Ozark Christian College in Joplin, MO has a student tour where they offer a scholarship if you attend, so we drove up there (9 hours!) and back this past week. We took the week off of school. Phillip stayed home with the younger three since he had to work. Liz and I got a little road trip together.
We stayed with my first college roommate Julie. She works with Pioneer Bible Translators in Dallas. She and her husband have an awesome house set-up for keeping families (and they keep a lot of missionary families!). They made us a delicious pot roast supper, and we talked and talked and talked. I didn't get a picture, but she's in the red shirt sitting next to me up there on the CCCB sign. Good memories; good friendship.
In the dorms listening to the schpeel.
It was a very good visit. Well done. It helped her figure out what degree fits with her interests and gifting. We drove around Joplin for a few hours before we arrived on campus, so she got to visit an abandoned train depot, Zinc Coffee, and the mall.
She stayed the night on campus, but I stayed with another missionary couple that my sister and I had visited for three weeks in the Dominican Republic when I was 17. Doug and Carol Reed live in Joplin now, and he works with LATM (Literature and Teaching Ministries) which helps translate Christian books (commentaries, ministry books, etc) and distribute them.
We met at a southern restaurant and talked for many hours throughout my stay there. They were very kind to keep me, especially since they haven't necessarily heard from me in over 20 years.
I did not get a picture with the Reeds either, but here is a pic of my sister working at their home in the DR. I believe we were making posters for VBS.
It was a very formative mission trip for many reasons. I read Wuthering Heights while I was there and didn't understand it at all. I read the same book this past year and enjoyed (?) it AND understood it this time.
On the way back home I had wanted to try to drive all the way and just get home late. But the van was shakey and a nice mechanic in Vinita, OK drove it for me and thought the tires needed balanced. So we found a Walmart and it took several hours for them to get it done (but it fixed the problem). We stayed the night in Oklahoma (by the way, their roads are the reason my wheels were out of balance. Awful potholes!). Wednesday we stopped at Magnolia Table (Chip and Joanna Gaines' restaurant) and had lunch. It is a lovely place and the soups were top-notch. And then we finally made it home by 3 that afternoon. So tired. That was yesterday. Today is catch-up.
Tomorrow the older three go to Mid-Winter Camp at Tanglewood. Whew!
