Jenkins Sisters Summer 2009 See pictures that go with the news on web site www.jenkinssisters.com

5000 miles later, We Made it Home!

(1st A/G in Riverdale, CA has built one of the most elegant, beautiful churches I’ve ever seen.  Appraised at around 6.5 million, it’s breath taking.  This church has been in the making for many years and most of the work has been donated or done by members of the church.  WOW. What a witness for Christ.-(Several pics here.)

I hope you all are having as much fun this summer as we are, traveling and singing the Gospel.  We love the 1997 RV God allowed us to purchase.  We are praying now for the Lord to help us pay it off quickly through the sale of our new CD, “One Nation Under God”.  It contains the story “Our Flag Was Still There” as was aired on X-M radio Enlighten 34/Sirius 64.  We were so honored that Marlin aired us telling the story 3 times July 4th. WOW. We got calls and emails immediately when it was first aired at 9:00 AM. God is good. We are offering the CD free, and just ask you to donate what the Lord lays on your heart. See insert for ordering.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
We need someone to help us take care of the RV maintenance.  Things like oil changed, generator oil/filter changed every 100 hours etc.  Also someone who is agile enough to get under the coach and oil the jacks and step every month or two. For some reason, I hesitate to crawl under there in case I get stuck….LOL

We are willing to bring it to you if you are close enough and of course pay for the parts etc. 

Also Angie wants to publish another cook book and has wanted  to type it for several years and can’t find the time.  So, she needs some willing soul who will type recipes. Email her at angie76117@yahoo.com or call her cell at 817-821-2368. 

We got home and the garden had been taken over by weeds, so it’s been hard, hot work to till and pull weeds.  I’ve still got lots to do.  But thanks to Terri Pool for mowing for me and Shannon, our neighbor, watered the garden and flowers and fed the animals as well as weed eating.  That takes a load off our minds while we’re gone.  Shannon also takes care of our mail that comes to the house and gathers Mom’s chicken eggs every day.  She had to lay on her tummy one time and rescue a puppy who had gotten under her apartment.  Life is never boring around here.  It’s so neat how God has supplied our need of someone to take care of things for us.  I stand in awe of His timing and goodness.  I picked squash, tomatoes, okra, peppers, potatoes, red beets, cantaloupe, and a few beans.  They mostly dried up.  There’s nothing like good home grown vegetables.
 
Angie has been busy grating cheese and chopping onions getting ready for Brent’s rehearsal dinner, July 10th.  That in addition to 3 weeks of laundry and unpacking…….
 
Special People in our ministry:
Bambers
Glenda Pirie (A new Supporter!)
Stoltzfus Family
Mom Jenkins
Ruby Wilson
Sharon—gave us a 100.00 gas card! WOW.
Dorothy Johnson (praying for sis-in-law)
Stanley’s
Loretta Vavalis (praying for peace in your house)
Betty Snow (Thank God for her answered prayer concerning her son, Robert.)
Deb Wilson (good to eat with you and Ruby.)
Linda Masters (good to see you and thanks for your help).
Kenneth/Kathy Tatham for sponsoring latest CD “One Nation Under God”.
David Farmer gave us a mic stand for MOM.
All our Prayer Warriors

Mathew 10:20
For it is not ye that speak, but the spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.

Our services since last newsletter seem to be more and more about the Lord and His Spirit.  Without that special anointing we are as tinkling brass and sounding cymbals.  But oh the prayer bells of heaven do ring when a soul comes to an old fashioned altar and gets help from our Heavenly Father. They rang for 9 souls at Leslie’s Chapel in Paris, TX.  It was good to see Sis Ilene Farmer obey the Lord there. 10 souls caused a ruckus in heaven at Bro Jimmy Munn’s church in Tucson, AZ.  What a praying - outreach church!

Bro. McMillan's church in Armona, CA had the bells ringing from several nationalities when Angie sang “He’s Still God” over and over.  The altar was filled that night and people sought God for a long time. At Avenal, CA, we sang only a few songs and God showed up and took over.  Bro. Doug followed the leading of the Spirit and several came to the altar and the bells rang once again, long and hard.  I felt someone’s time was running out here and they needed to respond to the royal call.  I hope they fully surrendered to HIM.  In Merced, CA after the singing, the Pastor Bro. Johnny Hilton gave a sweet altar call, and many, young and old responded.  God is trying to get us all ready. 
 
Mark 9:41
For whosoever shall give ye a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.

Our trip to CA began with finding the RV and bringing it home midnight Monday June 8th. Folks, it’s so beautiful and has been taken such good care of.  It’s spent it’s life in a spotless garage at a big fancy house.  Dave waxed it every year and  they drove it once a year to Colorado, I think.  They ordered it brand new, so it’s a one owner vehicle, which made us feel good.  It was in our price range, and fitted all our needs.  Angie and I both fell in love with it on sight, unlike many others we looked at. It has 3 beds, which we needed, and everything worked good on it when we picked it up.   It’s a peacock blue, same as our 1995 Eldorado car.  It didn’t have a mark on it even though it’s 12 years old, We were ecstatic!

 I called Brent Gregg, former lead singer, Wednesday, to see if he wanted to come out and show me how to “dump” it and install the XM radio for us.  He spent several hours here, repairing a mic stand, fitting my equipment in one bay, installed the dish, XM, showed me how to work the awesome Bose system in the bus and was a big help.

His Uncle Kennett and Aunt Tammy took us to pick up the RV and were such moral support for us. But that wasn’t all.  They came over Wednesday and worked all day helping me load and move in the RV.  Poor lil Angie was so busy getting insurance, tags, state inspection sticker etc, she couldn’t get free to help. So, God had these two angels come over and work like crazy in this Texas heat.  Kennett loaded the bays, as I dug stuff out of storage where it had been for almost 2 years, since we moved out of the last RV. 

Tammy loaded and put up stuff inside, after wiping everything down and vacuuming everything good.  I brought her load after load and she put it where she thought it should go, so we had a treasure hunt for the next few days looking to see where it was all at.  What fun!  We ask Mom to go with us mostly for moral/prayer support. (We never drove a 34’ by ourselves without help of a man). She willingly packed in a hurry and came with us.  Aunt Tammy helped her fix her bed in the back and move her in too. We gave her the bedroom, so we could run the A/C up front colder than she likes it.  Worked out really good.  Granny & Grandad Gregg came over and brought food items for us to take & promised to take care of our mail in town etc.  What a blessing God’s people are!

We pulled out at 1:30 Wednesday night, 2 Old Maids, 1 lil Widow woman and her lil dog, Sugar.  We had a host of angels flying with us and were in the palm of God’s hand. This was our first long tour since Brent left in Sept 2007 and we were a little apprehensive to say the least.  But through it all, God never left our side and we were never stranded with out someone to help us.  So many sweet helpful men and women gave us a “cup of water to dink in His name” and we pray they all are rewarded. The trip continues, riddled with difficulties, and sweet Victories!

1st Holiness Church in Eunice, NM where Mom and Dad pastored, was our first stop, that Thursday night.  It’s always good to see these good friends and they loved Mom singing.  Good to see Cody Luster, famous fiddle player.  If we could find someone to pay his salary, we would love to ask him to join our group.  He is wanting to play for a Gospel Group, and is trying to turn his life around for the better.  Diane sang a song I wrote “Lilies” and did an outstanding job.  Lil John showed me where to put water in the coach.  It wasn’t even close to where I tried to fill it before…….LOL.  This was learn-as-you-go ville.

Tim in Las Cruces, NM, Friday night, was a big help loading and unloading.  When I tried to enter the driveway at the church, it was very steep and narrow, with a drop off on the left and a sign on the right.  Angie hollered I was fixing to hit something, so I stopped and set the parking brake.  I got out to access the damage and we were close all right.  Bro. Waters came and helped me get in the gate without further mishap, until I reached the top and discovered I had forgot the emergency brake and left it engaged, thus burning it up causing smoke and fear!  We gotta get that fixed.    Wonder what that costs?  LOL

After church we were headed to eat, with Tim (experienced driver) driving it out of the drive way for me when a noise under the hood caught our attention.  It was making a bad racket.  We decided to let a mechanic look at it the next day and settled down to sleep.  The generator quit and it was too hot to sleep without A/C.  So we get up, un-level, and drive around looking for an RV park to hook up to for the night.  Finally we found one, and got some rest. 

Next day, we paid a mechanic to run a diagnostic test to see what the racket was all about.  He said all tests came back with no history, which showed the RV had never had a problem, but the A/C compressor was going out.  He said it may last a few days, it may last months.  So, we took a chance and didn’t pay to get it fixed.  We didn’t have time for him to check the generator at that point, cause we needed to get on the road. 
We drove Sat in a storm all day, and up several tall mountains.  During one climb, the “Check Engine Soon” light came on and scared us to death.  Dave, previous owner, told us we would need to get the engine oil changed when we got to CA or before and the air filter.  We determined this maybe causing the light to come on. Angie had not been able to fill Sunday Am, so she started making calls.  One pastor in Globe said he would call us back, but we needed to know within the hour, so we could make the correct exit to head that direction.  We prayed for God to give us clear direction and ask that Bro. Caldwell would call back before it was time to exit.  Just as we seen the sign for Globe, AZ, he called.  Talk about Godly timing!

We so enjoyed being with them Sunday AM.  Mark and Ellen Caldwell were so sweet and hooked us up for the night with electric, septic and water.  They took us to eat Chinese food after service, and we made some new friends.  We hurriedly drove to Tucson to sing for Bro. Jimmy Munns.

Monday AM, Bro Jimmy Munns checked the generator and said it was low on oil.  He went and bought some oil and added it for us,  A man volunteered Sunday PM to look at the “check engine soon” light, so we took the RV to his home based business. A sweet girl, Nanci, came and got us and took us all around town to eat and shop.  We’re trying to get her to move to Texas and live with Mom and help around here.  We made a new friend.

Bro. John changed the oil, fuel filter, and air filter.  He changed the oil & filter on the generator and changed the air filter there too. The Check Engine Soon light went out and stayed off.  He wouldn’t let us pay him for his labor, which was a big blessing.  We left thinking our troubles were over.  The generator was like new with only 64 hours on it when we bought it.  Come to find out, that’s the worse thing you can do for a generator, is not use it.  That was the beginning of our generator problems. 

We left, headed to Phoenix and the generator worked for almost an hour before it stopped.  We called a man who goes to a church in Phoenix where we have sang before, and George and his wife came and let us hook up to the church electric, water and sewer.  The next day, we took the RV to his mechanic and he let us use his van, which had a nice A/C  and use the empty church parsonage.  Frank, his mechanic, said it was the carburetor and sent us to an RV repair shop he trusted.  They overhauled the carburetor and washed the RV for us and fixed the door.  Oh yeah.  I forgot to tell you all when we picnicked in Mayhill, I had to drive over a rough cattle guard and the RV rocked, scraping the bottom of the bays and jammed the steps and door just enough to cause the door to be hard to open.  We put more marks on the coach in the short time we had it than Dave did in 12 years.  And we try to be so careful.  Pray Saints! LOL.

We headed out for CA and the generator lasted 2 hours and quit again.  Along about this time the dash A/C went out too, so we had no air conditioning and we don’t do “HOT” very good especially crossing the desert.  God sent a breeze that night and we rested good in Pasadena.
 
We tackle one of the hardest mountain passes for trucks/RV’s.
 
June 16th, Wednesday, we tackle the “Grapevine” where you see trucks on fire where they’ve burned up the brakes and crawling at 20 MPH up the hills.  It’s a scary few hours for experienced drivers.  I turned on the Gospel CD’s (Hendrix Trio especially got me through this rough patch) took it slow, and drove without any A/C.  We had the windows open cause it was around 100* and the music cranked!  With Mom and us praying every mile, we made it just fine. 

We made it to Armona, CA and there had a great service, as mentioned before.  Bro. McMillan hooked us up to electricity and gave me a nice extension cord especially for RV’s 30 amp.  Two men from the church were checking the generator.  One had the oil cap off checking the oil, and the other tried to start it.  It sprayed oil all over them, the coach and the road.  We had a good laugh at their expense. Pastor treated us to Denny’s after church.

Thursday we drove the church van to run some errands (had a nice A/C) and ran into a friend, Melody Meza who took us to her office (nice A/C) to work on some emails.  Her husband, Angel had to jump off the church van, as the battery was low. 

At this point, we felt like the devil was picking on us.  So, we began to be aware of his evil devices of hindrances.  The harder he tried to hinder, the sweeter the singings/services in church.  We sang that PM in Avenal for Bro. Doug where the Lord took over.  We were gonna go eat with them, and I went to move the RV so we could hook up at the church.  It wouldn’t start.  So, Bro. Doug and his sons, hooked us up to jumper cables and I started the RV.  But smoke came pouring out of the hood area, while Angie was yelling “Turn it off, it’s on fire!”  The A/C had froze up, causing the big serpentine belt to not turn, thus burning it into.  We had no power steering, so Bro. Doug drove it for me, and got us plugged up so we could have A/C.  We rested good.  They came and rescued us the next day.  Bro. Doug brought Steve Buchannan who replaced the A/C compressor, replaced the serpentine belt, and tried to replace the fuel pump.  The parts store sent 2 wrong parts, and it was closing time, so Bro. Doug drove us to Riverdale, CA to hook up to the electric, water and septic there at the new beautiful church.  We realized we were not gonna make our Friday night singing in Pittsburg, CA, so we rescheduled with Bro. Brantley. 

Bro. Steve worked all day on the coach the next day as well.   He wouldn’t let us pay him anything, even though he had to pass up a paying customer to help us.  May God bless everyone there who helped us too. 
 
We headed to McKinleyville & Hoopa, 2 of our favorite places.
 
We headed out to McKinleyville, CA and drove around 1 hour and the dash air was not cooling and the generator wouldn’t start.  We were back to square one.  To comfort ourselves, we stopped and picked cherries and ate as many as we picked…..LOL   13 hours later we made it to North Fork Full Gospel to spend the night on their parking lot.  It was much cooler weather, thank the Good Lord, so we slept great. 

Of course, this church is our major anchor in CA, as they are the church who prays for us every day and treat us so good.  (Hi Aunt Nelda & Ruby & Debbie Wilson.  We love you all!). 2 men looked at the generator, but didn’t have time to tear into it because we needed to head to Hoopa for Sunday PM.  Pastor Jim Ray and church family took us to eat with sweet fellowship. 

Hoopa is not an easy place to get to, over small roads, with drop offs on either side, but it’s our favorite Indian reservation to sing on.  We are like family to the people there.  We requested Indian Tacos next time.  The next morning, Monday, Bro John and Bro. Tom worked on the RV.  They were able to fix some brackets and determine the generator was beyond them.  But they recommended a place back in Eureka, CA who works on generators.  

Hope and Tom blessed us with 2 bags of nice clothes.  Thanks so much!  We got to Eureka and the shop there said it wasn’t the fuel pump, so he cleaned the spark plugs and we headed away from there.  The generator worked for around 20 min.  By this time it was closing time for them, so we just parked on their lot and spent the night hooked into their electricity.  Sweet Aunt Nelda brought us her car to use to go eat and run some errands.  The next day, they resumed work on the RV and said all was fixed.  We paid them $240.00 and headed out. We got 15 miles down the road and the generator quit.  Needless to say we were frustrated.   

We Hit the Jackpot at the Rasmussen’s House.
 
Aunt Nelda suggested we call Ed Rasmussen from the N. Fork church and get him to fix our problems.  So, we drove the RV almost an hour to their house.  Ed was a quiet, self assured business man who has a reputation for treating people fairly.  Almost immediately we felt God had lead us to this couple.  They quickly hooked us up, let us fill with water and take showers.  We used their computer and sit under their house A/C completely at home. 

Ed tried a fuel pump he had there and it seemed to fix the problem, so he went and bought a new one to put on the generator.  He then checked the dash A/C compressor and found it was froze up and the clutch was bad.  The warranty was still good on the compressor, so he exchanged it for a good one and put around 10 cans of Freon in.  In just a few min, the A/C was working like a charm.  Ed mentioned someone before him, accidentally cut the wires to a safety valve, and warned us we may have trouble with the A/C again,  He then welded a part of the generator that was coming loose from the RV and ran to the store and bought stuff for supper.  Ed had caught a huge halibut the week before and his son and family helped grill it.  It was one of the highlights of our trip.  Mom picked some raspberries from their yard and she was happy too.  We fell in love with this family!  On top of all that, Ed wouldn't let us pay him one cent, even for the parts!!!!

He has a deep sea fishing boat and promised to take us fishing next year, if we get to come back.
At that point we were back on top of the mountain and all our worries were gone.  Praise the Lord for a series of helpers. We pray God blesses each one of them abundantly. 

Did I mention a rock hit the side of the RV and dented it?  Or the fact that the cigarette lighter went out while on this trip?  Angie was without a phone for 3 days because she only brought a charger to fit that power source.  Did you know Angie caught her hair on fire? Life is never dull. So, Wednesday, June 24th we headed to Merced.  We were almost there, and we smelled something burning. (Here we go again!) 
 
We called Peggy and David Hilton and they came and rescued us.  David looked and smelled and said he felt it was safe to drive to the church and set up. We did and had a wonderful service, but missed Davene and Sarah.  Both were sick with the flu along with all the children.  We didn’t want none of that…..LOL

They treated us to In N-Out-Burger and Mom got to visit with Bro and Sis Hilton.  They made fast friends, as we knew they would.  They were one of the main reasons we took Mom, so they could finally meet.  They would have loved Daddy too.  Cindy and Stephen let us hook up at their house and even though they were gone, they let us use the kitchen, do laundry and etc. 

Thursday found us back in an RV shop getting $400.00 worth of work done on the A/C.  Because the wires had been accidentally cut, as Ed had explained, the A/C didn’t have a safety valve and had to be completely redone.  They rewired the whole thing making it just like new.  Peggy and her daughter Ester came and treated us to lunch (delicious quaint lil sandwich shop) and let us make deposits and run errands.  Angie talked to the shop, who needed to close, and made arrangements for them to leave the gate open for us to sleep there that night.  (We are getting to be buddies with RV shops.) Peggy took us there to clean up a bit before we went to eat Mexican food. We arrived through the gate only to discover Angie and I both had left our keys for them to use and it was locked………….. 
 
Breaking and Entering.  Yup we are guilty as charged.

We were in despair on what to do, but Peggy took charge.  How I wished for a camera that holds more pictures, because mine was full at this point and I missed the picture of the year.  She dragged a 55 gallon barrel over to the window, and first thing I knew, she had disappeared head first!  I’m glad she’s not as fluffy as Angie and me, or she would have been stuck, cause they don’t make those windows very big!  We got a good big laugh over it.  We met her family for Mexican food and I had to tell the story of Peggy’s breaking and entering!

6/26 Friday. We slept at the shop and they got started early on the repairs.  I purchased a GPS, because the RV came with a mount for one.  I’ve really enjoyed looking up the addresses for Thrift stores and used books! 

Several dozens of dollars later, they finished the RV, so we drove back to Cindy and Steve’s house using the GPS this time.  We wound  up in the middle of the country field, and had to retrace our steps and use Angie as the GPS.  I learned right away, if she says stay straight and it said to turn, I’m staying straight!  She knows more than any GPS!

Saturday we took our time driving to Pittsburg to sing where we had cancelled earlier on the trip.  We found a warehouse selling corn and bought a case of the sweetest corn we’ve ever had.  We stopped and picked up onions along the road, where the onion trucks dropped them.  When we got to the church, the Brantley’s came and we hooked up then we fixed some supper in the church fellowship hall.  I tried to buy some roses from the man next door, cause he had them everywhere.  He gave me a big handful and I was happy.  The next day after church a lady gave Mom some peaches and oranges from the trees around the church. 

We drove to the Sacramento Airport and picked up our sis, Judy.  She spent the next several days with us.  We camped out 2 nights at a state park and cooked our famous taters and steak, along with corn on the cob and salad.  What a feast! We took our time driving back as it was cooler there and Texas was having 3 digit heat wave!  We made it to Springville, UT to spend some time with former boss, Rick and Jan Hellewell.  We sure had a good time there, except Judy fell down their beautiful stairs and almost broke her toe.  Judy needed to be at work Friday, so we dropped her off at Albuquerque airport to fly home and we drove on in to Texas.  We got home Sat night late, July 4th, exhausted but happy.