Sunday Morning

Sunday morning started out foggy and moist, but the fog burned off after about 60 miles and the sun turned things very warm.  By the time I took this first pic of the wheat field it was already in the mid 80's.  The landscape was changing from flat to rolling hills and it was a beautiful morning to be riding. My first destination was the town of Wray, Colorado. You can imagine why I wanted to include that. I know many of you will think I'm old enough to be in a museum and now you have proof, but treat me nice because I also have a bank! (Don't I wish!) Ingrid and I visited this town back in 1990 and we remembered that there was a church there, but when I checked on the conference web site it didn't list one.  Now I know why.  I found the church.  The road sign is still there, but the church is vacant.  Lots of spiritual applications come to mind with this picture.  I will say that most of the town looked like it was heading the same direction.

From Wray I rode 150 miles to Brighton, which is just north of Denver.  Rex Bell has been the pastor here for about 18 years.  He was out of town and so I met with Todd Belleau (I need to recheck the spelling on that) and his son, Caleb.  Todd is the school board chair and the Brighton Church puts a major emphasis on outreach through their school.  The school is pre-K through 10 and has about 130 students currently.  It has been higher in the past as is the case with most schools. The Brighton church is the only sponsoring church and it requires a major portion of their finances.  Rex Bell holds two garage sales every month and raises $800-1200 each sale to support worthy students.  That's about $24,000 a year, but their worthy student cost is closer to $80,000 plus a subsidy of another $100,000.  That's commitment to education. They do have many non SDA students and this has been a rich source of baptisms for students and parents.

As you can see it is a very pretty church in a prime location and the school (last pic) is very nice looking as well.  The challenge is to find ways to reach the community and draw more active young families into the church body.  It was a great visit.  Thanks Todd and Caleb!  Now I'm off to Berthoud, which is only about 45 miles to stay with Clay and Selene Peck who are the lead pastoral couple at Grace Place.

Total miles thus far = 8,550.

Sabbath, July 11

I must say that my Sabbath did go a lot better than my Friday as far as the traveling was concerned.  I stayed last night with Rocky and Darla Peterson.  Actually I'm not sure if that is the correct spelling of their last name, but they'll forgive me.  Darla was a member in our first church in Ames, Iowa and used to babysit Julie for us.  The first pic shows them with their daughter, Roxie, who also has three other sisters. 

After breakfast with them I rode over to the New Creation Church which has been going for nearly 10 years now and is led by Michael and Michelle Mesnard.  Yup that's Bob and Davy's kids!  They were involved at another church this morning, but I did get to touch base with them last night. I found the New Creation Church to be a delightful experience.  They have signs out to help you find their storefront location. (They just got approval for their building plans for a new church building.) I was quickly and warmly greeted and made welcome in a Sabbath School class.  I liked the way they included the children.  Instead of having a children's story they used the kids in the first praise song.  Their "meet and greet" portion was active and very sincere. Then Tanya Cochran got up to preach.  She is one of the elders. She doesn't always dress like that.  She was illustrating some of the trends of the past and things that we thought were just so cool.  Her sermon title was, "King of Pop, King of Kings." (Spiritual Lessons from the Lives of Michael Jackson and Jesus)  It was a very good and well done message.  The New Creation Church is growing and ministers to a large number of students from Union College as well.

Following a lunch with a couple from the church I rode 280 miles to Ogallala, NE. Thunderstorms were visible to my left and right, but God provided a path from me. Tomorrow morning I'll spin through Wray, CO on my way to Brighton, CO and then a very special evening with Clay and Selene Peck.  I'll tell you more about these special friends in the next post.

Friday, But What A Friday

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!

Thursday, July 9

I started today in Davenport, IA, where I first interned 36 years ago.  The pastor and his wife, Bob and Angie Joseph, live in the parsonage where I met with my Sr. Pastor way back then. No time right now to talk about programs, but Bob and Angie do certainly have them happening there in Davenport. Some great ideas to share in the book.  First pic is of the Davenport Church and then you see Bob and Angie.  Great breakfast!  Thanks!!  Then I followed bob up to Cedar Rapids, IA to meet with an area group pastor's meeting.  Great time of fellowship.  Left to right you see Mark Luckesh, Bob Joseph, Roy Weeden, Gary Birth, and Dave Bissell.  What a neat group of guys!  Thanks for the fellowship.

Next it was into the rain and absolutely pounding wind, but I arrived safely in Ames, IA where I had my first district and initiated so many wonderful memories and friendships.  Treva Martsching, my clerk, is still watching children and active. She is sitting with Dave Lincoln who was the pastor until about a year ago and served there for nearly 10 years.  Had a great visit and saw this red tailed hawk in the neighbor's yard feasting on a squirrel.  Couldn't resist that pic and then he flew away.  The last two pics show the Ames Church which is pretty full each week and then the parsonage we lived in while pastoring there.

Today I'm off to Sioux City, IA and I'll catch up with you later!

Wednesday, July 8

What fun it was to spend some time at Andrews University which has such a diverse student base and faculty as well. I love this campus! The entry drive has been made so beautiful and this globe and archway sets a nice tone. The Pioneer Memorial Church is so easy to take pictures of and I also loved their Garden of Grace which I had not seen before. That even gives me some ideas for our courtyard in Napa! Due to my primary interview being limited to a phone call due to illness I had time to go over to the Pioneer Church and found Esther Knott, who I have known for many years.  Esther is on the pastoral staff at Pioneer in charge of small group ministries.  She has a real passion for connecting people with people as well as with Christ through small groups. We had a very insightful conversation and I'm looking forward to some material she has coming out later this year.

As I left Andrews to ride to Davenport, Iowa I could see dark skies waiting for me.  My fears were made reality as the rain began and grew in intensity.  For more than 150 miles I rode in absolute downpour, but God was with me and the bike handled it all well, but I must confess that it isn't much fun to ride that way.  I was thankful for good rain gear as well.  Tomorrow should be a bit drier, but Friday and the weekend look pretty gloomy. The good news is that each visit is so worthwhile and each day brings me that much closer to home.  I'll meet with a group of pastors in Iowa City tomorrow and then go on to Ames, Iowa, where I pastored my first church.

Tuesday, July 7 continued

We start this posting with a picture of Bruce and Jackie Moore, Sr. Pastoral couple at Battle Creek Tabernacle where they have served for 6 years. He took me to see some of the important Adventist history sights. I had seen them before, but I wanted some pics to share with you. You can see the graves of Ellen and James White in the second picture. The next one shows the entry gate for the Oak Hill Cemetery. Notice the date of 1844, which is an interesting coincidence. The next picture is of the former Battle Creek Sanitarium, which is now a Federal Building. This was built by J.H.Kellogg after the original Battle Creek San burned. Across the street you will see the Fire Station built after the San burned. The Review and Herald had burned down a year or so earlier and they determined that Adventist fires couldn't be put out. The last picture is of James and Ellen White's home which is part of the very interesting Adventist Heritage Village. If you ever get a chance to visit Battle Creek you will find a fascinating array of historical information from the origins of the Seventh-day Adventist organization and the great cereal wars between Kellogg, Post, and as many as 250 0thers who tried to cash in on the popular trend.

Tuesday, July 7

Well, I've got a little catching up to do and a lot of pictures to share. I had a hard time limiting it to the ones I'll put up here.  I started out Tuesday morning from Dayton and rode up to Toledo to meet with Mike Fortune.  This is a very beautiful church facility and Mike is doing a great job there in reaching the community in some very creative ways.  They sponsor and host a car show in the church parking lot every year and are getting a very large turnout. They have adopted a women's shelter, hosted community block parties and done mission trips to Toledo just to name a few.  Now Mike has asked his church to pick from the 20+ outreach events they have done and choose the three that they can do best.  They have a pastor with a passion and the church is trusting him to lead.  What a concept.  There is a picture also of Dee, the church secretary who, as always, holds things together.

The last two pics are of the Battle Creek Tabernacle church.  Bruce Moore, Sr. Pastor, gave me a great tour of the church and, as you will see in the next post, of some of the historical sights. They have done some nice refurbishing for a church that was built in 1924 after the Dime Tabernacle burned down in 1922.  I was interested to see if this church had an eye to the future in that so much history is focused here and I found that they definitely do.  Obviously they get a lot of visitors, but they are also offering a variety of classes to the community including Depression Seminars.  They have adopted a portion of a local highway and they participate in at least one local mission project with a Christmas offering each year.  I'll continue with my Battle Creek visit in the next post.