Thanksgiving in California

Back in the summer Willis and I made the decision to look into spending Thanksgiving in California with our extended family. Although we'd been there for most Thanksgivings over the last 15 years, 2005 had been the last. We realized this would be quite the undertaking since Nathan is in Germany, but Willis went to work! He began looking at airplane tickets and coordinated all the flights to arrive/depart to/from Reno, Nevada within hours of each other: Willis, Hannah, and I flew from St Louis, Missouri; Ben, Bethany, and Josh flew from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Nathan flew from Frankfurt, Germany.

We spent the first half of our week in Chester, California with Ideal (Willis's sister) and Les. Ralph (Willis's brother) and Cecilia did drive up from Woodlake for part of the weekend and we did get to see Kurt (Ideal's son) for a few hours. We loved seeing Lassen National Park again!

The second half we were in Alturas, California with Carolyn (Melodee's sister) and Johnny, their children Jacob, Janel, and John up from Redding, and Melodee's parents. Thanksgiving day included the original thirteen--family members (namely 2 Burris + 6 Chapman + 5 Hughes) not colonies :-)--plus Josh and Stephanie and Tanner and Les and Ideal. O, and Lilly and Bella too! This was a major first: dogs inside my parents' house!!! My parents were very gracious and the dogs were very well behaved.

God provided a most wonderful Thanksgiving for us.

CBS Leadership Training

A call from God to serve Him in a way that is absolutely beyond one's ability is an awesome thing. Over the last few months the scriptures "(Christ's) power is made perfect in weakness" and "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me" have become real in my life as never before.

In November Deb Lowrance and I participated in Community Bible Study Leadership Training, held at the beautiful Cheyenne Mountain Resort in Colorado Springs, CO. It was a very full week. Deb--trained as Associate Teaching Director--and I--trained as Teaching Director--returned to our class to live out "You will not succeed by your strength or power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord All-Powerful."

The Curtises Come for a Visit

As soon as we arrived home from Pennsylvania, Ideal and Les arrived from Nashville for a visit! How fun to watch Les play rock band! Ideal, Bethany, Hannah, and I had a shopping evening in Jackson. And Willis and Bethany took Les and Ideal over to Missouri for a Mississippi River crossing.

Homecoming weekend at Grove City College 2008

On the way to Grove City College for Homecoming weekend, Hannah, Willis, and I visited William Howard Taft's home in Cincinnati, Ohio. In Grove City we watched Ben and Bethany march in the Homecoming parade--Ben holding his fraternity's sign, Bethany playing the piccolo with her sorority. We watched Ben play rugby, celebrated his 20th birthday, and enjoyed time with many friends. And then Bethany came home with us for an extended fall break week!

50th Year, 3rd Quarter

Again, a brief report. See May 10 and July 10 for 1st and 2nd quarters.

Print books: The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
Spiritual Leadership by Henry & Richard Blackaby
Communicating for a Change by Andy Stanley & Lane Jones

Audio books: General Ike: A Personal Reminiscence by John S.D. Eisenhower
A Cinderella Affidavit by Michael Fredrickson

Favorite movie: "Bee Movie"

Happy Birthday Willis!

Happy Birthday to Willis, the love of my life!

The Hugheses Come for a Visit

We were so glad that Carolyn and Johnny took a weekend from their time in Branson with Johnny's parents to come to Dyersburg to visit us! We drove over to Lake County to eat catfish--and lots of other fried foods:-)--and to see Reelfoot Lake.

Two Campus Visits

September 4-5 Taylor University in Upland, Indiana; Hannah, Melodee and Willis; chapel, campus tour, engineering physics class, financial aid meeting for parents

September 18-19 Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama; Hannah, Kaitlyn, and Melodee; over-night stay (Hannah and Kaitlyn) in dorm, campus tour, international business class

The First Lecture

The First Lecture

With all due respect to Randy Pausch—whose book The Last Lecture I read in August—I gave my first lecture as teaching director of our CBS class last Thursday. As Melissa and I shared on April 17, the calling to this position is most definitely from God. This paragraph is from what I shared with our class:

“It is truly an awesome responsibility to be called into this position of leadership and teaching. I am walking in very big shoes as Melissa has been such an excellent Teaching Director. This is a calling of God and I have been so amazed at how God has worked in my heart, through the prayers of the Servants Team since January, to prepare me for accepting this position. God has given me a greater hunger for His Word in the last few months that was wonderful—and a little mysterious at the same time—but made perfect sense when I learned of the Servants Team praying for me.”

My continuing prayer is to be faithful to God’s Word and particularly to prepare lectures which are the exact truths that He wants to teach our class.

Commencing another year at Grove City College

On August 21 Willis, Ben, and I departed in a very full, well-packed vehicle to drive to Grove City College to move Ben into his dorm room to start his sophomore year at GCC. Bethany had already moved into her dorm room due to Orientation Board activities; OB members had welcomed freshman students that very morning. When we arrived on Friday we were able to move everything into Ben’s dorm room which, with the addition of all his stuff from the storage unit, became very full and very crowded! We helped Ben organize his room and we traveled to Pittsburgh to pick up Jeong Hwa Lee at the airport. (Ben’s friend Sung Eun Kim went with us; Ben had met both girls in Seoul Korea this summer.) Interspersed with skit rehearsals, event set-up, activities, and events, Bethany and Josh—both on OB—were able to squeeze in visits with us throughout the weekend! We said good-bye on Sunday, thankful as always that they are students at this wonderful college “where scholarship combines with Christian principles”.

Summer 2008

Summer 2008 found us traveling and moving and seeing new country! Actually I've posted about the travels of Willis and Melodee to California, but now I want to catch up with all our children. Here's a brief update of the activities of Nathan, Bethany, Ben, and Hannah.

On July 1, Nathan arrived home from Keesler AFB in Biloxi, MS for a little over 2 weeks. On July 19, Willis and I drove him to Memphis where he caught a plane to Atlanta and from there to Frankfurt, Germany. Nathan is stationed at Ramstein AB near Frankfurt and is enjoying his job and co-workers. He will be there for at least 2 years, but we sure hope to be able to visit him there in Germany!

Bethany flew home on June 3 to spend exactly 2 weeks in West Tennessee. After a few days in Springfield, MA, she drove to her job at Camp Joy in Carmel, NY. Bethany spent a challenging 6 weeks as a counselor at the camp, and I believe God will use the lessons learned during this time throughout her life. Bethany returned to Grove City College on August 18 to participate on the Orientation Board and to commence her Senior year!

In May Ben returned to Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic on a Students International mission trip, this time with a group of students from Grove City College. Following the 2 weeks on a construction crew, Ben stayed with the Entrekin family, SI staff, and worked at various sites over the next 3 weeks. After 3 days at home, Ben flew to Seoul, Korea to attend Seoul Women's University's Bahron International Program for a month. We're glad he has been home with us for the past 3 1/2 weeks!

Following a month at Union University living in the dorms and taking classes in the Rising Senior Program, Hannah started a job at McIver's Grant Library. Hannah started her senior year at Dyersburg High School on August 1 where she's learning to speak Mandarin Chinese and dance on the dance team!

It's A Small World (and God's Providence)--Story #3

The first weekend that Nathan was home for his 2-weeks-at-home (I’m sure there’s an official Air Force “title” for this—you’ll have to let me know, Nathan) we received a phone call from our friends the Powells from Bakersfield CA. Back in the day—1988-1993—our families had been friends before we moved to Minnesota; Nathan and KJ and Bethany and Dustin were all very close in age, all in the same Sunday School class during that time. Major IASW here: Dustin is now a student--and quarterback on the football team--at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, MO (SEMO), just 100 miles from Dyersburg. The Powells were traveling out to visit Dustin and would we like to meet at Lambert’s Café, The Home of Throwed Rolls, for dinner on Sunday night? Oh, but of course!

As we waited on the sidewalk outside Lambert’s (anyone who has ever eaten at Lambert’s knows about the wait, but oh, is it ever worth it!) visiting with Keith and Renee, Nathan caught sight of Stewart, who is now a friend of Dustin’s. Stewart is on staff with Campus Outreach at SEMO. Back in Summer 2005, Stewart was one of the CO staff members at Summer Beach Project in Panama City, Florida in which Nathan participated! It was a good time to reconnect and, I trust, for Nathan to be encouraged in his walk with the Lord as he looks toward leaving for Germany.

It's A Small World (and God's Providence)--Story #2

To follow through with my California post, I have a story in my on-going IASW series. As Willis flew from Reno to Oakland to Phoenix to Nashville, my flight plan was scheduled for Reno to Dallas to Nashville. Our planes were to arrive within 35 minutes of each other AND Ben’s plane from the DR was to arrive during that time too. Well, due to a medical emergency on our flight, we made a stop in Albuquerque. That put our arrival in Dallas past the time that I could catch the plane to Nashville. My friend Carolyn and I had talked about being disappointed to not get a face-to-face visit, but God scheduled one for us! She picked me up from the airport, I spent the night at the Kotyk’s, and I flew out early the next morning. (Thank you, Carolyn!)

As I was going through the screening process to board the plane the next morning, I met Jeremy. Turns out Jeremy is home visiting his family, but for the past year he has been living in Seoul, Korea teaching English! Since Ben was leaving in three days to spend a month in Seoul, Korea, he kindly wrote out for Ben the must-see sites of the city. As a bonus, Ben strolled up as we waited in the baggage claim so Ben was able to visit with Jeremy himself!

50th Year, 2nd Quarter

1st quarter (see May 10, 2008 post) covered 01-10-08 through 05-10-08; 2nd quarter covers 05-10-08 through 07-10-08. Yes, my dates were a little off, but now I’m on track!

Print books: Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller
Blue Genes, Paul Meier

Audio books: Just Shy of Harmony, Philip Gulley
The Reagan Diaries, Ronald Reagan
I Am Charlotte Simmons, Tom Wolfe

Most meaningful movie: “August Rush”, hands down

California: Alturas and Chester

Willis and I planned a trip to California to visit family during the time Ben was in the Dominican Republic (May 19-June 24) and Hannah was in the Rising Senior program at Union University (June 1-28).

Saturday June 14: Willis traveled on a plane with Ideal from St Louis to Reno while Bethany and I drove home. When we purchased the tickets in March the plan had been for Willis to start work on a deck off the back of Les and Ideal’s house in Chester. That was before Willis needed hernia repair surgery on May 8! But there were plenty of other, less strenuous projects to complete, including helping in her embroidery business.

Tuesday June 17: From Nashville, Bethany flew to Hartford CT to spend some time with Josh and family before reporting to her job at Camp Joy in Carmel New York. And I flew to Reno where Willis picked me up and we drove to Alturas. Our time with Mother and Daddy and Carolyn and Johnny was very good but different: Carolyn’s three children were all working out of town so none of our 7 children was with us. We have certainly entered a new season in our lives……….

Saturday June 21: Willis and I drove to Chester. Since the storms with lightning occurred that night, we were able to enjoy a nice meal with Ralph, Cecilia, and EmmaLey (up from Woodlake) and Ideal, Les, and Kurt before Les headed off to fight forest fires. Helping Ideal with Stitch It and More projects and preparing for vacation Bible school plus some scrapbooking and a trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park—yes, that’s ice on Lake Helen!—filled our wonderful time in the mountains.

Tuesday June 24: Kurt drove Willis and me to Reno to catch two different airplanes to fly home to Nashville. Willis flew to Oakland, then to Phoenix, then to Nashville. I flew to……………well, that’s the subject of a future post!

Lockett Family Reunion.........from the Archives

Some old pictures, to bring back memories.

Lockett Family Reunion

The descendents of Elisha Samuel and Mary Lucinda Caswell Lockett meet for a family reunion each even year on Father’s Day weekend in a different location around the United States. Willis’s grandmother Minnie Ann Lockett Jeffries was one of their daughters. In 1992 our family traveled from Bakersfield, California to Colorado Springs, Colorado, camping during the entire trip, and Willis’s sister Ideal flew from California, bringing her son Kurt and their mother Geraldine Emma Jeffries Chapman. In 1994 we concluded a camping trip through North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota from our home in Glenwood, Minnesota with the reunion in Grand Island, Nebraska.

After a few years’ absence, we caught up with the family again by attending these reunions: 2002: Willis in St Louis; 2004: Willis, Melodee, Ben, and Hannah in Las Vegas; 2006: Willis and Ideal in Kansas City. This year Willis, Melodee, and Bethany drove and Ralph and Ideal flew in to St Louis. We all very much enjoyed time with extended family, close family, and exploring St Louis sites.

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Nathan was born on the Friday before Memorial Day, so it's always been nice to have a Monday holiday near his birthday. Such was the case this year as Nathan and three friends from Keesler Air Force Base traveled to Dyersburg for the—somewhat—long weekend. We so enjoyed having Jake, Joe, and Aaron here with us to celebrate Nathan’s 23rd birthday.

Tucker Street Church is an exceptional church home to us in many ways and unique in the spontaneity of celebrating with people who are with us for worship on a Sunday morning. Since we were celebrating Memorial Day, Bob called all the veterans to come forward for a time of prayer for our four men who are currently serving in the military. It was a special time.

Parents’ Weekend at Grove City College

The first weekend of May Willis, Hannah, and I drove to Grove City College for Parents’ Weekend which included some wonderful times with Bethany and Ben and friends. Here’s a list of our weekend activities:
 Dinner at Mary’s Restaurant in New Castle—excellent Middle Eastern cuisine; Bethany has eaten there so many times the server recognizes her and asks if she wants “her customary meal”
 Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Concert Band in concert; Bethany played several different percussion instruments
 Dessert and coffee at Eat ‘n Park
 Theta Alpha Pi May Day Luncheon; Bethany’s sorority—nice luncheon and time to re-connect with Bethany’s friends and their parents
 IM Rugby game; Ben played and it was a muddy mess in the rain; I have no clue what this game is all about
 Spring Coronation and Dance Show: Experience the Magic
 Thirty-Sixth Annual All-College Sing; Our favorite 3 songs:
 Beta Sigma (Greek Men) “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg”
• Ben sang
 Rho Rho Rho (Independent Men’s Group) “Copacabana”
• Bethany directed, Josh played guitar
 Theta Alpha Pi (Greek Women) “It’s Raining Men”
• Bethany sang

We so enjoyed meeting Josh’s parents Walt and Pat; we shared most of the above activities with them. We had to leave for home Sunday morning but Josh and his parents attended a voice recital Sunday afternoon in which Bethany participated to cheer her on; that was a special blessing to us all!

Casting Crowns concert

A month ago Willis and I drove to Murray, Kentucky for a concert featuring John Waller, Leland, and Casting Crowns. Willis had won “Meet and Greet” tickets in an on-line bid so we were privileged to meet the band members (from Leland and Casting Crowns) prior to the concert, and we sat on—how cool is this?—the FRONT row! One of the highlights for me was meeting Melodee DeVevo who sings, plays violin (and some other string instrument which I haven’t identified yet) AND shares my name! She’s only the second person I’ve ever met who spells her name like me. Thank you, imaginative parents!

The concert was wonderful! We were glad to be introduced to new music and—in the case of Casting Crowns—very familiar and much loved music. It was truly a time of worshiping God. We loved every minute of the music and sharing, however the MOST special part of the concert came at the end when each of the band members sat on a stool along the front of the stage and prayed for the people in the audience, each for a unique element of the audience. Megan’s prayer for the marriages in the audience was so completely a confirmation of God’s Word: she prayed Ephesians 5: 22-33 which had been our lesson in our Community Bible Study class that very morning.

50th Year, 1st Quarter

A report in brief, without commentary, of books and movies which have been a part of my life this quarter. (Not a complete sentence, but less than twenty-two words, which was my goal.)

Print books: A Life Well Lived, Charles Swindoll;
The Death of the West, Patrick J. Buchanan;
Don’t Waste Your Life, John Piper.

Audio books: Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane;
Paradise Lost, John Milton;
The Coldest Winter, David Halberstam;
Bud, Not Buddy, Christopher Paul Curtis.

Most meaningful movie: “The Namesake”;
honorable mention: “Rendition”, “The Pianist”

Acquire the Fire Nashville

April 11 found 13 teens and adults from Tucker Street Church traveling to Nashville to attend Acquire the Fire. Due to illness, I was only able to attend Friday evening and Saturday evening. But those sessions were great, and sometimes “less is more” if you consider the alone-time I spent with God holed up in the hotel room.

Worship with Unhindered both nights was truly that: worship. Joel Johnson on Friday evening and Ron Luce on Saturday evening—“Are we not Dreamers? Be the dreamer-part of the 2% who influences the 98%-and through Christ change the world”—both brought challenging messages. But what spoke to me the most was Phil Joel’s message of how he and his wife Heather embarked on a one-year Bible reading plan, every morning connecting with the Lord in His Word, and how this has radically changed everything about their lives. I echo Phil Joel’s hope: “to see a growing community of like-minded believers who hunger for more spiritual depth through the renewing of their minds in the Word of God.”