Sunday, September 8 – Sidney, Nebraska to Des Moines, Iowa

We left our motel in Sidney about 6:30 am. (Mountain Time) again driving into a beautiful sunrise.

Shortly after getting on the road, we called into our home church (Eastern Standard Time) and were blessed to hear them singing It Is Well With My Soul.

While we were listing to Scott Rohrer (Sunday school superintendent) welcome everyone and share a few thoughts on the Sunday school lesson, we saw a coyote on a side road beside the interstate. I would have liked to back up for a picture, but like I have often said, Cerwin likes to get from Point A to Point B when traveling on an interstate and stopping is an irritation to him. That’s okay. My Christmas gift from him is coming up: A road trip on back roads. 🙂 He promised to stop whenever I want.

At 7 am the time changed to 8 am, and just like that we were in Central Time. While listening to the lesson we drove by a huge stockyard with thousands of cattle, a flock of two dozen turkeys and two mule deer.

The Sunday school teacher was Sam Cassel – on the Study of Hannah.

Notes I wrote in my journal:

Grief will come into our life. The best way to deal with it is to surrender our life to God and walk through the situation with Him.

When people share their grief with you, listen. You don’t need all the details or answers.

The worship service began with the singing of For the Beauty of the Earth – and I said, “Amen” as we were traveling through beautiful Nebraska farmland. and passing fields of corn and hay bales.

It was interesting to listen to a Harvest Sunday sermon by Jim Myer while five tractor trailers drove by us filled with onions. On this day at our church, people bring dry good groceries to the fellowship hall and an offering is received to bless Teen Challenge with some of our harvest.

During the beginning of the sermon Jim focused on the soil – and apparently had a container of soil with him on the pulpit. “We cannot eat soil, it is not pretty, but it grows many delicious things.”

Though we could not see him, we could tell that he was displaying an onion, a sweet potato, a pickle, a pumpkin, a watermelon and a corn stalk.

Isn’t it amazing that after all the years – since God created soil – He has never had to create more soil. However, it continues to produce crops. Crops would not grow in the subsoil, but the subsoil supports the top soil year after year.

Another lesson in crops is that the fruit or vegetable must stay attached to the vine if it is going to mature. If we are going to grow and mature, we must be attached to God – The True Vine.

One of his closing remarks: “As keepers of the land we must leave it better than we found it.”

One of our goals for the day was to stop at Sapp Bros Truck Stop in Omaha, Nebraska, and visit with Dave and Laura Hertle who serve there with TFC Global.

They knew we were coming and planning to have a late lunch with them. Oh, what fun to hang out with them again.

Laura has recently dealt with a variety of health issues and uses a walker to help her feel secure when walking.

I think Cerwin was showing Dave some of the animals we saw at Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. After a three-hour visit, we said our goodbyes and moved on to Des Moines, Iowa.

After eleven days of nice motels, this one was the best! It was a new motel and quite modern. I spent the first few minutes pressing buttons just to see what light came on or to watch it dim or get lighter. (Yes, it doesn’t take much to fascinate me.)