Hymns and reunions and blessings from Zion...

Click on the flower to see our adventure du jour.

The day dawned bright and clear, again. It is Sunday, so we had decided to go across the street from our little campground to attend the New Hope Bible Church. Well, I want to tell you, that we were in for a treat.

We were warmly greeted by several members of the congregation. As we waited for the service to begin, Jill looked through the church bulletin and said, "It doesn't say anything about a sermon. It is just all music." I searched the bulletin and found the same thing. Not only that, but there were many more songs listed than I have ever seen at a church service.

At last the pastor came to the front of the church (capacity about 100 people) and introduced Carl and Ruth Engstrom, who proceeded to minister to us for about an hour and 15 minutes with hymns, gospel songs, instrumentals (piano and organ), solos, duets and congregation participation. What a blessing it was to hear them sing and play some of my favorite hymns.

This dear couple will have been married for 50 years next month. They live in their motor home full time and travel cross country ministering to congregations throughout the U.S. Had we planned to find the greatest blessing in a church we were visiting, we could not have done better.

Now, never let it be said that I can't take the edge off a blessing. We have been trying to make contact with our son Patrick's birth mother, Susan, who lives up the highway a few miles and works at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary that we visited on Friday. Wouldn't you know that, not only did she call during the church service, but I had forgotten to put my phone on silent ringing. So, just as there was a lull in the music, my phone began to ring its fool head off! I'll continue this story a bit later.

After church, we headed for Zion National Park, not knowing what to expect. Well, I can tell you, we got another huge blessing The photos in the slide show above don't do any justice at all to the beauty of this magnificent piece of God's handiwork. Jill and I agreed that, driving along the road through the park, we felt as if we were on a Disney ride. The scenery has a surreal beauty that looks almost as if it had been carved by a sculptor, which of course it has...and One greater than Walt Disney.

There is one outstanding man-made feature of the park. It is a tunnel that is over a mile long leading down to the floor of the canyon and the visitor center. Unfortunately for modern drivers, the tunnel was built in the 1930s and sized for the cars of that day. The highest point in the center of the tunnel is 13' 4" high, but the arched ceiling means that the clearance at the sides is considerably less. As a consequence, when a bus or motor home or other large vehicle wants to pass, the traffic coming the other way has to be detained until the taller vehicle passes through, because the tall guys need to drive down the middle of the tunnel straddling both lanes! Nevertheless, this long, dark tunnel is quite impressive...and a little scary for the claustrophobic, I should think.

Because we had brought Pogo along with us, and because it was 97 degrees in the canyon, we opted not to take the guided shuttle bus tour. I don't know what they could have shown us that would have topped what we saw from our own little car. We came away thoroughly satisfied that we had seen a natural wonder.

When we were on the way back to our Sadie, we stopped at the intersection of UT 9 and US 89, which is only 5 miles from Susan's home in Orderville. There was no cell phone coverage anywhere today, so we stopped at the Thunderbird Restaurant and called from a pay phone. (I thought later how fortunate we are that there are still some anachronisms left in the world!)

Well, to shorten the story, we made contact, and Susan and her husband Jim and their two youngest children, Kelly and Paul, met us at the Thunderbird. We all had ice cream delights and a wonderful conversation about all that they are doing and about Patrick and his new bride, Katie. It was the perfect end to a lovely day.