Tuesday, July 22, 2003

5:37 PM Here are the few websites related to our trip to Maine. We’re ministering this week at Living Waters Bible Conference in Danforth, Maine. Our good friends Billy and Paul Speer along with their son BJ are leading the music. We’re staying at the First Settler’s Lodge because the camp is full.

2:53 PM A cold front has stalled across northern Maine. We had a major rainstorm about 4 AM and the weather right now is cloudy and slightly muggy.

Nice surprise during the service at Living Waters this AM. I was greeting people and who should walk in but Calvary missionaries Bob and Shirley Friedl. For nearly 30 years they have been reaching children through a ministry called “God’s Helping Hands.” They are currently on a six-week ministry tour in Maine and drove up from Bucksport (south of Bangor) to be part of the service. We took them to lunch at the Cornerstone Cafe in Danforth.

One other note. Yesterday Marlene and I drove to Houlton where we encountered two throwbacks to the past: First, we stopped at a gas station and the teenaged boy who worked there said it was full service and would we like our oil checked? It had been years since I’ve been in a full-service gas station so I gave him a dollar tip, and then gave him another dollar when he said the best restaurant was a tiny roadside drive-in called York’s. So we went to York’s and had fried clams. The building is about the size of Parky’s on Harlem Avenue in Forest Park. A size says that at night they have carhops who come out to our car to take and deliver your order—just like in Happy Days.

2:51 PM Here’s the Legacy Campaign prayer request for today: “Pray for the 5th and 6th grade students who will gain new classrooms in the West Wing.” I know that construction is now in full swing because I received a note saying that all staff members must wear hard hats while walking anywhere near a construction area. John Sredl says that we will each be issued our own hard hats for the duration of the project. We don’t have to wear them while we are in our own offices, however.