The Petra Zone

Well, I'm going to start updating everyone what's happening on our trip to Sturgis, S.D. I'll be updating periodically as Internet SErvice thru Sprint is available. So keep checking on the website.
Here's the first part that I posted under "Ministry Updates" on the Newsletter page:

Boy, preparations for this trip to Denver (our first stop on the way to Sturgis, S.D.) about had us worn out. There was so much to do, to get and to make sure we had packed.....I tell ya, never go on a big cooking trip with no storage space in your RV. When you get to your destination, or to a place where you are gonna stay the nite, you wonder where you are supposed to sleep.....
The trip up here was a blast, because I was really getting into this "restroom revival" as I called it. We've been equipped with lots of tracts by Full Life Ministries in Clovis and I remembered how I used to stick tracts in every bathroom I went into as I travelled. So I decided this is what I was going to do again. It's really fun when there's noone in there and you have time to go in EVERY stall and place a tract there! One time it freaked me out though, because as I left each stall all of a sudden the toilet would flush, and then the next one and then the next one......it got quite noisy in there with all those flushing toilets! In another bathroom - oh, boy - it was a really really run down one!
Do you ever run into run down bathrooms on your travels????? Yeah, well, I know just about all of us had THAT wonderful experience. Well, in this particular ladies room, there was nothing where you could place a tract, but there were cracks between the paneling, perfect place to slip in one. Where there's a will, there's a way. Who knows who might be touched by one of those....so as I left I prayed that God would use them to touch lives.
I've found at times that others had the same idea and I'm always thrilled to see that!
So, next time you go travelling, take some tracts and who knows.....maybe you might start a "restroom revival".

Here's the second thing that I just now put up on the website as we are stopped for the night (since we don't have any running lights, just blinker and brake lights). It's always something else.......

But here's the next Update:

Denver was our first stop on the way to Sturgis. We were entering a BBQ Cookoff, thinking since we did so good in Pueblo a little over a month ago, it would be fun to do this one. We were told that 10,000 people would be showing up for both days, Friday and Saturday. This would definitly be a financial help to us for all the fees needed for Sturgis.

As we were getting close to Denver our RV started giving trouble and we ended up on the side of the Interstate, because it wouldn't run. We finally got it running enough to make it into Denver and we tried to get off on a side road, but the RV quit right in the middle of the turning lane. Warren had to change out the fuel filter right there and voila it started up again. We made it to the Events grounds and parked for the night. That was Wednesday. The next day we bought $500.00 worth of supplies, set up our tent and then Warren started cooking that night.
Friday at 11:00 am we were ready to serve the crowd......we waited and waited and waited, some people trickled in here and there and about 4:00 pm more people finally started showing up....
Since it wasn't busy, we decided to get the sound system out about 5:00 pm, but as soon as we did, the wind started blowing like crazy and we had to quickly put it up again, as the sheriff drove by to give us a T-storm warning.

Our spot was at the end of the row, so by the time people got to us, they were already full. We only sold about $60.00 worth that day.

The next day on Saturday it was quite a bit busier, yet nothing compared to the crowd that the event expected. It was their first BBQ Competition that they've put on and they've learned quite a bit by the mistakes they made and they said that they will definitly do advertising next year.

We did meet a lot of wonderful people and on Saturday we sold about $170.00 worth of food. Even though we weren't singing, we had the chance to minister to people who came to talk to us and we sold some CD's too.

Unfortunately we didn't place at all to win any price money, so it was very disappointing for us financially, because the event ended up costing us and not helping us to go towards the Sturgis fees that we hoped to raise in Denver.....

Somehow the enemy really is on the warpath on this trip, because Warren is physically hurting badly and I've been very worried about him. Yet he's suffering through it and we pray that the Lord will help his condition. I almost said we need to go home and get him taken care of, but he's insisting on going on with the trip....

We do have a praise though. We were really wondering what to do with all the huge pans full of BBQ, Beans, the Chicken and Ribs we had cooked. Because we couldn't re-sell it, much less keep it. So Warren called a mission in Denver, but they didn't have a driver to come get it and we couldn't take it to them. As we were wondering what to do, a man drives up and says he has two tickets to buy food with and if we were still selling. We said that the event was over and they already collected all the tickets.......but we said, oh, why not, we'll just keep the tickets as souvenirs. As he bit into his sandwich and commenting on how delicious it was, we started talking and we told him about our dilemma. He perked up and said that he was a Youth Pastor and he feeds troubled youth once a week. We got all excited when he said he'd take all the food. So we packed it up for him and gave him all the buns to go with it. He also bought my new CD and he said we'd have a place to sing at his church and to give him a call when we got back home.

After he left, we still had two big briskets left that were cooked but not trimmed and cut up....as we were packing up, a biker stops by our tent and asks if we still have food and we told him that we had given everything away but we still had this brisket and he decided to buy one of them.
We kept working and a little while later God sends someone else. A couple stops by and wonders why the event is over and they wanted food too. So we told them what we had left and that the neighboring vendor had also given us his food to give away and it was here too. They decided to buy our brisket and told us that they were working with a local mission and that they could give the mission the rest of the food!

WOW, nothing was wasted. Praise God. Maybe we were there to cook for all those people to be blessed with it.....who knows, well, God does!!

One of the vendors' wives, Debbie, was a wonderful lady that I ended up sharing with at the event. She had told us that she saw us on Friday not having any people stop and she said she started to pray for us...........isn't that wonderful?
Friday night I needed to go to the grocery store, because Warren needed brisket to cook for the competition and Debbie went with me. We had a great time sharing on the way to the stores, as we had to visit several of them to finally find one that had the brisket!

So, there were good things happening, but also a lot of struggles. Please pray for us as we are on the road with an old RV that seems to start giving us problems and Warren who's physically hurting and me - who's worried about him.
Yet he tries to be cheerful and determined to go on and press forward.

We'll keep you updated as our Internet connection is available as we travel...