We stayed in a hotel overnight and went to the historic Rhyman Auditorium-the “Mother Church” of country music-and the home of the original Grand Ol’ Opry where my grandfather played the upright “bass fiddle” for Pee Wee King. He is standing with it in the 1942-43 cast photo that Katy is pointing to in the photo above.

They have a nice little “recording studio” set up in the auditorium and Katy sang Amazing Grace with a nice little gospel style accompaniment.

My grandfather also had many stories about honky-tonkin’ on Music Row! One of the favorites for he & his buddies was Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge right around the corner from the Rhyman. So…Katy & I went and had a coke & listened to the guy play for a few minutes around 11am.

Wonderful memories…hope as many for her as for me.

Kindergarten, Fourth Grade & Eighth Grade…where has the time gone??

Do you know how much is learned in the first 3 years of life? During those first 3 years, Ella Grace was abandoned, taken in to an orphange, fed the bare minimum…mind you we feel like they did the best they could but there are a lot of babies. In addition, the cleft set up perfect conditions for recurring ear infections that were probably never treated. Her first hearing tests indicated mild to moderate hearing loss due to obstructions.

Last week, she picked up a list of color words and READ them. I had no idea she could do that. This made me tear up. I smiled and told her how very proud I am of her. She’ll be reading before the end of this year. She has come so far.

Frank spent 15 days away leading his first trip for One Hope and, in his words, “there wasn’t ONCE that i thought ‘what have i gotten myself into’”…ha! Again, i am AMAZED at God’s provision for meeting the desires of Frank’s heart AND mine with this, cause I would definately have had that thought MANY times on that trip. Per his newsletter they were able to:

Personally hand out over 5000
gospels to the children & families
along the Amazon, Ucayali &
Puinahuah Rivers.
Share the gospel in such a way
that over 200 people made
professions of faith.
Show the God Man movie (a special production of One Hope-a computer-generated photo-realistic animation version of the Book of Hope which tells the life story of Jesus and can be targeted toward a particular country or culture.)in 6
villages to over 1500 people.
Minister to and encourage the
pastors & churches in those 6
villages.

You can find answers to common questions about One Hope at http://onehope.net/pages/page.asp?page_id=54415

Frank has long felt called to missions, both domestic and foreign. That has been a frightening thing for me as a wife, a mother and as someone with a career of my own. Would God ask our whole family to pick up and leave family, friends, schools and our home? We prayed, a lot, for years. Frank spent a great deal of time researching options and clearly told me that he would make no decision without my feeling at peace about it as well.

A few months ago one of his contacts from One Hope contacted me about adoption. They are adopting through our agency and she had some questions. The subject soon turned to how Frank felt a call to missions and her telling me how much they needed people to lead short term trips for One Hope. She was thrilled at the idea he may be interested. I was in awe that God could be giving Frank the desires of his heart and satisfying me as well.

Often missionaries are called on to raise their own support. Through the years we have been asked to support many different missions in many different places. Jesus tells us to go and make disciples and take care of people and do this in love. By making disciples others will then know that unconditional grace and love others, too. It is our belief that He equips us at different times for different jobs. Some people will GO and some people can make it possible for those who are called TO go. Raising his own support is a walk outside his comfort zone, but Frank has been working diligently because he knows, as I do, that this is what he is supposed to be doing. There are many of you-our friends-who have committed to support. Thank you sincerely.

Our plan is that Frank will continue to lead a trip a month for the next 2 years while being based at home and completing his masters in family counseling. He will also do PR booths around the southeast at youth conventions. Both of these job responsibilities are well within his comfort zone! He has many youth contacts from his 17 years in the field, has been to countless conventions and has lead many many trips, mission and otherwise, domestic and abroad.

Frank has a degree in Biblical Studies and is extremely firm in what he believes about the Bible. The Truth therein is his passion and to be able to lead groups all over the world and share this while working to meet the basic needs of those people as well is…well…perfect for him.

As I write this he is in on a boat in the Amazon River in Peru co-leading a group from The Church of the Highlands in Birmingham. I have spoken with him several times in the last couple of days while he has been in Iquitos at the hotel but don’t expect to hear from him again til the 29th. They begin the trip down the river from village to village today. He is doing very well and has even eaten a fried banana (it was his second biggest fear in making the trip, he detests them)! He says the group he’s with is a dream.

We thank you very much for your prayers and interest in what is going on with our family. If you Twitter they are @247peru. I will continue to update as I hear anything. For now, know that Frank is safe and feeling good about what he is doing, making a difference in the lives of many people and the rest of the Pass Fam is holding steady!

fast forward 35 years…MANY more very cool people all having a great day at the farm together. in-laws and out-laws, married and single, very young (the youngest this year was 2 months) and very old (my grandmother is 84). forgiveness and grace is a wonderful thing.

the next weekend on easter sunday i opened the contemporary service with a monologue taken from the gospel accounts of mary magdelene and the women meeting Jesus after the stone was moved that morning.

i also recently got a chance to do the “Five Before” which are our video announcements played 5 minutes before the service starts each week. that was lots of fun. i usually do live stuff and being in front of the camera was a different experience.

its a cool thing to be at a place where someone needs me to act. never really thought i’d have a chance to do much of that again and its a lot of fun for me. i mean, for real, go God, huh?