Our Layover and Church Service

Our layover options from Little Rock, AR were Memphis, Tn or Springfield, MO. We chose Memphis because we usually do pretty well from there.

We arrived in Memphis and found out that we had 8 trucks ahead of us. Oh boy, why did we choose Memphis. But by that evening we were the number 4 truck. We thought that we would get a dispatch during the night.

But we woke up the next morning and were still in the same position. So I fixed us breakfast and then gathered up our laundry and went in to do that. By afternoon I had washed everything in the truck except the clothes on our backs and once we showered, I washed those too.

I made some fudge and cooked some soup and read my book. Actually I have more books this time out than I have so far. I finished one book and then read another complete book. I like to read.

Later in the evening we listened to the American league playoffs and listened to the Texas Rangers win their playoffs. I guess all the caps and T-shirts that we hauled was worth it to someone.

Pops was busy trying to find us a church to attend. He could only find three in the directory for this area and no one seemed to be answering their phones again. One of them was a huge congregation and we generally avoid those, but this one was different because Pops’ cousin, Jeff Whitlock, is the senior evangelist there.

Just before we went to bed he tried again to reach someone from any of the churches and got to talk to his cousin, Jeff. We were told that we were more than welcome there and there was plenty of parking. Well good then, that is settled.

We woke up early the next morning and sat and drank our coffee and found our directions and typed them into Gypsy. It was 26 miles away and through the city of Memphis so we left about an hour early. We had no difficulty finding the church. We got parked at the far end of the lot and went inside.

As soon as we entered we were greeted and made to feel welcome. One man showed us around the huge building and described the adult classes to us so that we could choose which one we wanted to attend. We decided just to go to the one that he attended.

We met several more nice, friendly people and listened as they talked about their week and the people needing prayer. Several of them asked us about what we do and how we elected to come to Eastwin Christian Church today. They were surprised to find out that Pops and Jeff are cousins.

Our Sunday School class is watching a video series that is discussing Christians who become atheists and Atheists that later become Christians. They used the writings of Freud and C.S.Lewis and then a panel of experts and scholars would discuss the topics. It was very good. Today’s particular topic was how people, whether people of faith or atheists deal with the grief of losing a loved one. I would really like to see the entire series.

After Sunday School class we made our way back to the main auditorium. It was a beautiful place. The stage area had a lot of stone and rich woods. The pews were actually rows and rows of thickly padded chairs. There was seating for about 700 people and by service time it was about ¾ filled. Along the sides were large, floor to ceiling windows but they were covered with black blinds. They had a countdown clock on the big screen and the moment it hit zero the service started.

It began with a praise team singing on stage. There were between 20 and 30 people singing up there. The words to the songs were on the big screen and when the congregation sang, it was awesome. It was great to be in the presence of that many voices lifted up to God. It sounded so good! I closed my eyes and imagined that this must a little of what Heaven will be like with so many voices praising God.

Then Jeff got up to speak. I had met his mother and father but never him. Pops hadn’t seen him in at least 35 years.  I thought that he looked a lot like his dad but I could also the Ryan in him.

He preached a sermon on Nicodemus.  It was entitled, Where are you with Jesus? He used the scripture from John 3:1-16 as his text. He spoke of Nicodemus’ encounter with Jesus and then the application for us was to realize that we need a spiritual entrance into Jesus. We cannot come to Him on our good deeds or intentions. We cannot get into Heaven just because the good things we do outnumber the bad things we do. We must have a spiritual rebirth.

It was a really good sermon with good visual demonstrations.

Sometimes since I’ve been a Christian for so many years, I take the Bible’s (God’s ) Plan of Salvation for granted and I think a lot of us do, but we need to realize that it is at this crucial time of the service that someone may be making the most important decision of the life. Too many times we begin to talk, loudly zip our Bibles closed, begin to gather our stuff, and then we may be the distraction that keeps someone from making the right choice today.  Please let us be reverent for this reason. Use this time to pray and ask God to work on the hearts that are wavering.

After services and announcements as we were leaving Pops did get to talk to Jeff. I got to meet him for the first time and they chatted for a quick few minutes. We left there with promises of getting together next time.

I am so glad that we got to visit here today.

Once we left we drove to a closer truck stop and settled in for a dispatch. We are still number four truck. I am hoping for a good load tomorrow morning.