Rapid City, SD for the weekend.

We left Warrenton on Wednesday morning and drove through the day. In the evening we found a church with a Wednesday evening service, the Crossroads Church in Council Bluffs, Iowa. I  saw this sign in their coffee bar.

Christ
Offers
Forgiveness
For
Everyone
Everywhere 

Thursday travel day. We stopped in Mitchell, SD, so Heather could teach her Zoom Good News Club using the open wifi from Tractor Supply.

We parked for the night at a Love's Travel Stop in Kimball, SD. I would love to see this gas price in our home state of WA.

Friday travel day. Heading west, we stopped at Wall Drug, in Wall, SD. We often stop there on our I-90 travels and eat a Buffalo burger or other menu item. Lots of old west memorabilia to see here and overpriced trinkets to buy.

We arrived at our favorite RV campground in Rapid City Friday afternoon, but only stayed there one night.

Unfortunately their pool  was out of commission so we moved to the Grand Gateway hotel which has a great indoor pool with a slide. 

Our son Alan and his family joined us at the pool Saturday afternoon. The kids really like this pool.

There are other distraction in the "pool room"

We attended a church on Sunday morning that we had never attended in our years of visits to the area. Christ Church has a traditional Sunday School and worship service. They sing hymns accompanied by piano and organ. They even have a choir! 

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 church's 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.