The Event ~ A New Church Community

Switching churches is not an event to take lightly.  Belonging to a church family is an important element in a healthy and happy lifestyle.  Fellowship with other believers stirs the soul and spirit within me.  It has been part of my life forever.

Trinity Lutheran Church, Terry, MT

I was raised in a Lutheran Church and I have many memories of church functions as a child and I can vividly recall many of the congregants during my first 18 years.

Faith United Church of Christ, Bayard, NE

Following marriage, I joined Tim's church, Faith United Church of Christ, in Bayard.  For 16 years, we were active members of that church family.  Neither churches really fed my soul or nourished my spiritual development, but church has always been a priority in my life.  I didn't know what I was missing until I truly let Jesus into my life as a personal friend.

Emmanuel Congregational Church, Scottsbluff, NE

For the next 25 years, because of a move from the farm to the city,  our family was faithful members at Emmanuel Congregational Church in Scottsbluff.  The people within became our church family.  Many memories were made there. I grew in Christian dicipleship, knowledge, and faith.

However, no church is without some spiritual warfare within, but many churches know how to disengage it and continue to grow and continue in positive spiritually health.

Emmanuel Congregational fell victim to much spiritual warfare within it's walls, and lack of spiritual welfare outside its walls.  Tim and I patiently stood by our church family, tried to be part of a solution rather than part of a dissolution.  But, alas, the day came when we walked away from our church family and wandered lost through the valley for several months in early 2012.

This was not an easy decision for either of us.  We struggled a long time, feeling a loss of community.  But we soon discovered new joy in the fellowship and family at Monument Bible Church.  We have made new friends, renewed old friendships, become involved in Bible studies, and now realize how much had actually been missing in our desire to worship in harmony with other believers.

Changing churches is not an easy thing to do.  One just doesn't do it on a whim.  There is no perfect church.  A church body is made up of all kinds of people with lots of different opinions, even differences on church matters.  But respecting differing beliefs, opinions, traditions,  of others while worshipping the same one true God goes a long way in living in harmony and fellowshipping with others who believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. 

A change can always be good, and in our case of changing churches  the beginning of 2012 and taking nearly nine months to feel that it was the right step for us, we know this change is good for us in our life right now.  We feel a genuine belonging to a church family again, a better and healthier church community.  What a blessed event to share!

The Event ~ Go Wayside!

"Go Wayside"  is a Christian network of people 55 years and older who like to travel and/or enjoy sharing the gift of hospitality.  It is Christian homes that are open to other Christian travelers as "bed and breakfasts" throughout the fifty US states and into Canada. 

Tim and I both enjoy visiting in homes of friends, we enjoy meeting new people, and we enjoy sharing our home with others - be it friends or strangers.  So it is a natural for us to enjoy this concept.  Some of our friends  thought this was wierd and said "You mean you are going to let strangers come stay in your house?"  or "You are just going to go to some stranger's house and spend the nite there?" 

YES, on both accounts!   On our recent trip to Pennsylvanis, Virginia and Maryland, we met new friends in five different homes and stayed seven nights in the five homes.  Each nite was a highlight in our travels.  Visiting with these people and accepting their offers to drive us around the area, dutch treat dinner dining with them at restaurants they selected as some of the best, was so much better than checking into a hotel and dealing with hotel clerks.  Wayside rules are to pay the hosts $20 couple per nite for the bed and breakfast accommodations.

Nite 1:  We met Jim and Esther Rittenhouse in Morgantown, PA.  They drove us around their beautiful countryside, we went to a great Amish restaurant.  After dinner we played a new game we had never heard of before.  They shared some fresh whoopie pies with us and then sent more whoopie pies with us on the road. 

We had the whole second floor & private bath to ourselves.  Their front and back yard was beautiful.  Wild turkeys made themselves at home in their back yard.

Nite 2 & 3:  We met Art and Mim Saunders in New Holland, PA.  They had a great duplex home in a retirement village.  They weren't home when we got there, but had left the keys in their mailbox for us.  We went to Yoder's Smorgasbord for dinner together. Then they went on to their evening conference and we nestled down in their home.   Mim played the harp, so she entertained us with harp music after breakfast. 

Art and Mim were the ones who arranged for us to visit the dairy farm of their Amish friend Jake Esh; and they also arranged the dinner in another Amish friend's home.  We went to church with them on Sunday and shared lunch with them at their retirement center dining room. 

Nite 4:  We Chuck and Joyce Siebert in New Freedom, PA, near Gettysburg.  Again, we had the whole second floor of their beautiful rural home.  The bedroom was like a huge living suite.  We shared raspberry dessert in the evening and  a fabulous breakfast of a puff pancake filled with sausage and apples, and they introduced us to "scrapple", a meat type food popular in that area. 

The view out the bedroom window was filled with autumn beauty, as was the beautiful woods surrounding their house, where deer played in the back yard.

Nite 5:  We stayed in a motel in Gettysburg.  It wasn't nearly as nice and hospitable as the homes!

Nite 6 & 7:  We met Ray and Kathy Steckman in Amissville, VA.  We were suppose to stay in a home in Barboursville, VA farther south.  However, we were right behind an accident where a tree fell on a car in front of us and killed the driver, so the road was closed for several hours and we were directed back in the direction we came from.  The Steckman's had already encourged us to spend two nites with them, so we called and asked if we could show up on their doorstep a nite early.  They were wonderful and gracious hosts.  The second nite we all went to a great seafood restaurant for dinner. 

We discovered many similarities:  Kathy is Norwegian/German like me, and also makes lefsa for the holidays.  Her best friend married a classmate of my best childhood friend up in ranch country near Jordon, MT.  She was raised in Montana as I was.  Their daughter is the same age as Cash and lives in Denver.  We are hoping her and her boyfriend get together with Cash and Annie as they all share similar interests.  It's a small world.   Again the setting was lovely and it was a pleasure to stay there and share in their fellowship and friendship.

Nite 8:  We met John and Kathy Steyer in North East, MD.   Upon our arrival, we went for an outing to the North shore of Chesapeake Bay where we hiked a mile into the woods to one of the few remaining lighthouses.  We needed the hike!  It felt good!  Then on to a great fancy restaurant  for all you could eat shrimp. Again, it is a small world, because they recently returned from a mission trip to Peru with the young man who is the praise team leader in our church here in Scottsbluff.   Who would have thought there would be connections like that with people across the country?

Meeting these new friends and fellowshiping with them, sharing conversation over the breakfast table, and starting our daily travels covered with prayer from these couples made this trip so much more memorble and special.  We hope we have the eventful pleasure of hosting them at some time in the future. 

The last nite we stayed in a historic bed and breakfast right in Independence Square, Philadelphia, all furnished in period furnishings from the 1700's.   It was very quaint. 

Go Wayside ~ an eventful way to travel!   

The Event ~ Philly and More. . .

For some reason I always wanted to go to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.  I wouldn't consider myself a history buff, but there was a yearning to see a part of where America got it's start.   Now that I've been there, I am filled with desire to relearn history and filled with a greater appreciation of the forefathers who founded America.

Philadelphia was great.  It was interesting to see what I once studied in history books.  All kids should have an opportunity to see these tributes as they study American history.

However, the best part of our 10-day trip back east was the beautiful countryside, away from the traffic of the city.  We can drive and drive and drive through rural countrysides, but neither Tim nor I have a desire to be a part of big city traffic.

And travel the country roads we did!  We discovered Lancaster County - known for the 2nd largest Amish settlement in America.  Three days in that area was not long enough.

We had the privilege to have our own non-commercial tour of an Amish dairy farm, a personal buggy ride with Jake Esh, the farmer; and a personal invite into an Amish home for dinner.

I have much respect for the Amish community and their way of life.  They have hung unto their values and the simplicity and sacred things this country was founded on, and have not let technology steer them away from family, faith and lifestyle. I'm not saying I don't appreciate technology and progress that we have come to enjoy, but I do recognize that we have allowed the same to corrupt the home and family environment. 

We enjoyed browsing through a large farmers market in Ephrata.  The Amish baked goods were awesome and delicious.  Tim bought a new leather belt handmade by an Amish leather craftsman.

The food, especially in Pennsyalvania and Lancaster County, was the best.  The warm pretzels that were so popular, the famous whoopie pies, the shoo-fly pie, the huge smorgasboards in Pennsylvania Dutch country.    We stopped in  Dundalk, Maryland, east of Baltimore, just to eat at the Boulavard Diner which was featured in Guy Fieri's Diners, Dives and Drive-Ins.  I had to try the show's  featured sour beef and dumplings, and Tim went for the meatloaf tower!

Our most favorite eating place was the Historic City Tavern in Philadelphia where we enjoyed a great meal, new beers, and Martha Washington's famous chocolate dessert.  It is the same tavern that George Washington and other president's ate in, and the meals were all served by staff in period costume.

We also walked to Reading Terminal in Independence Square in Philly and orderd what was declared the best sandwich in America on a recent Food Channel sandwich contest.   Reading Terminal is a huge farmers market with eating counters where one can eat ANY ethnic food imaginable!  A great fun place to experience!

The countryside was dotted with covered bridges.  I wish we could have seen more than the 6-7 we came upon.  There is such an ambience about covered bridges.

We enjoyed a beautiful 66 mile scenic drive on Skyline Drive on the peaks of Shenendoah Mountains.  The day was 80 degrees, 35 mph, driving with the windows down and stopping at all the overlooks to take in the beauty of the Shenendoah Valley.

President Eisenhower's farm

We enjoyed a full day at Gettysburg where the Civil War was fought.  Again, history came to life, and I wish I remembered more from the history books.

Part of the battleground on which the Civil War was fought.



We enjoyed a tour of the Luray Caverns in Virginia, an underground cavaern of stalactite and stalagmite formations.

We visited the North shore of Chesapeak Bay

We enjoyed the wonderful musical theatrical production of Jonah while in Lancaster County.

It was a beautiful road trip, enjoying the fall colors at their peak!

We made it home one day before the historic Hurricane Sandy, the worst storm in the history of the US hit the very areas that we travelled through in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland.

It was a very eventful and relaxing trip.  I thought I could easily live  in Pennsylvania until I realized it still wasn't far enough from the eastern coast to avoid the effects of strong hurricanes.  I think I will live in western Nebraska for all the remaining days of my life.  But I want to enjoy many more roadtrips. . .

It was an eventful trip filled with many eventful memories!