The Weekend Dispatch 6/5/23

Our weekend began in Gainesville, Texas. It was laundry day for KJo and Odie while I was trying my best to be prepared for Pastor Dennis King's funeral on Saturday. Even though my sermon was complete by Wednesday evening, I was editing right up to the last minute. Unfortunately, that is not uncommon for me.😢

KJo and I spent some time at the church Friday preparing for a new song.

The family night visitation Friday evening was amazing. Hundreds of people walked through the church as a testimony to the life Bro. King had lived. He was an honorable man and the people came to declare it.

We have been going to House of Prayer in Gainesville for many years but we were blessed Friday to meet hundreds of people that Bro. Dennis had helped or influenced. It was tremendous to witness the outpouring of love for a man that affected so many lives.

The funeral was Saturday at 10:00. We were up early in order to get our voices warmed up and do our best for Bro. King and his family. We also started the bus and moved to the edge of the parking lot so as to make room for the cars to line up around the church.

This the RV parking at the church. 

We backed up and over to this spot.

They were not even sure they could bury Bro King Saturday because of the 100% chance of storms with heavy rain. But the sun shined all day long until a couple of hours after the committal service. The temperatures were pleasant too. No rain and sunshine were blessings.

Another great crowd gathered Saturday and the funeral was excellent. Several people told Sis. King they had not been in a service with the Spirit of the Lord present like that in many years. We are thanking the Lord for manifesting His presence in a mighty way! Hallelujah!

Please continue to pray for Sis. King and the House of Prayer in the coming weeks. They need the Lord to stay close to them. I can barely imagine the road they are walking at this moment, but my heart is turned toward them and I know that God can comfort our friends.

Thank you, friends, for praying for us. We appreciate it much. I was able to be at the church for over seven hours on Friday and run all day Saturday. I had plenty of strength to sing and preach and I am very thankful for that. 

After the funeral and committal, we went to eat with some friends and arrived back at the bus at 3:00. By 4:10, we had cranked the bus, emptied the holding tanks, hooked up the car, said our farewells to Sis. King again and hit the road.

We needed to eat up some miles toward Louisiana in order to make our Sunday a little easier. We lost about 15 minutes in the Dallas area traffic but overall, it was not bad. We stopped for the night in a rest area near Van, Texas after 140 miles.

I did not rest well because of the ongoing generator issue, but it was good enough, I guess. We spent the day finishing the trip to Pineville, Louisiana just after 3:00 PM. It took us about an hour to navigate the tricky entrance into the camp and get parked and then we were done for the day.

The youth camp is held at the Nazarene Camp and the entrance goes way down and back up quickly. We were able to finagle in, but we may not be able to get out again. It seems like a nice place to live.😍

We had a great meal with Pastor Jerry Arnold and a bunch of the folks and today we get ready for the first night of youth camp. 

Thank you for stopping by today.

Davy