Back to Liberty

"The Lone Ranger" always starts off, "return with us now to those thrilling days of yester-year -- the Lone Ranger rides again"! Of course, we know that he really wasn't ALONE as the LONE Ranger -- he nearly always had Tonto with him. But now, on to the purpose of this blog.

As noted in earlier blogs, we went back to Liberty yesterday in Enid Oklahoma. Our camera battery was very low so I only got a very few pictures. I wish we could have taken pictures of old friends. Chuck and Cathy Strohmeyer were there -- Cathy was recognized as the one who had been a member the longest of all the people there yesterday.


Jerry Holt is the pastor of the church. He grew up in NW Oklahoma and has spent nearly all his life in that area. He's a good country guy who loves the Lord and has been serving as a Pastor for many years. Next February he'll complete 10 years at Liberty -- and they are once again calling it "Exciting Liberty", just as we did so many years ago. I think he is a great fit for communicating with the folks there.


Jerry does very well with in in his ministry at Liberty. Even though it is a different group of people, it's interesting to see that some of the same human issues exist that we saw so many years ago. I promised Jerry that we would mention him in our prayers regularly.

About a year or so ago they remodeled the worship area. The "choir cubby-hole" is gone and the entire front of the room is opened up. The windows are covered over so no more red and green sunshine. Someone in the church built a new pulpit a few years ago -- it looks very nice. Of course it still has the low ceiling, but that goes with the building. Someday that area can be used as education space and the ceiling will be a good fit.


The redwood cross in the sidewalk entrance is still there. I built that when we did a big remodel project. Milford Whorley (now with the Lord) helped me set it up and then poured all the concrete.

As we were in the worship service I had a good laugh as I remember when we had some live plants in the woship area and put some plant lights in the choir area to keep them alive. One Sunday some tall men were on the highest row in the choir area and came away sweating and almost sun-burned from being so close to the plant lights. Yes, we changed out those lights.

And of course Cathy Strohmeyer was the one who remembered and reminded us of my episode with the muscle relaxers when I had a muscle spasm in my back one weekend. I'll never live that one down! I thought Debbie was going to fall out of her chair laughing as Cathy mentioned it.

We had some tough days there -- but we also had some very wonderful days there -- many precious friends -- some still in contact -- many already with the Lord. As I thought Sunday after those already with the Lord my big thought was the hope that something done in my 8+ years there added a positive element that helped prepare them for where they are now, at home with the Lord.