Vacation has ended...

Well, the vacation has ended. As vacations go, it was pretty decent. We started out in Virden, IL on the 4th. Quite a bit of my family lives there and they have the BEST 4th of July carnival on the planet. They have a bunch of homemade rides for the kids (tickets are only a quarter) that you have to see to believe. I rode the same rides 30 years ago as a kid. My mom rode the same rides 30 years before that. The SAME rides. They're all pulled by tractors and lawnmowers. The kind of things that if you caught your kids doing in the back yard you'd kill 'em. It was awesome. Our kids had a ball and so did we. Maybe I'll post a picture of the rides when I find the camera.

From there we went to Enfield, IL where Bert's mom and dad live. She had a doctors appointment on Friday and Bert went along to help. Her mom's breast cancer has metastasized in her brain and the prognosis isn't all that hot. But I'm so proud of my wife and my father-in-law for the way that they have been caring for Judy. Especially my father-in-law. It's said that "you cant teach an old dog new tricks," But that "old dog" has taken up housekeeping (which is a new trick for him) along with his other chores. I give him 2 thumbs up! If you're reading this, would you say a pray for the family, we could sure use it.

Friday night we went to Albion, IL which is my hometown. It is known for 3 things.
1. It is the pork production capital of the world.
2. It is the chowder (thick, nasty veggie and meat soup) capital of the world.
3. Champion Labs. (they make oil filters for just about everything on the planet)

Saturday was PORK DAY, USA. It isn't nearly the grand event that it was (or seemed to be) 20 years ago. But the pork burgers were awesome as always and the parade wasn't half bad either. Saturday night I had my 20th class reunion. It was the first reunion I had been to. Some things never change. The class of 1987 can still outdrink all the rest. That part was pretty sad. But it was great to see some folks I hadn't seen since graduation day. Out of a graduation class of 77 we had around 40 there. I was told we even got our picture in the hometown paper...finally in the paper for not doing something bad!!!

We went to church on Sunday with my brother and his family. The Albion United Methodist Church. This was the second Sunday for their new pastor. He did the funniest thing. There was a guy who kept falling asleep during the service. Every time he dozed off, the pastor would shout "WOOOOOO! I'm filled with the Holy Spirit!" And then sleepy would jump up wide awake. It was great. It happened about 4 times during the whole service. I may add that to my repertoire. It was effective.

From there we headed home and hooked the truck up to the camper and headed to KY lake. We camped at Hillman's Ferry and found it to be a little bit of a disappointment. Bert and her family used to camp there when she was a kid. Apparently she made a lot of good memories there. But as with most everything, what used to be is no longer. The campsites were a little too close together and there were a bunch of them. They no longer have an activities director planning things for the kids. And the people didn't seem to be nearly as friendly as they were in 1978. Still we managed to have a few days of fun, though Baylee has yet to learn to enjoy camping like her brother.

It wasn't the Bahamas or Honolulu, but for this pastor who rarely gets to see his family for more than a few hours at a time, it was fantastic. I never dreamed I'd miss them as much as I do. Homesick at 38...what a sissy. I'll keep holding on to the words of Christ:

Mt 19:29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.

Anyhow, I thank God for the week that He blessed us with. Exhausted as I feel, I am somewhat revived in spirit and look forward to preaching again tomorrow.