Wednesday, November 7, 2012

NEXT STOPS: Ohio, Indiana and Michigan

The van is all packed and we will head out this morning on our next trip.  Tonight we will be stopping in to see Pastor Jimmy Hood and Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio.  Both Bro. and Mrs. Hood have been having serious health issues and we want to stop in and see them.

Tomorrow we will leave Columbus and head to Franklin, Indiana and First Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church.  Pastor Kent Kirchmeyer has invited us to be there for a couple weeks and I will be doing some preaching.

After Indiana we head north to Clarkston, Michigan to be at Victory Baptist Church with Pastor Bob Nogalski for a winter revival meeting.  It has been a few years since we have been there at will be good to be back again.

There is one more church we may possibly be at in Michigan.  I am just waiting confirmation on the date and will add it to the schedule as soon as it is all set.


Tuesday, November 6, 2012

VISITING SOME CHURCHES

BUCK SETTLEMENT BAPTIST CHURCH - Bath, New York

After we left Harrisburg from our rather eventful (and yet, uneventful at the same time!) last Wednesday, we headed to Bath, New York.  We had to take care of some business in the area and so we stopped in for the Wednesday night service at Buck Settlement Baptist Church.  As you may recall if you've followed the blog, we were just here for a meeting three weeks ago.  Pastor Ferguson asked me to preach and I believe we had a good service.  It was good to see all the folks again.  Their website can be viewed by CLICKING HERE.


NEW HOPE BAPTIST CHURCH - Collins, New York

This past Sunday morning we went to New Hope Baptist Church in Collins, New York where Jack Seiler is the pastor.  Bro. Seiler is out of our church (Old Time Baptist Church).  Evangelist Don Hardman and I preach a winter revival here every year in February.  We enjoyed being in the services and listening to Micah Seiler teach the Sunday School and Pastor Seiler preach the morning service.  The Seilers took us out for lunch after church and we had a great time of fellowship with them.  The church now has a website and you can visit it by CLICKING HERE.


CORNERSTONE BIBLE BAPTIST CHURCH - Sanborn, New York

On Sunday night we visited Pastor Jack Britt and the good folks at Cornerstone Bible Baptist Church up in Sanborn, New York.  We actually had an ulterior motive in stopping in.  Some very close friends of ours were leaving for the mission field yesterday and we wanted to see them one last time before they left.  Pastor Britt preached a great message and then we went to have some food and fellowship at their house after the service.  It was good to see our friends and we are glad that after 23 months and 144,000 miles of deputation they are now off to the field that God has called them to!  You can visit Cornerstone's website by CLICKING HERE.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Our 100th POST on the blog

We have really enjoyed doing this blog and have got some very positive feedback from all over the country.  Many people have said that they appreciate "keeping up with the Cobb's" and it is a blessing to know that folks really care about us.


I am able to track some statistics about the blog and thought I would share some of them with you to give you an idea of how it is doing.

  • As of this post, we have had 4,132 page views since we really started posting back in April.
  • 728 page views were recorded last month (October)
  • The most-viewed post was the 25th Anniversary service for Pastor & Mrs. Greg Ferguson of Buck Settlement Baptist Church.  You can view that post by CLICKING HERE.
  • Other than the home page, our next most-viewed page is our schedule.  You can keep up to date with our schedule by clicking on the "SCHEDULE" tab at the top of the home page or by clicking here.
  • As of today, there have been people from 30 countries visit the blog... (listed in no particular order except the United States first, with the most visits)
  1. United States
  2. Canada
  3. Russia
  4. France
  5. Thailand
  6. Germany
  7. Saudi Arabia
  8. Israel
  9. United Kingdonm
  10. Ukraine
  11. Australia
  12. Philippines
  13. Ireland
  14. Cambodia
  15. Mexico
  16. Latvia
  17. Brazil
  18. Estonia
  19. Netherlands
  20. China
  21. Costa Rica
  22. Vietnam
  23. Japan
  24. India
  25. Hungary
  26. Aregntina
  27. Poland
  28. Nigeria
  29. South Africa
  30. Finland
Please continue to follow us and send us your feedback.  We appreciate it!


"VACATION" - Pennsylvania vs. Hurricance Sandy !!

(I'll give you a hint - Hurricane Sandy won!!!)

It has been a very busy year and we had been wanting to get away for a few days.  Several weeks ago we planned to go to the Sight and Sound Theater in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  We know several people who have been there over the years and they have told us "you have to go" so we decided to finally make plans.  I found a great deal on a hotel in Harrisburg (about 50 miles from the theater) so I booked that and then bought the tickets.

Everything was all set to head down to Harrisburg after the meeting in Sempronius.  The plan was this: we would find a good church to go to on Sunday, go to Hershey Park on Monday and then go to Sight & Sound on Tuesday.  We also were told by several well-informed people that while at Sight & Sound we absolutely had to go to the Shady Maple - a HUGE, delicious smorgasbord nearby.

During the meeting at Sempronius the big news of the week was HURRICANE SANDY - the big 'super storm' heading up the east coast.  The target was going to be New Jersey and New York City.  To be honest I really never thought about our plans being affected by the storm.  Boy, did I have another thing coming!

The day after the meeting (Saturday) we enjoyed one last meal with Bro. and Mrs. Grimes then headed to Harrisburg.  We were officially on vacation!  Our route took us through Scranton, Pennsylvania which is where "Steamtown" is: a system of trains and rail yards operated by the National Park Service.  This was not in our plans but, hey - we were on vacation and we could do whatever we wanted.  We got parked and literally had enough time time to hop on the "short ride".  The ranger said there wasn't enough time to pay and then board so he just told us to pay on our way out (which we did!).  After the ride we went through some of the museum then got back on the interstate and continued our trip to Harrisburg.

About one hour from the hotel we received a phone call from Sight & Sound that the shows on Tuesday were cancelled because of the hurricane.  Stacie and I debated about changing plans and going somewhere else to escape the storm but the news said this was a wide system and we would have had to travel several hundred miles west.  Well since we only had about 3 days we decided this wasn't an option so we stayed the course to the La Quinta Inn in Harrisburg.

We found a good church to go to - Calvary Baptist Church.  Their website said they were "King James" and that the pastor was a "straight shooter".  I told Stacie that this looks like the place to go.  We enjoyed meeting the pastor (Jim Moore) and the people and enjoyed the services.

The weather was predicting an historic storm and that the Harrisburg area would be impacted greatly.  They said on Sunday that if you were not prepared to ride it out by the end of the day then you would not be prepared.  As a rule we do not go shopping on Sundays but the circumstances created a need to forgo that rule.  The stores were packed with people getting last minutes supplies.  Both stores we went to were out of bottled water on the shelves.  Stacie found a stash in another part of the store and got a couple cases and then some food we could eat in the hotel.

Monday brought lots of heavy rain and bad winds.  I mentioned about going to Hershey and checked with them and they were closed because of the weather.  With the worst of the storm being predicted for Tuesday, we decided to go to Shady Maple on Monday for supper instead of Tuesday.  In the morning I then had the thought, "I better see if the Shady Maple is opened".  I made a call to them and they told me they were opened for breakfast and lunch but supper would be a last minute decision.  We didn't want to take the chance so we decided to make it for lunch.  We sat down at our table at 12:30 and then the announcement came over the loud speaker: the Shady Maple will be closing at 2:00 today because of the storm.  Well we enjoyed the smorgasbord and were glad we made it - just barely!

After lunch we headed back to the motel and that is where we stayed the rest of the day and all day Tuesday (except for a trek to the mall on Tuesday afternoon where we got some walking in).  Harrisburg ended up getting 6.5 inches of rain and there was bad flooding in some parts of the city.  We are thankful that the area we were in did not lose power or get flooded.

Although we did not get to go to Sight & Sound, we were together and safe and so it still made for a great "staycation".  We are to receive a gift card for the theater to be used within the next two years and we look forward to finally getting to see a future show.

I have posted a few pictures of our trip to Steamtown below.  There is also a photo gallery on Photobucket with more of our pictures - you can visit that by CLICKING HERE

Here are some related links to our vacation...
Hershey Chocolate Factory

Steamtown - Scranton, Pennsylvania

Steamtown - Scranton, Pennsylvania

Steamtown - Scranton, Pennsylvania

Steamtown - Scranton, Pennsylvania

Steamtown - Scranton, Pennsylvania