We landed in Tulsa at 2 pm on Wednesday last week. It was somewhere near 100˚, but it was a dry heat, so we hardly felt it. Yeah, right. Last year, when we flew into Wichita we made our way to a local mall and, while I got the best massage of my life from one of the guys set up in the middle of the mall, Beth got a pedicure. These are indulgences we enjoy maybe once a year, so as we arrived in Tulsa, we thought, "Why not?"
We didn't want to go far out of our way, so we looked on a city map and found a mall that would suffice. I started to get a funny feeling when, as we came closer to the location of the mall, there were fewer and fewer new, or even open businesses, especially things like restaurants.
Coming up over a hill, I said, "There it is."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, the name's not quite the same, but maybe they've changed it."
It looked all but abandoned. We had to give up on our dream of self-indulgence. Oh well.
So we drove to my sister Dianne's house on Tonkawa, about an hour and a half away.
After having dinner (delicious grilled chicken prepared by our nephew Mark) Dianne, Beth and I made our way to Tonkawa Methodist to meet with the missions committee and share about our mission work in Ireland. The meeting went really well and we should hear back from them in the near future as to whether they will be able to become a Ministry Partner.
Thursday we drove to Elm Mills in southern Kansas. It's about 15 miles south of Pratt, the town I grew up in. (Wow, double preposition at the end of a sentence -- call the grammar police!)
Here's a list of the cast:
Beth - my wife
Molly - my daughter
Me - me
Dianne - my sister
Ken - her husband
Mark - her son (18)
Stephen - her other son (16)
Dennis - my brother
Judit - his significant other
It was a great weekend. Time to spend with family and reconnect with old friends. Photos and videos will follow.
Sunday morning, Beth and I got up early and drove into Pratt. We spoke at three services and a Sunday school class. We came home with a few donations and contact info for a bunch of individuals. We also had a good number of giving envelopes disappear (pray for those!). We originally were only going to be able to speak at the first and third services, as there wouldn't be time at the second one. However, Beth and I were praying (unbeknown to one another) that we would be able to speak at that service, as well. Right after we arrived, Pastor Dan said, "Good news! Well, kind of. At least for you it is. The guy that does our Children's Sermon second service has to perform surgery this morning, so now we will have time to let you speak."
Many familiar faces. Not quite as many names came to mind as faces I recognized.
Monday we drove back to Tulsa and stayed overnight with my college roommate Chris Theis. Tuesday morning we were up at 4 am to catch a 6:20 flight. Tuesday afternoon, we both taught lessons.
Today, we're tired.
