October 1 – “Indiana travels”

I forgot to mention that I finally saw one of those redbirds Chris keeps insisting she sees everywhere we go up here.  Of course it took me until we got to St. Louis … in a gift shop … next door to the St. Louis Cardinals baseball stadium.  But I found one – Casey.  He was happy to join the team.

Well, we decided to switch hotels for the first time since we left home.  Why?  Well, this one was not very clean, and the AC didn’t work at all in the first room they had us in.  So they moved us.  The second was some better.  At least it was cool.  Then came breakfast.  In a word – horrible.  The whole experience was not one worth two nights, so we checked out the next morning and decoded to find a different place later.  As we drove to church we searched for all the barn quilts in the area.  We’ve done that kind of thing before.  It’s like going on a treasure hunt.

We went to church with some friends in Princeton, Indiana.  They didn’t know we were coming, so it was worth seeing the look on Wayne’s face as he slowly realized who it was that was asking if they allowed anybody to come to church there.  He said it took hearing my voice.  But then the voice that he recognized didn’t match the face he was seeing.  Too gray.  Thanks, Wayne.  Wendy knew us right away, though.  She’s been following our trip on FaceBook.  Their church plant just purchased a huge old church building built in 1869.  The stained glass windows in it have been appraised at over a million dollars.  They got the building for $40,000.  It still needs a lot of work to bring it up to code and usability, though.  Anybody up for a mission trip?

We stopped at Applebee’s for lunch.  They left us with a horrible legacy.  Their service was slower than … Denney’s.  I didn’t think it was possible.

In the afternoon we made our way to the site of the second tallest monument in the U.S., honoring the work of George Clark during the Revolutionary War.  He is the big brother of the guy who became famous as the second half of a duo.  Perhaps you’ve heard of them?  Lewis and Clark.  The Ranger there was another who was absolutely passionate about her job.  She loved talking, too.  Never stopped the whole time we were in the visitor’s center.  Sometimes it was to us, other times it was to anyone who would listen.  We also went into a basilica nearby that had a crypt under it with four bishops buried in it.  We thought about also walking across the bridge into Illinois, but it just looked too much like the causeway.  Too far to walk.

Last night we went to church with some other friends, the Cullison’s.  Actually we saw David because he had to preach.  Kim, however, stayed at home to cuddle with their brand new first grandbaby.  Kim … we were devastated that you chose him over us.  We understood completely, but we were devastated.  Oh, the new hotel we chose turned out to be seven minutes away from the church.  And it was very nice.  Same price as the last one, but way better on all counts.  But the final test approaches … breakfast.

Psalms 103:17-18 says, “But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children — with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.”

Father, thank you for friends from long ago.  Be with the Wester’s as they work to get that church started.  Meet their every need in your way and in your time.  Amen.