Rapid City/Sturgis Family Visit

We have been staying in the AmericInn hotel in Rapid City, SD since Thursday. It's Saturday evening and tomorrow we plan to attend the Nisland Community Church, about an hour's drive from our hotel. Our oldest son recommended it to us and plans to meet us there.

The past few days have been mostly keeping watch over our grandkids swimming in the pool.

Last Wednesday we stopped in at Wall Drug. You see their road signs all over the region. We occasionally stop. Heather really wanted to taste their buffalo burger. (Not much different from beef!)

While there, Roger had a run-in with a local bad guy.

It's a great place to give tracts to kids from all over the world. They come here on short term work visas.

The end is here!

We are at the end of the conference. It will be four years until the next one.

It has been a wonderful week of teaching, preaching, singing and fellowship with CEF people from around the world. 

This is just a brief mention of things we have done in addition to attending the conference. Our goal is to always help if help is needed. 

Heather has made nine airport runs to pick up or deliver folks. We had to get up at 4 a.m. one morning for an airport run.

Roger took several of the vehicles for fuel, getting them ready for travel.

The conference ended with a concert by Phillips, Craig & Dean.

Here are a few miscellaneous images in the main meeting hall.

1st full day at International Conference

Tuesday morning started with a 7am prayer meeting. The room was packed with at least a hundred attendees seated and standing around all four sides of a giant floor map of the world.

The food service at Ridgecrest is great. After breakfast we went to the morning general sessions.

We attended the aftermath breakout sessions. The first session was led by a missionary who works in a "sensitive area" in the middle east. The second session was on the pros and cons using AI tools in ministry. 

The evening general session featured an international choir from African nations.

CEF International Conference begins

The conference officially starts this evening. Many people have been arriving all day from airports. Heather made three airport pickup runs to the Asheville airport. 

They are expecting around a thousand attendees.

We have enjoyed reconnecting with our CEF friends today. Some from Washington and others from around the world.

The evening session was one of celebrating a year of ministry of praising the Lord for how He has used CEF around the world to reach children with the Gospel message. The program featured a Korean worship dance ensemble.

For the evening session, we sat behind a couple from Germany. Turns out, they graduated from the Bible School Heather's dad founded and taught at! Herald and Erika Kunkel. Small world...Also, on one of Heather's airport runs, she had as a passenger a lady who was somewhat acquainted with our missionary friend, Isabelle Dunn. Her home church in Iron Mountain, MI, supports them, she said.

Sunday in Ashville

This morning, after checking out of the motel, we drove to a nearby church, The New Bridge Baptist Church. We enjoyed worship and fellowship with other Christians for Sunday School and church. They are a welcoming (and growing) congregation. The pastor is an excellent preacher.

After church we went to a Cracker Barrel restaurant and enjoyed their chicken pot pie dinner.

After lunch we drove to the Ridgecrest Convention Center where we will be this coming week. We settled into a large room with 2 bunk beds and a queen. Don't think we'll be sharing the room - we'll see!! lol

Travel day Saturday - tornado

We left Warrenton, MO, in the morning and traveled all day, arriving in Asheville, NC, in the evening. The trip took us through MO, IL, IN, KY, TN, and NC. We spent the night in a Day's Inn.

Along the way, as we passed by Corbin, Kentucky, we saw some of the aftermath of a tornado that had occurred earlier that day. Cars were lined along the side of I-40 and we didn't know what they were looking at. Then we saw the devastation - houses smashed in and wood pieces all over - including the median of the road and the other side of the highway. The fierce wind had blown the debris off the highway pavement to along the edges.

The wind was very strong most of the day and made for some wavy driving. You could even see truck drivers having difficulty keeping their rigs in their lane. We were so grateful to not have the R.V. - not sure it could have survived, since keeping a small car on the road was a full time job.

 

Thursday - still busy

We finished installing the luggage barriers on the four rental vans. (Heather was released from food services to help with this. She even "ran" the chop saw!) It was hard for us two old folks handling and cutting 4×8 plywood sheets and 2×4's. Fortunately there is wonderful wood shop. The design we were given will not damage the van's interior.

Oh! We finished a 500 piece Mt. Rushmore puzzle. It took about 5 hours, which is unusual for a small puzzle. But it was more difficult than most. (Our evenings are usually free, as workers go home.)

I took photos of the beautiful CEF campus the other day.

Their campus is nearly a square mile with woods and wildlife.