“What a funny world we live in when we won’t turn our phones off, yet we get excited to see we’ve hiked far enough to lose service.”

We Dream of Travel

Travel days are always a challenge. So it helps to have a couple of wonderful and cooperative grandchildren on hand. It also helps to start the day in an idyllic spot, drive at a leisurely pace, lunch at the small Georgia town that cradled the early days of Rebekah’s dad’s ministry, then finish off by watching the rain pour down while the children played checkers.

Maggie Valley followed up Friday evening’s spectacular sunset with a Saturday sunrise just as captivating. We posed for the traditional “goodbye vacation house” photo, and then drove down into Georgia via the Blue Ridge Parkway, following smaller roads that led us through some of Rebekah’s old familiar Alexander family haunts.

After an educational interlude at Tallulah Gorge State Park, we drove into Clarksville where we found an excellent restaurant and ate on the patio, enjoying the downtown vibe of a classic North Georgia small town.

First Presbyterian Church of Clarksville is where Robert D. Alexander served during the late 40’s and early 50’s. His tenure there anchored a three-fold charge that included congregations in Helen and Nacoochee. From there he moved to Waynesboro, where Rebekah was born in 1956.

I felt a sense of deep gravitas, standing in front of a church building where the real, vital, transformational truth of the gospel has been a continual witness to the town since 1832, and to know that it played a part in the good story that eventually led Rebekah into ministry too.

Life is also a journey, a long winding road trip; or maybe I should say – more accurately – “life is a trip!”

Godspeed, all of you – DEREK