Missouri Revivals

During our time of July Summer Revival meetings in Missouri, I kept finding myself telling the Lord "I never get used to what He does and never get tired of watching Him! As in the song; "Never get used to what You Do" sung by Twila Paris. Whether it was due to the difficult circumstances that He was showing Himself real,involved and faithful or whether it was because of it reminding me of Deborah's current  life theme ; "Beholding His Majesty".

The Hardworking local men and Jim Zimmerman raised the tent a week before they were to start and as the anticipation rose in the community,the summer rains continued daily. By the time we pulled in around the tent  a week later ,we could drive in the field but once Dave came to his first halt behind the tent, we were stationary,permanently.

After the Orientations,we were ready to roll and the first service Sunday night came to pass.Because of the still soft ground, the people parked down the road at Ralph Burkholder's RV Business and were shuttled to the tent site .From the entry way of the field,they walked the pathway of an unrolled round" straw bail trail",instead of a saw dust trail in this Memphis revival experience!

Monday morning the boys crawled up onto the tent to fasten more lights on the poles in a whipping wind in order to light up the field better for parking the upcoming nights.

Sliding down was so much fun,Derek decided to go up half way up one more time.

The many days of rain,made for a very soggy ground all around us which created this in our bus entry.

Cleaning 7pairs X2 or 3 each day,made me grateful for pavement and helped me sympathize with my African and other lady friends who do this year round with mud,manure and dust being brought into the house.Gracie was doing the daily sweeping after her school while I wiped shoes and Deborah baked.

Little did we know,that while we left for supper that evening,the tent would uproot in a strong wind storm and be placed just behind the bus with the last part of it enveloping the entire bus. One of the many miracles was that the sound booth walls(which Dave and Derek are wiping)were lifted up over the entire sound booth tables,printers,sound board etc,with our moving or breaking a stitch! Theses walls are heavy fiberglass material,and that the bus body did not have major damage of the main poles going over top of it.

 Many, tho busily leaving work to quick eat and come to the service,dropped everything and came out to help including The Garment of Praise Quartet who were to sing for us that night.

 We quickly organized,grabbed and loaded equipment  into the trailer the best we could and headed off to a community building where we had a powerful service,The G.OP. singing and Dave even preached yet after all that.
The next morning many of the men and sons took off of work once again, arriving to lay out and dry each tent parcel.

Separating the Tangled heavy tarp from the poles and lights etc.

We were so touched  and grateful at all their diligence,dedication,joy and faith!

Hauling our home out of the mud to move us into town where we would proceed in a community building with the services.

We left some deep ruts for pastor Larry to smooth out of his field someday.Our wheel welts had never had so much mud squeezing up in and out between the doolies.

The inner circle of men celebrating,laughing and I thinking crying.

So much faith,burden,prayer,work and sweat.But none was ready to give up,shut up,or let up.

We had a great rest of the week in air conditioning of this building,the crowd kept growing,the anticipation,hunger, reception of God's Word and repentance,salvations and inner healing was all happening!We usually don't have pictures of the most sacred times for a reason.

We enjoyed so much getting to know and hear your heartbeats,our dear friends in Missouri!

One day while walking in town the girls found this run down neat vacant old house as  a great place to take sisterly photos.

                                                                            Ruth Ann for our family so enriched by being there.

Banff (ONE YEAR AGO)

A year ago we were on a North Western tour with the Penner family (A post here) . After some intense weeks of touring, we took a few days off in Banff National Park. It was beyond beautiful and refreshing! Although we uploaded pictures for a post,  I just never posted it (until now). We are seriously inconsistent bloggers. :) So here we are, a year later, looking back on these memories with much fondness. 

CAPTIONS BY MOTHER (from a year ago. ;)) 

The Black bear cub who swam across to greet us at our 1st pull off traveling from Jasper to Banff National Park. this was the beginning of the most refreshing,breathtaking three days off we've had in a our recent travels!

Never have I cooked in such a Panoramic setting quite like this! It took the work right out of preparing supper! I have no walls or window pane between me and the children exploring the shallow lake bed before me.

I thought we'd do the dishes chuck wagon style and Derek  faithfully voluntered..

Celebrating making it to the waterfall which is just another last steep 100 yards from the top!

The reward you keep presenting to yourself on the tedious hike is that special famous little Tea House at the very end of this steep climb. Kind of a "Heidi" type chalet where the staff and food gets dropped by helicopter once a week.

We know they are to hunt for their own food,but face it, when they are this tame by all the picnickers,they have chosen fast food over foraging.Kyle and this one were communicating.

So,about a fourth of the way up we suddenly remembered that the website had noted that they only accept cash at the Tea House. We came up with close to $20.00 in American dollars in Dave's pocket.we hoped they were taking American currency!

So,the people that gave up their "tree stump seats" for our tired,hungry seven,offered us their leftover pot of tea and we tried to not agree too eagerly:). So we studied the menu and figured we could divey up two pots of tea and one tiny plate of cookies and crumpets with our cash.Thankfully I had packed the grapes you see,water and snacks which was all gone in hurry.It was good experience to break little cookies in half and share sips from one cup of tea, relish in the rest and refreshment of the view from the mountain top!

Touring a gand hotel. 

{Posted by Deborah/Year-old captions by Mother}