From Leonia to Defuniak…still Here in Florida

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We really enjoyed being at Leonia Baptist Church! We stayed around church until almost 10pm just chatting with everyone and talking about the Lord. Chris & I were able to talk for a while with Tripp & Joy (the youth pastor & his fiancée) and Stacy, Ann, Seth, & Lacy (the pastor & his wife & their kids) showed us around the church.
The youth room is definitely my favorite…the youth have named themselves “The Outcasts” based on John 15:19 “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.” Isn’t that awesome?!! Joy’s dad is also a pastor, so we were able to share about what it’s like being a preacher’s daughter. Her dad also just went to Colombia…more contacts…more evidence of God going before us! After we left the church, we talked with Pastor Stacy even more…he was sharing his testimony and about how the church has grown and transformations that are taking place in the lives of the people in the congregation. It was a great time of sharing. I don’t think he dropped us off until sometime after midnight. He went to revival one night about 9 years ago to help one of his beloved aunts “pack a pew” and to get Ann to leave him alone. Although he didn’t make any decisions for the Lord at the revival, he was under such conviction that he couldn’t go to sleep that night for fear of what would happen to him if he didn’t wake up. So at 10:18, Ann told him that since he wasn’t going to get any sleep that night anyway, they might as well go to the preacher’s house right then and get it settled. That’s exactly what they did! However, Ann thought that she was fine, so she only half listened. Stacy was eventually called into the ministry and began preaching at Leonia. A little while later, Ann realized that what she had wasn’t the same as what Stacy had, so she too committed her life to Christ!! Slowly but surely, they have seen many of their family come to know the Lord through their testimonies and changed lives! Ooooh & the stories of restored marriages, changed lives, and an 84-year-old man coming to know the Lord…let me tell you…it was enough to get us pumped up!! Isn’t our God amazing?! It’s never too late even when you think there is no hope left there is…He is alive a well…Psalm 20:7 “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.” and Psalm 121:1-2 “I lift up my eyes to the hills—where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.” And Psalm 25:4-5 “Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” Just writing about Him, I’m about to get excited and start singing! Anyway, I guess you get my point about the Lord!
As always, we were sad to know that it was time to leave, but we also were excited to see what God had planned for us to do next…Donna Hicks (the after-school director at Ponce de Leon) paid for us to eat breakfast at Sally’s restaurant on Thursday morning. So we walked up to there after we had everything packed up. The food was excellent! We met Sally & several of the girls who worked there. Charlotte, Sally’s daughter-in-law, asked us a few questions, so we were able to share quite a bit with her. When we were getting ready to go, the couple, Gene & Shelva Dielman, who had been sitting behind us began to ask us questions as well. So we shared with them and they invited us to stay with them in Leesburg, FL whenever we come back through. Right as we were getting ready to leave, Charlotte came out and told us that she was on her way to the grocery store in Defuniak Springs and that she’d like to give us a ride. Never ones to turn down God’s provision, we accepted. She asked us where she should drop us off, and we didn’t have a clue at first. Then Chris remembered that Lisa Merchant (she played the piano at Leonia) wanted us to pray for her dad as we were walking through Defuniak because he is in a nursing home. Charlotte knew where the nursing home was, so she dropped us off.
Mr. Stanley was a teacher and/or a principal for over 30 years in the schools in and around Ponce de Leon, but he had a stroke that paralyzed one side of his body which caused his retirement. We understand that he was a little depressed at first, but he’s coming to see his purpose has changed. Now he prays for a long list of people daily, and he talks to the nurses…one of them accepted Christ the week before we came to visit because of a conversation that Mr. Stanley had with her! It’s that awesome! When we had been there a few minutes, Mrs. Stanley came in…she comes every day to bring lunch and spend time with her husband. They shared stories of how they met and dated and married. Oh, how we love to hear people’s stories of how God brought them together or how He changed their lives! Mrs. Stanley told us that we should eat at Murray’s Café for lunch because they had great food and because the owners are a preacher and his wife. (So we went…the food was good and we were able to meet Pastor Richard & his wife, Barbara. She also told us of her own “faith walk.” She told us that she wasn’t supposed to still be alive because she had cancer that was supposed to take her life 5-6 years ago. Her explanation? Well, the church prayed over her and God healed her! Wow!)
After visiting at the nursing home, Chris and I struck out to explore Defuniak Springs. It’s a very historical place, so we learned a ton…from Chautauqua gatherings to the history of the town. The oldest library building in Florida that still serves as a library is in Defuniak along with an interesting display of medieval swords and an old music box. They also have a natural lake that is a perfect circle with a 1 mile circumference that they decorate at Christmas time with over 4 millions lights…(It was beautiful by the way.) Our stop into the Chamber of Commerce was actually the most helpful on the whole trip. Pam told us all about the town and gave us several very helpful contacts. She passed on information about what turned out to be a Christian camp & about Chelco for Children. Apparently there are a lot of underprivileged kids in the area…so many that they United Way can’t handle the load, so Chelco (the electric company) does an outreach as well. We went by to make a donation & we were able to meet a lot of the women who worked there (left to right: front-Dana, Tiffany, & Chrissy; back-Jennifer, Donna, Lynn, Pam, & Angie). It was as awesome because a lot of them are Christians, and they are the ones who actually go out and buy all of the gifts.
The thing that shocked us though was that we still didn’t have a place to stay and it was dark. We also knew that it was going to storm really bad that night, so we decided that we would get something to drink, sit on a bench and pray about what we were supposed to do. Well, right as we crossed the street to go to the store, we almost collided with a cyclist, Jon. He and Erik (a friend from college) were making 6,000 mile trek across the country to raise money for early literacy. Jon (in yellow) invited us to come and camp behind the fire station with them and another couple that they had just run into the day before. We decided to get the drinks and still go pray about our decision. When we finished praying, Chris & I both knew we were supposed to go camp. Upon arriving, we met Erik (in red) and Shawne (in gray) & Jodie (in navy blue). Shawne & Jodie are also cycling across the country as well. They were tired of the rat race and wanted to find a new place to live, so they struck out on bike to find something new. We had a good time sharing stories from the road and learning a little more about cycling…neither of us knew very much!! They each pull over 100 lbs on their bikes either on B.O.Bs (beasts of burdens) or on “saddle bags.” It made me thankful for a 30+ lb pack!! They shared a “friendship cake” with us and breakfast Friday morning! God protected us from the wind and the rain, and we were right happy knowing we were right where He wanted us to be!

Friday morning we headed towards Tri-State Christian Fellowship Camp about 5 miles from where we stayed the night behind the fire station. On our way to the camp, we stopped in to get our hair cut…I was so excited because she did a great job on my hair, & she gave me some samples of my favorite shampoo…Praise God for his provision! Two different cars of people who we had crossed our paths earlier stopped us as we were walking. They were such an encouragement to us!!





After we started walking up the path, we almost immediately met Johnny Arnold. He gave us a tour, and we were amazed to find a 44-acre Christian camp complete with a pool, a basketball court, a volleyball court, and a low-ropes course just to name a few features! Right now they can house 100 campers, and there are 7 hotel rooms. It’s an awesome facility if any of you are nearby and looking for a place to use for a retreat over the weekend.


We also went to lunch at Pig Daddy’s, and while we were there we met Valerie (the co-owner) and her daughter!! Chris & I laughed when we realized it was right across the street from the fire department where we slept the night before! (The food was worth the walk to the camp and ride back though!) While we were at camp, we helped a little by cleaning up the grounds and the facility after the group left. We also got some much needed rest and washed our stinky clothes…God’s provision is right on time! Johnny also started telling us a about the message that he would be preaching on Sunday since he’s a supply preacher for the Independent Christian churches in the area. After explaining a little, we were interested in hearing what he (with the help of the Holy Spirit) had to say about why God revealed His Son’s birth to the shepherds first. He agreed to take us to the service in Crestview. (This answered my question about how we were going to make it from Defuniak Springs to Crestview which is a 25 mile hike with very little in between for food or water!!)
On Saturday night, we got a phone call from Pastor Mike McVay. We met his daughter-in-law, Nikki, at Leonia Baptist Church, so she passed our name and number on to Pastor Mike. He invited us to come to his church, First Baptist Laurel Hill, and to an FCA meeting at the K-12 school in the community to speak and to share testimony of what God is doing. After praying about it, we called him back to tell him that we would love to come.
We wanted to walk a little on Sunday after lunch, so he told us a good place that we could meet.We enjoyed the words that the Lord shared through Troyce at Sunday School at Crestview Christian Church. We read in John 12 and discussed Martha’s service & Mary’s extravagant sacrifice—to the point of risk. Immediately after that, we see Judas questioning not Martha’s service, but Mary’s worship. Next, we see the chief priest trying to hinder God’s work by making plans to kill Jesus AND Lazarus. He questioned us on our level of commitment…because see the trials will come when we make sacrifices, but it is so worth it…Mary had seen Jesus do a miracle in her brother’s life. When you ask yourself what a life is worth, her sacrifice doesn’t seem so extreme! The youth of the church sang a song to catch everyone's interest at church so that they would come back for the play they were presenting that evening. Johnny's message taught the characteristics of shepherds that ought to make us say “I want God to visit me, so I wanna be like a shepherd.” Shepherds are always on the job, their flock knows their voice, they are always protecting, caring for, and guiding the sheep, & they are common folks. Carolyn, Johnny’s wife, Bridget, their daughter-in-law, and Hunter & Sydney, their grandkids, all came to church. We chatted for awhile after church with Jeremy Whittle & Anthony (on left with CE) Peppey (please pray for Anthony’s family to come to Jesus), and enjoyed hearing of God’s power in their lives. Then, the Arnold family invited us to eat with them. Several church friends ended up coming as well, so Jake, Brenda, Alisha (on the right), and Claire (on the left) ended up giving us a ride to the corner of 85 and 90 so that we could start our trek towards Laurel Hill.