Years and years ago, Morningstar church had a motel and restaurant in Wilkesboro called Jubilee Junction. I don’t know what it was before they purchased it, but for a time, they held their Sunday services there and if you stayed after, you could buy lunch at a reduced price. I remember going a couple of times (it was a 25 mile trip from Boone) and towards the end of the service you could begin to smell lunch which was always very good.

The motel eventually got torn down, the restaurant was closed, and the place was used for what they called the “school of the spirit” on Friday evenings. By this time we were locked into a Boone church but often attended the Friday evening meetings.

Ramey Hughes and Kelanie Gloeckler (Kelanie Webb) would often do praise and worship along with Don Potter and others. It always seemed real and was a blessing.

One night, after the service, the leaders lined up at the front and made themselves available for prayer and perhaps a “word” from God. I beelined for Don Potter (one of my favorite worship leaders) and asked for prayer. All I can remember is that he took my hands in his and began to kneed them like you would bread dough. After a minute or two, he stopped, looked and me and said, (as a word from God) “I don’t see retirement in your future.”

And that was that.

On the way home, I was somewhat angry and bewildered at his word for me, having been raised on Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver and other timeless tv shows. The party line was you work one job, marry and raise a great family, have a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage. After a successful life, you retired and never had another worry in your life.

Now I was being told that this wasn’t happening for me.

However halfway home, the light came on, and I realized that this was a blessing and not a curse. That I was going to be vibrant and available and useful until the day I died.

And I have lived with that understanding ever since that day.

And since those years long ago, we became elders in a local church, saw that church split, found another little church group, and hung there for awhile and watched that meeting change and fade away.

After recent visits to a couple of local congregations, a friend told us about a little community church called Mountainside. They meet at a big gym room inside a tennis club and have to set up and tear down for church every Sunday. The first time we went to visit, they had changed the meeting that Sunday to a lodge outside of town. But I was determined to find it and visit. However GPS is not that reliable in the mountains and before long we were lost on some dirt road and I was about to quit and return home, but something told me to persevere. We found the lodge, were not that late, and really felt right at home as we entered.

It is now several months later and we are amazed that God had a plan for us, even in our latter years. We have made friends, attend a home group and really feel well feed and knit in.

I am reminded of this verse in Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

And that is something to look forward too.