West of Mississippi

May 26, 2011--Day 13
Green Forest, Arkansas
Written by Rev


We started out our day leaving the pool house in Corinth, MS and heading to the great Honda dealer in Corinth. We were in good spirits about this opportunity to fix Wilberforce. The owner checked Wilberforce out, but didn't find anything wrong with him, so we decided to press on. Memphis, TN was our destination for lunch, so we could cross into Arkansas in the afternoon.

After passing signs for Canaan and the Walls of Jericho, I was curious if we were in the Holy Land or still in America, especially after being in Athens and Corinth the day before. But anyways, we found we were still in America, which was some what disappointing to me, but thats okay.

Memphis provided a great place to eat lunch at the classic Panera Bread. A security guard offered to guard our bikes for us while we ate lunch. We were very thankful for his kindness and sincerity for watching our vehicles.

Memphis was awesome! My favorite part was driving right through the heart of it, dodging the potholes and then taking the interstate, yes, the interstate over the Mississippi River to get to Arkansas. That was a rather scary and crazy experience which I do not wish to ever go through again :)

We made it to Bald Knob, AR and ate supper and found ourselves in a hotel room provided from a very fine couple. Thank you very much. We prepped for Sunday, as we are speaking in a church in Green Forest. I was extremely exhausted and fell asleep with my notebook and Bible next to me and woke up at 3 AM and decided to get to sleep without my notebook on me.

We received some good rest and headed to Green Forest after eating some very good breakfast. Viking kept reminding me that we were just under a 100 miles. Very funny since we were definitely under 100 miles from getting there. He thought it was funny, since he was the one with the map and I am not, therefore I must guess when we will be at our destination when he knows. He thinks its funny. I do not. Well its okay.

It was rather a brisk and chilly morning, but warmed up and became extremely hot and muggy. We are now in Viking's cousin's families house where we will be staying and speaking at their church tomorrow morning as well as their youth group.

I want to make a few comments about what we have seen in these states that we have gone through
-it has been very interesting to see the way that people would interact with us in the different parts of the country. Going from Midwest, to East Coast, to the South and back in the Midwest has been interesting to compare the interactions that we have had.
-Tornadoes have devastated many towns in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi from what we have seen. I have always seen clips and pictures of the after effects of tornadoes, but I have never seen them first hand. My heart ached. I couldn't believe all the devastation that has taken place in our country and I was so unaware of it. I was ashamed that I didn't know all the damage that had happened. My heart went out to them.
-Likewise, as we crossed the Mississippi River and came into eastern Arkansas, I realized that Arkansas is extremely flat in the eastern part. There were lots of fields, but there were so many fields that were flooded, as well as rivers, etc. The flooding was once again a huge effect on me to see houses have water half way up their side--crazy!
-God is good. There have been so many God-sightings on this trip that if we were to name all of them, we would still miss some. God is good.

To God Be the Glory.