3 weeks on the road

So, we left Monday morning from Hickory and set out for Troutman, NC to stay with some other friends of ours.

I love the trees.
Lost again... We have gotten lost a few times on our journey. I guess it's bound to happen... Thank goodness for cell phones!

(I SAID, EAT YOUR MUFFIN!!!)

This is Todd Burden. (sort of looks like a tall Brian Vander Kodde...) He was my youth pastor way back when I was a youth. We've kept in touch with him over the years. I prayed with him to receive Christ. And, he married Robin and I. It was really good to see him and Lisa, his wife. They have 5 kids. They are getting ready to go into the ministry full time doing a basketball outreach. He wrote a really cool devotional book through the eyes of basketball. For more info, I can give you his email, (which I can't remember right at the moment...).


Kilaine and Liam were giving big goodbye hugs to Crista Rose, their 2nd youngest. We left Wednesday morning to head out to Fayetteville NC, which is all the way on the east side of NC.


pretty flowers

4 hours later, we arrived at Calvary Chapel Fayetteville for there Wed. night service.
warming up and doing a sound check


Joey, the pastor showed us all these sponges cut into the shape of a dove. Somebody in their fellowship had them made at their work, and they put them out to see if anyone liked them. If there was interest, they were thinking of selling them to raise money to buy tracts. I thought they were pretty cool. I guess, if you want some, you should contact Calvary Fayetteville, NC at stephen@ccfay.com

That night, the church put us up in a hotel, which was a huge blessing. Thank you so much. We had originally planned on going back to Todd and Lisa's that night, that is, before we realized it was 4 hours away.

I don't know what Liam was doing. I put the camera up over my head and took a picture of him. He just happened to be doing this. So silly. Just like daddy!

On Thursday, we drove over to Brasstown, NC. It was suppose to be about 6-7 hours away, but we got lost. We made some wrongs turns that put us pretty far out of the way. This was one area we drove through that got really smokey. It smelled like fire. But we never saw anything burning. It was like this for a while.

The drive was beautiful, thankfully, because it ended up taking us about 9 hours to get there. Part of the problem was we lost the directions. Then we got lost in Asheville. Then we went way off the highway which may have set us off for about an hour or so. I guess it's all part of a road trip. We finally got to where we were staying... a cabin in the mountains. A friend of ours let us stay here for free for 5 days. It's nice to have some family time.

On Friday we decided to go on a nature walk. We stopped and asked directions from some campers. They had a horse. As we were pulling away, Kilaine said, "that's the closest I've ever been to a horse!" So, we went back and asked if we could see the horse. The lady was very nice, and let us pet the horse, and told us all about it. She had rescued it from a neglectful owner. She even let the kids sit on him. They were loving it!

This is right after the horse sniffed Kilaine's head. She didn't seem to mind.

We made it to the hike and went up along a waterfall. It was so nice. I would love to be there each morning to do my Bible study and time with the Lord. It's good that He meets us wherever we are.

It gets tiresome driving, and visiting, and sharing, and driving some more. It is good to stop once in a while and have some family time. I suppose that's the whole idea of a Sabbath. Thank you Lord, for making the Sabbath. Sometimes, we need to be reminded to take it. We are having a wonderful time of refreshment here.