A SWEET SPOT

My husband loved his grandparents.

Oscar and Bertha Robinson were weight-bearing walls of the New Antioch Baptist Church, which was just across the road from their farm. You can see the church in the background behind Little Mikie. Granddad started the woodstove in the mornings and sang in the choir; Grandmother played the piano every Sunday. Mr. Robinson was on the church board for 50 years, and they took the collection home after church to count the money. Together, they helped make church happen.

Mike's beginnings gave him a heart for smaller churches. Saints like his grandparents sit in the pews of such churches every Sunday. They are faithful, in spite of the lack of the "bells and whistles" that larger churches enjoy.

After Mike retired for the second time, he felt called to do what would turn out to be a ten-year stint at our church in Little Rock. He served Fellowship Bible Church as "project manager"...and was privileged to be aboard during a lot of different building projects and work alongside church planners from across the country.

Just before we moved to Fayetteville, Mike found himself working on the mother-of-all-projects. He helped with a 51 million dollar relocation of Fellowship. We realized one time as we flew into Little Rock that the new FBC does actually show up from the air. It looks sorta like a mall (see left).

Cue the moving trucks. When we headed north to Fayetteville, we just assumed that because we loved our church in Little Rock, we would just segway into Fellowship NW AR. That is where our kids go. It is a church of 6,000 and is working alive with young people and kiddos.

But God led in a different direction.

These are our new friends, Ron and Becky Wey. After we moved here, they kept saying..."you should come see our little church...Black Oak has such sweet people...it's a special place."

We did visit, and Black Oak Baptist Church has become our new church home. What a precious place! It is south of town and takes us about 30 minutes to drive there. BOBC has a great pastor who makes God's Word easily applicable. And not surprisingly, it reaches a tender place in my husband's heart for the body of Christ.

A week ago Sunday, we called church off because of our 6-8" snow. So by the time yesterday rolled around, we were really looking forward to getting back together and seeing everyone again. Unfortunately, we found out the central heat in the sanctuary was out and it registered 42 degrees inside. No one wanted to cancel, so we all crammed into the other "big" room which did have heat. Mike brought our two space heaters and the children's space was toasty for the two or three little ones. There is a pioneer spirit in the Lord's

smaller churches that causes people to "pitch in".

Yesterday a couple in their eighties came in late. Everyone clapped because they had been out sick for several weeks, trading a bronchial virus back and forth. I watched the man's face as we sang that old hymn "Heaven Came Down and Glory Filled My Soul". It was sung accapella (the piano didn't want to switch rooms) and there are some beautiful voices there who have sung parts for years. Jack had the most contented look on his face. He didn't want to start coughing, so he didn't dare sing. He just shut his eyes and the song bathed his soul.

Surely the Lord enjoyed the worship from our little spot yesterday. It was sweet. But then...that's what Ron and Becky told us.

"Come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand." Psalm 95.6,7