS and camp preparations also began to take over all of life, as they seem to do this time every year.  

So it's been three weeks, we are on the verge of camp and VBS, and I still haven't posted about our amazingly marvelous weekend.  I am determined to at least get started this weekend, so without further ado...

"Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start..." 

(in the words sung by Maria in The Sound of Music. :))

I think that has been part of the difficulty in posting as well.  There is SO much to tell from that full-to-the-brim three-day weekend that I had a hard time knowing where to begin.  But I suppose that I need to go back to last August to really tell the story right...or perhaps even the preceding winter...

That winter, my friend Jodie was unexpectedly given tickets to see a southern gospel concert in a nearby town.  One of the singers was Guy Penrod, a singer my friend was somewhat familiar with due to his time with the Gaither Vocal Band, and the fact that her mother would mention him to her every so often, telling her, "he has 8 children, and he homeschools!"  More of the story of that concert, and what came after, can be found here.  

Guy's message, in word and in song, ministered to my friend in a special way during an extremely difficult season in her life...the years in which she was the primary caretaker for her mother-in-law, who suffered from dementia.  After watching Mrs. Jodie's "The Best of Guy Penrod" dvd, Bayley became a "fan" as well. When Jodie discovered that Guy was going to be in concert at FBC, Lavaca, on the weekend of Bayley's birthday last year, she decided that would be an excellent birthday present!  Bayley was thrilled with her big surprise, and we all had a wonderful time at the concert, which was like a worship service and concert rolled into one.  

Bayley discovering her birthday surprise last August

After the concert, I blogged here about Bayley's wonderful birthday surprise and what a huge blessing the concert was to those of us who went.  Despite the fact that concert photography is extremely challenging, and I had neither the equipment nor the skill to do it well, I took a ton of photos.  

Guy Penrod Concert, Lavaca, AR, August 2011

According to my blog stats, that post gets more hits than almost any other on my blog.  One day, however, I noticed it was getting LOTS of hits, from the same two referring URLs.  I called Jodie and said, "I'm getting a whole lot of hits on that Guy Penrod post from the Guy Penrod Facebook page and this other website."  "This other website" ended up being a group of Guy Penrod fans.  We began exploring the site and discovered that the group's head, Heidi, had run across my blog in a Google search and posted the link to the birthday/concert post on both sites.  Little did we know....

(Tune in tomorrow for Part 2 to hear how a "random" blog hit from a Google search morphed into a 15-hour trip across four states for Jodie and the girls and me...:))

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

focused on Glory...hope of new life

Short post this week...been watching {from a somewhat safe distance :)} the Brown Thrasher nest in our hedge.  It's hard to see, and even harder to photograph.  And as I mentioned in this post, Thrashers are extremely protective.  Having seen their beaks up fairly closely through my zoom lens, I do NOT want to experience a Thrasher attack, so I am always ready to bolt at the slightest sign of agitation on the part of Mama or Daddy Thrasher.  

I love watching the nest, though.  The nest is buried deep in the hedge for maximum protection.  Mama sits on her eggs in the nest, and Daddy often sits up in the top of the tree above, singing beautifully and watching carefully.  

I love the picture of the hope of new life in the nest.  I love, again, the amazing creativity of God seen in the design of the birds and their ability to carefully craft their nest.  Beautiful!

Be sure to visit Tauna's blog for her foG post this week! 

Thankful Thursday...Desires of My Heart...

Psalm 37:4 has been one of my favorite verses since I was barely in double-digits.  I remember being taught early on that this verse did not mean "Delight yourself in the Lord and all your selfish desires will be met," but rather that as we delight ourselves in Him, He will cause our desires to change, to be the things He desires for us.  

That verse came immediately to mind as I saw a heart's desire fulfilled today.

Six years ago, our world exploded.

At the time, I remember thinking that never, ever would this story be shared.  Ever. A few people had to know...outside of that, it would remain hidden forever.

Then I began researching...one of my immediate reactions to any crisis...searching almost desperately for help for Christian families dealing with the situation we now faced.   What I found was almost nothing.  I was devastated.

We were blessed in many ways.  God provided a tiny group of people who encouraged us and prayed for us and helped bear our burden during those days, despite the fact that they had never walked in our shoes.  And in the absence of resources or people who'd been there, He showed Himself to be our All-Sufficient Wonderful Counselor.  Much later, He provided some helpful resources, including a couple of books that hadn't even been written yet when we began this journey.

And as He worked in our lives, comforting and healing and teaching and growing us, He began to change my heart.

My heart began to ache for other families I knew had to be out there in the same situation we were, with even less resources.  At least Billy and I had our professional background to fall back on for a bit of help along the way.  God began to give me a deep desire to help other families in crisis.  And I began to realize that in order to do that, I had to be willing to share our story.

In six years, God has worked a complete 180 in my heart...from praying that our story would never be public to praying that nothing about our story would be wasted...that we would "steward our story well", as Mary Beth Chapman says.  My heart's desire is that God would get every ounce of glory possible out of our situation, and that He would use us to comfort and help others, as He provided comfort and help for us.  Some time ago, I began to actually pray that God would give opportunities for me to share for His glory and to minister to others.

One of the authors God used in a big way in my life during the darkest years was Mary DeMuth.  She says, "I write so people don't feel alone anymore."  That was my immediate reaction when I first read part of Mary DeMuth's testimony...a feeling that someone out there understood, even though I'd never spoken to her.

Today, God has used Mary DeMuth to help fulfill one of the desires of my heart.  She's allowing me to guest post on her blog, Live Uncaged, today and tomorrow, sharing a message that is heavy on my heart.  What an honor and blessing that is!  Humbling and exciting all at the same time.

God is so good to give us His desires for our hearts and then to fulfill those desires in amazing ways.

Please visit Mary's blog to read part 1 of We Can't Ignore Abuse Victims Any Longer.  Then feel free to share on Facebook or Twitter.  Someone on your friend list or among your followers may need to hear this message right now, either because they are in crisis, or because they know someone who is...or maybe because they need to be aware of the possibility of needs around them they aren't at all aware of.


Linking up with Laurie today for Thankful Thursday.  Stop by her blog to see what others are thankful for today!