Propelling vision and mission through celebration, connection, education, and inspiration.

Touring the Great Smokies

Aug 23, 2004

Your intrepid blogger is out of town for a few days on a mission that is more personal than Grace Brethren.

Sharon and I have been in Knoxville, Tennessee, this weekend, playing piano and organ for a wedding at Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church. We attended this great church Sunday morning, and reconnected with some friends from times past. The bride was Jenny Woodruff, daughter of our friend and fellow-deacon at Potomac Baptist Church, who died of stomach cancer several years ago at age 48. Many friends, elders and former deacons from PBC were at the wedding and it was great to re-connect.

One of them was TM Moore, a writer, teacher and columnist for Prison Fellowship, who is now on the teaching staff of the church. Another was Daryl Armentrout, a classmate who went to Grace with us back in the early 1960s.

Daryl was from the Limestone, TN, Grace Brethren Church, and he reminded me that he was the layout editor of the Grace College newspaper, “The Sounding Board,” when I was the editor. He has now had a 30+ year career with Tennessee Valley Authority as a civil engineer and is an elder at Cedar Springs. We had a great time doing “catchup” and discussing former classmates and roommates such as Dan and Eloy Pacheco, Tim Farner, Doug Horney, and others.

Today we’re in Asheville, North Carolina. We’ll have brunch with one of America’s fine Christian novelists, Penelope J. Stokes, and then will stop in for a visit with Joel Belz, the publisher of WORLD magazine. Joel and I were classmates at the U. of Iowa and have had a long association together through the Evangelical Press Association.

Should be back in Winona Lake on Wednesday afternoon. Our Grace College intern for the fall, known in Xanga blogging circles as “Dr. Laura,” starts with us later this week.