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Bring Back the Joy --- B B t J . O r g
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For newer journal entries see Virginia's Journal 2004Q4 . Updates for 2004Q3 appear below with the latest information at the top. Thursday, September 30, 2004, 10:45 pmI'm ready to hit the hay but wanted to write a quick note. We've had a good couple of evenings. Wednesday I finished typing in the mailing list. Mark tested the mail merge for envelopes. We'll get started on printing them tomorrow. We're getting treated to numerous aspects of ministry. Cindy calls it Pastoral Training. We've done everything from unstopping a toilet to cooking to praying for people. We just got home from the Thursday evening Praise and Worship. After the service, Dave played a movie called The Ride. It is a sad people story but makes a good point. In the end, we can see Christ from the perspective of the main character who has lead a sinful life and comes to know Him through the course of the movie. I must say this ministry does a variety of things in their weekly meetings. I never expected to watch a movie today. Yesterday evening Dave had been invited to visit a the New Covenant Church of God south of Sand Springs. He played with the worship team and then did his music and talk. We've been treated to different kind of worship music since being here. Although Dave plays some of the contemporary worship music, much of it has a country flavor. The music last night was similar but not quite the same. They called it Country Gospel or Southern Gospel. It wasn't what I had thought of as Southern Gospel because it wasn't slow and drawn out. All I know is that until they started singing, I wasn't sure if what they were playing was religious music or not. It was very loud and very fast, more like dance music. On our way home...(the group went in the Outreach for America bus)...we started cruising the streets of Cleveland. I was wondering what we were doing when we pulled up in front of the lumberyard; I couldn't imagine that we were going to pick up a load of lumber at 10:00 pm. One of the employees who worships with The Gathering Place came out. He was so excited to see us. He later testified how much it meant to him when we rolled up. He had put in a long, hard day and had been wishing he had some ice cream. Then suddenly our group was there handing him an ice cream bar and praying for him. That was so neat! Wednesday, September 29, 2004, 1:32 am I'm up in the middle of the night. We went to bed at 7:30 last night. We'd had the airconditioner on so it seemed cold inside. But apparently it warmed up because we've been hot during the night. We finally woke up enough to do something about it and now I'm awake. Thought I would post a message. I spent yesterday working on a mailing list for Outreach for America. They've needed to collect all the addresses into one place; it's been on several different programs and pieces of paper. I typed most of the day; the end is in sight. Then we went into town (about 5 blocks from us is where the 0 line is for how the numbers are counted east/west and north/south. We rented a video for $1.25; it's a decent little video store considering it's fairly new and in a small town. We're slowly discovering the joys of living in a small town. We have been amazed that many storekeepers want to know what you want and escort you to the shelf. I got a library card; the librarian had told me in July that all you had to do was tell them who you are. I had to show more documents and give more explanations (with our out of state ID) at the video store than I did at the library. We'll gradually learn people's names. The Hardware store owner (also the mayor) is Cha. The laundromat owner is Amy. By the way, the laundromat is closed on Monday and open 9 am - 7 pm weekdays, something else on Saturday. I've got clothes molding in the car that I've got to get taken care of today. It was too late to start on it yesterday evening once we finally got there. Guess I'll take another shot at it today. Monday, September 27, 2004, 1:29 pm My...it has sure been busy around here. Good thing I rested on Friday. Saturday was the "work day" here at "the Building." There is a sign up for the name of the local group which is The Gathering Place. However, people mostly are still referring to this as the Sale Barn (from earlier times when this was the livestock auction). We spent the first couple of nights at Hominy Lake. Which was beautiful but not practical for the long term. Currently, we're parked to the southwest of Dave's building close to some "outbuildings" where we can connect to electricity and water. Still have to figure out sewer. We were having trouble with our computers rebooting. Mark ran a separate cable for them last night so we hope that will solve the problem. We think when the air conditioners kicked on and off, it caused a power surge. Mark and I started cleaning the computer room where the auction did their business. He had his head in the computers and I started going through the remnants of office supplies that were left behind. I don't think anyone would want the "goat tags" but there were some usuable manilla folders, notebooks and the like. I found three calculators that work. I did a lot of rumaging around; the real cleaning (with soap and water) has yet to be done. Yesterday was a great worhsip service, very relaxed. Dave introduced us and let us tell a little abot us. I counted 32 people, of whom 8 were children. There's only one young teenager; the rest pf the young people look old enough to be on their own. Then we spent the rest of the day at the Hinton's house. They're having an appraisal done today so everyone was pitching in to spruce it up. I washed a mountain of dishes. That's something I felt like I could do without much instruction. Mark was working on their home computer. Dave says that as limited as his family is on computer knowledge, the rest of Hominy is several more years behind. The Gathering Place may offer a computer class if we can get all the various computers up and running. Mark and I drove north on Hwy 99 to Pawhuska this morning with a stop by the Wynona police for going too fast in a school zone. We're going to have to learn to shut it down in these little towns. Pawhuska seems like a nice little town. A little bigger and fancier than Hominy. But there still didn't seem to be many stores. Cleveland and Skiatook are where the Walmart stores are located. I had planned to do laundry this morning but we found the laudromat closed on Monday. I made bread this morning with the rapid setting which takes an hour rather than nearly 4 hours. It didn't turn out as big as the regular loaves, probably because it doesn't rise for as long and only rises once. I wanted to get the bread done before having to turn on the airconditioner. We have to watch how much power we use. However, that should be better since Mark put the computers on a different breaker. Friday, September 24, 2004, 7:00 pm I had a quiet day. We puttered around here for a little while. Then we went for a drive to check out cell phone signal (we get it but it's analog roam) and see where things like the post office and Dollar General are located. Mark then took me back to the RV to have a quiet day while he looks at Dave's computer which doesn't seem to be working. Tomorrow is work day at The Gathering Place building. After having lunch, I've been vacuuming and washing out the towel that we use on our steps to cover up the carpet. Hopefully it will finish drying soon. I also took a much-needed nap. Friday, September 24, 2004, 5:55 am Made it to Hominy about 2:00 pm yesterday. Cindy served us a late lunch. Then we were shown to the new campground at Hominy Lake. Didn't know either exists. Mark and Dave are going to talk about where we can "permanently" park today. I will work on updating the Trip Diary so will now leave you to start working on that; I've got lot more to tell than has already been posted. Monday, September 20, 2004, 10:35 am Greetings from Clayton, NM. We're passing through that town as I write this. Mark and I have had a number of adventures since we left Colorado Springs on Thursday morning. Read all about them in my 2004/09 Departure for Hominy Trip Diary . I will add to it at various times throughout the trip. Friday, September 17, 2004 3:45 pm Mark and I had a successful trip to Denver. Our neighbors graciously said they wouldn't mind if we started our motor about 6:00 yesterday morning. Technically that's before the accepted time to be making noise. We knew it would be difficult to pull out on Wednesday afternoon, park somewhere and come back to work, etc. So we drove through the Denver traffic. It wasn't too bad except for the I25/I225 intersection which is being worked on. At least the ramps were open. Last Saturday when I came home, the southbound ramp onto I25 from I225 was closed; they were putting up the big beams on a new ramp and had a big crane occupying the current ramp. We spent the day with the bus pulled inside at Grace Coach. Without the sun beating down on our "tin can," it was actually on the cool side inside the RV. Mark spent most of his time watching what the mechanics were doing. I did various odds and ends, including heating up lunch. I had planned to get on the computer in the afternoon but went to bed instead and slept for four hours. (The previous night had been way too short.) The good news is that we got new shock absorbers so the bus shouldn't sway so much as it "speeds" down the road. The bad news is that The Differential, also called the Pumpkin assembly on these buses, looks bad. There were critical pieces of material that came out when the oil was changed. Mark is going to look for one that will work in our particular bus; in the meantime, we'll pray that it continues working for awhile. Hey, it worked on my refrigerator--it started making horrible noises and I prayed over it and it ran for another year (without the noises) until we sold the house. The new owners have since had to replace it. We spent last night in the Walmart parking lot on North Academy. I awoke early and went out to jog around the parking lot and do other exercises. Then Mark treated me to breakfast at Cracker Barrell which is my favorite restaurant. After picking up our truck at Hellem's garage, we drove south to Midway/Exit 119. Mark experimented with towing our Chevy truck. We wanted to see if it works before we invest in making the truck towable. We parked Bussie beside Gregg Grobe's shop with Truckster next to it. It's a hot sunny day. Mark and I are waiting until it cools off a little before digging some things we need to take with us out of the truck. We'll leave it here and pick it up when we're back for the Ministers' Conference in a couple of weeks. We've had several blessings. Anchie Fisco (one of our bosses) spoke blessing over our travels and future during the going away party Tuesday. Donna and Larry Hodge came up to the office where we were working on Wednesday evening. They wanted to pray for us before we started out on our travels. It was encouraging to have them lift us up to the Lord: safety, health and happiness, spiritual growth and future plans. When we left Rocky Mountain Maintenance yesterday evening, Joe also prayed for us. We were honored that so many people care for us. Wednesday, September 15, 2004, 11:27 pm We had a lovely evening. Others worked part of our shift so we could enjoy the party. We were able to visit with everyone. Anchie had her friend cater a meal; some of it was Chinese and some Filipino. Well, maybe the pizza was Italian. (Ha, Ha). They gave us nice boxes of chocolates as a going away gift and a card signed by everyone. Then we insisted on going back to the office to finish our shift. We busily worked on getting stuff organized for leaving tomorrow. We'll be going up to Denver to get some maintenance work done on the RV. Pray that will go smoothly and can be done in one day. I've been trying to organize my thoughts for feeding us without electricity. The fridge and freezer (which I finally defrosted) run on propane. Although we probably won't run the generator for electricity, I will be able to use the propane stove while we're at Rocky Mountain Maintenance. International Family Missions/Grace Coach is an organization that runs buses for missions trips. Besides maintaining their own buses, they will service other people's buses for a fee. We were pleased to find someone in Denver that works on these older vehicles. Our last evening of work ended at 10:00 pm. Mark has gotten the car hooked up with the tow bar which I'm supposed to be puttering around putting things away. But I wanted to take a moment to update my journal. Thanks for reading this page. Over the next few days, I don't know how often we'll have the satellite up. Therefore, I don't expect to be online. I'm sure I'll have lots to say after we're up and running again. We expect to be in Oklahoma by the end of next week. So, until then... Tuesday, September 14, 2004, 4:51 pm Autumn has arrived in Colorado Springs. The trees are beginning to turn; it's quite beautiful here with colorful flowers still growing along with the other fall foliage. The days have become slightly cooler. I did laundry today; it was quite comfortable in the shade. This morning I went to the gym; won't have too many more opportunities for that. They did say they would freeze the account for six months since we won't be in an area where there are any 24 Hour Fitness locations. At the end of that time, we'll either have to re-activate the billing or totally cancel. The paperwork for the freeze was finally initiated last Friday even though I asked about it two weeks ago. The operations manager was on vacation so it didn't get done earlier. I'm supposed to call back tomorrow. This evening the RV Park are having a going away party for us. Our plan is to pull out early Thursday morning. Our neighbors have graciously said that they won't get upset if we start making noise at 6:00 am. We need to be in Denver by 8 o'clock to have some maintenance work done on the RV. That may take a day or two. Sunday, September 12, 2004 4:45 pm I went to Denver for Friday and part of Saturday. I'd wanted to visit with my great-uncle Max (who will be 104 on October 26th) and Aunt Tee before we leave the state. They invited me to stay for lunch of ribs, corn, macaroni and cheese, roll, salad. ice cream and cake and strawberries. We were given a separate table which made it special to have the two of them to myself. Then I met my friend Connie; she took me to Costco (we let our membership expire since there are no Costcos in Colorado Springs or Tulsa). Then we had a relaxing evening doing laundry, talking and eating. On Saturday I went to church with her and saw a number of our friends. The cell group we used to attend met that afternoon. I ate lunch with them and then headed home as I had to pick Mark up at the airport. It is good to have him home again. We had a wonderful day, going to the inaugural service of Celebration Church in Woodland Park. The new pastor is Doyle Payne who graduated from CBC with us. He was an assistant pastor before coming to school; this is a wonderful opportunity for him. His wife, Dorcas, is a second year student at CBC. They will be a good pastoral team. Doyle was a relaxed speaker. He gave a good message that covered the need for salvation and explained what that encompasses; that we can received all that Christ intends for us today as well as in the future. After church we went out to eat with Gregg and Sarah Grobe and William and Melvine Parton and Christine D'Angelo at a Mexican restaurant in Woodland Park. It was great to be able to relax and joke around for a while. Then we picked up our truck at the Grobe's house. Gregg put a hitch receiver on the back and a tow base plate on the front. It's good to get that done and a friend who knows how and is willing to do it. We'll take the truck over to Bob Hellem's garage for some maintenance work tomorrow. Thursday, September 9, 2004 3:00 pm I just returned home from having Iced Tea at Bon Ton's Cafe with our pastor's wife. That was nice to get to visit with her one last time before we leave. Barbara and I chat at church but never have taken the time to just sit and visit outside of church. It was great to hear more about their story of getting into the ministry. Several weeks ago I read a book called the Maker's Diet by Jordan S Rubin. He was severely ill several years ago and changed his diet and eating habits. He believes got well because the Lord helped him discover good eating patterns. He also believes that one must have the proper relationship with God. This diet does include eating meat as outlined in Leviticus 11. Rubin's company is called Garden of Life . Garden of Life products are offered on the web by various companies. My suggestion is to purchase on the web; I found products to be less expensive their than at our local health food stores. As you can guess, since telling of the diagnosis of cancer, I've been
bombarded with info on numerous products. I've probably offended people
by not trying things. The problem is that one only has so much money
and everything doesn't work for every person. I have tried a number
of things but I must watch my expendatures. I did purchase a Garden
of Life product yesterday. It's a probiotic called Primal Defense.
It's made up of those good bacteria that are supposed to help clean
out the intestines. After all the cleansing I've done over the years,
I decided it time to get serious about good bacteria. Monday, September 6, 2004, 10:29pm I've enjoyed having some time to myself. I've done a number of errands and spent time on the computer. Obviously doing other things instead of posting to this journal. I've caught up on my reading and have tackled some accounting work that I've been procrastinating on. I've cleaned out the refrigerator--anybody know the best way to defrost RV fridges and freezers? This morning I dropped a CD case off the side of the bed. I reached and stretched down to pick it up. Suddenly I found myself going headfirst off the bed. Of course, I twisted to save myself and then found myself sliding on the "sharp" corner of the night table. That hurt! I still couldn't reach the ground and couldn't easily get a hand hold to push myself back up. This was one of those occasions I would have called Mark for help. Obviously I managed to get unstuck. I do have a bruise on my side; I have to say it hurts worse than it looks. Sunday, September 5, 2004, 3:00 pm This morning I went over to Calvary Worship Center's 8:00 am service. Several of our acquaintances at the Park have begun going there. In comparing notes later with Cindy, we decided that the worship team was only half awake during my visit. I'd like to go some other time; however, next week will be our last Sunday here so we will go to our usual church. Afterwards, we plan to meet Sarah and Gregg Grobe for lunch. Sevices at Charis Christian Center were very good today. Terry the worship leader stopped after the first song and said he felt convicted to share a prayer he'd written out last night. Pastor Lawson asked if anyone had any testimonies this week. A number of people got up to testify (I went 2nd) and Terry Rodriguez read some scriptures she'd been studying. People were practically jumping out of their seats to talk. One lady got up and said how Terry's commentary had helped her. It was really neat to hear how God is working in peoples' lives. I was out at the Grobe's house for a bit this afternoon to wipe out the freezer. We'd cleaned it out a couple of weeks ago but hadn't tackled the defosting. Gregg moved it out of the shed so it could drip on the ground instead of the floor. So my job was fairly easy. The sad news was that some dogs had killed their 11 year old cat, Sandy, this morning. They are pretty broken up about it. They'd pulled out to go to church and saw this taking place but were too late to save Sandy. Yesterday I went to the gym for the Aqua Moves class only to find out it
had been cancelled due to the holiday. I still exercised. Afterward,
I went to visit Cindy Boyd who invited me to lunch. She's excited
about the new school year and the upcoming Women's Ministry Tea. Barbara
Perdue of Charis Christian Center is speaking. If you are local
and would like to attend, let me know and I'll connect you with Cindy. Tuesday, August 31, 2004, 4:55 pm We learned the sad news that my friend Nina Rogers of Big Sandy, Texas
passed away Saturday evening. When I was in college, she has a
teenager in the church I attended. Our paths crossed more often
during the 80s when we were both single. Nina was the assistant registrar
and then registrar at Ambassador College for several years. We've
corresponded for several years. She is survived by her father Vernon
Rogers and sister JoAnn Rogers. Nina's mother passed away in June
so this is a doubly sad time for the family. Sunday we visited Hosanna Christian Fellowship's Praise in the Park. Earlier in the year Pastor Kerry helped with the planting of a Spanish-speaking church called Iglesia Cristiana Cuadrangular. This group joined Hosanna for the day. It was quite interesting to hear the sermon preached in English with a Spanish translation by Pastor Jose. The subject was the importance of our forgiving others in order to be foregiven by God ourselves. Matthew 6:14-15 God is merciful but if we have bitterness in our heart against someone, it keeps our heart and soul in bondage. Yesterday I had the opportunity to go visit Patty Gooding, one of my friends from CBC. She is a barber so gifted me with a haircut while we talked. Even though my hair cutting skills are adequate, it sure it nice to feel pampered by having someone else do it. Patty and Barry were second year students with us. Barry was the innkeeper in our Good Samaritan skit for the end of school party. I'd planned on uploading this to the web earlier; however, the wind is
really blowing outside. I decided to lower the satelite dish.
The forecast was for a storm but the clouds don't look ominous
at this point. I may just have to go to bed and post in the morning.
-- Nope, it's 7:45 pm and I've got the satelite back up so I can upload. Saturday, Agust 28, 2004, 12:22 pm We finished the our August/September newsletter . I'll begin addressing the printed copies for those who requested them. Our email notification should go out later today. The online version can be accessed by clicking on the link in the first sentence of this paragraph. Friday, August 27, 2004, 7:21 am We had a staff meeting yesterday evening with pizza and other food. The new park owners like getting everyone together for socialization; it has helped us to become a team. They we nice enough to say that we will be missed after we leave next month. It was good to have an actual business meeting so we could discuss upcoming events in the park and also correct any problems that are occurring. A number of good suggestions were made. I'm typing up some additions for the procedures manual. We've got several busy days coming up. Mark has been doing the layout for our next newsletter. Hopefully we can begin printing so I can mail to those who have specifically requested postal next week. And of course, once the printing is done, Mark will do the html version and post it to our Newsletters section. Today I've got several errands to runin addition to the Acqua Moves class at the gym. Mountain Mama promised to save some boxes that have dividers so I can put the jellies and juice we did a couple of weeks ago into something a little more padded. I have to go by there. We're planning to attend Hosanna Christian Fellowship's Praise in the Park on Sunday. So I need to come up with a dish to take to that. We also plan to deliver the truck to Gregg Grobe so he can put on the base plate and a trailer hitch. I also need to defrost the freezer that we'd had at the Grobe's house. Although we offered to leave it with them, they suggested we take it to Oklahoma with us and donate it to Dave Hinton's ministry. Wednesday, August 25, 2004, 3:21 pm Sharon Patrick came over this afternoon with fliers for her Fall Planting Seminar which will be on September 25th. I wish I could be there. Sharon is one of the instructors at Charis Bible College. She will be teaching a class each for 1st and 2nd year and also an elective on Leadership. Larry and Librada Perrino came over yesterday for dinner. Mark and Larry are working to transfer files to our computer so we can put some of Larry's material in our Rivkah section of this web site. Mark has some work to do before they can be put online. Right now he's working on repairing lights. Some of the ballasts on the florescent lights had burned out. Our replacement ballasts came in today. I'm so glad I have a husband that knows about these things. Saturday, August 21, 2004, 4:39 pm I finished "churning" the butter I started yesterday. My big container never turned in to butter so today I halved it and then beat it. This time it worked. I will enjoy having the fresh butter. We had a major rainstorm this afternoon. Dark clouds came up; we
had to turn on the lights. Then the floodgates opened. Fortunately
it didn't last too long. I do expect that it will rain more
this evening. They say that we could have heavy rains like this
for ten years and only then would Colorado be "caught" up with our
water levels. Friday, August 20, 2004, 10:58 am When we got home from work last night, I noticed that my tomato plant had been stripped of tomatoes. It had six on it when we left for work. We found three of them under the large tree next to our car this morning. Presumably it was squirrels. I'm a little peeved since they were just starting to turn red and I've only gotten 2 ripe tomatoes. I guess I should have gone ahead and picked them rather than waiting one more day. We've had three days of rain and coolness. The thermometer showed 48 degrees last night. The good thing is that we aren't having to run our air conditioner which lessons the noise levels. I told you on August 8th that the park had been having a problem with someone defecating in the shower stall. It hasn't happened for a couple of weeks now. We hadn't been able to catch anyone in the act. However, some people who had been here for a two month stay recently left; that's the length of time it's been happening. All the employees have been acting as security by "hanging out." In many ways, it has added to the camaraderie in the park because we've all been greeting people, stopping to chat, etc. We've become a family. I've been trying my hand at making butter. When we cleaned out the freezer, we had some cream that had been frozen. Some of it was still good when we thawed it out. So I decided to make butter out of it because it would spoil before we'd get around to using that much. My first batch made about a cup of butter. The second batch is still being beaten up (I'm using my hand mixer propped up so I don't have to hold it) but should be more since I had more cream. Mark got the tow bar mounted on the bus. We held up the base plate
to the part of the truck where it needs to be mounted. It
looks like it will be a perfect fit which is relief. My understanding
is that our truck wasn't listed as being something that would work
(probably because the truck isn't normally something to be towed)
but it has the same chassis as something that was on the list so Mark
figured it would work. Thursday, August 19, 2004, 11:49 am I just heard from my friend Sharon Patrick that she will indeed be having an evangelistic meeting on September 2th at the Wyndam. She is beginning to pass out the flyers about it. For those of you who are live here in the Colorado Springs area, I will give you more information as I have it. We made another step in our preparations for moving on. Mark had ordered the tow bar he wanted. We picked up the tow bar, base plate, etc. yesterday in Denver. Now we need to take the truck to Gregg Grobe so he can mount the base plate. We went to Denver for several errands in addition to picking up the towing devices. The oncologist is pleased with my current state in the extending of my life. Naturally he doesn't believe in devine healing and the body being able to fight the disease on its own. However, I don't receive any negative predictions and praise God that I am feeling well. The original tumor has continued to soften and the other one that popped up is ever changing but seems to be getting smaller. I ask you to join me in praising God for these positive changes and that my body will continue to fight this. We had a wonderful evening in Denver. We went to Bible Study at Hosanna Christian Fellowship where we attended the last six months before we moved. They're studying Genesis right now. It was great to see the people who came for the Study and Worship Team practice. The food bank was open; they encouraged me to help myself. That's nice to refill the pantry. Then after the study, we found the pastor at the church office; he invited us out to Village Inn for a late meal and talk. It was nice to hear his prospective on their current church activities. Hosanna is going to have a Praise in the Park service on August 29th. It will be at Rocky Ridge Park at Lewiston and Mississippi in Aurora. They had it there last fall and are real happy with that location. Several new members were added at that service. Pastor Kerry also encouraged us in our plans for the future. It reained heavily all afternoon and evening. We had a wet drive back to Colorado Springs, getting in a little before midnight. It has continued to rain lightly this morning. Mark and I are more or less staying inside, enjoying being home. We will work again this evening. Tuesday, August 17, 2004, 4:34 pm We took the bus for a drive today. It's been a little over six weeks so time. The neighbors were nice to come out and offer to roll up their awning. We ended up not needing to do so upon our return. Being a week day, the neighbors across the "street" weren't home so we could swing widely through their parking spaces to turn into our spot. Our RV site has a tight curve which is why we are allowed to be there. We need a large spot because we are 40 ft but we don't come and go all the time. We drove down to Pueblo which is about 40 miles south of Colorado Springs. It's a pleasant drive with a fairly straight road without much traffic. Mark treated me to lunch at Cracker Barrel. I'm partial to their turkey sausage so we split a Momma's breakfast and ordered a sausage and hash browns "Plate." On the way home we put in more fuel and checked the various fluids. Tomorrow we go to Denver for a doctor appointment and to pick up our tow bar and baseplate we ordered. We hope to attend the Wednesday evening Bible Study at Hosanna Christian Fellowship to see our friends there one more time before we leave for Oklahoma. Mary Jo fixed a wonderful pot roast dinner in her 18 quart slow cooker. We'd like to have something like that so we can cook large amounts for company. I have a 5 quart crock pot but I end up running over and still having to put stuff in my smaller crock pot. Monday, August 15, 2004, 5:51 pm We're headed out in a few minutes to go work on Mary Jo Nixon's computer. Our deal with friends is that we'll come over for dinner and Mark will work a couple of hours on their computer at no charge. It works out pretty well because we all get to socialize and we don't have to charge consulting prices. Saturday afternoon we decided to go clean out our freezer which had taken to the Grobe's house when we moved here. We'd used most of the food but we knew there were grapes, raisins and crabapple juice still in it. So guess what I've been doing the last couple of days. We took the steam juice extractor to work that evening and filled up jars as the juice "came." Yesterday afternoon we went to the health food store to investigate the various pectin options. My cousin, Evelyn, had told me about a the Pomona's Universal Pectin which will jell without sugar, with sugar substitutes, or with low sugar. We did find that brand and bought enough to make the crabapple jelly. We also bought agar agar because I wanted to try to peach jam recipe that used it as an option. I made one batch of jelly yesterday and then made several today plus the peach jam. Mark came up with the idea of putting the "Fifth Burner" on the picnic table to heat the boiling water bath. Instead of having that much extra heat inside the bus. In the crabapple jelly I used a small amount of turbinado sugar and stevia powder. All the crabapple recipes used lots of sugar. I just wasn't willing to use that much. Mark said the jelly tasted similar to the highbush cranberries in Alaska. I was pleased with my efforts. Only two jars didn't seal; one I reheaded and it then sealed. The other was a partial jar so I figure we will use it first. The grape juice sealed when we juiced it so I figure that I have some time before it has to be used. We enjoyed passing out glasses of juice to our friends when they came into the RV Park office on Saturday evening. We still ended up with seven quarts of white grape juice. Actually, it is rose colored because there was one package of concord grapes. Mark asked me to make some grape jam with the grape skins. We cooked that too long but it still worked. Friday, August 13, 2004, 12:29 pm This week has gotten away from me. We had an invitation for dinner with Joan and Gary Bellrichard on Monday evening; they also invited Lena and Tom Fore. They wanted to get together with us one more time before we leave and before school starts. We'll see them again at church but it was nice to have a social evening with friends. I've been trying to catch up on responding to emails. W got several bounces as usual when we sent out our last newsletter so I've been trying to follow up with those people. I've started writing on our August/Sept newsletter; we'd like to get it out in a more timely fashion this time so people will know in advance about our travel plans and put us on their prayer list. The park has been totally full all week because we had a large group traveling together come in. They pulled out this morning so we now do have enough spaces that should cover last minute arrivals with no reservations. Three of my tomatoes are turning red. I'm looking forward to the first bite. I thought I'd pick the reddest tomorrow. I'd mentioned on the 31st about visiting the home of Dave's Garden . The Whitingers fed us some purple tomatoes which I've since ask and been told they are called Cherokee Purple. He offered to send us some seeds at the end of the season. Dave said he has been revamping his website; so it you are into gardening, you might take another look. One of the other employees walked into the office yesterday evening and handed us a slab of hot-off-the grill London Broil. We shared with other people and still have leftovers for lunch today. We're still using up the vegetables we bought at the farmer's market last Saturday. Sunday, August 8, 2004, 7:12 pm 2 hours and 53 minutes minutes from now is the anniverary of my birth. My father says it was a hot day when my mother was in labor. My sister called about noon and I talked to Daddy after that. I really enjoy having my telephone with me. We had a lovely day. We went to Wendy's Sunday all-you-can eat chili. That satisfied me just as much as a big fancy meal. Then we went over to visit with Jo and Chuck Reynolds who had Abi and John Elshaw with them. The Elshaws have just arrived from England to attend CBC this year. You may remember that they visited in April. I've enjoyed a correspondence via email with Abi since then. Jo has agreed to type the transcripts of Lawson's sermons which we have on the web. Lawson Perdue is the pastor of Charis Christian Center where we attend. He's given a number of sermons recently that we feel are worth listening to. Click on the link to Pastor Lawson if you have sound capability. Mark and Jo spent part of the afternoon talking about transferring files and putting some software on Jo's computer. I had fun talking to Abi while John and Chuck went to a store to look at furniture. Then the six of us enjoyed talking together. The RV park has had a problem with someone defecating in the men's shower stall. The cleaning personnel are threatening to quit. Anyway, they are trying to catch the perpetrator. We enlist your prayers about this because it can't go on. Yesterday's Bible Study went well. I was gratified that everyone liked my homemade (oil and vinegar type) salad dressing. One man said it was world class. I had planned a bean/rice/meat dish but realized I had lettuce that needed to be used. That turned out to be a good choice to go along with the other dishes. Only one serving was left out of the large bowl I'd taken. Saturday, August 7, 2004, 12:12 pm It's been a busy day so far. I went to the gym fairly early so I could make it back in time to go to a doctor appointment. They were pleased with my blood pressure on the medication and we will continue working on weight/diet in order to be able to decrease and eventually get off the medication. Learning how to handle (rather, not internalize) stress seems to be a big factor. On the way home we went by a farmer's market. We were excited to see that this one had a lot of organic produce. The market near us only has one pesticide free fruit grower. We've been enjoying his produce. Today we bought cucumbers, green beens, peaches, yellow squash and corn. I would have liked to have gotten more but I don't that enough room in the refrigerator and freezer on the RV. We'll sure enjoy eating them with the fish I'd planned for lunch. This afternoon Mark is going to help someone move. I have some writing to do so will work on that while he's gone. This evening is the Bible Study we attend. We've had a good bit of rain lately. It kind of clouds up in the afternoon. Sometimes it sprinkles but other times we have short cloudbursts. However, on Wednesday we had a major storm. People began to worry because the creek was rising. The creek bed is about 4-6 ft below ground level. There's usually about 6 inches of water in it. In recent weeks it has been a little deeper (because of intermittent rain) and makes lovely rushing water sounds. The water rose within a couple of feet of the banks. It was really pouring. It was really hard on arriving guests. One man tried to set up his tent and finally abandoned it to head to a motel. At that point, Mark decided it was time to get serious and take authority over this storm. He commanded the rain to lessen so the waters could go down. Immediately the deluge slacked to a slow rain and then to a drizzle. We've had sunshine with intermittent rain since then. None of the rains have been near as heavy. Everyone is thrilled that we are having these late summer rains as it has been so dry. The snows weren't as heavy as needed to sustain us. I forgot to tell you that last Sunday we received a confirmation of what we've been taught at school about ministry and finances. We've had a number of lessons about sowing seed (often money but could be other things) into good ground such as ministries that reflect Jesus. Several weeks ago, a man walked up to Mark at church and gave him some money saying God had told him to give it to Mark. We hadn't seen the man since; we missed a couple of weeks because of our trip. Last week Mark saw him and gave him a card giving the web address of the write up Mark did about this gift and subsequent events. Our friend was excited to see Mark and told him that after making the donation to us, he had subsequently received an unexpected $2500. We felt blessed by this testimony. You may read Mark's story Wednesday, August 4, 2004, 10:00 am It's certainly been an eventful summer with the Peterson's visit, the Summer Conference (July 12-16), and then we dashed off on our trip. I am enjoying the memories that were made. However these events and late nights got my sleeping patterns messed up. I do better if I can get to bed early and get up early. The getting to bed early is difficult since we work until 10 pm. But I made the decision to start setting the clock so I can get up and go exercise to start my day. I'm having to take a nap but I've felt better the last few days. Even if I sleep eight hours, sleeping in just doesn't seem to give me energy. Several have asked me about Hominy, OK which I mentioned in my Saturday (7/31) message. We are looking forward to spending time with Dave Hinton and his family there in September and October...then we'll see how the Lord leads. By looking at the map, we saw that we could easily travel through Hominy on our way to I70 (to drive west to Colorado). Access is easy to either I40 or I70. Therefore, we decided to make a flying trip through to scout out the land before our actual departure from CO Springs. We saw Cindy Hinton who took us on a tour of the building they have purchased to use for the administrative office for their ministry. The property and building used to be a livestock auction but fell into disuse for several years. As you can imagine, a lot of elbow grease and TLC are needed. However, it's a wonderful building with lots of potential. Dave wants to section off a portion of the huge lobby for a Christian bookstore. There's a kitchen dining area that would make a wonderful "hangout." And the best thing is a 300 seat arena. It would be a fairly easy job to take out the livestock chute and put in a stage. The seats don't go full circle but certainly more than a half circle. There are multiple rooms that can be used as classrooms or offices. There's even a Barber/Beauty shop. We assume the cattle drovers would come in and need to "clean up." A Camp Meeting is planned for late October; it will be need to be part of this growth process. As far as the rest of Hominy...Cindy had told me that it had a Laundromat, grocery store and Dollar General. The population is approximately 2300 so it is a small town. However, the streets are laid out square and there are a variety of small businesses in addition to the aforementioned. However, those are probably the ones that are most critical to the average person. My first stop is always the Public Library; we went by there and got the scoop on what documents I will need to show in order to get a library card. Sonic and Subway are the two fast food places in town. We indulged in the family night buffet at the Simple Simon's Pizza. They had calzones, pasta, salads and breads in addition to pizza. (Didn't Hemmingway say something like if you sit long enough at a cafe on the banks of the Seine in Paris, the whole world will come by? That's the way I felt at Simple Simon's--It's certainly the place to be on Tuesday evenings.) The Hinton's Home is about 12 blocks from the new office; I think we're going to be parking our RV in their yard. Guess I can get my exercise riding my bicycle to and from the office. It appears that the nearest gym is 20 miles away in Pawhuska; I doubt I'll plan to make that treck regularly. Well folks, that's all I can think of to say about Hominy at the moment. For tourist information, see the Wild West Territory and the Hominy Wikipedia web pages.Sunday, August 1, 2004, 4:45 pm We had a lovely day. Some people from school who usually don't attend our church came along with some friends who just came to town. We all went out to eat at the Western Sizzling. Naturally we ate more than we should. We're slowly settling in to life in the RV Park after our excitement of travel. Mark and I are working an 8 day shift. We had switched with the other couple so we could be gone. Normally we only work 4 days at a time. Actually, we're working evenings now. We're enjoying it. Some days are quite busy. Last Friday we had a number of people coming in into the evening. In the middle of the week, it's slower. We only had a couple of people come in yesterday. However, I did take a number of reservations from future guests. Saturday, July 31, 2004, 1:57 pm Hi, Friends! We're home. I've been pretty bushed. We got in Thursday evening after a whirlwind trip of 6 states in 8 days. We had several opportunities to sharpen our ministering skills. We were able to administer the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and talk about God's love along the way. Many thanks to those who took an interest in what we are doing. When we left here we headed to Amarillo and then Lubbock to see my family. Julia served us a late dinner in Amarillo; we told Daddy he'd find us parked in his driveway on Friday morning. I enjoyed having breakfast with him. We had made plans to spend time with a business acquaintance of Mark's in Kerrville. Dave Whitinger and his wife Trish were former owners of Linux Today. They currently host Dave's Garden , the largest website on gardening. We enjoyed seeing his garden and eating some of the produce. I wish I'd taken a picture to share with you. They're dedicated to learning and sharing knowledge of God and the blessings he shares with us on this earth. We especially enjoyed playing with their children who were intelligent, inquisitive and innocent. From Kerrville we made two stops on the way to Livingston. Donna and Jeff Tucker opened their Round Rock home to us. Their daughter Lela was one of the library employees when I was the cataloger at Ambassador College. Donna and I have been corresponding for several years. It had been over 18 years since I had seen either of them. My elementary school friend, Martha House McLemore treated us to lunch and a drive around Brenham. I recognized a number of places. Martha wasn't familiar with the street we lived on in 1957 but we did locate the other two houses we lived in during the 10 years in Brenham. As you know, our mailing address is in Livingston. We are part of the Escapees Club. They provide mailing services and by being a part of their organization, one can establish residency. It is difficult for full-timer RVers because the government wants one to have a permanent address. As we are not going to be in school this next year, it was time for us to "move." We got all our vehicles, drivers licences and voter registrations taken care of. We really enjoyed seeing where we "live." In other words, we visited the Escapees Administration Building where mail is handled. Escapees does an RV Park for people like ourselves who want to "pass through." Everyone we met while we were conducting our business in the town was friendly and helpful. Livingston is a beautiful town near a lake with green grass and abundance of trees. They've had quite a bit of rain this summer so everything was green and lush. The remainder of our trip went quickly. We spent a night with my cousin Evelyn Dugger (and family) and then a night with the Brixius Family in Gering, NE. We were tired people who arrived at Evelyn's house; it was great to see them again. Our lives went in different directions when we were young; it's been wonderful to get acquainted as adults. Colleen, Peter and Cap were gracious hosts as well. They lived in Denver many years ago. It's hard for me to wrap my mind around Cap as a 6 ft plus young man when I still picture him as a 5 year old. Sorry, Cap--I had to say that! Between Longview and Gering, we visited Hominy, Oklahoma. In September, Mark and I plan to go to Hominy to visit with David Hinton. His family ministry is Outreach For America. Dave has a prison ministry, rodeo ministry, Native American Outreach and an inner city New York outreach. He uses his music as a tool to get people to listen to the Gospel of Grace. He certainly is versatile and has a heart of gold. We plan to share our visions and see how we can work together on similar dreams. Part of the plan is to build a website for Outreach for America . It is in fledgling stages at the moment. Our last day, was the drive home, stopping for lunch with Aldo and Fanny Ramos in Loveland. Since our return, we've been going through mail, sorting laundry and doing other tasks. We're tired, of course. We started our work shift yesterday evening; it was super busy with hardly a moment to go to the bathroom. Today has been another day to catch up. I'm still addressing hardcopy newsletters to readers who do not have web access. Thursday, July 22, 2004, 11:21 am We will be leaving shortly for a quick trip to Texas. We need to change our registration on our various vehicles now that we are out of school and planning to leave Colorado. Since our mailing address is Texas, we plan to become Texas residents. More about our future plans in our next newsletter and on this journal. I will be offline until our return in a little over a week. Tuesday, July 20, 2004, 4:45 pm Mark and I are changing to the evening shift starting this evening. We've suddenly lost several employees. One set had a family situation so have moved to Arkansas. Another had planned to move to Oregon in May but his wife was ill so they waited. And two others finally got into truck driving school. They asked us to move to the evening so only one set of evening people would have to be trained. It's easier to train during the day shifts because the managers are working and more activity occurs. It will be an adjustment for me since I'm a morning person. If we don't get off until 10 pm, getting to bed early doesn't happen. I'll have to take an occasional nap. We have been clarifying our mission and vision statements. They have been posted in the About US section of this website. Our June/July 2004 Newsletter is now online and can be accessed at http://www.BBtJ.Org/newsletters/news0407.html . Sunday, July 18, 2004, 10:49 am We work this morning. Mark went to church and left me to have some quiet time this morning. I've been catching up on my Bible reading. Reading all about the children of Israel. They sure were rebellious, not internalizing the good things God did for them but murmuring and complaining when any little thing happened. We had a good week. As I mentioned on Monday, the AWMI Family Bible Conference started Monday evening. The messages each day were uplifting and informative. Andrew Wommack spoke on the Faith and also gave keys for staying full of God. Other teachers at CBC spoke on subjects that were dear to their hearts. We had opportunities to continuing building relationships with old friends and news. Ivan and Larry Perrino took us out to eat one afternoon. I went to college (many years ago) with Ivan; he lived in Denver when Mark and I moved there in 1988 so we've been friends with the two brothers for many years. Both are considering attending CBC this coming year. Tuesday, July 13, 2004, 9:08 am Over the past several months, I have made references to the House Church that we have been attending. I thought I would tell you a little more about it. One of our activities during CBC was called the Team Project. The 2nd year class was divided into groups. One of the groups was called "Church Plant in America." The six students involved decided not to just have a "project on paper" but to actually start meeting together with the idea to grow into a full sized church. The first meeting was on Saturday, April 24. The meetings continue to be on Saturday evening at the designated home. Arrival is suggested to be 6 pm with the wish to start serving dinner by 6:30 pm. The format based on the New Testament; it is mentioned that Believers met together in their homes, breaking break and fellowshipping. The meal takes approximately an hour; then, the group worships, prays, and discusses a topic. Ed Devine has become the leader of the group; however, he encourages others to bring topics to discuss rather than his "preaching" each week. This group wishes to following the leading of the Holy Spirit; therefore, each meeting has been different from previous ones. Mark and I have attended every meeting beginning with the second session. That first week we were there, I counted 15 adults, 12 children and 2 "babysitters." So that was a pretty good crowd for a House Church. We have had several visitors during this time. Our numbers of children vary depending on who comes. Charlie and Pam King are back from their summer travels and have are attending regulars. If you have a desire to check out the house church, please let me know so I can let you know where the meeting will be as it changes from week to week. Monday, July 12, 2004, 10:00 pm Just a quick note. As we arrived at the Sheraton yesterday evening, we were met by Linda Ziembo. She had the news that they did the final detailing on "my" Miata. Apparently a buyer had flown in from Tulsa. We were happy to hear that! All during this week is the Family Bible Conference sponsored by CBC and Andrew Wommack Ministries. Sessions are in the morning and evening with optional activities in the afternoon. We plan to attend as many as possible. We are working tomorrow afternoon so have decided we needed to rest and finish our newsletter tomorrow morning. Monday, July 12, 2004, 11:20 am
Mark and I had breakfast with our friends Dennis and Brenda Peterson this morning prior to their departure for home. In late 1998, Brenda and I met through the internet; we were both members of a Women's Ministry Forum sponsored by the denomination we attended. We began corresponding. Although we have been repeated invited to visit Cosmopolis, Washington, it just hasn't worked out. We hope that we can include Washington is some of our future travels. Brenda and Dennis arrived Friday evening. We walked over to the Garden of the Gods Motel about the time we expected them to arrive. They were delayed by a hail storm on the outskirts of town. We had only a few minutes of heavy rain where we are. Fortunately it did not appear that their trunk incurred any damage. We had a late dinner at the Mason Jar; it was great to meet them after all these years. We served brunch at our house on Saturday morning, prior to our going to work at noon. Brenda and Dennis spent the afternoon walking through Old Colorado City and adjusting to the altitude. After work, we picked them up to go to the House Church. On Sunday morning, they followed us to church in their truck. As Mark and I were working yesterday, we had to leave before the end of services. We hear that we missed some good concluding points. As I mentioned in yesterday evening's post, after the "Company Party" we spent the remainder of the evening with the Petersons. Then we met for breakfast at the Bon Ton. Mark and I have been wanting to go there for some time; they have early bird specials before 8:30 am. Therefore, when they wanted to take us out for breakfast before leaving, that was our suggestion. We had a leisurely breakfast and then waved our goodbyes. I pray that they have a safe journey back to Cosmopolis, Washington. Mark and I were honored that they wanted to use their vacation time to come see us. Sunday, July 11, 2004, 10:00 pm Today was the second day of work on our shift. After having slow 4th of July activity, we have been "full" nearly every night. After a busy afternoon when Mark and I didn't have a moment to sit down, the Saturday evening crew parked 9 more incoming guests; there were only a few of the small sites available. Tonight we are almost as full. The new RV Park owners threw a going-away party for Jim and Bea this evening. Jim used to work at this park and then managed Goldfield Campground (down the street) for six years. Upon retiring from Goldfields, he returned here for a few months during his preparation to move to Oregon. Jim was a hard worker and always had a friendly smile for visitors and residents here at Fountain Creek. Mark and I enjoyed the party and ate more than we should. Afterwards, we went over to visit with Brenda and Dennis at their motel. Now it's bedtime! Friday, July 9, 2004, 6:30 pm We received confirmation that our friends Brenda and Dennis Peterson are arriving this evening. I believe I told you a few weeks ago that my pen pal had written that her husband had decided they needed to take a vacation. Brenda chose to spend the time traveling the distance from Washington State to Colorado to meet me. I fill you in on their visit later. Tuesday, July 6, 2004, 6:55 pm It's been a nice couple of days. I celebrated the 4th by going to bed at 8:30 pm. We'd considered going to watch fireworks but after work were tired enough that I just fixed dinner and then went to bed early. I only vaguely woke when Mark came to bed and was closing the window to keep out the firework noises. Yesterday evening we went to visit the Decker Family who also live in Divide. Tom was one of our apprentices last year. Lesley was over the CBC Family Ministries so we met through the Women's Ministry. Mark and I really enjoyed our evening. It was fun to kick back and just talk. Tom started a small and well watched fire over which we roasted marshmallows for S'mores. I succumbed to Lesley's offer of tea. (I'm supposed to be avoiding caffeine for my blood pressure.) I enjoyed the treat. Lesley is Australian so loves a cup of tea. Mark and I worked on odds and ends today. This morning we had a meeting with the CBC Dean of Students to discuss some of our future plans which we plan to put in our next newsletter and on our web site. Afterwards, we decided to check on printing business cards. We weren't happy with the options and time elements. I remembered seeing a package of business card stock "somewhere in my stuff;" we decided to try doing them ourselves. I did locate the card stock and Mark made up a nice card that serves our purpose. When I woke up from my nap, I was really impressed with he had prepared. We printed a couple dozen as a start. Sunday, July 4, 2004, 10:16 am Happy Independence Day-USA!!! Once again, Americans are celebrating the anniversary of the birth of our nation as an independent country. We've learned a lot over the years; however, I think in some ways we've lost sight of ourselves as being part of the bigger picture. We work this afternoon. We anticipate a fairly slow day since it's Sunday. That'll be nice since we had a late evening yesterday. We went to the House Church with our friends. Locations rotate through the group. Jeff and Jan Hanks in Divide were the hosts this week. Everyone really went all out for food. Al Woodworth brought Coleman beef hot dogs which made Mark and I happy to have good quality "dogs." We really enjoyed the drive with our sun roof open on the Geo. Divide is about 45 minutes northwest of Colorado Springs on Hwy 24. There are several locations for fireworks in the greater Colorado Springs area. We may go out tonight if I get my act together. There are some high spots on roads near us from which one can see three different fireworks displays. Friday, July 2, 2004, 4:43 pm The week has flown. The other day we went to Wal-Mart and purchased some car cleaning supplies. It was time to start cleaning our vehicles to get them ready for sale. I had hoped to take my convertible out for one last drive. But it rained the evening I had that "scheduled." We didn't want to drive it around a lot after we washed it. I spent quite a bit of time and elbow grease working to get sap spots off. I don't know what tree has been dripping on it since I don't normally park under a tree. We took Bussie for a drive yesterday morning. Then just after I settled into bed for a nap, Mark came to ask if I'd be willing to go with him to get quotes on the Miata from the various car dealers. The second one sent us directly to the Mazda used car dealer. We ended up with a salesman instead of the man we were told to ask for; however, they ended up calling him out of a meeting to see my car. He ended up agreeing to the price we asked after their having started with a much lower figure. I was in a state of shock and sadness. I never expected to go home without my car yesterday evening. We also learned that we get a refund on the unused portion of the extended warranty; that's a bonus! I needed to dig into storage for the code for key replacements. God was sure on my side. The Miata car file wasn't in the file cabinet. Like what box did that file go in? I'll give the Holy Spirit credit for choosing the right box. I took out three items and there was the file. When I went over to the dealership to take my "documents," the salesman led me into the showroom to see my car in the place of honor. It sure looked beautiful. I pray that the right buyer will come along. An older lady who wants a toy and prefers an automatic. I have no doubts that they'll sell it with a nice profit; however, we are content that we got an adequate amount without the hassle of selling it ourselves. Now to pay on some bills. I was blessed with a day off so the new owners could be trained. I don't think I ever told you that the RV Park was up for sale. After ten years, the owner decided that they wanted to sell and buy another park closer to the one they own west of St. Louis. That way the various family members will be closer together as the grownup kids are the park managers. Larry and Norma, the owners, have been here for a couple of months helping out with the heavy tourist season. They pulled out this morning as the closing was Wednesday. I have to say that I have never seen them looking so happy and rested. We'll sure missed David and Paula when they leave. However, all the employees welcome Ricky and Anchie and will work hard to make their new venture a success. We expect the next couple of days to be very hectic since it's the 4th of July weekend. Friday and Saturday are our big days, anyway, I'm sure a lot of people will be coming in. We had a lot of reservations so I expect the park will be totally full before the end of the weekend. We didn't have any rain today so hopefully it will be beautiful for all our guests. Above is the Journal for 2004Q3. Here is the previous Journal |
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