Wow! We totally forgot to keep up the blog!

 We left the CEF Warrenton campus this past Wednesday morning with our next major stops in Rapid City and Sturgis, SD. Well, we are now in an RV park in Rapid City planning to visit our two sons and their families.

Let me fill you in our our past week, though.

Last Thursday and Friday was spent supporting the staff conference. All staff are required to attend!, volunteers take care of housekeeping and food services. Roger spent most of the week maintaining bathrooms and floors. Heather spent of her time in food service.

On Saturday afternoon we drove to Columbia, MO to attend the Sunday morning service at Calvary Heritage Baptist Church. When we are at home in Washington, we watch this churches morning service on YouTube. We make it our Sunday evening service.

On Monday and Tuesday we serviced a bunch of guest rooms in the Lodge. That meant stripping and laundering all the bedding and towels. Heather did a lot of folding towels and Roger vacuumed rooms and hallways.

During our spare time we worked on a "community" jigsaw puzzle.

Before driving away we grabbed a few images of 

Warrenton, MO update

We arrived at the Child Evangelism Fellowship headquarters in Warrenton on Tuesday, May 12, to volunteer during their staff conference. A team of volunteers takes care of all the food services and housekeeping during to conference so that the staff are freed from their normal duties and able to attend the conference sessions. Heather helped out in the kitchen and dining room while Roger cleaned restrooms, emptied trash bins, swept floors and vacuumed carpets.

CEF has an RV park; we are fully connected with water, sewer and electric. It's a short walk from the RV to the building. The weather has been sunny and warm until Saturday morning when it started raining.

On Wednesday evening we decided to disconnect and attend a service at a nearby church. It turned that they were a couple weeks into an Alpha course. We really enjoyed watching the course video and participating in the discussion around our table.

Update from Hillsdale, part 3

After leaving campus we visited the nearby Slayton Arboretum, which is operated by the College. Check out the link to learn more of this unique place. We enjoyed walking (hiking?) the pathways.

Update from Hillsdale, part 4

Today, Sunday, is our last full day visiting our friends. We will head for MO tomorrow morning. 

We attended College Baptist Church this morning for Adult Sunday School and for the morning worship service. The Sunday School was a very interactive time studying the Book of Ruth, Chapter 2, led by the Pastor. We enjoyed the morning worship service as well. They sang hymns accompanied by piano and pipe organ. They also featured a beautiful violin offertory by a student who just graduated from the College.

Update from Hillsdale, part 2

Saturday was the BIG day here. We all attended Christina's Commencement. Lots of attendees and lots of security.

The reason for the heightened security was that Erika Kirk was the Commencement speaker and there were protests planned in town.

A midwest rain storm passed over during the commencement ceremony bringing loud rain, thunder and lightning for a few minutes. However, when we went outside afterwards for pictures the sun was shining, the skies were clear and the ground was dry!

After taking pictures and visiting with other families we went inside to a reception with refreshments hosted by the College. 

Update from Hillsdale, part 1

It has been an event-filled weekend here in Hillsdale with our dear friends, the Lewis family. Their daughter, Christina, is graduating from Hillsdale College. We arrived last Thursday afternoon and parked on the street next to their home.  On Friday we went to the campus to get our wrist band IDs for admission to commencement. We then toured the campus which has a lot of ongoing construction.

...give God the eraser

Heather always lays out a route plan before leaving home. With much prayer, we decided to proceed with another R.V. 2-month trip. We “found” a new friend who lived in NM and added her to our roster of stops. (Another great story...)

Plan A: The trip was to start by visiting friends in ID; one wasn’t home & since we had some other things going on, we scratched ID.

Plan B: off to Bielicki’s (missionary friends we’ve known for ~30+ years). Brie and husband Kevin now live and work in NM with the Navajos. We got there earlier than originally planned because of their busy schedule; this allowed us to add our “new” friend to our route.

Plan C:  In UT 100 miles from Bielicki’s the R.V. transmission went out; God did the most amazing things when neither of our phones would work – only Heather’s would text! (We gave our GPS coordinates so they could find us!) He sent us a tow truck big enough to haul the R.V. and only 5 miles from our “nowhere” break-down! We were able to witness to the tow truck driver as he graciously allowed us to ride with him to the repair shop; once there, we were also able to witness to the shop owner; he took a personal interest in us and did the repair himself! We spent 2 days with the Bielicki family before they were too busy with ministry (we helped a little with that); then they introduced us to new friends who lived less than a mile from where the R.V. was being fixed; they had us over for dinner and then directed  us to their church the next day (walking distance). Myra took us to the Aztec ruins on Monday. On Tuesday the shop loaned us a beater pick-up truck! Since the shop couldn’t put the whole R.V. in their garage, they worked on it outside. That meant we could sleep in it – saving a lot of money! The shop owner, Rod, took us on a 35 miles test drive – he didn’t want to see us back again!!

Plan D: the repair took a week, prolonging our stay; we had to drop the AZ route (friends, new and old, and cousin – 4 stops)

Plan E: However, the schedule change moved our visit with daughter Mary in TX up 2 days, which allowed us to take her to a church near her which we hope will become a regular event for her. It was a great experience.

Plan F: Twice we have found Walmart not open to overnighters, which forced us to drive until the last light of the sun – which is something we avoid – driving after dark. But both times we found Love’s gas stations with free spots before total darkness. (They also have cheap coffee.)

Plan G: Our next visit - to Marsha in AR – was a problem. Our R.V. couldn’t clear her steep driveway. God’s plan: we parked at Walmart not too far away and she drove us back and forth. We were able to do some jobs for her.

Plan H: More schedule changes! We hoped to see Roger’s 97 year old uncle, but with only 2 days notice, they weren’t able to arrange it. We added someone who was not part of the original plan – a single man, friend of 40 years, with health issues who (we think) enjoyed our unexpected visit. He fixed hamburgers for us while he and Roger renewed acquaintance.

With all the changes, it's good to know God doesn't change!