Born Again Antiques and Oddities

I sat and watched the fire around the community fire pit.  The chairs were a hodgepodge mix.  The free marshmallows that I had roasted and ate had chocolate marshmallow in the middle.  As I watched the fire, Peggy came over. Peggy and her husband have been selling random antiques in their yard for 5 years. They also sell pigeons, do pedicures, perform massages and have an Airbnb in a few of their antique sheds turned into living spaces.

She was very welcoming and met us at the road when we drove into her big field. She placed us on the top of the hill, next to a sign with our names on it. Michael was able to level it!  Go Michael!  

Not only was Peggy welcoming, but she was very generous. We had free fire wood (It is usually between $4 and $7 a bundle). She bought too many pizzas for our family and 2 others and brought four leftover boxes to some nurses. One family was a Mennonite family that had a job in the area for the week.  The other couple staying had gone to church at Christ Community in Illinois, just a half a mile from Michael's church, Fox Valley.  Boy, what a small world.  We are in a rural county with lots of rolling hilly farms.  After going to Mammoth Cave and learning about their cave system and sink holes, I think that all of the farms here are just sink holes with massive caves underneath all of them.

As I was looking at the fire, Peggy shared with me a little bit of what God had been doing in her life.  She said that she had been going to the same church for 20 plus years and it is where her family and grandchildren go to church. She said that God wanted her to change churches and she refused for over a year. She thought that her church needed her and had other excuses. Then she started having problems in her family. Her daughter-in-law blew up one day and withheld her grandchild from Peggy for over a year.  She sad that it was so painful. After Christian family counseling, the counselor told her it would never change and if it does, it will be a miracle. Peggy finally obeyed and switched churches. She went inside and God told her that she was home.  She went to the alter and kneeled down and asked God why.  He said that it was not about her, but about her obeying Him. Two weeks after changing churches, her daughter-in-law called her and asked for forgiveness and it has been good ever since.  Furthermore, since she has been at this new church, she has seen time and time again so many reasons why He had her change. Additionally, she said that 10 people have gotten saved right there on her property.  Listening to how God has worked in people's lives is my favorite thing on earth.  "From glory to glory," and this is glorious!

Peggy asked us to come to her little country Baptist church. Because we had just been discussing earlier that same week we should visit churches on our trip, we told her yes.  She was so excited.  I loved singing the hymns. A couple came and sang their own bluegrass song and it was beautiful. The preacher said his sermon in one long run-on sentence, only letting up to drink some water once.  He was fantastic at quoting scripture. Peggy said that he read encyclopedias as a child, has a photographic memory and has the whole Bible memorized. He did a good job presenting the gospel and using his own testimony to demonstrate it. There was no altar call. We had the Lord's Supper and that was so very nice to share it with other believers in real life and not on a screen.

After church the kids played on the playground. Next, we went on a nice drive to find food from Kentucky. We ended up at KFC in walking distance from the RV site that we had left just the day before. I can't even eat anything inside the doors of KFC so I went through the Wendy's drive-thru. We struck out. 

We enjoyed the rest of the day at Barren River Lake Park. The kids got to pet some really nice Kentucky horses and we walked a trail to a River Lake beach.

I can't end this post without a few more details of our stay. First, the kids loved the trampoline! I loved hearing them giggle on it. They also loved the hoverboard/go-cart thing. Asher looked it up to see that it is $200 to buy a new one. Unfortunately, for some reason every kid there ended up with their feet in the air and falling off. I am thankful that no one got hurt!

This site was our first Harvest Host. We needed somewhere to stay during the very booked Memorial Day Weekend. This company offers RVers a free night to stay at farms, museums, breweries, wineries etc., but you have to spend a minimum of $20 on their goods or services. We really don't need any antiques. I ended up purchasing some bubbles and glow necklaces for the kids, two orange bracelets for me and dog bags for Fiji. It happened to all be $20. She said she gave me some of those things for free. She also gave us a dozen eggs from her chickens for free. When I told her how nice her lamb's ear plant was, she pulled some up right then and there for me for free. I didn't have a pot, so when she went out to buy us pizza, she picked up the perfect pot. She let me fill it with her sandy soil from her garden for free too. She was so generous! We stayed another night and had to just PayPal her money since we didn't need anything else. This was one of my favorite places since we were with nice and generous locals.