Serving and Seeking: Traveling from Sapulpa to Nashville

Day 7 –

Thursday, Aug 29 – drove to Memphis,TN

We left Sapulpa about 7am and stopped for coffee at Starbucks in Fort Smith, the first city in Arkansas off of the I40. Joe got his regular; just coffee. I used one of the rewards for a venti caramel macchiato with 2 extra shots! We didn’t have time to visit the Ozarks; maybe next time. We had a 1pm appointment at Family Life in Little Rock. Many people know that I am a huge fan, supporter and Legacy partner for Family Life. I started listening to their radio program 15 years ago, after I stopped working outside the home. Family Life doesn't give tours right now, but a very nice lady, Mary Donovan, used to give tours and gave us one anyway. God at work. She and her husband have been missionaries for Family Life for 11 years. God used one of the Weekend to Remember Marriage Conferences to strengthen their struggling marriage many years ago. She took us all around the building, explained the different operations introduced us to many people. Everyone was so nice! Dennis Rainey and Bob Lepine are the hosts of Family Life Today radio program. We walked into the recording studio and Bob Lepine was recording!!! After all the years of hearing his voice on the radio, it was strange watching him speak. But, it gets even better…he was recording the beginning and end for the interview they did about a month ago for Grace Unplugged, a Christian movie produced by a friend of ours, Russ Rice. We mentioned to Bob Lepine that we knew Russ and was privileged to get to see a sneak preview of the movie. We talked for a few minutes and we got a picture with him. You have no idea how excited I was!

This is the waiting area for Dennis Rainey's office

Bob Lepine recording

This is where Nancy Leigh Demoss records when she is at Family Life.

This is Mary, our wonderful guide

Photo with Bob Lepine!!!

Then we had lunch at the Flying Fish. We shared grilled salmon, beans, rice and grilled zucchini. It was delicious! We walked down the street and next to the river.

A hot day in Little Rock

The Flying Fish restaurant

We went into a store where they sold handmade items from numerous countries. Joe bought me a headband and a handheld fan. It was a very hot and humid day. We than visited the Arkansas capitol. They were painting the rotunda. It was a nice capitol.

We continued on to Memphis and checked into our cheap hotel within walking distance of Beale St. Beale St. was hoppin’, but not overly crowded. It is really only one block of restaurants, a few stores, lots of music and neon signs. We passed by the Blue's City Cafe and talked to the street greeter for the restaurant and then continued up and down the street. We listened to some live music and walked around A. Schwab's, a shop established in 1876. Then we decided to have our dinner at Blue's City Cafe. We split barbecue pork ribs, baked beans, steak fries and coleslaw. It was outstanding!

A street artist spray painting a picture of Memphis

He is almost done here. It is amazing to see what he can do with spray paint.

The best barbecue

The restaurant street greeter

We walked back to our hotel in the questionable neighborhood. A man that appeared to be homeless said something to us and we responded and kept walking. When we were almost to our hotel, we ran into him again. We had a short conversation and he mentioned God. Joe asked him what he knew about God and he said that Jesus was his Lord and Savior and quoted Romans 10:9-10 "That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." His name is Curtis Love. I hope I never forget this man and the way he said these verses. He said them slow and meaningful. He has bell's palsy disease, so he had a hard time talking. He spoke very kindly. He said that God was getting off his rough spots on the inside. He still has a dependency on drugs, but hopefully he is moving in the right direction. I hope he truly believed what he said. We have been praying for Curtis. I know that one way to know how much I love and trust Christ is if everything was taken away. But, since I am not in that situation, I can continue love and trust God in the smaller trials that He sovereignty allows or causes in my life.

Day 8 –

Friday, Aug 30 – morning in Memphis, drove to Nashville, TN

After waking from our good night sleep, we picked up a muffin at the continental breakfast and headed for none other than Starbucks. We stayed there a bit to plan our time in Memphis and Nashville. The free wifi is always a welcome event. We took a stroll down Beale St. to see what it looked like during the day. The street greeter that we met last night from Blues City Café was already sitting out in front.

We stopped in at the Memphis post office to get another cancellation stamp. We passed on a couple of sites we were going to see in Memphis so we could start on our way to Nashville. Our final stop in Memphis was the Mud Island Riverwalk. There is an exact scale replica of the Mississippi Rivera that we walked in. It was 94 degrees and humid when we got to the park!

Then on to Nashville! It was about a 3 hour drive. We drove straight to our very nice hotel in Franklin, a very nice old city south of Nashville. We drove some country roads and saw numerous beautiful homes. We got to our hotel, cleaned up and headed for the Grand Ole Opry! It was a great show. We bought the cheapest tickets, but had very good seats up close on the side. We saw people that have been with the Opry for many years and some new stars. We saw 92 year old Little Jimmy Dickens, the hillbilly singer who has been singing for the Opry since 1948. Some great newer groups were saw were Kristen Kelly, Joel Crouse, and The Henningsens. They record the show for radio and it is in four thirty minute blocks with three groups performing each half hour. We loved the variety of music.