There is an old song that says "I've been everywhere, yes, I've been everywhere, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, etc." That is the way I feel at this point. In the past two weeks we have cris-crossed the prairie lands of South Dakota twice. After the Seniors' Retreat in the Black Hills, we dashed back to Sisseton to pick up our guests for the Fun and Fellowship tour to the National Quartet Convention and headed off to the hills of Kentucky.
What a beautiful drive through the prairie lands and badlands en route to the breathtaking Black Hills of South Dakota!
Destination: Camp Judson, which is nestled next to the historic, small tourist town of Keystone. The retreat center is located just four miles from the world famous Mount Rushmore.
Reason: We got an invitation to speak at the Senior Adult SD A/G Ministries State Retreat. Hmmm...seems like just yesterday...okay, actually 50 years ago...the Lundstroms were invited to the Black Hills area to conduct teen camps and family camps.
Destination: Camp Judson, which is nestled next to the historic, small tourist town of Keystone. The retreat center is located just four miles from the world famous Mount Rushmore.
Reason: We got an invitation to speak at the Senior Adult SD A/G Ministries State Retreat. Hmmm...seems like just yesterday...okay, actually 50 years ago...the Lundstroms were invited to the Black Hills area to conduct teen camps and family camps.
You just know it's not going to be a good day when the doorbell rang, Larry answered it-and a chipper salesman pipes up, "I'm here selling headstones for the cemetary...are you interested?" There was a couple seconds pause...I hollered down..."NO!" There was complete silence, sheepishly and a bit embarrassed at this voice coming from afar, Larry consoled him, "Can you come back in November? I just got home off tour last night and I'm covered deep with office work." Meanwhile feeling a bit under the weather and looking like I had been run over by a dump-truck, I didn't need to hear that he was going to return so I hollered down again, "NO! NO!" At that moment Larry broke out in hilarious laughter, I heard him say, "As you can tell, this is not a good day to talk about head stones."
After our appointments, we headed back to Waterloo, IA. The Iowa cornfields are absolutely breathtaking. God is so good! I pleaded with Larry to stop so I could get this picture of how tall the corn is. Larry is 6' 3" so that gives you an idea of the actual height of the corn. Just seeing these luscious corn fields all over definitely whet our appetite for a good meal of corn-on-the-cob! We had another two weeks filled to the max. We wove back and forth between Iowa, South Dakota and Minnesota.
Have you ever heard the old phrase, "Up a Crick without a paddle"? In simple words, it means you are in...deep trouble, and there is no way out. I'm sure we've all been there dozens of times in our lifetime. I was reminded of this statement again this past week. Larry had the opportunity to go fishing for 5 days way up in Ontario, Canada. He went fishing with his friends, Danny and Wendy Meis and Pastor Alan Skroch. Alan had purchased a fantastic fishing boat off of an estate sale and pulled it several hundred miles up to Canadian waters. It was doing fine...not great...but fine. One day, they went up to Canadian waters, about 8 miles away, and the boat motor stopped. Long story short...no cell phone, and hours away from the comfort of the shore and the cabin, and the realization that they have to get back there somehow. Unbelievably...Ripley's believe it or not...they had one oar.
Can it really be mid-July already? It seems like everything goes so fast I can hardly catch my breath. We were privileged to be able to attend my family reunion on the Brooks' side. As many of you know, I am a middle child. I have five brothers older and five brothers younger. One brother has gone on to be with the Lord which leaves nine wonderful brothers, mates, grandchildren, great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren. There are a total of 103 living in my immediate family and only 23 of them were unable to make it to the reunion this year.
Hi! I can hardly comprehend that this weekend marks the 4th of July already! It seems like June just whizzed by. When I think of Independence Day, I am reminded and am so grateful that we can still wake up in a free America. That is something that we can never take for granted because it seems as though we are losing freedoms one by one with the elections coming soon in November, we really need to seek God, pray for America and its leaders, and take a stand for righteousness.
Again, it has been an eventful two weeks. On June 21st, we drove to Glenwood, MN, to minister at the Minnewaska Assembly of God.
Again, it has been an eventful two weeks. On June 21st, we drove to Glenwood, MN, to minister at the Minnewaska Assembly of God.
Greetings from the Heartland! June has been another action-packed month. Larry reaches an exciting milestone on June 28th...my sweetheart hubby turns 65 years old. Yeah for Medicare and AARP- ha! I can hardly believe it. It seems like just yesterday we were teens making eyes at each other. Larry and I were married when we were 21 and 22 years of age. Our first year of marriage went by slowly and was filled with many challenges...each year since has raced by like speeding bullets. I remember thinking that anyone 25 years old was...old, 35 years of age was... older, 45 years old was... ancient, and 55 years and up was... over the hill - HA! So where does that put us now!! Please be kind with your thoughts!
Hello from Sisseton! I am nestled up in my chair as I write this "On the Road" update. I guess, this time, I could rename it the "In My Chair" update. HA! The weather that we are experiencing is playing mind games with me (at this stage in my life, it doesn't take all that much!). As I sat down in my chair I had to throw a blanket over me to keep warm. The temperatures were in the 80's and yesterday they tumbled down into the low 50's. As the old saying goes, "If you don't like the weather, stick around a few hours, it will change...but I'm not sure you will like that either." So true! Even the birds are slightly confused.
Greetings again from Sisseton! It seems like we are running here and there...I almost meet myself coming and going - ha! I can hardly believe it's late-May and Mother's Day has long passed...but is not forgotten. Our children, LaShawn and her husband Liam, LaDawn and our son Donovan, sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers. They know I love flowers. Larry also gave me a red rose corsage and they all gave me beautiful Mother's Day cards with heart-touching verses. Often I don't feel I'm worthy of all those "flowery" kind words...but I'll gladly accept them! Often times, while parenting, we feel inadequate in how we're raising our children. We ponder and wonder if we did the right things in the right way. So, I need those verses of love and appreciation to keep me going.