Monday, January 7, 2008

We had a wonderful whirlwind week of travel after New Year's with an overnight stop at Sandau Haus in St Louis, where we caught up on sleep and got repacked and reorganized for the trip south(west).  We then went to Marshfield MO, where I (Rich) got a tour of St Paul's Lutheran Church and Learning Center where my friend Robb Holzrichter is the pastor.  We spent a couple of days with Robb and his wife Gina and their children.  We went to this place called Incredible Pizza which is basically Chuck E Cheese on steroids.  It had indoor go carts and bumper cars, the food was way better and it was a blast!  It is also Christain owned and not too expensive.  If you are ever passing through Springfield MO, you have to stop in and try it!

By the way - since on our trip we had passed through both Springfield IL and Springfield MO, we did a little research and found that 24 states have a Springfield.

We left Marshfield on Saturday 1/5 and went to the Tulsa OK area, where we stayed overnight with our friends Rick and Debbie Tabisz.  Rick is pastor at King of Kings Lutheran Church in Glenpool OK, where I got to preach on Sunday morning.  King of Kings is a mission plant that is about three years old and it is amazing to see all the great ministry that is happening there and the excellent servant leadership Rick & Deb provide. 

Sunday afternoon we drove the 4.5 hours from Tulsa to Dallas and got in about 8:00 after stops for dinner and to pick up a few groceries.  We were all pretty tired, but we were so richly blessed by this trip to see family, especially my mom who just had her last chemo treatment on Thursday, and by getting to see friends!  It was wonderful to see that our kids could travel well and although they were a little wound up and cranky at the same time on our stops the last two days, they overall traveled very well.

Everyone is off to school today and I am left to catch up on a little rest and unpacking.  Maya starts a Language Structures course on Wednesday 1/9.  I am off until mid-February but have some projects and reporting for LBT to get done.  The LBT board meets this Friday to finalize our application, so please keep that in your prayers.  That's about it for now.

God bless!  Rich for Maya & The Crew