This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Last week I tried to find out when the church services were at the Willcox Church of the Nazarene… Man, was that a hard task… I called the churches telephone number… There was no answer and there was no answering machine… I then decide to try to call Harry Myers that lives right next to the church… He was one of my pastors when I was younger… There are no answer for him either… Then I call the Chamber of Commerce… Now, I’m thinking they should have some kind of information for me about the church… They did help me out by calling the Methodist pastor and then they called me back and told me to call a guy named Kevin that worked at the internet company… Kevin then told me that they were in between pastors and the time for the services… OK! I finally got some information and intended to attend the church service on that Sunday…

We went to Willcox early in the morning… We wanted to go get some breakfast and I wanted to take pictures of my old high school… I also wanted to go to the cemetery where some people I knew was buried… We had a number of things going before the 10:45 service time… But we made it and we were even able to drop by the cemetery in Benson to take pictures of headstones for my daughter Jessica… Her husband has relatives buried in there…

We got into Willcox and went to the TA for breakfast… Once we were done there, we drove out to the high school I went to back in 1980… That was a long time ago and I was thinking the school must have changed alot in that time… It didn’t!… The only thing that was different is that they were adding on and renovating because last year they had a huge fire that gutted the inside of the main halls of the high school… This was on a Sunday and nobody was around, so I wasn’t able to go inside… But everything was basically the same… Even the little picnic tables and cement benches between the classes where we would hang out and gab before school and during lunch… I have looked over and over again for good pictures of the school… I guess I just needed to drive down there and take them myself… So now I have a number of them…

After that we drove over to the Cemetery… I was looking for Mattie and Dinks grave… They were awesome people… It is because of Mattie that I write poetry… They will always hold a special place in my heart… I never found their grave sites, but I did find Christina Leaches… This girl was only 14 yrs old when she was killed by a drunk driver… I took pictures of her grave site and sent it to her mom… It seems like she has many visitors and was loved a great deal… She had a very nice area and people left flowers, angels and gifts… Christina loved to dance… My heart goes out to her family… I know they miss their angel girl everyday…

We left the cemetery and went over to the Nazarene Church off of Taylor Rd… Funny I remember this even now… It was so long ago since I took the back roads… But we made there with time to spare… One thing that was kinda comical at the cemetery was this noisy little bird… His legs were bigger than he was… I had a hard time trying to get a pic of whatever kind of bird he is… But he was fast and very loud…

After I took a few pictures of the outside of the church, we went inside… I was thinking it would have been awesome to be able to see Harry and Dixie Myers… I was told on the phone from Kevin that they don’t come to church often because of Dixie’s health.. I was planning on going to their house though, just in case… As we walked in, there was a guy singing and a couple sitting a couple pews back from the front… Harry and Dixie was the couple…  Harry had a look of shock when he seen us standing there… We hugged each other and caught up a bit…

When I last seen them, Harry was running his pilot car service and Dixie was doing great… She is in a wheel chair now and she said it was a very long time since she felt good enough to go to church… She woke up Sunday morning and told Harry she wanted to go… He got her dressed and they went together… After talking to them a few, I found out he was the one doing the sermon for that Sunday… Kevin didn’t know who was filling in since they had alot of fill ins … This was a treat for me…

Before church started, some of the congregation came in… Harry and Dixies daughter Cheryl and her family joined in… Cheryl’s testimony from many years ago is one that made a huge impact on my life… We were given a chance to share what we would fear most when we stood before God… She told everyone at that revival meeting that her greatest fear was that she missed an opportunity to share what Christ has done for her and what he can do for them… I carried that with me all my life… I could only imagine a close friend or family member standing beside me in front of God and never talking to them… Then God asks me about what I did for Him… I tell Him… Then He asks my friend and they said they didn’t know they had to do anything or believe… This is the reason I take whatever opportunity to witness that I can…

So, back to the people coming in… In walked this other older couple… He came up to introduce himself and as soon as he came toward us, I knew who it was… He extended his hand and introduced himself as Charlie Rose… Charles and Mary Rose are the parents of one of my friends in school… Mary Susan and I would hang out quite a bit… It was great walking into the Nazarene Church… I will always have a connection to that church… I was saved while going there and I was baptized there…  I will always have the principles of a Nazarene…

After the service they had potluck… They invited us to stay, but we had to get on our way… We were in the area to visit my parents and we needed to get that way… We did make a quick stop at a house we use to live in… One was from my high school days… It is still the same color and such… The other was a house we rented from George Nickels that owned a TV shop… They house is in horrible shape and should be torn down… It should be condemned .. We first moved into that house when my husband was released from the Army… My daughter Jessica turned one there and she learned to walk… There were alot of firsts for her… When I seen the house now, I was shocked it was still standing considering how it looked… Of course I took some pictures of it.. What I liked and miss in the church I go to now is that they have a real altar… They do the alter calls and you can go forward on bended knee and pray.. Usually on Weds we always had prayer time…

I was thinking that I would go back out to the cemetery to see where Mattie and Dink were buried at… I asked Harry where she was buried and he said the cemetery  lol… OK .. Yeah, I knew that… I asked him were at in the cemetery ,.. His answer was simple ” I will have to look at the map”… For some reason I thought this was funny… I know that only the shell of their body is there and that their spirit isn’t there… But was thinking if anyone knew, he would know, lol… RIP sweet Mattie and Dink…

Overall, it was a great trip down memory lane… Church was a God thing and couldn’t have been better… It was like coming home… One other side note is that in the picture of Charlie and Mary Rose, they have their great grand-daughter… She was born on the same day as JJ… They are both turning 5 on Nov 5th..