Life in the Big City

Ministry Update
The Lord has been so good to us to provide us with so many places of ministry this summer. Tomorrow I am to preach a special patriotic service at Community Baptist Church in Quakertown, PA. Please pray that souls would be saved.

Family Update
What a time we have had on the road these last few weeks! The Lord has blessed us with good meetings and many adventures! We took off for Knox, Indiana with a newly rebuilt transmission, courtesy of our ever-so-accommodating AAMCO mechanics, who only took four times as long and charged two times as much as they first estimated. In any case, we were glad to have the job done and be back on the road with our own wheels again.

After our meeting in Knox, we headed to Brooklyn, NY with the trailer in tow. It was a very rough ride, apparently, for when we finally pulled into the church parking lot, I found that not only were all the clothes out off the closet bar, but the drawers and cupboards had come open, showering our belongings all over the floor. I was really surprised to see that the sink covers had bounced off, and the toaster oven was in the sink! That has never happened before. So, after a little “let’s tidy up the trailer,” everything was back to normal.

The church was hosting a home school graduation ceremony that evening, so I jumped right in to help with the food and decorating. That was fun. While I was working inside, Paul was working outside to get power to the trailer. The poor man worked for about four hours before everything was ready to go. It was with a sigh of relief that we fell into bed that evening. It rained on Saturday, so we didn’t go out and do any sightseeing, so we just spent time with the Walkers. Their children and ours played together very well, and Abigail and Esther each have another “best friend.”

Sunday was a very busy day with a morning service, dinner on the grounds, and then an afternoon service. In the evening, we went to another church on 6th Ave. This is a very old church and was the old stomping grounds of Robert Lowery, the great Baptist hymn writer. In fact, his organ was still in the church. Although it wasn’t in the best condition, I was able to play it for the song service. It was a huge pipe organ that went all the way up to the cathedral ceiling. It was awesome! I helped in the nursery that evening, since the attendance was rather low and my children made up half of the nursery crowd!

Monday we did some sight seeing. The pastor took us down to the Staten Island Ferry, where we boarded and had a nice view of Lady Liberty. On the way back, I took the girls to the bathroom, and Abigail found four pennies on the restroom floor – she can find money almost anywhere! I told her she could give one to each of the children and they all ended up, so I thought, throwing them into the bay. We disembarked and the pastor went to get the van while we waited on the street corner by the subway entrance. After a few minutes, Abigail began crying loudly, and I asked what was wrong. “I swallowed my penny!” she wailed. Horrified, I asked, “The penny you found on the bathroom floor?!” When she nodded, I thought I was going to be sick. Anyway, after the crisis passed, we jumped in the van, and headed into downtown Manhattan. We drove by Wall Street and Central Park, down 5th Avenue, and Broadway, and into Times Square, where we were pulled over by the police for a random license check. We waited for fifteen minutes, before the police realized that they had forgotten us, so they let us go (it was crazy). We drove through Chinatown, and bought some yummy dumplings, and drove by the Plaza Hotel. There were lights and people everywhere – very exciting! They say New York City is the city that never sleeps, and I can tell you that while we were there, we didn’t do much sleeping. I tend to sacrifice sleep when I have good friends with whom to fellowship.

Tuesday evening was a youth hockey game in which Paul participated in zealously. He chose to forego the inline skates, and just play on foot, but he still did pretty well, considering that the last time he played hockey, he knocked out four or five of his friend’s teeth! Everyone was in one piece at the end of the game, so I thought it went well.

We packed up to leave on Wednesday, and after lunch, hooked up the truck and trailer. It was then that things began to get interesting. Paul backed out of the church lot and into the narrow, one-way street. There were cars parked on both sides of the street, so he didn’t have much room to move. We had reserved two parking places, in advance, so that we could get out, but, in retrospect, we should have reserved three. At this juncture, I let the kids out of the truck, because it was obvious that it was going to be a while before we were on the road in the figurative sense. When I opened the back door, I smelled a very pungent odor. Abigail had decided that, during the previously unsupervised moments, it would be a great time to take a bath in a bottle of transmission fluid treatment that she found in the back seat. It was everywhere, and stunk up the whole truck. I had to take a break from helping Paul and change her clothes and wipe up the excess fluid. Then I went back out to help Paul. He was perpendicular to the street, and had to back up over the opposite curb and between two trees. This normally would have been no problem, but at this time, the newly rebuilt transmission decided that it was tired of reverse, and decided that it would no longer work in that particular gear, making it necessary for us to push the truck and trailer back manually (I am totally serious). So there we were, stuck across the street, up on the curb, pinned in on every side by parked cars, when it began to rain. We decided that we only had one problem – one too many cars in the way of our escape. We had no way of knowing to whom the cars belonged, and as rush hour was fast approaching, we had to make a decision. We got a jack, and recruited some teens on their way home from the basketball court to help us get it up onto the curb, all the while hoping that the car alarm would not go off, or that the owner would not walk up while we were messing with the car! When we finally got the car out of the way, it was no problem to ease the trailer out into the street. We grabbed the kids and put them in the truck and “got outta Dodge” as fast as was legally possible. Because of the leaked fluid, we had to ride at highway speed with the windows down, only rolling them up to use the defrost when the windshield totally fogged up.

We pulled into our Wednesday evening meeting 30 minutes after it started (this was not a problem because we had called ahead and they rearranged the service to accommodate us. We did the “superman in a phone booth” routine, and ran into the service. Whew! After church, we enlisted the help of all the men to push the truck backwards into the parking place. All those teen boys were really feeling manly at that point! Paul took the truck back to a local AAMCO center and left on his primitive camping retreat with Josiah and the men of the church. So, once again, our truck is in the shop. I believe I know the reason AAMCO has a nationwide guarantee on their service. It is because they know it is going to break down soon, and they better have someone in the area who can fix it. My personal opinion, but nevertheless, it makes sense.

Anyway, we are in good hands despite all the recent difficulties. The Lord is always in control, so we can sit back and watch Him work in this situation. Please be in prayer that the truck would be fixed quickly and correctly, that we would see people saved in our meetings, and that we would have safety traveling back to North Carolina next week.

Meanwhile

Ministry Update
My days have been filled with non-ministerial pursuits of late—things like repairing trailer axles, getting the truck repaired, securing and preparing another vehicle in case the truck is not done in time for our next meeting, and like pursuits. I praise the Lord for so many trips in which things worked like they were supposed to. Now that there are a few mechanical chores to complete, we are in a good place to get them all done.

A week from Sunday we are in a meeting again, and we are looking to see many saved. Please pray for the attendance and for the power of God to convict hearts.

Family Update
It was another dark and stormy night in Kings Mountain last night. We have had soooooo much rain lately. I am not complaining at all, though, because the water table has been so low for so long that people’s wells were drying up last summer. It has afforded no end of fun for the children, who enjoy playing in the puddles. They call themselves the “puddle patrol” and beg to splash in the puddles every time it rains.

We are currently “stuck” in Kings Mountain while our truck is (hopefully) being repaired. It was having transmission problems, and we ended up having to get it rebuilt. However, after it was totally rebuilt, it was still having the same problem shifting. So, they are checking everything that they can think of, and keep telling us that it “may be done today.” I have totally given up hope that they actually know what they are doing, since they have now had it for over a week, and the job was supposed to take only a day. Perhaps they will prove me wrong and actually have it done right sometime in the near future (like this month). We are very glad that the problem surfaced while we were at home, and not out on the side of a mountain somewhere, or in the middle of nowhere, through which we frequently have to drive to get to our meetings!

Our meetings this spring have been good ones, and we are so thankful that our schedule has been pretty full. Our summer will be very busy, as well. Please pray for safety as we travel, especially in light of the recent repair issues. Josiah is enjoying his days of summer vacation, and I have been filling my days with housework, and the occasional “day of scrapbooking” with friends. The girls play with their dolls and all of them enjoy playing outside when the weather is nice. Popsicles and watermelon are a staple of their summer diet right now!

Daniel has just finished cutting his first two teeth, and has finally graduated to rice cereal in small amounts. I think once he figures out the eating thing, he will be a little more excited about sitting in the high chair. He sits up quite well by himself these days, and plays happily on the floor for long periods of time. He also knows that when Mama walks toward him, many times she will pick him up. However, he has also been disappointed at times, when, instead of picking him up, I walk right past him into the other room. What a weeping and wailing we hear then! Overall, he is a very happy little boy, and we all love him very much. They grow up so quickly!

Abigail will start K-5 in the fall when Josiah starts third grade. She is so excited! It will be different having two in school, so I will probably have to juggle a few scheduling changes.

Esther will celebrate her third birthday this month. I cannot believe what a big girl she is. Paul and I will also celebrate our ninth wedding anniversary this month. It is hard to believe that we have been married that long! The best three years of my life! Just kidding! They have all been wonderful, and I am thankful for the sweet, faithful, and loving husband the Lord has given me.

Paul’s book is now available for sale, and I am so proud of him! He has done a wonderful job, and already we are hearing of how it has blessed so many people. I am so thankful that God has used it in the lives of others. We look forward to the ministry this book will have over the years.