2013 Sanctuary Report #1: Walla Walla, WA, Sunday, May 12, 2013 at 5:30 a.m.
Dear Family and Friends:
Happy Mother’s Day to all who qualify for that greeting! We are here in Walla Walla, Washington with Messiah’s Mansion, the Sanctuary Exhibit. Today we will go a little early to the site on Walla Walla University grounds to complete the setup details at the Sanctuary.
We are staying at the beautiful home of Ron and Deana Larson. He is First Elder at the
State Line SDA Church. They are a wonderfully hospitable couple and have put up all thirteen of us on the Sanctuary staff. They provide breakfast each day. There is a bit of pressure on their two bathrooms with so many of us needing to shower etc. at roughly the same time. My habit of waking up early does give us a head start but we try to be quiet so as to not awaken any of the rest too soon. All are working very hard and need the rest when we can get it.
Two of the twelve SDA churches in the Walla Walla area are providing the noon meal and supper for our group. Supper has to be on the installment plan because tours are going on at the same time. Five tour guides are occupied at the various stations of the tour. Normally the tours start at 1 p.m. and go through the afternoon and evening until seven when the last one begins. It takes an hour and fifteen minutes for each tour so the group cannot close up and return to Larson’s home for rest until the last group is through at 8:15 and we have secured the Sanctuary for the night. Then we have a group meeting for prayer and sharing experiences. That means it may be ten until we actually get to bed. That is really midnight by our time back home in Gentry. So it takes a bit of adjusting of body rhythms to cope.
Getting here had its challenges too. We left home in Gentry on Sunday noon, May 5, and drove the 630 miles to Chicago to the home of Glenn Paul and Debbie. There was much to get done at home before we could leave. We will not be back in Gentry until June 23. I did the mowing and weed eating one last time before the rains and Mary Alice did the packing for three separate trips. We had one suitcase for our needs at Glenn and Debbie’s place, another for here in Walla Walla, and another for Peru where grandson Austin and I will be conducting evangelistic meetings and helping to build a church. We get back from Yakima, WA where our next Sanctuary Exhibit will be, on June 4 and fly June 5 to Peru. So, you see, there is hardly any turnaround time between events.
Glenn and Debbie (along with Austin and Jason) are also very hospitable. They welcomed us in spite of just having had company and more were on the way when we left. They have to sandwich that in amid their ultra-busy program with school, church, and hospital duties for Debbie, and Glenn’s study for completing his doctorate at Andrews University. Glenn managed to take us to the airport on May 7 in time to catch an 8:40 flight to Seattle on the way to Walla Walla. He had to hurry back home to help the family begin their busy day too.
One highlight of the flight was the landing in Seattle. One of the stewardesses on the plane sang to the group as we were landing. Her song ended with “Happy Trails To You.” I remembered that Roy Rogers had sung that in my boyhood days. Then she told us that she was the granddaughter of Roy and Dale Evans. On the way out of the plane I told her that we had been pastor of the Portsmouth, Ohio SDA Church and knew that Roy had grown up about ten miles from there. I wish we had more time to reminisce but those behind us needed to get off the plane too without delay.
Original plans were that we meet three girls in Seattle flying from South Bend, Indiana after their work at Andrews University was done. Someone was to meet us and take all five of us to Walla Walla. The problem was that we arrived at 10:30 A.M. and they arrived at about 10:30 P.M. and the anticipated driver did not want to drive the five hours to Seattle and then another five hours back to Walla Walla at that time of night. So, plan B was for us all to stay at a Seattle hotel and for us to rent a car and drive ourselves to Walla Walla. We left at 4:30 A.M. and I drove the five hours without a great deal of sleep.
There was a special surprise for us during that “waiting time” in Seattle. Messiah’s Mansion had reserved a room for us at the hotel but we had a few hours before our room would be ready for check in at 3 P.M. After renting the car we drove to Olive Garden for a warm meal and to use the gift certificate given for our wedding anniversary. While we were seated there a group of four passed our booth and I said to Mary Alice, “That looks like Dan Cotton.” After a second look I thought that there was only a resemblance but Mary Alice insisted that I ask anyway. Sure enough! It was Dan and Marilyn Cotton. We had not seen them since about fourteen years before. With them was their daughter and another man who was in charge of “The Bible In Living Sound”, the stories we had shared with our grandchildren and others overseas. Back in 1960 we had been pastor (In Portsouth, Ohio) to several relatives of Marilyn Cotton. I could also give them greetings from “Biaka”, our Mizo “son” with whom we have worked in evangelism in Mizoram, India for several years now. They had sponsored his education at Spicer College in Puna, India as the first of their sponsored students there. They were so glad to learn of his successful work for the church over the years.
We have also met several others on the Sanctuary tours. One was Bill Justinian with whom we had attended Emmanuel Missionary College back in the 1950s. He is the father of Lars Justinian, a prominent SDA artist whose pictures we have used in our evangelism sermons. Bill and I had sold books together in Ontario, Canada one summer to help earn money for the next school year and could recall memorable experiences. Another on a tour recognized my name and lived in Battle Creek, Michigan as we did for ten years. She was a member of the Urbandale SDA Church that we helped build as pastor there, but she came after we left. She remembered us from a Sanctuary Program we presented at Urbandale about three years ago. So, you see, it is a very small world when we meet former friends all over the planet.
Even through we are running tired because of a series of late nights on the way and here, it is stimulating to be a part of all that is happening.
I didn’t mention that we met Jody again from the Rogers Church in Arkansas. He is teaching here at Walla Walla in the business department and has offered to help us in any way he can while here. He remembers our mission reports at Rogers and we have a lot of shared experience to reminisce about. So it is in the great Advent Movement.
It’s time to close this and get ready for breakfast at 7 before heading out to another busy day at the Sanctuary. We appreciate the prayers of all that the Lord will reach many here through the Sanctuary tours. I have already had some great opportunities to witness and help some in distress. What “Divine appointments” await? We will find out soon and let you know at least some of them.
With love,
Glenn and Mary Alice Hill (Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma)