Back to Work

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Finished up at Open Door Baptist, and then we came back home to crash. After a few days of rest and catching up with my family, it was back to work on Thursday. Work is going fine, and I'm glad I still know what I'm doing, and I still have a job and all, but I sure am looking forward to being a full time missionary. Until we get 10% support, tho', I have no choice – I have to work a secular job. We're up early this Sunday morning, and will be driving down to Perryville, MO, to Heartland Baptist Church. It's about 90 miles from here, so we can make it in time if we get an early start, and then drive back home tonight after church. I'll be showing our slides during Sunday School, and preaching in the morning service, and then we'll be spending the day there so folks can get to know us a little better.

Homeward Bound

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Things went great at Immanuel Baptist. Finished up my part in the conference on Thursday night. Sure wish I could stay for all of it, but I have prior obligations in Overland, MO that I must keep. The flight went smooth, in the sense that they handled my luggage alright, and I made my connections, and we didn't crash or anything, but boy was it long. I hardly slept at all on the flight to Minneapolis. They had us crammed in there like canned hams, and of course, the evil midgets who secretly rule the world and despise all tall people, had conspired to make my chair too short for me to get comfortable in any position well enough to sleep. Then, once I was on the not even hour long flight to St. Louis, I had an entire row to myself and could stretch out. Why couldn't they do that on the prior flight!!

Made it home. What a homecoming! Man is it ever good to be home. No man should ever have to be away from family for that long. Don't know how our military guys stand it. I got Anna jade earrings, and this nifty hand-made, beadwork hair thing (holds the hair back, don't know the official name), the boys t-shirts with bears of Alaska, and Elizabeth some lambskin, pink moccasins. Had time for a shower and a nap, and then off to Open Door Baptist church in Overland for their annual Missions Banquet. The meeting is going well so far. Gave our testimonies Saturday night, and have Adult Sunday school, our slides, and two sermons to preach today. Sure am looking forward to a rest on Monday and Tuesday….

Kenai

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The flight to Kenai was interesting. At first, they acted like they were going to cancel the flight, then, once we'd been in the air for 20 minutes (it's a twenty-five minute flight), the pilot came on the loudspeakers and said that we were going to circle for 15 minutes and if he didn't like what he saw, we were heading back to Anchorage. Fortunately, he decided to go ahead and land. All settled in here. Spoke in the chapel service in the Christian school here in Immanuel Baptist. Mr. and Mrs. Boutwell are great people, and I'm greatly enjoying their company. Went plowing last night with Bro. Boutwell. His son-in-law has a snow plowing business he runs on the side, and Bro. Boutwell is covering for him while he and his family get over the flu. Kind of cool, and sure beats sitting around the house all day. Three more days…

Northern Lights

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All done in Anchorage. Finished up the conference in Bible Baptist in Chugiak. Marty Wynn from Georgia was the main speaker and did a fabulous job. The folks here at Bible Baptist took great care of me, in particular the Sobeks, whose home I’m staying in.

Had a Sunday night meeting at Northern Lights Baptist Church. Greg Clark preached a great message on the sower and the seed, and four people got saved! Had dinner with the Akers and Robert Galino afterwards. We had some great fellowship, and I didn’t get back to the Sobek’s place ’til almost midnight.

Now only one church remains, and then homeward bound on Friday. I’m getting my laundry and what not done today, in lieu of my flight to Kenai tomorrow. Pray all goes well.

Later…

Flying Blind in Denali

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Finished up the conference in Fairbanks. Bro. Duffett is a very kind and generous man. He took me into the church bookstore and loaded me up with several free books. Awesome. The church gave us a very generous love offering, which will be a big help as always. I stayed up 'til 0130 Alaska time on Tuesday night to watch George Bush give Kerry a whuppin'. Praise the LORD! What a victory. It was a landslide, as predicted, for all you worry warts out there (*cough* Chad Burns *cough*). Picked up four seats in the Senate (awesome), six in the House, and Puff Daschle went down in flames. Matt Blunt is our governor in Missouri now, and the Republicans now have absolute power there as well. Outstanding night for the country. The next four years should be most interesting.

Back in the Anchorage area now. I survived the trip back. I actually saw a moose on the way! I was beginning to think they were mythological. On the way, I got stuck behind this double-trailer semi, which was kicking up this vast cloud of powder snow, creating white-out conditions for anyone trapped in its wake (towit, me, untowit). After enduring near-blindness and the tendency for oncoming traffic to just materialize out of nowhere for almost an hour, I finally got an opportunity where I could see enough of the road in front of me to gamble on passing him. Sheesh! Talk about a white-knuckler.

Then, as I'm descending towards Anchorage, I start picking up their radio and find out that I'm entering a huge winter storm that's blanketing the whole area in what turned out to be 14 inches of "frozen sunshine" as they call it up here. I made my way to Valley Baptist Tabernacle in Wasilla (Lynn Wycoff's church), and did a quick-change into my church duds for the Wednesday night service. I did the ususal (intro, slides, sermon), and it all went very well. I found out today that they're taking us on for support!

At the moment, I'm in Chugiak ('bout 20 minutes from Wasilla, and about halfway to Anchorage), in Bible Baptist Church (Tim Page). He's out running errands at the moment and has left me alone with his computer (mwa ha ha). I'm cleaning up the spyware he was infested with, and generally tweaking the system, and taking advantage of the opportunity to get some updates made to the journal. Things are going great. Tim Page is a great guy. Homecoming is in sight (woo hoo!)