B & W signs

Best thing about traveling for mission trip: Every time you stop en route … it’s warmer.

Worst thing about stopping along the way: “service” at Wendy’s, Blytheville, Arkansas

Best thing about stopping overnight along the way: one more night in an actual bed & shower before it’s church floors, aero beds, and locker rooms

Worst thing about stopping overnight along the way: changing time zones AND having the time change all in the same night.

What time are we getting up? What time are we meeting? What time do we want to be on the road? Okay, is that Indiana time or Memphis time? Before we change our clocks or after?

So – I think we’re leaving in an hour or so. But it could be two. Or I could already be late. I’m not sure.

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Ha! We all made it to the lobby at the (same!) appointed time.

Driving west on I-10, through Louisiana toward Beaumont, as soon as we hit Lake Charles, there was no mistaking the signs … literally and figuratively.

> I wonder how many contractors, builders, carpenters and other similar professionals suddenly became … either by necessity, or out of opportunity … “reconstruction specialists”? Saw that sign more than once.

> Apparently, ‘roofing and gutters’ is the business to be in right now in these parts, if the multitude of signs advertising those services are indicators. One company had FOUR bright yellow “roofing,” “roofing supplies.” “roof estimates,” “need roofing?” banners hanging … ON A SINGLE STRETCH OF FENCE! That’s a sign of something …

> A church (no sign as to ‘kind’) just off the I-10 access road in Orange (TX border) had no visible door (main entrance boarded over), two of three primary windows boarded over, and an entire corner having fallen off (heap of bricks) and temporarily (I assume) patch-repaired with scrap siding. But the sign? “Services 10 a.m.” THAT’s the sign I needed to see … God is here, God prevails.

The biggest sign though, was the one that was most persistent, and is the view that haunts me still from our earlier trip this way: the trees. All along both sides of the highway, lovely trees of wonderful variety.

And for every one or two standing tall and slender, reaching for the sunny blue sky … there are five or six snapped in half, smashed into each other, hanging sideways with random pieces of roofing, siding, plywood, metal sticking out amongst the branches.

And yet when you just look at them together – there as they grow, all together – the thing you see is the green, the lushness, the depth, the reach. You notice how rich the signs of creation are, everywhere, always.

Wait. Wasn’t I talking about trees?