Growing Up In Church

June 19, 2008 at 5:56 am (Uncategorized)
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Lafayette Church of Christ has been a part of my life for 25 years now, and I can honestly say that I truly love the people there as a part of my extended family. Every time I go back for a visit I feel like I coming home, and there are so many people I love and appreciate there.

I remember fourth grade Bible classes, Paul Wert was my teacher and I got a High Achiever Award for learning all of my memory verses. I also remember going Putt Putt and to Pantera’s Pizza at the end of the year with that class.
I remember many, many youth group summer trips. Marquette, MI; Chicago, IL; and Wilderness Trek. Trudy Schmidlap made sure we knew the lessons we were teaching for VBS like the back of our hands, and meeting her rigorous standards was good preparation for advanced college courses!
I remember when Allen Clute was our summer intern, and going to Soul Lift, going to TABS and Sunday night devos. I remember lock-ins and Soul Lift.
I remember so many wonderful Bible teachers like Ann Nichols, Marilyn Campbell, Debbie Webb, Lisa Gershenson, and the time that my mom was teaching our High School girls class and she left the room because we were being so talkative and obnoxious and Jennifer Zins felt horrible about it.
I remember my wedding shower that was at Deb Wright’s house, my wedding which was at the church, and the shower they threw for Maddie’s birth which was in the same room where I had my wedding reception.
I remember living here after Maddie was born and how her little legs dangled down from the Cradle Roll table, how I used to go to lunch with the LCP crew, and that Linda Coffee gave my girls those beautiful flannel graph books and Nancy Mitchell gave them sweet books, too.
I remember spending Sunday afternoons at Logan Street communing with our brothers and sisters there and witnessing Nathaniel Cobb’s service to that community.
I remember…
… how Cheryl Aston encouraged me after my first miscarriage
… how our home group collected money to buy us an air conditioner for our bedroom
… how Steve and Dixie Baker and Margaret and Randy Deaton took us into their homes at a very crazy, hectic, and disorganized time in our lives,
… how Evelyn and Dale Lundy took us in during another crazy time in our lives
… how the preschool helped us with our girls when we first came back from Africa
… how we lived in the church house when we first came back and how much I loved sitting in front of that huge picture window
… how someone sent us a book of arts and crafts projects, plus all the supplies we would need to do them
… how the Hawleys and the Bakers hosted a Marriage Enrichment retreat for our entire team
… how Orville and Nita Boyher hosted the babies of our entire team during the Marriage Enrichment retreat
… how church members volunteered to care for all of the babies for our entire team for the Marriage Enrichment retreat

I could go on and on (as I already have,) but I will stop and say that I am thankful for my family at Lafayette, and I am encouraged to see the things they are doing to reach out to the community and to serve our Lord.

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Frenetic Activity

June 17, 2008 at 3:37 am (Uncategorized)
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Not surprisingly, we have been very busy since we have been in the States, so now my excuse for not posting has less to do with internet not being available and more to do with time not being available.

We got into the States and went to see our teammates, Matt and Grace Hangen. We ate hamburgers and greatly enjoyed the hospitality of Grace’s parents. We also all woke up at about three or four in the morning so we sat as a family and watched The Gods Must be Crazy. What a perfect movie for re-entry! The next morning we were fed a huge breakfast (including bacon- yum!) and took off for Shreveport to visit the Moore family.

In Shreveport we got to spend time with our beloved friend and mentor, Tom Moore. His daughter Holly, who graduated from culinary school in New York made us an incredible dinner and the whole family treated our girls like royalty.

Wednesday we travelled from Shreveport to Memphis. Our time in Memphis felt like a celebratory reunion with all of the friends we have missed so much and like we’d never left them all at the same time. We stayed with Ryan and Beth Richardson and Michal had a joyful reunion with Katie. We spent an afternoon/evening at Rhodes College pool reuniting with our friends from Midtown and then ate at Dino’s, a neighborhood restaurant, together. We were only there for four days, which wasn’t near long enough to see all of the people that we love so much. I am certainly grateful that we will be back in Memphis in August.

Sunday Ryan and Melissa Head (our teammates) drove us to Sikeston, MO to meet up with my family so we could go to St. Louis. We have not a vehicle since we’ve been here and we needed a big vehicle to transport us and all of our stuff. Mark started to ask Matt and Diana Wisdom if we could borrow their van and allow Ryan and Melissa to drive it back, and Matt was nodding his head “yes” before Mark could even get the question out of his mouth. Our friends are so good to us.

Our time in St. Louis has been filled with family, friends, trampoline jumping, coffee on the porch, a little shopping, grilling out, and eating at Mi Lupita. I’ve had time with each of my sisters and have gotten to see my cousin, his wife, and their twin baby girls. Some friends of ours who lived in Memphis but moved to Kansas City came to visit us, and Maddie had a joyful reunion with her friend Emma. Beth, Chris, and Emma came and met Mark, the girls, my sister Paula, my nephew Christian, and me at the City Museum. I have said it before but I have to reiterate that it is absolutely the coolest place for kids that I have ever been. Later that night, after the kids were in bed, Mark and I agreed that we should have kept on our bracelets so we could go back and play some more (it’s open until 1 a.m.) Yesterday we made our requisite trips to eat Imo’s Pizza and Ted Drewe’s frozen custard.

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