The First Arkansas Trip
In December 2007, we loaded up and went down to New Life Fellowship in Havana, Arkansas for the weekend. We were going there to minister a youth service on Saturday night with our band and to do a Sunday morning service. Pastor Alan and the family went too and were going to stay there to preach for the week. We rode girls in one car and boys in another. On the way down we made the best of the long drive. We laughed, slept, and listened to a pretty outdated CD collection. We were all pretty excited as this was a first ministry trip for some of us. We were going to stop for a bathroom break so all the vehicles were trying to coordinate their exits. Well, the girls were way too into their music, singing and shouting about, that we drove right on past the exit! We all screamed, pointing to the rest of the group driving off the exit and then burst into laughter at the funny accident! Oh well.
When we finally pulled in to this small town church, we stepped foot outside and smelled the country air and chickens. We were greeted right away by Pastor W.A. and Teresa Gorman with love and welcoming arms. We set up our equipment real fast so we could make it to the kitchen where they prepared some amazing homemade cooking for us! Needless to say we were more than happy to take care of all that food!
The evening was coming to its height and the youth service was about to start. We were all very excited because we had been practicing as a band for weeks; picking out the right songs and praying for God’s will to be done in the worship and in the service. A good size crowd of youth showed up as well as the presence of God. Bekah and Alex each gave their testimonies and Pastor Alan spoke briefly following. We then led the group into worship and the anointing was there. Laura, Mitzi, Tahnee, and Bekah sang and Isaiah played drums, Alex played Bass, Nathan played guitar, and Chris played piano. Mary came along to take pictures and assist everyone in what we needed done. Lives were touched not only in the congregation but also in our team. The Holy Spirit was leading in a direction where Pastor Alan called a ministry line for a few different things and some of our team prayed with several. After the amazing service we all headed out to the gym for a good time of games, FOOD, and fellowship! It was so great to connect with the youth of the church and get down on a personal level with them. We had fun even with the adults and their great personalities!
Some very generous families in the church opened up their homes to let us stay with them; girls in one house and guys in another. They were extremely generous and very hospitable. We stayed up laughing with them and playing piano and singing songs. It was like visiting a family member for the weekend. The boys had the time of their lives as they were staying with a “hunter”! Leslie let them shoot his variety of guns. None of the guys had grown up in the country or participated in hunting so they were beyond thrilled to have that experience. At one point they persuaded Alex to shoot a muzzleloader. He's never been the same.
Sunday morning our team led worship and Tahnee and Bekah sang a special. Alan preached a great message and after service we were fed another home cooked meal. Those Southerners know how to cook!
We were all pretty sad to leave because we had such a great time, but the weather was starting to get pretty bad so headed down the old dusty trail back to Tulsa. On the way home some of us wanted to make a quick coffee stop and that ended up being a disaster. Some of our group got lost and were driving around in circles and the rest of us were getting a tad cranky from the long tiring weekend. We decided maybe that wasn’t such a good idea after all when someone ended up leaving their wallet at the Starbucks! The weather started getting very scary with lots of snow and ice. Mitzi’s husband Jeremy took over driving the girl’s car for the remainder of the trip and we hit a patch of ice on the bridge and our car started fishtailing on the road! We all screamed in terror as well as whispering, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus” under our breath. We arrived home just in time to encounter the costliest ice storm in Oklahoma history. No electricity for weeks and tree damage that will take years to recover from.
If we had known what was in store we would have stayed in AR!!! We had no idea that when we got home that we would still be living together! Since Pastor Alan had stayed back in AR some of us took advantage of his fireplace and huddled in his living room to survive for a few days while our town was shut down.
All in all, it was a wonderful ministry trip and was a good experience for every one of us. We learned a bit about ministry and we also grew closer together as a group. God was able to us as individuals as well as a group and He also used the folks from Arkansas to bless our lives.
Bekah Gunnels
