Last night Melissa granted me 24 hour pass to go see family. Jeff and his wife Leava picked me up at the church and I spent the night with them in El Reno, west of OKC after touring more tornado devastated areas. In El Reno I was able to visit with my Mother yesterday and today. Our path goes through El Reno on Tuesday as we make our way to Weatherford. I will take a side trip to the nursing home and visit again. While there a staff member wanted a FBCA shirt, and donated toward our cause in thanks.
I joined family at Southern Heights Baptist Church and after Sunday school was allowed to speak before the congregation on behalf of the Fuller Center for Housing. That is our mission: spread the word, and a seed was planted.
The Marriot in OKC has been so generous as to offer us rooms for tonight and tomorrow, so the Adventurers rode from the First Methodist Church to here today. They all are out enjoying the local fare and activities. I bicycled about to shop for dinner and a few items. I eventually arrived at a local park where the Arts Council of Oklahoma City hosted a free concert featuring many of their stage performing members, and around the perimeter other art venues were represented.
I must admit until the past few days I under-appreciated Oklahoma. This trip has shown me more than I imagined. It was once a wealthy state in the days of oil, but those wells have dried up and so many towns have gone into perpetual depression. The state is rebounding though, for the cost of living here is such that they are experiencing a reverse Grapes of Wrath where Californians, descended of dust bowl evacuees 80 years ago, are now migrating back. Oil technology has advanced as well, creating interest in squeezing a bit more from the old fields. Oklahoma is OK.
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