Miles to Precious Worth the Cost

The Creator of the heavens and the Earth LOVES each ONE. He is interested in each one of us as individuals. He hears the cries of each heart, he sees each need and He responds with kindness and love. He meets us where we are, and provides.  He comforts. He rescues. He saves us and makes us completely whole through His son, Jesus Christ! He paves the way, no matter how long the miles, to His precious people.

From Bloomington, we travelled on to St. Louis, a magnificent city. There are so many things to see and do there. There are people from all over the world. Massive amounts of people. And apparently, they were all at the St. Louis Zoo Monday morning. I felt certain we needed to get to the zoo. We made our way through the traffic jam and around the zoo, catching glimpses of zoo-like exhibits and lines of people looking toward them. All parking lots were full and it took a great deal of time to circle the parameter. If you want to go to the zoo, make sure you leave ultra early. We never got out of the car.

Africa is Closer Than You Think Banner at St. Louis Zoo

I managed to get a photo of the back side of a banner,"AFRICA IS CLOSER THAN YOU THINK." It is for Missy, Mary, Julie and to all of our Africa minded saints back home.

If you want to get to the zoo, make sure you get there early. 

 We headed toward downtown instead to see whatever was in store down there. There were not many people there, compared to the zoo, so apparently, our suspicions about everyone being at the zoo was correct.

 It was exciting to see the Arch inching closer and closer. We parked on Market Street and walked to the Busch stadium, Home of Cardinals. Across the street, we went into the Busch place with restaurant, bar and bathrooms. The biggest flat screen TV I have ever seen was on a wall there surrounded by smaller ones that were massive in their own right. At the gift shop was a black lady with bright red bottle dyed hair. I said," Great hair! So you must be a REDS fan!" You should have seen her face! Hahhaa.

We passed under the Kingshighway Bridge on the way to downtown. Once again, my camera had a 20 second delay so I missed the picture of the overpass sign. So  this will have to be a cheap substitute. From fouruniformes.com.br

On Market Street, St. Louis.

Justice on St. Louis Courthouse Market Street

 Image rights belong to shutterstock. Buy it there. See it live and in living color in St. Louis (Constitution Statue on Market Street Courthouse.)

Pinocchio stature St. Louis park. This one is for Connie. She is no longer living the lies. Image From blogs.slj.com

We made our way to the construction in front of Arch park and took pictures at Busch Stadium.

Busch Stadium Downtown St. Louis, MO

No one was there. No game was on. We did see a young mother with about 5 little kids, various ages, all quite young, herding her flock across the street in amazing fashion. I saw a t shirt with slogan,"YOU ARE THE HOPE WE NEED." That made me smile in light of The Nature Path's Cancer Care Hope and The Elephant in the Room seminar for teaching about beating and preventing cancer naturally. (Classes are coming soon to an area near you).

Then we went back to the car to find Union Station and the Hard Rock Cafe.

Union Station, rear entrance Downtown St. Louis, MO

(We had pizza the night before so we passed over Imos Pizza which was another choice.) Our waitress was Shasta, as in Shasta Mountain in California, not Shasta as in the flower daisy. I made her day since I knew that. (We had lived in Fremont, California and Shasta mountain is a famous fixture there.) We sat in front of KISS memorabilia and I took a pic in honor of a friend who has done work for them.

KISS Memorabilia Hard Rock Cafe Downtown St. Louis

Connie and I went outside of the restaurant under the awning of Union station where the koi pond is located, and gave a quarter to the food machine. Connie gave half of the fish pellets to a little boy and fed the gold fish, who swarmed our feet and gulped the air like greedy baby birds. There were hundreds of them.

Koi Pond in between Hard Rock Cafe & Union Station Downtown St. Louis, MO

The music was playing outside from Hard Rock cafe and I danced and stretched. Then noticed a billboard I saw as a perfect image for the concept, "Naked and Unashamed." Great timing (and an inside joke.)

Living Art and Billboards Union Station

On our way out of the restaurant, I ran into Alice, a beautiful believer woman who is looking for the soon return of Christ. She said, "The times are short, the signs are all around us." I think her heart is burdened for those people who do not know the way to God; Jesus. She was walking around during her break from work. I prayed for her and blessed her and hugged her neck. Awesome woman of faith. (No picture)

We got on the highway to get to Joplin, MO where Alita and Dic (correct spelling) were waiting for us. She invited a group of women to come for a pot luck dinner, had 10 confirm, but they all bailed at last minute except for Judy, one of the ladies we met last year. Judy has COPD, carries an oxygen tank and was diagnosed with lung cancer, which she is taking chemotherapy to treat.

Alita's porch decoration

We ate fried chicken, macaroni salad with fresh veggies and black olives and lemon cake. Puddin Wuddin Watson and Little Bit, the 2 resident cats came out to investigate us but decided not to hang out.


I prepared the entire Elephant in the Room seminar in time to share some of it with these beautiful believers. I was nervous.Every time I brought up a difficult topic, I threw a stuffed elephant into the room for comedy relief and to remind everyone it is a topic that people think about but no one seems to talk about much.  I doubted that I could minister such a difficult topic to 2 women who had been on chemo or were currently taking it. I did not want them to feel shame or condemnation, fear or any burden. I need not have wasted my breath worrying. They thought it was interesting and learned a great deal.And I learned not to try to cram 2 days worth of material into 1 hour.

Lesa gave communion service to all of us. Communion is a memorial of what Jesus Christ did for each one of us on the cross. His body was whipped, and bruised, and wounded. By His wounds, we were healed. He took all of our infirmities onto himself. This is symbolized by the broken bread. He took all of our sins, weaknesses and shortcomings on to himself. He gave his life, he gave his blood, for all of our sins. He took all sin, for all time, for all of us. This is symbolized by the wine (or in our case grape juice). Hayley read the Bible scripture.

I left my camera phone in the other room so did not get any pictures.

Here is an image of the Elephant in the Room logo...

We prayed for Judy while laying hands on her. She said she felt power and she felt better.

It was late so Judy went home and Alita and Dic helped set up a blow up air mattress. Everyone went to bed and Alita and I stayed up late so I could teach her about Essiac Tea and talk some more. I gave her one of the ceramic ladles that was custom handcrafted for Essiac tea by Anita, a woman I met at a conference in Las Vegas. I forgot to get a picture of her with it!

We were greeted in the morning with a cheerful note next to the coffee pot.

Alita, Dic & I

She did not want to see us go the next day and cried. She missed us before we even left, she said. We returned half hour later with a gift card for a makeover for her.  She was balling when I returned to hand her the surprise. I said, "There's no cryin' in baseball!" And she smiled and quoted the next line and said,"That's my favorite movie!" Pretty funny because I did not know that at the time. Our God makes us look good sometimes.

The SOZO Tour 2014 mission trip happened mostly because of  Alita. She begged for us to come back for a year.I was going to get to her one way or another if I had to take a Greyhound bus to do it. One person. Was worth all the miles. She is precious in Gods sight.

We got gas down the road. I wanted peanut M& M's and Lesa wanted something sweet too. Kinda strange because I usually do not buy bagged candy and Lesa is doing a pink drink business for weight loss. I bought a bag and quickly realized it wasn't about the candy. The man behind the counter mistook me for some one else; someone who gave him a web site address to follow their travels on a race circuit. He lost the piece of paper he wrote the address on and wanted it again. So I gave him our blog address. He said he would put it in his wallet so he would not lose it this time.  I hope you are reading this, kind Mr. Gas-station-attendant man and read something that resonates with your heart.

Mr. Gas Station man is precious in God's sight, too. Obviously God thought it a good idea to promote a sweet tooth  in order to bless him as well. Well, we were in the neighborhood, after all.

The Oklahoma border snuck up on us. We all enjoyed the western countryside with its green pastures, sporadic trees, cows and big skies. It is Lesa's happy place.


Chandler, Oklahoma sign. I like it for the obvious reasons.

 

These two are Missouri road pictures.

Unloading in Norman, OK

We arrived in Norman, and noticed it was the same exact hotel we were at last year's mission trip. We brushed teeth, freshened up and immediately headed out to Little Axe to meet our contact from last year, Greg. We met at the Pecan Valley Disaster Relief Center where Bobbie and her husband, Dwayne were also waiting for us. We met this couple briefly last year beside the Pecan Valley gas station that has the Tangled Up hair salon at opposite ends. Bobbie runs the gas station and set up a small temporary relief center under a canopy in the parking lot.

She began to seek God where to move into a more permanent structure to expand her efforts to help the community. She testified about feeling an electrical charge surge through her body and then she heard the Lord tell her to ask Buck for his vacant building. She said she passed by there every day and even used to eat there when it was used as a restaurant. She was surprised she had not thought of it herself. When her husband came home, she could not wait to get over there. She told the owner,"I need your building, I have no money and I will need it for 2 years." This was obviously a bargain he could not refuse because the relief center promptly moved in rent free.

Dwayne and Greg at the Pecan Valley Disaster Relief Center

Bobbi's faith inspires me to stop limiting God so much. It is not what you lack that stops things from happening. We have not because we ask not. Bobbie asked the right person and God provided.

This building is an old white clapboard sided building with peeling paint. Volunteers poured a 4 yard cement pad out front so the food bank could drop food there. Another volunteer made custom tin roof awnings to cover the front windows.


She said,"I don't worry about anything. Everything that is needed just shows up." She said she prays everyday. One thing she prays for is that all the people that are needed to complete the mission for that day would show up. This day, God's Girls Ministry Mission team showed up.

The great thing that came out of the tornado was that this couple, Bobbie and Dwayne, found a loving God for themselves and now serve His love and goodness to those who suffer disaster in their community. They represent Jesus Christ to those who suffer great need stemming from not only tornado disasters, but disasters of any proportion.

 

After a tour of their facility, we headed to Hannah for dinner to a split restaurant that was owned by the same person. One side, a burger pizza joint, the other side an absolutely phenomenal Mexican restaurant. After dinner, God's Girls Ministry gifted Bobbie and Dwayne with $300 to take time off to get some rest. This couple has been working pretty much non-stop to help their community without thought for themselves.

After dinner we prayed in the parking lot in front of the restaurant and prophesied over this inspirational couple.

Pastor Greg

In front of Bobbie's office

These are good people.

 It began to rain at about 12:30 AM in Norman and it has not stopped since.

 We had breakfast at Cracker Barrel. I noticed a young mother with three young children and we paid for their breakfast. We left and checked phone messages and Commie and I played checkers. The lady ran out and thanked us and hugged us and we exchanged Facebook pages.

Norman breakfast at Cracker Barrel.

I met a soulful, blue eyed toothless man at Loves gas station in Arkansas who was hitching from Macon, GA to OK City to visit his foster mother who is turning 83 on Friday. He was crouching under the overhang next to his red rolled up sleeping bag with a cardboard sign on top that read,"OK City." I prayed that he would get there in time to surprise her.

We drove all day in both hard rain and steady rain. God protected us from a huge wreck when a car and a truck cut us off when the road lanes changed from two to one. Thank you, God. I am glad we are alive and well and can go represent Christ to people for more days.

We pulled into North Little Rock at about dinner time. It was still raining. We specifically asked for a hotel near the marketplace and headed to the mall to see who we could bless there. Connie and Hayley found a janitor to help out.  He was doing a great job mopping the floors.  No pictures. I forgot my phone back at the hotel.Sigh.

Our hotel is being renovated. We had to move out of room 127 soon after getting back from the mall. The AC went on the fritz. So now we are all settled in for the night in our different room. Tomorrow we head to Memphis.

Please pray for Connie's brother, Tommy, who was admitted into hospital tonight.

Love Ya
Carol