Friday in Pennsylvania

On Thursday on the way back from Hershey to our hotel in Chester we almost left Matthew and Clint at a Hess station. We had been doing head count as we all reboarded the bus each time but this time only 4 or 5 got off and as we were pulling out we saw them coming out of the station! My daughter has "fallen" for a Pennsylvanian and she and he got to sit together on the bus and enjoy each other's company at the restaurants. I have briefly mentioned their courtship in earlier blog entries. They have only written letters since November '08 and gotten to know one another in the "good ol' fashion way". Bro. Shankles, our main driver, took an interest in their relationship and gave them both some good, godly advice. He also talked to me and was a help since he has grown married daughters that evidently made the right choices. Whitney (24) is quite shy and doesn't usually eat in a crowd. This greatly irritated Bro. Shankles as he worried about her not eating. I assured him I was taking her food each night back to the hotel and that we had food in our room. Bro. Shankles calls himself a Tennessee hillbilly (which he is not) and he warned Whitney that "Pennsylvania is a long way from Georgia." He meant in more ways than distance.
Thursday night at church our pastor, Bro. Sammy, preached a great message. I watched as the Pennsylvania visitors to the church looked at him as he preached in authentic southern hell-fire and damnation way. They had a look of wonder like they had never heard anything like what he was saying. Oh, how my heart prayed for them to know God as personal Lord and Saviour! Two local policemen that are now members of the church there gave their testimonies of salvation on Thursday night and what a blessing it was to hear how they came under Holy Ghost conviction and cried out for mercy and forgiveness. Throughout the week we heard Bro. Pinocetti (sp?) and Bro. Clark preach. Bro. Clark's message on "Personal Revival" was wonderful. He said, "Soul-winning is not what I do, a soul winner is what I am." He exhorted us to "seek the Lord while He may be found..." (Isaiah 55) and implored us to ask God for help not to be discouraged and joyless.
A dear Oriental lady in a wheelchair who was saved on Monday night was back every night. It was a joy to see the JOY on her face.
Well...finally we get to Friday... my favorite day as we went to Amish Country. Our bus was repaired now as Bro. Fuerst had labored hard and found a machine shop to help with the pulley. He was right in his diagnosis of what was wrong and the machine shop charged us nothing for their help. We thanked God for showing us favor with them. So, in our newly repaired bus we drove through beautiful rolling farm country. We were able to stop and receive a wagon ride driven by an Amish man named David. Our group was in several different wagons but my group's driver was David. He gave lots of info about the Amish lifestyle and politely answered several absurd questions from some of the wagon's riders. We saw the "church wagon" in front of the house where church was to be that Sunday. The wagon was used to haul the benches. The community had a one room schoolhouse and we were able to buy some water and homemade cookies from some young Amish girls at their farmhouse. The farms were immaculately kept up and absolutely beautiful.
We ate a restaurant that served country style food and it was GOOD. We shopped in a nice gift shop and I was able to purchase some t-shirts with Amish scenes and a documentary DVD. I also bought some jelly for my family and some for my son's family back home.
On our way back to Secane I dozed, joined in some singing, and listened sleepily to the conversations going on around me as we rolled on down the Lincoln Highway and other roads. Here are some conversation excerpts: "Whosoever was not found in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of fire...Do we get to go that way?...You figure it out yet?... the horseshoe puzzle...He got a picture of it...sounds like a plan...What Lara?....Lara? *cell phone ringing..."

Hershey's Chocolate World

Thursday we left our hotel at 8:50 am for Hershey, Pennsylvania in our borrowed school bus. Bro. Ed had brought his backpack guitar and we had singing on the way both ways. When Bro. Ed was at the front of the bus Ben, Derek, Michael, and some others in the back sang, "Father Abraham" and some other Sunday school songs. At least we know they were listening in Sunday school:)
The Hershey Factory was great!! I didn't have my camera and Levi ( whom I have been depending on for some of these pics) didn't get to go so sorry~no pics. They would only make you hungry anyway;)
On the way to Hershey we saw some BEAUTIFUL farm country. I love to look at big, sprawling farmland. I told someone that the only tall buildings I like are silos. I live in the country and feel very crowded in the cities.
Jess and her best friend, Lara, got their picture on a Hershey's candy bar wrapper. It looks really cute. Our entire group squeezed together ( and I really mean squeezed since they were about 50 of us that day) for a pic on a wrapper. It read ,"We had a sweet time in Pennsylvania!" We got a 3-D movie on the history of chocolate and a "classroom" experience with a "real" professor. This was a lot of tasty fun because we got to sample how all the different chocolates taste. Lara got to be on stage with the Professor and "show" us how to crack a cacoa bean. Kendall was chosen to be on stage to show us how long his tongue is. This was for the benefit of the audience members who weren't members of our group because all of us already knew he had a big mouth.:) We toured through a ride-along that showed us how chocolate candy is made and then had lunch that cost twice as much as it should have and was nowhere a good as it could have been. But all in all the Hershey day was a fun day. While we were in the Chocolate World Bro. Matthew Fuerst went back to our bus to pray at noon and while he was in the bus a large camper hit the front bumper and almost tore it off. If Bro. Matt hadn't been in the bus we feared the other driver might have just have driven away. But again , God's hand was leading and Bro. Fuerst was able to get insurance information from the driver. He was from Hawaii and had never driven a big camper before.
On the way back to the hotel, Lara, Jess, Ben, Derek, and Cohen sang, "Rejoice in the Lord always" and "This Little Light Of Mine", etc. Bro. Ed came to the back of the bus where we were and sang a number of songs with us. Later, Bro. Fuerst played and we had another sing-a-long.

Inside Martin Guitar Factory in Nazareth, PA.

In the guitar factory

More on the Pennsylvania trip

On the city bus we met "John", an elderly man who had lived in the Philadelphia area all of his life. My friend Milly sat next to him and they enjoyed a conversation as I listened. John was not saved but he hoped he'd make it to Heaven. When the conversation was on Philly and our choir trip he was a lively communicator but when it took a turn to things eternal John politely let us know he was finished talking and when the bus arrived at our mutual stop he said he was glad to have met us and hoped we enjoyed our trip. When the assistant to the pastor of the Pennsylvania church where we were to sing told John that he could know and not hope of a home in Heaven John didn't answer and bade us goodbye.

We went to Jim's Steaks for lunch. This was supposedly a famous restaurant and known for it's Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches. I am from the south and I am a staunch, dogmatic, conservative Independent Baptist. I come from a broken home and the main problem in the home was alcoholic drink. Therefore, I have not visited a restaurant that sold alcoholic drink in about 30 years. Down here in the south we usually have a choice. I looked at the beer neon light in the window of Jim's and thought about what to do. I began to pray and look up and down the streets for a McDonald's or some similar place. I asked Bro. Bob ( a Pennsylvanian) if there was not a restaurant near that did not sell alcoholic. He informed that many restaurants open up just to sell beer and sell pizza just so they can be considered a "restaurant". I was a at a dilemma. Had I just had myself to consider I would have politely waited outside and ate back at the motel. Our church covenant does say that we are to abstain from the sale of and the use of alcoholic beverages. I don't like my money (nor money from my church cookbook sales) being used to buy the strong drink that is consumed by the customers. Perhaps our dollars are pulled from the cash register to pay the beer delivery man and the beer from the carton he put into the cooler is consumed by a person who is involved in a fatal car wreck or goes and commits a murder. Yet I know my friends who disagree will say that I shop our local Wal-Mart even though it recently began selling these items. But I still don't like it. Anyway, as we started into the restaurant a drunk man was led out cursing and crying. My 10-year old was hungry and she didn't know of the confused thoughts in my mind. So I went in and we shared a hoagie. As we were leaving she quietly said to me, "Momma, that's the first time I've ever been in a place where people were drinking." To which I replied, "And I hope it's the last time."

Historic Philadelphia was a beautiful place and the security was tight. Our entire purse contents was searched several times.

On Wednesday we went to the Martin Guitar Factory in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. This was an interesting trip and also a bit boring for my daughters and I. But for the guitar players in our group ( including our youth choir director) it was the favorite day of the trip. We used a borrowed school bus for this trip as our bus was still being repaired by Bro. Fuerst and others. Our school bus read on the side Pemberton Township Schools. We ate at the Hard Wok Cafe on the way back. My first experience in a Chinese restaurant and I liked it. No alcoholic beverages sold either!:) I had General Tso chicken and a Chinese donut. Very good!! I saw many country farms on our way to Nazareth and we even went through a town called Bethlehem.

In the church service that night we had three saved. The ladies of the church served us tacos, salad and desserts after church. The fellowship was sweet. Oh, and I forgot to mention the one fellow in our tour group at the guitar factory who kept falling behind because he was witnessing to the workers. I wish we could have had an F.B. Meyers "revival in the factory" experience.

The men in our group enjoyed a pickin' and grinnin' time in the picking parlor at the factory. They played hymns , etc. Stay tuned for Wed. journal~a visit to Hershey's Chocolate World in Hershey , Pennsylvania!!

I mistakenly put a New York city street scene on my last post. That pic is from my daughters' trip a couple of years ago.

Trip to Pennsylvania part II

Tuesday morning we were up and ate breakfast in the hotel's free breakfast room. My ten year old doesn't eat until she has been up for and hour or so. She couldn't eat and watching the rest of us eat made her sick so she threw up in the hotel lobby restroom. Our day wasn't starting out to well.:( We boarded the hotel shuttle van and it took us to the train station. From there we rode the city train, city bus, city subway. This was a first for some of our party. Jess began to feel better and finally we were in historic Philadelphia. It made us all feel better and more at home to ride the horse and carriage. Our horse's name was Spot. Our driver said he was the "best Spot in Philly". We passed out many tracts as we walked the streets. Bro. Matt Fuerst and Bro. McGonigal did some street preaching. At one street corner our whole group sang ,"O Happy Day" as we waited for the bus. Many people walked on reading the gospel tracts and some threw them away. One young man read the front of the tract, "Heaven or Hell" and said, "We don't like Heaven." How sad!! My eyes filled with tears after this comment and my heart was broken for these people hustling and bustling about with never a seeming thought about their eternal destiny.

The beautiful moutains of Virginia

Trip to Pennsylvania

Our church choir group left Sunday, August 9, about 11:30 pm for Secane, Pennsylvania. The first couple hours almost everyone was too excited to sleep and watched movies or surfed the internet but after that most of us got some sleep before our breakfast stop in Lynchburg, Virginia. We caught up with our pastor there and ate a Shoney's breakfast bar. Not long after getting back on the road we were informed that the bus (a large, nice Greyhound-type) was running a little hot. We made several stops on the side of the road. I don't remember the order of these but we had lunch at a Taco Bell and made a couple of other bathroom stops and one stop at a truck repair shop. We all 36 used two little bathrooms and waited and waited while the mechanics checked out the bus. Finally, we were told it would cost about $500 to repair our thermostat. A pastor from the area came and was about to take us by vanloads to his church to await the 1 1/2 hour fix-it job. At least at the church there would be plenty of seats and that would beat the showroom where we were sitting in chairs , on the floor , and some just milling about. But before we loaded up in the van for the first "evacuation" our own mechanic, Bro. Fuerst decided we should go on. He didn't think it was the thermostat and thought he could fix the bus after we arrived at our Pennsylvania destination. We went on few miles and stopped at a little store/antique shop/restaurant. We all got out again and went to restroom and got drinks. Yes, drinks. That's why we had to make so many bathroom stops. Sometimes it seemed the bathroom stops were too few and too far between! At our stop just mentioned Bro. Fuerst took a good, LONG look at the bus motor. We all just sat around in the parking lot next to the bus and near to the trash dumpster and fellowshipped and perspired. Bro. Fuerst made his diagnosis of a damaged pulley. He and Bro. Clark explained to me the problem but I barely understood. We slowly made our way on toward Pennsylvania and our pastor sent word that he had arrived at our hotel just as we left this parking lot somewhere near Fredricksburg, Virginia. We went through Washington, D.C. ( the edge of it) traffic right about 5:00 pm with our bus running hot and our driver doing the best he could in a traffic jam. God's hand was definitely on our bus and His wisdom with our driver, Bro. Shankles. We finally arrived at our hotel about 8:15 and hurriedly cleaned up and dressed. We arrived at the church around 9:15. Of course, service was almost over so we went straight to the basement. When service was completed 2 had been saved!! We rejoiced in the Lord! The church ladies had prepared lasagna and salad complete with desserts for all of us and the congregation. We told of our troubles and trials although they already knew in this day of cell phones, etc. We had already prayed and thanked our Lord. We knew there was a reason for all the delays and we trusted Him with it. We arrived back at our hotel around11:30 eager to sleep in a good bed and rest up for Tuesday. We went to sleep with visions of traffic, lasagna, and the historic Philadelphia we hoped to sightsee in on the morrow.

Pleasure and Pain

I attended a Ladies' Meeting a week ago and was blessed. The pastor's wife was a former Sunday school student of mine. She was in my class when I taught the 7-12 old girls. I was so proud and happy to see her standing before the crowd with poise and dignity. The guest speaker from South Dakota I have also known since she was a girl. These girls have grown and matured into beautiful young ladies. But as I listened to them I realized they have grown into the type of women they are because of the pleasure and pain God has allowed into their lives. If they had been allowed to live lives of ease and wealth they would not have had reason to lean on God as hard as they have had to. The pastor's wife has a rare disease that she has had to live with now for over 10 years. She is very often in a lot of pain and often hospitalized. Yet she had no gripes and complainings only praise and thanks to a good God.
The speaker has had many physical problems as well and just one year her family of 7 was in a tragic car wreck that has left her husband with brain injuries. At the time of the "accident" it looked like he would not live and also one of her twin daughters was not breathing when her mother knelt beside her on the busy highway. Our miraculous God has amazed us over and over in the almost year since the wreck. Her husband and daughter are doing well. Thanks be unto God. Keep them in your prayers. Last week Lori (the speaker) said on trials,"Bear it , don't begrudge it" and Rachel (the pastor's wife) said, "Trials will either conquer you or conform you to His glory." Coming from 2 women who have known both great pleasures and great pains I treasure these words and dedicate this poem to them.

I walked a mile with Pleasure,
She chattered all the way;
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow,
And ne'er a word said she,
But, oh the things I learned from her
When sorrow walked with me.

~Author unknown

August Campmeeting

August campmeeting is underway. Bro. John Morgan preached Sa. night and Su. morning. Dr. Rufus Edmisten preached Su. night on how to avoid the judgment of God. His son, Bro. John Edmisten preached last night on "Jesus". Also Bro. Joe Arthur preached last night. Be sure and go to www.wkjv.com and listen live each night at 7:30 EST or go to www.faithbaptistcamp.org and hear the messages at your convenience.