Ministry Update

“The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.”
Psalm 34:7

After settling my family in with Sarah’s Mom and Stepdad in Troy, OH, I drove to Louisville, KY, where I am to assist Evangelist Byron Foxx with his National Leadership Conference. The weather was the worst driving weather I have ever seen. Not only is I-71 almost entirely downhill between Cincinnati and Louisville, but the counties/state also did not plow the roads. Not only was freezing rain my constant companion throughout the trip (which takes three hours under normal conditions), but I also had the great experience of skiing in four-wheeled vehicle over 2-4 inches of packed snow.

My average speed for the trip was about 35 mph except on one exceptionally long hill. I wasn’t giving the vehicle any throttle, yet I found the car (I borrowed my Mother-in-law’s car for the trip) accelerating at an alarming rate. It was when I gently applied the brakes that I realized that my tires were no longer in contact with the road. For the first time in my life, I was actually skiing. I confess it was not nearly as fun as I have heard people make it out to be, but then again, it might have been different had I been on skis instead of wheels. I found the experience particularly perturbing when the back end of the car tried to pass the front end of the car going down the hill. Attempts to correct this attitude with the steering wheel gave initial promises of success at first, but soon proved worthless. I found myself copying the tactics of Russian Cold War submariners in a maneuver the US Navy sometimes calls a “Crazy Ivan.” In order that I might fully inspect the baffled motorists behind me, I spun the car in a complete 360-degree turn, finally stalling the engine and coming to rest on the left shoulder. In reality, I had voted against the Crazy Ivan but found myself in the minority, being outvoted by gravity and lack of friction.

The event ended rather anticlimactically, however. I simply put the vehicle in park, restarted the motor and continued at my normal speed of about 35 miles an hour. Nearly six hours after I left Troy, OH, I finally arrived in Louisville safe and sound.

Then, I tried to step out of the car onto the icy sidewalk and the real danger started…but that is another story.

Ministry Update

The Lord provided a preaching opportunity for me in the end of last year. I left for Alexandria, VA on Saturday, December 27, 2008 in a vehicle that had recently been made available to me to use. It had a lot of miles, but it was Toyota-they go forever, right? After being warned to change the oil before making my trip, I promptly disregarded the advice and decided to head out anyway. In my understanding, dirty oil was not good, but it could wait until after I got back and had some time to change it.

The trip was a smooth one on the way up. Inexpensive, as well: I was able to drive from my home in NC to northern VA on less than $40 of fuel. I have never in all of my ministry been able to do that.

The Lord blessed at the Lighthouse Baptist Church where I preached on Sunday, December 28. I had a wonderful time staying in the home of a family in the church, and it was not long before I was all packed for the trip back home in the car. The trip back home was as uneventful as the trip up-that is, until I got to Petersburg, VA. At Petersburg, I stopped at a gas station to take a brief break before heading onto I-85 and continuing my trip. On my way to the restroom in the gas station, I passed their quarts of oil and wondered if I should buy any. I went out and checked the oil, but it seemed to have oil on the dipstick, and above the add mark. It may have been dirty, so I thought, but it should be sufficient to get me home.

I had not been back on the interstate ten minutes, when the car began to lose power going down a hill. Not a good sign. I instantly pulled to the side of the road and shut off the engine. It has never started again. It had gone 261,000 miles, the last part of that with oil trouble and had decided that enough was enough. When I checked the oil this time, the dipstick was dry.

Now I found myself 60 miles deep in VA on I-85 with no way to get home. I called a friend in Richmond, but he happened to be out of town visiting family, ironically less than 60 miles from my home. I tried calling others, but all to no avail. Finally, I thought of another friend in Gaston, NC, and called him. In the providence of God, he was planning a trip to my home area and had not left home yet. He swung up into VA to get me and took me all the way back home.

I got home, secured the help of a friend and a tow dolly, and headed back to get the broken down car off the side of the road. It took us all night to get to where the vehicle was, get it onto the dolly and get it back home. It now sits in the church parking lot, not far from our trailer. If anyone happens to have a motor for a 1998 Toyota Camry lying around that needs a worn out body to go with it, let me know.

January has kept us at home where I have preached in my home church and taught adult Sunday school every Sunday in January on the subject of Baptist history in America since the Constitution. That series ends a week from tomorrow, after which we will hit the road again.

We are closer than ever to my book’s completion, although nothing has gone as fast as I would have liked. I will let everyone know when it is finally done.

Our website has a new look and we would invite you to check it out. The new look is another product of Sarah’s creative talents.

Thank you for your prayers.

Family Update

The last two months have been a flurry of activity around our house. Of course, with the new baby, there are more chores and new routines that must be established for the entire family. At two months of age, Daniel now needs a moderate amount of quiet in order to get the rest that he needs. He can still sleep amidst the dull roar of the other three children, but it is getting more difficult. He is also on the brink of outgrowing the bassinet, which means that he will be sleeping in the same room as the kids very soon. Hopefully, his night cries will not disturb the sleep of his siblings too much. He is a very happy and contented baby most of the time, for which I am grateful.

Josiah has resumed school after the Christmas break, and is working hard to be done as soon as possible. He is already counting the “days left” of school this year.

Abigail and Esther keep each other company while Josiah is doing school, and get along quite well until they start fighting. I have dubbed their many squabbles, “the Polly Wars,” since most of their disagreements are over the tiny dolls and their rubber clothing. At any time during the day, you could walk into our trailer and see what looks like a maid service commercial. Toys are strewn from one end of the trailer to the other, although lately, I have made our bedroom off limits to toys. This came about from too often jumping out of bed in the middle of the night and stepping on a toy soldier with plastic bayonet, or perhaps, a toy spaghetti spoon with eight sharp tines pointed at the sky. I told them they can play anywhere but in my room. There are also the mounds of laundry – both clean and dirty that either needs to be put away or washed. (Does it ever really get done?) Paul has done so much in helping around the house until I can get back into the swing of things and juggle the normal chores along with the demands of school and a new baby. I am so thankful for his work – he has truly gone above and beyond!

Currently, all the children are sick with head and chest congestion. Daniel and Josiah are both struggling to overcome the infection. Daniel succumbed to the sickness after having the other three breathe, cough, and sneeze in his face for two weeks. Josiah still continues to have breathing problems, and we aren’t sure what is troubling him. He is on a very restricted diet in order to help control asthmatic flare-ups, but still struggles daily and must have nebulizer treatments to keep his airways clear. We covet your prayers for all of our children’s health, but especially his right now. Soon we will be on the road again, and we never know what we will encounter from week to week. Your prayers are greatly appreciated.
Recently, my ancient glasses (circa 2000) bit the dust when a rivet in the frame broke and sent my right lens spinning onto the ground. They could not be fixed, and therefore, whenever I took out my contacts, having no backup coke bottles, I was in danger of running into walls and falling down steps. I suppose I could have tried the monacle thing, but that gets tiring on the cheeks when you have to squinch your face around the lens! There was no option but to get new spectacles. I made an appointment with the eye doctor, and dutifully went in to have my eyes examined. They gave me a new prescription, and I started looking at frames. I was horrified to find that the only available styles were straight out of my parent’s high school year books! Aaagh! I found a really nice (gag) pair of blue cat-eye glasses, but decided that they wouldn’t match enough of my outfits. There was one pair that looked like the kind an eighty-year-old organist would wear, you know – big, round lenses set in pink plastic frames with the bead chain around the neck. They were eerily reminiscent of the glasses I had in junior high, and I passed them by so I wouldn’t get stuck in a fashion rut. Mine were brown, however, not pink. Paul went with me, and we had a hilarious time trying out the different frames and laughing and taking pictures of one another. Had our children been teenagers, they would doubtless have died of embarrassment at our shameless display of immaturity. As it was, though, they just thought the pictures were funny. So I finally decided on a suitable pair and am getting used to seeing myself in them.

It was shortly thereafter that Josiah decided he needed to wear glasses, too. We had an old pair of “Groucho” glasses (some of you may remember that family picture) that seemed to fit the bill. Thankfully, the nose had fallen off some time ago, so it was just the big black frames and woofy eyebrows. He commenced to wearing them around the clock. He wore them while doing his schoolwork, while playing cowboys and Indians, while reading, and at mealtimes. We drew the line however, at wearing them to church. He was somewhat disappointed at this, but recovered quickly. It was all I could do not to laugh when he came strolling out of his room in the morning clad in his pajamas and “grouchos.” Sometime, try having a serious conversation with a seven-year-old wearing the most ridiculous pair of plastic glasses that keep falling down his nose. What a riot! I took several pictures of him wearing the glasses, so we can scare off any hopeful girls when he gets old enough to date. These pictures, along with the fact that he has stated he wants to have nineteen children, will probably scare off any normal girls anyway, so he may be living at home for quite some time! I hope the groucho phase won’t last until then, or we may never get rid of him! Ha!

There is so much more that I could write, but since I have already been accused of being quite verbose in this update, I shall draw the proverbial line and end right here. I plan that the next update will not be so long in coming. Keep us in your prayers, for they are much needed.

Ministry Update

We are officially hunkered right now for the lull in meetings that comes from churches up to their ears in Christmas programs. That means lots of time in the trailer and lots of time in office working on next year’s schedule. While the Lord has given us many meetings next year, there are still openings in the schedule. Please pray that the Lord would fill these openings with the meetings of His choosing.

My book is progressing, though slower than I would like. Many have asked about it. It is still in the design phase during which I inspect every aspect of the design and veto or OK it. Since the whole design thing is beyond my area of expertise, the Lord has given me two friends in our church to help with that aspect of the book. Without the help of Glenn Stevenson, III and Matt Northcutt, I would produce a book that would be less than appealing to the eye. My goal from the beginning has been excellence, and these two have made that goal more attainable than it would have ever been without them. I wanted to have my book completed before Christmas, but that may not happen. I will keep everyone posted. One thing is certain: my book will be done some time next year.

Family Update

It has been almost a month since we experienced the addition of our newest family member, and it has been a busy time. Since Daniel was born via C-section, limiting my activity, Paul has had to pick up a lot of extra work around the house. My mom came for ten days after Daniel’s birth, enabling Paul to go to another meeting, and also keeping the trailer from falling down around our ears! I am so thankful for all her work and also for Paul’s efforts at cooking and cleaning (pray for us)! I have been feeling better each day, and although I still have to be careful, I am assuming more of my former duties each week. Sigh.

Everyone asks how the other children like their new brother. The answer is easy – they love him. If he can survive the “fan club” as we have dubbed them, he will be ready for anything life brings his way. Abigail is the little mama and squeaks sweet nothings in his face every time he wakes up. She asks to hold him all the time, and is the first one to run for the pacifier when he is crying. Josiah also enjoys holding him, but his seven-year-old arms get tired very quickly, and he wants to move on to something more exciting. Esther is my little helper – bringing diapers, wipes, and other sundry baby items. She likes to hold Daniel, too, but I have to watch her closely, or she will just wiggle out from under him none too gently and leave him lying on the couch. I am suffering from the usual lack of sleep that goes along with a new baby, so please pardon any spelling or grammatical errors that my fogged brain missed while typing this update!

“A picture is worth 1,000 words.” Since I can’t think of 1,000 words right now, I decided to share some pictures of our newest son, Daniel.

We wondered how the other children would respond to a new baby in the house. So far, everything seems to be positive.

This morning at 9:48, our son Daniel Marshall Crow was born. He weighed 9 lbs. 13 1/2 ounces and was 21 1/2 inches long. The doctors took the baby C-section and Sarah is in the long process of recovery. Thank you for your prayers for us at this time.

The birth of this little boy is a cause of praise to God–the last time I held a newborn boy in my arms, he did not have long to live. We are so thankful that the Lord is the giver of life and that He has chosen to give us another son.

A picture will be forthcoming.

Paul

Ministry Update
Thank you so much for praying for our ministry. The Lord gave us another great meeting at Maranatha Baptist Church in Yorktown, Virginia. The purpose of the meeting was an evangelistic outreach to teens in the area. On Monday and Tuesday, the teens of the church met and went out trying to get others to come. The actual activities and preaching services began on Wednesday. By the end of the meeting Friday night, ten people had trusted Christ as Savior. On Sunday, a girl who had been in all three nights of the rally without trusting Christ was in church and troubled about her soul. She came to a teen of the church and expressed her concern. She was saved on the church bus as she was being returned to her house after the service.

After a brief stay home in NC, we were off to Missouri for a Sunday. The Lord gave us a great day there that seems to promise more meetings in the area in the future. Wednesday night, I got to meet Dr. James Beller, the Baptist historian and join him in his church in the St. Louis, MO area. Sunday begins another revival in Urbana, IL. Thank you for your prayers for us.

My book is currently in the design phase. We are discussing fonts and layout and that sort of thing. I will keep you posted.

Family Update
We have had a rather eventful week. On Sunday, one of the church members told me that they had a petting zoo at their home and that we were welcome to bring the kids over. So, after dinner, we did just that. Esther was so excited that she nearly danced a jig when we let her out of the truck. She kept saying, “Animal! Animal!” while stomping her feet and twirling in circles. They had donkeys, goats, ponies, rabbits, pigs, chickens, a buffalo, and llamas. One of the llamas was a baby of three days old – he was so cute! The kids all loved feeding and petting the animals. That night at church, the owner told us that we were welcome to bring the kids over to ride the ponies the next day. What squealing and jumping there was when that announcement was made later that night. The first thing Esther said the next morning was, “Ride the pony, please?” I really didn’t think she would ride the pony, since she was scared to pet it, but I was willing to give it a try. After school, we went over to the farm, and rode the pony. It was a great success! I could hardly pry Esther off the back of the horse – she kept saying, “Again!” Josiah and Abigail also enjoyed it – Josiah pretending to be a cowboy shooting Indians while riding along the trail. I took tons of pictures and then we went home.

We went fishing in a small farm pond that evening. I got skunked, but only because my fish jumped into the air and got off the hook while I was reeling him in. Oh, well. While Paul and I were fishing, the kids played in the pasture that surrounded the pond. Esther looked like a little street urchin when we left. She had removed her pigtails, so her hair looked somewhat like Einstein, and she was covered in mud and, possibly, cow manure. But did they ever have a good time!

We headed out yesterday for St.Louis, and although it was not a long drive, we made several stops. One time, I told the kids to get out and stretch their legs. Abigail promptly got out of her seat, walked around to the other side of the truck and sat down on the curb. She then proceeded to stick each leg up in the air and pull on it. After a brief moment, I realized that she was stretching her legs – literally!

Some of you may be wondering about the soon arrival of our next little one. We are planning to be back in NC for the birth, and, barring something unusual, he will be born in the hospital in Shelby. Of course, there is always the possibility of Paul delivering him on the side of the road somewhere between Indiana and North Carolina, but we are really hoping that won’t be necessary. Right now, we have a countdown of less than five weeks until “Fred” arrives (that was the “name” we gave the baby before we knew if it was a boy or a girl). The kids frequently come up and shout at my stomach, “HEY, FRED!” Even Esther knows that “Fred is in Mama’s tummy.” We really aren’t going to name him Fred… If he is born early on Halloween, maybe we will name him Scare. Get it, Scare Crow? Just kidding.

I am doing as well as can be expected for someone in “my condition.” Imagine a small elephant stuffed in a truck cab with four other people for hours on end. Behind the elephant are two hyenas, and one monkey who feels it is her job to give the elephant a back massage by kicking the back of the seat incessantly. Blaring over the speakers and the children is reruns of Patch the Pirate, which get old rather quickly when you are over the age of twelve. Add to this the din of incoming phone calls, honking horns, screeching brakes, and rumble strips, and you have a good idea of what our road trips are like. Then when the elephant finally crawls out of the fetal position it was forced into, and hobbles its way back to the trailer, it finds that the zig-zagging roads have caused the contents of every cupboard and closet to vacate their normal positions and fall out as soon as you open the door. I have heard that elephants do not enjoy being surprised, but I can vouch for the fact that they really do not enjoy being avalanched. Only a few more weeks – I can handle it. The question is, “Can the rest of the family manage until then?”

[Warning: this e-mail contains nothing serious about the ministry, only dealing with the lighter side of traveling. If you are pressed for time, you might just want to delete this and move on.]

Ah! The glamour of evangelism. Pulling a trailer. Driving a big truck. The smell of diesel. The romance of disappearing into the sunset after a week of preaching. Dumping sewage at 11:00 at night. Wait a minute! That isn’t part of the glamour that people think about.

Actually, it was while I was out of the country that I got an e-mail from my wife telling me that the trailer, in addition to having an ultra-full black water tank, also had a serious leak near the bedroom slide-out. The carpet was as wet as the Okefenokee Swamp and beginning to develop kindred odors. There was even some question at one point if the carpet might have come loose from its moorings and was beginning to float. The exhaust fan had been out of order for some time, causing the relative humidity of the trailer to steadily increase, much to the delight of the resident mildew population, which had long been in an ongoing struggle to stay hidden from our sight and still reproduce like rabbits. Finally, to close out the water problems, the black water was both audible and visible in the bottom of the commode, the great bubble that defied gravity barely settling below the black pipe when it burst with a gurgling sound. It was all part of the unseen glamour of evangelism that today is going to be published for the masses to consider.

My wife, seven and a half months with child and playing the role of single parent of three while I had skipped the country, had issued a family ultimatum that unless absolutely necessary, all of nature’s calls were to answered in the church facilities. The threat of a Great Dismal Swamp from the bathroom adjoining the existing Okefenokee in the bedroom seemed imminently ominous indeed.

Before the deluge could burst forth upon the family, however, help arrived for the hapless woman and her children. Around 9:00 Saturday evening, the door to the trailer opened without anyone knocking and the head of the household walked. He was greeted with children who immediately began dancing jigs (what does their mother teach them?) and jumping and shouting for joy.

Supper came and went, as did the ritual of unpacking the bags, their clothes and personal items crossing the Okefenokee to the closet and the empty bags being stowed in the dry storage bay. By this time, the hour was nearing 11:00. The task of preventing the Great Dismal Swamp, it was decided, must not wait until morning. It would be completed in the darkness of night.

It seemed such a simple task, however. Across the church parking lot, there was a sewer cleanout that offered a final resting place for the dismal contents in the full tank. There was nothing to it. Hook up the truck, pull the trailer across the well-lit parking lot, extend the hose from the trailer to the cleanout and pull the valve to release the undesirable contents. Because of the lateness of the hour, all three children went to bed and just took a ride while the trailer was moving back and forth across the parking lot.

Neatly and smartly, the truck pulled the trailer from its parking place to other side of the parking lot. With the skill that comes from repetition, the hose was put into place, its ends securely fastened both to ground pipe and trailer. In order to prevent the ground connection from blowing out of the pipe by reason of the pressure, a 4X4 post about 30 inches long was placed upon the hose terminus. The whole setup was foolproof. It would be only a matter of minutes and the trailer could be parked in its old position and the family in its entirety could retire for the night. Open the compartment. Pull the lever. Listen to the rush of the liquid as it exits the trailer never to be dealt with again.

Disaster required only seconds to strike. The black water was at full force now, accelerating at the rate of 32 feet per second into the ground. Suddenly, there was a horrible sound, similar to the sound of the water in a glass that is completely full and about to overflow. Before anyone could fully appreciate this similarity, water, black water, began coming out of the pipe at high pressure. The 4X4 post acted as a pressure valve, turning the black water hose and its contents into a sort of macabre high-pressure irrigation apparatus, liberally fertilizing the church grass with its nutritious contents. Before too much more damage could be done, the valve would have to be closed, but then what to do about the black water tank still remained a problem.

Some in the church had believed that this particular pipe was, indeed, a sewer cleanout. The member of the pastoral staff called upon to advise in this time of crisis, however, denied that it was. Rather it was some kind of landscaping drain, designed to take the gentle rainfall that ran off the paved parking lot and drain it out of sight into an underground drainage field. Forty gallons of speeding black water running through a 4-inch pipe were simply too much to handle at one time.

The flow was stopped now, but what to do about the remains of the spill presented a problem. In a short matter of hours, people would pull into this very parking lot literally dressed in their Sunday finest and least prepared for the olfactory greeting they might receive. The black water had to be diluted somehow so that it could harmlessly seep into the ground undetected. A few scoops of impotent odor neutralizer (no wonder they were giving it away) might help the drainpipe and what was outside the pipe would have to seriously watered down. By 11:30, this job was history and the trailer parked neatly back in its former place by 11:40. Finally, the whole family was in bed. Even evangelist families can only take so much glamour in one day.

Ministry Update

Ministry Update

The Lord gave us a rather interesting weekend. We started out for the Maranatha Baptist Church of Yorktown, Virginia a day early on Friday of last week. After driving as far as Emporia, Virginia, we received a call from a member of the church staff telling us that they were not expecting us until September 28, two weeks later. We were scheduled to be in another church that week. After a few phone calls, I was able to get a replacement for my September 28 meeting so that we could honor the preparation that Maranatha had made as well as the preparation that the other church had made. In the end, both churches got to have their meetings when they had planned, but that left us with no place to preach on Sunday. After calling some friends in the area, the Lord opened a door for us to preach in the Great Hope Baptist Church of Chesapeake, Virginia, a little less than an hour from where our trailer was parked.

Financially, times were tight for us. The reason we continued on to the Tidewater area even though the church had not been expecting us was that we did not have the fuel or the money to go back home. In fact, when we arrived at Great Hope Sunday morning, we had an empty fuel tank, and empty bank account, and a nearly empty pantry back in the trailer. Pastor Godfrey of Great Hope Baptist Church was gracious enough, not only to give us an honorarium, but also to nearly fill our truck with fuel. The scheduling faults of men were overturned and God provided for our needs. We are grateful for the work that God did in providing for us in His usual, unexpected way.

Family Update

All is normal around the house, with the everyday squabbles over favorite toys and books, as well as the usual tattling over insignificant incidents. The other night, Abigail came in to tell me that Esther bit Josiah. As I launched my lecture on the evils of biting and its dire consequences, Esther happily shrieked, “I alligator!” Is it morally wrong for an alligator to bite someone – especially an evil pirate who is chopping at her with a sword?

We had a toy purge on Saturday in which all the old, broken, and unused toys were cleaned out and donated to the Goodwill. This is always done with much excitement on my part just to be getting rid of it, and on the children’s part because they think that, now that the old toys are gone, they will soon be getting new. This is a sad reality, because Christmas is not that far away, and we will once again be inundated with more worthless Chinese junk. However, for now, it is nice to have a little breathing room in the trailer.

Josiah is feverishly working on his loosest tooth, trying to wiggle it loose enough for me to pull out. He is such a snaggletooth already. I am not sure how he is going to eat with another missing tooth. Perhaps this is the answer to the astronomical grocery bill – just pull out all his teeth and he can live on Jello! Abigail keeps telling me she has a loose tooth, but it is just peer pressure.

For those of you who are waiting for my next piano arrangement book, I have good news. When our trailer was in the shop, I was able to write out several of my arrangements that have long been swirling around in my head. While they still need some editorial tweaking, the bulk of the work is done. Now I just need to come up with enough to fill a book – at least eight more arrangements. I would appreciate your prayers in this matter.

Ministry Update

The summer is over and the busy season of our evangelistic schedule is about to begin. The Lord gave me (the family stayed at home) a wonderful service in Calvary Baptist Church in Hendersonville, NC last Sunday. Calvary is without a pastor and the people were very appreciative of my ministry. I was able to take along a friend to provide special music, and the people enjoyed his ministry as well.

Later this week, we will hit the road, not returning to NC until November. We will start in Yorktown, Virginia and head west from there.

My book has completed the second and final round of professional editing. After I review the editorial suggestions, we move into the layout phase. So many have expressed their interest in the book, and I am more eager than ever to see it in print. I will notify all of you by e-mail when the book is ready, as well as give you complete instructions on how to purchase the book, should you so desire.

Recently, I taught a five-week Sunday school series on Baptist history in my home church. This series is available on both CD and DVD, should any of you be interested. I have also prepared a set of notes to accompany the series because it covers a lot of material. Should any of you be interested in obtaining a copy of the series for yourself, you may feel free to contact me.

Family Update

For the past week and a half, we have been homeless. Well, sort of. Our trailer had a front jack that was broken and was in the shop getting fixed. That meant that we trespassed upon the privacy of the Steve Hefner family. Steve is a deacon in our home church and a dear friend of ours (he accompanied me to Hendersonville last Sunday), at least he used to be before our kids got hold of his house.

Because of the many doctor’s appointments that Sarah had, I found myself babysitting my children much of the time. One time, my daughter Esther decided that it would be neat to take all of the toilet paper off the roll in the bathroom and put it in the toilet. A regular house toilet is an anomaly, you see, because it, unlike the one in the trailer, has standing water in it. So my darling daughter emptied the roll into the standing water and then decided that it might not be the best idea to stay there. She then reached for the plunger and tried to plunge it down. Failing this, she decided to mix it with the plunger, splashing water all over the bathroom floor and mixing into the water the residue from past plunger jobs. By the time we discovered her, she had managed to irrigate not only the bathroom floor, but also the carpet for a few feet outside the bathroom. My babysitting career seems to be on shaky grounds. There is this nagging fear that we have not yet discovered all the things that my children did to the Hefner’s house while we were there.

When I took my trailer in to the RV dealer for repairs, I instructed them to keep the unit plugged in because there was food in the refrigerator that needed to be kept cold. The dealership observed my wishes all the time they were open. On Saturday, however, a customer came by and decided to unplug the unit, causing the frozen food to melt and leak all over the house. Although the customer paid for the food that was lost, he could not replace some of our deer meat. Nor did his payment clean up the mess that was all over the kitchen floor. Oh well. At least we are home again. Cozy trailer where we trip over each other, sticky floor from leaky freezer, lingering aroma of spoiled food, empty fridge—we really are happy to back home.

I (Sarah) am glad to be home as well. There is just no place like home, whether or not you live in Kansas! Josiah is well into the school year, having started, at his request, in July. So, we have just passed the six-week mark. What a blessing that is! This will enable us to take a little time off when the new baby arrives in just about nine weeks, without stretching the school year into next summer. He lost several teeth this summer, the last of which was his top right front tooth. The left one is also very loose, and I wonder what strange sounds will proceed from his mouth when it, too, is gone. As of right now, he already whistles like Gopher on Winnie the Pooh whenever he says certain consonants.

About four weeks ago, after much prayer, we started Josiah on a new kind of treatment using whole food supplements specially targeted to help specific areas of the body. It was only after two weeks had passed that we saw some dramatic improvements. We had a temporary setback when he was accidentally given a snack not intended for him during church two weeks ago, but I think he is almost totally recovered from that now. He has had a lot of breathing treatments over the last two weeks, and now that we are home, I think that the number needed will decrease significantly. Please pray that the Lord will continue to give us wisdom and continue to heal Josiah’s body.

This past week was filled with trials for me personally, most of which came in the form of doctor’s visits. I had to take the one-hour glucose test on Thursday, and ended up being there nearly three hours. They told me after my visit that I had low iron and would have to see the nutritionist. Then they told me that I had failed the one-hour test by two points and would have to take the fasting three-hour test the next day. I went home in a huff and went back the next day to be stabbed and drained of my remaining blood (no wonder I am anemic) for the test. I had one “abnormal” reading out of the four, so they labeled me “borderline” for gestational diabetes and told me that I would need to see yet another nutritionist for that special diet. “We made an appointment for you next Tuesday at 9:30. Is that okay?” the nurse asked. This was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. After two days of sitting in the office, having nothing to eat, drinking syrup for breakfast, and having the blood drained from my body one vial at a time, I could take no more. I told the nurse that if I couldn’t see the nutritionist right away, then I wouldn’t be coming back. Her eyes grew quite round, and I wondered if she thought I was going to get violent. I am sure my red face, bulging eyes, and grinding teeth were quite helpful in getting them to acquiesce to my demand, and, so, just a few minutes later I had completed all the necessary lectures and went home. I can almost laugh about it now, but it still irritates me. Perhaps when the bruises on my arm have disappeared I will be able to laugh at the look on her face. I only wish I could have seen my own.