This seventeen day period was the continuation of our spring visit to Michigan. The time was spent with four different couples.
First, Mike and Lois Crawford drove up from Tipp City, Ohio to finish our time at the Boyne Falls resort. Mike and Lois were members of a church I pastored throughout the 1980s. Our time was spent traveling across the north land with stops at places like Petoskey, Charlevois, Ironton, Cross Village, and Mackinac Island. The weather was almost perfect and the fellowship outstanding. This is the second time they have visited us since we have begun traveling, and I trust it won't be the last.
Next, we drove about an hour south to Fife Lake, Michigan where we stayed with Pastor Bryan McInerny and his wife, Valerie. I first met the McInernys when I held a revival at the Nazarene Church in Kalkaska, where he pastors. They live right on Fife Lake. They were gracious hosts who took us to a VFW fish fry, breakfast on the lake (well, actually on their pontoon boat), special scenic points (where tourists don't usually get to go), and we joined them in Worship on Sunday. New friends who have become good friends.
Another stop was in East Tawas, Michigan, where we were hosted by Daryl Burt and wife wife, Gwen. Daryl went to Olivet with us and is a retired Nazarene pastor. They have a lovely log home, inside the town limits, where there were deer and turkeys in the back yard every day. I re-connected with Daryl when he asked me to speak at the Northern Michigan Nazarene District's Men Retreat. They made certain to represent the eastern side of the state well. Visits to Lumberman's Monument and a wonderful State Park on Lake Huron were absolute highlights of our time in Michigan.
We also visited in Kalkaska where we stayed with Gil and Dottie Dingman. Gil and Dottie were a part of the first church I pastored back in 1970. Such awesome laymen then, such awesome laymen now. Sherry had not seen them in nearly 50 years. Lots of catching up plus visits to Lake Michigan, golf with Gil, and worshiping together at the Northern Michigan Holiness Campmeeting in Boyne City, Michigan. My thanks to them, also, for loaning us one of their cars while we were in northern Michigan. They dropped us off at the Traverse City airport and we flew back to Indiana.
REFLECTIONS
I guess I will always be a Michigander, or is it, Michiganian? Either way, the Great Lake State will hold a special place in my heart; always. During recent days I revisited spots that I remember visiting with my parents many decades ago. Memories rushed through my mind of days spent in the North woods looking for deer, golf outings, pontoon boat rides, car ferry rides across the "straights", Mackinac Island, and Lumberman's Monument. Even though right now, technically, I call Indiana home, it is just a place I hang my blue and gold MICHIGAN hat.
Come to think of it.....right now, I call this planet "earth" home but it is just the place I hang my hat. The memories I have from every
decade of my life are surrounded by His Church. Memories of the little Goodells Gospel Church, worshiping in the old Coast Guard Station down by the St. Clair River, church camps, Youth for Christ, Olivet, 6 churches pastored, and 7 years traveling the country and preaching His Word. It's been quite a journey and I am thankful for all the friends I've made and the blessings I've experienced. But I know that "the Best Is Yet To Come".
"This world (Michigan, Indiana) is not my home, I'm just passing through, my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue.
The angels beckon me from Heaven's open door and I can't feel at home in this world anymore."
This would be about a month in the Hoosier state with time split between our cabin outside of Bloomington and at our daughter's house, in Avon, just outside of Indianapolis. It would include family activities, Church of the Nazarene General Assembly, house and dog sitting, visits with Sherry's mom, and getting ready for our, three week, upcoming trip to Australia.
