Trip to Edmond for World Outreach Sunday

This weekend we made a trip to Edmond, Oklahoma. Edmond is only about an hour and a half from Tulsa. We went to be part of Edmond Christian Church's World Outreach Event. It is an annual event that highlights all their supported missions and focuses the church on God's heart for reaching the nations. Edmond has done a great job of hosting this event through the years from  getting the church goers involved to making it kid friendly.   

We got there Saturday afternoon and set up our display. I got the opportunity to contribute to one of their kids rooms. There was a room with a huge map on the wall for kids to write notes and draw pictures of encouragement to missionaries. The second room had a medical tent set up, complete with a medical dummy and nurse to take their blood pressure, heart rate, etc... In that room they learned about medical missions. It was in the last room which I got to help. The room was to help kids understand about servant missions, like building houses and painting walls. On one side of the room was a large beam for the kids to hammer in nails. On the other side was a big canvas draped over a pvc pipe frame. They asked me to paint a house outline so that they next day the kids could "paint" the house!

As we were leaving the parking lot after setting up we saw a really cool sign. Every church campus should have this sign as you leave to reenter the world.

Sunday morning came and we got to speak with many believers there in Edmond about the work and great opportunities that God was for us. We gave out many new prayer cards and added a commited prayer partner!  Kids came by and we gave them stickers that we made and stamped their "passport". The passport was something that Edmond came up with where each booth had a stamp and the kids took their little book with full color of the missionaries and we stamped the page with our name and picture on it. Such a creative way to insure that each child stopped at each booth!

When the service started we found a seat to worship together. During communion they showed a video of believers from all the world taking communion. Then during the offering they showed a companion video of believers taking up offering in countries around the globe. Great visual.

Then Angie and I went to talk with the children's church for about five or six minutes. We talked about the images and illustrations that I create travel all over the world to help missionaries tell people about Jesus. Then using my Motorola Xoom tablet, I drew them a picture based on a suggestion from the group. Afterwards the kids prayed for us and we rejoined the adults.

The message was brought by one of the missionaries, Nathan Lawson, missionary in Zimbabwe. Great sermon using the story of the master leaving three servants in charge of money while he took a trip. When he returned two had done something with the money, but the third buried it and hid it from sight. The thought that "what we have is not OURS" was impressed and other great ideas to reflect on.

After the service there was a lunch for all. The missionaries all went to a table in the front and after eating, we had a question and answer panel. Several questions were asked and answered. Then once the panel was finished everybody disbanded and we packed up our display. It turned out to be a great experience for us and the church.

As we left Edmond, we made our now compulsory stop at Pop's. It's on Route 66 and has hundreds of variations of pop/soda/carbonated beverages. I got soem root beer, grape soda, strawberry pop and a peach soda too!

Here's a video I created showing me drawing in CorelDraw X5 on my laptop. I did this so people at the event could see a little of how I do what I do.

Route 66 - Galena (Mater & Red)

These photos are from a trip taken on Route 66 from Joplin to Tulsa.

Galena, Kansas. In person it felt like we were standing at the end of Radiator Springs looking down main street.

We were told this 'ghost writing' inspired the "Welcome to Radiator Springs" sign.

This firetruck got brought into town after CARS came out, so he's not the original "Red", but pretty close!!

This was the truck that inspired Mater. Obviously, the eyes were added later.

Get Your Pops on Route 66

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that even though the title is "Life in Italy" when we are in the states it changes. This blog is about our ministry and personal life. Whether we are in Ancona, Verona, Tulsa or Louisville. When we travel to different cities where our supporters are located we try to take in as much as we can of the sights, the sounds and the tastes. So we were delighted to be introduced by Vince and Penny Brown to a section of Route 66 that we hadn't experienced before on a recent trip to Edmond, Oklahoma. I had inadvertantly left my camera at their house, so on our return trip to Edmond, we went back to the formerly mentioned sights.

Outside of Edmond is Arcadia, Oklahoma, the home of the Big Round Barn and Pops. The Big Round Barn is from the heydays of Route 66 and is now historically preserved and cared for as a musuem and a rented upstairs loft for events. Pops is modern, but fits right in on Route 66 with it's giant contemporary soda pop bottle monument out front. Within its A-frame building lies hundreds of different flavors of carbonated beverages! My favorite is the entire refrigerator full of root beer. It is root beer, vanilla soda, fruit soda, etc... from all over the world. You can go in and choose several and take them home to try out and savor.

On the last trip after we left the Big Round Barn and Pops, we continued down Route 66 halfway between Edmond and Tulsa (about 50 minutes). We saw some other cool looking buildings as well as an old rock filling station that once housed counterfieters and was the site of a homicide investigation. Crazy stuff, if only you get off the highways onto the byways.... Check out the pictures below.

Pops - Arcadia, Oklahoma, Route 66

Big Round Barn - Arcadia, Oklahoma, Route 66

Old Filling Station - Route 66