Silver Dollar City

Yesterday was our first day at Silver Dollar City for a week of R & R.

For those of you out-of-staters SDC is a several hundred acre area in the middle of the Ozark Mountains. Filled with hills and 'hollers', one must wear a comfortable pair of walking shoes to traverse its many trails. SDC has something for every one in the family - rides for the kiddies, a train ride complete with robbery, some crafty places like candle making, glass blowing, carpenters, ironsmiths, etc.; lots of little places where you can leave hard-earned bucks, but best of all - throughout the park are 'entertainment areas' where good, family-oriented singing, comedy, etc. takes place.

This week is Southern Gospel week - thus our reason for coming. We started our morning with church service in Wilderness Chapel. 150 years old with the original flooring, original benches (which are hard on the seat of education), but a beltin'-out piano player and a parson who packs a whollop of a sermon in about 15 minutes.

Exiting the chapel we decided to head for the Red Gold Heritage Center where The Downing family (I thought I'd heard of them but had not) and David Ring (whom I didn't think I'd heard of, but had). We elected to go down the 'left hand side hill' since it was closer. Trust me, if you are wearing closed toe shoes when you start the descent, they will be open-toed when you reach bottom!

What a treat we were in for. David Ring has been on Focus on the Family, Bill Gaither shows, etc. He has a severe speech impediment. Put aside as dead for the first 18 minutes of his life, he has been blessed with cerebral palsy. David is difficult to listen to, but well worth the effort. I came away from this experience realizing that God can use anyone if they are willing. Who would think that someone with that kind of handicap would be 'called' to be a preacher. When he sang (loosely) "Victory in Jesus" there were a lot of 'sweaty eyes' in the auditorium.

I have his video so y'all come by and we'll watch it together!