This is a tale that will be told many times over during these travels. We are journeying from city to city, state to state visiting family, tied to each other by blood either spiritual or physical. As we arrived in Minneapolis following the tale of the alternate airport, we set off the following morning for the warmer climes of Muscatine, Iowa.
The day after we arrived the temperature hit 91 degrees (that’s fahrenheit, of course). We thought we had finally found summer. But the next day, and almost every day after in Iowa, brought rain and much cooler temperatures. Iowa is a farming state, and although rain is mostly a good thing, too much rain means that the crop cannot be planted or harvested. So not everyone was happy with the blessing from above. Especially as it also brought a good bit of flooding in its wake.
We, however, had come to a church and a church family used to depending on the Lord for growth and strength. It was good to see old faces (and even speak Dutch to the Schellekens) and meet some new faces. Scott presented a singing workshop for the area and enjoyed challenging thoughts later with the Bible Bros – the young (and not so young any more) brothers of the congregation. What conditions are helping you to grow the seeds of faith in your life?
We were so thankful to visit with church family, visit later with residents of a local nursing home singing praise to the Lord, and enjoy the hospitality of this family that has been so faithful not only in supporting us, but also our colleague, Sue Foster, who works with the church in Ghent. It is so good to know and feel this tie between the churches in Iowa and Belgium.
As we left Iowa, the sun shone for a brief moment and we drove across the state, marveling at the beauty of rolling hills, greening in their spring glory – albeit also often drowning in places by the excess waters from the continuing rain. But we were heading to family, and nothing could take away the expectant joy of seeing them again.
Shirley’s family lives in Omaha, Nebraska and as we drove past the highway works in Council Bluffs, Iowa, leading into Omaha and then past the Henry Doorly Zoo, road works greeted us everywhere. These are mostly due to the recent flooding in Nebraska. Still, we arrived at our hotel safely and headed off to see Shirley’s sister. We were wondering how everyone was doing since we had heard that Shirley’s brother had had to evacuate during the flooding of his town, Valley. What do you do when everything you own is drowned in unexpected flooding or tossed away in a tornado or turned to ash in a fire? Many of our friends have had to deal with these things in recent months. We were thankful to see that Shirley’s brother had landed on his feet, finding a new home, and that his town was already drying out.
When we come to Omaha, we enjoy getting to see kids we have known since they were just 2 years old. Shirley’s sister came to live with us at certain periods in the beginning of our marriage. Now those kids are grown, married and have their own kids. Time flies indeed. So besides visiting and enjoying these family moments, we took a quick walk down memory lane, visiting some of the schools Shirley and her sister attended.
The most difficult part of seeing family is having to separate again. Shirley’s sister is struggling with her health and our heart wants to stay and help. It feels good to be together again but the reality of the differences between physical family and spiritual family assert themselves at times like this. We so want to know that we will see all of our family again, but that is only possible as blood relatives of the family of Christ. We were thankful for time to make this clear during our visit with family.
Our time in Omaha was short. We drove off in the sunshine and head north again to Minnesota where we would close this loop of the travels. But that is another tale. In the meantime, we have updated some of the pictures if you are interested in seeing those.
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