Sunday

Bob and Barb came to church with us this morning and Bob presented a certificate of appreciation to Fran Bolm, chairman of the church steering committee, for allowing Christian Resort Ministries, Inc. to have one of their chaplains serve in this park.

It was a very emotional day for many present as one of the past residents, who is dealing with cancer, was in for a visit.  She sat with us in the choir again and even led a congregational song with Walter.  We only got to meet her briefly, but can already understand why she is so well-loved here.

John and Sally attended the second service with their fur-kid, who was perfect....  sat right in the chair next to John and never made a sound.  Don held his attention completely.

The Lord gave Don another very good sermon... have really never known the Lord to give him a bad sermon, now that I think about it.  If you ever hear a bad sermon from anyone, you can rest assured, it's not from God.  This morning, we were challenged to "Go and Tell" our neighbors, our community, our world what God has done for us.

After church, we were invited by Kim and Mitch to come over for ribs by George Becker. The highlight of the meal, for Barb, myself and Kim, were Jo Becker's cream puffs!!!  From our meal, we went to the Quail Run pool area for the Senior Olympics Opening Ceremony where Mitch led the U.S. National Anthem. We were at this park last winter, so it was really fun seeing some of the folks again that we met then.  Here's Marlene, who beat me in the basketball free throw contest last year. Snookie, in red t-shirt with camera, taking pictures of the ceremony. After the ceremony, Snookie and I were visiting and this lady walked in.  Snookie screamed, they hugged and talked for a few minutes, then Snookie introduced me to Peggy as "LaVon, of dead tree fame" and explained that the two of them had met last April at Beaudry's, in the waiting area, while there RV's were being repaired.  There were computers in the room and before they parted company, Snookie had her started blogging.  I believe Snookie said they are The Traveling Cardinals. <<< check out Peg's blog to see some really amazing videos of sky divers in the wind tunnel she took today and pics of Snookie in her new "house." And speaking of Snookie and Bob's new house, Don and I walked over to their newly purchased park model while Bob was in the process of replacing the toilet.... getting ready for renters this week.  What a nice park model!  With everything you could possibly need inside or in the storage shed.  In the front cactus bed is this:  a barrel cactus with PINK pricklies... PINK.  Never saw that before.  Don't even remember it from last winter.  Maybe they change colors. Don and I played a game of Zilch with Bob and Barb while sitting outside.  Mitch came by and introduced us to their son, Ben, who just arrived from Indiana for a week. We decided to head for the Texas Stop Sign for a Blizzard and then we drove out so Don could show us the new Christian School, the first to be built in Casa Grande. I took this picture of the foyer and offices area through the glass.  The foyer is where the pastors met for lunch last Thursday, when Don learned of this project.  The two gray doors lead into the auditorium where the students will attend chapel. Don announced in church this morning that he felt that God is leading the Sunscape Fellowship to be involved in some way.  We have a lot of retired teachers here who might want to be tutors.  After each service two different ladies came to Don stating that they wanted to be involved, one as an actual teacher if possible as she has recently received her Master's Degree in elementary education.  The other lady is very experienced in instructing homeschool and Christian school teachers how to teach the curriculum they use.  She wants to be involved anywhere she's needed... has a real heart for Christian education.

Just up the street from the Christian school went in to Val Vista RV Park.  We stopped and Barb went in to get some information.  Bob and Barb are always on the look out for parks and resorts for CRM chaplains.  From the back seat and through the windshield, I took these pictures. Just sit in the back seat listening to Bob and Don chat... no way, not if I have my camera and I usually do.

Back at Quail Run, it was time to head over to the Carnaval for the Bernie and Red Show, a music and comedy act. They were really good.  Bernie reminded me of Johnny Carson during his last years with the Tonight Show.  They are RV'ers just like the rest of us and performed a skit about Red trying to direct Bernie back into an RV site.  We all related and it was hilarious.  They are also very musically talented.  They're originally from Liverpool, England, but now live in Canada when they're not on the road entertaining.

After the show, we said our good-byes and headed back to Sunscape.

This has been a busy, full, great weekend.