We are in Sheridan, WY again. When we left here two and a half weeks ago, we had snow on the ground. None today!
We will be in Idaho tonight, Lord willing, and home on Saturday.
Looking forward to seeing you all.
Maranatha!
Pastor Don
Jer 33.3
As we send this we are packing up in Greenville for the long long trek back home. We hope to be home by Saturday and look forward to seeing you all on Sunday. It seems like we have been gone for a long time, much longer than two weeks. I know that when we get back home to the regular responsibilities that the passage of time will return to ‘normal’ levels.
I am going to give you a couple of videos from our weekend with the Calhouns.
The first is called “our little cabin in the woods”.
The second is a look at the Calhoun’s church building and our sight-seeing at Grandfather mountain and Elk River Falls. I am afraid I still have to learn to do better with the camera – I pan way too quickly. I hope it isn’t too hard to follow.
Maranatha!
Pastor Don
Jer 33.3
We are in the mountains of North Carolina today, visiting Duncan’s in-laws, Brad and Sarah Calhoun. There is no term for what the relationship is, so we have taken to calling ourselves ‘outlaws’.
While here, we are staying in a little summer cabin Debbi found on the internet. The cost of renting was the same as what motels were looking like… so… here we are. It is quite nice.
Today we spent our time enjoying the great outdoors. A good bit of the day was taken up with Grandfather Mountain. It has quite astonishing views … and a few nervous edges to the cliffs. I stayed well grounded in the middle of the flat spaces. There is no terra in firma, I always say.
We also had a look at Elk River Falls, a rather amazing waterfall not too far away (and with not much hiking, right up my alley).
I’ll have some video shortly, I am importing it to the computer as I type.
Praying for you all and your services tomorrow. We will be worshipping with the Calhouns and their church in NC. We will be heading back to Greenville tomorrow evening, then hitting the road west on Monday, leaving Rory behind. That will be a sad moment… But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Maranatha!
Pastor Don
Jer 33.3
We have one last video from graduation. This is the picnic we had after graduation with the Calhouns. Meg’s sister, Beth Calhoun, also graduated along with Rory, so we all had a big picnic together.
I have a short video of some of the doings at the picnic for you:
Rory grad - evening picnic from Don Johnson on Vimeo.
Maranatha!
Pastor Don
Jer 33.3
Some of our church folks remember when Elena Quiroz was part of our congregation along with her family. Mom and Dad moved back to Mexico, but Elena stayed with us to work at Wal-Mart and save money for her education at BJU.
At BJU, she met Mauricio Reyes and now has two cute little girls, Rebecca and Graciela. These clips give you a bit of a glimpse of Elena and her family.
elena and family from Don Johnson on Vimeo.
Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3
I am catching up on my video editing. This video is a short bit of the “picture taking on the lawn” session. You can see Rory in his regalia.
More to come…
Maranatha!
Pastor Don
Jer 33.3
I promised Rob to send you an update tonight. It is still “tonight” Victoria time. We just finished watching the Canucks get bumped off by Chicago on US TV. I am sure many in our town are in the dumps as a result, though probably not a lot of GBC people.
Just a word about the graduation ceremonies on Saturday:
The ceremony itself is most interesting to those who know the individuals involved. In some ways, it can be a rather dull affair. When I was a student, I was required to attend and found it usually hopelessly tedious. (Of course, I was young and immature.) The ceremony certainly is a milestone and college graduation is worth marking with a ceremony.
In the BJU graduation, graduating students are given the opportunity to give testimonies. Rory was one of the ones selected, following in Susan’s footsteps from two years ago. Rory’s testimony was vintage Rory. If you recall his sermons in our church, you would appreciate the fact that he took the chance to give a gospel invitation to those listening. We may get a DVD of the event later, so we’ll try to let you see that part of it for yourselves.
We do have some video shot after the graduation when graduates and their families and friends mill about on the BJU lawns and take pictures. I’ll put a few pictures below, the video will have to wait for later. (Amazing, editing video takes time!) Included will be some shots of Elena and her kids. For our newer folks, Elena is a former member of our church who went off to BJU and married a fellow down here. Her kids are cute! (We keep lobbying them to move to Victoria!)
Here are some pics:
On Sunday, we went to church in Greenville in the morning. The church is one some of our kids attend while at BJU, pastored by a friend of mine from my seminary days. We heard a fine message and got to see several old friends.
In the evening, we went to a church in Gaffney, SC (about an hour away) pastored by my former English professor. His wife was my freshman speech teacher and was also Cullen’s speech teacher this year. Cullen has been helping out at this church this semester and Rory will be helping out this summer, Lord willing. This church is quite small. It reminds us of home. One of the older members of this church was part of a church I worked with 30 years ago in the area. It was a great blessing to see him.
Monday we spent running around with errands and traveling to Knoxville, where we are staying in Debbi’s mom’s old house. Today we went to Cades Cove, a unique region now in a US National Park, but once home to many early settlers. Many of their old buildings are preserved including three old churches. We videoed parts of this and will put that up later also, including some pictures of ‘bars’ (bears) and a wild turkey.
That brings us up to date. As soon as I get some time, I’ll get busy editing those videos for you.
Maranatha!
Pastor Don
Jer 33.3
Hi all
We are very hot today… I think it was close to 90 F. I think even Debbi thought it was too hot. By late afternoon, I was pretty well beat. (Maybe it was because Debbi had me shopping almost all day… that will do it to almost any man.)
Our shopping was quite profitable, however. At the BJU bookstore, books and Bibles were 30% off. So… we tried to be restrained, but we got some good stuff. I picked up a few more commentaries on 1 Timothy that should make our series there a little richer.
We are getting ready for the big day tomorrow. Graduation starts at 9 am Eastern, you can watch streaming video from the BJU site if you are up between 6 am and 9 am Victoria time.
I want to also give you a video Debbi took for you as we drove by the St Louis Arch. I just now got a chance to edit it. Your ‘look’ at the arch in this video isn’t that good, but we are thinking of stopping there on the way back to give you a better look. We are also planning a few more videos from BJU over the next few days.
Here’s the St Louis video:
St Louis Arch from Don Johnson on Vimeo.
Well, it is time to quit for the night. More to come.
Maranatha!
Pastor Don
Jer 33.3
Hi All
Just to let you know that we made it to Greenville this evening about 6 pm Eastern time (3 pm Victoria). We are exhausted! Debbi is in bed and out for the count as I type. We have seen all the kids and all are doing well.
The big news tonight is that Rory made “Who’s Who” this year, following in the footsteps of his mother. “Who’s Who” is a special honours award that recognizes outstanding students at American colleges and universities. We are quite proud of Rory for receiving this recognition.
Rory’s dad, on the other hand, is a member of the little known “What’s That” designation…
Maranatha!
Pastor Don
Jer 33.3
wyoming from Don Johnson on Vimeo.
That’s what we were doing Tuesday morning as we left Sheridan, Wyoming. We woke up to about an inch of snow on top of the van. The roads were clear, but the temps were 36-38 F, and the wind was blowing. The snow belt lasted only about 15 miles south of Sheridan, then we were back to normal.
And!! Kaleigh saw an antelope while we were filming! That’s one!
Debbi later saw three or four as we were driving along. So we are counting 5!
Now that we are in the Southeast, we don’t expect to see any more until we go back.
More later!
Maranatha!
Pastor Don
Jer 33.3
Got a note from Don's sister-in-law that they had taken Don's dad to ER
last night because of difficulty breathing due to a bad cold. He is
doing OK for now, no pneumonia, but that is the worry.
So as you think of it, we'd appreciate your prayers for Dad.
-- the traveling Johnsons
