Thursday outing with the girls and more, 8/7/08

Lucy, Carol and Yvonne trying to decide which quiche to order at Ruby Lena's Tea Room.  Ruby Lena's is a quaint little tea room and gift shop.  Crocheted and lace baby dresses on display at Ruby Lena's.  Somebody won a blue ribbon at the fair with these creations.There's lots of this on display, also.When in Branson on Hwy 76 going toward old Branson downtown, look for this sign on the right.Tonight, we went to the new Sight and Sound Theater to see Noah, The Musical.  Here's Don and I in front of the lion and the lamb.

Isaiah 11:6-9

This Sight and Sound Theater looks like something you would see in Jerusalem.  It's beautiful.Our friend, Cami Wilson, works in tickets here and loves it!We really enjoyed the production and appreciated the creator's determination to share the Gospel with everyone who sees any production at a Sight & Sound Theater.  We recommend it.

In the Love Worth Finding devotional for today, Dr. Adrian Rogers suggests:  "Starting with the letter 'A' and going through the alphabet, praise Him with each letter for all that He is, has been, and will be!"  Here goes... I may need some help.

A - Almighty, Alpha, Awesome, Ascended, All Sufficient, Abundance

B - Beautiful, Beginning, Banner, Blessed, Blood (wine), Body (bread)

C - Crucified, Caring, Creator, Compassionate, CHRIST

D - Deliverer

E - Excellent, End, Everywhere, Everlasting, Established

F - FATHER, Faithful, Forgiver, Forever, Fulfillment

G - Grace, GOD, Good, Great Greatness, Glory

H - Holy, High, Healer, HOPE

I - "I AM", Immortal, IS

J - Just, Jehovah, JESUS

K - Keeper of my soul, Knows, King of kings

L - LOVE, Loving, Lifted up, LORD, Lord of lords, Light, Longsuffering, Life-giving, Living Water

M - Merciful, Most High, Majesty

N - Nurturing, Never leaves

O - Omega, Owner, Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent

P - Peace, Perfect, Patient, Provider, Powerful, Potentate, Possessor, Protector, Pursuer

Q - Quiet

R - Righteous Ruler, Redeemer, Refuge, Rescuer

S - Savior, Sovereign, Supplier, Sees, Strong, Supreme, Sanctifier, Shepherd, Sinless, Strength, Satisfying, Sustainer, Security, Stability, Shelter, Safety

T - Trustworthy, Truth

U - Urges, Unshakable

V - Valiant, Victorious

W - Worthy, WOW!, Watching, Wine (blood), Well-spring of Living Water

X

Y - Yaweh, Yearns

Z -

Yes, I need help with X and Z and if you can think of more, please leave a comment.  I'm sure you can.

Sunday's Coming

Don wrote a really good Sunday's Coming today. Our trip to Noah, the Musical inspired him.  Check it out.

Wed., 8/6/08

This will probably be as close as I will ever get to the Little League World Series... meet Eileen Moore.I know it's a stretch of the imagination, but Eileen grew up on a farm in the Williamsport, PA area... where the LLWS is played. We met Eileen over at KOA this morning.  She's traveling with her daughter, Emily (11), and her son, Tommy (10), who is one of the best LL pitchers in the LA area.  The Moore family loves their baseball.  Eileen's goal for her children is to allow them to see life outside the big city.  We commend her.

It was delightful chatting with Eileen, who owns a software programming company in Los Angeles.  It's people like this that make us wish we could spend more time with them.

Happy and safe traveling, Eileen, Emily and Tommy.  We hope we will meet again sometime.

searching for relief

from the heat, the "boys" took a little dip in the lake yesterday afternoon.  They had to go out away from the edge to get to the water that wasn't hot.  If you have seen any of the national weather reports, we are in the middle of an extreme heat warning.  Don's waiting for Bubba to air up his float.Lucy takes Bubba's float to him, flat.  Bubba got the job of airing up both floats.  That's how he got his choice of the purple float instead of the pink one he gave Don.   Our plan was to have a picnic under a shade tree, but it was too intolerably hot for us girls, being the delicate flowers that we are.  So... our fried chicken picnic was enjoyed in the cool of our 5'er.

After our "picnic," we went to see the movie, Swing Vote.  Some parts of this movie were entertaining, but Kevin Costner's character couldn't seem to keep from using profanity, so that really ruined the movie for us.  We would not recommend it.  In the middle of our Bible study about the Names of God, how awesome and wonderful He is, how He suffered for each of us...  it's really heartbreaking to hear His name used so vainly and disrespectfully.  I know, not everyone understands who God is.  That's why we are doing what we do in this ministry, praying that we can share our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ with others who don't know Him.  And encouraging those who do know the Lord to do the same as we wait patiently, expectantly and faithfully for His return.

introducing...

Beau, the seven year old registered Rottweiller from north Nebraska, who's sire was a police dog.  Beau does some police work also in the compound.  Beau also has his own credit card (with his picture on it) and travels by plane several times a year to the Children's Hospital in Minneapolis to visit the children there, going from room to room so the children can love on him.  When he came out of his owner's RV, he came right straight to me so I could pet him.  I wasn't fast enough to get his whole body in the picture.  Beau loves people and I guess he's been trained that everyone he sees needs to pet him.  Don said he did the same thing when he first met Beau... came right to Don so Don could pet him.  After sufficient loving, he stood still for his picture to be taken. Owner, George, said that Beau has recently lost 45 pounds and is still on Science Diet Light.Isn't he pretty and so well mannered.  It's so hot and humid here that Beau was ready to go back into the cool RV... as were we.  

Sunday

We never cease to be amazed at the work of our God Almighty.

As I have mentioned, it's very hot and humid here.  Today, the humidity was at 96% with the sun shining.  Mug-geeee.

I honestly didn't think that anyone would show up for church here at Oak Grove as we worship out under the pavilion ... no air conditioning, only a few fans.  But Don had asked God for people to come and he faithfully expected people to come.  And God faithfully brought them.  Even though there's hardly anyone in the park, there was 14 people there not counting Don and I.  That's the largest group we've had here this summer. 

Singing was awesome and the sermon was very good, entitled "How Do You Wait on the Lord?"  (Luke 12:32-42)  Don's answer to that question was (1) patiently, (2) expectantly and (3) faithfully.  That's how we wait for the Lord's return.  Wish you all could have heard this message.

Then we go over to KOA where we meet in an air conditioned building and there was only seven people there counting Don and I and Mike, our worship leader. However, the sermon was just as good as though the whole building was full.

We count it all joy.

Late this afternoon, Jimmy knocked on our door and said, "Come on, let's get out of the house and go somewhere cool."  Ok, so I'm thinking, "It is cool in my house."  But we love get out with friends, so we grabbed our ice water and camera, put our sandals on and got in the truck with Jimmy, Lucy, Carol and Glen.  This was Jimmy's idea of a cooler place:Notice the fog?  Well, it was truly cooler here on this river, so we set our chairs up in a row and sat down to enjoy the tranquil view and watch the fishing boats go by.Glen took his fishing pole instead of his chair, but the fish weren't biting. The fog or steam off the water was really interesting to watch and you could feel the coolness as the fog drifted along. The fog would come and go when we first arrived.  Think I'm enjoying this? We all were.  The view, the cool air, the laughs. And this dropped right down in front of me and started building it's web. Really quite interesting to watch this busy spider.  I didn't bother it and it didn't bother me.The later it got, the thicker the fog became. Isn't this interesting?  A streak going through the fog.The fog is now so thick we can barely see the boats going past. We finally decide to leave.  It's like leaving a ride at Six Flags.... back and forth until we reach the top.  The fog has gotten up this far. By the time we got to the top, it was hot again. This is where we were.  Look at that fog!Hope you enjoyed our refreshing time on the river.  We sure did and we will go back to Cooper's Creek fishing dock.   

the rest of the story...

While Don was at the grocery store Saturday morning, he got a phone call from good friend, Wayne.  It seems that Wayne and son-in-law, Chad were at the Clark Airport at Hollister having flown over from Bentonville, Arkansas.  Don told Wayne we would be there in a bit to pick them up.  Wouldn't you know it, the traffic was awful coming home from the grocery store.  We hurriedly put the groceries away and took off, the back way avoiding traffic, to pick up Wayne and Chad.   We saw this as we crossed over the Table Rock Lake dam. Don was finally going to get to see Wayne's plane.  But it would have to wait until after lunch.We were really surprised to see what a nice airport was in Hollister just off Hwy. 65.  Well, Wayne and Chad met us in the parking lot (they were hungry), Chad & I were introduced (what a delightful young man) and we piled into the truck and headed for Branson Landing to try out the new Shorty Small's restaurant there.The taco salad was really good.  After lunch, Don walked down to the Lake Princess to get a brochure and we found out that it's a very reasonable ride on the lake for and hour and a half. The new Lake Queen was coming in to dock.After lunch, back to the airport where Don finally got to see Wayne's four-seater Cessna. This is where I learned that Wayne was planning to take us up for a ride.  US?  I said, "Bye, have fun!"  And where Don took the camera and got in the airplane. Don took a gob of pictures of the Branson and Table Rock Lake area.KOAThe area where a new mall will be built... that's the Wal-Mart parking lot on 76. Branson Landing.  Amazing, huh?The Chateau by the lake. Almost an hour later, Don and Wayne returned to the airport. Chad took our picture with Wayne and then they were off again.  What a fun day, especially for Don.  Thanks Wayne!!

there was no need...

...it was a perfectly good airplane. 

To answer Snookie's question:  "So did he join the rank of skydiver?"

One very happy man....

Here's an aerial view of part of Table Rock Lake and...here's an aerial view of KOA and our 'house' (well, we know which one it is).... and the very happy man who got to go 'aviating' today and took these pictures and more!Check back later for more pictures and the story about how this all came about because right now, I'm going to Z-land.  It's been a long day.

Blessings to all.

Friday, July 31...

Got up early today to do the laundry before it got TOO hot.  Didn't work.  However, I did see this on the RV parked across from the laundry room.  Haven't met them yet, though.Jimmy and Lucy have lots of squirrels who eat the seeds that fall out of the bird feeders.  Jimmy said one morning he counted 12 squirrels here.The coy pond up by the front office has two lily pads that are blooming and one lonely coy.

Co-owner, Sharla Shivers, lost her mother this week, so several of us here in the park pitched in and got her some plants for her office here and a sympathy card.  These mini roses were really pretty... and thisI do so love plants and flowers...