I can't begin to tell you about my ride this morning, but you can see a bit from the first two pics. It started out fine, but I could see the dark clouds coming. I stopped and put on my rain jacket, but not the pants. All of a sudden it got almost pitch black and the heavens opened and I was almost blind. I could see about 20 - 30 feet in front and was limited to 20 mph in a 55 zone. I couldn't see the trucks coming the other way until they were almost passing me. I was doing some serious praying, but I was in the middle of nowhere. There were no overpasses, no gas stations, no nothing. This lasted about 25 - 30 minutes and I finally found a gas station. They all came out to see this nut that was riding a motorcycle in these conditions. The rest of the day was cloudy and misty, but not stormy.
I arrived a bit late in Sioux City, but had a wonderful visit with many former members although 32 years had brought a few changes! I have included a few pictures mainly for the benefit of my family who will remember loving faces. Mark Lewis, Cindy VanTuyl (Wareham), Ellen Cates, Fran Whitcomb (on the left in the next pic). Following that is a picture of the church and then the parsonage we lived in. In fact we were the first Adventist pastor in that house. The last pic is the lovely sign at the bottom of the hill.
This church feels like they are struggling in some ways, but in reality they have some awesome outreach happenings. They sell cases of fruit (many hundreds of them!) and have a mailing list of over 1800! They also have a new teacher who has established a learning center where students from the community with learning challenges are tutored at no cost. This is an outreach with amazing potential. It was so much fun to sit and talk with them even though I was soaking wet!
After that visit I rode down to Lincoln, Nebraska and I'm staying with a dear friend who used to babysit Julie way back when. I'll get some pics of her and her family up tomorrow.
Thank you for your prayers. I felt them this morning and I am just thankful for God's blessing. The next few days still look stormy in parts, but I'll be on freeways which give a lot more options for escape. I know all you ladies in the church have been praying so don't stop now!
I just turned 8,000 miles on the trip. 4,000 to go and I'll be home in less than two weeks!
No comments:
Post a Comment