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Monday, May 20, 2013

Who says you can't go home again? (Part II)

After leaving Lawrence, I headed south again back to my childhood town of El Dorado, Kansas, and stayed with my life-long friend, Kaye. We have been friends since childhood, and are planning a whoop-te-ldoop celebration when we hit 50 years of being friends (which is closer than we both like to think!). Kaye has her own catering business, so you know that good food was part of this trip!
Maggie and Millie are a big part of life at Kaye's house!
After a couple of nights there, I returned to Oklahoma and then on to Texas. Oklahoma is famous for the geology of rocks in the Arbuckle Mountains. The strata of the rocks are almost vertical due to rifts centuries ago. I can't count the number of times I have driven through them without ever stopping, so I decided to stop at a scenic pull-over and and take a few pictures. Isn't it true that we seldom appreciate the beauty of the view right out our back door?
View from top of Arbuckle Mountains rest stop.
Now, on to Texas! Back home to my parents' house, visiting more friends and family in Frisco. I had lunch with dear friends, Judy and Bruce and their daughter Hannah. You know, I have really enjoyed eating out at all my old favorite restaurants while here. I will miss the food when I go back to Oman!
Judy and I outside Olive Garden. I love my new friends,
but also miss my old ones--not that Judy's old...........
Mom and Dad on the front porch of Cracker Barrel.








Another favorite place to eat in Texas and the Midwest is Cracker Barrel. To my dad, that means stop sign! Cracker Barrel is known for its down-home cooking--especially breakfasts. No road trip in Texas is complete without stopping there, so we did!






The other plus to eating in a Cracker Barrel restaurant is shopping in their "general store." It's set up like an old-fashioned western frontier general shop. And of course, I had to shop for my new granddaughter. She got a pair of red, white, blue, and ruffly from here!





My last stop after arriving back in Texas was visiting my cousin Matt's butcher shop, Matador Meats. (http://matadormeat.com). They were voted best butcher shop in Plano, and I can testify as to the wonderful beef and other meats that they sell there! If you live in the area, you MUST stop by and give them a try! Tell them Debi sent you! You can also find them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matadormeat?fref=ts&rf=184969851524071



Wednesday, May 8, 2013

PCO International Day in Oman

If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you know that my posts from the last 2 months have not been from Oman, but from an extended vacation I am taking in the U.S. due to several important family events. As my husband's job does not allow him 3 months of vacation time, he is still in Oman working and will join me here shortly for our son's law school graduation. Meanwhile, I asked him to write something about what he is doing in Oman to post here on the blog, and he has graciously provided me with the story below about our church's International Day. So here he is, in his own words.....



41 different countries are now represented through the congregation of the PCO in Muscat. From time to time, the church recognizes different cultures and regions of the world. Those who attended on Friday, May 3rd were treated to cultural history, singing, dancing and eating that reflected some of the larger groups within the church.

The first group to sing was from Malaysia. As did each group, the ladies of Malayisa sang in their own native tongue with movement and dancing that is customary in their worship. So for this posting, you can find pictures of people groups, as well as the interpretation of their singing.




Next came the Eastern and Western African group. We learned that the Gospel first came to the entire continent of Africa in the 1500’s. Now many African countries are primarily Christian by faith, including, but not limited to, Ethiopia (65%), Southern Sudan, Chad (34%), Nigeria (51%). PCO has a large number of members from Eastern, Western, and Southern parts of Africa.

Our British Anglican Pastor, Chris Howitz, greeted us in Arabic, while wearing traditional Omani dress. The scripture reading for the day was read in Arabic, but translated as well.





The prayer time was very special as people from different continents and cultures came together to pray not only for our local people and leaders here in Oman, but also for concerns of people in their home country. The concerns range from hunger to war to political and economic upheaval, to spiritual darkness. This was indeed a highlight of the service.

The people of India came next. India is the 7th largest country in the world by land mass, but the 2nd largest county in terms of population, second only to China. India is primarily a Hindu and Muslim country, but 5% of the people are Christians and mostly live in the southern part of the country. The Apostle Philip is credited for first bringing the Gospel to India in the 1st century.









Pastor Barry Dawson, who will be returning to Southeast Asia to serve later this month, presented today’s sermon.

Following the service, four more people groups presented songs and dances that were more a part of their culture than a part of their worship, as their worship is very similar to what enjoy each Friday at PCO. Yet their presentations were very entertaining.

Next came the people of the Philippines. Their country is 85% Christian, by faith, and represents the highest concentration of Christian faith in their part of the world. The Gospel was first introduced to their country by Spaniards in the 1500’s.



One of the men who serves faithfully in the church band (playing saxophone and bongos) is represented below. He represented South America (Colombia if not mistaken) and wore the traditional white straw hat and played jazz music that you would commonly hear in the streets of Bogota.


Next came the South Africans. They performed traditional singing and dancing that is common in their area. They also wore traditional wardrobes from this very diverse country. The four girls spent some time going through a series of traditional dance steps that involves stomping to rhythms (think louder tap dancing in big rubber boots) and hitting the boots in various positions in a very entertaining fashion.




















For me personally, one of the highlights was the Scottish dance. We are blessed to have a man who has served in the British military as a Bag Pipe Player and is now teaching the skill at the local university. In fact, he has played his pipes in some life threatening situations that give you an appreciation for Ian as a man of courage and principle. On this particular Friday, however, we find that Ian has trained not only one of the young local Omani men to play the pipes, he has taught some of our church members how to do the traditional Scottish dances, complete with swords and uniforms.

They entered from the rear of the sanctuary, with pipes blowing (dare I say loudly??) and everyone’s attention was drawn not only to the bagpipes, but to the four dancers – each wielding a long sword. They solemnly proceeded to the stage and arranged the swords in a cross shape. Then they began to dance to a number of traditional Scottish tunes. When finished, they solemnly picked up the swords and exited to a large applause.
























Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Who says you can't go home again? (Part I)

It's a famous old saying: you can't go home again. However, in the last week I have traveled from Texas into Oklahoma and Kansas and visited places I once lived and where I spent my childhood. So much of the scenery is as I remembered it, and so are some of those familiar faces!

I started out in celebrating my Mother's 75th birthday in Dallas. It was just like when we were young and it was just my sisters and parents, except we were missing my youngest sister who was in the middle of a move far away in California! We went with my other sister, brother-in-law, and my parents at a really nice restaurant in Dallas, Truluck's,  before heading to Fair Park for the show "Wicked." They treated my mom to a fancy birthday dessert after a fabulous meal. We really enjoyed it! The show was superb! It was entertaining and enjoyable. I am familiar with the  Wizard of Oz, and this is like a "prequel" to the story, but it was nothing that I had expected. The effects, lighting, music, and acting were really good. I highly recommend this to anyone who has a chance to go see it!

My mom

Chocolate bread pudding with cherry sauce--yummmm!

Enjoying the evening!

Outside Fair Park--the trees were all lit up!


It was a really fun family evening--who says you can't go back home?

The next day I got in my car and traveled up to Oklahoma for a visit to Don's parents. I spent a lot of time helping them get set up on a new iPad. Here we are in their office working hard on getting them caught up--technologically speaking!


Another benefit of having free time away from home was getting to have coffee with "the girls" in my mother-in-law's weekly coffee group! We enjoyed good coffee, great conversation, some prayer time and just all around good fun. Some of these ladies I have known for a long time, some were new to me. A few have children my age that I went to school and church with when I was a teenager. It's really neat to see a group of friends having fun together and enjoying retirement!

I don't have pictures of it, but Jerry, my mother-in-law, and I had our obligatory and, as always, enjoyable shopping trip. We shopped most of a day away. Jerry is known as the Meemaw with the shopping gene!

After all the computing and shopping I could take, I traveled on up to Kansas to visit my second son, Rusty. I was born in Kansas, and traveling up through the countryside brought back many childhood memories. Every part of the world has beauty in its own way, and Kansas is no exception. Kansas was part of what the early settlers called the Great American Desert, but instead of sand it was prairie grasses with few, if any, trees. The interstate highway to Lawrence took me through the Flint Hills of Kansas. The Flint Hills is the largest continuous area of tallgrass prairie left in the world. The flint, also called chert, is a hard rock that the Native American Indians used for making arrowheads, spears, and other cutting tools. Buffalo once roamed the entire area. It was not farmed because the rocky flint made it impossible to plow for farming, hence it remains to this day. The skies are big in Kansas, as the flat land makes it appear that you can see forever. I stopped to take a few pictures from the roadside. It was a cloudy, dreary day, so these pictures are not as bright, but it does give you an idea of the vastness of the plains. Can't you just see Indians and buffalo roaming the countryside?








As I traveled farther north, there were fields of these beautiful purple blossoms--I think they were alfalfa plants just beginning to grow and bloom. It was a dreary, rainy, and cold day, but I really enjoyed this shot of purple on the landscape!




I am an antique buff, and personally own some antiques from old Kansas farmsteads, some of the family pieces that came across the prairie by covered wagon over one hundred years ago. Here's a picture of an old abandoned farmstead house that I passed as I was nearing Lawrence. While I was definitely not born to be a pioneer, I come from strong pioneer stock, and love the idea of farm life--with modern conveniences, of course!

After journeying across the countryside, I made it to Lawrence, where my son is attending the University of Kansas' Law School. It was a short weekend, but we had fun eating out in Kansas City and spending a little time together.

My son Rusty and I
My cousin Mark--who's a ham, in case you can't tell from this picture!--joined
Rusty and I at a mongolian bbq place in Kansas City. I smashed my finger on
the restaurant's broken chair, so we got our entire meal comped, which was a
plus for Rusty and Mark! They went hog-wild over the free desserts!

More on going back home on Part II!


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