A Doll, a Deer, and a Barn Sour Horse

Ministry Update

Thank you so much for your prayers for us while we were on the road. The Lord gave safety in our travel and fruitfulness in ministry. We are home now for some rest and recharging before we head west during the winter.

Family Update

We are on our way home right now, and by the time you receive this e-mail, we will probably be there. We have really enjoyed the time we have had in meetings this fall. People have been saved, Christians have been renewed, and the Lord has given us more meetings as well as new opportunities of ministry. We are so thankful for all of His care, provision, and protection.

Last week, Dolly (Abigail’s constant companion) went AWOL for five days. We turned the trailer upside down and inside out looking for her, but to no avail. I looked in the church as well, but found nothing. Abigail was interrogated as to where she left her doll, but her only answer was, “I don’t know!” When we pulled out of Front Royal, VA, I just resigned myself to the fact that she was gone for good. Sunday morning, Josiah was looking for his Bible and found it (exactly where it was supposed to be) in his school desk. As he pulled it out, I heard a telltale rattle, and there was DOLLY! Abigail’s face, which had worn a rather forlorn expression for the last five days, was transformed with delight when I put Dolly in her arms once again. We are all very thankful for this happy turn of events.

We also rejoice in the fact that Paul has (finally) gotten his first deer. He went out hunting with a man in the church on Monday morning, and shot a “button buck.” I warned him that after five years of fruitless hunting, that he had better come back with something. He really got razzed about the size of his deer. One man said that he shot the spots right off of it. Another joked that the antlers were only warts. Regardless, we have some very tender meat for our Thanksgiving table. Yes, we will all be able to eat! The kids were so excited about the “baby deer that Daddy shot.” We are all proud of our resident great white hunter.

We left after the close of our meeting Tuesday night in a gale. It was 39 degrees and raining – miserable weather for doing anything. The wind, thankfully, was behind us, so we made good time. We pulled in to a church parking lot previously arranged beforehand with the pastor. He told us that he was leaving after the service that night to be with family, but they had an RV hookup that we were welcome to use anytime. We gratefully pulled into the parking lot around midnight and got out to plug in the trailer. To our chagrin, there was no hookup to be found! The pastor had told us that the plug was on the unlighted telephone pole. We searched every telephone pole on the property, but - you guessed it - we never found it. It is amazing that no one called the police! I can imagine what the call might have been like. “Yes, Officer, there are two suspicious characters lurking around the church building. One has a flashlight, and the other has an umbrella. No, they aren’t trying to get into the building, they are just wandering around in the parking lot. Wait! They are shining their flashlight on the telephone pole….Now they are walking again….Another pole check….It looks as if they are dancing (this was when we stepped in the deep puddles). I am not sure what they are doing, but it needs to be checked out. Very strange, Officer. Very strange. No problem – just doing my duty as a citizen. You never know about people. They could be terrorists or something.”

At this point, I had taken back all the nice things I ever said about the pastor, his family, his church, and his mother. Paul and I were soaked to the skin, freezing and bewildered. Where was the elusive plug? Did the pastor intend this to be very bad practical joke, perhaps? Did the plug just disappear into thin air? After twenty minutes or so in the pouring, gusting rain, we found a 15 amp receptacle on the side of the building, and decided to adapt our plug down to that. Shortly after that, we fell into bed, relieved to be out of the inclement weather. We headed out this morning like a barn-sour horse for home.

The thanksgiving holiday traffic is dreadful. Presently, we are creeping along at 15-20 mph along I-85. Hopefully we will make it back in time for our Thanksgiving Praise service at our home church this evening.

Children

We ask once again that you pray for Josiah. He has been sick the last few days, and is starting down the all-too familiar road to the hospital, unless the Lord interevenes. The leaf mold in this area is very high right now, and combined with the cold, has made his breathing difficult. Right now, we are only giving treatments every 4-6 hours, which is pretty good. Our request is that you would pray that the medications he is getting would be sufficient to keep the inflammation down in his airways and to keep him from having an acute asthma attack. The next 24 hours are very crucial - it could go either way very quickly. Last night he had a temperature of 102 and woke up vomiting around 1a.m. His temperature is lower this morning, but he still has a fever of 100.1, and is still sick to his stomach. The Lord has blessed us with a friend in the church who "happens" to be a respiratory therapist in a nearby hospital. She listened to Josiah last night with her stethescope and said he was moving air very well, which relieved me to no end.

Esther also has the same cold and cough. She had a fever last night of 99.5, which isn't too high, but we covet your prayers for her, too.

Abigail has had a cold for some time, but since she only has the cough and runny nose, she is feeling somewhat neglected. Pray that each child will receive the attention and care that he needs.

A verse that keeps coming to mind is Psalm 100:3, "Know ye that the LORD, he is God; it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves..." God made each one of our children, and He knows best how to care for them. Ps. 100:5 "For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations." I will keep you updated on any changes.

Sarah Crow

The Flood

Ministry Update

We have had a wonderful day in northern VA, despite the adverse events of the night before. The Lord gave us three wonderful services today with at least two responding at the invitation to salvation in the morning service.

Family Update

We closed our meeting in Blackstone VA, on Friday night, and hit the road Saturday. We left just before noon, so we did not expect to get in to Alexandria VA until around 5 PM that evening. It was a nice drive, and though the leaves have passed their peak, it was still rather pretty to see the muted tones of the fall leaves all around us.

We had a slightly difficult time getting to the church, since our directions were not totally clear, but other than a few terrorized motorists, no one was hurt. I have a few more white hairs, but that, too, is inconsequential. It is very disheartening to be driving along, and realize that you just passed the road on which you were supposed to turn. For those of you that don’t know, Alexandria is a suburb of Washington, DC. Big city made for small cars, not large trailers. We turned around in a very small parking lot, and made our way back to the road. This was after we had taken the wrong road and had to turn around in a drug store parking lot full of cars. Yikes! Through all of this, Paul and I were amazed that only one person honked at us. I can’t remember what our honk record is, but one just doesn’t cut it – unless, of course, it is a full minute long. This was just a short one.

When we reached the church, it was growing dark, so we had to work fast to get set up. I believe if the Bible had been written in this day and age, it would read something like this: “It is easier for an evangelist to park his trailer in the church parking lot than it is for a rich man to enter into heaven.” The parking lot, in this case, was plenty big, but it was set up like an obstacle course with buses, church vans, and basketball goals (that had been marked by at least one other evangelist’s trailer) scattered all over it. Let me say that you have never truly learned the meaning of “back and forth” until you try to park an RV. Anyway, while Paul put several miles on the truck, I stood out in the cold and waved him around, easing the trailer back between a bus and the hapless basketball goal. That feat accomplished, I plucked out a few more white hairs, and hopped back in the truck to wait for the pastor. We had no power until he came, because the plug was in a locked shed. We found out later that he was working on his car when we called and left threatening phone messages. The rest of the night went pretty well – normal Saturday night routines…baths, ironing, etc. It has been rather cold the last several nights, so to keep our water from freezing, we have to keep it running all night. That was the last sound we heard as we collapsed into bed.

Paul came in this morning, and asked me if I was cognizant. “Mhm, mhm mhh. Mhm?” I answered. For those of you who are morning people, and do not know the language of the non-morning people, this is interpreted, “Yes, I am. Why?” He then proceeded to tell me that the trailer was flooded. As you can imagine, I was instantly awake and out of bed. Sure enough, the living room carpet went “Squish, squish” when you walked on it. Someone forgot to pull out the plug on the gray water tank. Consequently, after four baths and a trickle of water running in the sink all night, the tank overflowed – into the trailer. First it filled up the kitchen sinks, then ran over onto the kitchen floor, and from there it proceeded to soak into the carpet in the kid’s room and the living room. In the providence of God, the trailer was not quite level, so it all ran to one side, and down into the slideout where it eventually drained onto the ground. I surveyed the damage, and immediately set to work trying to mop it up. All I had was eight large bath towels, and when they were all wet, I just had to let it go. We got ready for church as usual, and had a great morning service. After lunch at the pastor’s house, we headed back to the trailer. Thankfully, one of the church members loaned us a carpet cleaning machine, and we were able to get about another gallon of water out of the living room carpet. What a day! The funny thing was, I felt prompted to ask Paul last night if the gray water tank was open, but dismissed it as silly, since he always remembers. I guess that was the Lord trying to make our day go a little smoother. Anyway, we are thankful for the little blessings – the trailer being unlevel so that only one half of it was wet, no water went down into the register vents, and nothing was sitting on the floor to be ruined. The carpet will soon dry, and it had an extra rinse from the last cleaning it had (which, I might add, was not the best job, despite my doing it).

We are looking forward to this evening’s service, and to doing a little sightseeing while here in our nation’s capital this week. It will be Josiah’s first field trip, and I think it will be enjoyable.