We're home again after a 10 day whirlwind vacation. The days leading up to our vacation were filled with so many activities that I didn't even have a chance to post about my impending absence from blog-land. I appreciate the thoughtful emails I received wondering about where I've been.
On June 17th, we celebrated Father's Day as well as Anniversary Sunday at our church: 20 years since our church was organized and Mr. C's 2nd anniversary as the pastor. We had a covered dish lunch after the morning preaching service. The ladies at our church sure do know how to put on a feast with great Southern cookin'! After the meal all of the children headed outside to play on some of those huge inflatable jumping things. Evangelist Kurt LaBouve and his sweet wife Dale joined us on our special day. We look forward to the LaBouve's visit each year. I never tire of hearing Bro. LaBouve sing! He has a new CD that will be out in just a couple of months-- I can't wait to get it! He preached a great message during the evening service.
Preacher & Bro. Kurt LaBouve
That night right after church we hit the road for the start of our vacation. We spent the week with Pastor Rick Sowell and the folks at Hope Baptist Church in Toledo, Ohio, at the Heartland Bible Conference. We enjoyed fellowshipping with some of our dear friends that served with us in the ministry for a few years at our home church in Florida. Mickey Mouse had a chance to catch up with his best buddy in the whole world, John. They hadn't seen each other since they were 4 years old, so it was cute watching them interact together as grown up 7-year-olds.
After our week in Ohio was over, we headed to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. This was my first visit to the area, and Mr. C hadn't been there since he was a boy. I had envisioned a sleepy little town; boy, was I wrong! The traffic was bumper to bumper, and people were everywhere. We took in several tourist sites, and Mr. C had a chance to play a round of golf on a beautiful course. We received free tickets to go here. We had a blast in spite of the rain. The wooden roller coaster was the best one I've ever ridden on. We caught up with more friends from Florida and had a great time with them. After spending a few days in TN, we took in the scenery of the Great Smokey Mountains on the way home.
God provided for us in so many ways during our vacation. We were blessed with safety on the roads. God took care of us in other ways, too. We only ended up having to pay for our hotel accommodations for 3 nights of our vacation. All of our other nights were unexpectedly taken care of by others. Serveral of our meals were provided, too. God is so good! Saving a ton of money sure did help us enjoy our trip a whole lot more. :)
We arrived home yesterday afternoon just in time to pick up Buddy from the doggy-sitter and prepare for our mid-week prayer meeting at church. I have a pile of laundry that will take me forever to catch up on and a couple hundred photos to load on the computer. I'll be posting pictures from our trip when I get a chance. Do you think I have enough to keep me busy for the next few days???Labels: Family Life