Due

Ministry Update

This past month, going back into October, has been good month for us. The meetings in October took us to different parts of the South in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee while November found us back home in Indiana working in our home church.

This last round of meetings brought a lot of vehicle expense. In Alabama, the flywheel came detached from the torque converter on the truck, destroying both parts. That, combined with the need for tires, put the repair bills very high for that period of time. With all the trouble-free miles we have logged on the truck, I figured that we were due for a major repair sooner or later, especially considering the miles were hard miles pulling the trailer.

The good news is that the BOA (bed of affliction) is now gone, having been replaced by a very nice mattress that was a gift from a lady in Prattville, AL. The frame for the bed went in our house and the mattress went in the trailer. God is so good to us!

We will be out in meetings again in January when once again we will turn west and head for California. The Christmas season is always difficult financially. Thank you so much for your prayers.

Family Update

Within the last month, both Daniel and I celebrated our birthdays. I really can’t believe he is already two years old. He is beginning to speak more plainly each day, repeating things that his siblings say. The girls are busy trying to teach him his colors, which he can repeat, but cannot yet identify. They have a good time doing it, though.

Thanksgiving was a time for relaxation and family. My family came from Ohio and spent the night at our house, giving the kids some grandparent time, and Paul some much-needed mother-in-law time! I was able to spend the day after with my mom doing our favorite activity – scrapbooking! All in all, it was a lot of fun.

One of the things we are thankful for is that Paul was able to shoot four deer this season, and they all went straight into our freezer. The Lord has provided bountifully for us during these lean months, and we are so grateful. This was also our first Thanksgiving meal in our new home. Many of you have asked how we like our new house, and I must say we LOVE it!

Yesterday, we went out and chose a Christmas tree – our first real tree in eight years! I was so excited! We put it in our living room, and after a short battle with the lights, got it up and decorated. I always let the kids help decorate the tree, giving them the unbreakable ornaments and allowing them to place them on the tree. The effect is somewhat akin to a Christmas shotgun blast. There are clusters of ornaments hung precariously on tiny, drooping branches with large open spaces between cluster groups. I am trying to teach them the art of balance in decorating, but so far, I haven’t succeeded. It is hard to let go of my perfectionist tendencies and allow them to enjoy the moment. I will admit to limiting the amount of ornaments per branch to only five! This is always a highlight of the season, and we all look forward to it each year. We wish you a wonderful, Christ-centered Christmas!

BOA

Ministry Update

Feast or famine. That is how the ministry of evangelism has often been described, and that phrase has described this year very aptly. The first part of the year was the busiest spring we have ever had while this fall has been one of few meetings. Yesterday, however, was a time of excitement for me. After living in a normal house for a few months, after knowing firsthand the benefits of having all my library accessible, after having a piano readily accessible every day, after having all the space we need as a family so that the children were never under our feet—after all that, I moved my family yesterday back into the trailer to head south toward Alabama and a revival meeting. And what is more, I was excited to do it. Excited to leave behind the normal settled existence that I had grown to know in our house. Excited to cram all six of us into the cab of the truck for hours on end. Excited to settle down after the travel in a home where we are constantly crawling on top of each other. The excitement, of course, is not primarily to be living in the trailer so much as it is for the reason we do this in the first place: a revival meeting. The chance to beg God every night for His mind as to what to preach, the chance to plead for His power every day several times throughout the day, the chance to see lives changed and eternity affected—this is the ultimate reason for my excitement every time I load the trailer for another trip. But I would be less than truthful if I did not admit that I enjoy all the other attendant circumstances of heading to a revival meeting. I actually enjoy the travel, the trailer life, and even the cramped quarters. I don’t even complain about preaching in a suit and tie, so much so that I often liken the task of dressing up to a fighter pilot putting on his flight suit for another mission. Thank God to be in another meeting.

Oh, regarding the famine time of no meetings? God provided for our every need as He always has done in the past and as He will continue to do in the future.

Family Update

Ahhhh! On the road again with trailer in tow – what a feeling! That feeling was preceded by other feelings, mostly stressful ones such as, “How am I ever going to get all this stuff ready to go?” and “the house is not clean,” and “I sure hope I don’t forget something important!” (I did…) It took us a while to get “moved” back into the trailer from the house, but by late afternoon Thursday we were on our way to Alabama. The day was one of those gorgeous fall days and I enjoyed seeing the vibrant colors of the changing leaves against the cloudless azure sky. We parked overnight in the greater Nashville area, and after several hours of driving, we were eager to rest our weary bodies. However, our much desired repose was less than invigorating for several reasons. The first reason was that we were parked on a steep hill, the incline of which left the front of the trailer several inches lower than the back. While this may not seem like a big deal, it does create a gravitational force that pulls me to the side of the bed, and if I am not careful, over the edge onto the twelve inches of floor beside it. The second reason was that we are now sleeping on what we have laughingly dubbed the “Bed of Affliction,” or BOA. Some time ago, you will recall, we bought a house, and have been in the process of remodeling, moving, and furnishing our new nest. Of course, we had some furniture in storage, but precious little, since we had downsized our possessions when we first purchased the trailer. One of the items we did not have was a queen size bed. No problem – we would just use the one in the trailer.

Now, RV mattresses are never anything to write home about, and our original mattress was no exception. A few years ago, we were given a regular mattress to replace the thin, lumpy RV mattress. It was really nice, although the gas springs that raised the bed platform (for under-the-bed storage) were not equipped to handle the weight of a regular mattress. Consequently, it now required two people to access the storage space, one of which had to have the strength of Atlas, and the other the speed of Mercury. After the desired item was retrieved, the sweating, straining, herniated one would release the platform, letting it fall with a resounding whump! At this point, the one retrieving would have visions of what it would be like to face the guillotine. We decided, then, to take the mattress from the trailer and move it into the house, since neither Paul nor I relished the thought of sleeping on the floor. We dragged the mattress off of the platform, groaning under its weight, and it promptly folded itself into something that resembled a very large taco. I do not know the exact weight of the mattress, but I will estimate it between 150-200 pounds. Somehow we managed to drag it into the house, around several corners, as well as up and down a few stairs and dumped it in the bedroom. I vowed then and there we would never move it again. I believe Paul seconded the motion.

This brings us to the present. Since there was no way we were going through the Olympic task of moving the mattress back into the trailer, we had to figure out some kind of sleeping arrangement. I had an inspiration. “We can just use the mattress out of the hide-a-bed couch in the trailer!” It isn’t very heavy, and I reasoned that we could use it in place of the other mattress for the few weeks we would be on the road. I have already mentioned that RV mattresses are somewhat below standard in quality, but an RV hide-a-bed couch mattress scores lower than a leaky air mattress. The article in question is a full-size mattress about two inches thick. I mentioned earlier that we normally use a queen size mattress, so this mattress is a good ten inches shorter than our normal bed. It really isn’t a problem for someone who stands 5’4” tall, but when you are 6’3”, there are some definite issues, as we discovered last night. The experience was somewhat akin to camping out in a sleeping bag, minus the rocks underneath. I think perhaps, the ground might actually have been softer than the wooden platform. Paul tried in vain to find some way to get comfortable, the fetal position being the only means to have all of his lanky frame on the mattress. It quickly became evident that neither of us was going to sleep well. I suggested that he try to sleep diagonally. This worked well for him, but meant that I was now shoved into the upper right hand corner of the bed. In retrospect, it was not bad, because the angle offset the gravity problem of the uneven trailer, and I was no longer in danger of falling out of bed.

This is not the first BOA on which I have ever slept. In years gone by I have slept on lumpy beds, hard beds, sagging beds, scratchy beds, beds with dirty sheets, beds with flat pillows, and beds covered in animal hair. However, this time, I don’t have to endure it for just a night, or even a week – it is a BOA of my own making that I must endure for at least three weeks at this point! The worst part about it is that the couch is now defunct as well, having sacrificed its innards that we might have a place to sleep. The couch doesn’t look too bad at first glance, but beware the casual sitter! It swallows up people like an oversized Venus fly-trap, and the victims must be extracted by their hands and feet, usually the only thing sticking out from between the flapping cushions. “Where’s your sister? AAAHHHH! The couch got her! Quick! Help me get her out!”

So if you see us in the next few weeks, don’t be surprised if we look as if we haven’t been sleeping well. It all comes from having a BOA in the house. 

Home, Sweet Home

Ministry Update
We are coming to the end of our time that was to be spent on fixing up the house. It has become quite a nice place for us to live, completely adequate to meet all of our needs as a family. So far, the list of improvements we have made to the house since we moved in a month ago is as follows:

New bead board and trim in three bedrooms
New paint in kitchen, living room, bedrooms and bathroom
Fixed kitchen plumbing leak
Replaced toilet
Painted bathroom cabinets
Install new bathroom floor all the way down to the joists
Installed new bathroom lighting
Cleaned ductwork
Removed low basement ceiling
Removed moldy wood in basement
Installed new basement lighting
Painted basement with Dry Lock paint
Replaced leaking cast iron sewer lines with PVC

There are some other things that we would like to do, but I go back to preaching this week, going to northern Indiana to preach in two churches there. Once we return to Connersville, I will be teaching in the church’s Bible institute in between meetings, plus preaching from time to time as the pastor asks me to. We are busy, but loving the place where the Lord has us.

Many do not know our new address because I have not yet gotten my website updated. Please forgive my negligence in this area. Here is the new address:

Paul and Sarah Crow
827 Earl Dr
Connersville IN 47331

Thank you for all of your prayers as we begin to resume our traveling schedule once again.

Family Update

As you can see from the above list, we have been quite busy the last several weeks. In addition to all the repairs, we have also begun a new school year. Josiah entered the fourth grade, and Abigail is now in the first grade. The challenges continue to mount with each passing day. Josiah is desperately trying to conquer two-digit multiplication, with nominal success. Abigail’s biggest struggle is overcoming her need for perfection in the area of writing. She thinks that if it doesn’t look exactly like the printed example that a meltdown is in order. Esther keeps busy with her “school work” of coloring reams of pictures and adding them to the ever-growing pile of homework, quizzes, and tests that litter the desk. Daniel is content to color himself, the floor, the desks, and any papers he can get his hands on, as well as initiating organized terror in the form of toy-dumping, sippy cup irrigation, and hitting anyone who threatens his agenda. Nap time is a welcome reprieve!

I have also taken on several piano students, which is exciting for me. I think some of them are still in shock. Right now, I have eight students, including two of our children. It is a blessing to help prepare these young people for service at an early age. We need young musicians to be trained and working in the context of the local church.

The house is really nice—we have much to be thankful for! We have had so many friends pitch in and help with the demolition and renovation projects! It is so nice to have some space to call my own. The kids love living in the house, and have staked out the “no boys/girls allowed” areas. The boys’ room is, amazingly enough, relatively clean most of the time. The girls’ room, however, is usually a complete disaster, with dolls, clothes, toy food and dishes, shoes and strands of gaudy beads mixed liberally and scattered on the floor. I keep telling them if they would only get out one thing at a time, the cleanup time every evening would be cut down tremendously!

Abigail, always my helper, has appointed herself the chief dishwasher. While this relieves my work load, it has also caused some anxiety due to the fact of the lowered standard of sanitation (sometimes the food from the last meal escapes her six-year-old notice). Paul and I have learned to be a little more circumspect when selecting cups and plates from the dish drainer! I am so thankful for her sweet spirit and helping hands. Obviously her attitude is contagious. Esther announced today that she wants to “fold the clothes every day.” This means romping about on my bed in the clean clothes, and folding the smaller pieces of laundry until she gets distracted, but I am grateful for all the help my girls give around the house! Sometimes I have to remind myself that I need to put aside my way of doing things better and let them be responsible. Hence, we have beds that are made crookedly, with blankets askew, clothes that are folded in strange ways, and dishes that have smears of food on them. Only with practice will these things improve, so I have determined to put up with less than perfect in order that I might train them to be good housekeepers. Josiah wants me to teach him to cook – I think it is primarily because he loves to eat so much! I have not yet relinquished that duty, though. I may have an aspiring chef on my hands! Daniel’s greatest joy these days is his bath time. He laughs and stomps around in a little dance whenever I start running the bath water. Of course, he feels it necessary to empty the tub himself, one cupful at a time onto the bathroom rug, so he must be kept under a watchful eye at all times. He is beginning to talk more as he approaches his second birthday. Some of his words are “bath, out, NO, mine, all gone, cookie, eat, please, thank you, HEY, and Bye-bye.” He is such a funny little guy. He loves to be chased and tickled, especially at bedtime. He also loves to sit on my lap and read books. “Book” is another one of his words. I am so thankful for the children God has given us. They are such a joy!

Home Without Wheels

Ministry Update

Although May was a slower month for us as far as meetings were concerned, the Lord has kept us busy with many activities and unexpected places of ministry. We were able to attend my Sarah’s brother Micah’s graduation from college and from there we were off to Virginia for a meeting with Pastor Nate Clark. Then it was the throes of moving. Now tomorrow, I fly out to the American southwest where I will be in two different churches, one in NM and the other in AZ. After all the hard work I have been doing for my wife (see below), it will be refreshing to get back to mere 14-hour days at teen camp.

Family Update

Many of you may be wondering what has been going on in our lives, and I must say, we have been so busy! This spring, we had a full schedule complete with many answers to prayer. I have felt guilty for not sending out an update in so long, but I just never took the time to sit down and tell all that has happened. So… here is the latest

Some time ago, the Lord began to move in our hearts about making some major changes. After much prayer and counsel, we made the decision to move our “home base” to Indiana. In March we began looking for a house, and on May 5, we closed on a three bedroom ranch in Connersville Indiana. There were mixed emotions about the house – excitement about our very first home balanced with the sobering realization that we now have a house payment and all the additional expenses that come with being homeowners. At this point, we are still planning to travel in the fifth wheel – we will just have a place to spread out when we are not in meetings. We will officially become Indiana residents in after our Family Camp with Emmanuel Baptist Church in July. It is sad to be leaving Emmanuel after fifteen years, but the Lord has given us another wonderful church in which we can have a part. Our home church will be First Baptist Church of Laurel, Indiana.

This past week, we took possession of our new home, and began making it our own. This entailed much “elbow grease” from many different people. We painted every room, stripped wallpaper, put up bead board and trim in all the bedrooms, and tore up all the carpet. It was a blessing to have beautiful oak hardwood floors under al the carpet, and the house now looks totally different than it did a week ago! Paul’s parents and another couple from their church, Doug and Carol Sanders put in many hard, hot hours painting and working under my slave-driving conditions! We are so grateful for all of their help—it would have taken us weeks to do it all ourselves! A few others—Andy, Jaimy and Jeff—helped us unload our belongings and do some miscellaneous jobs, and we appreciate them all! The Lord has blessed us with so many good friends here already.

The children are so excited about their new house – the girls have their own room, and so do the boys. We were not in the house five minutes before a “no boys allowed” policy was instated in the girls’ room! We also have a full basement, which doubles our living area. We have had some unexpected (covered up) problems already, but we will work our way through those eventually. It has been wonderful to be in the house, and not be stepping on people every time I turn around! I am thrilled to have a chance to decorate for the first time ever! The house, except for the kitchen, which was highlighter yellow, was white all the way from floor to ceiling. Paul said it was my “blank canvas” for inspiration. It has been a lot of work, and there is more to be done, but I am so grateful for what the Lord has given us, and for a husband who is willing to go the extra mile to make the house pleasant!

School is out for the summer, and we are all breathing sighs of relief. The schedule of school every day and church every night can be quite exhausting, and we are enjoying every minute of our vacation! All of the children are growing so quickly. It seems that every time I turn around, someone’s clothes are too short, or the shoes are too small. Abigail has lost her first tooth, and has several more wiggly ones. Esther will celebrate her fourth birthday in just a few weeks. On Mother’s Day, we had the blessing of seeing both Abigail and Esther baptized. It is such a joy to see our children trust Christ and follow Him in obedience! Please pray that the Lord would continue to work in our children’s hearts and that they would follow His leading in their daily lives.

Please also pray that the Lord would fill our fall schedule. We know that whether or not we have meetings, the Lord will provide for our needs, but we do so enjoy the work He has called us to do. Pray for safety as we travel and for people to be saved as we minister. Pray that God would use us to encourage the hearts of pastors and congregations where we minister as well.

Thank you for your prayers and I will try to be a little more regular in sending out updates than I have the last few months.

In the Presence of the Angels

Ministry Update

This evening, I closed one of the greatest meetings of my ministry up to this point. Its greatness was not so much seen in the number of decisions, but in one great decision close to my heart for which we had been praying for years. The meeting was in Plymouth, Indiana, the seat of the county in which both of my parents grew up. Many of the extended family members are still in the area, and to make matters even more significant, the meeting was in the church in which my parents were married.

On Sunday morning, my maternal Grandmother showed up to surprise me. It was amazing to see her there, not only because she had given me no prior warning, but also because neither she nor my Grandpa are saved. To her great delight, she was greeted by Josiah and Abigail who both insisted on sitting with her during the service. I preached the burden of my heart that morning on the subject of pride from the Old Testament story of Uzziah. One of the points that I made was that pride sometimes keeps people from getting saved. At the invitation, my Grandma knew that she was in need of something, but did not go forward. I was grateful to see her in the morning service, but suspected that she had just come out of duty to me as her grandson. She was not in the evening service that night, and I thought that I would not have time to see her again until I had opportunity to visit in their home later in the week. To my surprise, she was back on Monday night, having driven into the service herself. Although she is a fine driver, she is restricted to driving only in the daylight hours because of her age. With Monday’s service starting at 7:00 and ending around 8:15, she was cutting things very close.

Ever since I can remember, we have prayed for her salvation, as well as my Grandpa’s. The one great hurdle was getting either one to admit a need—they were moral people all their lives and he saw no need for a Savior while she believed that she had always been saved. A few years back, as I was praying for them both, the Lord seemed to impress on my heart that Grandma would get saved first, then Grandpa would follow. I mistakenly thought at the time that the Lord was leading me to try to get her alone and talk to her, but all efforts in that direction proved futile.

Grandpa’s bout with Parkinson’s disease has left him more and more bound to his home, and he was unable to come to a single service because of his condition. That left Grandma to come alone whenever she could.

Monday night found Grandma once again hedged by Josiah on one side and Abigail on the other. I preached that night from Psalm 139, giving a kind of character study of God from that psalm. In the end, the invitation was to total surrender to the God revealed in the verses of David’s song. When the invitation time came, Josiah took Grandma’s hand and rubbed it a bit. He then left his seat, as is his custom and went forward to pray for his great grandparents. His great grandma was right behind him. That night at the altar, she admitted her sinfulness in prayer to God and confessed her need to Him. Because of the lateness of the hour, I did not have as much time to deal with her as I would have liked, but knew that my Mom would call her after she got home. Sure enough, Grandma had no sooner walked in the door, when Mom called and further explained the Gospel to Grandma. At the age of 81, she trusted Christ as Savior!

By Tuesday, someone in the church had volunteered to pick her up each night and she did not miss another service of the meeting. Now, the process of discipleship has begun just as we have to leave town. I would ask all of you to pray for Mary Silveus and her husband Eldon, that Mary would grow in the Lord and be baptized and Eldon would trust Christ as Savior. What a blessing it has been to see God do a great work in my Grandma’s life so far. The good work has begun, and God will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

California At Last!

Our trip to CA continued to be eventful, even after all the trailer repairs were complete. I was able to get the power converter replaced without any problem and we headed out of Fort Worth on Thursday of last week. Our goal was spend the night in the parking lot of the Hillcrest Baptist Church of El Paso. We started the drive with a light rain falling, which, though it made packing up a little bit more difficult did not concern us in the least. After we left the relative safety of civilization in the Fort Worth area, the storm that had been a mere sprinkle became a huge thunderstorm. Thunder and lightning were our companions for the next 180 miles, as was torrential rains. So much rain fell that hydroplaning became a concern, particularly after we saw an 18-wheeler that had careened off into the ditch because his wheels lost their traction on the wet roads. Shortly after passing this wreck, I myself lost traction and began to swerve all over the road. The problem was not ice; it was simply a lot of water. After those antics, I slowed down considerably until the rain stopped a couple of hours later.

Finally, the rain stopped and we had a few miles of driving without any precipitation. It was only the calm before the next storm. The next storm began shortly after we got off I-20 onto I-10 east of El Paso. All day long I had been watching my truck thermometer so that I would have a better idea of road conditions. It had lingered in the high 30's all day long, but now it began to plunge rapidly. Soon, it reached and passed the 32 mark, ever going down. Then it started to snow hard. We were in some of the most sparsely populated counties in the entire United States and the likelihood of snow plows and salt trucks seemed remote in such a place. Who expects it to snow in south Texas anyway? Yet there it was covering the roads and slowing our progress greatly. The number of prayers that went up for our safety caused the God of heaven to protect us every possible mishap and we arrived in El Paso late on Thursday night.

From there it was on to the valley of the sun, where we stopped for the night at the Cornerstone Baptist Church of Phoenix AZ and had supper with our good friends, Pastor Ben Schwanke and his wife Stacy. Then on Saturday, we completed our drive to CA, arriving shortly before 5 in the afternoon at the Fundamental Baptist Church of Escondido.

Sunday, an 83-year-old Roman Catholic woman walked the aisle for salvation. After dealing with her, the counselor led her to trust Christ as Savior! The process of unlearning 83 years of Catholicism will be a long one, but I believe this woman understood the Gospel and was saved. Thank the Lord for the Gospel and its power.

Dry Dock to Underway

I was able to take the trailer back to north MS with no problems, at least so it seemed. I arrived without incident on Friday night, but was nagged by some things that I noticed about the trailer. To begin with, the trailer seemed to be leaning to the passenger side—listing to starboard, as sailors would say—even though it was on relatively even pavement. A man in a trailer repair shop in Anderson, SC, had looked over my suspension and pronounced it good to go, but after my trip to north MS, I was beginning to doubt his word. Secondly, when I arrived at the church, there was the unmistakable smell of burning rubber wafting about the parked trailer, and particularly on the passenger side. (What is it about that side?) Further inquiry revealed that the first two tires had touched each other countless times during the trip as well as rubbing on the top of wheel well, combining for a burnt rubber sensation to rival Daytona or the drag strip. Though it was dark, I decided to look into the trailer yet that night and try to ascertain what was causing the problems I had discovered. The pastor and another man in the church immediately volunteered to help me and we three worked until midnight assessing problems and getting a part list together for me to find on Saturday. The problem as we saw it was an equalizer, a triangular part that couples the rear of the middle leaf spring to the front of the rear leaf spring. On the passenger side, this piece had almost been cut in two by the constant bumps and jarring of the road, the cut costing the trailer about two inches of height compared to the other side. The opposite equalizer on the driver side, though it was not nearly as bad as the passenger side, was nevertheless damaged and also needed to be replaced. By midnight the old part was off on the passenger side, the trailer was suspended safely on blocks, and the tools were in place to put the new parts in on Saturday.

Saturday morning was filled with futile efforts to locate the parts that I needed. Not only did I call businesses all over the Memphis area, I also visited many of them in person, hoping that though they did not have a part from the original manufacturer, they might have one from another company that would meet my need. After three hours of this work, I was still without the parts that I needed to get the trailer fixed. In the providence of God, the owner of one of the trailer repair places that I had called was in his shop on Saturday, even though he normally does not keep Saturday hours. He was in the office and heard me leave a message on his machine about the parts that I needed. He returned my call and assured me that he had the exact parts I needed. A quick run to his establishment prepared me to put the trailer back together. We still had to make one more run to get some bolts that we needed to put the parts on. The pastor and I made this run while the other layman stayed and completed some other tasks that he needed to perform at the church. When we returned, he informed us of another discovery: one of the welds that held the front leaf spring on had come completely off. Can you guess what side it was on? At this point, I decided to take the trailer in and have someone who was set up with all the tools on hand do the work. So our plans were altered yet again.

We stayed the night in the trailer Saturday night and got ready to go to the Sunday service. Sunday night, the pastor asked me to preach once again to his people, and the Lord gave us another good service there.

Monday morning, I took the trailer into Memphis to the shop and left it in the care of the Surwic Trailer Hitch Company. The owner, Danny Surwic, assured me that he would complete the job on Monday, if he had to stay until 7:00 at night to get it done. A few minutes before 5, the work was completed and they called me to ask that I would come pick it up. The workman did an excellent job on the suspension, repairing anything that showed any signs of weakening due to age. The result is a trailer is very road ready in the axles and suspension.

This morning, we left the Memphis area headed for Texas. We arrived at the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Fort Worth, TX, a little before 8:00 this evening local time. After installing the proper receptacle for our trailer (they had the wrong one), we plugged in only to notice a burning smell in the trailer. It smelled as if it were some sort of electrical problem. After power was on, I finally pinpointed our problem. The inverter that converts 120v AC to 12v DC has burned out and will have to be replaced. That means that most of our lights now run off the battery instead of the normal power supply, causing them to grow dimmer the longer we run them. The good news is that this part will be relatively easy to replace; the bad news is that it is expensive. At least we are in a big city right now on a normal workday. The part should be easy to find and install tomorrow, but then, I have said that before.

We can still make it to CA in the time that we have. Thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray for us. The temptation to abandon the trailer along the side of the interstate is growing in strength, and though we have not yet yielded, we must fight it harder than we have ever had to before.

Trailer Ransom

After a great meeting in Southaven, MS, I left the family in the prophet’s chamber of the Clearview Baptist Church and headed out alone to get the trailer in SC. Traffic was perfect; or the trip was timed perfectly so that even Atlanta was a breeze to travel through, and I arrived in Anderson, SC about 3:30 this afternoon. Since my dad had picked up the parts to fix my trailer, I asked him to meet me at the gas station at which I had left my trailer on Saturday of last week. He arrived there shortly before I did and immediately called me to tell me that my trailer was not there. By the time I arrived, he had done some investigation and discovered that the owner of the gas station had towed my trailer off the premises at my expense. (I should have anticipated this development. The station employees told us that the owner was a jerk.) Thankfully, the towing company that towed the trailer was just right across the overpass from the gas station, and we could get to work on repairing the parts almost immediately.

This morning, when I left north Mississippi, the temperature was a balmy 63 degrees. Though thunderstorms had moved through in the early morning hours, I anticipated a nice day to work. By the time I hit Atlanta, a strong front had moved in, dropping the temperature over twenty degrees and bringing high winds and rain. The result was that the dirt lot that housed my banished trailer was a soupy mess of Carolina mud. When we got the hub off the axle and began putting the new studs in it, I noticed that the newly purchased studs were not quite the same as the ones that had come off the trailer originally. Specifically, their threads were not as deep as the original studs, causing me to wonder if the wheel would tighten down properly or not. Before putting all the studs in, we tried the tire on to see if the lugs would tighten and, thank the Lord, they did. So, for better or for worse, I made the decision to go with the parts that the manufacturer said should go on the trailer, even though they differed slightly from the originals. Once I finally got everything put back together, I left Anderson, tired, wet, cold, and $300 poorer. Far better to pay that much to get our old trailer than to pay $80,000 for a new one, I figure. Besides, if we totally got rid of the old trailer, I would have replace all of my wife’s shoes and clothes. Who knows how much extra that would run?

The plan is for me to take the trailer back to north Mississippi tomorrow, pick up my family, and continue on from there toward California. Everything seems to be going on schedule for those plans except one thing: they are calling for snow here tonight…

Off the Highway

Please forgive me for not updating you sooner. The trailer is no longer on the side of the highway (sorry to all you curious South Carolinians who wanted to drive by and see it), and we are in Southaven, MS in our scheduled meeting.

On Saturday, my dad and I took the two remaining lug studs and installed them opposite each other on the hub so that we could temporarily attach the wheel. Then I drove down the shoulder of the interstate never going more than 10 mph to the next exit. Once we were off the road, I turned carefully into a gas station parking lot. The spot where we were initially was not a good one, so I eased the trailer into yet another turn so as to round the building to to more spacious part of the lot. In this slow, gradual turn, one of the two remaining lugs broke. I pulled the trailer out of the way despite this loss of the stud, and simply left it there. Then, Dad and I went back to Taylors where I picked up my wife and family and returned to where the trailer sat. Sarah and I packed up all the things that we would need for this meeting and we took off down the road in the rain. After a favorable time change at the GA/AL state line, we arrived in Southaven, MS shortly before midnight local time. The rain that started falling while we packed our things never let up the entire time we were driving, causing some of the items that I normally sell on my table to get wet.

The meeting started off very well yesterday with excellent crowds and tremendous response in all three services. Several people from another area church have told us they will be out during the week as well. We look forward to seeing what the Lord is going to do.

The meeting closes Wednesday night, and we will go back to the trailer on Thursday, fix it, and then turn around and immediately head west again. Thank you for all of your prayers in our behalf.

Chinese Fire Drill

Ministry Update

We headed out of NC yesterday after our children finished school, hoping to stop in a church parking lot in Conyers, GA for the night and continue on to Southaven, MS the following day. The trip down was uneventful enough until we crossed the county line between Greenville and Anderson counties in SC. Shortly after crossing that line, a man pulled up next to me on the left hand side and just stared at me. This usually means one of two things: either something is seriously wrong, or he wants to race. Under normal circumstances, I prefer the latter, being rather confident in my diesel’s ability to out-accelerate many challengers to the posted speed limit. When I am towing the trailer, however, people who pull up next to me rarely want to race. Usually their presence indicates some kind of a problem. The age of the driver next to me on I-85 seemed to confirm the problem theory of why he was there, but he never said anything to me. He just stared and then eased on the accelerator, dropping back behind me again. After a few times of doing this, he eased up alongside me again and his passenger mouthed to me that I had a flat tire on my trailer. We immediately pulled off onto the side of the road to change the tire. I discovered, however, that the tire was perfectly full of air, but five of my eight lugs had broken off. If this story seems familiar to those of you who read these updates, it is because the same thing happened to us on the same side of the trailer (different axle though) while we were heading to the same area to be in a meeting in the fall of last year. Now we need to find a place that has the parts so that I can get back on the road. The SC Highway Patrol says that I have 48 hours to get the thing off of I-85 and we are supposed to open a meeting in Southaven, MS Sunday morning. The Lord knows all of this, and He has perfectly planned for every detail. We were able to spend the night with my parents, enjoying a wonderful meal in the process. In addition, the kids got to see their Grandma and Papa, a circumstance the announcement of which caused spontaneous cheers in the cab of our truck. In addition, the church to which we are headed has a prophet’s chamber so we can head on to the meeting if need be. God has it all worked out. We only wait to see His plan unfold. In the meantime, please pray that we can get the parts we need. Labor is not the problem—after all, I have done it before—but the availability of parts on Saturday is a hurdle to overcome.

Family Update

Yes, we are on yet another adventure! I couldn’t believe it when Paul told me that the wheel was coming off - again! Granted, it was a different wheel this time, but I am beginning to wonder if perhaps they are all going to come off while we are driving. It creates a certain paranoia that causes me to want to do a Chinese Fire Drill at every stoplight, checking all the lugs on the tires. It would affect our travel time in a very negative way, I suppose, but no more than being stranded on the side of the road. Now that I think about it, I wonder if the Chinese fire drill actually originated because the Chinese knew that the cheap bolts they used to hold their tires on were of such poor quality that they needed to be checked at every stop, lest the tires break off and roll away while they were driving. Perhaps now that everything is made in China, we should all resort to such measures. Be glad that I have forewarned you. One day you will thank me for this keen observation!

We are thankful that the Lord planned this out for our good. We were on our way to Memphis, but because of the rockslide that closed I-40 some months ago, we had to take the southern route through Atlanta. That may sound strange, but in reality, it is only 30 miles longer, and there are no mountains to navigate, which is a definite plus when you are hauling an RV. Had there not been a rockslide, we could have been in the mountains on I-40 when the wheel came off, with no place to stop or pull over, and been in a terrible accident. Thank the Lord for His protection and direction in out lives when we don’t even realize it! When I think of this event in that light, it is easier to bear the inconvenience and praise God for His goodness. Truly, He does all things well. We don’t yet know how this will end, but we do know that He will work it out for our good and His glory, so we can trust Him and keep praising Him. Sometimes the most difficult circumstances precede the greatest meetings. We look forward to a great meeting in Mississippi this week, and ask that you pray for the Lord to work mightily in the hearts of those that attend.