First Stop - St. Louis, Missouri

My employment with Global Encounter Ministries allows me the opportunity to experience missions in two inner cities in Missouri and this year in Denver, Colorado again.  

Last year, Gavin went with me to St. Louis, so this year I asked Jadon if he would like to go for the week.  He said yes, so on Friday, July 12 we headed for First Baptist Church, Arnold where we would be staying for the week.  Registration begins at 1:00 pm so we got there in time to set up our room and get our table set up to welcome the 8 churches that would be checking in.

Love those airbeds......not!   I always set up an "office" in my room so Jadon decided to try my job for a while.

Our room was next to the Carson's room, so Jadon got to know Micah Carson and they had so much fun playing together.  Micah helped him to not miss Jude as much.  They are modeling the mustaches we had on our merchandise table.

 We had a great training weekend to prepare these 162 missionaries for their St. Louis area mission field, great speakers, and a great worship band.  

After the training weekend and the first day of ministry, everyone has Tuesday afternoon off.  They do their VBS in the morning, then they have the afternoon and evening free.  Lots of stuff to do in St. Louis.  Jadon chose Six Flags.  He couldn't wait to ride Batman, Mr. Freeze, Boomerang and all those other scary roller coasters.  Only one problem....mema doesn't do roller coasters.  I'll do the Log Flume and the Scooby Doo ride and watch all the shows but I just can't turn upside down in an open metal seat at the speed of light. No way, no how.  So we had to find someone to go with us.  Thank you to Joy and Noah Caldwell for going with us and riding all those things with Jadon.  You saved the day for me....and Jadon!

What do you think of the Boomerang, boys?

BATMAN....THE RIDE!

It was so fun to have Jadon with me for the week.  It's a special one-on-one time to spend together.  He was so well-behaved and participated in worship and Bible study.

So we left on Wednesday around 1:00 pm and came home for a couple of nights.  I took Jadon home that evening and slept in my own bed, did my laundry Thursday, went to the post office, met Doug and Wendy on South Campbell St., to pick up Bailey so she could go to Kansas City with me.  Doug brought his youth from Houston's First Baptist Church to Branson again this summer for Rush Week and he and Wendy drove up a day early to prepare for the students who were coming the next day.

Week one down.......



To be continued.....