Home Sweet Home

We finished our two weeks of traveling with the Crown College trio. It does feel good to be home but we enjoyed very much our time on the tour. The Lord blessed us in so many ways.

Our last post we were in Hopkinsville, KY:
We enjoyed being with Pastor Shaver and his wife at Greater Cumberland Baptist Church. They were so kind to our family and the trio. It was thrilling to see what God has done in their church family. Their facility is amazing. This was the ribbon-cutting:
We were also able to be with Pastor John Dalton in Clarksville, KY. It was great to be with them. Pastor Dalton was our teacher in the Singles Department at Temple before Mark and I were married. Their children have grown so much and we enjoyed getting reaquainted.

We were able to be with Pastor Dan Cox and his family for a Tuesday Evening Service at Berean Baptist Church in White House, TN. We had a nice picnic at a park and fed the ducks. Their children, Phoebe and Ethan, are such cuties. We had a great time with them. Their facilities are so nice. The Lord is working in their church. Dan and Marie are faithfully serving the Lord there, just outside of Nashville.
We were able to be with Pastor Mike Norris at Franklin Road Baptist Church for their Wednesday Evening Service. They had so much going on for that Wednesday night. We were able to hear Evangelist John Bishop preach and meet Jonathon Gibbs, missionary to Peru. We had a nice meal together after the service at Cracker Barrel. The trio sang in their Christian school also.

Our only experience of a stay in someone's home was a very good one. Excluding Maddie waking up and coming into the hall and yelling for me and Maddie letting the dog out and having it scare her to death the next morning, it was the perfect night's stay. We stayed with a wonderful couple that are planning to come to Crown in the fall. They were such a sweet family. The Lord was so good to us in allowing us the opportunity to be with them.

We dropped off the trio in Knoxville and headed up to Ohio to be with our dear friends, Jimmy and Alicia Reagan. We had the wonderful opportunity to be with their church, First Baptist Church, for a ladies banquet (Mark did not have this opportunity :) and to be in their services on Sunday. We had a great time of fellowship with them. The Lord always uses them to encourage us. The Lord is really blessing that ministry. We also enjoyed a great day with them and the children at the Children's Museum in Cincinnati. What fun! Thank you Reagans for a wonderful weekend of fun and fellowship.

This week we have been home and able to catch up on a few things. The college had an All-Star Tournament this weekend that Mark was able to coordinate. We had several boys from different Christian schools to play basketball and see the college. I pray that the Lord uses this to call some of them to come to Crown.

I didn't mean for this to be a journal, but I wanted to share the different churches we have had the opportunity to be in. It is encouraging to meet other people serving the Lord.

Thanks for checking in with us. We will have more journeying in a few weeks. So...check back.

Just a few pictures of "Princess Maddie" as she was all dressed up for a birthday party today. They all were so cute.

Greetings from Hopkinsville, KY

These pictures belong with the last blog:

The girls in the gift shop at Churchill Downs, site of the Kentucky Derby.
Outside of the Louisville Sluggar Museum...quite the bat wouldn't you say?
This glove and ball was inside, they played like it was a slide off the back of it.All of the "girls," Krystal Clayton, Heather Lancaster, Tawnya Suertefelipe, Sarah Gish:This was Abby batting. The picture of Cassy didn't turn out but we have seen Cassy batting before :)Maddie just loved it, she begged the whole time while everyone else batted to get to also. I thought she was too little but they allowed her to hit off the tee. She was so funny! She did well! This was outside the building. You could see them taking the piece of wood and making it into a bat...so neat!For this post:

We are going to be in Hopkinsville, KY for TWO nights! I am so grateful!

We are having a wonderful time and the Lord is blessing! We have really been blessed to be with different pastors and church people. We are at the seventh place since last Sunday evening. We have met and been reaquainted with many wonderful people that love the Lord. We have covered a lot of miles and thank the Lord He has kept us safe!

Since Tuesday morning, my last post, we have been to Nicholasville, KY to be with Pastor Lonnie Moore and his gracious wife. It was a wonderful encouragement to be in their church Tuesday night. There were many enthused Christians and a lot of young people. They were very kind to us and we just enjoyed being there very much.

Wednesday, we drove to Ratcliff, KY to be with Pastor Tom Green and his church. The girls sang in the chapel service and Mark preached. Maddie, Cassy and I played in the nursery during the service. It was nice to be able to play a little! We went on Wednesday afternoon to Fort Knox and toured the Patton Museum. We enjoyed seeing a little bit of history there. I have a few pictures from there. A funny story: we pulled up to the visitors center and we thougt it would be great to have a picture in front of the sign that read, "Welcome to Fort Knox." Sounds like a good idea, right? Well, we did not realize we were at the wrong gate and it was very high security where we were and no photography was allowed. It was right across the street from the underground gold.

These are some pictures we took at the museum:This was a Natzi flag that was captured and the soldiers signed it.
A battlefield, it looked so real
Not sure if this was a replica or the actual head from Saddam's statue that was destroyed.

The service Wednesday night was a good one. Pastor Green and his church was very gracious to us! He acknowledged Abby's birthday in the service :) Embarrased her a little :) We set out for an ice cream cake after the service which turned into quite an ordeal! The Baskin Robbins sounded good and we parked the 15 passenger van along with "Leonard" (the name we have given for our pull-behind trailer) and unloaded for our cake. We picked out just the one she wanted and started to pay for it. We THOUGHT we would just sit there and eat it rather than taking it back to our motel. Well, they did not have ANYTHING to cut it with. SO, we loaded back up to head to Dairy Queen for our ice cream cake. We parked again and unloaded a second time (the time is about 9:45) at the Dairy Queen just down the road. The doors were LOCKED! It closed at 10 but the doors were locked. SO, we loaded back in the van and decided to drive thru (with Leonard) to buy an ice cream cake. They also did not have anything to cut our cake with! SO, we went to Walmart and Mark went in to buy a knife to cut our cake with. We were just going to go to the motel and eat our cake there! We did go back to the motel and guess what...We could NOT find the knife Mark had just purchased! So, I cut the cake with the end of the plastic spoon and served it and we ate it outside our motel room! We had rooms right outside of the motel swimming pool...of course, no one was swimming, it was 10:30 at night and very chilly. We say she had a pool party for her 9th Birthday...and a very unusual one at that! It was very memorable and with a lot of laughs!

Thursday, the group sang and Mark preached at a Christian school, Landmark Christian School, where John Stone is the pastor. Mark was excited about this opportunity because this is not someone we knew. It was nice to meet another pastor trying to serve the Lord.

We went on to Lancaster, KY to be with Jason Wheeler at Lancaster Baptist Tabernacle for an evening service. Jason and his wife, Hannah (Moore) are graduates of Crown. They had a good crowd of people that came out for a Thursday evening service and it was also an encouraging service. We were able to see some current students and also some graduates there.

Friday, we drove on to Hopkinsville, KY, about 3 hours away on Friday. We spent the afternoon with Pastor and Mrs. Ken Shaver and their daughter, Kendra (a graduate of Crown). They took us to a wonderful place for the evening, Patti's Settlement. It was where they call "The Land Between the Lakes." It was beautiful. We walked around the paths, played at the playground, saw some chickens, peacocks, emu, a horse, and some rabbits. We walked through a few of the shops and ate at Patti's Restaurant. It was so nice! The food was absolutely delicious also! They brought out yeast rolls in terra cotta pots...umm...so good! They are famous for their 2" pork chops...Mark and Pastor Shaver ordered those. I ordered Kentucky Brown or something like that...it was turkey with bacon on it smothered in cheese with homemade potato chips. So good!

Us, with the Shaver's:The girls in the van last night in the dark. We had just dropped off the trio and the girls opened up their songbook and sang with their flashlights as microphones. It looked more like the next picture.

Today, Saturday, the group went soul winning with the church and are now helping to clean or work at the church. I am here at the hotel while Maddie takes a nap. Abby and Cassy are at the church as well, "helping." Tomorrow is their dedication of their new building. It is absolutely beautiful! So nice. They have a nice nursery facility...love it!

I don't know when I have been so longwinded, but I guess I just am enjoying sitting here in the quiet room just "chatting" with you.

I will update again on our travels. Please continue to pray for us!

Update from Evansville, IN

Thanks for your prayers. We are enjoying ourselves so far. We had a wonderful service on Sunday night at Calvary Baptist Church, LaGrange, KY. Pastor Brent Coley is of one of the early graduates of Crown. It was very encouraging to be there. They testified of several people being saved during the week. Mark preached (and did a great job!) and the Trio sang. It was fun! We spent yesterday morning driving around Louisville, KY. We stopped at Churchill Downs were the horse races are. We just went to the gift shop but it was fun to be there. We also went to the Louisville Slugger Factory were they make the wooden bats. All the girls hit at the batting cages (including Maddie...she loved it!) I did take pictures and I will upload them at another time (I do not have my cord with me).

We drove up to Evansville, IN yesterday afternoon to be at a christian school chapel this morning. We were able to go to the studio were Faith Music records. The girls sang around the piano in the studio and sounded really well! We went out to eat with the Russ family last night. We have been taken good care of! We are in the hotel this morning while they are at chapel. We are driving back to Lexington after the service to be with Lonnie Moore tonight.

Please continue to pray for us! Thanks for checking in with us!

I can't believe it has been so long since I have updated this. I just can't imagine that almost 3 months have past. I knew it had been a good while but it just seems like a few weeks...nearly 3 months! Wow!

We are all doing well, thank the Lord. Of course, many things have taken place since I last wrote but most recently was the girls recital. It is such an exciting time. We were all nervous and thrilled to be there. They both did a wonderful job...as well as everyone that played in it. They have a wonderful teacher for which we are very thankful.

I must get to bed, it is 1 a.m. I am adding an e-mail I sent out to my friends letting them know about our summer plans. We would appreciate your prayers for us as we have a very busy summer. We are excited about what the Lord is allowing us to do!

"Hello friends! I just wanted to let you know of our family plans for the next few weeks. We will be leaving Sunday, May 11 after the morning service and returning Monday, May 26. We will be touring with the ladies trio to Kentucky and the Nashville area and then on to Ohio for me to speak at the Reagan's church at their ladies meeting on Friday, May 23 (PLEASE pray for me!) and Mark will preach for them on Sunday. We will back home for our Promotion Sunday, June 1 and then we will leave on Monday, June 2 for a week of vacation to Nashville to be with my brother and sister-in-law. We will be back for Sunday, June 8 and then head back out on June 9th. We will travel with one of the quartets to Pennsylvania and New York (yeah, maybe we will spend a day in NYC!). We will return on June 21. We will be gone again from July 7 - 12 for our final week of vacation. We are planning to go to Mark's family in GA for a relaxing week! I think we will need it.

"Mark is also involved in many other things not already listed including: an All-Star Basketball Tournament; 2 weeks of Junior Camp (1 of which Abby is able to attend...not sure about that???? and the other one he will be the camp speaker); Basketball Camp; Pastor's College; and the Sword of the Lord Conference. I feel a little like our summer is packed, what do you think? I am thankful for the opportunities the Lord has given us. We are looking forward to these things and just praying for the strength to do them all. We would appreciate your prayers."

You can see the blogs of the traveling groups by logging onto the college website: http://thecrowncollege.com/TravelingGroups/. I hope to be able to blog along the way during our trips. Thank you for being patient with us :)