JOURNEY

“And he went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem.”  (Luke 13:22)

I’m such a creature of habit that it’s scary.  It’s hard to believe that this blog is now over six months old!  I’ve gotten into the HABIT of posting three entries a week on the blog:  Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.  Well, for the next couple of weeks, that’s all going to be “thrown out the window” so to speak!  On Tuesday morning, I’m leaving on a journey with my daughter Amy.  We’ll be driving to Springfield, Missouri.  I’ll be helping her move back into her dorm room at Evangel University.  I’ll spend a few days in Springfield, and I fly back to T.F. Greene airport in Rhode Island on Tuesday, August 22.  (My connection is in Detroit- the largest Arab-American community in the U.S.A.  I’m just THRILLED to be flying soon - “NOT!”)

Anyway, back to the title:  Journey.  This is not my first journey to Springfield, Missouri.  Springfield, Missouri is where the headquarters of the Assemblies of God is located.  It’s kind of like what Salt Lake City is to the Mormons and what Rome is to Catholics.  Thus it’s kind of like a “mini-Jerusalem” to some of us...”the holy city!” .  The AG (short for “Assemblies of God”) has all sorts of institutions in Springfield including a Bible College, a seminary, and Evangel University a “university of the arts and sciences”.  I first went to Springfield in 1977- sight unseen - to enroll in Central Bible College.  In those days, I made the trip between the Boston area and the Missouri Ozarks a number of times.  Between May 1979 and Feb. 2002, I was away from Springfield, Missouri, but now with Amy attending Evangel there have been a bunch of trips.

If you’re reading this during our road trip, do pray for us.  Back when I was in my twenties I was once broken down for five days just outside Union, Missouri.  It was a dreadful experience!  Depending upon how fast you drive (and I’m NOT a real fast driver) you can drive to Springfield in twenty-four to twenty-eight hours (actual driving time).  AAA routes you across Pennsylvania on Interstate 80 (because it’s NOT a toll road).  I’ve done that route a few times and I HATE it!  For the past several trips, I’ve taken Interstate 90 (toll roads) from Framingham, MA across New York State, through Buffalo, and then south to the PA border.  At Erie, PA, I get off and take Interstate 71 South.  After a little over an hour on 71, I get on 80 (but only for a short distance) and follow it to the Ohio line.  There, at Hubbard, Ohio, we like to spend the night at Truck World, a truckers’ paradise.  It would take me one whole blog entry to talk about Truck World.  Maybe I’ll do that after I return.  From there, you take 80 to 76 through the Akron/Canton area.  I always feel sobered when I see the Exit for “Kent State University”.  Ultimately, we follow 76 to the Columbus area, where you get on the 270 beltway, and then pick up Interstate 70 West.   There are always all sorts of Eighteen-Wheelers on 70.  You pass farms, and cows, and farms, and cows, and farms and cows, and when your’re through with that, you pass farms and cows!  You DO go right through Indianapolis, IN, home town of NBC’s Jane Pauley.  (I just happen to know trivia like that!)  

Interstate  70 goes all the way to St. Louis.  We hope to spend a night somewhere in Illinois.  Maybe another time I’ll tell you about the night I stayed at the St. Elmo Motel in very rural St. Elmo, Illinois.  It was a Bates Motel - TOTALLY.  Amy was really freaked out (and although I tried to act cool, so was I!).  

At St. Louis, you pick up  Interstate 44.  (Incidentally, for those of you who think the Mississippi River is really impressive- it ain’t.  The Cape Cod Canal is more impressive!)  It’s one of those tricky highway situations where there are like 8 lanes and you have 3 seconds to get in the 44 West lane or you’re DEAD.  But, once you’re on 44, it’s 200 miles to Springfield.  Actually, 44 is undergoing MAJOR reconstruction to make a twenty-first century state-of-the-art highway out of a poorly constructed 1950s Interstate.  The construction can really slow you down.

Have you fallen asleep yet?  How’d you like to DRIVE that route?!
So, pray for us.  The Lord willing, I will have my next blog entry sometime around Aug. 24 or 25.