Mountains, Ostriches, and Taking Bets

Ministry Update

After a week of not having services, we are back in a revival meeting again in Hadley, NY, not far from Albany. Please pray that the Lord would work in the hearts of the people in the area, that some would be saved. We had one visitor tell the pastor after the service today that she disliked preachers who raise their voice when they preach. Oh well, you can’t please everybody.

Family Update

It was a dark and foggy night. We had been driving for hours on the New York Thruway, and, in addition to being tired, we were now also broke. We figured it cost us one dollar in tolls for every book of the Bible. This, we thought was somewhat unfair, since Paul has not yet preached from every book of the Bible in his short tenure as an evangelist, but we decided against arguing with the toll booth attendant. The pastor met us at McZoomies restaurant, also known as the Golden Arches Dining Club, and we partook of the finest cuisine in the region. After the experience was over, we piled back into the truck and the pastor into his car. We were to follow him to the church, which, we were told, was twenty minutes away. For the first five hundred feet, the road looked promising, causing Paul to comment, “This is a pretty good road!” I thought to myself that it was a bit soon to say, but, like the good wife that I am, I nodded and smiled.

We groaned up to the speed limit ascending a 15 percent grade, while the pastor zipped away into the darkness. In fact, so rapid was his acceleration, that we wondered if he had a jet-assisted take-off. To put this in perspective, imagine a race between a road runner and an ostrich. While both are capable of great speed, it takes the ostrich a bit longer to attain the higher velocity. Speaking of velocity, by this time in our trip, we were now going down the other side of the mountain, which was an equal or greater grade than the previous hill. Paul was wishing there was a gear lower than first, and I was wishing that I had not eaten dinner. I suppose our eyes might have bugged out at the hairpin turns on the road, if they had not been pressed inside our skulls by the sheer velocity we had attained. Meanwhile, the pastor had disappeared. As we screamed around another corner, on six wheels (we have twelve total), we spotted him, sitting at a stop sign. After furiously mashing the brake pedals on both floorboards (mine is invisible as well as worthless), we came to a grinding halt just shy of the pastor’s back seat. He seized this moment to once more utilize his JATO (jet-assisted take-off) and disappear into the gloaming, with only the red glow of his taillights to offer a clue as to his former whereabouts. After twenty minutes of driving through the Adirondack Mountains in this breakneck fashion, we were beginning to wonder if the whole meeting was a hoax, or worse, if this was really the pastor that we were following. Then, as if out of nowhere, the church appeared on the crest of the next hill. Now the fun began.

“Pull in here,” the pastor said, pointing to a space made for a much smaller vehicle; a Yugo or perhaps, a go-cart. As he spoke, a crowd of curious onlookers collected in the parking lot opposite the church and began taking bets as to whether we would hit the trees or the sanctuary first. We pulled in with relative ease, only to find that there was no way to extricate the truck, since the church, built in 1869, also had a cemetery surrounding it on three sides, effectively blocking us in. We shrugged our shoulders and set to work leveling the trailer. Life is such an adventure.

Don’t try to call us this week, because we have absolutely no cell phone reception. We do have high-speed internet, though, so e-mail is the best way to get in touch with us. We still need your prayers as we travel. The Lord has kept us safe over many miles, and we are thankful. We know that your prayers have an effect on our ministry, even though you may not always realize it immediately.

The children are doing well, although both Josiah and Abigail had a cold last week. Josiah needed breathing treatments several times last week – the first time since April, I believe. He is doing much better now. The kids enjoyed running and playing outside in the nice 68-70 degree weather today after church. Abigail is the “little mama” dragging dolls around with her all the time. Esther grins and giggles when you talk to her, and perpetually blows spit bubbles. At times, it looks as if she is foaming at the mouth. Thankfully, she has no teeth, so the chances of getting bitten are slight. Paul says that I need to put something nice about him, too, so here goes. He is the only one of his kind.

Sarah